JOHNIUTHERIONG
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 SEFFOfl

 
 SIFFT 
 
 A LITTLE COMEDY OF 
 COUNTRY MANNERS 
 
 BY 
 JOHN LUTHER LONG 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 MADAME BUTTERFLY 
 NAUGHTY NAN, ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 C.D.WILLIAMS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT 1905 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 NOVEMBER
 
 fs 
 
 TO ALL WHO HAVE COURTED 
 
 FOR REMEMBRANCE; 
 TO ALL WHO WILL COURT 
 
 AN EXAMPLE; 
 TO ALL WHO HAVE NEVER COURTED 
 
 IN PITY; 
 
 TO ALL WHO WILL NEVER COURT 
 WITH TEARS 
 
 862979
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAQH 
 
 I How A SIDEWISE DOG TROTS . . 1 
 
 II WHAT HAVE FEELINGS GOT TO Do 
 
 WITH Cow PASTURE ? . . .22 
 
 III BUT SALLY WAS THE ANGEL . . .32 
 
 IV SUPPOSE SHE HAD GREASED HER HAIR ? 35 
 V SEFFY'S SITTING UP AND DOWN AGAIN 49 
 
 VI THE CLOTHES-PIN CURE ... 54 
 
 VII THE POISON SPRING IN TKB, COTTON 
 
 WOODS 68 
 
 VIII THE WHITE SIGNAL WHICH MIGHT 
 
 AS WELL HAVE BEEN BLACK . . 77 
 
 IX IT WAS SEFFY WHO WAS SACKED . . 84 
 
 X THE HUGE FIST OF THE FARMER . . 91 
 
 XI WHEN SPRING CAME .... 102 
 
 XII THE Kiss LIKE SEFFY'S . . . .105 
 
 XIII ONE BLOW FOR THAT TO SEFFY . . 109 
 
 XIV FOR SEFFY'S SAKE 115 
 
 XV SHALL SEFFY ENTER AT THIS CUB ? . 129
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 SALLY Frontispiece 
 
 "YEBK HE GOES TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER! 
 
 WHAT'S BID ? GOING GOING " U 
 
 'I SHALL NEVER Kiss No ONE BUT You, 
 
 No MORE" 46 
 
 IF SHE HAD OBEYED ONLY HER HEART SHE 
 WOULD HAVE FLUNG HER ARMS AROUND 
 HIM 70 
 
 "THANK You, MR. BAUMGARTNER, I'M SUITED" 88 
 "I'M SORRY I'M You' DADDJ, I AM, BEGOSHENS!" 98 
 "I'M HER GARDEEN!" HE CRIED AS HE STRUCK 112 
 
 SHE SLIPPED TO THE FLOOR AND KNELT AT His 
 
 FEET 136
 
 SEFFY 
 
 i 
 
 HOW A SIDEWISE DOG TROTS 
 
 The place was the porch of the store, the 
 time was about ten o'clock in the morning of 
 a summer day, the people were the amiable 
 loafers and Old Baumgartner. The per- 
 son he was discoursing about was his son 
 Sephenijah. I am not sure that the name 
 was not the ripe fruit of his father's fancy 
 with, perhaps, the Scriptural suggestion 
 which is likely to be present in the affairs of 
 a Pennsylvania-German whether a com- 
 municant or not even if he live in Mary- 
 land. 
 
 " Yas always last ; especial at fu- 
 nerals and weddings. Except his own he's 
 sure to be on time at his own funeral. Right 
 out in front! Hah? But sometimes he
 
 SEFEOfl 
 
 misses his wedding. Why, I knowed a feller 
 yous all knowed him, begoshens! that 
 didn't git there tell another feller*d married 
 her 'bout more'n a year afterward. 
 Wasn't it more'n a year, boys? Yas Bill 
 Eisenkrout. Or, now, was it his brother 
 Baltzer Iron-Cabbage? Seems to me now like 
 it was Baltz. Somesing wiss a B at the front 
 end, anyhow." 
 
 Henry Wasserman diffidently intimated 
 that there was a curious but satisfactory ele- 
 ment of safety in being last a " f ast- 
 nacht " in their language, in fact Those in 
 front were the ones usually hurt in railroad 
 accidents, Alexander Althoff remembered. 
 
 " Safe? " cried the speaker. Of course ! 
 But for why say, for why?" Old Baum- 
 gartner challenged defiantly. 
 
 No one answered and he let several impres- 
 sive minutes intervene. 
 
 " You don't know ! Hang you, none of 
 yous knows! Well because he ain't there 
 when anysing occurs always a little late ! "
 
 They agreed with him by a series of sage 
 nods. 
 
 " But, fellers, the worst is about courting. 
 It's no way to be always late. Everybody 
 else gits there first, and it's nossing for the 
 f astnacht but weeping and wailing and gnash- 
 ing of the teeth. And mebby the other fel- 
 ler gits considerable happiness and a good 
 farm." 
 
 There was complaint in the old man's voice, 
 and they knew that he meant his own son 
 Seffy. To add to their embarrassment, this 
 same son was now appearing over the Lustich 
 Hill an opportune moment for a pleasing 
 digression. For you must be told early con- 
 cerning Old Baumgartner's longing for cer- 
 tain lands, tenements and hereditaments 
 using his own phrase which were not his 
 own, but which adjoined his. It had passed 
 into a proverb of the vicinage ; indeed, though 
 the property in question belonged to one 
 Sarah Pressel, it was known colloquially as 
 " Baumgartner's Yearn."
 
 SEFEpfl 
 
 And the reason of it was this: Between his 
 own farm and the public road, (and the rail- 
 road station when it came), lay the fairest 
 meadow-land farmer's eye had ever rested 
 upon. (I am speaking again for the father 
 of Seffy and with his hyperbole.) Save in 
 one particular, it was like an enemy's beauti- 
 ful territory lying between one's less beauti- 
 ful own and the open sea keeping one a 
 poor inlander who is mad for the seas whose 
 crops must either pass across the land of his 
 adversary and pay tithes to him, or go by 
 long distances around him at the cost of 
 greater tithes to the soulless owners of the 
 turnpikes who aggravatingly fix a gate 
 each way to make their tithes more sure. So, 
 I say, it was like having the territory of his 
 enemy lying between him and deep water 
 save, as I have also said, in one particular, to 
 wit: that the owner the Sarah Pressel I 
 have mentioned was not Old Baumgartner's 
 enemy. 
 
 In fact, they were tremendous friends.
 
 And it was by this friendship and one 
 other thing which I mean to mention later 
 that Old Baumgartner hoped, before he died, 
 to attain the wish of his life, and see, not only 
 the Elysian pasture-field, but the whole of the 
 adjoining farm, with the line fences down, a 
 part of his. The other thing I promised to 
 mention as an aid to this ambition was 
 Seffy. And, since the said Sarah was of 
 nearly the same age as Seffy, perhaps I need 
 not explain further, except to say that the 
 only obstruction the old man could see now 
 to acquiring title by marriage was Seffy 
 himself. He was, and always had been, afraid 
 of girls especially such aggressive, flirta- 
 tious, pretty and tempestuous girls as this 
 Sarah. 
 
 These things, however, were hereditary with 
 the girl. It was historical, in fact, that, dur- 
 ing the life of Sarah's good-looking father, 
 so importunate had been Old Baumgartner 
 for the purchase of at least the meadow 
 he could not have ventured more at that time
 
 and so obstinate had been the father of the 
 present owner (he had red hair precisely 
 as his daughter had) that they had come 
 to blows about it to the discomfiture of Old 
 Baumgartner; and, afterward, they did not 
 speak. Yet, when the loafers at the store 
 laughed, Baumgartner swore that he would, 
 nevertheless, have that pasture before he died. 
 But, then, as if fate, too, were against him, 
 the railroad was built, and its station was 
 placed so that the Pressel farm lay directly 
 between it and him, and of course the " life " 
 went more and more in the direction of the 
 station left him more and more " out of 
 it " and made him poorer and poorer, and 
 Pressel richer and richer. And, when the 
 store laughed at that, Baumgartner swore 
 that he would possess half of the farm before 
 he died; and as Pressel and his wife died, and 
 Seffy grew up, and as he noticed the fond- 
 ness of the little red-headed girl for his little 
 tow-headed boy, he added to his adjuration 
 that he would be harrowing that whole farm 
 
 6
 
 SEFK53 
 
 before he died, without paying a cent for 
 it! 
 
 But both Seffy and Sally had grown to a 
 marriageable age without anything happen- 
 ing. Seffy had become inordinately shy, 
 while the coquettish Sally had accepted the 
 attentions of Sam Pritz, the clerk at the store, 
 as an antagonist more worthy of her, and 
 in a fashion which sometimes made the father 
 of Seffy swear and lose his temper with 
 Seffy. Though, of course, in the final dispo- 
 sition of the matter, he was sure that no girl 
 so nice as Sally would marry such a person 
 as Sam Pritz, with no extremely visible means 
 of support a salary of four dollars a 
 week, and an odious reputation for liquor. 
 And it was for these things, all of which were 
 known (for Baumgartner had not a single 
 secret) that the company at the store detected 
 the personal equation in Old Baumgartner's 
 communications. 
 
 Seffy had almost arrived by this time, and 
 Sally was in the store! With Sam! The situ-
 
 ation was highly dramatic. But the old man 
 consummately ignored this complication and 
 directed attention to his son. For him, the 
 molasses-tapper did not exist. The fact is 
 he was overjoyed. Seffy, for once in his life, 
 would be on time ! He would do the rest. 
 
 " Now, boys, chust look at 'em ! Dogged 
 if they ain't bose like one another ! How's the 
 proferb? Birds of a feather flock wiss one 
 another? I dunno. Anyhow, Sef flocks 
 wiss Betz constant. And they understand one 
 another good. Trotting like a sidewise dog 
 of a hot summer's day ! " And he showed the 
 company, up and down the store-porch, just 
 how a sidewise dog would be likely to trot on 
 a hot summer day and then laughed joy- 
 ously. 
 
 If there had been an artist eye to see they 
 would have been well worth its while Seffy 
 and the mare so affectionately disparaged. 
 And, after all, I am not sure that the speaker 
 himself had not an artist's eye. For a spring 
 pasture, or a fallow upland, or a drove of 
 
 8
 
 goodly cows deep in his clover, I know he 
 had. (Perhaps you, too, have?) And this 
 was his best mare and his only son. 
 
 The big bay, clad in broad-banded har- 
 ness, soft with oil and glittering with brasses, 
 was shambling indolently down the hill, re- 
 sisting her own momentum by the diagonal 
 motion the old man had likened to a dog's 
 sidewise trot. The looped trace-chains were 
 jingling a merry dithyramb, her head was 
 nodding, her tail swaying, and Seffy, 
 propped by his elbow on her broad back, one 
 leg swung between the hames, the other keep- 
 ing time on her ribs, was singing: 
 
 " * I want to be an angel 
 And with the angels stand, 
 
 A crown upon my forehead 
 A harp within my hand ' " 
 
 His adoring father chuckled. " I wonder 
 what for kind of anchel he'd make, anyhow? 
 And Betz they'll have to go together. 
 Say, I wonder if it is horse-anchels ? " 
 
 9
 
 No one knew ; no one offered a suggestion. 
 
 " Well, it ought to be. Say he ken per- 
 form circus wiss ol' Betz ! " 
 
 They expressed their polite surprise at this 
 for perhaps the hundredth time. 
 
 " Yas they have a kind of circus-ring in 
 the barnyard. He stands on one foot then 
 on another, and on his hands wiss his feet 
 kicking, and then he says words like hokey- 
 pokey and Betz she kicks up behind and 
 throws him off in the dung and we all laugh 
 happy ef er after Betz most of all ! " 
 
 After the applause he said: 
 
 "I guess I'd better wake >em up! What 
 you sink? " 
 
 They one and all thought he had. They 
 knew he would do it, no matter what they 
 thought. His method, as usual, was his own. 
 He stepped to the adjoining field, and, select- 
 ing a clod with the steely polish of the plow- 
 share upon it, threw it at the mare. It struck 
 her on the flank. She gathered her feet un- 
 der her in sudden alarm, then slowly relaxed, 
 
 10
 
 looked slyly for the old man, found him, and 
 understanding, suddenly wheeled and ambled 
 off home, leaving Seffy prone on the ground 
 as her part of the joke. 
 
 The old man brought Seffy in triumph to 
 the store-porch. 
 
 " Chust stopped you afore you got to be 
 a anchel ! " he was saying. " We couldn't 
 bear to sink about you being a anchel an* 
 wiss the anchels stand a harp upon your 
 forehead, a crown within your hand, I expect 
 when it's corn-planting time." 
 
 Seffy grinned cheerfully, brushed off the 
 dust and contemplated his father's watch 
 held accusingly against him. Old Baumgart- 
 ner went on gaily. 
 
 " About an inch and a half apast ten ! 
 Seffy, I'm glad you ain't breaking your repu- 
 tation for being fastnachich. Chust about a 
 quarter of an inch too late for the prize 
 wiss flour on its hair and arms and its 
 frock pinned up to show its new petticoat! 
 Uhu ! If I had such a nice petticoat " he 
 
 11
 
 imitated the lady in question, to the tremen- 
 dous delight of the gentle loafers. 
 
 Seffy stared a little and rubbed some dust 
 out of his eyes. He was pleasant but dull. 
 
 " Yassir, Sef , if you'd a-got yere at a inch 
 and a quarter apast! Now Sam's got her. 
 Down in the cellar a-licking molasses to- 
 gether ! Doggone if Sam don't git eferysing 
 except his due bills. He don't want to be 
 no anchel tell he dies. He's got fun enough 
 yere but Seffy you're like the flow of 
 molasses in January at courting." 
 
 This oblique suasion made no impression on 
 Seffy. It is doubtful if he understood it at 
 all. The loafers began to smile. One 
 laughed. The old man checked him with a 
 threat of personal harm. 
 
 "Hold on there, Jefferson Dafis Busby," 
 he chid. " I don't allow no one to laugh at 
 my Seffy except chust me account I'm 
 his daddy. It's a fight-word the next time 
 you do it." 
 
 Mr. Busby straightened his countenance. 
 
 IS
 
 " He don't seem to notice nor keer 
 'bout gals do he?" 
 
 No one spoke. 
 
 " No, durn him, he ain't no good. Say 
 what'll you give for him, hah? Yere he goes 
 to the highest bidder for richer, for 
 poorer, for better, for worser, up and down, 
 in and out, swing your partners what's 
 bid? He ken plow as crooked as a mule's 
 hind leg, sleep hard as a 'possum in winter- 
 time, eat like a snake, git left efery time 
 but he ken ketch fish. They wait on him. 
 What's bid? " 
 
 No one would hazard a bid. 
 
 "Yit a minute," shouted the old fellow, 
 pulling out his bull's-eye watch again, 
 " what's bid? Going going all done 
 going " 
 
 A dollar!" 
 
 The bid came from behind him, and the 
 voice was beautiful to hear. A gleam came 
 into the old man's eyes as he heard it. He de- 
 liberately put the watch back in its pocket, 
 
 13
 
 put on his spectacles, and turned, as if she 
 were a stranger. 
 
 "Gone!" he announced then. "Who's 
 the purchaser? Come forwards and take 
 away you* property. What's the name, 
 please? " Then he pretended to recognize 
 her. "Oach! Sally! Well, that's lucky! 
 He goes in good hands. He's sound and kind, 
 but needs the whip." He held out his hand 
 for the dollar. 
 
 It was the girl of whom he had spoken 
 accurately as a prize. Her sleeves were 
 turned up as far as they would go, revealing 
 some soft lace-trimmed whiteness, and 
 there was flour on her arms. Some patches of 
 it on her face gave a petal-like effect to her 
 otherwise aggressive color. The pretty dress 
 was pinned far enough back to reveal the 
 prettier petticoat plus a pair of trimly-clad 
 ankles. 
 
 Perhaps these were neither the garments 
 nor the airs in which every farmer-maiden 
 did her baking. But then, Sally was no ordi- 
 
 14
 
 nary fanner-maiden. She was all this, it is 
 true, but she was, besides, grace and color 
 and charm itself. And if she chose to bake 
 in such attire or, even, if she chose to pre- 
 tend to do so, where was the churl to say her 
 nay, even though the flour was part of a de- 
 liberate " make up " ? Certainly he was not 
 at the store that summer morning. 
 
