The Twins of Table Mountain, and Other Stories. Bret Harte
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and raised this shanty. In that four years we haven’t left it alone a night, or cared to. It’s only big enough for two, and them two must be brothers. It wouldn’t do for mere pardners to live here alone,—they couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be exactly the thing for man and wife to shut themselves up here alone. But Ruth and me know each other’s ways, and here we’ll stay until we’ve made a pile. We sometimes—one of us—takes a pasear to the Ferry to buy provisions; but we’re glad to crawl up to the back of old ‘Table’ at night.”
“You’re quite out of the world here, then?” suggested Mrs. Sol.
“That’s it, just it! We’re out of the world,—out of rows, out of liquor, out of cards, out of bad company, out of temptation. Cussedness and foolishness hez got to follow us up here to find us, and there’s too many ready to climb down to them things to tempt ‘em to come up to us.”
There was a little boyish conceit in his tone, as he stood there, not altogether unbecoming his fresh color and simplicity. Yet, when his eyes met those of Miss Euphemia, he colored, he hardly knew why, and the young lady herself blushed rosily.
When the neat cabin, with its decorated walls, and squirrel and wild-cat skins, was duly admired, the luncheon-basket of the Saunders party was re-enforced by provisions from Rand’s larder, and spread upon the ledge; the dimensions of the cabin not admitting four. Under the potent influence of a bottle, Sol became hilarious and professional. The “Pet” was induced to favor the company with a recitation, and, under the plea of teaching Rand, to perform the clog-dance with both gentlemen. Then there was an interval, in which Rand and Euphemia wandered a little way down the mountain-side to gather laurel, leaving Mr. Sol to his siesta on a rock, and Mrs. Sol to take some knitting from the basket, and sit beside him.
When Rand and his companion had disappeared, Mrs. Sol nudged her sleeping partner. “Do you think that WAS the brother?”
Sol yawned. “Sure of it. They’re as like as two peas, in looks.”
“Why didn’t you tell him so, then?”
“Will you tell me, my dear, why you stopped me when I began?”
“Because something was said about Ruth being here; and I supposed Ruth was a woman, and perhaps Pinkney’s wife, and knew you’d be putting your foot in it by talking of that other woman. I supposed it was for fear of that he denied knowing you.”
“Well, when HE—this Rand—told me he had a twin-brother, he looked so frightened that I knew he knew nothing of his brother’s doings with that woman, and I threw him off the scent. He’s a good fellow, but awfully green, and I didn’t want to worry him with tales. I like him, and I think Phemie does too.”
“Nonsense! He’s a conceited prig! Did you hear his sermon on the world and its temptations? I wonder if he thought temptation had come up to him in the person of us professionals out on a picnic. I think it was positively rude.”
“My dear woman, you’re always seeing slights and insults. I tell you he’s taken a shine to Phemie; and he’s as good as four seats and a bouquet to that child next Wednesday evening, to say nothing of the eclat of getting this St. Simeon—what do you call him?—Stalactites?”
“Stylites,” suggested Mrs. Sol.
“Stylites, off from his pillar here. I’ll have a paragraph in the paper, that the hermit crabs of Table Mountain—”
“Don’t be a fool, Sol!”
“The hermit twins of Table Mountain bespoke the chaste performance.”
“One of them being the protector of the well-known Mornie Nixon,” responded Mrs. Sol, viciously accenting the name with her knitting-needles.
“Rosy, you’re unjust. You’re prejudiced by the reports of the town. Mr. Pinkney’s interest in her may be a purely artistic one, although mistaken. She’ll never make a good variety-actress: she’s too heavy. And the boys don’t give her a fair show. No woman can make a debut in my version of ‘Somnambula,’ and have the front row in the pit say to her in the sleepwalking scene, ‘You’re out rather late, Mornie. Kinder forgot to put on your things, didn’t you? Mother sick, I suppose, and you’re goin’ for more gin? Hurry along, or you’ll ketch it when ye get home.’ Why, you couldn’t do it yourself, Rosy!”
To which Mrs. Sol’s illogical climax was, that, “bad as Rutherford might be, this Sunday-school superintendent, Rand, was worse.”
Rand and his companion returned late, but in high spirits. There was an unnecessary effusiveness in the way in which Euphemia kissed Mrs. Sol,—the one woman present, who UNDERSTOOD, and was to be propitiated,—which did not tend to increase Mrs. Sol’s good humor. She had her basket packed all ready for departure; and even the earnest solicitation of Rand, that they would defer their going until sunset, produced no effect.
“Mr. Rand—Mr. Pinkney, I mean—says the sunsets here are so lovely,” pleaded Euphemia.
“There is a rehearsal at seven o’clock, and we have no time to lose,” said Mrs. Sol significantly.
“I forgot to say,” said the “Marysville Pet” timidly, glancing at Mrs. Sol, “that Mr. Rand says he will bring his brother on Wednesday night, and wants four seats in front, so as not to be crowded.”
Sol shook the young man’s hand warmly. “You’ll not regret it, sir: it’s a surprising, a remarkable performance.”
“I’d like to go a piece down the mountain with you,” said Rand, with evident sincerity, looking at Miss Euphemia; “but Ruth isn’t here yet, and we make a rule never to leave the place alone. I’ll show you the slide: it’s the quickest way to go down. If you meet any one who looks like me, and talks like me, call him ‘Ruth,’ and tell him I’m waitin’ for him yer.”
Miss Phemia, the last to go, standing on the verge of the declivity, here remarked, with a dangerous smile, that, if she met any one who bore that resemblance, she might be tempted to keep him with her,—a playfulness that brought the ready color to Rand’s cheek. When she added to this the greater audacity of kissing her hand to him, the young hermit actually turned away in sheer embarrassment. When he looked around again, she was gone, and for the first time in his experience the mountain seemed barren and lonely.
The too sympathetic reader who would rashly deduce from this any newly awakened sentiment in the virgin heart of Rand would quite misapprehend that peculiar young man. That singular mixture of boyish inexperience and mature doubt and disbelief, which was partly the result of his temperament, and partly of his cloistered life on the mountain, made him regard his late companions, now that they were gone, and his intimacy with them, with remorseful distrust. The mountain was barren and lonely, because it was no longer HIS. It had become a part of the great world, which four years ago he and his brother had put aside, and in which, as two self-devoted men, they walked alone. More than that, he believed he had acquired some understanding of the temptations that assailed his brother, and the poor little vanities of the “Marysville Pet” were transformed into the blandishments of a Circe. Rand, who would have succumbed to a wicked, superior woman, believed he was a saint in withstanding the foolish weakness of a simple one.
He did not resume his work that day. He paced the mountain, anxiously awaiting his brother’s return, and eager to relate his experiences. He would go with him to the dramatic entertainment; from his example and wisdom, Ruth should learn how easily temptation might be overcome. But, first of all, there should be the fullest exchange of confidences and explanations. The old rule should be rescinded for once, the old discussion in regard to Mornie re-opened, and Rand, having convinced his brother of error, would generously extend his forgiveness.
The sun sank redly. Lingering long upon the ledge before their cabin, it at last slipped away almost imperceptibly, leaving Rand still wrapped in revery. Darkness, the smoke of distant fires in the woods, and the faint evening incense of the pines, crept slowly up; but Ruth came not. The moon rose, a silver gleam on the farther ridge; and Rand, becoming uneasy at his brother’s prolonged absence, resolved to break another custom, and leave the summit, to seek him on the trail. He buckled on his revolvers, seized his