Susan Clegg and Her Love Affairs Page 8
VIII
SUSAN CLEGG AND THE CYCLONE
"I d'n know, I'm sure, what star this town could ever have been laid outunder," said Susan Clegg, one exceptionally hot night as the fourfriends sat out on Mrs. Macy's steps, "but my own opinion is as it musthave been a comet, for we're always skiting along into some sort of hotwater. When it ain't all of us, it's some of us, and when it ain't someof us, it's one of us, and now the walls of my house is up I'd bewilling to bet a nickel as a calamity'll happen along just becausesomething's always happening here and my walls is the youngest andtenderest thing in the community now."
"Your roof ain't--" began Mrs. Lathrop.
"Of course not; how could it be, when my walls is only just up? I don'twish to be casting no stones at him as is the least among us, but I willsay, Mrs. Lathrop, as Jathrop's orders seem to be taking you up underthe loving protection of their wings, while I'm running around like Iwas a viper without no warm bosom to hatch me. _Your_ walls have been upand a-doing for a week, but my walls have been sitting around waitinguntil I was nigh to put out. To see your laths going in and your plastergoing on, while I stay lumber and nails, is a lesson in yielding to thewill of heaven as I never calculated on. There's few things moreaggravating than to see some other house speeding along while your ownhouse sits silently, patiently waiting. Of course I can't say nothing,as even the boy as carries water knows my house is going to be a presentto me in the end. It's all right, and likely enough the Lord has seenfit to send this summer to me as a chastisement; but I will say that ifI'd known how this summer was going, the Lord would most certainly havehad to plan some other way to punish me. I don't say as it wasn'tnatural that your walls should go up first, Jathrop being your son, and,now that he's rich, no more to me than a benefactor--"
"Oh, Susan!" expostulated Mrs. Macy.
"That's what he is, Mrs. Macy; he's my benefactor, and I can't escape ifI want to. You may tend a man's mother ten years, day and night, housecleanings and cistern cleanings, moths and the well froze up, and if theman comes back rich, he's your benefactor."
"Susan!" cried Mrs. Lathrop, "you--"
"Don't deny it, Mrs. Lathrop; it's the truth. It's one of those truthsthat the wiser they are, the sadder you get. It's one of those truths asis the whole truth and a little left over; and I'm learning that I'm tobe what's left over, more every day. After a life of being independentand living on my own money, I'm now going down on my knees learning thelesson of being humbly grateful for what I don't want. I may soundbitter, but if I do it isn't surprising, for I feel bitter; and Gran'maMullins knows I'm always frank and open, so she'll excuse my saying thatthere's nothing in living with _her_ as tends to calm me much. A womanas sleeps in a bed as Hiram must have played leap-frog over all his lifefrom the feel of the springs, and pours out of a pitcher as has got achip out of its nose, ain't in no mood to mince nothing. I never was oneto mince, and I never will be--not now and not never. Mincing is forthem as ain't got it in them to speak their minds freely; and my mind isa thing that's made to be free and not a slave."
"Well, really, Susan," expostulated Mrs. Macy, "what ever--"
"Don't interrupt me, Mrs. Macy. I'm full of goodness knows what, butwhatever it is, I'm too full of it for comfort. There's nothing in thelife I'm leading this summer to make me expect comfort, and very littleto make me feel full, but there's things as would make a man dying ofstarvation bust if he experienced them. And I'm full of such things. Inever had no idea of being out of my house all summer, and now, when mywalls is up at last, and it looks like maybe I'd get back a home feelingsome day soon, I must up and get quite another kind of feeling--afeeling that something is going to happen. It's a very strange feeling,and at first I thought it was just some more of Gran'ma Mullins'cooking; but it kept getting stronger, and when I was in the square, Ispoke to Mr. Kimball about it; and he says this is cyclone weather, andmaybe a cyclone is going to happen. He says a man was in town yesterdaywanting to insure everybody against fire and cyclones. Most everybodydid it. Mr. Kimball says after the young man got through, you prettymuch had to do it. Them as had policies with the company could get theword 'cyclone' writ in for a dollar. I guess the young man did a verygood day's work. Mr. Kimball says if it's true as there's any cyclonescoming nosing about here, he wants his dried-apple machine insuredanyhow. It's a fine machine, and every kind of fruit as is left overeach night comes out jam next day, while all the vegetables makebreakfast food. He says it's a wonder."