 And Seffy was there. Her hair escaped 
 redness by only a little. But that little was 
 just the difference between ugliness and 
 beauty. For, whether Sally were beautiful 
 or not about which we might contend a bit 
 her hair was, and perhaps that is the rea- 
 son why it was nearly always uncovered or, 
 possibly, again, because it was so much uncov- 
 ered was the reason it was beautiful. It 
 seemed to catch some of the glory of the sun. 
 Her face had a few freckles and her mouth 
 was a trifle too large. But, in it were splen- 
 did teeth. 
 
 In short, by the magic of brilliant color and 
 natural grace she narrowly escaped being ex- 
 
 15
 
 BEffOdl 
 
 tremely handsome in the way of a sun- 
 burned peach, or a maiden's-blush apple. 
 And even if you should think she were not 
 handsome, you would admit that there was 
 an indescribable rustic charm about her. She 
 was like the aroma of the hay-fields, or the 
 woods, or a field of daisies, or dandelions. 
 
 The girl, laughing, surrendered the money, 
 and the old man, taking an arm of each, 
 marched them peremptorily away. 
 
 " Come to the house and git his clothes. 
 Eferysing goes in stofepipe hat, butterfly 
 necktie, diamond pin, tooth-brush, hair-oil, 
 razor and soap." 
 
 They had got far enough around the cor- 
 ner to be out of sight of the store, during this 
 gaiety, and the old man now shoved Seffy 
 and the girl out in front of him, linked their 
 arms, and retreated to the rear. 
 
 "What Sephenijah P. Baumgartner, 
 Senior, hath j'ined together, let nobody put 
 athunder, begoshens!" he announced. 
 
 The proceeding appeared to be painful to 
 
 16
 
 SefFy, but not to Sally. She frankly ac- 
 cepted the situation and promptly put into 
 action its opportunities for coquetry. She 
 begged him, first, with consummate aplomb, 
 to aid her in adjusting her parcels more se- 
 curely, insisting upon carrying them herself, 
 and it would be impossible to describe ade- 
 quately her allures. The electrical touches, 
 half-caress, half -defiance ; the confidential 
 whisperings, so that the wily old man in the 
 rear might not hear; the surges up against 
 him ; the recoveries only to surge again 
 these would require a mechanical contrivance 
 which reports not only speech but action 
 and even this might easily fail, so subtle was 
 it all! 
 
 "Sef SefFy, I thought it was his old 
 watch he was auctioning off. I wanted it for 
 for a nest-egg ! aha-ha-ha ! You must 
 excuse me." 
 
 "You wouldn't 'a' bid at all if you'd 
 knowed it was me, I reckon," said Seffy. 
 
 "Yes, I would," declared the coquette. 
 
 17
 
 SEFEOfl 
 
 " I'd rather have you than any nest-egg in 
 the whole world any two of 'em ! " and 
 when he did not take his chance " if they 
 were made of gold ! " 
 
 But then she spoiled it. 
 
 " It's worse fellows than you, Seffy." The 
 touch of coquetry was but too apparent. 
 
 " And better," said Seffy, with a lump in 
 his throat. " I know I ain't no good with 
 girls and I don't care ! " 
 
 "Yes!" she assented wickedly. "There 
 are better ones." 
 
 "SamPritz " 
 
 Sally looked away, smiled, and was silent. 
 
 "Sulky Seffy!" she finally said. 
 
 " If he does stink of salt mackerel, and 
 'most always drunk ! " Seffy went on bitterly. 
 " He's nothing but a molasses-tapper ! " 
 
 Sally began to drift further away and to 
 sing. Calling Pritz names was of no conse- 
 quence except that it kept Seffy from 
 making love to her while he was doing it 
 which seemed foolish to Sally. The old man 
 
 18
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 came up and brought them together again. 
 
 " Oach ! go 'long and make lof e some more. 
 I like to see it. I expect I am an old fool, 
 but I like to see it it's like ol' times 
 yas, and if you don't look out there, Seffy, 
 I'll take a hand myself yassir ! go 'long ! " 
 
 He drew them very close together, each 
 looking the other way. Indeed he held them 
 there for a moment, roughly. 
 
 Seffy stole a glance at Sally. He wanted 
 to see how she was taking his father's odiously 
 intimate suggestion. But it happened that 
 Sally wanted to see how he was taking it. 
 She laughed with the frankest of joy as their 
 eyes met. 
 
 " Seffy I do like you," said the co- 
 quette. " And you ought to know it. You 
 imp!" 
 
 Now this was immensely stimulating to the 
 bashful Seffy. 
 
 "I like you" he said "ever since we 
 was babies." 
 
 " Sef I don't believe you. Or you 
 
 19
 
 SEFK50 
 
 wouldn't waste your time so about Sam 
 Pritz!" 
 
 " Er Sally where you going to to- 
 night ? " Seffy meant to prove himself. 
 
 And Sally answered, with a little fright at 
 the sudden aggressiveness she had procured. 
 
 " Nowheres that 7 know of." 
 
 " Well may I set up with you? " 
 
 The pea-green sunbonnet could not conceal 
 the amazement and then the radiance which 
 shot into Sally's face. 
 
 " Set up with me ! " 
 
 " Yes ! " said Seffy, almost savagely. 
 " That's what I said." 
 
 " Oh, I I guess so ! Yes ! of course ! " 
 she answered variously, and rushed off home. 
 
 " You know I own you," she laughed back, 
 as if she had not been sufficiently explicit. 
 " I paid for you ! Your pappy's got the 
 money! I'll expect my property to-night." 
 
 " Yas ! " shouted the happy old man, " and 
 begoshens ! it's a reg'ler bargain ! Ain't it, 
 Seffy ? You her property real estate, 
 
 20
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 hereditaments and tenements." And even 
 Seffy was drawn into the joyous laughing 
 conceit of it ! Had he not just done the brav- 
 est thing of his small life? 
 
 "Yes!" he cried after the fascinating 
 Sally. " For sure and certain, to-night ! " 
 
 " It's a bargain ! " cried she. 
 
 " For better or worser, richer or poorer, 
 up an' down, in an' out, chassez right and 
 left! Aha-ha-ha! Aha-ha-ha! But, Seffy," 
 and the happy father turned to the happy 
 son and hugged him, " don't you efer forgit 
 that she's a feather-head and got a bright red 
 temper like her daddy ! And they both work 
 mighty bad together sometimes. When you 
 get her at the right place onct well, nail 
 her down hand and feet so's she can't 
 git away. When she gits mad her little 
 brain evaporates, and if she had a knife she'd 
 go round stabbing her best friends that's 
 the only sing that safes her yas, and us ! 
 no knife. If she had a knife it would be fu- 
 nerals following her all the time." 
 
 21
 
 II 
 
 WHAT HAVE FEELINGS GOT TO DO WITH COW- 
 PASTURE? 
 
 They advanced together now, Seffy's 
 father whistling some tune that was never 
 heard before on earth, and, with his arm in 
 that of his son, they watched Sally bounding 
 away. Once more, as she leaped a fence, she 
 looked laughingly back. The old man 
 whistled wildly out of tune. Seffy waved a 
 hand! 
 
 " Now you shouting, Seffy ! Shout ag'in ! " 
 
 " I didn't say a word ! " 
 
 " Well it ain't too late ! Go on ! " 
 
 Now Seffy understood and laughed with 
 his father. 
 
 "Nice gal, Sef Seffy!" 
 
 " Yes ! " admitted Seffy with reserve. 
 
 Healthy."
 
 Seffy agreed to this, also. 
 
 " No doctor-bills ! " his father amplified. 
 
 Seffy said nothing. 
 
 " Entire orphen." 
 
 " She's got a granny ! " 
 
 " Yas," chuckled the old man at the way 
 his son was drifting into the situation 
 thinking about granny ! " but Sally owns 
 the farm! " 
 
 "Uhu!" said Seffy, whatever that might 
 mean. 
 
 "And Sally's the boss!" 
 
 Silence. 
 
 " And granny won't object to any one 
 Sally marries, anyhow she dassent ! She'd 
 git licked!" 
 
 " Who said anything about marrying? " 
 
 Seffy was speciously savage now as any 
 successful wooer might be. 
 
 " Nobody but me, sank you ! " said the old 
 man with equally specious meekness. "Look 
 how she ken jump a six-rail fence. Like a 
 three-year filly! She's a nice gal, Seffy
 
 SEF'&XH 
 
 and the farms j'ine together her pasture- 
 field and our corn-field. And she's kissing her 
 hand backwards ! At me or you, Seff y ? " 
 
 Seffy said he didn't know. And he did not 
 return the kiss though he yearned to. 
 
 " Well, I bet a dollar that the first initial 
 of his last name is Sephanijah P. Baumgart- 
 ner, Junior." 
 
 "Well!" said Seffy with a great flourish, 
 " I'm going to set up with her to-night." 
 
 "Oach git out, Sef!" though he 
 Lnew it. 
 
 " You'll see." 
 
 "No, I won't," said his father. "I 
 wouldn't be so durn mean. Nossir!" 
 
 Seffy grinned at this subtle foolery, and his 
 courage continued to grow. 
 
 " I'm going to wear my high hat ! " he an- 
 nounced, with his nose quite in the air. 
 
 " No, Sef ! " said the old man with a won- 
 derful inflection, facing him about that he 
 might look into his determined face. For it 
 must be explained that the stovepipe hat, in 
 
 4
 
 that day and that country, was dedicated only 
 to the most momentous social occasions and 
 that, consequently, gentlemen wore it to go 
 courting. 
 
 " Yes ! " declared Seffy again. 
 
 " Bring forth the stovepipe, 
 
 The stovepipe, the stovepipe " 
 
 chanted Seffy's frivolous father in the way of 
 the Anvil Chorus. 
 
 " And my butterfly necktie with " 
 " Wiss the di'mond on ? " whispered his 
 father. 
 
 They laughed in confidence of their secret. 
 Seffy, the successful wooer, was thawing out 
 again. The diamond was not a diamond at 
 all the Hebrew who sold it to Seffy had 
 confessed as much. But he also swore that 
 if it were kept in perfect polish no one but 
 a diamond merchant could tell the difference. 
 Therefore, there being no diamond merchant 
 anywhere near, and the jewel being alwaj's 
 immaculate, Seffy presented it as a diamond 
 
 25
 
 SEFFOSB 
 
 and had risen perceptibly in the opinion of 
 the vicinage. 
 
 " And and and Sef SefFy, what 
 you goin' to do? " 
 
 " Do? " 
 
 Seffy had been absorbed in what he was 
 going to wear. 
 
 " Yas yas that's the most impor- 
 tant." He encircled Seffy's waist and gently 
 squeezed it. " Oh, of course! Hah? But 
 what yit? " 
 
 I regret to say that Seffy did not under- 
 stand. 
 
 " Seffy," he said impressively, " you baP 
 tol* me what you goin* to wear. It ain't 
 much. The weather's yit pooty col' nights. 
 But I ken stand it if you ken God knows 
 about Sally ! Now, what you goin' to do 
 that's the conuntrum I ast you ! " 
 
 Still it was not clear to Seffy. 
 
 " Why what I'm a-going to do, hah ? 
 Why whatever occurs." 
 
 " Gosh-a'mighty ! And nefer say a word 
 
 26
 
 or do a sing to help the occurrences along? 
 Goshens ! What a setting-up ! Why say 
 Seffy, what you set up for? " 
 
 Seffy did not exactly know. He had never 
 hoped to practise the thing in that sub- 
 limely militant phase. 
 
 "What do y&u, think?" 
 
 "Well, Sef plow straight to her heart. 
 I wisht I had your chance. I'd show you a 
 other-guess kind a setting-up yassir ! 
 Make your mouth warter and your head 
 swim, begoshens! Why, that Sally's just 
 like a young stubble-field; got to be worked 
 constant, and plowed deep, and manured 
 heafy, and mebby drained wiss blind ditches, 
 and crops changed constant, and kep* 
 a-going thataway constant constant 
 so's the weeds can't git in her. Then you 
 ken put her in wheat after a while and git 
 your money back." 
 
 This drastic metaphor had its effect. Seffy 
 began to understand. He said so. 
 
 "Now look here, Seffy," his father went 
 
 27
 
 on more softly, " when you git to this and 
 this and this," he went through his 
 pantomime again, and it included a progres- 
 sive caressing to the kissing point " well, 
 chust when you bose comfortable hah? 
 mebby on one cheer, what I know it's so 
 long sence I done it myself when you bose 
 comfortable, ast her chust ast her aham ! 
 what she'll take for the pasture-field ! She 
 owns you bose and she can't use bose you 
 and the pasture. A bird in the hand is worth 
 sef eral in another feller's not so ? " 
 
 But Seffy only stopped and stared at his 
 father. This, again, he did not understand. 
 
 " You know well enough I got no money 
 to buy no pasture-field," said he. 
 
 " Gosh-a'mighty ! " said the old man joy- 
 fully, making as if he would strike Seffy with 
 his huge fist a thing he often did. " And 
 ain't got nossing to trade ? " 
 
 " Nothing except the mare ! " said the boy. 
 
 " Say ain't you got no feelings, you 
 idjiot? " 
 
 28
 
 " said Seffy. And then: " But 
 what's feelings got to do with cow-pasture? " 
 
 " Oach ! No wonder he wants to be an 
 anchel, and wiss the anchels stand holding 
 sings in his hands and on his head ! He's too 
 good for this wile world. He'd linger shif- 
 ering on the brink and fear to launch away 
 all his durn life if some one didn't push 
 him in. So here goes ! " 
 
 This was spoken to the skies, apparently, 
 but now he turned to his son again. 
 
 " Look a-yere, you yo;mg dummer-ux,* 
 feelings is the same to gals like Sally, as 
 money is to you and me. You ken buy po- 
 tatoes wiss 'em! Do you understand?" 
 
 Seffy said that he did, now. 
 
 " Well, then, I'fe tried to buy that pasture- 
 field a sousand times " 
 
 Seffy started. 
 
 "Yas, that's a little bit a 'lie mebby a 
 dozen times. And at last Sally's daddy said 
 he'd lick me if I efer said pasture-field ag*in, 
 * Dumb-ox a term of reproach.
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 and I said it ag'in and he licked me ! He was 
 a big man and red-headed yit, like Sally. 
 Now, look a-yere you ken git that pasture- 
 field wissout money and wissout price ex- 
 cept you' dam* feelings which ain't no other 
 use. Sally won't lick you if she is bigger 
 don't be a-skeered. You got tons of f eel- 
 in's you ain't got no other use for don't 
 waste 'em they're good green money, 
 and we'll git efen wiss Sally's daddy for lick- 
 ing me yit and somesing on the side ! 
 Huh?" 
 
 At last it was evident that Seffy fully un- 
 derstood, and his father broke into that dis- 
 cordant whistle once more. 
 
 "A gal that ken jump a six-rail fence 
 and wissout no running start don't let her 
 git apast you ! " 
 
 " Well, I'm going to set up with her to- 
 night," said Seffy again, with a huge ahem. 
 And the tune his father whistled as he opened 
 the door for him sounded something like *' I 
 want to be an angel." 
 
 30
 
 " But not to buy no pasture-land ! " 
 warned Seffy. 
 
 " Oach, no, of course not ! " agreed his wily 
 old father. " That's chust one of my durn 
 jokes. But I expect I'll take the fence down 
 to-morrow! Say, Sef, you chust marry the 
 gal. I'll take keer the fence ! "
 
 Ill 
 
 BUT SALLY WAS THE ANGEL 
 
 It took Seffy a long time to array himself 
 as he had threatened. And when it was all 
 done you wouldn't have known him you 
 wouldn't have cared to know him. For his 
 fine yellow hair was changed to an ugly brown 
 by the patent hair-oil with which he had 
 dressed it and you would not have liked its 
 fragrance, I trust. Bergamot, I think it 
 was. His fine young throat was garroted 
 within a starched standing collar, his feet were 
 pinched in creaking boots, his hands close- 
 gauntleted in buckskin gloves, and he alto- 
 gether incomparable, uncomfortable, and 
 triumphant. 
 
 Down stairs his father paced the floor, 
 watch in hand. From time to time he would
 
 . 
 
 call out the hour, like a watchman on a min- 
 aret. At last: 
 
 " Look a-yere, Seffy, it's about two inches 
 apast sefen and by the time you git there 
 say, nefer gif another feller a chance to 
 git there afore you or to leave after you ! " 
 
 Seffy descended at that moment with his 
 hat poised in his left hand. 
 
 His father dropped his watch and picked 
 it up. 
 
 Both stood at gaze for a moment. 
 
