Beware
Bellefonte, Pa., October 16, 1914.
—
The Story of
Waitstill
Baxter
By KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
Qepyright, 1913. by Kate Douglas Wiggin
> SYNOPSIS
‘Walitstill Baxter and her sister, Patience
disappeared, is interested in Walitstill.
takes care of his daft mother.
Mrs. Boynton expects her husband to
Jeturs. Rodman, a young boy, is a mem
of the Boynton household.
Ivory’s father abandoned his family to
follow Jacob Cochrane, a mystic. Pa-
tience chafes under her father’s stern
rule.
Patty has two admirers—Mark Wilson,
an educated young man, and Cephas Cole,
who is unlearned. Mark kisses her.
Walitstill is spending her life in loving
eare of Patience. Aunt Abby and Uncle
Bart Cole are friends of the whole com-
rarity.
Cephas Cole, tending store for Baxter,
proposes to Patty and is rejected. In his
agitation he lets the molasses run all
over the store floor.
ty), keep house for their widowed, |
father. Ivory Boynton, whose fa-
Although they love each other, Waitstill
and Ivory suppress their affection because
of their household cares.
Patty and Waitstill go to church, al-
though their father is too mean to give
them fitting garments. Waitstill sings in
the choir.
A strange young woman in the Wilson
pew, a visitor from Boston, makes Patty
Jealous. Haying time arrives.
Waitstill decides to disobey her father
by paying a visit to Mrs. Boynton. Uncle
Bart discourses to Cephas on woman's
ways.
Mrs. Boynton confides in Waitstill, tell-
ing the girl she believes Rodman is not
her sister's child, but she cannot be sure.
To punish Waitstill for disobedience
Deacon Baxter locks her out all night.
8be spends the night in the barn. Pa-
tience sympathizes.
Patience Baxter is embarrassed amid a
multitude of suitors. She thinks Mark is
fickle.
Trying to trace his father, Ivory writes
to Waitstill a long account of Boynton’s
following of Cochrane, with which Mrs.
Boynton was not in full sympathy.
The village gossips are busy with the
mames of Waitstill and Ivory, hut in a
friendly and sympathetic manner.
In Ivory’s absence young Rodman min-
isters to Mrs. Boynton. She is ill and
sends Rodman for Ivory.
Ivory receives proof of his father's death
and succeeds in convincing his mother of
ft. Waitstill volunteers her help in the
Boynton housekeeping.
Despairing of winning Patty, Cephas
turns his affections elsewhere. Patty and
Mark are now sweethearts.
Patty and Mark know Deacon Baxter
will not consent to their marriage, so
they plan an élopement to New Hamp-
shire.
Deacon Baxter is more than usually
“difficult.” Patty runs off with Mark, is
married and returns and tells Waitstill.
The deacon turns Patty out into the
cold. She finds shelter with Aunt Abby
and Uncle Bart.
Waitstill rises against her father and
tells him she will marry Ivory as soon as
he is ready to have her.
[Continued from last week.]
The old man was decidedly nervous
and intended to keep his temper until
there was a safer chance to let it fly.
‘Waitstill sat down. “There’s noth-
ing to talk over.” she said. “I have
done all that I promised my stepmoth-
er the night she died, and now 1 am
going. If there's a duty owed between
daughter and father it ought to work
both ways. I consider that I have
done my share, and now 1 intend to
seek happiness for myself. I have nev-
er had any. and I am starving for it.”
“An’ you'd leave me to git on the
best I can after what I've done for
You?” burst out the deacon, still trying
to hold down his growing passion.
“You gave me my life, and I'm thank-
ful to you for that, but you've given
me little since, father.”
“Hain’t I fed an’ clothed you?”
! _4No more than I have fed and cloth-
cefl you. You've provided the raw food,
:and I've cooked and served it. You've
ibought cloth, and I have made shirts
vand overalls and coats for you and
tknitted your socks and comforters and
:mittens. Not only have 1 toiled and
:sawed and scrimped away my girlhood
a8 you bade me, but I’ve earned for
“you. Who made the butter and took
care of the hens and dried the apples
and ‘drew in’ the rugs? Who raised
and ground the peppers for sale and
tended the geese that you might sell
thé feathers? No, father, I don’t con-
sider that I’m in your debt!”
Deacon Foxwell Baxter was com-
pletely nonplused for the first time in
his life. He had never allowed ‘“ar-
gyfyin’” in his household, and there
had never been a clash of wills before
this when he had not come off swiftly
and brutally triumphant. This situa-
tion was complicated by the fact that
he did not dare to apply the brakes as
usual since there were more issues in-
~ volved than ever before. He felt too
stunned to deal properly with this
daughter, baving emptied all the vials
of his wrath upon the other one and
being, in consequence, somewhat en-
feebled. It was always easy enough
to cope with Patty, for her imperti-
nence evoked such rage that the argu-
ment took care of itself, but this grave
young woman was a different matter.
