Page:Mehalah 1920.djvu/212

202 At his door, above the steps, stood Elijah. "Hah! Glory!" he said, "has the crazed fool's shout brought you down?" She was stepping towards the window, Rebow ran down before her. "Go in!" he shouted to his brother. "Curse you, you fool! breaking the shutter and yelling out, scaring the whole house." He had a whip, a great carter's whip in his hand, and he smacked it. The hands disappeared instantly. "Bring me a hammer and nails," ordered Rebow. "You will find them in the window of the hall." Mehalah obeyed. Rebow patched up the shutter temporarily. There were iron bars to the window. The wooden cover had a small hole in it to admit a little light. During the summer the shutter was removed. It was used to exclude the winter cold. "Why did he call me?" asked Mehalah. "He did not." "I heard his cry. He called me thrice, 'Glory! Glory! Glory!'" "He was asking for his victuals," said Rebow, with a laugh. "Look you here, Glory! I have been alone in this house so long, and have thought of you, and brooded on you, and had none to speak to about you. At last I took to teaching my brother your name. I wouldn't give him his food till he said it. I taught him like a parrot. I made him speak your name, as you make a dog sit up and beg for a bit of bread. I've been about on the road all day, on account of your perversity and wilfulness, and so forgot to give my brother his food. But I don't care. He had no right to smash the shutter and yell out the way he has. I'll punish him for it. I'll lay into him with the whip, so as he shall not forget. He'll be quieter in future." "Do not," said Mehalah. "It is a shame; it is wicked to treat a poor afflicted wretch thus." "Oh! you are turned advocate, are you? You take the side of a madman against the sane. That is like a perverse creature such as you. What has he done for you, that you should try to save his back?"