
* A Project Gutenberg Canada Ebook *

This ebook is made available at no cost and with very few
restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make
a change in the ebook (other than alteration for different
display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of
the ebook. If either of these conditions applies, please
check gutenberg.ca/links/licence.html before proceeding.

This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be
under copyright in some countries. If you live outside
Canada, check your country's copyright laws.
IF THE BOOK IS UNDER COPYRIGHT IN YOUR COUNTRY,
DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS FILE.

Title: The Old Man
   [the sixteenth story in "A Little Book of Profitable Tales"]
Author: Field, Eugene (1850-1895)
Date of first publication: 1889
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894
Date first posted: 28 August 2010
Date last updated: 28 August 2010
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #603

This ebook was produced by:
David Edwards, woodie4
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

This file was produced from images generously made available
by the Internet Archive/American Libraries




THE OLD MAN.


I called him the Old Man, but he wuzn't an old man; he wuz a little
boy--our fust one; 'nd his gran'ma, who'd had a heap of experience in
sich matters, allowed that he wuz for looks as likely a child as she'd
ever clapped eyes on. Bein' our fust, we sot our hearts on him, and
Lizzie named him Willie, for that wuz the name she liked best, havin'
had a brother Willyum killed in the war. But I never called him anything
but the Old Man, and that name seemed to fit him, for he wuz one of your
sollum babies,--alwuz thinkin' 'nd thinkin' 'nd thinkin', like he wuz a
jedge, and when he laffed it wuzn't like other children's laffs, it wuz
so sad-like.

Lizzie 'nd I made it up between us that when the Old Man growed up we'd
send him to collige 'nd give him a lib'ril edication, no matter though
we had to sell the farm to do it. But we never cud exactly agree as to
what we was goin' to make of him; Lizzie havin' her heart sot on his
bein' a preacher like his gran'pa Baker, and I wantin' him to be a
lawyer 'nd git rich out'n the corporations, like his uncle Wilson
Barlow. So we never come to no definite conclusion as to what the Old
Man wuz goin' to be bime by; but while we wuz thinkin' 'nd debatin' the
Old Man kep' growin' 'nd growin', and all the time he wuz as serious 'nd
sollum as a jedge.

Lizzie got jest wrapt up in that boy; toted him round ever'where 'nd
never let on like it made her tired,--powerful big 'nd hearty child too,
but heft warn't nothin' 'longside of Lizzie's love for the Old Man. When
he caught the measles from Sairy Baxter's baby Lizzie sot up day 'nd
night till he wuz well, holdin' his hands 'nd singin' songs to him, 'nd
cryin' herse'f almost to death because she dassent give him cold water
to drink when he called f'r it. As for me, _my_ heart wuz wrapt up in
the Old Man, _too_, but, bein' a man, it wuzn't for me to show it like
Lizzie, bein' a woman; and now that the Old Man is--wall, now that he
has gone, it wouldn't do to let on how much I sot by him, for that would
make Lizzie feel all the wuss.

Sometimes, when I think of it, it makes me sorry that I didn't show the
Old Man some way how much I wuz wrapt up in him. Used to hold him in my
lap 'nd make faces for him 'nd alder whistles 'nd things; sometimes I'd
kiss him on his rosy cheek, when nobody wuz lookin'; oncet I tried to
sing him a song, but it made him cry, 'nd I never tried my hand at
singin' again. But, somehow, the Old Man didn't take to me like he took
to his mother: would climb down outern my lap to git where Lizzie wuz;
would hang on to her gownd, no matter what she wuz doin',--whether she
was makin' bread, or sewin', or puttin' up pickles, it wuz alwuz the
same to the Old Man; he wuzn't happy unless he wuz right there, clost
beside his mother.

Most all boys, as I've heern tell, is proud to be round with their
father, doin' what _he_ does 'nd wearin' the kind of clothes _he_ wears.
But the Old Man wuz diff'rent; he allowed that his mother wuz his best
friend, 'nd the way he stuck to her--wall, it has alwuz been a great
comfort to Lizzie to recollect it.

The Old Man had a kind of confidin' way with his mother. Every oncet in
a while, when he'd be playin' by hisself in the front room, he'd call
out, "Mudder, mudder;" and no matter where Lizzie wuz,--in the kitchen,
or in the wood-shed, or in the yard, she'd answer: "What is it,
darlin'?" Then the Old Man 'ud say: "Tum here, mudder, I wanter tell you
sumfin'." Never could find out what the Old Man wanted to tell Lizzie;
like 's not he didn't wanter tell her nothin'; may be he wuz lonesome
'nd jest wanted to feel that Lizzie wuz round. But that didn't make no
diff'rence; it wuz all the same to Lizzie. No matter where she wuz or
what she wuz a-doin', jest as soon as the Old Man told her he wanted to
tell her somethin' she dropped ever'thing else 'nd went straight to him.
Then the Old Man would laff one of his sollum, sad-like laffs, 'nd put
his arms round Lizzie's neck 'nd whisper--or pertend to
whisper--somethin' in her ear, 'nd Lizzie would laff 'nd say, "Oh, what
a nice secret we have atween us!" and then she would kiss the Old Man
'nd go back to her work.

Time changes all things,--all things but memory, nothin' can change
_that_. Seems like it wuz only yesterday or the day before that I heern
the Old Man callin', "Mudder, mudder, I wanter tell you sumfin'," and
that I seen him put his arms around her neck 'nd whisper softly to her.

It had been an open winter, 'nd there wuz fever all around us. The
Baxters lost their little girl, and Homer Thompson's children had all
been taken down. Ev'ry night 'nd mornin' we prayed God to save our
darlin'; but one evenin' when I come up from the wood lot, the Old Man
wuz restless 'nd his face wuz hot 'nd he talked in his sleep. May be
you've been through it yourself,--may be you've tended a child that's
down with the fever; if so, may be you know what we went through, Lizzie
'nd me. The doctor shook his head one night when he come to see the Old
Man; we knew what that meant. I went out-doors,--I couldn't stand it in
the room there, with the Old Man seein' 'nd talkin' about things that
the fever made him see. I wuz too big a coward to stay 'nd help his
mother to bear up; so I went out-doors 'nd brung in wood,--brung in wood
enough to last all spring,--and then I sat down alone by the kitchen
fire 'nd heard the clock tick 'nd watched the shadders flicker through
the room.

I remember Lizzie's comin' to me and sayin': "He's breathin'
strange-like, 'nd has little feet is cold as ice." Then I went into the
front chamber where he lay. The day wuz breakin'; the cattle wuz lowin'
outside; a beam of light come through the winder and fell on the Old
Man's face,--perhaps it wuz the summons for which he waited and which
shall some time come to me 'nd you. Leastwise the Old Man roused from
his sleep 'nd opened up his big blue eyes. It wuzn't me he wanted to
see.

"Mudder! mudder!" cried the Old Man, but his voice warn't strong 'nd
clear like it used to be. "Mudder, where _be_ you, mudder?"

Then, breshin' by me, Lizzie caught the Old Man up 'nd held him in her
arms, like she had done a thousand times before.

"What is it, darlin'? _Here_ I be," says Lizzie.

"Tum here," says the Old Man,--"tum here; I wanter tell you sumfin'."

The Old Man went to reach his arms around her neck 'nd whisper in her
ear. But his arms fell limp and helpless-like, 'nd the Old Man's curly
head drooped on his mother's breast.

1889.


Transcriber's note:

Page 219. 'her' changed to 'here'




[End of _The Old Man_ by Eugene Field]
