“There it was, late fall and the snow beginning to fly, and I’ll never forget the sight Ximenus made standin’ out there on the cold door stone on one foot and holding the other foot to the calf of his leg to warm it, and then shifting feet to get the other warm, and drumming away all the time, trying to keep his courage up and make himself believe that he loved music and the drum and was glad he had it instead of them new long-legged boots.”
“Beats all about some critters, don’t it?” commented Uncle Buck, after listening to this tale with much interest.
The Squire had not taken his eyes from the Mayo boy’s face.
“Bub,” he said softly, “they meant well--your folks--but--damn ’em for fools.
“Are you and the little one hungry?” he asked in a half whisper after a time, careful that the old men did not overhear.
“We ain’t suff’rin’ none, Squire, but we don’t have meat vittles nor nothin’ the same’s I had at----” but as the hard lines crinkled ominously around the lawyer’s gray eyes he stopped confusedly.
Shielding himself from the scrutiny of Buck and Amazeen behind the youth who still leaned over the table, Squire Phin straightened his leg and cautiously ran his hand into his trousers pocket. After a period of fumbling he slid his hand along the table, slipped a bill into the palm by which the young man was propping himself, squeezed the fingers down over it, and said with a tenderness almost parental:
“Go buy a good, meat dinner to-day, son, and have plenty of meat hash for supper, and perhaps the little one will sleep so soundly that the lady mother can’t disturb her. Take good heart. As Eli, here, says: ‘The harder you have to dig after a woodchuck, the better your appetite is when you get him.’ We’ll see what can be done. Now straighten up. Throw back your shoulders. Cock your knee every time you step, just like your best livery horse--the best ‘letter,’ you know--the one all the folks ask for. Hold up your chin and show ’em it’s natural and not a check-rein habit. Remember all the time that you’re young, life’s ahead of you, and the prettiest girl in Palermo is your wife. That’s the way to face the world. Tail over the dasher. Now out and at it!”
And seizing the youth by the arm, he marched him to the door, thwacking his broad palm between his shoulders at every step.