Cabin Fever

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER NINETEEN. BUD FACES FACTS

  New Year came and passed and won nothing in the way of celebration fromthe three in Nelson's cabin. Bud's bones ached, his head ached, theflesh on his body ached. He could take no comfort anywhere, under anycircumstances. He craved clean white beds and soft-footed attendanceand soothing silence and cool drinks--and he could have none of thosethings. His bedclothes were heavy upon his aching limbs; he had to waitupon his own wants; the fretful crying of Lovin Child or the rackingcough of Cash was always in his ears, and as for cool drinks, there wasice water in plenty, to be sure, but nothing else. Fair weather came,and storms, and cold: more storms and cold than fair weather. Neitherman ever mentioned taking Lovin Child to Alpine. At first, becauseit was out of the question; after that, because they did not want tomention it. They frequently declared that Lovin Child was a pest, andthere were times when Bud spoke darkly of spankings--which did notmaterialize. But though they did not mention it, they knew that LovinChild was something more; something endearing, something humanizing,something they needed to keep them immune from cabin fever.

  Some time in February it was that Cash fashioned a crude pair ofsnowshoes and went to town, returning the next day. He came home loadedwith little luxuries for Lovin Child, and with the simpler medicines forother emergencies which they might have to meet, but he did not bringany word of seeking parents. The nearest he came to mentioning thesubject was after supper, when the baby was asleep and Bud trying to cuta small pair of overalls from a large piece of blue duck that Cash hadbrought. The shears were dull, and Lovin Child's little rompers wereso patched and shapeless that they were not much of a guide, so Bud wasswearing softly while he worked.

  "I didn't hear a word said about that kid being lost," Cash volunteered,after he had smoked and watched Bud awhile. "Couldn't have been any onearound Alpine, or I'd have heard something about it."

  Bud frowned, though it may have been over his tailoring problem.

  "Can't tell--the old squaw mighta been telling the truth," he saidreluctantly. "I s'pose they do, once in awhile. She said his folks weredead." And he added defiantly, with a quick glance at Cash, "Far asI'm concerned, I'm willing to let it ride that way. The kid's doing allright."

  "Yeah. I got some stuff for that rash on his chest. I wouldn't wonder ifwe been feeding him too heavy on bacon rinds, Bud. They say too much ofthat kinda thing is bad for kids. Still, he seems to feel all right."

  "I'll tell the world he does! He got hold of your old pipe to-day andwas suckin' away on it, I don't know how long. Never feazed him, either.If he can stand that, I guess he ain't very delicate."

  "Yeah. I laid that pipe aside myself because it was getting so dangstrong. Ain't you getting them pants too long in the seat, Bud? Theylook to me big enough for a ten-year-old."

  "I guess you don't realize how that kid's growing!" Bud defended hishandiwork "And time I get the seams sewed, and the side lapped over forbuttons--"

  "Yeah. Where you going to get the buttons? You never sent for any."

  "Oh, I'll find buttons. You can donate a couple off some of yourclothes, if you want to right bad."

  "Who? Me? I ain't got enough now to keep the wind out," Cash protested."Lemme tell yuh something, Bud. If you cut more saving, you'd haveenough cloth there for two pair of pants. You don't need to cut the legsso long as all that. They'll drag on the ground so the poor kid can'twalk in 'em without falling all over himself."

  "Well, good glory! Who's making these pants? Me, or you?" Bud exploded."If you think you can do any better job than what I'm doing, go getyourself some cloth and fly at it! Don't think you can come hornin' inon my job, 'cause I'll tell the world right out loud, you can't."

  "Yeah--that's right! Go to bellerin' around like a bull buffalo, andwake the kid up! I don't give a cuss how you make'm. Go ahead and havethe seat of his pants hangin' down below his knees if you want to!" Cashgot up and moved huffily over to the fireplace and sat with his back toBud.

  "Maybe I will, at that," Bud retorted. "You can't come around and grabthe job I'm doing." Bud was jabbing a needle eye toward the end of athread too coarse for it, and it did not improve his temper to have thethread refuse to pass through the eye.

