Now Mr. Fluker had many and many a time acknowledged that he had ambition; so one night he said to his wife:
“You see how it is here, Nervy. Farmin’ somehow don’t suit my talons. I need to be flung more ’mong people to fetch out what’s in me. Then thar’s Marann, which is gittin’ to be nigh on to a growd-up woman; an’ the child need the s’iety which you ’bleeged to acknowledge is sca’ce about here, six mile from town. Your brer Sam can stay here an’ raise butter, chickens, eggs, pigs, an’—an’—an’ so forth. Matt Pike say he jes’ know they’s money in it, an’ special with a housekeeper keerful an’ equinomical like you.”
It is always curious the extent of influence that some men have upon wives who are their superiors. Mrs. Fluker, in spite of accidents, had ever set upon her husband a value that was not recognized outside of his family. In this respect there seems a surprising compensation in human life. But this remark I make only in passing. Mrs. Fluker, admitting in her heart that farming was not her husband’s forte, hoped, like a true wife, that it might be found in the new field to which he aspired. Besides, she did not forget that her brother Sam had said to her several times privately that if his brer Pink wouldn’t have so many notions and would let him alone in his management, they would all do better. She reflected for a day or two, and then said:
“Maybe it’s best, Mr. Fluker. I’m willin’ to try it for a year, anyhow. We can’t lose much by that. As for Matt Pike, I hain’t the confidence in him you has. Still, he bein’ a boarder and deputy sheriff, he might accidentally do us some good. I’ll try it for a year providin’ you’ll fetch me the money as it’s paid in, for you know I know how to manage that better’n you do, and you know I’ll try to manage it and all the rest of the business for the best.”
To this provision Mr. Fluker gave consent, qualified by the claim that he was to retain a small margin for indispensable personal exigencies. For he contended, perhaps with justice, that no man in the responsible position he was about to take ought to be expected to go about, or sit about, or even lounge about, without even a continental red in his pocket.
The new house—I say new because tongue could not tell the amount of scouring, scalding, and whitewashing that that excellent housekeeper had done before a single stick of her furniture went into it—the new house, I repeat, opened with six eating boarders at ten dollars a month apiece, and two eating and sleeping at eleven, besides Mr. Pike, who made a special contract. Transient custom was hoped to hold its own, and that of the county people under the deputy’s patronage and influence to be considerably enlarged.
In words and other encouragement Mr. Pike was pronounced. He could commend honestly, and he did so cordially.
“The thing to do, Pink, is to have your prices reg’lar, and make people pay up reg’lar. Ten dollars for eatin’, jes’ so; eleb’n for eatin’ an’ sleepin’; half a dollar for dinner, jes’ so; quarter apiece for breakfast, supper, and bed, is what I call reason’ble bo’d. As for me, I sca’cely know how to rig’late, because, you know, I’m a’ officer now, an’ in course I natchel has to be away sometimes an’ on expenses at ’tother places, an’ it seem like some ’lowance ought by good rights to be made for that; don’t you think so?”
“Why, matter o’ course, Matt; what you think? I ain’t so powerful good at figgers. Nervy is. S’posen you speak to her ’bout it.”
“Oh, that’s perfec’ unuseless, Pink. I’m a’ officer o’ the law, Pink, an’ the law consider women—well, I may say the law, she deal ’ith men, not women, an’ she expect her officers to understan’ figgers, an’ if I hadn’t o’ understood figgers Mr. Sanks wouldn’t or darsnt’ to ’p’int me his dep’ty. Me ’n’ you can fix them terms. Now see here, reg’lar bo’d—eatin’ bo’d, I mean—is ten dollars, an’ sleepin’ and singuil meals is ’cordin’ to the figgers you’ve sot for ’em. Ain’t that so? Jes’ so. Now, Pink, you an’ me’ll keep a runnin’ account, you a-chargin’ for reg’lar bo’d, an’ I a’lowin’ to myself credics for my absentees, accordin’ to transion customers an’ singuil mealers an’ sleepers. Is that fa’r, er is it not fa’r?”