"What makes him think we're going to have a cyclone?" inquired Mrs. Macyanxiously.
"He says the weather is cyclony. And he says if I feel queer that's asign, for I'm a sensitive nature."
"I never--" said Mrs. Lathrop.
"No, nor me, neither. But Mr. Kimball seemed to feel there wasn't nodoubt. He says I'm just the kind of sensitive nature as could feel acyclone. Why, he says cyclones take the roofs off the houses!"
"Ow!" cried Gran'ma Mullins in surprise.
"If one's coming, I'm glad to know, for I never see one near to," saidMrs. Macy pensively.
"You won't see it a _tall_," said Susan, "for Mr. Kimball says the onlysafe place in a cyclone is the cellar; and to pull a kitchen table overyou to keep the house from squashing you flat when it caves in."
"My heavens alive!" cried Mrs. Lathrop.
"That's what he said. But he says not to worry, for the young man toldhim as they're getting so common no one notices them any more. He saysthey're always going hop, skip, and jump over Kansas and everywhere, andno one pays no attention to 'em. He knows all about it. But he wanted itclear as he was only insuring for _cyclones_; he says his firm wouldn'thave nothing to do with tornadoes. You can get as much on a cyclone ason a fire, but you can't get a penny on a tornado--"
"What's the diff--" asked Gran'ma Mullins.
"That's the trouble; nobody can just tell. A cyclone is wind andlightning mixed by combustion and drove forward by expulsion, the youngman told Mr. Kimball. He said they'd got cyclones all worked out, andthey can average 'em up same as everything else, but he says a tornadois something as no man can get hold of, and no man will ever be able tostudy. Tornadoes drive nails through fences--"
"Where do they get the nails?" asked Gran'ma Mullins.
"I d'n know. Pick 'em out of the fences first, I guess. And they stripthe feathers off chickens and scoop up haystacks and carry them up inthe air for good and all."
"Oh, my!" cried Mrs. Macy.
"Mr. Kimball said the young man told him that a tornado dug up acomplete marsh once in Minnesota and spread it out upside down on top ofa wood a little ways off; and when there's a tornado anywhere near, thesewing-machines all tick like they was telegraphing."
"No!" cried Mrs. Macy.
"Yes, the young man said so."
"But do you believe him?"
"I don't know why not. I wouldn't believe Mr. Kimball because he'salways fixing up his stories to sound better than they really are, whichmakes me have very little faith in him; but Judge Fitch says he'd makea splendid witness for any one just on that very account. Judge Fitchsays with a little well-advised help Mr. Kimball would carry convictionsto any man,--he don't except none,--but I see no reason why the youngman wasn't telling the truth. Young men do tell the truth sometimes;most everybody does that. A tornado catches up pigs and carries 'emmiles and pulls up trees by the roots. I don't wonder they won't insure'em."
"The pigs?" asked Mrs. Macy.
"No, the tornadoes."
"What's the signs of a tornado?" asked Gran'ma Mullins uneasily.
"Well, the signs is alike for both. The signs is weather like to-day anda kind of breathlessness like to-night. Mr. Kimball says a funnel-shapedcloud is a great sign; and when you see it, in three minutes it's onyou, and off goes your roof if it's a cyclone, and off you go yourselfif it's a tornado."
"My heavens alive!" cried Mrs. Lathrop, clutching the arms of herold-gold-plush stationary rocker.
"Do people ever come down again?" Gran'ma Mullins inqui
red; she was verypale.
"Elijah didn't, Mr. Kimball says."
"Elijah Doxey?" cried Mrs. Macy. "Why, is he off on a cyclone? No oneever told me."
"No, Elijah in the Bible, you know. The Elijah as was caught up in achariot of fire. Mr. Kimball says there ain't a mite of doubt in hismind but that it was a tornado. I guess Mr. Kimball told the truth thattime, for it's all in the Bible."
"That's true," said Gran'ma Mullins. "I remember Elijah myself. He kepta tame raven, seems to me, or some such thing."
