Jim, in a constant tremble, as if he expected some dire accident to befall him, sat beside Mrs. Mayfield. Once he dropped a dish, and later leaning back in his chair, the hind legs of which were too short, tipped over and came near upsetting the table. Tom and Lou tittered; Jasper roared till the tears ran down his brown cheeks; Margaret reproved him and all was in confusion till Mrs. Mayfield's gentle words pattered musically among them like rain in the dust. She did not take notice of the ludicrous mishap, and when Jim had scrambled to his feet and was standing there ridiculous with a dry grin, she said to him: "I know you must be fond of books, and when I return home I will send you some—books that I have read and marked when the hours were long."
The preacher recovered himself. "Ma'm," said he, "in a book yo' pencil would make a high price mark, and from one man that I know of there could be no purchase."
"I gad," snorted Old Jasper, "dinged if he didn't git right up and stand higher than he was befo'."
"Jasper," Margaret protested, "I wouldn't make fun of the way a man stands. It don't sound right."
"My dear," Mrs. Mayfield replied to Margaret, motherly, though young, "he paid Mr. Reverend a pretty compliment."
"Now did he?" Margaret rejoined. "Wall, if he did I'm mighty glad of it, but the truth is, Miz Mayfield, Jasper is so full of his pranks you never can tell how to take him. Lou, why don't you pass the butter to Mr. Elliott; and the bread? Can't you see nothin' at all? I hope you will excuse her, Mr. Elliott, fur she sometimes furgits though she did go to school for two years over at Dry Fork."
Tom begged her not to worry about him. He was nearing that stage when physical appetite is forgotten, when our entire nature, faults, virtues, all littlenesses and greater qualities, are thrown into a heap to feed the bonfire of love. An old man may love like a fool, but the boy loves like a hero. The old man who believes that he is loved by a girl is a reveler in the debauchery of his own vanity. With an egotism unknown to youth, he believes. The "sweet thing" tells him with an air of wisdom that she could not love youth, that it is but an animated folly, and he believes her. But the boy is uncertain and doubts himself. His love, instead of inspiring confidence within his own breast, inhabits his heart with the ghost of fear. The old man talks platitudes and knows that he is convincing. The boy stammers his devotion and feels that he has failed.
"You ain't eatin' a thing," said Lou, and this bold boy in the city, but timid now, dropped a piece of bread, burnt himself with coffee and spluttered that never in all his life had he eaten so much. A bird lighted on the window sill, and whispering to Lou, he said that it had come to hear her talk, and to carry her music to the other birds to make them envious; and she spoke no word, but her cheeks replied to him. The old man was musing and saw nothing, but Margaret heard the words and saw the blush, and sitting back in her chair she compressed her lips and fanned herself in satisfied determination. Jim had become calm, though watchful and still on the dodge. Sometimes he started as if a bold thought with a sudden knock upon the prison door demanded liberation, but frightened at the sound of the struggling voice within he would seem to clap his hand over the key-hole, that no accent might escape. The old man was aware of these trials and they amused him and often he would duck his head and laugh over his plate. Margaret would clear her throat at him.
"Now, Jasper, what on top of yeth has tickled you so? A body to see you would think that thar wan't nuthin' serious nowhar. Oh, I like to see a man enjoy hisse'f, but—"
"But you don't," Jasper filled in, winking at Jim, who dodged as if an acorn had been flipped at his eye. "Ma'm," he added, "blamed if I believe a woman ever has a right good laugh after she's past thirty. About that time nature turns down the lamp for her and she begins to see shadows. If she does laugh much atter this it is at an enemy. She won't laugh with you—she laughs at you. You've got to look funny to her—you've got to have on suthin' that looks odd."