 " Sunder, Sef ! You as beautiful as the 
 sun, moon and stars and as stinky as sef- 
 eral apothecary shops. Yere, take the watch 
 and git along so's you haf some time wiss 
 you now git along ! You late a'ready. 
 Goshens! You wass behind time when you 
 wass born! Yas, your mammy wass disap- 
 p'inted in you right at first. You wass 
 seventy-six hours late! But now you re- 
 formed sank God ! I always knowed it 
 wass a cure for it, but I didn't know it wass 
 anysing as nice as Sally."
 
 Seffy issued forth to his first conquest 
 lighted as far as the front gate by the fat 
 lamp held in his father's hand. 
 
 "A Sef Seffy, shall I set up for you 
 tell you git home ? " he called into the dark. 
 
 "No!" shouted Seffy. 
 
 "Aha aha aha! That sounds right! 
 Don't you forgit when you bose well 
 comfortable aha ha-ha! Mebby on one 
 cheer aha ha-ha. And we'll bose take the 
 fence down to-morrow. Mebby all three ! "
 
 IV 
 
 SUPPOSE SHE HAD GREASED HER HAIE? 
 
 Seffy sauntered confidently up The Hill of 
 Delight upon which Sally's house stood. 
 When within sight of it he polished his hat 
 on his sleeve, set the butterfly necktie straight, 
 felt that the apochryphal diamond was safe, 
 and marched up to the house only to arrive 
 a little later than a buggy from which Sam 
 Pritz, he was certain, had extracted Sally. 
 If it had not been for the thought of his 
 father, which opportunely came, Seffy would 
 have gone straight home so did his heart 
 fail him. 
 
 And then instantly there was another and 
 better reason for staying. Sally had seen 
 him. As he wavered which she seemed to 
 know she came hurrying down upon him. 
 
 35
 
 5EFR5S 
 
 It was too late then, even if he had had 
 the courage to retreat from such dear danger. 
 She put her arm within his, and, leaning be- 
 witchingly upon it, led him into the house, 
 chattering fervidly the most willing of 
 captives to the most beguiling of captors. 
 For Sally had put on all her witcheries for 
 this night of nights. 
 
 Once within she added the charm of the ac- 
 complished amateur hostess doing fasci- 
 nating things which needed no doing hov- 
 ering about Seffy like the very spirit of a 
 home so that he had the intoxicating senst 
 of difficulty in keeping from being entangled 
 in her fluttering arms and garments. For 
 his feet, unused to Elysium, would catch 
 themselves in her whirling skirts as if they 
 knew better than he their ultimate destiny. 
 All this was a splendid revelation to Seffy. 
 He had never, in all his dreams of her (and 
 they were legion!) fancied this soft and win- 
 ning domesticity. It went to his head like 
 alcohol opium ether making it so 
 
 36
 
 . 
 
 light and happy as to be quite useless to him. 
 
 So, when Sally finally took the tall hat and 
 went to deposit it in the dark parlor, Seffy 
 followed her, for no better reason than the 
 things in the basin have for following the 
 magnet. And, understanding this, Sally 
 looked over her shoulder at him. And then, 
 snuffing her conquest at a distance, she 
 laughed and mercifully stopped for him to 
 catch up, that she might presently surren- 
 der. She got his hand to lead him. Only 
 that! 
 
 " You care a lot for your hat, don't you, 
 Sef Seffy? And you want to to 
 see " he couldn't see a thing " that I 
 that I put it at a safe place ? " 
 
 Still by the hand further into the darkness ! 
 
 And Seffy honestly tried to prevaricate for 
 her a " Yes." But he wasn't thinking of the 
 treasured hat at all, only the hand that it 
 was deliciously warm and soft and electrical. 
 Suddenly she stopped very close to him. 
 Only he was so dull! He did not know! 
 
 37
 
 SEFEOS 
 
 Heavens! when a girl rcaits for a youth to 
 come close to her in the dark what else 
 can she mean? But Seffy actually did not 
 know. 
 
 " Sam's over there ! I I wish he 
 wasn't ! " 
 
 To whisper it she had to put one hand on 
 his shoulder. How else could she whisper it? 
 And she laughed a low bubbling laugh 
 half-confession half-defiance all invita- 
 tion! 
 
 Seffy stooped to whisper back to her. 
 Sally waited. 
 
 " 7 A-notr/ " 
 
 Only that ! Sally was disappointed. For 
 it was the custom in that day and vicinage 
 and in such circumstances to kiss a girl with- 
 out fail. And could a girl do more than this 
 by way of invitation? You must have per- 
 ceived that Sally was learned in these matters. 
 And you may be sure she did not forget Sef- 
 fy's bashfulness and his inexperience. But 
 surely any one would understand that much 
 
 38
 
 in the dark ! It argues heavily for the 
 depth of Sally's affection for Seffy that she 
 kept her temper, for the losing of which she 
 was almost as famous as her father had been 
 for losing his, and only sighed desperately. 
 Any other girl would have left hope and 
 Seffy behind. At that moment, happily, 
 Sam was heard to move. She put her hand 
 on Seffy's mouth as if some danger were 
 there. And Seffy, by a sort of instinct, it 
 must have been, kissed it! 
 
 "Oh! " 
 
 Both of Sally's hands went up in real sur- 
 prise and Seffy caught and kissed them 
 both! 
 
 Oh! oh! oh!" 
 
 She had to stuff her gay little handkerchief 
 into her mouth to keep the joy within. After 
 all, could this Seffy be playing 'possum? 
 Was he deep? I don't know, any more than 
 Sally, how it all happened except that per- 
 haps Seffy discovered himself suddenly brave 
 in the darkness, and Sally quite defenseless 
 
 39
 
 but presently her head was on his shoulder, 
 and his arm was around her, in quite the way 
 his father had suggested and Sally had ex- 
 pected. And neither of them thought of him 
 or a word he had said concerning lands, 
 tenements and hereditaments. Sally's hand 
 crept up insidiously about Seffy's neck. But 
 then it was fearfully withdrawn. 
 
 " Please don't grease your hair hereafter," 
 said Sally. But she kissed it! 
 
 "Hereafter! Hereafter!" Seffy's heart 
 pounded. 
 
 " Suppose I'd grease my hair ! " said Sally 
 speciously. 
 
 The horror conjured up was factitious. 
 Remember where her head was resting. ^ But 
 an alien element was now raised between 
 them. Seffy moved away. Maids should 
 not cavil even at oiled hair so early in their 
 courtship! More fascination was needed 
 perhaps only a soft cooing word. 
 
 " You you wouldn't like that would 
 you? " still meekly. 
 
 40
 
 "No!" Seffy answered, puzzled. "My 
 Sunday coat would git greased ! " 
 
 "My sleeve did!" 
 
 She inspected a soiled sleeve in the ray 
 from the hall which had no spot on it ! 
 
 " I don't care for the sleeve. It'll wash 
 out. But Sam he sees every " 
 
 She laughed and was about to plunge reck- 
 lessly back into his arms. But her hair was 
 beautiful ! And she had made it more so for 
 him ! He must see it ! She plunged further 
 into the ray from the hall lamp instead and 
 flung it forward about her face. It clung 
 and clustered there like an aureole. Seffy, in 
 his brief life, he thought, had seen nothing 
 more divine. She looked saucily up at him 
 out of the tops of her eyes. His adoration 
 made her very happy. 
 
 " There ! ain't that nicer than yourn ? " 
 She buried her fingers in the splendid mass, 
 and pushed it into further disorder until it lay 
 close shining about her face. 
 
 " Oh, Sally," said Seffy, approaching her 
 
 41
 
 as if she were some goddess, " wear it that 
 way always ! " 
 
 The alien thing was gone! They were 
 in rapport once more! 
 
 " They'd have me in an asylum in no time. 
 But " 
 
 Somehow, Seffy's arms opened to invite her 
 back and she came with a low reckless laugh. 
 The wild sheaf of her hair lodged again close 
 under his chin. He recklessly thrust his face 
 into it. Its perfume in his nostrils and its 
 movement against his skin were ineffable. He 
 kissed it. Again it was the strange fashion 
 of the cavalier in those kisses ! Where did 
 he learn it? 
 
 " Oh, Sally, wear it always so ! " he begged 
 again. And good heavens ! he put his 
 lips down upon it once more! 
 
 " Just when you come to see me," mur- 
 mured Sally to the lapel of his coat. 
 
 " Sally Sally, you are an angel ! " said 
 Seffy. 
 
 And this one little word which came to dull
 
 9$ 
 
 Seffy so happily out of his favorite song 
 made the coquette very serious. 
 
 "Not an angel, Seffy, Sef Seffy," she 
 said with her head a little down. " I don't 
 think you would like me to be such. I'm not ! 
 Angels never laugh, you know nor love. 
 And I want to do a lot of both. But but 
 Seffy, I'd like to be something very nice 
 to you. What is the nicest thing a girl can 
 be to you ? " 
 
 " A sister ! " ventured Seffy, who had never 
 had one. 
 
 Sally shivered, then laughed. But she 
 took herself away from Seffy. 
 
 The Pressel temper flamed a moment, and 
 certain words began to form in her mind like 
 " Fool ! " and " Go ! " and " Damn ! " For, 
 I think I haven't told you that Sally some- 
 times swore in extreme circumstances. 
 Her father had done so. 
 
 She spoke with that trifle of hard brutal- 
 ity which came out now and then. 
 
 " You know what they say at the store 
 
 43
 
 that I flirt and am not nice in other ways, and 
 they're right. But I do want to be nice to 
 you, though not a sister quite. Ugh ! 
 And, you know, one thing they say is true 
 my temper. Look out for that! You must 
 always take time to forgive me and let me ask 
 to be forgiven." 
 
 Now, I beg to ask you whether an amende 
 was ever more delicious considering that 
 much of what she said to and for Seffy was 
 meant to and for herself alone? Indeed, be- 
 fore she got through with it, it had affected 
 her quite as if Seffy had pleaded it, and her 
 voice sank to its pretty mezzo, then quivered 
 a bit, and she understood that she was answer- 
 ing herself! 
 
 " Seffy, I am awfully sorry ! " 
 
 " For what, Sally? " asked Seffy. 
 
 Seffy, dull Seffy, really did not know for 
 what. But there is something which God 
 gives the dull, as well as the sprightly-witted, 
 that outleaps words to comfort sorrow. And 
 this Seffy had abundantly. It first expressed 
 
 44
 
 . 
 
 itself in the strong young arms which again 
 closed in utter silence upon the sorrowing one. 
 
 Presently (perhaps you have not forgotten 
 how it is?) in the same silence, Seffy's lips 
 found hers not as the victor pounces upon 
 the spoil of his conquest but slowly, uncer- 
 tainly, unconfidently as if the lips were a 
 saint's relics ; and Sally waited, not as she had 
 waited before, but in the knowledge that her 
 hour had come, and that this kiss, the first 
 this youth had given to woman since his 
 mother died in his infancy, must not be 
 received as others had been, but as sacredly 
 as it came; and when it finally fell the lips 
 of the coquette quivered as they received it, 
 and then suddenly sobbed, and did not know 
 why 
 
 Do you? 
 
 " I have never kissed no one but mother," 
 said Seffy, who felt heinous, " I don't know 
 how! I don't know what made me do 
 it I couldn't help it. It won't happen 
 again " 
 
 45
 
 Whereat Sally laughed and clung about 
 Seffy's delighted neck and cried to his puz- 
 zled heart: 
 
 "Yes, it will!" 
 
 And kissed him back! 
 
 " Sally," said Seffy with solemnity, " do 
 you mean it? You not mad?" 
 
 " Seffy," said Sally, " I am not worth it. 
 I have been kissed by everybody who wanted 
 to kiss me and I have kissed everybody I 
 wanted to kiss ! " 
 
 " I am sorry for you, Sally," said Seffy, 
 not meaning at all what she thought he meant 
 nor anything quite clear to himself, ex- 
 cept that she had recklessly squandered some- 
 thing precious. 
 
 " I am, too, now." 
 
 And then 
 
 " I shall never kiss no one but you, no 
 more." 
 
 " Nor I anybody but you, Seffy." 
 
 And, strange as it may seem, in that mo- 
 ment, Seffy was the greater, braver and 
 
 46
 
 SEFKXS 
 
 stronger, and Sally but the waiting, willing 
 woman as she ought to have been. Indeed 
 Seffy was courageous enough to have put that 
 question which might, perhaps, transmute the 
 pasture-field into one of those that lie within 
 the borders of Elysium. 
 
 But Sam moved with decision. They 
 flew apart. Though he did not at once enter 
 it was too late the rapport was broken. 
 Nevertheless, such things can be mended, if 
 there is time. It is quite certain that if they 
 could have continued a little longer in that 
 dark parlor, with only the small ray of the 
 lamp from the hall to light it, everything 
 the sleepless old man at home so ardently 
 wished might have been accomplished and 
 they might have taken down that line-fence 
 the next day and then have lived happy ever 
 after quite in the way of the old-fashioned 
 story-books. For Seffy was still brave to 
 audacity, and Sally was yet at his mercy 
 and happy to be so. 
 
 And here, if we were not arrived at a climax, 
 
 47
 
 I would venture to halt this history for a mo- 
 ment that we might discuss a bit those trifles 
 in life which the ancients called Fate ; and for 
 which, or the lack of which, life often goes 
 awry! 
 
 But while Seflfy's courage grew again, and 
 Sally's hope, the door on the other side of the 
 room opened and the odious Sam came 
 through.
 
 V 
 
 SEFFY'S SITTING-UP AND DOWN AGAIN 
 
 However, there was another door, and 
 Sam arrived only to hear it close upon Seffy, 
 whom Sally had just pushed through it. 
 
 " Seffy?" asked Sam casually. 
 
 " Yes ! " answered Sally, quite unable to 
 keep the joy out of her voice, " he's just come, 
 and gone out to the spring for a 
 drink ! " prevaricated Sally. 
 
 " He'll drink something." 
 
 By which Sam meant some kind of an ani- 
 mal, with his water. 
 
 " Nothing but water ! " said Sally mean- 
 ingly. Sam perceived instantly " how the 
 land lay," and made his cunning plans. Sam 
 was not dull. He returned to the sitting- 
 room with Sally where Seffy presently f ol- 
 
 49
 
 lowed, I am sorry to say, like a conquering 
 hero at which Sam gloated. 
 
 Unfortunately for Seffy, rural etiquette, 
 as everybody knows, gave Sam precedence. 
 " First come last go," is the illogical rule. 
 But you are to be informed that the late- 
 comer is at liberty to " outsit " his rival, if he 
 can or to dislodge him, if he can by 
 strategy. But every rustic lover attempts 
 this at the greatest of risks. To fail is 
 equivalent to losing caste not only with the 
 lady in question, but also with the fickle 
 world. For no girl of any spirit would look 
 upon a swain who had ignominiously failed at 
 such a crisis, unless he should rehabilitate 
 himself which means to accomplish the al- 
 most impossible. 
 
 Sam took all this into consideration as he 
 watched Seffy, reclining in the easy chair 
 which Sally had injudiciously and invidiously 
 placed for him, grow drowsy. 
 
 " Salh r ," said Sam at the right moment, 
 " play something." 
 
 50
 
 " I don't care to ! " protested Sally. But 
 then she turned prettily to Seffy : 
 
 "Shall I, Seffy?" 
 
 "Yes," smiled Seffy, from his Elysium, 
 secure and confident. " I don't care ! " 
 
 "And," said Sam insidiously, "we'll all 
 sing. You air, me tenor, Seffy bass." 
 
 " I can't sing no bass ! " said Seffy easily, 
 " and Sam knows it. He can't make no fool 
 off of me. Go on, I'll set here and and 
 enjoy myself." 
 
 This was the direct rustic challenge, with 
 aplomb! Sam might choose his weapons! 
 It made no odds! And Sally had to take it 
 up for Seffy. This she loyally did. 
 
 Unfortunately, when Sally went to the or- 
 gan Seffy was at her back and in the shadow 
 the lamp had to be moved and in that 
 sleepy-hollow chair. But she had all possi- 
 ble confidence in him and, alas ! he had in 
 himself. For a while he feasted his eyes upon 
 the exquisite back she had turned to him 
 and then, with a thrill of possession, inven- 
 
 51
 
 Sfl 
 
 toried the hair he had kissed a little disor- 
 dered the lips the waist he had embraced 
 how glorious that was ! It seemed almost 
 impossible now that he had done it. And the 
 hands what ? He was lost for a moment. 
 Then he was plowing opposite his father. 
 The voice which had said so sweetly what 
 was it exactly it had said? what? he was 
 nearing the line stake still plowing he 
 could hear the voice quite distinctly many 
 of them a choir "I want to be an an- 
 gel." Sally seemed mistily there but he 
 was still plowing now he stopped more 
 and more mist Seffy slept. 
 