There she sat composedly on the edge
of her wooden chair, her head lifted
high. her eolor coming and geing, ner
eves shining steadily like fixed stars:
there she sat, calmly announcing her
intention of leaving her father to shift
for himself. Yet the skies seemed to
have no thought of falling! He felt
that he must make another effort to as-
sert his authority.
“Now, you take off your coat,” he
said, the pipe in his hand trembling as
he stirred nervously in his chair. “You
take your coat right off an’ set down
to the supper table same as usual, do
you hear? Eat your victuals an’ then
go to your bed an’ git over this crazy
fit that Patience has started workin’
in you. No more nonsense now! Do
as I tell you!”
“I have made up my mind, father.
and it's no use arguing. All who try
to live with you fail sooner or later.
You have had four children. father.
One boy ran away; the other did not
mind being drowned, I fear, since life
was so hard at home. You have just
turned the third child out for a sin of
deceit and disobedience she would nev-
er have committed—for her nature is
as clear as crystal—if you had ever
loved her or considered her happiness.
So I have done with you, unless in
your old age God should bring you to
such a pass that no one else will come
to your assistance; then I'd see some-
how that you were cared for and nurs-
ed and made comfortable. You are not
an old man; you are strong and healthy,
and you have plenty of money to get
a good housekeeper. I should decide
tifferently perhaps if all this were not
true.”
“You lie! I haven't got plenty of
money!” And the deacon struck the
table a sudden blow that made the
china in the cupboard rattle. “You've
no notion what this house costs me,
an’ the food for the stock, an’ you two
girls, an’ labor at the store, an’ the
hayfield, an’ the taxes an’ insurance!
I've slaved from sunrise to sunset, but
I ain’t hardly been able to lay up a
cent. I s’pose the neighbors have been
fillin’ you full o' tales about my mis’-
able little savin’s an’ makin’ ’em into
a fortune. Well, you won't git any of
em, I promise you that!” el
“You have plenty laid away. Every-
body knows, so what's the use of de-
nying it? Anyway, I don’t want a
penny of your money, father, so good-
by. There’s enough ccoked to keep
you for a couple of days,” and Wait-
still rose from her chair and drew on
her mittens.
Father and daughter confronted each
other, the secret fury of the man met
by the steady determination of the
girl, The deacon was baffled, almost
awed, by Waitstill’s quiet self control,
but at the very moment that he was
half uncomprehendingly glaring at her,
it dawned upon him that he was beat-
en, and that she was mistress of the
situation.
Where would she go? What were
her plans? For definite plans she had,
to marry him as soon as he’s ready to
take me.”
This was enough to stir the blood of
the deacon into one last fury.
been blind as a bat an’ deaf as an ad-
der!” And he gave the table another
ringing blow before he leaned on it to
gather strength. “Of course it would
be ome o' that crazy Boynton crew
you'd take up with!” he roared. *Noth-
in’ would suit either. o’ you girls but
choosin’ the biggest enemies I've got
In the whole village!” |
“You’ve never taken pains to make
anything but enemies, so what could
we do?”
“You might as well go to live on the
poor farm! Aaron Boynton was a dis- |
rep’'table hound. Lois Boynton is as |
erazy as a loon, the boy is a nobody’s
child, an’ Tvory’s no better than a com- |
mon pauper!” |
“Ivory’s a brave, strong, honorable
man and a scholar too. I can work |
for him and help him earn and save,
as I have you.” i
“How long's this been goin’ on?”
The deacon was choking, but he meant
to get to the bottom of things while he
had the chance.
“It hasn’t gone on at all. He has!
never said a word to me, and I have!
always obeyed your will in these mat- |
ters, but you can’t hide love any more
than you can hide hate. I know Ivory
loves me, so I'm going to tell him that
my duty is done here and I am ready
to help him.”
“Goin’ to throw yourself at his head,
be you?” sneered the deacon. “By the
Lord, I don’t know where you two
girls got these loose ways o’ thinkin’
an’ actin’. Mebbe he won't take you,
an’ then where’ll you be? You won't
git under my roof again when you've
once left it, you can make up your
mind to that!”
“If you have any doubts about Ivo-
ry’s being willing to take me you'd
better drive along behind me and listen
while I ask him.”
Waitstill's tone had an exultant thrill
of certainty in it. She threw up her
head, glorying in what she was about
to do. If she laid aside her usual re-
serve and voiced her thoughts openly
it was not in the hope of convincing
her father, but for the bliss of putting
them into words and intoxicating her-
self by the sound of them.