"Oh, Susan!" Mrs. Lathrop cried out suddenly. "There's a fun--" Hervoice failed her; she raised her hand and pointed.
Susan turned quickly, and her face became suddenly gray-white. "It can'tbe a cy--" she faltered.
With that all four women jumped different ways at once.
"Where shall we go?" shrieked Mrs. Macy. "Oh, saints and sinnerspreserve us! Oh, Susan, where shall we go?"
But Susan Clegg stood as if paralyzed, staring straight at thefunnel-shaped cloud.
Gran'ma Mullins started for her own house; Mrs. Lathrop sprang up andclasped the piazza post nearest; Mrs. Macy grabbed her skirts up at bothsides and faced the cyclone just as she had once faced the cow.
The funnel-shaped cloud came sweeping towards them. The town wasbetween, and a darkness and a mighty roar arose. Buildings seemedfalling; the din was terrible.
"I knew it," said Susan grimly. "It _is_ a cyclone!" She faced theworst--standing erect.
The next instant the storm was on them all. It lifted Mrs. Lathrop'sold-gold-plush stationary rocker and hurled it at that good lady,smashing her hard against the post. It raised the roof of Mrs. Macy'shouse and dropped it like an extinguisher over the fleeing form ofGran'ma Mullins.
"Oh, Gran'ma Mullins, it _is_ a cyclone!" Susan shrieked. But Gran'maMullins answered not.
A second mighty burst of fury blew down two trees, and it blew Susanherself back against the side wall of the house which shook and swayedlike a bit of cardboard.
"Oh, yes, it's a cyclone," Susan screamed over and over. "Oh, Mrs.Lathrop, it's a real cyclone! It isn't a tornado; you can see thedifference now. It's a cyclone; look at the roof; it's a cyclone!"
Mrs. Lathrop could see nothing. She and the old-gold-plush stationaryrocker were all piled together under the piazza post.
And now came the third and worst burst of fury. It crashed on theblacksmith's shop; it carried the sails of the windmill swooping downthe road, and then "without halting, without rest" lifted Mrs. Macywith her outspread skirts and carried her straight up in the air. "Oh!Oh!" she shrieked and sailed forth.
Susan gave a piercing yell. "Oh, Mrs. Macy, it's a tornado, it's atornado!" But Mrs. Macy answered not.
Tipping, swaying, ducking to the right or left, she flew majesticallyaway over her own roof first and then over that of Gran'ma Mullins'woodshed.
"Help! Help!" cried Gran'ma Mullins from under the roof.
Mrs. Lathrop was oblivious to all, smashed by her own old-gold-plushstationary rocker.
Susan Clegg stood as one fascinated, staring after the trail which wasall that was left of Mrs. Macy.
"It was a tornado!" she said over and over. "Mrs. Macy'll always believein the Bible now, I guess. It was a tornado! It _was_ a tornado!"
* * * * *
"No, they ain't found her yet," Susan said, coming into the hotel roomwhere Mrs. Lathrop and Gran'ma Mullins had found a pleasant andcomfortable refuge and were occupied in recuperating together atJathrop's expense. Neither lady was seriously injured. Gran'ma Mullinshad been preserved from even a wetting through the neat capping of herclimax by Mrs. Macy's roof; while Mrs. Lathrop's squeeze between thepiazza post and her well beloved old-gold-plush stationary rocker hadnot--as Gran'ma Mullins put it--so much as turned a hair of even therocker.
"No one's heard anything from her yet," continued Susan, "but that ain'tso surprising as it would be if anybody had time to want to know. Butnobody's got time for nothing to-day. The town's in a awful taking, andI d'n know as I ever see a worse situation. You two want to be verygrateful as you're so nicely and neatly laid aside, for what hasdescended on the community now is worse'n any cyclone, and if you couldget out and see what the cyclone's done, you'd know what _that_ means."
"Was you to my house, Susan?" asked Gran'ma Mullins anxiously.
"I was; but the insurance men was before me, or anyhow, we met there."
"The insurance men!"
