Lin McLean by Owen Wister (motivational books to read txt) đ
- Author: Owen Wister
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Amazement at what I saw happening in the heavens took me from things on earth, and I was unaware of the universal fit that now seized upon Cheyenne until I heard the high cry of Jode at my ear. His usual punctilious bearing had forsaken him, and he shouted alike to stranger and acquaintance: âIt is no half-inch, sir! Donât you tell meââ And the crowd would swallow him, but you could mark his vociferous course as he went proclaiming to the world. âA failure, sir! The fellowâs an impostor, as I well knew. Itâs no half-inch!â Which was true.
âWhat have you got to say to that?â we asked Hilbrun, swarming around him.
âIf youâll just keep cool,â said heââitâs only the first instalment. In about two hours and a half Iâll give you the rest.â
Soon after four the dropsical clouds materialized once again above open-mouthed Cheyenne. No school let out for an unexpected holiday, no herd of stampeded range cattle, conducts itself more miscellaneously. Gray, respectable men, with daughters married, leaped over fences and sprang back, prominent legislators hopped howling up and down door-steps, women waved handkerchiefs from windows and porches, the chattering Jode flew from anemometer to rain-gauge, and old Judge Burrage apostrophized Providence in his front yard, with the postmasterâs label still pinned to his back. Nobody minded the sluicing downpourâthis second instalment was much more of a thing than the firstâand Hilbrun alone kept a calm exteriorâthe face of the man who lifts a heavy dumb-bell and throws an impressive glance at the audience. Assistant Lusk was by no means thus proof against success I saw him put a bottle back in his pocket, his face already disintegrated with a tipsy leer. Judge Burrage, perceiving the rain-maker, came out of his gate and proceeded toward him, extending the hand of congratulation. âMr. Hilbrun,â said he, âI am Judge Burrageâthe Honorable T. Coleman Burrageâand I will say that I am most favorably impressed with your shower.â
âHis shower!â yelped Jode, flourishing measurements.
âWhy, yuâ donât claim itâs yourn, do yuâ?â said Lin McLean, grinning.
âI tell you itâs no half-inch yet, gentlemen,â said Jode, ignoring the facetious puncher.
âYouâre mistaken,â said Hilbrun, sharply.
âItâs a plumb big show, half-inch or no half-inch,â said Lin.
âIf heâs short he donât get his money,â said some ignoble subscriber
âYes, he will,â said the Governor,âor Iâm a short. Heâs earned it.â
âYou bet ââ said Lin. âFair and square. If theyâre goinâ back on yuâ, doctor, Iâll chipâShucks!â Linâs hand fell from the empty pocket; he remembered his wad in the stake-holderâs hands, and that he now possessed possibly two dollars in silver, all told. âI canât chip in, doctor,â he said. âThat hobo over there has won my cash, anâ heâs filling up on the prospect right now. I donât care! Itâs the biggest show Iâve ever saw. Youâre a dandy, Mr. Hilbrun! Whoop!â And Lin clapped the rain-maker on the shoulder, exulting. He had been too well entertained to care what he had in his pocket, and his wife had not yet occurred to him.
They were disputing about the rainfall, which had been slightly under half an inch in a few spots, but over it in many others; and while we stood talking in the renewed sunlight, more telegrams were brought to Jode, saying that there was no moisture anywhere, and simultaneously with these, riders dashed into town with the news that twelve miles out the rain had flattened the grain crop. We had more of such reports from as far as thirty miles, and beyond that there had not been a drop or a cloud. It staggered oneâs reason; the brain was numb with surprise.
âWell, gentlemen,â said the rain-maker, âIâm packed up, and my trainâll be along soonâwould have been along by this, only itâs late. Whatâs the word as to my three hundred and fifty dollars?â
Even still there were objections expressed. He had not entirely performed his side of the contract.
âI think different, gentlemen,â said he. âBut Iâll unpack and let that train go. I canât have the law on you, I suppose. But if you donât pay meâ (the rain-maker put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the fence) âIâll flood your town.â
In earthquakes and eruptions people end by expecting anything; and in the total eclipse that was now over all Cheyenneâs ordinary standards and precedents the bewildered community saw in this threat nothing more unusual than if he had said twice two made four. The purse was handed over.
âIâm obliged,â said Hilbrun, simply.
âIf I had foreseen, gentlemen,â said Jode, too deeply grieved now to feel anger, âthat I would even be indirectly associated with your losing your money through thisâthis absurd occurrence, I would have declined to help you. It becomes my duty,â he continued, turning coldly to the inebriated Lusk, âto hand this to you, sir.â And the assistant lurchingly stuffed his stakes away.
âItâs worth it,â said Lin. âHeâs welcome to my cash.â
âWhatâs that you say, Lin McLean?â It was the biscuit-shooter, and she surged to the front.
âIâm broke. Heâs got it. Thatâs all,â said Lin, briefly.
âBroke! You!â She glared at her athletic young lord, and she uttered a preliminary howl.
