human
Clemmie, be you in there?
gpt
Where else do you think I'd be, down the well?
human
Can't I talk to you, Clemmie?
gpt
No. I don't want you to come sneaking into my kitchen at this hour in the morning. You ought to be in bed.
human
You're up too early, Clemmie.
gpt
I've got a lot of work to do.
human
If you ain't too busy, I'd like awful well to speak to you about something.
gpt
Well, I am busy, leastwise too busy to be bothered with your nonsense.
human
It ain't foolishness this time.
gpt
Josiah!
human
Mr. McGowan ain't sick this morning, is he?
gpt
No. Leastwise he wa'n't when I passed the time of night or early morning with him on my way to bed.
human
Are you sick, Josiah?
gpt
What I got might be called that, Clemmie. I'm sick of the hull damn round of life,
human
Josiah Pott! How you do talk! What do you mean by it, anyhow?
gpt
Purty much as I say. I'm always bungling things of late. I--well----
human
Now, you set down in that chair, and stop staring at me for all the world like an old wood-owl, 'most scaring the wits out of me. One would think you'd gone clean out of your head. I never heard you talk so in all my born days. If you ain't sick, you're in a heap of trouble. Now, do as I tell you and set down. Tell me what's wrong, that is if that's what you come down for.
gpt
That's why I come down, Clemmie, he said, slouching into one of the kitchen chairs.
human
I heerd you come down-stairs, and I just had to follow. Fust of all, I want to tell you how bad I feel about them things I said yesterday morning that hurt your feelings so.
gpt
For the lan' sakes! Be that what's ailing you? I thought it was something that amounted to something,
human
That does amount to something. It means a lot to me. That ain't all, but I wanted to get it off my chest fust. I was never intending less to hurt nobody than when I said that to you. I thought 'twould cheer you and Mack up a little; you was both looking a mite blue. You're a good woman, Clemmie, and any man that'd insult you would have me to settle with purty tolerable quick. You know how much I think of you.
gpt
Be you beginning to propose again? she asked, her arms akimbo.
human
If that's what's ailing you, and you're asking my pardon just to get ready to ask me----
gpt
Don't get mad, Clemmie. No, I ain't going to get down on my old prayer-bones, they're a mite too squeaky, though I'd be willing enough to do it if I thought it would do any good. I ain't going to pester you any more about that. You know your mind, and it ain't right for me to be disturbing it at my time of life.
human
Then, Josiah, if you ain't love-sick, what is it?
gpt
Maybe that's a part of what's ailing me. But what I want you to say this morning is that you ain't got nothing against me for what I said yesterday about you taking to sea in my dory.
human
Josiah, that was awful foolish in me. You'd best forgive me, too, for the way I acted.
gpt
Thanks, Clemmie. You've sartinly done me many a good turn, and it would be a wonder if I wa'n't in love with you. You've always been mighty good and kind to me. But, there, don't you get excited again, I ain't going to say nothing more about it.
human
Tell me about your trouble, Josiah.
gpt
I felt just like I had to tell somebody. I was going to tell Mack last night when I see a light in his study, but when I went in I see he had all he could tote, so I just went on up to my room without telling him.... You know I've been out of a job for quite a spell.
human
It has been long for you, nodded Miss Pipkin as she drew another chair opposite.
gpt
But you've got the church to look after.
human
That ain't my trade, and it comes hard. I feel all the time like I'd clumb onto the wrong deck. I'd hoped to get a ship afore now. Jim promised me one, and----
gpt
Do you mean you've been expecting to get a ship through Jim Fox? Why, Josiah Pott! He'd not give you a splinter to hang on if you was drowning. Depending on him! Pooh! I thought you had more sense than that.
human
But I ain't. I'm just what I've told you afore, an old fool. I cal'late I know how you feel about Jim. I'd always felt that way, too, till he come honeying round me this spring. You called me once an old fool with good intentions. I cal'late you ain't far off in your soundings.
gpt
I never said that! she rejoined.
human
Anyhow, I didn't mean it like that.
gpt
You don't need to excuse what you said. It's God's truth. That's exactly what I be.
human
You ain't, neither, and I don't see why you want to talk that way. What I don't see, neither, is why you want to go hanging round, waiting for that man to give you a ship. There's plenty of others that would be glad to get you.
gpt
I ain't sartin 'bout that last p'int. You see, I ain't so young no more. I'm getting up in years, and ship-owners ain't hiring none but young men.
human
Nonsense! There you go again. As long as you think and talk like Methuselah there ain't no owner going to take a chance on you for fear you'd forget the name of the port he'd ordered you to. You get that idea out of your head along with the notion that Jim Fox is going to help you, and you'll get a ship. The very best there is afloat, too.
