Maris (31 page)

"Well," said Mr. Mayberry, "that's wonderful! Why, Lane, I can't say thank you enough! Why, of course I'll accept that! It lifts a great burden off my shoulders. You are a dear lad! Your father's own son! But about my business--"

"Yes, about your business, Mr. Mayberry," said Lane quickly. "I was just coming to that. Maybe you'll think this is preposterous. I don't know, but perhaps when you think it over it won't seem quite so impossible as you think. You see, I'm out of a job for the summer, that is, when my detention camp is over, of course." He laughed. "You may think I'm very presumptuous, but I was going to propose that you let Merrick and me come in and help you out, at least while you are gone. Merrick tells me that his job ends on Saturday. Of course, he hasn't had experience in your office, but he's your son and would naturally guard your interests and could be manager, at least in name. And as for me, I've had a good bit of experience right along the lines of your business for the past three years out west. To tell you the truth, while I have two offers for fall, I'm not really satisfied about either of them. I have been waiting till things quieted down so that I could talk business with you. That's really one reason I came back here. You see, I've always wanted to be
in
business, not just to be working for somebody else. I've a few thousand to put in, and if you would be willing to try me out, there's nothing I'd rather do than be in business with you. I hope you don't think I'm too audacious."

"Audacious! Presumptuous! My dear boy, you are overwhelming! I can't think of anything more ideal than what you have proposed. But I couldn't think of having you put money into my poor struggling little business. It used, of course, to be good and thriving, but the Depression has knocked out the foundation from under it. I couldn't think of allowing you to risk money--"

"I don't feel it is any great risk," broke in Lane. "Frankly, I've studied over this thing for some time and know more about your business than you are aware. I'm certain that a bit of money just now, and one change in personnel that I have in mind, would put that business on its feet. Don't you feel so yourself?"

"Yes, I do!" said the broken man, his voice shaking with feeling. "Even a
little
money would help. But I couldn't let
you
take the risk--"

"There now!" said Lane, waving his hand. "I don't want to hear any more about that. It wouldn't be you
letting
; it would be me
putting
my money in your business. And that's what I want to do. You see, I don't know anybody in this wide world I'd rather be tied up with than you and Merrick. But even if you don't want me permanently, I figure that in the two weeks before the doctor lets your wife go away, Merrick and I could come down every day to the office and get to know enough about affairs to carry on while you are gone. Could you trust us that much?"

"Trust you?" said Mr. Mayberry. "
Trust
you? Well, I should say! But boy, you don't know how hard pressed I've been. I'm ashamed to tell you just how things stand. There have been three distinct times these last three years that I didn't know from day to day whether I was going to be sold out by the sheriff or not. But, please God, He's always seen me through so far. I'm not entirely down and out yet, but I'm so far near the edge again that I wouldn't dare let anyone else put his money in with me."

"Aw, say, Dad, whyn't you make him a full partner and I'll be the office boy, and let old Morgan go work for somebody else? I'll bet he's the one Lane wants to kick out anyway." He grinned at Lane's look of evident approval. "And you say he's always kicking for a higher salary and threatening to go to Chicago. Let him go! I can learn. I'll bet it won't take me two weeks to get on to enough to keep the old boat afloat while you go off with Mother on a second honeymoon."

They talked long, till the moon slipped down toward the rim of the west, its beams crept away across the lawn, and the world was very still and sweet.

Mr. Mayberry lay back in the big chair and let himself relax for the first time in months. At last he turned to Lane with a deep sigh of gratitude.

"You don't know what relief you have given me, son!" he said. "To tell the truth, I was hard pressed today. I didn't know which way to turn. Morgan got very ugly this morning. He says he has an offer from Chicago at almost twice the salary, and I didn't see just how I was to get along without somebody, yet I could not offer him more salary. But now it looks to me as if we might weather it. Now I can tell him in the morning that he can accept that Chicago offer and go as soon as he likes." There was eagerness and a new hope in his voice.

