“I says,” Caleb continued, anxious to inform me of his defense in my behalf, “that I didn’t blame you none.” He held out his hand gravely. “You show your good sense by leaving.”
“And will you say good-by to the judge for me?” I asked. I felt all choked up.
“Sure! Say, come back next summer and visit that lady friend of yours; that’s the way to do it—visit! I never could see what anybody wanted to buy one of them old houses for.”
A long whistle sounded.
“That’s your train,” said the Winkle-Man. “Oh, no hurry! It lets off steam five miles down the cape.”
I began to run, and passed other people doing the same thing. Half a dozen of us turned simultaneously at the crossing and arrived out of breath on the platform. There was so little to do in Star Harbor that it was easy to miss the only excitement. One got entirely out of the habit of keeping engagements.
There were two Fords drawn up, an old white horse and phaëton, the station-barge, and a two-wheeled wagon. A short-sleeved boy in one of the jitneys kept honking his horn, trying to hasten trade. The baggage-master importantly pushed his truck alongside the track, and some loafers, who had been sitting on their heels against the station, stood up. A sea-captain spit out his plug of tobacco and wiped off his face with a red handkerchief. We were all ready.
With a great grinding of brakes and shouting of orders the cape train rounded the curve and drew up at the end of the line. The engineer leaned out of the cab and began a conversation where he had left off yesterday with one of the yardmen. The mail and a bundle of newspapers were thrown out and snatched away. A clinking of milk-cans sounded from the baggage-car. Jasper was swinging off the last platform, and I rushed toward him, suddenly and unexpectedly dissolved in tears.
He looked so different from any one whom I had seen in five days that he seemed a magnificent stranger. He waved his hat, dropped his luggage, and ran to meet me. When I felt his rough, tweed coat against my face, I could hardly look up into his eyes. It was too much to believe that this was my husband.
“Jasper,” I said, “I nearly died while you were gone.”