 Sam stopped his tenor that Sally might 
 hear him sleep. 
 
 " He said he couldn't sing bass ! " grinned 
 Sam. 
 
 Sally's hand flew to her heart. She had 
 been trilling, if not with the art, yet with the 
 feeling, of a lark. It was simply the joy 
 with which Seffy had filled her only joy, 
 vast and free. The red flamed in her cheeks
 
 SEFEpfl 
 
 at what she saw. I shall not describe it. No 
 lover was ever more abject no lady was 
 ever more furious! We see the comedy of it 
 only. We would not have been hurt, eh? But 
 we did not live then nor there nor under 
 Sally's curious small conditions nor with 
 Sally's temper. Curiously enough, this 
 Scripture came to Sally's mind : 
 
 Could ye not watch with me one hour? 
 
 You know what strange and inopportune 
 things come into the distressed, unguarded 
 mind. 
 
 Sally rose with a dignity which even Sam 
 had not suspected, and said: 
 
 " Gentlemen, good night." 
 
 53
 
 VI 
 
 THE CLOTHES-PIN CURE 
 
 The old man had plowed six times around 
 the six-acre field the next morning, singing 
 and whistling his unearthly tune as he went, 
 when Seffy unlimbered at the bars and started 
 the big bay around in the opposite direction. 
 The first time they passed his father only 
 winked mysteriously and continued to whistle. 
 The next time he stopped. 
 
 "We won't go home tell morning, hah, 
 Sef ? I usen't to myself. Say looks like 
 somesing occurred after all, hah? No one 
 don't stay tell morning unless " 
 
 Seffy was silent. 
 
 " That's right. Kiss but nefer tell. For 
 telling breaks the spell. If you've had one 
 and want another kiss but shut your head 
 
 54
 
 SEFEOfl 
 
 up. Say you don't want to be no anchel 
 now, I expect, hah? Mebby you own one? " 
 
 But Seffy and the mare had disappointing- 
 ly passed on. 
 
 " Well ! Gee wo way gee ! Git 
 along ! " And he also made another furrow 
 in a less happy temper. 
 
 When they met again: 
 
 "Whoa!" roared the old man, and the 
 mare stopped trembling in her tracks. He 
 laughed. Betz still responded if Seffy did 
 not. 
 
 " Sef Seffy, did anysing occur? " 
 
 Seffy faltered guiltily a moment. 
 
 " Yes," he said, then briefly, " something 
 always occurs." 
 
 " Sef Seffy, but about the pasture " 
 
 Seffy started the mare. 
 
 " Whoa ! " roared the old man again, with 
 the same result. But he did not laugh this 
 time. He sat on the handles of his plow and 
 regarded his son. He was vaguely disturb- 
 ing. 
 
 55
 
 SEFKJfl 
 
 " Say " he began ominously, " you 
 didn't git sot out? " 
 
 " Uhu," answered Seffy. 
 
 " What! Why, you dura " 
 
 But then he laughed. 
 
 "Shiny hat no good?" 
 
 Seffy said no. 
 
 " Nor the diamond, nor the hair-grease, nor 
 nossing? Oh gosh-a'mighty ! Gee wo 
 way!" 
 
 But before they met again, his gaiety had 
 given way to an immense disappointment. 
 The tragedy of the situation had prevailed 
 with him, too. Seffy sullenly kicked a clod to 
 pieces. His father looked off toward the 
 coveted pasture and sighed. It was a superb 
 piece of land. And it had never looked 
 fairer. The sun was on its velvet green 
 the sun of the morning. A few thick-girthed, 
 wholesome oak-trees punctuated it. A stream 
 laughed through it. Goodly cows stood 
 chewing in the water and swishing ami- 
 ably at the flies. The fences were intact. 
 
 56
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 It would have been a delight to the eyes of 
 any farmer on earth. The old man sat on 
 the handles of his plow until it all got in his 
 head once more. 
 
 " It's a nice field, Sef Seffy," he sighed. 
 " I nefer seen no such clofer. And she's a 
 nice gal. I nefer seen no such gal, bose nice. 
 Oach ! they belong together. Well, gee 
 wo way ! They belong to us! " 
 
 They always stopped for a word when they 
 met. The next time the old man said, quite 
 caressingly : 
 
 "Come yere, Sef!" 
 
 He patted one plow-handle, which Seffy 
 took, while he took the other. He thought- 
 fully pulled the boy's shirt into place. 
 
 "Sef," he said, "tell me about it. I'm 
 sorry I laughed ! But I lof e that pasture and 
 you lofe Sally. Let's not be fools, but git 
 'em. I expect you feel a little bad. But 
 mebby you'll feel better if you talk about it. 
 That is the way wiss me, I know; when any- 
 sing occurs I like to gabble about it and 
 
 57
 
 go and do it again better." He let his 
 hand rest kindly on Seffy's shoulder. To 
 this his son responded. 
 
 "I fell asleep," said SefFy, sniffling omi- 
 nously. 
 
 " Of course," said his father, with a com- 
 forting movement of his hand. " That's 
 right." 
 
 Seffy was amazed and comforted. 
 
 " I expect I snored " 
 
 " Er yas you do snore, Sef . Ef ery- 
 body does. It's the Lord's fault, I expect." 
 
 " In a nice cheer " 
 
 " Yas you oughtn't 'a' set in no nice 
 cheer, Sef ; somesing uneasy is better." 
 
 " Didn't wake up till daylight." 
 
 " Where was you then, Sef? " 
 
 " In the cheer Sal Sally's cheer." 
 
 The words stuck pitifully in his throat. 
 
 " Yas " said the old man, looking away, 
 " I don't blame you, Sef." 
 
 " It was a pasteboard thing like a tomb- 
 stone pinned on my bosom " 
 
 58
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 " Vat ! " cried his father the " w " would 
 become " v " in cases of sudden emotion. 
 
 " Pasteboard tombstone ! " Seffy's head 
 drooped in shame. "With things printed on 
 it ' Sephenijah P. Baumgartner, Junior, 
 Went to His Rest, June 10th, 1871, in the 
 20th year of his age. Gone Not, But Forgot 
 Read Backwards.' " 
 
 His father stifled a laugh. It was an old 
 trick to him. 
 
 "What what did you do then?" he 
 asked in as matter-of-fact a voice as he could 
 command. 
 
 " Sneaked home. It was daylight !" 
 
 " Gone not, but forgot read backwards, 
 hah?" 
 
 He couldn't quite make it out. That was 
 new. Seffy helped him. 
 
 " Forgot, but not gone." 
 
 There was no restraint to his father's 
 laughter now. After it had subsided he 
 asked: 
 
 "What did you do wiss the tombstone?" 
 
 59
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 Left it there." 
 
 "That's bad, Seffy. He'll put it up at 
 the store an' you ken nefer go there no more." 
 
 Seffy's look of horror was a reminder to 
 his father that it would have been better not 
 to say that. But Old Baumgartner had tre- 
 mendous aplomb. 
 
 " Nefer mind nefer mind. Mebby he 
 won't sink of that," though he knew the 
 store-clerk would be certain to think of it. 
 
 Upon a sudden thought the old man leaped 
 up. 
 
 " And where was Sam ? Say ! When you 
 woke up ? " 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " But he wasn't there at Sally's? " 
 
 " No," said Seffy hopelessly. 
 
 His father clutched his shoulder and set 
 him on his feet. 
 
 "Well you dam' little idjiot aha 
 ha-ha don't you see that you did set him 
 out say! Why, you're a winner, Seffy ! 
 I'm proud of you ! "
 
 SEFEpfl 
 
 Seffy started and looked a little less inert. 
 His father laughed hugely. 
 
 "I knowed you'd do it! Aha ha-ha! 
 Nobody ken beat a Baumgartner courting a 
 gal ! What's sleeping if you stayed ! Huh ! 
 You stayed tell daylight ! Sef I'm laugh- 
 ing ! Why, I used to sleep when I set up wiss 
 you' mammy efery time another feller was 
 there. I done it a-purpose! And she'd wake 
 me up when the other feller was gone and it 
 came time for me to go. Why say I 
 stayed and slept all night tell broad day- 
 light and go home wiss the cows in the morn- 
 ing many a time ! Yassir ! Chust like you, 
 Sef ! Sef, you're all right. Goshens, but you 
 had a narrow excape, though ! Chust suppose 
 you'd 'a' woke up and forgot what you was 
 up to you do that, sometimes, Sef, when 
 you're dreamy and gone home before you 
 remembered that you was out-setting him! 
 He'd 'a' had you dead, Seffy, dead and buried 
 in the family lot. But you got him, Seffy, 
 ol* boy and Sally, too, begoshens ! Shall 
 
 61
 
 we get at the fence to-day?" Seffy did not 
 respond. And his father knew better than 
 most of us where suggestion should stop. 
 
 " AU right. We bose busy to-day. Meb- 
 by we better let it be tell to-morrow." 
 
 Of course Old Baumgartner was well aware 
 that his logic would not bear the least scru- 
 tiny. And he regarded Seffy anxiously as 
 he raced through it. But dull happy Seffy 
 saw no flaws in it. He agreed with his father 
 that he had out-sat Sam. And, if it had not 
 been too plainly accidental, he would have 
 adopted the fancy that he had had a heroic 
 purpose in it so convincing was his father's 
 logic to his little mind. 
 
 The old man rattled on. SefFy must not 
 think much. 
 
 " And snoring ! Hah ! Nossing nossing 
 at all! I could gife you lessons in snoring. 
 And you' mammy use' to say that she liked it. 
 It wasn't so lonely and she knowed I was on 
 deck and alife. Snoring ! Aha ha-ha ! 
 What's that if you are sure of the gal ! "
 
 Seffy ahemmed several times and looked less 
 like a condemned malefactor though still 
 far from suborned. 
 
 " That dam* molasses-tapper he's got to 
 be licked and if I got to do it myself 
 though I ain't much of a licker. The whole 
 county'll know about that to to " 
 he turned away to smile " tombstone. I 
 bet he's got it hanging up in the store now! 
 We got to let 'em know that you set him out, 
 Sef! Yas stayed tell daylight! Woke up 
 and stayed ! Sleeping was chust to ketch him ! 
 You was awake all the time! Lie a little, 
 hah?" 
 
 His father was proud of this last. As they 
 drew apart he called back : 
 
 " If she don't like snoring, Sef, wear a 
 clothes-pin when you set up wiss her one 
 of them wiss a spring not? Aha ha- 
 ha!" And then: "You all right, Sef 
 yassir ! you all right you the conquering 
 hero comes ! Go right back mebby to-night 
 you entitled to do it." 
 
 63
 
 " Begoshens, I will ! " said Seffy in his 
 father's own slogan. 
 
 Seffy would have pressed his suit even with- 
 out this, I think because of those moments 
 in the dark parlor. One does not soon forget 
 that sort of thing. 
 
 " Now," advised his father, " you know 
 well enough what kind of a temper goes wiss 
 red hair I use to haf hair enough onct 
 and it was red! All right when it's on your 
 side. But hell when it's ag'in' you. Them 
 red-heads always regrets I do and she does ! 
 Say Sef Seffy, don't you let her regret 
 in vain ketch her while she's at it." 
 
 So, Seffy went up the hill again not that 
 night which was a mistake he could not 
 quite bring himself to that but the next. 
 And he had washed the grease out of his hair 
 and left the hat at home as well as the butter- 
 fly tie and the boots and, if I do say it, he was 
 a very handsome fellow, worth at least a 
 dozen of his rival. 
 
 But Sally, watching for this very thing, 
 
 64
 
 saw him coming and hardened her heart, as 
 Pharaoh did in the face of proffered felicity, 
 and, by a good deal of forcible instruction, she 
 succeeded in getting the little maid to say that 
 she was not at home. The maid's untutored 
 face showed Seffy that she was not telling the 
 truth, however, and she was not sorry for it. 
 She would never have treated Seffy so ! 
 
 Seffy shifted his hat from one hand to the 
 other and then said: 
 
 " Tell her tell her when she comes 
 home that Fm sorry " He did not 
 exactly know what he was sorry for, and so 
 said good night and went. 
 
 " He knowed you was at home ! " re- 
 proached the little maid. " He was sorry for 
 you." 
 
 " What did he say? " demanded Sally sav- 
 agely. 
 
 "To tell you that he was sorry when 
 you got home." 
 
 "When I got home? Then I better stay 
 away, I expect. That's what he meant, did 
 
 65
 
 he? Well, Til show him!" But the maid 
 understood Seffy's rustic chivalry and she did 
 not laugh with her mistress. 
 
 Yet, Sally went back to her window and 
 again watched, hoping Seffy would look back. 
 She was not quite sure what she would do. 
 Perhaps she would get angry perhaps 
 But if he would only look! He did not, and 
 Sally understood that he had accepted his 
 conge as she had given it. And quite as the 
 old man had said, she did regret, now, and 
 she had regretted that other night. But 
 there was more penance than he had said or 
 thought. Yet there was the Pressel tem- 
 per! And it did not await the subsidence of 
 the sorrow, but rose at once. What business 
 had he tamely to accept the situation? 
 
 I am satisfied that there is some connection 
 between red hair and temper. And I am, 
 further, satisfied that there is even more be- 
 tween the associated ideas of red hair, temper 
 and regret. But my difficulty is to determine 
 just where each stands. Logically, the regret 
 
 66
 
 ought to come last. But, to Sally, and in 
 this case, it came in the middle. For, she 
 began and she ended without it, but she dis- 
 tinctly remembered having had it. There- 
 fore, it must have been in the middle. 
 
 And Sam administered Seffy's coup de 
 grace! Perhaps it was accidental. But I 
 think it must have been nothing less than 
 spying and then devilish invention it was 
 so entirely apropos. 
 
 As Seffy descended the Hill of Delight on 
 which Sally's pretty little house stood, Sam 
 ascended it, singing, as he passed Seffy : 
 
 " Napoleon, with a thousand men, 
 Marched up the hill and down again." 
 
 From his own darkness, SefFy saw a golden 
 shaft of light burst from the door at the top 
 of the Hill of Delight, and, in it, he saw 
 Sam mount to where was his heart's desire.
 
 VII 
 
 THE POISON-SPRING IN THE COTTON WOODS 
 
 They met on the damp country road one 
 evening Sally and the old man two 
 weeks later. She was walking with drooping 
 head, and, when she suddenly raised it, as he 
 ahemmed, he was quite sure that she had been 
 crying. 
 
 " I don't know what's the matter wiss 
 him!" said Seffy's father, as if they had 
 been discussing Seffy. 
 
 "Who?" asked the girl tremulously 
 though she knew " he ain't sick ? " 
 
 " Sef Seffy my Seffy. No not ex- 
 actly not to say sick. I like him so 
 he's all I got and it's somesing wrong wiss 
 Hm. He can't live long this way. Efery 
 night he's down by the Poison-Spring wiss
 
 91 
 
 the witches often all night. He's there 
 now. I chust kem away trying to cheer 
 him up a little. Well, so good night." 
 
 He passed on, for he was a merciful old 
 man, and Sally hurried away to the Poison- 
 Spring. And Old Baumgartner laughed 
 through his gnarled hands behind the cover 
 of the next turn in the road, though even to 
 him laughter was no more gay, as of yore. 
 
 Seffy was there, on his back, with his 
 hands under his head, staring up at the 
 moon. He looked pitifully alone. A great 
 lump surged in Sally's throat, and if she had 
 obeyed only her heart she would have flung 
 her arms around him. But another of those 
 qualities which go with red hair, pride, pre- 
 vented this. She coughed a little and Seffy 
 flew around. 
 
 " I was just taking a walk," she said. 
 
 " Yes," said Seffy humbly. 
 
 " The Poison-Spring is on my prop- 
 erty " 
 
 "I'll go away!" said Seffy, rising. He 
 
 69
 
 looked gaunt as he stood on his feet in the 
 moonlight. 
 
 " Seffy I didn't mean " began the 
 really unhappy girl, her head quite giving 
 way to her heart now. 
 