"That's what I said,--the insurance men. Oh, Mrs. Lathrop, we all knowone side of what it is to insure ourselves, but now the Lord in hisinfinite wrath has mercifully seen fit to show us the other side. TheAssyrian pouncing down on the wolf in his fold is a young motherwrapping up her first baby to look out the window compared to thoseinsurance men. They descended on us bright and shining to-day, and if wewas murderers with our families buried under the kitchen floor, wecouldn't be looked on with more suspicion. I was far from pleased when Ifirst laid eyes on 'em, for there's a foxiness in any city man as comesto settle things in the country as is far from being either soothing orsyrupy to him as lives in the country; but you can maybe imagine myfeelings when they very plainly informed me as I couldn't put the roofback on Mrs. Macy's house till it was settled whether it was a cycloneor a tornado--"
"Settled--whether--" cried Mrs. Lathrop.
"Cyclone or tornado," repeated Susan. "The first thing isn't to get torights, but it is to settle whether we've got any rights to get. I neverdreamed what it was to be injured--no, or no one else neither. Seems ifit's a tornado, we don't get a cent of our insurance. And to think itall depends on Mrs. Macy."
"On Mrs.--" cried Gran'ma Mullins.
"Yes, because she's the only one as really knows whether she was carriedoff or not. Well, all I can say is, if she don't come back pretty quick,we're going to have a little John Brown raid right here in town; we--"
"But what--?"
"I'm telling you. It'll be the town rising up against the insurance men,and the insurance men will soon find that when it comes todilly-dallying with folks newly cycloned upside down, it's life anddeath if you don't deal fair. What with chimneys down and roofs turnedup at the corner like the inquiring angels didn't have time to take thecover all off but just pried up a little to see what was inside,--I saywith all this and everything wet and Mrs. Macy gone, this community wasin no mood to be sealed up--"
"Sealed up!" cried Mrs. Lathrop and Gran'ma Mullins together.
"That's what it is. Sealed up we are, and sealed up we've got to stayuntil Mrs. Macy gets back--"
"But--" cried Gran'ma Mullins.
"Everybody's just as mad as you are. Charging bulls is setting hensbeside this town to-night. Even Mr. Kimball's mad for once in his life;he's losing money most awful, for he can't sell so much as a paper oftacks. They've got both his doors and all his windows sealed, and he'sstanding out in front with nothing to do except to keep a sharp eye outfor Mrs. Macy. He says it ain't in reason to expect as she'll fly back,but she's got to come from somewhere, and he means to prevent hergetting away again on the sly. He says his opinion is as she'd havestood a better chance before airships was so common. He says ten yearsago folks would have took steps for hooking at her just as quick as theysaw her coming along, but nowadays it'd be a pretty brave man as wouldtry to stop anything he saw flying overhead. I guess he's about rightthere. It's a hard question to know what to do with things that fly,even if Mrs. Macy hadn't took to it, too. My view is that we advancefaster than we can learn how to manage our new inventions. I d'n know,I'm sure, though, what Mrs. Macy is going to do about this trip of hers.She went without even the moment's notice as folks in a hurry always hashad up to now. She's been gone most twenty-four hours. She's skippedthree meals already, not to speak of her night and her nap; and you knowas well as I do how Mrs. Macy was give to her nights and her napping."
Susan shook her head, and Mrs. Lathrop looked wide-eyed and alarmed.
"But now--" Gran'ma Mullins asked.
"But what has--?" began Gran'ma Mullins.
"How long--?" demanded Mrs. Lathrop.
"Nobody knows," said Susan. "The whole town is asking, and nobody knows.The insurance company won't let anybody go home or get anything unlessthey'll sign a paper giving up their insurance and swearing that it wasa tornado. Mr. Dill just had to sign the paper because he was taking abath and had nothing except the table cover to wear. He signed the paperand said he'd swear anything if only for his shoes alone; and it seemsthat his house isn't hurt a mite, and he didn't have no insuranceanyhow. A good many is blaming him, but he says he really couldn't thinkof anything in the excitement and the table cloth. It's a awful state ofthings. The cyclone has tore everything to pieces, and the insurancemen has put their seal on the chips. People is being drove to alllengths. The minister and his family is camping in the henhouse. Ourwalls is fell in so goodness knows what will happen to you and me next,Mrs. Lathrop. The wires is all down, so we can't hear nothing about thestorm. The rails is all up, so there's no trains. The church is stovein, so we can't pray. But I must say as to my order of thinking, itlooks as if no one feels like praying. The insurance men is running allover, like winged ants hatching out, sealing up more doors and morewindows every minute and getting more signatures as it was a tornadobefore they'll unstick them. Nothing can't be really settled till Mrs.Macy comes back. Mrs. Macy is the key to the whole situation."
