diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:03:38 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:03:38 -0700 |
| commit | bd13162033c1c08f4cbc62064de7d03f28f52d15 (patch) | |
| tree | 791d65aa2ab4400dab6bb1986093d6cccd5e6b06 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-8.txt | 10221 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 206160 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 631063 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/19708-h.htm | 10363 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/boat.jpg | bin | 0 -> 61628 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/folks.jpg | bin | 0 -> 46745 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/goodnight.jpg | bin | 0 -> 41644 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/grandma.jpg | bin | 0 -> 49241 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/insults.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43886 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/meeting.jpg | bin | 0 -> 44855 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/men.jpg | bin | 0 -> 42990 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/visitors.jpg | bin | 0 -> 49242 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708-h/images/women.jpg | bin | 0 -> 40083 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708.txt | 10221 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19708.zip | bin | 0 -> 206107 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
18 files changed, 30821 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19708-8.txt b/19708-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9cd036 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10221 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cape Cod Folks + +Author: Sarah P. McLean Greene + +Release Date: November 4, 2006 [EBook #19708] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD FOLKS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stacy Brown, Emily and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: CAPE COD FOLKS.] + + + +CAPE COD +FOLKS + +BY + +SARAH P. MCLEAN GREENE +(SALLY PRATT McLEAN) + +_With Illustrations from the Play_ + + + + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP +PUBLISHERS + +Copyrighted, 1881, +By A. WILLIAMS & Co. + +Copyrighted, 1904, + +BY DEWOLFE, FISKE & Co. + + + + +TO W.N.G. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. ON A MISSION + +II. I BLOW THE HORN + +III. THE BEAUX OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY + +IV. THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES + +V. GRANDMA KEELER GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL + +VI. BECKY AND THE CRADLEBOW + +VII. LUTE CRADLEBOW KISSES THE TEACHER + +VIII. FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK + +IX. LOVELL BARLOW "POPS THE QUESTION." + +X. A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN + +XI. A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL + +XII. BECKY'S CONFESSION + +XIII. A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE + +XIV. RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW + +XV. DAVID ROLLIN IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM + +XVI. GEORGE OLVER'S LOVE FOR BECKY + +XVII. TEACHER HAS THE FEVER.--DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE + +XVIII. LUTE CRADLEBOW GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR + +XIX. DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW + +XX. GEORGE OLVER'S ORATION + +XXI. FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP + + + + +[Illustration] + + +CHAPTER I. + +ON A MISSION. + + + "Lo, on a narrer neck o' land, + 'Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand!" + +Aunt Sibylla was not sporting, now, in the airy realms of metaphor. Aunt +Sibylla stood upon Cape Cod, and her voice rang out with that peculiar +sweep and power which the presence of a dread reality alone can give. +Something of the precariousness of her situation, too, was expressed in +The wild, alarming, though graceful, gesture of her arms. + +It was before the long-projected canal separating Cape Cod from the +mainland had been put under active process of preparation. + +It was at an evening meeting in the Wallencamp school-house. A row of +dingy, smoking lanterns had been set against the wall and afforded the +only light cast upon the scene. Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow, the speaker, was +tall and dark-eyed, with an almost superhuman litheness of body, and a +weird, beautiful face. + +"And, oh, my dear brothers and sisters and onconvarted friends!" she +continued; "how little do we realize the reskiness of our situwation +here on the Cape! Here we stand with them ar identical unbounded seas a +rollin' up on ary side of us! the world a pintin' at us as them that +should be always ready, with our lamps trimmed and burnin'! and, yit, oh +my dear brothers and sisters and onconvarted friends! as fur as I have +been inland--and I have been a consid'able ways inland, as you all know, +whar it would seem no more than nateral that folks should settle down +kind o' safe and easy on a dry land univarse--I say, as fur as I have +been inland, I never see sech keeryins on and carnal works, sech +keerlessness for the present and onconsarn for the futur', as I have +amongst the benighted critturs who stand before me this evenin', a +straddlin' this poor, old, Godforsaken Pot Hook!" + +Clearer and louder grew Aunt Sibylla's tones; her eyes lightened with +terrible meaning; her words flowed with an unction that was unmistakable; +and, at length, "Oh, run for the Ark, ye poor, lost sinners," she +exclaimed. "Oh, run for the Ark, my onconvarted friends! Don't ye hear +the waves a comin' in? They're a rollin' swift and sure! They're a +rollin' in sure as death! Run for the Ark! Run for the Ark!" + +Now, there was in Wallencamp a literal Ark, otherwise this exhortation +would have lacked its most convincing force and significance. But Aunt +Sibylla paused. Among the usually restless audience, there was a moment +of almost breathless suspense. Not half a mile away, behind a strip of +cedar woods, we could plainly hear the surf rolling in from the bay, +breaking hard against the shore with its awful, monotonous moan, moan, +moan. + +My heart was already faint with home-sickness. The effect of that waiting +moment was as sombre as anything I had ever experienced. Much to my +distaste, I found myself sympathizing with the vague terror and unrest +around me. I can hear it still, the voice that then rose, singing, +through the sullen gloom of the school-room, a strangely sweet and +rapturous voice--Madeline's. I learned to know it well afterwards. I +listened with rapt surprise to the pathos with which it thrilled the +simple words of the song:-- + + "Shall we meet beyond the River, + Where the surges cease to roll, + Where, in all the bright forever, + Sorrow ne'er shall press the soul?" + +A keenly responsive chord had been touched in the simple, agitated +breasts of the Wallencampers, and they joined in the chorus--those rough +people--not with their usual reckless exuberance of tone, but +plaintively, tremblingly even, as though, whatever the words, they would +make of them a prayer in which to hide some secret doubt or longing of +their souls. + + "Shall we meet, shall we meet, + Shall we meet beyond the River?" + +The strain was repeated with a most pathetic quaver in the rendering, +and then big Captain Sartell broke down, with a helpless gulp in his +voice, and I, who believed myself of too superior and refined a nature +to be moved by such tawdry sentiment, was further dismayed to feel the +tears gathering fast in my own eyes. + +After the meeting, on the school-house steps, the big Captain, as if to +atone for any unmanly exhibition of feeling into which he might have +been betrayed inside, took little Bachelor Lot up by the shoulders, and +gently and playfully held him suspended in mid-air, while he put to him +the following riddle:-- + +"I'll wager a quarter, on a good, squar' guess, Bachelder. Why is--why +air Aunt Sibby's remarks like this 'ere peninshaler, eh, Bachelder?" + +"Because--ahem!--because they're always a runnin' to a p'int, eh?" +inquired the keen little bachelor. + +"No, by thunder!" exclaimed the discomfited Captain, setting the +magician down promptly. "As near as I calk'late," he continued, +endeavoring to resume his former air of cool and reckless raillery; "as +near as I calk'late, Bachelder,--yes, sir, as near as I +calk'late,--it's--it's--by thunder! it's because they're both liable to +squalls in fa'r weather!" + +Amazed, and almost frightened at the unexpected brilliancy of his evil +success, the Captain yet kept a rueful and furtive eye on the little +bachelor. + +Bachelor Lot coughed slightly and smiled. "Very true," he drawled, +cheerfully, in his small, thin voice; "I'm--ahem!--I'm not a married man +myself, you know, Captain. However," he added; "you should have given me +another try. I had the correct answer on my tongue's end." + +During this brief exchange between the stars of the Wallencamp debate +ground, murmurs of appreciative applause arose from the group of +bystanders, and "Pretty tight pinch for you, Captain!" and "Three cheers +for Bachelder! ye can't git ahead of Bachelder!" sprang delightedly from +lip to lip. + +Aunt Sibylla had scented from within this buoyant resumption of the +Wallencamp mirth, and now appeared on the scene, bearing a burning +lantern in her hand. She first turned the glare of its full orb on the +late sin-convicted Captain, who stood revealed with a guilty grin frozen +helplessly on his alarmed features, and next directed the beams of +disclosing justice towards the form of the little bachelor, who, with +too pronounced meekness, was engaged in readjusting the collar of his +coat. + +"At it ag'in!" Aunt Sibylla exclaimed, with slow and cutting emphasis. +"At it ag'in! I do believe you're all possessed of the devil!" + +Then, with one sweep of the lantern, she took a comprehensive survey of +the shivering group, and passed on without another word, while in the +breast of every guilty Wallencamper then present there rested a deep +sense of merited condemnation. + +Aunt Sibylla was soon followed by the other lantern-bearers, who +dispersed homeward, along the four roads diverging from the school-house, +and, the night being starless, the children of the darkness followed +meekly in their wake. + +The longest route lay before those who took the River Road leading to +the Indian Encampment. Bachelor Lot was the hindmost in this receding +column. Bachelor Lot, though too withered and brown of visage to afford +immediate enlightenment as to his species, was held to be of +unquestionable white descent. Yet he kept house, alone, at the Indian +Encampment. + +Then there was the Stony Hill Road, up which a few pilgrims toiled; and +the Cross Lot Road to the beach--thither went the Barlows. Last of all, +there was the Lane, and it was somewhat in the rear of the lane +procession that I musingly wended my way, led by the beams of Grandma +Keeler's slowly swaying lantern. + +I was the Wallencamp school-teacher. I had come to "this rock-bound +coast," imagining myself impelled by much the same necessity as that +which fired the bosoms of the earlier pilgrims. Not that I had been +restricted in respect to religious privileges, but I sought for a true +independence of life and aim; and furthermore, it should be said, I had +come to Wallencamp on a mission. "On a mission!" how the thought had +tickled my fancy and roused my warmest enthusiasm but a few short days +before! Indeed, I had not been yet a week in Wallencamp, and now, as I +walked up the lane in a mood quite the reverse of enthusiastic, I was +painfully trying to gather from my small and scattered sources of +information what the exact meaning of the phrase might be. + +I had entered on the performance of my errand to Wallencamp under +circumstances not usual, perhaps, among propagandists; nevertheless, I +had been singularly free from misgivings. + +A girl of nineteen years, I had a home endowed with every luxury; a +circle of family acquaintance, which, I admitted, did me great +credit; congenial companions; while as for my education, I was pleased +to call it completed. My career at boarding-schools had been of a +delightfully varied and elective nature, for I had not deigned to toil +with squalid studiousness, or even to sail with politic and inglorious +ease through the prescribed course of study at any institution. Any +misadventures necessarily following from this course my friends had +gilded over with the flattering insinuation that I was "too vivacious" +for this sort of discipline, or "too fragile" for that, though I am +bound to say that, in such cases, my "vivacity" had generally sealed my +fate before the delicacy of my constitution became too alarmingly +apparent. + +I had, to be sure, a few commendable aspirations, but I had started out +fresh so many times with them only to see them meet the same end! + +Though not by nature of a self-depreciatory turn of mind, I had +occasional flashes of inspiration, to the effect that, in spite of the +soft flattery of friends, I really was amounting to very little after +all. It was in a mood induced by one of these supernatural gleams that I +stood on one occasion, leaning a pair of very plump arms on the graveyard +wall, looking wistfully over into the place of tombs, and thinking how +nice it would be to have done forever with the fret and turmoil of life! +And it was at such a time, too, that I received from a school friend, +Mary Waite, the letter which was the moving cause of my mission to +Wallencamp. + +Mary Waite, by the way, was one of those "prosy, ridiculous girls"--so I +had been compelled to classify her, although I was secretly troubled by +a sincere admiration of her virtues,--who had made it an absorbing +pursuit of her school-days to probe her text-books for useful +information, and was also accustomed to defer to her teachers as high +authority on matters of daily discipline. She was not in "our set." She +was poor, and studious, and obedient, yet a friendship had sprung up +between her and me, and I was moved to forgive her the, in many respects, +grovelling tendencies of her nature. I even ascended occasionally to her +room on the fourth floor to shock her with my sentiments, when there was +nothing livelier going on. + +She wrote:-- + + "MY DEAR S----: Are you still perfectly happy, as you used to try to + have me think you were always--the old restlessness, the better + longings unsatisfied, do they never come up again? [That was Mary's + insidious way of stating a difficulty.] Don't you believe you would + be happier to _do_ something in real earnest? Something for people + _outside_, I mean. [I flushed a little at that. An insinuation of + that sort can't be put too delicately.] I have tried to imagine how + the proposal I am going to make will strike you--but never mind. I + am teaching, you know, in Kedarville. I leave here, at the close of + the term, for another field of labor, and now I want you to apply + for the Kedarville school. Yes, it is a remote, poverty-stricken + place. It contains no society, no church, no library, not even a + little country store! It would seem to you, I dare say, like going + back to the half-barbarous conditions of life. The people are simple + and kind-hearted; but they need training--oh, how much!--physically, + mentally, and morally. I can assure you, here is scope for the most + daring missionary enterprise, and you,--I believe that you could do + it if you would. Consider the matter seriously; consult with your + friends about it, and if you do decide to try the experiment, write + as legibly as you possibly can to the Superintendent of Schools, + Farmouth, Mass., stating your qualifications, etc." + +The idea struck me with such strange and immediate favor that I quite +forbore to consult with my friends in regard to it. I resolved to go on +the instant, and wrote my friend Mary to that effect, congratulating +her, with an undercurrent of mischievous intention, on having been the +happy means of setting my powers drifting in the right direction at +last; and reproached her gently with having seemed to imply, once, in +her letter, some occult reason why I had not been regarded, heretofore +as specially designed to work in the cause of missions, whereas I had +always felt myself drifting inevitably towards that end. + +I wrote to the Superintendent of the Farmouth schools. But here I had an +earnest purpose to serve, and a real desire to succeed, and here met +with a difficulty. I had not the art of presenting my earnest purposes +in the most assuring and credible manner. They _would_ wear, in spite of +me, an uneasy air of novelty; yet I aimed nobly. I dilated largely on +some of the evils existing in the present system of education, and hinted +at reforms not yet meditated by the world at large; but skilfully forgot +to mention my own qualifications. + +On reading the letter over, I was astonished at the flattering nature of +the result, and, with the buoyant pride of one who believes he has +suddenly discovered a new resource in himself, I sent a copy of my +application to Mary Waite. She answered in the language of sorrowful +reproach:-- + +"Oh, S., how could you?" + +I was forced to conclude that, as usual, I had somehow made a misstep, +and sought to conceal my mortification as best I might, by persuading +myself and my friend that I had only regarded the matter as a joke all +through. Nevertheless, I was bitterly disappointed. + +What was my surprise, then, a few days afterwards, to receive this +communication from the Superintendent of Schools:-- + +"You are accepted to fill the position of teacher in the Kedarville +school." Then followed terse directions as to the best way of reaching +Kedarville, and, finally: "Mrs. Philander Keeler will board you for two +Dollars and fifty cents per week." + +As I read this last clause everything that had made a sudden tumult in +my mind before was lulled into a mysterious calm. + +It was not the low value set upon the means of subsistence in Kedarville. +Mercenary motives were, with me, as yet out of the question. It was not +the oppressive charm of Mrs. Philander Keeler's name that affected me so +strangely. It was the expressive combination of the whole, at once so +clear cut and unique. I murmured it softly to myself on my way home from +the Post-office. + +"Han," said I, quite gravely, to my elder sister on entering the house; +"Mrs. Philander Keeler will board me for two dollars and fifty cents per +week:" and handed her the letter in pensive, though triumphant, +confirmation of my words. + +"When did you do this?" she gasped, and, before I could answer, "how are +you going to get out of it?" she faintly demanded. + +"Simply by getting into it, my dear," I answered, with that unyielding +sweetness of demeanor for which I fancied I had ever been distinguished +in the family circle. + +I began to make my preparations for departure without delay. + +Tender remonstrances, studied expostulations, were alike of no avail, and +they helped me to pack, finally--those dear good people at home--putting +as brave a face as they could upon it, and hoping for the best. My father +assured my mother, though with trembling lip and tearful eye, that "God +would temper the wind to the shorn lamb." I smiled at the part I was +meant to play in this cheerful allegory, though it seemed to me rather +inappropriate, as I had a new sealskin cloak that very winter. + +At the last I gathered from the new and sprightlier form which the family +submissiveness assumed, as well as from certain inadvertent disclosures +of Bridget's, that I was confidently expected home again "in the course +of a week or two." And I thereupon doubly confirmed myself in the resolve +to see this thing through or die in the attempt. + +I cannot define the motives which actuated me at this time. They do not +appear to have flowed in a clear and pellucid stream. I discover a thirst +for the surprising and experimental, for situations, dilemmas, and +emergencies, sustained by the most sublime recklessness as to +consequences. Then I see a dread of sinking into humdrum--the impulse +never to be at rest; deeper than all this, I find a secret +dissatisfaction with myself, a vague longing to use the best that is in +me to some true purpose; a desire to leave the tangled skein, and "begin +all over again." + +It was early in January when I set out on my mission to the distant +shores of Cape Cod. It was also, I remember, very early in the morning, +and John Cable occupied a seat in the car. I had reason to know that John +shared in the family disapproval of my sublime conduct. He sat, looking +very glum behind his paper, and appeared not to notice me when I came in. +Having finished reading his paper, he gnawed his moustache and gazed, +still with glaring unconsciousness of my presence, out of the window. But +as we neared Hartford, where I was to take the train for Boston, he came +over to where I sat. + +"I hope you'll enjoy yourself at Sandy Creek this winter," he said. + +Now, I knew that John had designed this as sarcasm the most scathing, but +he was himself conscious of failure, and the thought filled him with +deeper gloom. He sought to reveal his baffled intentions in a scowl, +which lent to his manly and intelligent features the darkness of +spiritual night. And I replied, that "the recollection of his face, as it +then appeared to me, would be in itself an inspiration through all the +days to come." + +There was silence for a space, and then John continued:-- + +"Have you found it on the map, yet?" + +"What, please?" + +"Kedarville!" with bitter emphasis. + +"Oh! certainly not." + +"It may be a little island out there somewhere, you know," delivered with +the effect of a masterpiece. + +"Yes; or a lighthouse, possibly." + +I saw that John wished he had thought of that himself. He became dejected +again. Then, presently, he threw oil the cloak of bitterness which sat so +ill on him, and, resuming his usual kindliness and benignity of manner, +succeeded in making himself unconsciously tantalizing. + +"If you do find it," he said; "and if you--if you conclude to stay for +any length of time, I think I will go down some time this winter and hunt +you up." + +"If you do, John Cable," I answered, with unaccountable warmth; "I'll +never forgive you as long as I live--never." + +At Hartford, John took the train for Boston, too. We were very old +friends. Latterly, we had read Shakespeare together at the Newtown +Literary Club. We concluded not to quarrel for the rest of the way. I +had an influx of gay spirits, and John was almost without exception +"nice." + +There were several hours to wait in Boston before the train on the Old +Colony road would go out. We had dinner (I little realized how long it +would be before I should eat again), and John tamely suggested driving +about to look at some of the places of interest. I assured him that +there was nothing so dispiriting as looking at places of interest, and +he answered, cheerfully, after some moments of thought, that we could +"shut our eyes when we went by them, then." + +I had reason to dread a decline of spirits. Mine were rapidly on the +wane. By the time we stopped at the Old Colony _dépôt_ they were low, +indeed. And the hardest of all was, that I would not, for my life, let +my companion know. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and already +quite dark. The atmosphere was heavy and chill; the sky ominous with +clouds. I had an unknown journey yet to take in search of an unknown +destination. The car into which I got on the Cape-bound train was dismal +and weird-seeming enough. + +"I wish, if you must go, you would let me see you to the end of this," +said John. + +I answered, laughing, with an unnecessary tinge of defiance in my tone. +It would have been so much easier to cry. I thought, "If John would only +try to look cross again!" as he did in the morning--anything but that +expression of grieved and compassionate disapproval with which he sat, +talking so earnestly to me, for the last few moments in that dark car. I +thought he was cruel. He was trying to make me _think_ and I was trying +so hard _not_ to think! I felt a childish desire to scream out. Then, +when the signal for starting rang, and John took my hand an instant, in +parting, looking down at me with his kind, familiar eyes, the impulse +swept up strong within me to beg him to take me out of that dreadful car +and take me back home, and I would be good, oh, so good, and "prosy," +yes, and "humdrum," and never ask to go on any more missions to forlorn +pieces of land sticking out into the water. + +So there must have been a wild extravagance in the airy recklessness of +tone with which I bade John "good-bye." A sense of utter helplessness +came over me as he turned and went out. + +I observed, particularly, but two passengers in the car. One was a man, +very much bandaged as to his head, who sat gazing into the coal-stove, +which occupied the centre of the car, with weakly meditative, burnt-out +eyes. The other was a girl, occupying the seat directly in front of me. +She might have been nine years old, but she had a singularly faded and +mature countenance. As the train started, she turned to me with some +excitement:-- + +"There!" said she, pointing towards the window; "your beau's walking +off! He's walking fast! He ain't looking back!" + +"Thank you," said I, in a low, expressionless tone, not intended as an +inducement to further conversation. + +This girl had a parcel of confectionery, the contents of which she +occasionally took out, and ranged in a row on the window ledge, selecting +therefrom the smallest and least inviting fragment, and having eaten it +with the hasty air of one who treats herself under protest to the +luscious prerogatives of childhood, put the rest back in the paper-bag, +carefully replacing the string every time. She selected and handed to me +the very largest specimen in her collection, which I had the +gracelessness to refuse, though without show of disgust. Afterwards she +asked if she might come and sit in the seat with me. I thought she was +very disagreeable. Besides, I was so miserable I wanted to commune apart +with my own loneliness. However, I made room for her. + +She proceeded to confide to me all of her past history. She was returning +home from a visit to her aunt. Her mother had died a good many years ago, +"when Johnnie was a mere baby." She "kept house for father, and took care +of Johnnie." She "tried hard not to have father feel his loss. It was +very hard," she added, gravely, "for a man to be left alone so." She had +bought a little book for Johnnie, but she never had much time to read; +besides she wasn't quick to learn. She could pick the words out, to be +sure, but, somehow, it didn't make good sense, and would I read the book +to her? + +Oh, to take counsel of my own despair! How dark and wild it was growing +outside! Where was I going? whom should I meet there? + +And so I read, at the foot of gorgeously-illuminated pages, how-- + + "Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky got started for the fair, + When Goosie Poosie and Turkey Lurkey went out to view the air," etc., + +the range of characters swiftly widening as the narrative increased in +power. To my surprise, the mature child listened to this nonsense with +the utmost gravity and interest. No shadow of derision played on her +attentive features. When I had finished--it was soon finished--she +said:-- + +"Oh, that sounded so good; it made such good sense," and sighed, very +wistfully. + +"Do you want me to read it again?" I exclaimed, in despair. + +_Would_ I read it again? she asked. + +I read it again. + +After that she was silent and thoughtful for some time. Then she said, +looking gravely into my face:-- + +"Do you love Jesus?" + +"No, my dear," said I, surprised into much gentleness. + +The faded blue eyes filled with tears. She had no notion of harassing me +on the subject, but spoke quietly and at length of her own religious +convictions. + +The east wind crept in through the window, and once my little companion +shivered. I noticed that she was rather thinly clad. I unstrapped my +shawl and wrapped it around her. She let her head fall at my side, and +went to sleep. Slowly, I was constrained to draw her up closer and put +my arm around her as support. In so doing, I received from some source +an unaccountable strength and calm of spirit. + +At Braintree, which the child had told me was her home, I woke her up, +and she got off. + +I was to stop at West Wallen, the railway station least remote from +Kedarville, and expected there to meet Mrs. Philander Keeler, or some +member of that mysterious family, to convey me to Wallencamp. + +It seemed as though the train had had time to travel the whole +interminable length of the Cape, and plunge off into the ocean beyond, +when, in fact, we were just entering upon that peculiar body of land at +West Wallen. + +There was no one there to meet me. The little _dépôt_ was held by a +strange night brigade of boys and girls, playing "blind-man's buff." +They shouted like cannibals, and bore down on all opposing objects with +resistless force. I did not attempt an entrance. A rough, good-natured +looking man stood on the platform outside. + +I put on my glasses (I was sadly and unaffectedly near-sighted), and +having further assured myself of his seeming honesty, inquired if there +was such a place as Kedarville in the vicinity. + +"Waal, no, miss, thar' ain't," said he, with a noonday smile, which +informed me that there was yet something to hope for. "Thar's no +_Kedarville_ that I know on. Thar's a Wallencamp some miles up yender. +We don't often tackle no Sunday go-to-meeting names on to it, but I +reckon, maybe, it's the same you're a-lookin' for." + +He had spoken with such startling indefiniteness of the distance that I +asked him how far it was to Wallencamp. + +"Waal, thar' you've got me," said he, beaming on me in a broadly +complimentary way, as though I had actually circumvented him in some +skilful play at words. "Fact is, thar' ain't never been no survey run +down in that direction that I know on. We call it four miles, more or +less. That's Cape Cod measure--means most anythin' lineal measure. +Talkin' 'bout Cape Cod miles," he continued, with an irresistible air of +raillery; "little Bachelder Lot lives up thar' to Wallencamp, and they +don't have no church nor nothin' thar', so Bachelder and some on 'em they +come up here, once in a while, ter Sunday-school. Deacon Lancy, he'd +rather see the Old Boy comin' into Sunday-school class any time than +Bachelder; for he's quiet, the little bachelder is, but dry as a herrin'. +So the Deacon thought he'd stick him on distances. The Deacon is a great +stickler on distances. + +"'How fur, Bachelder,' says he, 'did Adam and Eve go when they was turned +out of the garden of Eden?' says he. + +"'Waal,' says Bachelder, coughing a little, so--that's Bachelder's way +o' talking--'we have sufficient reason to eenfer, Deacon, that, in all +probabeelity, they went a _Ceape Cod mile_.'" + +My informant's delight at this reminiscence was huge. It yielded to a +more subdued sense of the ludicrous when I asked him if there was any +public conveyance to Wallencamp. He made a polite effort to restrain his +mirth, but the muscles of his face twitched violently. + +"Waal, no, miss," said he; "we don't run no reg'lar express up to +Wallencamp; might be a very healthy oc'pation, but not as lukertive as +some, I reckon--not as lukertive as pickin' 'tater-bugs: that's what they +do, mostly, down thar'. Fact is, miss," he concluded, with considerable +gravity; "we don't vary often go down to Wallencamp unless we're obliged +to." + +On my proposing to make it lucrative, he immediately called, in a loud +voice, to one of the playful occupants of the _dépôt_: + +"Hi, thar!' 'Rasmus! 'Rasmus! Here's a lady wants to be conveyed down to +Wallencamp; you run home and tackle, now! You be lively, now!" + +'Rasmus was lively. In a very few moments something of an unusual and +ghostly appearance--so much only I could discover of what afterwards +became a very familiar sort of vehicle--was waiting for me alongside the +platform. The only means of getting into it was through an opening +directly in front. Towards this I was encouraged to climb over the +thills, but met with an obstacle, in the form of my trunk, which seemed +effectually to block up the entrance. + +"Thar', now! I told ye so," exclaimed one of the bystanders, a large +number of whom had mysteriously gathered about the scene. "You'd orter +got _her_ in first." + +A disconsolate silence prevailed. The trunk had been elevated to its +present position through the most painful exertions. + +"Perhaps I can climb over it," I said, and bravely made the attempt. + +No one knew, in the voiceless darkness, of the suddenly helpless and +collapsed condition in which I landed on the other side. I groped about +for a seat, and finally succeeded in finding one at the extreme rear of +the vehicle. + +'Rasmus drove. He was situated somewhere, somehow--I could not tell where +nor how--in the realm of vacancy on the other side of the trunk; I only +know that he seemed a long way off. Under these circumstances +conversation was rendered extremely difficult. I learned that Mr. +Philander Keeler was away at sea; that Mrs. Philander Keeler lived at the +_Ark_, with Cap'n and Grandma Keeler, and the two little Keelers. + +'Rasmus was the unmistakable son of his father. + +"And it ain't no _got-up_ ark, neither!" he yelled at me, in a tone which +pierced through the distance and the darkness, and every intervening +obstacle. "It's the reg'lar old _Ark_! It's what Noer, and the elephant, +and them fellows come over in!" + +I did not wonder, as we journeyed on, that my informant of the _dépôt_ +platform had used his "ups" and "downs" indiscriminately in indicating +the direction of Wallencamp. In the inky blackness by which I was +surrounded I was conscious, clearly, of but one sensation--that of going +_up_ and _down_. The rumbling of the wheels reached me as something far +off and indefinably dreadful. + +Then we stopped, and I crawled out like one in a dream. There was no +light at the Ark to make it a distinguishable feature of the gloom. +'Rasmus found the door and knocked loudly. I became dimly conscious of +the knocking, and followed 'Rasmus. + +"I reckon they're to bed," said he, and knocked louder. + +Pretty soon a clear, feminine voice, startled into musical sharpness, +issued from a room quite near, with--"Who's there?" and was followed by +two small, squealing voices, in unison,--"Who's there?" + +Then other sounds arose--sounds from some quarter mysterious and +remote--low, mumbling, comfortable refrain, and ominous snatches of an +uneasy grumble; then a roar that shook the Ark to its foundations:-- + +"Who the devil's making such a rumpus out there at this time in the +mornin'?" (It was nine o'clock P.M.) 'Rasmus sent back an intrepid +yell:-- + +"It's the _tea-cher_! It's pretty late," he said, aside, to me. "I guess +I won't go in. I reckon they won't have much style on. I seen ye pay +father; that's all right. I'll tip yer trunk up under the shed, and the +old Cap'n 'll see to gettin' it in in the mornin'. Here's a letter the +postmaster sent down to the Cap'n's folks. Good night." + +'Rasmus, my only hope! I made a convulsive grasp for him in the darkness, +but he was gone. + +It was she of the soothing, comfortable voice who took me in; and Grandma +Keeler's _taking in_ I understand always in the divinest and fullest +sense of the term. + +Further than that, I was conscious that there were white-robed and +nightcapped figures moving about the room. So unearthly was their +appearance that I had, at last, a confused notion of having become +disengaged from the entanglements of the flesh, and fallen in with a +small planetary system in the course of my wanderings through space. The +centre of attraction seemed to be a table, to which the figures were +constantly bringing more _pies_. + +The letter which 'Rasmus had directed me to hand to the "folks" was read +with interest, being the one I had dispatched from Newtown, a week or two +before, informing them as to the time of my arrival. + +Madeline rendered the brief and business-like epistle with the full +effect of her peculiarly thrilling intonation, and Grandma listened with +rapt attention; but, meanwhile, Grandpa Keeler and the two little Keelers +found time surreptitiously to dispose of nearly a whole pie, with the +serious aspect of those who will not allow a mere fleeting diversion to +hinder them in the improvement of a rare opportunity. + +Having declined to partake of pie, through Grandma Keeler's kind +interposition, I was not further urged. + +"Thar', poor darlin'," said she; "fix her up a good cup o' your golden +seal, pa, and she shall go to bed right in the parlor to-night, seem' as +we didn't get the letter, and hain't got her room fixed upstairs. It's +all nice and warm, and thar', darlin', thar', we're r'al good for nussin' +folks up." + +In the parlor, I saw only one great, delicious object--a bed. My weary +brain hardly exaggerated its dimensions, which could not have failed to +strike with astonishment even the most indifferent observer. It was long; +it was broad; it was deep; and, alas! it was high, I disrobed as best I +might, and stood before it, gazing despairingly up at its snowy summit. + +Then, remembering my experience with the trunk, I approached at one +extreme, scaled the headboard, fell over into an absorbing sea of +feathers, and, at that very instant it seemed, the perplexing nature of +mortal affairs ceased to burden my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +I BLOW THE HORN. + + +Morning dawned on my mission to Wallencamp. My wakening was not an +Enthusiastic one. Slowly my bewildered vision became fixed on an object +on the wall opposite, as the least fantastic amid a group of objects. It +was a sketch in water-colors of a woman in an expansive hoop and a skirt +of brilliant hue, flounced to the waist. She stood with a singularly +erect and dauntless front, over a grave on which was written "Consort." I +observed, with a childlike wonder, which concealed no latent vein of +criticism, the glowing carmine of her cheeks, the unmixed blue of her +pupilless eyes, from a point exactly in the centre of which a geometric +row of tears curved to the earth. A weeping willow--somewhat too green, +alas!--drooped with evident reluctance over the scene, but cast no shade +on its contrasting richness. The title of the piece was "_Bereavement_" +By some strange means, it served as the pole-star to my wandering +thoughts. + +As I gazed and wondered my life took on again a definite form and +purpose. The events of the preceding day rose in gradual succession +before me, and I proceeded to descend from the heights I had scaled the +night before. + +[Illustration: DAVID ROLLIN INSULTS LUTHER.] + +I looked at my watch. It was eight o'clock, and school should begin at +nine. Yet the occasion witnessed no feverish display of haste on my part, +I saw that the difficulties which I was destined to endure in the +Performance of my toilet that morning called either for philosophy or +madness. I chose philosophy. + +The portion of the Ark surrounding my bed was cut up into little +recesses, crannies, nooks,--used, presumably, for storing the different +pairs of animals in the trying events which preceded the Flood. In one of +these, I had a dim recollection of having secreted my clothes, in the +disordered condition of my brain the night before. So I cast desultory +glances about me for these articles on the way, having first set out on a +search for a looking-glass. In one dark recess I came into forcible +contact with a hanging-shelf of pies. I thought what a moment that would +have been for Grandpa Keeler and the little Keelers! but I had been +brought up on hygienic, as well as moral, principles, and moved away +without a sigh. In another sequestered nook, I paused with a sinful +mixture of curiosity and delight, before a Chinese idol standing alone on +a pedestal. + +There was a strangeness and a newness about things at the Ark that began +to be exhilarating, I was reminded, in a negative sort of way, that I had +intended to begin my work on this new day with a prayer to the true God +for strength and assistance. I had found it necessary to make this +resolve because, although I had a "fixed habit of prayer," it was +reserved rather for occasions of special humiliation than resorted to as +an everyday indulgence; practically, I had well nigh dispensed with it +altogether. + +However, I started back in an intently serious frame of mind to find my +couch. I lost my way, and stumbling against a swinging-door which opened +into a comparatively spacious apartment, what was my joy to discover my +trunk, with the portmanteau containing my keys on top of it. + +I then proceeded to array myself with an absorbing ardor and devotion, +doing my hair before a hand-glass with rare resignation of spirit. I +began to feel more and more like an incorporated existence, and admitted +a sudden eagerness to join the Keeler family at breakfast. + +I had no hesitation which direction to take, being guided by the sound of +voices and wafts of penetrating odors. + +It was a fortunate direction, for I discovered on the way my lost apparel +artfully concealed under a small melodeon, and, strangely enough, I was +again brought face to face with my deserted couch and the weeping lady on +the wall. She held me a moment with the old fascination. As I put up my +glasses, I thought I detected in her face a hitherto unnoticed buoyancy +of expression and not having wholly escaped in my life from ideas of a +worldly nature, I reflected that, probably, her regretted consort had +left her with a sufficient number of thousands. + +In this same connection, I was reminded that I, myself, had started out +on an independent career, and wondered if it would be unkind or undutiful +in me to start a private bank account of my own. I concluded that it +would not. + +When I entered the little room where the Keeler family was assembled:-- + +"Why, here's our teacher!" exclaimed Grandma Keeler in accents of +delight, and came to meet me with outstretched arms. "We couldn't abear +to wake ye up, dearie," she went on, "knowin' ye was so tired this +mornin'; and there's plenty o' time--plenty o' time. My Casindana come +home!" she murmured, with a smile and a tremble of the lips, and a +far-away look, for the instant, in her gentle eyes. + +In fact, the whole Keeler family received me with outstretched arms. If I +had been a long-lost child, or a friend known and loved in days gone by, +I could not have been more cordially and enthusiastically welcomed. + +The best chair was set for me; glances of eager and inquiring interest +were bent upon me. + +I accepted it all coolly, though not without a certain air of affability, +too, for I had a natural desire to make myself agreeable to people, when +it wasn't too much trouble; but I was quite firm, at this time, in the +conviction that there was little or no faith to be put in human nature. +On the whole I was much entertained and interested. + +The two children came to climb into my lap, but this part of the +acquaintance did not progress very fast. I thought they must have been +struck by something in my eye (I was merely wondering abstractedly if +their heads were not out of proportion to the rest of their bodies), for +they paused, and Mrs. Philander called them away sharply. + +Mrs. Philander was a frail little woman,--she could not have been over +thirty or thirty-two years old,--not pretty, though she had a very airy +and graceful way of comporting herself. Her eyes were large and dark, +with a strange, melancholy gleam in them. + +I never knew the secrets of Mrs. Philanders heart. She had often a tired, +tense look about the mouth, and seemed often sorely discontent; but she +had the sweetest voice I ever heard. She was familiarly called Madeline. + +Grandpa or Cap'n Keeler was over eighty years old. He had a tall, +powerful frame--at least, it spoke of great power in the past--and I +thought his eye must have been uncommonly dark and keen once. + +From his manly irascibility of temperament, and his frequent would-be +authoritativeness of tone, one might have inferred, from a passing +glimpse, that Grandpa Keeler was something of a tyrant in the family; but +I soon learned that his sway was of an extremely vague and illusory +nature. + +Grandma Keeler was twenty years his junior. She had not married him until +she was herself quite advanced in life, and had had one husband. + +"To be sure," I heard her say once, "I ain't quite so far advanced as +husband, but, then, it don't make no difference how young the girl is, +you know." + +She used to sit down and laugh--one of Grandma's "r'al good laughs" was +incompatible with a standing posture--until the tears rolled down her +cheeks, and she had to wipe them off with the corner of her apron. + +She had been thrown from a wagon once--how often and thrillingly have I +heard dear Grandma Keeler relate the particulars of that accident! She +had broken at that time, I believe, nearly every bone in her body. Long +was the story of her fall, but longer still the tale of her recuperation. +In due course of time, she had grown together again; could now use all +her limbs, and was in superabundant flesh. There was an unnatural sort of +stiffness about her movements, however, her way of walking particularly. +She advanced but slowly, and allowed her weight to fall from one foot to +Another without any perceptible bend of any joint whatever. + +I have stood at one end of a room and seen Grandma Keeler approaching +from the other, when it seemed as though she was not making any progress +at all, but merely going through with an odd sort of balancing process +in order to maintain her equilibrium. + +As for Grandma Keeler's face, there was enough in it to make several +ordinary scrimped faces. Besides large physical proportions, there was +enough in it of generosity, enough of whole-heartedness, a world of +sympathy. The great catastrophe of her life had affected the muscles of +her face so that although she enunciated her words very distinctly, she +had a slow, automatic way of moving her lips. + +The room where the breakfast-table was set was the same that I had +entered first, on my arrival at Wallencamp. It was low and small, but +capable, as I learned afterward, of holding any amount of things and +people without ever seeming crowded. There was a cooking-stove in it, and +many other articles of modest worth, so artlessly scattered about as to +present a scene of the wildest and richest profusion. + +Art was not entirely wanting, however. There was a ray of it on the wall +behind the stove-pipe, the companion-piece to "Bereavement," entitled +"Joy," and represented my heroine of the bed-chamber, reclining on a +rustic bench in rather an unflounced and melancholy condition. In one +place there hung a yellow family register, which was kept faithfully +supplied from week to week with a wreath of fresh evergreens. It was +headed by a woodcut representing a funeral, Grandma Keeler said; but +Grandpa Keeler afterwards informed me, aside, with much solemnity, that +it was a "marriage ceremony." Near the foot of the list of births, +marriages and deaths, I saw "Casindana Keeler; died, aged twenty." + +We sat down at the table. There was a brief altercation between Dinslow +and Grace, the little Keelers, in which impromptu missiles, such as +spoons and knives and small tin-cups, were hurled across the table with +unguided wrath, and both infants yelled furiously. + +Grandma had nearly succeeded in quieting them, when Madeline remarked to +Grandpa Keeler, in her lively and flippant style:-- + +"Come, pa, say your piece." + +"How am I going to say anything?" inquired Grandpa, wrathfully, "in such +a bedlam?" + +"Thar', now, thar'!" said Grandma Keeler, in her soothing tone; "It's all +quiet now and time we was eatin' breakfast, so ask the blessin', pa, and +don't let's have no more words about it." + +Whereupon the old sea-captain bowed his head, and, with a decided touch +of asperity still lingering in his voice, sped through the lines:-- + + "God bless the food which now we take; + May it do us good, for Jesus' sake." + +"Now, Dinnie," said Grandma Keeler, beguilingly; but it was not until +after much coaxing and threatening, and the promise of a spoonful of +sugar when it was over, that Dinslow was induced to solicit the same +blessing, in the same poetical terms, and with an expedition still more +alarming. + +Then Gracie, with tears not yet dried from the late conflict, lifted up +her voice in a rapture of miniature delight; "Dinnie says, 'gobble the +food'! Dinnie says, 'gobble the food!'" + +"Didn't say 'gobble the food!'" exclaimed Dinslow, blacker than a little +thunder-cloud. + +Madeline anticipated the rising storm, and stamped her foot and cried: +"_Will_ you be still?" + +It was Grandma Keeler who quietly and adroitly restored peace to the +troubled waters. + +The Wallencampers, including the Keeler family, were not accustomed to +speak of bread as a compact and staple article of food, but rather as one +of the hard means of sustaining existence represented by the term +"hunks." At the table, it was not "will you pass me the bread?" but--and +I shall never forget the sweet tunefulness of Madeline's tone in this +connection--"Will you hand me a hunk?" + +The hunks were an unleavened mixture of flour and water, about the size +and consistency of an ordinary laborer's fist. + +I was impressed, in first sitting down at the Keelers' table, with a +sense of my own ignorance as to the most familiar details of life, but +soon learned to speak confidently of "hunks," and "fortune stew," and +"slit herrin'," and "golden seal." + +Fortune stew was a dish of small, round blue potatoes, served perfectly +whole in a milk gravy. + +I cherish the memory of this dish as sacred, as well as that of all the +other dishes that ever appeared on the Wallencamp table. They were the +products of faithful and loving hands to which nature had given a +peculiar direction, perhaps, but which strove always to the best of their +ability. + +Slit herrin' was a long-dried, deep-salted edition of the native alewife, +a fish in which Wallencamp abounded. They hung in massive tiers from the +roofs of the Wallencamp barns. The herrin' was cut open, and without +having been submitted to any mollifying process whatever, not one +assuaging touch of its native element, was laid flat in the spider, and +fried. + +I saw the Keeler family, from the greatest to the least, partake of this +arid and rasping substance unblinkingly, and I partook also. The brine +rose to my eyes and coursed its way down my cheeks, and Grandma Keeler +said I was "homesick, poor thing!" + +The golden seal, a "remedy for toothache, headache, sore-throat, sprains, +etc., etc.," was served in a diluted state with milk and sugar, and taken +as a beverage. The herrin' had destroyed my sense of taste; anything in a +liquid state was alike delectable to me, and while I drank, I had a sense +of having become somehow mysteriously connected with the book of +revelations. "We used to think," Grandma proceeded mildly to elucidate, +"that it had ought to be took externally, but husband, he was painin' +around one time, and nothin' didn't seem to do him no good, and so we +ventured some of it inside of him, and he didn't complain no more for a +great while afterwards." I appreciated the hidden meaning of these words +when I saw how sparingly Grandpa Keeler partook of the golden seal. "So +then we tried some of it ourselves, and ra'ly begun to like it, so we've +got into the habit of drinkin' it along through the winter, it's so +quietin', and may not be no special need of it, so far as we can see, but +then, it's allus well enough to be on the safe side, for there's no +knowin'," concluded Grandma, solemnly, "what disease may be a growin' up +inside of you." + +"My brother invented on't," said Grandpa Keeler, looking up at me from +under his shaggy eyebrows with questionable pride. He went on more +glowingly, however; "There's a picter of my brother on every bottle, +teacher." (Madeline immediately ran from her chair, went into an +adjoining room, and brought out a bottle to show me.) "Ye see, he used to +wear them air long ringlets, though he was a powerful man, John was; but +his hair curled as pretty as a girl's. Oh, he was a great dandy, John +was; a great dandy." Grandpa Keeler straightened himself up and his eyes +brightened perceptibly. + +"Never wore nothin' but the finest broadcloth; why, there's a pair of +black broadcloth pants o' his'n that you'll see, come Sunday, teacher!" + +"Wall, thar', now, pa," said Grandma Keeler, reprovingly; "I wouldn't +tell everything." + +"Le' me see," continued Grandpa; "I had eight brothers, teacher, yis, +yis, there was nine boys in all," nodding his head emphatically, and +proceeding to count on his fingers. + +Grandma Keeler laid her knife and fork aside, as though she felt that the +occasion was an important one, and that she had a grave duty to perform +in regard to it. + +"Thar' was Philemon, he comes first, that makes one, don't it? and there +was Doddridge-- + +"Sure he comes next, pa?" interposed Grandma; "for now you're namin' of +em, you might as well git 'em right." + +"Yis, yis, ma," replied the old man, hastily. "Then there was Winfield +and John, they're all dead now, and Bartholomew, he was first mate in a +sailin' vessel; fine man, Bartholomew was, fine man; he----" + +"Wall, thar' now," said Grandma; "you'll never git through namin' on 'em, +pa, if you stop to talk about 'em." + +"Yis, yis," continued Grandpa, hopelessly confused, and showing dark +symptoms of smouldering wrath; "there was Bartholomew. That makes a,--le' +me see, Bartholomew,----" + +"How many Bartholomews was there?" inquired Grandma, with pitiless +coolness of demeanor. + +"Thar', now, ma, ye've put me all out!" cried Grandpa, taking refuge in +loud and desperate reproach; "I was gettin' along first-rate; why +couldn't ye a kept still and let me reckoned 'em through?" + +"Yer musn't blame me, pa, 'cause yer can't carry yer own brothers in yer +head." There was a touch of gentle reproach in Grandma's calm voice. +"Why, there was my mother's cousin 'Statia, that was only second cousin +to me, and no relation at all, on my father's side, and she had thirteen +children, three of 'em was twins and one of 'em was thrins, and I could +name 'em all through, and tell you what year they was born, and what day, +and who vaccinated 'em. There was Amelia Day, she was born April ninth, +eighteen hundred and seventeen, Doctor Sweet vaccinated her, and it took +in five days." And so on Grandma went through the entire list, gradually +going more and more into particulars, but always coming out strong on the +main facts. + +The effect could not have failed to deepen in Grandpa's bosom a +mortifying sense of his own incompetency. + +When I got up from the Keelers' breakfast table there was something +choking me besides the herrin' and golden seal, and it was not +homesickness, either; but as I stepped out of Mrs. Philander's low door +into the light and air, all lesser impulses were forgotten in a glow and +thrill of exultation. I wondered if that far, intense blue was the +natural color of the Cape Cod sky in winter, and if its January sun +always showered down such rich and golden beams. There was no snow on the +ground; the fields presented an almost spring-like aspect, in contrast +with the swarthy green of the cedars. The river ran sparkling in +summer-fashion at the foot of "Eagle Hill." From the bay, the sea air +came up fresh and strong. I drank it with deep inspirations. At that +moment it seemed to me that I had indeed been born to perform a mission. +It was so hopeful to turn over an entire fresh leaf in the book of life, +and I was resolved to do it heroically, at any cost. I reflected, not +without a shade of annoyance, that I had forgotten to say my prayers, +after all. At the same time I had a sort of conviction that it wasn't so +unfortunate a remissness on my part as it would have been for some less +qualified by nature to take care of themselves. + +I discovered the school-house at the end of the lane. The general air of +the Wallencamp houses was stranded and unsettled, as though, detained in +their present position for some brief and restless season, they dreamed +ever of unknown voyages yet to be made on the sea of life. They were very +poor, very old. Some of them were painted red in front, some of them had +only a red door, being otherwise quite brown and unadorned. There was one +exception,--Emily Gaskell's--that stood on the hill, and was painted all +over and had green blinds. + +I heard a mighty rushing sound mingled with whoops and yells and the +terrible clamp of running feet, and was made aware that a detachment from +my flock was coming up the lane to meet me. + +A girl, taller than I, with stooping shoulders and a piquant and +good-natured cast of features, seized my hand and swung it in childish +and confiding fashion. She had warts. I wondered, uneasily, if they would +be contagious through my gloves. + +I was struck with the uncommon beauty of one sturdy little fellow. He was +barefooted (on Cape Cod, in January), and ragged enough to have satisfied +the most crazy devotee of the picturesque. His shapely head was set on +his shoulders in an exceedingly high-bred way, while its bad archangel +effect was intensified by rings of curling black hair and great, +seductive black eyes. + +The children walked back, in comparative quiet, toward the school-house, +except this boy. To him care was evidently a thing unknown. He managed, +while keeping the distance undiminished between himself and me, to +perform a great variety of antics, in which, by way of an occasional +relief, his head was seen to rise above his heels. + +Emily's wash had been left out to dry during the night. The wind had torn +various articles from the line and carried them down in the direction of +the lane fence. + +My gymnastic-performing imp vanished through the bars. In an incredibly +short space of time he reappeared, clothed--but, alas! I cannot tell how +the imp was clothed, except to say that Emily being a tall, woman and the +imp but a well-grown boy of ten, the effect was strangely voluminous and +oriental. + +This part of the lane was marked by some insignificant though very abrupt +depressions and elevations of the surface. Occasionally he of the +floating apparel was lost to sight; then he would appear all glorious on +some small height, while the mind was compelled to revert irreverently to +the picture of Moses on Mount Pisgah. He was the personification of +impudence, withal, looking back and showing his teeth in superlative +appreciation of his own sinfulness. He descended, and I looked to see him +arise again, but I saw him no more. + +I had a faint and fleeting vision, afterwards, of an apostolic figure +flying back across the fields. It was so indistinct as to remain only +among the ephemera of my fancy. + +In a fork of the roads, opposite the school-house, stood a house with a +red door. It was loaded, in summer, with honeysuckle vines. Aunt Lobelia +sat always at the window. Sometimes she had the asthma and sometimes she +sang. This morning her favorite refrain from the Moody and Sankey Hymnal +was wafted in loud accents up the lane:-- + + "Dar' to be a Danyell! + Dar' to be a Danyell! + Dar' to make it known!" + +As I entered the school-house, the inspiring strains still followed me. + +There was a large Franklin stove within, which exhibited the most +enormous draught power, emitting sparks and roaring in a manner frightful +to contemplate. + +Aunt Patty, who acted the part of janitress of the school-house at night +and morning, had written on the blackboard in a large admonitory hand, +"No spitting on this floor, you ninnies!" + +The bench, containing the water-pail, occupied the most central position +in the room. At one side of the bench hung a long-handled tin dipper; on +the other, another tin instrument, resembling an ear-trumpet, profoundly +exaggerated in size. + +"That's what you've got to blow to call us in," exclaimed a small child, +with anticipative enlivenment. + +I went to the door with the instrument. + + "Dar' to be a Danyell! + Dar' to make it known." + +The stirring measures came across from Aunt Lobelia's window. Then the +singer paused. + +There were other faces at other windows. The countenances of the boys and +girls gathered about the door were ominously expressive. I lifted the +horn to my lips. I blew upon it what was intended for a cheerful and +exuberant call to duty, but to my chagrin it emitted no sound whatever. I +attempted a gentle, soul-stirring strain; it was as silent as the grave. +I seized it with both hands, and, oblivious to the hopeful derision +Gathering on the faces of those about me, I breathed into it all the +despair and anguish of my expiring breath. It gave forth a hollow, +soulless, and lugubrious squeak, utterly out of proportion to the vital +force expended, yet I felt that I had triumphed, and detected a new +expression of awe and admiration on the faces of my flock. + +"I don't see how she done it," I heard one freckled-faced boy exclaim, +confidingly to another; "with a hull button in thar'!" + +"Who put the button in the horn?" I inquired of the youngster afterwards, +quite in a pleasant tone, and with a smile on which I had learned to +depend for a particularly delusive effect; at the same time I put up my +glasses to impress him with a sense of awe. + +"Simmy B.," he answered. + +"And which is Simmy B.?" I questioned, glancing about the school-room. + +"Oh, he ain't comin' in," gasped my informer; "he run over cross-lots +with Emily's clo's on." + +I had planned not to confine my pupils to the ordinary method of imbibing +knowledge through the medium of text-books, but by means of lectures, +which should be interspersed with lively anecdotes and rich with the +fruitful products of my own experience, to teach them. + +My first lecture was, quite appropriately, on the duty of close +application and faithful persistence in the acquisition of knowledge, +depicting the results that would inevitably accrue from the observance of +such a course, and here, glowing and dazzled by my theme, I even secretly +regretted that modesty forbade me to recommend to my pupils, as a +forcible illustration, one who occupied so conspicuous a position before +them. + +My new method of instruction, though not appreciated, perhaps, in its +intrinsic design, was received, I could not but observe, with the most +unbounded favor. + +After the first open-mouthed surprise had passed away from the +countenances of my audience, I was loudly importuned on all sides for +water. I was myself extravagantly thirsty. I requested all those who had +"slit herrin'" for breakfast to raise their hands. + +Every hand was raised. + +I gravely inquired if slit herrin' formed an ordinary or accustomed +repast in Wallencamp, and was unanimously assured in the affirmative. + +After dwelling briefly on the gratitude that should fill our hearts in +view of the unnumbered blessings of Providence, I inaugurated a system by +which a pail of fresh water was to be drawn from one of the neighboring +wells, and impartially distributed among the occupants of the +school-room, once during each successive hour of the day. The water was +to be passed about in the tin dipper, in an orderly manner, by some +member of the flock, properly appointed to that office, either on account +of general excellence or some particular mark of good behavior; though I +afterwards found it advisable not to insist on any qualifications of this +sort, but to elect the water-bearers merely according to their respective +rank in age. This really proved to be one of the most lively and +interesting exercises of the school, was always cheerfully undertaken, +executed in the most complete and faithful manner, and never on any +account forgotten or omitted. + +I drank, and continued my lecture, but the first look of attractive +surprise never came back to the faces of my audience. They sought +diversion in a variety of ways, acquitting themselves throughout with a +commendable degree of patience until they found it necessary gently to +admonish me that it was time for recess. + +After recess, as the result of deep meditation, in which I had concluded +that the mind of the Wallencamp youth was not yet prepared for the +introduction of new and advanced methods, I examined my pupils +preparatory to giving them lessons and arranging them in classes, in +the ordinary way. I found that they could not read, but they could write +in a truly fluent and unconventional style; they could not commit +prosaical facts to memory, but they could sing songs containing any +number of irrelevant stanzas. They could not "cipher," but they had +witty and salient answers ready for any emergency. There seemed to be no +particular distinction among them in regard to the degree of literary +attainment, so I arranged them in classes, with an eye mainly to the +novel and picturesque in appearance. + +They were a little disappointed at the turn in affairs, having evidently +anticipated much from the continuation of the lecture system, yet they +were disposed to look forward to school-life, in any case, as not without +its ameliorating conditions. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BEAUX OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY. + + +"We have our r'al, good, comfortin' meal at night," Grandma Keeler had +said, and the thought was uppermost in my mind at the close of my first +day's labor in Wallencamp. I had taken a walk to the beach; a strong east +wind had come up, and the surf was rolling in magnificently; a wild +scene, from a wild shore, more awful then, in the gathering gloom. The +long rays of light streaming out of the windows of the Ark guided me back +across the fields. Within, all was warmth and cheer and festive +expectation. Grandma Keeler was in such spirits; a wave of mirthful +inspiration would strike her, she would sink into a chair, the tears +would roll down her cheeks, and she would shake with irrepressible +laughter. It was in one of her serious moments that she said to me:-- + +"Thar', teacher, I actually believe that I ain't made you acquainted with +my two tea-kettles." They stood side by side on the stove, one very tall +and lean, the other very short and plump. "This 'ere," said Grandma, +pointing to the short one; "is Rachel, and this 'ere," pointing to the +tall one, "is Abigail, and Abigail's a graceful creetur' to be sure," +Grandma reflected admiringly; "but then Rachel has the most powerful +delivery!" + +I was thus enabled to understand the allusions I had already heard to +Rachel's being "dry," or Abigail's being as "full as a tick," or _vice +versa_. + +The table was neatly spread with a white cloth; there was an empty bowl +and a spoon at each individual's place. In the centre of the table stood +a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. Grandpa Keeler having asked the +blessing after the approved manner of the morning, there was a general +uprising and moving, bowl in hand, towards the cauldron of hulled corn on +the stove. This was lively, and there was a pleasurable excitement about +skimming the swollen kernels of corn out of the boiling, seething liquid +in which they were immersed. Eaten afterwards with milk and sugar and a +little salt, the compound became possessed of a truly "comforting" +nature. + +I stood, for the second time, over the kettle with my eye-glasses +securely adjusted, very earnestly and thoughtfully occupied in wielding +the skimmer, when the door of the Ark suddenly opened and a mischievously +smiling young man appeared on the threshold. He was not a Wallencamper, I +saw at a glance. There was about him an unmistakable air of the great +world. He was fashionably dressed and rather good-looking, with a short +upper lip and a decided tinge of red in his hair. He stood staring at me +with such manifest appreciation of the situation in his laughing eyes, +that I felt a barbarous impulse to throw the skimmer of hot corn at him. +It was as though some flimsy product of an advanced civilization had come +in to sneer at the sacred customs of antiquity. + +"I beg your pardon," the intruder began, addressing the Keeler family +with exceeding urbanity of voice and manner; "I fear that I have happened +in rather inopportunely, but I dared not of course transgress our +happy Arcadian laws by knocking at the door." + +"Oh, Lordy, yis, yis, and the fewer words the better. You know our ways +by this time, fisherman," exclaimed Grandpa Keeler. "Come in! come in! +Nobody that calls me friend need knock at my door." + +"Come in! come in, fisherman! Won't you set, fisherman?" hospitably +chimed in Grandma Keeler. + +"Ah, thank you! may I consider your kind invitation deferred, merely," +said the fisherman, suavely, "and excuse me if I introduce a little +matter of business with the Captain. We carelessly left our oars on the +banks yesterday, Captain Keeler, they were washed off, I have ordered +some more, but can't get them by to-morrow. I hear you have a pair laid +by, I should like to purchase." + +"What, is it the old oars ye want?" interrupted Grandpa, "why, Lord a +massy! you know whar' they be, fisherman, alongside that old pile o' +rubbish on hither side o' the barn, and don't talk about purchasin'--take +'em and keep 'em as long as ye want, they ain't no account to me now." + +"I am very much obliged to you, Captain," the fisherman said, "I am very +sorry to have interrupted this--a--" + +"Why, no interruption, I'm sure," said Grandma Keeler, good-naturedly, +"we've kep' right along eatin'." + +"Want a lantern to look for 'em eh?" inquired Grandpa Keeler, for the +fisherman lingered, hesitating, on the threshold. + +"This is our teacher, fisherman," said Grandma, in her gentle, +tranquillizing tones, "and this 'ere is one of Emily's fishermen, +teacher, and may the Lord bless ye in yer acquaintance," she added with +simple fervor. + +The fisherman saluted me with a bow which reflected great credit on his +former dancing-master. He murmured the polite formula in a low tone, at +the same time shooting another covertly laughing glance at me out of his +eyes. As the door closed behind him, "Ah, that's a sleek devil!" said +Grandpa Keeler, giving me a meaning glance from under his shaggy +eyebrows. + +"Wall, thar' now, pa, I wouldn't blaspheme, not if I'd made the +professions you have," said Grandma, with grave reproval. + +"A sleek dog," continued Grandpa Keeler; "tongue as smooth as butter, all +'how d' yer do!' and 'how d' yer do!' but I don't trust them fishermen +much, myself, teacher." + +"Who are the fishermen?" I inquired. + +"They board up to Emily's," said Grandma. "They come from Providence and +around, and they stay here, off and on, a week or two to a time, along +through the winter, some of 'em. They fish pickerel on the river, and +sometimes they're blue-fishin' out in the bay, and quite generally +they're just kitin' round as young men will, I suppose. Sometimes they +have vittles sent to 'em and Emily she cooks for 'em.'" + +"Why, they're off on a spree, that's all," said Grandpa Keeler, +comprehensively, giving me another significant glance; "they're off on a +spree, and ye see they think this 'ere is jest a right fur enough out the +way place for 'em. This 'ere red-haired one that was in here this +evenin', Rollin his name is, he's a dreadful rich one, I suppose, +dreadful rich! I've heered all about him. He's an old bachelder, I +reckon, that is, he keeps mighty spruce, but I reckon he's hard on to +thirty. Emily's got a cousin that works for some o' them big folks down +to Providence, and she's heered all about him, this red-haired one, and +how he keeps a big house down thar', and sarvants enough, massy! and half +the time he's hither and yon, and a throwin' out money like water. His +father and mother they're dead, so I've heered, and he used to have +gardeens over him, but he haint kep' no gardeens lately, I reckon," said +Grandpa, with grim facetiousness. + +"Why, he's been a waitin' on Weir's daughter, down here--Becky. She goes +to school to you, teacher," the old man added, presently, brightening +with a senile predilection for gossip. + +"Becky's a very sensible girl," said Grandma Keeler; "and don't cast no +sheep's eyes, but goes right along and minds her own business. Becky +plays very purty on the music, too." + +"Yes. But you know Dave Rollin wouldn't any more think of marrying Becky +Weir than he would of marrying me," cried Mrs. Philander. "Of all the +fishermen that have come down here not one of them ever married in +Wallencamp. He's just trifling, and she thinks he's in real earnest; +anybody can see that. You've only to mention his name to see her flush up +as red as a rose. I tell you this is a strange world," Madeline snapped +out sharply; "and Dave Rollin, I suppose, is one of the gentlemen." + +"We ain't no right to say but what he's honest," said Grandma Keeler; +"Becky she's honest herself, and she takes it in other folks. She's more +quiet than some of our girls be, and higher notions, and she's young and +haint never been away nowhere, and no wonder if he waits on her she +should take a kind o' fancy to him." + +"You know, ma," continued Madeline, "that Dave Rollin would never take +her home among his folks, never; and if I was Becky's mother I'd shut the +door in his face before I'd ever have him fooling around my house, and +she should never stir out of the house with him, never!" + +"I don't suppose there's much use in talking to the girl," said Grandma: +"Emily was in here the other day, and Becky, she happened to come in the +same time, and I didn't see no use in Emily's speaking up in the way she +did; for, says she, 'What do you have that Dave Rollin flirtin' around +you for, Beck? What do you suppose he wants o' you 'cept to amuse himself +a little when he ain't nothin' better to do, and then go off and forgit +he's seen ye!' And Becky didn't say nothin', but she give Emily a +dreadful long, quiet kind of a look out of her eyes." + +"She hasn't lost quite all of Weir's temper since she's been seeking +religion," said Madeline, in a strangely light and vivacious tone. +Grandma and Grandpa Keeler, by the way, were good Methodists, but +Madeline was not a "professor." + +"Seeking religion, eh?" inquired Grandpa Keeler. "She'd better let Dave +Rollin alone, then," he added. + +"Let us hope that we shall all on us be brought to a better state of +mind," concluded Grandma Keeler, with solemn pertinency. + +Before the meal was finished and the table cleared away, the latch of the +Ark had been often lifted. + +On all occasions, afterwards, there was a marked and cheerful variety in +the nature of the droppers-in at the Ark--the children and all the young +men and maidens making their appearance with a promiscuousness which +precluded the possibility of design--but to-night the Wallencamp mind had +evidently aimed at some great system of conventionality, and had been +eminently successful in evolving a plan. + +The callers were young men exclusively--the native youth of Wallencamp. +Their blowzy, well-favored faces, which ever afterward appeared to beam +with good nature, to-night expressed a sense of some grave affliction +heroically to be endured. + +Their best clothes, it was obvious, had been purchased by them +"ready-made," and had been designed, originally, for the sons of a less +stalwart community. The young men were especially pinched as to their +expansive chests, the broadcloth coming much too short at this point, and +shrugging up oddly enough at the shoulders, while the phenomenally slick +arrangement of their hair was calculated to produce a depressing effect +on the mind of the observer. + +As they came in one by one, in a matter of fact way, and Grandma Keeler +announced hopefully to each in turn--"and this is our teacher!" they +accepted the fact with no more flattering sign than that of a dumb and +helpless resignation to the inevitable. They seated themselves about the +room in punctilious order, assuming positions painfully suggestive of a +conscientious disregard for ease, and seemed to draw some silent support +and sympathy out of their hats, which they caressed with lingering +affection touching to behold. + +Grandma beckoned me aside into the pantry which immediately adjoined the +kitchen, and informed me in one of her reverberating whispers, that I +"mustn't mind the boys being slicked up, for they'd sorter dropped in to +make my acquaintance, and, if we wanted the pop-corn, it was in a bag down +under where the almanac hung, to the furtherest corner of the wood-box." + +I pondered these mysterious injunctions in silence, and realizing the +fact that the Wallencamp beaux had appeared in a body for the express +purpose of making my acquaintance, I essayed to show my appreciation of +this amiable design by an attempt to engage them in conversation. My +various efforts in this line proved alike futile, and they seemed but to +grow impressed with a deeper sense of misery. + +I had a vague intention of going in search of the pop-corn, when, to my +sudden dismay, Grandma Keeler and Madeline, who had been noiselessly +clearing off the table, emerged from a brief consultation in the pantry, +bearing with them a lighted candle, and having given Grandpa Keeler a nod +of unmistakable force and significance, disappeared through the door +which led into that indefinite extension of the Ark beyond. + +But Grandpa Keeler remained wilfully indifferent to these broadly +insinuating tactics. He fancied, poor, deluded old man, that here was a +choice opportunity to tell a tale of the seas after a fashion dear to his +own heart, unshackled by the restraints of family surveillance. + +A singularly childlike and unapprehensive smile played across his +features. He drew his chair up closer to the stove and began: "Jest +after I was a roundin' Cape Horn the fourth time, I believe,--yis, yis, +le'me see--twenty times I've rounded the Horn,--wall, this ere, I reckon, +was somewhere nigh about the fourth time." + +Scarcely had Grandpa arranged the merest preliminaries of his tale when +ominous footsteps were heard returning along the way whither Grandma and +Madeline had so recently departed, and he was interrupted by a strangely +calm though authoritative voice from behind the door; "Pa!" + +"Wall, wall, ma! what ye want, ma?" exclaimed Grandpa, turning his head +aside, with a slight shade of annoyance on his face. + +No answer immediately forthcoming, that wofully illusory smile returned +again to his features. He moved still nearer to the stove, and was just +at the point of resuming the thread of his narrative when-- + +"Bijonah Keeler!" came from behind the door in accents still calm, +indeed, but freighted with a significance which words have faint power to +express. + +"Yis, yis, ma! I'm a