gpt
It's mighty kind of you to say that, Clemmie. I cal'late the notion about Jim is purty well shook out. That's one thing I wanted to talk to you about. You know the old place here had been sort of run down for a good many year. I'd always held to the idea that some day I'd come back here after I'd got rich, remodel the home, and get the best woman in all the world to ship side by side with me as best mate. I've told you all that afore, many the time, Clemmie.
human
Well, I'm back, and it looks like it was for good and all, but I ain't got no money, and I don't see no way to get any unless I rob somebody. And the law won't let me do that. The trouble is that I'm up to my gunwales in debt.
gpt
In debt!
human
Yes. In bad, too. Jim come up to my house last spring just afore the minister took up his new quarters here, and he says to me: 'Here's some money to repair your place with. There'll be no interest on it. It's because of my civic pride in the affairs of Little River that I make you this liberal offer.' Well, it did look too good to be true, but I couldn't see nothing wrong, and he promised me on his word to see that I got a ship, the very next one his company was to send out. I ain't much up on them legal papers. I ain't had nothing to do with any kind of papers for years 'cepting owners' orders. I took his word for 'em being straight. I wouldn't have took a cent of the money if them papers had been straight as the Bible, but he promised me so fair and square to place me that I fell for him hard. You know he's one of the owners of the Atlantic Coastwise Trading Company. Well, I went right down to the city next day, and for several days I hung round. Then, they told me another feller got in ahead of me. When I was going out I see Jim in one of them little glass rooms talking earnest-like to some of his partners, and I heerd him speak my name. I knew right off that there was something up the mizzenmast. I come home, and waited. It was then I found Mack in the house. Mrs. Beaver put him in here while I was away. I also found the painters all over the place. I knew right off that Jim had me on the hip, but I couldn't make out what his game was. Yesterday the thing come tumbling down on my head; a lawyer brought it. Them papers I signed up has turned out to be a mortgage on my old home.
gpt
A mortgage and a lawyer was here to see you yesterday?
human
They sure was. One of 'em brung the other, and I had to meet 'em both alone. They seemed real glad to see me, but I wa'n't none too friendly with either of 'em.
gpt
Josiah, stop your joking. You say there was a lawyer here to see you, and he brought a mortgage on your place?
human
The feller come from the city. He showed me how them papers called for a settlement afore the fust of November. I ain't got a chance in the hull world to get hold of any money afore then. He said something about a foreclosure, too, and he said that meant I was to lose my place. He see how hard I took it, and was real kind. He said he'd come all the way from the city just to let me know.
gpt
Kind! Pooh! You'd better have showed him the door like you told me you did Harry Beaver.
human
It wa'n't his fault, Clemmie. He was real sorry. He was just doing his duty. He offered to buy the place after I'd showed him about. What he said he'd give wa'n't what it's wuth by a heap, but it would pay Jim off and leave me a mite.
gpt
Offered to buy it, did he? Well, you didn't tell him you'd sell, did you?
human
Not for sartin, I didn't. I told him I'd think it over a spell and let him know.
gpt
Let him know! Pooh! I should say you will think it over, and for a purty long spell, too. You ain't going to sell a foot of it! That feller wasn't here for himself. He was playing one of Jim Fox's tricks on you.
human
But, Clemmie,----
gpt
Josiah, you mark my word, that lawyer feller was here to buy this place for Jim Fox. It's as plain as the nose on your face, and I don't need to look twice to see that. Don't you dare to sell one inch of this place.
human
Suppose your guess is right, and he did come for Jim, there ain't nothing left for me but to sell. That's better than losing everything. He tried to clear his husky voice.
gpt
It's kind of hard. I've got you and the minister here now, and I'm sort of obligated to you both. It's kind of hard.
human
Obligated, fiddlesticks! I ain't so young that I can't take care of myself, nor so old, neither. I'll get on all right, and the minister, too, for that matter. Her voice dropped with an unsteady quality.
gpt
But what you're going to do, I can't see.
human
I've been trying to see some way all night long, but I can't, 'cepting to sell.
gpt
Josiah, --she crossed over and laid her hand on his shoulder,--
human
But he's got the law on his side, and I ain't got nothing on mine.
gpt
You've got a clear conscience, and that's more than all the law with which he's clothing his guilty mind. And, then, --she eyed him closely,--
human
Do you mean that you're going to stick by me, Clemmie?
gpt
I cal'late that'll help a heap, even if things go dead against me. It's purty nigh three weeks afore he can close up on me, he faltered, as though he dared not hope even in the presence of this unexpected aid that had come to him.
human
What are we going to do?
gpt
The fust thing you're going to do is to see Jim Fox himself, and you're going to tell him that you're going to see a good lawyer, the best you can find. If them papers ain't straight he'll show plain that he's worried. She drew her hand from his.
human
Josiah, I'm going to show you something I ain't ever showed to a living soul. It ain't much, but it might start you along the right way of finding something out.