"But why--?" asked Mrs. Lathrop.
"The Jilkins is in from Cherry Pond, and all it did there was to rain.The Sperrits was in, too, and the storm was most singular with them. Ithailed in the sunshine till they see four rainbows--they never see thebeat. Mr. Weskins is advising everybody to go into their houses and makea test case of it. Judge Fitch is advising everybody not to. It's plainas he's on the side of the insurance men. He says just as they do, thatwe'd better wait till Mrs. Macy comes back and hear her story. He saysin the very nature of things her view'll be a most general one. He saysall there is to know she'll know; she'll know the area affected and beable to tell whether it was electricity or just wind. Mr. Kimball saidif she went far enough, she'd be a star witness; but no one thinks thatjokes about Mrs. Macy ought to be told now. The situation is tooserious. It may be _very_ serious for Mrs. Macy. If the storm stoppedsudden, it may be very serious indeed for Mrs. Macy. Mrs. Macy isn't asyoung as she was, and she hadn't the least idea of leaving town; shewasn't a bit prepared, that we can all swear to. She was just carriedaway by a sudden impulse--as you might say--and the main question ishow far did she get on her impulse, and where is she now? To my orderof thinking, it all depends on how she come down. Cycloning along likeshe was, if she come down on a pond or a peak, she'll be far fromfinding it funny. I was thinking about her all the way here, and I can'tthink of any way as'll be easy for her to come to earth, no matter howshe comes. And if she hits hard, she isn't going to like it. Mrs. Macywas never one as took a joke pleasant; she never made light of nothing.She took life very solemn-like--a owl was a laughing hyena compared toMrs. Macy. It's too bad she was that way. My own view is as she nevergot over not getting married again. Some women don't. She always took itas a reflection. There's no reflection to not getting married; myopinion is as there's a deal of things more important and most thing'smore comfortable. If Mrs. Macy was married, she'd be much worse off thanshe is right now, for instead of being able to give her whole time andattention to whatever she's doing and looking over, she'd be wonderingwhat he was giving his time and attention to doing and prying into. Whena man's out of your sight, you've always got to wonder, and most of thetime that's all in the world you can do about a man. Now Mrs. Macy'sperfectly independent, she can go where she pleases and come down whenshe pleases, and she hasn't got to tell what she saw unless she wantsto. Mrs. Brown says she ain't never been nowhere. It's plain to be seenas Mrs. Brown's envying Mrs. Macy her trip."
"But why--?" began Gran'ma Mullins with great determination.
"That's just it," replied Susan promptly. "I declare, I can't but wonderwhat'll happen next. I'm in that state that nothing will surprise me.Everything's so upset and off the track there's no use even trying tothink. My walls is fell into my cistern, and Mrs. Macy's roof is sittingon the ground beside her house yet. The insurance men has sealed upGran'ma Mullins' house, and they wouldn't leave the henhouse open till Isigned a affidavit on behalf of the hens and released 'em from allclaims for feed. Mr. Dill said they tried to seal up his cow. They'vegot Mr. Kimball's dried-apple machine tied with a rope. It's awful."
"But Susan--" interrupted Gran'ma Mullins.
"Mr. Weskins says the great difficulty is the insurance men say theydon't see how anything is going to be settled or decided until we hearfrom Mrs. Macy. The point's right here. If she comes back, it's evidenceas it was a tornado, because if she comes back it proves as she wascarried off, in which case the insurance men won't have to pay nothinganyhow, and we'll all be unsealed and allowed to go to work putting ourroofs back on our heads and clearing up as fast as we can. But Mr.Weskins says if Mrs. Macy don't come back, there'll be no way to proveas she was even carried off by the storm for you, Mrs. Lathrop, had yourback turned; and you, Gran'ma Mullins, was under the roof; and I'm onlyone, and it takes two witnesses to prove anything as is contrary to lawand nature."
