Two Solitudes Read Online Free PDF Page B

be back.”
    Athanase shrugged his shoulders. “Not hot,” he said. “Just stuffy.” He shook hands with the captain. “I got back last night and we thought it was about time to welcome you.”
    â€œThet’s mighty nice of you.” Yardley dropped his hand onto Paul’s shoulder. “I’ve been watching Paul go by and wishing he’d stop and see me sometimes.” He looked down at the boy’s shy face. “Come on in. I got something to show you.”
    The place was bare inside. In what appeared to be the living room a fire of birch logs burned brightly on a large stone hearth. A Quebec heater stood black and gaunt in the middle of the room, with a black stovepipe joining it to the chimney. Large wooden boxes lay on the floor with their tops pried off. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs.
    â€œNot got the place fixed up yet,” Yardley said. He pointed to the boxes and added, “Books. I got a lot of them. Been alone so much, if I didn’t read I guess I’d go crazy. Pretty near learned Shakespeare by heart.”
    From a shelf in one corner he picked up a large block of white pine, smooth and carefully planed. “This is going to be yours one day, Paul.”
    The boy stared at the wood, not understanding what the captain meant and too shy to say so. His hands opened and closed and then he took the block when Yardley held it out to him.
    â€œWhen I finish, it’s going to be a three-master. Know what thet is? A full-rigged ship, like we used to build down in Nova Scotia, but what they can’t build there any more. She’ll have a full suit of sails on every mast from the course right up to the skysails when I’m finished with her.” He took the block of wood and put it back on the shelf.
    Athanase looked pleased. “But that will take up too much of your time, Captain?”
    â€œGive me something to do winter nights,” Yardley said. “I guess they’ll be long enough, out here.” He turned to the boy again and indicated the open boxes. “How about you taking those books out for me and stacking them on the floor? Me and your father want to talk. Leastways, I got the idea your father wants to talk to me.”
    Yardley led the way to the porch and when they were seated on either side of the top step he said, “I like thet boy of yours, Mr. Tallard. Missed having a son myself. You’re fortunate. He’s not the only one you got, is he?”
    Athanase was silent for a moment. He got up and they strolled together around a corner of the house toward the barns. “Why do you ask that, Captain?” he said at last. “Some of the people in the village must have been gossiping about my family.”
    â€œNo,” Yardley said. “Not to me anyway. I guess I thought I heard you had more than one child.”
    â€œDon’t make a mistake. If anything is really important–something with money in it, something deep inside a family–our people keep their mouths shut like clams.” Realizing that he was sounding mysterious and feeling a little foolish, he added, “I have another son, older than Paul. By an earlier marriage. He’s called Marius. The name was his mother’s idea, not mine. He’s in his first year at the university in Montreal.” Suddenly looking straight into Yardley’s eyes he asked, “Has Marius been out here while I was away?”
    Yardley stood balancing on his stick, aware of a tension he did not understand. Behind his glasses his blue eyes were serious. “I wouldn’t even know, Mr. Tallard,” he said. “I guess maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
    Athanase made a gesture of impatience. “It’s nothing. You see–this province, Captain–it’s not an easy place to understand. You English, you say and do what you like and people forget easily. Here nobody ever forgets anything.