 " I got nowheres else to go now," excused 
 Seffy. " I can't go to the store Sam's got 
 the tombstone there or anywhere where 
 there's people account everybody knows. 
 Sam's got a notice of it hung up in the store. 
 It's all they talk about. He got it printed in 
 the paper, too! I'd go away, out West, but 
 pappy don't want me to go. I come here, 
 account no one else ever comes it's unheal- 
 thy. I didn't know that you owned " 
 
 He was shambling off. The last words came 
 from a distance. " Good night." 
 
 He did not know that Sally was following 
 him. When she spoke it was close behind 
 him. He veered so suddenly as to catch the 
 pain on her face. But he was dull, Seffy. 
 
 " Seffy," she said, close upon him, " Seffy, 
 I was at home." 
 
 70
 
 SefFy said nothing. 
 
 " Seffy I am unhappy and a fool ! " 
 
 Still Seffy did not move nor speak. 
 
 " Don't you care that I am unhappy ? " 
 
 Still silence. 
 
 " And don't you never forgive no one ? " 
 
 At the end was a sob. 
 
 Ah! Seffy could not harbor ill against a 
 dog that had bit him. And Sally sobbed. 
 The hands he had kissed before, he kissed 
 again in that fashion, you will remember, 
 which must have survived from some cavalier 
 ancestor. 
 
 " Seffy," she said a little later, " you know 
 I got an awful temper?" 
 
 " Pappy says so," sighed Seffy. 
 
 " He's right, and you know! But, Seffy 
 you can help me to cure it will you ? " 
 
 Joy leaped back into her life and it was 
 very sweet. And would he? He left her no 
 doubt not the least. She hovered about 
 him bewitchingly. What the peering moon 
 saw I shall not tell. And when the watch- 
 
 71
 
 ful old man saw them coming out of the Cot- 
 ton Woods together he went singing home and 
 slept. 
 
 Oh, it was not entirely the pasture-field 
 now. He did not forget that. But Seffy, 
 whom he adored perhaps for the very gen- 
 tleness and sweetness which constantly van- 
 quished his happiness Seffy was going 
 away from happiness which sought him 
 and, for this farmer, and this time and place, 
 where was little joy and much labor, it 
 seemed wanton it was wanton ! Do you 
 think it was a slight thing that kept Sepheni- 
 jah P. Baumgartner, Senior, awake for five 
 nights? For, let me tell you here, all this had 
 become serious business to the old man if 
 we do treat it lightly. For he loved his son 
 adored Sally and valued the pasture- 
 field. Therefore, in striving to bring them 
 all into his keeping together, he was dealing 
 with the things (little things to you) he loved 
 most on earth. You, of course, have greater 
 things. But you must, now and then, try to 
 
 72
 
 feel the imperiousness of small things in small 
 lives. 
 
 I shall tell you of their conversation as they 
 came from the Poison-Spring, the radiance 
 of the moon in Seffy's wan face, the very joy 
 of the starry heavens in that of the girl I 
 must tell you what their talk was of. And I 
 beg you again to remember that these 
 small things, which you despise, were all they 
 had there and then. I have wondered 
 whether the wanton sacrifice of a child's toy 
 when he is three is not as dreadful as the sac- 
 rifice of his love when he is twenty. Do you 
 know ? 
 
 " Seffy," said Sally, with his hand held ,o 
 close under her beating heart that it regis- 
 tered each avid pulsation, " I am most to 
 blame and you have forgiven me. But you 
 are to blame, too, and I hope you won't for- 
 give yourself too soon." 
 
 "For why? " queried the dull Seffy, wi:h 
 attention only for that wildly beating thing 
 for, alas, that was his bane as hers was 
 
 73
 
 something else forgetting future perils in 
 present happiness. 
 
 " Then you'll fix it before you do! " 
 
 "Fix what?" asked the astonished Seffy. 
 
 "You let yourself be fooled. And that 
 raises my temper more than anything else. T 
 don't want no beau that every one laughs at. 
 You got to have more backbone. When I am 
 mean to you I can't help it when my tem- 
 per's up and it's hard to get it down, 
 mighty hard, when it's up when I am mean 
 to you curse me ! " 
 
 Seffy stared aghast. He would as soon 
 have heaped maledictions upon the head of an 
 archangel ! 
 
 "Or hit me!" 
 
 Another stare another conviction of the 
 utter impossibility of such a thing! 
 
 " Yes ! With a club ! A flat-iron ! A potato- 
 masher ! A poker ! " 
 
 Seffy could laugh now. She was becom- 
 ing absurd. Had he only known that she 
 poor futile woman ! was trying to secure 
 
 74
 
 SEFEpfl 
 
 in advance their happiness in the turmoil 
 which she knew would come! 
 
 " Yes ! That is the way for such as me ! 
 The only way! And I'm used to it!" 
 
 Now Seffy was shocked! 
 
 " My father or mother or granny 
 or," she hesitated " Sam have, at one 
 time or another, used all these things on me. 
 I need the snaffle ! You need the whip ! " 
 
 And she laughed a little herself and that 
 was Seffy's excuse for joining her. 
 
 " You have no temper and I have a thou- 
 sand times too much. You can see how that 
 will work. And, Seffy, you got a bad repu- 
 tation about here now, and I wouldn't like 
 you to have it always. So you must brace up 
 and do things to make the people like you 
 again. I want you to be able to face any 
 one at the store and do it in front of Sam." 
 
 The dull Seffy answered: 
 
 "But what can I do?" 
 
 The whole case seemed quite hopeless. 
 
 "I don't know. But there is something. 
 
 75
 
 SEFEpfl 
 
 Ask your pappy. Whatever it is, I will help 
 you. You know it makes me foolish, too. 
 And I hate that more than anything being 
 laughed at. If I was you, I'd lick Sam. 
 But I know you won't. I expect he's too big 
 for you. But there are other things." 
 
 And Seffy left her at her door that night, 
 determined to do some great thing to set him- 
 self properly before the little community once 
 more. Because once more she had let 
 him kiss her. 
 
 He and his father held a star-chamber ses- 
 sion that night yet Seffy waking him up 
 for it. 
 
 " Take her home from church, begoshens ! " 
 adjudged his father. 
 
 Now this seems small advice upon a small 
 matter. But it was very great advice upon 
 a very great matter, as you will see.
 
 VIII 
 
 THE WHITE SIGNAL WHICH MIGHT AS WELL 
 HAVE BEEN BLACK 
 
 No suitor in German-Pennsylvania, though 
 it be in Maryland, has entirely estab- 
 lished his right to the maiden of his 
 choice, either before the public or in her 
 sight or his own, until he has escorted her off-- 
 hand from church on a Sunday night. And 
 this he must accomplish at the church door, 
 out of sometimes a savage rivalry chal- 
 lenging disaster. 
 
 For by this simple, primitive, heroic pro- 
 cess the status of contestants for a maid's 
 favor is fixed. He whose arm is taken 
 can face his little world on Monday. 
 He whose arm is rejected is, on Mon- 
 day, a social exile. For the small world 
 
 77
 
 of the vicinage is always there and this is the 
 maiden's public election of him she chooses to 
 honor, and her public rebuke to his too pre- 
 sumptuous rival. And, after that, she is a 
 poor thing indeed who will be seen in public 
 with the latter. For nothing is more sweet 
 and cruel than love. 
 
 Seffy was not a publicly-acknowledged 
 suitor. He could not be. It was impossible ! 
 There was that tombstone still up in the store. 
 Sam had not yet been dislodged. And Seffy 
 had not yet arrived where he might put the 
 awful question there was a recognized 
 period for this, and events had put it further 
 and further off! Indeed, he shuddered when 
 he thought of it even then, after that un- 
 derstanding with Sally ! and contemplated 
 getting his father to do it for him. 
 
 It had become known, in the wireless way 
 such things spread in the country, that there 
 had been a tentative making-up between Seffy 
 and Sally. But Seffy was still not received 
 in public. Nor did he appear with Sally! 
 
 78
 
 SEFEOfi 
 
 Nor might he call upon her ! There must be 
 some open defiance and victory which all could 
 see and understand before these things might 
 happen. The right hand of renewed fellow- 
 ship would not be extended to Seffy until he 
 had met and vanquished his rival in public. 
 It was the primitive right of the strongest, 
 proved physically here as in the Roman circus. 
 Seffy had never shown himself a master of 
 material prowess. He demurred a bit at such 
 a plunge into the arena. But there was no 
 other way. 
 
 "Why, Sef," advised his father, "after 
 that it's a dead open and shut game. You 
 better do the biggest sing you ken and 
 that's the end of it. If I had Sally on my 
 side, I wouldn't keer who the hell was on the 
 other! You take her home from church! 
 Yas, right afore their dam* noses! Then 
 they'll run after you and send you presents. 
 It ain't no guess-work for you! You know 
 that Sally will be waiting for you wiss her 
 arm all ready to take yourn. Gosh! I 
 
 79
 
 5EFK5S 
 
 nefer had no such sure sing. I had to take 
 my chances wiss you' mammy! And it was 
 three other fellers wiss their arms out and 
 the right side yet ! But your daddy was close 
 up against the church door. And when she 
 come out he didn't waste no time a-saying 
 polite, * Miss Hengler, ken I haf the pleasure 
 to see you home this evening? ' I'd V lost 
 the game if I had waited to git off all that 
 dictionary stuff! Yassir! For right oppo- 
 site me was Bill Eisenkrout Sam's uncle 
 and- 1 knowed his arm'd shoot out like a patent 
 corn-husker the minute you' mammy come. 
 " He was mighty quick, but mighty polite ! 
 I knowed he'd say that foolishness about being 
 pleased to see her home. Well, she come out 
 and I chust grabbed. And while I was march- 
 ing on like a conquering hero, informing her 
 that it was a nice efening, I could hear Bill on 
 the off side, gitting out that stuff 'bout pleas- 
 ure and seeing her home. Nancy says, says 
 she : ' Sank you, Mr. Eisenkrout, I'm suited ; ' 
 and I laughed like hell! And, begoshens, 
 
 80
 
 SEFR5S 
 
 Nancy laughed too! And that settled Bill for 
 efer more ! Oh, it's nossing like a laugh at the 
 right time to kill a man off ! Bill left town 
 the next day. He had to. And he didn't 
 show up tell the next fall! Sef, you got a 
 sure sing. And, begoshens, you might just 
 as well finish Sam up in the same job put 
 him out of town. Next Sunday you watch 
 Sam. Keep right opposite him. Then git 
 your arm in action about a second sooner. 
 Left side, you know, her right! Sally '11 be 
 on the lookout. Don't stop to say any fool 
 sings about the pleasure of seeing her home. 
 Do it. And, when Sam gits his work in, 
 laugh! Laugh like a bull! And git Sally 
 to laugh. I bet you two dollars and ten 
 cents that Sam won't be in town the next 
 day!" 
 
 Like a campaign speech was the effect of 
 this! 
 
 Seffy objected no longer. He said he 
 would do it all! Perhaps this, too, got 
 about. At all events, before the next Sunday, 
 
 81
 
 the interest created by their rivalry was more 
 than equal to the voice of the Gospel. All the 
 township would be at church! 
 
 Sam would not be dislodged. He invented 
 the most diabolical schemes for sequestrating 
 Sally to himself during the week which fol- 
 lowed into which guileless Sally often fell 
 and which seemed to proclaim her suitor to 
 be himself. Sam, you will remember, had ac- 
 cess to Sally, but Seffy had not. Seffy con- 
 fessed that this looked sinister. True, he re- 
 membered all that had passed between them. 
 But once before he had been in error. 
 
 So that Seffy, before the week's end, began 
 once more and more strongly to dep- 
 recate the necessity for this public demonstra- 
 tion of his status. His father demanded it 
 as a diplomatic necessity, inasmuch as Sally 
 still retained Sam on a basis so much like his 
 own as to make the situation extremely em- 
 barrassing to even Old Baumgartner, who had 
 let it be known that he was the active coadju- 
 tor of his son. To vanquish Seffy was to van- 
 
 82
 
 SEf K5fl 
 
 quish him, and he, if not Seffy himself, 
 screwed Seffy's courage to the sticking point. 
 After this, Seffy weakened no more, but pro- 
 claimed his purpose. It was generally con- 
 ceded that the one who failed now would have 
 to leave town. 
 
 So here was retiring little Seffy forced by 
 circumstances into a public rivalry which he 
 detested, and, it may as well be confessed 
 feared. It must, also, be explained that Sal- 
 ly's course in maintaining these two strings to 
 her bow until the breaking moment was not 
 only universally commended, but was the un- 
 swerving custom of the vicinage for girls so 
 fortunate as to have two strings. It was held 
 likely to force one or the other to the point, 
 and this was the purpose of rustic co- 
 quetry ! And Sally's coquetry was not only 
 acknowledged ; it was tolerated, and, I fear, 
 encouraged. And, alas, it had been as sweet 
 to her as vinous dissipation to men. But 
 now it had made not only her own, but Seffy's, 
 position tremendously more difficult.
 
 IX 
 
 IT WAS SEFFY WHO WAS " SACKED " 
 
 So they three went to church on a certain 
 Sunday. Sally sat on the " women's side " 
 and Seffy and Sam on the "men's side" in 
 full view of the " audience " which per- 
 ceived and understood and was ready at the 
 proper time to applaud, from the preacher to 
 the sexton to raise or lower its thumbs 
 upon the combatants. 
 
 When the benediction had been said Seffy 
 hastened out and found himself a place 
 close to the door, according to his father's 
 word in one of the lines of young men 
 which stretched on either side of the path 
 from the church door to the road beyond, 
 at least a quarter of a mile. But he did not 
 see Sam. Some one pushed in front of him. 
 
 34
 
 And, instead of combating for his position, 
 he yielded it and found one further down, 
 still seeking the location of his rival. He was 
 crowded from this one, too, and he let it go 
 and sought another one because he had not 
 seen Sam. And it was necessary to his 
 father's scheme, he remembered, that Sam and 
 he should be about opposite. Of course, all 
 this was error. His place was right by the 
 church door. That was where Sally had a 
 right to expect to find him. It had be- 
 come a public matter, too. The public had 
 its rights. It expected him there, even if he 
 had to shed the blood of noses to stay there. 
 This had often happened. But he was be- 
 wildered in the contradictory courses advised 
 by his father, and, finally, seeking that which 
 seemed best, found that which was worst. 
 Dull Seffy ! 
 
 He at last discovered Sam and found a 
 lodgment for himself opposite and away down 
 near the gate, where only the married men 
 were such as still waited for their wives 
 
 85
 
 SEFFSffl 
 
 who amiably smoked until they came along. 
 No unmarried maiden ever expects to be 
 matched there. And, had Seffy been as wise 
 as he was not, he would not have halted 
 there. But he was deluded by Sam. There 
 he was in the opposite line, the wrong one, in- 
 differently chatting, and even smoking, with 
 Hilary Groff a married man. Seffy was 
 now so sure of his conquest, that Sam's 
 indifference vexed him. Evidently he did 
 not mean to contend with him for Sally's 
 arm, and it was to be a cheap and bloodless 
 victory. For Seffy was one of those who 
 grow brave as opposition diminishes. 
 
 And now they were slowly coming down 
 the maidens running the gantlet of love. 
 One two three four five a dozen 
 happy matings were made. Seffy was count- 
 ing. One poor chap was " sacked." He 
 crushed his hat over his eyes and charged back 
 through the lines and across the fields no 
 matter where. And then came Sally ! in a 
 trim little hat with a fluttering ribbon that 
 
 86
 
 SEFR5S 
 
 looked for all the world like the white signal, 
 bearing straight down upon him! But there 
 was something in her eyes expectant 
 militant that made them starry! On she 
 came, with her head in the air looking 
 neither to the right nor to the left, as if she 
 expected to walk home alone, nearly three 
 miles ! 
 
 " Oh, no ! " thought Seffy and Sam. 
 
 But a bit of terror smote her face pale 
 when she had passed the door alone and 
 showed more and more as she went on. Some 
 one laughed then there was an unmistak- 
 able titter along the line. Still Sally passed 
 on, keeping her temper as never before. 
 Was not the old man right about the effect of 
 laughter? 
 
 But now the temper loosed itself slowly, 
 her face was scarlet. She had nearly reached 
 the married men. Some one whispered: 
 
 " Gosh ! He's gitting even by sacking 
 her! " 
 
 This was repeated. There was more laugh- 
 
 87
 
 ter and more tittering. The crowd deserted 
 the lines nearest the church and followed Sal- 
 ly down on either side in huge tumultuous 
 phalanxes to see what would happen, if it 
 were possible that she would have to go home 
 alone. Several young men who had never 
 dared to approach her began to think of it. 
 They knew that rather than not be taken 
 at all she would take any one of them! 
 There was more tumult now than laughter. 
 And Sally's face grew so white that her eyes 
 blazed like stars in the midst of it. 
 
