In the Third Watch of the Night

IN THE THIRD WATCH OF THE NIGHT. BY HOMER M. PRICE. Eeprinted in the Improvement Era Jrom "The Independenf" by special permission of the Author. The old station baggage man put a scuttle of coal in the big Cannon-ball stove, went into the telegraph office and then returned to the baggage room. "No. 4's losing time," he said; "won't get here under three hours late. Did you have any baggage to check?" "Well, that's why I've been waiting here for the last thirty minutes," I said, with some little impatience. "Excuse me," said he; "I knowed the train wuz late, and most people set 'round here in the baggage room on cold nights, and I s'posed you wiiz doin' the same. Where to, please?" "Knoxville," I said, cooling off some. He adjusted his glasses and looked clear over them for the pigeon hole of the Knoxville checks, and, finally getting one, he placed it on my trunk, remarking: "Been over to the mines, eh? Purty cold drivin', wa'nt it? Coldest night we've had this winter, 'cept one; that wuz the night Ben Spillman's mother come. Know about that, I s'pose?" "No," said I, "I never heard of that; I'm a stranger here." "Well, sit down thar by the stove an' I'll tell you 'bout it, if you care to hear. Shows you're a stranger in these parts not to know 'bout it. Jest think of it, a looking for his mother for thirty-five years 'fore she come! "Wait till I light my pipe and put a trunk agin the door; that

7A^ THE THIRD WATCH OF THE NIGHT. 249 wind from the mountain is mighty searchin'. I tell you, stranger, it's mighty lonesome 'round here tonight. Not another passenger to go, and none of the neighbors out visitin', and that train 'way late. But you want to hear'bout Ben and his mother. "Well, Ben wuz here when I took charge of the station in '67—one of them awkward, shy boys, always gettin' in the way, but not meanin' to. Nobody knowed whar he come from, just found him here one day on the platform after the east-bound train come in, a peerin' into every woman's face that got off. He looked at all of 'em, and turned away, sayin' jest these four words: 'She said she'd come.' He wuz 'bout five or six then, they said, and all kinds of questioning only brought out those four words, and his name—Ben Spillman. It was believed that his mother had brought him down from the mountains and had got on a westbound train, a tellin' him she'd be back on the next eastbound one. It wuz just at the breakin' up of the war and nobody thought anything of strangers bein' about, and not one of them ever remembered of seein' the mother. The child wuz kinder weak in the head, sorter daffy like. Whether he wuz always that way, or the shock of losin' his mother wuz the cause of it, nobody never knowed. But thar he wuz when I come, the saddest faced little chap I ever saw, with his expectations 'way up every time the train come in, and 'way down to bass when the train had gone and his mother hadn't come. "Some of the old residenters said there had been a big wreck up 'bout Lebanon at the time the young one showed up, and that thar wuz two or three dead ones, one bein' a woman, that nobody ever knowed who they wuz. They 'lowed maybe 'twuz his mother. Others said that some woman wanted to get rid of a crazy child, and gave him the slip, but I never believed that, 'cause the kind o* mother that would want to give her child the slip could never have impressed him with such confidence in her. True, he wuzn't just right in his head, but my experience is that that's the kind that knows the most 'bout some things. They've got somethin' in 'em that tells who's who. Some say it's instinct, but whatever it is, the Lord Almighty put it thar; so I says, that boy's mother wuz intendin' to come back. "Well, Squire Heartsill takes the boy to his house, and he