At that long-lost cry Lusk turned his silly face. âItâs my darling Kate,â he said. âWhy, Kate!â
The next thing that I knew Ogden and I were grappling with Lin McLean; for everything had happened at once. The bride had swooped upon her first wedded love and burst into tears on the manâs neck, which Lin was trying to break in consequence. We do not always recognize our benefactors at sight. They all came to the ground, and we hauled the second husband off. The lady and Lusk remained in a heap, he foolish, tearful, and affectionate; she turned furiously at bay, his guardian angel, indifferent to the onlooking crowd, and hurling righteous defiance at Lin. âDonât yus dare lay yer finger on my husband, you sagebrush bigamist!â is what the marvelous female said.
âBigamist?â repeated Lin, dazed at this charge. âI ainât,â he said to Ogden and me. âI never did. Iâve never married any of âem before her.â
âLittle good thatâll do yus, Lin McLean! Me and him was man and wife before ever I come acrosst yus.â
âYou and him?â murmured the puncher.
âHer and me,â whimpered Lusk. âSidney.â He sat up with a limp, confiding stare at everybody.
âSidney who?â said Lin.
âNo, no,â corrected Lusk, crosslyââSidney, Nebraska.â
The stakes at this point fell from his pocket which he did not notice. But the bride had them in safe-keeping at once.
âWho are yuâ, anywayâwhen yuâ ainât drunk?â demanded Lin.
âHeâs as good a man as you, and better,â snorted the guardian angel. âGive him a pistol, and heâll make you hard to find.â
âWell, you listen to me, Sidney Nebraskaââ Lin began.
âNo, no,â corrected Lusk once more, as a distant whistle blewââJim.â
âGoodbye, gentlemen,â said the rain-maker. âThatâs the west-bound. Iâm perfectly satisfied with my experiment here, and Iâm off to repeat it at Salt Lake City.â
âYou are?â shouted Lin McLean. âHim and Jimâs going to work it again! For goodnessâ sake, somebody lend me twenty-five dollars!â
At this there was an instantaneous rush. Ten minutes later, in front of the ticket-windows there was a line of citizens buying tickets for Salt Lake as if it had been Madame Bernhardt. Some rock had been smitten, and ready money had flowed forth. The Governor saw us off, sad that his duties should detain him. But Jode went!
âBetting is the foolâs argument, gentlemen,â said he to Ogden, McLean, and me, âand itâs a weary time since I have had the pleasure.â
âWhich way are yuâ bettinâ?â Lin asked.
âWith my principles, sir,â answered the little signal-service officer.
âI expect I ainât got any,â said the puncher. âItâs Jim Iâm backinâ this time.â
âSee here,â said I; âI want to talk to you.â We went into another car, and I did.
âAnd so yuâ knowed about Lusk when we was on them board walks?â the puncher said.
âDo you mean I ought to haveââ
âShucks! no. Yuâ couldnât. Nobody couldnât. Itâs a queer world, all the same. Yuâ have good friends, and all that.â He looked out of the window.â Laramie already!â he commented, and got out and walked by himself on the platform until we had started again. âYuâ have good friends,â he pursued, settling himself so his long legs were stretched and comfortable, âand they tell yuâ things, and you tell them things. And when it donât make no particular matter one way or the other, yuâ give âem your honest opinion and talk straight to âem, and theyâll come to you the same way. So that when yuâre ridinâ the range alone sometimes, and thinkinâ a lot oâ things over on top maybe of some dog-goned hill, youâll say to yourself about some fellow yuâ know mighty well, âThereâs a man is a good friend of mine.â And yuâ mean it. And itâs so. Yet when matters is serious, as onced in a while theyâre bound to get, and yuâre in a plumb hole, where is the man thenâyour good friend? Why, heâs where yuâ want him to be. Standinâ off, keepinâ his mouth shut, and lettinâ yuâ find your own trail out. If he tried to show it to yuâ, yuâd likely hit him. But shucks! Circumstances have showed me the trail this time, you bet!â And the puncherâs face, which had been sombre, grew lively, and he laid a friendly hand on my knee.
âThe trailâs pretty simple,â said I.
âYou bet! But itâs sure a queer world. Tell yuâ,â said Lin, with the air of having made a discovery, âwhen a man gets down to bed-rock affairs in this life heâs got to do his travellinâ alone, same as he does his dyinâ. I expect even married men has thoughts and hopes they donât tell their wives.â
âNever was married,â said I.
âWellâno more was I. Letâs go to bed.â And Lin shook my hand, and gave me a singular, rather melancholy smile.
At Salt Lake City, which Ogden was glad to include in his Western holiday, we found both Mormon and Gentile ready to give us odds against rainâonly I noticed that those of the true faith were less free. Indeed; the Mormon, the Quaker, and most sects of an isolated doctrine have a nice prudence in money. During our brief stay we visited the sights: floating in the lake, listening to pins drop in the gallery of the Tabernacle, seeing frescos of saints in robes speaking from heaven to Joseph Smith in the Sunday clothes of a modern farm-hand, and in the street we heard at a distance a strenuous domestic talk between the newâ or perhaps I should say the originalâ husband and wife.
âSheâs corralled Sidneyâs cash!â said the delighted Lin. âHe canât bet nothing on this shower â
And then, after all, this timeâit didnât rain!
Stripped of money both ways, Cheyenne, having most fortunately purchased a return ticket, sought its home. The perplexed rain-maker went somewhere else, without his assistant. Luskâs exulting wife, having the money, retained him with her.
âGood luck to yuâ, Sidney!â said
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