A WINTER COURTSHIP
by Sarah Orne Jewett
The passenger and mail transportation between the towns of North
Kilby and Sanscrit Pond was carried on by Mr. Jefferson Briley,
whose two-seated covered wagon was usually much too large for the
demands of business. Both the Sanscrit Pond and North Kilby people
were stayers-at-home, and Mr. Briley often made his seven-mile
journey in entire solitude, except for the limp leather mailbag,
which he held firmly to the floor of the carriage with his heavily
shod left foot. The mailbag had almost a personality to him,
born of long association. Mr. Briley was a meek and timid-looking
body, but he held a warlike soul, and encouraged his fancies by
reading awful tales of bloodshed and lawlessness in the Far West.
Mindful of stage robberies and train thieves, and of express
messengers who died at their posts, he was prepared for anything;
and although he had trusted to his own strength and bravery these
many years, he carried a heavy pistol under his front-seat cushion
for better defense. This awful weapon was familiar to all his
regular passengers, and was usually shown to strangers by the time
two of the seven miles of Mr. Briley's route had been passed. The
pistol was not loaded. Nobody (at least not Mr. Briley himself)
doubted that the mere sight of such a weapon would turn the
boldest adventurer aside.
Protected by such a man and such a piece of armament, one gray Friday
morning in the edge of winter, Mrs. Fanny Tobin was traveling from
Sanscrit Pond to North Kilby. She was an elderly and feeble-looking
woman, but with a shrewd twinkle in her eyes, and she felt very
anxious about her numerous pieces of baggage and her own personal
safety. She was enveloped in many shawls and smaller wrappings, but
they were not securely fastened, and kept getting undone and flying
loose, so that the bitter December cold seemed to be picking a lock
now and then and creeping in to steal away the little warmth she had.
Mr. Briley was cold, too, and could only cheer himself by remembering
the valor of those pony-express drivers of the prerailroad days, who
had to cross the Rocky Mountains on the great California route. He
spoke at length of their perils to the suffering passenger, but she
felt none the warmer, and at last gave a groan of weariness.
"How fur did you say 't was now?"
"I do' know's I said, Mis' Tobin," answered the driver, with a
frosty laugh. "You see them big pines, and the side of a barn
just this way with them yellow circus bills? That's my three-mile
mark."
"Be we got four more to make? Oh, my laws!" mourned Mrs. Tobin.
"Urge the beast, can't ye, Jeff'son? I ain't used to bein' out
in such bleak weather. Seems if I couldn't git my breath. I'm
all pinched up and wigglin' with shivers now. 'T ain't no use
lettin' the hoss go step-a-ty-step, this fashion."
"Landy me!" exclaimed the affronted driver. "I don't see why folks
expects me to race with the cars. Everybody that gits in wants me
to run the hoss to death on the road. I make a good average o' time,
and that's all I can do. Ef you was to go back an' forth every
day but Sabbath fur eighteen years, you'd want to ease it all
you could, and let those thrash the spokes out o' their wheels that
wanted to. North Kilby, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; Sanscrit
Pond, Tuesdays, Thu'sdays, an' Saturdays. Me an' the beast's done
it eighteen years together, and the creatur' warn't, so to say,
young when we begun it, nor I neither. I re'lly didn't know's she'd
hold out till this time. There, git up, will ye, old mar'!" as the
beast of burden stopped short in the road.
There was a story that Jefferson gave this faithful creature a rest
three times a mile, and took four hours for the journey by himself
and longer whenever he had a passenger. But in pleasant weather
the road was delightful, and full of people who drove their own
conveyances and liked to stop and talk. There were not many farms,
and the third growth of white pines made a pleasant shade, though
Jefferson liked to say that when he began to carry the mail his way
lay through an open country of stumps and sparse underbrush, where
the white pines nowadays completely arched the road.
They had passed the barn with circus posters, and felt colder than
ever when they caught sight of the weather-beaten acrobats in their
tights.
"My gorry!" exclaimed Widow Tobin, "them pore creatur's looks as
cheerless as little birch-trees in snowtime. I hope they dresses
'em warmer this time o' year. Now, there! look at that one jumpin'
through the little hoop, will ye?"
"He couldn't git himself through there with two pair o' pants on,"
answered Mr. Briley. "I expect they must have to keep limber as eels.
