He did not know who she was and he gazed at her with disfavour. Norman Douglas liked girls of spirit and flame and laughter. At this moment Faith was very pale. She was of the type to which colour means everything. Lacking her crimson cheeks she seemed meek and even insignificant. She looked apologetic and afraid, and the bully in Norman Douglas’s heart stirred.
“Who the dickens are you? And what do you want here?” he demanded in his great resounding voice, with a fierce scowl.
For once in her life Faith had nothing to say. She had never supposed Norman Douglas was like THIS. She was paralyzed with terror of him. He saw it and it made him worse.
“What’s the matter with you?” he boomed. “You look as if you wanted to say something and was scared to say it. What’s troubling you? Confound it, speak up, can’t you?”
No. Faith could not speak up. No words would come. But her lips began to tremble.
“For heaven’s sake, don’t cry,” shouted Norman. “I can’t stand snivelling. If you’ve anything to say, say it and have done. Great Kitty, is the girl possessed of a dumb spirit? Don’t look at me like that — I’m human — I haven’t got a tail! Who are you — who are you, I say?”
Norman’s voice could have been heard at the harbour. Operations in the kitchen were suspended. Mrs. Wilson was listening open-eared and eyed. Norman put his huge brown hands on his knees and leaned forward, staring into Faith’s pallid, shrinking face. He seemed to loom over her like some evil giant out of a fairy tale. She felt as if he would eat her up next thing, body and bones.
“I — am — Faith — Meredith,” she said, in little more than a whisper.
“Meredith, hey? One of the parson’s youngsters, hey? I’ve heard of you — I’ve heard of you! Riding on pigs and breaking the Sabbath! A nice lot! What do you want here, hey? What do you want of the old pagan, hey? I don’t ask favours of parsons — and I don’t give any. What do you want, I say?”
Faith wished herself a thousand miles away. She stammered out her thought in its naked simplicity.
“I came — to ask you — to go to church — and pay — to the salary.”
Norman glared at her. Then he burst forth again.
“You impudent hussy — you! Who put you up to it, jade? Who put you up to it?”
“Nobody,” said poor Faith.
“That’s a lie. Don’t lie to me! Who sent you here? It wasn’t your father — he hasn’t the smeddum of a flea — but he wouldn’t send you to do what he dassn’t do himself. I suppose it was some of them confounded old maids at the Glen, was it — was it, hey?”
“No — I — I just came myself.”
“Do you take me for a fool?” shouted Norman.
“No — I thought you were a gentleman,” said Faith faintly, and certainly without any thought of being sarcastic.
Norman bounced up.
“Mind your own business. I don’t want to hear another word from you. If you wasn’t such a kid I’d teach you to interfere in what doesn’t concern you. When I want parsons or pill-dosers I’ll send for them. Till I do I’ll have no truck with them. Do you understand? Now, get out, cheese-face.”
Faith got out. She stumbled blindly down the steps, out of the yard gate and into the lane. Half way up the lane her daze of fear passed away and a reaction of tingling anger possessed her. By the time she reached the end of the lane she was in such a furious temper as she had never experienced before. Norman Douglas’ insults burned in her soul, kindling a scorching flame. Go home! Not she! She would go straight back and tell that old ogre just what she thought of him — she would show him — oh, wouldn’t she! Cheese-face, indeed!
Unhesitatingly she turned and walked back. The veranda was deserted and the kitchen door shut. Faith opened the door without knocking, and went in. Norman Douglas had just sat down at the supper table, but he still held his newspaper. Faith walked inflexibly across the room, caught the paper from his hand, flung it on the floor and stamped on it. Then she faced him, with her flashing eyes and scarlet cheeks. She was such a handsome young fury that Norman Douglas hardly recognized her.
“What’s brought you back?” he growled, but more in bewilderment than rage.
Unquailingly she glared back into the angry eyes against which so few people could hold their own.
“I have come back to tell you exactly what I think of you,” said Faith in clear, ringing tones. “I am not afraid of you. You are a rude, unjust, tyrannical, disagreeable old man. Susan says you are sure to go to hell, and I was sorry for you, but I am not now. Your wife never had a new hat for ten years — no wonder she died. I am going to make faces at you whenever I see you after this. Every time I am behind you you will know what is happening. Father has a picture of the devil in a book in his study, and I mean to go home and write your name under it. You are an old vampire and I hope you’ll have the Scotch fiddle!”
