T he lesser Primrose was a poet. It was believed in Grassy Ford, though the grounds seem vague enough now that I come to think of them, that he published widely in the literary journals of the day. Letitia was seen to post large envelopes, and anon to draw large envelopes from the post-office and hasten home with them. The former were supposed to contain poems; the latter, checks. Be that as it may, I never saw the Primrose name in print save in our Grassy Ford Weekly Gazette. There, when gossip lagged, you would find it frequently in a quiet upper corner, set "solid," under the caption "Gems"—a terse distinction from the other bright matters with which our journal shone, and further emphasized by the Gothic capitals set in a scroll of stars. Thus "Virtue is in thy modest glance, sweet child," and they are written in a flourished, old-fashioned hand. These and every other line her father dreamed there in his chair Letitia treasures in a yellow scrap-book made of an odd volume Editor Butters used to tell me of the soft-eyed girl, "with virtue in her modest glance," slipping suddenly into his print-shop, preferably after dusk had fallen, and of the well-known envelope rising from some sacred folds, he never quite knew where, to be laid tremblingly upon his desk. "Something from father, sir." It was a faint voice, often a little husky, and then a smile, a bow, and she had fled. Editor Nathaniel Butters had a weakness of the heart for all tender things—a weakness "under oath," however, as he once replied when I charged him with it, and as I knew, for I myself heard him one summer afternoon, as he sat, shirt-sleeved and pipe in mouth, perched on a stool, and setting type hard by a window where I stood beneath fishing with a dogwood wand. "The-oc-ri-tus! Humpf! Now, who in thunder cares a tinker's damn He was a rough, white-bearded, little, round, fat man, who showed me type-lice, I remember (the first and only time I ever saw the vermin), and roared when I wiped my eyes, though I've forgiven him. He was good to Letitia in an hour of need. Dr. Primrose, it seems, had written his masterpiece, a solemn, Dr. Johnsonian thing which he named "Jerusalem," and reaching, so old man Butters told me once, chuckling, "from Friday evening to Saturday night." The muse had "Print it, child? Of course he'll print it. It's the finest thing I ever did!" "True, father, but its length—" "Not longer than Milton's 'Lycidas,' my dear." "I know, but—he's so—he looks so fierce, father." She laughed nervously. "Who? Butters?" "Yes." "Tut! Butters has brains enough—" "It isn't his brains," replied Letitia. "It's his whiskers, father." "Whiskers?" "Yes; they bristle so." "Don't be foolish, child. Butters has brains enough to know it is worth the printing. Worth the printing!" he cried, with irony. "Yes, even though it isn't dialect." Dialect was then in vogue; no Grassy Ford, however small, in those days, but had its Rhyming Robin who fondly imagined that he might be another Burns. "Dialect!" the doctor repeated, scornfully, his eyes roving to the shabby ancients on his "Oh no, father. I didn't mean I was afraid, only he's so—woolly. You can hardly make out his eyes, and fire sputters through his old spectacles. I think he never combs his hair." "Does he ever grumble at you?" "Oh no"—and here she laughed—"that is, I never give him time; I run away." The old poet made no reply to her, but went on holding that soft little hand with the Horace in it, and gazing thoughtfully at his daughter's face. "We can send it by mail," he said at last. That roused Letitia. "Oh, not at all!" she cried. "Why, I'm proud to take it, father. Mr. Butters isn't so dreadful—if he is fuzzy. I'm sure he'll print it. There was that letter from Mr. Banks last week, a column long, on carrots." He smiled dryly at her over his opened book. "If only my 'Jerusalem' were artichokes instead of Saracens!" he said. The fuzzy one was in his lair, proof-reading at his unkempt desk. The floor was littered at his feet. He was smoking a black tobacco in a blacker pipe. He wore no coat, no cuffs, and his sleeves were—um; it does not matter. He glared ("carnivorously," Letitia tells me) at the opening door. "Evening," he said, and waited; but the envelope did not arise. So he rose himself, offering a seat in the midst of his clutter, a plain, pine, rope-mended chair, from which he pawed soiled sheets of copy and tattered exchanges that she might sit. "Looks some like snow," he said. "Yes," she assented. "I called, Mr. Butters—" She paused uncertainly. It was her own voice that had disconcerted her, it was so tremulous. "Another poem, I suppose," he said, fondly imagining that he had softened his voice to a tone of gallantry, but succeeding no better than might be expected of speech so hedged, so beset and baffled, so veritably bearded in its earward flight. "You—you mentioned snow, I think," stammered Letitia. He had "Snow and east winds are the predictions, I believe, Miss Primrose." "I dread the winter—don't you?" she ventured. "No," he replied. "I like it." "That's because you are—" "Because I'm so fat, you mean." "Oh no, Mr. Butters, I didn't even think of that; I meant so—" And then—heavens!