I used to think, when I was a boy, that 'twas the only thing I could
ever be reconciled to do for a livin'. I set out to run away an'
follow a rovin' showman once, but mother needed me to home. There
warn't nobody but me an' the little gals."
"You ain't the only one that's be'n disapp'inted o' their heart's
desire," said Mrs. Tobin sadly. "'Twarn't so that I could be spared
from home to learn the dressmaker's trade."
"'Twould a come handy later on, I declare," answered the sympathetic
driver, "bein's you went an' had such a passel o' gals to clothe an'
feed. There, them that's livin' is all well off now, but it must ha'
been some inconvenient for ye when they was small."
"Yes, Mr. Briley, but then I've had my mercies, too," said the widow
somewhat grudgingly. "I take it master hard now, though, havin' to
give up my own home and live round from place to place, if they be my
own child'en. There was Ad'line and Susan Ellen fussin' an' bickerin'
yesterday about who'd got to have me next; and, Lord be thanked, they
both wanted me right off, but I hated to hear 'em talkin' of it over.
I'd rather live to home, and do for myself."
"I've got consider'ble used to boardin'," said Jefferson, "sence marm
died, but it made me ache 'long at the fust on't, I tell ye. Bein' on
the road's I be, I couldn't do no ways at keepin' house. I should want
to keep right there and see to things."
"Course you would," replied Mrs. Tobin, with a sudden inspiration of
opportunity which sent a welcome glow all over her. "Course you would,
Jefferson." She leaned toward the front seat. "That is to say, on-less
you had jest the right one to do it for ye."
And Jefferson felt a strange glow also, and a sense of unexpected
interest and enjoyment.
"See here, Sister Tobin," he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Why can't
ye take the trouble to shift seats, and come front here 'long o' me?
We could put one buff'lo top o' the other--they're both wearin'
thin--and set close, and I do' know but we sh'd be more protected
ag'inst the weather."
"Well, I couldn't be no colder if I was friz to death," answered
the widow, with an amiable simper. "Don't ye let me delay you, nor
put you out, Mr. Briley. I don't know's I'd set forth to-day if I'd
known 'twas so cold; but I had all my bundles done up, and I ain't
one that puts my hand to the plough an' looks back, 'cordin' to
Scriptur'."
"You wouldn't wanted me to ride all them seven miles alone?" asked
the gallant Briley sentimentally, as he lifted her down and helped
her up again to the front seat. She was a few years older than he,
but they had been schoolmates, and Mrs. Tobin's youthful freshness
was suddenly revived to his mind's eye. She had a little farm; there
was nobody left at home now but herself, and so she had broken up
housekeeping for the winter. Jefferson himself had savings of no
mean amount.
They tucked themselves in, and felt better for the change, but
there was a sudden awkwardness between them; they had not had
time to prepare for an unexpected crisis.
"They say Elder Bickers, over to East Sanscrit, 's been and got
married again to a gal that's four year younger than his
daughter," proclaimed Mrs. Tobin presently. "Seems to me 'twas
fool's business."
"I view it so," said the stage driver. "There's goin' to be a mild
open winter for that fam'ly."
"What a joker you be for a man that's had so much responsibility!"
smiled Mrs. Tobin, after they had done laughing. "Ain't you never
'fraid, carryin' mail matter and such valuable stuff, that you'll
be set on an' robbed, 'specially by night?"
Jefferson braced his feet against the dasher under the worn buffalo
skin. "It is kind o' scary, or would be for some folks, but I'd like
to see anybody get the better o' me. I go armed, and I don't care
who knows it. Some o' them drover men that comes from Canady looks
as if they didn't care what they did, but I look 'em right in the
eye every time."
"Men folks is brave by natur'," said the widow admiringly. "You know
how Tobin would let his fist right out at anybody that undertook to
sass him. Town-meetin' days, if he got disappointed about the way
things went, he'd lay 'em out in win'rows; and ef he hadn't been a
church member he'd been a real fightin' character. I was always
'fraid to have him roused, for all he was so willin' and meechin'
to home, and set round clever as anybody. My Susan Ellen used to
boss him same's the kitten, when she was four year old."
"I've got a kind of a sideways cant to my nose, that Tobin give me
when we was to school. I don't know's you ever noticed it," said Mr.