coming, ma!" replied Grandpa, rising hastily and +shuffling toward the door; "I'm a coming, ma! I'm a coming!" + +The door opened wide enough to receive him, and then closed upon him in +all his ignominy. + +The sound of his voice in irate expostulation, mingled with the steady +flow of those serener tones, grew gradually faint in the distance, and I +was left alone with the sepulchral group of young men. + +They arose, still maintaining the weighty aspect of those elected to the +hour, and abruptly opened their lips in song. + +There was no repression now; the Ark fairly rang with the sonorous +strains of that wild Jubilate. + +They sang:-- + + "Light in the darkness, sailor, + Day is at hand; + See, o'er the foaming billows, + Fair haven stands." + +Their voices rolling in at the chorus with the resistless sweep of the +ocean-waves:-- + + "Pull for the shore, sailor, + Pull for the shore; + Heed not the rolling waves, + But bend to the oar:" + +and with a final "Pull for the shore," that sent that imaginary life-boat +bounding high and dry on the strand at the hands of its impulsive crew. + +Then they sat down and wiped the perspiration from their faces, which had +become transfigured with a sudden zest and radiance. + +I recovered myself sufficiently to express a bewildered sense of pleasure +and gratitude. + +"Do you sing, teacher?" asked Harvey Dole, a round-faced youth with an +irrepressible fund of mirth in his eyes, who had broken in on the former +silence with an unguarded little snicker. + +Lovell Barlow, he of the dignified countenance and spade-shaped beard, +had faintly and helplessly echoed that snicker, and now repeated Harvey's +words:-- + +"Ahem, certainly--Do you sing, teacher? Do you, now? Do you sing, you +know?" + +I had some new and seriously awakened doubts on the subject. However, the +degree of attainment not being brought into question, I felt that I could +answer in the affirmative. + +The countenances of the group brightened still more perceptibly. + +"And do you sing No. 2?" inquired Harvey, eagerly. + +I tried to assume, in reply, a tone of equal animation. + +"Is it something new? I don't think I've heard of it before." + +"Why, it's the Moody and Sankey hymn-book!" exclaimed Harvey, looking +suddenly blank. + +I strove to soften the effect of this blow by a lively show of +recognition. + +"Oh, yes, I know perfectly now. It's 'Hold the Fort,' 'Ring the Bells of +Heaven,' and all those songs, isn't it?" + +"'Hold the Fort' 's in No. 1," said George Olver, a new speaker, with +beautiful, brave, brown eyes, and a soldierly bearing. + +He spoke, correcting me, but with the tender consideration which a father +might display toward an unenlightened child. + +"There's three numbers," said Harvey Dole, "and you ought to learn to +sing 'em, teacher. We sing 'em all the time, down here." + +"You are fond of singing?" I questioned. + +Ned Vickery, of lithe figure and straight black hair, a denizen of the +Indian encampment, started up, flushing through his dark skin. + +"I lul-love it!" he said. + +Ned Vickery sang with the most exquisite smoothness, but stumbled a +little in prosaical conversation. + +A silent Norwegian, Lars Thorjon, who had sat gazing at me and smiling, +flushed also at the words, and murmured something rapturous with a +foreign accent. + +"Yes, we're rather fond of singing." I heard George Giver's resolute +tones. + +Harvey Dole gave a low, expressive whistle. + +"I like it, certainly, ahem! _I_ do. _I_ like it, you know," said Lovell +Barlow. + +"We have a singin' time generally every night," said Harvey. "Sometimes +Madeline plays for us on her music, and sometimes we go down to Becky's. +Madeline's melodeon is very soft and purty, but George here, he likes the +tone of Beck's organ best, I reckon. Eh, George?" + +Harvey winked facetiously at George Olver, who reddened deeply but did +not cast down his eyes. + +"If I was you, George," continued the merciless Harvey; "I'd lay for that +Rollin. Gad, I'd set a match to his hair. I'd nettle him!" + +"I'd show him his p-p-place!" stammered Ned Vickery, with considerable +warmth. + +"_I_ would, certainly," reiterated the automatic Lovell "I'd show him his +place, you know; _I_ would certainly." + +The big veins swollen out in George Giver's forehead knitted themselves +there for an instant sternly. + +"I don't interfere with no man's business," said he. "So long as he means +honorable, and car'ies out his actions fa'r and squar', I don't begrudge +him his chance nor meddle in his affa'rs." + +Our attention was suddenly diverted from this subject, which was +evidently growing to be a painful one to one of the company, by the sound +of a violin played with, singular skill and correctness just outside the +window. + +"Glory, there's Lute!" exclaimed Harvey, bounding ecstatically from his +chair. + +"Come in, Lute, come in?" he shouted; "and show us what can be got out of +a fiddle!" + +"Let him alone," said George Olver, but the group had already vanished +through the door, Lovell following mechanically. + +"That's Lute Cradlebow fiddlin' out thar'," George Olver explained to me. +"I don't want 'em to skeer him off, for it ain't every night Lute takes +kindly to his fiddle. There's times he won't touch it for days and days. +Talkin' about Lute's fiddlin'--I suppose it's true--there was some +fellows out from Boston happened to hear him playin' one night, up to +Sandwich te-own, and they offered him a hundred and fifty a month--I +Reckon that's true--to go along with some fiddlin' company thar' to +Boston, and he'd got more if he'd stuck to it, but Lute, he come driftin' +back in the course of a week or two. I don't blame him. He said he was +sick on't. + +"I tell you how 'tis, teacher. Folks that lives along this shore are +allus talkin' more'n any other sort of folks about going off, and +complainin' about the hard livin', and cussin' the stingy sile, but +thar's suthin' about it sorter holts to 'em. They allus come a driftin' +back in some shape or other, in the course of a year or two at the +farderest." + +The door was thrown wide open and my recreant guests reappeared +half-dragging, half-pushing before them a matchless Adonis in glazed +tarpaulin trousers and a coarse sailor's blouse. + +I recognized at once in the perfect physical beauty of the eccentric +fiddler only a reproduction, in a larger form, of that sadly depraved +young cherub who had danced before me in ghostly habiliments on the way +to school. It was the imp's older brother. + +"Here's Lute, teacher!" cried Harvey; "he wouldn't come in 'cause he +wasn't slicked up. But I tell him clo's don't make much difference with a +humly dog, anyway. Come along, Lute, and put them blushes in your +pocket to keep yer hands warm in cold weather. Teacher, this is our +champion fiddler, inventor, whale-fisher, cranberry-picker, and +potato-bugger,--Luther Larkin Cradlebow!" + +The youth of the tuneful and birdlike name dealt his tormentor a hearty +though affectionate cuff on the ears, and being thus suddenly thrust +forward, he doffed his broad souwester, took the hand I held out to him, +and, stooping down, kissed me, quite in a simple and audible manner, on +the cheek. + +It was done with such gentle, serious embarrassment, and Luther Larkin +Cradlebow was so boyish and quaint looking, withal, that I felt not the +slightest inclination to blush, but I heard Harvey's saucy giggle. + +"Gad!" said he; "hear the old women talk about Lute's being bashful and +not knowin' how to act with the girls! Now I call them party easy +manners, eh, Lovell? What do you think, Lovell?" + +"Ahem, certainly,--" responded Lovell, smiling in vague sympathy with the +laughing group. "_I_ call them so,--certainly,--_I_ do." + +Only George Olver turned a sober, reassuring face to the blushing +Cradlebow. + +"Give us a tune, Lutie," said he. "Lord, _I'd_ laugh if I could get the +music out o' them strings that you can." + +The Cradlebow sat down, drew his bow across the strings with a full, +quivering, premonitory touch, and, straightway, the fiddle began to talk +to him as though they two were friends alone together in the room. How +it played for him,--the fiddle--as though it were morning. How it +shouted, laughed, ran with him in a world of sunshine and tossing +blossoms! + +How it hoped for him, swelling out in grander strains, wild with +exultation, tremulous with passion! + +How it mourned for him, with dying, sweet despair, until one almost saw +the night fall on the water, and the lone sea-birds flying, and heard the +desolate shrieking of the wind along the shore. + +I heard a real sob near me, and looking up saw the tears rolling down +Harvey's rosy cheeks. + +It was in the midst of a simple melody,--I think it was the "Sweet +By-and-By"--the player stopped and turned suddenly pale. + +"That was a new string, too!" he said; "and only half tight." Then he +blushed violently, seeking to hide the irritation of his tone under a +careless laugh. + +"Oh, I don't mind the string," he went on; "that's easy mended, but I +happened to think it's a bad sign, that's all--to break down so in the +middle of a tune." + +"Darn the sign!" exclaimed Harvey, "I wanted to hear that played +through." + +"You remember Willie Reene?" Luther turned his eyes, still unnaturally +bright with excitement, towards George Olver. + +"Ay, I remember," said George Olver. "I was goin' mackerellin' with ye +myself that time, only I wrinched my wrist so." + +[Illustration: "Good Night"] + +"We was out on deck together," Luther continued. "I was lying down,--it +was a strange, warmish sort of a night--and Willie played. He played a +long time. It was just in the middle of a tune he was playin', +that--snap! the string went in just that way. I never thought anything +about it. I tried to laugh him out of it, and he laughed, but says he, +'It's a bad sign, Lute.' Likely it had nothin' to do with it, but I think +of it sometimes, and then it seems as though I must go to that same place +and look for him again. I never done anything harder than when I left him +there." + +"You done the best you could," George Olver answered stoutly, "They said +you dove for him long and long after it wasn't no use." + +"No use," Luther repeated, shaking his head sadly and abstractedly; "no +use." + +"There's naught in a sign, anyway," George Olver affirmed. + +"They don't worry me much, you can depend"--the player looked up at +length with a singularly bright and gentle smile. "But Grannie, she +believes in 'em, truly. She's got a sign in a dream for everything, +Grannie has so I hear lots of it." + +Harvey Dole had quite recovered by this time from his tearfully +sentimental mood. + +"Now it's strange," he began, with an air of mysterious solemnity; "there +was three nights runnin' that I dreamed I found a thousand-dollar bill to +the right hand corner of my bury drawer, and every mornin' when I woke up +and went to git it--it wa'n't there, so I know the rats must 'a' carried +it off in the night, and a pretty shabby trick to play on a feller, +too--but then you can't blame the poor devils for wantin' a little pin +money. + +"Did I ever tell ye how Uncle Randal tried to clear 'em out 'o his barn? +Wall, he traded with Sim Peck up to West Wallen, a peck o' clams for an +old cat o' hisn, that was about the size, Uncle Randal said, of a +yearlin' calf, and he turned her into the barn along o' the rats, and +shut the door, and the next mornin', he went out and there was a few +little pieces of fur flyin' around and devil a--devil a cat! Uncle Randal +said." + +"You're the D--d--d--you're it, yourself, Harvey!" stammered Ned Vickery. + +"You'd better look out, Ned," Harvey giggled, "we're all a little +nearer'n second cousins down here to Wallencamp. Ned's mother didn't use +to let him go to school much, teacher," Harvey added, turning to me; "it +used to wear him out luggin' home his 'Reward o' merit' cards." + +"I n-n-never got any," Ned retorted, blushing desperately through his +dark skin; "n-n-nor you either!" + +"I guess that's so, Harvey," said Lovell Barlow, quite gravely; "I rather +think that's so, Harvey--ahem, I guess it is." + +When my visitors rose to depart they formed in line, with George Olver +and Luther at the head. George Olver was the spokesman of the group. He +offered me his strong brown hand in hearty corroboration of his words: +"We're a roughish sort of a set down here, teacher, but whenever you want +friends you'll know right whar' to find us; we mean that straight through +and fair an' kindly." + +I thanked him, and then Luther gave me his hand, but did not kiss me, in +departing. + +Each member of the phalanx gave me his hand in turn, with a hearty "Good +night," and so they passed out. The door closed behind them. I meditated +a space, and when I looked up, there was Lovell Barlow's pale face +peering into the room. + +"Ahem--Miss Hungerford!" he murmured, in awful accents: "Miss +Hungerford!" + +Could it be some telegram from my home thus mysteriously arrived? The +thought flashed through my mind before reason could act. + +"What is it?" I gasped, hastening to meet the informer. + +Lovell Barlow handed me a picture; it was a small daguerreotype, in which +the mild and beneficent features of that worthy being himself shone above +his own unmistakable spade-shaped whiskers. + +"Would you like it, Miss Hungerford?" said he, still with the same deeply +impressive air; "would you, now, really, Miss Hungerford? would you like +it, now?" + +"Why, certainly," I exclaimed, with intense relief; and before I could +fully appreciate the situation, Lovell Barlow cast a cautious glance +about him, leaned his head forward, and whispered hoarsely, "I've got +some more, at home--ahem! I've got six, Miss Hungerford. Mother wants to +keep two and she's promised Aunt Marcia one; but you can have one any +time, Miss Hungerford. Ahem! ahem! _You_ can, you know." + +"Thank you," I murmured, while it seemed as though my faculties were +desperately searching for light on a hitherto unsounded sea. "I think +this will do for the present." + +Lovell nodded his head with a grave good-night and disappeared. + +Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa Keeler and Madeline were absorbing this +last impressive scene as they slowly emerged from that unknown quarter of +the Ark whither they had retreated. + +Grandpa looked at me with a peculiar twinkle in his eye. + +"So Lovell came back to give ye his picter, eh, teacher?" said he. + +I returned Grandpa's look with cheerful and unoffended alacrity; but +Grandma interrupted, "Thar', now, pa! Thar', now! We mustn't inquire into +everything we happen to get a little wind on. Ye see, teacher," she +continued, in tones of the broadest gentleness, "we knew they'd be sorter +bashful gettin' acquainted the first night, and so we thought it 'ud be +easier for 'em if we should leave 'em to themselves, and we knew you was +so--we knew you wouldn't care." + +As Grandpa resumed his accustomed seat by the fire, an expansive grin +still lingered on his features. + +"Ah, he's a queer fellow, that Lovell," said he; "but he's quick to larn, +they say, larns like a book. I'll tell ye what's the trouble with him, +teacher. He's been tied too long to his mother's apron-strings. He don't +know no more about the world than a chicken. He's thirty odd now, I +guess, and I reckon he ain't never been further away from the beach than +Sandwich te-own." + +"I don't know as we'd ought to blame him," said Grandma Keeler; "though +to be sure, Lovell's more quiet-natured than some that likes to be +wanderin' off as young folks will, generally; but he was the only one +they had, and Lovell's allus been a good boy. Pa and me, when we go to +meetin', we most allus come across him a carryin' his Sunday School book +under his arm, and may be," concluded Grandma Keeler, "there'll be +a time when we shall more on us wish that thar' wan't nothin' wuss could +be brought against us than being innocent." + +We pondered these suggestive words a few moments in silence; then Grandpa +Keeler boldly interposed:-- + +"That Lute Cradlebow--he's a handsome boy, teacher. Ah, he's a handsome +one. They're a handsome family, them Cradlebows. + +"There's the old grannie, Aunt Sibby they call her. Lord, she's got a +head on her like a picter! They're high-bred, too, I reckon. To begin +with, why, Godfrey--Godfrey Cradlebow--that's Lute's father, teacher; +he's college bred, I suppose! He had a rich uncle thar', that took a +shine to him, and kind o' 'dopted him and eddicated him, but Godfrey, he +took a shine to a poor girl thar', dreadfully handsome, she was, but yet +they was both of 'em young, and it didn't suit the old uncle, so he left +him to shift for himself. And Godfrey, he tried one thing and another, +and never held long to nothin', I guess, and finally he drifted down this +way, and here he stuck. + +"He's got a good head, Godfrey has, but he wasn't never extry fond o' +work, I reckon, and he's growed dreadful rheumatiky lame, and he has his +sprees, occasionally. + +"Liddy, that's his wife, teacher, she was full good enough for him when +ye come to the p'int. Oh, she's a smart wife, and she's had a hard row, +so many children and nothin' to do with, as ye might say. Why, they've +had thirteen children, ain't they, ma? + +"Le' me see--four on 'em dead, and three on 'em--no! four on 'em married, +and three on 'em--How is't, ma?" + +Grandma then took up the tangled thread of the old Captain's discourse, +with calm disdain, and proceeded to disclose an appalling array of +statistics, not only in regard to the Cradlebow family, but including +generations of men hitherto unknown and remote. + +When I signified a desire to retire for the night, Madeline informed me, +with a brisk and hopeful air, that my room was "all ready now." + +She led the way up a short and narrow little staircase into a low garret, +where, amid a dark confusion of objects, I was forcibly reminded of the +rows of hard substances suspended from the rafters. Turning to the left, +the rays of the candle revealed a small red door framed in among the +unpainted boards of the wall. + +There, Madeline bade me a flippant and musical good night, and I entered +my room, alone. + +Within, the contrast between the door and the brown walls was still more +effectively drawn. + +The bed, neatly made, stood in a niche where the roof slanted perceptibly +downward, so that the sweetly unconscious sleeper (as I found afterwards) +perchance tossing his head upward, in a dream, was doomed to bring that +member into resounding contact with the ceiling, I judged something of +the restless proclivities of the last occupants of the room by the amount +of plastering of which this particular section had been deprived. In +this, and in other places where it had fallen, it had been collected and +tacked up again to the ceiling in cloth bags which presented a graceful +and drooping, though at first sight, rather enigmatical appearance. + +The chimney ran through the room forming a sort of unique centre-piece. + +This and more I accepted, wearily, and then sank down by the bed and +cried. Outside, before the one small window, stood a peach tree. +Afterward, when this had grown to be a very dear little room to me, I +looked out cheerfully through its branches, warm with sunshine, and +fragrant with bloom; but now it was bare and ghostly, and, as the wind +blew, one forlorn twig trailed back and forth across the window. + +For an hour or more after my head touched the pillow, I lay awake +listening to the unaccustomed sound of the surf and those skeleton +fingers tapping at the pane. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES. + + +I studied Becky Weir in school, the next day, with special interest. She +was a girl of seventeen or eighteen, with the stately, substantial +presence of one of nature's own goddesses. She had a fresh, constant +color in her cheeks, a pure, low forehead, and eyes that were clear, +gray, and large, but with a strangely appealing, helplessly animal +expression in them, I fancied, as she lifted them, oft-times, to mine. +She was distinguished among my young disciples by the faithful, though +evidently labored and wearisome attention, she gave to her books. + +Her glance, bent on some small wretch who was misbehaving, had a +peculiarly significant force. The little ones all seemed to love her and +to stand rather in awe of her, too. + +Entering the school-room in the morning, she discovered a network of +strings, which one Lemuel Biddy had artfully laid between the desks, +intending thereby to waylay and prostrate his human victim, and stooping +down, she boxed the miscreant, not cruelly but effectively, on the ears. +I was surprised to see that the boy seemed to regard this infliction as +the simple and natural award of justice, bowed his head and wept +penitently, and was subdued for some time afterward. + +To me, whose earliest years had been guided and illuminated on the +principle that reason and persuasion alone are to be used in the training +of the tender twig, this little occurrence afforded food for serious +wonder and reflection. I doubted if the logic of the sages or the wooing +of the celestial seraphim would have wrought with such convincing power +on the mind and ears of Lemuel Biddy. + +If Rebecca perchance, after painfully protracted exertions, succeeded in +working out some simple problem in arithmetic, her slate containing the +solution was freely handed about among her unaspiring comrades; so that I +judged her to be "weakly generous" as well as "plodding,"--qualities not +of a high order, I esteemed, yet by no means insuperable barriers to +friendship when found to enter more or less largely into the composition +of one's friends. + +There was something in my novel relation to the girl as her teacher +peculiarly fascinating to me. At recess she remained in her seat and kept +quietly at her work. + +I went down and stood over her. "Can I help you, my dear?" I said. + +Whatever might have been the pedantic or obtrusively condescending +quality of those words, Rebecca seemed to find nothing distasteful in +them. She looked up with a "Thank you," and a pleased, trustful face like +a child's. "I can't do this one," said she. "I've finished the rest, but +this wouldn't come right, somehow." + +It was a sum in simple addition. I could not help a feeling of deep +surprise and commiseration that one of Rebecca's age should have stumbled +at it at all, but I essayed to examine it very closely and worked it out +for her as slowly as possible. "Do you see your mistake?" I said. + +She blushed painfully. The tears almost stood in her eyes. + +"Yes, and I knew you'd have to find out how dull I was," she said; "but I +dreaded it. When Miss Waite was here, mother was sick and I didn't go to +school at all, and Miss Waite took me for a friend; and I told mother I'd +most rather not go to school to you, for Miss Waite said you'd be a real +friend, and I knew you wouldn't want me when you found how dull I was." + +I looked at the girl, and a bright, hesitating smile woke in her face. + +"Do you know, Rebecca," I said, "I don't choose my friends for their +mental qualifications--for what they know; I select them just as people +do horses--by their teeth. Let me see yours." + +Rebecca laughed most musically, thus disclosing two brilliant rows of +ivories. I had noticed them before. + +"You'll do!" I exclaimed, lightly. "I take you into my heart of hearts. +Now, what is your standard of choice? What charming characteristic do you +First require in a friend, Rebecca?" + +"Oh!" said she, gasping a little and speaking very slowly; +"I--don't--know. I--don't--think--I've got any." + +"Don't be afraid lest you shall guess something that I have not, my +dear," I said; "You can hardly go astray. Begin with modesty, if you +please, truly the chief of virtues." + +Rebecca caught quickly the meaning in my tone, and answered with a low +ripple of laughter. When I urged her, she grew gravely embarrassed. + +"Well," said she; "I don't think I should want anybody that I thought I +couldn't ever help them any, you know. That wouldn't ever need me, I +mean, and I know," she went on more hastily; "it seems funny to say that +to you, because it seems as though there wasn't anything that I could +ever do for you--because you--you seem--not to need anybody--but I didn't +know but some time--there might be something--I thought--maybe--some +time." + +Rebecca paused and looked up at me with that pitifully beseeching +expression in her eyes. + +"Oh, yes," I answered, still carelessly; "no doubt I shall be a great +burden to you in time. But you do help me now, dear, by your conduct in +school. You helped me this morning when you boxed Lemuel Biddy's ears. +I shall have to take boxing lessons of you." + +"You be the scholar," Rebecca answered quickly, her lips parting again +with a merry outburst of laughter. + +"Wretch!" said I, well pleased but affecting a tone of deep severity; +"you must not be saucy to your teacher! I shall keep you in the rest of +your recess for that. + +"Do you like to study, Rebecca?" I added presently. + +"No-o," said she, much abashed at the admission, and yet evidently +incapable of speaking otherwise than according to the simple dictates of +her conscience. "I don't think I should care anything about it if it +didn't make you so dull not to. I mean," she continued; "perhaps I might +'a' liked it if I'd been to school right along, but we never did. And I +was to the mills up to Taunton. I didn't stay long there. Then mother was +sick. They don't any of the scholars be let to go very regular. Sometimes +they're wanted to work out. So they forget. So they don't care much, I +think. They get to dreading it. I wanted to tell you so you wouldn't +think it so much blame--our bein' so backward." + +"It is the faithful improvement of what opportunities we have, Rebecca," +I began and then paused, somewhat confused by the throng of lively +reminiscences which suddenly crowded my mental horoscope. "You are +young yet, my dear," I concluded gravely, with a resigned sigh for my own +departed youth; "you can make up for lost time. It is pleasant to give, +but there may be circumstances in which it is our duty imperatively to +receive. You must let me do all I can for you this winter. I do want you +for a friend, but I would rather it should be on these plainly implied +conditions." + +Rebecca had been studying my face, thoughtfully, with a still expression +of wonder. + +"I'll try to learn," said she, slowly. "I'll do anything you want me to." + +"Do you like to read?" I inquired, in a brighter tone. + +"Stories?" said Rebecca, a sparkle waking in her eyes. + +"Stories mixed with other things," I insisted, gently; and was then +compelled to wonder how many of those "other things" had found their way +into the literary appointment of my trunk. + +"I'll try," said Rebecca. + +"Come to the Ark, after school, and look over the books I have. We will +talk some more about it, and you shall select as you please, or I will +select for you, if you desire," I said, looking at Rebecca with kindly +though severe penetration. + +"I'd rather you would," said Rebecca, obediently. + +To inflict this particular sort of patronage was a delightfully new +experience for me. The glaring inconsistencies which confronted me at +every turn only gave a heightened zest to the pursuit. + +When I went to the door to blow the horn I felt that Rebecca already +regarded me as her patron, guide, and spiritual mentor, and I was +seriously resolved to fill these positions hopefully for her and with +credit to myself. With respect to the rest of my flock, I felt a +different sort of interest--the wide-awake concern of one who finds +himself suddenly perched on the back of a mettlesome, untried steed. + +Any one member of that benighted corps, taken as the subject of pruning +and cultivating effort, would have occupied, I believed, the faithful +labors of a lifetime. Considered as a gloriously rampant mass, the aspect +of the field was appalling. + +I was especially impressed with this view of the case when I went to toot +them in from those free and reckless diversions in, which their souls +expanded and their bodies became as the winged creatures of the earth. + +The horn was still an object of terror to me, though experience had made +me wise enough to institute, on all occasions, a careful preliminary +search for buttons. + +Its blast, freighted with baleful meaning to the ears of sportive +innocence, found a melancholy echo among the deeper woes of my own heart, +and, if it chanced to be one of Aunt Lobelia's singing days, the "Dar' to +be a Dan-yell! Dar' to be a Dan-yell!" which floated across the lane, had +but a doubtfully inspiriting effect. + +I felt, indeed, like a Daniel doomed to convocate my own lions, and +lacking that faith in a preserving Providence which is believed to have +cheered and elevated the spirit of the ancient prophet, I confidently +expected, on the whole, to be devoured. + +Gathered into their den, my lively herd gasped some moments as though +suffering the last loud agony of expiring breath, and then, bethinking +them of that only one of their free and native elements now obtainable, +they sent up a universal cry for "water!" + +Ah! what to do with them through the long hours of the day--beautiful +creatures! by no means unlovable, with their bright, clear eyes, their +restless, restless feet, their overflowing spirits; their bodies all +alive, but with minds unfitted by birth, unskilled by domestic +discipline, to any sort of earnest and prolonged effort. Long, weary +hours, therefore, not of furnishing instruction to the hungry and +inquiring mind--ah, no!--but of a desperately sustained struggle in +which, with every faculty on the alert to discover the truest expedients, +with every nerve strained to the utmost, I strove for the mastery over +this antic, untamed animal, until I could throw the reins loose at night, +and drop my head down on my desk in the deserted school-room, tired, +tired, tired! + +The parents of the children "dropped in" often at the Ark, and savored +the lively and varied flow of their discourse with choice dissertations +on methods of discipline. + +"I want my children whipped," said Mr. Randall Alden. "That's what they +need. They git enough of it at home. It won't skeer 'em any--and I tell +the folks if they'd all talk like that, they wouldn't be no trouble in +the school." + +"Ye can't drive Milton P.," said that hopeful's mother. "He's been drove +so much that he don't take no notice of it. If coaxing won't fetch him, +nothin' won't; and I tell 'em if they was all like that they wouldn't be +no trouble in the school." + +"Well," said Emily Gaskell, the matron of the painted house, a tall, +angular woman, with the hectic of the orthodox Yankee consumption on her +cheeks, and the orthodox Yankee twinkle in her eye; "ye can manage +my boys whatever way ye please, teacher. I ain't pertickeler. They've +been coaxed and they've been whipped, but they've always made out to mind +by doin' pretty much as they was a mind to. They're smart boys, too," she +added, with sincere pride; "but they don't take to larnin'. I never see +sich boys. Ye can't git no larnin' into 'em no way. They'd rather be +whipped than go to school. Sim had a man to work on our cranberry bog, +and he found out that he was first-rate in 'rithmetic, this man was, and +so Sim, says he,--I'll give ye the same ye git on the bog,' says he, 'to +stay up to the house and larn my boys 'rithmetic,' says he; and the man, +he tried it, and in the course of a day or two, he come around to Sim, +and wanted to know if he couldn't go back to clarin' bog again." + +Emily took in the broadly contemplative expression on Grandma Keeler's +benign features, and then winked at me facetiously: "I tell 'em if they +was all like that," said she; "and I guess they be, pretty much, they +might as well be out o' doors as in, and less worryin' to the teacher." + +It might have been the third day of my labors in Wallencamp that a man, +having the appearance of a lame giant, entered the school-room, and +advanced to meet me with an imposing dignity of mien. He held captive, +with one powerful hand, a stubbornly speechless, violently struggling +boy. I recognized the man as Godfrey Cradlebow, the handsome fiddler's +father, and the boy was none other than the imp whose eyes, scorching and +defiant now, had first sent mocking glances back at me while their +light-limbed owner kicked out a jaunty rigadoon from under the encircling +folds of his sacerdotal vestments. + +"Miss Hungerford, I beg your pardon," said the elder Cradlebow, with a +distinct, refined enunciation foreign to the native element of +Wallencamp, whose ordinary locution had something of a Hoosier accent +"After a good deal of trouble in catching him, I have finally succeeded +in bringing you in this--a--this little dev"--he made an impressive +pause, patted his fiery offspring on the head with fatherly dignity, and +eyed him, at once doubtfully and reflectively. + +I was interested in observing the aspect of the two faces. + +"The little boy resembles you, I think," I said. + +The lame man struck his cane down hard upon the floor and laughed +immoderately. + +"If you knew what I had in my mind to say!" he exclaimed--"ah! that was +well put, well put!--though but dubiously complimentary, but dubiously +so, I assure you, either to father or son!" + +The idea still continuing to tickle him, he laughed more gently, beating +a sympathetic tattoo with his cane on the floor. + +"To pursue directly the cause of my intrusion here," he went on, at +length, "this little--well, for present purposes, we will call him the +_Phenomenon_. I confess it is a name to which he is not totally unused. +This little phenomenon, whom you see before you, is the youngest but one +in a flock of thirteen. Some of that beautiful band--" here Mr. Cradlebow +raised a very shaky hand for an instant to his eyes, and although a +fitting occasion for sentiment, I was compelled to think of what Grandpa +Keeler had said about Godfrey Cradlebow's "sprees"--"some of that +beautiful band rest in the graveyard, yonder. Some of them already +know what it is themselves to be parents. Some of them still linger in +the poor old home nest. I see you have here, my Alvin, and my Wallace, +and my youngest, the infant Sophronia. Well, you find them good children, +I dare say. Ah! they have an estimable mother." Again, he lifted his hand +to his eyes. "Mischievous enough, you find them, probably, but +amenable--there it is, amenable--but this lad"--Mr. Cradlebow paused +again, shaking his head with a meaning to which he gravely declined +further expression. + +"What is your name?" I inquired of the little boy, hopefully. + +"Simmy B.," he answered revengefully in a tone of alarming hoarseness. + +"Such colds as that boy has!" exclaimed the paternal Cradlebow. "They're +like all the rest of him--they're phenomenal. There are times when that +boy appears to be nothing but one frightful, perambulating cold! Well," +he sighed, "and yet it's a strange fact, that the more depraved and +miserable a little devil is, the more his mother'll coddle him. + +"Now there's this one and my Lute--Luther Larkin--a good boy, but lacking +all capacity for rest--always lacking the capacity for rest--uneasy, both +of them--always uneasy! but how the mother would give her own rest for +them, and seem to love them the better for it! strange! They have always +been her idols, too. Well, I have captured Simeon and brought him in. I +hope you may keep him. The rest you must learn for yourself. The Lord +help me!" he groaned, as he picked up his cane, with evident physical +pain, and hobbled cut of the room. + +Within the school-room, things resumed their customary, Niagara-like +roar, until a lamentable voice rose above the others, and was straightway +followed by another voice in indignant explanation. + +"Teacher, can't Simmy B. stop? He's puttin' beans down Amber G.'s neck!" + +"Simeon!" I exclaimed, in accents calculated to melt that youthful heart +of stone, and then added; "I will speak with you a few moments alone, at +recess." + +Simeon looked no longer helplessly angry as when his father brought him +in. He appeared, on the whole, well pleased, but I scanned his angelic +features in vain for any trace of repentance. + +There followed a few moments of comparative quiet. Then came a startling, +sickening sound as of some one undergoing the tortures of strangulation. +Then, a long, convulsive gasp. I looked down upon a sea of round eyes and +uplifted hands. + +"Teacher, Simmy's swallered a slate-pencil! Simmy's swallered a +slate-pencil!" + +"He's swallered most a whole one!" cried the owner of one pair of +protruding orbs. + +"It wa'n't!" retorted Simeon, flaming with righteous indignation--"It +wa'n't but harf a one!" + +"He t-t-told me," cried a young scion of the stammering Vickery race, all +breathless with excitement, "that he was going to p-p-put it into his +m-m-mouth and t-t-take it out of his n-n-nose, and he did and it +t-t-t--and it slip-p-ped!" + +"Wall, jest you keep your eyes peeled and your ears cocked," replied the +sturdy Simeon, in hoarse and jarring accents; "and see if I don't take it +out of my nose, yet." + +The signs of that painful struggle slowly faded out of Simeon's face and +there was an unusual calm in the school-room. + +Perhaps a quarter of an hour elapsed. I was thoughtfully engaged in +hearing one of my classes when startled by the sound of a window closed +with a sharp bang. At the same time arose the universal voice: + +"Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder! Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder!" + +I looked out across the snowless fields, and there having already scaled +two fences and put many a good rod between himself and the scene of his +brief imprisonment, I beheld, borne as on the wings of the wind, the form +of the retreating Simeon. + +An incident at the close of my first week in Wallencamp was the visit of +the "Turkey Mogul." Such was the name given by the Wallencampers to Mr. +Baxter, the superintendent of schools. + +Mr. Baxter lived many miles away in Farmouth, and was, properly, the +visitor of the schools in Farmouth County. Wallencamp was not in Farmouth +County. Nevertheless, Mr. Baxter had charge of the Wallencamp school. I +had been informed that he drove over at the beginning and close of each +term, put the scholars through the most "dreadful examins," and gave an +indiscriminate "blowin' up" to persons and things in the place. So I +looked forward to his coming with a curiosity not unmingled with more +doubtful emotions. + +It was Friday, and so near the close of the afternoon session that I had +quite dismissed from my mind the contemplation of any dread advent for +that day. It was just at that trying hour of Friday afternoon when only +the spelling-classes remained to be heard, and teacher and scholars both +were conscious, the one with a deep inward sense of relief, the others +with many restless demonstrations of impatience, that the week was near +its close; and that "to-morrow" would be Saturday and a holiday. + +Estella the raven-haired--familiarly known as the "Modoc," a long and +ungainly creature, with arms and legs so seemingly profuse and +unmanageable, that they reminded one of the tentacles of a +cuttle-fish--Estella was "passing around the water." + +She was performing this accustomed office with a grin of such supreme +delight and satisfaction as seemed actually to illuminate the back of her +head, when the door of the school-room opened, and there, without any +previous warning, appeared a grim, fierce-looking little man, whom I knew +at once to be the "Turkey Mogul." + +The extreme exigency of the case inspired me with a certain calmness of +despair. Having advanced to meet this august personage, conducted him to +the desk, and placed for him the official chair, which he shortly +refused, I lifted my eyes, "prepared for any fate," to observe what might +be the condition of my turbulent flock, and lo--all the tops, and +Jews-harps, and apples, and whirligigs, and miniature buzz-saws had +disappeared, and there was an array of pallid faces bent over another +array of books--many of the latter were upside down, but the effect was +unbroken. Even Estella, moved by some sudden divine sense of the fitness +of things, had ceased her desultory wanderings about the room with the +tin dipper, and, not having had time to procure a book, was working out +imaginary problems on her fingers with the air of a Herschel, and I +became slowly conscious that there was such a stillness in that room as +had not been--no, nor anything like unto it,--since the first time I +entered there. + +I think Mr. Baxter must have observed something of the look of helpless +astonishment which transfixed my features. I certainly saw the shadow of +a smile lurking in his steel-gray eyes. + +"Yes," he snarled, addressing the school; "yes, if I didn't know you, +now, and if your books were not, most of 'em, bottom side up, and if I +shouldn't be compelled in two minutes to prove the contrary, I might +possibly imagine that you were studying--yes--humph!" + +I said to Mr. Baxter, as cheerfully as possible, that "we were nearly +through with our usual routine of classes for the day, but I should be +happy, of course, to repeat any of the recitations which he might care to +hear." + +"Would you?" said he, looking at me not unpleasantly. "Do you really ask +me to believe that? um-m-m," he murmured, resuming his stern aspect. "Let +me see--Geography--yes, Miss Hungerford, you may call the first class in +Geography." + +I did not accuse the Superintendent of Schools of malevolent intentions, +but I could honestly have affirmed that of all the divisions and +subdivisions of my empire the first class in Geography was the one least +calculated to shine on an occasion like the present. + +I groaned inwardly, and called them forth. Their forlorn and wilted +appearance as they formed in line went to my heart. I was resolved to +defend them at whatever cost. + +"Now," said Mr. Baxter, planting himself firmly, with his legs rather far +apart, thrusting his hands in his pockets, and staring steadily at the +shivering group from under his awful brows; "what _is_ Geography? To +begin with. That's the first thing. What _is_ Geography?" + +For a moment there was no reply. I almost began to hope that there would +be none. I felt that here "Silence was golden," and if maintained, all +might be comparatively well; when, to my dismay, there was a sort of +flank movement in the ranks and the ill-starred Estella raised her hand. + +"Well," said Mr. Baxter, pointing his finger steadfastly at her as if to +impart a vein of concentration to her palpably loose and floating +appearance; "You! You ought to know. What is Geography, eh?" + +Some fair wreck of an idea, formerly appropriated in this connection, +floated through the brain of the "Mo-doc." She opened her mouth and in +those loud and startling accents, for which she was ever distinguished, +gave utterance to these memorable words: + +"A--round! like a ball!" + +Mr. Baxter glared fiercely at her for a moment, and then permitted his +scorn to escape in a long, sarcastic hiss. + +"Yes-s-s," said he; "yes-s-s! around like a ball! Do you find it much in +your way, eh? Do you often give it such a kick as that, eh? Well, take +your seats! take your seats!" + +The Superintendent of Schools seemed disinclined to evoke any further +catastrophes of this sort, but proceeded to discourse to me, aside, in a +confidential growl, on the peculiar and erratic natures of the benighted +Wallencampers. + +"Their minds," he said, with a grim smile, "have no receptivity. They +must originate, or they are naught. Parents and children--they are all +the same. I am convinced that there is no scholarship to be established +here. It has been tried and the attempt has failed a hundred times. It's +not in the nature of things. Get on the good side of them, that's all. +That has failed sometimes, but it is not among the impossible things. Get +on the good side of them." + +Finally, he turned to address the children. The "examins" had certainly +not been severe, but the "blowin' up" was faithfully and liberally +performed. + +Never before had I felt so drawn to my poor, wondering, wolf-besieged +flock, and in proportion to my tenderness for them waxed my indignation +toward the "Turkey Mogul." + +"You can't learn," said he. "That's a sufficiently established fact, but +if you don't behave, your teacher is going to write to me, mind! and I +shall come down here in my buggy, and take you right up and off to +Farmouth where we have a place to keep all such naughty boys and girls." + +This last was evoked as a benediction. Mr. Baxter looked at his watch, +and remarked that it was a long drive to Farmouth, and he must be going. +"Dismiss your school, Miss Hungerford," he said. + +Now the children were accustomed--it was a special privilege they had +requested--to sing, before the school closed at night, one of the hymns +with which they were all so familiar in Wallencamp. + +I would have dismissed them, on this occasion, without further ceremony, +but before I had time to tap my ruler on the desk as a signal for +dismissal, they all struck up as with one voice:-- + + "What a friend we have in Jesus, + All our griefs and woes to share! + What a privilege to carry + Everything to God in prayer." + +At first I was a little amused at the incongruity of the thing. Then it +began to seem to me inexpressibly touching. + +The Superintendent of Schools stood with a cold, supercilious grin on his +face, a stern, self-sufficient man, not one likely to echo the spirit of +these simple words. + +I stood beside him, weary and perplexed enough, but ever taking counsel +of the pride of my own heart. And those poor children, with their hard, +toilsome, barren lives before them, how they sang! their clear, young +voices ringing out fearlessly, carelessly--they knew the words. I +wondered if any one in the room appreciated the song as having inner +truth and meaning. + +As I was locking my desk, before leaving the room, I discovered this +little note, which Rebecca had dropped in it. + + "dere teecher, + + "I wanted to do sumthyng to help yu wen I seen him come in To Day + fur I new jus howe yu felt but thay wasent no wours than thay always + was, and he nose it! and thay studdid more fur yu I think than thay + did for any but I think it mus be harrd for yu not bein' use to us. + I think yu was tired. When we was singin' I thot howe tired yu was, + but thar' was always won to help. Excus writin' pleas but I wanted + to let yu no for yu was good to me and I luv yu. + + Becky Weir." + +Somehow, the little note rested and comforted me, more than I would have +imagined, a week before, any expression of this humble disciple of mine +could have done. + +I held the letter crumpled in my hand going up the lane. Going up the +lane, too, I met Emily's fisherman coming gayly home from the river. + +Mr. Rollin stopped, and gallantly requested the pleasure of carrying a +small book which I held in my hand. He walked back to the Ark with me, +talking very fluently the while. + +"Do you know," he began; "I think I'm awfully fortunate meeting you here +in the lane. I've been wishing for an opportunity to speak with you for +two or three days past, but the Ark is such a popular resort for the +youth of Wallencamp, and the children seem to be always following you. +Well, they regard the school teacher as their special property, and would +Consider me worse than an intruder if I should go in to take even the +lowest seat in the synagogue. I've been wanting to speak with you ever +since that first night--when I stared at you so stupidly at Captain +Keeler's--when I went up to borrow the oars, and you were engaged, you +remember," said Mr. Rollin, laughing gently, "in wresting particles of +hulled corn from the ocean depths of that kettle." + +"I remember," I said, trying to smother what annoyance I still felt at +the recollection. "I admit that it was a very striking scene. It was very +good," I added, religiously, referring to the corn. Mr. Rollin ought to +know, I thought, that I had come to Wallencamp on a mission, and that if +he wished to scoff at the ways of its defenceless inhabitants, he +shouldn't look to find a confidante in me. + +"The hulled corn? Oh! yes, indeed!" he answered with a sprightly air. +"We have it served in the same way at Emily's, and we think it's +just--a--rich, you know. But I wanted to tell you. If you could have +known how confoundedly struck up I was when I went into the Ark that +night, you wouldn't think it so strange my standing staring there like a +fool. You see we fellows, picking up everything of interest down here to +amuse ourselves with, heard that there was a new school-teacher coming, +so we gave our imaginations free rein. We were laughing it over among +ourselves, and Smith said, 'she'd probably have hair like Rollin's,' and +Jake said 'she'd wear spectacles, and have a nose like the Clipper in +the _Three Fates_', and all that sort of thing. So I went up that night +to see, just for the deuce of it, and not to get the oars at all, and I +was deucedly well paid for it, too. In fact, Miss Hungerford," said the +fisherman, darting a keen glance at me from his laughing eyes, "I did go +up to scoff, but I remained to pray." + +My ears had never been conscientiously closed to the voice of idle +praise, but with this, for some reason, I was not well pleased. + +"Your attitude was certainly devotional," I answered, without haste. +"Your friend," I added, "must be something of a seer. Here are the +literal glasses!" + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Rollin, coloring slightly; "you know I didn't mean +that--just being a little near-sighted. I said spectacles. Besides," and +the fisherman looked me full and unblushingly in the face--"if I +had such eyes as yours, by Jove, I wouldn't mind whether I could see +anything out of 'em or not!" + +"You will hardly expect me to thank you for that," I murmured, with a +sincere flash of indignation; not that I was unmindful of certain +reckless moods of old, when I had found it not impossible to listen, even +with calmness, to vain demonstrations of this sort, but I felt that I was +a different person now, in a different sphere of action. + +Mr. Rollin knew nothing of me except that I was the teacher of the +Wallencamp school--a doubtful position to his mind. + +He fancied that he might "pick me up," to "amuse" himself with, I +thought, and at the reflection I felt an angry glow rising from heart to +cheek. + +Meanwhile the fisherman gnawed his moustache ruefully. This idle +worldling could assume, occasionally, a whimsical helplessness of +expression, with an air of aggrieved and childlike candor, somewhat +baffling to the stern designs of justice. + +"Now I've offended you," he began, exchanging his tone of easy +nonchalance for one of slow and awkward dejection. "And you think I've +had the impudence--well, if either one of us two is going to be taken in, +Miss Hungerford, I can tell you it's a blamed sight more likely to be me; +but you're prejudiced against me, I can see. You were prejudiced against +me that first night. I know how those old women talk. They've got an +idea, somehow, that I'm a scapegrace, and a desperate character. And, on +my word, Miss Hungerford, I'm considered a real model chap there at home, +and make speeches to the little boys and girls in Sunday School, and all +that sort of thing. On my word, I do." + +Mr. Rollin spoke quite warmly. I could not help laughing at his droll +self-vindication. + +"I should like to ask you to speak to my little boys and girls!" I said; +"but it's too harrowing to the feelings. I listened to one address this +afternoon." + +"The 'Turkey Mogul?' Oh, that isn't my style!" said Mr. Rollin. "I don't +sear their young vision with the prospect of eternal flames. I entice +them with the blandishments of future reward. Let me go in some +day, and I promise you in one brief half hour to destroy the cankering +effect of all that the 'Turkey Mogul' has ever said. At least, I shall +serve as an antidote--a cheerful and allaying antidote to the wormwood of +censorious criticism." + +Thus the voluble fisherman ran on, with an air of simple and charming +ingenuousness; while I reflected that here possibly was a light and +aimless creature whom I had mentally convicted of ungracious designs, +that, although his presence in Wallencamp, as a representative of the +great world I believed I had left behind me, was rather _mal à propos_, +it might be that I ought to consider him providentially included in my +field of labor, and as one of the objects of my regenerating care. + +Whether Mr. Rollin detected anything of this philanthropic intention I do +not know. When we got to the gate he said:-- + +"Will you go with me for a drive to-morrow, Miss Hungerford? You know +what the Wallencamp equipages are. They furnish entertainment, at all +events. The drive to West Wallen is really beautiful--even at this +season of the year, with such uncommonly fine weather, and you have a +holiday, and the mail hasn't been brought from West Wallen for nearly a +week." + +I thanked the fisherman almost eagerly, thinking, at that instant, of the +longed-for letters that I knew were waiting for me in the West Wallen +Post Office. + +Then, suddenly, I felt Rebecca's little note grow heavy in my hand. + +To act voluntarily for others--to consider as serious any obstacles in +the way of following out my personal inclinations--these were experiences +too new to me, and my resolve was not a natural one, but forced and +impatient. + +"You are very kind," I said; "but I can't go to-morrow." + +The two little Keelers came running out of the Ark to meet me. I was +secretly relieved. Mr. Rollin had been watching me narrowly; his lips +curled, and his eyes flashed with a half angry, half scornful light. He +cast an unloving glance at the little Keelers. + +"I can't, of course, question the justice of your decision," he said +shortly, and touched his hat and walked away without another word. + +I considered this as one of the least among my many trials and +perplexities. Oftentimes I sighed for the light-hearted, "irresponsible" +days of yore, when "missions" were, as yet, to me unknown. + +School was the greatest perplexity. Grandma Keeler's tenderness grew more +impressive each day. + +"It seems to me you're a growin' bleak and holler-eyed, teacher," she +would say to me when I came home at night. + +So I indulged more and more in a deeply sentimental self-pity, and felt a +growing satisfaction in the consciousness that I was enduring martyrdom. +It was more by reason of a stubborn and desperate pride, I think, than +from higher motives, that, in my letters home, I said nothing of the +discomforts and discouragements which attended my course. I chose to +dilate on the beautiful scenery of Wallencamp, and the quaint originality +of its inhabitants. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +GRANDMA KEELER GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL. + + +Sunday morning nothing arose in Wallencamp save the sun. + +At least, that celestial orb had long forgotten all the roseate flaming +of his youth, in an honest, straightforward march through the heavens, +ere the first signs of smoke came curling lazily up from the Wallencamp +chimneys. + +I had retired at night, very weary, with the delicious consciousness that +it wouldn't make any difference when I woke up the next morning, or +whether, indeed. I woke at all. So I opened my eyes leisurely and lay +half-dreaming, half-meditating on a variety of things. + +I deciphered a few of the texts on the scriptural patch-work quilt which +covered my couch. There were--"Let not your heart be troubled," "Remember +Lot's wife," and "Philander Keeler," traced in inky hieroglyphics, all in +close conjunction. + +Finally, I reached out for my watch, and, having ascertained the time of +day, I got up and proceeded to dress hastily enough, wondering to hear no +signs of life in the house. + +I went noiselessly down the stairs. All was silent below, except for the +peaceful snoring of Mrs. Philander and the little Keelers, which was +responded to from some remote western corner of the Ark by the triumphant +snores of Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. + +I attempted to kindle a fire in the stove, but it sizzled a little while, +spitefully, as much as to say, "What, Sunday morning? Not I!" and went +out. So I concluded to put on some wraps and go out and warm myself in +the sun. + +I climbed the long hill back of the Ark, descended, and walked along the +bank of the river. It was a beautiful morning. The air was--everything +that could be desired in the way of air, but I felt a desperate need of +something more substantial. + +Standing alone with nature, on the bank of the lovely liver, I thought, +with tears in my eyes, of the delicious breakfast already recuperating +the exhausted energies of my far-away home friends. + +When I got back to the house, Mrs. Philander, in simple and unaffected +attire, was bustling busily about the stove. + +The snores from Grandma and Grandpa's quarter had ceased, signifying that +they, also, had advanced a stage in the grand processes of Sunday +morning. + +The children came teasing me to dress them, so I fastened for them a +variety of small articles which I flattered myself on having combined in +a very ingenious and artistic manner, though I believe those infant +Keelers went weeping to Grandma afterwards, and were remodeled by her +all-comforting hand with much skill and patience. + +In the midst of her preparations for breakfast, Madeline abruptly assumed +her hat and shawl, and was seen from the window, walking leisurely across +the fields in the direction of the woods. She returned in due time, +bearing an armful of fresh evergreens, which she twisted around the +family register. + +When the ancient couple made their appearance, I remarked silently, in +regard to Grandma Keeler's hair, what proved afterward to be its usual +holiday morning arrangement. It was confined in six infinitesimal braids +which appeared to be sprouting out, perpendicularly, in all directions +from her head. The effect of redundancy and expansiveness thus heightened +and increased on Grandma's features was striking in the extreme. + +While we were eating breakfast, that good soul observed to Grandpa +Keeler: "Wall, pa, I suppose you'll be all ready when the time comes to +take teacher and me over to West Wallen to Sunday school, won't ye?" + +Grandpa coughed, and coughed again, and raised his eyes helplessly to the +window. + +"Looks some like showers," said he. "A-hem! ahem! Looks mightily to me +like showers, over yonder." + +"Thar', r'aly, husband! I must say I feel mortified for ye," said +Grandma. "Seein' as you're a professor, too, and thar' ain't been a +single Sunday mornin' since I've lived with ye, pa, summer or winter, but +what you've seen showers, and it r'aly seems to me it's dreadful +inconsistent when thar' ain't no cloud in the sky, and don't look no more +like rain than I do." And Grandma's face, in spite of her reproachful +tones, was, above all, blandly sunlike and expressive of anything rather +than deluge and watery disaster. + +Grandpa was silent a little while, then coughed again I had never seen +Grandpa in worse straits. + +"A-hem! a-hem! 'Fanny' seems to be a little lame, this mornin'," said he. +"I shouldn't wonder. She's been goin' pretty stiddy this week." + +"It does beat all, pa," continued Grandma Keeler, "how't all the horses +you've ever had since I've known ye have always been took lame Sunday +mornin'. Thar' was 'Happy Jack,' he could go anywhers through the week, +and never limp a step, as nobody could see, and Sunday mornin' he was +always took lame! And thar' was 'Tantrum'----" + +"Tantrum" was the horse that had run away with Grandma when she was +thrown from the wagon, and generally smashed to pieces. And now, Grandma +branched off into the thrilling reminiscences connected with this +incident of her life, which was the third time during the week that the +horrible tale had been repeated for my delectation. + +When she had finished, Grandpa shook his head with painful earnestness, +reverting to the former subject of discussion. + +"It's a long jaunt!" said he; "a long jaunt!" + +"Thar's a long hill to climb before we reach Zion's mount," said Grandma +Keeler, impressively. + +"Wall, there's a darned sight harder one on the road to West Wallen!" +burst out the old sea-captain desperately; "say nothin' about the +devilish stones!" + +"Thar' now," said Grandma, with calm though awful reproof; "I think we've +gone fur enough for one day; we've broke the Sabbath, and took the name +of the Lord in vain, and that ought to be enough for perfessors." + +Grandpa replied at length in a greatly subdued tone: "Wall, if you and +the teacher want to go over to Sunday school to-day, I suppose we can go +if we get ready," a long submissive sigh--"I suppose we can." + +"They have preachin' service in the mornin', I suppose," said Grandma. +"But we don't generally git along to that. It makes such an early start. +We generally try to get around, when we go, in time for Sunday school. +They have singin' and all. It's just about as interestin', I think, as +preachin'. The old man ra'ly likes it," she observed aside to me; "when +he once gets started, but he kind o' dreads the gittin' started." + +When I beheld the ordeal through which Grandpa Keeler was called to pass, +at the hands of his faithful consort, before he was considered in a fit +condition of mind and body to embark for the sanctuary, I marvelled not +at the old man's reluctance, nor that he had indeed seen clouds and +tempest fringing the horizon. + +Immediately after breakfast, he set out for the barn, ostensibly to "see +to the chores;" really, I believe, to obtain a few moments' respite, +before worse evil should come upon him. + +Pretty soon Grandma was at the back door calling in firm though +persuasive tones:-- + +"Husband! husband! come in, now, and get ready." + +No answer. Then it was in another key, weighty, yet expressive of no weak +irritation, that Grandma called "Come, pa! pa-a! pa-a-a!" Still no +answer. + +Then that voice of Grandma's sung out like a trumpet, terrible with +meaning--"Bijonah Keeler!" + +But Grandpa appeared not. Next, I saw Grandma slowly but surely +gravitating in the direction of the barn, and soon she returned, bringing +with her that ancient delinquent, who looked like a lost sheep indeed and +a truly unreconciled one. + +"Now the first thing," said Grandma, looking her forlorn captive over; +"is boots. Go and get on yer meetin' gaiters, pa." + +The old gentleman, having invested himself with those sacred relics, came +pathetically limping into the room. + +"I declare, ma," said he; "somehow these things--phew! Somehow they pinch +my feet dreadfully. I don't know what it is,--phew! They're dreadful +oncomf'table things somehow." + +"Since I've known ye, pa," solemnly ejaculated Grandma Keeler, "you've +never had a pair o' meetin' boots that set easy on yer feet. You'd ought +to get boots big enough for ye, pa," she continued looking down +disapprovingly on the old gentleman's pedal extremities, which resembled +two small scows at anchor in black cloth encasements: "and not be so +proud as to go to pinchin' yer feet into gaiters a number o' sizes too +small for ye." + +"They're number tens, I tell ye!" roared Grandpa nettled outrageously by +this cutting taunt. + +"Wall, thar', now, pa," said Grandma, soothingly; "if I had sech feet as +that, I wouldn't go to spreadin' it all over town, if I was you--but it's +time we stopped bickerin' now, husband, and got ready for meetin'; so set +down and let me wash yer head." + +"I've washed once this mornin'. It's clean enough," Grandpa protested, +but in vain. He was planted in a chair, and Grandma Keeler, with rag and +soap and a basin of water, attacked the old gentleman vigorously, much as +I have seen cruel mothers wash the faces of their earth-begrimed infants. +He only gave expression to such groans as:-- + +"Thar', ma! don't tear my ears to pieces! Come, ma! you've got my eyes so +full o' soap now, ma, that I can't see nothin'. Phew! Lordy! ain't ye +most through with this, ma?" + +Then came the dyeing process, which Grandma Keeler assured me, aside, +made Grandpa "look like a man o' thirty;" but to me, after it he looked +neither old nor young, human nor inhuman, nor like anything that I had +ever seen before under the sun. + +"There's the lotion, the potion, the dye-er, and the setter," said +Grandma, pointing to four bottles on the table. "Now whar's the +directions, Madeline?" + +These having been produced from between the leaves of the family Bible, +Madeline read, while Grandma made a vigorous practical application of the +various mixtures. + +"This admirable lotion"--in soft ecstatic tones Madeline rehearsed the +flowery language of the recipe--"though not so instantaneously startling +in its effect as our inestimable dyer and setter, yet forms a most +essential part of the whole process, opening, as it does, the dry and +lifeless pores of the scalp, imparting to them new life and beauty, and +rendering them more easily susceptible to the applications which follow. +But we must go deeper than this; a tone must be given to the whole system +by means of the cleansing and rejuvenating of the very centre of our +beings, and, for this purpose, we have prepared our wonderful potion." +Here Grandpa, with a wry face, was made to swallow a spoonful of the +mixture. "Our unparalleled dyer," Madeline continued, "restores black +hair to a more than original gloss and brilliancy, and gives to the faded +golden tress the sunny flashes of youth." Grandpa was dyed. "Our +world-renowned setter completes and perfects the whole process by adding +tone and permanency to the efficacious qualities of the lotion, potion, +and dyer, etc.;" while on Grandpa's head the unutterable dye was set. + +"Now, read teacher some of the testimonials, daughter," said Grandma +Keeler, whose face was one broad, generous illustration of that rare and +peculiar virtue called faith. + +So Madeline continued: "Mrs. Hiram Briggs, or North Dedham, writes: 'I +was terribly afflicted with baldness, so that, for months, I was little +more than an outcast from society, and an object of pity to my most +familiar friends. I tried every remedy in vain. At length I heard of your +wonderful restorative. After a week's application, my hair had already +begun to grow in what seemed the most miraculous manner. At the end of +ten months, it had assumed such length and proportions as to be a most +luxurious burden, and where I had before been regarded with pity and +aversion, I became the envied and admired of all beholders." + +"Just think!" said Grandma Keeler, with rapturous sympathy and gratitude, +"how that poor creetur must a' felt!" + +"'Orion Spaulding of Weedsville, Vermont,'" Madeline went on--but, here, +I had to beg to be excused, and went to my room to get ready for the +Sunday school. + +When I came down again, Grandpa Keeler was seated, completely arrayed in +his best clothes, opposite Grandma, who held the big family Bible in her +lap, and a Sunday-school question book in one hand. + +"Now, pa," said she; "what tribe was it in sacred writ that wore +bunnits?" + +I was compelled to infer from the tone of Grandpa Keeler's answer that +his temper had not undergone a mollifying process during my absence. + +"Come, ma," said he; "how much longer ye goin' to pester me in this way?" + +"Why, pa," Grandma rejoined calmly; "until you git a proper understandin' +of it. What tribe was it in sacred writ that wore bunnits?" + +"Lordy!" exclaimed the old man. "How d'ye suppose I know! They must'a' +been a tarnal old womanish lookin' set any way." + +"The tribe o' Judah, pa," said Grandma, gravely. "Now, how good it is, +husband, to have your understandin' all freshened up on the scripters!" + +"Come, come, ma!" said Grandpa, rising nervously, "It's time we was +startin'. When I make up my mind to go anywhere I always want to git +there in time. If I was goin' to the Old Harry, I should want to git +there in time." + +"It's my consarn that we shall git thar' before time, some on us," said +Grandma, with sad meaning, "unless we larn to use more respec'ful +language." + +I shall never forget how we set off for church that Sabbath morning, way +out at one of the sunny back doors of the Ark: for there was Madeline's +little cottage that fronted the highway, or lane, and then there was a +long backward extension of the Ark, only one story in height. This +belonged peculiarly to Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. It contained the +"parlor" and three "keepin'" rooms opening one into the other, all of the +same size and general bare and gloomy appearance, all possessing the same +sacredly preserved atmosphere, through which we passed with becoming +silence and solemnity into the "end" room, the sunny kitchen where +Grandma and Grandpa kept house by themselves in the summer time, and +there at the door, her very yellow coat reflecting the rays of the sun, +stood Fanny, presenting about as much appearance of life and animation as +a pensive summer squash. + +The carriage, I thought, was a fac-simile of the one in which I had been +brought from West Wallen on the night of my arrival. One of the most +striking peculiarities of this sort of vehicle was the width at which the +wheels were set apart. The body seemed comparatively narrow. It was very +long, and covered with white canvas. It had neither windows nor doors, +but just the one guarded opening in front. There were no steps leading to +this, and, indeed, a variety of obstacles before it. And the way Grandma +effected an entrance was to put a chair on a mound of earth, and a +cricket on top of the chair, and thus, having climbed up to Fanny's +reposeful back, she slipped passively down, feet foremost, to the +whiffle-tree; from thence she easily gained the plane of the carriage +floor. + +Grandpa and I took a less circuitous, though, perhaps, not less difficult +route. + +I sat with Grandpa on the "front" seat--it may be remarked that the +"front" seat was very much front, and the "back" seat very much +back--there was a kind of wooden shelf built outside as a resting-place +for the feet, so that while our heads were under cover, our feet were +out, utterly exposed to the weather, and we must either lay them on the +shelf or let them hang off into space. + +Madeline and the children stood at the door to see us off. + +"All aboard! ship ballasted! wind fa'r! go ahead, thar', Fanny!" shouted +Grandpa, who seemed quite restored in spirits, and held the reins and +wielded the whip with a masterful air. + +He spun sea-yarns, too, all the way--marvellous ones, and Grandma's +reproving voice was mellowed by the distance, and so confusedly mingled +with the rumbling of the wheels, that it seemed hardly to reach him at +all. Not that Grandma looked discomfited on this account, or in bad +humor. On the contrary, as she sat back there in the ghostly shadows, +with her hands folded, and her hair combed out in resplendent waves on +either side of her head, she appeared conscious that every word she +uttered was taking root in some obdurate heart. She was, in every +respect, the picture of good-will and contentment. + +But the face under Grandpa's antiquated beaver began to give me a fresh +shock every time I looked up at him, for the light and air were rapidly +turning his rejuvenated locks and his poor, thin fringe of whiskers to an +unnatural greenish tint, while his bushy eyebrows, untouched by the hand +of art, shone as white as ever. + +In spite of the old sea-captain's entertaining stories, it seemed, +indeed, "a long jaunt" to West Wallen. + +To say that Fanny was a slow horse would be but a feeble expression of +the truth. + +A persevering "click! click! click!" began to arise from Grandma's +quarter. This annoyed Grandpa exceedingly. + +"Shet up, ma!" he was moved to exclaim at last. "I'm steerin' this +craft." + +"Click! click! click!" came perseveringly from behind. + +"Dum it, ma! thar', ma!" cried Grandpa, exasperated beyond measure. "How +is this hoss goin' to hear anything that I say ef you keep up such a +tarnal cacklin'?" + +Just as we were coming out of the thickest part of the woods, about a +mile beyond Wallencamp, we discovered a man walking in the distance. It +was the only human being we had seen since we started. + +"Hullo, there's Lovell!" exclaimed Grandpa. "I was wonderin' why we +hadn't overtook him before. We gin'ally take him in on the road. Yis, +yis; that's Lovell, ain't it, teacher?" + +I put up my glasses, helplessly. + +"I'm sure," I said, "I can't tell, positively. I have seen Mr. Barlow but +once, and at that distance I shouldn't know my own father." + +"Must be Lovell," said Grandpa. "Yis, I know him! Hullo, thar'! Ship +ahoy! ship ahoy!" + +Grandpa's voice suggested something of the fire and vigor it must have +had when it rang out across the foam of waves and pierced the tempest's +roar. + +The man turned and looked at us, and then went on again. + +"He don't seem to re_cog_nize us," said Grandma. + +"Ship a-hoy! Ship a-hoy!" shouted Grandpa. + +The man turned and looked at us again, and this time he stopped and kept +on looking. + +When we got up to him we saw that it wasn't Lovell Barlow at all, but a +stranger of trampish appearance, drunk and fiery, and fixed in an +aggressive attitude. + +I was naturally terrified. What if he should attack us in that lonely +spot! Grandpa was so old! And moreover, Grandpa was so taken aback to +find that it wasn't Lovell that he began some blunt and stammering +expression of surprise, which only served to increase the stranger's ire. +Grandma, imperturbable soul! Who never failed to come to the rescue even +in the most desperate emergencies--Grandma climbed over to the front, +thrust out her benign head, and said in that deep, calm voice of hers:-- + +"We're a goin' to the house of God, brother; won't you git in and go +too?" + +"No!" our brother replied, doubling up his fists and shaking them +menacingly in our faces: "I won't go to no house o' God. What d'ye mean +by overhauling me on the road, and askin' me to git into yer d----d +old travelling lunatic asylum?" + +"Drive on, pa," said Grandma, coldly: "He ain't in no condition to be +labored with now. Drive on kind o' quick!" + +'Kind o' quick' we could not go, but Fanny was made to do her best, and +we did not pause to look behind. + +When we got to the church, Sunday-school had already begun. There was +Lovell Barlow looking preternaturally stiff in his best clothes, sitting +with a class of young men. He saw us when we came in, and gave me a look +of deep meaning. It was the same expression--as though there was some +solemn, mutual understanding between us--which he had worn on that night +when he gave me his picture. + +"There's plenty of young folks' classes," said Grandma; "but seein' as +we're late maybe you'd jest as soon go right along in with us." + +I said that I should like that best, so I went into the "old folks'" +class with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. + +There were three pews of old people in front of us, and the teacher, who +certainly seemed to me the oldest person I had ever seen, sat in an +otherwise vacant pew in front of all, so that, his voice being very thin +and querulous, we could hear very little that he said, although we were +edified in some faint sense by his pious manner of shaking his head and +rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. + +The church was a square wooden edifice, of medium size, and contained +three stoves all burning brightly. Against this, and the drowsy effect of +their long drive in the sun and wind, my two companions proved powerless +to struggle. + +Grandpa looked furtively up at Grandma, then endeavored to put on as a +sort of apology for what he felt was inevitably coming, a sanctimonious +expression which was most unnatural to him, and which soon faded away as +the sweet unconsciousness of slumber overspread his features. His head +fell back helplessly, his mouth opened wide. He snored, but not very +loudly. I looked at Grandma, wondering why her vigilance had failed on +this occasion, and lo! her head was falling peacefully from side to side. +She was fast asleep, too. She woke up first, however, and then Grandpa +was speedily and adroitly aroused by some means, I think it was a pin; +and Grandma fed him with bits of unsweetened flag-root which he munched +penitently, though evidently without relish, until he dropped off to +sleep again, and she dropped off to sleep again, and so they continued. + +But it always happened that Grandma woke up first. And whereas Grandpa, +when the avenging pin pierced his shins, recovered himself with a start +and an air of guilty confusion, Grandma opened her eyes at regular +intervals, with the utmost calm and placidity, as though she had merely +been closing them to engage in a few moments of silent prayer. + +Our class occupied an humble place in the sanctuary, near the door. +Behind the pew in which Grandma, Grandpa, and I were sitting there was +one more vacant. Presently the door opened, admitting a delightful waft +of fresh air, and some one entered that pew, and bowed his head forward +on the desk in a devotional attitude. + +After the brief excitement caused by the advent of this new and very late +comer had subsided, the Sunday-school resumed its former lethargic +condition, and then I heard my own name whispered very softly in my ear. + +I had to turn my head but a little to meet the deprecating, though +evidently irreverent eyes of Emily's fisherman. + +"How do you do, Miss Hungerford?" he murmured brightly. "Please don't +consider me in the light of an intruder. I know I'm rather young for the +class, to which you are admitted by reason of some extraordinary +acquaintance with biblical lore." + +"But it's an excellent opportunity for you to address the little boys and +girls," I said. + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Rollin, reddening. "I only meant that for a joke, +you know." + +Without pausing to reflect at all on the moral consequences of the act, I +welcomed the appearance of this voluble, fashionably-dressed young man +among the "ancient and fish-like" odors of the West Wallen meeting-house +with a positive sense of relief. + +"If I might venture to suppose," Mr. Rollin continued, whispering, "that +I came here to-day clothed, in any sense, as an angel of light--and, +indeed, I feel a good deal like that sort of thing to-day--so sweet are +the solaces of an approving conscience, and the consciousness of having +resisted temptation. You see I was--yes, I was going fishing this +morning, but I saw Captain Keeler go by to church--observe, too, the +beauty of setting a good example--and I persuaded myself that it was +wrong to go fishing on Sunday, and so I concluded to come to church, +too." + +At the light mockery of the fisherman's tone, the bolder flattery of his +eyes, I felt the same quick flash of resentment that his words had +occasioned when he walked with me up the lane. I turned my head away +with the noble resolve to keep it there persistently. + +Then I heard the whisper, "Miss Hungerford, you are driving me to the +last extreme of idol worship. I shall, keep on addressing my petitions to +that ostrich tip in your hat until you give me, at least, the benefit of +your profile." + +"I don't see why you should say such irreverent things to me, Mr. +Rollin," I said, quite seriously, turning, and looking him full in the +face, for an instant. + +"Heaven forbid!" he replied, in an almost inaudible tone. "And if I could +have conceived of such a thing, I would beg your pardon. You have +brothers, Miss Hungerford?" + +"Yes," I answered, nodding my head slightly, with my eyes fixed +steadfastly on the ancient instructor of our class. + +"How would you feel if your brother was off, alone, in some wild country, +in need of good and gentle influences, and some young lady should treat +him as you are treating me? Please turn your head a little this way. +But, on the whole, I'm very glad I'm not your brother. Shall I tell you +Why? Miss Hungerford," the fisherman continued, after a pause, "do you +know I've always heard that auburn-haired people come, by right, into +possession of the worst tempers. Your hair is brown--dark brown, and mine +is red, almost--don't you think so?