"Do they doubt--?" cried Mrs. Lathrop, quite excited--for her.
"Yes, they do. They doubt everything. Insurance men don't take nothingfor granted. They've decided to just pin their whole case to Mrs. Macy,and there's Mrs. Macy gone away to, heaven knows where."
"Well, Susan," said Gran'ma Mullins, "we must look on the bright side.Mrs. Macy'll have something to talk about as'll always interesteverybody if she does come back, and if she don't come back, we'llalways have her to remember."
"Yes, and if we don't get our houses unstuck pretty soon, we'll rememberher a long while," said Susan darkly.
Three days passed by and no word was heard from Mrs. Macy. As soon asthe telegraph assumed its usual route, messages were sent all about inthe direction whither she had flown, but not a trace of her wasdiscovered by any one. The town was very much wrought up, for althoughits members were given to having strange experiences, no experience sostrange as this had ever happened there before. The exasperation ofbeing barred out of house and home until Mrs. Macy should be found,naturally heightened the interest. Everybody had had just time to addthe magic word "cyclone" to their policies before the cyclone came"damaging along"--as Susan Clegg expressed it. Susan was much perturbed.
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop,"--she said on the afternoon of the third day, asshe came into the hotel room where the mother of the millionaire was nowequal to her usual vigorous exercise in her old-gold-plush stationaryrocker. "Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you may well be grateful as Jathrop has gotmoney enough for us to be living here, for the living of the communityis getting to be no living a _tall_."
Gran'ma Mullins, still in bed, turned herself about and manifested avivid interest, "Well, Susan," she said, "it's three days now; how longis this going to keep up?"
"It can't keep up very much longer, or we'll have a new FrenchRevolution, that's what we'll hav
e," said Susan. "Why, the community isgetting where it won't stand even being said good morning to pleasantly.The children is running all over, pulling each other's hair, and DeaconWhite says he's going to buy a pistol. Things is come to a pretty passwhen Deacon White wants to buy a pistol, for he's just as afraid of oneend as the other. But it's a straw as shows which way the cyclone blewhis house."
"But isn't something--?"
"Something has got to be done. The boys stretched a string across thedoor of the insurance men's room this morning, and they fell in a heapwhen they started out; and some one as nobody can locate poured apitcher of ice water through the ventilator as is over their bed. Seeingthat public feeling is on the rise, they sent right after breakfast forthe appraisers, and they're going to begin appraising and un-sealingto-morrow morning. They've entirely give up the idea of waiting forMrs. Macy. The town just won't stand for any more hanging around waitingfor nothing. I never see us so before. Every one is so upset and dividedin their feelings that some think we'd ought to horsewhip the insurancemen, and some think we'd ought to hold a burial service for Mrs. Macy."
"I wouldn't see any good in holding a service for Mrs. Macy," saidGran'ma Mullins. "She wouldn't have been buried here if she was dead;she was always planning to go to Meadville when she was dead."
"Yes," said Susan, "I know. Because Mrs. Lupey's got that nice lot withthat nice mausoleum as she bought from the Pennybackers when they gotrich and moved even their great-grandfather to the city."
"I remember the Pennybackers," said Gran'ma Mullins. "Old manPennybacker used to drive a cart for rags. It was a great day for thePennybackers when Joe went into the pawnbroker business."
"Yes," said Susan, "it's wonderful how rich men manage to get on whenthey're young. Seems as if there's just no way to crowd a millionaireout of business or kill him off. I'm always reading what they wentthrough in the papers, but it never helped none. A millionaire is athing as when it's going to be is going to be, and you've just got tolet 'em do it once they get started."
"It was a nice mausoleum," said Gran'ma Mullins. "Mrs. Macy has told meabout it a hundred times. It's so big, Mrs. Lupey says, she can live upto her hospitable nature at last, for there's room for all and to spare.Mrs. Macy was the first person she asked. Mrs. Macy thought that wasvery kind of just a cousin. There's only Mrs. Kitts there, now, and Mrs.Lupey's aunt, Mrs. Cogetts."
"Mrs. Macy didn't know she had a aunt," said Susan. "Mrs. Cogetts cameway from Jacoma just on account of the mausoleum. That's a long ways tocome just to save paying for a lot where you are, seems to me; but somenatures'll go to any lengths to save money."