  Neither did it please him to find, when all the seams were sewn, thatthe little overalls failed to look like any garment he had ever seen ona child. When he tried them on Lovin Child, next day, Cash took one lookand bolted from the cabin with his hand over his mouth.

  When he came back an hour or so later, Lovin Child was wearing hisragged rompers, and Bud was bent over a Weinstock-Lubin mail-ordercatalogue. He had a sheet of paper half filled with items, and waslicking his pencil and looking for more. He looked up and grinned alittle, and asked Cash when he was going to town again; and added thathe wanted to mail a letter.

  "Yeah. Well, the trail's just as good now as it was when I took it,"Cash hinted strongly. "When I go to town again, it'll be because I'vegot to go. And far as I can see, I won't have to go for quite sometime."

  So Bud rose before daylight the next morning, tied on the makeshiftsnowshoes Cash had contrived, and made the fifteen-mile trip to Alpineand back before dark. He brought candy for Lovin Child, tendedthat young gentleman through a siege of indigestion because of theindulgence, and waited impatiently until he was fairly certain thatthe wardrobe he had ordered had arrived at the post-office. When he hadcounted off the two days required for a round trip to Sacramento, andhad added three days for possible delay in filling the order, he wentagain, and returned in one of the worst storms of the winter.

  But he did not grudge the hardship, for he carried on his back a bulkybundle of clothes for Lovin Child; enough to last the winter through,and some to spare; a woman would have laughed at some of the things hechose: impractical, dainty garments that Bud could not launder properlyto save his life. But there were little really truly overalls, in whichLovin Child promptly developed a strut that delighted the men andearned him the title of Old Prospector. And there were little shirtsand stockings and nightgowns and a pair of shoes, and a toy or two thatfailed to interest him at all, after the first inspection.

  It began to look as though Bud had deliberately resolved upon carryinga guilty conscience all the rest of his life. He had made absolutely noeffort to trace the parents of Lovin Child when he was in town. On thecontrary he had avoided all casual conversation, for fear some one mightmention the fact that a child had been lost. He had been careful not tobuy anything in the town that would lead one to suspect that he had achild concealed upon his premises, and he had even furnished whathe called an alibi when he bought the candy, professing to own aninordinately sweet tooth.

  Cash cast his eyes over the stock of baby clothes which Bud gleefullyunwrapped on his bunk, and pinched out a smile under his beard.

  "Well, if the kid stays till he wears out all them clothes, we'll justabout have to give him a share in the company," he said drily.

  Bud looked up in quick jealousy. "What's mine's his, and I own a halfinterest in both claims. I guess that'll feed him--if they pan outanything," he retorted. "Come here, Boy, and let's try this suit on.Looks pretty small to me--marked three year, but I reckon they don'tgrow 'em as husky as you, back where they make all these clothes."

  "Yeah. But you ought to put it in writing, Bud. S'pose anything happenedto us both--and it might. Mining's always got its risky side, evencutting out sickness, which we've had a big sample of right this winter.Well, the kid oughta have some security in case anything did happen.Now--"

  Bud looked thoughtfully down at the fuzzy yellow head that did not comemuch above his knee.

  "Well, how yuh going to do anything like that without giving it awaythat we've got him? Besides, what name'd we give him in the company? No,sir, Cash, he gets what I've got, and I'll smash any damn man that triesto get it away from him. But we can't get out any legal papers--"

  "Yeah. But we can make our wills, can't we? And I don't know whereyou get the idea, Bud, that you've got the whole say ab
out him.We're pardners, ain't we? Share and share alike. Mines, mules,grub--kids--equal shares goes."

  "That's where you're dead wrong. Mines and mules and grub is all right,but when it comes to this old Lovin Man, why--who was it found him, forgosh sake?"

  "Aw, git out!" Cash growled. "Don't you reckon I'd have grabbed him offthat squaw as quick as you did? I've humored you along, Bud, and let youhog him nights, and feed him and wash his clothes, and I ain't kickednone, have I? But when it comes to prope'ty--"

  "You ain't goin' to horn in there, neither. Anyway, we ain't got so darnmuch the kid'll miss your share, Cash."

