John Harrington was a woman-hater, or thought that he was, which amounts to the same thing. He was forty-five and, having been handsome in his youth, was a fine-looking man still. He had a remarkably good farm and was a remarkably good farmer. He also had a garden which was the pride and delight of his heart or, at least, it was before Mrs. Hayden's pigs got into it.
Sarah King, Harrington's aunt and housekeeper, was deaf and crabbed, and very few visitors ever came to the house. This suited Harrington. He was a good citizen and did his duty by the community, but his bump of sociability was undeveloped. He was also a contented man, looking after his farm, improving his stock, and experimenting with new bulbs in undisturbed serenity. This, however, was all too good to last. A man is bound to have some troubles in this life, and Harrington's were near their beginning when Perry Hayden bought the adjoining farm from the heirs of Shakespeare Ely, deceased, and moved in.
To be sure, Perry Hayden, poor fellow, did not bother Harrington much, for he died of pneumonia a month after he came there, but his widow carried on the farm with the assistance of a lank hired boy. Her own children, Charles and Theodore, commonly known as Bobbles and Ted, were as yet little more than babies.
The real trouble began when Mary Hayden's pigs, fourteen in number and of half-grown voracity, got into Harrington's garden. A railing, a fir grove, and an apple orchard separated the two establishments, but these failed to keep the pigs within bounds.
Harrington had just got his garden planted for the season, and to go out one morning and find a horde of enterprising porkers rooting about in it was, to put it mildly, trying. He was angry, but as it was a first offence he drove the pigs out with tolerable calmness, mended the fence, and spent the rest of the day repairing damages.
Three days later the pigs got in again. Harrington relieved his mind by some scathing reflections on women who tried to run farms. Then he sent Mordecai, his hired man, over to the Hayden place to ask Mrs. Hayden if she would be kind enough to keep her pigs out of his garden. Mrs. Hayden sent back word that she was very sorry and would not let it occur again. Nobody, not even John Harrington, could doubt that she meant what she said. But she had reckoned without the pigs. They had not forgotten the flavour of Egyptian fleshpots as represented by the succulent young shoots in the Harrington domains. A week later Mordecai came in and told Harrington that "them notorious pigs" were in his garden again.
There is a limit to everyone's patience. Harrington left Mordecai to drive them out, while he put on his hat and stalked over to the Haydens' place. Ted and Bobbles were playing at marbles in the lane and ran when they saw him coming. He got close up to the little low house among the apple trees before Mordecai appeared in the yard, driving the pigs around the barn. Mrs. Hayden was sitting on her doorstep, paring her dinner potatoes, and stood up hastily when she saw her visitor.
Harrington had never seen his neighbour at close quarters before. Now he could not help seeing that she was a very pretty little woman, with wistful, dark blue eyes and an appealing expression. Mary Hayden had been next to a beauty in her girlhood, and she had a good deal of her bloom left yet, although hard work and worry were doing their best to rob her of it. But John Harrington was an angry man and did not care whether the woman in question was pretty or not. Her pigs had rooted up his garden--that fact filled his mind.
"Mrs. Hayden, those pigs of yours have been in my garden again. I simply can't put up with this any longer. Why in the name of reason don't you look after your animals better? If I find them in again I'll set my dog on them, I give you fair warning."
A faint colour had crept into Mary Hayden's soft, milky-white cheeks during this tirade, and her voice trembled as she said, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Harrington. I suppose Bobbles forgot to shut the gate of their pen again this morning. He is so forgetful."
"I'd lengthen his memory, then, if I were you," returned Harrington grimly, supposing that Bobbles was the hired man. "I'm not going to have my garden ruined just because he happens to be forgetful. I am speaking my mind plainly, madam. If you can't keep your stock from being a nuisance to other people you ought not to try to run a farm at all."
Then did Mrs. Hayden sit down upon the doorstep and burst into tears. Harrington felt, as Sarah King would have expressed it, "every which way at once." Here was a
nice mess! What a nuisance women were--worse than the pigs!
