Pippin; A Wandering Flame, Page 2

  CHAPTER II

  PIPPIN MAKES A FRIEND

  Elder Hadley had tried hard to persuade Pippin to commit himself to somedefinite plan when his time was up. He wanted to give him letters tothis friend or that, who would help him to this or that position.

  "Give you a leg up!" said the good man. "Why not? I'll guarantee yourconduct, Pippin, and they'll be glad to help you, and give you a goodstart. It may make all the difference in the world to you."

  "No offense, Elder," replied Pippin, "but I'd ruther not. I'd rutherwalk on my own feet than other folkses', even yours. Long as I've benhere, I've took all you gave, and thankful; but now it's up to me andthe Lord, and we'll go on our own. No offense in the world, and thankingyou kindly, sir!"

  "But what are you going to do?" asked Mr. Hadley.

  "Haven't the first _i_dea!" replied Pippin cheerfully. "But I'll findthe right thing, just watch me! You see, Elder, this is the way I lookat it. I was fetched up to a trade, and it was the devil's, wasn't it?Well! So I got a wrong start, you see. Now I've got to find the Lord'strade, the one He meant for me to find, and you can't find unless youlook. That's the way I see it. I'm going to take the road and find myown trade that I was meant for: I'll know it when I see it, don't youhave no fear!"

  Pippin fared merrily onward, walking briskly. As he went, he talkedaloud, now addressing the stick, which he called his pal, now animaginary comrade, now the beloved figure of the chaplain. This habit oftalking aloud had been formed in his prison days. A wholly socialcreature, he loved the kindly sound of the human voice, and when therewas no other to hear he must listen to his own. He even called up thefamily that his fancy had fashioned, and pictured them walking the roadwith him, "Ma" in her blue dress, with her pink cheeks and bright eyes,"Pa" brown and stalwart as himself ("only he'd wear a beard, kind ofancient-like and respectable"), the little girl, even the baby. Afanciful Pippin; but "I like to have things inter_est_in'," he wouldsay, "and they can't be real interestin' unless you have somebody tochin with. See?"

  He was deep in an imaginary argument with the chaplain concerning themerits and demerits of Chiney Pottle, who had occupied the next cell tohis.

  "I don't say he's lively company, Elder, nor I don't say he's han'some.Take a guy like that, color of last week's lemon, and he's got somethin'wrong with his liver, most likely, and Chiney sure has. He has painssomething fierce; I hear him groanin' nights. I see a yarn in a bookabout a bird interferin' with some guy's liver: well, Chiney soundedlike that. But what I would say, you start anybody else groanin' orbelly-achin', any way, shape, or manner, and Chiney's _all there_! Shutsup on his own, and is orful sorry you--"

  "Hi!" said a voice close beside him. Pippin started violently. He hadbeen so absorbed in talk that he had not heard the sound of wheels inthe soft dust of the road.

  The driver of the wagon pulled up his horse and surveyed him curiously."Who were you talkin' to?" he asked.

  Pippin blushed, but met his questioner's look cheerfully. A thickset,grizzled man with an honest face, now screwed up in a puzzledexpression, bent forward over the dasher.

  "Who were you talkin' to?" he repeated.

  "I was just talkin'!" said Pippin. "I admire to talk, don't you?"

  The man looked about, to see if any one else were near: then again atPippin. "You don't look like a drinkin' man!" he said.

  "That's because I ain't!" Pippin smiled.

  "Nor yet you don't look loony! Yet there you was, footin' it along, andtalkin' nineteen to the dozen. Looks queer, to me!"

  "Does it? Now I maintain that it's more natural for a man to talk thanto keep still."

  The man studied Pippin with shrewd, observant eyes. At last, "Like alift?" he said.

  "Thank'ee!" said Pippin, and in another minute they were jogging alongthe road.

  "Nice day!" said the stranger.

  "Dandy! Havin' elegant weather right along. Don't know as ever I seebetter. As I was sayin'," Pippin turned toward his companion, "talkin'is the way of natur', or so I view it. When a man keeps still--well, itmay mean one thing and it may mean another. He may be gettin' religion:I never spoke for three days when the Lord was havin' it out with me:but then again it may mean that he's plannin' to get out, or that he'sgoin' home. Why, I've known men that never stopped talkin', mornin'till night, fear they'd lose their minds if they did; in solitary, theywas."