--and yet my mind is all peace within, +and hope, and joy, and + + 'What is the blooming tincture of the skin, + To peace of mind and purity, within?' + +Miss Hungerford, it has been full two minutes, by my watch, since I +caught the last beam from your eye. Let us forget the idle wranglings of +the hour, and compose our minds to the great subjects which agitate +eternity. One of those insects which infest ancient church edifices has +been hovering about Captain Keeler's mouth. It has been drawn in. It has +disappeared. Such are we, hovering on the vortex of eternity. How calm +and undisturbed the old captain's face! how utterly unconscious of the +tragedy just enacted! So eternity swallows us and leaves no trace behind, +and no ripple marks its surface. How infer--how more than odd the old +captain looks, anyway! I say, she ought to have touched up his eyebrows a +little, you know, while she was at the nefarious business, Miss +Hungerford." + +"Yes," I answered, listening deliberately. + +"Do you suppose that the time will ever come when she to whom I once gave +the love of my young heart, and all that sort of thing, you know, will +take me in hand, and dye my hair, and rig me up, and make such an +infernal-looking old guy of me?" + +"I don't see how you can escape," I said. "But you won't care so much, +then." + +"No, that's true." Mr. Rollin sighed deeply "I shall be old, then;-- + + 'When I am old, I shall not care + To deck with flowers my faded hair.'" + +The idea of Mr. Rollin decking his hair with flowers was a specially +entertaining one to me. + +Presently, he continued:-- + +"To descend for a moment to secular subjects--I've got my own horses here +now, Miss Hungerford. I had my man Bob bring them down from Providence. +They got here last night, and they're a pair of spankers, too, if I do +say it that shouldn't, as the phrase is. That was one of the inducements +which led me to follow your--to follow Captain Keeler's example in coming +to church this morning. And now I have a calm, serious, and reasonable +proposal to make. No doubt we are both familiar with the small +conventionalities of life, but on such a day as this, and with such a +glorious air outside, and such a unique framework of society--everything +delightfully pagan--scruples worthy only of small consideration at any +time should be thrown aside. I don't know what perils you encountered +on your way to church this morning, in the canvas-covered vehicle. But, +if you will drive back to Wallencamp with me, I promise to take you there +fleetly and safely, and you may have the consciousness, besides, if you +care for it, that you have made the day one of spiritual reclamation to +an erring fellow-creature." + +[Illustration: VISITORS' DAY AT THE WALLENCAMP SCHOOL-HOUSE. +Scene from the Play.] + +The Sunday-school had risen to its feet and was slowly droning "Yield not +to temptation," etc. The situation was odd enough. Mr. Rollin's repressed +laughing voice was in my ear: "Will you yield?" and I yielded. + +At the close of the Sunday-school, as we were going out of the church, I +told Grandma that I should drive home with Emily's fisherman. + +She drew me gravely to one side. "We shall be very sorry to lose your +company, teacher," she said; "only we hadn't ought to lose no precious +opportunity, and I do hope as you'll labor for that young man's soul." I +felt hopelessly conscience-stricken. + +We drove home through "Lost Cedars"--a good many miles out of the +ordinary course--and I was cheerfully consenting to the divergence. + +Wild and tenantless, in the midst of a wild and tenantless landscape, +Lost Cedars wore that air of lovely, though utter, desolation which might +easily have suggested its name. + +There was a still unfrozen lake, which the setting sun, more like the sun +of an Italian winter than of rugged New England, was painting in gorgeous +colors, when we reached the place. + +"We come fishing here, sometimes," said Mr. Rollin; "I keep a little boat +down there under the bush, and I happen to have the key of the boat here +in my pocket. It looks awfully tempting, doesn't it?" + +I had always been passionately fond of out-door life, and prided myself +in having acquired no little skill at the oar. We were out on the painted +lake, and I was rowing the light boat, and taking much selfish enjoyment +out of the scene around me, when I became conscious that the fisherman +was leaning far forward from his seat in the boat, addressing me in a low +tone. + +"To discuss a topic appropriate to the day, Miss Hungerford: I suppose +you've read about that fellow who was looking for the pearl of great +price, haven't you?--that is, as I take it, you know, it was something +that was going to be of more value to him than anything else in the +world,--well, now, I believe that every man thinks he's going to be lucky +enough to fall in with something of that sort some day, don't you?" + +Mr. Rollin's tone was unusually serious and even slightly embarrassed. I +looked up with curious surprise from my dreamy observation of the water. +Then I thought of what Grandma Keeler had said to me about laboring for +this young man's spiritual good. + +"I think we all ought to seek it," I observed tritely, giving a long, +studied artistic stroke to the oars. "I don't see why you shouldn't find +it, I'm sure--if you ask. I wish that I were good enough to talk to you +real helpfully on this subject." + +I was startled at the inspiriting effect my brief exhortation seemed +already to have produced on the soul of Emily's fisherman. + +"To ask! Is that all!" he exclaimed in the same low breath. And looking +at the glowing, though rather unsanctified light on his features, my +interest suddenly expanded to take in the possible drift of his words. I +concluded that it was time for me to show myself eminently discreet; +having departed so far from the immediate object of my mission as to +spend a considerable part of the Sabbath driving and rowing with a +strange young man, miles from every place of refuge. + +"I'm tired," I said. "Please row back now, I should like to go home." + +I rose to give Mr. Rollin my place at the oar. He held out his hand to +assist me, and, whether by any malicious design of his or not, at that +moment the boat gave a sudden lurch, and I was precipitated helplessly +forward into his arms. I felt his kiss burning on my lips. + +With anger at the fisherman's unfairness, and bitterness at what I felt +to be the mortifying result of my own folly and indiscretion--"Oh," I +exclaimed; "I hate you! I wish you would never speak to me again! I wish +I had fallen into the water." + +The fisherman sent the boat leaping on with long strokes. "D----n it!" +he muttered softly: "I wish you had, and I after you!" + +We drove for several miles on the way homeward in silence. Then Mr. +Rollin spoke. I had been meditating upon Rebecca, upon my determination +to make my life in Wallencamp one of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion +to duty, and had concluded, in a deeply repentant mind, that this +unpleasant incident at the close of the day was only the natural +consequence of my error in departing from the prescribed limits of my +self-appointed task. + +I felt that after this experience it would be unwise for me further to +extend my mission work in Mr. Rollin's behalf. So I answered him but +briefly, and in a tone of martyr-like composure, which I could not help +observing perplexed and irritated him more than anger or the most frigid +silence would have done. + +I was strengthened in this frame of mind when we parted at the little +gate in front of the Ark, and Mr. Rollin proposed another drive for the +ensuing week. + +Then I revealed to the fisherman the grave burden of my soul. + +"Mr. Rollin," I said; "if I had come to Wallencamp merely in search of my +own pleasure and diversion, I should doubtless find it very easy to do +some things which I do not consider harmful in themselves, but which it +is wrong for me to do under the circumstances. I may tell you that I have +been very reckless, very thoughtless in my life, but I came here +resolving to devote myself to an earnest, serious work. I hoped to do +these people good. They do seem to believe in me. They trust me. I cannot +bear that they should think me in any way unworthy of their trust. When +you asked me to drive this evening,--it was just as it used to be--I did +not think. You were very kind. It was pleasant, and I thank you,--but I +ought not to have gone--don't you see? I believe, now, that it would have +been so much better if I had not." + +"I don't see," said Mr. Rollin; "why should you leave _me_ out +altogether? Don't I believe in you? Don't I need to be done some good +to?" + +At this last childishly whimsical appeal I was in sore danger of being +diverted from the serious channel of my thoughts. Then the door of the +Ark softly opened a little way, and there, nightcapped in white, like a +full, benignant moon, appeared the head of Grandma Keeler, as she peered +blindly out into the night. + +"Poor old soul!" I said. "She has probably been 'waiting and watching.' +Don't you see already one of the results of my sinning? Good night," I +said, extending my hand to the fisherman, who had fixed on that innocent +and unconscious nightcap a darkly withering gaze. + +"Oh, never mind me," he muttered, turning abruptly. "Only take care of +this infernal old nest of Hoosiers, and respectable people may go to the +devil!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BECKY AND THE CRADLEBOW. + + +"Teacher's got Beck's beau!" + +"Teacher's got Beck's beau!" I heard it whispered among the school +children. Rebecca heard, too, and paled a little, but looked up at me and +smiled as frankly as ever. + +Seeing her alone afterwards, I took occasion to remark, incidentally, +"how kind it was of her friend, Mr. Rollin, to bring me home from church. +Fanny was so slow! And I thought he was a very pleasant young man, but +even the most estimable people, you know," I added, laughing, with an +undertone of studied significance; "are not just fitted to enjoy each +other's society always." + +Then I blushed under the girl's clear, trustful gaze. + +"You don't think I mind what the children talk!" she said. + +Every day Rebecca appealed more and more, unconsciously, to what was most +generous and grave and heedful in my nature. She seemed to be demanding +of me, with mute, gentle importunity, to make real my ideal of life, to +be what I knew she believed me to be. Her faith in my superior wisdom and +goodness, her slow, timid way of confiding in me, with tears and blushes +even; it was all very flattering, very captivating to one who had but so +lately risen to occupy the pedestal of a moral instructress, and "my +child," "my dear child," I said to her in many private discourses, with +more than the tranquil grace and dignity with which such terms had been +applied to me, only a year before, by the august principal of Mt. B---- +Seminary. + +Rebecca read my books, and I drew her out to talk with me about them. She +prepared her lessons, with me, out of school. She knew that she might +come whenever she chose to my little room at the Ark, which the chimney +kept comfortably warm, and often I heard her footsteps on the stairs and +her gentle knock at the door. + +If I was troubled or perplexed on any account, Rebecca always seemed to +understand in that quiet, unobtrusive way of hers, and followed my +movements with a grave, restful sympathy in her eyes. On several +occasions I had asked her, playfully, to walk up the lane with me after +school. So it became a matter of course that she should wait for me. +Often we took longer walks, for it was an "open winter," with only one +or two light falls of snow. + +Then I believed the "Tempter" came to me, in the form of another +invitation to drive, from Mr. Rollin. + +Occupied with my duties in the school-room, one afternoon, I was startled +to observe these characters as suddenly and mysteriously raised as if by +the unseen hand of a modern sibyl on the blackboard:-- + +"teecher's Bo is a setting On the Fens." + +Involuntarily raising my eyes to the window, I was unable to discover on +the fence opposite anything of the nature indicated in those words. I +concluded that the whole was to be taken as one of those deeply +allegorical expressions in which the Wallencamp tongue abounded. + +Shortly afterward, a boy who had been playing truant and the Jews' harp +at the same time, in a subdued and melancholy way under the window, and +who had, doubtless, been bribed to undertake his present commission +through some extraordinary means, entered the school-room, and laid on my +desk a note from the auburn-haired fisherman. It was hastily scrawled in +lead pencil, on a leaf torn from a memorandum. + +The fisherman confessed to all the meekness and long suffering, without +the cheerful intrepidity of Mary's little lamb! He would do all his +waiting outside. Mr. Levi was down from West Wallen to-day, and said that +he had heard somebody say that there were four letters came for the +teacher in last night's mail. Would I like to drive over to West Wallen +and get them. The fisherman did not believe that I had been in earnest in +the prudish and unreasonable notions I had propounded when he left me the +other evening. + +"Prudish!" In my newly-acquired elevation of mind, I hugged the term with +a deep, intense, and mysterious delight. Oh, if my mother could only +know--if my elder sister could only know that I had actually been accused +of prudishness! It was in the glow and inspiration of this idea that I +indited the answer to Mr. Rollin's missive: "Why would he make it +unpleasant and disagreeable for me to do what seemed so plainly my +duty?"--and dispatched the same by the pensive and unpunished truant, who +was soon heard again revelling in the stolen sweets of his Jews' harp +beneath the window. + +After this I had no further intercourse with the fisherman for some days. +If I chanced to meet him in the lane, Rebecca was always with me. He came +one evening to the Ark. The young people were there, singing. + +Then I heard, from time to time, of his taking Rebecca to drive, and +congratulated myself that, through my composed wisdom and forethought, +the little world of Wallencamp was destined to move very smoothly, on the +whole. + +"I wonder why Mr. Rollin don't go home," observed Grandma Keeler, +complacently, on one of those rare occasions when the Keeler family +circle held quiet possession of the Ark before the songful company had +arrived. "He didn't use to stay but a week or two at a time, and all the +rest o' the fishermen have been gone some time now; and he keeps them +horses down here, and goes loungin' around with no more object than a +butterfly in December." + +"I tell ye he's a makin' up to Beck," said Grandpa Keeler, with the +knowing air of an old man accustomed to fathom mysteries of this peculiar +nature. + +A spark shot out of Madeline's great, black eyes. Then she laughed +unpleasantly. "There's something in the wind besides Beck," said she. + +"Why, I don't know," said Grandma; "he don't hang around there very much, +may be, but they say he takes her to ride, and I'm sure he don't wait on +nobody else. But I should think, if he was a going to speak out he'd +ought to do it, and not waste his time a keepin' a puttin' it off. Why, +my fust husband wasn't but a week makin' up his mind, and pa," she +continued, referring openly to Grandpa Keeler, "he wan't quite so +outspoken, to be sure; but he came around to it in the course of a month +or two, and kind o' beat around the bush then, and wanted to know what I +thought on't, and--wall, I told him 'yes,'--I didn't see no use in bein' +squeamish so long as I'd once made up my mind to it." + +"I asked ye as soon as I could!" exclaimed Grandpa, bristling on the +defensive. "I wanted to be sure o' gittin' a house fust." + +"There!" said Madeline briskly, putting down her foot, and tossing her +head as she addressed the old couple. "Be good, children! Be good!--and +now, do you mark my words, it isn't Becky Weir that Dave Rollin is +hanging around here for. There's some folks to be made up to, and there's +some folks, jest as good, to be stepped on. And Dave Rollin--what does he +think of Wallencamp folks, anyway? He wouldn't take the trouble to kick +'em out of his road; he'd jest step on 'em, and he's steppin' on Beck +Weir. He don't care enough about her to let her alone." + +"Wall, I--don't--know!" said Grandma. "What's he stayin' for, then?" + +"Staying! Lord, ma!" said Madeline sharply, with a strange cold glitter +in her eye. "How do I know what he's stayin' for? Oh," she added, in a +tone of lighter bitterness, "It's a mild winter and open roads. He's +sketching they say, and exploring the Cape. Let him explore from one end +to the other, he won't find such another fool as himself." + +"We can't help nothin' by talkin' that way;" said Grandma Keeler, a +little pale, though calmly cognizant of Madeline's emotion. + +"You know I had an experience of my own once, ma," said Madeline, +terribly white about the lips. + +"I wouldn't rake up old wounds, daughter." There was nothing unfeeling in +Grandma Keeler's tone. + +The daughter shut her lips together tightly, as though more than she had +intended to reveal had already escaped them, and applied herself +desperately to her sewing. + +I fancied that I had detected a personally aggressive quality in +Madeline's indignant tone. + +"I don't see why we should feel that way about Rebecca," I said. "The +more one gets acquainted with her, the more lovable and worthy of respect +she seems. I knew a great many girls, at school--girls with every +advantage of wealth and culture, too, who had not half of Rebecca's grace +and refinement, nor a tenth part of her beauty!" + +Madeline said nothing, bending to her work with the same bitter +compression of the lips. + +"It's right you should stand up for her, teacher," said Grandma Keeler, +pleasantly. "Miss Waite, she begun by makin' a kind o' pet o' her, but I +don't think Rebecca ever set her heart on her as she has on you, and it's +easy to see you've took lots o' pains with her. She's a gittin' them same +kind o' sorter interestin' high-flowed ways--why, she used to be just +like the rest of 'em--jest sich a rompin', roarin' thing as Drussilly +Weir is now." + +"Goodness gracious, ma!" Madeline put in again, sharply. "What good is it +going to do Beck Weir to put on airs? Better stick to her own ways, and +her own folks--she'll find they'll stand by her best in the end, I +guess--than to be fillin' her head with notions to hurt her feelin's over +by and by. She's a fool, I think, for treatin' George Olver as she does. +He's worth a dozen Dave Rollins, if his coat don't set quite so fine, and +would work his fingers off to suit her if she'd only settle down to him +and be sensible." + +"Wall," said Grandma Keeler, in a tone that was a curious contrast to +Madeline's, "our feelin's won't always go as we'd ought to have em', +daughter." + +"No, they won't!" Madeline snapped out excitedly, "but, ma, you know I'm +in the right of it just as well as I do; and there's Lute Cradlebow's got +to dreamin' and moonin' around in the same way. Took it into his head +he wanted to get an education--well, what hasn't he took into his head! +So he must begin recitin' to teacher. Well, he had in his mind to study, +I don't doubt, to begin with, and used to come two or three times a +week, and rattle off a string, and now he's here every day of his life, +and, if there's any reciting going on, I don't hear it--not that I want +to meddle with other folks' business, but I've known those boys a good +many years, and I hate to see anybody hurt and run over, even if they be +young and ignorant, and making fools of themselves. Some folks are none +too good, I think, for all their airs, and had better look out to see +where they're going!" + +"Why, thar', Madeline!" said Grandma, with a decided touch of +disapproval in her voice. "R'a'ly, seems to me you're kind o' out. I'm +sure Luther Larkin seems to be a gittin' along finely with his Latin and +Algibbery--I'm sure I've heard a lot of it, when I've been goin' through +the room, if you ain't; and if he's took it into his head to git book +larnin', and maybe scratch enough together to go away somewheres to +school, why, I'm sure, there's older boys than him, and not so bright, +have ketched up if they set there minds to it, and as for our +teacher--Madeline!" + +"Oh, I've no doubt but what Miss Hungerford meant kindly," said Madeline, +with the lightness she could so suddenly assume. "It's a mighty queer +world, that's all!" she added presently, rising and putting on her +bonnet; "and managed very queerly, for I suppose it is managed. I'm going +out, ma. Those children have split my head with their noise to-day, and I +promised Patty I'd come in and sit awhile. Now, if I've been cross and +crazy, don't you and teacher talk me over," she said, looking back and +trying hard to smile--and she did look very tired and white, as though +she had been suffering--"and if those children wake up and begin to +squall"--with a glance towards the little bedroom--"let 'em squall. If +I've wished it once to-day, I have a hundred times, that they was the +other side of sunset!" + +"I wish you'd step into Lihu's--such a poor, sufferin' creetur as he +is--with these," said Grandma, appearing from the pantry with some eggs +in her apron. "I wish you could take the consolations of religion with +you, Madeline," she continued gravely, as Mrs. Philander was closing the +door. + +"Lord, ma! my pocket's full now!" exclaimed Madeline. "Besides, they +might break the eggs!" And the latch fell down with a click. + +"I wish Madeline was a believer," Grandma sighed, purposely rattling +about the cover of the stove to wake up Grandpa, who had fallen asleep in +his chair. + +Grandpa looked at me, and smiled feebly, then roused himself to meet this +supposed challenge like a man. + +"Believer, ma?" said he; "why ain't I a believer? As old Cap'n Gates +said to me on his last voyage"--Grandpa yawned alarmingly (poor old man! +he was but half awake), as this unlucky reminiscence of his sea-faring +life flitted through his brain--"says he, 'I read my almanick and my +Bible, both, Bijonah;' says he, 'I read 'em both, and I believe there's a +great deal o' truth in both on 'em.'" + +"Thar, pa!" said Grandma, solemnly, "you'd _better_ go to sleep! you'd +_better_ close your eyes, Bijonah Keeler! What if you should never open +'em again on earthly scenes, and them words on your lips,--and you a +perfessor!" + +Grandpa scratched his head in drowsy bewilderment, passed his hand once +or twice over the coarse stubble on his face, and again committed himself +helplessly to the sweet obliviousness of slumber. + +I drew my chair up confidentially close to Grandma Keeler's, and rested +my arms on the table as I looked into her face. + +"Grandma!" I said, for I knew that she was better pleased to have me call +her that; "I begin to think that I ought never to have come to Wallencamp +on a mission, that perhaps it would be just as well if I had never come +to Wallencamp at all, I mean. I didn't think. At first, it seemed more +than anything else, like something very new to entertain myself with. I +didn't think enough of the responsibility. Then, perhaps, I thought too +much of it. I don't know. I wish I were out of it all. Grandma, I never +tried to do the right thing so hard before in my life. I never worked so +hard before--and I don't mind that; but I meant it all for the best, and +it's no use, it's just like all the rest. I'm tired. I wish I were out of +it." + +"Wall, thar' now, darlin'," said Grandma, employing to the full her tone +of infinite consolation. "You ain't the first one as mistook a stump for +livin' creetur in the night, and don't you talk about givin' up nor +nothin' like it, darlin', for we couldn't do without you noways--nor you +without us, for yet a while, I'm thinkin', though it does seem +strange--and never you mind one straw for what Madeline said, for she was +kind o' out to-night, anyway, not having got no letter from Philander, I +suppose. But then she ought not to feel so. Why, there was time and time +agin that I didn't git no letter from Bijonah Keeler when he was +voyagin', and to be sure, they wasn't much better than nothin' when they +did come; for pa"--Grandma cast a calmly comprehensive glance at her +unconscious mate--"pa was a man that had a great many idees in general, +but, when he set down to write a letter, somehow he seemed to consider +that it wasn't no place for idees, a letter wasn't--seemed as though he +managed a'most a purpose not to get none in." + +"Grandma," I said, leaning forward, laughing, and folding my hands in her +lap, "you're the best comforter I know of." + +"Wall, thar'," said she; "it's a good deal in feelin's, and Madeline +ain't r'al well, so she kind o' allows 'em to overcome her sometimes." + +"And what did she mean by saying that about Rebecca?" I asked. + +"Oh, she just meant girls will be girls, that's all!" replied Grandma; +"why, mercy! I know all about that. I don't feel like nothin' much more +than a girl myself, half the time; and we all have to have our +experiences, to be sure. They ain't nobody else can wear 'em for us, but, +dear me! the Lord ain't going to let our experiences hurt us; they're for +our betterin'." + +"And Lute Cradlebow, Grandma?" I said; "what did she mean about him?" + +"Oh, she just meant boys will be boys, that's all--especially big +ones--but thar'! I've known 'em to get over it a hundred times and not +hurt 'em none. If you're always lookin' at human natur' on the dark side, +it seems kind o' desp'rit. My first husband, he wasn't a fretful man, but +he was always viewin' the dark side o' things. I suppose one reason was +he didn't have no father nor mother, and so he kind o' begun life as a +took-in boy, but Pollos Slocum, he done very well by him, for he hadn't +no children of his own, but his brother--that was Daniel Slocum--he had +six. There was two boys and four girls. Mary, she came fust. She was born +February nineteenth"---- + +I was sorry that Grandma's thoughts had drifted into this hopeless and +interminable channel. + +I had considered carefully what Madeline had said, and determined on a +little new advice for my friend, Rebecca. So, the next time we were alone +in my room together, I directed the conversation with a view to this +end. + +"And I wouldn't trust any one, my dear," I said with cheerful +earnestness; "then if people prove true, why, it's all the more +delightful; and if not, one isn't disappointed; so you can hold the +scales quite indifferently in your own hand, and are always master of the +situation. Oh, I wouldn't trust people! It would be very nice if +this were the sort of world that you could do it in, but it isn't. It's a +very deceitful world." + +"But I can trust you, can't I?" Rebecca held me with her gravely +questioning eyes. + +"Well, I don't know;" I began with the determination to be severely true +to my text, but the look in Rebecca's eyes hurt me. + +"Oh, yes! little girl," I continued, falling into the half-tender, +half-playful tone that it was always easiest to assume with her; "of +course, you must trust me I Haven't I been a good teacher to you, so +far?" And I sought by smiling in the girl's face, to chase the grieved +expression away from it. "What I meant was that I wouldn't trust people +generally, because it's a selfish world, and such is the depravity of the +human mind that if it appears at all convenient, we are apt, you know, to +sacrifice other people to our own interests; so, with all the little +kindnesses and politenesses which are current in society, it is still the +common practice--and if is best that it should be so--to keep, in the +main, a sharp look out for 'Number One!'" + +Having proceeded so far, it occurred to me that the occasion was +favorable for the discharge of another duty which I had been meditating +in regard to Rebecca. + +"You are what Grandma Keeler calls a believer, are you not, dear?" I +said, with the same composedly dictatorial manner: "in distinction from a +professor, I mean." + +Rebecca gave a little gasp, and turned her head away, for an instant. +When she looked back, there were tears of distress in her eyes. + +I felt a vague wonder and regret. + +"No," she said; "I thought, once--I wanted--I hoped----" + +"Why, child!" I hastened to exclaim. "I didn't ask you because I had any +reason to doubt that you were one--quite the contrary--but simply for +this. It seems to me it would be such a desirable thing for you, situated +as you are, here, with so few surroundings of a refining and elevating +nature, if you could attach yourself, if it were merely for a feeling of +fellowship and sympathy--for of course, you could not attend, often--to +some simple Orthodox body of believers--like the Methodist church at West +Wallen, for instance. It seems to me, that, in your case, believing +simply and unquestionably, as I have no doubt you do, it would be a sort +of assurance, a sort of continual rest and support to you. It would be a +great relief to me if I felt that you were so guarded. Not that I +consider it essential at all; to some people, indeed, of a deeply +thoughtful and inquisitive mind, such a course would appear impossible. +You have never troubled yourself, Becky," I continued, in a tone of +reassuring lightness; "you have never troubled yourself with doubts and +speculations on religious subjects?" + +"I don't know," Becky replied, the look of perplexity and distress +deepening in her eyes. + +"Why should you?" I murmured, softly stroking her hair; "He carries the +lambs in His bosom." I had been little in the habit of quoting +Scripture--the words, coming to my mind, struck me as particularly +Beautiful and applicable on this occasion. "And so what I have suggested, +would be the easiest and most natural thing in the world for you to do. I +suppose it might be necessary for you to have come to some conclusion in +regard to the first principles of Theology; but probably you have already +satisfied yourself as to these in your own mind." + +Rebecca looked little like one who had arrived at the calm plane of +philosophical conclusion of any sort. + +"I don't know," she gasped. + +"Well, take the Trinity, for instance," I continued, in a tone highly +suggestive of calm and supreme forbearance with helpless ignorance. +"Probably you believe in the Trinity?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Rebecca. "I don't know what it means. Nobody +ever told me; nobody ever talked to me about those things before." + +"It's simply," I said; "a term implying the existence of three persons in +the Godhead. So the Trinitarians are distinguished from the Unitarians +who believe that it consists of one. I'm not particularly informed as to +the Methodist credentials of faith. You will always hear that they +believe that salvation is free to all who will accept of it. Some people +believe that man is a free agent, and may accept or refuse the means of +grace, and if he refuses, is eternally lost. And then, again, there are +the Universalists, who believe that all will be eventually saved. There +is the Calvinistic element--those who believe in predestination--that +is----" + +Becky had laid her head down on the bed, and was quietly sobbing. + +"My poor child," I exclaimed, with swift compassion, "don't think +anything more about what I have said to you. Let it go. It isn't vital." + +"You don't hate me for not knowing anything?" sobbed Becky. "Nobody ever +tried to have me understand, before." + +"You know enough; quite enough, dear!" I remarked hastily, producing from +my trunk a quantity of illustrated magazines. These we looked over +together, and when Becky went away, the tears were dried in her eyes, and +she was laughing as merrily as ever. + +With the severely implied reproach of Madeline's words still in my mind, +I took pains to assume toward Luther Larkin a more elder-sisterly air +even than before. + +It was true, I felt that I had been unjustly stung, having, amid the +press of other duties, undertaken the advancement of that bright youth, +from motives, I believed, of an ideal and disinterested nature. It was +also true, that, after the first enthusiasm with respect to his lessons +had passed away, as well as the natural diffidence he had at first felt +in my presence, Luther Larkin, though punctual to the hour of recitation, +had gradually fallen into a habit of more lively and discursive inquiry +than that furnished within the dull range of his text-books. He had a +singularly fearless manner of challenging the inexplicable in thought and +life, with a light conversational flow of much brilliancy. Moreover, +he was a delightful dreamer. + +We had our recitation, for quiet, in one of Grandma's gloomy and +mysterious keepin'-rooms. The only object inviting to sedentary posture +in this room was Grandpa's huge "chist," which occupied a position +"along side" the East window. Those sacred window curtains, of green +paper, flowered with crimson roses, were never rolled up; but as the +light strayed in at one side, and fell on the Cradlebow's fine head, +often I reflected that under certain other conditions of life, meaning +conditions more favorable to Luther Larkin, I might have regarded him +very tenderly, and invested the strength and beauty of his young manhood +with heroic meaning. + +As it was, I assumed that I was years beyond him in the gravest respects. +And if there was any truth in what Madeline had intimated, possibly I had +been at fault for not impressing this fact more deeply on his mind. + +"So you are getting sadly behindhand with your lessons, Luther," I said. +"I wish you would make a brave effort to catch up. There is no true +attainment to be reached without a corresponding degree of effort--of +perseverance." + +I spoke with a serious and gracious air, as though this sentiment, +gleaned from a profound experience, had occurred to me as an idea +peculiarly my own. + +"Never mind the lessons!" replied my audacious pupil, brightly. +"Teacher," he added presently, having fallen into a gently musing +attitude; "how shiny those crimples in your hair look, with that streak +of sun lighting on 'em!" + +"Luther," said I, very gravely: "you ought not to talk to me about my +hair. Suppose we give our attention to these books. Now you were getting +along so fast, I'm very sorry----" + +"Do you think I'm to blame, teacher?" exclaimed Luther, earnestly, "There +wasn't a stick of wood to be had in our house this morning! And I've had +to be off, all day, chopping, with Scudder--you ought to have seen the +black snake we killed this morning. It was six feet long. If you don't +believe it, Scudder's got the carcass. It was lying all curled up in the +bushes with its head up so--'you watch him, Lute,' says Scudder, 'and +I'll run and get the axe!' I couldn't help laughing. The axe was over the +other side of the bog, and the snake began to stretch himself out and +slide along. I brought my boot-heel down once or twice on his head, about +as quick and strong as I could make it. I killed him. It's a good sign to +kill a snake, teacher. It's a good sign to dream of killing one; but you +come across one so, accidentally, and kill it, and it's sure to bring +good luck, Granny says." + +"That's more significant than a great many of your signs and symbols," I +said. "That means that you will slay the tempter in your path, and be +successful in overcoming difficulties. In short, it means that whatever +there has been to divert you, you are coming back to the resolve to study +and improve yourself; to be all the stronger for having a few chance +obstacles to dispose of." + +Luther's head began to droop a little. I thought it was time that the +melancholy atmosphere of the room should have begun to exercise its usual +depressive effect on his spirits. + +"You think I don't like the books, teacher," he said. "I do, but there's +most always something else to be doing. Father's lame. He can't do any +work, and there's the rest to take care of. First, I sat up nights to +study, then I got so sleepy I couldn't. But I'd got so in the habit of +coming in to talk a little while after you got home from school, teacher, +that I--I forgot to forget it. Have I been a great bother to you? You've +been real good. I don't want you to think I forget that. And if I'd had a +chance at the books early, or to push right along with 'em now, I might +make out something in that line." + +Luther did not speak complainingly, nor even with hopeless regret. He +rose and stretched himself, with solemn satisfaction, to the extent of +his goodly proportions. + +"But I'm a man now, teacher," he said. "I shall be twenty in June, and +life is short. A man hasn't got time for everything. He'd be a fool to +waste it crying for what he didn't happen to have. He'd better push +along and work for the best. I meant to tell you. I'm going to sea, +teacher! I'm going trading. I was down to New Bedford, to see Captain +Sparhauk yesterday, for I was out with him once before, and got a good +deal of the hang of the business then; and he offered me a place on his +ship next time he sails." + +Luther stood with flushed face, regarding me with a bright restless look +of inquiry in his eyes. + +"Are you going away, really, Luther? I'm very sorry!" I said. + +"You don't care! what do you care?" he exclaimed almost rudely, with an +unnatural touch of hardness in his laugh. "It's the way you talk to all +the rest. A fellow might get to thinking too much about it. A fellow +might get to caring--if he believed it--I don't." + +"What makes you think I shouldn't care if you were going away?" I +continued, with the dispassionately gentle and reproving tone I +considered it wisest to assume on the occasion. "I should care, I should +be very sorry. Come and sit down here, please, and tell me all about it, +when you are going, and where, and what you are going for?" + +Luther came slowly back to the light. He seemed verily to have grown +older and handsomer in a moment. I experienced a deeper feeling of regret +than ever before, that the circumstances of his life could not have been +conducive to heroism. + +"The captain couldn't tell me just when he should sail," said he; "and +I'm going to get money. I know a good deal of the Spanish and Portugal, I +learned to talk them before--and I shall go to a great many places, I may +not come back when the ship does. Say, what strange eyes you've got, +teacher; now they're brown--and now, they're black, and now, they're a +sort of--a--purplish gray." + +"Oh, my dear boy," I exclaimed, with a sudden accession of wisdom, +sighing deeply; "you ought not to talk to me about the color of my eyes." +At the same time to deepen the effect of this condescending tenderness, I +pushed back lightly from his forehead a stray lock of hair that was +hanging there. + +"Don't do that!" the boy cried with startling impetuosity. "Don't call me +that again! I mean, teacher," he went on in a gentler tone, though none +the less excitedly;--"if you should know somebody, that had set his heart +on something, very much, and didn't want anything else if he couldn't +have that, and if he should know that he hadn't any right to ask for it +now, but go off and work for it real hard, and, maybe come back lucky in +a few years, with a right to ask for it then;--do you think, teacher, +that there'd be any chance of his finding--of his getting what he wanted +most? If you were in anybody's place, now, teacher, would you give him a +word of encouragement to try?" + +"I think that the person you speak of would be much more likely to +succeed in a practical undertaking, without any hallucination of that +sort before his eyes--and if, as you say, it isn't right that he should +ask for it now, can we predict that it would be any more reasonable and +expedient in the future? These idle fancies of ours soon pass away, +Luther, and will look laughable and grotesque enough to us by and by. +Life is so full of changes, and people change, oh, so much!" + +In spite of the vanity of my soul, I comforted myself with the reflection +that Luther would not care long. I did not really believe that he would +go to sea. I stood with him a moment in the door of Grandma's kitchen. +He looked over to the woods, behind which the water lay, and the fire and +impatience had all gone out of his manner. His gentleness touched me +deeply, yet I was determined not to feel his hurt, nor--"if only the +circumstances of his life had been different"--what might have been mine +also! + +"Hark! It's high tide. It's making quite a fuss over there," he said. "I +think a man feels more quiet somehow, when he's out there, teacher. +Father says I'm a wild chap and uneasy. I guess that's so. I can take +care of them just as well too if I go, and better. Only if I should +die--" there was nothing affected or forlorn in the Cradlebow's tone--"I +should like to be buried on the hill, with father's folks. You've been +across there. You look one way and there's the river, oftenest still--and +the other way, you hear the old Bay scooting along the sand. I like it, +being used to hearing it go always. Granny says it makes a difference +then, where you lie, about the resting easy. I don't know. Sometimes it +seems as though I should rest easier there." + +"A dissertation on the graveyard," I began in a tone of affected +lightness, and then paused, convicted of untruth by the solemn light in +the Cradlebow's strange, grand eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LUTE CRADLEBOW KISSES THE TEACHER. + + +Wallencamp had its peculiar seasons. After the season of hulled corn, +came the reign of baked beans. It was during this latter dispensation +that my courage failed considerably. + +Madeline used to remark, throwing a rare musical halo about her words: +"These beans are better than they look. Ain't they, teacher?" + +And I was wont to reply conscientiously enough, though with a sweetly +wearied glance at the familiar dish; "Certainly, they do taste better +than they look." + +Occasionally we had what Harvey Dole called, "squash on the shell," an +ingenious term for the last of the winter pumpkins boiled in halves, and +served _au naturel_. + +Grandpa, too, pined and put away his food. He used to look across the +table at me, with a feeble appeal for sympathy in his expression. +Oftentimes he sighed deeply, and related anecdotes redolent of "red +salmon" and "deer flesh," "strawberries as big as teacups" and "peaches +as big as pint bowls," in places where he had sailed. + +Once, he ventured to remark, apologetically, referring to the beans and +pumpkins, that "bein' sich a mild winter, somehow he didn't hanker arter +sech bracin' food, and he guessed he'd go over to Ware'am, and git some +pork." + +"Wall, thar' now, pa!" said Grandma; "seems to me we'd ought ter consider +all the fruits o' God's bounty as good and relishin' in their season." + +"I call that punkin out of season," said Grandpa, recklessly. "Strikes me +so." + +"I was talkin' about fruits. I wasn't talkin' about punkins," said +Grandma, with derisive conclusiveness. + +"Wall," said Grandpa, very much aroused, "if you call them tarnal white +beans the fruits of God, I don't!" + +"Don't you consider that God made beans, pa?" + +"No, I don't!" + +"Who, then--" continued Grandma, in an awful tone--"do you consider made +beans, pa?" + +Grandpa's eyes, as he glared at the dish, were large and round, and +significant of unspeakable things. + +"Bijonah Keeler!" Grandma hastened to say; "my ears have heard enough!" + +As for Grandma, neither her appetite, nor her spirits, flagged. In spite +of her confirmed habit of tantalizing Grandpa--and this was from no +malevolence of motive, but simply as the conscientious fulfilment of a +sacred religious and domestic duty--she was the most delightful soul I +ever knew. + +At supper, it was a habit for her to sit at the table long after we had +finished our meal, and to continue eating and talking in her slow, +automatic, sublimely philosophical manner, until not a vestige of +anything eatable remained, and then as she rose, she would remark, +simply, with a glance at the denuded board:-- + +"It beats all, how near you guessed the vittles to-night, daughter!" + +Then Grandma resorted to an occasional pastime, harmless and playful +enough in itself, yet intended as a special means of discipline for +Grandpa, and certainly, a source of great torment and anxiety to that +poor old man. + +Between the hours of eight and nine P.M., Grandma would deftly glide out +of the family circle, and be seen no more that night. At bedtime, Grandpa +would begin the search, while Madeline and I ungenerously retired. + +In the privacy of my own chamber, I could hear the old Captain tramping +desolately about the Ark, calling, "Ma! ma!" Could hear the outside door +swung open, and imagine Grandpa's wild face peering into the darkness, +while still he called; "Ma! ma! where be ye? It's half after ten!" + +Then, from the foot of the stairs would arise his distressed, appealing +cry; "Come, ma, where be ye? It's half after ten!" Silence everywhere. +With a mighty groan, Grandpa would come shuffling up the steep stairs, +and what was most remarkable, Grandma was invariably found secluded amid +the rubbish in the old garret. Then the whisperings that arose between +those two would have pierced through denser substances by far than the +little red door which separated me from the scene. + +"How'd I know, ma, but what you'd gone out and broke yer leg, or +somethin'? Come, ma--" with exasperated persuasiveness--"what do ye want +to pester me this way for?" + +"Why, pa," arose the calm, mellifluous accents of Grandma Keeler, "so't +you might know how you'd feel if I should be took away!" + +Next, the little staircase would resound with loud creaks and groans, as +this reunited couple cautiously--and I have no doubt that they believed +the whole affair had been conducted with the utmost secrecy--made their +way down in their stocking feet. + +Grandma--Heaven bless her, always devoted, though original--never saw a +human ill that she did not long to alleviate. So, as Grandpa and I daily +refused our food, she affirmed, as her opinion, that the one need of our +deranged systems was a clarifier! And she forthwith prepared a mixture of +onions and molasses, with various bitter roots, which latter she, upon +her knees, had wrested from the frosty bosom of the earth in an arena +immediately adjoining the Ark. Thus I beheld her one wintry day, and +wondered greatly what she was at. When I came home from school at night, +through a strangely permeated atmosphere, I beheld the clarifier +simmering on the stove. + +Grandpa already stood shivering over the fire. He smiled when I came in, +but it was a faint and deathly smile--the smile of one who has returned, +per force, to weak, defenceless infancy. + +Grandma pressed me kindly to partake. I preferred to keep what ills I +had, rather than fly to others that I knew not of. So I gently and firmly +declined. But for several days in succession, Grandpa was made the victim +of this ghastly remedy. + +His sufferings went beyond the power of mad expostulation to express, and +came nigh to produce upon his features the aspect of a saintly +resignation. + +Never shall I forget his appearance during this clarifying period--his +occasional faint and fleeting attempts at wit--his usually hopeless and +world-weary air. The wonder to me was that he did not then enter upon a +celestial state of existence, being eminently fitted to go, as far as the +attenuation of his mortal frame was concerned. It was at this time that I +wrote home that I had never had such an appetite before in my life as now +in Wallencamp (which, in one sense, I felt to be perfectly true); that +the food was of a most remarkable variety (which I also felt to be true); +but that it was rather difficult to procure oranges and the like. +Whereupon, I received from home a large box, containing all manner of +pleasant fruits, and thus poor old Grandpa Keeler and I were enabled to +take a new lease of life. + +I found that it was considered indispensable to the proper discharge of +my duties in Wallencamp that I should make frequent calls on the parents +of my flock, throughout the entire community. If I failed in any measure +in this respect, they reproached me with being "unsociable," and said; +"Seems to me you ain't very neighborly, teacher." + +I had called myself a student of human nature. It seemed to me, now, +that in those dingy Wallencamp houses, I stood for the first time, awed +and delighted before the real article. Sometimes the men sent out great +volumes of smoke from their pipes, in the low rooms, that were not +delightful; but as far as they knew, they exerted themselves to the +utmost, men and women both, to make their homes pleasant and attractive +to me. + +Godfrey Cradlebow's place was as small and poor as any. There was one +room that served as kitchen, dining-room, and parlor, with a +corresponding medley of furniture. A very finely chased gold watch hung +against the loose brown boards of the wall--a reminder of Godfrey +Cradlebow's youth. But what distinguished this house from all the others, +was the profusion of books it contained. There were books on the tables, +books under the tables, books piled up in the corner of the room. + +Godfrey Cradlebow himself was confined in-doors much of the time with the +rheumatism. He made nets for the fishermen. I used to like to watch his +fingers moving deftly while he talked. + +Things having gone wrong with him, and he having suffered much acute +physical pain, besides--(that was evident from the manner in which his +stalwart frame had been bent with his disease) he had "taken to drink," +not excessively, but he seemed to be, most of the time, in a lightly +inebriated condition. He was a strange and fluent talker, often ecstatic. + +"It is commonly believed, Miss Hungerford," he said to me, once; "that we +start on the summit of life, that we descend into the valley, that the +sun is westering; but as for me, I seem to look far below there on the +mists and dew of earlier years. I walk among the hills. The horizon +widens. The air grows thin. I see the solemn streaks of dawn appearing +through the gloom. Ah," he murmured, again; "weak and erring though I +undoubtedly am, I have a kinship with the living Christ. Yes, even such +kinship as human worthlessness may have with infinite perfection. People +will say to you about here, Miss Hungerford; 'Oh, never mind Godfrey +Cradlebow. He's always being converted, why, he has been converted twenty +times already!' very true, ay, and a hundred times, and I trust I shall +taste the sweets of conversion many times more before I die. I do not +believe the soul to be a barren tract, so far removed from the ocean of +God's love, that it may be washed by the waves only once in a lifetime, +and that, in case of some terrible flood. But I rejoice daily in the +sweet and natural return of the tide. How the shores wait for it! Strewn +with weeds and wreck, scorched by the sun, chilled by the night, how it +listens for the sound of its coming! until it rushes in--ah! roar after +roar--all-covering, all-hiding, all-embracing!" + +Godfrey Cradlebow shook his head rapturously, tears rolled down his +cheeks, and all the while he went on rapidly with his netting. + +He had the natural tact and grace of a gentleman, and was especially +courteous to his wife. This brought down upon him the derision of the +Wallencampers, whose conjugal relations were seldom more delicately +implied than by a reference--"my woman thar'!" or "my man over thar'!" +with an accompanying jerk of the thumb. + +Lydia, Godfrey Cradlebow's wife, was tall and slight, with dark hair and +eyes--a perfect face, though worn and sad. She invariably wore over her +cotton gown, on occasions when she went out, a very fine, very thin +old-fashioned mantilla, bordered with a deep black fringe. This pathetic +remnant of gentility, borne rudely about by the Wallencamp winds, with +Lydia's refined face and melancholy dark eyes, gave her a very +interesting and picturesque appearance; though I never thought she wore +the mantilla during the winter for effect. She was shy, though +exceedingly gentle in her manners. At first, I had thought that she +avoided me. But one time, when making the round of my parochial calls, I +stopped at the Cradlebows', and Mr. Cradlebow discoursing fluently on the +Phenomenon, recommended a severe method of discipline as best adapted to +his case, I replied, laughingly, that he had better be cautious about +making any suggestions of that sort, for Simeon and I were getting to be +great friends; the mother, on whose heart I had had no design, took my +hand at the door, when I went away, in a clinging, almost an affectionate +way. + +"You are good to my boys, teacher," she said; "and I thank you for it. +They make you a great deal of trouble." + +"Oh, no," I answered lightly, returning with a sense of pleasure the +pressure of her hand, and it was not until afterwards, walking slowly +down the lane that I sighed gently, thinking of that troublesome boy who +had told me he was going to sea. + +Removed from the world of newspapers, the ordinary active interest in the +affairs of church and state, there was a great deal of the lively gadding +about, neighborly dropping in element in Wallencamp. This applied to the +men equally as well as to the women. I remember that Abbie Ann once put +out her washing, and this fact kept the whole social element of +Wallencamp on the _qui vive_ for a number of days. + +The caller would appear at the door at anytime during the day with a +good-natured matter-of-fact "I was a passin' by, and thought I'd drop in +a minit, jest to see how ye was gittin' along." + +"Won't you set?" would be the cordial response. "Do set." + +"Wall, I don't know how to spend the time anyway," the visitor +would reply; "there's so many things a drivin' on me." + +But this care-belabored victim of fate usually concluded by sitting quite +complacently for any length of time. + +When such visitations occurred out of school hours, and I remained up in +my room, as I frequently did at first, the droppers in felt very much +aggrieved, as though I had wittingly offended the instincts of good +society. + +Besides all which, seldom an evening passed that the young people did not +come to the Ark _en masse_ to sing. + +Then Madeline or Rebecca, or (very rarely) I propelled a strain of +doubtful melody from Madeline's little melodeon, while the singers--boys +and girls together--chimed in, joyfully rendering with a perfect +fearlessness of utterance and deep intensity of expression such songs as +"Go, bury thy sorrow, the world hath its share," and "Jesus, keep me near +the cross," and "Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow; now wash me, +and I shall be whiter than snow." + +They knew no other songs. They would sing through a large proportion of +the Moody and Sankey Hymnal in a single evening. + +At first I listened half amused or thoroughly wearied. But, as the +strains grew more familiar and I sang occasionally with the others, I +felt each day more tired and more conscious of my own incompetency. And +still the Words rang in my ears; "I hear the Saviour say, thy strength +indeed is small;" with much about trusting in Him, and his willingness to +bear it all. As the wind beat against the Ark on wild nights, so that we +could hardly tell which was the wind and which was the roar of the +maddened sea, and still those voices chanted hopefully of the "stormless +home beyond the river," etc., the words began to strike on something +deeper than my physical or intellectual sense, and that not rudely. + +I smiled to catch myself humming them over often, and in the school-room, +when I felt that my patience was fast oozing, and I experienced a wild +desire to loose the reins and let all go, unconsciously I took refuge in +repeating those same simple words, going over with them, again and again, +beneath my breath, holding on to them as though they possessed some +unknown charm to keep me still and strong. + +I went to the evening meetings. They were held in the school-house, and +were very popular in Wallencamp. + +By some provision of the government on behalf of the Indians, a small +meeting-house had been built for those in the vicinity of Wallencamp, and +they were also provided with a minister for several months during the +year. On this account the Indians rather set themselves up above the +benighted Wallencampers, whom government had not endowed with the +privileges of the sanctuary, while they, in turn, made derisive allusions +to the "Nigger-camp" minister, and regarded with contempt its prescribed +means of grace. + +The Indians enjoyed, for part of the time that I was in Wallencamp, the +ministrations of a Baptist clergyman, a truly earnest and intelligent +man, gifted with a most forceful manner of utterance, but so lean as to +present a phenomenal appearance. This good man feared nothing but that he +should fail in some part of the performance of his duty. He believed that +it was his duty to come over and preach to the Wallencampers also, in +their school-house, and he did so. + +I think that the Wallencampers regarded this, on the whole, as a doubtful +though entertaining move. + +I do not think that they took any particular pains to harass or annoy the +Rev. Mr. Rivers. But they certainly did not restrict themselves in that +natural freedom which they always enjoyed on the occasions of their +spiritual feasts. + +They attended, as usual--the old and the young, the good, the bad, the +indifferent, with a lively sprinkling of babies. + +Though not a cold night, they kept the stove gorged with fuel. It roared +furiously. They were restless. They made signs audibly expressive of the +fact that the air of the room was insufferably close, and very audibly +slammed up the windows. They whispered and giggled; they went out and +came in, as they pleased. They drank a great deal of water. I remember +particularly, how at the most earnest and affecting part of the Rev. Mr. +Rivers' discourse, the immortal Estella, _alias_ the "Modoc," arose in +gawky innocence and all good faith from her seat immediately in front of +the speaker, and walked to the back part of the room to regale herself +with a draught. + +The Baptist minister discharged a withering and conscientious reproof at +them through his nose. + +Now, for, the Wallencampers to be reproved, however scathingly, by some +zealous and inspired individual of their own number, was considered, on +the whole, as an apt and appropriate thing, but to be reproved by the +"Nigger-camp" minister! When, after the meeting he walked with the Keeler +family back to the Ark, where he had been hospitably entertained, the +Wallencamp boys saw us depart in silent wrath, and I feared that +Treachery lay in wait for the Rev. Mr. Rivers. + +He sat and talked with us at the Ark for an hour or more, perhaps, before +bidding us good-night, and during that time I caught glimpses of faces +that appeared at the window, and then vanished again instantly--familiar +faces, expressive of much scornful merriment. Now and then I heard a +smothered giggle outside, and a scrambling among the bushes. It was a +dark night. When the Rev. Mr. Rivers finally rose to depart, and had got +as far as the gate, he became helplessly entangled in a perfect network +of small ropes. He could neither advance nor recede. In a pitiable and +ignominious condition, he called to us for help. + +"Those devilish boys!" said Grandpa, with religious fervor of tone, at +the same time glancing at me with a delighted twinkle in his eye. "I knew +they was up to something. I heered 'em out there;" and he patiently lit +his lantern, and went out to cut the minister free; but the Rev. Mr. +Rivers did not come to the Wallencamp school-house to preach again. + +Among those who looked on with quiet approval at this childish and +barbarous performance of the Wallencamp youth, I learned afterwards, were +staid Lovell Barlow and little Bachelor Lot. + +Left to their own spiritual devices, the Wallencampers carried on their +evening meetings after methods formerly approved. They rose and +talked--or prayed--or diverted themselves socially--or sang. Everything +they were moved to do, they did. + +The lame giant, Godfrey Cradlebow, at seasons when the tide came in, +would pour forth the utterances of his soul with the most earnest +eloquence. At other times, he was morbid and silent, or made skeptical +and sneering remarks aside. + +Lovell Barlow, though generally regarded as a believer, had never so far +overcome his natural modesty and reserve as to address the Wallencamp +meeting. But one night, spurred to make the attempt by some of his +malicious and fun-loving compatriots, he surprised us all by rising with +a violent motion from his seat, and making a sudden plunge forward as +though his audience were a cold bath, and he had determined to wade in. + +"Boys!" he began, with a most unnatural ferociousness. Then I felt +Lovell's eyes fixed on my face. "And girls, too," he added, more gently; +"and girls, too, certainly, _I_ think so;" he continued; "_I_ think so." +His tone became very feeble. He glanced about with a wild eye for his +hat, grasped it, and went out, and I saw him afterwards, through the +window, standing like a statue, in the moonlight, with his arms folded, +and with a perfectly cold and emotionless cast of countenance. + +Among the professors, Godfrey Cradlebow's mother, Aunt Sibylla, with +quite as much fire and less delicacy of expression than characterized the +speech of the strange lame man, was always ready to warn, threaten, and +exhort. + +Grandpa Keeler, too, though not subjected to the renovating and +rejuvenating processes of the Sabbath, but just touched up a little here +and there, enough to give him a slight "odor of sanctity," and a saving +sense of personal discomfort, was always led to the meeting, and kept +close by Grandma Keeler's side on the most prominent bench. + +When there was one of those frightful pauses which sometimes occurred +even in the cheerful concourse of the Wallencampers, casting a depressing +influence over all hearts, Grandma Keeler by a series of covert pokes and +nudges, would signify to Grandpa that now was the appointed moment for +him to arise and let his light shine. + +And Grandpa Keeler was not a timid man, but since the event of his +clarification, he had shown a stronger dislike than ever to being +pestered, and was abnormally quick to detect and resist any advances of +that kind. So his movements on these occasions were marked by an angry +deliberation, though the old sea-captain never failed in the end, to +arise and "hand in his testimony." + +His remarks were (originally) clear cut and terse. + +"There's no need o' my gittin' up. You all know how I stand" (an +admonitory nudge from Grandma)--"What's the matter now, ma?" I could hear +the old man swear, mentally, but he went on with the amendment--"or try +to. I'm afeered that even the best on us, at some time or nuther, have +been up to some devil"--(sly, but awfully emphatic nudge from Grandma) +"ahem! we're all born under a cuss!" persisted Grandpa, with irate +satisfaction. "I've steered through a good many oceans," he continued, +more softly, "but thar' ain't none so--misty--as this--a--" (portentous +nudge from Grandma,) "as this pesky ocean of Life! We've got to keep a +sharp look-out" (another nudge from Grandma), "ahem, steer clear of the +rocks," (persistent nudges from Grandma), "ahem! ahem! trust in God +Almighty!" admitted Grandpa with telling force, and sat down. + +As for Grandma, she was herself always prompt and faithful in the +discharge of duty, however trying the circumstances. She was no +hypocrite, this dear old soul! She could not have feigned sentiments +which she did not feel, yet it was invariably the case that, as she rose +in meeting, her usually cheerful face became in the highest degree +tearful and lugubrious. The thought of so many precious souls drifting +toward destruction filled her tender heart with woe. She besought them +in the gentlest and most persuasive terms to "turn to Jesus." She dwelt +long upon His love, standing always with hands reverently clasped before +her, and eyes downcast with awe. + +I used to long to hear her speak. The sound of that low, tender monotone +was in itself inexpressibly soothing. But Grandma's tongue had its mild +edge, as well. + +Once, when she was speaking, a number of the young people--it was a +common occurrence--rose to go out. + +Grandma went on talking without raising either her voice or her eyes; but +when they had reached the door, "What--" said she, in that tone which, +though so mild, somehow unaccountably arrested their progress; +"what--poor, wanderin' creeturs--if your understandin's should give out!" +meaning, what if you should suddenly be deprived of the use of your legs! +"Have you never heered," she continued; "the story of Antynias and +Sapf_i_ry?" + +But she did not recount the tale. If possible, she would rather use words +of love than of malediction. + +I shall never forget the faithful manner in which she narrated Abraham's +intercession with the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah. + +"And Abraham said to the Lord, 'Periodventure there be fifty righteous +found,' he said; 'willest thou destroy the city, and them in it? Oh, no! +that ain't like the Lord,' he says; 'for to slay the righteous and the +wicked together--fur be it.' And the Lord says; 'No. If I find fifty +righteous I'll spare all the rest,' he says, 'on account o' them fifty,' +he says, and Abraham says, 'O Lord, now I've begun,' he says, 'and you +don't seem so very much put out with me as I expected, I've a good mind +to keep on askin' ye a little more, jest to see what ye'll say,' he says; +'O Lord, periodventure what if there shouldn't be but forty-five?' he +says." + +Grandma went through the list of "periodventures," depicting Abraham's +growing fear and obsequiousness in the most tragic manner until she got +to the hypothetical ten. + +"And Abraham said; 'O Lord, I know you won't like it this time, but I've +gone so fur now, that I'm going to out with't; and don't--don't git put +out, O Lord! and I won't put it one mite lower. Periodventure, O Lord, +what if there shouldn't be but ten?' and the Lord said, 'If there wasn't +but ten, he wouldn't destroy them wicked cities.' Now," continued +Grandma, with tearful impressiveness, "if Abraham had even a ventured to +put it down one five more, what more chance do you think there'd be for +us here in Wallencamp?" + +After the meeting, Captain Sartell and Bachelor Lot held their usual +theological levee, outside the school-house. + +"Wall, Bachelder," said the captain, who always took the initiative with +extreme recklessness; "if it was a goin' to take ten to clear Sodom and +Germorrer, how many righteous men do you calkalate it 'ud take ter lift +the mortgage off'n this ere peninsheler, eh?" + +Bachelor Lot was unusually thoughtful. + +"Heh!" said he, in his thin drawl. "The Lord knew he was seafe +enough--knew he'd a been seafe enough if he'd a said tew; knew he'd a +been seafe enough if he'd a said eone, for there's his own statement to +the effect--heh!--that there wasn't a righteous man eanywhere, no, not +eone." + +"Not much leeway, that's a fact, Bachelder," said Captain Sartell, who +had an embarrassed way, particularly when discussing subjects of a +religious nature, of twisting his powerful blonde head about, and +swallowing very hard. "D----d little leeway, I must confess,--wall--all +the same for you and me, Bachelder." + +Bachelor Lot smiled a little. + +"Heh! What was it about that couple, Almiry (Grandma Keeler) was tellin' +about--Antynias and Sapfiry--heh, Captain? What streuck 'em eany way? It +wasn't because they went out o' meetin', was it? I think it would be a +satisfaction to the company, Captain, if you would relate the +circumstance." + +The brave and honest captain craned his neck about with several hard +gulps. + +"Wall, to tell the truth, Bachelder, I ain't quite so well posted with +the Old Testament as I be with the New, but," he continued, resolutely, +"if it would be any favor to the company--as near as I calkalate, this +ere Antynias heered that the Lord was a goin' by, and, as near as I +calkalate, he clim' up in a tree to see him pass." The captain writhed +fearfully, but did not flinch, "And, as near as I calkalate, he got on to +a rotten limb, and it let him down. That is," he remarked, with +concluding agony, "as near as I calkalate." + +"Heh! yees, much obleeged, I'm sure," said Bachelor Lot. "I, heh! I +recall the anecdote now, perfectly, but wheere--wheere was Sapf_i_ry?" + +"Wall," the captain gave a gulp that actually brought the tears to his +eyes; "as near as I calkalate, Sapf_i_ry was under the limb." + +"Certainly," said Bachelor Lot; "certainly! and a veery unfortunate +poseetion for Sapf_i_ry it was, too. I weesh you would be so kind as to +eenform the company in what part of the Sacred Writ this little anecdote +is recorded, Captain, as I for one should very much leike to look it up." + +Captain Sartell took a determined step forward. "Look y' here, +Bachelder," said he; "I don't want no hard words betwixt you and me, for +there never has been. But a man's word is a man's word, and a man's +friends had ought to stick by it, and I want you to understand that, on +this ere point, I ain't agoin' to have no lookin' up." + +"Heh!" Bachelor Lot smiled and nodded his head, cheerfully. "I'd be +willing to waeger my life, Captain, that if anybody's made a mistake on +this point--heh--it ain't you." And with this amicable conclusion, the +two stars withdrew. + +George Olver sometimes rose in meeting and made a few remarks indicative +of a manly spirit and much sound common sense. He was very fond of +Rebecca, that was plain. Her continued indifference to him made him sore +at heart, and the people in Wallencamp suggested that on this account he +was more serious than he would otherwise have been. + +As for Rebecca, they said she had given up "seekin' religion," and had +returned to the world. She did not rise for prayers any more, and she did +not "lead the singin'" any more. And it was true that she seemed to me to +have changed, somehow. I knew that she was as girlishly devoted to me as +ever, as thoughtful as ever to please me. One Saturday morning, knowing +that I had letters in the West Wallen Post Office, which I was anxious to +get before Sunday, she walked the whole distance alone to get them, and +sent them up to me by one of the school children, so that I should not +know who went after them. She was careful lest I should notice any change +in her. But I caught a reckless, mocking gleam in her eyes, at times, +that had never shone there when I knew her first. She associated more +with the "other girls," now. I heard her talking and laughing with them +in as loud and careless a tone as their own. She even whispered and +laughed in the evening meetings. And this, after all the earnest, serious +discourse I had had with her, the "refining," "elevating" influences I +had tried to throw around her, having first taken her so graciously under +my wing! She knew what belonged to agreeable manners, and the advantage +of paying a graceful obedience to the dictates of one's moral sense! +Something must be very innately wrong in Rebecca, I thought, something I +Had not hitherto suspected, else why should she fail in any degree under +so admirable a method! + +"My dear," I said to her: "I am often tempted to do wrong--especially +because my life has been hitherto so vain and thoughtless--but, having +resolved to struggle with temptation, and to repel my own selfish +inclinations, I will not be content until I come off conqueror; I will +not fall out or loiter by the way; I have trials and perplexities, but I +will not submit to them, nor be driven from my purpose. Now, are you +struggling to resist the little temptations that come to you day by day? +Are you striving to make the very best of yourself, Becky?" + +I knew how easily I could move Rebecca, either to laughter or tears, so I +was not surprised to see her lip tremble, and her eyes fill; but I was +surprised at the look of intense anguish, almost of horror, that came +into her face. I had not supposed that she was capable of such strong +emotion, and I marvelled greatly, what could be the cause. + +"Oh," she said; "you don't know, teacher, you don't know! It never seemed +so bad before I knew you. I was different brought up from you, and I +loved you, and when I knew, oh, then I could die, but I couldn't tell +you! Oh, you wouldn't kiss me again, ever, if you knew; and I wish you +wouldn't, for it hurts, it hurts worse than if you didn't!" + +Rebecca had turned very pale, and drew her breath in long gasping sobs. + +"Baby!" I said reassuringly, stroking her hair; "I don't believe you have +done anything very wrong." But Rebecca drew away from me. + +"You don't know," she said. "I was brought up different--and it was +before you came, and I never knew that, what you told me about not +trusting people. I thought it was all true, and oh!--there ain't anybody +to help! Oh, I wish I was dead! I wish I was dead!" + +"Rebecca," I said, a little frightened, and convinced that the girl had +some serious trouble at heart. "Tell me what the trouble is? Has any one +deceived you? And why should any one wish to deceive you, child?" + +Rebecca only moaned and shook her head. + +"But you must tell me," I said; "I can't help you unless you do." + +She drew herself farther away from me, with only these convulsive sobs +for a reply. I did not attempt to get nearer to her, to comfort her as it +had been my first impulse to do. She had repulsed me once. "You are +nervous and excited, my dear," I decided to say; "and something of little +consequence, probably, looks like a mountain of difficulty to you. At any +rate, when you get ready to confide in me, you must come to me. I shall +not question you again." + +So I left her, less with a feeling of commiseration for her than with a +deep sense of my own pressing burdens and responsibilities. + +I had another ex-pupil (Rebecca had been out of school for several +weeks), who was a source of considerable anxiety to me--Luther Larkin. He +had ceased coming to the Ark to sing with the others. He had not played +on his violin since that first night when the string broke. + +I heard that he had gone to New Bedford; and it was a day or two +afterwards that, coming out of the school-house after the meeting, I saw +him standing on the steps alone. I knew that an escort from among the +Wallencamp youths was close behind me. I hastened to put my hand on +Luther's arm. + +"Will you walk home with me?" I said, looking up in his face and smiling. +I knew that the face lifted to his then was a beautiful one, that the +hand resting on his arm was small and daintily gloved, unlike the bare +coarse hands of the Wallencampers. I knew that my dress had an air and a +grace also foreign to Wallencamp, that a delicate perfume went up from my +garments, that my voice was more than usually winning. I experienced a +dangerous sense of satisfaction in the conquest of this unsophisticated +youth--a conquest not wholly without its retributive pain and +intoxication. + +I felt the Cradlebow's arm tremble as we walked up the lane. + +"I have a little private lecture to give you, Luther," I said. "Of course +you have been very much absorbed in your own affairs lately, but is that +an excuse for forsaking your old friends entirely? Especially if you are +going away. Are you going away?" + +"Yes," said Luther. + +"When?" I asked. + +"In April," he answered briefly. + +[Illustration: GRANDMA KEELER INTRODUCES THE NEW TEACHER. +Scene from the Play.] + +"And weren't you ever coming to see me, again?" I murmured with designing +soft reproach. + +"I was coming up by and by, to say good-bye," said Luther, brokenly. + +"Only for that?" I questioned, and sighed with a perfect abandonment of +rectitude and good faith to the selfish gratification of that moment. + +"What else should I come up for?" he exclaimed, breaking out into sudden +passion. "Except to tell you what you don't want to hear; that I love +you, teacher, I love you." + +"Oh, hush!" I cried with a little accent of unaffected pain. "It isn't +right for me to let you talk to me in that way, Luther. Oh, don't you +see? you're nothing but a boy to me!" + +"That's a lie!" the boy replied, with face and eyes aflame. "And because +I am poor, and because I am more ignorant than you, you make it an excuse +to trifle with me--and you look only to the outside, but you know I have +lived as long as you--a boy's head, you mean," he went on with choking, +fiery bitterness. "And it may be, and you are very kind, God knows! But I +can tell you one thing, teacher, it isn't a boy's heart for you to put +your foot on!" + +It was not a boy's strength in the quivering frame and tense, drawn +muscles. In his rare passions I admired Lute Cradlebow. + +The greater meekness and patience which always followed, I attributed to +a lack of perseverance or a too easy abandonment of purpose. + +"I hope you will be very happy all your life through, teacher;" he said, +as we stood at the door of the Ark; and he spoke very gently, and as +though he was going away then forever. Madeline had the key; she and her +companions had lingered at the school-house, as usual, after the meeting. +I murmured something about being very happy to have such a kind, true +friend; that I should probably leave Wallencamp before he went to sea, +but I hoped he would write me about his wanderings over the world, and I +should always be happy to answer and give him my sisterly advice. + +Luther continued, thoughtfully, almost smiling:-- + +"You remember that night, teacher, ever so long ago it seems, before I +knew you, when the boys dragged me into the Ark and I kissed you? I've +always kissed the girls when they come home from anywhere, and I never +thought, you know. I didn't mean anything by it." + +"Yes," I said. I think I must have looked amused. Luther answered the +laugh in my eyes with quiet appreciation. + +"Well, teacher," he said; "I should like to kiss you just once to-night, +and mean it." + +"That's a remarkable request," I said; "to come from my oldest pupil; but +it is my privilege to bestow, just once. If you will bend down from your +commanding height, and put yourself in an humble and submissive attitude +before me." + +The Cradlebow knelt on the doorstep. I would have stooped to his +forehead, but he put up his arm with an extremely boyish, inoffensive +gesture, almost with a sob, I thought, to draw me closer. + +I would have had that kiss as passionless as though it had been given to +a child. The Cradlebow's breath was pure upon my cheek--but I was +compelled to feel the answering flame creep slowly in my own blood. + +"Never ask me to do that again!" I exclaimed, in righteous exculpation of +the act. "Never!