The Sunday Bee
I MAGAZINE SECTION |
VOL. 52—NO. 27. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 17. 15)22. K1VK CENTS
The Tune Digger O===i®"==0 By Helen Topping Miller I
Ely Could “Dig Up a Tune” for
Every Occasion; This Is the Story
of o Melody From Beyond
the Grave.
A HAW wind pelted over tho snow flats to tho north,
flinging great dotted lumps of anow down from tho
ham roof and alack.
I.ucien MetTord regarded tho ragged sky with eyea
schooled to tlio weather. "Hlg anow coming," ho Raid.
A dog, part collie, part husky, beautifully ruffled, with
small, keen eyea and a pelt as clean as a woman s hair,
turned an exploring muzzle aloft.
"She's coming, Chinook.” repeated I.ucien. Tho dog
leaped, all the husky In him alert. "Smell it? Smell that
old she-wolf howling over the hill? Sho's got a blizzard
in her teeth, pup, and wind in her whiskers. Como along
—we better cover th#t wood In the shed.”
With the dog at his heels, I.ucien tramped tho path,
hip high with shoveled snow on either side, to tho house.
The house was little more than a shanty, half slabs, half
tarred paper nailed to planks with great glistening tin
discs. On either side of the door * the discs had been tacked
to form two huge letters, six feet high, on the east an I.,
on tlio west an M, Ely had done that. Ely enjoyed a trick
like that. He had laughed aloud as he nailed the shining
tins into the Af, which Htood fur Melford, and
^tho I., which meant Lucas.
■ "Ain’t everybody can have tneir muiaia
embroidered on their mansion, Loosh," Ely
chuckled. “Your letter looks like you
swear it does. Sort o’ square and determined
with botli feet on the ground. No curlecues
or foolishness. Me—I'm sitting down as us
ual. Feet stuck out in front of men. L
looks like me, don't it? Ever think what a
lot of devilment the letter I, gets into?
Toughing and loafing, and laziness and
liquor—lying and love making?"
That was Ely. Red head and laughing
brown eyes. Freckles on his nose like a boy.
Coat always flying, cheeks red—too red.
Luclen Mefford stood still in the path and
looked at the rust streaks like the mark of
tears dripping down from the letter L. Un
consciously he reached a hand behind him
and instantly the dog’s cold nose found it.
They stood, twn furry statues in the snowy
dusk, motionless, dreading—dreading to en
ter tliul lonely house.
On an impulse Luclen plunged out of the
path and struck out into the pines, the dog
wallowing after. Xt was very dark undel
ete trees, but Luclen walked straight to the
spot under a hemlock, where the snow was
a trifle higher, bulking long and sloping.
Stolidly lie set himself to kick away tin
white burden. With wet mittens and side
flung motions of his feet, ho dug, the dog
digging, too. and whimpering a little us ho
stopped to bite his ch lied toes. The length
of earth they uncovered was raw and new
and patiently shaped with a spade. Frost
had honeycombed it' and crusted it with a
rimy < namel. A barberry bush, leafless and
incredibly fragile in its nakedness, stood at
one end, Us branches shivering icily.
“Tomorrow I’ll fix some kind of shelter
out here.” mused Luclen aloud. “I don’t
know why 1 haven’t done It. He hated snow
—Ely did. He was always worrying about
things freezing and dy’ng In the woods, and
l the birds not getting anything to eat. Hang
• lug up hones and shelling corn for the rab
bits. Quit that, you pup!" Chinook had
fallen to digging at the frosted patch of
earth, scratching with his nails, whining
dismally.
They wallowed back through their broken
' track, und Luelen unlocked the door of the
house. The air they entered was ghastly
chill, with a stale bone piercing cold, holding the odors of
dead tobacco, cold soot, unolred clothing, and fried fat.
Leaving the door open. Luelen tramped through the echo
ing room and lighted a lamp on the shelf over the stove,
Tho room had the vague, desolate look of a place long kept
Immaculate and lately permitted to fall into slovenly dis
order.
Tlio stove was blackened and polished above it burned
and rusty belly. Newspapers had been cut into scallops
and put on the plank shelves, hut the decorated edges were
smoked and torn. The wooden bed on I lie west side of the
room was neatly made up. the quilt tucked in carefully,
the pillows standing stiffly against the headboard. Hut the
cot on the opposite side was tumbled and• loaded with a
miscellany of abandoned property—a pair of soiled wool
socks rolled into a ball, a shot gun and belt, a pound of
six-penny nails lumped in a brown paper, a pile of ragged
Canadian newspapers.
Luelen kindled a fire in the stove and instantly the first
two lengths of pipe glowed red hot and tho smoke of burn
ing stove polish lloated against the ceiling. The dog
crouched in a waiting attitude, licking ids cold toes, with
one eve on the man. The man, too, had a transient air of
waiting, a look of impermananey as though the house were
no longer a fixed abode, hut a place of brief, bewildered so
journ. and everything n tin room shared this aspect. The
table was filtered witli unwashed pans and plates on which
halt eaten food was drying. The three chairs sat at differ
ent tingles, turned ns chairs are turned upon which one
sits casually, but not as chairs upon which a weary house
holder may rest. A pipe lay on a shell, cold, unlighted for
Weeks.