“Come after me if you will, father,
and watch the welcome 1 shall get.
Oh, I have no fear of being turned out
by Ivory Boynton. I can hardly wait
to give him the joy I shall be bringing!
It’s selfish to rob him of the chance to
speak first, but I'll do it!” And before
Deacon Baxter could cross the room
Waitstill was out of the kitchen door
into the shed and flying down Town
House hill like an arrow shot free
from the bow.
The deacon followed close behind.
hardly knowing why. but he was no
match for the girl, and at last he stood
or she could not meet his eye with so
resolute a gaze. If she did leave him
how could he contrive to get her back !
again and so escape the scorn of the
village, the averted look, the lessened
trade?
“Where are you goin’ now?” he ask-
ed, and though he tried his best, he
could not for the life of him keep back
one final taunt. “I s’pose, like your
sister, you've got a man in your eye?”
He chose this, to him, impossible sug-
gestion as being the most insulting one
that he could invent at the moment.
“I have,” replied Waitstill, “a man
in my eye and in my heart. We should
have been husband and wife before
this had we not been kept apart by ob-
stacles too stubborn for us to over-
come. My way has chanced to open
first, though it was none of my con-
triving.”
Tad the roof fallen in upon him the
deacon could not have been more
dumfounded. His tongue literally clove
to the roof of his mouth. His face fell,
and his mean, piercing eyes blinked
under his shaggy brows as if seeking
light.
Waitstill stirred the fire, closed the
brick oven and put the teapot on the
back of the stove, hung up the long
handled dipper on its accustomed nail
over the sink and went to the door.
Her father collected his scattered
wits and pulled himself to his feet by
the arms of the high backed rocker.
“You shan’t step outside this room till
you tell me where you're goin’,” he
said when he found his voice.
“I have no wish to keep it secret. I
am going%to see if Mrs. Mason will
keep me tonight. Tomorrow I shall
walk down the river and get work at
~~
“You might as well go to live on the
poor farm!”
the mills, but on my way I shall stop at
the Boyntons’ to tell Ivory I am ready
helpless on the steps of the shed. shak- -
| 3 The First Na
i after her, words that it was fortunate
i hear.
“I might have guessed it if 1 hadn’t |
| darken my doors again, an’ never shall
I have to throw it into the river to
i spite you!”
ing his fist and huriing terrible words
for her peace of mind she could not
“A curse upon you both!” he cried
savagely. “Not satisfied with disobey-
in’ an’ defyin’ me, you've put me to
shame, an’ now you'll be settin’ the
neighbors ag’in me an’ ruinin’ my
trade. If you was freezin’ in the snow
1 wouldn’t heave a blanket to you!
If you was starvin’ I wouldn’t fling
either of you a crust! Never shall you
you git a penny o’ my money, not if
Here his breath failed, and he stum-
bled out into the barn whimpering
between his broken sentences like a
whipped child.
“Here I am with nobody to milk, nor
feed the hens: nobody to churn tomor-
row, nor do the chores; a poor, mis’
able creeter. deserted by my children,
with nobody to do a hand’s turn’ ’thout
| bein* paid for every step they take! |
I'll give ’em what they deserve. I
don’ know what, but I'll be even with
em yet.” And the deacon set his Bax-
ter jaw in a way that meant his deter-
mination to stop at nothing.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Sentry Duty.
VORY BOYNTON drove Some |
from the woods that same after-
noon by way of the bridge, in or-
der to buy some provisions at the
brick store. When he was still a long
distance from the bars that divided the
lane from the highroad he espied a
dark clad little speck ‘he knew to be
Rodman leaning over the fence, wait-
ing and longing as usual for his home-
coming, and his heart warmed at the
thought of the boyish welcome that
never failed.
The sleigh slipped quickly over the I’
hard packed, shining road. and the
bells rang merrily in the clear, cold
air, giving out a joyous sound that had
no echo in Ivory’s breast that day. He
had just had a vision of happiness
through another man’s eyes. Was he
always to stand outside the banqueting
table. he wondered. and see others
feasting while he hungered ?
Now: the little speck bounded from
the fence, flew down the road to meet
the sleigh and jumped in by the driv-
er’s side.
“I knew you'd come tonight,” Rod-
man cried eagerly. “I told Aunt Boyn-
ton you'd come.”
“How is she. well as common?”
“No, not a bit well since yesterday
morning, but Mrs. Mason says it's
nothing worse than a cold. Mrs. Ma-
son has just gone home, and wa've
had a grand housecleaning today.
She’s washed and ironed and baked,
and we've put Aunt Boynton in clean
sheets and pillowcases, and her room’s
nice and warm, and I carried the cat
[Continued on page 7. Col. 11
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