Every Man for Himself Part 27

"A lot," said she.

Brown was troubled. He heard the kitchen stove snore in its familiar way, the kettle bubble, the old wind a.s.sault the cottage he had builded for the baby; and he remembered recent years-and was troubled.

"Will ye love un more?" he asked, anxiously, turning his face from the child, "than ye loves me?" He hesitated. "Ye won't, will ye?" he implored.

"'Twill be different," said she.

"Will it?" he asked, rather vacantly.

"Ye see," she explained, "he'll be my _father_."

"Then," suggested "By-an'-by," "ye'll be goin' away along o' he?-when he comes?"

"Oh, my, no!"

"Ye'll not? Ye'll stay along o' me?"

"Why, ye see," she began, bewildered, "I'll-why, o' course, I'll-oh,"

she complained, "what ye ask me _that_ for?"

"Jus' couldn't _help_ it," said "By-an'-by," humbly.

The maid began to cry.

"Don't!" pleaded "By-an'-by" Brown. "Jus' can't _stand_ it. I'll do anything if ye'll on'y stop cryin'. Ye can _have_ your father. Ye needn't love me no more. Ye can go away along o' he. An' he'll be comin'

soon, too. Ye'll see if he don't. Jus' by-an'-by-by-an'-by!"

"'Tis never," the maid sobbed.

"No, no! By-an'-by is soon. Why," cried "By-an'-by" Brown, perceiving that this intelligence stopped the child's tears, "by-an'-by is-wonderful soon."

"To-morrow?"

"Well, no; but-"

"'Tis never!" she wailed.

"'Tis nex' week!" cried "By-an'-by" Brown....

When the dawn of Monday morning confronted "By-an'-by" Brown he was appalled. Here was a desperately momentous situation: by-an'-by must be faced-at last. Where was Long Bill Tweak? n.o.body knew. How could Long Bill Tweak be fetched from Nowhere? Brown scratched his head. But Long Bill Tweak _must_ be fetched: for here was the maid, chirpin' about the kitchen-turned out early, ecod! t' clean house against her father's coming. Cured? Ay; that she was-the mouse! "By-an'-by" Brown dared not contemplate her collapse at midnight of Sat.u.r.day. But chance intervened: on Tuesday morning Long Bill Tweak made Blunder Cove on the way from Lancy Loop to St. John's to join the sealing fleet in the spring of the year. Long Bill Tweak in the fles.h.!.+ It was still blowing high: he had come out of the snow-a shadow in the white mist, rounding the Tickle rocks, observed from all the windows of Blunder Cove, but changing to Long Bill Tweak himself, ill-kempt, surly, gruff-voiced, vicious-eyed, at the kitchen door of "By-an'-by" Brown's cottage.

Long Bill Tweak begged the maid, with a bristle-whiskered twitch-a scowl, mistakenly delivered as a smile-for leave to lie the night in that place.

The maid was afraid with a fear she had not known before. "We're 'lowing for company," she objected.

"Come in!" "By-an'-by" called from the kitchen.

The maid fled in a fright to the inner room, and closed the door upon herself; but Long Bill Tweak swaggered in.

"Tweak!" gasped "By-an'-by" Brown.

"Brown!" growled Long Bill Tweak.

There was the silence of uttermost amazement; but presently, with a jerk, Tweak indicated the door through which "By-an'-by's" baby had fled.

"It?" he whispered.

Brown nodded.

"'Low I'll be goin' on," said Long Bill Tweak, making for the windy day.

"Ye'll go," answered "By-an'-by" Brown, quietly, interposing his great body, "when ye're let: not afore."

Long Bill Tweak contented himself with the hospitality of "By-an'-by"

Brown....

That night, when Brown had talked with the maid's father for a long, long time by the kitchen stove, the maid being then turned in, he softly opened the bedroom door and entered, closing it absent-mindedly behind him, dwelling the while, in deep distress, upon the agreement he had wrested by threat and purchase from Long Bill Tweak. The maid was still awake because of terror; she was glad, indeed, to have caught sight of "By-an'-by" Brown's broad, kindly young countenance in the beam of light from the kitchen, though downcast, and she snuggled deeper into the blankets, not afraid any more. "By-an'-by" touched a match to the candle-wick with a great hand that trembled. He lingered over the simple act-loath to come nearer to the evil necessity of the time. For Long Bill Tweak was persuaded now to be fatherly to the child; and "By-an'-by" Brown must yield her, according to her wish. He sat for a time on the edge of the little bed, clinging to the maid's hand; and he thought, in his gentle way, that it was a very small, very dear hand, and that he would wish to touch it often, when he could not.

Presently Brown sighed: then, taking heart, he joined issue with his trouble.

"I 'low," he began, "that you wisht your father was here."

The maid did.

"I 'low," he pursued, "that you wisht he was here this very minute."

That the maid did!

"I 'low," said "By-an'-by," softly, lifting the child's hands to his lips, "that you wisht the man in the kitchen was him."

"No," the maid answered, sharply.

"Ye doesn't?"

"Ye bet ye-no!" said she.

"Eh?" gasped the bewildered Brown.

The maid sat upright and stiff in bed. "Oh, my!" she demanded, in alarm; "he _isn't_, is he?"

"No!" said "By-an'-by" Brown.

"Sure?"