SANDY and I were on the road
again, next morning, bright and
early. It was so good to open
up one's lungs and take in whole
luscious barrels-ful of the blessed
God's untainted, dew-fashioned,
woodlandscented air once more,
after suffocating body and mind
for two days and nights in the
moral and physical stenches of
that intolerable old buzzard-roost!
mean, for me: of course the place
was all right and agreeable enough
for Sandy, for she had been used
to
high life all her days.
Poor girl, her jaws had had
a wearisome rest now for a while,
and I was expecting to get the
consequences. I was right; but
she had stood by me most helpfully
in the castle, and had mightily
supported and reinforced me with
gigantic foolishnesses which
were worth more for the occasion
than wisdoms double their size;
so I thought she had earned a
right to work her mill for a
while, if she wanted to, and
I felt not a pang when she started
it up:
"Now turn we
unto Sir Marhaus that rode
with the damsel of
thirty winter of age southward
--"
"Are you going
to see if you can work up another
half-stretch
on the trail of the cowboys,
Sandy?"
"Even so, fair
my lord."
"Go ahead,
then. I won't interrupt this
time, if I can help it.
Begin over again; start fair,
and shake out all your reefs,
and I will load my pipe and give
good attention."
"Now turn we
unto Sir Marhaus that rode
with the damsel of
thirty winter of age southward.
And so they came into a deep
forest, and by fortune they were
nighted, and rode along in a
deep way, and at the last they
came into a courtelage where
abode the duke of South Marches,
and there they asked harbour.
And on the morn the duke sent
unto Sir Marhaus, and bad him
make him ready. And so Sir Marhaus
arose and armed him, and there
was a mass sung afore him, and
he brake his fast, and so mounted
on horseback in the court of
the castle, there they should
do the battle. So there was the
duke already on horseback, clean
armed, and his six sons by him,
and every each had a spear in
his hand, and so they encountered,
whereas the duke and his two
sons brake their spears upon
him, but Sir Marhaus held up
his spear and touched none of
them. Then came the four sons
by couples, and two of them brake
their spears, and so did the
other two. And all this while
Sir Marhaus touched them not.
Then Sir Marhaus ran to the duke,
and smote him with his spear
that horse and man fell to the
earth. And so he served his sons.
And then Sir Marhaus alight down,
and bad the duke yield him or
else he would slay him. And then
some of his sons recovered, and
would have set upon Sir Marhaus.
Then Sir Marhaus said to the
duke, Cease thy sons, or else
I will do the uttermost to you
all. When the duke saw he might
not escape the death, he cried
to his sons, and charged them
to yield them to Sir Marhaus.
And they kneeled all down and
put the pommels of their swords
to the knight, and so he received
them. And then they holp up their
father, and so by their common
assent promised unto Sir Marhaus
never to be foes unto King Arthur,
and thereupon at Whitsuntide
after, to come he and his sons,
and put them in the king's grace.
*
[* Footnote: The story is borrowed,
language and all, from the Morte
d'Arthur. --M.T.]
"Even so standeth
the history, fair Sir Boss.
Now ye shall wit
that that very duke and his six
sons are they whom but few days
past you also did overcome and
send to Arthur's court!"
"Why, Sandy,
you can't mean it!"
"An I speak
not sooth, let it be the worse
for me."
"Well, well,
well, -- now who would ever
have thought it? One
whole duke and six dukelets;
why, Sandy, it was an elegant
haul. Knight-errantry is a most
chuckle-headed trade, and it
is tedious hard work, too, but
I begin to see that there IS
money in it, after all, if you
have luck. Not that I would ever
engage in it as a business, for
I wouldn't. No sound and legitimate
business can be established on
a basis of speculation. A successful
whirl in the knight-errantry
line -- now what is it when you
blow away the nonsense and come
down to the cold facts? It's
just a corner in pork, that's
all, and you can't make anything
else out of it. You're rich --
yes, -- suddenly rich -- for
about a day, maybe a week; then
somebody corners the market on
YOU, and down goes your bucketshop;
ain't that so, Sandy?"
"Whethersoever
it be that my mind miscarrieth,
bewraying simple
language in such sort that the
words do seem to come endlong
and overthwart --"
"There's no
use in beating about the bush
and trying to
get around it that way, Sandy,
it's SO, just as I say. I KNOW
it's so. And, moreover, when
you come right down to the bedrock,
knight-errantry is WORSE than
pork; for whatever happens, the
pork's left, and so somebody's
benefited anyway; but when the
market breaks, in a knight-errantry
whirl, and every knight in the
pool passes in his checks, what
have you got for assets? Just
a rubbish-pile of battered corpses
and a barrel or two of busted
hardware. Can you call THOSE
assets? Give me pork, every time.
Am I right?"
"Ah, peradventure
my head being distraught by
the manifold matters
whereunto the confusions of these
but late adventured haps and
fortunings whereby not I alone
nor you alone, but every each
of us, meseemeth --"
"No, it's not
your head, Sandy. Your head's
all right, as far
as it goes, but you don't know
business; that's where the trouble
is. It unfits you to argue about
business, and you're wrong to
be always trying. However, that
aside, it was a good haul, anyway,
and will breed a handsome crop
of reputation in Arthur's court.
And speaking of the cowboys,
what a curious country this is
for women and men that never
get old. Now there's Morgan le
Fay, as fresh and young as a
Vassar pullet, to all appearances,
and here is this old duke of
the South Marches still slashing
away with sword and lance at
his time of life, after raising
such a family as he has raised.
As I understand it, Sir Gawaine
killed seven of his sons, and
still he had six left for Sir
Marhaus and me to take into camp.
And then there was that damsel
of sixty winter of age still
excursioning around in her frosty
bloom -- How old are you, Sandy?"
It was the first time I ever
struck a still place in her.
The mill had shut down for repairs,
or something. |