250 IMPROVEMENT ERA. . makes himself useful 'bout the place, runnin' errands and sweepin' out the furniture store, but no matter what he wuz doin', when the evenin' train from the West gave the signal for the station here, he came as fast as he could; and then if the train wuz late, he would come down and wait for it; didn't matter whether he'd had any supper or not, he'd stay here till the train come. Many a time, when he wuz a kid, I'd tuck him in here behind the stove on a cold night, with my overcoat, while he waited for the train. I used to try to get him to tell me what he wuz lookin' for, but he would look so wild and scar ad like that I stopped. He'd mumble a whole lot that I couldn't understand, but always ended with, 'She said she'd come.' If he had dropped off to sleep when the train would whistle he'd be sure to wake up, and his eyes would sparkle and he would go runnin' out on the platform, a clappin' his hands— then purty soon, as the train pulled out, I'd see him goin' slowly down the path to the Squire's. "You'd think he'd 'a gotten tired, wouldn't you? But he never did. As he grew up the Squire wanted to send him to school* but he wouldn't go. I always thought it wuz 'cause the schoolhouse wuz too fur from the depot, so he stayed on thar in the shop, and come to be a pretty fair workman. He never had had much talk for anybody, and after he got to be a man he had less. He would go for weeks without sayin' a word to a soul, and I believe he would have forgotten how to talk if he hadn't had them four words to say to himself every evenin' when the train left. He never said 'em to anybody; just sad like, as he turned away he'd say, 'She said she'd come.' "He made purty good wages in the shop, and saved his money. When he wuz a kid we wuz real good friends, but as he got older he got more distant toward me. True, he'd nearly always come in the baggage room just 'fore the train come and roll the truck of trunks up to where the express car stopped, but he didn't talk none! "So matters went on this way year after year. "One summer night the train wuz late, and there wuz no passengers to get on, and nobody at the depot lookin' for anybody to come, 'cept Ben. He wuz a grown up man then, I'd say about thirty, and he come out and sat down on a truck with me. It had

IN THE THIRD WATCH OF THE NIGHT. 251 been an awful hot day and some thunder heads had gathered up in the west. Ben sat there and watched the lightnin' without sayin' a word. The train wuz 'way late, and by and by the clouds got to comin' closer, and I said, 'Ben, it's goin' to storm. Are you scared?' He waited some time 'tore he answered, then he said: *No, I ain't scared of anything, except she won't come.' You couldn't get his mind off it at all. I asked him why he didn't go and hunt her, for he'd saved his money and could travel everywhere and find her. He said he'd thought of that, but then she might come while he wuz gone, and then she'd feel just like he did, when she didn't find him lookin' for her. He thought he'd best stay here and wait for her, for she'd said she'd come. I didn't say no more and we sat thar watchin'the comin' storm. Most an hour passed without a word, and then Ben said suddenly, 'Don't the Scriptures say 'bout 'em comin' in the third watch of the night?' It kind 'o startled me, and I said, 'Yes, b'leve it does.' 'Well,' said he, 'I b'leve she'll come some time away in the night; might be tonight.' "When the train come, 'way long in the mornin', the storm had burst, and the lightnin' and thunder wuz makin' things lively. I didn't have anything to put on the train and the only thing that wuz put off wuz a little bull calf, and when the train left I found myself thar holdin' to a rope with the calf at the other end. Ben had been back to the coaches, but he see in the lightnin' flashes my perdicerment, and he come to help me. The calf wuz a rearin' and bawlin' terrible> but Ben says, 'I'll take him, he's fer the Squire. I heard him a sayin' as somebody wuz goin' to send him a calf by express,' so he goes up to the bawlin' critter and says aomethin' to it and it gets quiet. He takes the rope from my hand and goes down toward the Squire's barn. 1 see 'em 'way down thar when the lightnin' plaved 'round, the calf a follerin' 'long like a dog; and, as he'd sprung the scriptures on me, 1 says to myself, 'And a little child shall lead them.' 'Course I knew that bull calf wan't no lion, but I wa'nt sure that Ben wa'nt a child Years don't make you a man; it's knowin'and doin' things that are wrong that makes you quit bein' a child. "That same summer a young feller from Kentucky came a courtin' Squire Heartsill's daughter Bessie. Bessie wuz only a slip of a girl, born and growed up since Ben went to live with him.

