CHAPTER VII. The Colonel
When Eliph' Hewlitt stepped out of the hotel the next morning, after hehad eaten his breakfast, and stood, with a wooden toothpick between hislips, looking up and down the street, he felt a sense of exultation.If he had been a victorious general, and Kilo a captured city of greatimportance, he would have had a similar feeling. Already he felt that,if he was not the captor of the town, he was one of its importantcitizens, and practically the husband of an attractive woman whosefather owned sufficient property to be one of those who grumble abouttaxes.
To a man who had been a wanderer all his life it was pleasant to feelthat he was soon to be kin to all the things he saw on Main Street,brother to the town-pump and cousin to the flag pole, and to considerthat even the well-gnawed hitching rails were to be part of his futureyears. He nodded across the street to Billings, the grocer and generalstore man, as if he was an old acquaintance, and he watched Skinner, thebutcher, sweeping the walk, with a pleasant smile, for he saw in him afuture friend. He loved Kilo, and he was ready to like everything, fromthe post office to the creamery. His whole future seemed destined to besimple and pleasant, for he was resolved to do his best to make the townlike him, and there seemed little opportunity for complications in atown that could all be seen at one glance.
Strangers think all small towns simple. The few stores are all plainlylabeled, the streets run at right angles, and the houses are set wellapart, like big letters in a primer. A small town looks like a storywithout a plot, like: "See the cat. Does the cat see me? The cat seesthe dog;" beside which a city is as unfathomable as a Henry Jamesparagraph. To the stranger each man and woman he meets is a completeindividual, each standing alone, like letters on an alphabet block, andnot easily to be confused, one with the other. But these letters of thesmall town's alphabet are often tangled into as long and complex wordsas those of the greatest city; it takes but twenty-six letters to spellall the passions. The letter A, that looked so distinctly separate, issoon found to be connected with C and T in Cat, and with W and R in War,as well as cross-connected with the C and W in Caw, and with T and R inTar; while the houses that stood so seemingly alone are all connectedand criss-crossed by lines of love and hate, of petty policy and revengeand pride, quite as are nations or people who live in labyrinths, or ina metropolis.
It was still too early in the morning for Eliph' Hewlitt to call on MissSally, and there was no haste; the day was long. He even doubted whetherit would be good policy to call on her in the morning; he might findher busy with household cares. Probably it would be best to wait for theafternoon, when she would be at leisure. This, he decided would bebest. He would arrive in her presence at two o'clock, and four hours ofconversation would carry them to the point of being well acquainted, asadvised by Jarby's Encyclopedia. The next day he could enter the secondstage of the directions, and call with a book, present it; call afterdinner with a box of candy, present it; call after supper, and proposea walk, visit the ice cream parlor, and on the way home offer his hand,and be accepted. The chapter on "Courtship--How to Win the Affections"advised against haste, and Eliph' did not wish to be hasty. To a manof his spirit two days seemed rather long to devote to so simple amatter--a real waste of time--but he was willing to take longer thannecessary, in order to follow the directions in spirit, as well as inletter.
Eliph' settled himself into one of the chairs before the hoteland opened his copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia at the chapter on"Courtship--How to Win the Affections." He was deep in it when thelandlord strolled around from the livery stable and sank into a chair byhis side.
"So you made up your mind to stay here, Sammy?" he asked. "I guess thetown'll be glad enough to have you. All this town needs to be a bigplace is inhabitants. What you ought to do now it to settle down forgood, an' get married. There's some purty fine women in this town thatain't picked up yet, but they won't last long, they way they're goin'.Somebody gets married every couple of months."
Eliph' looked up with a smile. Jim Wilkins did not know he had advisedthe very thing he meant to do.
"I've thought some about it," said Eliph', "'most everybody's gettingmarried now-a-days."
"It's the popular thing 'round here," said Jim. "Look across the street,yonder. See that feller just goin' up to the lawyer's office? He's onethat's in the marry class, just now. That's Colonel Guthrie. He livesout on the first farm beyond Main Street, and he's goin' to marry SallyBriggs, daughter of old Pap Briggs, that we was talkin' to last night,here."
Eliph' Hewlitt stared at the Colonel, but he said nothing. He blamedhimself; he had wasted his opportunity. This was what came of beingslow! He should have completed his courtship at the picnic, or lastnight at the sale. Jim Wilkins interrupted the thought.
"Leastways," he said, "HE'LL get her if Skinner don't. It's a close runbetween him an' Skinner. Skinner ain't so good lookin' as the Colonel,but he's better fixed. It's Skinner owns our butcher-shop, an' it'sSkinner is buildin' our Opery House Block. Some say Skinner'll get PapBriggs' money, an' some says the Colonel will."
"Are there any others?" asked Eliph', looking down the street to wherethe raw brick of the opera house glowed in the sun.
"After Sally?" asked Jim Wilkins. "Well, there's sev'ral would like toget her, I dare say. Sally Briggs is a pretty fine sort of woman, an'Pap Briggs has quite considerable money, but the Colonel an' Skinner hasthe inside track. No one else has a chance."
Eliph' stroked his whiskers softly and coughed gently behind his hand.
"Briggs, did you say the name was?" he asked. "Seems to me I met a ladyat a picnic up Clarence way that had that name. You said the name wasSally Briggs?"
"That's her," said Wilkins. "Sally Ann Briggs. She's been visitin' upthere in Clarence."
Eliph' nodded his head slowly.
"I seem to recollect her, since you mention it," he said indifferently,and then he added, "She spoke as if she might buy a copy of Jarby'sEncyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Artwhen I saw her at that picnic. I guess I'll drop 'round and see if she'sready to buy. If she' goin' to be married she ought to have a copy."
Kilo : being the love story of Eliph' Hewlitt, book agent Page 7