Jessamine sat by her brother until he died,twelve hours afterwards,having spoken and known nothing.The whole weight of the horse had crushed him internally.He must have become almost instantly unconscious,being held in the saddle by his spurs,which had caught in the hair cinch;it may be that our loud cheer was the last thing of this world that he knew.The injuries to his body made impossible any taking him home,which his sister at first wished to do."Why,I came here to bring him home,"she said,with a smile and tone like cheerfulness in wax.Her calm,the unearthly ease with which she spoke to any comer (and she was surrounded with rough kindness),embarrassed the listeners;she saw her calamity clear as they did,but was sleep-walking in it.It was Lin gave her what she needed--the repose of his strong,silent presence.He spoke no sympathy and no advice,nor even did he argue with her about the burial;he perceived somehow that she did not really hear what was said to her,and that these first griefless,sensible words came from some mechanism of the nerves;so he kept himself near her,and let her tell her story as she would.Once I heard him say to her,with the same authority of that first "come away";"Now you've had enough of the talking.Come for a walk."Enough of the talking--as if it were a treatment!How did he think of that?Jessamine,at any rate,again obeyed him,and I saw the two going quietly about in the meadows and along the curving brook;and that night she slept well.On one only point did the cow-puncher consult me.
"They figured to put Nate on top of that bald mound,"said he."But she has talked about the flowers and shade where the old folks lie,and where she wants him to be alongside of them.I've not let her look at him to-day,for--well,she might get the way he looks now on her memory.But I'd like to show you my idea before going further."Lin had indeed chosen a beautiful place,and so I told him at the first sight of it.
"That's all I wanted to know,"said he."I'll fix the rest."I believe he never once told Jessamine the body could not travel so far as Kentucky.I think he let her live and talk and grieve from hour to hour,and then led her that afternoon to the nook of sunlight and sheltering trees,and won her consent to it thus;for there was Nate laid,and there she went to sit,alone.Lin did not go with her on those walks.
But now something new was on the fellow's mind.He was plainly occupied with it,whatever else he was doing,and he had some active cattle-work.
On my asking him if Jessamine Buckner had decided when to return east,he inquired of me,angrily,what was there in Kentucky she could not have in Wyoming?Consequently,though I surmised what he must be debating,I felt myself invited to keep out of his confidence,and I did so.My advice to him would have been ill received,and--as was soon to be made plain--would have done his delicacy injustice.Next,one morning he and Billy were gone.My first thought was that he had rejoined Jessamine at Mrs.
Pierce's,where she was,and left me away over here on Bear Creek,where we had come for part of a week.
But stuck in my hat-band I found a pencilled farewell.
Now Mr.McLean constructed perhaps three letters in the year--painful,serious events--like an interview with some important person with whom your speech must decorously flow.No matter to whom he was writing,it froze all nature stiff in each word he achieved;and his bald business diction and wild archaic penmanship made documents that I value among my choicest correspondence;this one,especially:
"Wensday four a.m.
"DEAR SIR this is to Inform you that i have gone to Separ on important bisness where i expect to meet you on your arrival at same point.You will confer a favor and oblidge undersigned by Informing Miss J.Buckner of date (if soon)you fix for returning per stage to Separ as Miss J.Buckner may prefer company for the trip being long and poor accommodations.Yours &c.L.McLEAN."
This seemed to point but one way;and (uncharitable though it sound)that this girl,so close upon bereavement,should be able to give herself to a lover was distasteful to me.
But,most extraordinary,Lin had gone away without a word to her,and she was left as plainly in the dark as myself.After her first frank surprise at learning of his departure,his name did not come again from her lips,at any rate to me.Good Mrs.Pierce dropped a word one day as to her opinion of men who deceive women into expecting something from them.
"Let us talk straight,"said I."Do you mean that Miss Buckner says that,or that you say it?""Why,the poor thing says nothing!"exclaimed the lady."It's like a man to think she would.And I'll not say anything,either,for you're all just the same,except when you're worse;and that Lin McLean is going to know what I think of him next time we meet."He did.On that occasion the kind old dame told him he was the best boy in the country,and stood on her toes and kissed him.But meanwhile we did not know why he had gone,and Jessamine (though he was never subtle or cruel enough to plan such a thing)missed him,and thus in her loneliness had the chance to learn how much he had been to her.
Though pressed to stay indefinitely beneath Mrs.Pierce's hospitable roof,the girl,after lingering awhile,and going often to that nook in the hill by Riverside,took her departure.She was restless,yet clung to the neighborhood.It was with a wrench that she fixed her going when Itold her of my own journey back to the railroad.In Buffalo she walked to the court-house and stood a moment as if bidding this site of one life-memory farewell,and from the stage she watched and watched the receding town and mountains."It's awful to be leaving him!"she said.
"Excuse me for acting so in front of you."With the poignant emptiness overcoming her in new guise,she blamed herself for not waiting in Illinois until he had been sent to Joliet,for then,so near home,he must have gone with her.