"I wonder where Mrs. Macy is now," said Gran'ma Mullins, with a sigh.
"Nobody knows. A good many is decided that it's surely a clear case ofElijah, only nobody pretends to believe in the Bible so much as to thinkthat she can go up and stay there. Mrs. Macy'd have to come down, andthe higher she went the more heaven help her when she does come down.Mrs. Macy was very solid, as we all know who've heard her sit down orseen her get up, and I can't see no happy ending ahead, even though weall wish her well. The insurance men is very blue over her not comingback, for they expected to prove a tornado sure; but even insurance mencan't have the whole world run to suit them these days. Anyhow, my viewis as it's no use worrying. Spilt milk's a poor thing to cook with. Ifyou're in the fire, you ain't in the frying-pan. The real sufferers isthis community, as is all locked out of their houses. The Browns isliving in the cellar to the cowshed, with two lengths of sidewalk laidover them. Mrs. Brown says she feels like a Pilgrim Father, and shesees why they got killed off so fast by the Indians,--it was so mucheasier to be scalped than to do your hair. Mr. and Mrs. Craig takesturns at one hammock all night long. Mrs. Craig says they changeregular, for whoever turns over spills out, and the other one is sittinglooking at the moon and waiting all ready to get in."
"I declare, Susan," said Gran'ma Mullins warmly, "I think it's mostshocking. I won't say outrageous, but I will say shocking."
"But what are you going to do about it?" said Susan. "That's the rub inthis country. There's plenty as is shocking, but here we sit at themercy of any cyclone or Congress as comes along. Here we was, peaceful,happy, and loving, and a cyclone swishes through. Down comes half adozen men from the city and seals up everything in town. I tell you youought to have heard me when they was sealing up your house and Mrs.Macy's. I give it to 'em, and I didn't mince matters none. I spoke mywhole mind, and it was a great satisfaction, but they went right on andsealed up the houses."
"Oh, Susan," began Mrs. Lathrop, "how are--?"
"All in ruins," replied Susan promptly. "I don't believe you and me isever going to live in happy homes any more. Fate seems dead set againstthe idea. And nobody can get ahead of Fate. They may talk all theyplease about overcoming, and when I was young I was always chargingalong with my horns down and my tail waving same as every other youngthing; but I'm older now, and I see as resignation is the only thing asreally pays in the end. I get as mad as ever, but I stay meek. I wantedto lam those insurance men with a stick of wood as was lying most handy,but all I did was to walk home. Mr. Shores says he's just the same way.We was talking it over this morning. He says when his wife first run offwith his clerk, he was nigh to crazy; he says he thought getting alongwithout a wife was going to just drive him out of his senses, and hesaid her taking the clerk just seemed to add insult to perjury, but hesays now, as he gets older, he finds having no wife a great comfort."
"I wish Jathrop would--" sighed Mrs. Lathrop.
"Well, he will, likely enough," said Susan. "Now he's rich, some girlwill snap him up, and he won't find how he's been fooled till three orfour months after the wedding."
"I suppose Jathrop could marry just any one he pleased now," saidGran'ma Mullins, sighing in her turn. "Hiram didn't have no choice;Jathrop'll have a choice."
"He may be none the better for that," said Susan darkly. "If JathropLathrop is wise, he'll not go routing wildly around like a presidentafter a elephant; he'll stick to what's tried and true. But I have mydoubt as to Jathrop's being wise; very few men with money have anysense."
"Who do _you_ think--?" began Mrs. Lathrop, looking intently at Susan.
"I d'n know," said Susan, looking hard at Mrs. Lathrop; "far be it fromme to judge."
"They do say, Susan," said Gran'ma Mullins wisely, "as he'll end up bymarrying you. Everybody says so."
Susan shook her head hard. "It's not for me to say. Affairs has beengoing on and off between Jathrop and me for too many years now for me tobegin to discuss them. What is to be will be, and what isn't to be can'tpossibly be brought about."
Gran'ma Mullins sighed again, and Mrs. Lathrop went on rocking. As sherocked, she viewed Susan Clegg from time to time in a speculativemanner. It was many, many years since she had suggested to Susan theidea of marrying Jathrop.