  "Yeah. All the more reason why he'll need it I don't see how you'regoing to stop me from willing my share where I please. And when you comedown to facts, Bud, why--you want to recollect that I plumb forgot toreport that kid, when I was in town. And I ain't a doubt in the worldbut what his folks would be glad enough--"

  "Forget that stuff!" Bud's tone was so sharp that Lovin Child turnedclear around to look up curiously into his face. "You know why you neverreported him, doggone yuh! You couldn't give him up no easier than Icould. And I'll tell the world to its face that if anybody gets thiskid now they've pretty near got to fight for him. It ain't right, and itain't honest. It's stealing to keep him, and I never stole a brass tackin my life before. But he's mine as long as I live and can hang on tohim. And that's where I stand. I ain't hidin' behind no kind of alibi.The old squaw did tell me his folks was dead; but if you'd ask me, I'dsay she was lying when she said it. Chances are she stole him. I'm sorryfor his folks, supposing he's got any. But I ain't sorry enough for 'emto give him up if I can help it. I hope they've got more, and I hopethey've gentled down by this time and are used to being without him.Anyway, they can do without him now easier than what I can, because..."Bud did not finish that sentence, except by picking Lovin Child up inhis arms and squeezing him as hard as he dared. He laid his face downfor a minute on Lovin Child's head, and when he raised it his lasheswere wet.

  "Say, old-timer, you need a hair cut. Yuh know it?" he said, with ahuskiness in his voice, and pulled a tangle playfully. Then his eyesswung round defiantly to Cash. "It's stealing to keep him, but I can'thelp it. I'd rather die right here in my tracks than give up this littleole kid. And you can take that as it lays, because I mean it."

  Cash sat quiet for a minute or two, staring down at the floor. "Yeah.I guess there's two of us in that fix," he observed in his dry way,lifting his eyebrows while he studied a broken place in the side of hisovershoe. "All the more reason why we should protect the kid, ain't it?My idea is that we ought to both of us make our wills right here andnow. Each of us to name the other for guardeen, in case of accident,and each one picking a name for the kid, and giving him our share in theclaims and anything else we may happen to own." He stopped abruptly, hisjaw sagging a little at some unpleasant thought.

  "I don't know--come to think of it, I can't just leave the kid all myproperty. I--I've got a kid of my own, and if she's alive--I ain't heardanything of her for fifteen years and more, but if she's alive she'dcome in for a share. She's a woman grown by this time. Her mother diedwhen she was a baby. I married the woman I hired to take care of her andthe house--like a fool. When we parted, she took the kid with her. Shedid think a lot of her, I'll say that much for her, and that's all I cansay in her favor. I drifted around and lost track of 'em. Old woman,she married again, and I heard that didn't pan out, neither. Anyway, shekept the girl, and gave her the care and schooling that I couldn't give.I was a drifter.

  "Well, she can bust the will if I leave her out, yuh see. And if the oldwoman gets a finger in the pie, it'll be busted, all right. I can writeher down for a hundred dollars perviding she don't contest. That'll fixit. And the rest goes to the kid here. But I want him to have the use ofmy name, understand. Something-or-other Markham Moore ought to suit allhands well enough."

  Bud, holding Lovin Child on his knees, frowned a little at first. Butwhen he looked at Cash, and caught the wistfulness in his eyes, hesurrendered warm-heartedly.

  "A couple of old he-hens like us--we need a chick to look after," hesaid whimsically. "I guess Markham Moore ought to be good enough formost any kid. And if it ain't, by gosh, we'll make it good enough! IfI ain't been all I should be, there's no law against straightening up.Markham Moore goes as it lays--hey, Lovins?" But Lovin Child had gone tosleep over his foster fathers' disposal of his future. His little yellowhead was wabbling on his limp neck, and Bud cradled him in his arms andheld him so.

  "Yeah. But what are we going to call him?" Methodical Cash wanted thewhole matter settled at one conference, it seemed.

  "Call him? Why, what've we been calling him, the last two months?"

  "That," Cash retorted, "depended on what devilment he was into when wecalled!"