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK. + + +Up from the beach, lightly tripping, capacious reticule in hand, came +Mrs. Barlow to spend the day at the Ark, unexpectedly! The inspired and +felicitous customs of the Wallencampers admitted of no rude surprises; +rational joy, alone, pervaded the Ark at this matutinal advent. + +Mrs. Barlow, Lovell's mother, presented a charmingly antique +appearance--antique not in the sense of advanced years, but the young +antique--the gay, the lively, the never-fading antique. She had even a +girlish way of simpering and uttering absurdly rapturous exclamations. +Her face might have struck one at first as being of a strangely elongated +cast, but for its extreme prettiness and simplicity of expression. Her +nose was marked by a becoming scallop or two. Her eyes were of the ocean +blue. Her dark hair was arranged, behind, in the simplest and most +compact manner possible but, in front, art held delightful play. There, +it was parted, slightly to the left, over a broad, high forehead, and +disposed in braids of eight strands each, gracefully and lovingly looped +over Mrs. Barlow's ears. + +The tide of cheerful converse was at its full when I came from school to +lunch. Amid this preponderance of female society, my friend, Grandpa, +shone with an ardent though faintly tolerated light, giving to the lively +flow of the discourse, an occasional salty and comprehensive flavor, +which dear Grandma Keeler held herself ever in calm and religious +readiness to restrain. + +I listened, intensely interested, to the conversation, quite content, for +my own part, to keep silence; but I caught Mrs. Barlow's eye fixed on me +as if in abstracted, beatific thought. Soon was made known the result of +her meditation. She had concluded that I was incapable of descending to +subjects of an ordinary nature. Leaning far forward on the table, with a +smile more ecstatic than any that had gone before, she directed these +words at me in a clear, swift-flowing treble:-- + +"Oh, ain't it dreadful about them poor delewded Mormons?" + +"Why?" I exclaimed, involuntarily, blinded by the absolute unexpectedness +of the question, and not knowing, in a dearth of daily papers, but that +the infatuated people alluded to had been swallowed up of an earthquake, +or fallen in a body into the Great Salt Lake. + +"Oh, nothing!" said Mrs. Barlow; "only I think it's dreadful, don't yew, +settin' such an example to Christian nations?" + +"Dreadful! certainly!" I murmured, with intense relief, and allowed my +glasses to drop into my lap again. + +Thus the conversation turned to subjects of a religious nature. + +"Oh, I think it's so nice to have direct dealin's with the Almighty; +don't yew?" said Mrs. Barlow. "Oh, I think it is! Brother Mark Barlow +says he can hear the Lord speakin' to him jest as plain as they could in +Old Testament times; oh, yes, jest as plain exactly; Abraham and all +them, yew know! And Brother Mark Barlow generally means to go to Sunday +school. He says he thinks it's so interestin'; but it's sich an awful +ways. Don't yew think it is? Oh, yes, it's a dreadful ways! He don't +always. But yew remember that Saturday we had sich a dreadful storm? oh, +wasn't it dreadful! Oh, yes! Well, the next day, that was Sunday, Brother +Mark Barlow said he heard the Lord sayin' to him, jest as plain as day; +'Mark Barlow, don't you go to Sunday school to-day! You stay home and +pick up laths!' and he did, and oh, he got a dreadful pile! most ten +dollars worth; but I think it's so nice, don't yew, to have direct +dealin's with the Almighty!" + +The Barlows, by the way, were regarded with a sort of contemptuous +toleration by the Wallencampers in general, on account of their thrift +and penuriousness, the branded qualities of sordid and unpoetic natures. + +I was sorry when the brief hour of the noon intermission was over, and I +had to go back to school. + +But at night the Ark became alive. Soon after supper, Mr. Barlow arrived +and "Brother Mark Barlow" and Lovell. Then the little room began to fill +rapidly. We adjourned to the "parlor" and the melodeon. + +"Oh, I do think them plaster Paris picters are so beautiful, don't yew?" +said Mrs. Barlow, enraptured over a statuette or two of that truly vague +description, which adorned the mantelpiece. But she became perfectly +lost in delight when Lovell began to sing. + +Lovell's was the one execrable voice among the Wallencampers--if anything +so weak could be designated by so strong a term--and his manner of +keeping time with his head was clock-like in its regularity and painfully +arduous; yet, out of that pristine naughtiness which found a hiding-place +in the hearts of the Wallencamp youth, Lovell was frequently encouraged +to come to the front during their musicals, and if not actually beguiled +into executing a solo, was generously applauded in the performance of +minor parts. There was comfort, however, in the reflection that if Lovell +had indeed possessed the tuneful gift of a Heaven-elected artist, he +could not have been so supremely confident of the merit of his own +performances, nor could his mother have been more delighted at their +brilliancy. She sat with hands clasped in her lap and gazed at her manly +offspring. + +"Oh, I do think it's so beautiful!" she murmured occasionally to me, +aside. "Oh, yes, ain't it beautiful?" + +Once, she remarked in greater confidence; "Oh, he's dreadful wild!" + +"Lovell?" I inquired, with impulsive incredulity. + +"Oh, dreadful!" she continued. "I don't know what he'd ben if we hadn't +always restrained him. But somehow, I think there's something dreadful +bewitchin' about such folks. Don't yew?" + +"Very," I answered with vague, though ardent sympathy. + +"Oh, dreadful!" she responded. + +Meanwhile the perspiration stood out on Lovell's grave countenance, and +his head, like a laborious sledge-hammer, was swaying mechanically +backward and forward. + +"Sing bass, now, Lovell," said Mrs. Barlow; and the expression of awed +delight and expectancy on her face, as she uttered these words, was a +rebuke to all cynics and unbelievers of any sort whatever. + +"Yes'm, so I will, certainly," said Lovell; "so I will, and if I hadn't +got such a cold, I'd come down heavy on it too." + +"What do you think?" Mrs. Barlow went on in the same confidential aside +to me; "he's took it into his head that he wants to get married! Oh, yes, +he has really! and I think it's a wonder he never got set on it before. +But he never has so but what we could restrain him. But William and I, +we're beginning to think he might as well if he wants to. Oh, yes, I +think it will be so nice. Don't yew? I think it will be just splendid! +And I tell William, Lovell's wife shan't do nothing but set in the parlor +and fold her hands, if she don't want to; and she shall have a music, and +everything. When we built our new house, you know we used to live in that +little house that Brother Mark Barlow lives in now, oh, yes, and I think +it's so nice to have a new house, don't yew? I had 'em make the window +seats low on purpose, so that Lovell's children could sit on them! Oh, I +think it will be so pleasant, don't yew?" + +Mrs. Barlow turned her enraptured gaze on me. + +"Lovell's wife," I hastened to reply, toying with my glasses; "whoever +she may be, is certainly to be envied--and Lovell's children, too"--I +added, induced by that transcendently beaming smile; "who will have such +a broad window seat to sit on." + +Never an evening began in heartier fashion at the Ark. + +George Olver, standing next to Rebecca, rolled out a grand and powerful +bass. + +Lars Thorjon, the Norwegian, maintained a smiling silence, except when he +was giving utterance in song to his inspiring tenor. + +Madeline played the "music." + +I saw her wince sometimes, when the fine though untutored voices around +her took on a too wild and exuberant strain. The little woman's own voice +was exceedingly gentle and refined; more than that, it had a passionately +sweet, sad tone, a rare pathos. I used to wonder what there was in +Madeline's heart--what there had been in her life--to make her sing so. +Then I remembered how easy it was for her to get out of temper, and how +often she slapped the children, and I concluded that it was only a voice +after all, and not necessarily indicative of any inward sentiment or +emotion. + +And the mischievous Harvey Dole--could it be the same youth who stood +there now with tearful eyes, chanting his longings to be pure and +sanctified and heavenly. This merry youth had a predilection for those +religious songs which contained the deepest and saddest sentiment. + +"Now, what's the matter with you, Harvey?" said Emily Gaskell, who had +but just dropped in. "You know you'll go along hum to-night stunin' my +cats! You know what a precious nice time you're calculatin' to have, +about two months from now, up in my trees stealin' my peaches, you young +devil. 'Wash you from your sins!' Humph! Yes, you need it bad enough, +Lord knows! A good poundin', and boilin', and sudzin', you need--and a +good soakin' in the bluein' water over night, too." + +Emily's eyes sparkled with keen though good-natured satire. There was a +flood of crimson color in her cheeks, not entirely the effect of her +brisk walk in the open air. She had a spasm of coughing, which she +endured as though such discomforts had become quite a matter of course, +merely remarking when she had recovered herself sufficiently to speak:-- + +"Thar', that'll last me for one spell, I guess." + +"Won't you set, Emily?" said Grandma. + +"No," said Emily. "I can't. I jest come up to tell my man, there, to go +home! Levi is over from West Wallen, and wants to see him. Lord, I didn't +know you'd got a party, Miss Keeler!" she continued, glancing with an +irresistibly comical expression about the room. + +"Oh, no! we ain't got no party," said Grandma Keeler, pleasantly. "They +jest happened to drop in along." + +"Wall now, I should think there'd ben a shower and rained 'em all down at +once:" again surveying the occupants of the room with a comprehensively +critical air that was hardly flattering. + +"I don't see what on 'arth!" she went on. "Half the time you might +ransack Wallencamp from top to bottom, and you'd find everybody a'most +somewhere, and nobody to hum! It ain't much like the cake Silvy made last +week--she's crazier than ever--'Where's the raisins, Silvy?' says I--I +always make it chock full of 'em, and there wasn't one,--'Oh,' says +Silvy, 'I mixed 'em up so thorough you can't a hardly find 'em.' 'I guess +that's jest about the way the Lord put the idees into your head, Silvy,' +says I. 'Bless the Lord!' says that poor fool, as slow and solemn as a +minister." + +"We've been a singing" interposed Grandma Keeler in a voice that +contrasted with Emily's, like the flow of a great calm river with the +impatient fall of a cataract. "It seems a' most as though I'd been in +Heaven. They was jest a singin'--'The Light of the World is Jesus,' I +shall never forgit, when I was down to camp-meetin' to Marthy's Vin'yard +a good while ago--there was a little blind boy stood up on a bench and +sung it all alone; and it made me cry to see him standin' there with his +poor little white face, and eyes that couldn't see a' one of all the +faces lookin' up to him, a singin' that out as bold and free, and he did +pronounce the words so beautiful so as everybody could hear--I can hear +him a singin' of it out, now--'The Light of the World is Jesus.' And I +suppose we git to thinkin' that the light's in our eyes, maybe, or the +light's in the sun, or the light's in the lamp, maybe. But you might put +out my eyes,"--said Grandma Keeler, closing her eyes as she spoke, and +looking very peaceful and happy--"and you might put out the sun, and you +might put out the lamp, and say--'Thar', Almiry's all in the dark room, +she can't see nothin' now'--but the Light of the World 'ud be thar jest +the same, you couldn't put out the light--'The Light of the World is +Jesus.'" + +"Oh, I didn't know ye was havin' a meetin'," said Emily Gaskell, +mockingly. + +"No more we ain't, Emily," said Grandma Keeler. "We was jest cheerin' +ourselves up a little, singin' about home. Come you, now, and sing with +us": + + "We're goin' home, + No more to roam." + +With eyes still closed, with head thrown back, and a heavenly serene +expression on her face, Grandma began the refrain, while Madeline struck +the chords on the melodeon, and the singers took up the words with a +hearty cheer:-- + + "We're goin' home, + No more to roam, + No more to sin and sorrow; + No more to wear + The brow of care, + We're goin' home to-morrow." + +Then the chorus, "We're going home," joyfully repeated, died away at +last, more plaintively, "We're going home to-morrow." + +"Wall, I'm goin' home to-night," said Emily, and, as I looked up at her, +I caught the same mischievous gleam in her unsoftened eyes. "So strike up +Something lively now, and I'll waltz down the lane to it. 'Are your +windows open towards Jerusalem?'--Lord, can't you think o' something +warmer than that for this weather?" + +But the singers were going on gloriously: + + "Are your windows open towards Jerusalem? + Though as captives here a little while we stay + For the coming of the King in His glory, + Are you watching, day by day?" + +Emily tightened the shawl around her neck with a quick motion. In going +out, she took an indirect course through the room, purposely to pass by +where I was sitting. + +"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem?" said she, stooping and +whispering in my ear: "Dave Rollin's out there hangin' onto the fence one +side the bushes, and Lute Cradlebow the other, and they don't see each +other no more than two bats." + +"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem" was a favorite with the +Wallencampers. On this occasion they repeated it several times. Captain +Sartell and Bachelor Lot, who had been engaging in a game of checkers in +the little kitchen, left the board as the well-loved strains greeted +their ears, and came in to join the group. + +Grandpa had been consigned to the kitchen stove, with a corn-popper. I do +not think that he regretted being removed, somewhat from the more +inspiring scenes which animated the Ark. I was amused to follow, with my +ear, the old gentleman's progress in the successive stages of his +corn-shelling and corn-popping operations with certain contingent +misfortunes, as when he went into the pantry to look for a pan, and +brought down a large quantity of tin-ware clanging about his ears, and +rolling in all directions over the floor, while I immediately inferred +from the tones of his voice that he was enjoying a little unembarrassed +colloquy with the powers of darkness. Once, in his shuffling +peregrinations, he tipped over the little bench which sustained the +water-pail. A deep sigh of horror and despair escaped his lips, and was +followed by a "What the Devil!" borne in upon the song-laden air with +unmistakable force and distinctness. + +"For Heaven's sake, ma," said Madeline, looking up sharply; "what can pa +be a' doin??" + +"Oh," calmly said Grandma Keeler, "I guess he's only settlin' down." + +And with Grandma, indeed, the turmoils of this sublunary sphere implied +only a vast ultimate settling down. + +But if such deep rest came to Grandpa, it was only as a dream from which +he was soon to be rudely awakened. + +The sound of his footsteps had ceased. I knew that he was seated in his +chair by the fire, and I heard the long-handled popper shaken back and +forth upon the stove, at first as if moved by the power of a steadfast +purpose. But the sound grew fainter, the motions less regular. They were +several times desperately renewed, and then ceased altogether, so quickly +had Grandpa soared beyond the low vicissitudes of a corn-popping world. +Soon a burning smell arose. Then the door of the kitchen opened. Grandpa +was startled. I knew the catastrophe. The corn-popper with its contents +had been precipitated to the floor. Then I heard a courteous male voice, +with just a touch of suppressed merriment in it:-- + +"Never mind, Captain! small business for you, steering such a slim craft +as that, eh? On a red-hot, stove, too!" + +"Humph! Topmast heavier than the hull," replied Grandpa, accepting with +gratitude, in this extremity, the sympathy of the new-comer. + +The other gave a low laugh. + +"Never mind, Captain!" he repeated, "we'll have it slick here in a minute. +Let me take the broom. You've got it wrong side up. By Harry, we've got +the deluge _inside_ the Ark this time, Captain!" + +"Tarnal water-pail slipped moorin's," confessed Grandpa. + +Then followed a vigorous sound of corn rattling, and water swashing +against the sides of the room, and I knew that Mr. Rollin, the elegant, +was sweeping out the kitchen of the Ark. + +"I guess they's somebody else come," exclaimed Grandma, with hospitable +glee. "Wall, I declare for't. I guess I'll go out into my kitchen and git +that little no-back cheer. Seems to me as though we'd got all the rest on +'em in use, pretty much." + +"I'll go, ma," said Madeline. "Teacher'll be wanted to play now, and may +be she will? though she can't be got to do it for common folks." + +I did not enjoy playing on Madeline's melodeon. Any performances of that +kind which I had undertaken had been confined exclusively to an audience +of the Wallencampers. I had certainly never made an exception for the +amusement of the fisherman. But I flattered myself that there was no +trace of resentment in my tone when I said, "Sit still, Madeline, please, +I know where the chair is. Don't I, Grandma?" and was groping my way out +through the green curtained "keepin'" rooms, towards Grandma's culinary +apartment, thankful for a momentary escape from the heated atmosphere of +the "parlor," when I heard just behind me a voice of the most exquisite +smoothness:-- + +"Miss Hungerford, allow me." + +"Mr. Rollin!" I exclaimed, with an overwhelming sense of the +ludicrousness of the situation: "How dared you come through the room +where they were all sitting and follow me out here! Did Grandma tell you +that I had gone after a little no-back chair for you to sit on?" + +"She did," replied Mr. Rollin, with impressive gravity: "and I took it as +most divinely kind of you, too; though, if I might be allowed any choice +in the matter, I think I should be likely to assume a much more graceful +and more easeful and natural position in a chair constructed after the +ordinary pattern, Miss Hungerford, especially as after my exertions in +the kitchen I feel the need of entire repose." + +"But this is the only one left," I answered, with suppressed laughter. +"Do you think you can find it, Mr. Rollin?" + +"If you should leave me now," replied the fisherman; "I should have +positively no idea whither to direct my steps." + +"Then I shall be very happy to get it for you," I said. + +"But I could not think," he continued, "of allowing you to pursue your +way through this utter darkness to the extreme rear of the Ark alone. I +beg you to show me the way." + +I was not disposed to commit so gross an impropriety as to linger with +Mr. Rollin in "Grandma's kitchen," which we had reached, and through +whose broad, uncurtained windows the moonlight was pouring in with a +clear, fantastic radiance. + +"Isn't this glorious!" exclaimed the fisherman, in a tone nearly as +rapturous as Mrs. Barlow's own. "Oh, you don't think of going back now, +Miss Hungerford! After I've mopped the kitchen floor, and braved all +Wallencamp in its lair, and groped my way out through those infernally +black rooms, for the chance of having a few quiet words with you." + +Mr. Rollin's eyes were not snaky, nor his manner suggestive of dark +duplicity; yet I always felt a certain unaccountable discomfort while in +his presence, as though there was need of keeping my own conscience +particularly on the alert. + +I knew that the group in the parlor would be counting the moments of our +absence. + +"How can you ask me--" I began, in a tone of cheerful remonstrance, at the +same time readjusting my glasses to glance about for the little "no-back" +chair--"How can you ask me to stay out here talking with you, when you +know----" + +"Oh, I know." Mr. Rollin interrupted quickly. "I know how very thoughtful +and considerate you are for those people, Miss Hungerford. I know what +lofty ideas you have just now of consecrating yourself to the work of +refining and elevating the Wallencampers. I know how coolly you can fix +your eyes on a certain goal, and stumble indiscriminately over everything +that comes in your way. I know what a deucedly superior state of mind +you've gotten into. I know too about Miss B's school, and Miss L's +school, and the Seminary at Mount Blank, and the winters in New York." + +There was triumph at last, in Mr. Rollin's tone. + +"You have taken pains to collect a great deal of information about me;" I +replied, virtuously concluding that I should disappoint the fisherman +more by not appearing vexed. + +"Is it strange?" he continued earnestly, with an unconscious parody on +his usually suave and insinuating manner. "You will allow, Miss +Hungerford, that you might strike one, at first, as not being exactly in +the ordinary line of home missionaries, that is, as not having been +trained for the work, exactly; a sort of novitiate, I mean--confound it! +You will allow that you might strike one at first, as being deucedly new +In that _rôle_." + +After this, I smiled with a faintly malicious sense of satisfaction at +Mr. Rollin's confusion, though I felt that I had been cut to the heart. + +"And when I spoke about having found out about your past life," he went +on, struggling desperately with his lost cause; "I did not mean that +there was anything bad, you know; only that you sought pleasant +diversions in common with the rest of humanity, and enjoyed the +Heaven-born instinct of knowing how to have a good time, and weren't +always the ambitious recluse and religious devotee that you choose to be +just at present; though I've sometimes wished that I could turn saint so +all of a sudden, but I couldn't," added the fisherman, despondently; "if +I should go to the ends of the earth in that capacity, nobody'd take any +stock in me, whatever; and, after all, what does it amount to? + +"This isn't what I meant to say, any of it;" he sighed angrily. "It's +just what I meant _not_ to say--confound it! You've done gloriously; +you've played the thing through to perfection; you've made an inimitable +success of it; but Wallencamp doesn't offer scope wide enough for your +powers. I offer you a field hitherto untilled, left to the wandering +winds and the birds of the air, extensive enough in its forlorn iniquity, +I assure you, to engage your patient and continued efforts. It may prove +productive of good results yet, who knows? Is it my fault that I didn't +know you sooner?" + +I did not mistake the change in Mr. Rollin's tone, nor the meaning in his +eyes, but as we stood there by the window, in the full moonlight, I +caught a glimpse of another face outside, vanishing up the lane--almost +like a ghostly apparition it seemed to me--the handsome pale young face. +I guessed instinctively whose it was, and suffered a pang of sharp, +unconfessed pain, while the fisherman was murmuring in my ear. + +"Don't speak to me again of missions!" I cried with the strong and tragic +air of consciously blighted aspirations. "I shall go on no more missions, +great or small. It is very true what you have tried so delicately to +intimate. I was not fit for the work I undertook to do. I have only made +mistakes all the way along. Possibly I have been only 'playing a part.' +What does it amount to, indeed! What does it amount to!" + +"Heavens!" said Mr. Rollin; "play a part, by all means; never be sincere +in anything you do. I never tried it but once, and I've made a desperate +mess of it. Can't you understand that what I said was only in the purest +sort of self-defence? You weigh my words so nicely. Well, you are +considerate enough, God knows, of those dirty brats and ignorant +louts--coddling that girl, Rebecca, who is a good-hearted creature +enough, but not fit for respectable people to touch their hands to; and +associating with such conceited boors as that George Olver, and that +grinning clown, Harvey, and that poor fool, Lovell Barlow, and that +what-d'ye-call him--that fiddling young devil with the bird-like +name----" + +Mr. Rollin stopped suddenly. + +"You might make allowances for a man in a passion," he said; "instead of +dissecting his words in that cold-blooded way." + +"I had no notion of dissecting your words," I said, provoked into a +desperate honesty; "I believe them, as a whole, to be utterly false." + +"From the very beginning," said Mr. Rollin; "thank you; so I can begin +all over again; meanwhile,--you will forgive me? Imagine that I'm one of +those dirty little beggars that go to school to you. If one of them +should come to you and say that he was sorry?--" + +"I should only be intensely surprised," I said; "they never do such +things." + +"Then I have a superior claim on your clemency," said the fisherman; "for +I am sorry and humiliate my soul to the lowest depths of the +confessional." + +It was the voice of the plausible, easy-going fisherman again. + +My hand was on the latch. "I am not angry; I would rather be friends," I +said with averted face, as we were returning through the dark +"keeping-rooms." + +"When you get out of this realm of myths and missions, and general dread +and discomfort," said Mr. Rollin, "on to comprehensible soil again, where +ordinary sinners are sure of some sort of a footing,--and bad as a fellow +is he knows there are plenty more like him,--then I shan't appear to you +in such a deucedly poor light as I do now, a doubtful sort of pearl in a +setting of isolated cedars, with my beauty and my genius and my heavenly +aspirations all unappreciated, or made to descend as a greater measure of +condemnation on my devoted auburn head. Truly, I believe that an evil +star attends my course in Wallencamp. My own ideas seem strange to me. I +cannot grasp them. My language is wild and disconnected, I fancy, like +that of the early Norse poets. When I meet you in the world, I shall hope +to recover some of the old-time coherence and felicity of speech which I +remember to have heard practised among the world's people; and it isn't +long now, thank Heaven, before you'll leave Wallencamp behind you. When +you go home----" + +When I should go home, indeed! I had hardly dared to cherish the thought. +I stifled the rising flood of exultation in my breast--but how pale and +interesting I should look! And, then, I would describe Wallencamp to my +own loving friends as it really was, and what a lion they would make of +me! Had they not always lionized my virtuous efforts to the fullest +extent! + +My face must have been very happy in the dark. I felt even almost kindly +towards Mr. Rollin. We were at the last door. As we entered the lighted +room, Grandma's broad face began to beam with slow surprise, "Why," said +she; "where's the little no-back cheer?" + +Mr. Rollin's resources in such extremities usually bespoke a lifetime of +patient and adroit application, but now he hesitated. The accumulated +glory of years seemed likely to be wrecked on the phantom of a little +no-back chair. + +"Moonstruck? Eh, Mr. Rollin?" inquired Harvey Dole. + +The fisherman regarded Harvey with a smile of quiet and amused +sufferance. + +"Ah! Mrs. Keeler," said he, with a graceful bow in Grandma's direction; +"Mrs. Philander did me the honor when I came in, to ask me to stand up +with the singers at the melodeon; a position which I shall be most happy +to take, although I fear that my vocal powers are of an exceptionally +poor order." + +The fisherman turned over the leaves of the despised Moody and Sankey +hymnal for Madeline, was profoundly attentive while the singing was going +on, and made suave and affable remarks here and there during the +intervals; then glanced at his watch with an expression of +highly-affected concern, bade an elaborate adieu to the company, and +retired from the scene. + +"Oh, I think that Mr. Rollin is so elegant, don't yew?" said Mrs. Barlow. +"Oh, yes; I think he's so genteel!" + +"_I_ don't think so at all," said Lovell. "_I_ don't, certainly. _I_ +don't think so." + +"He _ain't_ got much voice;" said Mrs. Barlow, clasping her hands in +raptured appreciation of her matchless Lovell. + +Finally, Grandpa, with a haggard smile on his features, stumbled across +the little landing of the stairway, between the parlor and the kitchen, +bearing with him a pan of much scorched and battered pop-corn. + +"Oh, _ain't_ them beautiful!" arose Mrs. Barlow's reassuring cry. + +Grandma had already set an example to her guests by making a convenient +receptacle of her capacious lap, and pouring some of the corn into it, an +example which the fortunate scions of the skirted tribe, now arranged in +rows on one side of the room, followed, each in turn. Of the male species +on the other side of the room, Lovell happened to be first in line. As +the corn came nearer and nearer to him, he began to look about wildly, +and to cough. His legs trembled violently with the effort he was making +to keep them close together. He accepted the pan of pop-corn with a +gesture of feverish haste, and proceeded to pour the contents into his +lap, but, as he poured they disappeared, and the faster he poured the +faster they disappeared, and the more strenuous exertions he made to keep +his legs close together, the wider seemed to grow the chasm through which +the corn went rattling down on to the floor, until Lovell's eyes began to +whirl in their orbits and drops of sweat stood out upon his forehead. + +Harvey, who appreciated the situation and was bursting with a desire to +roar out his mirthful emotions, showed a kind heart above all, and turned +the tables nicely in poor Lovell's behalf. + +"Look here, Lovell!" he cried; "that's a pretty trick to play on us +fellows, you rascal! you'd better let up on that, now!" + +Lovell grasped at the idea as a drowning man might grasp at a good +substantial raft that should come floating down his way. + +"T-that's so," he stammered. "It is too bad, Harvey. It-t-t is, +certainly, but anything for a j-joke, you know. Here, take it yourself, +Harvey, t-take it; take it, quick!" + +And Lovell got down on his knees as though he would have rendered dumb +thanks to Heaven for his unexpected deliverance, and proceeded to gather +up the corn with glad alacrity. + +After this, the water was passed, and, at such times, it was always +comforting to consider how bountiful nature had been in this respect to +Wallencamp, and that the demand could never be quite equal to the supply. + +Then the company began to disperse with many hand-shakings and "Why don't +ye all drop into my house?" etc., etc. + +Lovell Barlow came back twice to shake hands with me; and returning the +third time, got lost, somehow, in the general confusion, and shook hands +very fervently with his mother, who was standing in the door. + +I heard one of the departing visitors exclaim: "Why, where's Lute? I +should a thought he'd a dropped in, sure!" + +And another answered: "Oh, he's got some new notion into his head, I +reckon! goin' on a cruise, may be!" + +Rebecca was going out with a girl companion, talking rather loudly. I was +moved to take her hand a moment, gently detaining her. She looked +exceedingly bright and pretty. Her physical beauty was perfect, yet I +believed that the soul was only half awakened in the girl. + +So as I held her hand a moment, with the others taking noisy leave about +us, I looked into her face with what she might have read as: "Weren't you +laughing rather loudly, my dear? I can see now that you are not so happy +as you would have people believe. Why not confide in me, and let me +straighten your difficulty out for you?" + +But Rebecca's eyes were downcast, and her cheeks crimson. She let her +hand slip passively out of mine, and passed on, without a word. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LOVELL "POPS THE QUESTION." + + +One morning, ere we had breakfasted at the Ark, Lovell Barlow, like some +new-fangled orb of day, was seen to surmount the ruddy verge of the +horizon. He bore a gun upon his shoulders, and advanced with a singularly +martial and self-confident tread. As he entered the Ark, he placed the +gun against the wall, and sat down and folded his arms, and looked as +though he could be brave without it. + +"Well, Madeline," said he, with a determined gaze fixed straight before +him on vacuity, and with a desperate affectation of spontaneity in his +tone--"Well, Madeline, mother and father have gone to Aunt Marcia's, _I_ +suppose to spend a week, _I_ suppose--ahem!--ahem!--_I_ suppose so." + +"You don't say so, Lovell!" exclaimed Madeline. "And what'll poor Robin +do now, Lovell? Oh, what'll poor Robin do now?" + +"Yes," said he gravely; "that's what _they_ thought, ahem! _They_ thought +they should stay a week, _they_ thought so, certainly." + +"Wall, I declar' for't, Lovell," said Grandma; "now's the time you'd +ought to have a wife. Jest to think how comf'table 'twould be fu ye, now, +instead of stayin' there all alone, if ye only had a nice little wife to +home, to cook for ye, and watch for ye, and keep ye company, and----" + +"_I_ think so," exclaimed Lovell, giving a quick glance backward in the +direction of his gun. "Certainly, ahem! _I_ think so. _I_ do." + +"Lookin' for game? Eh, Lovell?" inquired Grandpa. + +"Pa," said Grandma, solemnly: "I wish you'd put another stick of wood in +the stove." + +Grandpa was awake now, and a youthful and satanic gleam shone from under +his shaggy eyebrows; he glanced at me, too, as was his habit on such +occasions, as though I had a sort of sympathy for and fellowship with him +in his bold iniquities of speech. + +But the guileless Lovell interpreted not the deeper meaning of Grandpa's +words. + +"I think some of it, Cap'n," he answered unsmilingly, and then continued: +"It's been--ahem!--it's been a very mild winter on the--ahem!--I should +say on the Cape. It's been a very mild winter on the Cape, Miss +Hungerford." + +Lovell's nervous glance falling again on his gun, took me in wildly on +the way. + +I had been directing some letters that I expected to have an opportunity +to send that morning. + +"I beg your pardon," I said, looking up. "Yes, you don't often have such +mild winters on the Cape, Mr. Barlow!" + +"No'm, we don't," said Lovell, "not very often, ahem!" He moved his chair +a peg nearer the gun. "Quite a--ahem!--quite a little fall of snow we had +last night, Miss Hungerford." + +"Any deer tracks? Eh, Lovell?" inquired Grandpa. + +"Pa," said Grandma; "I wish you'd fill Abigail--seems to me she smells +sorter dry." + +"She ain't, for sartin', ma," replied Grandpa, giving the tea-kettle a +shake to verify his assertions; "and Rachel's chock full!" + +Grandma then gave Grandpa a meaning look, and put her fingers on her +lips. + +"Well, Cap'n, I saw more rabbit tracks," replied Lovell, innocently +amused at the ludicrousness of the old Captain's speech. "I did, +rather--ahem!--yes, I saw more rabbit tracks--ahem!--ahem!" He gave his +chair a desperate hitch gunward. "I don't suppose they ever do such a +thing, where you live, Miss Hungerford, as to go--ahem!--to go +sleigh-riding, now, do they, Miss Hungerford?" + +"Why, yes," I said; "they always do in the winter. I haven't been home +through the winter for a year or two past, but I remember what splendid +times we used to have." + +I was thinking particularly of a certain snow-fall, that came when I was +seventeen years old, and John Cable had just returned from College, with +a moustache and patriarchal airs. + +Some grinning recollections of the past were also floating through +Grandpa's mind. The look of reprehensible mirth was still in his eyes, +and he showed his teeth, which gleamed oddly white and strong in contrast +with his grizzled countenance. + +"I remember"--he began. + +"Pa," said Grandma, with an expressive wink of one eye, and only part of +her face visible around the corner of the doorway, through which Madeline +had already disappeared; "pa--I wish you'd come out here a minute, now--I +want to see ye." + +"Wall, wall, can't ye see me here, ma? What makes ye so dreadful anxious +to see me all of a sudden?" inquired Grandpa. But his face did not lose +its thoughtful illumination. "Wall, as I was a tellin' ye, teacher," he +went on; "I was only a little shaver then--a little shaver--and my father +had one of those 'ere pungs, as we used to call 'em, that he used to ride +around in--and he was a dreadful man to swear, my father was, +teacher--Lordy, how he would swear!----" + +"Pa!" said the great calm voice at the door; "I'm a waitin' for you to +come out, so't I can shet the door." + +"Wall, wall, ma, shet the door if ye want to, I've no objections to +havin' the door shet----and we had an old hoss, teacher. Lordy, how lean +he was, lean as a skate, and----" + +"Bijonah Keeler!" + +"Yis, yis, I'm a comin', ma, I'm a comin'." And wonderful indeed, I +thought must have been the tale, which, even under these exasperating +circumstances, kept Grandpa's face a-grin as he ran and shuffled towards +the door. + +The door was quickly closed behind him by other hands than his own, and +then I observed that Lovell's chair had been drawn into frightfully close +proximity to his gun. + +"I--I think it's pleasanter, that is--I--I sometimes think it's warmer +for t-t-two in a sleigh, than--a--'tis--for one, don't you, Miss +Hungerford?" said Lovell, and gasped for breath and continued; "Now, I +think of it, you--you wouldn't think of such a thing as going to ride +with me to-night, would you, Miss Hungerford? You--you wouldn't think of +such a thing, would you now?" + +"Why--if you are kind enough to invite me to go sleigh-riding with you, +Mr. Barlow?" + +"_I_ think so;" said Lovell, grasping his gun, and becoming immediately +pale, though composed. "Yes'm, _I_ think so, certainly, _I_ do." + +"Thank you, I will go with pleasure," I said. + +"Thank you, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell, rising hurriedly. "I wish you +a pleasant day--_I_ do, with pleasure, and I hope that nothing will happen +to prevent!" + +And Lovell marched back across the fields as valiantly as a man may, who, +on occasions of doubt and peril, takes the precaution to go suitably +armed. + +During the day the Wallencampers indulged in a mode of recreation, +suggestive of that unique sort of inspiration to which they not +unfrequently fell victims. + +They attached a horse to a boat, a demoralized old boat, which had +hitherto occupied a modest place amid the _débris_ surrounding the Ark, +and thus equipped, they rode or sailed up and down the lane. It proved a +stormy sea, and often, as the boat capsized, the air was rent with +screams of mock terror and yells of unaffected delight. + +Thus the youth of Wallencamp, yes, and those who heeded not the swift +decline of years, by reason of the immortal freshness of their spirits, +disported themselves. And I was not amazed, catching a glimpse through +the school-house windows of this joyous boat on one of her return voyages +up the lane, to see Grandma Keeler swaying wildly in the stern. + +Meanwhile, I managed to keep my flock indoors. But when, at four o'clock, +I took my ruler in hand to give the usual signal of dismissal, the +Phenomenon's heels had already vanished through the window, and the +repressed animal spirits of a whole barbaric epoch sounded in the whoop +with which the Modoc shot through the door. + +Finally, I, myself, rode up the lane in the boat. The path was well worn +by this time, and there was no danger of a catastrophe. It seemed to me a +novel performance enough, but I had not yet been to ride in Lovell's +sleigh. + +Lovell came very early, and preferred to wait outside until I had +finished eating my supper. Then, with that deep self-satisfaction which +predominated in my soul, even over its appreciation of the novel and +amusing, I donned my seal-brown cloak, and stepping out of the door, +gathered up my skirts, and smiled at Mr. Lovell with a pair of seal-brown +eyes, and was not surprised to hear him ejaculate, coughing slightly; +"Ahem! _I_ think so, certainly, yes'm, _I_ think so; _I_ do." + +Lovell's was the only sleigh in Wallencamp, and, as he informed me, it +was one that he had himself constructed. It had, indeed, already +suggested to my mind the workings of no ordinary intellect. Perhaps its +most impressive features were its lowness and its height--the general +lowness and length of its body, into which one could step easily, the +floor being covered with a carpet of straw, suggesting field-mice; and +the unusual height to which it rose in the back, being surmounted by two +glittering knobs, like those on the head-board of an old-fashioned +bedstead. Half-way down the back of this imposing structure the arms or +wings sprouted out, giving to the whole the appearance of an immense +Pterodactyl, or some other fossil bird of fabulous proportions, and +Effectually shutting in the occupants of the sleigh from any +Contemplation of the possible charms of the scenery. The seat was made +very low, and it was, perhaps, on this account that the horse seemed so +abnormally high. It was a white horse, and from our lowly position, there +seemed to be something awful and shadowy in the motions of its legs. The +red of sunset had not gone out of the sky when we started, and a pale +young moon was already getting up in the heavens, but we could see +neither fading sky nor rising moon, nor rock, nor tree, nor snowy +expanse, naught but the gigantic hoof-falls of our phantom steed. + +Being thus hopelessly debarred from any communication with external +nature, and fearing to give myself up to my own thoughts, which were of a +somewhat dangerous character, I endeavored to engage my companion in +lively and cheerful converse by the way; but he was in a position of +actual physical suffering, for the reins were short--too short, that is, +to form a happy connecting link between him and the horse, and poor +Lovell was obliged to lean forward at an acute angle in order to grasp +them at all. Whenever the ghostly quadruped made a plunge forward, as he +not unfrequently did, Lovell was thrust violently down into the straw, +and throughout all this he comported himself with such firm and hopeless +dignity that, with the respect due to suffering, I was moved to witness +the struggle, at length, with silent commiseration. Once, having kept his +seat for a longer time than usual, Lovell said:-- + +"I'll give you a riddle, Miss Hungerford, _I_ will. Ahem! 'Why--why does +a hen go around the road,' Miss Hungerford?" + +I posed my head in an attitude of deep thought. + +"Because," Lovell hastened to say; "because she can't go across--no, that +wasn't right--why--ahem! why does a hen go _across_ the road, Miss +Hungerford?" and the next instant he was wallowing in the straw at my +feet. + +My soul was filled with unutterable compassion for him. + +"Because," I ventured, when Lovell reappeared again, affecting a tone of +lively inspiration: "because she can't go around it?" + +"You--you've heard of it before!" gravely protested Lovell. + +"I confess," said I, "that I have. It used to be my favorite riddle." + +"It--it used to be mine, too," said Lovell. "It _used_ to be, Miss +Hungerford--ahem! It _used_ to be--You--you couldn't tell what I was +thinking of when I--ahem--when I started from home to-night, now, could +you, Miss Hungerford?" said Lovell, at length. + +"I'm sure I couldn't, Mr. Barlow," said I: "but I hope it was something +very agreeable." + +"But it wasn't," said Lovell; "that is, not very, Miss Hungerford; ahem! +not very. I was--I was--ahem! I was thinking of it, you know, of--of such +a thing as getting married, you know." + +"I hope," said I, cheerfully, after a pause; "that as you consider the +subject longer, it will be a less painful one to you." + +"I hope so, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell. "Ahem! I hope so, certainly;" +but there was little of that sanguine quality expressed in his tones. + +The great white horse made another plunge forward, and Lovell recovered +himself with a desperate effort. + +"What should you think now, Miss Hungerford," he continued, moistening +his parched lips; "if I should do such a thing as to--ahem!--as to speak +of such a thing as--ahem!--as something of that sort to you, now, Miss +Hungerford? Now, what should you think of such a thing? now, really?" + +"I should think you were very inconsiderate," I said, "and would probably +regret your rashness afterwards." + +"_I_ think so," said Lovell; "ahem! _I_ think so, Miss Hungerford; _I_ +do, certainly." + +After this it seemed as though a weight had been lifted from Lovell's +mind. He kept his seat better. His was not a buoyant spirit, but there +was, on this occasion, an air of repressed cheerfulness about him such as +I had never before seen him exhibit. I tried to think that it was a +joyous mental rebound from the contemplation of those dark riddles which +trouble humanity, "Why does the hen go across the road," etc. + +After a brief pause, Lovell said; "You--you wouldn't mind if I should +sing a little now, now would you, Miss Hungerford?" + +I assured him that I should be very glad to have him do so, and he sang, +I remember, all the rest of the way home. At the gate, I thanked him for +the ride and its cheerful vocal accompaniment, and Lovell said; "Do you +like to hear me sing, now? Do you--do you, really, now, Miss Hungerford?" +and turned away with a smile on his face to seek his home by the sea. + +But Lovell was not long lonely, for, in less than a week, his father and +mother returned from their visit at Aunt Marcia's and brought to Lovell a +wife. + +Mrs. Barlow herself informed me that "it was an awful shock to him, at +first, oh, dreadful! but he'd made up his mind to get married, and he'd +never a' done it in the world, if we hadn't took it into our own hands. +She was a good girl, and we knew it, and Lovell wasn't no more fit to +pick out a wife, anyway, than a chicken, not a bit more fit than a +chicken!" + +This girl lived in the same town with Aunt Marcia, and was confidently +recommended by her to Lovell's parents as one who would be likely to make +him a wise and suitable helpmeet, and was, indeed, an uncommonly fair and +wholesome looking individual. She had a mind, too, whose clear, practical +common sense had never been obscured by the idle theories of romance. She +was pure and hearty and substantial. She was neither diffident, nor slow +of speech, nor vacillating. She came, at the invitation of Lovell's +parents, to marry Lovell, and if he had refused, she would have boxed his +ears as a wholesome means of correction, and married him on the spot. + +So Lovell's destined wife was brought home to him in the morning, and in +the afternoon of that same day the connubial knot was tied. + +Half an hour after the arrival of the bride, it was known throughout the +length and breadth of Wallencamp, to every one, I believe, save Lovell +himself, who was gathering driftwood a mile or two down the beach, that +Lovell was going to be married! + +At three o'clock P.M., Brother Mark Barlow was despatched to West Wallen +for a minister. + +Small scouts had been sent out to watch, where the road from the beach +winds into the main road, and when word was brought back that "Mark had +gone by," the Wallencampers proceeded to make all due preparations; and +soon might have been seen winding in a body towards the scene of +interest. + +The small paraphernalia of invitations and wedding cards were unknown in +Wallencamp. The Wallencampers would have considered that there was little +virtue in a ceremony of any sort, performed without the sanction and +approval of their united presence. + +In regard to the particular nature of this entertainment, there was some +snickering in the corners of the room, but the general aspect was +funereal. + +The season during which, with Lovell at one end of the room, and the +bride at the other, we sat waiting the arrival of the minister, was as +solemn as anything I had ever known. + +I made a congratulatory remark, in a low tone, to Mrs. Barlow, who sat at +my side with her hands clasped gazing first at Lovell and then at the +bride; but I was forced to experience the uncomfortable sensation of one +who has inadvertently spoken out loud in meeting. No one said anything. + +The helpless snicker which started occasionally from Harvey Dole's +corner, and was echoed faintly from other quarters of the room, only +heightened, by, contrast, the effect of the succeeding gloom. + +The bride was perfectly composed, with a high, natural color in her +cheeks, and an air of being duly impressed with the importance of the +occasion. + +She had assumed a large white bonnet, though I do not think that she and +Lovell took so much as a stroll to the beach after the ceremony--and her +plump and shapely hands were encased in a pair of green kid gloves. She +gazed thoughtfully, at each occupant of the room in turn, not omitting +Lovell, who never once stirred or lifted his eyes. + +Mr. William Barlow was silently passing the water, when Brother Mark +arrived with the minister. + +That grave dignitary advanced with measured tread to a small stand, +draped with a long white sheet, that had been prepared for him in the +centre of the room. + +He took off his gloves, and folded them; he took off his overcoat, and +laid it on the back of a chair; and if he had then reached down into his +pockets and taken out a rope, and proceeded to adjust a hanging-noose, +his audience could not have shown a more ghastly and breathless interest +in his performance. + +"Will the parties"--his sonorous voice resounded through the awful +stillness--"Will the parties--about--to be joined--in holy +wedlock--now--come forward?" + +As Lovell then arose and walked, with an automatic hitch in his legs, +across the room to his bride, there was about him all the stiffness and +pallor of the grave without its smile of peace. + +"Lovell and Nancy"--arose the deep intonation--will you--now--join hands? + +It was a warm strong hand in the green kid glove. Its grasp might have +sent a thrill of life through Lovell's rigid frame, for when the minister +inquired: + +"And do you, Lovell, take this woman?" etc., etc. + +Lovell bent his body, moved his lips, and replied in a strange, far-away +tone, "Yes'm, _I_ think so. _I_ do, certainly." + +But when the question was put to the bride, she, Nancy, promised to take +Lovell to be her wedded husband, to love and cherish, yes, and to cleave +to, with a round, full "I do," that left no possible room for doubt in +the mind of any one present, and seemed to send back the flood of frozen +terror to Lovell's veins. + +Lovell and Nancy were pronounced man and wife, and Nancy then divested +herself of her bonnet and gloves, and joined in the festivities which +followed with a hearty good-will, that proved her to be quite at home +among the Wallencampers, and won at once their affection and esteem. The +manner, particularly, in which she carried beans from her plate to her +mouth, gracefully balanced on the extreme verge of her knife, as an +adroit and finished work of art, provoked the wonder and admiration of +all those whose beans sometimes wandered and fell off by the way. + +And all the while, Mrs. Barlow's adjectives flowed in a full and copious +stream. + +"Oh, Lovell had been so wild," she said to me. "Oh, dreadful! But didn't +I think he looked like a husband now? So quick, too! Oh, yes, wasn't it +beautiful! Abbie Ann said he looked as though he'd been a husband fifteen +years!" + +After the ceremony, Lovell had taken his pipe and retired a little from +the active scenes which were being enacted around him. + +I saw him, as I was going away, standing in the door and looking out upon +the bay. I held out my hand to him, in passing. "I congratulate you, Mr. +Barlow," I said. Lovell put his hand to his mouth and coughed slightly +several times, as though he were striving to think of the polite thing to +say. Then he replied: "I--I--ahem! I wish you the same, Miss Hungerford, +_I_ do, certainly." + +Lovell was not so pale as he had been, but looked very serious and +pensive with his eyes fixed on the mysterious depths of the ocean. Lovell +had propounded riddles to me, but never before had I caught such a +glimpse of the deeply philosophical workings of his mind. + +"When you come to think of it, life--ahem--life is very uncertain, Miss +Hungerford." + +I replied that it was very uncertain. + +"And short, too, when you come to think of it. It's very short, too, Miss +Hungerford." + +"Oh, yes," I answered, "very." + +"Ahem! It was--it was dreadful sudden, somehow," said Lovell. + +"I suppose so, Mr. Barlow," I replied gravely; "great and unexpected joys +are sometimes said to be as benumbing in their first effects as griefs +coming in the same way." + +"_I_ think so," said Lovell. "Ahem! _I_ think so, Miss Hungerford, _I_ +do, certainly." + +Madeline joined me at the door, and I bade Lovell good-night. + +We clambered down the cliffs, walking a little while along on the beach +on our way homeward. + +It was growing dark, and the voice of the ocean was infinitely mournful +and sublime. No wonder, I thought, that life had seemed very short and +uncertain to Lovell as he stood in the door listening to the waves. + +What a little thing it seemed indeed, comparatively--this life with its +fears and hopes, its poor idle jests and fleeting shows. + +"And there shall be no more sea"--but this poor human soul that looks out +so blindly, and utters itself so feebly through the senses, shall live +for ever and ever. + +"Lovell's folks have picked out a good wife for him, anyhow," said +Madeline, briskly. "She's got a sight more sense than anybody _he'd_ ever +a' picked out." + +I crept back into my shell again. "I think so, certainly, Madeline," said +I, smiling at having unconsciously repeated Lovell's favorite phrase. + +"She'll make Lovell all over, and get some new ideas into him, I can tell +you," said Madeline. + +And though I did not stay in Wallencamp long enough to witness with my +own eyes the fulfillment of this prophecy, I know that it was abundantly +fulfilled--that Lovell soon recovered from the shock incident to his +wedding; that under the influence of his wholesome, active wife, and with +the weight of greater responsibilities, he grew more manly and admirable +in character, as well as happier, with each succeeding year; and that +Lovell's children--a joyful and robust group, adored of Mrs. Barlow, +senior--play on the "broad window seat" that looks off towards the sea. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN. + + +The fisherman had gone back to Providence. Rebecca, herself, returning +from the Post Office at West Wallen, brought me a letter distinguished by +its peculiar dashing chirography. As she handed it to me, the girl, whose +glance had been downcast of late, gave me a clear, straightforward, +unembarrassed look. + +"Do you like him, teacher?" she said. + +"Oh, I tolerate him, my dear," I answered. "We're not expected to +entertain a particular liking or dislike for everybody we know. There are +a great many people we must just simply tolerate." + +Rebecca's eyes fell again. "He won't harm you, teacher," she said; "for +you was used to folks. Sometime you might remember--I wasn't used to +folks." + +Occupied with my own thoughts, I passed lightly over the girl's slow, +trembling speech. She turned away, and I bent to the complacent perusal +of my letter. In my then composed and exalted frame of mind its contents +were not calculated to create in me either great emotion or surprise. And +not because the mere fact of the fisherman's absence had suddenly +rendered him more desirable in my eyes, but as the result of a recent +determination on my part to take an utterly worldly and practical view of +life, I resolved to give this letter the most careful and serious +consideration. + +The fisherman was of good family, and he was rich; these statements, +artistically interwoven by him with the lighter fabric of his letter, +were confirmed by an acquaintance of mine in Providence, of whom, in +writing, I had incidentally inquired concerning the gentleman. + +Respectability and wealth--items not supposed to weigh too heavily with +the romantic mind of youth--but I believed that I was no longer either +young or romantic. Moreover, I was slowly realizing the fact that +school-teaching in Wallencamp was not likely to furnish me the means for +making an excessively brilliant personal display, nor for carrying out to +any extent my subordinate plans for a world-wide philanthropy. + +"Perhaps, after all then," I argued; "it is only left for me to give up +my ideas about being unique and independent and sublime, 'take up with a +good offer,' and step resolutely, without any sentimental awe, into the +great orderly ranks of the married sisterhood." + +My life had been but a varied list of surprises to my family and +acquaintances, why not effect the crowning surprise of all, by doing +something they might have expected of me? + +Well, I had dreamed of higher things--but this was a strange, restless, +disappointing world. If one saw a plain path open before one's feet, one +might as well walk quietly along that way. There were thorns in every +path, and it would be nice to be rich, very rich. + +My thoughts wandered through a wide field of imaginary delight, +encountering only one serious obstacle in the way of their elysium, and +that was the fisherman himself considered as a life-long escort and +companion. + +In my youthful dreams, I had cherished, to be sure, a score of mild +Arthur Greys and stern Stephen Montgomerys. My Arthurs had all died of +inherited consumption. I had taken leave of their departing spirits under +the most thrilling circumstances, having frequently been married to them +at their deathbeds, and had lived but to plant flowers on their graves +and wear crape for them ever afterwards; and my dark-browed Stephen +Montgomerys had all gone to swell the avenging tide of righteous war, and +had been fatally shot, while I remained to shed tears of unavailing grief +over the locks of raven hair they left with me on the morning of their +departure. But to marry a real, live, omnipresent man--a man, with red +hair, sound lungs, and no wars to go to! My aspiring soul shrank from the +realistic vision. + +And all the while a tenderer vision would rise before my eyes, clothed +with its pitiful romance--the Cradlebow, like some sadly out-of-fashion +guest, arising unsolicited out of a half-forgotten dreamland, passing +indeed both the ideal strength of the warlike Stephen and the gentleness +of the saintly Arthur, but, alas! so crude, so unworldly, so ridiculously +poor! And the vision extended and then narrowed helplessly to a home in +one of the forlorn houses in Wallencamp by the sea, with its dingy walls +and bare floors, its general confusion of objects and misery, and my +lord's grand eyes obscured, perchance, behind clouds of tobacco smoke, +while I set the scanty table and fried the briny herrings. + +With a shudder for romance, I returned to the contemplation of wealth and +respectability; and took up graciously, once more, the briefly abandoned +idea of duty. + +I had often been told that it was my duty to accommodate myself to other +people's views. Perhaps I should accomplish my designs for +self-immolation, and thus, in one sense, effect my highest spiritual +good, by marrying the fisherman and accommodating myself to his +views--ah! but how could that be, I reflected, unsmilingly, when my views +were so infinitely superior to his! + +I wondered, for one thing, why he should have entertained, of late, such +an excessive dislike for Wallencamp and its inhabitants. The natural +beauty of Wallencamp had impressed me daily more and more, and the people +were harmless, to say the least. I thought he should have enjoyed them; +he had a humorous vein; he was not too snobbish; and he seemed of a +nature to wish to make himself generally agreeable to people; but for +these special objects of my care he had expressed only derision and +contempt, with often a touch of positive malice; and had not been able to +abstain from giving me a hard cut or two on my mission, barely avoiding +it in his letter, and rejoicing with what seemed to me an unwarrantable +warmth in the hope that I should soon quit forever the abominable place. + +Then, in my miserable short-sightedness, my thoughts wandered indirectly +to Rebecca. I wondered if she had taken to heart anything in the +acquaintance she was said to have had with Mr. Rollin, before I came to +Wallencamp, which had caused the change in her. I did not believe she +had. The girl was too artless and simple to have concealed so completely +the resentment she would naturally have cherished--too childish to have +borne it so silently. As far as the fisherman was implicated in the +affair, even if he had trifled a little for his own amusement with the +vague impulses, possibly the affections, of this unsophisticated girl, +the act was by no means unprecedented among people of wealth and +respectability. It was a diversion in which Arthur Grey and Stephen +Montgomery would not have indulged, perhaps, "but this," I mused, "is a +sadly commonplace sort of world, viewed in the broad daylight of wisdom +and experience (and with such penetrating rays I felt my own optics to be +only too wearily oppressed); we must give up our high ideals, take people +as we find then, and submit gracefully to the inevitable." + +Still I was in as much of a quandary as ever as to what I should choose +to consider the inevitable in my own path. It never occurred to me in +this dilemma to seek advice from the elder members of my own family. They +knew nothing really of my situation in Wallencamp, and even if they had +been informed more truthfully in regard to it, I thought they could +hardly be expected to appreciate the peculiarly trying circumstances in +which I was placed just at present. + +Mothers were excellent for mending gloves, taking ink stains out of white +dresses with lemon juice, etc., etc.; but there were certain exigencies +in the remote and exalted life of those who go on "missions" which their +humble though loving skill must ever fail to reach. + +I did write home, by the way, for more spending-money. I had been obliged +to send to Boston for a few of the latest novels, fresh ribbons, cologne +water, and various other articles indispensable to the career of a truly +devoted propagandist. I preferred my request no longer as the dependent +offspring seeking gifts from a fond and indulgent parent, but as the +solicitor of a mere temporary loan, until I should be able to draw on my +salary at the close of the term. + +One morning, having inured myself to extreme worldliness of soul and +begun a deliberately reckless response to the fisherman's letter, I +looked out through my window to see the Cradlebow trudging manfully down +the lane, with a grotesquely antiquated portmanteau in his hand, and the +general air of one who has started a-foot on a journey. + +With a singular readiness to be diverted, I found that the picture was, +somehow, not conducive to further worldliness of meditation; and when in +the evening, Mrs. Cradlebow came in to call, in her mantilla, the +impression thus made on my mind was inexpressibly deepened. + +Mrs. Cradlebow was not a frequent caller. She had almost earned among the +Wallencampers the direful anathema of "not being neighborly." + +She informed me, while the singers were gathered, as usual, at the Ark, +that Luther had gone to make farewell visits to his friends. He had +three married sisters living in different parts of the State. They had +children. The children were very fond of him, and he was going on such a +long voyage. Mrs. Cradlebow was looking beyond the singers, her eyes +shining clear and sad above the pathetic smile on her lips-- + +"And he says he shan't come back again until he comes to give me such +pleasure as I never dreamed of." + +Those words come to me now, either as part of the endless mockery of +life, or as strains of hidden music, deep and true, running ever beneath +the world's dull misinterpretation. + +Afterwards, the choir of voices in the room formed an effectual shield +for confidential conversation. + +"You don't know what a good boy he's always been to me, teacher," Mrs. +Cradlebow continued, with a manner unusual to her, I thought, as of one +seeking for sympathy; "so that I've learned to depend so much on him, +more, I think, than on anybody else. Some boys when they're growing up +so, they feel independent and they answer you back short, but the older +he grew, the gentler he was to me, always, and if he had any trouble, it +never made him cross to me; and I think it's harder to see anybody so +than if they was cross, for he's quick in ways, I know, but when things +go real hard against him, he's patient." + +"He ought not to know much about trouble yet," I answered hopefully, with +the consciousness of one who has fathomed all the mysteries of grief and +can yet speak gayly of the forlorn background. + +"He doesn't know enough about the world, I'm afraid," said Mrs. +Cradlebow, and her eyes, fixed on my face, seemed to me to be looking +gently into my inmost heart. "He expects so much, and he never looks out +for himself. I wish he'd be content to go fishing with the other +boys--they always come back in the autumn--and not want to sail so far." + +I was almost angry because of the embarrassment I felt under that clear +glance. + +[Illustration: THE MEETING IN THE SCHOOL-HOUSE. +Scene from the Play.] + +"Don't you think, Mrs. Cradlebow," I said nervously; "that young people +are never content until they find out the world for themselves?" It was +an interrogation, but it was sagely uttered. + +"I know, I know," she said. "Perhaps it's best he should go." She spoke +very quietly and with uncommon composure of demeanor. She withdrew her +eyes from my face, but the smile trembled on her lips, and I knew that +her heart was breaking over the words, for Luther was her darling. + +I wished, almost impatiently, for my own part, that it might all have +happened differently; that I might leave everything in Wallencamp just as +I had found it, so delightfully happy and peaceful it had seemed to me. +I could not bear, in looking back, to think of one face as wearing upon +it any unaccustomed grief. At all events, I felt that my thoughts had +been helplessly turned from their prescribed channel, and the fisherman's +letter remained from day to day still unanswered. + +Meanwhile, winter was vanishing at the Cape. As salient points in its +quaint and cherished memory, I recall the frequent clamming excursions, +when we rattled own to the beach, at low-tide, in a cart whose groaning +members lacked every element of elasticity. Often there were as many as +sixteen persons in one cart, and the same number of hoes and baskets--the +baskets being filled with small children as a means of keeping both them +and the children stationary. + +Grandma was always present on these occasions, and the hilarity of the +Wallencampers, as they were jounced and joggled over the stones, in a +manner which to some might have been productive of great bodily agony, +concealed, with them, no undercurrent of nervous dread or pain. They were +kind enough to regard the presence of the "teacher" as indispensable to +their complete enjoyment, while I was ready to congratulate myself that +my society alone was the object desired, for though I brought my +near-sighted vision to bear faithfully upon the sands, I never succeeded +in capturing a clam. + +I heard that Bachelor Lot had confided aside to Captain Sartell that +"Teacher'd ought to bring a hook and line. The clams 'ud go for it in a +minute if she'd only bring a hook and line;" and, stung by the unsheathed +sarcasm of this remark, I was accustomed afterwards to wander off towards +"Steeple Rock." The rock was accessible at low-tide, and from thence I +could watch the ocean on one side, and the clam-diggers on the other; +could see Grandma on her hands and knees, a dot of broad good nature +in the distance, always remaining apparently in the one place, and +always, somehow, getting her basket full of clams as she gradually sank +deeper and deeper into the briny soil; but no true Wallencamper ever +caught cold by soaking in the brine. + +I could distinguish Madeline wandering lightly about among the rocks, +scraping off mussels with her hoe; and the Modoc, the champion +clam-digger of all, spreading her tentacles here and there, and never +failing to come up with a bivalve. It was a picturesque scene, viewed +from the great rock; and when the tide began to sweep in again, George +Olver sent a piercing whistle along shore, to call the stragglers +together; clams, children, and all were loaded into the cart, and jostled +gayly homeward erased by the fresh sea breezes. + +For the chowder, which in due course of events arose to take its place +among the viands on the Ark board, I would leave it to that sacred and +tenfold mystery with which, to my mind, it was ever enshrouded. + + * * * * * + +I recall the exhibitions held at the school-house, confined exclusively +to the native talent of Wallencamp, at which the old and young were +assembled to speak pieces. + +It was then that Aunt Rhoda and Aunt Cinthia, matrons of portly frame and +perilous foothold, engaged in a metrical dialogue concerning the robbing +of a bird's nest, in which lively diversion they assumed to have +participated. And Bachelor Lot rendered "My beautiful Annabel Lee" with +unique effect; and Grandma Keeler spoke mysteriously though hopefully +of-- + + "Hope and Harnah + Double-decked schooner + Cap'n John Homer + Marster and owner + Bound for Bermudy." + +The strange effect produced upon me by the first of these rhetorical +entertainments is still as fresh in my mind as though it had been +yesterday, so luminous was the night with stars; so loud and prolonged +the preliminary blowing of the horn; so festive the appearance of the +school-house, loaded as it was with evergreens; so abnormal the +proportions of the stage, which had been extended to comprise nearly +two-thirds of the school-room. + +It comes to me again, the first shock of surprise at finding all +Wallencamp on the stage, Grandpa and I, alone, being left like ostracized +owls among the shrubbery of the auditorium. Our sense of isolation was +only intensified by hearing the sounds of mirth which proceeded from the +other side of the curtain, and seeing a foot or an elbow occasionally +thrust out into our own green though silent realm. + +Thrice Aunt Rhoda appeared before the curtain to proclaim in pregnant +tones, "We are now awaiting for Josiah and Annie." + +Josiah, by the way, had married a Wallencamp girl and taken her to West +Wallen to live, yet the two were ever faithful attendants at the +Wallencamp festivities. + +"Declaration" after "declaration" was announced by Aunt Rhoda, and as the +declaimers finished their parts, they descended to sit with us, until at +last the curtain was drawn aside, revealing Madeline, alone upon the +stage, seated at her "music." + +She opened the Hymnal, and struck the leading chord, mid straightway, +from the Wallencampers, all gathered now below, there arose a burst of +melody as it had been one mighty voice. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL. + + +Mr. 'Lihu Dole--Harvey's father--lay dying, and all the Wallencampers +were assembled in and about the house. + +It was night, and one was going out from among them to launch his lonely +bark on a deeper, more mysterious ocean than that whose moan came up to +them from behind the cedars. There was awe on their faces, and a touch of +terror, too, but above all there was a strange, childlike wonder. + +They had seen death before. It might come to them at any time, they knew. +Its spirit sounded in the dirges of the waves along the shore, yet, none +the less, for time or fate, or moan of solemn wave, grew this exceeding +mystery. + +Was it like a cold black flood, to die at night, and no stars shining--a +cold flood creeping more and more above the heart? Oh, the wonder on +those poor faces, if there might be, indeed, some fairer harbor lights +beyond death's tide, and gentler music lulling the dread surge, so that +the voyager, with untold joy at last, felt the worn boat-keel loosen on +the strand and drift off from this shore! + +Emily and Aunt Cinthia were alone in the room with the dying man. They +were his sisters. His wife had been dead for years. + +In the adjoining room sat a group of females, a single candle burning +dimly on a table in their midst. Grandma Bartlett was there, and Grandma +Keeler, and Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow. + +Occasionally, a whisper from one of these three pierced the gloom, a +whisper appropriately sepulchral in tone, but more penetrating than any +voice of buoyant life and hope. + +I sat in the door with Madeline, Rebecca on the step below, very still +and thoughtful. + +The men and the young people, for the most part, were waiting about +outside. + +I caught the low murmur of a discussion between Captain Sartell and +Bachelor Lot, who were sitting on the fence, and knew by the attitude of +the listeners gathered around them, that the subject was one of no +ordinary interest. I could not help wondering what those two argued +concerning death and the immortality of the soul. + +The tick! tick! tick! of the clock sounded with persistent distinctness +in the room where the women sat, and Grandma Bartlett sighed, and then +came the awful whisper:-- + +"Ah, death's vary sahd--vary sahd." + +Grandma Bartlett, superannuated as she was, was the most trite of the +Wallencampers. + +Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow accepted the lifeless phrase with something almost +like a smile of disdain in her magnificent eyes. + +"Oh, it's like everything else," she whispered. "It's a mixter! It's a +mixter!" + +Once the door of the little bedroom opened softly, and Emily appeared on +the scene. + +"He's got most to the end of _his_ rope," she said, dryly, in answer to +the inquiring faces lifted to her own. There was an unnatural brightness +in Emily's tearless eyes, and her tone was as sprightly as ever. + +"He don't see nothin', and he don't feel nothin', and he don't hear +nothin'," she continued; "and it's sech poor work a breathin', he's most +give that up, too. It might stop any minute and he not know it. Cinthy's +cryin'; I don't see nothin' to cry about. It'll storm before to-morrow, +likely--it's dark enough, Lord knows--and them east winds always hurt him +so. 'I don't know whether he's worse off, or better off, Cinthy,' says I, +'or whether he's off entirety. But I don't believe a righteous God'll +make poor 'Lihu suffer any worse than he has in the last ten weeks.' But +it's strange, all the time I was a' sittin' there by him, when he was +worst, it kept comin' up before me, jest as he was when he was a little +boy. I hadn't thought on him so for years, but it seemed jest as though +'twas back in New Hampshire, where we was born, a' playin' around the old +mill again. Him and me was the youngest, we was always together, and I +couldn't 'a' called him up so before me, to save me; but there he was, as +plain as life, with his little blue checked apron on, a skippin' along +towards me over the logs, and his eyes a dancin', and the wind a blowin' +his hair out; and all the while I couldn't help a knowin' that 'Lihu was +a man grown, a dyin' there before me on the bed. + +"'Seems as though a man that's been a wearin' out as long as he has had +ought to die easier, Cinthy,' says I. 'It's pretty hard to have forty +years' consumption, and then go off with a fever,' 'We can't question the +Lord's doin's,' says Cinthy. But for all that, she wouldn't stay in the +room to see him. He couldn't ketch his breath and he was as crazy as a +loon. Lord, how he worried! All day, yesterday, he was a loadin' ship +down to the shore. It would a' made your bones ache to hear him workin' +so; and all night long he was a loadin', and a loadin.' Thinks I, won't +there never be no end to this, for I felt hard, and him a loadin' and a +loadin' all through them long hours, jest as faithful as life, with his +eyes like blood, and the sweat a rollin' off'n him. He couldn't stand +that forever. This mornin' the pain sorter left him, but there was that +one idee on his mind. The ship was all loaded, and he'd got to wait for +high tide to git it off, and he wanted to go to sleep, but he couldn't, +because he'd got to watch the tide. + +"'Oh, if I could only rest, now,' he kep' a savin', weak and slow. 'If I +could only go to sleep now;' and so he moaned and moaned. + +"So I got close to his ear and I says, 'You go to sleep, now, 'Lihu, and +I'll watch,' I says; 'I'll wake you up when it's high tide,' I says; but +he only shook his head. So then, I says, 'Aint there none o' the folks +you can trust to watch?' And he shook his head, and so he moaned and +moaned. + +"By and by, all of a sudden, 'Lihu looked up at me different, with his +eyes wide open, so that for a minute, I was most fool enough to think +'Lihu was gittin' well, and he smiled as though he wanted to say +something. So I leant over. 'I--know--somebody,' he says, as slow as +that, for he was all worn out. 'Who then, 'Lihu?' says I. 'Jesus,' says +he, with that queer, smilin' look, as though it was the naturalest thing +on earth. 'He'll--wake--me--up--when--', and he couldn't wait no longer, +his head fell over as heavy as a log, and that's the way he's been ever +since, sleepin' like death. + +"Wall, Cinthy thinks somebody'd ought to come in and make a prayer. 'He +wasn't a perfessor,' says she. 'Lord knows, if he had a been,' says I, +'there'd be more need on't!' 