Chapter X: Part 10

"That's as sure as shootin'," said Caleb. "Do you know that in spite of the cyclone the store has done twice as much business since you came as it ever did before in the same months? I'd be downright sorry for the other merchants in town if I didn't believe that we're soon goin' to have a big increase of population, and there'll be business enough for all. Philip deserves credit for a lot of the new business, an' his wife for more, which isn't Philip's fault, but his fortune in havin' married just that sort of woman. If nobody else'll say it, I s'pose it won't be presumin' for me to say that a small percentage of the increase o' the last two or three months has come through a young woman whose name used to be Mary Truett."

"Small percentage, indeed!" Grace exclaimed. "Mary has secured more new business than I did in the same number of weeks, and she has done it so easily, too. She never seems to be thinking of business when she's talking to a customer, yet she instinctively knows what each woman wants, and places the proper goods before her, while I, very likely, would be thinking more of the woman than of the business."

"That's merely a result of experience," said Mary. "I'm nearly thirty, with a business experience of ten years; you were a mere chit of twenty-three when you married. Still, I don't believe any hired clerk, of no matter how many years' experience, could do half as well as either of us."

"For the very good reason," said Philip, "that both of you are practically owners of the business. No clerk can be as useful in any business as one of the proprietors."

"That remark would 'a' hurt my feelin's, a year ago," said Caleb; "but since my name went on that sign over the door, I've been lookin' backward at my old self a lot, an' lookin' down on my old self, too. Perhaps the difference has come o' gettin' rid o' malaria, perhaps o' takin' a wife; but I'm goin' to make b'lieve, after makin' full allowance for ev'rythin' else, that nobody can bring out the best that's in him until he begins to work for himself."

"No other person would dare criticise your old self in my presence, Caleb," said Philip, "but you've certainly acquired a new manner in business, and it's extremely fetching in more senses than one. One of the best things about it is that the natives notice it, and talk of it to one another, and are pleased by it, for you're one of them, you know. I'm a mere outsider."

"Do they really notice it?" asked Caleb, with a suggestion of the old-time pathos in his face and voice, "an' are they really pleased? Because, as you say, I'm really one of 'em, an' I'm proud of it. I've gone through pretty much ev'rythin' they have--'specially the malaria, an' now that their good times are comin', I'm glad I'm with 'em. But to think--" here he walked deliberately to a mirror and studied his own face for a moment--"to think that only so little time ago as when you came here I felt like an old, used-up man, an' I'd put my house in order, so to speak, against the time when I should have my last tussle with malaria, an' go under, with the hope o' goin' upward."

"That was before you met Mary," Grace suggested.

"Yes; that's so."

"And he must get rid of Mary before he can ever have an opportunity to feel that way again," said the lady referred to, as she looked proudly at her husband. "Old! Used up! The most spirited, active, hopeful, cheerful man I ever met! But, really, you were different, Caleb, when I first saw you; it doesn't seem possible that you're the same man. From what I've seen of the people here, I believe it is one of the ways of the West for men to try to look older than they are; you must use your influence--and example--to make them stop it. In New York a man seldom looks old until he is very near the grave; the most active and fine-looking business men are beyond threescore, as a rule--about twenty years older than you, Caleb."

"Ye--es, but they weren't brought up on malaria, pork, plough-handles, an' saleratus biscuit," said Caleb. "There's hope for a change here, though. Doc Taggess says there's nothin' like as much malaria in town as there was before the swamps were drained, and the good times comin', because o' the railroad, 'll make some more changes for the better, for all of us."

For a few moments each member of the quartet seemed to have dropped into revery. The silence was broken by Philip, who said:--

"Caleb, a year ago even you would not have dared to prophesy the changes that have been made, and those which are within sight, yet to you belongs the credit for all of them."

"To me? Well, I've heard and seen so many amazin' calculations in the past three months that I'm prepared to stand up under almost anythin', but I'd like to know how you figure it out that I've done anythin' in particular."

"'Tis easily told. If you hadn't fallen in love with Miss Truett, and she with you, her brother wouldn't have come out here, and the malaria wouldn't have been drained from the swamps, and the railway wouldn't have been projected, and the farmers wouldn't have become owners of guaranteed stocks, which has put new life into many of them, and there'd have been no inducement for manufacturers to use our water-power and our hard woods, and no bank would have been possible, nor any of the public improvements,--paving, water service, and others that will soon be under way. Don't you see?"

"Ye--es, as far as you've gone, but I wouldn't have known there was such a person as Mary--bless her!--if you hadn't sent me East, an' your wife--bless her too--hadn't given me a letter of introduction to Mary, so I don't see but that honors are about even. You might as well go back a little further, though, and say that you wouldn't have been here to send me East if your Uncle Jethro hadn't loved your father, an' made up his mind that your father's son shouldn't fool away his life in pleasin' his eyes an' fancies in New York, but should get the disciplinin' that makes a man out of a youngster that's got the real stuff born in him."