"Oh, don't cry, Mrs. Hayden," he said awkwardly. "I didn't mean--well, I suppose I spoke too strongly. Of course I know you didn't mean to let the pigs in. There, do stop crying! I beg your pardon if I've hurt your feelings."
"Oh, it isn't that," sobbed Mrs. Hayden, wiping away her tears. "It's only--I've tried so hard--and everything seems to go wrong. I make such mistakes. As for your garden, sir. I'll pay for the damage my pigs have done if you'll let me know what it comes to."
She sobbed again and caught her breath like a grieved child. Harrington felt like a brute. He had a queer notion that if he put his arm around her and told her not to worry over things women were not created to attend to he would be expressing his feelings better than in any other way. But of course he couldn't do that. Instead, he muttered that the damage didn't amount to much after all, and he hoped she wouldn't mind what he said, and then he got himself away and strode through the orchard like a man in a desperate hurry.
Mordecai had gone home and the pigs were not to be seen, but a chubby little face peeped at him from between two scrub, bloom-white cherry trees.
"G'way, you bad man!" said Bobbles vindictively. "G'way! You made my mommer cry--I saw you. I'm only Bobbles now, but when I grow up I'll be Charles Henry Hayden and you won't dare to make my mommer cry then."
Harrington smiled grimly. "So you're the lad who forgets to shut the pigpen gate, are you? Come out here and let me see you. Who is in there with you?"
"Ted is. He's littler than me. But I won't come out. I don't like you. G'way home."
Harrington obeyed. He went home and to work in his garden. But work as hard as he would, he could not forget Mary Hayden's grieved face.
"I was a brute!" he thought. "Why couldn't I have mentioned the matter gently? I daresay she has enough to trouble her. Confound those pigs!" * * * * *After that there was a time of calm. Evidently something had been done to Bobbles' memory or perhaps Mrs. Hayden attended to the gate herself. At all events the pigs were not seen and Harrington's garden blossomed like the rose. But Harrington himself was in a bad state.
For one thing, wherever he looked he saw the mental picture of his neighbour's tired, sweet face and the tears in her blue eyes. The original he never saw, which only made matters worse. He wondered what opinion she had of him and decided that she must think him a cross old bear. This worried him. He wished the pigs would break in again so that he might have a chance to show how forbearing he could be.
One day he gathered a nice mess of tender young greens and sent them over to Mrs. Hayden by Mordecai. At first he had thought of sending her some flowers, but that seemed silly, and besides, Mordecai and flowers were incongruous. Mrs. Hayden sent back a very pretty message of thanks, whereat Harrington looked radiant and Mordecai, who could see through a stone wall as well as most people, went out to the barn and chuckled.
"Ef the little widder hain't caught him! Who'd a-thought it?"
The next day one adventurous pig found its way alone into the Harrington garden. Harrington saw it get in and at the same moment he saw Mrs. Hayden running through her orchard. She was in his yard by the time he got out.
Her sunbonnet had fallen back and some loose tendrils of her auburn hair were curling around her forehead. Her cheeks were so pink and her eyes so bright from running that she looked almost girlish.
"Oh, Mr. Harrington," she said breathlessly, "that pet pig of Bobbles' is in your garden again. He only got in this minute. I saw him coming and I ran right after him."
"He's there, all right," said Harrington cheerfully, "but I'll get him out in a jiffy. Don't tire yourself. Won't you go into the house and rest while I drive him around?"
Mrs. Hayden, however, was determined to help and they both went around to the garden, set the gate open, and tried to drive the pig out. But Harrington was not thinking about pigs, and Mrs. Hayden did not know quite so much about driving them as Mordecai did; as a consequence they did not make much headway. In her excitement Mrs. Hayden ran over beds and whatever came in her way, and Harrington, in order to keep near her, ran after her. Between them they spoiled things about as much as a whole drove of pigs would have done.
But at last the pig grew tired of the fun, bolted out of the gate, and ran across the yard to his own place. Mrs. Hayden followed slowly and Harrington walked beside her.