  The man looked at him sharply. "What are you talkin' about?" he asked ina different tone.

  Pippin's eyes met his squarely. "When a thing is so," he said, "it's so.I found the grace of God, and there's no lyin' in mine from now on. I'veben doin' time, sir! I'm just out of State Prison."

  "Is that so?" The man was silent, his kindly face grave. "What were youin for?" the question came at last.

  "Breakin' and enterin'!"

  "Whew!" The gray-haired man drew in his breath with a long, slowwhistle. Again he studied Pippin's face intently. "You foolin'?" heasked at length.

  Pippin shook his head. "Poor kind o' foolin' I'd call that, wouldn'tyou? I'm tellin' you the truth."

  "Whoa up!" the man checked his horse, and looked about him. A lonelyroad, no house in sight, no sound in the air save the distant barking ofan invisible dog. After scanning the landscape, he took a careful surveyof his horse, leaning forward to scrutinize every buckle of the harness;at last his eyes came back to Pippin with a very grave look. "I guesswe'd better go into this a mite!" he said. "I ain't accustomed to--no,you needn't get down! I don't mean that. I want to understand where Iam, that's all. Out on parole, are you, or--"

  Pippin stared at him; then broke into a laugh. "Or run away? That whatyou was thinkin', sir? Why, if I'd run away, would I be tellin'? I guessnix! No parole, neither. I'm out for good; served my turn--and had mylesson!" he added in a different tone.

  "Breakin' and enterin', too!" the gray-haired man repeated. "How comeyou to be breakin' and enterin'? Weren't you sayin' something aboutreligion just now? That don't go along with burglary, young chap!"

  "Brought up to it!" Pippin replied briefly. "My trade, from a baby asyou may say. I've give it up now, and lookin' for another."

  "How long were you there? In prison, I mean!"

  "Three years. It'll sound queer to you, sir, but I count them threeyears the best I've had yet in my life."

  Glancing at Pippin, and seeing the bright eagerness of his face, thestern look of the elder man softened. "How's that?" he said, notunkindly. "Git up, Nelson!" he clucked to the horse, which startedobediently on a jog trot. Pippin drew a long breath, and threw his headback with a little upward glance. One would have thought he was givingthanks for something. Then he looked at his companion, timidly yeteagerly.

  "I don't know as you'd care to hear about it, sir," he said, "butperhaps if you had a boy of your own--"

  "I had! I'd like to hear, son!"

  Pippin breathed deeply again, and squared his shoulders, settlinghimself in his seat. "I thank you, sir. I'll make it as short as I can.Well! I hadn't no parents, to know them, and I growed up anyhow, as youmight say, kickin' round the streets. Come about ten years old, a manbought my time of the old woman who had a kind of an eye to me--she wasno kin, but she was good to me sometimes--and I went with him, andlearned sneakin'."

  "Sneaking?"

  "Sneak-thievin'! Hallways, overcoats, umbrellas, like that! I hated it,but I learned it good. Shopliftin', too, and pocket-pickin'! I couldpick your pocket, sir, and you'd never know I'd moved my hands. Yourpocket-book is in your inside breast pocket--" the man recoiledinvoluntarily--"and I'd advise you to change it, for you see, sir, in acrowd, any one in that line that knew his business would slit your coatand pinch it just as easy--Well! So I learned that, and at the same timeI was taken on breakin's. I was small up to about twelve, and I did theopenin' and gettin' in part. I always hated that. You may not believeme, but I didn't really like any of it much, but it was my trade, and Iwanted to do my best; and anyhow--anyhow I had to or I'd been killed."

  "What do you mean?"