"Caleb, what are you saying?"

"Exactly what your Uncle Jethro said to me--an' to nobody else. Mebbe I hadn't ought to have let it out; mebbe, on the other hand, it may make you feel kindlier to your Uncle Jethro. But, to go on backward, there wouldn't have been any Jethro to lay up a business start for you if the Somerton family hadn't begun somewhere back in the history of the world, an' when you get that far back you might as well go farther an' say that if Noah hadn't built the ark, or if he'd been in too big a hurry to get out of it, there wouldn't have been any of us to do anythin'. I tell you, Philip, an' just you keep it in mind against anythin' that may turn up anywhere or at any time, that when there's any glory or credit to be given out, an' you want to do the square thing, you'll have to spread it so thin that nobody'll get enough of it to make him feel over an' above cocky."

* * * * *

People, like nations, usually become happy in prosperity, but through prosperity their lives become less eventful, and consequently less interesting to other people. The water-power of Claybanks' "crik" was soon developed, and the mills that were erected, and the people who came to them, made new demands and prices for real estate, as well as for certain farm products. But before all this had come to pass Grace made haste to gratify a consuming desire to spend the springtime at her birthplace in the East. While she was there, Caleb one day received the following despatch from Philip:--

"Caleb Wright Somerton born last night. May he become
as good a man as you."

Caleb showed the despatch to his wife, and then started to put it between the leaves of his Bible; but Mary made haste to put it in a frame, under glass, and affix it to the front of the store, to the great interest of the people of Claybanks and vicinity and to the great benefit of the business of Somerton & Wright.

D'ri and I

By IRVING BACHELLER, author of "EBEN HOLDEN." Bound in red silk cloth, illustrated cover, gilt top, rough edges. Eight drawings by F. C. Yohn. Size, 5 x 7¾. Price, $1.50

A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British. Being the Memoirs of Colonel Ramon Bell, U.S.A. And a Romance of Sturdy Americans and Dainty French Demoiselles.

PHILADELPHIA PRESS:

"An admirable story, superior in literary workmanship
and imagination to 'Eben Holden.'"

NEW YORK WORLD:

"Pretty as are the heroines, gallant as Captain Bell
proves himself, the reader comes back with even keener
zest to the imperturbable D'ri. He is a type of the
American--grit, grim humor, rough courtesy, and all.
It is a great achievement, upon which Mr. Bacheller
is to be heartily congratulated, to have added to the
list of memorable figures in American fiction, two such
characters as D'ri and Eben Holden."

BOSTON BEACON:

"Mr. Bacheller has the art of the born story teller.
'D'ri and I' promises to rival 'Eben Holden' in
popularity."

ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT:

"The admirers of 'Eben Holden,' and they were legion,
will welcome another story by its author, Irving
Bacheller, who in 'D'ri and I' has created quite as
interesting a character as the sage of the North land
who was the hero of the former story."

Lothrop Publishing Company - - Boston

When the Land was Young

Being the True Romance of Mistress Antoinette Huguenin and Captain Jack Middleton

By LAFAYETTE McLAWS. Bound in green cloth, illustrated cover, gilt top, rough edges. Six drawings by Will Crawford. Size, 5 x 7¾. Price, $1.50

The heroine, Antoinette Huguenin, a beauty of King Louis' Court, is one of the most attractive figures in romance; while Lumulgee, the great war chief of the Choctaws, and Sir Henry Morgan, the Buccaneer Knight and terror of the Spanish Main, divide the honors with hero and heroine. The time was full of border wars between the Spaniards of Florida and the English colonists, and against this historical background Miss McLaws has thrown a story that is absorbing, dramatic, and brilliant.

NEW YORK WORLD:

"Lovely Mistress Antoinette Huguenin! What a girl she
is!"

NEW YORK JOURNAL:

"A story of thrill and adventure."

SAVANNAH NEWS:

"Among the entertaining romances based upon the
colonial days of American history this novel will
take rank as one of the most notable--a dramatic and
brilliant story."

ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT:

"If one is anxious for a thrill, he has only to read a
few pages of 'When the Land was Young' to experience
the desired sensation.... There is action of the most
virile type throughout the romance.... It is vividly
told, and presents a realistic picture of the days
'when the land was young.'"

Lothrop Publishing Company - - Boston

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

Page 21, "portmonnaie" changed to "portemonnaie" (also
a portemonnaie containing)

Page 59, "buscuits" changed to "biscuits" (fried
potatoes, tea-biscuits)

Page 267, "that" changed to "than" (luxury than Queen
Elizabeth)