CHAPTER XXVIII.
Daddy's Soliloquy—A Beer-Soaker—A Knock Down Argument—A Present for Little Wolf.
guess that ere Sherman won't be a hanging round the Honey no great deal after this; if he does I'll put another flea in his ear fur I ain't a going fur tu see her throwd away on no beer-soaker."
Thus soliloquized Daddy, as he watched with evident satisfaction, the hurried departure of the young gentleman, whom, when we last left him he had just released from his inevitable trap.
A horrible oath sounded in Daddy's ear, and he lay sprawling on the pavement. "Call me a beer-soaker again will you," and out rolled another oath, but Daddy did not hear it. The fall had stunned him, and he was taken up insensible.
Absorbed in the subject which was agitating his mind at the time he received the blow Daddy had raised his voice to a high pitch, and, "beer-soaker," rang out loud and clear, reaching the ear of a passer-by, who, being pretty well soaked in the beverage mentioned, or in something stronger, resented the imagined insult after the manner described.
Proud of his achievement, which he had just sense enough to see was not generally approved by the crowd that had gathered round, Daddy's assailant proceeded defiantly to defend his cruel deed. "He'd better never say beer-soaker to me again, the cursed scoundrel, nor look it either, curse him. Let any man in this crowd say that he didn't deserve what he got, and I'll——
"You'll come right along with me, my friend," and the foolish boaster was marched off by the city authorities, whom from past experience, he well knew it was useless to resist.
This same man, now led away amid the exertions of Daddy's friends, had gone out from his humble home that beautiful sunny morning with the solemn promise on his lips to keep sober for that one day at least. His hopeful long-suffering wife had watched lovingly his receding footsteps, as in days, when a fond husband and father, he always returned sober. All day long she went trustingly about her work with kind glad words to her little children, whose pleased surprise to receive, as of old, their father's fond caress, she delighted to imagine.
But alas! it was the old story. The man's will was too weak to withstand the pursuasions of drinking companions, and the tempttations of the liquor seller. He yielded, and, when once he had got the taste, wife and children and all were forgotten. At a late hour that night the little ones were put sadly away to bed; the supper table, spread in joy, was cleared away in sorrow, and the wife and mother was again doomed to wait, and watch, and weep.
But let us return to Daddy. Stretched on a couch of suffering he lies; impatient, vociferous and generally unmanageable.
"Hurry up that ere doctor afore I die," he exclaims; "hurry him up I say. Lord, that ere pain in my shoulder; now its in my long ribs; now its in my short ribs; I ken feel it clare down to my heel cord and toe cord. Take away that ere infernal brandy," he cried, raising his voice to its highest pitch, "ye don't spose I want fur to drink pison, do ye, when I'm most dead already?"
"But it will strengthen you, Daddy," said the attendant soothingly.
"It won't nuther. It will set me all on fire and I'll mortify afore the doctor gits here."
When Dr. Goodrich at length made his appearance, there was then enacted a scene, if possible, still more uproarious. Poor Daddy winced and groaned at every touch, and oftimes, commanded his physician to desist in his examinations of the injured parts. "Don't! Hold on there doctor, you'll yank me all to bits. There; stop that yanking; for the lord's sake, doctor, hold on there."
"I am holding on, Daddy," said the doctor very firmly, as he mended the dislocated shoulder.
The necessary surgical operation performed, and an opiate administrated, with the assurance that no serious results were to be apprehended, and Daddy's mind and body were soon at rest.
Meantime, in happy ignorance of Daddy's accident, Little Wolf and Fanny plodded homeward; the former deeply absorbed in thought, the latter blithe and airy, singing with the birds, and tripping and slipping in the dissolving snow.
The exuberance of Fanny's delight, however, began perceptibly to wane as they were about repassing the spot, where, a few hours before, they had paused to mourn and lament. Again she loitered by her companion's side, again she sighed, "Poor Fleet Foot;" but not again did Little Wolf yield to her feelings. Her tearless eyes looked straight forward, and she hurried by the frightful gorge, where lay the remains of her high-mettled and much loved pet.