"Yes, but Dad, you'd better not let him go till Lane has been over his books. I never did trust that bird! You can't tell what he's pulled off."

"Well, we'll look into that, too! I haven't been so sure myself." Then he laid his hand on Lane's shoulder.

"I shall never forget this night," he said earnestly. "I shall never forget what you have done for me. You are like a real son. Merrick and I both feel so, don't we, boy?"

"Sure do!" said Merrick with a husky choke in his voice.

And as they walked through the shadows back to their respective homes, Lane was thinking in his heart that it wouldn't be long before he was a son indeed. But he wouldn't tell them just yet, not till he and Maris together could tell both mother and father.

 

 

On Monday morning Mr. Mayberry and Lane went down to the office. Merrick was through with his job driving the bus and went along. They went joyously, like three boys, and Maris stood in the door with a glad light in her eyes and watched them go. Everything seemed so wonderful! It was sweet to see the three men she loved going off together in that fellowship in a common cause. All eager for the same end.

Lexie was out of quarantine now, and the boys were allowed to come home. They came in shyly but with a new assured air. They were still cadets and on their honor to keep discipline, which discipline now included silence in or around the house. They walked around almost reverently, mindful that God was answering their nightly prayers. The first morning after they had slept at home, Maris found them in their rooms, quietly, precisely making their beds.

"Sure! We always do that!" said Alec with a grown-up air. "That's part of our daily routine!"

Gwyneth was very happy. She was out of quarantine in time to attend commencement and returned from a visit to her teacher with the joyous news that she had passed in all her studies.

The mother was well enough now to have the children tiptoe in every morning silently and kiss her hand and watch for her smile.

"Can't I even tell her I've had the measles?" asked Lexie eagerly.

"Not yet, dear. She would just worry over how much we had been through without her and think we were keeping a lot more things from her."

Maris herself was very happy. Lane was so wonderful! He satisfied her heart so fully! How had she ever imagined Tilford was anything at all to her? Oh, God was so good to her!

Quite swiftly the days went by, till the morning came when Lane was to drive the father and mother down to Virginia.

They kept everything very quiet till the last minute, though it was hard to keep the excitement out of the atmosphere.

It was Merrick who picked his little mother up and carried her down in his strong young arms to the comfortable place that had been prepared for her in the backseat, with the nurse close by her in one of the little middle seats and her husband in front with Lane, who was driving.

The mother gave the children a feeble wave of the hand and a tender smile as they stood grouped around Maris, with Merrick protectingly just at the side, and then they were gone.

And suddenly Gwyneth's eyes filled with tears.

"Sister, isn't our mother ever coming back again?"

"Why, of course, dear child. We hope she'll come back very soon and will be as well and strong as she ever was," said Maris, slipping a comforting arm around the little girl's shoulders, and then Lexie came stealing close to her on the other side and wiggled her hand into Maris's. And suddenly Maris felt how very dear they all were and how dependent just now upon her, and her heart thrilled with gladness that she was right here with them in their need and not careening through Europe with a sulky, selfish man, spending money for things that were not real and vital to her heart's joy. How good God had been to her!

And her eyes followed down the road, where she could still glimpse the outline of Lane's head and shoulder as he drove the car so steadily, bearing her mother away to rest and refreshment. What a lover, who loved her people also and would always be one with her in her love for them. One who would never be trying to wean her away from them or complain when they needed her. Ah, this was going to be true union of soul!

And all at once she saw that Tilford had only wanted her because he thought she was beautiful and would grace his home. How much he had harped on her beauty, until she herself had almost believed in it, too, though she knew now that mere loveliness of youthful outline and coloring were a poor foundation on which to build the happiness of a lifetime.

"Muvver tummin' back," echoed Lexie with dreamy eyes. "I want Muvver to turn wight around and tum back now. I wove Muvver."

"Well, Mother can't come right back," said Maris briskly. "We've got quite a lot to do to get Mother's room all fixed up pretty and new before she gets back. How would you like to help?"