  "Just that! He was that kind of man, the boss who bought my time. I sawhim kill a boy--I guess I won't go into that! Well, sir, I grew up big,as you see, and I cut loose from Bashford's gang. I'd learned all he hadto teach--all that was worth learnin'--and I was counted a master handfor a young un. Pippin the Kid--I had other names, too, but no need togo into that. I was as proud of 'em as I am ashamed now, and I guessthat's enough. He tried to keep me, but I was fed up with him and hiskind, so I licked him in good shape and went over to Blankton, 'crostthe river. Along about then I got in with some fellers of my own age,who thought breakin' was the only trade in the world. They were keen onit, and they meant to be gentleman burglars, and get rich, and own theearth, or as much of it as they could cover. They'd been readin' a bookabout a feller named Snaffles; I called him a mean skunk, but theythought he was all creation; well, they were good fellers, and wechummed up together, and pretty soon I got my pride up and wanted toshow 'em that I knew all they did ten times over. _I did_! They hadgrowed up in homes, nice clean homes, with mothers--green grass! mothersthat took care of 'em, taught 'em to say prayers, kept their clothesmended; wouldn't that give you a pain? If I saw them boys now, wouldn'tI put the grace of God into them with a jimmy--not that I carry a jimmynow!" he added hastily. "I wouldn't, not if it was handier than it is,and it's dreadful handy! Now a file's different!"

  "Why is it different?" asked his companion, half smiling at his earnestlook.

  Pippin's hair curled thick and close all over his head, like an elasticcushion. He ran his fingers through it and produced a small file.

  "Anybody needs a file, you see!" he explained. "There's your nails, forone thing; a crook has to keep his nails and hands just so, or he'd losehis touch--and yet an honest man takes care of 'em too, or ought so todo! This file is a good friend to me!" He replaced it carefully, theother following his motions with wondering eyes. "But a jimmy, you see,sir," turning an animated face toward his companion, "is a crook's tool,and no one else's. Well! Where was I? Oh, yes, I had joined themfellers. Well, we made up a gang, and we got us a name; the Honey Boyswe were. Crooks are real childish, or apt to be; I expect most folksare, one way or another, but there's lots of crooks that ain't allthere, or maybe they wouldn't be crooks. Elder Hadley would say--but Ihaven't come to him yet. So we was the Honey Boys, and we was goin' tosteal di'monds and jool'ry, and the kings of the earth wouldn't be in itwith us."

  "My! My!" said the stranger. "An' you lookin' like an honest feller! I'mreal sorry--"

  "I _am_ an honest feller!" cried Pippin. He leaned forward and laid hishand on the other's knee. "Just look me in the eye! I couldn't pinch theKimberley di'mond, not if it was stickin' out in your shirt front thisminute. There's no pinch in me! Just you wait! Now was the time when theLord began to take a hand. That is, of course He was playin' the gameright along, but you couldn't see the cards; now they was on the table,so to say. He'd give me just so much rope, and that was all I was goin'to have. The first big job we undertook I got pinched and run in. Greengrass! how mad I was! You see, it wasn't my fault. One of our gang had ahunch against me--I'd licked him one day when he robbed a kid. Broughthome a little gal's bracelet he'd took off her at the movies; wouldn'tthat make your nose bleed? Well, I made his, I tell you, and he laid itup; kind of Dago he was, with an ugly streak in him. There was four ofus on the job--country house job, and him and me was the two to go inwhile the others kep' watch. So we went through the rooms, did it ingood shape too, got quite a lot of swag and didn't wake a soul till justas we was gettin' out the window. He got out first and I give him thebag; just then a door opened into the pantry where we was. He caught meon the sill, give me a shove with all his strength and knocked me backinto the room, then he slammed the window and run off. I was too mad tomove for a minute, and then before I could get the window open, therewas a woman standin' by me--a tall woman she was, in a white gown. Shejust looked at me and says she, 'Why, it's a boy! Oh, your poor mother!'That took me kind of sudden, because I hadn't no mother, so to say--andI guess she see the way I felt. I believe she would have let me off, butjust then her husband came in, and--well, it wasn't to be expected hewould look at it any such way. So I was run in, and I got three years."

  "In Shoreham?"

  "In Shoreham! P'raps you know the place, sir?" Pippin's eyes lightenedinquiringly.

  The stranger shook his head. "I never was in it, but I've seen some thathave been--and more that ought to be. Pretty hard place, I'm told!"

  "It used to be!" said Pippin. "They tell tales--and there's things stillthat don't seem to belong, someway, to the Lord's world. Left-overbarber--barberries--no! barbarisms, Elder Hadley calls 'em. That's it,barbarisms! Him and the Old Man--that's the Warden, sir--are doin' of'em away as fast as they can, but you can't clean a ward with one pailof water. And there's old crooks that wouldn't understand; they--Idono--" Pippin shook his curly head, and was silent, seeing visions. Hiscompanion jogged him with his elbow. The story was proving interesting.