 Seffy quailed. He recognized the temper 
 only he had never seen it as terrible as 
 this. He had forgotten Sam. It was only 
 Sally he saw, as one sees with fear-stalled 
 nerves the locomotive as it leaps upon him. 
 
 And the onlookers, crowding at the sides, 
 thought it a great and terrible hand to hand 
 battle to wait that way till the last mo- 
 ment and then to spring like tigers or a 
 piece of tremendous foolishness. 
 
 " Both of you must be absolute sure," said 
 
 88
 
 SEFFOfl 
 
 Hilary GrofF to Sam, "or absolute fools! 
 Ain't you got no pity on the girl? " 
 
 " Shut up ! " answered Sam, " and watch. 
 I'm calculating on him leaving town to-mor- 
 row. That is my game. And I'm playing 
 for the pot." 
 
 You see that Sam had not forgotten Seffy 
 for a moment, even if Seffy had forgotten 
 him. He stepped noiselessly three paces 
 toward Sally, crossed in front of Seffy and 
 took her arm. There was a laugh almost 
 ribald. Seffy could not see clearly he 
 could, least of all, think clearly he did not 
 know what had happened. He saw only 
 the little white signal before him and blindly 
 put out his arm. 
 
 It did not reach Sally at all, but Sam, who 
 turned and said with an imitation of girlish 
 politeness : 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Baumgartner, I'm 
 suited." 
 
 And, Sally, her face flaming with ven- 
 geance, took the trouble to turn back and cry
 
 not into his ear, but into his very heart: 
 " Thank you, I'm suited." 
 
 There are some people to whom no punish- 
 ment seems sufficient, while any remains to be 
 administered. One of the onlookers was of 
 such a sort. He cried out as poor Seffy slunk 
 away: 
 
 " Give her back her dollar ! " 
 
 And another: 
 
 " Or ninety-nine cents, anyhow ! " 
 
 Seffy quailed and drew back from the line 
 
 it was the instant that makes or mars 
 and he had lost. He might still have knocked 
 Sam down and won this would have been 
 perfectly proper but he followed the man 
 who had but a moment before crushed through 
 the line, and wild jeers followed him. 
 
 90
 
 THE HUGE FIST OF THE FARMER 
 
 From that day Seffy avoided all public 
 places and all men. He was nobody 
 nothing. He fell rapidly into that kind of 
 disrepute which is common to persons with 
 failing reputations. It was to his discredit 
 that he did not leave town, but this his father 
 prevented. Again he took to the Cotton 
 Woods and the Poison-Spring, with, perhaps, 
 the dim hope that Sally might again find him 
 there, and that the peeping moon might again 
 interfere on his behalf. 
 
 But the moon went through all her phases 
 and then slowly turned her back on him 
 and Sally never came. In their casual meet- 
 ings she was ice. Once they passed on the 
 road to the store. She was in precisely the 
 
 91
 
 SEr KX1 
 
 dear garments he remembered so well of 
 that first day and as gay as then. He 
 trembled, and then looked up like a mortally- 
 wounded animal. She was looking calmly 
 over his head. To the rest of the world she 
 was gayer than ever, though that Sunday- 
 night laugh still echoed in her head kept 
 her maddened. After all, it wasn't worth 
 while to care for even Seffy with such a little 
 spirit. Why didn't he fight kill Sam or 
 somebody? And the cunning Sam set the 
 story more widely going that for revenge 
 Seffy had deserted her at the church door 
 and that he had first laughed Seffy. This 
 was too piquant to be passed over, and it was 
 heard far and wide. 
 
 To Seffy's father, who, even in this dire 
 strait, strove for happiness for them both 
 and, of course, the pasture-field she said 
 with more abandoned disrespect than she had 
 ever addressed to any one: 
 
 " You ought to be glad that I do not take 
 revenge on him! If he wasn't so little I 
 
 92
 
 SEFKXH 
 
 would. But he's not worth bothering about. 
 Sacked me, did he ? I'll show him ! " 
 
 " Why, Sally ! What would you do? " 
 
 " Put him over my knee and spank him and 
 then pen him in the cellar ! " 
 
 " Sally, don't talk like that," pleaded the 
 old man. " It sp'iles your voice." 
 
 And Sally gave him then and there a rude 
 specimen of how her voice was being spoiled 
 which I may not reproduce. But it was 
 expressed in anathema. Indeed, others had 
 noticed that her voice, somehow, had lost its 
 soft richness. She was particularly kind to 
 the young store-keeper now, and he was par- 
 ticularly reckless and drunken. And rumor 
 presently had it that she was known to be 
 drunk with him sometimes! 
 
 " Sally " said Seffy timorously, one day, 
 (he had waited to tell her this) " you don't 
 
 think you don't believe that I said 
 
 j> 
 
 " I know," said Sally in voice that froze 
 him, " that you are a fool and I am not
 
 fond of fools. Go away! Be glad I don't 
 lick you!" 
 
 And then rumor had it that she and Sam 
 were to be married " for spite." 
 
 But, curiously enough, the person most af- 
 fected by all this was not Sally, nor Seffy, 
 nor Sam. It was Seffy's father, whose suffer- 
 ings were nearing agony. Nothing could be 
 done with Seffy. And the course of the love 
 between them, which had never been ruffled 
 since Seffy was born, was often ruffled now. 
 The old man, as their relations grew strained, 
 became more and more exasperated at Seffy's 
 lack of initiative. 
 
 " Gosh-a'mighty ! You goin' to let that 
 molasses-tapper set right down on you and 
 nefer git off? Can't you see that she wants 
 you? It don't matter what she says ! Don't 
 you know it's a dare? Air you going to take 
 a dare? Why, you usen't to when you was a 
 baby! When you year that durned new 
 laugh of Sally's can't you see that somesing's 
 wrong? She's drinking! That's what! You 
 
 94
 
 SEFFpfl 
 
 think she'd laugh so and drink if she wass 
 happy ? You was a fool yas, a durn fool. 
 It's your fault. Go right up to her like a 
 man and say so." 
 
 " I did," said Seffy. 
 
 " Hah, you did? An' what she says? 
 
 " She said she knowed it! " 
 
 "Well begoshens! She's a worse fool. 
 Gather her in and make a fool off of her and 
 git efen! Turning her back on an ol' man 
 that harms no one and her guardeen yit ! " 
 
 Alas, this was another thing he had 
 done to secure the pasture-field made him- 
 self her legal guardian! 
 
 " I'll gif e it up the guardeen. Yassir. 
 She ken take keer herself. Fool of course. 
 Bose fools! You wait tell she marries that 
 durn molasses-tapper if you want to see fun ! " 
 
 There was such real agony in the old man's 
 voice that Seffy suffered, too. 
 
 "Pappy, I'm sorry I ain't no good, I 
 expect I guess I'll go away before the wed- 
 ding." 
 
 95
 
 SEFfDfl 
 
 " Wedding wedding ! You goin* to let 
 that wedding go on? And him git the pas- 
 ture-field? Put him between us and the rail- 
 road!" 
 
 " How can / stop it, pappy ? " 
 
 " By marrying her yourself ! " 
 
 " I got enough, pappy," said Seffy hope- 
 lessly. " They'd lynch me if I tried it again. 
 I guess I'd better go away." 
 
 Quick anger flamed in his father's face at 
 this invertebrate submission. And his voice, 
 when he spoke, was harsher than Seffy had 
 ever heard it. 
 
 " Got enough got enough that's all 
 you know! And go away! That's all you 
 ken say, you bull-headed id j lot! Go and 
 apologize and git her back. Don't run. Then 
 marry her next day. That'll settle the mo- 
 lasses-tapper, I expect, and show that you got 
 an inch or two of backbone! Choke her 
 chloroform her and carry her off ! " 
 
 Seffy laughed at the absurdity of the 
 thing. But it was unmirthful. 
 
 96
 
 SEPKJfl 
 
 " Gosh-a'mighty ! On a time like this you 
 ken laugh! You right, you ain't no good 
 no, begoshens! You air an idjiot and fool! 
 You no man! No, nor nefer will be! I'm 
 sorry I'm you' daddy. I am, begoshens ! " 
 
 Then, as his wrath mounted, he raised his 
 huge fist and threatened Seffy. 
 
 " Git away from me, or I'll break your 
 nead! I can't stand you no more! You not 
 worth a dam' not a dam* to nobody. 
 You look like you' mammy's relatifes and 
 they was all no good git away, I tell you ! " 
 
 He roared ominously ; for Seffy, amazed at 
 this from his gentle old father, was looking 
 straight up at him out of a child's round eyes, 
 his lips parted, his throat exposed. Slowly, 
 as his parent heaped contumely upon him, his 
 sensitive young face whitened, and the ligh 
 left it. Only, when his father mentioned his 
 mother's name, he said with infinite softness: 
 
 " Why, pappy ! " 
 
 But he stood without fear under the great 
 fist as he had often done. 
 
 97
 
 SEFKXS 
 
 " You hear ! I told you to git away or I'll 
 smash your face in! I don't want you no 
 more. Go to your mammy's relatifes out 
 West " he laughed horridly " and see 
 what they'll do for you ! You'll live on bread 
 and water they ain't got nossing else! 
 You'll work all day and all night and 
 you'll haf no fun they don't know no bet- 
 ter go ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Seffy, turning dumbly away. 
 
 There was no doubt that he meant to go 
 now. His dumb acquiescence in his sentence 
 raised his father's wrath to fury. 
 
 " Yas go, and be mighty quick about it. 
 I'm chust itching to smash you. I'll nefer 
 send for you if you rot in the poorhouse. I'll 
 nefer mention you* name as long as I lif 
 no! I disown you! Never let me see you' 
 dam' face again go ! " 
 
 It was all so utterly unbelievable that Seffy 
 turned back. This raving madman his jolly 
 old father, who had reverenced the memory 
 of his mother and had taught him to do so 
 
 98
 
 * (
 
 SEFK5 
 
 to mention her every time he prayed? The 
 old man had turned, but Seffy came close and 
 touched him gently. The caress only mad- 
 dened him. Seffy cowered at the passion on 
 the face of his father. He raised his fist. 
 
 " Git out dam' you ! " he shouted. " If 
 you don't " But the boy could not, now. 
 
 The huge fist trembled on high a moment, 
 some instinct of sanity struggling to control 
 it then it fell on Seffy's upturned face. 
 
 He dropped among the clods his pale 
 hair mingling with the dust his hands in- 
 ertly outlying terror still quivering in his 
 lips and nostrils. Blood slowly oozed from his 
 mouth and nose, and a livid red mark began 
 to grow upon the depression in his forehead 
 which the blow had made. 
 
 One moment two the old man looked 
 down at this. Then he understood that he 
 had done it and with a savage animal-cry he 
 swept the boy into his arms. Seffy doubled 
 inertly upon him, as the dead do. His 
 father raced frenziedly home with him, leap- 
 
 99
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 ing fences like a hound. He put him upon 
 the pretty white bed the boy had been wont to 
 make with such care for himself. It was 
 dainty and smooth now. The blood dripped 
 from Seffy's face and from his own beard and 
 stained the white coverings. The sight was 
 full of horror! He staggered drunkenly 
 away. He looked hastily for his gun 
 meaning, perhaps, to kill himself. But then 
 it seemed to him that Seffy sighed. He fell 
 on his knees and agonized for the life he 
 thought he had taken. Then he felt a pulse- 
 beat. With a hoarse cry he rushed out into 
 the road, calling for the doctor. Two people 
 were coming toward him. It was Sam and 
 Sally, returning from their marriage. 
 
 By what he saw on Old Baumgartner's face 
 and hands, Sam was sobered. Both under- 
 stood that they were approaching some 
 tragedy. 
 
 "Who?" asked Sally, suddenly oblivious 
 of Sam. 
 
 Seffy." 
 
 100
 
 " Sam ! " she turned upon her husband with 
 command. " Bring the doctor ! " 
 
 Sam went with satisfactory haste. 
 
 " Who hurt him? " asked Sally, as if she 
 were ready to slay him who did. 
 
 " I. I killed him because he wouldn't 
 marry you! You wouldn't marry him! Oh, 
 you devil ! " 
 
 It was at that instant that the great change 
 in Sally came. She leaped before him 
 into the house and up to Seffy's room. 
 When the old man slowly followed she was 
 there with eyes bent upon Seffy's bloody, 
 unconscious face. So she kept her eyes. She 
 did not speak. And when the doctor came, 
 she was still there as at first unconscious 
 as he, the doctor said. 
 
 He was not dead, and presently he breathed 
 again. But his eyes remained closed, and, 
 late that night, when he had drifted from un- 
 consciousness into deep sleep, they put out 
 the light and left him. 
 
 When they came again he had disappeared. 
 
 101
 
 XI 
 
 WHEN SPRING CAME 
 
 That was a cold and lonely winter for the 
 old man. The bay mare stood in the stable 
 and whinnied for Seffy. The old house was 
 full of harsh echoes. Its spirit seemed to 
 have gone. Seffy's father knew now what a 
 rare thing is joy and what a joyous crea- 
 ture Seffy had been. 
 
 The ground was hard to till. And often 
 he thought about what he had said of 
 Seffy's mother. 
 
 Then he would toil up the steep stair to 
 the garret he had become quite feeble 
 and take out of an old German chest a da- 
 guerreotype of her with Seffy in her arms. 
 And sometimes he would cry over it until his 
 ueard was wet. 
 
 102
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 " God bless you, my little boy," he would 
 sometimes say, " that you cared for her more 
 than I did. You nefer called her no names. 
 
 " I didn't know I could be so mean to 
 the dead who don't deserfe it, and 
 can't talk back. And, God-a'mighty ! If any 
 one's to be called names, it's me! not her 
 nor you, Seffy, nor you ! For I expect I'm 
 a murderer ! " 
 
 And sometimes, when his loneliness was too 
 hard to be borne, he would go out and sit for 
 hours and talk to the old bay mare about 
 Seffy. He fancied she quite understood, and 
 I do, too. 
 
 When the spring came he plowed alone. 
 And this was hardest of all. To plow around 
 and around his vast fields with no one to meet 
 in the other furrow no one to talk, to smile, 
 to laugh to then, when noon came, to sit 
 under the shade of some tree redolent with 
 memories of the pretty little boy, where he 
 and Seffy had sat, from his childhood to his 
 manhood, and eat the food which choked ! 
 
 103
 
 Oh, if he could only have laughed at 
 himself, at Seffy, at the mare, at anybody or 
 anything ! If he could only have laughed ! 
 
 And he knew that every animal on the place 
 wondered and hungered for little Seffy and 
 questioned him with pathetic eyes, while he, 
 at first, guiltily kept silent then tried to 
 confess his shame to them. 
 
 " Yas," he told the mare, "I done it I 
 struck him here, right here ! In the face 
 while his eyes was looking in mine 
 pleading and here was blood and here 
 and here and dust in his hair and his 
 eyes was closed and when I run home wiss 
 him his legs dangled like he was dead. And 
 he crawled away somewheres to die I don't 
 know why they don't come and hang me. I 
 haf told 'em all that I killed him. But no 
 one don't arrest me."
 
 XII 
 
 One day he went up to the vine-covered 
 house on the Hill of Delight, with a bundle 
 of papers in his hand. 
 
 " See yere, Sally," he said senilely, " yere's 
 you* papers. I gif up the guardeenship. 
 You ken git another one if you not on age yit. 
 I don't keer a durn who. I'm tired. If it 
 wasn't for you Seffy would be alif e." 
 
 Sally drooped her head. 
 
 "Yes," she said, so humbly that he re- 
 lented a little. 
 
 " I got to do it. I ain't no account no 
 more. I ought to haf a guardeen myself. 
 And people's making such a fuss you ain't 
 treated us right no, you ain't ! I guess I 
 had better not be mixed in. They say that 
 
 105
 
 SEFFDfi 
 
 you married a drunkard, and killed a man 
 and got to be a drunkard yourself. But 
 I know better 'bout one sing. I killed him. 
 Yit they say that you married Sam chust to 
 spite poor Seffy and yet lofing Sef . Oh, 
 Sef Sef why didn't she tell you so ! " 
 
 He went on heedlessly till he knew that 
 Sally was sobbing. He raised her face and 
 looked into it curiously and saw fpr the first 
 time that pathetic wanness of which, also, 
 people began to talk. 
 
 " Sally," he said then, " you not well? " 
 
 " Quite well," said Sally. 
 