"Those pigs are all to be shut up tomorrow," she said. "Hiram has been fixing up a place for them in his spare moments and it is ready at last."
"Oh, I wouldn't," said Harrington hastily. "It isn't good for pigs to be shut up so young. You'd better let them run a while yet."
"No," said Mrs. Hayden decidedly. "They have almost worried me to death already. In they go tomorrow."
They were at the lane gate now, and Harrington had to open it and let her pass through. He felt quite desperate as he watched her trip up through the rows of apple trees, her blue gingham skirt brushing the lush grasses where a lacy tangle of sunbeams and shadows lay. Bobbles and Ted came running to meet her and the three, hand in hand, disappeared from sight.
Harrington went back to the house, feeling that life was flat, stale, and unprofitable. That evening at the tea table he caught himself wondering what it would be like to see Mary Hayden sitting at his table in place of Sarah King, with Bobbles and Ted on either hand. Then he found out what was the matter with him. He was in love, fathoms deep, with the blue-eyed widow!
Presumably the pigs were shut up the next day, for Harrington's garden was invaded no more. He stood it for a week and then surrendered at discretion. He filled a basket with early strawberries and went across to the Hayden place, boldly enough to all appearance, but with his heart thumping like any schoolboy's.
The front door stood hospitably open, flanked by rows of defiant red and yellow hollyhocks. Harrington paused on the step, with his hand outstretched to knock. Somewhere inside he heard a low sobbing. Forgetting all about knocking, he stepped softly in and walked to the door of the little sitting-room. Bobbles was standing behind him in the middle of the kitchen but Harrington did not see him. He was looking at Mary Hayden, who was sitting by the table in the room with her arms flung out over it and her head bowed on them. She was crying softly in a hopeless fashion.
Harrington put down his strawberries. "Mary!" he exclaimed.
Mrs. Hayden straightened herself up with a start and looked at him, her lips quivering and her eyes full of tears.
"What is the matter?" said Harrington anxiously. "Is anything wrong?"
"Oh, nothing much," Said Mrs. Hayden, trying to recover herself. "Yes, there is too. But it is very foolish of me to be going on like this. I didn't know anyone was near. And I was feeling so discouraged. The colt broke his leg in the swamp pasture today and Hiram had to shoot him. It was Ted's colt. But there, there is no use in crying over it."
And by way of proving this, the poor, tired, overburdened little woman began to cry again. She was past caring whether Harrington saw her or not.
The woman-hater was so distressed that he forgot to be nervous. He sat down and put his arm around her and spoke out what was in his mind without further parley.
"Don't cry, Mary. Listen to me. You were never meant to run a farm and be killed with worry. You ought to be looked after and petted. I want you to marry me and then everything will be all right. I've loved you ever since that day I came over here and made you cry. Do you think you can like me a little, Mary?"
It may be that Mrs. Hayden was not very much surprised, because Harrington's face had been like an open book the day they chased the pig out of the garden together. As for what she said, perhaps Bobbles, who was surreptitiously gorging himself on Harrington's strawberries, may tell you, but I certainly shall not.
The little brown house among the apple trees is shut up now and the boundary fence belongs to ancient history. Sarah King has gone also and Mrs. John Harrington reigns royally in her place. Bobbles and Ted have a small, blue-eyed, much-spoiled sister, and there is a pig on the estate who may die of old age, but will never meet his doom otherwise. It is Bobbles' pig and one of the famous fourteen.
Mordecai still shambles around and worships Mrs. Harrington. The garden is the same as of yore, but the house is a different place and Harrington is a different man. And Mordecai will tell you with a chuckle, "It was them notorious pigs as did it all."
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Джон Хэррингтон был женонеенавистником или же ,считал себя таковым что в общем-то одно и то же.В свои сорок пять он еще не успел растерять остатки своей былой мужской красоты.У него была чудесная добротная ферма и сам он был хорошим хозяином.Еще у него был сад ,гордость и услада его сердц по крайней мере до той минуты когда кнему наведаись свиньи миссис Хейден.