Faith did not know what a vampire meant any more than she knew what the Scotch fiddle was. She had heard Susan use the expressions and gathered from her tone that both were dire things. But Norman Douglas knew what the latter meant at least. He had listened in absolute silence to Faith’s tirade. When she paused for breath, with a stamp of her foot, he suddenly burst into loud laughter. With a mighty slap of hand on knee he exclaimed,
“I vow you’ve got spunk, after all — I like spunk. Come, sit down — sit down!”
“I will not.” Faith’s eyes flashed more passionately. She thought she was being made fun of — treated contemptuously. She would have enjoyed another explosion of rage, but this cut deep. “I will not sit down in your house. I am going home. But I am glad I came back here and told you exactly what my opinion of you is.”
“So am I — so am I,” chuckled Norman. “I like you — you’re fine — you’re great. Such roses — such vim! Did I call her cheese-face? Why, she never smelt a cheese. Sit down. If you’d looked like that at the first, girl! So you’ll write my name under the devil’s picture, will you? But he’s black, girl, he’s black — and I’m red. It won’t do — it won’t do! And you hope I’ll have the Scotch fiddle, do you? Lord love you, girl, I had IT when I was a boy. Don’t wish it on me again. Sit down — sit in. We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness.”
“No, thank you,” said Faith haughtily.
“Oh, yes, you will. Come, come now, I apologize, girl — I apologize. I made a fool of myself and I’m sorry. Man can’t say fairer. Forget and forgive. Shake hands, girl — shake hands. She won’t — no, she won’t! But she must! Look-a-here, girl, if you’ll shake hands and break bread with me I’ll pay what I used to to the salary and I’ll go to church the first Sunday in every month and I’ll make Kitty Alec hold her jaw. I’m the only one in the clan can do it. Is it a bargain, girl?”
It seemed a bargain. Faith found herself shaking hands with the ogre and then sitting at his board. Her temper was over — Faith’s tempers never lasted very long — but its excitement still sparkled in her eyes and crimsoned her cheeks. Norman Douglas looked at her admiringly.
“Go, get some of your best preserves, Wilson,” he ordered, “and stop sulking, woman, stop sulking. What if we did have a quarrel, woman? A good squall clears the air and briskens things up. But no drizzling and fogging afterwards — no drizzling and fogging, woman. I can’t stand that. Temper in a woman but no tears for me. Here, girl, is some messed up meat and potatoes for you. Begin on that. Wilson has some fancy name for it, but I call lit macanaccady. Anything I can’t analyze in the eating line I call macanaccady and anything wet that puzzles me I call shallamagouslem. Wilson’s tea is shallamagouslem. I swear she makes it out of burdocks. Don’t take any of the ungodly black liquid — here’s some milk for you. What did you say your name was?”
“Faith.”
“No name that — no name that! I can’t stomach such a name. Got any other?”
“No, sir.”
“Don’t like the name, don’t like it. There’s no smeddum to it. Besides, it makes me think of my Aunt Jinny. She
called her three girls Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith didn’t believe in anything — Hope was a born pessimist — and Charity was a miser. You ought to be called Red Rose — you look like one when you’re mad. I’LL call you Red Rose. And you’ve roped me into promising to go to church? But only once a month, remember — only once a month. Come now, girl, will you let me off? I used to pay a hundred to the salary every year and go to church. If I promise to pay two hundred a year will you let me off going to church? Come now!”
“No, no, sir,” said Faith, dimpling roguishly. “I want you to go to church, too.”
“Well, a bargain is a bargain. I reckon I can stand it twelve
times a year. What a sensation it’ll make the first Sunday I go!
And old Susan Baker says I’m going to hell, hey? Do you believe
I’ll go there — come, now, do you?”
“I hope not, sir,” stammered Faith in some confusion.
“WHY do you hope not? Come, now, WHY do you hope not? Give us a reason, girl — give us a reason.”
“It — it must be a very — uncomfortable place, sir.”
“Uncomfortable? All depends on your taste in comfortable, girl.
