第95章 PART FOURTH(3)

The old man rose to put an end to the interview.He only repeated,"I guess those clams will keep till fall."But Fulkerson was apparently satisfied with the progress he had made;and when he joined March for the stroll homeward after office hours,he was able to detach his mind from the subject,as if content to leave it.

"This is about the best part of the year in New York,"he said;In some of the areas the grass had sprouted,and the tender young foliage had loosened itself froze the buds on a sidewalk tree here and there;the soft air was full of spring,and the delicate sky,far aloof,had the look it never wears at any other season."It ain't a time of year to complain much of,anywhere;but I don't want anything better than the month of May in New York.Farther South it's too hot,and I've been in Boston in May when that east wind of yours made every nerve in my body get up and howl.I reckon the weather has a good deal to do with the local temperament.The reason a New York man takes life so easily with all his rush is that his climate don't worry him.But a Boston man must be rasped the whole while by the edge in his air.That accounts for his sharpness;and when he's lived through twenty-five or thirty Boston Mays,he gets to thinking that Providence has some particular use for him,or he wouldn't have survived,and that makes him conceited.See?""I see,"said March."But I don't know how you're going to work that idea into an advertisement,exactly.""Oh,pahaw,now,March!You don't think I've got that on the brain all the time?""You were gradually leading up to 'Every Other Week',somehow.""No,sir;I wasn't.I was just thinking what a different creature a Massachusetts man is from a Virginian,And yet I suppose they're both as pure English stock as you'll get anywhere in America.Marsh,I think Colonel Woodburn's paper is going to make a hit.""You've got there!When it knocks down the sale about one-half,I shall know it's made a hit.""I'm not afraid,"said Fulkerson."That thing is going to attract attention.It's well written--you can take the pomposity out of it,here and there and it's novel.Our people like a bold strike,and it's going to shake them up tremendously to have serfdom advocated on high moral grounds as the only solution of the labor problem.You see,in the first place,he goes for their sympathies by the way he portrays the actual relations of capital and labor;he shows how things have got to go from bad to worse,and then he trots out his little old hobby,and proves that if slavery had not been interfered with,it would have perfected itself in the interest of humanity.He makes a pretty strong plea for it."March threw back his head and laughed."He's converted you!I swear,Fulkerson,if we had accepted and paid for an article advocating cannibalism as the only resource for getting rid of the superfluous poor,you'd begin to believe in it."Fulkerson smiled in approval of the joke,and only said:"I wish you could meet the colonel in the privacy of the domestic circle,March.

You'd like him.He's a splendid old fellow;regular type.Talk about spring!

You ought to see the widow's little back yard these days.You know that glass gallery just beyond the dining-room?Those girls have got the pot-plants out of that,and a lot more,and they've turned the edges of that back yard,along the fence,into a regular bower;they've got sweet peas planted,and nasturtiums,and we shall be in a blaze of glory about the beginning of June.Fun to see 'em work in the garden,and the bird bossing the job in his cage under the cherry-tree.Have to keep the middle of the yard for the clothesline,but six days in the week it's a lawn,and I go over it with a mower myself.March,there ain't anything like a home,is there?Dear little cot of your own,heigh?I tell you,March,when I get to pushing that mower round,and the colonel is smoking his cigar in the gallery,and those girls are pottering over the flowers,one of these soft evenings after dinner,I feel like a human being.Yes,I do.I struck it rich when I concluded to take my meals at the widow's.

For eight dollars a week I get good board,refined society,and all the advantages of a Christian home.By-the-way,you've never had much talk with Miss Woodburn,have you,March?""Not so much as with Miss Woodburn's father.""Well,he is rather apt to scoop the conversation.I must draw his fire,sometime,when you and Mrs.March are around,and get you a chance with Miss Woodburn.""I should like that better,I believe,"said March.

"Well,I shouldn't wonder if you did.Curious,but Miss Woodburn isn't at all your idea of a Southern girl.She's got lots of go;she's never idle a minute;she keeps the old gentleman in first-class shape,and she don't believe a bit in the slavery solution of the labor problem;says she's glad it's gone,and if it's anything like the effects of it,she's glad it went before her time.No,sir,she's as full of snap as the liveliest kind of a Northern girl.None of that sunny Southern languor you read about.""I suppose the typical Southerner,like the typical anything else,is pretty difficult to find,"said March."But perhaps Miss Woodburn represents the new South.The modern conditions must be producing a modern type.""Well,that's what she and the colonel both say.They say there ain't anything left of that Walter Scott dignity and chivalry in the rising generation;takes too much time.You ought to see her sketch the old-school,high-and-mighty manners,as they survive among some of the antiques in Charlottesburg.If that thing could be put upon the stage it would be a killing success.Makes the old gentleman laugh in spite of himself.But he's as proud of her as Punch,anyway.Why don't you and Mrs.March come round oftener?Look here!How would it do to have a little excursion,somewhere,after the spring fairly gets in its work?""Reporters present?"