The Harvester Part 24

"Where is she?"

"In the next room."

At the sound of their voices a small girl came to the kitchen door.

"How do you do?" inquired the Harvester. "Is Mrs. Jameson asleep?"

"I don't know," answered the child. "She just lies there."

The Harvester gave her the gla.s.s. "Please fill that with water," he said. Then he picked up the bucket and went into the front room. When the child came with the water he took a bottle from his pocket, filled the spoon, and handed it to her.

"Hold that steadily," he said.

Then he slid his strong hands under the light frame and turned the face of the faded little creature toward him.

"I am a Medicine Man, Mrs. Jameson," he said casually. "I heard you were sick and I came to see if a little of this stuff wouldn't brace you up.

Open your lips."

He held out the spoon and the amazed woman swallowed the contents before she realized what she was doing. Then the Harvester ran a hand under her shoulders and lifting her gently he tossed her pillow with the other hand.

"You are a light little body, just like my mother," he commented. "Now I have something else sick people sometimes enjoy."

He held the fruit juice to her lips as he slightly raised her on the pillow. Her trembling fingers lifted and closed around the sparkling gla.s.s.

"Oh it's cool!" she gasped.

"It is," said the Harvester, "and sour! I think you can taste it. Try!"

She drank so greedily he drew away the gla.s.s and urged caution, but the shaking fingers clung to him and the wavering voice begged for more.

"In a minute," said the Harvester gently. But the fevered woman would not wait. She drank the cooling liquid until she could take no more.

Then she watched him fill a small pitcher and pack it in a part of the ice and lay some fruit around it.

"Who, Ruth?" she panted.

"A Medicine Man who heard about you."

"What will Henry say?"

"He won't know," explained the Girl, smoothing the hot forehead. "I'll put it in the cupboard, and slip it to you while he is out of the room.

It will make you strong and well."

"I don't want to be strong and well and suffer it all over again. I want to rest. Give me more of the cool drink. Give me all I want, then I'll go to sleep."

"It's wonderful," said the Girl. "That's more than I've heard her talk since I came. She is much stronger. Please let her have it."

The Harvester a.s.sented. He gave the child some of the fruit, and told her to sit beside the bed and hold the drink when it was asked for. She agreed to be very careful and watchful. Then he picked up the bucket, and followed by the Girl, returned to the woods.

"Now we have to begin all over again," he said, as she seated herself at the table. "Because of the walk in the heat, this time the programme is a little different."

He replaced the wafer box and opened it, filled the gla.s.s, and heaped the cold fruit.

"Your aunt is going to have a refreshing sleep now," he said, "and your mind can be free about her for an hour or two. I am very sure your mother would not want you deprived of anything because she missed it, so you are to enjoy this, if you care for it. At least try a sample."

The Girl lifted the gla.s.s to her lips with a trembling hand.

"I'm like Aunt Molly," she said; "I wish I could drink all I could swallow, and then lie down and go to sleep forever. I suppose this is what they have in Heaven."

"No, it's what they drink all over earth at present, but I have a conceit of my own brand. Some of it is too strong of one fruit or of the other, and all too sweet for health. This is compounded scientifically and it's just right. If you are not accustomed to cold drinks, go slowly."

"You can't scare me," said the Girl; "I'm going to drink all I want."

There was a note of excitement in the Harvester's laugh.

"You must have some, too!"

"After a while," he said. "I was thirsty when I made it, so I don't care for any more now. Try the fruit and those wafers. Of course they are not home made--they are the best I could do at a bakery. Take time enough to eat slowly. I'm going to tell you a tale while you lunch, and it's about a Medicine Man named David Langston. It's a very peculiar story, but it's quite true. This man lives in the woods east of Onabasha, accompanied by his dog, horse, cow, and chickens, and a forest full of birds, flowers, and matchless trees. He has lived there in this manner for six long years, and every spring he and his dog have a seance and agree whether he shall go on gathering medicinal herbs and trying his hand at making medicine or go to the city and live as other men. Always the dog chooses to remain in the woods.

"Then every spring, on the day the first bluebird comes, the dog also decides whether the man shall go on alone or find a mate and bring her home for company. Each year the dog regularly has decided that they live as always. This spring, for some unforeseen reason, he changed his mind, and compelled the man, according to his vow in the beginning, to go courting. The man was so very angry at the idea of having a woman in his home, interfering with his work, disturbing his arrangements, and perhaps wanting to spend more money than he could afford, that he struck the dog for making that decision; struck him for the very first time in his life----I believe you'd like those apricots. Please try one."

"Go on with the story," said the Girl, sipping delicately but constantly at the frosty gla.s.s.

The Harvester arose and refilled it. Then he dropped pieces of ice over the fruit.

"Where was I?" he inquired casually.

"Where you struck Belshazzar, and it's no wonder," answered the Girl.

Without taking time to ponder that, the Harvester continued:

"But that night the man had a wonderful, golden dream. A beautiful girl came to him, and she was so gracious and lovely that he was sufficiently punished for striking his dog, because he fell unalterably in love with her."

"Meaning you?" interrupted the Girl.

"Yes," said the Harvester, "meaning me. I----if you like----fell in love with the girl. She came so alluringly, and I was so close to her that I saw her better than I ever did any other girl, and I knew her for all time. When she went, my heart was gone."

"And you have lived without that important organ ever since?"

"Without even the ghost of it! She took it with her. Well, that dream was so real, that the next day I began building over my house, making furniture, and planting flowers for her; and every day, wherever I went, I watched for her."

"What nonsense!"

"I can't see it."

"You won't find a girl you dreamed about in a thousand years."

"Wrong!" cried the Harvester triumphantly. "Saw her in little less than three months, but she vanished and it took some time and difficult work before I located her again; but I've got her all solid now, and she doesn't escape."

"Is she a 'lovely and gracious lady'?"