I’d soon get tired of angels. Fancy old Susan in a halo, now!”
Faith did fancy it, and it tickled her so much that she had to laugh. Norman eyed her approvingly.
“See the fun of it, hey? Oh, I like you — you’re great. About this church business, now — can your father preach?”
“He is a splendid preacher,” said loyal Faith.
“He is, hey? I’ll see — I’ll watch out for flaws. He’d better be careful what he says before ME. I’ll catch him — I’ll trip him up — I’ll keep tabs on his arguments. I’m bound to have some fun out of this church going business. Does he ever preach hell?”
“No — o — o — I don’t think so.”
“Too bad. I like sermons on that subject. You tell him that if he wants to keep me in good humour to preach a good rip-roaring sermon on hell once every six months — and the more brimstone the better. I like ’em smoking. And think of all the pleasure he’d give the old maids, too. They’d all keep looking at old Norman Douglas and thinking, ‘That’s for you, you old reprobate. That’s what’s in store for YOU!’ I’ll give an extra ten dollars every time you get your father to preach on hell. Here’s Wilson and the jam. Like that, hey? IT isn’t macanaccady. Taste!”
Faith obediently swallowed the big spoonful Norman held out to her. Luckily it WAS good.
“Best plum jam in the world,” said Norman, filling a large saucer and plumping it down before her. “Glad you like it. I’ll give you a couple of jars to take home with you. There’s nothing mean about me — never was. The devil can’t catch me at THAT corner, anyhow. It wasn’t my fault that Hester didn’t have a new hat for ten years. It was her own — she pinched on hats to save money to give yellow fellows over in China. I never gave a cent to missions in my life — never will. Never you try to bamboozle me into that! A hundred a year to the salary and church once a month — but no spoiling good heathens to make poor Christians! Why, girl, they wouldn’t be fit for heaven or hell — clean spoiled for either place — clean spoiled. Hey, Wilson, haven’t you got a smile on yet? Beats all how you women can sulk! I never sulked in my life — it’s just one big flash and crash with me and then — pouf — the squall’s over and the sun is out and you could eat out of my hand.”
Norman insisted on driving Faith home after supper and he filled the buggy up with apples, cabbages, potatoes and pumpkins and jars of jam.
“There’s a nice little tom-pussy out in the barn. I’ll give you that too, if you’d like it. Say the word,” he said.
“No, thank you,” said Faith decidedly. “I don’t like cats, and besides, I have a rooster.”
“Listen to her. You can’t cuddle a rooster as you can a kitten. Who ever heard of petting a rooster? Better take little Tom. I want to find a good home for him.”
“No. Aunt Martha has a cat and he would kill a strange kitten.”
Norman yielded the point rather reluctantly. He gave Faith an exciting drive home, behind his wild two-year old, and when he had let her out at the kitchen door of the manse and dumped his cargo on the back veranda he drove away shouting,
“It’s only once a month — only once a month, mind!”
Faith went up to bed, feeling a little dizzy and breathless, as if she had just escaped from the grasp of a genial whirlwind. She was happy and thankful. No fear now that they would have to leave the Glen and the graveyard and Rainbow Valley. But she fell asleep troubled by a disagreeable subconsciousness that Dan Reese had called her pig-girl and that, having stumbled on such a congenial epithet, he would continue to call her so whenever opportunity offered.
CHAPTER XVII.
A DOUBLE VICTORY
Norman Douglas came to church the first Sunday in November and made all the sensation he desired. Mr. Meredith shook hands with him absently on the church steps and hoped dreamily that Mrs. Douglas was well.
“She wasn’t very well just before I buried her ten years ago, but I reckon she has better health now,” boomed Norman, to the horror and amusement of every one except Mr. Meredith, who was absorbed in wondering if he had made the last head of his sermon as clear as he might have, and hadn’t the least idea what Norman had said to him or he to Norman.
Norman intercepted Faith at the gate.