—it flashed across her that she had meant "woolly"! To save her soul she could think of no synonyme. Her cheeks turned red. "I meant—why, of course, I meant—you're so well prepared." "Well prepared," he grumbled. "Why, yes, you—men can wear beards, you know." "Egad! you're right," he roared. "You're right, Miss Primrose. I am well mufflered, that's a fact." "But, really, it must be a great assistance, Mr. Butters." "Oh yes; it is—and it saves neckties." And this, mark you, was the way to Poetry! Poor Letitia, with the manuscript hidden beneath her cloak, was all astray. The image of the poet with Horace in his lap rose before her and rebuked her. She was tempted to disclose her mission, dutifully, there and then. "How is Mrs. Butters?" she inquired instead. "About as well as common, which is to say, poorly—very poorly, thank you." "Oh, I'm sorry." Editor Butters seemed downcast. "She's tried everything," he said. "Even had a pocket made in her gown to hold a potato and a horse-chestnut—but this rheumatism does beat all, I tell you. How's the old gentleman?" "The doctor says he will never walk." "Yes, so I heard," muttered the editor. "It's a damned shame." He was fumbling with his proofs and did not see her face—yet, after all, she could feel the sympathy even in his rudeness. "Still hatching poems, I suppose?" Her heart, which had warmed even as her "Well," Butters went on, gruffly, clearing his throat, "he's a good hand at it." He was not looking at Letitia, but kept his eyes upon a ring of keys with which he played nervously; and now when he spoke it was more spasmodically, as if reluctant to broach some matter for which, however, he felt the time had come. "Yes, he's a good hand at it. Used to be even better than he is now—but that's natural. I wish, though—you'd just suggest when it comes handy—just in a quiet sort of way, you know—some day when you get the chance—that he's getting just a leetle bit—you can say it better than I can—but I mean long-winded for the Gazette. It's natural, of course, but you see—you see, Miss Primrose, if we print one long-winded piece, you know—you can see for yourself—why, every other poet in Grassy Ford starts firing epics at "But, Mr. Butters, you printed Mr. Banks's letter on carrots, and that was—" The editor fairly leaped in his chair. "There, you have it!" he cried. "Just what I said! There's that confounded letter of Jim Banks's, column-long on carrots, a-staring me in the face from now till kingdom come when any other idiot wants to print something a column long. Just what I say, Miss Primrose; but you must remember that the readers of the Gazette do raise carrots, and they don't raise—well, now, for instance, and not to be mean or personal at all, Miss Primrose—not at all—they don't raise Agamemnons or Theocrituses. I suppose I should say Theocriti—singular, Theocritus; plural, Theocriti. No, sir, they don't Letitia, "Jerusalem" crushed in her right hand, had buried her face among the proof-sheets on his desk. Woolier than ever in his bewilderment, the editor rose—sat—rose again—patted gingerly (he "You m-mustn't mind, Mr. B-Butters," she said, smiling through her tears. "Why, say, Miss Primrose, if I'd a-dreamed—" "It's all my f-fault, Mr. B-Butters." "Damn it, no! It's mine. It's mine, I tell you. I might a-known you'd think I was criticising your father." "Oh, it's not that exactly, Mr. Butters, but you see—" She put her hair out of her eyes and smoothed the manuscript. "Egad! I see; you had one of the old gentleman's—" Letitia nodded. "Egad!" he cried again. "Let's see, Miss Primrose." "Oh, there isn't the slightest use," she said. "It's too long, Mr. Butters." "No, no. Let's have a look at it." "No," she answered. "No, it's altogether too long, Mr. Butters." "But let's have a look at it." She hesitated. His hand was waiting; but she shook her head. "No. It's the longest poem he ever wrote, Mr. Butters. It's his masterpiece." "By George! let's see it, then. Let's see it." "Why, it's as long, Mr. Butters—it's as long as 'Lycidas.'" "Long as—hm!" he replied. "Still—still, Miss Primrose," he added, cheerfully, "that isn't so long when you come to think of it." "But that's not all," Letitia said. "It's about—it's called—oh, you'll never print it, Mr. Butters!" She rose with the poem in her hand. "Print it!" cried Butters. "Why, of course I'll print it. I'll print it if every cussed poet in Grassy—" "Oh, will you, Mr. Butters?" "Will I? Of course I will." He took it from her unresisting fingers. "Je-ru-sa-lem!" he cried, fluttering the twenty pages. "Yes," she said, "that's—that's the name of it, Mr. Butters," and straightway set herself to rights again. |