  "You say you found the Lord there; or the Lord found you! How was that?"

  "I found Him!" Pippin laughed joyously. "He didn't find me, and reasongood: He never lost me. He knowed where I was all the time. I'll cut itas short as I can. The first year I was no good. I was mad, and I stayedmad: there was nobody I inclined to chum up with. There was some kind o'made up to me, but I didn't take to 'em someway. They was dirty, too.One thing I'll always lay kind to the Honey Boys, they was clean.Brought up clean, you see; learned to wash, and brush their hair, andthat; mothers learned 'em. Green grass! and think o' their--Well,anyhow, I took to that like a cat to cream; I've never been dirty since,nor I can't abide dirty folks. I just grouched off by myself, andplanned what I'd do when my time was up; nobody thought I was any good,and I wasn't. All I thought of was how to get out, and then get back atChunky--he was the Dago guy I was tellin' about. I'd study over it allday long. I wouldn't kill him, I thought, just smash his face(good-lookin' guy, great on the girls, an' they on him), or break hisback so he'd never walk again, or--_I'm tellin' you this because I amashamed to tell it_, and because I want you should know what the Lordraised me up out of. I tell you I'd sit there after workin' hours,hunched up in my cheer, never speakin' to a soul, just feelin' him undermy hands, feelin' his flesh go soft and his bones crunch--"

  Pippin stopped abruptly, flushing scarlet. "Lord, forgive me!" he saidsimply.

  "Amen!--Well?" The gray-haired man was looking expectantly at him. "Goon, young feller! You can't stop there." Pippin gave a gulp and went on.

  "The chaplain used to come and see me once or twice a week, and he giveme papers to read--nice papers they was, too; I liked 'em--and said Iwas in a bad way and didn't I repent, and I said no, I didn't, and he'dshake his head and say, 'Hardened! hardened!' kind of sad, and go away.He'd ben there a long time, and it had soaked into him, as you may say.He'd lost his spring, if ever he had any. Well! come one day--I'll neverforget that day! bright, sunshiny day it was, just like this--I went tochapel as usual. I liked to go to chapel, 'count of the singin'. I'drather sing than eat, any day. I never noticed the words, youunderstand, but I liked the tunes, and I sang out good whenever I got achance. So I went in with the rest, like a sheep, and sat down, neverlookin' up. I'd got a piece of string, and a feller had showed me a newknot, and I sat tyin' it, waitin' for the singin'. I never took nonotice of anything else. Then a voice spoke, and I jumped, and lookedup. It was a strange voice, and a strange man. Tall and well set up, hewas, kind o' sandy hair and beard, and eyes that looked right throughyou and counted the buttons on the back of your shirt. Yes, and hisvoice went through you, too; it wasn't loud nor yet sharp, but youcouldn't help but listen. '_The Lord is here!_' he said. He let thatsink in a minute; then, 'Right here,' he said, 'in this chapel. Andwhat's more, you left Him behind you in your cell. And what's more,you'll find Him there when you go back. _You can't get away from Him!_'I can't tell you all he said, but every word come straight as a riflebullet. I wasn't the only one that sat up, I tell
ye! 'Twas differenttalk from what we was used to. He spoke about ten minutes, and it didn'tseem three; then he stops short and says, 'That's enough. Now let'ssing! Hymn 464!' Well, there was some sung, like me, because they likedit, and there was a few here and there was professors, but half of 'emdidn't pay no attention special, just sat there. After the first versehe held up his hand. 'I said _sing_!' says he. 'And when I say sing Imean _sing_! Never mind whether you know how or not; _make a noise_! Iain't goin' to sing alone!'