* * * * *
It was the next morning that Mrs. Macy re-appeared on the scene. Theinsurance men had unsealed all the houses, and the result was herdiscovery.
"Well, you could drown me for a new-born kitten, and I'd never open myeyes in surprise after _this_," Susan expounded to the friends at thehotel. "But Mrs. Macy always _was_ peculiar; she was always give toadventures. To think of her living there as snug as a moth in a rug,cooking her meals on the little oil-stove--"
"But where--?" interposed Mrs. Lathrop.
"I'm telling you. She's been sleeping in a good bed, too, and beingperfectly comfortable while we've all been suffering along of waitingfor her to come back."
"But Susan--" cried Gran'ma Mullins, wide-eyed.
"I'll tell you where she was; she was in your house--that's where shewas. The cyclone just gave her a lift over your woodshed, and then itset her down pretty quick. She says she came to earth like a piece ofthistledown on the other side. Her story is as your back door was open,so she run in, and then it begun to rain, so she saw no reason for goingout again. When it stopped raining, she looked o
ut and seen nobody. Thatisn't surprising, for we wasn't there. She thought that it was strangenot seeing any lights, but she started to go home, and she says _what_was her feelings when she fell over her own roof in the path. She saysof all the strange sensations a perfectly respectable woman can possiblyever get to start to go home and fall over her own roof is surely themost singular. She says she was so sleepy she thought maybe she wasdreaming, and not having any lantern, it was no use trying toinvestigate, so she just went back to your house and went to bed in mybed. She says she dreamed of Hiram's ears all night long. I'd completelyforgot Hiram's ears, which is strange, for they was far and away themost amusing things in this community. I think that way he could turn'em about was so entertaining. That way he used to cock 'em at youalways give him the air of paying so much attention. They say he nevercocked 'em at Lucy but once--"
"Oh, my, that once!" exclaimed Gran'ma Mullins involuntarily.
"It was a sin and a shame for Lucy to choke Hiram's ears off like shedid," Susan declared warmly. "She just seemed to take all the courageright out of 'em. Hiram always reminded me of a black-and-tan as long ashe had the free use of his ears, but after Lucy broke their backbonelike she did, he never reminded me of much of nothing." Susan paused tosigh. Gran'ma Mullins wiped her eyes.
"You and Hiram give up to Lucy too much," said Susan. "I wish she'dmarried me."
"I wish she had, Susan," said Gran'ma Mullins. "I wouldn't wish to seemunkind to the wife of my born and wedded only son, but I do wish thatshe'd married you, and if Hiram could only see Lucy with a mother'sclear blue eye, he'd wish it, too."
"Where is--?" asked Mrs. Lathrop, desiring to recur to the main objectunder discussion.
"Oh, she's gone straight over to Meadville," said Susan. "Oh, my, shesays, but think of her feelings as she sat inside that nice, comfortablehouse and realized that she was the only person in town with a roofover her head! You see, she heard me talking with the insurance men, andshe didn't know why we was to be sealed up, but she got it all straightas we was going to be turned out of house and home, and she says shemade up her mind as no one should ever know as she was in a house and socome capering up to put her out. She says she settled down as still as amouse, made no smoke, and never lit so much as a candle nights. Mrs.Macy is surely most foxy!"
"And she's gone to Meadville?" said Gran'ma Mullins.
"Yes, she didn't want to pay board here, and her own house hasn't got noroof, so she's gone to Mrs. Lupey. Old Doctor Carter was over here toappraise the damage done to folks, and he took her back with him."
"I wonder if she'll ever--" wondered Gran'ma Mullins.
"I d'n know. If folks talk about a marriage long enough, it usually endsup that way. Doctor Carter and Mrs. Macy has been kind of jumping ateach other and then running away for fifteen years or so. They say he'dlike her money, but he hates to be bothered with her."
"She wouldn't like to be bothered with him, either," said Gran'maMullins.
"I know," said Susan. "That's what's making so few people like to getmarried nowadays. They don't want to be bothered with each other."
Mrs. Lathrop fixed her little, black, beady eyes hard on Susan.
Susan stared straight ahead.