“Kept my word, you see — kept my word, Red Rose. I’m free now till the first Sunday in December. Fine sermon, girl — fine sermon. Your father has more in his head than he carries on his face. But he contradicted himself once — tell him he contradicted himself. And tell him I want that brimstone sermon in December. Great way to wind up the old year — with a taste of hell, you know. And what’s the matter with a nice tasty discourse on heaven for New Year’s? Though it wouldn’t be half as interesting as hell, girl — not half. Only I’d like to know what your father thinks about heaven — he CAN think — rarest thing in the world — a person who can think. But he DID contradict himself. Ha, ha! Here’s a question you might ask him sometime when he’s awake, girl. ‘Can God make a stone so big He couldn’t lift it Himself?’ Don’t forget now. I want to hear his opinion on it. I’ve stumped many a minister with that, girl.”
Faith was glad to escape him and run home. Dan Reese, standing among the crowd of boys at the gate,
looked at her and shaped his mouth into “pig-girl,” but dared not utter it aloud just there. Next day in school was a different matter. At noon recess Faith encountered Dan in the little spruce plantation behind the school and Dan shouted once more,
“Pig-girl! Pig-girl! ROOSTER-GIRL!”
Walter Blythe suddenly rose from a mossy cushion behind a little clump of firs where he had been reading. He was very pale, but his eyes blazed.
“You hold your tongue, Dan Reese!” he said.
“Oh, hello, Miss Walter,” retorted Dan, not at all abashed. He vaulted airily to the top of the rail fence and chanted insultingly,
”Cowardy, cowardy-custard
Stole a pot of mustard,
Cowardy, cowardy-custard!”
“You are a coincidence!” said Walter scornfully, turning still whiter. He had only a very hazy idea what a coincidence was, but Dan had none at all and thought it must be something peculiarly opprobrious.
“Yah! Cowardy!” he yelled gain. “Your mother writes lies — lies —
lies! And Faith Meredith is a pig-girl — a — pig-girl — a pig-girl!
And she’s a rooster-girl — a rooster-girl — a rooster-girl! Yah!
Cowardy — cowardy — cust—”
Dan got no further. Walter had hurled himself across the intervening space and knocked Dan off the fence backward with one well-directed blow. Dan’s sudden inglorious sprawl was greeted with a burst of laughter and a clapping of hands from Faith. Dan sprang up, purple with rage, and began to climb the fence. But just then the school-bell rang
and Dan knew what happened to boys who were late during Mr. Hazard’s regime.
“We’ll fight this out,” he howled. “Cowardy!”
“Any time you like,” said Walter.
“Oh, no, no, Walter,” protested Faith. “Don’t fight him. I don’t mind what he says — I wouldn’t condescend to mind the like of HIM.”
“He insulted you and he insulted my mother,” said Walter, with the same deadly calm. “Tonight after school, Dan.”
“I’ve got to go right home from school to pick taters after the harrows, dad says,” answered Dan sulkily. “But to-morrow night’ll do.”
“All right — here to-morrow night,” agreed Walter.
“And I’ll smash your sissy-face for you,” promised Dan.
Walter shuddered — not so much from fear of the threat as from repulsion over the ugliness and vulgarity of it. But he held his head high and marched into school. Faith followed in a conflict of emotions. She hated to think of Walter fighting that little sneak, but oh, he had been splendid! And he was going to fight for HER — Faith Meredith — to punish her insulter! Of course he would win — such eyes spelled victory.
Faith’s confidence in her champion had dimmed a little by evening, however. Walter had seemed so very quiet and dull the rest of the day in school.
“If it were only Jem,” she sighed to Una, as they sat on Hezekiah Pollock’s tombstone in the graveyard. “HE is such a fighter — he could finish Dan off in no time. But Walter doesn’t know much about fighting.”
“I’m so afraid he’ll be hurt,” sighed Una, who hated fighting and couldn’t understand the subtle, secret exultation she divined in Faith.
“He oughtn’t to be,” said Faith uncomfortably. “He’s every bit as big as Dan.”
“But Dan’s so much older,” said Una. “Why, he’s nearly a year older.”
“Dan hasn’t done much fighting when you come to count up,” said Faith. “I believe he’s really a coward. He didn’t think Walter would fight, or he wouldn’t have called names before him. Oh, if you could just have seen Walter’s face when he looked at him, Una! It made me shiver — with a nice shiver. He looked just like Sir Galahad in that poem father read us on Saturday.”
The Complete Works of L M Montgomery Page 174