'Anyway,' says I, 'he can't hear nothin', it +won't do him no harm.' So I thought I'd come out and see. It'll make +Cinthy feel easier." + +There was a whispered consultation among the women, but Emily came over +to where I sat. + +"Come, teacher," said she. "Your voice ain't as raspin' as some, and +you've got a knack o' stringin' words together, that sound likely, and +don't hit nobody--you come in." + +"Hush!" I cried, grasping the woman's hand, thinking only, then, that it +would seem like sacrilege for any one to speak aloud in the room where +one was waiting for Christ to wake him. I had forgotten at that moment +that I was out of the habit of praying, even for myself. Emily's tale had +moved me so, it seemed only its sweet and fitting consummation, and +nothing incredible to my mind then, that Christ should come down out of +the starless sky to touch that heavy sleeper's brow. + +It was finally decided that there should be a quiet little prayer-meeting +in the room where the women sat, in behalf of Mr. 'Lihu's soul; but +before all the preliminary steps had been taken, and the men and youth +noiselessly ingathered, Mr. 'Lihu's breathing had ceased, without a +parting pang or gasp, and the tide was at its full. + +Harvey had been standing with a group near the door. Once at some +irrelevancy in the proceedings, while the women were organizing the +prayer-meeting, I heard his irrepressible little giggle creeping in; but +when the words so mysteriously uttered were passed out to him--"Lihu's +gone!"--the poor boy, realizing only at that instant their terrible +meaning, that his father had indeed gone, gone away from him forever, ran +forward a pace or two, and then fell, with his face to the ground. + +So he lay, shaking and sobbing helplessly. + +Grandma Bartlett, standing in the door, studied him for some moments with +her fossilized eyes:-- + +"Fatherless and motherless, now," said she. "Poor creetur, humph! Vary +sahd." + +Then she blinked, and, simultaneously, the subject seemed to have slipped +from her mind, and she to have become vaguely contemplative concerning +worlds and ages remote. + +The boy was still lying prone on the ground, when I left the place of +mourning with Grandma and Madeline. I spoke to him, and shrank +instinctively from his face as he turned it towards me. It was swollen +and disfigured with weeping. He had bruised it, too, in falling. He rose, +trembling, and walked with me. For my own part, the emotional had given +place to feelings of a more sustained and ordinary nature. + +I strove to impress upon Harvey's mind the beautiful and poetic manner in +which his father had been released from his sufferings. + +I reminded him of the shortness of life, "even from your point of view, +Harvey;" and the necessity there was always, for not allowing ourselves +to be overcome by our griefs or passions, or diverted from the supreme +satisfaction of performing our appointed tasks, etc. + +And Harvey listened patiently throughout, and said "good night," with a +brave attempt at a smile, and a sob still choking in his throat. + +I turned an instant, to look at him as he walked away. He wore, +generally, a coat of ministerial form and complexion; this, taken in +connection with his round, laughing face, his boyish figure, and +propensity for playing tricks, had often made me smile, hitherto. But, +now, there was something in the attitude of those long, black tails that +brought the tears to my eyes. + +It occurred to me, indirectly, what Emily had said about my stringing +words together, and I marvelled if possibly my exhortation had soared +over poor Harvey's head and left his heart aching for an ordinary word of +sympathy, or a simple reference to One who as a man of sorrows, was best +fitted to understand and console his grief. To any sentiments of the +latter nature, Harvey was particularly susceptible. + +"Children, all of them!" Thus gently apostrophizing the Wallencampers, I +dismissed the cause of my brief mental discomfiture, with a half-pitying +smile. + +The day after Mr. 'Lihu's death, I looked down from my desk in school to +see the infant Sophronia weeping bitterly. + +"What is the matter, Sophronia?" I said. + +"Carietta's been to see the cops twice," she sobbed; "and I ain't been +any." + +I only gathered from this that Carietta was somehow implicated as being +the cause of the infant Sophronia's sufferings. + +"Now," said I gravely; "tell me what you mean?" + +"She means the cops!" cried Carietta, her small face distorted with a +leer of the most horrid satisfaction, "'Lihu's cops. 'Phrony means +the----" + +"That will do," I said. "I understand you perfectly. I understand you +only too well. This is about as bad," I reflected; "as anything in my +experience." + +After admonishing my pupils with that sincere emotion to which the +occasion had given rise, that they should speak always respectfully of +their elders, but especially in the most tender and solemn tones of the +dead; after pointing out to them the perniciousness of a low and vulgar +curiosity, and expatiating on the vastness and superiority of the +spiritual life, compared with the earthly and carnal, I paused, only to +give, further on, a fuller illustration to my words, and said:-- + +"Now, Sophronia, you have an immortal soul?" + +There was evidence of some faint hankering in Sophronia's face as she +mentally ran over the list of her possessions. + +"No'm," said she; "I hain't--but I've got a cornycopia!" + +I think it was then and there that my hopes for the elevation of juvenile +Wallencamp received their deathblow, and my labors, which had before been +cheered by a dream of partially satisfying success, at least, took on +an utterly goal-less and prosaical form. + +These children, I was forced to admit, regarded the day of Mr. 'Lihu's +funeral as a holiday of rare and special interest, mysteriously bestowed +by Heaven. + +Aunt Rhoda had previously informed me that it was expected I would have +no school that afternoon. + +The West Wallen minister officiated on the occasion with an aspect +neither more nor less funereal than he had worn at Lovell's wedding. He +spoke in such a labored, trumpet-like tone of voice that the +Wallencampers seemed, at first, inspired with a lively hope, expecting +momentarily that his breath would give out, but in this they were doomed +to ever-increasing disappointment. + +At length, Captain Sartell drew a bucketful of fresh water from the well, +and passed it around the room, winking expansively at each individual in +turn, by way of silent encouragement and support. + +Grandma Bartlett, observing the generally tearless aspect of the +community, conscientiously attempted to weep, but being entirely out of +tears, at her time of life, she only succeeded in screwing her face up +into what, in earlier years, might have appeared as a lachrymose +expression, but now took the shape of a fixed and ogreish grin. + +The infant Sophronia was seated on a bench of an exceedingly temporary +nature, between Grandma Keeler and Aunt Lobelia, both persons of weight, +and it so chanced, or, rather, it followed as a matter of course, an +equal pressure being applied to both sides, that the board sustaining the +three, broke directly under that diminutive victim of fate, awaking her +thereby from feverish slumber; and whether the infant Sophronia had an +immortal soul or not, no one there present could doubt that she possessed +an uncommon pair of lungs. + +The little room where we sat was hot and overcrowded, and the thought was +running in my mind continually. "Poor, restless Wallencampers! and how +happy Mr. 'Lihu is not to have any connection with his funeral." + +When the procession was about to start for the burying-ground, the +request was made to me that I would blow the horn, even as the bell is +usually tolled on such occasions, for it would seem inappropriate for one +of the Wallencampers to do so, they all having been related to the +deceased. + +At such a time, I could not refuse, though the emotions with which I +crossed over to the school-house to perform this grim duty, were of a +nature best known to, and appreciated by, myself. My terror of the +Wallencamp horn had waxed daily. I believed that there was nothing in the +whole world of inanimate things on which I would not sooner have +attempted to sound a funeral dirge. Though capable of some variety of +expression, it had never yet been seduced into emitting any sound in the +least indicative of the designs struggling in the mind of the blower. The +human was paralyzed before it--a mere machine to blow into it and let +come what would. And, now, for the first time in my experience, it took +on a jubilant strain. I blew slowly; I blew solemnly. Still, it sounded +like nothing else than a glad, exultant rallying-call. + +I paused, horrified. From the rear of the moving procession, Aunt Patty, +with a yell and a frantic gesture of the hands, entreated me to "keep a +blowin'!" + +And, as I stood thus on the steps of the deserted school-house and blew, +only to hear the wild lamentations of my soul translated into strains of +fiendish mirth through the medium of the horn, the Turkey Mogul, arrived +on his second visit of examination to the Wallencamp school, seemed to be +descending before my eyes, in a vortex of the giddy atmosphere. In fact, +he was alighting from his buggy, and a grim, though reassuring smile sat +on his features. + +"I see! I see!" he nodded his head. "You've given them a good start," he +added, succinctly, indicating the direction of the Wallencampers; "humph! +yes! they are always up to something!" + +He thrust his hands in his pockets, and, maintaining the same sardonic +grin, he, too, stood and watched that receding column. + +It was an odd combination of circumstances. I had ceased my mad though +involuntary jubilate, on the horn, and was slowly aspiring to that +equanimity of mind which the exigencies of the case seemed to require, +when the Turkey Mogul turned abruptly, and without speaking a word, +handed me a soiled and wrinkled little sheet of paper, the contents of +which caused my heart, for an instant, to cease beating, and then set it +throbbing with a wild joy and exultation. + +It was simply a petition--wrought out of whose brain I know not, but most +curiously inscribed in Aunt Patty's own hand, and signed by all the +Wallencampers, with "CAPTAIN SARTELL," at the head, and "b. lot" at the +foot--to the effect that it was their desire that my labors might be +longer continued among them. + +Only one, who, having made a play-day of life, turns, at last, to attempt +some earnest work, and fails, as he believes, utterly, and then catches a +glimpse of unexpected light in the darkness, can understand the impulse +given me by that dirty little scroll. It was such happiness as I had +never felt before. It made me strangely weak. + +"You'll stay," said the Turkey Mogul, at length, "another term, or we'll +consider this term extended, if you please." + +"I'll stay a few more weeks, anyway," I said, and the Turkey Mogul must +have marvelled at the childish faith and joy with which I clung to this +new-found rock of my salvation; "but I hadn't thought of it before," I +added, a little faintly, thinking of home. + +"You're tired!" said the Turkey Mogul, almost sympathetically; "and +hungry!" he subjoined, quickly, in a different tone. + +I knew by this time that the Turkey Mogul's eyes were dangerously prone +to have twinkles in the corners of them, yet I believe I met their +derisive questioning with a simple seriousness in my own. + +"Well, that's right!" he exclaimed. "Stick to 'em! Stick to 'em! I'll be +down to conduct another--humph! another examination in a week or two. +Good-bye!" and he gave me his hand, and was off almost before the little +line of mourners had disappeared over the crest of the hill. Yet I +remember that Grandma Bartlett, who had been deterred by the infirmity of +age from joining the procession, and had remained at the window, alone, +regaled the Wallencampers, on their return, with a choice fancy, in which +the Turkey Mogul and I had stood "talkin' and chatterin' on the +school-house steps, for an hour or more." Grandma Bartlett, though not +actively disposed to work mischief, nor possessed, indeed, of any animate +quality, still cherished a few of the dry formulas of scandal, which she +applied to any seemingly favorable combination of circumstances. The +Wallencampers, at any time, paid but little attention to her words. + +And, at the close of this strange day, I sat alone, in my little room in +the Ark, and indited a letter to the following effect:-- + +"Having received gratifying overtures from the people of my charge, I had +decided, for reasons which I could not then explain, to remain at +Wallencamp until May, to which time I looked forward with the delightful +hope of seeing my dear ones once more. + +"Meanwhile, I hoped they would not consider it strange, or ungracious of +me to say that I should very much prefer not to have Brother Will, or any +one else, come to Wallencamp to look after me, as Brother Will and some +others had kindly suggested doing. It would seem to imply that I was not +capable of taking care of myself, a mania which I trusted no longer held +possession of the family brain. Moreover, Wallencamp, though so charming +a place, had but few facilities for the accommodation of guests. I should +draw on my salary, now, very shortly, and would then remit the sums I had +borrowed in mere temporary embarrassment," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +BECKY'S CONFESSION. + + +The Wallencamp bonfire, like Christmas or a Fourth of July celebration in +less ingenious and erratic communities, came only once a year. It was +kindled on Eagle Hill, that runs out from the mainland of Wallencamp into +Herrin' River,--the Wallencampers called the Hill an island,--and from +most points of view it answered to the geographical description of "Land +entirely surrounded by water," seeming, indeed, to stand solitary in the +river, with an air of infinite repose on its broad, sloping sides; green +and gold, so I remember it ever, with the sun setting over it in the +spring-time,--green and gold, in a crimson river! + +It had an air of sublimity, too, looking over and beyond the cedars to +the bay, and down the length of the winding stream that fretted at its +feet or lapped them quietly. + +There I planned to build a house, in some bright future day, that should +be in effective keeping with the natural grandeur of the place,--quaint, +lordly, substantial, with the appearance of having fallen somewhat into +disuse, ivy growing over the dark stone walls, and moss in the winding +drives, and carved lions at the gate. + +The hill was a favorite resort of mine, and Rebecca had generally +accompanied me on my excursions thither. + +Once she said--it was in the days when she had been happier--"I guess +_this_ place is just as God made it to begin with." + +Rebecca had been struck with and had retained an idea which she had +probably heard promulgated sometime at the West Wallen Sunday-school, +that, at the time of man's spiritual fall, the earth also, with all +terrestrial things, had undergone a general mixing up. Her own idea in +regard to Eagle Hill she expressed very modestly, looking off with a +childish content and assurance in her eyes. And I was delighted with her. + +"You are always thinking such things as that," I exclaimed, +enthusiastically. "I know you are!" + +Rebecca blushed, smiling, and shook her head. + +"I ain't often sure," she said. + +I think I told her then that when I had my house on the hill, she should +be the housekeeper to guard my keys and conduct my affairs; "that is, my +dear, attend to all the little practical details connected with living," +and Rebecca, to whom my castles on the Hill were never castles in the +air, but who believed most implicitly that I would, sooner or later, +perform all things that ever I dreamed of doing, accepted her prospective +matronship with a becoming sense of its advantage and dignity. + +Eagle Hill was haunted by a horse, a pure white horse--not Lovell's--with +a flowing mane and tail, and a beautiful arched neck. His motions, the +Wallencampers said, were most fiery and graceful. Occasionally he paused +and fell back, quivering on his haunches, looked this way and that, and +then, with a wild plunge, swept on again, swifter than before. Every true +Wallencamper could both see and hear the "white horse" when, at night, +clearly outlined against the sky, he galloped back and forth along the +very summit of the hill. + +It was on one of the blackest nights of the season that the fuel, which +less grand and poetic souls would doubtless have reserved for another +winter's use, was borne in jubilant triumph by the Wallencampers up the +sides of this sacred and illustrious steep, and there consumed in a most +glorious conflagration. The spectacle was appalling. At intervals in the +roaring and crackling of the flames was heard the roar of the near ocean, +while the familiar features of the landscape and the faces of the +encircling spectators, stood out with unreal and terrible distinctness in +the hellish light. + +Emily, who had coughed all the way climbing up the hill, stood stirring +the fire with a long pole, and making reckless and facetious remarks the +while, which, uttered in the midst of that unearthly scene, struck me +cold with horror. + +"Come, Bachelder," said she; "git onto the end of my pole, and I'll hold +ye over there a while. Ye might as well be gittin' used to it!" + +"Heh! yes," said Bachelor Lot. "But what I'm a thinkin' is, you'd ought +to have a subordinate. I never heered--heh!--of putting a person of such +importance in the Kingdom--heh!--however efficient--into the position of +Fire Tender!" + +"Crazy Silvy" was at the bonfire. I had never seen her before. Silvy did +not go out on ordinary occasions. I watched her as she stood with a +scant, thin shawl thrown over her head, looking intently into the flames, +shivering often, and smiling as she moved her lips in apparently +delightful conversation with herself. + +Some of the children essayed to tease her; she seemed quite unconscious +of their efforts, but I turned and spoke to them rather sharply. The next +time I looked up, her strange, smiling eyes were fixed full on my face. +I glanced away quickly, with a nervous shiver, and moved a little farther +off. As I did so, Silvy, regarding me in that same dreamily contemplative +manner, walked toward me a step or two, and as I continued to move away, +she walked slowly after me. + +My acquaintance with the unconfined insane had not been extensive enough +to allow me to regard her motions with that mingled amusement and +curiosity, which was the only sentiment expressed on the countenances of +the Wallencampers who stood watching us; but I concluded that it was +better to face about, and meet my pursuer with an air of fearlessness. I +did so, and held out my hand to her as she came up. + +"How do you do, Silvy?" I said. + +"Oh, no!" said Silvy, thrusting her hands behind her, laughing softly, +and shaking her head. "Not with the queen of heaven! Not with the queen +of heaven!" + +I thought I detected Emily's derisive influence in this poor, simple +creature's words. Silvy was so perfectly mild and harmless in appearance, +however, that I began to feel reassured. + +"I've heard about you, Silvy," I continued, cheerfully. "I'm the teacher, +you know. You've heard them speak of the teacher?" + +"So glad," continued Silvy, in the same low, cooing tone; "so glad to +meet the queen of heaven." + +"Hush!" said I then. "You mustn't say that again. Draw your shawl up +tighter." For in spite of the bonfire, the wind was blowing cold on the +hill. + +While I spoke Silvy had become absorbed in watching the fire again. I +would have walked quietly away, but as I turned to go she thrust her head +toward me quickly and whispered:-- + +"Wait! don't--you--ever--tell!" + +Silvy put her hand to her lips. + +"No," said I, smiling. + +"Silvy never told," she went on; "except to you. You've got a key. +Silvy's got a key. She keeps things all locked up, Silvy does. Emily +don't have any key. She talks--she talks all over--don't you tell--but +Silvy lives with Emily--so bad," said Silvy, heaving a gentle sigh and +speaking in a tone of the deepest confidence; "so bad not to have any +key." + +"That's true, I think," said I, beginning to find my strange companion +rather interesting. + +"Yes." Silvy nodded her head several times as though we understood, we +two, and she was delighted to have discovered the fact. + +Then her eyes wandered again to the fire, and she resumed her happy, +smiling conversation with herself. + +I thought she had forgotten me, or concluded not to unlock anything with +her key, when she turned slowly and looked at me, and seemed to gather up +the lost train of her ideas in my face. + +"Silvy watched the fishermen at Emily's," she went on. "They said, 'Poor +Silvy!' 'See you again next time, Silvy!' They are very p'lite, thank +you, and they laugh once. 'Ha! ha!' But David Rollin, he laughs twice. +'Ha! ha!' and behind his sleeve, too. Such things are damnable!" + +Silvy's dulcet tones ran over that hard word with the mildest and softest +of accents. + +"And they bring wine," she continued. "Silvy cl'ared off the table one +night. She heard 'em sing, and they says to him, 'What about pretty +Beck?' and he says 'We must have a little fun, you know, ha! ha!' and +then, 'ha! ha!' behind his sleeve. Now if Silvy could keep it all +together, you'd straighten it out maybe. Silvy can't straighten it out. +Where did she hear so much, I wonder! She hears too much, Silvy does." +She knitted her brows in pitiful perplexity. + +"You were talking about the fishermen," said I. + +"No," said Silvy, shaking her head; "about Beck. She never says, 'Crazy +Silvy! There she goes! Look at Silvy!' She says, 'Come and see me, +Silvy,' so. So soft spoken. Silvy loves her." + +"I love her, too," I said, gently; for Silvy had paused again, and was +knitting her brows in that painful manner, as though the effort to think +gave her actual physical suffering. + +"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She exclaimed suddenly, her face all smooth +and softly smiling now. "Never--you--trust a neat man," impressively. +"Never you trust 'em--for why? They wasn't made so. God made 'em. God +made 'em to clutter. And there was that Dave Rollin. He was always a' +hangin' things up. He was always foldin' of 'em. He was always a hangin' +'em up in his room. Silvy knows. But there was a piece of writin' got +over behind the bury. And it didn't fall. But it stuck. Silvy knows. She +reads writin'. She reads it over and over. He didn't love Beck any more. +But he's afraid. And he'll give money. 'Oh, go anywhere! Only keep still, +Beck. For Heaven's sake, keep still.' Why, she wouldn't hurt him! Beck +wouldn't hurt him," said Silvy, in a slow tone full of wonder. + +"He needn't be afraid. But Silvy won't tell him so. Why not? Oh, she +likes to be amused. Silvy likes to be amused! + +"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She continued, after another terrible pause. +"She set eyes on you, standin' there. That's the one, she says, and she +says it a long time. That's the queen of Heaven. She wouldn't hurt Silvy, +poor Silvy! She's got a key. So she'll straighten it out maybe. Silvy +can't, she's so tired. When Silvy got up in the mornin', it was early. +Oh, so still! And a bird was flyin' up--up. Silvy couldn't see--so far to +heaven. It made Silvy cry. So strange not to be any tired in the +mornin'." + +Silvy made a last painful effort to collect her thoughts, before her face +resumed its habitual, far away, half smiling expression. + +Then she said, "Silvy comes up the hill all alone. Not the way them +others, and she see the fire burnin'. But it was dark in the bush. Silvy +heard 'em talkin' terribly. It was Beck and George Olver. 'I'll make an +honest home for you, Beck.' And she says, terribly, she no deserve. And +he says, she better than him, and won't she come? And she cries so, 'My +heart is broke!' And how good to live with him she knows, now--so honest +and true--but she no fit, and, oh, 'My heart is broke! my heart is +broke!'" + +The scene, the vividness of these words had not yet faded in the least +from Silvy's memory. + +"Then," said she; "they keep on talkin', terribly. But Silvy--she hears +so much--poor Silvy! She goes 'round very still, 'nother way. Silvy's +tired." + +And, as unceremoniously as she had approached me, she turned and walked +slowly back to her old position before the fire. She did not look at me. +She seemed to have become utterly unconscious of my presence. The scant, +thin shawl had fallen back from her head. She shivered as she stood +gazing into the flames, but the dreamy expression was ever in her eyes +and the soft laugh on her lips, as she continued murmuring to herself. + +The Wallencampers were not content to let the fire go out after the first +grand illumination. They were bringing up more brush from the landward +side of the hill, amid a confusion of wild shouts and excited laughter. + +I found Rebecca among a group of girls. + +"When you go home to-night," I said; "I want you to step in and see me. +Come up to my room." + +"Yes," said Rebecca, and I noticed how pale she turned in the fire-light. +I did not say any more to her, then. + +After hearing Silvy's story, I believed that Mr. Rollin had acted a +heartless and unmanly part towards Rebecca, made love to her which he +could not doubt the poor girl took in earnest, and even promises which +he knew he should lightly break sometime, and then, for his own purposes, +he begged her to keep silence. I thought I understood, and resolved to +instruct Rebecca to forget the red-haired fisherman; to be "sensible," +and "marry good, honest George Olver," who loved her so devotedly. + +Lute Cradlebow had come home, and was one among the many figures at this +brilliant fête. Indeed, the bonfire had been deferred until later than +usual in the season, by reason of his absence, and now he was noticeably +the lion of the evening, in a brave dark blue cravat that was borne +outward by the wind, or fluttered becomingly under his chin, to the envy +and despair of all the Wallencamp youth. He exchanged a pleasant greeting +with every one, and brought the largest young tree of all up the hill on +his broad shoulders. + +When, at length, the Wallencampers had permitted the fire to burn low, +they joined hands in a ring around the embers, and sang the saddest and +sweetest songs in the Hymnal. I sat on a rock near by, engaged as I had +been much of the time since my arrival in Wallencamp, in trying to +realize the situation--the awful gloom of the night, the river now +invisible, below, the sound of the surf farther off, that made my heart +sick, and with it the strange mingling of those religious songs, the +lonely hill, the smouldering fire, the fantastic group gathered around. + +When I got back to the Ark, I found Rebecca waiting for me. She followed +me up to my room, and I closed the door. + +"You see I waited long enough for you to come of your own accord," I +said, laughing. Then I drew a chair in front of her. She sat at the foot +of the bed, and I addressed her gravely:-- + +"Now, Becky, something is the matter. You are not the merry, +light-hearted girl you were when I first knew you. And I can help you, +perhaps. I will help you. Tell me what the trouble is!" + +I thought I should see the tears gathering in Rebecca's eyes, but she +looked, instead, so stonily disconsolate, that I was rather dismayed. + +"I'm going to tell you," said she; "but you can't help me. They'll all +know before long, I guess. I don't care. You talk good, but you don't say +much about God. I guess you don't believe there is none. I don't, I can't +understand. I'm like I'd got lost, somehow, and when they found me, +they'd stone me--I don't care. I've felt enough. I don't feel no more. +I've cried so much, I guess I can't cry no more. If I could it 'ud be +now, tellin' you. + +"When Miss Waite came here to teach, I hadn't ever had no friend except +the girls here, and they wasn't bad, but we was always runnin' wild +around in the lots, and down to shore, and always laughin' and plaguin' +the teacher in school. And when Miss Waite came, she wasn't like you, nor +she didn't have such clothes, nor such ways as yours. I didn't love her +very much, but she used to talk to me, and wanted me to be a Christian. +And she didn't tell me all it was to be a Christian like you have, or I +wouldn't 'a' been such a fool to think I could be; but she talked like it +wasn't anything to understand, only to want Christ in your heart, and try +to be good, and, first, I didn't pretend to mind much what she said, and +used to tell the girls, and they'd tell me, too, and we'd laugh. Only one +time, she was talkin' to me, and it seemed as though I couldn't hold out +no longer, and I cried and cried, and when I got up I felt happy. Just as +though He was there. Seemed as though He was all around everywhere, and +goin' down the lane, there was a whip-poor-will singin', and it sounded +like it never had before--so strange and happy--and I always loved 'em +after that--but I never shall again. + +"And I tried to be good, and quieter, and have the other girls and the +children at home; and when father was drunk and noisy, and some of the +folks laughed, I wouldn't give up--quite. Oh, I didn't feel like I was +bad then! I didn't! You might remember that. I hadn't much manners, but I +never thought anything bad. Some time you might remember that. + +"Then Mr. Rollin came, and he might 'a' killed me, and it 'ud been a +kindness; but he hadn't no such kind heart as that. He used to make +excuses for meetin' me. He wouldn't look at any of the other girls. He +said he couldn't see no beauty in anybody else. He said I was the only +one on earth he loved. He said he wouldn't care what became of him if I +wasn't good to him. + +"I thought George never talked to me so much as that, and I trusted him +every word. It was all so different. I thought I loved him, too. He +talked about how he should take me to Providence, and I said I hadn't +much manners or education, and they'd laugh at me. He said there wasn't +another such a face there, and if he was suited, they might laugh. And he +used to talk about how I'd look all dressed up in his house, down +there--and I don't see! I don't see! I trusted every word. + +"It wouldn't have been no different, anyway. I loved you when you came. +When he went with you, I tried to hate you. I hated him, but I never +hated you! In my heart, teacher, I never hated you. You might think of +that, some time----" + +"Well, my dear little girl," I interrupted her; "it seems we have both +been deceived in the fisherman, but, doubtless, we shall recover in time. +You don't like him, neither do I. We'll dismiss the subject from our +minds, forever. There's a good, honest boy here in Wallencamp that a girl +I know ought to busy her head about. Why trouble ourselves with +disagreeable things?" + +"You might think, some time," Rebecca went on, with the same hopeless +expression, and in the same tense voice; "I never knew that about not +trustin' anybody till you told me. I hadn't never be'n away from here. I +wasn't brought up like you, and I wasn't so strong as you--you might +think, some time--but not now. I don't ask to have you now--you don't +see. I knew you wouldn't--you can forget--you're so happy--think of that, +sometime, how happy you was, sittin' there--but I never can forget any +more. I say it 'ud be'n better if I'd a died. It's the sin and the shame. +I've nothin' but to bear 'em, now, as long as I live. Oh, you might think +what it was not to have no hope anywheres!" + +"What do you mean?" I cried, as it rushed over me in that instant what I +had been too heedless and slow to comprehend, the possible wretched +meaning of her words. "What do you mean?" rising and standing over her, +with a terrible sense of power to convict. + +"Oh, Becky, you didn't mean that--worst?" + +"Yes," said she, with no visible change on her poor, set face--"yes--I +do." + +"I wish you would go out of my room, and leave me!" I exclaimed, then; "I +am not used to such people as you! Do you suppose I would have been with +you all these weeks if I had known? Don't you see how you have wronged +me? I never want to see you again, never! Go! go! and leave me alone!" + +I shall never forget the look with which Rebecca rose wearily, and went +to the door--not an angry look, not a look of terror nor even of pleading +reproach; but it was as if her soul, sinful, crushed and bleeding though +it was, in that one moment, rose above my soul and condemned it with +sorrowful, clear eyes. + +I listened to her step going down the stairs. I did not call her back. I +heard her latch the outer door of the Ark. No thought of pity for her +wrong, or commiseration for her desolation moved me. I thought only in my +proud selfish passion, how miserably, how bitterly I had been deceived. + +I sought out the fisherman's letter before retiring, and the one I had +begun in answer, and tore them both into shreds, believing that I should +as easily rid my mind of the whole miserable affair with which I had been +unwittingly complicated. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE. + + +"It's be'n a mild winter on the Cape;" the Wallencampers congratulated +one another, blinking, with a delicious sense of warmth and comfort, in +the rays of a strong March sun. + +The Wallencampers were not, perhaps, generally incited by that love of +stern, unceasing, and vigorous exertion which is, geographically +considered, one of the chief characteristics of our hardy northern races. +True poets and idealists, they were lazy, and they had but few clothes, +both excellent reasons for inclining kindly to the warm weather. + +And yet, notwithstanding this, they had grown used to a wild ruggedness +of nature and condition, a terrible, sublime uncertainty about life and +things in general when the wind blew, missing which, in this earthly +state, they would have pined most sadly. And I do not believe that they +would have exchanged their rugged, storm-swept, wind-beleaguered little +section of Cape Cod for a realm in sunny Italy itself; no, not even if +the waves of that bright clime had rippled over sands of literal gold, +and their winter had been nine months in the year instead of the +customary six and a half. + +"A mild winter on the Cape." Grandpa Keeler often repeated the words; and +sitting by the fire at night, his eyes grew big and wild, and his tones +took on a terrible impressiveness as he told of _rough_ winters on the +Cape, when the snow lay drifted high across the fences in the lane, and +"every time she came in yender"--pointing in the direction of the +Bay--"she licked offa slice or two o' bank, and the old Ark whirled and +shuk--O Lordy, teacher!--as ef she'd slipped her moorin's and gone off on +a high sea, and ef you'd a heered the wind a screechin' inter them +winders, you'd a thought the"---- + +"Bijonah Keeler!" Grandma Keeler spoke. She said no more. It was enough. + +"You'd a thought something had got loose, sure," concluded Grandpa, with +a keen glance aside to me that revealed, as with tenfold significance, +the obstructed force of his narrative. + +In the daytime, Grandpa was now much out of doors. He had most frequent +and loving recourse to an interesting looking pile of rubbish at the +south end of the barn. There he sat, and napped and nodded, and employed +the brief interims of wakefulness in whittling bean poles, preparatory +for another year's supply of that dreaded and inexorable crop. Earth's +disturbing voices, Grandma Keeler herself, seldom reached him there. + +Early, too, I saw him in the garden, leaning pensively on his hoe--a +becalmed and striking figure in a ragged snuff-colored coat, and a hat +marked by numerous small orifices, through which, here and there, strands +from his silvery fringe of hair strayed and waved in the breezes. + +It was Grandma and Grandpa Keeler's custom at the first approach of +spring to detach themselves from Madeline's household, and to form a +separate and complete establishment of their own in the sunny kitchen, +away out at the end of the Ark. I was still, nominally, Madeline's +boarder, and sat at the table with her and the little Keelers; but the +impulses of my heart were ever guiding my feet to that other dear resort, +where doors and hearts seemed always open to receive me, and an +inexpressible warmth and light and comfort pervaded the atmosphere. + +It was early in March, when, returning from school one day at the +noontide intermission, I found Grandma standing without the Ark, +singularly occupied. The sun was shining on her uncovered head, and the +tranquil glow on her face was clearly the exponent of no fictitious +happiness. In her apron she had a quantity of empty egg-shells, so +carefully drained of their contents as to present an almost perfect +external appearance, and these she was arranging on the twigs of a large +bush that grew just outside the window. + +I was glad, afterwards, that I intruded then no skeptical questions as to +her purpose, for, as I stood and looked at her, her action gradually lost +for me the tinge of eccentricity, with which it had at first seemed +imbued. I realized that there was something grander than reason, more +exalted than philosophy. + +"I suppose you've heerd about egg-plants, teacher;" said she, at length, +turning to me, while the sun in her face broke up into scintillant beams +that penetrated my being, and quickened my very soul. "This 'ere old +bush ain't bore nothin' for years, and it looked so bare and sorrerful, +somehow, standin' out here all alone, and everything else a kinder wakin' +up in the spring, I thought I'd try to sorter liven it up a little;" and +she resumed her placid occupation. + +"Blessed Grandma," I could only murmur, as I turned to enter the Ark; +"inspired, delightful soul!" + +It was in March that the Wallencamp sun-bonnets came forth, all in a +single day, a curious and startling pageant. The Modoc, who had gone +bareheaded through the winter, assumed hers as a turban of impressive +altitude, while the diminutive Carietta and the infant Sophronia appeared +but as vagrant telescopes on insufficient pegs. + +In March the "pipers" lifted up their homesick notes at nightfall, in the +meadows. On the last day of that month, I found arbutus in bloom under +the leaves in the cedar woods. + +Scarcely had the first faint signs of herbage appeared on the earth ere +the Wallencamp cows and horses were given over exclusively to the +guardianship of nature, and to wander whithersoever they would, for the +Wallencamp fences had ceased to present themselves as obstacles in the +way. Indeed, some portions of them had been utterly obliterated, and this +was easily traced to a habit prevalent among the Wallencampers of +resorting to them for fuel when, on some winter night, other resources +were found to be low. + +Other portions of them were decayed, or blown over in the wind, so that +there was just enough left to sit on for private soliloquy, or social +debate, and to give a picturesque charm to the landscape; yet, it was a +fact which I found worthy of notice, that, in going from one place to +another, no true Wallencamper ever walked over a broken-down part of the +fence, or went through a gap in the fence; he always selected an upright +part of the fence to climb over, even going a little out of the way, if +necessary, to effect this purpose. + +The Wallencampers were staunch on the matter of individual rights; they +turned each his own horse and cow into his own door-yard. Animated, +doubtless, by something of the same principle, those attenuated animals, +having made an impartial _détour_ of the premises, congregated, as of one +accord, along the highway, especially in that part of the lane between +the Ark and the school-house. + +I made my way through these new perils from day to day, in safety, until +the deepening green of the hills and fields called the herd away to wider +pastures. + +Dr. Aberdeen, however, remained behind. Dr. Aberdeen, as he was termed by +the Wallencampers, was a horse of peculiar and distinguished parts. Among +his other eccentric gifts, he had a harmless habit of chasing beings of a +superior race. In what manner this propensity had first manifested +itself, I do not know, but it had been eagerly seized upon as ground for +further development by the juvenile element of Wallencamp, and especially +by the Modoc, under whose lively tuition the animal had reached an almost +strategic ability in the art. + +Dr. Aberdeen was truly of the mildest disposition imaginable. He had +never been known to kick. He had never even been known to open his mouth +and snap at a fly, but the expression of his countenance, if it might be +so called, when he was on the chase, was vicious and determined in the +extreme, and by no means betrayed the purely facetious nature of his +intentions. During school hours he seldom wandered from the immediate +vicinity of the school-house, where he appeared to be waiting for the +children to come out to play. Often have I looked up to see him gazing in +at the windows with a gleam of evil expectancy in his melancholy dun +brown eye. + +With the joyful advent of the spring came, also, Tommy's tame owl and +"Happy Moses." Tommy's owl emerged from his winter-quarters, and took up +his daily post of observation on the fence on the shady side of the +school-house. He was blind in one eye, which eye was always open, the +other was always closed. Yet with that one glassy, unblinking orb, +Tommy's owl seemed to me, as I lifted my eyes to the window, to be +reviewing the past with an indifference as calm and all-embracing as that +with which he sent his inexorable gaze into the future; and to take in me +and the passing events of the school-room as a mere speck in his +kaleidoscopic vision of the ages. + +What was the winter's thraldom from which Happy Moses had escaped, I +never learned. He was a broad-shouldered fellow, six feet in height, with +a beard like flax, and a sunny, ingenuous countenance. What term should +have been applied to his eccentricities in politer circles I cannot say, +but in Wallencamp, he was artlessly designated as "the fool." Whether it +was on this account, that with a certain rashness of perception peculiar +to the Wallencampers, they always prefixed the adjective "happy" to his +name, or merely on account of the transparent sunniness of his +disposition, I cannot say, either. + +Happy Moses played with the children. He regarded me, as one of the class +of those who presume to teach, with mingled scorn and aversion. When I +went to the door to blow the children in from their play, he invariably +turned his back upon me, cocked his hat on one side of his head, and +walked away with an air that was palpably reckless, defiant, and jaunty. + +When he reappeared, it was usually with his knitting-work, to which he +devoted himself in a desultory way, reclining on the school-house steps. +But sometimes he sat on the fence with the owl, and then it was +noticeable that while the gaze of the one was transient and silly, the +gaze of the other seemed to grow the more unutterably searching and +profound. So, at last, the new term was fairly established with these +three--Dr. Aberdeen, Happy Moses, and the owl. + +Hulled corn and beans had now become but as a dream of the past in +Wallencamp, and for a brief season before the accession of lobsters, life +was mainly supported on winter-green-berries, or box-berries, as they +were called. These grew in large quantities at "Black Ground," a section +of the woods which had been burned over. Daily I met happy groups of +Wallencampers, with baskets and pails in their hands, going "boxberry +plummin.'" + +We had boxberry bread, boxberry stews and pies, and one day, I caught a +glimpse of Grandma, in her part of the Ark, frying boxberry +griddle-cakes. + +Grandpa, when I met him, at this time, wore an air of deep dejection; yet +he bore his woes in silence, doubtless avoiding any concession that +should suggest the need of another clarification of his system. Once, +when nobody was looking, he cautiously withdrew a handful of scraped +birch bark from his pocket and gave it to me, remarking that he thought +it was "a little more bracin' than them tarnal woodsy plums." + +Next in the order of events, as the Modoc stood in her place in the +reading-class and slowly enunciated each separate syllable of the lesson +in a tone as remarkable for a loud distinctness as it was for a total +lack of meaning and modulation, from that side of her dress which had +been sagging most heavily, something fell with a crash to the floor. It +was a boiled lobster of anomalous proportions. The pocket had given way +at last under its overpowering burden, and now appeared ignominiously +upborne on the claws of its former prisoner. The Modoc seized the +crustacean with glittering defiance in her eyes, and at recess, I saw +that turbaned Amazon devouring it, with a group of wistful and admiring +faces gathered round. The boys were out in the bay "setting pots" and +"trolling for bait." Soon, not a child at Wallencamp was lobsterless. I +discovered two under the infant Sophronia's desk one morning, and +afterwards kept a sharp eye in that direction. Sophronia's conduct +throughout the session was in an unusual degree exemplary. I detected no +guilty blush on her countenance, I heard not the crackling of a claw, +but when she went out, I observed that she took no lobsters with her. + +Investigating the place where she had been sitting, I found a wild +confusion of claws and shells, as carefully denuded of meat as though +they had been turned inside out for that purpose. + +What was my surprise and mortification to find a like collection at +nearly every seat in the school-room, and all the while my flock had +seemed unusually silent and attentive; such proficiency had those +children acquired in the art of dissecting lobsters. + +I saw how many they devoured day by day, and how much water they drank, +and I fancied that they themselves grew to partake more and more of the +form and character of marine animals. I believed that they could have +existed equally well crawling at the bottom of the deep or swimming on +its surface. + +We had lobsters, too, at the Ark. For the first day or two of this +dispensation, Grandpa's face perceptibly brightened. At the end of two +weeks it was longer than ever before. + +He came over from his potato patch, I remember, and leaned on the fence, +as I was going by to school. + +"It's be'n a mild winter on the Cape, teacher," he observed, studying the +heavens with an air of utter abstraction. Then his glance fell as it were +inadvertently in the direction of the house, and he immediately continued +with a peculiar spark of animation kindling in his eye; "I've et so many +o' them 'tarnal critters, teacher, that I swon if I don't feel like a +'tarnal, long-fingered, sprawlin' shell-fish myself! But it's comin' nigh +time for ale-whops. They're very good, teacher, ale-whops are--very good, +though they're bony as the--they're 'tarnal bony, teacher. They're what +we call herrin's in the winter." + +Grandpa then laughed a little and showed his teeth. + +"I was goin' to tell ye, Bachelder Lot, here," he went on; "he was a' +askin' Captain Sartell what kind o' fish them was that it's recorded in +the Scripters to 'a' fed the multitude, and then took up so many baskets +full o' leavin's; and the Captain told him that as to exactly what manner +of fish them was, he hadn't sufficient acquaintance with the book of +Jonah to say, but, as near as he could calk'late, he reckoned they was +ale-whops. + +"And the Bachelder told him that it seemed to him he was right, and had +solved a mystery, for it stood to reason that there wa'n't no other fish +_but_ an ale-whop, that they could feed five thousand folks out of seven +little ones and then take up twelve bushel baskets full of bones! + +"And the Captain was pleased, and kind o' half owned up that he hadn't +felt no ways sure as to his surmise to begin with, but he said when the +question was put to him, he didn't think no man ought to hesitate to come +down strong on a doctrinal p'int. + +"Wall, as I was a sayin', teacher," concluded Grandpa, his teeth still +skinned and gleaming, "it's be'n a mild winter on the Cape." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW. + + +The ship in which the Cradlebow expected to take flight was to sail from +New Bedford on the twentieth of June. Meantime, having abjured my +friendly relations with Rebecca, and missing the quiet sustenance +hitherto supplied my vanity in the girl's thoughtful devotion, I found a +measure of relief for my wounded spirit in the companionship of this +other--my boyish and ardent ex-pupil. + +Many times, after my last interview with Rebecca, had I regretted that I +did not leave Wallencamp at the close of the first term. The school grew +continually more irksome to me. I was not so strong as when I had first +undertaken it, and no longer overlooked the discomforts of my situation +in the delight I had then experienced in its novelty. Often I longed to +get away from it all, to rid myself abruptly of the perplexities and +distasteful duties which bound me; and yet, all the while, there was +a truer impulse, a deeper longing within me, to stay. Had I not been, all +my life so far, forsaking my unfinished tasks, quitting an object as soon +as it seemed any the less attractive. I willed to stay, and labored, +still blindly, under the conviction that my regenerating work among the +Wallencampers (not theirs in me; ah, no!) was not yet accomplished. + +Toward Rebecca I had not softened. I was bitterly disappointed in her. +She had been the formless, pliable clay, on which I purposed to prove my +pet theories for development and culture. I had taken her as a perfectly +fresh and untainted being, naïvely unconscious even, of the elements, +either good or bad, of which her own nature was composed, waiting only +for the hand of a wise and skillful modeller, like myself, to bring her +up to the highest condition of manners and morals. + +This elegant superstructure, a purely mental product of my own, had +fallen away, revealing the erring, passionate nature beneath. But, deeply +as I mourned the fall of my idol, I felt still more keenly a sense of +personal injury, because the inner structure on which I had been +building, had not spoken out and said, "I shall contaminate you. I am not +fit for the touch, of your fine hands." + +Clearly there could no longer be any sympathy between Rebecca and me. I +avoided any occasion for private interview with the girl. Meeting her +casually in the lane, or at the neighbors' houses, I acknowledged her +presence with a nod or a smile, colder, I knew, than as if I had ignored +her utterly. + +She understood; she was quiet and unobtrusive. She made no attempt to +break down the wall thus established between us. And I was determined, on +the whole, to be more than just with Rebecca. I would be kind to her in +her disgrace. I would palliate her weakness as far as I could +consistently with a pure and high standard of action. I even +congratulated myself on the magnanimity of my intentions, except when I +met the clear, sad gaze of those dispassionate eyes. Then I experienced +an unaccountable sensation, as though I had received a blow inwardly, +that staggered me, for an instant, in my fine conceptions of honor, and +set my conclusions out of order. + +The Wallencampers were quick to note the estrangement between us, and +affirmed that "Beck was mad, and wouldn't speak to teacher, along o' +teacher's goin' with Beck's beau." + +This gratuitous solution of the mystery was not evolved in my presence. +Still I knew, that all through those lonely, suffering days, it was often +repeated to Rebecca; that those who had borne the girl any grudge, or +deemed that she was taking airs above them, took pains, now, that the +taunt should reach her ears; and even the children, who had always loved +her, uttered it before her with childish thoughtlessness. + +But, for the Cradlebow; his bright dream of seeking his fortune over wide +seas and in distant lands, his dreadless enthusiasm in the belief that he +should find so much waiting for him in that unsounded world, his +determination, above all, to acquit himself truthfully and bravely--all +these made him, to my mind, ever an object of more inspiring and romantic +interest. + +He seemed, somehow, to have divested himself entirely of the old, +heedless irresolution. His speech expressed little of doubt or hesitancy. +It was full of a bold, bright affirmation; and his step, in these days, +had none of the ordinary slow, smiling, philosophical Wallencamp shuffle. +He brought to my weariness and dejection such an atmosphere of vigorous, +tireless life; he was so confident, helpful, unselfish; I was so +faithless and disheartened a burden-bearer; that I grew almost +unconsciously to find for myself a certain rest in his strength, which, +whatever high and heroic qualities it may have lacked, developed, at +least, rare resources of patience, constancy, and forbearance. + +He did not say: "You have changed your mind, you will wait for me, +teacher, till I come back from over the seas?" but his eyes were +eloquent. What if I was moved, I had grown so weak, to answer their +question, at last, with a half-involuntary admission in my own. + +Ah, no! I assured myself that my attitude towards the Cradlebow was +sisterly--sisterly, merely--although I might have reflected that the +yearnings of that amiable affection had never, hitherto, in the ordinary +walks of life, constrained me to hem so many as a dozen +pocket-handkerchiefs for my brothers, which irksome task I cheerfully +performed as a surprise for the sailor boy, not to speak of a pair of +scarlet hose which I had already begun to knit, under Grandma's tuition. + +And now the life in Wallencamp seemed never like real life to me, even in +the broadest daylight. It was like a dream--the sweet, warm, brightening +of the landscape; the vines growing over the low, brown houses; the lazy, +summer voices in the air; the skies, too, were a dream--and Luther, with +his ideally beautiful face and his quaintness and ardor and +unworldliness, was a part of the dream. I knew that when he went away, I +should follow him long in my thoughts, and wonder much concerning him; +that at home again with my own people, in gayer, different scenes, I +should never hear the wind blowing up strong at night, or see the winter +settling down gloomily, or watch the opening of another spring-time, +without following him afar and wondering, with a vague, sorrowful, tender +regret, what chance was befalling him in the world. + +Then an incident occurred which changed, not me, perhaps, but the +complexion of my dream. + +One afternoon, at low tide, I wandered down to the beach and ensconced +myself comfortably, with book and shawl, on the roof of Steeple Rock. The +rock was an old acquaintance of mine by this time. + +There was a group of children playing, a little farther down the beach. +My eyes turned ever to them from the written page, following them with a +languid pleasure, as they revelled in the sand at the water's edge with +their bare brown feet and legs. I had a sense of safety, too, in their +proximity. I knew that they generally returned home passing by the place +where I was. + +It was warm on the rock. I was very tired. As I lay there, I became only +conscious, at length, that my book was slipping out of my hand, and down +the shelving side of the rock, and I was too listless to attempt to +reclaim it. I heard a little, dull thud on the ground below, and a faint +flutter of leaves--and the long, white beach, the ragged cliffs, the +laughing children, had faded from my sight. + +Then I dreamed, indeed, in the ordinary sense of the word; I was back +again in Newtown, in my own home, in my own white bed, and I was very +glad, looking at the pictures on the wall, and out on the familiar hills. +I was glad to hear my sister playing for me down stairs, only it was the +same tune always, and I wished that she would play more softly. + +And the pillow was hard, but I did not mind that so much, for my mother +stood over me, looking very sweet and grave, and she said: "Why didn't +you tell us that the pillow was hard!" + +My father was there, too, and repeated the same question, and my +brothers,--they all kept saying: "Why didn't you tell us that the pillow +was hard?" and seemed to be pitying me and admiring me at the same time, +until John Cable came in, friend of the old Newtown days, and his face +was hard and stern. + +"Why didn't you tell me the pillow was hard?" he said. "Now, I can't wake +you! Don't you see, I can't wake you, now?" and he shook his head and +would not look at me. So they took him out of the room, and went on +pitying and admiring me, but my sister kept playing louder and louder, +and it troubled me so that I could not rest. Then I heard a voice, that +was not in my dream, calling to me in a sharp, clear, cheering tone, +"Teacher! Teacher!" and I looked up to see Luther coming towards me in a +boat, his face aglow with excitement. + +This first--before I realized that I had fallen asleep on the rock, and +that what I had dreamed was my sister playing, was the sound of the tide +coming in, and that I was already sprinkled from head to foot with the +spray. The Cradlebow continued calling to me cheerily, and would not give +me time to consider the terrors of the situation then, nor afterwards, +when I strove, in my half-stunned condition of mind, to weigh and +appreciate the peril from which I had been rescued. + +The children had wandered a mile or more along the beach and had gone +home by another road. It was not yet dark. No alarm had been occasioned +in Wallencamp as to my absence, but the Cradlebow, knowing that I had +gone in the direction of the beach, had been moved to search for me, and +had discovered me on the rock, where, in a few moments more, I should +have waked to find myself at the mercy of the waves. + +My deliverer laughed reassuringly, sending the boat leaping upon the +shore, holding out his hand to me, as though this were merely an everyday +occurrence, the close of some ordinary excursion, but, to me, life had +suddenly grown significant. + +The strong warm hand which clasped mine, weak and trembling, as I stepped +from the boat, I must recognize henceforth, I knew, as the link between +me and the living world. + +For several days afterwards I considered the matter of my relation to the +Cradlebow in a new and serious light, especially in the light of present +gratitude, with a sense of life-long obligation; but the Cradlebow was +too generous and noble to recognize the obligation, or take advantage of +the gratitude. He loved me, I knew. He had watched for me. He had saved +my life. He should know, I resolved, that if he wished it still I would +wait for him. + +And the idea was not foreign to my heart, but it grew, at last, too light +of wing, and disposed to take up permanent abode in the realm of fancy. A +poor, handsome young lover, seeking his fortune at the ends of the earth, +and the future--ah, it did send a little stab to my conscience, to think +that the uncertainty of that lover's future should so have heightened, to +my mind, the romance of the picture. However, meeting him in the lane one +evening, as I was returning from one of my parochial calls--it was just +at dusk, I remember, and we stood under the balm-of-Gilead tree, in front +of Emily's gate--I said very gravely and with none of that embarrassment +which the occasion might seem to have warranted:-- + +"Luther, although I seem to myself much older than you, we are really, I +suppose, of about the same age. I have known very happy attachments where +inconsistencies of birth, habit, education were far greater, perhaps, +than with us. I have made up my mind that, if you still desire it, I will +wait for you." + +"Wait for me, teacher!" exclaimed the Cradlebow, opening his eyes with a +solemn, wide surprise; "why, of course!" + +"Why, of course?" I questioned faintly, not knowing whether to smile at +being thus abruptly disarmed, or to feel the least little bit piqued at +the youth's unconscious audacity. + +"What else should two people do who love each other?" There was nothing +either of doubt or arraignment in the Cradlebow's serious eyes. +"Besides," he continued; "I've known it all along. See here, teacher!" +and he took from his pocket, and carefully unfolded, a sheet of paper +against the background of which there lay revealed a dainty star fish, +most curiously twisted about with some rare and beautiful sea vine. + +"You won't find that vine washed up on this beach every day," he said +eagerly. "When I showed it to Granny--'If Heaven itself had spoken, boy,' +says she, 'I should be no surer it was a fair voyage waiting you than I +be now;' though I was thinking of something besides the voyage, teacher, +but it's all the same, it means good luck; and wouldn't you like to keep +it for us?" + +[Illustration] + +"Oh, no!" I answered, laughingly refusing the delicate talisman. "I +should blast its good intentions. I should stifle it with my cold +unbelief." + +The Cradlebow tenderly replaced his treasure, and laughed with me +good-naturedly. + +"It isn't your fault, teacher," said he, "that you weren't better brought +up. If you'd always lived with our people, down here, you'd be more +believing." + +At all events, my severe and protracted mental exertions had proved quite +unnecessary, I thought, although after this there was, in some respects, +a tacitly admitted change in our converse with each other. A sort of +vague, venturesome house-building for the future, in which the Cradlebow +seemed to wish that I would oftener show an interest in the feminine +details within doors, while I had a grand and absorbing predilection for +constructing imaginary grades and turrets and mediæval door-posts, +receiving any thoughtful suggestions as to tin-kettles and pantry-shelves +with gracious and smiling forbearance. + +The Cradlebow seemed particularly pleased, when he came into the Ark of +an evening, if I chanced to be knitting on the scarlet stockings. I did +have a new and not unpleasant sense of housewifely dignity while engaged +at this task, and undoubtedly assumed an air calculated to serve as an +impressive exponent to my emotion. The poor scarlet stockings +lengthened, meanwhile, but it was a disheartening and almost +imperceptible growth. Where the article should have been most +voluminous, at the calf of the leg, it grew, in spite of me, more +alarmingly narrow at every round. This was after I had graduated from +under Grandma Keeler's tuition, and assumed my own responsibility in the +matter; so that I disdained to appeal to her for assistance in the +dilemma, but thoughtfully devised means of my own for widening the +stocking. + +"I'll tell ye what it is, teacher," said Grandpa, who had been regarding +me with that wild look which sometimes visited the old man's face when a +problem seemed well nigh insoluble; "I'm afeerd, teacher, I'm afeerd that +that ere stockin' ain't a goin' to fit nobody! I'll tell ye what it makes +me think on. It makes me think o' one o' these 'ere accordions that ye +open and shet. I'm afeerd, teacher, that it ain't a goin' to fit!" + +"Thar! 'sh! 'sh! pa," said Grandma, with all the unction of holy +disapproval; but, for once, my ever dear friend and champion was +compelled to turn her back upon the scene. + +In this position, she exclaimed in a low, broken tone of voice, "There +may be legs, pa, as we don't know on!" + +Grandpa was curiously aroused. + +"I tell ye, I've travelled to the four quarters of the 'arth, ma," said +he; "and set eyes on the tarnalest critters under God's canopy, but I +never see anybody yit that 'ud fit into that 'ere. Besides," he added, +knowingly, in a milder tone; "I reckin that 'ere stockin's meant for +somebody nearer hum, and a pretty straight-legged fellow, too." + +I was enabled to judge something still further of the speculations waking +in the Wallencamp brain, when, having to keep Henry G. after school, one +night, as a means of discipline, he bawled out:-- + +"Ye don't keep Simmy B. after school no more! And why not?" continued the +aggrieved infant, at the same time framing for himself an answer of +malicious significance: "Oh, 'cause he's Lute Cradlebow's brother!" + +Social converse was at its high tide, now, in Wallencamp among the birds +in the trees and the fowls in the door-yards, and quite as naturally and +harmlessly so, for the most part, I think, among the beings of a superior +order. They had little other recreation. + +The bonfire had marked the close of the gay epoch in Wallencamp. It was +too warm now for the livelier recreations of the winter. Religious +interest, especially, was at a low ebb. At the evening prayer-meetings, +the number of worshippers appeared but as a handful compared with the +number of the unconcerned who lingered outside in the pleasant moonlight. +Conspicuous among these latter, replacing the fervid debates of the +winter with a calm philosophy befitting a warmer season, were Captain +Sartell and Bachelor Lot. + +The old songs held the same charm for them all, however. They sang them +ever with pathos in their voices and tears in their eyes. + +The little unpremeditated chats by gate and roadside, the neighborly +"droppings-in," grew more and more frequent. + +But when poor Rebecca was taken up on the tide of social wonder and +debate, and I heard whisperings concerning her, and knew that an evil +suspicion had taken hold of the mind of the little community, and when +finally Emily said to me; "I guess you done about right shirking off +Beck, teacher. I guess she ain't no better than she ought to be:" in +spite of what I felt to be my own unblemished conscience in the matter +and the justice of the retribution which was overtaking Rebecca, I went +often to my little room and cried bitterly for her, as well as for +myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +DAVID ROLLIN IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. + + +Mrs. Philander Keeler grew kind. At first, especially while the fisherman +was in Wallencamp, her demeanor towards me had been marked by a decided +touch of coldness and mistrust. She suspected me, I thought, of trifling +with the Cradlebow; now, she invariably deferred to me as a person worthy +of all honor and consideration--of congratulation even, in an eminent +degree. + +She assumed to be on the most frank and confiding terms with me. She +found a thousand little ways for promoting my physical comfort that had +never occurred to her before. + +So I was the more surprised, when after school, one Friday afternoon, as +I was sitting in my room, this same Madeline suddenly appeared before me +with her eyes glittering, her lips compressed, and her complexion of that +positive green hue which it always wore when she was in a high passion. + +"There's a gentleman down stairs, waiting to see you, teacher," she said, +with a peculiarly dark inflection on the word gentleman. "Oh, he's got on +an awful interesting look!" snapped out Madeline, with a spiteful little +laugh; "and a suit of light clothes, and a new spring overcoat, and he +looked at me as though I was a pane of window-glass, and he says, +'Oh--ah--yes--is Miss Hungerford in?' I wonder if he's come back to make +his farewell calls--" with another unpleasant laugh. "One thing I can +tell him, he'd better steer clear of George Olver!" + +Was ever a zealous young devotee, I pondered, more perplexed! + +"Come this way, please," I said, holding out my hand to Madeline; and +leaning back in my chair with unaffected weariness, at least. "Is Mr. +Rollin down stairs?" + +"They call him that, I believe," said Madeline, sententiously; "things +don't always get their right names in this world." + +"Well, you may tell him," I said; "that I can't see him." + +Madeline's countenance changed wonderfully in an instant. She gave me a +bright look, and without waiting for another word, ran down the stairs. + +When she came back her tongue ran on glibly:-- + +"I told him," said she; "that you couldn't see him, and he kept on in +that window-glass way of looking, and his head as high as ever, and he +took his hat and 'I'm very sorry,' he says, 'that Miss Hungerford is +indisposed, and I hope I shall have an opportunity of seeing her this +evening.' + +"He said he came to-day, and was going away to-morrow morning, and he had +something of importance to communicate, and I knew he expected I'd go up +and see you again about it, but I didn't. So he said he'd call again this +evening or to-morrow morning, just which 'd be most agreeable, and +expected I'd budge then, sure, but I didn't show any signs of it; and I +told him rightly, I guessed one time would be about as agreeable as +another; and I suppose he thought he wouldn't show mad before such common +bred folks. He smiled that window-glass looking smile of his, and says; +'Ah, thank you; now I won't detain you any longer, Mrs. Keeler,' and out +he went. + +"I suppose he's come down to smooth everything over, and have it hushed +up with Beck and her folks. Well, money'll do a good deal for a man, but +it wouldn't stand him much if he got into George Olver's hands. However, +teacher," concluded Madeline, in a sprightly tone; "give the Devil his +due. It's better'n as if he'd run off and never showed his head again; +and I don't suppose he'll get much satisfaction out of you, if you do see +him, teacher. It's better to trust honest folks than rogues, and nobody +knows that better than the rogues themselves." + +I knew that this last clause was not designed as a personal thrust by +Madeline, yet I could not help musing a little over it, smilingly, after +she had gone. The fiction, of which I was living a part, in Wallencamp, +was taking on, it seemed to me, a tinge even of the tragic--perplexities +were deepening. I was becoming, more than ever, the suffering though +exalted heroine of a romance. + +I rose, and dressed myself before the glass, I remember, with particular +care. I did not know why I should dread or avoid seeing the fisherman in +the evening, since the part I had to sustain in the interview was so +distinctly calm, dispassionate, and spiritually remote. At the same +time, I wished that my cheeks had not grown so pale and my eyes so +dark-rimmed and hollow. They bespoke the interesting part I had to play +in the world's tragedy, but were not, otherwise, so becoming as I could +have wished. + +Earlier, the fisherman had sent me books from Providence. I would rather, +I thought, that he should take them back again. I remembered that I had +left one of them in my desk at the school-house, and put on my hat to go +after it. + +"Going out to spend the evening, teacher?" said Madeline, as I opened the +door of the Ark, giving me at the same time a gay and knowing look. + +"No," I said, gravely tolerant of the little woman's surveillance; "I'm +only going to the school-house for a book that I want. I shall be back in +a few moments." + +It was hardly dusk then. + +Aunt Patty, as usual after school on Friday, had swept the room and put +down the dark and dingy paper curtains. + +I opened the door and stood an instant looking into the gloom before +entering. Then I saw that there was some one sitting in my chair--a man +with his head bent forward and buried in his arms, which were folded on +the desk. + +It was Mr. Rollin, and before I had time to retreat, he lifted his head +and saw me standing at the door. + +I had expected that the first revelation of that glance would contain +something of grief, wretchedness, remorse. The fisherman's countenance +wore a shadow of annoyance, but it was expressive, above all, of a +childish petulance and irritation. