David Dunne Part 17

"I don't know, yet," said the boy, "but I'll think out a plan to-night."

It was Jud, after all, who cut the Gordian knot, and made one of his welcome disappearances, which lasted until David was ready to start in college. His savings, that he had acc.u.mulated by field work in the summers and a very successful poultry business for six years, netted him four hundred dollars.

"One hundred dollars for each year," he thought exultantly. "That will be ample with the work I shall find to do."

Then he made known to his friends his long-cherished scheme of working his way through college. The Judge laughed.

"Your four hundred dollars, David, will barely get you through the first year. After that, I shall gladly pay your expenses, for as soon as you are admitted to the bar you are to come into my office, of course."

David demurred.

"I shall work my way through college," he said firmly.

He next told Barnabas of his intention and the Judge's offer which he had declined.

"I'm glad you refused, Dave. You'll only be in his office till you're ripe fer what I kin make you. I've larnt that the law is a good foundation as a sure steppin' stone tew it, so you kin hev a taste of it. But the Jedge ain't a-goin' to pay yer expenses."

"I don't mean that he shall," replied David. "I want to pay my own way."

"I'm a-goin' to send you tew college and send you right. No starvin'

and garret plan fer you. I've let Joe and the Jedge do fer you as much as they're a-goin' to, but you're mine from now on. It's what I'd do fer my own son if he cared fer books, and you're as near to me ez ef you were my son."

"It's too much, Uncle Barnabas."

"And, David," he continued, unheeding the interruption, "I hope you'll really be my son some day."

A look of such exquisite happiness came into the young eyes that Barnabas put out his hand silently. In the firm hand-clasp they both understood.

"I am not going to let you help me through college, though, Uncle Barnabas. It has always been my dream to earn my own education. When you pay for anything yourself, it seems so much more your own than when it's a gift."

"Let him, Barnabas," again counseled Uncle Larimy. "Folks must feed diff'rent. Thar's the sweet-fed which must allers hev sugar, but salt's the savor for Dave. He's the kind that flourishes best in the shade."

Janey wrote to Joe of David's plan, and there promptly came a check for one thousand dollars, which David as promptly returned.

CHAPTER II

A few days before the time set for his departure David set out on a round of farewell visits to the country folk. It was one of those cold, cheerless days that intervene between the first haze of autumn and the golden glow of October. He had never before realized how lonely the s.h.i.+ver of wind through the poplars could sound. Two innovations had been made that day in the country. The rural delivery carrier, in his little house on wheels, had made his first delivery, and a track for the new electric-car line was laid through the sheep meadow. This inroad of progress upon the sanct.i.ty of their seclusion seemed sacrilegious to David, who longed to have lived in the olden time of log houses, with their picturesque open fires and candle lights. Following some vague inward call, he went out of his way to ride past the tiny house he had once called home, and which in all his ramblings he had steadfastly avoided. He had heard that the place had pa.s.sed into the hands of a widow with an only son, and that they had purchased surrounding land for cultivation. He had been glad to hear this, and had liked to fancy the son caring for his mother as he himself would have cared for his mother had she lived.

As he neared the little nutsh.e.l.l of a house his heart beat fast at the sight of a woman pinning clothes to the line. Her fingers, stiff and swollen, moved slowly. The same instinct that had guided him down this road made him dismount and tie his horse. The old woman came slowly down the little path to meet him.

"I am David Dunne," he said gently, "and I used to live here. I wanted to come to see my old home once more."

He thought that the dim eyes gazing into his were the saddest he had ever beheld.

"Yes," she replied, with the slow, German accent, "I know of you. Come in."

He followed her into the little sitting room, which was as barren of furnis.h.i.+ngs as it had been in the olden days.

"Sit down," she invited.

He took a chair opposite a cheap picture of a youth in uniform. A flag of coa.r.s.e material was pinned above this portrait, and underneath was a roughly carved bracket on which was a gla.s.s filled with goldenrod.

"You lived here with your mother," she said musingly, "and she was taken. I lived here with my son, and--he was taken."

"Oh!" said David. "I did not know--was he--"

His eyes sought the picture on the wall.

"Yes," she replied, answering his unspoken question, as she lifted her eyes to her little shrine, "he enlisted and went to the Philippines.

He died there of fever more than a year ago."

David was silent. His brown, boyish hand shaded his eyes. It had been his fault that he had not heard of this old woman and the loss of her son. He had shrunk from all knowledge and mention of this little home and its inmates. The country folk had recognized and respected his reticence, which to people near the soil seems natural. This had been the only issue in his life that he had dodged, and he was bitterly repenting his negligence. In memory of his mother, he should have helped the lonely old woman.

"You were left a poor, helpless boy," she continued, "and I am left a poor, helpless old woman. The very young and the very old meet in their helplessness, yet there is hope for the one--nothing for the other."

"Yes, memories," he suggested softly, "and the pride you feel in his having died as he did."

"There is that," she acknowledged with a sigh, "and if only I could live on here in this little place where we have been so happy! But I must leave it."

"Why?" asked David quickly.

"After my Carl died, things began to happen. When once they do that, there is no stopping. The bank at the Corners failed, and I lost my savings. The turkeys wandered away, the cow died, and now there's the mortgage. It's due to-morrow, and then--the man that holds it will wait no longer. So it is the poorhouse, which I have always dreaded."

David's head lifted, and his eyes shone radiantly as he looked into the tired, hopeless eyes.

"Your mortgage will be paid to-morrow, and--Don't you draw a pension for your son?"

She looked at him in a dazed way.

"No, there is no pension--I--"

"Judge Thorne will get you one," he said optimistically, as he rose, ready for action, "and how much is the mortgage?"

"Three hundred dollars," she said despairingly.

"Almost as much as the place is worth. Who holds the mortgage?"

"Deacon p.r.i.c.kley."

"You see," said David, trying to speak casually, "I have three hundred dollars lying idle for which I have no use. I'll ride to town now and have the Judge see that the place is clear to you, and he will get you a pension, twelve dollars a month."

The worn, seamed face lifted to his was transfigured by its look of beat.i.tude.

"You mustn't," she implored. "I didn't know about the pension. That will keep me, and I can find another little place somewhere. But the money you offer--no! I have heard how you have been saving to go through school."