|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 13
"You'll not mind if we call you Carley?" she asked, eagerly.
"Oh, indeed no! I--I'd like it," returned Carley, made to feel friendly and
at home in spite of herself.
"You see it's not as if you were just a stranger," went on Mrs. Hutter.
"Tom--that's Flo's father--took a likin' to Glenn Kilbourne when he first
came to Oak Creek over a year ago. I wonder if you all know how sick that
soldier boy was. . . . Well, he lay on his back for two solid weeks--in the
room we're givin' you. An' I for one didn't think he'd ever get up. But he
did. An' he got better. An' after a while he went to work for Tom. Then six
months an' more ago he invested in the sheep business with Tom. He lived
with us until he built his cabin up West Fork. He an' Flo have run together
a good deal, an' naturally he told her about you. So you see you're not a
stranger. An' we want you to feel you're with friends."
"I thank you, Mrs. Hutter," replied Carley, feelingly. "I never could thank
you enough for being good to Glenn. I did not know he was so--so sick. At
first he wrote but seldom."
"Reckon he never wrote you or told you what he did in the war," declared
Mrs. Hutter.
"Indeed he never did!"
"Well, I'll tell you some day. For Tom found out all about him. Got some of
it from a soldier who came to Flagstaff for lung trouble. He'd been in the
same company with Glenn. We didn't know this boy's name while he was in
Flagstaff. But later Tom found out. John Henderson. He was only twenty-two,
a fine lad. An' he died in Phoenix. We tried to get him out here. But the
boy wouldn't live on charity. He was always expectin' money--a war bonus,
whatever that was. It didn't come. He was a clerk at the El Tovar for a
while. Then he came to Flagstaff. But it was too cold an' he stayed there
too long."
"Too bad," rejoined Carley, thoughtfully. This information as to the
suffering of American soldiers had augmented during the last few months,
and seemed to possess strange, poignant power to depress Carley. Always she
had turned away from the unpleasant. And the misery of unfortunates was as
disturbing almost as direct contact with disease and squalor. But it had
begun to dawn upon Carley that there might occur circumstances of life, in
every way affronting her comfort and happiness, which it would be impossible
to turn her back upon.
At this juncture Flo returned to the room, and again Carley was struck with
the girl's singular freedom of movement and the sense of sure poise and joy
that seemed to emanate from her presence.
"I've made a fire in your little stove," she said. "There's water heating.
Now won't you come up and change those traveling clothes. You'll want to
fix up for Glenn, won't you?"
Carley had to smile at that. This girl indeed was frank and unsophisticated,
and somehow refreshing. Carley rose.
"You are both very good to receive me as a friend," she said. "I hope I
shall not disappoint you. . . . Yes, I do want to improve my appearance
before Glenn sees me. . . . Is there any way I can send word to him--by
someone who has not seen me?"
"There shore is. I'll send Charley, one of our hired boys."
"Thank you. Then tell him to say there is a lady here from New York to see
him, and it is very important."
Flo Hutter clapped her hands and laughed with glee. Her gladness gave
Carley a little twinge of conscience. Jealously was an unjust and stifling
thing.
Carley was conducted up a broad stairway and along a boarded hallway to a
room that opened out on the porch. A steady low murmur of falling water
assailed her ears. Through the open door she saw across the porch to a
white tumbling lacy veil of water falling, leaping, changing, so close that
it seemed to touch the heavy pole railing of the porch.
This room resembled a tent. The sides were of canvas. It had no ceiling.
But the roughhewn shingles of the roof of the house sloped down closely.
The furniture was home made. An Indian rug covered the floor. The bed with
its woolly clean blankets and the white pillows looked inviting.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|