Chapter 2
CHAPTER II. A CONFLICT OF WILLS. Before entering his own back door, Hank took the precaution of looking in the window. His father had gone to bed, and the slight dark tilde James stood in the middle of the kitchen, looking up at the tall, clumsy newcomer who towered above her. "'On my word,' muttered Hank, that big girl is the ugliest woman I ever saw, all except
her hair. He added, as he surveyed the abundant reddish-brown locks, combed back in a tidy mess from the plain featured face. That hair is fine, good color, soft as silk, and well groomed. She ain't slack, if she is gawky. And his eye ran approvingly over her clean cotton dress. As he lifted the latch of the kitchen door, Tilde Jane was just saying patiently,
"'And so your name is Garrabee?' "'Yes, Miss Garrabee,' replied the newcomer, with emphasis on the Miss. "'Miss Garrabee,' repeated Tilde Jane, "'but what is your first name?' "'It ain't no matter about my first name,' said the girl doggedly. A first name in a grown person is like the knocker on the front door. It ain't often in use, except for weddings
and funerals. We ain't, that is, we are not expecting to have either weddings or funerals,' said Tilde Jane calmly, "'but I'd like to know what to call you.'" "'Seems to me I told you my name,' said Miss Garrabee stiffly. "'But I can't say Miss Garrabee every time I speak to you. Why can't you?' Heng stood silently, staring at them. The new girl kept rolling a cunning eye at him,
as if wondering whether he were going to interfere or not. Tilde Jane, after an affectionate glance at him as he entered the door, did not look at him. She was absorbed in the new girl, and not being easily beaten, she presently returned to the attack with quiet persistence. "'You expect to call me by my first name, don't you?' "'Course I do. You're Tilde Jane, Liedl Tilde Jane. You come here to help me with the work,'
continued Tilde Jane. "'I don't expect to call you servant, because I notice all the girls get mad when you say that.' Miss Garrabee bridled haughtily. "'Don't you servant me. I be a lady.'" "'And an orphan,' said Tilde Jane with a fleeting smile. "'Now if we were to work together, like sisters, it would be very funny for me to call you Miss.' "'I don't see no fun nowhere,' retorted Miss Garrabee, gazing about her with a mystified air.
"'I be older than you. If there ain't no fashion to the order of calling me Miss, we'll start it.' "'Tilde Jane, quick to take advantage of an opening, remarked, "'You say you are older than I am? How old are you?' Miss Garrabee hesitated an instant. "'Then she said oracularly, I be what I am. Only the possum, what marries me, and the feller that gets me, can raise the laugh on me, count of my age.' As if by chance her eye as she spoke
roved comprehensively over Hank, the fat young man gave a distinct shudder, but he stepped manfully out of the dark background and set his teeth firmly. Tilde Jane frowned, and for a few seconds busied herself in stepping to the nearby table and lowering the wick of the lamp that had begun to smoke. She had a strange, unchildish-like dislike for unbecoming levity, and when she next spoke, it was with a hard tone in her voice. "'Since you won't tell me your age,' she said,
"'I'll call you thirty.' "'Thirty?' ejaculated Miss Garrabee with a contemptuous snort. "'Twenty-five then,' continued Tilde Jane. "'That is too much. I see by your face twenty-two. Oh, you look uneasy. You're twenty. We can stop there.' Miss Garrabee gave her a furious stare, then with the uncomfortable consciousness that when it came to a question of brains, this slight young girl might get ahead of her. She said gruffly, "'I want to go to bed.
Give me a candle.' Certainly replied Tilde Jane. "'When we have settled about the name, I've got to write the lady boards. I mean, the ladies that run things at the asylum. Whether we'll keep you.' "'Keep me?' exclaimed Miss Garrabee. "'Is it talk of keep? I thought it was talk of stay.' "'There's no talk of stay now,' remarked Tilde Jane coolly. "'There's a question of go. If you'll tell me your first name and if my adopted brother agrees,'
she said, turning respectfully to Hank, "'I guess I'll keep you.' Miss Garrabee began to waver. I laid out to run things myself,' she said lingeringly. "'When I see how young and small you be, I ain't never been no mistress nowhere, and I'm hankering for power. Maybe some day you'll have a house of your own,' said Tilde Jane consolingly. "'Whose boss here anyway?' inquired Miss Garrabee.
Tilde Jane pointed to Hank. "'And I figured I'd be,' murmured Miss Garrabee. "'While he's big enough,' she said half admiringly, half contemptuously. "'Bosses aren't made,' said Tilde Jane. They just come natural. Mr. Hank pays the bills. He has to be the boss.' The little girl stifled a tired yawn as she spoke, and Hank with a glance at the clock stepped forward. "'Look here, young woman. You, Garrabee, you. You've come here to be company
for this young girl. If you like it, stay and take her orders with no sour looks. If you don't like it, get out. There's a train at ten thirty for Bangor. Now what is it to be? Angroot for bed, or Angroot for the station?' Overcome by his decided matter and his mysterious attempt at French, Miss Garrabee succumbed, but not with meekness. "'I be called Perleta Garrabee,' she said flauntingly, as she took up her candlestick, and my age is nineteen. I run away from home when I was six,
and I'll run away from here if you bosses me. Give me some matches, will you? And don't call me early, for I be dead sleepy.' After she got her matches, she went lumbering across the kitchen and up the stairway. When she slammed her bedroom door behind her, Tilde Jane and Hank, with one accord smiled at each other, then drew two chairs up to the stove.