  "Gorry! I can see him now, standin' there with his head up, clappin' twohymn books together to beat the time and singin' away for all he wasworth. In two minutes every man in the place was singin', or crowin', orgruntin', or makin' what kind of noise was give him to make. Yes, sir!that was Elder Hadley all over. I let out my voice to the last hole; Iexpect I bellered like a bull, for he looked at me kind o' quick; thenin another minute he looked again, and that time he saw all there was tosee. I felt it crinkle down to my toes, so to say. Bimeby, as we weregoin' out, after service, he come down and shook hands with us all,every man Jack, and said somethin' pleasant. Come to me, he looks meright through again, and says he, 'Well, boy, what are _you_ doin'here?' I choked up, and couldn't say a word. It wasn't so much what hesaid, mind you, as the way he said it. Why, you was a real person, andhe _cared_; you bet he cared! Well, sir, 'twould take the day to tellwhat that man did for me. He told me that 'twas true, the Lord _was_there. And that--that _He_ cared too. It took a long time to get thatinto my head. I'd been kicked about from one gutter to another; nobodyever had cared--except old Granny Faa; she give me snuff sometimes, whenshe was sober, and she kep' Bashford off me as much as she could--butstill--

  "Well! I'll bile it down. Come one day, somethin' started me wrong; Idon't know what it was. My head ached, and the mush was burnt, and Ididn't give a tinker's damn for anything or anybody. I did what I hadto, and then I sat down and just grouched, the way I told you. Crooks ischildish, as I said; maybe other folks is too, I dono. Well! So ElderHadley come along, and he says, 'Hello, Pippin! What's the matter? Youlook like you'd been frostbit!' he says. I tried to fetch a grin, but itwouldn't come. 'Nothin' doin', Elder!' I says.

  "'What's the matter?' he says again, his kind way.

  "'Hell's the matter!' I says. I used language, them days; never havesince, but I did then.

  "He sits down and looks me over careful. 'What's "hell"?' he says.

  "'Everything's hell!' I says: and then I biled over, and I guess thatmush was burnt all right. He listened quiet, his head kind o' bent down.At last he says, 'How about takin' the Lord into this, and askin' Him tohelp?'

  "'Nothin' doin'!' I says. 'There's no Lord in mine!'

  "'_Stop that!_' says he. I looked up; and his eyes was like on fire, butyet they was lovin' too, and--I dono--somethin' in his look made mestraighten up and hold up my head. 'None of that talk!' he said. 'That'sno talk for God's boy. Now, hark to me! You like me, don't you, Pippin?'

  "'You bet I like you, Elder!' I says. 'There's nothin' doin' in yourline here, but you bet I like you. You've treated me white, and you're agentleman besides.'

  "'Now,' he says, slow and careful, 'what you like in me is just thelittle bit of God that's in me. The little bit that's in you finds thelittle bit that's in me, do you see? And _likes_ it, because they belongtogether. There's another bit in the Warden, and another in Tom Clappthere, though I'll own he doesn't look it (and he didn't); and there's abit in everybody here and elsewhere. And that's not all! Go you out intothat field yonder and sit there for an hour, and you'll find otherlittle bits, see if you don't! And see if they don't fit together.'

  "He pointed out of the window to a field a little ways off: I could seethe buttercups shinin' in it from where I sat. I stared at him. 'Goalong!' says he. 'What do you mean?' I says. 'I mean _go_!' he says.'I've the Warden's leave for you whenever I see fit, and I see fit now.'I looked at him, and I see 'twas true. I got up kind o' staggerin',like, and he tucked his arm into mine, and he opened the door and wewent out. Out! I'd been in there a year, sir. I don't believe you couldguess what 'twas like. He marched me over to that field--we clum overthe fence, and _that_ done me a sight of good--and told me to set down.Then he give me his watch--gold watch and chain, handsome as they make'em--and said, 'Come back in an hour. Good-by, boy!' and he went off andleft me there. Green grass! do you understand? He never turned roundeven. He left _me_--a crook, a guttersnipe, a jailbird--out there alonein the sunshine, with the buttercups all round me."

  Pippin's voice broke. Mr. Bailey produced a voluminous bandannahandkerchief and blew his nose loudly. There was silence for a fewmoments. Pippin went on.

  "Then, after a while, I found the Lord, like the Elder said. He come allround me, like the air; I couldn't get away from Him. A little bird comeand tilted on a bush by where I was sittin', and he sang, and there wasa bit of the Lord in him, and he said so, over and over, plain, and Iheard him. And the sun shined on the buttercups, and they had a bit too,and appeared like they knowed it, and kind o' nodded and was pleased;and the leaves on the trees rustled, and they appeared pleased, too. Andlike a voice said inside me, 'It all belongs, and you belong too!' andall at once I was down on my knees. 'It's the Lord!' I says. 'I've foundHim, and He's the Whole Show!'"