  "You said it all, that time. I guess, come to think of it--tell youwhat, Cash, let's call him what the kid calls himself. That's fairenough. He's got some say in the matter, and if he's satisfied withLovin, we oughta be. Lovin Markam Moore ain't half bad. Then if he wantsto change it when he grows up, he can."

  "Yeah. I guess that's as good as anything. I'd hate to see him namedCassius. Well, now's as good a time as any to make them wills, Bud. Weoughta have a couple of witnesses, but we can act for each other, and Iguess it'll pass. You lay the kid down, and we'll write 'em and haveit done with and off our minds. I dunno--I've got a couple of lots inPhoenix I'll leave to the girl. By rights she should have 'em. Lovins,here, 'll have my share in all mining claims; these two I'll name'specially, because I expect them to develop into paying mines; theBlind Lodge, anyway."

  A twinge of jealousy seized Bud. Cash was going ahead a little tooconfidently in his plans for the kid. He did not want to hurt old Cash'sfeelings, and of course he needed Cash's assistance if he kept LovinChild for his own. But Cash needn't think he was going to claim the kidhimself.

  "All right--put it that way. Only, when you're writing it down, you makeit read 'child of Bud Moore' or something like that. You can will himthe moon, if you want, and you can have your name sandwiched in betweenhis and mine. But get this, and get it right. He's mine, and if we eversplit up, the kid goes with me. I'll tell the world right now that thiskid belongs to me, and where I go he goes. You got that?"

  "You don't have to beller at the top of your voice, do yuh?" snappedCash, prying the cork out of the ink bottle with his jackknife. "Here'sanother pen point. Tie it onto a stick or something and git to workbefore you git to putting it off."

  Leaning over the table facing each other, they wrote steadily for a fewminutes. Then Bud began to flag, and finally he stopped and crumpled thesheet of tablet paper into a ball. Cash looked up, lifted his eyebrowsirritatedly, and went on with his composition.

  Bud sat nibbling the end of his makeshift penholder. The obstacle thathad loomed in Cash's way and had constrained him to reveal the closedpages of his life, loomed large in Bud's way also. Lovin Child was anear and a very dear factor in his life--but when it came to sittingdown calmly and setting his affairs in order for those who might be leftbehind, Lovin Child was not the only person he must think of. What ofhis own man-child? What of Marie?

  He looked across at Cash writing steadily in his precise way,duly bequeathing his worldly goods to Lovin; owning, too, hisresponsibilities in another direction, but still making Lovin Child hischief heir so far as he knew. On the spur of the moment Bud had thoughtto do the same thing. But could he do it?

  He seemed to see his own baby standing wistfully aloof, pushed out ofhis life that this baby he had no right to keep might have all of hisaffections, all of his poor estate. And Marie, whose face was always inthe back of his memory, a tearful, accusing vision that would not lethim be--he saw Marie working in some office, earning the money to feedand clothe their child. And Lovin Child romping up and down the cabin,cuddled and scolded and cared for as best an awkward man may care for ababy--a small, innocent usurper.

  Bud dropped his face in his palms and tried to think the thing out
coldly, clearly, as Cash had stated his own case. Cash did not knowwhere his own child was, and he did not seem to care greatly. He wasglad to salve his conscience with a small bequest, keeping the bulk--ifso tenuous a thing as Cash's fortune may be said to have bulk--for thisbaby they two were hiding away from its lawful parents. Cash could doit; why couldn't be? He raised his head and looked over at Lovin Child,asleep in his new and rumpled little finery. Why did his own baby comebetween them now, and withhold his hand from doing the same?

  Cash finished, glanced curiously across at Bud, looked down at what hehad written, and slid the sheet of paper across.

  "You sign it, and then if you don't know just how to word yours, you canuse this for a pattern. I've read law books enough to know this willget by, all right. It's plain, and it tells what I want, and that'ssufficient to hold in court."

  Bud read it over apathetically, signed his name as witness, and pushedthe paper back.

  "That's all right for you," he said heavily. "Your kid is grown up now,and besides, you've got other property to give her. But--it's differentwith me. I want this baby, and I can't do without him. But I can't givehim my share in the claims, Cash. I--there's others that's got to bethought of first."