He flung out the door, and it crashed after him. And Marjorie laughed
softly and naughtily to herself over the banjo, and pushed the note
that had dwelt within farther down inside her dress. "I wish I had the
rest!" said she. "Let me see. The kodak was for both of us to go out
and take pictures together, of course. The snowshoes--that would have
had to wait till winter. The basket and trowel were so we could plant
lots of lovely woodsy things we found around the cabin, to see if they
would take root. And he must have been going to teach me to fish. I
wonder why he wasn't going to teach me to shoot. There must be a rifle
somewhere--maybe it hasn't lost its note, if it was hidden hard enough.
And he remembered how I liked 'surprises.' He certainly would have
made a good lover if I hadn't----"
She did not finish. She got up and hunted for the rifle, which was not
to be found. Then she went into the kitchen and hunted for stores, and
wondered how on earth a balanced menu could be evolved from cans and
dried things exclusively. But the discovery of a cache of canned
vegetables helped her out, and as she really was a good cook, and loved
cooking, what Francis returned to was not supper, but a very excellent
little dinner. And his wife had found time, as well, to dress herself
in the most fluffy and useless-looking of rosy summer frocks, with
white slippers. She looked more fragile and decorative and childish
than he had ever seen her, leaning across the little table talking
brightly to him about her adventures in the discovery of the things
that made up the meal.
An old quotation about "breaking a butterfly upon a wheel" came to him
as she chattered on, telling him delightedly how she had made up her
mind to surprise him with tomato bisque if it was her last act, and how
she had discovered a box that was labeled "condensed milk," and opened
it with infinite pains and a hatchet; and how after she had nearly
killed herself struggling with it, she had finally opened it, and found
that what it really contained was deviled ham in small, vivid tins; and
how she triumphed over Fate by using the ham with other things for
_hors d'oeuvres_; and how she finally found powdered milk in other
tins, and achieved her goal after all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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