One knew the house for a place forenkon swiftly at dawn
and occupied briefly and reluctantly at night. One knew,
too, that this forlorn stall was recent and that the two
► Vila .-dialed it wore dazed arid wretched, helpicn.v. uncertain
lmt to co about altering It.
"Tin’ mesa would list, mad Inly ■ T.mUrt mused
tihaid. "I know I bought more seonrlnc snap and lye for
him Ilian any woman it» Mahopae W'o’v ■ got to clean it
1;1 S' t cliow. pup, you and me.”
•
lie took off the fur coat and the muffling cap of coney
with eartahs, and kicked out of his great felt hoots nn«l
mackinaw, and Instantly stood forth, amazingly slender,
amazingly youthful, a lithe steel ramrod of a : in w h t
sober, palish face with dark hair looped ncross tlV; fore
head, and straight, thin, dead black eyebrows. II s mouth
was sensitive and sparingly molded over u chin hull! on an
unyielding curve, and as he moved about the room Ills lips
twlched nervously. Always he moved one-sidedly, keep.ng
an averted shoulder toward the empty bed in the corner,
always the haunted look lay in his eyes.
He heated a great pot of water and attacked the dlaor
deny table, drying eacn dlsti
awkwardly and at length, na
though he wore watched and
were eager for approval.
When every cup and pan
was returned to the shelf, he
shook out the red table
cloth, turned a clean side up
permost, and set the lamp in
the middle. The cot was
nnoothed, the covers straight
ened. the gun hung up. Even .
the kindling was laid in
an orderly row under th
stove. And then. Invol
untarily, I.ueien Mef
ford turned toward
—< hunted, us a tortured peni
tent might say a ndsere.
tho solitary bed, grinning triumphantly, liut the grin died
in a swift, contorted spasm of remembering anguish, lie
wheeled away and flung his arm over his eyes.
. “Clod!” he wh sitored. “I’m always doing that. I'll take
that bed out of here tomorrow."
The dog came crawling to him. prone, abject, muzzle
upturned uneasily, passionate tail heating the floor. I.ucicn
patted the white, narrow head.
“Just you and me, Chinook," he comforted. “Just yon
and mo now.”
Like a flash tho dog leaped to tho door, whining, ears
up. The man turned away.
“No use, pup. You can’t find him. No use to run your
self footsore all over these woods. You can’t find him."
But the dog persisted, yelping, clawing at the planks.
“AH right. All right. If you’re bound to he a fool, go
to it.” He opened the door, letting in a gusf ol wind heavy
with stinging snow. Instantly the dog was gone, flashing
snow puffs marking his floundering leaps. Lucion watched
till tiio tawny flurry vanished Into the pines.
He prepared his supper indifferently and ate it reluc
tantly. Tea boiled in a tin basin, bread scorched tx fore tiie
stove, sausage sawed from a frozen muslin-covered billet
and badly cooked. Lueten picked it with a fork and shoved
away the plate.
"No use—I can’t get used to it. I'll.be loony directly,
like Chinook—running around in circles in tho woods. As
soon as 1 hear from her I'll sell out and go back to Sagi
naw. I can't get used to lhis.”
He crossed the room, carrying the l.uop and uncon
sciously tiptoeing, as though he feared to waken a sleeper.
11,1 ;i shelf a picture was propped against a tobacco tin. a
very new, very evpensivo photograph in a hcavV brown
1 older. The face In the picture was that of a girl with
In-avy, fair hair pinned above tier brows, a luce unsmiling,
but strong and sweet, with mothering eyes and a small,
j cm mouth, 'lie- face Was repeated a dozen times in small
kodak pictures pasted upon the wall above the wooden bed.
in a group framed beside a window, in a little water color
framed with wall paper.
•‘.She’ll get my letter tomorrow, l-ige took it down Sat
urday and the train likely ran on Tuesday Jf the snow plows
got through. 1 guess l ought to have written sooner '
l'otir weeks lay on his conscience, the tour weeks during
which tho letter liad l.eeii delayed The Ink had frozen and
lie could never remember ty get any mere at Muhopu Thi n
hail ootne the snow and tlie temporary hloeking <u the
roads. But these h< Knew were merely excuses, poor
things With which in* trle.1 to hush his conscience Tic
rial reason for the delay had been ids ov. n anguished in
Ability to write down tho truth which must go into the
letter. A dozen nights lie had sweated in misery over a
store tablet ruled in red. trying to writ. (ho blunt, I .aid
words Hut now' the letter was Anally mm-.
8h«» would get it at I4ttle Travois tomorrow.
‘First letter I've written in It years,"
thougld Euelen.
Ely had been the* scribe. Ely’s hudi&n « f
we. k ly letters had been a famous Jok< j;«
Hahopai Ely had "folks.* Eucien had no
hod} Nobody but El
Tie* gill in th«* picture returned his gaze
stendlastly. Ely’s girl Pamela Krooke. The
name had been a song in the slab arid tin
pa|>ei house Even the dog had learned it
from Ely’s joyously babbling bps. * Pamela
Drook* *' l.ueien said it over softly, as be
had done sometime^! in the barn dr in the
woods, wla it the name lmd Urn to him a
shadow a troubling, < lusive shadow, reluc
tantly recognized, but coldly intungibl- a
shadow between himself and Ely.
