human
Say, Doc--you should have been here a minute ago, and seen the Captain bristle up to Tom Van Dorn about his love affair and then get cold feet and try to sell him some Household Horse stock.
gpt
So you went after him, did you, Ezry? The loose skin of his face twitched,
human
Poor Tom--packing up his career in a petticoat and going forth to fuss with God--no sense--no sense, piped the Doctor, glancing over the headlines in his _Star_. The Captain, still clinging to the subject that had been too much for him, remarked:
gpt
Doc--don't you think some one ought to tell him?
human
Ezry--if some one hasn't told him--no one ever can. I tried to tell him once myself. I talked pretty middlin' plain, Ezry. He was speaking softly, then he piped out,
gpt
But what a man's heart doesn't tell him, his friends can't. Still, Ezry, a strong friend is often a good tonic for a weak heart. The Doctor looked at the Captain, then concluded:
human
That was a brave, kind act you tried to do--and I warrant you got it to him--some way. He's a keen one--Ezry--a mighty keen one; and he understood.
gpt
Doc, he mused,
human
Christmas never comes that I don't think of--her--mother! I guess I'd just about be getting that comb and brush for her. The Doctor casually looked through the show case and saw what had attracted the Captain.
gpt
Doc, again the Captain spoke, bending over the case with his face turned from his auditor:
human
You're a doctor and are supposed to know lots. Tell me this: How does a man break it to a woman when he wants to leave her--eh? Without waiting for an answer the Captain went on:
gpt
And this is what puzzles me--how does he get used to another one--with that one still living? You tell me that. I'd think he'd be scared all the time that he would do something the way his first wife had trained him not to. Of course, meditated the Captain,
human
The old man went on earnestly:
gpt
Tell me, Doc, you're a smart man--how Tom Van Dorn can do it. What say? 'Y gory I'd be scared--right now! And if I thought I had to get used all over again to another woman, and her ways of doing things--say of setting her bread Friday night, and having a hot brick for her feet and putting her hair in her teeth when she done it up, and dosing the children with sassafras tea in spring--I'd just naturally take to the woods, eh? And as for learning over again all the peculiarities of a new set of kin and what they all like to eat and died of, and how they all treated their first wives, and who they married--Doc? Doc? The Captain shook a dubious and doleful head.
human
Fourteen years, Doc, sighed the Captain.
gpt
Pretty happy years--children coming on,--trouble visiting us with the rest; sorrow--happiness--skimping and saving; her a-raking and scraping to make a good appearance, and make things do; me trying one thing and another, to make our fortune and her always kind and encouraging, and hopeful; death standing between us and both of us sitting there by the kitchen stove trying to make up some kind of prayer to comfort the other. Fourteen years of it, Doc--her and me, and her so patient, so forbearing--Doc--you're a smart man--tell me, Doc, how did Tom Van Dorn get around to actually doing it? What say?
human
We are all products of our yesterdays, Ezry; we are what we were, and we will be what we were. Man is queer. Sometimes out of the depth of him a god rises--sometimes it's a beast. I've sat by the bed and seen life gasp into being; I've stood in the ranks and fought with men as you have, and have seen them fight and then again have seen them turn tail like cowards. I have sat by the bed and seen life sigh into the dust. What is life--what is the God that quickens and directs us,--why and how and whence?--Ezry Morton, man--I don't know. And as for Tom--into that roaring hell of lust and lying and cheap parching pride where he is plunging--why, Ezry, I could almost cry for the fool; the damned beforehand fool!