252 IMPROVEMENT ERA He'd carried her 'bout on his shoulders all over the hills when she wuz a kid, a gatherin' sweet Williams and wild pansies. She always did the talkin' and the orderin', but she was mighty fond of Ben. After she grew up she went away to school, and when she come back she wuz the loveliest, liveliest girl in these parts. "While she wuz away Ben had done nothin' but work and come to meet trains; so when one day she got off the cars and, comin' straight into Ben's arms, kissed him, the poor fellow wuz awfully taken back. He looked at his great rough hands and homely figure and grew awkward. Somehow he avoided her after that, and when she did come close to him he'd turn red and amble off. My wife, she goes up to the Squire's a whole lot, and she see how things were goin', and she says to me, 'Tom, he's in love with Bessie,' but I didn't take no stock in that, and neither did Bessie. She treated him just like she always had when he give her a chance, and I don't believe she ever thought about it, until one night six years after when Ben's mother came, and she found it out. "But that summer, when the fine young feller come out from Kentucky, and got off the train and asked where Squire Heartsill lived, Ben wuz thar, of course, and said he could show him, and the two went down to the house together. I saw 'em a goin' and saw Bessie when she met 'em at the gate. I don't know what wuz said, but Ben come back up to the depot and stayed aroun' till I closed up for the night. He never said a word, but it seemed as if somethin' wuz trublin' him that he couldn't quite make out, sorter like your dog looks when you hurt him accidentally. He knows you didn't mean to do it, but it hurts him just the same. "Well, Ben spent lots o' time with me for the next two weeks, until the young feller went home again. The young feller at first was inclined to make fun of Ben, but he found out mighty quick from Bessie that that wouldn't do at all; so he tried to be friendly with Ben, and other times when he come down they got right chummy—that is, as chummy as two folks can get when one of 'em won't talk. They wen' huntin' and fishin' together, and one day Bessie went with 'em over to the lake, and Ben wuz quite happy a settin' silent in the end of the boat a pullin' of the oars while the young folks fished and talked. But they were mightykind to Ben and never talked anything but what be could hear.

IN THE THIRD WATCH OF THE NIGHT. 253 The young feller tried his best to get Ben to let him row, but it wa'nt no use. Ben just clung to the oars and watched 'em, or, rather, watched her. That day he just got back in time to meet the train. *' 'Long next spring the weddin' come off, and I've always thought it wuz providential that they married just in time to take the evenin' train, and, of course, Ben wuz at the train and didn't see the weddin'. He was dressed in his best, tho, and just as he wuz lookin' at every woman that got off the train, still expectin' his mother, Bessie comes up to him and puts her little hand on his shoulder and says, Ben, I'm goin' away, and I hate mighty bad to leave you. I'm awful sorry for you, and I wish so much that your mother would come. Ben, kiss me now, and God bless you.' The poor fellow kissed her, but when they wuz gone Ben watched the train puffin' round the curve yonder and says—he'd forgot to say it sooner—'She said she'd come,' and then burst out cryin' for the first and only time I ever heard of. "He never seemed the same after that, tho he wuz, if anything, happier than ever before. But it was a kind of resigned happiness. He grew thinner and got tired easier. He didn't work regular, but would wander off to the hills where the sweet Williams grew, and would bring back great bouquets of them to the train, thinkin' maybe, that one of the two women he'd seen leave might come back. The Squire's folks just then let him do as he pleased, so year followed year, and Ben grew thinner and more holler eyed, but somehow his eyes got brighter and more intelligent like. 'Bout a year ago he quit work altogether, 'count of gettin' out of breath when he tried it. The doctor said it wuz his heart, and that he couldn't do anything for him, but that it wuz best for him to quit work. "Well, Ben had a purty lonesome time, till long last fall, Bessie came back from Kentucky to spend a couple of months with her folks. It wuz worth a good deal to see Ben when she come, and he saw for the first time that other Bessie, her little threeyear-old girl. Seemed as if Ben didn't know 'bout her, and he wuz trumped, I tell you, when he saw thar toddlin on the platform a little chap, the very spirit of his old playmate of twenty years before. She went right straight to him, and he set her up on his