Briley. "We was scufflin', as lads will. I never bore him no kind of a
grudge. I pitied ye, when he was taken away. I re'lly did, now, Fanny.
I liked Tobin first-rate, and I liked you. I used to say you was the
han'somest girl to school."
"Lemme see your nose. 'Tis all straight, for what I know," said the
widow gently, and with a trace of coyness she gave a hasty glance. "I
don't know but what 'tis warped a little, but nothin' to speak of.
You've got real nice features, like your marm's folks."
It was becoming a sentimental occasion, and Jefferson Briley felt that
he was in for something more than he had bargained. He hurried the
faltering sorrel horse, and began to talk of the weather. It certainly
did look like snow, and he was tired of bumping over the frozen road.
"I shouldn't wonder if I hired a hand here another year, and went off
out West myself to see the country."
"Why, how you talk!" answered the widow.
"Yes'm," pursued Jefferson. "'Tis tamer here than I like, and I was
tellin' 'em yesterday I've got to know this road most too well. I'd
like to go out an' ride in the mountains with some o' them great
clipper coaches, where the driver don't know one minute but he'll be
shot dead the next. They carry an awful sight o' gold down from the
mines, I expect."
"I should be scairt to death," said Mrs. Tobin. "What creatur's
men-folks be to like such things! Well, I do declare."
"Yes," explained the mild little man. "There's sights of desp-radoes
makes a han'some livin' out o' robbin' 'em clean to the bone. Your
money or your life!" and he flourished his stub of a whip
over the sorrel mare.
"Landy me! you make me run all of a cold creep. Do tell somethin'
heartenin', this cold day. I shall dream bad dreams all night."
"They put on black crepe over their heads," said the driver
mysteriously. "Nobody knows who most on 'em be, and like as not some
o' them fellers come o' good families. They've got so they stop the
cars, and go right through 'em bold as brass. I could make your hair
stand on end, Mis' Tobin,--I could so!"
"I hope none on 'em'll git round our way, I'm sure," said Fanny Tobin.
"I don't want to see none on 'em in their crepe bunnits comin' after
me."
"I ain't goin' to let nobody touch a hair o' your head," Mr.
Briley moved a little nearer and tucked in the buffaloes again.
"I feel considerable warm to what I did," observed the widow by way
of reward.
"There, I used to have my fears," Mr. Briley resumed, with an inward
feeling that he never would get to North Kilby depot a single man.
"But you see I had nobody but myself to think of. I've got cousins,
as you know, but nothin' nearer, and what I've laid up would soon be
parted out; and--well, I suppose some folks would think o' me if
anything was to happen."
Mrs. Tobin was holding her cloud over her face--the wind was sharp
on that bit of open road--but she gave an encouraging sound, between
a groan and a chirp.
"'Twouldn't be like nothin' to me not to see you drivin' by," she
said, after a minute. "I shouldn't know the days o' the week. I says
to Susan Ellen last week I was sure 'twas Friday, and she said no,
'twas Thursday; but next minute you druv by and headin' toward North
Kilby, so we found I was right."
"I've got to be a featur' of the landscape," said Mr. Briley
plaintively. "This kind o' weather the old mare and me, we wish we
was done with it, and could settle down kind o' comfortable. I've been
lookin' this good while, as I drove the road, and I've picked me out
a piece o' land two or three times. But I can't abide the thought o'
buildin'--'twould plague me to death; and both Sister Peak to North
Kilby and Mis' Deacon Ash to the Pond, they vie with one another to
do well by me, fear I'll like the other stoppin'-place best."
"I shouldn't covet livin' long o' neither one o' them women,"
responded the passenger with some spirit. "I see some o' Mis' Peak's
cookin' to a farmers' supper once, when I was visitin' Susan Ellen's
folks, an' I says 'Deliver me from sech pale-complected baked beans as
them!' and she give a kind of a quack. She was settin' jest at my left
hand, and couldn't help hearin' of me. I wouldn't have spoken if I had
known, but she needn't have let on they was hers. 'I guess them beans
taste just as well as other folks',' says she, and she wouldn't never
speak to me afterward."
