The Sentimentality of William Tavener
By Willa Cather
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It takes a strong woman to make any sort of success of
living in the West, and Hester undoubtedly was that.
When people spoke of William Tavener as the most prosperous
farmer in McPherson County, they usually added that his
wife was a good manager. She was an executive woman,
quick of tongue and something of an imperatrix. The only
reason her husband did not consult her about his business
was that she did not wait to be consulted.
It would have been quite impossible for one man, within
the limited sphere of human action, to follow all Hesters advice,
but in the end William usually acted upon some of her
suggestions. When she incessantly denounced the shiftlessness
of letting a new threshing machine stand unprotected in
the open, he eventually built a shed for it. When she sniffed
contemptuously at his notion of fencing a hog corral with
sod walls, he made a spiritless beginning on the structuremerely
to show his temper, as she put itbut in the end he
went off quietly to town and bought enough barbed wire to
complete the fence. When the first heavy rains came on, and
the pigs rooted down the sod wall and made little paths all
over it to facilitate their ascent, he heard his wife relate with
relish the story of the little pig that built a mud house, to the
minister at the dinner table, and Williams gravity never relaxed
for an instant. Silence, indeed, was Williams refuge and
his strength.
William set his boys a wholesome example to respect their
mother. People who knew him very well suspected that he
even admired her. He was a hard man towards his neighbors,
and even towards his sons; grasping, determined and
ambitious.
There was an occasional blue day about the house when
William went over the store bills, but he never objected to
items relating to his wifes gowns or bonnets. So it came
about that many of the foolish, unnecessary little things that
Hester bought for boys, she had charged to her personal
account.
One spring night Hester sat in a rocking chair by the sitting
room window, darning socks. She rocked violently and
sent her long needle vigorously back and forth over her
gourd, and it took only a very casual glance to see that she
was wrought up over something. William sat on the other
side of the table reading his farm paper. If he had noticed his
wifes agitation, his calm, clean-shaven face betrayed no sign
of concern. He must have noticed the sarcastic turn of her
remarks at the supper table, and he must have noticed the
moody silence of the older boys as they ate. When supper was
but half over little Billy, the youngest, had suddenly pushed
back his plate and slipped away from the table, manfully
trying to swallow a sob. But William Tavener never heeded
ominous forecasts in the domestic horizon, and he never
looked for a storm until it broke.
After supper the boys had gone to the pond under the willows
in the big cattle corral, to get rid of the dust of plowing.
Hester could hear an occasional splash and a laugh ringing
clear through the stillness of the night, as she sat by the open
window. She sat silent for almost an hour reviewing in her
mind many plans of attack. But she was too vigorous a
woman to be much of a strategist, and she usually came to her
point with directness. At last she cut her thread and suddenly
put her darning down, saying emphatically:
William, I dont think it would hurt you to let the boys go
to that circus in town to-morrow.
William continued to read his farm paper, but it was not
Hesters custom to wait for an answer. She usually divined
his arguments and assailed them one by one before he uttered
them.
Youve been short of hands all summer, and youve
worked the boys hard, and a man ought use his own flesh and
blood as well as he does his hired hands. Were plenty able to
afford it, and its little enough our boys ever spend. I dont
see how you can expect em to be steady and hard workin,
unless you encourage em a little. I never could see much
harm in circuses, and our boys have never been to one. Oh, I
know Jim Howleys boys get drunk an carry on when they
go, but our boys aint that sort, an you know it, William. The
animals are real instructive, an our boys dont get to see
much out here on the prairie. It was different where we were
raised, but the boys have got no advantages here, an if you
dont take care, theyll grow up to be greenhorns.
Hester paused a moment, and William folded up his paper,
but vouchsafed no remark. His sisters in Virginia had often
said that only a quiet man like William could ever have lived
with Hester Perkins. Secretly, William was rather proud of his
wifes gift of speech, and of the fact that she could talk in
prayer meeting as fluently as a man. He confined his own
efforts in that line to a brief prayer at Covenant meetings.
Hester shook out another sock and went on.
Nobody was ever hurt by goin to a circus. Why, law me!
I remember I went to one myself once, when I was little. I
had most forgot about it. It was over at Pewtown, an I remember
how I had set my heart on going. I dont think Id
ever forgiven my father if he hadnt taken me, though that red
clay road was in a frightful way after the rain. I mind they had
an elephant and six poll parrots, an a Rocky Mountain lion,
an a cage of monkeys, an two camels. My! but they were a
sight to me then!
Hester dropped the black sock and shook her head and
smiled at the recollection. She was not expecting anything
from William yet, and she was fairly startled when he said
gravely, in much the same tone in which he announced the
hymns in prayer meeting:
No, there was only one camel. The other was a dromedary.
