The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-02-11
Sslstt MisttlIanp.
The Man from Nod.


the old well curb, found himself close
upon the man in the hammock, under
Miss Denny's apple tree.
"See here" said the man, as the
urchin came to a strategic halt, 81
wonder if your mother would sell you
to me, and would she haggle over the
price. How does it strike your"
"That depends. Wot would you do
with me?"
Greatly, / don't know. You admit
you are fat, and 1 might want to ship
you to the cannibal islands as specu-
lation. OrI might want to make choir
boy of you, If little of that hoarseness
could be taken out of your voice, and
your hair persuaded to stay anywhere.
There are lots of ways of using boys in
the place came from"
Say" said the boy, with a new show
of interest, ado you know wot my
mother says2"
81 must confess that do not. The
versatile female tongue"
"She says that she guesses you don't
live nowhere. She says that you may
be a pirate and you may be preacher,
for all any one here knows. She says
that you do nothin' but eat and sleep,
and that fore you come here they must
have kept you awake all night with
nothin' to eat. Say, mister "-and. the
wheedling tone of the mother was I'M
consciously adopted by the boy, "where
did you come from any way?"
The man in the hammock dropped
back with smile, and, shading his
eyes from spray of sunshine that fell
down among the apple blossoms, said,
lazily: " have been told that your in
teresting mother is sort of missionary
of personal intelligence for this neigh
borhood. l like to encourage home in
dustries, and just to help her along you
may tell her that Miss Denny's lazy
boarder, who certainly does eat and
sleepa great deal, is just out of the
Land of Nod"
The boy was true to his mothers ex-
ample. Compromising the one phrase
that could be of service to her, he shot
homeward like an arrow, that it might
be safely delivered before being jostled
out of his needless little head. And
before the cows were well asleep in
their beds of dew-besprinkled grass
that night the people of Farmdale, from
the red school-house 'on the hill to the
tannery in the hollow, were in full pos
session of the first admission as to him
self yet made by the mysterious stran-
ger who had fed the fires of their curl
osity through four long weeks of the
budding spring.
The moon that looked into the eyes
of the peaceful kline that night found
time also to touch the white shawl that
hung about little Miss Denny as she
sat on the steps of the old farmhouse,
around which the village had grown.
The hammock hung empty near by,
while back under the honey-suckle
vines sat the man from Nod, not asleep
and not eating, but as indOlent in atti-
tude and speech as when negotiating
for the purpose of sixty-odd pounds of
shock-headed boy.
The woman was pulling spray of
green to pieces with vehemence that
showed her protest against the thought
to which his lips were giving form.
Believe me, Miss Denny, that you
are giving yourself courage and faith
you do not pOssess-that one woman
in ten thousand cannot possess. You
see that when Rebekah of Mesopota-
mia followed the chosen servant of
Abraham into strange land it was no
great venture on her part. He had
told her of the home to which she was
to go, of the man she was to wed. II
was a family affair, you see, and her
father was a relative of her father
in-law that was to be. Now, do you
really mean to say to me that, even
though you loved man with all the
love that such women as you can give,
you would take him on perfect trust
would give him your future on a chance,
and, placing your hand in his, walk
fearlessly with him out into the dark?"
81 would. And why not?'
at is against nature-agalnst woman
nature"
"But if loved him ? If loved him
as woman should love before she
weds, could trust him with all that ii
was best l should not know, and GO
with him into bonds of exile"
81 believe that, l know it. But
martyrdom, my child, is nothing beside
a right to knowledge that goes unsatis-
fed. You would meet a lion unmoved,
but let this mysterious and undescribed
lover refuse to tell you of himself, his
profession, his mother, his past and his
income, and you would lay bar before
him beyond which he could not advance.
You would say to him, You will not
trust me, and l dare not trust you.
The marriage license would never be
put to USE"
you do not understand me, sir"
she said, simply. +" could not give
love until / had given the trust-such
trust as q child gives to its father in the
dark. l could then close my eyes and
be led. Perhaps this sounds foolish to
you, but you asked me question, and
l have given you an answer"
If Farmdale knew little of this man,
there was less of Miss Denny that ii
did not know. Its knowledge Of him
could be briefly summed up: That he
had ridden into it one night on the
down stage-coach and asked at the post
Office to be shown quiet place where
board could be had for week or so;
that the next morning found him at the
cozy table of Miss Denny, beside the
clerk of the village store, tlanked right
and left by the manager of the tannery
and the schoolmaster, and opposite the
mistress of the house, who sat en-
trenched behind the daintiest of her
household gods; that he had slept,
lounged and eaten with the air of one
who at thirty-eight had thrown of
some great mental or business strain