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, speaking with the utmost abruptness, and rising from +the chair; "if you had only left this place at the end of the first term, +it would have saved the whole of this abominable misadventure!" + +"I don't think I understand you," I said, freezing now in sober earnest. + +"Because in your eyes only, it is a misadventure," he continued rapidly, +with growing excitement. "You came to this miserable hole--this +Wallencamp--resolved to view everything in a new light--the light of +unselfish devotion to great ends, and exalted aspiration, and ideal +perfection, and all that. Well, how has the wretched, giggling, conniving +little community shown out in that light? I suppose there's one--that +larking Cradlebow--who has stood the test and come out creditably, by +reason of an uncommonly artistic shock of hair and a Raphaelite +countenance. As for me, taken in the ordinary sense, I'm no worse than a +thousand others, but I say that it was a decidedly unfortunate light to +put me in! It was a decidedly unfair light!" + +"I have no wish to judge you in any light," I said, and explaining +briefly my errand to the school-house, I expressed regret at having +interrupted the fisherman's meditations, and turned to go. + +"Miss Hungerford!" he exclaimed, with a gesture of whimsical force and +impatience; "it's my last chance for an explanation. Don't, for God's +sake, cut it short at this point. You might know--you might _know_, that +I'm not a bad fellow at heart. But you will never see the best side of +me--there's fate in it. I never wanted to seem specially contrite but I +must set myself jumping like a jack-in-the box for your infernally cold +amusement! I had an explanation at my tongue's end. D--n it! I don't +remember a word of it." + +"I don't think it is necessary," I said. + +"Oh, no!" he continued in a deeply aggrieved, almost a whining tone; +"nothing's necessary that would set me out in a little better shape! +Anything will do for these grovelling Wallencampers, but just as soon as +it comes to me, all the extenuating circumstances of my life--that I was +left so early orphaned, sisterless, brotherless, my nearest of kin a +wicked, carousing old uncle; taken to see the world here, and to see the +world there; homeless, if ever one was homeless; never trained to any +correct way of thinking, or settled manner of life, but just to spend my +money and aim at enjoying myself--they all amount to nothing in my case. + +"Well, I used to come to Wallencamp just for that same purpose--to have a +good time; it was such a jolly wild place to let the Old Nick loose in; +and now it seems that's to be taken for a man's natural level, and the +best that he's capable of! Then I met you. You would voluntarily give up +ease and luxury, for a time, for the sake of an abstract idea--whether +misguided or not, I will not say, the fact remains the same--and I swear +it was a new revelation to me. It was strange and perverse, and it was +deuced taking! Then I tried to get you to include _me_ among the objects +of your mission, to accept _me_ as a candidate for temporal leniency and +final salvation, and you wouldn't. It is only the happy, ragged, +unconscious heathen that are looked out for in this world; the real ones +don't get any sympathy." + +The fisherman paused. + +"I should be glad to give you the first lesson in the code of salvation," +I said--"that the fate of souls is not left to human hands." + +"Oh, I've heard that formula somewhere before!" exclaimed the fisherman, +impatiently, with a little sneer in his laugh. "Why don't you tell me +that God will help me? Perhaps you will even remember me in your prayers, +some time." + +At those last words an unbearable pang of self-conviction and remorse +shot through my heart. I, who had not felt greatly the need of any +supernatural aid, but rather that I was able to manage my own affairs +with becoming discretion--of what saving power and grace could I speak to +one who was weak enough to fall, and for whom there was no help in +himself? In the dark school-room I involuntarily lifted my hands to my +face. When I heard the fisherman's voice again, he had come a step or two +nearer to me down the aisle. + +"Let me tell you what I was thinking about when you came in," he said, in +an altered tone. "Rather, how I was allowing my imagination to run away +with itself, for my own particular delectation. I was imagining, when +you opened the door and stood revealed there in the light, how you might +come to me, indeed, as the angel of some better life and hope, offering +me a forgiveness as full as it was unmerited." + +"It is not I who have to forgive you," I repeated. + +"It is you, if any one," replied the fisherman, quickly. "I tell you, you +feel that girl Becky Weir's fault ten times more deeply than she feels it +for herself. You should never have come to this place. It was deucedly +odd and entertaining, but it was a step in the wrong direction. You put +yourself in the place of these people and translate all their possible +moods and tenses according to your own. It's a mistake. That girl, Becky, +would stare in perfect bewilderment if she could know of some of the +thoughts and emotions you doubtless attribute to her. She might even +laugh at you for your pains." + +"I do not believe you," I said, not angrily nor resentfully, as might +have been earlier in our acquaintance, but with a painful, slow +positiveness. "Perhaps I was wrong in assuming the place I did in +Wallencamp, but it was not in the way you think. I don't know--I can't +see the way myself, clearly--always, but I believe that what you have +said is utterly false!" + +"At least," continued the fisherman, in the old gay, frivolous tone, +which I heard now for the first time during this conversation; "I can +make her tenfold and abundant reparation--ah, you don't know--I say you +don't understand these people. It's a disagreeable subject; let it go! +But I'm very rich, you know," with an easy laugh, and the air of a man +only conscious, at last, of his good worldly fortune, and the exquisite +fit of his clothes. "Oh, I've got no end of money. After all, that's the +chief thing in this world. If a fellow's ordinarily clever and +good-natured, with a good reputation in town, what's a little row in the +suburban districts! It's an awfully insignificant affair, anyway, it +seems to me. We may as well talk sense, and the plainer the better. +People don't employ lenses for shortsightedness in that +particular--common sense, I mean. You walk without seeing, Miss +Hungerford, and you're bound to get infernally cheated, in some shape. +Why not me, I say, as well as another?" + +Still, the fisherman's words roused no bitterness in me. His hardened +recklessness of speech served rather to strengthen me in the part I had +to play of the unapproachably sublime. + +"I cannot consider that question," I said, with my hand on the door. + +He swept my face with a keen glance that had lost none of its derisive +quality. + +"So it's true, then!" he said. "The ultimatum has been reached, at last, +in the possessor of a pretty face and a broken fiddle! and dreams for the +restoration of the race are to end in a broken-down hovel by the sea, +in darning the Cradlebow's socks, and dressing the clams for dinner, +while the bucolic George Olver and the versatile Harvey, and all the rest +of the awkward, moon-gazing crew, take turns in sitting on the door-step, +and dilating on the weather! Ravishing idyll but it lacks substantiality. +It lacks seriousness." + +I heard that mocking laugh again without emotion, except it might be for +a faint, far-off echo in my breast of the fisherman's own scorn. Above +all, I was weary, and willing to make my escape. + +"We cannot help each other by standing here talking," I said, and added a +"good bye." + +It was the last time, probably, that I should see the fisherman's face; +but he refused the valediction with a toss of the head. + +"Oh, no!" he said; "it isn't time for my obsequies. I shall return to +town for a few days or weeks only; this detestable place has always +thrown a spell over me. I can't rid myself of it. Like the natives of +Wallencamp, I always drift back to it again." + +It was growing dark. I found Madeline waiting for me in the lane. +Somewhat piqued at the persistency of the little woman's ministrations, I +informed her briefly, that I had found the fisherman in the school-house, +and had been conversing with him there; but she put her hand in my arm +with an air of unshaken confidence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +GEORGE OLVER'S LOVE FOR BECKY. + + +"I'd like to see you alone a few minutes, teacher, if you please." + +It was George Olver who spoke, in his sturdy, resolute bass. The words +hardly took on the form of a suave request: they were uttered in too +earnest, grave, and intent a tone. + +I had dismissed my school for the day. The roar of the young lions just +released from bondage had not died away when George Olver entered the +school-room, closed the door behind him, and stood in a manly and +self-reliant attitude, his hat in his hand. + +"No, ma'am," he said, in answer to some gesture of mine; "I'll be much +obleeged if _you'll_ set down in the chair." + +"There's times, teacher," he then went on, gravely and steadily; "when +ordinary friends, like you and me, meetin' each other in the road, or in +a neighbor's house, maybe, we say, 'How d'ye do?' or 'It's a pleasant +day,' or the like o' that, and all well and good. It's a fair +understandin', and enough said 'twixt you and me: and then ag'in, there's +times when the wind blows up rough, as ye might say, and oncommon dark, +and some harm a befallin' of us, when we git closter together and more a +dependin' on each other, and then them old words ain't o' much account to +us, but to speak out different what need be without fear or shame." + +"Yes," I said, much impressed by George Olver's manner. He was held +somewhat in awe among the Wallencampers, and regarded generally as a +"close-mouthed" fellow. + +"I hear," he resumed; "that Dave Rollin has been down this way ag'in. +They say it was lucky for him I wasn't to home that day; maybe so. Ef +he'd a turned up suddenly in my path--I can't say--I might 'a' trod on +him. I never done anythin' like that for the fun on't. I'd rather go +round one any time than step on't, but if I'd a come on him so, +onexpected, I can't say for what might 'a' been the consequences. Wall, +he comes down here, and he goes to her with money! Her, that ain't used +to all the devilish ways o' the world, nor as fine clo's as some, but +that's got a lady's heart in her, for all that; and she told him--I know +just how she said it, in that quiet way she's had along lately--that it +was the last thing he could do to hurt her--but he'd made a mistake if he +thought she could take that. + +"So, then, as I've heered, he went to her father, a tryin' to make it +appear, as nigh as I can make out, that he'd got suthin' in the shape of +a conscience that he wanted to whiten over a little more to his own +satisfaction afore he went away. + +"Wall, Bede and his daughter used to be called about one piece for +temper, though I don't reckon that temper's lackin' allays 'cause it +don't show. There's them as jest keeps the steam down a workin' the whole +machinery patient and stiddy; but Bede, he's allays a histin' the cover, +and lettin' on't out in one general bust, and I reckon that was what he +did when he was a talkin' with the fisherman; he histed up the cover and +let off a good deal of onnecessary steam, but he come to the right point +in the end; that the fisherman had made a mistake thar', too, and--as +near as I can make out--this Dave Rollin was kind o' took back and +disappointed. He hadn't calkilated that the folks down here had any sech +feelin's as his sort o' folks. + +"Thar' ain't any use in talkin' about him. I feel hard thar', I confess, +but that can't help her none, now. What I want is to help her. I tell ye, +teacher,"--the strong voice trembled slightly--"there's been times when +I've felt as though I've been a sinkin', as ye might say, and a wantin' +to call out for help! help! like any weak, drowning fool, instead o' +swimmin' above it strong, and helpin' them as was weaker than me. + +"No shame for me to say, teacher, I've allays had it in my mind that +Becky'd marry me. It grew up with me. I never thought o' no other girl +but her. Ye see she'd always knowed me, and it was more like a brother, +she said. She hadn't thought o' _that_. So, I says, I'll bide my time +patient, but I believed she'd turn to me. + +"When Dave Rollin began to hang around there, I didn't feel exactly +kindly towards him, I don't pretend. The folks, they tried to set me on. +It 'ud a been mighty easy to 'a' gone on! I guess there ain't nobody +as knows us two 'ud deny I could handle four o' such as him, but a man +has got to say, fa'r play! fa'r play! and not put himself in other folks' +light. Thinks I, if his intentions are all squar' and honorable--and I +hadn't no reason, then, to say they wa'n't--and them, two take a fancy to +each other, why, it ain't no more than nateral! + +"She was handsome enough, for a queen, and he had different manners from +us fellows down here, and purtier ways o' talkin' and lookin' at a girl, +as though if she didn't have him, it was goin' to knock 'im straight, and +she'd lived with such different folks, it made it vary interestin'; that +was nateral. Thinks I, a man in my place had ought to have sense enough +to back out quiet. + +"You know what he done, teacher. He took the best, and when he got tired +on't, he threw it away,"--the brawny hand at George Olver's side was +clinched so as to appear almost colorless, yet there was little +discomposure in his voice--"but cursin' him ain't a goin' to help us now. +When a thing that's allays been precious to us has once fell, we can't +never make it quite like it was afore, but we can keep care on't patient, +a waitin' God Almighty's time to make it whole. I know what folks say. I +know, but I don't keer. She ain't no less precious to me, now, than she +was afore, only it's more for her, now, maybe, and less for myself. And +she sees, now. She does keer for me, now. Ay, I know what they'll say, +but they don't know that girl as well as I do, teacher. They ain't +nothin' would 'a' wrung them words from her ef they hadn't 'a' be'n true; +no, not ef it had been savin' her life to say 'em. She does keer, now, +but she won't never take me now, she says, because it 'ud be wrongin' me; +and I might 'a' knowed what she'd 'a' said, what it was nateral and noble +for her to say. + +"But," continued George Olver, with a flash of magnificent fire in his +eyes, and thrusting his arm out straight; "what's right atween me and my +God needn't be afeard o' no man's face! I want to take that girl and keer +for her, and keep her from meddlin' tongues. Let 'em say what they choose +to me; they must be keerful what they say afore her, that's all. + +"I've waited a good while. I could bide my time, but not now, when she's +heart broke and sufferin', and nobody ter put out a hand to help her. +There's be'n a look on her face, lately, that I don't like to see. It's +afore my eyes all the time, and it werries me night and day--as though +she didn't hold herself o' no account, and might make away wi' herself. + +"Teacher, you've got a woman's heart, and you can save that other woman! +It's a task that they needn't nobody be ashamed on, for the Lord Jesus +himself set the example. I guess she thinks you've turned agin her, too, +but I knew that couldn't be, for no friend 'ud leave another when they +was perishin', not even if they was more to fault than she was; and she +was apt to mind ye more than any one. I thought if you'd go in and speak +to her as a woman could, and tell her she'd got a right to hope, and tell +her her friends would not forsake her, least of all would it be likely +God would forsake her, and tell her--" + +George Olver seemed both to be looking at me and beyond me with his +beautiful, brave eyes; "Tell her thar's somebody that don't find any +cause to be sorry for havin' loved her, but knows how she's been +werrited, and suffers along with her, and 'ud be more glad and content +than of anythin' else in his heart this minute, to protect her and keer +for her as it's right--yes, tell her as it's right that she should let +him do; and if she asks from whom that comes"--George Olver smiled +brightly, with that far-seeing look still in his eyes--"why, it's no +secret from whom it comes. Will you go, teacher?" + +"Yes," said I, with a vague sense of having caught a glimpse of a +hitherto unknown world; "I will go." + +George Olver came forward, gave my hand a firm grasp, and then turned +resolutely and walked out. + +Left to myself and my own thoughts, I dreaded more and more the +concession there would seem to be in my seeking Rebecca now, for the poor +girl could hardly be expected, I thought, to appreciate the magnanimity +of such an act. + +I deferred going to see her until evening, and even thought of writing a +letter instead of going at all, signifying my willingness to take her +back into my favor, in a limited sort of way, and reinforcing her with a +share of that counsel and advice which she must have missed so sadly of +late; but I was conscious of the fact that I should not thus be keeping +my promise to George Olver. + +After supper, the singers came in and wailed some peculiarly touching +songs about rescuing the fallen and the erring. As Grandma Keeler was +preparing to go on an errand of mercy down the lane, I joined her, and +stopped at Bede Weir's door. + +Aunt Patty, Rebecca's mother, appeared in answer to my knock. Her glances +had fallen rather reproachfully on me, of late. Seeing me now, she cast +down her eyes, a steely expression gathering about her mouth. + +"You've come too late, teacher," said she, her voice breaking suddenly +into a sob as she lifted her apron to her eyes. + +In that instant it flashed through my mind,--the fear George Olver had +expressed lest Rebecca should make away with herself. I fancied that I +turned terribly pale. + +"Come in, teacher!" Aunt Patty exclaimed, with a quick motion of her +hand, and she continued rapidly:-- + +"Becky went away this afternoon. She's gone to Taunton. She didn't tell +nobody but me. If you'd 'a' come sooner you might 'a' kep' her, teacher. +She's gone to Jane Meredith's that works thar, in the shops and Beck used +to know her. She hires a room, and Beck she's saved a little money +cranberryin'. She says she's a goin' to stay thar' as long as it holds +out, and 'maybe,' she says, 'I can git work;' she says thar' ain't nobody +here cares for her but me. 'And it's only a trouble to you, mother,' she +says; 'and maybe, I shan't never come back again.' If you could 'a' seen +how she looked. Oh, my God!" As the poor woman held her hands to her +face, I saw the tears springing out between her fingers. "There's nobody +knows how I feel this night! She wa'n't a bad girl, my Becky wa'n't. She +was deceived, but it'll make her bad, everybody turnin' agin her so--and +that Jane Meredith, she was sech a wild girl! Oh, I'm afeard! I'm +afeard!" + +"But we'll have Becky back again, Mrs. Weir," I said, intensely relieved, +even at this state of things; "and, more than that, we shall see her very +happy yet. I will write to her, myself, to-night." + +"I don't know,"--Aunt Patty shook her head sadly--"she might think I'd +got you to do it. I seen she took it to heart, you're turnin' agin her +so, and I didn't believe you'd 'a' done it if you'd known all. I wanted +to go up and see yer, for I knew you'd soften, but no, she wouldn't let +me. She said she'd never forgive me ef I did. No; she'd think I'd been a +puttin' ye up to it." Aunt Patty dried her tears, helplessly. + +"You ought to have come to me!" I exclaimed with grave emphasis; "whether +she wanted you to or not!" + +"Perhaps I had, teacher," said Aunt Patty, meekly; "but you couldn't 'a' +gone agin her ef you'd been in my place. She wasn't vexed, teacher, but +she was awful set, and she looked so wore out! I couldn't go agin her." + +"All the more reason," I continued, fortifying myself with new +confidence; "why you should have been firm with her. She is not fit to go +off by herself in that way. She's a child! a child! She needs some one to +tell her what to do." + +"I know that; that's what worries me!" cried Aunt Patty, bursting into +tears; "but what could I do, teacher? what could I do?" + +"Well, never mind," I said, assuming with readiness the attitude of the +consoler; "we will have Becky home again in a very short time. I will +write this evening and if she does not come, why, we shall have to go +after her, that's all!" + +This last I was able to utter almost gayly, looking into Aunt Patty's +face. + +The woman's poor, worn hand placed in mine, the look of confidence +upturned to me in her tearful eyes, her readiness to forgive, to forget +any resentment which she might have cherished towards me, all touched me +deeply and strengthened me in a sincere determination to win Rebecca +back. + +"She made me promise I wouldn't let George Olver know where she was, +teacher," said Aunt Patty, breathlessly, as I was going out of the door. +"She had her reasons; we'd ought to respect 'em some. I wouldn't be +deceiving her entirely." + +On my way homeward, I reflected how altogether burdensome it was to +one-half of humanity that the other half was not better calculated to +take care of itself, and resolved that my letter to Rebecca should be at +once dignified, imperative, and kind. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +TEACHER HAS THE FEVER.--DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE. + + +There were oppressive days in Wallencamp, when no fresh winds were borne +to us from the ocean. The sun shone hot on the stunted cedars. The tides +crept in lazily. All one weary afternoon, in the hum and stir of the +dusty school-room, little Bessie Sartell--Captain Sartell's youngest, and +his darling--sat stringing lilac blossoms together in a chain. She was +such a cunning edition of the big Captain. She had the same strong Saxon +physique in miniature, the same clear pink and white complexion, eyes +hardly more limpidly blue than his, and hair that was sunniest flax, like +the ends of the Captain's beard. And how patient the chubby little +fingers were at their task. What small, charmingly despairing sighs +escaped the child when some link fell out in the chain of purple flowers! +I was struck with her air of weary, patient endeavor--so important it +seemed--so important that the chain should be finished before school was +out. And, at last, little Bessie lifted it to wear upon her neck, and it +broke and fell in pieces on the floor. + +Then there was a look of gentle dismay in the blue eyes, a tear or two, +and Bessie folded her arms on the desk, her head sank slowly down on +them, and she fell asleep. + +She was still sleeping when I dismissed the school. The sound of the +others going out did not wake her; the Phenomenon, disappearing through +the door, pointed a finger at her, his face full of scornful +merriment--so incredible was it to him that any one should sleep when +school was out. + +I went down to Bessie and woke her gently. She looked at me, at first, +with startled, feverish eyes, as though she did not know me, and screamed +in pain or terror. I noticed then that the color of her cheeks was +unnaturally bright. I put my hand on her pulse. It was throbbing +violently. I was thoroughly frightened. + +"Come, Bess," I said, as winningly and soothingly as I could; "come home +with teacher, now. Teacher will lead you, all the way." + +For answer, the child's head fell heavily on one side. I tried to take +her in my arms, but she was very heavy. I found one of the small boys +lingering outside the school-house and sent him for Bessie's father. + +I shall never forget the look with which Captain Sartell lifted his baby +in his arms. He had seven other children; he was a poor man, a +Wallencamper, but one would have thought him a king, and that the only +hope of his line lay treasured in the mass of flaxen curls pressed +against his shoulder, as he carried her home. + +The next morning, early, Captain Sartell appeared at the Ark with a +blanched face. Bess had been growing worse, he said. They feared it was a +fever. He was going to West Wallen for a doctor. "She thinks," he +continued, with absolute white bewilderment on his features, "that she's +in school all the while, and it's a gettin' late, and the teacher ain't +there, and so she keeps a callin' for the teacher; and I wouldn't ask ye +to go up, teacher, if you was anyways afeard, but it 'ud break your heart +to hear her." + +For one of my years, I knew singularly little, either of sickness or +death, so I was the more readily susceptible to the slight disrespect the +Captain seemed to have cast on my wisdom and fortitude. + +"Certainly I will go and see her," I said; "why should I be afraid?" + +"I was only thinkin' it was fair to say," said the Captain; "she was took +so sudden and so violent like, it might be--might be--suthin'--suthin' +kitchin', perhaps. They was a case or two o' scarlet fever up to Wallen, +but she wasn't exposed no way that we know on. She wasn't exposed." + +The Captain, regarding me intently, repeated the words, thrusting his +neck out with a pitiful gulp, his hand on the latch. Observing him, the +expression of my face changed; he groaned as he went out, closing the +door silently. + +My first impulse then was to pack my trunk and start for home, but the +wailing of Mrs. Philander, and of the other women who had followed the +Captain in, lamenting one with another in an agony of helpless fear, +appealed to my courage and presence of mind, and had a strangely +sustaining and quieting effect upon me. I suggested after a few moments' +reflection, that very likely the case was not so bad as Captain Sartell +supposed. I determined to have no school that day, and advised the women +what they should do, in case their children had been already exposed to a +contagious disease. Then a happy thought struck me. I went out in the +other part of the Ark to seek Grandma Keeler. I wondered why we had not +thought of her, before. + +She entered the room where the women sat. Calm and sunshine was Grandma +Keeler--calm and sunshine breaking through a storm. + +If it was scarlet fever, she knew just what to do. She and pa had it +years ago, and they'd lived through it; but she didn't believe that it +was nothin' half so bad, and "What if it is, you poor critturs, you," +said Grandma, in such a tone as she would have used to soothe a +frightened child; "every time there's a squall must we go to takin' on as +though it was our doin's? The Lord, He makes the squalls, and he don't +put it on us to manage 'em; but up thar' in His fa'r weather, He looks +down on the storms that we know not whither, but are only drivin' of us +landward safe, and 'Keep ye still,' He says, 'Jest keep ye still!' No +need o' strainin' eyes, but fix 'em thar', on Him, I've seen a many times +when no words but them would do." + +The tears stood in Grandma's eyes. Beautiful soul! Whatever storms she +might have known in her life's voyage, she only seemed to lie at anchor +now, in a sure haven; and all the while, her heart was going out in the +tenderest sympathy to those still tossing on the seas and striving to +make perilous passages, even to those watching false harbor lights in the +distance. She had had an experience wide enough for all. She had found +where it was still. She longed to draw all others into that stillness. + +Soon Grandma was on her way to give help and consolation where it was +most needed--in Captain Sartell's household. She did not come back until +near mid-day. + +Mrs. Philander's children were kept carefully out of the room when she +entered. + +"The Lord is a goin' to take that little one to Himself, teacher," she +said to me, very impressively. + +Captain Sartell had not yet returned with the doctor. Possibly he had +been obliged to drive to the next town. Poor Mrs. Sartell was nearly +distracted. Bessie's fever had gone to the brain. + +"We couldn't quiet her, no way," Grandma continued; "and she's a growin' +weak, but when them spells come on, she's ravin', first about one thing +and then another, but mostly it's school, school. 'It's a gittin' so late +in school and the teacher not there'--and then she screams and moans so! +Poor, sufferin' darlin'! ye can't ease her no way." + +With a desperate determination not to yield myself to my own thoughts, I +informed Mrs. Philander that I was going to live with Grandma a while, +that I should not go through that part of the Ark where she and the +children were, and she must keep the little door at the foot of the +stairway locked, and not let the children follow me; and I sprinkled +myself with camphor and went back with Grandma to Captain Sartell's +house. + +Mrs. Sartell was alone in the room with Bess. I expected that she would +meet me with an almost reproachful look, but there was only sorrow in her +face, a sorrow that seemed intensified by the smile she lifted to us as +we entered. The air in the room was very pure and sweet. The bed on which +Bess lay was as white as snow. But what a change a day had wrought in the +little face pressed against the pillow. + +"Teacher's come," said Grandma Keeler, with soft; pathetic cheer, bending +over the child. + +"Would she care now?" I thought. "Would she know me?" + +Just once she opened her eyes wide, smiled, and threw her arms towards me +feebly. I would have taken her then, I thought, if it had been my death. + +They wrapped a shawl around her, and I took her in my arms, rocked her +gently and sang to her, very softly, the songs she loved best. She moved +a little restlessly, and then lay very still with her head on my breast. + +So I rocked and sang to Bess, and the two women moved noiselessly about +the room until Grandma Keeler came and looked down very intently into the +little one's face. + +"She's asleep," I murmured, placing a finger on my lips. + +"Yes, she's asleep," said Grandma, in a trembling voice, solemnly. +"Sweet, purty little one," she went on, with tears running down her +cheeks, and she turned to the mother--"Thank God, you!" she exclaimed, +with sudden strength and firmness in her voice, that was yet thrilled +with emotion; "from sorrowin' and from pain forevermore, the Lord has +took His lamb!" + +Ay, life's chain of dewy morning flowers was broken! The baby fingers had +dropped those purple fragments without grief, now, or dismay--only the +peace of some sweet unfolding mystery over the veiled blue eyes! + +Still, she seemed to me asleep--only asleep. I felt no shrinking from the +dead child in my arms. When they took her away from me and laid her on +the bed, I looked at her tranquil face, and the mother's passionate grief +seemed out of place. Why should one wish to wake another from such +repose? I could not comprehend the mother's aching sense of loss. But +later, when we heard the sound of wheels and saw Captain Sartell and the +doctor driving very fast up the lane, I went down the stairs and passed +out before them. I could not bear to watch the strong man's face when he +should find his baby dead. + +Little Bess was buried under the lilac blossoms. The fever which had so +soon smitten her down was not properly a contagious one. I went on with +my school again, missing the sweet face of the dead child more and more +each succeeding day. + +Not one of the children with whom she had played was taken sick, but it +was scarcely two weeks after her death that I was taken sick as she had +been. In the interval George Olver had come to me and I had written to +Rebecca, but Rebecca had not come back to Wallencamp nor answered my +letter. I was more anxious and troubled about her than I dared confess to +any one. Then suddenly I ceased to care for any of those things. Of my +last afternoon in school I could recall very little afterwards, except +that the clock on the shelf back of me seemed to be ticking in my brain, +and the voices in the room sounded indistinct. My own voice sounded to me +like that of some one else speaking from a long way off. + +And at evening, in the Ark, I put my little room in perfect order, my +head growing heavy with pain. I felt that I must finish this task before +I lay down, and there was another intention to which I clung with a +painful pertinacity of mind. + +I sat down at my table and wrote half a dozen or more brief letters +home. These were filled with irrelevant anecdotes pertaining to my +experience among the Wallencampers, a few desultory descriptions of +character and scenery, with a philosophical digression or two. + +To one not intimately acquainted with the epistolary products of my pen, +these letters would have undoubtedly suggested the workings of a crazed +and feverish brain, but they were not calculated to arouse any particular +alarm in the minds of my friends at home, unless, indeed, it was by +reason of the unusual care and painstaking evinced in their chirography +and the punctilious manner in which they were dated. The first one I +dated for the evening on which I was writing. The next for a time several +days in advance of that, and so on, performing this strange act with +utter indifference to the presumption of it. + +When it was finished, I seemed to have forgotten what next to do. Grandma +Keeler told me afterwards, that I went to the head of the stairs and +called to her, that she came up, and I told her very gravely that I was +going to be sick, but I knew I was not going to die, and adjured her with +a look in my eyes which she said, "I couldn't go ag'inst, teacher, for it +was more convincin' than health," not to write to my friends of my +sickness, and instructed her how to send the letters which I had sealed, +stamped, directed, and methodically arranged on the table, in their +proper order to the post. + +For the rest, all through the pain and impotence and vague mental +wanderings of the days that followed, I had a restful, comforting +consciousness that a kind, loving face, like the lamp of my salvation, +was hanging ever over me--always it was Grandma Keeler's face, though it +seemed to have grown strangely young and fair, and the eyes that followed +me with such a loving, tireless, wistful expression in them were like +other eyes that I had known, and the watcher's voice was clear and +musical, with a youthful repression in it. Still, somehow, it was +Grandma's face, _her_ eyes, _her_ voice--and when at last, I woke one +morning very weak, but able to recognize clearly all the familiar objects +in the room, it was Grandma Keeler indeed, who sat by my bed, beaming +gloriously upon me. + +"Is it most school time, Grandma?" I inquired, feebly, slowly +concentrating my gaze on her face. + +"Oh, laws, no!" said Grandma, with cheerful emphasis, and then continued +talking in her quiet monotone. I hardly heard what she said. I was +painfully endeavoring to pick up the lost thread of my consciousness +where I had left it on that night when I put my room in order and went so +wearily to bed. At last I inquired, still vaguely, "How long?" + +Grandma understood. She smiled reassuringly. + +"Only a little while, teacher," she said. "You've only been sick a little +while--a few days, maybe," and she immediately proffered me some broth +which was a triumph of the good soul's art, and seemed to partake of her +own comfortable and sustaining nature. I lay back on the pillows, +contented to be very still for a little while. + +When I next looked up and recognized that familiar figure sitting by the +bed, I said, "Has Becky come back?" + +"Yis, Becky's come back!" said Grandma, in a tone which seemed to imply, +in the very best faith, that during my illness the world had been running +on excellently well. "You take some more broth now, teacher, and keep +r'al slow-minded and easy, and hev' a good night's rest, and to-morrer +I'll tell ye all about it!" + +But I persisted; so Grandma continued gently:-- + +"Wall, it wa'n't much to tell, only the doctor said ye wasn't to be +talked to much, nor worked up; but I reckon a little pleasant news ain't +a gonter hurt nobody. Ye see, when you was took sick, George Olver, he +got a hold of where Becky was; he had a mistrustin' of it, somehow--and +he went and told her, and it brought her, hearin' you was dangerous, and +she calculated she might be o' use to ye now, for _some_, they _be_ sich +friends!" said Grandma, making this observation with the most guileless +enthusiasm. "And Becky, she wa'n't much brought up, and used to be as +wild and harum-scarum as any of 'em; but I allus said that there was a +good deal to Becky, after all. Wall, George Olver, he recognized where +she was and he went down thar' and found her, and they wa'n't anybody +ventured to say a word, and what need? for everybody respec's George +Olver, knowin' he's uncommon ser'ous and high-minded; and the very same +hour they came home, Becky, she come up here, and she turned me right out +of the room, as ye might say. 'It's my place, Grandma,' says she, 'and +I'm better able than you. I understand. It's my place.' And she wa'n't +vary strong, but she wouldn't give up to nobody, and only run home a +little while between spells to rest, and watched and tended ye as +faithful as though she was keepin' count of every breath; and when the +fever turned a Monday night, and you fell off into a kind of a natural +sleep, the doctor, he says to her, what it ain't a very common thing for +a doctor to say: 'It's you saved her life!' he says. 'She was vary sick.' +And he shook his head the way they do. 'You've tended vary faithful,' he +says; and Becky, she hardly spoke, but I seen when she looked up that her +eyes was a shinin', and that happy look that she's had somehow, sence she +came back--I can't tell ye exactly, teacher, but it's most like as ef +somebody should have a bad dream, and be wakin' up kinder surprised and +thankful--but when the doctor said them words, I'll never forget how her +eyes went a shinin', and she says to me, 'I'm goin' home now, and never +you tell her, when she wakes up, for she thought it was you watchin' with +her all the time, and kep' a callin "Grandma! Grandma!" says she; 'and +don't you tell her! don't you; for it would seem as though I was obligin' +her, and if she forgives me and is friendly I don't want it to be for +that,' And I didn't say as I should or shouldn't tell," said Grandma, +smilingly unconscious of the two large tears that were stealing down her +cheeks; "but I knowed pretty well what I had on my mind!" + +Grandma ceased speaking, and began to busy herself about the room, +humming softly her favorite refrain:-- + + "The Light of the World is Jesus." + +I lay very still, thinking-- + + "Once I was blind but now I can see!" + +That low, glad, tremulous murmur brought no peace to my troubled heart. + +When Grandma Keeler looked at me again, I fancied she met a helpless, +appealing, almost an aggrieved expression in my eyes. + +"I want to see her," I said. "I want to see Becky, of course." + +"Yis, yis," said Grandma, "to-morrer. You'd want to talk, and you've had +enough for one day. I'll tell her, and she'll understand." + +"But I want to see her now," I persisted. + +"They's some folks just come in to inquire," continued Grandma, giving an +easeful touch to the pillows. "They's been a good many in to inquire. May +be, she's amongst 'em. I'll go down and see." + +Soon I heard the old, girlish, familiar step on the stairs. Rebecca +hesitated, standing an instant on the threshold. In spite of the new and +loftier soul looking out of her eyes, in spite of the new and womanly +dignity which she bore so reposefully, she read my face with that quick, +intuitive glance I had learned to know so well. + +Then coming towards me, she put her arm gently around my neck, kissed me, +understanding all, hushing all, forgiving all; and smiling a tender +prohibition in her eyes, put her finger on my lips. + +Sobbing inwardly, I accepted this divine retaliation in silence, and +rested a while in that loving, warm embrace. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LUTE CRADLEBOW GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR. + + +One morning, early in my convalescence, I was startled by a mighty +rumbling and scraping sound on the narrow stairway, as of some unwieldy +object pushed steadily upward. The summit reached, I heard the retreat of +manly feet, and this leviathan presented itself with Grandma Keeler as an +animating force, breathless and smiling, in the rear. + +"He didn't have time to paint it, teacher," she began joyfully; "but +it'll be jest as comf'table to set in. He's been explainin' of it to +me--Lute has--ye see, it's a cheer. He made it for ye, himself. And all +you've got to do is to turn this 'ere crank, here--" Grandma's +countenance was radiant with wonder and approval--"and up it'll go--so--as +high as ye want it! and this 'ere can be shoved in and out for ye to put +yer feet on, and this 'ere back can be let anyways ye want it. He seen a +picture o' one in a paper, once, and he went and made this by his own +eye, and all the hinges and cranks, and everythin' as slick as a pin! He +didn't say anythin'," Grandma continued, in a slightly lowered, +insinuating tone of voice; "about likin' to come up and see ye, when ye +was able to set up, and you know, teacher, as I don't believe in meddlin' +in young folks' affairs; but it appeared to me, havin' had so much +experience with the men folks as I have, that may be he was kind o' +hangin' around waitin' for an invitation--for ye see, they're goin' to +sail now in a vary few days." + +So, a little later, I sat up in my new chair and received the Cradlebow, +in a loose, trailing gown of rich material, daintily embroidered. In the +midst of my narrow and humble surroundings I had an exiled-princess sort +of consciousness, and recognized with a new pleasure the Cradlebow's +lordly face and bearing, as he stooped on entering the little red door. + +Living in a reverie, still,--a fancy, a day-dream, strangely vivid and +life-like, but not real,--not real, I was so far softened by my illness +that, with the delicious sense of returning health and strength, I was +content, for a time, to live simply in the present, to dismiss the stern +warden, Duty, from my thoughts, and that ever-grave necessity for +maintaining a mental and moral superiority which had so oppressed me. + +"It had been weary work living on the heights, and what had it all +amounted to?" I asked myself, with a recklessness too tranquil, now, to +be converted into bitterness. "It was so much easier and safer, lower +down." But while I doubted and almost gave up the struggle, the +Cradlebow aspired ever to greater faith and hope in life, and enthusiasm +for life's work. + +And with all this, it was evident that there had been with him an inward +struggle and preparation, a silent conquering of self. With a vain +discontent for my own failure, I marvelled at the glory which had crowned +his humble efforts. "This, too," I thought, "is a sort of heroism:" and +my spirit of condescension towards the youth took on something new, like +reverence. + +It was even with pride that I reflected, "Here is a strength I may rely +upon by and by;" and I was proud that my lover's kiss was so pure upon my +lips, his breath on my cheek--ah, foolish sleeping heart! It was well +that the dream should grow passionate, even intense, for the awakening +was near. + +In the bewildered and feverish condition of mind in which I had last left +the Wallencamp school-house, I had been consciously impressed, at least, +with the idea that I should probably never enter those familiar walls +again, never again as the teacher. And now, I had no intention of +resuming my labors there. + +But I did not wish to flaunt my boasted independence before the family +circle at Newtown, until my eyes should have assumed a little more nearly +their usual proportions, and my manner of going up and down stairs +should have become less strikingly feeble. + +I decided to remain in Wallencamp a few days to recuperate. I was not +impatient nor especially chagrined on account of this necessity. Secretly +willing to await the departure of the Cradlebow's ship, to have a brief +season of rest from all care and responsibility among the scenes of my +past labors--a little breathing space in which to study these people +quietly, to exchange unhurried kindly words with them before I should go +away from them forever--I was glad to have it so. + +Such welcomings and congratulations as I received from the Wallencampers +when I was able to get down the stairs once more! I felt very happy, +almost humble, sitting where the sunlight poured in at the open door +of Grandma's living-room. + +That picture is still before my mind: the bare, shining floor, the +unpainted table, the chimney-shelf, and a clock, the successful working +of whose machinery demanded a crazily tilted attitude; a Bible on the +shelf, too, and Grandma's spectacles lying askew. Then, a commodious +lounge of exceedingly simple construction set up straight against the +wall and extending the whole length of the room. The original framework +of this lounge, by the way, disclosed itself in many bold and striking +instances, under a unique method of upholstery. It was stuffed +sectionally. There was the "old paper corner," within whose rustling +precincts Lovell was reputed once to have endured agonies, during a +religious meeting held at the Ark. There was the "sawdust" section, +substantial, but by no means billowy to the touch; and the "dried yarb" +section, of a nature similar to the sawdust; and, omitting the "old +clothes section" with its insidious buttons, and the "corn-cob" section, +and the "cotton-wood bark" section, there was the "feather corner," at +the other end, generally conceded to be luxurious, but silently avoided, +as having given, on more than one occasion, a sharp suggestion of quills. +Over the whole, depressions and excrescences, was stretched a faded +chintz cover. But woe to the luckless wight who thought to find repose +by throwing himself carelessly down on this hitherto untried structure! +It was reserved only to the knowing few to find a comfortable seat on the +lounge. + +The cat, without having subjected herself to those trials which some of +us endured, had discovered, with true feline instinct, wherein the +deepest rest lay, and had established herself on a suspended bridge of +chintz between two overhanging systems. + +There were a few chairs in the room besides, but the doorsteps were wide. +Grandpa sat always in the south door, Grandma on the steps looking +towards the lane, and it was at this latter inviting spot that the +neighbors, the "passers by," paused most frequently and disposed +themselves, with a grateful air. + +I listened to their talk, while the birds struggled to make noisy +interruptions and cast their fleeting shadows in the sunlight on the +floor, and the peach-blossoms outside were falling noiselessly. + +Grandma Keeler had been telling me in a happy, droning voice, though +gravely enough, of the "awakenin'" that was going on in Wallencamp--how +"a good many o' the young folks was impressed," and "Cap'n Sartell had +been seekin', ever since little Bessie died, and some that had seemed to +be forgitful and backslidin' had come forward and told where they stood, +until it seemed as though the Lord was a sendin' a blessin' down, jest as +soft and beautiful as them blossoms;" and Grandma's eyes wandered towards +the peach-tree with a tearful fervor in them. + +Aunt Patty was a temporary occupant of the steps. Her anxious, care-lined +face was turned indoors, away from the light and the falling blossoms. +There was an anxious, restless ring in her voice, too. + +"I'm glad to hev such a time, I'm sure," said she. "We need it bad +enough, any time, Lord knows!--but it seems a queer season o' the year +for't. When we've had 'em before it's generally been along in the winter. +I never heered of an awakenin' before right in the midst o' +tater-buggin'." + +Aunt Patty was not intentionally irreverent. Life, with her, had been so +narrow and hard pressed, always a painful reckoning of times and seasons. + +The allusion to "tater-buggin'" gave Grandpa an opportunity of a sort of +which he had not been slow to avail himself lately--to engage in a little +old-time, secular conversation. His voice, however, as it sounded from +the south doorway, was impressive enough for any subject. + +"Grists on 'em, this year!" he said. + +"Heaps!" Aunt Patty responded, readily. "I don't see how ever the +children could be speered to go to school now, anyway. Randal had all +eight o' hisn out yesterday, with a four-quart pail apiece, and him and +Lucindy pickin' into the half-bushel besides; and Rodney told Bede, for +the livin' truth, he'd seen a lantern movin' around last night right in +the dead o' night, and he looked out and it was the Dean and Abbie Ann +out tater-buggin', and everybody knows they wasn't out in the daytime, it +was so dreadful hot. I'm sure we never had such queer weather afore. But +them bugs are the hardest critturs to kill. It's almost impossible to +dispose on 'em; and it does seem enough, what with ploughin' and plantin' +and harrowin' and hoein' to git a few potatoes, and like enough, wet +weather to rot 'em, without havin' to fight over 'em, for the last chance, +with a whole army of varmint. I'm sure this 'ere way o' gittin' a livin', +as old Grandther Skewer used to say, 'It costs more than it's wuth.'" + +Led by the screams of the little Keelers in Madeline's apartment, Grandma +had left the room for a moment, and Grandpa cleared his throat and began, +hopefully:-- + +"Talkin' about tater-bugs," he said, and he glanced at me with a +preliminary gleam in his eye; "Bachelder Lot was tellin' me the other +mornin,--he said he was eddicatin' a couple on 'em. He said thar' wa'n't +no other way to get rid on 'em, but to appeal to their moral natur', and +he said when he'd got 'em eddicated up to the highest p'int o' morality, +he was a goin' to send 'em out as missionaries ter convart the rest. +Bachelder said he'd got 'em fur enough along, now, so't they'd pass +examination along o' average folks that wa'n't admitted church +members----" + +"Bijonah Keeler!" + +Grandma, unexpectedly returning, had caught the last word only of +Grandpa's discourse, but taking this in connection with the bright and +mirthful expression of his countenance, she judged that his sentiments +had been of an unusually reprehensible nature. + +"Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, with an evident notion of continuing his +narration; "what now, ma?" + +"I hope, pa," said Grandma, giving one the impression that she felt she +couldn't put the case too strongly; "that you are as innocent o' what +you've be'n a sayin' as the babe unborn, and to your credit, pa, I +believe you be!" + +"Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, now mentally lost and bewildered; "I +guess I know what I'm talkin' about!" + +"And if you do, pa," said Grandma, with a solemnity that was unutterably +conclusive; "you know more than I do!" + +Then, while the women talked, Grandpa, sitting alone in the south door, +sighed and whittled, and abstractedly scanned the horizon. Once, he made +a singularly bold attempt to entice Aunt Patty again into the channels of +profane conversation, by an introductory speculation as to the prospect +of the bean crop; but Grandma Keeler nipped this reckless and irreverent +adventure in the bud, by replying in a calm, vast tone:-- + +"Pa, it r'aly seems to me that for a vain creetur in a fleetin' world, +and a perfessor besides, there'd ought to be more things to talk about +than beans!" + +Grandpa Keeler sighed still more deeply, gazed wistfully towards the +barn, as though he would fain have shuffled out in that direction; but +the weather being so warm, he refrained. He glanced at me with a feeble, +helpless smile, his head fell backward, his eyes gradually closed, and, +in spite of the iniquities which covered his ancient head, he fell into a +slumber that had all the semblance of childlike and unblemished +innocence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW. + + +While Grandpa Keeler dozed peacefully, Emily Gaskell, also "passin' by," +joined the group of women on the doorsteps of the Ark. + +Emily, by the way, was regarded as a hopeful subject of the "awakenin'." +She had been to see a doctor in Farmouth, who told her she could not live +through another winter "with that cough on her." She sat very still in +the meetings, it was said, and seemed "tetched and wonderful," whereas +she had been wont formerly, on occasions of this solemn nature, to evince +many signs of restlessness, and even to engage in droll and sly +diversions for the greater delectation of the "unconsarned." + +Emily herself was particularly unreserved on the subject of her spiritual +condition. Her tone had lost none of its former bright vivacity, though I +thought I saw frequently now, while she was talking, a softer shadow +steal over the restless, consuming fire in her blue eyes. + +"I know what some on 'em say," said she; "I know what I might 'a' +said, jest as like as not, if it had been somebody else in my place. Oh, +she's afraid she ain't a goin' to git well, and so she's a seekin' +religion. She's scart into it! + +"Wall, if folks that know me are a mind to say that, they may; though if +it comes to bein' scart into religion by what the doctors said, I should +'a' jined the church twenty times over! + +"It ain't because I'm afraid o' what'll happen to me after I'm all dead +and peaceable. It's because I want a little more comfort while I'm a +livin'. Seems to me there's more comfort needed for the livin'. + +"And ever since my Brother 'Lihu died, seems as though them last words o' +hisn have been a ringin' in my ears. 'I know somebody that'll watch. Who? +Jesus will! Jesus will!' over and over again. And when I get to worryin' +about things, and can't see no way through, or whoever's a goin' to +straighten em' out, it keeps agoin', 'Who, then? Jesus will! Jesus will!' +over and over. And 'Lihu wasn't a professor, neither; and maybe he hadn't +no right to take the comfort out o' them words that he did; and maybe I +hain't no right, and it's only like a string o' music that'll keep a +runnin' in a body's head sometimes and they not thinkin' nor meanin' any +thin'. + +"I don't see any further into it than I did afore. I don't know as I'm +what you'd call any more believin', but when I've laid till after +midnight with my eyes as wide open as daylight, and no shut to 'em, +thinkin' and worryin' and coughin', I've seen it ag'in, jest the way he +rolled and tossed that night, and then them words come to him, and he +smiled and went to sleep peacefuller nor any child; and so _I've_ said +'em, and faith or no faith, believin' or no believin', they've set me a +cryin', time and ag'in, and they've put me to sleep! thar', they've put +me to sleep!" + +"And who else could they 'a' be'n meant for but him and you?" cried +Grandma, in a gush of sympathy; "him and you, and anybody else as you +seen needed them words and could give 'em to 'em to quiet 'em; for, dear +woman! there ain't none on us that see into it, but jest to say it over. +Dear woman! we don't know no more. It's what's a restin' all on us. It's +what's a restin' all on us!" + +I looked up and saw tears in Madeline's eyes. I had not heard Madeline +spoken of as among the number of the impressed. There were tears in my +own eyes, I knew; there had grown to be such a pathos in those women's +voices. + +A little later, Emily lapsed into a strain of sprightly gossip. + +"And who do you think's kitin' around in this region ag'in?" she began. +"Somebody you'd expect least of all, I reckon; wall, it's Dave Rollin," +and she nodded her head quickly and expressively at the others. + +"I don't mean," she continued; "that he's been in Wallencamp, but Levi +was down from Wallen this mornin', and he said they stopped last night in +Wallen Harbor--him and some other fellers, mighty stylish lookin', but he +said it was Dave Rollin's yacht, as fine and fancy-rigged as ever he see, +and there was some that looked like common sailors, and they all come +ashore, and the common ones was the quietest. But he reckoned the +fisherman was off on 'a time,' and stopped there jest for fun, and to +show off, maybe. + +"Wall, Levi told me that, and to-day, 'long about the middle o' the +forenoon, my man come up to the house--he's down to shore, you know, +along o' Cap'n Sartell and George Olver and Lute Cradlebow and all the +rest, down there a mendin' up the old schooner, 'cause Cap'n wanted Lute +to see to it afore he went away. My man come up for a wrench, and 'Who do +you think's a scootin' around down on the Bay?' says he. 'Wall, it's Dave +Rollin,' says he; 'in the purtiest little craft, that runs jest like a +picter,' and he said they couldn't see but two men aboard of her then; he +guessed they wan't many. It was jest like Dave Rollin to take a run from +Wallen down this way to show what he could do alone, for he was always +braggin' about bein' so stiddy on his sea-legs, and how't he understood +this shore better'n any o' the old uns. + +"My man said they didn't know who 'twas out there, at first, for it ain't +the kind o' vessel often seen, and it skimmed along on the edge o' the +water, Sim said, like a bird, in and out amongst the rocks, so't +anybody'd a thought, not knowin' who they was--and them, maybe, not +knowin' the shore--that they was drunk or gone crazy; and Sim said they +hollered to 'em to look out for the rocks, and they heered a kind of a +laugh on the water, and somebody shouted back: + +"'Stow your gab, land lubbers!' and they knew from the voice it was Dave +Rollin. + +"He was probably meanin' to put in there, and might 'a' come ashore may +be,--he was wild enough--but he seen our men and that kind o' hindered +him; he didn't want to turn round and put right back neither, lookin' +as though he was scared, so he kep' on, and Sim said they watched 'em +clean out o' sight; 'but,' says he, 'I never seen a man turn whiter'n +George Olver did for a minute, and then he onclinched his fist and went +to work ag'in, harder than ever, for you can allays depend on Jim, +somehow--George Olver--but he's a dreadful close-mouthed fellow!" + +During the recital of this narrative, recalling so much to my mind, I +experienced more than anything else a feeling of annoyance, almost of +resentment, that the fisherman should appear, however remotely, to +disturb the serenity of these last few days in which I had to live out +my Wallencamp idyl. + +For the others the story seemed to have created a momentary excitement, +but they regarded it, on the whole, as of little consequence. + +Aunt Patty had passed on to the doorway of another neighbor, and George +Olver's relations with Rebecca soon constituted the theme of a more +general and lively discourse, in which the remarks concerning Rebecca +were mostly kind and considerate, and the praise of George Olver's +conduct enthusiastic; and, at the close of which, I remember, Grandma +said that "the higher minded folks gits to be, the pitifuller they be +a'most always!" + +The fact of the fisherman's transient appearance on the Bay was not again +alluded to, nor do I think the mind of any one present reverted to it, +when Grandpa Keeler, looking up with that utterly dazed and bewildered +air which betokened a decisive awakening on his part, cast his eye along +the horizon, and observed gravely,-- + +"Storm a brewin', ma." + +"You've been asleep, pa," said Grandma, in sweetly mollifying tones; and +Emily Gaskell, almost involuntarily, glanced up at me with a mischievous, +anticipative wink. + +[Illustration] + +"Asleep, ma," said Grandpa Keeler; "no, I hain't been asleep, neither! +And what if I had, ma? That don't hender a storm's brewin', does it?" + +"We've be'n seein' them little wind clouds passin' afore the sun for half +an hour past," explained Grandma Keeler, composedly. + +But Grandpa scanned the sky with a dark, keen glance--the air of an old +voyager on stormy and literal seas, and he shook his head, sagely. + +"Wall, wall, ma," he said, "it don't make no difference whether it's a +wind-storm or a rain-storm that I know on, but a tempest it's brewin', +sartin sure. I remember once, we'd had a spell o' weather jest like this, +and it begun to gether up in the same way. It was in the same latitude, +teacher, same latitude. I was off cruisin' with Bob Henchy--whew! That +ar' was a singin' gale! I remember it as well as yesterday. I was off +with Bob----" + +"Are you sure it was Bob ye was off with, pa," interrupted Grandma. "I +could almost write a book, pa, while you was tellin' a story." + +"Wall, wall, ma! Write a book, if ye want to!" exclaimed Grandpa, with +sweeping force. "I'm sure nobody wants to hender yer writing a book if ye +want to, ma!" + +Grandma Keeler heeded not those derisive words. Her mind was bent on +pursuits of a far loftier and more engrossing nature. In respect to the +weather--except on Sabbath mornings, when it was impossible to credit +Grandpa with perfect fairness and impartiality of judgment--Grandma, it +must be said, had real faith in the old sea-captain's prognostications. + +"It does look like a shower, and a mighty sudden one," said Emily. She +thrust her knitting-work in her pocket, donned her sun-bonnet, and +departed with other chance occupants of the doorsteps. And Grandma, too, +admitted the prospect of foul weather by throwing a handkerchief over her +head and going out to fetch the milk-pans. + +Since early spring Grandma Keeler had put her milk-pans to dry in the sun +on a bench half-way up the "Pastur-Hill." Why she should choose to place +them at such a seemingly capricious and unnecessary distance from the +house, for it was really no inconsiderable journey for Grandma, taking +into account her peculiar style of locomotion; whether she considered +that the rays of the morning sun visited them more directly on that +plane, or that the elevation exposed them to peculiar atmospheric +advantages; these were questions which the curious mind was left to solve +for itself, for the grave office of carrying out and bringing in the +milk-pans was performed by Grandma with an air of mysterious calm, which +admitted of no profane comment or speculation. + +Madeline laughed, watching her, the musical notes ringing out with a +touch of insane gayety. + +"If ma knew it was Judgment Day," said she, "she'd carry those milk-pans +up the hill to dry, and if she knew it was Judgment Hour she'd go to +fetch 'em." + +The scene grew rapidly weird as the sky darkened. A low sigh, like a +premonition, crept through the heavy atmosphere and shivered among the +peach-blossoms. + +The first gust of wind seized Grandma, returning with the milk-pans. It +was a zephyr compared with the blasts that followed, but it had the +effect of giving to that good soul's usually composed and reassuring +presence, something of the appearance of a crazy and dismantled ship, +rolling in a high sea. + +Grandpa was quick at detecting the resemblance, and hailed her approach +in thrilling nautical terms, such as: "Why didn't ye reef yer topgallant, +ma!" when the handkerchief was torn off her head; and "hang to the +main-royal, ma," as Grandma's apron was caught up and borne, wildly +fluttering, about her ears; and "keep your ballast, ma," with frequent +ejaculations of "Lor', how she pitches! how she pitches!" + +These were not thrown out as light shafts of ridicule. It was no occasion +for such. There was an awful earnestness in Grandpa Keeler's eye and in +his tone, that invested his words with due solemnity. Grandma, struggling +with the wind, had not heard them. She entered the Ark, however, cheerful +though panting. + +"Bijonah Keeler," said she, in accents of real affection, "I wouldn't +have you out in that wind for no money--not for no money, nor our +teacher, neither. Why, no stronger than she is now, it 'ud take the +breath right out of our teacher's body! Why, ef it hadn't been for the +cargo I had on board, pa," continued Grandma, naturally falling into the +same train of ideas we had followed, while watching her battle with the +elements, "I should 'a' slipped moorin's, sure!" + +A casual listener might have smiled at this, in view of Grandma's +substantial physique. + +Presently she said, as though the thought had just struck her; "I hope +fisherman's got back to Wallen Harbor, pa." + +"And if he ain't, ma," replied Grandpa Keeler, sententiously, "he'll know +what it is to be out in a squall! but I reckon he's looked out for +himself." + +The old Captain's face grew graver; his eyes, in that closed room, which +had grown so suddenly dark, took on an intensely solemn look. He did not +attempt the narration of any stormy adventures of old. Perhaps the scenes +of the past rose too vividly before his eyes. But, as the fiercest gusts +came, he kept muttering:-- + +"I knew what it meant--mild winter on the Cape! There's the devil in the +old Cape weather, teacher, and he never skipped four seasons yit! If it +ain't one time, it must be another. Yis, yis! mild winter on the Cape, +and no March to speak on, and a hurricane in summer! Wall, we're both on +us right, ma, and we're both on us wrong. It ain't neither wind ner rain, +but the heavens let loose, and God A'mighty's own power a blowin' of it. +Yis, yis! I had my misgivin's all along; thinks I, better a little more +weather now, than to blast every livin' thing by and by; but I hadn't no +idee o' this! The Lord ha' mercy! The Lord ha' mercy!" + +For all that one could see through the windows was a great black sheet of +driving rain, and the roar of the storm was terrible. The Ark shook. It +seemed, at each successive blast, as though the walls would fall in over +our heads. One could easily imagine the whole crazy structure borne +onward before the resistless tempest, to take a final wild leap from the +cliffs. + +"Wallencamp's a gittin' all mixed up," said Grandpa, without the faintest +tinge of humor, now. "We sha'n't know where to find ourselves when we git +out o' this 'ere, ef we ever do git out on't. Lord ha' mercy!" + +Madeline sat very white and still, resting her chin on her hands, her +great eyes staring out. + +Grandma held the two frightened children in her lap. She was rocking and +singing to them in a low, crooning tone. Though she was pale and her lips +trembled, there was still about her a soothing atmosphere of peace. + +I was frightened, like the children. I longed to cry out as they had +done; to bury my head away from the terrors somewhere, as they did in +Grandma's lap. + +"That was the blackest squall," said Grandpa Keeler, afterwards; "that +ever swep' across the Cape!" + +Terrible as it had been, it died quickly. The transition seemed +miraculous from the sullen roar of the wind and torrent-fall of rain, to +the renewed chirping of the birds, the quiet dripping of the eaves, and +sunshine over all. + +But the young peach-tree that had stood by the window of the Ark, and +sent its fragrance into my little room above, lay prone upon the ground. +When she saw that, Grandma Keeler moaned heart-brokenly, as though it had +been some fair human life stripped suddenly of its promise and left to +wither fruitlessly. + +There were traces of the storm everywhere. Trees that had stood isolated +in the fields lay, some of them, with roots exposed; others were broken +off at the trunk, left with only a branch or two, helpless figures with +outstretched arms, to give a weird desolation to the landscape by and by, +I thought with a shudder, when winter should come again to Wallencamp. + +The fences--what remained of them from former depredations--had either +fallen utterly to the ground, or assumed a strikingly precarious +position. + +Part of the roof of Mr. Randal's house had been blown off, and the +chimneys of several of the Wallencamp houses demolished, and Grandpa's +barn twisted and distorted almost beyond recognition. + +That poor old gentleman put on his hat and stepped out of the door +cautiously, looking about him like one in a dream. + +The Ark had stood firm, apparently, in its old resting-place. Grandma and +Madeline proceeded to sweep out the rain which had been driven in through +the cracks, and then it was that little Henry G. came running, with a +white face, to the door. He had an air of childish importance, too, as +being the first to bear tidings of some strange and dreadful event, and +eager to hasten to other doors. + +"Where's the rest?" he gasped, seeing only me in the room. "You tell 'em, +teacher, Lute Cradlebow's drownded!" and the boy disappeared, without +another word. + +I was already faint from the reaction of the excitement incident to the +storm, weak with the effort I had made to "hold myself still." I heard +Grandma calling quickly, "Child! child!" I saw her coming towards me, and +then I lost consciousness. + + * * * * * + +At evening, while the sun went down over the hill by which the +transfigured river flowed, Captain Sartell sat in the door of the Ark, +and told the story. + +The marvellous light was on his face, too. It fell, in shafts of glory, +on the bright foliage of the fallen tree. + +Grandma was at Godfrey Cradlebow's, but Grandpa Keeler was within the +Ark, and Madeline caressing her children with a new fondness. There were +a few of the neighbors present; they looked neither frightened nor +curious, but ineffably exalted. + +"We'd got our work about done," said Captain Sartell, speaking +mechanically and with little of his customary hesitation of manner. "As +near as I calk'late, there wa'n't a half hour's more work to do on the +old craft, and it had got to be sometime arter noon, but says the boys, +'Let's finish her off, now we've got so near through, and not have to +come back ag'in.' They was always a cheery set--especially _him_--when +they took hold of a job, to put it through. + +"We'd seen them sailin' fellows go by a while before; and we knew Rollin +was one of 'em. They wasn't but two, as we could see, managin' the craft; +and they was full sail, clippin' it lively. I calk'late there ain't many +knows this shore better'n me, but I wouldn't 'a' durst skirted along the +adge down thar' at sech a rate, not in the finest day blowin'. First, we +thought it was somebody didn't know what they was about. When we made +out it was Rollin, we knew, if he _was_ drunk, he was tol'able well +acquainted with the rocks along shore, and 'ud probably put further out +when he got through showin' off. We didn't worry about 'em, nor think no +more about 'em, in special. The boys didn't want to talk to rile George +Olver. + +"So we kep' to work, and in a minute, cheery ag'in with the hammers +click, clickin'--and every now and then the boys 'ud strike up a singin' +something'. 'Beyond the River,' and 'Homeward Bound.' + +"It sounded dredful purty down thar' by the water, with the water and the +wideness all around sorter softenin' of it. It made a man feel curious +and wishful somehow. + +"Well, by and by, _him_ and George Olver struck up a song. I've heern 'em +sing it before, them two. As nigh as I calk'late, it's about findin' rest +in Jesus, and one a askin' questions, all fa'r and squar', to know the +way and whether it's a goin' to lead thar' straight or not, and the other +answerin'. And _he_--he was a tinkerin', 'way up on the foremast, George +Olver and the rest on us was astern,--and I'll hear to my dyin' day how +his voice came a floatin' down to us thar'--chantin'-like it was--cl'ar +and fearless and slow. So he asks, for findin' Jesus, ef thar's any marks +to foller by; and George Olver, he answers about them bleedin' +nail-prints, and the great one in His side. So then that voice comes down +ag'in, askin' if thar's any crown, like other kings, to tell Him by; and +George Olver, he answers straight about that crown o' thorns. Then says +that other voice, floatin' so strong and cl'ar, and if he gin up all and +hollered, what should he have? what now? + +"So George Olver, he sings deep o' the trial and the sorrowin'. But that +other voice never shook, a askin', and what if he helt to Him to the end, +what then should it be, what then? George Olver answers: 'Forever-more, +the sorrowin' ended--Death gone over.' + +"Then he sings out, like his mind was all made up, 'And if he undertook +it, would he likely be turned away?' + +"'And it's likelier,' George Olver answers him; 'that heaven and earth +shall pass.' + +"So I'll hear it to my dyin' day--his voice a floatin' down to me from up +above thar', somewhar', askin' them questions that nobody could ever +answer like, so soon, he answered 'em for himself--and when I looked up, +thar' was Harvey, with his hammer dropped, and his mouth wide open, a +starin' up thar', and the tears rollin' down his cheeks like he was a +baby. + +"They didn't sing no more, after that. They was still for about five +minutes, I calk'late. Harvey, he was still, too; but pretty soon, he +wakes up and says, 'Gad, boys! Did ye ever see sech a queer look in the +sky? I believe thar's a September gale brewin'." + +"'It's a little wind storm, I reckon,' says Bachelder. Bachelder was +settin', with his legs curled up under him, mendin' sail, and he begun to +spin one o' them yarns o' hisn, with his voice pitched up middlin' high, +and the boys, they begun to laugh and cheer. + +"Then Harvey says; 'I'll run up to headquarters, and find out about the +weather;' and clim' up the main-mast as limber as a squirrel, and when he +came back, thar' was Tommy's hat stickin' way up top o' the mast; so +Tommy, he promised to pay him--them two was always foolin' together, but +good-natered enough." The captain introduced this little incident, in the +midst of his narration, with a dull, pathetic gravity, "It was the last +thing we thought on, o' bein' fearful, or calk'latin' any danger. We +reckoned it was a brisk little shower comin' up, maybe, and the boys was +runnin' one another about gittin' into the cabin, and runnin' on about +the old craft. + +"Then thar' come, all of a sudden, sech a strange feelin', as ef the +'arth and the water was a tremblin', and a dreadful moanin' sound runnin' +through 'em. Seemed as though it came swirlin' across the bay. Then it +bust on us in a fury. + +"He was out, sorter lookin' around him, Bachelder was, and the wind took +Bachelder up, and keeled 'im over two or three times runnin'. + +"Black it grew as the Jedgement day. Then come no sich rain as ever I +see, even the pourin'est, but the clouds fallin' all to once, and the +wind a scatterin' of 'em, and up on the cliffs, we could jest hear a +creakin' and a bendin' whar' the trees was turned as white as ghosts in +that 'ere blackness, and the old Bay, in sech a minute, was spinnin' into +foam. + +"We was shelterin' around the old craft now, sure enough, and nobody +speakin' a word, but jest a holdin' our breaths a waitin', when, in among +them other noises, thar' come, out on the water, sech a low, dull sound +as sent the awful truth on us in a minute, and for a minute, that ar' +right hand of mine was numb. + +"Then Harvey, he had hold o' me, a pintin' out, and whether he spoke a +word or not, I seen it--through wind and rain and foam, all in my eyes to +once, I seen--reelin' and tossin' and pitching out thar' on the Bay, +lost, lost for sure--I seen that fancy ship! + +"Thar' wa'n't no hand on 'arth could guide it, now. Every second was like +to see it keeled squar' over, or slipped and driv' in, straight on to the +rocks. + +"We're used to other'n fa'r weather along this shore. I calk'late we +ain't used to frighten at a little danger, but knowin' the sea so well, +we know the helplessness a'most o' puttin' out in sech a gale as that. + +"I heered the sound. It only came but once: and Bede hissed through his +teeth, a cryin' too, a'most: 'Ain't thar' no other way to werry us, but +they must come in here to drown afore our very eyes! A fool's ventur'! +what could ye expect but a fool's end! Ef he must drown, let the +red-haired devil drown!' + +"But when they heered it, them two, _him_ and George Olver, I knowed how +it would be. I hardly durst to look. I seen them flash at one another +with their great eyes, as ef it wa'n't enough to do man's work, but when +thar' come a chance, they must go act like God! I seen in jest that +flash, them two agreein' solemnly. + +"Then it was all done in a minute's space, like you'll live yer life +through sometimes, in a dream. They had Bill Barlow's eight-oar ready. +They pushed us back. They'd a' gone alone, them two. I kep' the third +place. Harvey and Tommy scuffled, in a breath, and Harvey, he thrust +Tommy back, and we was off. + +"God knows I never expected we'd come back again. You heern the wind. You +can calk'late what it was out thar' with the rain a drivin', and the salt +foam blowed into our eyes. I calk'late we never fetched a harder pull, +no, nor a blinder one. + +"And she, the cursed thing, mad with twitchin' at her cable, lay over to +one side. But she was dyin' mad. I tell ye she was dyin' mad. Thar' was +them two a hangin' to her--thar' hadn't be'n but them. So we hauled +Rollin in, but that other one, when he seen us, the chance o' bein' +saved, it crazed him, and he sent up a quick, glad sort of a yell and +throwed his arms out straight, and back he fell, like lead, into the +water. And Rollin, crouchin' thar' and shiverin', 'He couldn't swim! He's +sunk! he's sunk!' he says. Then _he_, he ris up in a flash, and out he +dove into that hell. + +"Then come another gust, a blindin', blindin', blindin'. 'He'll weather +it! He'll weather it!' George Olver kep' a mutterin', but his teeth was +set; his eyes shot through me like a tiger's--them two was brothers, and +more'n brothers, always. But when thar' come a half lull so't we could +see, and we looked out and seen him risin' on the wave, grippin' that +other one, in spite o' hope I scurse believed my eyes, and what a shout +they sent up from that boat! + +"Ay, thar' they was, for sure, but--God, how fur away! Not much for +common weather, but then they looked as fur to me as 'arth from heaven. +Ef we could reach 'em afore the next sweel come; and every man, it seemed +as though he put his livin' soul into his arms. 'Pull! pull!' says +George, and seemed to git the strength of seven, but still we went too +slow. We missed _him_ at the oar. And _he_, he was the strongest swimmer +that I ever knowed, but who could live in the like o' that? We pulled for +life or death, and that brave head kep' risin' on the wave. + +"Ef we could 'a' had another minute afore the next sweel come! George +Olver felt it. He sent the rope out with a giant's throw. Then it was all +and more than we could do to held the boat ag'in the wind. It come so +fast ye scurse could see them next ye in the boat. 'He's grappled it! +he's thar'! he's thar'! says they, and when they pulled it in, thar' was +that other one belt fast, and only him. + +"God knows! I calk'late he made sure o' the other first, and thar' wa'n't +jest the breath's time left for him, blinded so sudden maybe, and fell +death faint. I've knowed it be so with the strongest; no wonder thar'; +the wonder was in what he done. He was the strongest swimmer that I ever +knowed, the strongest and the fearlessest! + +"George Olver never'll be content. He would 'a' gone in after _him_. We'd +be'n driv' a furlong back, I reckon, and every mark was lost. It 'ud be'n +naught but to swaller him, too. He lost his sense. We had to holt him +back. He raved thar', like a madman. It blew a bitter spell, longest of +all, and when it helt a bit so we could take our bearin's some'at, what +hope! What hope! + +"But poor George, of a suddint he grew quiet as a lamb, and set a lookin' +out, with his hand light on the oar, as ef 'twas pleasant weather, and he +could see _him_ ridin' in thar' easy on the wave; and his eyes was fur +off and smilin', but they looked as though they died. + +"Mebbe--I know no more. + +"We found him arterwards. Thar' wa'n't no mark nor stain on him. You +think I talk dry-eyed. Go you and look at him. Somehow it don't leave +ary breath for cryin'. It's like as ef he knowed. It's more than +quietness, seemin' to say, for all he loved his life and fou't so hard +out thar', ter lose his own at last--givin' or losin', he never missed o' +naught! he never missed o' naught! + +"I can't tell what's the thought comes nighest to ye when we look at him. +I hain't got high enough for that, but I can tell ye what's the +furderest--weepin' and sorrowin'. Since I seen him and my little Bessie +fell asleep, please God I die a half so trustful or so brave, I make no +fear o' death!" + +The Captain sighed a long, ecstatic sigh and rose, the after-glow still +shining on his face. In passing through the room, he pressed something +softly into my hand. + +"We found it in the breast-pocket of his coat, teacher," he said. "The +coat lay in the bottom o' the boat, and was soaked with brine. It had +your name on't." + +When I unfolded it, it was the little star-fish the Cradlebow had showed +me, days before, still folded close in its delicate vine wreath. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +GEORGE OLVER'S ORATION. + + +The Wallencampers gathered at the Ark, singing a calm and high farewell +to earth, that alone was meet for the untroubled lips of that silent +singer in their midst. + +They gathered at the Ark. No other place seemed to them sacred enough for +such a meeting, now; no other place dear enough for the celebration of +such a solemn, long farewell. + +Over the threshold, where he had come so often bounding in his life, they +brought the dead; there was the same strange look of exaltation on their +faces that I had noticed while Captain Sartell told the story of the +storm; stricken and white, the poor faces, yet touched with some daring, +unutterable hope--so clear a message they read on that wondrously still +and reconciled face, so without fear the dead lips spoke to them. + +To me, the message was one of infinite pathos and rebuke, speaking of a +heroism beyond my poor conception, of a height of glory of which I had +not dreamed. + +"Farewell, forevermore," the fathomless far voice murmured to my despair, +and slowly and repeatedly; "Farewell, forevermore. I am beyond the need +of your poor love." + +And my heart turned to stone, with all the passionate, pure sorrow that +might have been, the tears in which I might have found relief. + +Grandma Keeler's sacred "keepin' rooms" were opened wide for the +reception of this guest, yet the sunshine stole in with a hallowed light, +the entering breeze sighed low and softly. The children, always present, +were, on this occasion, attentively still. + +There were no external signs of woe for the poor Wallencampers to assume; +they made no mad demonstrations of their grief; the suffering and the +wonder were too deep. + +Lydia--they all knew how she had loved this son. When they returned from +their perilous quest in the storm, the first words Captain Sartell said +were; "Who must go up now, and break Lyddy's heart?" + +She stood among the others, very still, the old faded mantilla folded +decently over her shoulders, the great dark eyes, _his_ eyes, shining out +even kindly from the worn face on those who came to speak to her. + +Godfrey Cradlebow stood at the outer door, and addressed the people as +they entered. Some said, afterwards, that he had been drinking; others +declared he had not touched a drop for days. In the room where I stood, I +heard his musical, deep tones, now swelling with the fervor of his +harangue, now broken and trembling with emotion. + +"Enter, my friends!" said this strange man. "Go in, and look on +quietness. What do we seek for most, my friends? Look out on the world. +It's a whole world of seekers. How they jostle against one another! How +they sweat! how they strive! how they toil! And why all this? What seek +they for? For quietness, my friends, even so--the quietness of wealth to +gain, may be, or competence; may be, the quietness of some renown. And +some go seeking over land and sea for their lost health, and quietness +from pain. + +"My friends, within there was as restless a seeker as I ever knew. Pity +the old, my friends, but pity more the young! Never such dreams of rest! +Never such restlessness! Hush! when he heard, he answered well. He put +all by. Somehow, we think he has obtained--wealth, honor, perfect health. +My friends, pass in! behold this wonder! + +"My friends, you look up at the sky. Ah, what a sky! purple and deep! Yet +I see something in your eyes that is not quietness; for storms will come, +too well you know, and the cold blasts of winter; but if you knew that +never any sorrowful, hard wind could sweep across yon blue--then, my +friends, you would look as he looks who lies within there. Pass in! pass +in! behold this wonder." + +Within, Grandma Keeler stood with closed eyes and folded hands. Her +cheeks were wet. She wore a heavenly, trustful expression of countenance. +Her lips moved as if in prayer. + +Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow rose in her place--majestic and weird she looked, +like some old Eastern prophetess, a grand forecasting in her shadowy +eyes. + +"Gether in the sheaves," she began; "the bright sheaves, early ripe and +ready for the harvestin'; and begrudge not the Master of His harvestin'. +Why, O Lord, Lord, this sheaf, while there be them that stand, late +harvest day, bowed and witherin' in the cornfield? Because He reckons not +o' time. Glory, glory, to the Lord o' the harvestin'! But gether in for +me, He says, my bright sheaves, early ripe! my sheaves o' the golden +wine! + +"It was the night but two before my grandson died, I seen a death-sign in +a dream, and so I speaks to my son's wife, but 'Fear you not,' I says; +'it was the blessed sign o' blessed death;' and thought o' some one old +and helpless, sick maybe, gettin' release thereby. Why this sheaf, O +Lord?--Glory, glory, to the Lord o' the harvestin'! For I dreamt there +was a bird ketched in my room, and flutterin' here and there, and beatin' +'ginst the window with its wings. And dreamin' I ris up, and there was +such a light along the floor as never any moonlight that I see was half +so solemn or so beautiful. But when I stretched my hand to free the poor, +blind, flutterin' bird, it ris away from me, and spread its wings, +snow-white, and out it flew, and sharp and clear along that shinin' +track. Then when I woke, I knew it was the sign o' blessed death, nor +ever feared. And God will bear me true, it was the very night they +brought my grandson home that, lyin' down to rest a while from watchin' +with the rest, nor ever wonderin' nor layin' it to mind what I had +dreamed afore, but tired and heart-broke only, I seen the long, bright +shinin' track ag'in, a pourin' through the window; and 'My son's son!' I +cries, 'dear boy! dear boy!'