Сара Кинг ,тутя Хэррингтона
И экономка была глуха и стара , гости у же навещали Хэррингтона редко.И всем он был довлен.Он был добропорядочным фермером и выполнял все свои общественные обязанности ,все же конртактов с обществом ему определенно не хватало.
Он тщательно ухаживал за своей фермой ,заботился о скоте и в безмятежном покое проводил экспериментировал в поисках сортов новых луковиц.И однако этому не суждено было длиться вечно.Нужно же человеку испытать какие-то напасти в жизни и семя напастей Хэррингтона уже было брошено всвою почву когда Перри Хейден купил соседнюю с ним ферму у потомков Шекспира Эли,заболел и реши переселиться туда.
Вернее этот Хейден ,беднягу,не особо волновал Хэррингтон ,сам Хейден умер от пневмонии через месяц ,как переселился .но хозяйство перешло к его вдове которая стала им заправлять вместе с долговязым мальчиком -помощником.Ее собственные дети,Чарлз и Теодор прозванные еюБоббл и Тед тоже уже не были такими уж немышленышами.
Настоящие беды начались свиньи вдовы Хейден ,всего четырнадцать полудиких обжор вошли в сад Хэррингтона Изгородь, мшистый ров и яблоневый сад разделяли два хозяйства но все это не смогло удержать вырвавшихся из повиновения свиней.
Хэррингтон только успел посадить семена в саду и однажды утромвышел в сад и обнаружил ораву озабоченно рыскающих по саду свинейкоторые мяко выражаясьпроизводили предварительную разведку.Он пришел в ярость но поскольку он столкнулся с этим в первый разто он вооруэившись терпением без звука выгнал свиней,отремонтировал изгородь и провел остальную часть дня занимаясь ликвидацией тразбоя причиненного свиньями.
Три дня спустя свиньи снова обьявились.Хэррингтон успокаивал себя мыслями о неумелых женщинах ведущих хозяйство.Потом онотправил Мордехая, своего помощника по хозяйству в гости к миссис Хэйден чтобы попросить миссис Хейден ,не будет ли она так любезна увести своих
Свиней из его сада.Миссис Хейде передала через Мордехая ему,что она очень сожалеет и в следующий раз не допустит этого.Ни у кого,даже у Джона Хэррингтона не возникло даже сомнений,что она сделает ,то ,что обещала.Но не учла при этом мнение самих свиней.Они не успели забыть аромат всей роскоши впредставленной в виде молодых сочных побеговво владениях Хэррингтона.Неделю спустяМордехай пришел и сказал Хэррингтону что "эти проклятые свиньи" снова гостили в саду.
Всякому терпению есть предел.Хэррингтон оставил Мордехая выгонять свиней ,а сам одел шляпу и отправился к миссис Хейден.Тед и Боббл играли в кости возле изгороди и когда увиедли ,что он идет к ним ,убежали.Он подошел к маленькому домику окруженному яблоневыми деревьями еще до того как во дворе его появился Мордехай,который гнал свиней к сараю.Миссис Хейден сидела на ступеньках своего дома ,разбирая картошку для обеда и стремительно поднялась ,когда увидела посетителя.Хэррингтон еще никогда не видел вблизи своей соседки.Теперь он не мог не заметить того,что она -очень привлекательна,с темно-синими глазами и обаятельным выражением лица.Мери Хейденв молодые годы была почти красавицей и во многом еще не утратила из былой привлекательности хоть и тяжелпая раьота и заботы сделали все,чтобы это произошло.Но Джон Хэррингтон был злого нрава и для него не особенно волновало,с хорошенькой женщиной он имеет дело или или нет.,
Ее свиньи копались в его саду-и это для него значило все.
"Миссис Хейден,эи ваши свиньи снова были в моем саду.Я просто не могу больше выносить это.Почему,ради всего свтяого,вы не следите получше за вашим свотом.Если я увижу их снова я спущу на них свою собаку и это будет вам хорошим уроком.
Слабаый румянец разлился по молочно-белым щекам Мэри Хейден ,когда она ууслышала эту тираду и она дрожащим голосом произнесла"Очень сожалею ,мистер Хэррингтон ,наверное Боббл забыл закрыть хлев сегодня утром.Ог очень рассеянный.