Sw * at came out on hi1’ ,brovv now, as it
did whenever ho thought cf that shadow, lie
wiped it away, tensely grateful for the- nar
row margin hv which that shadow had re
mained a shatjpw, had no\«r grown into a
barrier.
\\ half dozen times I came near telling
him A half dozen times l almost blurt* d
out something. Ho w;vs glad glad. For
now ih* s hade-w lirtween himself and Ely
was e\* > ■••ing. a darkness umch would not
Hit.
Al-r. { ra w wan falling outside, sifting
led. a;.a.n i the sin-1' v. lul -w. The wind
c am* i.i| tih d a \ tin* d« *•> , thrusting cold*
£UKi ; bp4 against - v< • crack.
■ c >1.1 i-iie.w wauls t" . »< ici and wni.fi
hi:', !*■ .’ Ki\ had said »v he never tho wind
mon -I* i out -i«l«■
Tie »**»g h nl not co • ! ok l.ueien Went
• • * H«» do* ’ , held H a»;.i nst the gale*, rhout
in; 1 ■ lie .1, j - . Hut his v* ice died,
oft hi h;*s lik» [ inol.r If. mode the ch or
fast and look to pad on tic room. Outside
the pines swish, d and liti r<d like idiotic
misers gat liering snow in their arms, hoard
ing it greedily against tho i..bber nun on the
morrow l.ueien flung down in a chui#.
"Four weeks. M> Clod-four w**» ks. It’s
breaking me. I can feel it. And now a 1 ig
snow coining!"
Against the foot of lie he d stood a guitar
He picked it up, turned the keys idly, plu<
ing at the strings. Strange minor intervals
Bounded from the untuned Instrument, dis
count, ted fragments of melody ns mourn
ful nnf* lone as the harping of tho whim,
l.ueien lingered and experimented and then
set the thing back against th»* bed.
, "C imT even dig up n tune, Ely." D s
sigdle was rueful.
"That had been Ely’s Job, always—dig
ging tip a tune "Dig up a tune, Eo«*>h,"
lie hud *-A. n sc led when the t*.lU broke cluun
in thi* middle of a pattern or the rabbits
came out of the woods and cleaned off the
flux. »*i i parching summer laid their com
low • I *jg up some kind of a tune She
might he worse.” A' .v.v» that way. Klv even now. "I>’g
up u tune, Ijoosli." tin* neutly, almost solemnly made 1 . d
seemed to give forth n voice, very weal;, hut undaunted.
“Can't be done. Hi;,. Can't bo done, boy!” That was the
way they began—talking to themselve “I'm getting if."
thought Lueien. ' I'm getting loony."
He sat up suddenly There's that blame fool dog. Won
der how long before I'll lie out, baying in the snow?"
Far down the road through the pine slashing he eontd
hear the bay of Chinook, sharp as a shot, even against the
trumpeting of the wind.
"He's got something. Somebody naught in the blow.
Man—the way Chinook iclps. I.ige Walker, ma; I* — la e
getting luick.”
He stoked the stove and opened the drafts so that tiie
Pl|»e glowed. The dog name nearer, his bugling 'Han on'
Ifau-oo!” marking his progress as di lii dely as thotvlilstle
of an engine, l-tuinn went close to the door and listen- •
i
“Horse! A plug, l.ord. wliat a fool." I In dragged i
hia heavy boots. A horse meant a stranger. Mo man v. .m
know the country would start out in a sleigh on a nigh;
like this. He could bear the creak of the runners, the t ad
yelp of tfie dog bounding alongside, th plunging ot a wind
>d horse. He saw a lantern. He wt udnred how they bad
held it against the v inl until lie noted that it was an tlei
trie ail'air, with a white concave eye rearfliing th v te
wilderness about tin nods •. I.ueieti . "inod tlie door.
“Hey, yon'" Tie v tul tore down bis throat as h’ rhou1. ...
Chinook came p ug, coat caked with hard drivi; :
snow, leaping with’dd four feet off th> ground.
“What you brought in out of tie wood**. boy?
Tho horse stopped, floundering do en \ unis front tin
house. A man ea ■ ■ luge Walker, luge Walker driving
a pung. Crazy- phi: t i razj’! Igjcieit s.-rumbled into I
eoat and dragged ti - coney cap o\u :• his ours.
“Get inside, you want to freeze to d. itlf. be derm ad
ed, as he shoved the dog irtside the ilcor. He strode don’t
the drifting path "I,lc< you damn fool, what you tryin'
do? Kill a good hot.
I.ige Walker, the garrulous and prot'atjc teamster, did
hot answer fur a m. then he elm ed bis throat
vously.
“LoohIi. I got .< I d. here—-—”
I.ucien froze in i - tracks. ' A !
“She's came alt r . ay from 1 .i11.■ 't tu ois to r .
I Just brought hm > > it lion u|u v :u.e It vn* cot"'
