Hoggee (19 page)

He had gone almost through the length of the town in one direction and was about to turn back when he caught sight of her on the steps of a church. A man stood with his back to Howard, and he had his hand on Sarah's shoulder. Howard drew in his breath, ready to make a run at the man's back, but just then he saw the collar. The man was a priest.

Howard let out his breath and moved toward Sarah and the man. Sarah did not see him. She was busy making a sign for the man. Her left hand, thumb side up, rested in her right hand. The left hand was pushed up slightly by the right.
Help.
Sarah had been taken a few times to church by her mother, and she had run there asking for help. Howard had imagined that she had run away in fear, but now he knew she had gone for help.

Smiling, he moved toward her. When she saw him, Sarah smiled, too, and reached out to touch his arm. “She's deaf, Father,” he said to the priest.

“I know, my boy.” The priest frowned. “She kept making a sign to me, but I could not understand. I've heard of the sign language, but I've never learned it.”

Howard reached for Sarah's hand. “She was asking
for help,” he said. “She thought some boys were about to gang up on me, and she was asking for help.”

“Well,” said the priest, “I'm sorry I couldn't understand, but you look as if you didn't fare too badly.”

“I'm all right. At least I am now that I've found Sarah.” He started to move away but turned back to say a thank-you to the priest.

“Come back to see me, lad,” said the man. “I'd like to learn more about talking with your hands.”

“I will,” called Howard, and with Sarah beside him he hurried on to the third dock to meet Jack and the girls.

The three were sitting on kegs near a loading boat when Howard and Sarah found them. Jack jumped up when he saw them. “Where have you been?” he asked. “We were getting worried.”

Gracie shook her head. “Jack was worried,” she said. “Laura said you would take care of Sarah. She said you wouldn't let nothing happen to her.”

Howard smiled. “Sarah's getting pretty good at taking care of herself,” he said. “One of these days, she might not need any of us so much.”

“If we don't hurry,” said Jack, “you'll be needing some good help yourself, explaining to Cyrus why the girls weren't back in time to help get the noon meal.”

They moved back through the town. Up ahead, Howard saw O'Grady's sign, KITHON BOE NEDED. What would happen, he wondered, if he did as Laura had suggested? O'Grady couldn't kill him for asking again for a job. At least he didn't think O'Grady could do that. He slowed his steps and looked into the window. Mistress O'Grady was in the front. She stood beside her husband, near the counter.

Jack and the girls were ahead of him. Jack turned back. “Come on,” he said. “You can walk faster than that.”

“You go on,” Howard said, and he stopped in front of the inn. “I'll come along later.”

“You're not going in there!” Jack leaned his head toward the inn. “Why would you do a fool thing like that?”

Howard swallowed hard before he spoke. “You all go on,” he said again. “There's something I've got to do.”

“You are going in there,” Jack said. He stopped and put his hands on his hips. “Howard Gardner, you must be daft.”

Laura smiled at Howard, and she pulled at Jack's arm. “Let Howard do what he wants to do,” she said, and she began to walk on.

“If you go in there,” Jack said, “I'll not be hanging around to help you out.”

Howard said nothing. He waved at Jack, turned toward the door, and put out his hand to open it. Just before he went in, he looked again in Jack's direction. He was moving along with the girls, but he shook his head as he walked.

Inside the inn, Howard took a deep breath. Then he walked to where O'Grady leaned against the counter, which his wife wiped with a cloth. Mistress O'Grady stopped cleaning to look up at Howard and smile.

Howard moved on and stopped beside the man. “I've come to ask about the job,” he said.

O'Grady turned to Howard, and his eyes searched the boy's face. “I've seen you, boy. Where is it I know you from?”

Howard squared his shoulders before he spoke. “I
came in last winter,” he said. He kept his eyes on O'Grady's as he spoke. “You told me I could have the job, but then Mac came along. I guess he told you I was English. You wouldn't have me then.”

“Well,” said O'Grady, “is it true? Are you a bloody Englishman?”