She peered around the lamp and looked at him keenly.
Why, William, how come you to know?
William folded his paper and answered with some hesitation,
I was there, too.
Hesters interest flashed up.Well, I never, William! To
think of my finding it out after all these years! Why, you
couldnt have been much biggern our Billy then. It seems
queer I never saw you when you was little, to remember
about you. But then you Back Creek folks never have anything
to do with us Gap people. But how come you to go?
Your father was stricter with you than you are with your
boys.
I reckon I shouldnt a gone, he said slowly, but boys
will do foolish things. I had done a good deal of fox hunting
the winter before, and father let me keep the bounty money. I
hired Tom Smiths Tap to weed the corn for me, an I slipped
off unbeknownst to father an went to the show.
Hester spoke up warmly: Nonsense, William! It didnt do
you no harm, I guess. You was always worked hard enough.
It must have been a big sight for a little fellow. That clown
must have just tickled you to death.
William crossed his knees and leaned back in his chair.
I reckon I could tell all that fools jokes now. Sometimes I
cant help thinkin about em in meetin when the sermons
long. I mind I had on a pair of new boots that hurt me like
the mischief, but I forgot all about em when that fellow rode
the donkey. I recall I had to take them boots off as soon as I
got out of sight o town, and walked home in the mud barefoot.
O poor little fellow! Hester ejaculated, drawing her chair
nearer and leaning her elbows on the table. What cruel shoes
they did use to make for children. I remember I went up to
Back Creek to see the circus wagons go by. They came down
from Romney, you know. The circus men stopped at the
creek to water the animals, an the elephant got stubborn an
broke a big limb off the yellow willow tree that grew there by
the toll house porch, an the Scribners were fraid as death
hed pull the house down. But this much I saw him do; he
waded in the creek an filled his trunk with water, and
squirted it in at the window and nearly ruined Ellen Scribners
pink lawn dress that she had just ironed an laid out on
the bed ready to wear to the circus.
I reckon that must have been a trial to Ellen, chuckled
William, for she was mighty prim in them days.
Hester drew her chair still nearer Williams. Since the
children had begun growing up, her conversation with her
husband had been almost wholly confined to questions of
economy and expense. Their relationship had become purely
a business one, like that between landlord and tenant. In her
desire to indulge her boys she had unconsciously assumed a
defensive and almost hostile attitude towards her husband.
No debtor ever haggled with his usurer more doggedly than
did Hester with her husband in behalf of her sons. The strategic
contest had gone on so long that it had almost crowded
out the memory of a closer relationship. This exchange of
confidences to-night, when common recollections took them
unawares and opened their hearts, had all the miracle of romance.
They talked on and on; of old neighbors, of old familiar
faces in the valley where they had grown up, of long
forgotten incidents of their youthweddings, picnics, sleighing
parties and baptizings. For years they had talked of nothing
else but butter and eggs and the prices of things, and now
they had as much to say to each other as people who meet
after a long separation.
When the clock struck ten, William rose and went over to
his walnut secretary and unlocked it. From his red leather
wallet he took out a ten dollar bill and laid it on the table
beside Hester.
Tell the boys not to stay late, an not to drive the horses
hard, he said quietly, and went off to bed.
Hester blew out the lamp and sat still in the dark a long
time. She left the bill lying on the table where William had
placed it. She had a painful sense of having missed something,
or lost something; she felt that somehow the years had
cheated her.
The little locust trees that grew by the fence were white
with blossoms. Their heavy odor floated in to her on the
night wind and recalled a night long ago, when the first whip-poor-Will
of the Spring was heard, and the rough, buxom
girls of Hawkins Gap had held her laughing and struggling
under the locust trees, and searched in her bosom for a lock
of her sweethearts hair, which is supposed to be on every
girls breast when the first whip-poor-Will sings. Two of
those same girls had been her bridesmaids. Hester had been a
very happy bride. She rose and went softly into the room
where William lay. He was sleeping heavily, but occasionally
moved his hand before his face to ward off the flies. Hester
went into the parlor and took the piece of mosquito net from
the basket of wax apples and pears that her sister had made
before she died. One of the boys had brought it all the way
from Virginia, packed in a tin pail, since Hester would not
risk shipping so precious an ornament by freight. She went
back to the bed room and spread the net over Williams head.
Then she sat down by the bed and listened to his deep, regular
breathing until she heard the boys returning. She went out
to meet them and warn them not to waken their father.
Ill be up early to get your breakfast, boys. Your father says
you can go to the show. As she handed the money to the
eldest, she felt a sudden throb of allegiance to her husband
and said sharply, And you be careful of that, an dont waste
it. Your father works hard for his money.
The boys looked at each other in astonishment and felt that
they had lost a powerful ally.
Library, May 12, 1900
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