American fiction -- 20th century; Railroad stories
But His mind had come to rest hopefully in the look in her face. She
would not fail him. She was even more eager than he in planning for his
absence--Caleb would be with her, and in the city it was easier than in
Bridgewater to get help--the cooking and baking, some of it, could be
bought from the little white shop around the corner.--She entered into
the plan as if the journey were to be made for her sake rather than for
Simeon’s. And John, watching her, knew that she was really better. The
change to the new house and its surroundings had been good for her.
There was even a little pink tinge in her cheeks sometimes and she
declared that the very cracks in the ceiling of the new house were
restful to look at as she lay in bed. She had never known how full of
pain and wakefulness the old cracks were until they had been suddenly
lifted from her. The new cracks should have only hope in them, she said,
with a little smile; they should be filled with beautiful things--the
light that came in at the east window for her--she had not had an east
window at home--and Caleb’s pleasure in his new work and in his garden.
Her window overlooked the garden and she lay for hours looking out at
it and at the sky.... There was not much in the garden yet. But Caleb
pottered about in it, setting out the roots and shrubs he had brought
from home, preparing the asparagus bed and strawberry beds, and trimming
up the few trees and shrubs that bordered it. He was very contented
working in the warm October sun inside the high fence. The roots of his
being stirred softly, making ready to strike down into the new mold
and rest there gently as they had rested in the old garden at home. By
spring he would hardly know the change--any more than the daffodils
and the jonquils that he had planted in a corner by the fence with some
lilies of the valley.
He had been at work in the garden the day of the directors’ meeting,
and he watched the Boy as he came slowly up the street, his head bent
in thought. Caleb gathered up his tools with little regretful, backward
looks. He had meant to set out that last row of asparagus tonight--But
it was late and the boy looked tired. He set the asparagus plants in the
little shed he had improvised for his tools and covered them carefully
against the night air. Then he went into the house.
The mother and the Boy were talking in the next room softly and he
thought he would not disturb them. He fussed about, setting the table
and making tea. Even when they were seated at table, Caleb paid little
heed to what was being said; his mind was still digging in the garden,
out in the soft mold.
Then a word caught his ear and he looked up. “What’s that you were
saying, Johnny--about a farm!”
“It ’s about President Tetlow. He has to go away, you know!”
Caleb’s interest relaxed. “I thought it was something about a farm.” He
returned to his plate.
“I said I wished there were some farm he could go to--”
“Farms enough,” said Caleb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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