Part 18

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The details of Caleb Kimball's illness would be such as fill a nurse's bedside record book. The mainspring of life had been snapped and the machinery refused to move for a long time. When he recovered consciousness his solemn black eyes followed Amanda Dalton's movements as if fascinated, but he spoke no word save a faltering phrase or two at night to William Benson.

Meantime much had been happening below-stairs, where Amanda Dalton reigned supreme, with Susan Benson and Abby Thatcher taking turns in housework or nursing. William Benson was a painter by trade, and Amanda's ingenious idea was to persuade him to paint and paper the Kimball kitchen before Caleb was moved downstairs.

This struck William as a most extraordinary and unnecessary performance.

"Israel in Egypt!" he exclaimed. "What's the matter with you women? I never heard o' such goin's-on in my life! I might lay abed a thousand years an' nobody'd paint my premises. Let Caleb git his strength back an' then use a little elbow grease on his own house--you can't teach an old dog new tricks, Susan!"

"'Pends on how old the dog is, an' what kind o' tricks you want to teach him," Susan replied. "It'd be a queer dog that wouldn't take to a clean kennel, or three good meals a day 'stead o' starvation vittles. Amanda says it may be a kind of a turnin'-point in Caleb's life, an' she thinks we'd ought to encourage him a little."

"Ain't I encouragin' him by sleepin' on his settin'-room lounge every night an' givin' him medicine every two hours by the alarm clock? I've got my own day's work to do; when would I paint his kitchen, I'd like to know?"

"We thought probably you'd like to do it nights," suggested his wife timidly.

"Saul in Tarsus! Don't that beat the devil?" ejaculated William. "Caleb Kimball ain't done a good day's work for years, an' I'm to set up nights paintin' his kitchen!" Nevertheless the magnificent impertinence of the idea so paralyzed his will that he ended by putting on twelve single rolls of fawn-colored paper and painting the woodwork yellow to harmonize, working from eight to twelve several nights and swearing freely at his own foolishness.

By this time Amanda had made the downstairs chamber all tidy and comfortable for the patient. She had contributed a window shade and dimity curtains; Susan a braided rug and a chair cushion. The chamber (the one in which Caleb's mother had died) opened from the kitchen and commanded an enticing view of the fresh yellow walls and shining cook-stove. On the day before Caleb's removal Amanda sat on the foot of the bed and looked through the doorway with silent joy, going to and fro to move a bright tin dipper into plainer view or retire a drying dish-cloth to greater privacy.

Even Abby Thatcher was by this time a trifle exhilarated. She did not understand the situation very well, being of a sternly practical nature herself, but she caught the enthusiasm of the two women and scrubbed the kitchen floor faithfully every morning in order to remove the stains of years of neglect.

"You wouldn't think your old hen 'd be such a fool, Miss Dalton," she said; "but I kind o' surmised the reason she's been missin', an' I found her to-day in a corner o' the haymow sittin' on five eggs. Now, wouldn't you s'pose at her age she'd know better than to try an' raise chickens in October?"

"I'm afraid they'll die if it should be a cold fall, with nobody to look after 'em; but maybe I can take 'em home to my shed an' lend Mr. Kimball another hen." (Amanda's tone was motherly.) "I never like to break up a hen's nest, somehow; it seems as if they must have feelin's like other folks."

"I'd take her off quicker'n scat, an' keep takin' her off, till she got some sense," said Abby, with the Chinese cruelty of sixteen.

"Well, you let her be till Mr. Kimball gets well enough to ask; an' I think, Abby, you might clean up the dooryard just a little mite this mornin'," suggested Amanda. "If you could straighten up the fence an' find a couple of old hinges to hang the gate with, it would kind o' put new heart into Mr. Kimball when he's sittin' up an' lookin' out the window."

"Why didn't he put heart into hisself by hangin' his own gate, before he took sick?" grumbled Abby, reducing Amanda to momentary silence by her pitiless logic.

"Why didn't he, indeed?" echoed her heart gloomily, receiving nothing in the way of answer from her limited experience of men.

Caleb had spoken more frequently the last few days. When by the combined exertions of the Bensons and the doctor he had been brought down into his mother's old room, Amanda closed the kitchen door, thinking one experience at a time was enough for a man in his weak and exhausted condition. William Benson couldn't see any sense in this precaution, but he never did see much sense in what women-folks did. He wanted to show Caleb the new paint and paper immediately, and remark casually that he had done all the work while he was "night-nursin'."

The next morning Amanda had seized a good opportunity to open the door between the two rooms, straightway retiring to the side entry to await developments. In a few moments she heard Caleb moving, and going in found him half sitting up in bed, leaning on his elbow.

"What's the matter with the kitchen?" he asked feebly, staring with wide-open eyes at the unaccustomed prospect.

"Only fresh paint an' paper; that's William's work."

"O God, I ain't worth it! I ain't worth it!" he groaned as he hid his face in the pillow.

"Have you been here all the time?" he asked Amanda when she brought him his gruel later in the day.

"Yes, off an' on, when I could get away from my own work."

"Who found me?"

"I did. I knew by the looks somethin' was wrong up here."

"Somethin' wrong, sure enough, an' always was!" Amanda heard him mutter as he turned his face to the wall.

The next day he opened his eyes suddenly as she was passing through the room.