 " Then you got trouble trouble, too, 
 Sally?" 
 
 " Oh, pappy," she pleaded breathlessly, 
 " don't you turn away from me, too. I have 
 no one but you ! No. I have not treated you 
 right. But, oh, life is so hard to me ! " 
 
 " No," he said, smoothing her hair with his 
 gnarled old hand. " I'fe had my eyes turned 
 within. But I didn't know you had trouble. 
 I heerd that Sam had took to hard drinkin' 
 
 106
 
 and I sought you didn't keer. You was so 
 rackless " 
 
 " Yes," she sighed, " I am reckless ! And 
 yes I drink sometimes. But it is that 
 way I can forget." 
 
 " I don't turn ag'in' no one in trouble, efen 
 if they don't treat me right and drink " 
 
 " Forgive me ! Oh, forgive me, pappy ! 
 The suffering is mine ! " 
 
 "Yas," he said, " yas don't cry. But 
 the suffering ain't all yourn." 
 
 " No," she said. " Not all not all ! " 
 
 "But, Sally, if I take the papers back, 
 you won't drink no more? It ain't nice 
 efen if you air the wife of a drunkard." 
 
 " No. If you will be my friend, I will try 
 to be what I would have been as Seff y's wife ! " 
 
 " It's a bargain and I'm sorry I spoke 
 so harsh, Sally. Mebby, mebby God 
 knows ! we ken comfort one another. I 
 Sally I need some one, too ! " 
 
 "Yes! Will you let me? I will have no 
 friend but you!" 
 
 107
 
 SEFEOffl 
 
 " Yas ! And I won't have no friend but 
 you, Sally." 
 
 " Will you let me kiss you? " 
 
 " Do you want to? " he cried tremulously. 
 
 " Yes," whispered the girl. 
 
 " Me? Sally, lem me kiss you! " 
 
 She put up her lips almost solemnly and 
 with that their compact was sealed. 
 
 108
 
 XIII 
 
 ONE BLOW FOE THAT TO SEFFY 
 
 He took the papers home again, and was 
 very gentle with her afterward, for the things 
 which the world blamed in her. His was the 
 only real kindness she knew. Her little cant- 
 ing world had no pity for her. But to her 
 drunken husband, in spite of all, she was a 
 loyal wife, and the old man liked her the 
 better for it. 
 
 So it came to pass that they two, the bent 
 old man and the girlish wife of the drunkard, 
 separated more and more from the world and 
 came more and more together. And often 
 they were seen in the fields together and walk- 
 ing along the roads arm in arm. 
 
 With Sally's little fortune at command, 
 Sam had gone rapidly to the bad. And Sally 
 
 109
 
 SEFFOS 
 
 came to know what tears were, and that dread- 
 ful kind of waiting which falls to the lot of 
 such women, the waiting for the fall of a 
 footstep which makes one shudder yet rejoice. 
 
 They told her to get rid of him, but she 
 shook her head and thought of the inscription 
 in her wedding ring. 
 
 After a while it was the gentle old man who 
 helped to make these vigils less intolerable 
 going away stealthily by the back door when 
 Sam's unsteady step was heard at the front 
 an angel of light if ever there was one in 
 plowman's jacket. 
 
 It fell grimly to his lot, too, to provide for 
 Sam by diminishing the little farm he had 
 longed and hoped for, acre by acre. There 
 was no contention between them as to this. 
 The young wife's wishes were his law. 
 
 " He married me for that," said Sally, the 
 first time, " and I let him marry me for that 
 
 just for spite. Only no one was spited but 
 me but me well, he shall have it all 
 
 all " her voice broke a little " all but 
 
 110
 
 SEFFOfl 
 
 the pasture-field that no one shall 
 have but you or Seffy when I die." 
 
 Only once he interfered. Sam raised his 
 hand to strike her and he laid the drunkard at 
 his feet with a blow such as he had struck 
 but once before in his life. 
 
 " I am her guardeen ! " he cried as he 
 struck. " By the Lord, I'm her guardeen ! " 
 
 For a moment he gloated over the prostrate 
 brute. Then he stood up trembling before 
 Sally. 
 
 " Forgif me," he begged. " But I couldn't 
 help it. It done itself. Mebby God- 
 a'mighty only knows ! it was a chance to 
 efen up for the other one. And yit it was a 
 righteous blow yas, it was a righteous blow!" 
 
 Sally put her hands into his and sobbed. 
 
 Yes," she said. " You are the first that 
 ever saw " 
 
 It was too late to stop. And before it was 
 done he knew that this was not a new experi- 
 ence to her, and that she suffered it and 
 was almost glad of it for penance. 
 
 Ill
 
 SEFFSffl 
 
 " By the Lord," cried the old man, " if he 
 efer strikes you ag'in I'll kill him! " 
 
 " No," said Sally softly. 
 
 " Yas ! " he insisted with some of his old 
 violence. 
 
 "No," she repeated sadly. "Because it 
 is all my fault all the shame the shame 
 because I deserve it ! And Thou 
 shalt not kill! You know we have tempers! 
 And we have both used them ! " 
 
 He shuddered and thought of the plowed 
 field, with Seffy lying there. 
 
 " Good night ! " he said with averted face. 
 
 " I didn't mean that, pappy I didn't 
 mean that you killed him. He's not dead. 
 Pappy, kiss me good night! And forgive 
 me." 
 
 But this also made her dearer to him. And 
 so, little by little, they drew closer and closer, 
 until a certain happiness was his and a cer- 
 tain content hers. Occasionally they laughed. 
 But this was not often. They were well satis- 
 fied to sit before the winter fire, she with an 
 
 112
 
 elbow on his knee, he with his rugged hands 
 in her hair. And after a while she would 
 ask him no more to kiss her good night he 
 did it as of right, and very beautifully, on her 
 hair so much like Seffy, that first dear kiss 
 
 that it made her sob always. 
 
 " Just like Seffy ! " she said the first time 
 and cried, pushing him out of the door when 
 he would have asked a question. 
 
 But he asked his question one day. It was 
 whether she had loved Seffy. 
 
 "Not till Seffy comes!" she cried. "I 
 won't answer." 
 
 " Sally," he said solemnly, " I killed my lit- 
 tle boy. He is dead. I hurt him I made 
 him af eared of me he dragged himself 
 away to die, like wild animals that air hurt 
 by men. So you will hf*ve to tell me." 
 
 No no!" she begged. "He is not 
 dead. And some day he will come back to us 
 
 you " 
 
 " Sally, you said 'us' ? " 
 
 "Yes. Forgive me. I meant /OM." 
 
 113
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 " Did you mean me? " 
 "Yes oh, yes!" 
 " Cross your breast ! " 
 She made this adjuration with a smile. 
 But when he had gone, she groveled on the 
 floor and cried: 
 " Us us us ! " 
 
 114
 
 XIV 
 
 FOB, SEFFY'S SAKB 
 
 And so three nearly four years passed 
 and Sam was dead. 
 
 " Pappy," she said afterward, " you have 
 been very good to me ! " 
 
 " And you to me it's efen say nossing 
 more." 
 
 " You have kept me from going crazy, I 
 think." 
 
 " You haf kep' my ol' heart from breaking, 
 I expect. Yas, I know, now, that there is 
 such a sing as proke hearts," he averred. 
 
 "Pappy, I" 
 
 "What? "asked he. 
 
 " I don't know what Pm going to do now. 
 I got to work for my living, I expect. There 
 is not enough left for " 
 
 115
 
 " \ ou'll nef er work for you' keep while I'f e 
 got a dollar," said the old man. " I owe you 
 that much for for " 
 
 She liked that. She was sitting on a low 
 ?tool at his feet, her elbow on his knee her 
 favorite attitude. She crowded a little closer. 
 
 " Pappy," she said presently, " let me come 
 and keep your house." 
 
 " Do you mean that? " asked the old man 
 joyously. 
 
 "Yes!" she said. 
 
 "But why? That's hard work for a gal 
 that's not used to it." 
 
 " Oh, maybe I want to be where Seffy was. 
 For some day some day he'll come 
 back and I want to be there to ask his 
 pardon." 
 
 They were silent for a while and then the 
 old man said huskily: 
 
 " You shall. You shall sleep in Seffy's bed. 
 You shall look in his little cracked looking- 
 glass. You shall set in his place at the table. 
 You shall be my Seffy ! And we'll wait for 
 
 116
 
 SEFK53 
 
 him together and we'll bose ast his pardon 
 when he comes when he comes." 
 
 " May I ride his mare and plow with 
 her?" 
 
 "You you you?" he questioned in 
 his ecstasy. "Ken you? say do you 
 sink you ken? " 
 
 " Yes," she said very softly. " If you will 
 let me, I will be all and everything Seffy was 
 to you. I took him from you. Let me do 
 my best to replace him. It is for that that, 
 only, that I have cared. We shall rent this 
 house and that will help for I know you 
 have been getting poor, too and and 
 if you will take it I I want to give 
 you the pasture-field for oh, for Sef- 
 fy s sake. Will you take it? " For he had 
 demurred. " For Seffy's sake just as you 
 would take it from him and as he would 
 give it to you if he were all here? I 
 want to be both son and daughter to you. 
 Let me be Seffy and myself too ! It is much 
 but let me try." 
 
 117
 
 5EFK5S 
 
 But he had caught that little slip of the 
 tongue, and was dumb. 
 
 They sat silent by the fire for a long 
 time then. Presently the old man rose and 
 lifting her he said, with a smile such as she 
 had never seen on his face : 
 
 " Yas for Seffy's sake come ! Now! " 
 
 It was night. But he led her from her own 
 house to his. And that night she slept in 
 Seffy's bed. 
 
 One of Sally's duties was the nightly read- 
 ing of the Farm Journal. And just now this 
 paper, edited by a gentleman who knew noth- 
 ing about farming and by him edited well 
 - was full of the great meeting of the Na- 
 tional Farmers' League of the United States 
 of America, which was in session at Omaha. 
 
 " By far the most intelligent and interest- 
 ing paper of the session, thus far," Sally 
 read one night, " was that on The Proper 
 Succession of Crops In Maryland by the 
 youthful president of the Kansas State 
 
 118
 
 SEFFOS 
 
 League, Mr. " Sally rose suddenly and 
 
 vanished to the kitchen where there was a 
 light. 
 
 " What was it? " asked the old man when 
 she returned. 
 
 "I I choked," said Sally quite truth- 
 fully, " and went for a drink." 
 
 " Yas don't read no more. We'll find 
 out about the succession to-morrow night. 
 But what was the smart feller's name ? " 
 
 She pretended to look for it, and when she 
 pretended to have found it: 
 
 " Mr. S. P. Brown," she read. 
 
 " A Kansas man about Maryland ! 
 Huh!" 
 
 But that night, after Seffy's father was in 
 bed, Sally wrote a pitiful letter perhaps the 
 first she had ever written: 
 
 " Dear Seffy (it ran) 
 
 Please come home. Come as soon as you 
 get this. Your pappy wants you. He is old 
 and sorry, so please come right away. 
 
 Sephenijah P. Baumgartner, Senior." 
 
 119
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 But the envelop was addressed to 
 " Mr. S. P. Baumgartner, Jr., 
 
 President Kas. State League, 
 Kansas." 
 
 The post-mistress smiled indulgently as 
 Sally handed in the letter the next day. 
 
 " A long way off," she said. 
 
 " Yes," said Sally, fidgeting with her bon- 
 net. " How soon do you think it will get 
 there?" 
 
 The post-rnistress reflected. 
 
 " About a week," she said then. 
 
 " So long? " 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, she had thought 
 it would take longer. Kansas was a vague 
 place in those days, and a vast distance away. 
 
 " Well," said the post-mistress comfort- 
 ingly, " mebby not quite so long. But bettor 
 not count much on its getting there sooner. 
 Pll give it a good start. I'll put it in the mail 
 bag now." 
 
 " Thank you," said Sally. 
 
 She watched her put it into the bag and 
 
 120
 
 then went dreaming home, and for all of 
 the two weeks of waiting she was very happy 
 dreaming always. Poor girl she had 
 made her life so unhappy that joy seemed 
 divine. She was sure of Seffy. Sometimes 
 she wondered with a blush and a start if he 
 might not come himself in answer. She would 
 not have been surprised to have him steal up 
 behind her that was his way, she remem- 
 bered and call out softly her name. So 
 she went about almost on tiptoes so that she 
 might hear him if he should. It was a little 
 difficult to keep it from the inquisitive old 
 man, who did not quite understand her sud- 
 den happiness. But she did it. 
 
 And, finally, the two weeks were up. She 
 was quite sure Seffy would not waste a mo- 
 ment with his answer. And he might use that 
 mysterious instrument, the telegraph, which 
 she understood would not take more than an 
 hour from Kansas. She supposed his mes- 
 sage, even if he used the telegraph, would 
 come to the post-office. 
 
 121
 
 The ceremonial of a letter, with simple 
 people, is as much a matter of concern as a 
 treaty between two nations. And now, as she 
 dressed herself in her best clothes to go to the 
 post-office, she felt, somehow, as if she were 
 to be in Seffy's personal presence, and must 
 be as immaculate as always. She wondered 
 how he would address her forgetting that 
 his answer must come to the one whose name 
 she had signed. She had heard of various 
 most dear head-lines to letters. I am afraid 
 she blushed at all this. For, as she looked in 
 the glass, she saw a face so radiant that she 
 looked again to identify it. 
 
 So, all the more, she dressed herself with 
 the same care she would have taken were she 
 going to him instead of to the post-office for 
 his letter. She remembered what he had said 
 about her hair, and she ventured to pull it 
 about her face, much as it had been that night 
 in the dark parlor. But at the thought of 
 that the tears came slowly into her eyes. She 
 had been very happy that night. It was aJI
 
 the happiness she had ever known, it seemed 
 now. She dried her eyes and then she sat at 
 the table where Seffy had often sat, and 
 looked again in his broken mirror. The 
 radiance was quenched. Her face was pale 
 and thin now. She thought of it quite as if 
 he were soon to see it. 
 
 " I wonder if he'll think me handsome, 
 now?" She shook her head doubtfully at 
 the face she saw in the glass. " No, I have 
 no red cheeks no more and my eyes are big- 
 ger and my lips thinner and my hair is 
 paler and my hands " 
 
 She remembered how he had kissed them, 
 and put her head down and sobbed. They did 
 not seem fit to be kissed now nor worth 
 kissing. 
 
 But the post-mistress liked her better that 
 way and so do I. For she had acquired a 
 daintiness that was almost immaculate. 
 
 As soon as Sally came, the post-mistress 
 smiled and shook her head. For she had un- 
 derstood what the letter contained quite as if 
 
 123
 
 SEFKXI 
 
 she had seen it. And she had watched anx- 
 iously for the answer. 
 
 " Not yet," she said compassionately. 
 
 Sally's legs weakened and she clutched at 
 the little shelf before her. It took a moment 
 to swallow the thing in her throat. Then she 
 murmured : 
 
 " It's two weeks." 
 
 " Yes. But he'd have to be pretty prompt 
 to get it here by this time." 
 
 Sally had been sure of this promptness. It 
 never occurred to her to doubt. She would 
 not have wasted a minute. She turned hope- 
 lessly away. 
 
 " Perhaps to-morrow ! " said the kind post- 
 mistress. 
 
 Sally veered, smiling. 
 
 "You think so?" 
 
 " Perhaps. One can never tell. Don't 
 worry, dear. You see the address was very 
 vague and it may be some time before they 
 find him." 
 
 " You don't think it is too late? 
 
 124
 
 " I hope not, dear." 
 
 She had not thought of that before. She 
 had fancied him waiting for some such recall. 
 But, of course, he had formed other ties 
 he would be glad to forget her. He might be 
 married ! Of course he was ! Otherwise he 
 could not be a president ! 
 
 " I guess it's too late," she said again. 
 
 " I would not think that. The address was 
 very vague. But, after you were gone, I took 
 the precaution to put a return address on the 
 envelop, and if he does not get it, it will come 
 back ; but that will take some little time." 
 
 There was nothing the next day nor the 
 next, nor for the many days afterward that 
 she went to the post-office. She no longer 
 dressed up for the trip, and she was glad now 
 she had not told his father. 
 
 For a while she had to lock herself in her 
 room when the desire came on her to go to the 
 post-office. And then she remained away 
 three days, then a week, and then the post- 
 mistress admitted that the letter had had time 
 
 125
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 to be returned. She must not give up though. 
 Strange things happen, sometimes, with let- 
 ters. 
 