254 IMPRO VEMENT ERA. shoulder without a word, like he used to do her mother. Thar's somethin' strange 'bout children and animals; they knows their friends quicker than us that reasons and suspicions. He carried her on down to the Squire's, and me and her mother foUered behind. This wuz the first time he ever failed to say 'bout his mother promisin' to come. When he put the child down she puckered up her lips to be kissed, and she kind o' hugged him, but Ben never said a word. "Them wuz happy days for Ben for the next two months. That child and him were together all the time; over the hills, through the brownin' woods and acrost the stubble fields they went. He made her all kinds of things, from pumpkin whistles to cornstock fiddles; and he got so he talked to her. I expect he said more to her in them eight weeks than he ever said in his life before. We could see and hear him talkin' to her in a low, tender like way, but somehow we never asked the child what it wuz about. When winter come on she stayed most of the time in his room, and he never left her 'cept to come to the train. "Well, the nigh*, the mother and child wuz to go back home wuz just such a night as this. A norther from the Cumberlands had been blowin' all day long, and as dark come on it turned a sleetin' just like 'tis tonight, and the train wuz late, same as 'tis now. Ben had come up to the depot on time, but v/hen I told him the train was late he went back to the house. Tnis wuz the only time in more'n thirty-five years he hadn't stayed here and waited for it, no matter how late it wuz. He knew they wuz goin' to leave and I guess he wanted to be with the child. W^ell, 'bout a quarter of an hour before the train come they all comes up from the Squire's, Ben a carry in' the child high on his shoulders. They stopped here in the baggage room, as thar wa'nt a good fire in the waitin' room. Ben set right over thar in the corner, where he had curled up many a night, waitin' for his mother, a playin' with the child. His eyes were bright like stars and his face terribly flushed, like he had fever. I talked with the Squire and the child's mother, and we had a sort o' silent understandin' not to notice the two over in the corner. "Directly old No. 4 whistled, and we all made for the platform, Ben a leadin' with the child's hand in his'n. The engineer

IN THE THIRD WATCH OF THE NIGHT. 255 wuz comin' to the station like somebody—no matter who—a beatin' tanbark. Ben's hat had blown off and he looked ghastly thar under the headlight, with his long white hair a flyin' in the wind. It had been white for tsventy year or more." The old baggage man stopped here and went into the telegraph office to see the last report about the belated train. When he came back he said, "She'll be here in ten minutes," and then went on with the story as if there had been no interruption. "We never knowed just how it happened, whether the light blinded and scared the child or somethin' else took her fancy, but she slipped right away from Ben and run right out on to the track. The engine was not a rod from her, and we all saw her a standin' clappin' her hands. We wuz plum' paralyzed with fear; the engineer screamed for brakes and reversed, but it wuz too late, he couldn't stop. In the terrible confusion I saw Ben make a leap and fall sprawlin' on the track, but knockia' the child clar over on the other side. When the train stopped we ran 'round, and thar wuz the child safe and sound, but scared nearly to death. The pilot had thrown Ben clear of the wheels, but his side, the heart side, wuz just one big wound. We carried him here in the baggage room and sent for the doctor. He lay like one asleep, without pain, seemingly, with his eyes closed. The doctor examined him and shook his head, said the heart was givin' out. For two hours he lay that way, with his head in my lap, and the mother, Bessie, a bendin' over him. Finally his eyes opened, and the old, crazy look wuz all gone. He saw her thar a hoverin' over him, and cryin', and we heard him say, very low, 'Kiss me, Bessie,' and Bessie just kissed him again and again, and told him how sorry she wuz. He looked very contented, and said, between his gasps for breath, 'Don't be sorry. I would have died any time in the last twenty years for you, or for—one—you—loved.' Then his eyes closed again, and we watched and waited a way long into the night. "'Bout the third watch he stirred and tried to get up, sayin' excited like, 'The train's comin' with my mother. She's comin' back. Thar it comes; don't you see it? It's stoppin' now; they are comin' out of the coaches. Look! She said she'd come,' and

256 IMPROVEMENT ERA. with his arm uplifted, 'She's come!' Then the poor old heart beat out and he sank back limp and lifeless. "So that's how Ben's mother come back. My wife says I'm gettin' daffy, like Ben, when I say this, but nobody but me and Jessie saw the look in his face when he held his hands up, and neither of us have ever doubted but that Ben's mother come back as she said she would. But thar's your train, stranger. Hope I haven't tired you out with my talking, but a night like this always makes me think o' the time when Ben's mother come. Be careful 'bout the platform; it's mighty slick and slippery." Dallas, Texas. THE ^OLIAN HARP. (For the Improvement Era.) My Erma had a virgin heart. Untouched by love's sweet tender theme, And all my wooing could impart No thought of love's enraptured dream; But all her heart the Muse could melt In strains of music mild and sweet. And only in its power she felt A passion thrilling and complete, To sway her being with surprise Of ecstasy or tearful eyes. Prom costly woods with curious art I made a wind-harp for her bower, I sang to it from my own heart The plaintive songs of love's sweet power; And o'er its carved and fretted sides, And on its inlaid top, I breathed That passion that in me abides, Till to the harp it was bequeathed: And all the strings with love I blest That they might plead my love's request.