--for it was like him playin' on his +violin--'What tunes must be,' I cries, 'that you play so and scarce a day +in heaven!' But when I ris up, callin', it grew dim along the track, and +there was mornin' in the room, and then I heered them cryin' where they +watched. + +"Why this sheaf, O Lord?--gether in the sheaves, O Lord, the bright +sheaves, early ripe and ready for the harvestin'. Glory, glory to the +Lord o' the harvestin'!" + +Then the Wallencampers sang tremblingly of the "Harvest Home." They were +glad when they saw George Olver stand up in their midst--George Olver, +least subject of them all to dreams or ecstasies, but with his slow, +labored speech, and his sorrowful, bowed head. He took his place beside +the coffin of his friend, looked gently at that face, and squared his +shoulders for a moment then, and held his head with the old manly air: + +"When Uncle 'Lihu died," said he; "my friend and me walked home together +from the funeral, and Luther says to me: 'I want you to promise me, +George, that if I shed die, you wouldn't have that man to preach over +me,' meanin' the minister, though he was kindly to him; 'and he means +well,' says he; 'but he don't understand us; he knows naught about us +'ceptin' that now we're dead, and not bein' used to them long texts o' +hisn, it frets our folks,' says he. 'They weary on't, so long a string +they bar'ly understand; but I would rather,' Luther says, 'have some one +amongst my folks that knowed me well, git up and speak, ef it was only: +_This was my friend lies here; I loved him_. And promise me, George, ef I +shed die, you'd hev no stranger preachin' over me, but speak some such +easy words yourself for love o' me.' And I felt with him thar', and +promised him, and he me; but I remember thinkin', as I looked at him, +it's little likely I'll ever stand above your grave. + +"Enough said. 'This was our friend lies here. We loved him.' We thank him +for them words. Better nor more, they cl'ar it all up on this side twixt +him and us. No need ter tell o' what he was, or what he done. 'Tain't +likely we'll forgit. He didn't say ter praise him. He wanted none o' +that, but jest we knowed and loved him. + +"And so it might 'a' been enough, but now, my God! my God! as I stand +here aside o' him, he bids me, plain as day, to speak a word beyent; ef I +could only name it, ef I could only name it, what looks so cl'ar and +beautiful thar' on his face. + +"'Hold strong;' he says, 'below thar'. Keep heart and make cl'ar +reckonin', for it's losin' all may be, in this 'ere mystery, makes +cl'arest gain o' all. There's fairer day to rest ye arter storm. All's +well! all's well!' he says; 'all's well beyent. All's well along this +shore!'" + +Here George Olver's husky voice failed him; sobs rose in the room. + +Then the "farewell" was sung, and bravely; but at the last, I heard only +Madeline's voice, it grew so surpassingly clear and sweet; it seemed to +float solitary in the room, and to play triumphantly about the sleeper's +lips--the voice, indeed, of a free spirit in its bliss, thrilled only +with some plaintive memory of human woe and loss. + + * * * * * + + Farewell, ye dreams of night; + Jesus is mine! + Lost in this dawning bright; + Jesus is mine! + + All that my soul has tried, + Left but a dismal void; + Jesus has satisfied. + Jesus is mine! + + Farewell, mortality! + Jesus is mine! + Welcome, eternity! + Jesus is mine! + Welcome, the loved and blest! + Welcome, bright scenes of rest! + Welcome, my Saviour's breast! + Jesus is mine! + +Scarcely had the leaves of the fallen peach-tree by the window begun to +wither when the strong bearers passed out with their beautiful, stainless +burden, while slowly, reverently, the little community of mourners +followed to the grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP. + + +Yet another week passed in Wallencamp before I was able to complete the +preparations for my departure. + +One day, I set myself with a sort of listless fidelity to the summing up +of my accounts. I found, on deducting the amount of my actual expenses +from the sum total of my earnings in Wallencamp, that I had +sixty-two cents left! + +The revelation caused me some surprise; strangely little perturbation of +spirit. I thought what tragic tales might sometimes lie hidden beneath a +seemingly dry and senseless combination of figures, while, in my own +case, I was merely struck with the justice of those figures. + +For such eccentric and distracted services as I had rendered in +Wallencamp, the superintendent of schools had paid me in full at the +price stipulated, eight dollars per week. + +On the other hand, the column of insolvency, I considered that the West +Wallen Doctor's bill was an expression of modesty itself. The sum due my +Dear Madeline for "board," at two dollars and a half per week, though I +trusted it was some compensation for the merely temporal advantages to be +enjoyed in Wallencamp, did not appear as an astounding aggregate. The +list of "minor details" was well portrayed, and presented an aspect of +clear use and value. + +My once fond dream of a "private bank account" had gradually faded from +my memory. I saw the last spar in that fair wreck go down, now, without a +sigh. And the "loans solicited," in labored phrase, as "mere temporary +conveniences," from the friends at home--these, I was satisfied, must +remain only as the sweet continuation of a life-long debt. But how was I +to get home? + +The combined fares on that route, I remembered, had amounted to something +over nine dollars! So the question haunted me, not restlessly, but with a +vague, tranquil, melancholy interest, as pertaining to the history of +some one who had lived and died a few years before; so long indeed, it +seemed to me, since I had performed the journey to Wallencamp. + +I had not written home as to the day of my probable arrival, in this +yielding passively to the force of habit, which had ever constrained me +to plan my returns as "surprises" to my family and friends. + +But for myself, I had fixed the day of my departure from Wallencamp, and, +in spite of the discovery made in regard to the insufficient state of my +finances, looked forward to that event without any trepidation, so that, +I remember--it was actually the day before the one fixed on, and still no +hope had dawned on the financial horizon,--when Grandma Keeler embraced +me with some tender words premonitory of our parting, I kissed her +gratefully, musing at the same time in dreamy, untroubled fashion: "Yes, +I must be going home to-morrow." + +It was on this same day that we drove to "Wallen Town," Grandma and +Madeline and Becky and I. The excursion was one Grandma had planned +several weeks before, and I had no intention of making it the opportunity +which I finally did. + +As we were passing a dingy-looking establishment, where some doubtful +articles of _virtu_ appeared in the window, an idea seized me, as new as +it was comprehensive of my difficulties. + +I went in, ostensibly to purchase a watch-key, really to engage in +negotiations of a more serious and complicated nature. The proprietor of +the shop became the temporary guardian of my watch, while I was invested +with the funds necessary for my homeward journey. I learned, afterwards, +that this man had made an exception in the usually limited range of his +operations, in my favor, his establishment not being, by any means, that +of a pawnbroker, but, in every sense, of the most highly moral and +respectable nature. + +He gave me such "ready cash" as his coffers would yield, with an +improvised pawnbroker's check, at the composition of which we had both +seriously and ingeniously labored. I can testify both to his honesty +and obligingness. He insisted on my taking with me, "jest to tell the +time o' day," a very large watch in a tarnished silver case. + +Not wishing to seem to cast any disparagement on his wares, I became the +helpless recipient of this favor. The article in question was far too +large for my watch-pocket, and had a persistent habit of holding its +mouth wide open like a too weary shell-fish. On the interior of the case, +one on either side, were pasted photographs of individuals to me unknown, +male and female, their countenances such as the blinded eye of affection +alone, I thought, could have rendered mutually entertaining; and the +watch maintained, on all occasions, a system of chronology peculiarly its +own. + +As we drove back to Wallencamp, Grandma Keeler, her great heart close to +Nature that sunny afternoon, beguiled the way with a gentle hilarity +which never shocked or offended, but Becky put her hand often in mine, +looking up with the old helpless, pleading expression in her eyes--Becky, +I knew, would remember longest. + +Sometimes, as my hand wandered almost unconsciously to caress the +precious coin in my pocket, instead of the wild tract of stunted cedars +through which our road lay, I fancied I saw the great elms of Newtown, +the wide, straight street, the familiar house, an open door, and--ah! It +wasn't the first time I had been taken in at that door, the survivor of +wrecked ambition and misguided hope, only to hear my shortcomings made +tenderly light of, my most desperate follies lovingly ignored and +forgiven. + +But I had meant that it should be so different this time! I had gone out +as a missionary; and deeper than ever in my consciousness, I must feel +the want and woe of the returning prodigal; the same old story, the +ever-recurring failure. It seemed as though all the wonder and impatience +might well go out of my despair. + +Then as I lent myself more and more to the contemplation of that home +picture, how restful and happy it grew! but poor old Wallencamp--for we +were nearing the little settlement now, and the sun was fast +westering--poor, squalid, solitary, beautiful Wallencamp, as I looked +down upon it from the brow of Stony Hill, thrilled me with a troubled +sense of some diviner, some half-comprehended glory. + +The crimson glow had not quite faded in the sky when I took my last walk +across the fields to where the new grave had been made on the hillside. +This is the new burying-ground of the Wallencampers; the old one lies +a mile farther up the river, near the Indian encampment. Here I saw more +than one simple slab, bearing the name of Cradlebow. Here little Bess +lies, too. The hill, meet for such sublime repose, looks ever calmly on +the humble, straggling homes of the Wallencampers below, and sees the +lonely river winding near, and hears, by night and day, the monody of +deeper waters. + +I thought the voice of that great ocean of restlessness sounding along +the shore might quiet my unrest, but the beat of the waves, the growing +gloom of that still evening hour, oppressed me with a feeling unutterably +sad. I could not bear it, at last. It seemed as though another deep was +rising and breaking in my heart, the flood of proud, half-stifled passion +waking in one awful moment to overwhelm me. No light upon that sea--but +hope wronged, the mockery of death for yearning love, the unguided clash +of drifting human lives! + +An agony of blindness swam before my eyes. I felt my weak hands clutching +at the grass, and gasped, as though it had been indeed in the blindness +and pain of physical death, the prayer wrung from my selfish need. But +the answer was of infinite love and compassion. It came to me then--not +as some grave revelation of truth to the "enlightened seeker," but like +the kiss or peace to a tired child, a door mysteriously opened to the +self-bound captive, to one ignorant, the light shining along a plain, +straight way. And the doubt and terror and anguish went out of the world; +even the sorrowless farewell of frozen lips changed to tender +benediction. + +When I looked up at last, wondering, peaceful, my face wet with happy +tears, the stars had come out in the sky, and, down below, the windows of +the Ark were shining. The faint murmur of a song was borne up to me. The +Wallencampers had gathered at the Ark to celebrate our last "meeting" +together, and I went down to join them. + + * * * * * + +At what ghostly hour of the next morning Grandma Keeler awoke Grandpa to +the unusual exigencies of the occasion, I cannot say. It was necessary +for me to start very early from the Ark to take the train at West Wallen, +but when I descended the stairs, by candle-light, Grandpa Keeler had been +already washed and dyed and arrayed, as for the Sabbath, in his best. +Yes, and I was constrained to believe that he had even been instructed in +the mysteries of Sunday-school lore, for there was about him an air of +haggard and feverish excitement, and he glared at my familiar presence +with wild, unseeing eyes. + +Memorable were the colloquies held that morning between Grandma and +Grandpa Keeler; Grandpa's tragic assumption of manly consequence, and +solemn fears lest we should miss the train, directed in astute syllables +of warning towards Grandma Keeler; Grandma's increased deliberation, and +imperturbable quietude of soul. + +I recall the strange, unearthly aspect of the scenes enacted in the Ark +at that early hour, the fleeting vision of a morning repast which formed +some accidental part in the chaos of vaster proceedings. + +Then, when the first faint signs of dawn were beginning to break through +the gray in the eastern sky, I bade farewell to the Ark forever, +lingering a moment on the old familiar doorstep for a last word with +those of the neighbors who had gathered there to see us off, for the +whole Keeler family accompanied me to the station. + +There were others waiting at the gate to say good-bye, and at various +posts all the way down the lane. At the big white house, Emily came +running out, breathless. She whispered hurriedly in my ear; "There was a +message left. Ye wasn't well. I reckon 'twas a message. When fisherman +and that other one came up from the shore, day o' the storm, he came to +our house for Sim to take him to Wallen. He said it was better to be the +dead one than him. He was awful white, and Sim got harnessed, and just as +fisherman was goin' out, he left a message along o' me, though there +wasn't no names mentioned, and he talked queer; but he wanted as somebody +should know that he realized it all now, and he couldn't make up for it, +never; but it was go'n' to be new or nothin' for him, and they shouldn't +want for nothin', never, and kep' a sayin' more, and no message, exactly, +as ye could call a message, but I reckoned--I thought--may be--" + +Emily's glowing eyes, fixed on my face, grew very wide and grave. I could +only press her hand in parting for Grandpa, growing impatient, had +succeeded in clucking Fanny on again. + +We drove along the river road, and, passing through the Indian +encampment, there were more good-byes exchanged by the roadside. + +Then climbing up "Sandy Slope," beyond the settlement, we heard the +shrill "Hullo!" of a familiar voice, and looking back, saw Bachelor Lot +running after us very swiftly, his head destitute of covering, and his +little wizened face glowing red as the celestial Mars in the distance. He +looked like some odd, fantastic toy that had been wound up and set going. + +So he came up with us, and trying to conceal his breathlessness in polite +little "hums and haws," delivered aside, he offered me a huge bouquet, +composed, I should think, of every sort of wild-flower available on the +Cape at that season, and showing, in its arrangement, marks of the most +arduous striving after artistic effect. In the other hand, he held out to +me a basket of large, selected boxberries. + +I accepted the gifts with unaffected delight, and thanked Bachelor Lot +warmly. I looked back at him, trudging cheerfully homeward through the +sand, so withered and small, with the gray in his hair, and his coat so +much too long for him--back to the poor brown house, which no tender love +had ever hallowed, or merry waiting laugh made bright for him; and I +wondered, along his life's way which looked so sad and desolate, what +hidden wild flowers God had strewed for him, that he seemed always so +humbly cheerful and content, and brought his best of offerings with a +smile to bless the happier lot of others. + +For the rest of the way, the wild untenanted stretch was unbroken by any +incident; yet I remember no tedium by the way; and I believe that a trip +taken with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler through the most trackless desert +would inevitably have been made to teem with diversion. Those blessed +souls! I smile, looking back, but through tears, and with a reverence +and tenderness far deeper than the smile. + +By the time we reached the West Wallen depot the sky had clouded over. + +"A little shower comin' up," Grandma said, but Grandpa shook his head and +prophesied "a long, stiddy spell o' weather." + +I persuaded my friends not to wait with me for the arrival of the train +which, owing to some discrepancy in the matter of time between Wallencamp +and West Wallen, would not be due for an hour or more. + +I watched them out of sight, the last of my Wallencamp! How deeply, how +utterly it had grown into my life, so that now, in spite of the secret, +glad exultation I felt at the thought of going home, my heart went +running out after that quaint, receding vehicle, and aching sensibly. + +On board the train at last, I began to experience something of the +sensation of one who awakens from a long sleep to the half-forgotten ways +of men and life with a vague, untroubled wonder as to the latest styles +in dress; or, like a traveller from a strange country, weary, and +way-worn, and out of date, who yet can smile, hugging in his breast the +happy secret of boundless wealth in the gold-mine he has discovered far +away. + +I had neither umbrella, portmanteau, nor shawl-strap; such ordinary +paraphernalia of travel I remembered once to have possessed, and tried in +vain to recall the particular occasions on which they had been wrecked in +Wallencamp. I bore with me my bouquet, my basket of boxberries, some +small cedar trees for transplanting, and half of the largest clam-shell +the shores of Cape Cod had ever produced; this last a parting gift from +Lovell Barlow. + +I was far from being troubled with the consciousness of anything quaint +or _bizarre_ in my appearance. I felt no mortification on account of +these treasures so intrinsically dear to my heart; but Grandma Keeler had +insisted on binding a mustard paste on my chest. It was a parting +request--I could not have refused--but in the close air of the car the +physical torture began to be extreme. Tears fell on the cedar spray at my +side, yet was I withal strangely, peacefully happy. + +It was raining when I passed through Boston. Once more in the din of a +city, jolting noisily over the rough, uneven pavements, I found myself +wondering continually if the Keelers had reached home, and imagining how +the rain was falling gently, quietly, on the roof of the Ark. + +At the next stage, at Hartford, I was half afraid that I should meet +brother or sister or some member of the family, and so have the complete +effect of my "surprise" destroyed; but I saw none of them. There were few +passengers on board the Newtown-bound train. It was raining still. I was +growing more and more glad at heart, and looking out with my arm pressed +against the window, when I heard a voice right over me--a soft, pitiful, +thrilling exclamation:-- + +"Great Heavens!" + +I looked up and saw John Cable. + +He sank slowly down into the seat in front of me and, for a moment, +neither of us spoke. I did not mind meeting John. I had not thought of +including him in the surprise. The sight of his familiar, friendly face +gave me a positive thrill of pleasure, but there was something in his +manner that kept me silent. + +I said: "I am going to surprise them, John." + +There was nothing offensive in the grave, swift glance with which John +Cable then took me in, me and my bouquet of wilted wild-flowers and my +small cedar trees, only a slow, solemn distinctness in his tone. + +"You will succeed," he said. "Undoubtedly you will succeed." + +Still I felt no resentment. A gentle, sorrowful perplexity filled my +breast. + +"Why, do--I--look--very--very--unusual, John?" I questioned, and looking +in his face I wondered why, in the old days of careless jest and +repartee, he had never seemed so moved. + +More words he said, but I could not bear them then, and tears from an +inward pain fell on the cedar spray, yet I was glad that I had not grown +so unusual that people would never like me any more. + +Next, the surprise was a success, as John Cable had predicted, but that +was the one point in my career in which my genius had never failed me. My +surprises, though inclined to take something of the nature of an +accumulation of calamities, had never lacked the great element of +awe-producing wonder. + +For the rest, I had known that I should be forgiven and received with the +usual _éclât_ of the returned prodigal into the family bosom--but to be +held up on successive days as an object of ever-increasing marvel and +interest, as one whose words and acts were endowed with a peculiar +significance, as the light of the social fireside, the enchanter of small +spell-bound audiences! Well, I had been spoiled so early in life that +little was needed to complete the wreck. I felt a deeper satisfaction +when, as I was meekly beseeching our Bridget's instruction in some +particular branch of the culinary art, that majestic female observed, as +she folded her arms and looked down on me complacently:-- + +"There's one thing I like better about you than I used to, miss--you do +have to wade through a great deal o' flour to larn a little plain cooking +but Job himself couldn't a' be'n no patienter." And it was indeed true +that my "Graham gems" never quite reached perfection, though they bore +with them marks of earnest and faithful endeavor. + +I found new sources of interest everywhere, and in ways which I had +formerly regarded with aversion and disdain. + +At the "Newtown Ladies' Charitable Sewing Society," I was elevated from +among the common stitchers and sewers, for faithfulness in service,--I +believe, though malicious fingers would point to the distortion of the +legs of little heathens' trousers--to a place on the "cutting circle." +From the cutting circle, it is needless to say, I was speedily exalted to +a presidential chair of easeful observation and general vague +superintendency. + +Later, there was a revival of the "Literary Club." There John Cable and I +shone once more amid a group of familiar and undimmed luminaries. John +Cable never took up the exact thread of the discourse broken off so +abruptly on the day of my return, in the cars, but it was when coming +home from the club one evening that he expressed himself to the effect +that I had always been a great burden on his mind, ever since the first +day he led me to school, and, to be sure, I had shown signs of +improvement lately, but there was always a pardonable doubt as to what I +might do next, and it was wearing on him, and would I set his mind at +rest by allowing him, in some sense, to take the direction of my life +into his own hands? + +John, though of adverse views, had been heatedly discussing the merits of +the Capital Punishment question at the club, so I was not surprised at +the unusual grace and flow of his address. + +Years have passed since that evening. I have been very happy as John's +wife. If I wander in my story, be it said that little John is running a +model express-train on the floor over my head. Little John, when not +dreaming, exercises a vast amount of destructive physical force. + + * * * * * + +A little more than a year after I left Wallencamp, I heard of Grandma and +Grandpa Keeler's death. "Very quiet and peaceful," they said concerning +Grandma, but I had known what sort of a death-bed hers would be. Scarcely +a week after she had passed away, Grandpa Keeler followed her. I had it +from good authority that he kept about the house till the last. There was +a "rainy spell," and he stood often gazing out of the window "with a lost +look on his face," and once he said with a wistful, broken utterance and +a pathetic longing in his eyes that did away forever with any opprobrium +there might have been in connection with the term, that "it was gittin' +to be very lonely about the house without ma pesterin' on him." + +Since then, I have not heard from Wallencamp. It is doubtful whether I +ever get another letter from that source. Though singularly gifted in the +epistolary art, it is but a dull and faint means of expression to the +souls of the Wallencampers--and _they_ will not forget. From the storms +that shake their earthly habitations, they pass to their sweet, wild rest +beside the sea; and by and by, when I meet them, I shall hear them sing. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD FOLKS *** + +***** This file should be named 19708-8.txt or 19708-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/0/19708/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stacy Brown, Emily and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/19708-8.zip b/19708-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b194df0 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-8.zip diff --git a/19708-h.zip b/19708-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d9e71a --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h.zip diff --git a/19708-h/19708-h.htm b/19708-h/19708-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e5d732 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/19708-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10363 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + a { text-decoration: none;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cape Cod Folks + +Author: Sarah P. McLean Greene + +Release Date: November 4, 2006 [EBook #19708] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD FOLKS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stacy Brown, Emily and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/folks.jpg" width="400" height="683" alt="CAPE COD FOLKS" title="" /> +<span class="caption">CAPE COD FOLKS</span> +</div> + + + +<h1>CAPE COD FOLKS</h1> + +<h3 style="margin-top: 3em;">BY</h3> + +<h2>SARAH P. MCLEAN GREENE</h2> +<h3>(SALLY PRATT McLEAN)</h3> + +<h3 style="margin-top: 3em;"><i>With Illustrations from the Play</i></h3> + + + +<p class="center"> +<b>NEW YORK<br /> +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> +PUBLISHERS<br /> +<br /> +Copyrighted, 1881,<br /> +By A. WILLIAMS & Co.<br /> +<br /> +Copyrighted, 1904,<br /> +BY DEWOLFE, FISKE & Co.<br /></b> +</p> + + + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;">TO W.N.G.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table summary="contents" style="margin-left: 25%"><tbody> +<tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I. ON A MISSION</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II. I BLOW THE HORN</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III. THE BEAUX OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV. THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V. GRANDMA KEELER GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI. BECKY AND THE CRADLEBOW</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII. LUTE CRADLEBOW KISSES THE TEACHER</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII. FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX. LOVELL BARLOW "POPS THE QUESTION."</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X. A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI. A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII. BECKY'S CONFESSION</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII. A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV. RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV. DAVID ROLLIN IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI. GEORGE OLVER'S LOVE FOR BECKY</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII. TEACHER HAS THE FEVER.—DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII. LUTE CRADLEBOW GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX. DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX. GEORGE OLVER'S ORATION</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI. FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP</a></td> +</tr></tbody></table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 361px;"> +<img src="images/boat.jpg" width="361" height="311" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>ON A MISSION.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lo, on a narrer neck o' land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Aunt Sibylla was not sporting, now, in the airy realms of metaphor. Aunt +Sibylla stood upon Cape Cod, and her voice rang out with that peculiar +sweep and power which the presence of a dread reality alone can give. +Something of the precariousness of her situation, too, was expressed in +The wild, alarming, though graceful, gesture of her arms.</p> + +<p>It was before the long-projected canal separating Cape Cod from the +mainland had been put under active process of preparation.</p> + +<p>It was at an evening meeting in the Wallencamp school-house. A row of +dingy, smoking lanterns had been set against the wall and afforded the +only light cast upon the scene. Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow, the speaker, was +tall and dark-eyed, with an almost superhuman litheness of body, and a +weird, beautiful face.</p> + +<p>"And, oh, my dear brothers and sisters and onconvarted friends!" she +continued; "how little do we realize the reskiness of our situwation +here on the Cape! Here we stand with them ar identical unbounded seas a +rollin' up on ary side of us! the world a pintin' at us as them that +should be always ready, with our lamps trimmed and burnin'! and, yit, oh +my dear brothers and sisters and onconvarted friends! as fur as I have +been inland—and I have been a consid'able ways inland, as you all know, +whar it would seem no more than nateral that folks should settle down +kind o' safe and easy on a dry land univarse—I say, as fur as I have +been inland, I never see sech keeryins on and carnal works, sech +keerlessness for the present and onconsarn for the futur', as I have +amongst the benighted critturs who stand before me this evenin', a +straddlin' this poor, old, Godforsaken Pot Hook!"</p> + +<p>Clearer and louder grew Aunt Sibylla's tones; her eyes lightened with +terrible meaning; her words flowed with an unction that was unmistakable; +and, at length, "Oh, run for the Ark, ye poor, lost sinners," she +exclaimed. "Oh, run for the Ark, my onconvarted friends! Don't ye hear +the waves a comin' in? They're a rollin' swift and sure! They're a +rollin' in sure as death! Run for the Ark! Run for the Ark!"</p> + +<p>Now, there was in Wallencamp a literal Ark, otherwise this exhortation +would have lacked its most convincing force and significance. But Aunt +Sibylla paused. Among the usually restless audience, there was a moment +of almost breathless suspense. Not half a mile away, behind a strip of +cedar woods, we could plainly hear the surf rolling in from the bay, +breaking hard against the shore with its awful, monotonous moan, moan, +moan.</p> + +<p>My heart was already faint with home-sickness. The effect of that waiting +moment was as sombre as anything I had ever experienced. Much to my +distaste, I found myself sympathizing with the vague terror and unrest +around me. I can hear it still, the voice that then rose, singing, +through the sullen gloom of the school-room, a strangely sweet and +rapturous voice—Madeline's. I learned to know it well afterwards. I +listened with rapt surprise to the pathos with which it thrilled the +simple words of the song:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Shall we meet beyond the River,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the surges cease to roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, in all the bright forever,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sorrow ne'er shall press the soul?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A keenly responsive chord had been touched in the simple, agitated +breasts of the Wallencampers, and they joined in the chorus—those rough +people—not with their usual reckless exuberance of tone, but +plaintively, tremblingly even, as though, whatever the words, they would +make of them a prayer in which to hide some secret doubt or longing of +their souls.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Shall we meet, shall we meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall we meet beyond the River?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The strain was repeated with a most pathetic quaver in the rendering, +and then big Captain Sartell broke down, with a helpless gulp in his +voice, and I, who believed myself of too superior and refined a nature +to be moved by such tawdry sentiment, was further dismayed to feel the +tears gathering fast in my own eyes.</p> + +<p>After the meeting, on the school-house steps, the big Captain, as if to +atone for any unmanly exhibition of feeling into which he might have +been betrayed inside, took little Bachelor Lot up by the shoulders, and +gently and playfully held him suspended in mid-air, while he put to him +the following riddle:—</p> + +<p>"I'll wager a quarter, on a good, squar' guess, Bachelder. Why is—why +air Aunt Sibby's remarks like this 'ere peninshaler, eh, Bachelder?"</p> + +<p>"Because—ahem!—because they're always a runnin' to a p'int, eh?" +inquired the keen little bachelor.</p> + +<p>"No, by thunder!" exclaimed the discomfited Captain, setting the +magician down promptly. "As near as I calk'late," he continued, +endeavoring to resume his former air of cool and reckless raillery; "as +near as I calk'late, Bachelder,—yes, sir, as near as I +calk'late,—it's—it's—by thunder! it's because they're both liable to +squalls in fa'r weather!"</p> + +<p>Amazed, and almost frightened at the unexpected brilliancy of his evil +success, the Captain yet kept a rueful and furtive eye on the little +bachelor.</p> + +<p>Bachelor Lot coughed slightly and smiled. "Very true," he drawled, +cheerfully, in his small, thin voice; "I'm—ahem!—I'm not a married man +myself, you know, Captain. However," he added; "you should have given me +another try. I had the correct answer on my tongue's end."</p> + +<p>During this brief exchange between the stars of the Wallencamp debate +ground, murmurs of appreciative applause arose from the group of +bystanders, and "Pretty tight pinch for you, Captain!" and "Three cheers +for Bachelder! ye can't git ahead of Bachelder!" sprang delightedly from +lip to lip.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sibylla had scented from within this buoyant resumption of the +Wallencamp mirth, and now appeared on the scene, bearing a burning +lantern in her hand. She first turned the glare of its full orb on the +late sin-convicted Captain, who stood revealed with a guilty grin frozen +helplessly on his alarmed features, and next directed the beams of +disclosing justice towards the form of the little bachelor, who, with +too pronounced meekness, was engaged in readjusting the collar of his +coat.</p> + +<p>"At it ag'in!" Aunt Sibylla exclaimed, with slow and cutting emphasis. +"At it ag'in! I do believe you're all possessed of the devil!"</p> + +<p>Then, with one sweep of the lantern, she took a comprehensive survey of +the shivering group, and passed on without another word, while in the +breast of every guilty Wallencamper then present there rested a deep +sense of merited condemnation.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sibylla was soon followed by the other lantern-bearers, who +dispersed homeward, along the four roads diverging from the school-house, +and, the night being starless, the children of the darkness followed +meekly in their wake.</p> + +<p>The longest route lay before those who took the River Road leading to +the Indian Encampment. Bachelor Lot was the hindmost in this receding +column. Bachelor Lot, though too withered and brown of visage to afford +immediate enlightenment as to his species, was held to be of +unquestionable white descent. Yet he kept house, alone, at the Indian +Encampment.</p> + +<p>Then there was the Stony Hill Road, up which a few pilgrims toiled; and +the Cross Lot Road to the beach—thither went the Barlows. Last of all, +there was the Lane, and it was somewhat in the rear of the lane +procession that I musingly wended my way, led by the beams of Grandma +Keeler's slowly swaying lantern.</p> + +<p>I was the Wallencamp school-teacher. I had come to "this rock-bound +coast," imagining myself impelled by much the same necessity as that +which fired the bosoms of the earlier pilgrims. Not that I had been +restricted in respect to religious privileges, but I sought for a true +independence of life and aim; and furthermore, it should be said, I had +come to Wallencamp on a mission. "On a mission!" how the thought had +tickled my fancy and roused my warmest enthusiasm but a few short days +before! Indeed, I had not been yet a week in Wallencamp, and now, as I +walked up the lane in a mood quite the reverse of enthusiastic, I was +painfully trying to gather from my small and scattered sources of +information what the exact meaning of the phrase might be.</p> + +<p>I had entered on the performance of my errand to Wallencamp under +circumstances not usual, perhaps, among propagandists; nevertheless, I +had been singularly free from misgivings.</p> + +<p>A girl of nineteen years, I had a home endowed with every luxury; a +circle of family acquaintance, which, I admitted, did me great +credit; congenial companions; while as for my education, I was pleased +to call it completed. My career at boarding-schools had been of a +delightfully varied and elective nature, for I had not deigned to toil +with squalid studiousness, or even to sail with politic and inglorious +ease through the prescribed course of study at any institution. Any +misadventures necessarily following from this course my friends had +gilded over with the flattering insinuation that I was "too vivacious" +for this sort of discipline, or "too fragile" for that, though I am +bound to say that, in such cases, my "vivacity" had generally sealed my +fate before the delicacy of my constitution became too alarmingly +apparent.</p> + +<p>I had, to be sure, a few commendable aspirations, but I had started out +fresh so many times with them only to see them meet the same end!</p> + +<p>Though not by nature of a self-depreciatory turn of mind, I had +occasional flashes of inspiration, to the effect that, in spite of the +soft flattery of friends, I really was amounting to very little after +all. It was in a mood induced by one of these supernatural gleams that I +stood on one occasion, leaning a pair of very plump arms on the graveyard +wall, looking wistfully over into the place of tombs, and thinking how +nice it would be to have done forever with the fret and turmoil of life! +And it was at such a time, too, that I received from a school friend, +Mary Waite, the letter which was the moving cause of my mission to +Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>Mary Waite, by the way, was one of those "prosy, ridiculous girls"—so I +had been compelled to classify her, although I was secretly troubled by +a sincere admiration of her virtues,—who had made it an absorbing +pursuit of her school-days to probe her text-books for useful +information, and was also accustomed to defer to her teachers as high +authority on matters of daily discipline. She was not in "our set." She +was poor, and studious, and obedient, yet a friendship had sprung up +between her and me, and I was moved to forgive her the, in many respects, +grovelling tendencies of her nature. I even ascended occasionally to her +room on the fourth floor to shock her with my sentiments, when there was +nothing livelier going on.</p> + +<p>She wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear</span> S——: Are you still perfectly happy, as you used to try to +have me think you were always—the old restlessness, the better +longings unsatisfied, do they never come up again? [That was Mary's +insidious way of stating a difficulty.] Don't you believe you would +be happier to <i>do</i> something in real earnest? Something for people +<i>outside</i>, I mean. [I flushed a little at that. An insinuation of +that sort can't be put too delicately.] I have tried to imagine how +the proposal I am going to make will strike you—but never mind. I +am teaching, you know, in Kedarville. I leave here, at the close of +the term, for another field of labor, and now I want you to apply +for the Kedarville school. Yes, it is a remote, poverty-stricken +place. It contains no society, no church, no library, not even a +little country store! It would seem to you, I dare say, like going +back to the half-barbarous conditions of life. The people are simple +and kind-hearted; but they need training—oh, how much!—physically, +mentally, and morally. I can assure you, here is scope for the most +daring missionary enterprise, and you,—I believe that you could do +it if you would. Consider the matter seriously; consult with your +friends about it, and if you do decide to try the experiment, write +as legibly as you possibly can to the Superintendent of Schools, +Farmouth, Mass., stating your qualifications, etc."</p></div> + +<p>The idea struck me with such strange and immediate favor that I quite +forbore to consult with my friends in regard to it. I resolved to go on +the instant, and wrote my friend Mary to that effect, congratulating +her, with an undercurrent of mischievous intention, on having been the +happy means of setting my powers drifting in the right direction at +last; and reproached her gently with having seemed to imply, once, in +her letter, some occult reason why I had not been regarded, heretofore +as specially designed to work in the cause of missions, whereas I had +always felt myself drifting inevitably towards that end.</p> + +<p>I wrote to the Superintendent of the Farmouth schools. But here I had an +earnest purpose to serve, and a real desire to succeed, and here met +with a difficulty. I had not the art of presenting my earnest purposes +in the most assuring and credible manner. They <i>would</i> wear, in spite of +me, an uneasy air of novelty; yet I aimed nobly. I dilated largely on +some of the evils existing in the present system of education, and hinted +at reforms not yet meditated by the world at large; but skilfully forgot +to mention my own qualifications.</p> + +<p>On reading the letter over, I was astonished at the flattering nature of +the result, and, with the buoyant pride of one who believes he has +suddenly discovered a new resource in himself, I sent a copy of my +application to Mary Waite. She answered in the language of sorrowful +reproach:—</p> + +<p>"Oh, S., how could you?"</p> + +<p>I was forced to conclude that, as usual, I had somehow made a misstep, +and sought to conceal my mortification as best I might, by persuading +myself and my friend that I had only regarded the matter as a joke all +through. Nevertheless, I was bitterly disappointed.</p> + +<p>What was my surprise, then, a few days afterwards, to receive this +communication from the Superintendent of Schools:—</p> + +<p>"You are accepted to fill the position of teacher in the Kedarville +school." Then followed terse directions as to the best way of reaching +Kedarville, and, finally: "Mrs. Philander Keeler will board you for two +Dollars and fifty cents per week."</p> + +<p>As I read this last clause everything that had made a sudden tumult in +my mind before was lulled into a mysterious calm.</p> + +<p>It was not the low value set upon the means of subsistence in Kedarville. +Mercenary motives were, with me, as yet out of the question. It was not +the oppressive charm of Mrs. Philander Keeler's name that affected me so +strangely. It was the expressive combination of the whole, at once so +clear cut and unique. I murmured it softly to myself on my way home from +the Post-office.</p> + +<p>"Han," said I, quite gravely, to my elder sister on entering the house; +"Mrs. Philander Keeler will board me for two dollars and fifty cents per +week:" and handed her the letter in pensive, though triumphant, +confirmation of my words.</p> + +<p>"When did you do this?" she gasped, and, before I could answer, "how are +you going to get out of it?" she faintly demanded.</p> + +<p>"Simply by getting into it, my dear," I answered, with that unyielding +sweetness of demeanor for which I fancied I had ever been distinguished +in the family circle.</p> + +<p>I began to make my preparations for departure without delay.</p> + +<p>Tender remonstrances, studied expostulations, were alike of no avail, and +they helped me to pack, finally—those dear good people at home—putting +as brave a face as they could upon it, and hoping for the best. My father +assured my mother, though with trembling lip and tearful eye, that "God +would temper the wind to the shorn lamb." I smiled at the part I was +meant to play in this cheerful allegory, though it seemed to me rather +inappropriate, as I had a new sealskin cloak that very winter.</p> + +<p>At the last I gathered from the new and sprightlier form which the family +submissiveness assumed, as well as from certain inadvertent disclosures +of Bridget's, that I was confidently expected home again "in the course +of a week or two." And I thereupon doubly confirmed myself in the resolve +to see this thing through or die in the attempt.</p> + +<p>I cannot define the motives which actuated me at this time. They do not +appear to have flowed in a clear and pellucid stream. I discover a thirst +for the surprising and experimental, for situations, dilemmas, and +emergencies, sustained by the most sublime recklessness as to +consequences. Then I see a dread of sinking into humdrum—the impulse +never to be at rest; deeper than all this, I find a secret +dissatisfaction with myself, a vague longing to use the best that is in +me to some true purpose; a desire to leave the tangled skein, and "begin +all over again."</p> + +<p>It was early in January when I set out on my mission to the distant +shores of Cape Cod. It was also, I remember, very early in the morning, +and John Cable occupied a seat in the car. I had reason to know that John +shared in the family disapproval of my sublime conduct. He sat, looking +very glum behind his paper, and appeared not to notice me when I came in. +Having finished reading his paper, he gnawed his moustache and gazed, +still with glaring unconsciousness of my presence, out of the window. But +as we neared Hartford, where I was to take the train for Boston, he came +over to where I sat.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll enjoy yourself at Sandy Creek this winter," he said.</p> + +<p>Now, I knew that John had designed this as sarcasm the most scathing, but +he was himself conscious of failure, and the thought filled him with +deeper gloom. He sought to reveal his baffled intentions in a scowl, +which lent to his manly and intelligent features the darkness of +spiritual night. And I replied, that "the recollection of his face, as it +then appeared to me, would be in itself an inspiration through all the +days to come."</p> + +<p>There was silence for a space, and then John continued:—</p> + +<p>"Have you found it on the map, yet?"</p> + +<p>"What, please?"</p> + +<p>"Kedarville!" with bitter emphasis.</p> + +<p>"Oh! certainly not."</p> + +<p>"It may be a little island out there somewhere, you know," delivered with +the effect of a masterpiece.</p> + +<p>"Yes; or a lighthouse, possibly."</p> + +<p>I saw that John wished he had thought of that himself. He became dejected +again. Then, presently, he threw oil the cloak of bitterness which sat so +ill on him, and, resuming his usual kindliness and benignity of manner, +succeeded in making himself unconsciously tantalizing.</p> + +<p>"If you do find it," he said; "and if you—if you conclude to stay for +any length of time, I think I will go down some time this winter and hunt +you up."</p> + +<p>"If you do, John Cable," I answered, with unaccountable warmth; "I'll +never forgive you as long as I live—never."</p> + +<p>At Hartford, John took the train for Boston, too. We were very old +friends. Latterly, we had read Shakespeare together at the Newtown +Literary Club. We concluded not to quarrel for the rest of the way. I +had an influx of gay spirits, and John was almost without exception +"nice."</p> + +<p>There were several hours to wait in Boston before the train on the Old +Colony road would go out. We had dinner (I little realized how long it +would be before I should eat again), and John tamely suggested driving +about to look at some of the places of interest. I assured him that +there was nothing so dispiriting as looking at places of interest, and +he answered, cheerfully, after some moments of thought, that we could +"shut our eyes when we went by them, then."</p> + +<p>I had reason to dread a decline of spirits. Mine were rapidly on the +wane. By the time we stopped at the Old Colony <i>dépôt</i> they were low, +indeed. And the hardest of all was, that I would not, for my life, let +my companion know. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and already +quite dark. The atmosphere was heavy and chill; the sky ominous with +clouds. I had an unknown journey yet to take in search of an unknown +destination. The car into which I got on the Cape-bound train was dismal +and weird-seeming enough.</p> + +<p>"I wish, if you must go, you would let me see you to the end of this," +said John.</p> + +<p>I answered, laughing, with an unnecessary tinge of defiance in my tone. +It would have been so much easier to cry. I thought, "If John would only +try to look cross again!" as he did in the morning—anything but that +expression of grieved and compassionate disapproval with which he sat, +talking so earnestly to me, for the last few moments in that dark car. I +thought he was cruel. He was trying to make me <i>think</i> and I was trying +so hard <i>not</i> to think! I felt a childish desire to scream out. Then, +when the signal for starting rang, and John took my hand an instant, in +parting, looking down at me with his kind, familiar eyes, the impulse +swept up strong within me to beg him to take me out of that dreadful car +and take me back home, and I would be good, oh, so good, and "prosy," +yes, and "humdrum," and never ask to go on any more missions to forlorn +pieces of land sticking out into the water.</p> + +<p>So there must have been a wild extravagance in the airy recklessness of +tone with which I bade John "good-bye." A sense of utter helplessness +came over me as he turned and went out.</p> + +<p>I observed, particularly, but two passengers in the car. One was a man, +very much bandaged as to his head, who sat gazing into the coal-stove, +which occupied the centre of the car, with weakly meditative, burnt-out +eyes. The other was a girl, occupying the seat directly in front of me. +She might have been nine years old, but she had a singularly faded and +mature countenance. As the train started, she turned to me with some +excitement:—</p> + +<p>"There!" said she, pointing towards the window; "your beau's walking +off! He's walking fast! He ain't looking back!"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said I, in a low, expressionless tone, not intended as an +inducement to further conversation.</p> + +<p>This girl had a parcel of confectionery, the contents of which she +occasionally took out, and ranged in a row on the window ledge, selecting +therefrom the smallest and least inviting fragment, and having eaten it +with the hasty air of one who treats herself under protest to the +luscious prerogatives of childhood, put the rest back in the paper-bag, +carefully replacing the string every time. She selected and handed to me +the very largest specimen in her collection, which I had the +gracelessness to refuse, though without show of disgust. Afterwards she +asked if she might come and sit in the seat with me. I thought she was +very disagreeable. Besides, I was so miserable I wanted to commune apart +with my own loneliness. However, I made room for her.</p> + +<p>She proceeded to confide to me all of her past history. She was returning +home from a visit to her aunt. Her mother had died a good many years ago, +"when Johnnie was a mere baby." She "kept house for father, and took care +of Johnnie." She "tried hard not to have father feel his loss. It was +very hard," she added, gravely, "for a man to be left alone so." She had +bought a little book for Johnnie, but she never had much time to read; +besides she wasn't quick to learn. She could pick the words out, to be +sure, but, somehow, it didn't make good sense, and would I read the book +to her?</p> + +<p>Oh, to take counsel of my own despair! How dark and wild it was growing +outside! Where was I going? whom should I meet there?</p> + +<p>And so I read, at the foot of gorgeously-illuminated pages, how—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky got started for the fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Goosie Poosie and Turkey Lurkey went out to view the air," etc.,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the range of characters swiftly widening as the narrative increased in +power. To my surprise, the mature child listened to this nonsense with +the utmost gravity and interest. No shadow of derision played on her +attentive features. When I had finished—it was soon finished—she +said:—</p> + +<p>"Oh, that sounded so good; it made such good sense," and sighed, very +wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to read it again?" I exclaimed, in despair.</p> + +<p><i>Would</i> I read it again? she asked.</p> + +<p>I read it again.</p> + +<p>After that she was silent and thoughtful for some time. Then she said, +looking gravely into my face:—</p> + +<p>"Do you love Jesus?"</p> + +<p>"No, my dear," said I, surprised into much gentleness.</p> + +<p>The faded blue eyes filled with tears. She had no notion of harassing me +on the subject, but spoke quietly and at length of her own religious +convictions.</p> + +<p>The east wind crept in through the window, and once my little companion +shivered. I noticed that she was rather thinly clad. I unstrapped my +shawl and wrapped it around her. She let her head fall at my side, and +went to sleep. Slowly, I was constrained to draw her up closer and put +my arm around her as support. In so doing, I received from some source +an unaccountable strength and calm of spirit.</p> + +<p>At Braintree, which the child had told me was her home, I woke her up, +and she got off.</p> + +<p>I was to stop at West Wallen, the railway station least remote from +Kedarville, and expected there to meet Mrs. Philander Keeler, or some +member of that mysterious family, to convey me to Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>It seemed as though the train had had time to travel the whole +interminable length of the Cape, and plunge off into the ocean beyond, +when, in fact, we were just entering upon that peculiar body of land at +West Wallen.</p> + +<p>There was no one there to meet me. The little <i>dépôt</i> was held by a +strange night brigade of boys and girls, playing "blind-man's buff." +They shouted like cannibals, and bore down on all opposing objects with +resistless force. I did not attempt an entrance. A rough, good-natured +looking man stood on the platform outside.</p> + +<p>I put on my glasses (I was sadly and unaffectedly near-sighted), and +having further assured myself of his seeming honesty, inquired if there +was such a place as Kedarville in the vicinity.</p> + +<p>"Waal, no, miss, thar' ain't," said he, with a noonday smile, which +informed me that there was yet something to hope for. "Thar's no +<i>Kedarville</i> that I know on. Thar's a Wallencamp some miles up yender. +We don't often tackle no Sunday go-to-meeting names on to it, but I +reckon, maybe, it's the same you're a-lookin' for."</p> + +<p>He had spoken with such startling indefiniteness of the distance that I +asked him how far it was to Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>"Waal, thar' you've got me," said he, beaming on me in a broadly +complimentary way, as though I had actually circumvented him in some +skilful play at words. "Fact is, thar' ain't never been no survey run +down in that direction that I know on. We call it four miles, more or +less. That's Cape Cod measure—means most anythin' lineal measure. +Talkin' 'bout Cape Cod miles," he continued, with an irresistible air of +raillery; "little Bachelder Lot lives up thar' to Wallencamp, and they +don't have no church nor nothin' thar', so Bachelder and some on 'em they +come up here, once in a while, ter Sunday-school. Deacon Lancy, he'd +rather see the Old Boy comin' into Sunday-school class any time than +Bachelder; for he's quiet, the little bachelder is, but dry as a herrin'. +So the Deacon thought he'd stick him on distances. The Deacon is a great +stickler on distances.</p> + +<p>"'How fur, Bachelder,' says he, 'did Adam and Eve go when they was turned +out of the garden of Eden?' says he.</p> + +<p>"'Waal,' says Bachelder, coughing a little, so—that's Bachelder's way +o' talking—'we have sufficient reason to eenfer, Deacon, that, in all +probabeelity, they went a <i>Ceape Cod mile</i>.'"</p> + +<p>My informant's delight at this reminiscence was huge. It yielded to a +more subdued sense of the ludicrous when I asked him if there was any +public conveyance to Wallencamp. He made a polite effort to restrain his +mirth, but the muscles of his face twitched violently.</p> + +<p>"Waal, no, miss," said he; "we don't run no reg'lar express up to +Wallencamp; might be a very healthy oc'pation, but not as lukertive as +some, I reckon—not as lukertive as pickin' 'tater-bugs: that's what they +do, mostly, down thar'. Fact is, miss," he concluded, with considerable +gravity; "we don't vary often go down to Wallencamp unless we're obliged +to."</p> + +<p>On my proposing to make it lucrative, he immediately called, in a loud +voice, to one of the playful occupants of the <i>dépôt</i>:</p> + +<p>"Hi, thar!' 'Rasmus! 'Rasmus! Here's a lady wants to be conveyed down to +Wallencamp; you run home and tackle, now! You be lively, now!"</p> + +<p>'Rasmus was lively. In a very few moments something of an unusual and +ghostly appearance—so much only I could discover of what afterwards +became a very familiar sort of vehicle—was waiting for me alongside the +platform. The only means of getting into it was through an opening +directly in front. Towards this I was encouraged to climb over the +thills, but met with an obstacle, in the form of my trunk, which seemed +effectually to block up the entrance.</p> + +<p>"Thar', now! I told ye so," exclaimed one of the bystanders, a large +number of whom had mysteriously gathered about the scene. "You'd orter +got <i>her</i> in first."</p> + +<p>A disconsolate silence prevailed. The trunk had been elevated to its +present position through the most painful exertions.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I can climb over it," I said, and bravely made the attempt.</p> + +<p>No one knew, in the voiceless darkness, of the suddenly helpless and +collapsed condition in which I landed on the other side. I groped about +for a seat, and finally succeeded in finding one at the extreme rear of +the vehicle.</p> + +<p>'Rasmus drove. He was situated somewhere, somehow—I could not tell where +nor how—in the realm of vacancy on the other side of the trunk; I only +know that he seemed a long way off. Under these circumstances +conversation was rendered extremely difficult. I learned that Mr. +Philander Keeler was away at sea; that Mrs. Philander Keeler lived at the +<i>Ark</i>, with Cap'n and Grandma Keeler, and the two little Keelers.</p> + +<p>'Rasmus was the unmistakable son of his father.</p> + +<p>"And it ain't no <i>got-up</i> ark, neither!" he yelled at me, in a tone which +pierced through the distance and the darkness, and every intervening +obstacle. "It's the reg'lar old <i>Ark</i>! It's what Noer, and the elephant, +and them fellows come over in!"</p> + +<p>I did not wonder, as we journeyed on, that my informant of the <i>dépôt</i> +platform had used his "ups" and "downs" indiscriminately in indicating +the direction of Wallencamp. In the inky blackness by which I was +surrounded I was conscious, clearly, of but one sensation—that of going +<i>up</i> and <i>down</i>. The rumbling of the wheels reached me as something far +off and indefinably dreadful.</p> + +<p>Then we stopped, and I crawled out like one in a dream. There was no +light at the Ark to make it a distinguishable feature of the gloom. +'Rasmus found the door and knocked loudly. I became dimly conscious of +the knocking, and followed 'Rasmus.</p> + +<p>"I reckon they're to bed," said he, and knocked louder.</p> + +<p>Pretty soon a clear, feminine voice, startled into musical sharpness, +issued from a room quite near, with—"Who's there?" and was followed by +two small, squealing voices, in unison,—"Who's there?"</p> + +<p>Then other sounds arose—sounds from some quarter mysterious and +remote—low, mumbling, comfortable refrain, and ominous snatches of an +uneasy grumble; then a roar that shook the Ark to its foundations:—</p> + +<p>"Who the devil's making such a rumpus out there at this time in the +mornin'?" (It was nine o'clock P.M.) 'Rasmus sent back an intrepid +yell:—</p> + +<p>"It's the <i>tea-cher</i>! It's pretty late," he said, aside, to me. "I guess +I won't go in. I reckon they won't have much style on. I seen ye pay +father; that's all right. I'll tip yer trunk up under the shed, and the +old Cap'n 'll see to gettin' it in in the mornin'. Here's a letter the +postmaster sent down to the Cap'n's folks. Good night."</p> + +<p>'Rasmus, my only hope! I made a convulsive grasp for him in the darkness, +but he was gone.</p> + +<p>It was she of the soothing, comfortable voice who took me in; and Grandma +Keeler's <i>taking in</i> I understand always in the divinest and fullest +sense of the term.</p> + +<p>Further than that, I was conscious that there were white-robed and +nightcapped figures moving about the room. So unearthly was their +appearance that I had, at last, a confused notion of having become +disengaged from the entanglements of the flesh, and fallen in with a +small planetary system in the course of my wanderings through space. The +centre of attraction seemed to be a table, to which the figures were +constantly bringing more <i>pies</i>.</p> + +<p>The letter which 'Rasmus had directed me to hand to the "folks" was read +with interest, being the one I had dispatched from Newtown, a week or two +before, informing them as to the time of my arrival.</p> + +<p>Madeline rendered the brief and business-like epistle with the full +effect of her peculiarly thrilling intonation, and Grandma listened with +rapt attention; but, meanwhile, Grandpa Keeler and the two little Keelers +found time surreptitiously to dispose of nearly a whole pie, with the +serious aspect of those who will not allow a mere fleeting diversion to +hinder them in the improvement of a rare opportunity.</p> + +<p>Having declined to partake of pie, through Grandma Keeler's kind +interposition, I was not further urged.</p> + +<p>"Thar', poor darlin'," said she; "fix her up a good cup o' your golden +seal, pa, and she shall go to bed right in the parlor to-night, seem' as +we didn't get the letter, and hain't got her room fixed upstairs. It's +all nice and warm, and thar', darlin', thar', we're r'al good for nussin' +folks up."</p> + +<p>In the parlor, I saw only one great, delicious object—a bed. My weary +brain hardly exaggerated its dimensions, which could not have failed to +strike with astonishment even the most indifferent observer. It was long; +it was broad; it was deep; and, alas! it was high, I disrobed as best I +might, and stood before it, gazing despairingly up at its snowy summit.</p> + +<p>Then, remembering my experience with the trunk, I approached at one +extreme, scaled the headboard, fell over into an absorbing sea of +feathers, and, at that very instant it seemed, the perplexing nature of +mortal affairs ceased to burden my mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>I BLOW THE HORN.</h3> + + +<p>Morning dawned on my mission to Wallencamp. My wakening was not an +Enthusiastic one. Slowly my bewildered vision became fixed on an object +on the wall opposite, as the least fantastic amid a group of objects. It +was a sketch in water-colors of a woman in an expansive hoop and a skirt +of brilliant hue, flounced to the waist. She stood with a singularly +erect and dauntless front, over a grave on which was written "Consort." I +observed, with a childlike wonder, which concealed no latent vein of +criticism, the glowing carmine of her cheeks, the unmixed blue of her +pupilless eyes, from a point exactly in the centre of which a geometric +row of tears curved to the earth. A weeping willow—somewhat too green, +alas!—drooped with evident reluctance over the scene, but cast no shade +on its contrasting richness. The title of the piece was "<i>Bereavement</i>" +By some strange means, it served as the pole-star to my wandering +thoughts.</p> + +<p>As I gazed and wondered my life took on again a definite form and +purpose. The events of the preceding day rose in gradual succession +before me, and I proceeded to descend from the heights I had scaled the +night before.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/insults.jpg" width="700" height="392" alt="DAVID ROLLIN INSULTS LUTHER" title="" /> +<span class="caption">DAVID ROLLIN INSULTS LUTHER.</span> +</div> + +<p>I looked at my watch. It was eight o'clock, and school should begin at +nine. Yet the occasion witnessed no feverish display of haste on my part, +I saw that the difficulties which I was destined to endure in the +Performance of my toilet that morning called either for philosophy or +madness. I chose philosophy.</p> + +<p>The portion of the Ark surrounding my bed was cut up into little +recesses, crannies, nooks,—used, presumably, for storing the different +pairs of animals in the trying events which preceded the Flood. In one of +these, I had a dim recollection of having secreted my clothes, in the +disordered condition of my brain the night before. So I cast desultory +glances about me for these articles on the way, having first set out on a +search for a looking-glass. In one dark recess I came into forcible +contact with a hanging-shelf of pies. I thought what a moment that would +have been for Grandpa Keeler and the little Keelers! but I had been +brought up on hygienic, as well as moral, principles, and moved away +without a sigh. In another sequestered nook, I paused with a sinful +mixture of curiosity and delight, before a Chinese idol standing alone on +a pedestal.</p> + +<p>There was a strangeness and a newness about things at the Ark that began +to be exhilarating, I was reminded, in a negative sort of way, that I had +intended to begin my work on this new day with a prayer to the true God +for strength and assistance. I had found it necessary to make this +resolve because, although I had a "fixed habit of prayer," it was +reserved rather for occasions of special humiliation than resorted to as +an everyday indulgence; practically, I had well nigh dispensed with it +altogether.</p> + +<p>However, I started back in an intently serious frame of mind to find my +couch. I lost my way, and stumbling against a swinging-door which opened +into a comparatively spacious apartment, what was my joy to discover my +trunk, with the portmanteau containing my keys on top of it.</p> + +<p>I then proceeded to array myself with an absorbing ardor and devotion, +doing my hair before a hand-glass with rare resignation of spirit. I +began to feel more and more like an incorporated existence, and admitted +a sudden eagerness to join the Keeler family at breakfast.</p> + +<p>I had no hesitation which direction to take, being guided by the sound of +voices and wafts of penetrating odors.</p> + +<p>It was a fortunate direction, for I discovered on the way my lost apparel +artfully concealed under a small melodeon, and, strangely enough, I was +again brought face to face with my deserted couch and the weeping lady on +the wall. She held me a moment with the old fascination. As I put up my +glasses, I thought I detected in her face a hitherto unnoticed buoyancy +of expression and not having wholly escaped in my life from ideas of a +worldly nature, I reflected that, probably, her regretted consort had +left her with a sufficient number of thousands.</p> + +<p>In this same connection, I was reminded that I, myself, had started out +on an independent career, and wondered if it would be unkind or undutiful +in me to start a private bank account of my own. I concluded that it +would not.</p> + +<p>When I entered the little room where the Keeler family was assembled:—</p> + +<p>"Why, here's our teacher!" exclaimed Grandma Keeler in accents of +delight, and came to meet me with outstretched arms. "We couldn't abear +to wake ye up, dearie," she went on, "knowin' ye was so tired this +mornin'; and there's plenty o' time—plenty o' time. My Casindana come +home!" she murmured, with a smile and a tremble of the lips, and a +far-away look, for the instant, in her gentle eyes.</p> + +<p>In fact, the whole Keeler family received me with outstretched arms. If I +had been a long-lost child, or a friend known and loved in days gone by, +I could not have been more cordially and enthusiastically welcomed.</p> + +<p>The best chair was set for me; glances of eager and inquiring interest +were bent upon me.</p> + +<p>I accepted it all coolly, though not without a certain air of affability, +too, for I had a natural desire to make myself agreeable to people, when +it wasn't too much trouble; but I was quite firm, at this time, in the +conviction that there was little or no faith to be put in human nature. +On the whole I was much entertained and interested.</p> + +<p>The two children came to climb into my lap, but this part of the +acquaintance did not progress very fast. I thought they must have been +struck by something in my eye (I was merely wondering abstractedly if +their heads were not out of proportion to the rest of their bodies), for +they paused, and Mrs. Philander called them away sharply.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Philander was a frail little woman,—she could not have been over +thirty or thirty-two years old,—not pretty, though she had a very airy +and graceful way of comporting herself. Her eyes were large and dark, +with a strange, melancholy gleam in them.</p> + +<p>I never knew the secrets of Mrs. Philanders heart. She had often a tired, +tense look about the mouth, and seemed often sorely discontent; but she +had the sweetest voice I ever heard. She was familiarly called Madeline.</p> + +<p>Grandpa or Cap'n Keeler was over eighty years old. He had a tall, +powerful frame—at least, it spoke of great power in the past—and I +thought his eye must have been uncommonly dark and keen once.</p> + +<p>From his manly irascibility of temperament, and his frequent would-be +authoritativeness of tone, one might have inferred, from a passing +glimpse, that Grandpa Keeler was something of a tyrant in the family; but +I soon learned that his sway was of an extremely vague and illusory +nature.</p> + +<p>Grandma Keeler was twenty years his junior. She had not married him until +she was herself quite advanced in life, and had had one husband.</p> + +<p>"To be sure," I heard her say once, "I ain't quite so far advanced as +husband, but, then, it don't make no difference how young the girl is, +you know."</p> + +<p>She used to sit down and laugh—one of Grandma's "r'al good laughs" was +incompatible with a standing posture—until the tears rolled down her +cheeks, and she had to wipe them off with the corner of her apron.</p> + +<p>She had been thrown from a wagon once—how often and thrillingly have I +heard dear Grandma Keeler relate the particulars of that accident! She +had broken at that time, I believe, nearly every bone in her body. Long +was the story of her fall, but longer still the tale of her recuperation. +In due course of time, she had grown together again; could now use all +her limbs, and was in superabundant flesh. There was an unnatural sort of +stiffness about her movements, however, her way of walking particularly. +She advanced but slowly, and allowed her weight to fall from one foot to +Another without any perceptible bend of any joint whatever.</p> + +<p>I have stood at one end of a room and seen Grandma Keeler approaching +from the other, when it seemed as though she was not making any progress +at all, but merely going through with an odd sort of balancing process +in order to maintain her equilibrium.</p> + +<p>As for Grandma Keeler's face, there was enough in it to make several +ordinary scrimped faces. Besides large physical proportions, there was +enough in it of generosity, enough of whole-heartedness, a world of +sympathy. The great catastrophe of her life had affected the muscles of +her face so that although she enunciated her words very distinctly, she +had a slow, automatic way of moving her lips.</p> + +<p>The room where the breakfast-table was set was the same that I had +entered first, on my arrival at Wallencamp. It was low and small, but +capable, as I learned afterward, of holding any amount of things and +people without ever seeming crowded. There was a cooking-stove in it, and +many other articles of modest worth, so artlessly scattered about as to +present a scene of the wildest and richest profusion.</p> + +<p>Art was not entirely wanting, however. There was a ray of it on the wall +behind the stove-pipe, the companion-piece to "Bereavement," entitled +"Joy," and represented my heroine of the bed-chamber, reclining on a +rustic bench in rather an unflounced and melancholy condition. In one +place there hung a yellow family register, which was kept faithfully +supplied from week to week with a wreath of fresh evergreens. It was +headed by a woodcut representing a funeral, Grandma Keeler said; but +Grandpa Keeler afterwards informed me, aside, with much solemnity, that +it was a "marriage ceremony." Near the foot of the list of births, +marriages and deaths, I saw "Casindana Keeler; died, aged twenty."</p> + +<p>We sat down at the table. There was a brief altercation between Dinslow +and Grace, the little Keelers, in which impromptu missiles, such as +spoons and knives and small tin-cups, were hurled across the table with +unguided wrath, and both infants yelled furiously.</p> + +<p>Grandma had nearly succeeded in quieting them, when Madeline remarked to +Grandpa Keeler, in her lively and flippant style:—</p> + +<p>"Come, pa, say your piece."</p> + +<p>"How am I going to say anything?" inquired Grandpa, wrathfully, "in such +a bedlam?"</p> + +<p>"Thar', now, thar'!" said Grandma Keeler, in her soothing tone; "It's all +quiet now and time we was eatin' breakfast, so ask the blessin', pa, and +don't let's have no more words about it."</p> + +<p>Whereupon the old sea-captain bowed his head, and, with a decided touch +of asperity still lingering in his voice, sped through the lines:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"God bless the food which now we take;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May it do us good, for Jesus' sake."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Now, Dinnie," said Grandma Keeler, beguilingly; but it was not until +after much coaxing and threatening, and the promise of a spoonful of +sugar when it was over, that Dinslow was induced to solicit the same +blessing, in the same poetical terms, and with an expedition still more +alarming.</p> + +<p>Then Gracie, with tears not yet dried from the late conflict, lifted up +her voice in a rapture of miniature delight; "Dinnie says, 'gobble the +food'! Dinnie says, 'gobble the food!'"</p> + +<p>"Didn't say 'gobble the food!'" exclaimed Dinslow, blacker than a little +thunder-cloud.</p> + +<p>Madeline anticipated the rising storm, and stamped her foot and cried: +"<i>Will</i> you be still?"</p> + +<p>It was Grandma Keeler who quietly and adroitly restored peace to the +troubled waters.</p> + +<p>The Wallencampers, including the Keeler family, were not accustomed to +speak of bread as a compact and staple article of food, but rather as one +of the hard means of sustaining existence represented by the term +"hunks." At the table, it was not "will you pass me the bread?" but—and +I shall never forget the sweet tunefulness of Madeline's tone in this +connection—"Will you hand me a hunk?"</p> + +<p>The hunks were an unleavened mixture of flour and water, about the size +and consistency of an ordinary laborer's fist.</p> + +<p>I was impressed, in first sitting down at the Keelers' table, with a +sense of my own ignorance as to the most familiar details of life, but +soon learned to speak confidently of "hunks," and "fortune stew," and +"slit herrin'," and "golden seal."</p> + +<p>Fortune stew was a dish of small, round blue potatoes, served perfectly +whole in a milk gravy.</p> + +<p>I cherish the memory of this dish as sacred, as well as that of all the +other dishes that ever appeared on the Wallencamp table. They were the +products of faithful and loving hands to which nature had given a +peculiar direction, perhaps, but which strove always to the best of their +ability.</p> + +<p>Slit herrin' was a long-dried, deep-salted edition of the native alewife, +a fish in which Wallencamp abounded. They hung in massive tiers from the +roofs of the Wallencamp barns. The herrin' was cut open, and without +having been submitted to any mollifying process whatever, not one +assuaging touch of its native element, was laid flat in the spider, and +fried.</p> + +<p>I saw the Keeler family, from the greatest to the least, partake of this +arid and rasping substance unblinkingly, and I partook also. The brine +rose to my eyes and coursed its way down my cheeks, and Grandma Keeler +said I was "homesick, poor thing!"</p> + +<p>The golden seal, a "remedy for toothache, headache, sore-throat, sprains, +etc., etc.," was served in a diluted state with milk and sugar, and taken +as a beverage. The herrin' had destroyed my sense of taste; anything in a +liquid state was alike delectable to me, and while I drank, I had a sense +of having become somehow mysteriously connected with the book of +revelations. "We used to think," Grandma proceeded mildly to elucidate, +"that it had ought to be took externally, but husband, he was painin' +around one time, and nothin' didn't seem to do him no good, and so we +ventured some of it inside of him, and he didn't complain no more for a +great while afterwards." I appreciated the hidden meaning of these words +when I saw how sparingly Grandpa Keeler partook of the golden seal. "So +then we tried some of it ourselves, and ra'ly begun to like it, so we've +got into the habit of drinkin' it along through the winter, it's so +quietin', and may not be no special need of it, so far as we can see, but +then, it's allus well enough to be on the safe side, for there's no +knowin'," concluded Grandma, solemnly, "what disease may be a growin' up +inside of you."