"Я бы на вашем месте позаботился бы о его памяти2отпарировал Хэррингтон угрюмо , принимая Бобблса за наемного помощника свойе соседки. "Я не желаю ,чтобы мой сад пришел в упадок ,только из-зза того,что Бобблс такойтакой забывчивый.Это я говорю вам четко ясно,мадам.Если вы позвоялете вашим свиньям были обузой для других то значит значит вы вовсе не рождены чтобы управлять хозяйством.
Тут Мэри Хейден села на ступеньку крыльца и расплакалась.Хэррингтон почувствовал что на него свалились как выразилась об этом Сара Кинг "все беды разом".В хорошенькую же передрягу он попал.Какими же эти женщины оказывается могут быть невыносимыми - даже хуже свиней!
Ну,не плачьте ,миссис Хейден-неуклюже утешал он ее"Я совсеим не хотел вас обидеть-наверное я был слишком груб.Конечно же,я знаю ,что совсем не собирались пускать свиней в мой сад.Ну,перестаньте ,жее.Я прошу вас простить меня,если я сделал вам больно"
Да нет ,ничего рыдающим голосом произнесла миссис Хейден.вытирая слезы."Просто я перестаралась-и потому наверное все получилось наооборот.У меня бывают такие ошибки.Что же до ва вашего сада...Я заплачу вам за тот разбой б который уичинили мои свиньи если вы скажете его размеры
Она снова зарыдала .всхлипыва\ .как ребенок.Хэррингтон чувствовал себя мерзавцем.У него было странное чувство что если он положит на нее свою руку и скажет,чтобы она не беспокоилась о том для чего женщины не рождены ,то он выарзит свои чувства к ней лунаилучшим образом.НО ,конечно,он не сделал этого.Вместо этого он пробормотрал ,что-то насчет того,что разбой совсем нетак уж велик и что он надеется,что она не будет возражать в ответ на это и сказав это ,он стремглав умчался из сада какспасабуто спасался от погони.
Мордехай ушел домой .свиней не было видно ,но он заметил ,какмежду двум цветущими вишневыми деревьями на него выглядффывало маленькое ехидное личико.
"Уходи отсюда ,бандит"-сказал Боббл грозно.-Уходи,слышишь."Из-за тебя моя мамочка плачет-я видел ,что это был ты.Пока я только Бобблс,но когда я вырасту я буду Чарлзом Генри Хейденом и тогда ты не посмеешь обидеть мамочку"
Хэррингтон злобно рассмеялся2Так это ты -тот малый,который забыл запереть хлев.да?Выходи отсюда ,ну-кадй посмотреть на тебя.Кто это там еще с тобой/
"Тед.Он младше меня.Но я не выйду.Ты-плохой.Уходи отсюда.
И Хэррингтон ушел.Он отправился домой чтобы заняться работой в своем саду.Но сколько он ни работал ,он никак не мог забыть горестное лицо Мэри Хейден.
"Подлец же я был"думал он "Ну почему я не обошелся с ней помягче.Уж наверняка она достаточно настрадалась.Ну их к черту,этих свиней.
После случившегояс наступило время затишья.Очевидно с паямтью фБобблса что-то произошло или может быть миссс Хеуден сама стала следить за воротами.Но так или иначе свиней не быне появлялись в саду Хэррингтона и сад благоухал какроза.Но сам Харрингтон бвл в мрачном состоянии духа.
Во первых о чем бы он не думал ,везде переде ним вставал вид измученной соседки,ее привлекательное лицо ,и голубые глаза в слезах.Что там было на самом деле ему не было дано узнать и это только осложняло его положение.Ему было интересно узнать.что она думает о нем и в конце концов он решил что скорее всего она считает его неотесанным грубым медведем.И это его задело.Ему захотелось ,чтобы свиньи снова вломились в его вдладения ,тогда у него появился шанс показать ей чтон умеет быть благодарным.
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