“My father's people were from England, but they came to this country before my father was born.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “What difference does it make, anyway? We're all Americans now, sir, and I need a job. I'd work hard.”

“Cheeky little bugger, aren't you?” said O'Grady.

“I need a job, sir,” Howard repeated.

“Why not give the lad a chance?” said Mistress O'Grady.

The man looked at the woman, then back at Howard. For what seemed a very long time he said nothing, only scratched at his dark beard. Then he took a step toward Howard, who forced himself to stand still.

“I'll give you a go at it,” he said. “But it ain't a fullday job. That be why Mac quit us to go back to the canal. Our daughter's come home, left her no-good husband. She helps some in the kitchen, but her mother here thinks we can't push her too hard. You'd work just after the noon rush and on to closing. All day on Saturday and Sunday. Pay's five dollars a month.”

“Could I sleep in the kitchen?”

The man nodded his head. “There's a little closet you can have, and you eat what's left at the end of the day. We'd want you out of the way, though, until you come in to wash dishes after the noon rush.”

“I have someplace to go,” said Howard. “I plan to go to school.” He was surprised to see O'Grady smile.

“I believe in schooling,” he said. “Went to school myself, I did. That's why I could write up the sign.” He pointed through the window.

“May I bring the sign in for you, sir?” said Howard. O'Grady nodded, and Howard went out to get it.

“Put it behind the counter,” O'Grady told him. “I save it. No need making a new one every time a new boy's required.”

“You won't be needing it for a long time,” Howard said, but he put the sign on the shelf behind the counter.

“Come in tomorrow by one,” said O'Grady, “and don't be late. I won't stand for lateness.”

“Can I sleep here tonight?” Howard asked just before he opened the door to leave.

“You can,” said O'Grady, “but I won't be giving you breakfast. You eat only after you work, and be back here before we close at eight. I'll not be waiting around for the likes of you before I go upstairs to bed.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Howard. He closed the door behind him, and then he broke into a run. Down the crowded street he dashed, feeling so light that he thought it might almost be possible to fly. He considered going to the school to tell Mr. Parrish the news, but he turned instead away from the village and toward Cyrus's house.

When he was near, he slowed his pace. He would go inside. Everyone would probably still be at the table. Should he make his announcement right away, or should he wait and tell Jack when they were alone? By the time he reached the house, his mind was made up. He would keep the news and tell Jack first.

The kitchen door was open, and he paused in the doorway. Mistress Donaldson was at the stove, dishing
up food. “Come in, Howard, boy,” she said. “We're just about to eat, we are.”

Laura was near the table, ready to sit down. She looked up at Howard, a question in her eyes. He nodded his head at her, and then before he could stop himself, it came pouring out. “I'm not going back to the canal,” he said. “I have a job at O'Grady's Inn.”

“Wonderful,” Laura shouted. “I am—”

Howard, afraid Jack would get in a word, interrupted her. “The best part is I don't go to work until one, at least during the weekdays. I'll be able to go to school two hours in the mornings when the new term starts and come here to teach you and Sarah.”

“It's a lunatic idea,” said Jack. “You've tried it before.” He began to shake his head, but Howard turned away.

“I'll not be looking the other way and letting you sleep in the barn,” said Cyrus.

“I am sleeping at O'Grady's, starting tonight.”

“If you only work supper, that's the only meal O'Grady will give you,” said Jack. He shook his head again.

“I lived on less most of last winter,” he said, and he crossed his arms.

“You'll not go hungry,” said Mistress Donaldson, and she pulled back a chair for him. “Not while you're teaching my girls. You've done a fine thing for these lassies, you have, Howard Gardner. It was a gift from God, it was, when you come to our door on Christmas Day.” Howard sat down, and the woman put her hand on his shoulder. “It's hope I have that you'll teach Gracie, too, someday.” She laughed. “Mayhap even my own self. Now fill your plate.”

During the rest of the spring and all summer, Howard divided his mornings between teaching at Cyrus's house and reading in an empty schoolroom. “You could take the books with you,” Thomas Parrish told him, “and save yourself the walk over here.”