"Do' know's I blame her," ventured Mr. Briley. "Women folks is
dreadful pudjicky about their cookin'. I've always heard you was one
o' the best o' cooks, Mis' Tobin. I know them doughnuts an' things
you've give me in times past, when I was drivin' by. Wish I had some
on 'em now. I never let on, but Mis' Ash's cookin's the best by a
long chalk. Mis' Peak's handy about some things, and looks after
mendin' of me up."
"It doos seem as if a man o' your years and your quiet make ought
to hev a home you could call your own," suggested the passenger.
"I kind of hate to think o' your boardin' here and there,
and one old woman mendin', and the other settin' ye down to meals
that like's not don't agree with ye."
"Lor', now, Mis' Tobin, le's not fuss round no longer," said Mr.
Briley impatiently. "You know you covet me same's I do you."
"I don't nuther. Don't you go an' say fo'lish things you can't
stand to."
"I've been tryin' to git a chance to put in a word with you ever
sence--Well, I expected you'd want to get your feelin's kind o'
calloused after losin' Tobin."
"There's nobody can fill his place," said the widow.
"I do' know but I can fight for ye town-meetin' days, on a pinch,"
urged Jefferson boldly.
"I never see the beat o' you men fur conceit," and Mrs. Tobin
laughed. "I ain't goin' to bother with ye, gone half the time
as you be, an' carryin' on with your Mis' Peaks and Mis' Ashes.
I dare say you've promised yourself to both on 'em twenty times."
"I hope to gracious if I ever breathed a word to none on 'em!"
protested the lover. "'Tain't for lack o' opportunities set afore
me, nuther." Then Mr. Briley craftily kept silence, as if he
had made a fair proposal, and expected a definite reply.
The lady of his choice was, as she might have expressed it, much
beat about. As she truly thought, she was getting along in years,
and must put up with Jefferson all the rest of the time. It was not
likely she would ever have the chance of choosing again, though she
was one who liked variety. Jefferson wasn't much to look at, but he
was pleasant and kind of boyish and young-feeling. "I do' know's
I should do better," she said unconsciously and half aloud. "Well,
yes, Jefferson, seein' it's you. But we're both on us kind of old
to change our situation." Fanny Tobin gave a gentle sigh.
"Hooray!" said Jefferson. "I was scairt you meant to keep me sufferin'
here a half an hour. I declare, I'm more pleased than I calc'lated on.
You tell Susan Ellen the news, won't ye? She'll be surprised to hear
you've jest come on a visit. How you must ha' tugged to get them
bundles ready, an' all for nothin'; but now I'll lend a hand 'bout
everythin'. An' I expected till lately to die a single man!"
"'Twould re'lly have been a shame; 'tain't natur'," said Mrs. Tobin,
with confidence. "I don't see how you held out so long with bein'
solitary."
"I'll hire a hand to drive for me, and we'll have a good comfortable
winter, me an' you an' the old sorrel. I've been promisin' of her
a rest this good while."
"Better keep her a-steppin'," urged thrifty Mrs. Fanny. "She'll
stiffen up master, an' disapp'int ye, come spring."
"You'll have me, now, won't ye, sartin?" pleaded Jefferson, to make
sure. "You ain't one o' them that plays with a man's feelin's. Say
right out you'll have me."
"I s'pose I shall have to," said Mrs. Tobin somewhat mournfully.
"I feel for Mis' Peak an' Mis' Ash, pore creatur's. I expect they'll
be hardshipped. They've always been hard-worked, an' may have kind
o' looked forward to a little ease. But one on 'em would be left
lamentin', anyhow," and she gave a girlish laugh. An air of victory
animated the frame of Mrs. Tobin. She felt but twenty-five years of
age. In that moment she made plans for cutting her Briley's hair,
and making him look smartened-up and ambitious. Then she wished that
she knew for certain how much money he had in the bank; not that it
would make any difference now. "He needn't bluster none before me,"
she thought gayly. "He's harmless as a fly."
"There's the big ellum past, an' we're only a third of a mile
from the depot," said Mr. Briley. "Feel warmer, do ye?"
"Who'd have thought we'd done such a piece of engineerin', when
we started out?" inquired the dear one of Mr. Briley's heart, as
he tenderly helped her to alight at Susan Ellen's door.
"Both on us, jest the least grain," answered the lover. "Gimme
a good smack, now, you clever creatur'"; and so they parted.
Mr. Bailey had been taken on the road in spite of his pistol.
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