 The letter had been returned, the post- 
 mistress had it then. But she pityingly 
 thought it best that Sally should wait for it 
 still, while she tried to send it back to him. 
 
 Otherwise it was very much as Sally had 
 planned and hoped, save that she was a bit 
 sadder. She kept Seffy's father's house, as, 
 perhaps, no house was ever kept before. She 
 had not been famous for the keeping 
 of her own house in the days of her 
 coquetteship. Her grandmother had at- 
 tended to this and then a maid who 
 interpreted her faultlessly. But now her 
 own hands did all and did it with 
 love. And she did replace Seff y and more. 
 For she plowed, and, after a brief apprentice- 
 ship, no one did it better. The bay mare was 
 as kind to Sally as she had been to Seffy. 
 Nothing in his life had ever been so sweet to 
 the old man as those rests when they met. 
 
 126
 
 SEFEpfl 
 
 And no food was ever so piquant as that 
 eaten under the trees at their nooning. 
 
 Sally still went to the post-office, and the 
 post-mistress still had her letter where she 
 could have put her hand upon it, though she 
 mercifully concealed this. 
 
 But there was no hope. Not a word of con- 
 fidence had passed between Sally and the kind 
 post-mistress, but each knew that the other 
 understood quite as if their confidence was 
 complete. So that it was as if they spoke of 
 an old matter when Sally said, one day : 
 
 " Yes I guess it's too late. He's mar- 
 ried." 
 
 " I wouldn't think so, if I were you. till I 
 heard it from him," said the compassionate 
 woman behind the counter. " I thought so 
 once. He went to war. I heard that he was 
 killed. I married another man just oh, 
 just because! Then he came back. I have 
 always been sorry." 
 
 Something filled the speaker's eyes and 
 Sally, with the dumb intuition of the primitive 
 
 127
 
 nature, stood there a long time and said only, 
 " Thank you." 
 
 But after that hope rose and lived again. 
 
 That night the post-mistress received, from 
 Washington, the address of the Kansas State 
 League of Farmers' Clubs, and put it on the 
 face of the returned letter and sent it forth 
 again. 
 
 128
 
 XV 
 
 SHALL SEFFY ENTEB AT THIS CUE? 
 
 Winter had come again the fifth one. 
 They sat together in the great hearth of the 
 kitchen, in their characteristic attitude when 
 before a fire. The hickory logs sputtered sav- 
 agely, but sent out to them, nevertheless, a 
 grateful warmth. Their faces and bodies 
 glowed in the fervor of it. And there is noth- 
 ing like this to put one at peace with all the 
 world. 
 
 " Sally," said the old man, " this is nice." 
 
 " Very mce," agreed Sally. 
 
 But also there is nothing like this to send 
 one's memory backward. And this it was do- 
 ing for both of them. 
 
 " Eferybody don't haf no such fire to- 
 night." And the everybody he thought of as 
 he sighed was Seffy. 
 
 129
 
 SEFK5SB 
 
 * No, not everybody," sighed Sally, prop- 
 ping her head upon his knee. 
 
 " Sally who do you mean by ef ery- 
 body?" 
 
 " Just one person," admitted Sally, " the 
 same one you mean." 
 
 " Yas," said Seffy's father very softly, and 
 then they were silent. 
 
 " Mebby some's got no homes and out 
 freezing to-night," the old man said pres- 
 ently. 
 
 " I hope not," said Sally. " We could take 
 them in here if we knew where they are 
 couldn't we, pappy ? " 
 
 But that last note was the one which dams 
 up tears. 
 
 " Yas if we knowed where they air 
 my God if we chust knowed where they air ! 
 Sally, don't you nefer turn no one away from 
 the door on a cold winter's night. You don't 
 know who it might be ! " 
 
 " I'll never turn any one away from the 
 door! " said Sally with emotion. 
 
 130
 
 " That's right, Sally. Some's dead. I'd 
 rather be dead than haf no home." 
 
 " And I," agreed Sally. 
 
 " Nor no friends." 
 
 Sally nodded. 
 
 " Sally, how long is it sence you was mar- 
 ried?" 
 
 " More than four years nearly five, 
 pappy." 
 
 " My ! but sings is changed ! " said the old 
 man. " Efen the sun don't seem so bright no 
 more." 
 
 " Yes, things are changed," said the girl. 
 
 " Yit it must be chust an idee. Why, the 
 Bible says that summer and winter shall not 
 change tell eferysing come to pass efery- 
 sing eferysing " Then his voice broke. 
 " Yit yit yit it's one sing ain't come to 
 pass and it seems like it's nefer going to. It's 
 better sence you come. But yit the house is 
 damp and shif ery," he shivered himself 
 " and empty like it was a funeral about 
 all the time. Yit it's no one dead no one's 
 
 131
 
 dead he's not dead chust gone. You 
 said so you said it first ! And some day 
 he'll come back and we'll git on our 
 knees and beg his pardon. But it's so long 
 oh, my God so long ! Oh, Seffy Seffy 
 little Seffy I got a pain in my breast 
 about you ! You was all I had. Come back 
 to me come back! I'm a ol' man. And 
 I'm sorry sorry and broke broke 
 down. But if you'll come back Sally, do 
 TOU think he'll haf a scar on his face? " 
 
 Something stifled his utterance. The girl 
 put out a soft hand to comfort him. 
 
 " Some day we shah* know see ! Be 
 brave!" 
 
 "Yas yas that's easy to say. But 
 you nefer struck no one right in the face 
 when they was looking up at you in that 
 pleading kind of a way ! " 
 
 She said piteously, " No." 
 
 " Then you don't know nossing about it ! 
 Oh, my God! if you'd had it before you for 
 more than four years like a picture 
 
 132
 
 morning and efening day and night 
 eferywheres! The blood on him and the 
 bed and me ! " 
 
 " Pappy, I have done more I have hurt 
 him worse than you did I broke his 
 heart ! " whispered the girl. " Oh, I should 
 have thought there was no one like him 
 but I let him go. If he were here now " 
 
 They sat silent then until the old man said : 
 
 " Ah well! Come, Sally, it's bedtime." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 This meant that it was time for their 
 prayer, which they always said in each other's 
 arms, there, before the great fire. So Sally 
 slipped to the floor, and they folded their 
 hands each in the other. And, after " Our 
 Father " was done, came this rude, simple, 
 but not less a prayer ; for in the five years of 
 Seffy's absence it had passed into a formula. 
 
 " God, find Seffy, wherefer he may be, for 
 Thou seest all the world, and put it into his 
 heart to come back to those who have repented 
 these many years; make him merciful to the 
 
 133
 
 old and the evil-tempered, and yet, if this be 
 not in Thy infinite purposes, O God, we bend 
 our heads in submission, for it is Thy punish- 
 ment for our sin ; but send some word or sign, 
 that our hearts may be comforted, and Thy 
 will be done Amen ! " 
 
 And while this was being prayed a face 
 came to the window in answer a hand 
 brushed away the snow that the eyes might 
 see better. And then a head, crowned with 
 pale hair, was uncovered reverently. 
 
 Sally looked up. Something as irresistible 
 as a magnet drew her eyes to that face in the 
 window. 
 
 As they got up the old man saw Sally's 
 white face and staring eyes. 
 
 " Sally," he said, " you look like you'd seen 
 a ghost!" 
 
 There was a knock on the outer door. 
 
 " Bring him in, whoefer he is, Sally, and 
 keep him tell he's not hungry no more nor 
 cold nor sorry " 
 
 Sally did not speak, but went, still with 
 
 134
 
 SEFK5S 
 
 that strange look in her eyes, as if she had 
 indeed seen a ghost. 
 
 He heard her pass through the hall and 
 open the door then a little cry some beg- 
 ging silence a sob. After what seemed 
 a long time, Sally returned alone. She did 
 not come to his knee again, but stood panting 
 before him. He could not see her face. She 
 did not mean that he should the fire was all 
 about her illuminating her but there. 
 
 " Where is he? " asked Seffy's father. 
 
 " Out there." 
 
 He turned at the strange throbbing of her 
 voice. And then he saw her face, lighted with 
 a great radiance. 
 
 There was a moment of silence. In the fire- 
 light she was as beautiful as a figure of 
 Greuze. That vagrant thing, joy, had come 
 back. But whence? How? 
 
 " Sally, what's the matter? I nefer saw 
 you look so. My God! what's the matter?" 
 
 " Shut your eyes ! " 
 
 The light of the fire flooded her face now 
 
 135
 
 SEl EN-/S 
 
 and made it too wonderful to close his eyes 
 upon. 
 
 " Sally for the Lord's sake " pleaded 
 the old man. 
 
 " Shut your eyes," she glanced over her 
 shoulder, " and be happy." 
 
 " Don't, Sally." 
 
 She slipped to the floor and knelt at hii> 
 feet. 
 
 " Pappy, to-night I am a magician. To- 
 night I can give you anything you want. 
 But you must ask for what you want most.' 
 
 She smiled lovingly upon him. 
 
 " Shut your eyes and ask." 
 
 Poor Old Baumgartner did as she com- 
 manded. And, for a long moment, there was 
 silence. Then a tear dropped on his face. 
 For in the firelight poor, sad, sorry Old 
 Baumgartner was making a picture, too: a 
 white, old, hopeless, piteous, pleading face, 
 framed in masses of hair, shaggily gray when 
 Seffy went away, senilely white now. The 
 sunken eyes spoke of hastening peace after 
 
 136
 
 SOITOW, and the whole piteous figure begged 
 for those tears which fell upon its face. 
 
 " Oh, pappy, excuse me," said the voice 
 which had gathered to itself all the music of 
 the life he thought broken, " but you have so 
 often called me beautiful, that I want to tell 
 you now that you have the most beautiful face 
 I have ever seen ! Pappy P a ppy> dear 
 pappy, God bless you ! " 
 
 And her lips descended upon his, her dear 
 fingers closed his eyes once more, her handker- 
 chief wiped away the tear she had dropped 
 upon his face and others which had followed 
 it, and she said : 
 
 " Are your eyes shut? Yes ! Now, ask for 
 anything you want on earth or in heaven 
 and you shall have it. Do not be afraid! 
 The very dearest thing you can think." 
 
 " Seffy " he whispered brokenly 
 " Seffy and you and me together ! " 
 
 " Presto ! Open your eyes ! " cried Sally. 
 
 He did so and there, kneeling before 
 him, was Seffy -and one arm was about 
 
 137
 
 I 
 
 Sally, the other reaching out to him not 
 quite certain how it would be received, but 
 with the old smile of Seffy. He seemed big- 
 ger, and he had a young beard on cheek and 
 lip, and he appeared quite worthy to be the 
 president of the Kansas State League of 
 Farmers' Clubs. 
 
 Old Baumgartner looked without a word, at 
 first to be sure, then to fill all his being. And 
 then he rose to his feet and shook off all the 
 years that had accumulated during Seffy's 
 absence, and, when his arms were about them 
 both, and theirs about him, their joint shadow 
 rose and filled all the room and ceiling blot- 
 ting out all else. And, lo, it was not three 
 shadows, but one! 
 
 " Seffy," asked his father, while his arm 
 went about his shoulders with the unconscious- 
 ness of what seemed yesterday, *' how did you 
 efer git president of that sing? what is 
 it?" 
 
 " I fought for it, pappy." 
 
 "You? Gosh-a'mighty!" 
 
 138
 
 SEFEOfl 
 
 They both laughed happily. 
 
 " Yes you and Sally were right I 
 needed to learn to fight. I went out into the 
 world where you sent me thank you both 
 and found life. And I found it a fight 
 from start to finish. Only with some there is 
 no quarter." 
 
 " But not with you," said Sally. 
 
 " But not with me," agreed Seffy. " That 
 is not necessary to success." 
 
 "Gosh! Seffy," said his father, "you are 
 as wise as Ol' Kellerman, the preacher. Say, 
 you remember him?" 
 
 " I remember everything the smallest 
 and it is all precious, pappy more precious 
 than you can know. If one were never to 
 leave this Happy Valley, one might live and 
 die as I began. And, if one should never 
 learn better it is good good ! But it is not 
 the life of the world out there. And, for me, 
 it is gone for ever! In one way I am sorry. 
 For the world has nothing to exchange for 
 these little things. Out there my heart has 
 
 139
 
 SEFEOfl 
 
 always yearned for them and always will. 
 You and Sally must keep them as they are 
 nay, as they were. And I shall live in them 
 and with them and we shall be happier for 
 them." 
 
 During all this Seffy's arms and hands had 
 been busy in the old fashion of the days of 
 their simplicity. It was good to see and bet- 
 ter to be ! 
 
 "I don't belief e it!" cried his happy old 
 father, returning his caresses. " You ain't 
 forgot a sing ! You chust the same except 
 the dictionary words chust the same our 
 Seffy ! Ain't so, Sally? Why don't you talk, 
 anyway ? " 
 
 " Just the same," said Sally. But 
 the tears were in her dear eyes and she knew 
 that her words were for the father and not 
 the son for him she understood that it 
 would never be the same quite, and it was 
 she who had sent him forth to lose the sim- 
 plicity of the Happy Valley. 
 
 "Not a bit you ain't changed!" re 
 
 140
 
 peated the father, as if saying it might make 
 it so. 
 
 " Yes, I am," laughed Seffy. 
 
 " You ain't ! " said his father. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! Sam couldn't get away with me 
 now ! " 
 
 "Nor Sally, hah?" 
 
 " Nor Sally." 
 
 "Don't," pleaded Sally, "you hurt me!" 
 
 " You see," Seffy went on, "you notice the 
 changes in me, but not in yourselves. Shall 
 I tell you about them? For none of us will 
 ever again be quite as we were. Shall I tell 
 lo find a nice fat calf." vou ? "\, ^^ 
 
 " Well," laughed Seffy, not relinquishing 
 Sally, " what is the first thing? I'm ready 
 for work. I'm used to it ! " 
 
 "To-morrow, Seffy," said his father 
 briskly, "you better let Sally marry you. 
 Remember she bought you." 
 
 He gave Sally time to blush, and Seffy time 
 to find both her hands and her lips, and then 
 he finished: 
 
 143
 
 " There is still one thing you haven't no- 
 ticed about me, or spoken of, if you did, in 
 which I am not changed a bit." 
 
 " What? " 
 
 It was Sally's quick voice Sally, who 
 thought she had already inventoried every dif- 
 ference between this Seffy and the old one 
 Sally, who hungered for the least thing in 
 which he might be unchanged! 
 
 " I'm stubborn as ever thank you, 
 pappy ! " 
 
 " Goshens ! That's so ! You was a stub- 
 born little id.iiV!" 
 
 rtf-'*4 oally ? Why don't you talk, 
 anyway ? " 
 
 "Just the same," said Sally. But 
 the tears were in her dear eyes and she knew 
 that her words were for the father and not 
 the son for him she understood that it 
 would never be the same quite, and it was 
 she who had sent him forth to lose the sim- 
 plicity of the Happy Valley. 
 
 "Not a bit you ain't changed!" re- 
 
 140
 
 Sally said nothing she could not. Her 
 face was deep in his overcoat. And she was 
 making it so very wet that, presently, she 
 lifted her face, and, with her handkerchief, 
 dried it. 
 
 " That is the sweetest thing you have ever 
 said to me and it breaks my heart for I 
 don't deserve it that one little, simple word 
 dear!" 
 
 " Well, well," broke in happy Old Baum- 
 gartner, drying his own eyes, " is this a time 
 for weeping and wailing and gnashing of the 
 teeth? The prodigal has returned. We got 
 to find a nice fat calf." 
 
 "Well," laughed Seffy, not relinquishing 
 Sally, " what is the first thing? I'm ready 
 for work. I'm used to it!" 
 
 "To-morrow, Seffy," said his father 
 briskly, "you better let Sally marry you. 
 Remember she bought you." 
 
 He gave Sally time to blush, and Seffy time 
 to find both her hands and her lips, and then 
 he finished : 
 
 143
 
 ' And make it early mebby the first sing 
 in the morning. In the afternoon we'll take 
 down the fence. All three of us. It's wait- 
 ing for us. Sally kep' it waiting. Ain't so, 
 Sally?" 
 
 Sally affirmed this.
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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 ORION 
 
 JAN ,1938 
 
 Form L9-50m-7,'54(5990)444 
 
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 Long - 
 
 3523 
 L8555s 
 
 Sef fy, a little 
 comedy of 
 
 country man- 
 ners 
 
 Q 1955 I 
 
 PS 
 3523 
 
 L8555s