Howard shook his head and traced his finger around the inkwell on the desk where he sat. “If it's all the same to you, sir,” he said, “I like coming here. I like sitting in a schoolroom, even if it's empty.”

Often Mr. Parrish would come into the room where Howard read to discuss the books. “I know how the creature suffered,” Howard told him about Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein.
“I felt almost that out of place on the canal.”

Thomas Parrish smiled. “You're here now, Howard,” he said, “where you belong. You'll advance in your studies quickly, I'd say. We might have you teaching the younger boys some by next year and studying full-time.”

Sometimes Howard remembered the day he stood outside of the girls' school and pitifully tried to hear what was read inside. Now he himself could go into a school. Now he had come home. He never wanted to
work on the canal again, and yet he found himself drawn to it. Almost every evening after O'Grady's closed, he would walk along the banks. Finding a quiet spot, he would sit on the bank so close to the passing boats that he could almost touch them.

He would look long and hard at the boys who drove the mules past him. He missed the mules, especially Molly, and he hoped some hoggee would put flowers on her harness.

That summer the boys all seemed young to Howard, and he knew how their feet ached. He did not wish to ever live far from the canal. He did not wish to forget the boy he had been there. He would always remember that he had been a hoggee and that the winter had not killed him.

Working for O'Grady was not easy. Sometimes Howard would come in to find his employer in a terrible temper. The first several times O'Grady threw frying pans or pieces of firewood at him, Howard felt lucky to have ducked in time not to be hit. After a time, he realized the man was not actually trying to hit him.

Cyrus still grumbled about how book learning would do Laura no good, but he could not hide his pleasure in Sarah's signing. “You can learn to talk back to her,” Howard told him. Cyrus shook his head, but Howard noticed he stayed sometimes, standing about the kitchen, watching.

Laura noticed, too. “I'd wager that Grandpa will be signing soon,” she said one morning.

Howard stayed up with the travels of
The Blue Bird.
Whenever possible he would take the girls and be on
the dock when the boat stopped. There would be a minute to speak to Jack. One day in late summer the boat needed a few hours for repairs, and Jack came unexpectedly to Cyrus's house. “Forget the lessons,” he said when he appeared in the kitchen doorway. “We've a few hours for a holiday.”

They went to a sweetshop that opened out to the canal, and Jack bought them apple dumplings. They sat at a round table to eat, and they watched the boats. Several times Howard felt his brother's eyes on him from across the table, but when Howard looked up, Jack only smiled. Finally, Howard could not be quiet. “What is it?” he asked. “You've been looking at me, no studying me is more like it.”

Jack laughed. “All right,” he said. “I'll admit it. I've been thinking you did right not to go back to the canal. I've been thinking you've grown, too. I guess school and all agree with you.”

Howard nodded. “I have grown.”

Jack reached across the small table to punch at Howard's arm. “But don't go thinking you're the biggest toad in this puddle,” he said, and he laughed again. “I've got an idea or two of my own to work on.”

Laura and Gracie pressed Jack to say more, but he shook his head. “Not now,” he said. “We'll wait and see. It might be I'll be sending you a letter soon.”

The letter, when it came, was addressed on the outside to Howard Gardner, O'Grady's Inn, Birchport, New York. Mistress O'Grady came carrying it to Howard. “It's a post for you,” she said. “We never had a boy before that got a post.”

Howard unfolded the single sheet and read.

Dear Howard,

I know Laura wants to go to school, and she is not likely to consider any suitor until she's had at least a taste of education. I've made it my business to see that she gets to go to school, and Sarah, too. I looked up your friend Mrs. Brewer, in Schenectady. She is a lady of considerable means, and she said she often wondered how you had progressed with her book. I explained to her how pleased we would be to see Sarah go to a school, and she has set up a scholarship for her at the school in the city where her granddaughter went. Laura is to go, too. She will stay with Sarah and will be able to attend classes herself.