On the brow of the hill she paused in surprise, for again she saw Wycoff with his face turned towards the brewery. On the present occasion he was mounted upon his favorite horse Black Hawk, and, having overtaken Hank Glutter, the two men were engaged in a conversation which we will here transcribe.
"How are you, Wycoff? Bound for the brewery this fine day?"
"Why no, Mr. Glutter, I have about made up my mind that you have got your share of my hard earnings this year, I guess I'll pay up my debts and keep clear of the brewery, and see how I'll come out about this time next spring."
"Why, I thought you were doing well enough, Wycoff," said Hank, uneasily.
"I'm sure your bill at the brewery is not large, considering."
"O, I don't complain of the charges, Mr. Glutter. As Miss DeWolf says, money is not the only thing you part with at a drinking saloon."
"O, you're being nosed about by Miss DeWolf, are you," said Hank contemptuously.
"I had as leif be nosed by a fine lady, as by a saloon keeper," said Wycoff, drawing himself up in his saddle.
"D——m the fine lady," said Hank between his closed teeth, "I'll attend to her case."
"Shame on the man that will threaten a lady," said Wycoff hotly.
"When women stoop to interfere with men's business, they must take the consequences, Wycoff. Shall I tell you what was done to a woman who went whining around trying to raise a prejudice against a respectable liquor dealer in the place where I once lived? One dark night her house was pretty well pelted with stones and brickbats. The windows and doors were broken in, and I do not know what the enraged crowd would have done had she not made good her escape."
"A low cowardly set, to attack a defenceless woman," said Wycoff, "but I've drank enough myself to know that under the influence of liquor, men will do almighty mean things. Every time I've passed the place where Fleet Foot lays, I have tried to make up my mind to give up drinking, and pay Miss De Wolf for the horse, like a man; and to-day I've come to the sticking point; I have promised to give up liquor, and in a few minutes I shall present Black Hawk to Miss DeWolf."
"Well, she had better mind her own business after this," said Hank with a sneer. "She has cheated me out of getting a first-rate clerk this morning. I will not brook her interference in my affairs. Let her beware, or I'll make this place too hot for her."
Wycoff's eyes flashed, and he extended his clenched fist towards Hank. "You will, will you?" said he defiantly; "now listen, you Glutter. If ever you attempt to harm that lady, I swear to you that this fist of mine shall batter your brains, and on Black Hawk she shall ride over your lifeless body."
Black Hawk pawed and snorted and turned his firey black eyes very wickedly upon Hank, as if to enforce his master's threat. He was a most magnificent animal; coal black, his silken coat, now curried with special care, shone resplendent in the noon-day sun.
As Wycoff rode off, Hank muttered to himself, "She shall never ride that horse."
Half an hour later, Hank had the mortification of beholding Little Wolf flying past his door seated, like a little queen, upon Black Hawk's back.
"She shall never ride that horse again," said the enraged saloon keeper, with an oath.
Wycoff had great difficulty in pursuading Little Wolf to except his present. Indeed she only consented when she became convinced that he would be seriously displeased by her refusal. Further to gratify the giver, she took her first ride under his immediate supervision; and, at his request, she had followed the road by the brewery, making a circle of about a quarter of a mile.
"Now that's what I call neatly done," said Wycoff, as Little Wolf drew up, and leaped from the saddle. "You are the first lady that ever backed Black Hawk," he said, patting the animal's neck. "The fact is, I had my doubts about your being able to ride him at all. I was afraid I would have to sell him and get a gentler beast, and I hated to do that, for I have raised him from a colt. As a general thing, he won't allow a stranger to come nigh him. I had to ride him myself at the races last September, for everybody was afraid of him. I won five hundred dollars on him though. I guess I had better stable him now; hadn't I? I'll be up here early to-morrow morning to see how Daddy gets along with him. I reckon the old man won't dare to go nigh him till he gets used to him."