"Oh, wes, wes!" cried Lexie, dancing up and down. "Vat can I do?"

"Well, how would you like to make a lovely sign to pin on the outside of her door for her to see the first thing before she goes into her room? I'll find you a nice big piece of cardboard, and you can have your new colored crayons and your stencils and color a letter every day till it's all done. Would you like that?"

"Oh, goody, goody," said Lexie. "Wes, I would like that. What would I say on the sign?"

"Well, you'll have to sit down and think about that. You want to get the very best words of course. You could say 'Welcome,' or 'Welcome home,' or if you don't get too tired working, you might say 'Welcome home, Mother dear!' "

"Wes!" said the little girl, with shining eyes.

"What about Father!" said Gwyneth sharply. "We'll be glad to see Father, too. You might make one for Father, Alec."

"Aw, naw, that's girls' work!" declared Alec loftily. "Lexie can put 'Father,' too. 'And Father,' she can say. I'm going to paint baseboards. I can do that real well, Lane said. You just put sheets of paper down on the floor very close to the wall, and then you hold your brush just so and paint very carefully. I learned how all right. I can do 'em swell. You want Mother's baseboards painted, don't you, Maris?"

"Why, of course!" said Maris, smiling. "We'll all work at that room. I suppose you could paint the doors, couldn't you, Eric?"

"Oh sure! I did all the doors of the kitchen over at the other house. You just go over and look at 'em."

"What can I do, sister?" asked Gwyneth in an aggrieved tone.

"Well, there are windows to wash and new curtains to make. Oh, we'll find a lot for you and me to do."

"Seems as if we ought to manage some new wallpaper," said Merrick as he picked up his hat and started toward the door to go to the office, himself the sole proprietor of the business until Lane returned.

"Yes, I was thinking of that. I wasn't sure whether we ought to spend the money just now. Of course, the paper itself won't cost much. It's the putting on. I wish I knew how. I believe I could manage it."

"No! You've got enough to do. I know a fellow who's a paperhanger, and he's out of a job just now. He'll do it cheap. I've still got a little of my bus salary left. I'll pay for the work if you'll get the paper, Maris."

"All right. We'll go down and choose it just as soon as we get the day's work out of the way."

So they scattered to make their beds, with happy voices and smiling eyes, and the first wrench of departure of Father and Mother was over. The children plunged happily into activities. Beds were made as if by magic, furniture was dusted, and garments picked up and put in place.

"Why couldn't we paint the cellar windows?" demanded the boys. "We can get some paint. I know what kind Lane got. We got some money we earned. I can get Lane's brushes. He won't mind."

So the boys went to work at the cellar windows, and quiet reigned in the yard, save for a bright whistle now and then.

Gwyneth took to washing the first-floor windows, with a little help now and then from Sally, and presently the boys finished the cellar windows and began on the first-story ones, finishing a whole window before Maris got around to notice and protest. But she found they had really done it well. Lane's coaching had not been altogether in vain, for, of course, they had had a lot of practice on Lane's house.

When Merrick came home at night, he stared at the improvement with wide eyes.

"Say, fellas, that's great work! I might take a stab myself after dinner. Got any paint left? Okay! How about my putting up the old ladder and doing the front gable before dark? Say, we can change the face of the mansion if we go about it right. Great work! I'm with you, lads!"

Meantime, in the house Maris was superintending a crayon sign by Lexie and a new bureau scarf that Gwyneth was cross-stitching intermittently with window washing.

The next two or three days went swiftly, and by the time Lane returned there was a distinct difference in the look of the old house, although, of course, there was still plenty left to be done.

Lane reported that the mother had borne the journey well and was enjoying the new surroundings, and the nurse felt it was going to make a great change in her in a short time.

Then they all settled down to a regular program--work, interspersed with more work of a different kind.

Lane entered right into everything. He and Merrick were very conscientious about the office and talked eagerly about their "prospects." He came back in the evening to do his part toward the painting, as interested as the rest in making the old house renew its youth.