</p> + +<p>"My brother invented on't," said Grandpa Keeler, looking up at me from +under his shaggy eyebrows with questionable pride. He went on more +glowingly, however; "There's a picter of my brother on every bottle, +teacher." (Madeline immediately ran from her chair, went into an +adjoining room, and brought out a bottle to show me.) "Ye see, he used to +wear them air long ringlets, though he was a powerful man, John was; but +his hair curled as pretty as a girl's. Oh, he was a great dandy, John +was; a great dandy." Grandpa Keeler straightened himself up and his eyes +brightened perceptibly.</p> + +<p>"Never wore nothin' but the finest broadcloth; why, there's a pair of +black broadcloth pants o' his'n that you'll see, come Sunday, teacher!"</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar', now, pa," said Grandma Keeler, reprovingly; "I wouldn't +tell everything."</p> + +<p>"Le' me see," continued Grandpa; "I had eight brothers, teacher, yis, +yis, there was nine boys in all," nodding his head emphatically, and +proceeding to count on his fingers.</p> + +<p>Grandma Keeler laid her knife and fork aside, as though she felt that the +occasion was an important one, and that she had a grave duty to perform +in regard to it.</p> + +<p>"Thar' was Philemon, he comes first, that makes one, don't it? and there +was Doddridge—</p> + +<p>"Sure he comes next, pa?" interposed Grandma; "for now you're namin' of +em, you might as well git 'em right."</p> + +<p>"Yis, yis, ma," replied the old man, hastily. "Then there was Winfield +and John, they're all dead now, and Bartholomew, he was first mate in a +sailin' vessel; fine man, Bartholomew was, fine man; he——"</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar' now," said Grandma; "you'll never git through namin' on 'em, +pa, if you stop to talk about 'em."</p> + +<p>"Yis, yis," continued Grandpa, hopelessly confused, and showing dark +symptoms of smouldering wrath; "there was Bartholomew. That makes a,—le' +me see, Bartholomew,——"</p> + +<p>"How many Bartholomews was there?" inquired Grandma, with pitiless +coolness of demeanor.</p> + +<p>"Thar', now, ma, ye've put me all out!" cried Grandpa, taking refuge in +loud and desperate reproach; "I was gettin' along first-rate; why +couldn't ye a kept still and let me reckoned 'em through?"</p> + +<p>"Yer musn't blame me, pa, 'cause yer can't carry yer own brothers in yer +head." There was a touch of gentle reproach in Grandma's calm voice. +"Why, there was my mother's cousin 'Statia, that was only second cousin +to me, and no relation at all, on my father's side, and she had thirteen +children, three of 'em was twins and one of 'em was thrins, and I could +name 'em all through, and tell you what year they was born, and what day, +and who vaccinated 'em. There was Amelia Day, she was born April ninth, +eighteen hundred and seventeen, Doctor Sweet vaccinated her, and it took +in five days." And so on Grandma went through the entire list, gradually +going more and more into particulars, but always coming out strong on the +main facts.</p> + +<p>The effect could not have failed to deepen in Grandpa's bosom a +mortifying sense of his own incompetency.</p> + +<p>When I got up from the Keelers' breakfast table there was something +choking me besides the herrin' and golden seal, and it was not +homesickness, either; but as I stepped out of Mrs. Philander's low door +into the light and air, all lesser impulses were forgotten in a glow and +thrill of exultation. I wondered if that far, intense blue was the +natural color of the Cape Cod sky in winter, and if its January sun +always showered down such rich and golden beams. There was no snow on the +ground; the fields presented an almost spring-like aspect, in contrast +with the swarthy green of the cedars. The river ran sparkling in +summer-fashion at the foot of "Eagle Hill." From the bay, the sea air +came up fresh and strong. I drank it with deep inspirations. At that +moment it seemed to me that I had indeed been born to perform a mission. +It was so hopeful to turn over an entire fresh leaf in the book of life, +and I was resolved to do it heroically, at any cost. I reflected, not +without a shade of annoyance, that I had forgotten to say my prayers, +after all. At the same time I had a sort of conviction that it wasn't so +unfortunate a remissness on my part as it would have been for some less +qualified by nature to take care of themselves.</p> + +<p>I discovered the school-house at the end of the lane. The general air of +the Wallencamp houses was stranded and unsettled, as though, detained in +their present position for some brief and restless season, they dreamed +ever of unknown voyages yet to be made on the sea of life. They were very +poor, very old. Some of them were painted red in front, some of them had +only a red door, being otherwise quite brown and unadorned. There was one +exception,—Emily Gaskell's—that stood on the hill, and was painted all +over and had green blinds.</p> + +<p>I heard a mighty rushing sound mingled with whoops and yells and the +terrible clamp of running feet, and was made aware that a detachment from +my flock was coming up the lane to meet me.</p> + +<p>A girl, taller than I, with stooping shoulders and a piquant and +good-natured cast of features, seized my hand and swung it in childish +and confiding fashion. She had warts. I wondered, uneasily, if they would +be contagious through my gloves.</p> + +<p>I was struck with the uncommon beauty of one sturdy little fellow. He was +barefooted (on Cape Cod, in January), and ragged enough to have satisfied +the most crazy devotee of the picturesque. His shapely head was set on +his shoulders in an exceedingly high-bred way, while its bad archangel +effect was intensified by rings of curling black hair and great, +seductive black eyes.</p> + +<p>The children walked back, in comparative quiet, toward the school-house, +except this boy. To him care was evidently a thing unknown. He managed, +while keeping the distance undiminished between himself and me, to +perform a great variety of antics, in which, by way of an occasional +relief, his head was seen to rise above his heels.</p> + +<p>Emily's wash had been left out to dry during the night. The wind had torn +various articles from the line and carried them down in the direction of +the lane fence.</p> + +<p>My gymnastic-performing imp vanished through the bars. In an incredibly +short space of time he reappeared, clothed—but, alas! I cannot tell how +the imp was clothed, except to say that Emily being a tall, woman and the +imp but a well-grown boy of ten, the effect was strangely voluminous and +oriental.</p> + +<p>This part of the lane was marked by some insignificant though very abrupt +depressions and elevations of the surface. Occasionally he of the +floating apparel was lost to sight; then he would appear all glorious on +some small height, while the mind was compelled to revert irreverently to +the picture of Moses on Mount Pisgah. He was the personification of +impudence, withal, looking back and showing his teeth in superlative +appreciation of his own sinfulness. He descended, and I looked to see him +arise again, but I saw him no more.</p> + +<p>I had a faint and fleeting vision, afterwards, of an apostolic figure +flying back across the fields. It was so indistinct as to remain only +among the ephemera of my fancy.</p> + +<p>In a fork of the roads, opposite the school-house, stood a house with a +red door. It was loaded, in summer, with honeysuckle vines. Aunt Lobelia +sat always at the window. Sometimes she had the asthma and sometimes she +sang. This morning her favorite refrain from the Moody and Sankey Hymnal +was wafted in loud accents up the lane:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dar' to be a Danyell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dar' to be a Danyell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dar' to make it known!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As I entered the school-house, the inspiring strains still followed me.</p> + +<p>There was a large Franklin stove within, which exhibited the most +enormous draught power, emitting sparks and roaring in a manner frightful +to contemplate.</p> + +<p>Aunt Patty, who acted the part of janitress of the school-house at night +and morning, had written on the blackboard in a large admonitory hand, +"No spitting on this floor, you ninnies!"</p> + +<p>The bench, containing the water-pail, occupied the most central position +in the room. At one side of the bench hung a long-handled tin dipper; on +the other, another tin instrument, resembling an ear-trumpet, profoundly +exaggerated in size.</p> + +<p>"That's what you've got to blow to call us in," exclaimed a small child, +with anticipative enlivenment.</p> + +<p>I went to the door with the instrument.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dar' to be a Danyell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dar' to make it known."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The stirring measures came across from Aunt Lobelia's window. Then the +singer paused.</p> + +<p>There were other faces at other windows. The countenances of the boys and +girls gathered about the door were ominously expressive. I lifted the +horn to my lips. I blew upon it what was intended for a cheerful and +exuberant call to duty, but to my chagrin it emitted no sound whatever. I +attempted a gentle, soul-stirring strain; it was as silent as the grave. +I seized it with both hands, and, oblivious to the hopeful derision +Gathering on the faces of those about me, I breathed into it all the +despair and anguish of my expiring breath. It gave forth a hollow, +soulless, and lugubrious squeak, utterly out of proportion to the vital +force expended, yet I felt that I had triumphed, and detected a new +expression of awe and admiration on the faces of my flock.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how she done it," I heard one freckled-faced boy exclaim, +confidingly to another; "with a hull button in thar'!"</p> + +<p>"Who put the button in the horn?" I inquired of the youngster afterwards, +quite in a pleasant tone, and with a smile on which I had learned to +depend for a particularly delusive effect; at the same time I put up my +glasses to impress him with a sense of awe.</p> + +<p>"Simmy B.," he answered.</p> + +<p>"And which is Simmy B.?" I questioned, glancing about the school-room.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he ain't comin' in," gasped my informer; "he run over cross-lots +with Emily's clo's on."</p> + +<p>I had planned not to confine my pupils to the ordinary method of imbibing +knowledge through the medium of text-books, but by means of lectures, +which should be interspersed with lively anecdotes and rich with the +fruitful products of my own experience, to teach them.</p> + +<p>My first lecture was, quite appropriately, on the duty of close +application and faithful persistence in the acquisition of knowledge, +depicting the results that would inevitably accrue from the observance of +such a course, and here, glowing and dazzled by my theme, I even secretly +regretted that modesty forbade me to recommend to my pupils, as a +forcible illustration, one who occupied so conspicuous a position before +them.</p> + +<p>My new method of instruction, though not appreciated, perhaps, in its +intrinsic design, was received, I could not but observe, with the most +unbounded favor.</p> + +<p>After the first open-mouthed surprise had passed away from the +countenances of my audience, I was loudly importuned on all sides for +water. I was myself extravagantly thirsty. I requested all those who had +"slit herrin'" for breakfast to raise their hands.</p> + +<p>Every hand was raised.</p> + +<p>I gravely inquired if slit herrin' formed an ordinary or accustomed +repast in Wallencamp, and was unanimously assured in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>After dwelling briefly on the gratitude that should fill our hearts in +view of the unnumbered blessings of Providence, I inaugurated a system by +which a pail of fresh water was to be drawn from one of the neighboring +wells, and impartially distributed among the occupants of the +school-room, once during each successive hour of the day. The water was +to be passed about in the tin dipper, in an orderly manner, by some +member of the flock, properly appointed to that office, either on account +of general excellence or some particular mark of good behavior; though I +afterwards found it advisable not to insist on any qualifications of this +sort, but to elect the water-bearers merely according to their respective +rank in age. This really proved to be one of the most lively and +interesting exercises of the school, was always cheerfully undertaken, +executed in the most complete and faithful manner, and never on any +account forgotten or omitted.</p> + +<p>I drank, and continued my lecture, but the first look of attractive +surprise never came back to the faces of my audience. They sought +diversion in a variety of ways, acquitting themselves throughout with a +commendable degree of patience until they found it necessary gently to +admonish me that it was time for recess.</p> + +<p>After recess, as the result of deep meditation, in which I had concluded +that the mind of the Wallencamp youth was not yet prepared for the +introduction of new and advanced methods, I examined my pupils +preparatory to giving them lessons and arranging them in classes, in +the ordinary way. I found that they could not read, but they could write +in a truly fluent and unconventional style; they could not commit +prosaical facts to memory, but they could sing songs containing any +number of irrelevant stanzas. They could not "cipher," but they had +witty and salient answers ready for any emergency. There seemed to be no +particular distinction among them in regard to the degree of literary +attainment, so I arranged them in classes, with an eye mainly to the +novel and picturesque in appearance.</p> + +<p>They were a little disappointed at the turn in affairs, having evidently +anticipated much from the continuation of the lecture system, yet they +were disposed to look forward to school-life, in any case, as not without +its ameliorating conditions.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE BEAUX OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY.</h3> + + +<p>"We have our r'al, good, comfortin' meal at night," Grandma Keeler had +said, and the thought was uppermost in my mind at the close of my first +day's labor in Wallencamp. I had taken a walk to the beach; a strong east +wind had come up, and the surf was rolling in magnificently; a wild +scene, from a wild shore, more awful then, in the gathering gloom. The +long rays of light streaming out of the windows of the Ark guided me back +across the fields. Within, all was warmth and cheer and festive +expectation. Grandma Keeler was in such spirits; a wave of mirthful +inspiration would strike her, she would sink into a chair, the tears +would roll down her cheeks, and she would shake with irrepressible +laughter. It was in one of her serious moments that she said to me:—</p> + +<p>"Thar', teacher, I actually believe that I ain't made you acquainted with +my two tea-kettles." They stood side by side on the stove, one very tall +and lean, the other very short and plump. "This 'ere," said Grandma, +pointing to the short one; "is Rachel, and this 'ere," pointing to the +tall one, "is Abigail, and Abigail's a graceful creetur' to be sure," +Grandma reflected admiringly; "but then Rachel has the most powerful +delivery!"</p> + +<p>I was thus enabled to understand the allusions I had already heard to +Rachel's being "dry," or Abigail's being as "full as a tick," or <i>vice +versa</i>.</p> + +<p>The table was neatly spread with a white cloth; there was an empty bowl +and a spoon at each individual's place. In the centre of the table stood +a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. Grandpa Keeler having asked the +blessing after the approved manner of the morning, there was a general +uprising and moving, bowl in hand, towards the cauldron of hulled corn on +the stove. This was lively, and there was a pleasurable excitement about +skimming the swollen kernels of corn out of the boiling, seething liquid +in which they were immersed. Eaten afterwards with milk and sugar and a +little salt, the compound became possessed of a truly "comforting" +nature.</p> + +<p>I stood, for the second time, over the kettle with my eye-glasses +securely adjusted, very earnestly and thoughtfully occupied in wielding +the skimmer, when the door of the Ark suddenly opened and a mischievously +smiling young man appeared on the threshold. He was not a Wallencamper, I +saw at a glance. There was about him an unmistakable air of the great +world. He was fashionably dressed and rather good-looking, with a short +upper lip and a decided tinge of red in his hair. He stood staring at me +with such manifest appreciation of the situation in his laughing eyes, +that I felt a barbarous impulse to throw the skimmer of hot corn at him. +It was as though some flimsy product of an advanced civilization had come +in to sneer at the sacred customs of antiquity.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," the intruder began, addressing the Keeler family +with exceeding urbanity of voice and manner; "I fear that I have happened +in rather inopportunely, but I dared not of course transgress our +happy Arcadian laws by knocking at the door."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lordy, yis, yis, and the fewer words the better. You know our ways +by this time, fisherman," exclaimed Grandpa Keeler. "Come in! come in! +Nobody that calls me friend need knock at my door."</p> + +<p>"Come in! come in, fisherman! Won't you set, fisherman?" hospitably +chimed in Grandma Keeler.</p> + +<p>"Ah, thank you! may I consider your kind invitation deferred, merely," +said the fisherman, suavely, "and excuse me if I introduce a little +matter of business with the Captain. We carelessly left our oars on the +banks yesterday, Captain Keeler, they were washed off, I have ordered +some more, but can't get them by to-morrow. I hear you have a pair laid +by, I should like to purchase."</p> + +<p>"What, is it the old oars ye want?" interrupted Grandpa, "why, Lord a +massy! you know whar' they be, fisherman, alongside that old pile o' +rubbish on hither side o' the barn, and don't talk about purchasin'—take +'em and keep 'em as long as ye want, they ain't no account to me now."</p> + +<p>"I am very much obliged to you, Captain," the fisherman said, "I am very +sorry to have interrupted this—a—"</p> + +<p>"Why, no interruption, I'm sure," said Grandma Keeler, good-naturedly, +"we've kep' right along eatin'."</p> + +<p>"Want a lantern to look for 'em eh?" inquired Grandpa Keeler, for the +fisherman lingered, hesitating, on the threshold.</p> + +<p>"This is our teacher, fisherman," said Grandma, in her gentle, +tranquillizing tones, "and this 'ere is one of Emily's fishermen, +teacher, and may the Lord bless ye in yer acquaintance," she added with +simple fervor.</p> + +<p>The fisherman saluted me with a bow which reflected great credit on his +former dancing-master. He murmured the polite formula in a low tone, at +the same time shooting another covertly laughing glance at me out of his +eyes. As the door closed behind him, "Ah, that's a sleek devil!" said +Grandpa Keeler, giving me a meaning glance from under his shaggy +eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar' now, pa, I wouldn't blaspheme, not if I'd made the +professions you have," said Grandma, with grave reproval.</p> + +<p>"A sleek dog," continued Grandpa Keeler; "tongue as smooth as butter, all +'how d' yer do!' and 'how d' yer do!' but I don't trust them fishermen +much, myself, teacher."</p> + +<p>"Who are the fishermen?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"They board up to Emily's," said Grandma. "They come from Providence and +around, and they stay here, off and on, a week or two to a time, along +through the winter, some of 'em. They fish pickerel on the river, and +sometimes they're blue-fishin' out in the bay, and quite generally +they're just kitin' round as young men will, I suppose. Sometimes they +have vittles sent to 'em and Emily she cooks for 'em.'"</p> + +<p>"Why, they're off on a spree, that's all," said Grandpa Keeler, +comprehensively, giving me another significant glance; "they're off on a +spree, and ye see they think this 'ere is jest a right fur enough out the +way place for 'em. This 'ere red-haired one that was in here this +evenin', Rollin his name is, he's a dreadful rich one, I suppose, +dreadful rich! I've heered all about him. He's an old bachelder, I +reckon, that is, he keeps mighty spruce, but I reckon he's hard on to +thirty. Emily's got a cousin that works for some o' them big folks down +to Providence, and she's heered all about him, this red-haired one, and +how he keeps a big house down thar', and sarvants enough, massy! and half +the time he's hither and yon, and a throwin' out money like water. His +father and mother they're dead, so I've heered, and he used to have +gardeens over him, but he haint kep' no gardeens lately, I reckon," said +Grandpa, with grim facetiousness.</p> + +<p>"Why, he's been a waitin' on Weir's daughter, down here—Becky. She goes +to school to you, teacher," the old man added, presently, brightening +with a senile predilection for gossip.</p> + +<p>"Becky's a very sensible girl," said Grandma Keeler; "and don't cast no +sheep's eyes, but goes right along and minds her own business. Becky +plays very purty on the music, too."</p> + +<p>"Yes. But you know Dave Rollin wouldn't any more think of marrying Becky +Weir than he would of marrying me," cried Mrs. Philander. "Of all the +fishermen that have come down here not one of them ever married in +Wallencamp. He's just trifling, and she thinks he's in real earnest; +anybody can see that. You've only to mention his name to see her flush up +as red as a rose. I tell you this is a strange world," Madeline snapped +out sharply; "and Dave Rollin, I suppose, is one of the gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"We ain't no right to say but what he's honest," said Grandma Keeler; +"Becky she's honest herself, and she takes it in other folks. She's more +quiet than some of our girls be, and higher notions, and she's young and +haint never been away nowhere, and no wonder if he waits on her she +should take a kind o' fancy to him."</p> + +<p>"You know, ma," continued Madeline, "that Dave Rollin would never take +her home among his folks, never; and if I was Becky's mother I'd shut the +door in his face before I'd ever have him fooling around my house, and +she should never stir out of the house with him, never!"</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose there's much use in talking to the girl," said Grandma: +"Emily was in here the other day, and Becky, she happened to come in the +same time, and I didn't see no use in Emily's speaking up in the way she +did; for, says she, 'What do you have that Dave Rollin flirtin' around +you for, Beck? What do you suppose he wants o' you 'cept to amuse himself +a little when he ain't nothin' better to do, and then go off and forgit +he's seen ye!' And Becky didn't say nothin', but she give Emily a +dreadful long, quiet kind of a look out of her eyes."</p> + +<p>"She hasn't lost quite all of Weir's temper since she's been seeking +religion," said Madeline, in a strangely light and vivacious tone. +Grandma and Grandpa Keeler, by the way, were good Methodists, but +Madeline was not a "professor."</p> + +<p>"Seeking religion, eh?" inquired Grandpa Keeler. "She'd better let Dave +Rollin alone, then," he added.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope that we shall all on us be brought to a better state of +mind," concluded Grandma Keeler, with solemn pertinency.</p> + +<p>Before the meal was finished and the table cleared away, the latch of the +Ark had been often lifted.</p> + +<p>On all occasions, afterwards, there was a marked and cheerful variety in +the nature of the droppers-in at the Ark—the children and all the young +men and maidens making their appearance with a promiscuousness which +precluded the possibility of design—but to-night the Wallencamp mind had +evidently aimed at some great system of conventionality, and had been +eminently successful in evolving a plan.</p> + +<p>The callers were young men exclusively—the native youth of Wallencamp. +Their blowzy, well-favored faces, which ever afterward appeared to beam +with good nature, to-night expressed a sense of some grave affliction +heroically to be endured.</p> + +<p>Their best clothes, it was obvious, had been purchased by them +"ready-made," and had been designed, originally, for the sons of a less +stalwart community. The young men were especially pinched as to their +expansive chests, the broadcloth coming much too short at this point, and +shrugging up oddly enough at the shoulders, while the phenomenally slick +arrangement of their hair was calculated to produce a depressing effect +on the mind of the observer.</p> + +<p>As they came in one by one, in a matter of fact way, and Grandma Keeler +announced hopefully to each in turn—"and this is our teacher!" they +accepted the fact with no more flattering sign than that of a dumb and +helpless resignation to the inevitable. They seated themselves about the +room in punctilious order, assuming positions painfully suggestive of a +conscientious disregard for ease, and seemed to draw some silent support +and sympathy out of their hats, which they caressed with lingering +affection touching to behold.</p> + +<p>Grandma beckoned me aside into the pantry which immediately adjoined the +kitchen, and informed me in one of her reverberating whispers, that I +"mustn't mind the boys being slicked up, for they'd sorter dropped in to +make my acquaintance, and, if we wanted the pop-corn, it was in a bag down +under where the almanac hung, to the furtherest corner of the wood-box."</p> + +<p>I pondered these mysterious injunctions in silence, and realizing the +fact that the Wallencamp beaux had appeared in a body for the express +purpose of making my acquaintance, I essayed to show my appreciation of +this amiable design by an attempt to engage them in conversation. My +various efforts in this line proved alike futile, and they seemed but to +grow impressed with a deeper sense of misery.</p> + +<p>I had a vague intention of going in search of the pop-corn, when, to my +sudden dismay, Grandma Keeler and Madeline, who had been noiselessly +clearing off the table, emerged from a brief consultation in the pantry, +bearing with them a lighted candle, and having given Grandpa Keeler a nod +of unmistakable force and significance, disappeared through the door +which led into that indefinite extension of the Ark beyond.</p> + +<p>But Grandpa Keeler remained wilfully indifferent to these broadly +insinuating tactics. He fancied, poor, deluded old man, that here was a +choice opportunity to tell a tale of the seas after a fashion dear to his +own heart, unshackled by the restraints of family surveillance.</p> + +<p>A singularly childlike and unapprehensive smile played across his +features. He drew his chair up closer to the stove and began: "Jest +after I was a roundin' Cape Horn the fourth time, I believe,—yis, yis, +le'me see—twenty times I've rounded the Horn,—wall, this ere, I reckon, +was somewhere nigh about the fourth time."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Grandpa arranged the merest preliminaries of his tale when +ominous footsteps were heard returning along the way whither Grandma and +Madeline had so recently departed, and he was interrupted by a strangely +calm though authoritative voice from behind the door; "Pa!"</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, ma! what ye want, ma?" exclaimed Grandpa, turning his head +aside, with a slight shade of annoyance on his face.</p> + +<p>No answer immediately forthcoming, that wofully illusory smile returned +again to his features. He moved still nearer to the stove, and was just +at the point of resuming the thread of his narrative when—</p> + +<p>"Bijonah Keeler!" came from behind the door in accents still calm, +indeed, but freighted with a significance which words have faint power to +express.</p> + +<p>"Yis, yis, ma! I'm a coming, ma!" replied Grandpa, rising hastily and +shuffling toward the door; "I'm a coming, ma! I'm a coming!"</p> + +<p>The door opened wide enough to receive him, and then closed upon him in +all his ignominy.</p> + +<p>The sound of his voice in irate expostulation, mingled with the steady +flow of those serener tones, grew gradually faint in the distance, and I +was left alone with the sepulchral group of young men.</p> + +<p>They arose, still maintaining the weighty aspect of those elected to the +hour, and abruptly opened their lips in song.</p> + +<p>There was no repression now; the Ark fairly rang with the sonorous +strains of that wild Jubilate.</p> + +<p>They sang:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Light in the darkness, sailor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Day is at hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See, o'er the foaming billows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fair haven stands."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Their voices rolling in at the chorus with the resistless sweep of the +ocean-waves:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Pull for the shore, sailor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pull for the shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heed not the rolling waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But bend to the oar:"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and with a final "Pull for the shore," that sent that imaginary life-boat +bounding high and dry on the strand at the hands of its impulsive crew.</p> + +<p>Then they sat down and wiped the perspiration from their faces, which had +become transfigured with a sudden zest and radiance.</p> + +<p>I recovered myself sufficiently to express a bewildered sense of pleasure +and gratitude.</p> + +<p>"Do you sing, teacher?" asked Harvey Dole, a round-faced youth with an +irrepressible fund of mirth in his eyes, who had broken in on the former +silence with an unguarded little snicker.</p> + +<p>Lovell Barlow, he of the dignified countenance and spade-shaped beard, +had faintly and helplessly echoed that snicker, and now repeated Harvey's +words:—</p> + +<p>"Ahem, certainly—Do you sing, teacher? Do you, now? Do you sing, you +know?"</p> + +<p>I had some new and seriously awakened doubts on the subject. However, the +degree of attainment not being brought into question, I felt that I could +answer in the affirmative.</p> + +<p>The countenances of the group brightened still more perceptibly.</p> + +<p>"And do you sing No. 2?" inquired Harvey, eagerly.</p> + +<p>I tried to assume, in reply, a tone of equal animation.</p> + +<p>"Is it something new? I don't think I've heard of it before."</p> + +<p>"Why, it's the Moody and Sankey hymn-book!" exclaimed Harvey, looking +suddenly blank.</p> + +<p>I strove to soften the effect of this blow by a lively show of +recognition.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I know perfectly now. It's 'Hold the Fort,' 'Ring the Bells of +Heaven,' and all those songs, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"'Hold the Fort' 's in No. 1," said George Olver, a new speaker, with +beautiful, brave, brown eyes, and a soldierly bearing.</p> + +<p>He spoke, correcting me, but with the tender consideration which a father +might display toward an unenlightened child.</p> + +<p>"There's three numbers," said Harvey Dole, "and you ought to learn to +sing 'em, teacher. We sing 'em all the time, down here."</p> + +<p>"You are fond of singing?" I questioned.</p> + +<p>Ned Vickery, of lithe figure and straight black hair, a denizen of the +Indian encampment, started up, flushing through his dark skin.</p> + +<p>"I lul-love it!" he said.</p> + +<p>Ned Vickery sang with the most exquisite smoothness, but stumbled a +little in prosaical conversation.</p> + +<p>A silent Norwegian, Lars Thorjon, who had sat gazing at me and smiling, +flushed also at the words, and murmured something rapturous with a +foreign accent.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we're rather fond of singing." I heard George Giver's resolute +tones.</p> + +<p>Harvey Dole gave a low, expressive whistle.</p> + +<p>"I like it, certainly, ahem! <i>I</i> do. <i>I</i> like it, you know," said Lovell +Barlow.</p> + +<p>"We have a singin' time generally every night," said Harvey. "Sometimes +Madeline plays for us on her music, and sometimes we go down to Becky's. +Madeline's melodeon is very soft and purty, but George here, he likes the +tone of Beck's organ best, I reckon. Eh, George?"</p> + +<p>Harvey winked facetiously at George Olver, who reddened deeply but did +not cast down his eyes.</p> + +<p>"If I was you, George," continued the merciless Harvey; "I'd lay for that +Rollin. Gad, I'd set a match to his hair. I'd nettle him!"</p> + +<p>"I'd show him his p-p-place!" stammered Ned Vickery, with considerable +warmth.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> would, certainly," reiterated the automatic Lovell "I'd show him his +place, you know; <i>I</i> would certainly."</p> + +<p>The big veins swollen out in George Giver's forehead knitted themselves +there for an instant sternly.</p> + +<p>"I don't interfere with no man's business," said he. "So long as he means +honorable, and car'ies out his actions fa'r and squar', I don't begrudge +him his chance nor meddle in his affa'rs."</p> + +<p>Our attention was suddenly diverted from this subject, which was +evidently growing to be a painful one to one of the company, by the sound +of a violin played with, singular skill and correctness just outside the +window.</p> + +<p>"Glory, there's Lute!" exclaimed Harvey, bounding ecstatically from his +chair.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Lute, come in?" he shouted; "and show us what can be got out of +a fiddle!"</p> + +<p>"Let him alone," said George Olver, but the group had already vanished +through the door, Lovell following mechanically.</p> + +<p>"That's Lute Cradlebow fiddlin' out thar'," George Olver explained to me. +"I don't want 'em to skeer him off, for it ain't every night Lute takes +kindly to his fiddle. There's times he won't touch it for days and days. +Talkin' about Lute's fiddlin'—I suppose it's true—there was some +fellows out from Boston happened to hear him playin' one night, up to +Sandwich te-own, and they offered him a hundred and fifty a month—I +Reckon that's true—to go along with some fiddlin' company thar' to +Boston, and he'd got more if he'd stuck to it, but Lute, he come driftin' +back in the course of a week or two. I don't blame him. He said he was +sick on't.</p> + +<p>"I tell you how 'tis, teacher. Folks that lives along this shore are +allus talkin' more'n any other sort of folks about going off, and +complainin' about the hard livin', and cussin' the stingy sile, but +thar's suthin' about it sorter holts to 'em. They allus come a driftin' +back in some shape or other, in the course of a year or two at the +farderest."</p> + +<p>The door was thrown wide open and my recreant guests reappeared +half-dragging, half-pushing before them a matchless Adonis in glazed +tarpaulin trousers and a coarse sailor's blouse.</p> + +<p>I recognized at once in the perfect physical beauty of the eccentric +fiddler only a reproduction, in a larger form, of that sadly depraved +young cherub who had danced before me in ghostly habiliments on the way +to school. It was the imp's older brother.</p> + +<p>"Here's Lute, teacher!" cried Harvey; "he wouldn't come in 'cause he +wasn't slicked up. But I tell him clo's don't make much difference with a +humly dog, anyway. Come along, Lute, and put them blushes in your +pocket to keep yer hands warm in cold weather. Teacher, this is our +champion fiddler, inventor, whale-fisher, cranberry-picker, and +potato-bugger,—Luther Larkin Cradlebow!"</p> + +<p>The youth of the tuneful and birdlike name dealt his tormentor a hearty +though affectionate cuff on the ears, and being thus suddenly thrust +forward, he doffed his broad souwester, took the hand I held out to him, +and, stooping down, kissed me, quite in a simple and audible manner, on +the cheek.</p> + +<p>It was done with such gentle, serious embarrassment, and Luther Larkin +Cradlebow was so boyish and quaint looking, withal, that I felt not the +slightest inclination to blush, but I heard Harvey's saucy giggle.</p> + +<p>"Gad!" said he; "hear the old women talk about Lute's being bashful and +not knowin' how to act with the girls! Now I call them party easy +manners, eh, Lovell? What do you think, Lovell?"</p> + +<p>"Ahem, certainly,—" responded Lovell, smiling in vague sympathy with the +laughing group. "<i>I</i> call them so,—certainly,—<i>I</i> do."</p> + +<p>Only George Olver turned a sober, reassuring face to the blushing +Cradlebow.</p> + +<p>"Give us a tune, Lutie," said he. "Lord, <i>I'd</i> laugh if I could get the +music out o' them strings that you can."</p> + +<p>The Cradlebow sat down, drew his bow across the strings with a full, +quivering, premonitory touch, and, straightway, the fiddle began to talk +to him as though they two were friends alone together in the room. How +it played for him,—the fiddle—as though it were morning. How it +shouted, laughed, ran with him in a world of sunshine and tossing +blossoms!</p> + +<p>How it hoped for him, swelling out in grander strains, wild with +exultation, tremulous with passion!</p> + +<p>How it mourned for him, with dying, sweet despair, until one almost saw +the night fall on the water, and the lone sea-birds flying, and heard the +desolate shrieking of the wind along the shore.</p> + +<p>I heard a real sob near me, and looking up saw the tears rolling down +Harvey's rosy cheeks.</p> + +<p>It was in the midst of a simple melody,—I think it was the "Sweet +By-and-By"—the player stopped and turned suddenly pale.</p> + +<p>"That was a new string, too!" he said; "and only half tight." Then he +blushed violently, seeking to hide the irritation of his tone under a +careless laugh.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mind the string," he went on; "that's easy mended, but I +happened to think it's a bad sign, that's all—to break down so in the +middle of a tune."</p> + +<p>"Darn the sign!" exclaimed Harvey, "I wanted to hear that played +through."</p> + +<p>"You remember Willie Reene?" Luther turned his eyes, still unnaturally +bright with excitement, towards George Olver.</p> + +<p>"Ay, I remember," said George Olver. "I was goin' mackerellin' with ye +myself that time, only I wrinched my wrist so."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/goodnight.jpg" width="400" height="682" alt="GOOD NIGHT" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"GOOD NIGHT."</span> +</div> + +<p>"We was out on deck together," Luther continued. "I was lying down,—it +was a strange, warmish sort of a night—and Willie played. He played a +long time. It was just in the middle of a tune he was playin', +that—snap! the string went in just that way. I never thought anything +about it. I tried to laugh him out of it, and he laughed, but says he, +'It's a bad sign, Lute.' Likely it had nothin' to do with it, but I think +of it sometimes, and then it seems as though I must go to that same place +and look for him again. I never done anything harder than when I left him +there."</p> + +<p>"You done the best you could," George Olver answered stoutly, "They said +you dove for him long and long after it wasn't no use."</p> + +<p>"No use," Luther repeated, shaking his head sadly and abstractedly; "no +use."</p> + +<p>"There's naught in a sign, anyway," George Olver affirmed.</p> + +<p>"They don't worry me much, you can depend"—the player looked up at +length with a singularly bright and gentle smile. "But Grannie, she +believes in 'em, truly. She's got a sign in a dream for everything, +Grannie has so I hear lots of it."</p> + +<p>Harvey Dole had quite recovered by this time from his tearfully +sentimental mood.</p> + +<p>"Now it's strange," he began, with an air of mysterious solemnity; "there +was three nights runnin' that I dreamed I found a thousand-dollar bill to +the right hand corner of my bury drawer, and every mornin' when I woke up +and went to git it—it wa'n't there, so I know the rats must 'a' carried +it off in the night, and a pretty shabby trick to play on a feller, +too—but then you can't blame the poor devils for wantin' a little pin +money.</p> + +<p>"Did I ever tell ye how Uncle Randal tried to clear 'em out 'o his barn? +Wall, he traded with Sim Peck up to West Wallen, a peck o' clams for an +old cat o' hisn, that was about the size, Uncle Randal said, of a +yearlin' calf, and he turned her into the barn along o' the rats, and +shut the door, and the next mornin', he went out and there was a few +little pieces of fur flyin' around and devil a—devil a cat! Uncle Randal +said."</p> + +<p>"You're the D—d—d—you're it, yourself, Harvey!" stammered Ned Vickery.</p> + +<p>"You'd better look out, Ned," Harvey giggled, "we're all a little +nearer'n second cousins down here to Wallencamp. Ned's mother didn't use +to let him go to school much, teacher," Harvey added, turning to me; "it +used to wear him out luggin' home his 'Reward o' merit' cards."</p> + +<p>"I n-n-never got any," Ned retorted, blushing desperately through his +dark skin; "n-n-nor you either!"</p> + +<p>"I guess that's so, Harvey," said Lovell Barlow, quite gravely; "I rather +think that's so, Harvey—ahem, I guess it is."</p> + +<p>When my visitors rose to depart they formed in line, with George Olver +and Luther at the head. George Olver was the spokesman of the group. He +offered me his strong brown hand in hearty corroboration of his words: +"We're a roughish sort of a set down here, teacher, but whenever you want +friends you'll know right whar' to find us; we mean that straight through +and fair an' kindly."</p> + +<p>I thanked him, and then Luther gave me his hand, but did not kiss me, in +departing.</p> + +<p>Each member of the phalanx gave me his hand in turn, with a hearty "Good +night," and so they passed out. The door closed behind them. I meditated +a space, and when I looked up, there was Lovell Barlow's pale face +peering into the room.</p> + +<p>"Ahem—Miss Hungerford!" he murmured, in awful accents: "Miss +Hungerford!"</p> + +<p>Could it be some telegram from my home thus mysteriously arrived? The +thought flashed through my mind before reason could act.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I gasped, hastening to meet the informer.</p> + +<p>Lovell Barlow handed me a picture; it was a small daguerreotype, in which +the mild and beneficent features of that worthy being himself shone above +his own unmistakable spade-shaped whiskers.</p> + +<p>"Would you like it, Miss Hungerford?" said he, still with the same deeply +impressive air; "would you, now, really, Miss Hungerford? would you like +it, now?"</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly," I exclaimed, with intense relief; and before I could +fully appreciate the situation, Lovell Barlow cast a cautious glance +about him, leaned his head forward, and whispered hoarsely, "I've got +some more, at home—ahem! I've got six, Miss Hungerford. Mother wants to +keep two and she's promised Aunt Marcia one; but you can have one any +time, Miss Hungerford. Ahem! ahem! <i>You</i> can, you know."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," I murmured, while it seemed as though my faculties were +desperately searching for light on a hitherto unsounded sea. "I think +this will do for the present."</p> + +<p>Lovell nodded his head with a grave good-night and disappeared.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa Keeler and Madeline were absorbing this +last impressive scene as they slowly emerged from that unknown quarter of +the Ark whither they had retreated.</p> + +<p>Grandpa looked at me with a peculiar twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>"So Lovell came back to give ye his picter, eh, teacher?" said he.</p> + +<p>I returned Grandpa's look with cheerful and unoffended alacrity; but +Grandma interrupted, "Thar', now, pa! Thar', now! We mustn't inquire into +everything we happen to get a little wind on. Ye see, teacher," she +continued, in tones of the broadest gentleness, "we knew they'd be sorter +bashful gettin' acquainted the first night, and so we thought it 'ud be +easier for 'em if we should leave 'em to themselves, and we knew you was +so—we knew you wouldn't care."</p> + +<p>As Grandpa resumed his accustomed seat by the fire, an expansive grin +still lingered on his features.</p> + +<p>"Ah, he's a queer fellow, that Lovell," said he; "but he's quick to larn, +they say, larns like a book. I'll tell ye what's the trouble with him, +teacher. He's been tied too long to his mother's apron-strings. He don't +know no more about the world than a chicken. He's thirty odd now, I +guess, and I reckon he ain't never been further away from the beach than +Sandwich te-own."</p> + +<p>"I don't know as we'd ought to blame him," said Grandma Keeler; "though +to be sure, Lovell's more quiet-natured than some that likes to be +wanderin' off as young folks will, generally; but he was the only one +they had, and Lovell's allus been a good boy. Pa and me, when we go to +meetin', we most allus come across him a carryin' his Sunday School book +under his arm, and may be," concluded Grandma Keeler, "there'll be +a time when we shall more on us wish that thar' wan't nothin' wuss could +be brought against us than being innocent."</p> + +<p>We pondered these suggestive words a few moments in silence; then Grandpa +Keeler boldly interposed:—</p> + +<p>"That Lute Cradlebow—he's a handsome boy, teacher. Ah, he's a handsome +one. They're a handsome family, them Cradlebows.</p> + +<p>"There's the old grannie, Aunt Sibby they call her. Lord, she's got a +head on her like a picter! They're high-bred, too, I reckon. To begin +with, why, Godfrey—Godfrey Cradlebow—that's Lute's father, teacher; +he's college bred, I suppose! He had a rich uncle thar', that took a +shine to him, and kind o' 'dopted him and eddicated him, but Godfrey, he +took a shine to a poor girl thar', dreadfully handsome, she was, but yet +they was both of 'em young, and it didn't suit the old uncle, so he left +him to shift for himself. And Godfrey, he tried one thing and another, +and never held long to nothin', I guess, and finally he drifted down this +way, and here he stuck.</p> + +<p>"He's got a good head, Godfrey has, but he wasn't never extry fond o' +work, I reckon, and he's growed dreadful rheumatiky lame, and he has his +sprees, occasionally.</p> + +<p>"Liddy, that's his wife, teacher, she was full good enough for him when +ye come to the p'int. Oh, she's a smart wife, and she's had a hard row, +so many children and nothin' to do with, as ye might say. Why, they've +had thirteen children, ain't they, ma?</p> + +<p>"Le' me see—four on 'em dead, and three on 'em—no! four on 'em married, +and three on 'em—How is't, ma?"</p> + +<p>Grandma then took up the tangled thread of the old Captain's discourse, +with calm disdain, and proceeded to disclose an appalling array of +statistics, not only in regard to the Cradlebow family, but including +generations of men hitherto unknown and remote.</p> + +<p>When I signified a desire to retire for the night, Madeline informed me, +with a brisk and hopeful air, that my room was "all ready now."</p> + +<p>She led the way up a short and narrow little staircase into a low garret, +where, amid a dark confusion of objects, I was forcibly reminded of the +rows of hard substances suspended from the rafters. Turning to the left, +the rays of the candle revealed a small red door framed in among the +unpainted boards of the wall.</p> + +<p>There, Madeline bade me a flippant and musical good night, and I entered +my room, alone.</p> + +<p>Within, the contrast between the door and the brown walls was still more +effectively drawn.</p> + +<p>The bed, neatly made, stood in a niche where the roof slanted perceptibly +downward, so that the sweetly unconscious sleeper (as I found afterwards) +perchance tossing his head upward, in a dream, was doomed to bring that +member into resounding contact with the ceiling, I judged something of +the restless proclivities of the last occupants of the room by the amount +of plastering of which this particular section had been deprived. In +this, and in other places where it had fallen, it had been collected and +tacked up again to the ceiling in cloth bags which presented a graceful +and drooping, though at first sight, rather enigmatical appearance.</p> + +<p>The chimney ran through the room forming a sort of unique centre-piece.</p> + +<p>This and more I accepted, wearily, and then sank down by the bed and +cried. Outside, before the one small window, stood a peach tree. +Afterward, when this had grown to be a very dear little room to me, I +looked out cheerfully through its branches, warm with sunshine, and +fragrant with bloom; but now it was bare and ghostly, and, as the wind +blew, one forlorn twig trailed back and forth across the window.</p> + +<p>For an hour or more after my head touched the pillow, I lay awake +listening to the unaccustomed sound of the surf and those skeleton +fingers tapping at the pane.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES.</h3> + + +<p>I studied Becky Weir in school, the next day, with special interest. She +was a girl of seventeen or eighteen, with the stately, substantial +presence of one of nature's own goddesses. She had a fresh, constant +color in her cheeks, a pure, low forehead, and eyes that were clear, +gray, and large, but with a strangely appealing, helplessly animal +expression in them, I fancied, as she lifted them, oft-times, to mine. +She was distinguished among my young disciples by the faithful, though +evidently labored and wearisome attention, she gave to her books.</p> + +<p>Her glance, bent on some small wretch who was misbehaving, had a +peculiarly significant force. The little ones all seemed to love her and +to stand rather in awe of her, too.</p> + +<p>Entering the school-room in the morning, she discovered a network of +strings, which one Lemuel Biddy had artfully laid between the desks, +intending thereby to waylay and prostrate his human victim, and stooping +down, she boxed the miscreant, not cruelly but effectively, on the ears. +I was surprised to see that the boy seemed to regard this infliction as +the simple and natural award of justice, bowed his head and wept +penitently, and was subdued for some time afterward.</p> + +<p>To me, whose earliest years had been guided and illuminated on the +principle that reason and persuasion alone are to be used in the training +of the tender twig, this little occurrence afforded food for serious +wonder and reflection. I doubted if the logic of the sages or the wooing +of the celestial seraphim would have wrought with such convincing power +on the mind and ears of Lemuel Biddy.</p> + +<p>If Rebecca perchance, after painfully protracted exertions, succeeded in +working out some simple problem in arithmetic, her slate containing the +solution was freely handed about among her unaspiring comrades; so that I +judged her to be "weakly generous" as well as "plodding,"—qualities not +of a high order, I esteemed, yet by no means insuperable barriers to +friendship when found to enter more or less largely into the composition +of one's friends.</p> + +<p>There was something in my novel relation to the girl as her teacher +peculiarly fascinating to me. At recess she remained in her seat and kept +quietly at her work.</p> + +<p>I went down and stood over her. "Can I help you, my dear?" I said.</p> + +<p>Whatever might have been the pedantic or obtrusively condescending +quality of those words, Rebecca seemed to find nothing distasteful in +them. She looked up with a "Thank you," and a pleased, trustful face like +a child's. "I can't do this one," said she. "I've finished the rest, but +this wouldn't come right, somehow."</p> + +<p>It was a sum in simple addition. I could not help a feeling of deep +surprise and commiseration that one of Rebecca's age should have stumbled +at it at all, but I essayed to examine it very closely and worked it out +for her as slowly as possible. "Do you see your mistake?" I said.</p> + +<p>She blushed painfully. The tears almost stood in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I knew you'd have to find out how dull I was," she said; "but I +dreaded it. When Miss Waite was here, mother was sick and I didn't go to +school at all, and Miss Waite took me for a friend; and I told mother I'd +most rather not go to school to you, for Miss Waite said you'd be a real +friend, and I knew you wouldn't want me when you found how dull I was."</p> + +<p>I looked at the girl, and a bright, hesitating smile woke in her face.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Rebecca," I said, "I don't choose my friends for their +mental qualifications—for what they know; I select them just as people +do horses—by their teeth. Let me see yours."</p> + +<p>Rebecca laughed most musically, thus disclosing two brilliant rows of +ivories. I had noticed them before.</p> + +<p>"You'll do!" I exclaimed, lightly. "I take you into my heart of hearts. +Now, what is your standard of choice? What charming characteristic do you +First require in a friend, Rebecca?"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said she, gasping a little and speaking very slowly; +"I—don't—know. I—don't—think—I've got any."</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid lest you shall guess something that I have not, my +dear," I said; "You can hardly go astray. Begin with modesty, if you +please, truly the chief of virtues."</p> + +<p>Rebecca caught quickly the meaning in my tone, and answered with a low +ripple of laughter. When I urged her, she grew gravely embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"Well," said she; "I don't think I should want anybody that I thought I +couldn't ever help them any, you know. That wouldn't ever need me, I +mean, and I know," she went on more hastily; "it seems funny to say that +to you, because it seems as though there wasn't anything that I could +ever do for you—because you—you seem—not to need anybody—but I didn't +know but some time—there might be something—I thought—maybe—some +time."</p> + +<p>Rebecca paused and looked up at me with that pitifully beseeching +expression in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," I answered, still carelessly; "no doubt I shall be a great +burden to you in time. But you do help me now, dear, by your conduct in +school. You helped me this morning when you boxed Lemuel Biddy's ears. +I shall have to take boxing lessons of you."</p> + +<p>"You be the scholar," Rebecca answered quickly, her lips parting again +with a merry outburst of laughter.</p> + +<p>"Wretch!" said I, well pleased but affecting a tone of deep severity; +"you must not be saucy to your teacher! I shall keep you in the rest of +your recess for that.</p> + +<p>"Do you like to study, Rebecca?" I added presently.</p> + +<p>"No-o," said she, much abashed at the admission, and yet evidently +incapable of speaking otherwise than according to the simple dictates of +her conscience. "I don't think I should care anything about it if it +didn't make you so dull not to. I mean," she continued; "perhaps I might +'a' liked it if I'd been to school right along, but we never did. And I +was to the mills up to Taunton. I didn't stay long there. Then mother was +sick. They don't any of the scholars be let to go very regular. Sometimes +they're wanted to work out. So they forget. So they don't care much, I +think. They get to dreading it. I wanted to tell you so you wouldn't +think it so much blame—our bein' so backward."</p> + +<p>"It is the faithful improvement of what opportunities we have, Rebecca," +I began and then paused, somewhat confused by the throng of lively +reminiscences which suddenly crowded my mental horoscope. "You are +young yet, my dear," I concluded gravely, with a resigned sigh for my own +departed youth; "you can make up for lost time. It is pleasant to give, +but there may be circumstances in which it is our duty imperatively to +receive. You must let me do all I can for you this winter. I do want you +for a friend, but I would rather it should be on these plainly implied +conditions."</p> + +<p>Rebecca had been studying my face, thoughtfully, with a still expression +of wonder.</p> + +<p>"I'll try to learn," said she, slowly. "I'll do anything you want me to."</p> + +<p>"Do you like to read?" I inquired, in a brighter tone.</p> + +<p>"Stories?" said Rebecca, a sparkle waking in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Stories mixed with other things," I insisted, gently; and was then +compelled to wonder how many of those "other things" had found their way +into the literary appointment of my trunk.</p> + +<p>"I'll try," said Rebecca.</p> + +<p>"Come to the Ark, after school, and look over the books I have. We will +talk some more about it, and you shall select as you please, or I will +select for you, if you desire," I said, looking at Rebecca with kindly +though severe penetration.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather you would," said Rebecca, obediently.</p> + +<p>To inflict this particular sort of patronage was a delightfully new +experience for me. The glaring inconsistencies which confronted me at +every turn only gave a heightened zest to the pursuit.</p> + +<p>When I went to the door to blow the horn I felt that Rebecca already +regarded me as her patron, guide, and spiritual mentor, and I was +seriously resolved to fill these positions hopefully for her and with +credit to myself. With respect to the rest of my flock, I felt a +different sort of interest—the wide-awake concern of one who finds +himself suddenly perched on the back of a mettlesome, untried steed.</p> + +<p>Any one member of that benighted corps, taken as the subject of pruning +and cultivating effort, would have occupied, I believed, the faithful +labors of a lifetime. Considered as a gloriously rampant mass, the aspect +of the field was appalling.</p> + +<p>I was especially impressed with this view of the case when I went to toot +them in from those free and reckless diversions in, which their souls +expanded and their bodies became as the winged creatures of the earth.</p> + +<p>The horn was still an object of terror to me, though experience had made +me wise enough to institute, on all occasions, a careful preliminary +search for buttons.</p> + +<p>Its blast, freighted with baleful meaning to the ears of sportive +innocence, found a melancholy echo among the deeper woes of my own heart, +and, if it chanced to be one of Aunt Lobelia's singing days, the "Dar' to +be a Dan-yell! Dar' to be a Dan-yell!" which floated across the lane, had +but a doubtfully inspiriting effect.</p> + +<p>I felt, indeed, like a Daniel doomed to convocate my own lions, and +lacking that faith in a preserving Providence which is believed to have +cheered and elevated the spirit of the ancient prophet, I confidently +expected, on the whole, to be devoured.</p> + +<p>Gathered into their den, my lively herd gasped some moments as though +suffering the last loud agony of expiring breath, and then, bethinking +them of that only one of their free and native elements now obtainable, +they sent up a universal cry for "water!"</p> + +<p>Ah! what to do with them through the long hours of the day—beautiful +creatures! by no means unlovable, with their bright, clear eyes, their +restless, restless feet, their overflowing spirits; their bodies all +alive, but with minds unfitted by birth, unskilled by domestic +discipline, to any sort of earnest and prolonged effort. Long, weary +hours, therefore, not of furnishing instruction to the hungry and +inquiring mind—ah, no!—but of a desperately sustained struggle in +which, with every faculty on the alert to discover the truest expedients, +with every nerve strained to the utmost, I strove for the mastery over +this antic, untamed animal, until I could throw the reins loose at night, +and drop my head down on my desk in the deserted school-room, tired, +tired, tired!</p> + +<p>The parents of the children "dropped in" often at the Ark, and savored +the lively and varied flow of their discourse with choice dissertations +on methods of discipline.</p> + +<p>"I want my children whipped," said Mr. Randall Alden. "That's what they +need. They git enough of it at home. It won't skeer 'em any—and I tell +the folks if they'd all talk like that, they wouldn't be no trouble in +the school."</p> + +<p>"Ye can't drive Milton P.," said that hopeful's mother. "He's been drove +so much that he don't take no notice of it. If coaxing won't fetch him, +nothin' won't; and I tell 'em if they was all like that they wouldn't be +no trouble in the school."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Emily Gaskell, the matron of the painted house, a tall, +angular woman, with the hectic of the orthodox Yankee consumption on her +cheeks, and the orthodox Yankee twinkle in her eye; "ye can manage +my boys whatever way ye please, teacher. I ain't pertickeler. They've +been coaxed and they've been whipped, but they've always made out to mind +by doin' pretty much as they was a mind to. They're smart boys, too," she +added, with sincere pride; "but they don't take to larnin'. I never see +sich boys. Ye can't git no larnin' into 'em no way. They'd rather be +whipped than go to school. Sim had a man to work on our cranberry bog, +and he found out that he was first-rate in 'rithmetic, this man was, and +so Sim, says he,—I'll give ye the same ye git on the bog,' says he, 'to +stay up to the house and larn my boys 'rithmetic,' says he; and the man, +he tried it, and in the course of a day or two, he come around to Sim, +and wanted to know if he couldn't go back to clarin' bog again."</p> + +<p>Emily took in the broadly contemplative expression on Grandma Keeler's +benign features, and then winked at me facetiously: "I tell 'em if they +was all like that," said she; "and I guess they be, pretty much, they +might as well be out o' doors as in, and less worryin' to the teacher."</p> + +<p>It might have been the third day of my labors in Wallencamp that a man, +having the appearance of a lame giant, entered the school-room, and +advanced to meet me with an imposing dignity of mien. He held captive, +with one powerful hand, a stubbornly speechless, violently struggling +boy. I recognized the man as Godfrey Cradlebow, the handsome fiddler's +father, and the boy was none other than the imp whose eyes, scorching and +defiant now, had first sent mocking glances back at me while their +light-limbed owner kicked out a jaunty rigadoon from under the encircling +folds of his sacerdotal vestments.</p> + +<p>"Miss Hungerford, I beg your pardon," said the elder Cradlebow, with a +distinct, refined enunciation foreign to the native element of +Wallencamp, whose ordinary locution had something of a Hoosier accent +"After a good deal of trouble in catching him, I have finally succeeded +in bringing you in this—a—this little dev"—he made an impressive +pause, patted his fiery offspring on the head with fatherly dignity, and +eyed him, at once doubtfully and reflectively.</p> + +<p>I was interested in observing the aspect of the two faces.</p> + +<p>"The little boy resembles you, I think," I said.</p> + +<p>The lame man struck his cane down hard upon the floor and laughed +immoderately.</p> + +<p>"If you knew what I had in my mind to say!" he exclaimed—"ah! that was +well put, well put!—though but dubiously complimentary, but dubiously +so, I assure you, either to father or son!"</p> + +<p>The idea still continuing to tickle him, he laughed more gently, beating +a sympathetic tattoo with his cane on the floor.</p> + +<p>"To pursue directly the cause of my intrusion here," he went on, at +length, "this little—well, for present purposes, we will call him the +<i>Phenomenon</i>. I confess it is a name to which he is not totally unused. +This little phenomenon, whom you see before you, is the youngest but one +in a flock of thirteen. Some of that beautiful band—" here Mr. Cradlebow +raised a very shaky hand for an instant to his eyes, and although a +fitting occasion for sentiment, I was compelled to think of what Grandpa +Keeler had said about Godfrey Cradlebow's "sprees"—"some of that +beautiful band rest in the graveyard, yonder. Some of them already +know what it is themselves to be parents. Some of them still linger in +the poor old home nest. I see you have here, my Alvin, and my Wallace, +and my youngest, the infant Sophronia. Well, you find them good children, +I dare say. Ah! they have an estimable mother." Again, he lifted his hand +to his eyes. "Mischievous enough, you find them, probably, but +amenable—there it is, amenable—but this lad"—Mr. Cradlebow paused +again, shaking his head with a meaning to which he gravely declined +further expression.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?" I inquired of the little boy, hopefully.</p> + +<p>"Simmy B.," he answered revengefully in a tone of alarming hoarseness.</p> + +<p>"Such colds as that boy has!" exclaimed the paternal Cradlebow. "They're +like all the rest of him—they're phenomenal. There are times when that +boy appears to be nothing but one frightful, perambulating cold! Well," +he sighed, "and yet it's a strange fact, that the more depraved and +miserable a little devil is, the more his mother'll coddle him.</p> + +<p>"Now there's this one and my Lute—Luther Larkin—a good boy, but lacking +all capacity for rest—always lacking the capacity for rest—uneasy, both +of them—always uneasy! but how the mother would give her own rest for +them, and seem to love them the better for it! strange! They have always +been her idols, too. Well, I have captured Simeon and brought him in. I +hope you may keep him. The rest you must learn for yourself. The Lord +help me!" he groaned, as he picked up his cane, with evident physical +pain, and hobbled cut of the room.</p> + +<p>Within the school-room, things resumed their customary, Niagara-like +roar, until a lamentable voice rose above the others, and was straightway +followed by another voice in indignant explanation.</p> + +<p>"Teacher, can't Simmy B. stop? He's puttin' beans down Amber G.'s neck!"</p> + +<p>"Simeon!" I exclaimed, in accents calculated to melt that youthful heart +of stone, and then added; "I will speak with you a few moments alone, at +recess."</p> + +<p>Simeon looked no longer helplessly angry as when his father brought him +in. He appeared, on the whole, well pleased, but I scanned his angelic +features in vain for any trace of repentance.</p> + +<p>There followed a few moments of comparative quiet. Then came a startling, +sickening sound as of some one undergoing the tortures of strangulation. +Then, a long, convulsive gasp. I looked down upon a sea of round eyes and +uplifted hands.</p> + +<p>"Teacher, Simmy's swallered a slate-pencil! Simmy's swallered a +slate-pencil!"</p> + +<p>"He's swallered most a whole one!" cried the owner of one pair of +protruding orbs.</p> + +<p>"It wa'n't!" retorted Simeon, flaming with righteous indignation—"It +wa'n't but harf a one!"</p> + +<p>"He t-t-told me," cried a young scion of the stammering Vickery race, all +breathless with excitement, "that he was going to p-p-put it into his +m-m-mouth and t-t-take it out of his n-n-nose, and he did and it +t-t-t—and it slip-p-ped!"</p> + +<p>"Wall, jest you keep your eyes peeled and your ears cocked," replied the +sturdy Simeon, in hoarse and jarring accents; "and see if I don't take it +out of my nose, yet."</p> + +<p>The signs of that painful struggle slowly faded out of Simeon's face and +there was an unusual calm in the school-room.</p> + +<p>Perhaps a quarter of an hour elapsed. I was thoughtfully engaged in +hearing one of my classes when startled by the sound of a window closed +with a sharp bang. At the same time arose the universal voice:</p> + +<p>"Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder! Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder!"</p> + +<p>I looked out across the snowless fields, and there having already scaled +two fences and put many a good rod between himself and the scene of his +brief imprisonment, I beheld, borne as on the wings of the wind, the form +of the retreating Simeon.</p> + +<p>An incident at the close of my first week in Wallencamp was the visit of +the "Turkey Mogul." Such was the name given by the Wallencampers to Mr. +Baxter, the superintendent of schools.</p> + +<p>Mr. Baxter lived many miles away in Farmouth, and was, properly, the +visitor of the schools in Farmouth County. Wallencamp was not in Farmouth +County. Nevertheless, Mr. Baxter had charge of the Wallencamp school. I +had been informed that he drove over at the beginning and close of each +term, put the scholars through the most "dreadful examins," and gave an +indiscriminate "blowin' up" to persons and things in the place. So I +looked forward to his coming with a curiosity not unmingled with more +doubtful emotions.</p> + +<p>It was Friday, and so near the close of the afternoon session that I had +quite dismissed from my mind the contemplation of any dread advent for +that day. It was just at that trying hour of Friday afternoon when only +the spelling-classes remained to be heard, and teacher and scholars both +were conscious, the one with a deep inward sense of relief, the others +with many restless demonstrations of impatience, that the week was near +its close; and that "to-morrow" would be Saturday and a holiday.</p> + +<p>Estella the raven-haired—familiarly known as the "Modoc," a long and +ungainly creature, with arms and legs so seemingly profuse and +unmanageable, that they reminded one of the tentacles of a +cuttle-fish—Estella was "passing around the water."</p> + +<p>She was performing this accustomed office with a grin of such supreme +delight and satisfaction as seemed actually to illuminate the back of her +head, when the door of the school-room opened, and there, without any +previous warning, appeared a grim, fierce-looking little man, whom I knew +at once to be the "Turkey Mogul."</p> + +<p>The extreme exigency of the case inspired me with a certain calmness of +despair. Having advanced to meet this august personage, conducted him to +the desk, and placed for him the official chair, which he shortly +refused, I lifted my eyes, "prepared for any fate," to observe what might +be the condition of my turbulent flock, and lo—all the tops, and +Jews-harps, and apples, and whirligigs, and miniature buzz-saws had +disappeared, and there was an array of pallid faces bent over another +array of books—many of the latter were upside down, but the effect was +unbroken. Even Estella, moved by some sudden divine sense of the fitness +of things, had ceased her desultory wanderings about the room with the +tin dipper, and, not having had time to procure a book, was working out +imaginary problems on her fingers with the air of a Herschel, and I +became slowly conscious that there was such a stillness in that room as +had not been—no, nor anything like unto it,—since the first time I +entered there.</p> + +<p>I think Mr. Baxter must have observed something of the look of helpless +astonishment which transfixed my features. I certainly saw the shadow of +a smile lurking in his steel-gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he snarled, addressing the school; "yes, if I didn't know you, +now, and if your books were not, most of 'em, bottom side up, and if I +shouldn't be compelled in two minutes to prove the contrary, I might +possibly imagine that you were studying—yes—humph!"</p> + +<p>I said to Mr. Baxter, as cheerfully as possible, that "we were nearly +through with our usual routine of classes for the day, but I should be +happy, of course, to repeat any of the recitations which he might care to +hear."</p> + +<p>"Would you?" said he, looking at me not unpleasantly. "Do you really ask +me to believe that? um-m-m," he murmured, resuming his stern aspect. "Let +me see—Geography—yes, Miss Hungerford, you may call the first class in +Geography."</p> + +<p>I did not accuse the Superintendent of Schools of malevolent intentions, +but I could honestly have affirmed that of all the divisions and +subdivisions of my empire the first class in Geography was the one least +calculated to shine on an occasion like the present.</p> + +<p>I groaned inwardly, and called them forth. Their forlorn and wilted +appearance as they formed in line went to my heart. I was resolved to +defend them at whatever cost.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Mr. Baxter, planting himself firmly, with his legs rather far +apart, thrusting his hands in his pockets, and staring steadily at the +shivering group from under his awful brows; "what <i>is</i> Geography? To +begin with. That's the first thing. What <i>is</i> Geography?"</p> + +<p>For a moment there was no reply. I almost began to hope that there would +be none. I felt that here "Silence was golden," and if maintained, all +might be comparatively well; when, to my dismay, there was a sort of +flank movement in the ranks and the ill-starred Estella raised her hand.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mr. Baxter, pointing his finger steadfastly at her as if to +impart a vein of concentration to her palpably loose and floating +appearance; "You! You ought to know. What is Geography, eh?"</p> + +<p>Some fair wreck of an idea, formerly appropriated in this connection, +floated through the brain of the "Mo-doc." She opened her mouth and in +those loud and startling accents, for which she was ever distinguished, +gave utterance to these memorable words:</p> + +<p>"A—round! like a ball!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Baxter glared fiercely at her for a moment, and then permitted his +scorn to escape in a long, sarcastic hiss.</p> + +<p>"Yes-s-s," said he; "yes-s-s! around like a ball! Do you find it much in +your way, eh? Do you often give it such a kick as that, eh? Well, take +your seats! take your seats!"</p> + +<p>The Superintendent of Schools seemed disinclined to evoke any further +catastrophes of this sort, but proceeded to discourse to me, aside, in a +confidential growl, on the peculiar and erratic natures of the benighted +Wallencampers.</p> + +<p>"Their minds," he said, with a grim smile, "have no receptivity. They +must originate, or they are naught. Parents and children—they are all +the same. I am convinced that there is no scholarship to be established +here. It has been tried and the attempt has failed a hundred times. It's +not in the nature of things. Get on the good side of them, that's all. +That has failed sometimes, but it is not among the impossible things. Get +on the good side of them."</p> + +<p>Finally, he turned to address the children. The "examins" had certainly +not been severe, but the "blowin' up" was faithfully and liberally +performed.</p> + +<p>Never before had I felt so drawn to my poor, wondering, wolf-besieged +flock, and in proportion to my tenderness for them waxed my indignation +toward the "Turkey Mogul."</p> + +<p>"You can't learn," said he. "That's a sufficiently established fact, but +if you don't behave, your teacher is going to write to me, mind! and I +shall come down here in my buggy, and take you right up and off to +Farmouth where we have a place to keep all such naughty boys and girls."</p> + +<p>This last was evoked as a benediction. Mr. Baxter looked at his watch, +and remarked that it was a long drive to Farmouth, and he must be going. +"Dismiss your school, Miss Hungerford," he said.</p> + +<p>Now the children were accustomed—it was a special privilege they had +requested—to sing, before the school closed at night, one of the hymns +with which they were all so familiar in Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>I would have dismissed them, on this occasion, without further ceremony, +but before I had time to tap my ruler on the desk as a signal for +dismissal, they all struck up as with one voice:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What a friend we have in Jesus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All our griefs and woes to share!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What a privilege to carry<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Everything to God in prayer."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At first I was a little amused at the incongruity of the thing. Then it +began to seem to me inexpressibly touching.</p> + +<p>The Superintendent of Schools stood with a cold, supercilious grin on his +face, a stern, self-sufficient man, not one likely to echo the spirit of +these simple words.</p> + +<p>I stood beside him, weary and perplexed enough, but ever taking counsel +of the pride of my own heart. And those poor children, with their hard, +toilsome, barren lives before them, how they sang! their clear, young +voices ringing out fearlessly, carelessly—they knew the words. I +wondered if any one in the room appreciated the song as having inner +truth and meaning.</p> + +<p>As I was locking my desk, before leaving the room, I discovered this +little note, which Rebecca had dropped in it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"dere teecher,</p> + +<p>"I wanted to do sumthyng to help yu wen I seen him come in To Day +fur I new jus howe yu felt but thay wasent no wours than thay always +was, and he nose it! and thay studdid more fur yu I think than thay +did for any but I think it mus be harrd for yu not bein' use to us. +I think yu was tired. When we was singin' I thot howe tired yu was, +but thar' was always won to help. Excus writin' pleas but I wanted +to let yu no for yu was good to me and I luv yu.</p> + +<p>Becky Weir."</p></div> + +<p>Somehow, the little note rested and comforted me, more than I would have +imagined, a week before, any expression of this humble disciple of mine +could have done.</p> + +<p>I held the letter crumpled in my hand going up the lane. Going up the +lane, too, I met Emily's fisherman coming gayly home from the river.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin stopped, and gallantly requested the pleasure of carrying a +small book which I held in my hand. He walked back to the Ark with me, +talking very fluently the while.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he began; "I think I'm awfully fortunate meeting you here +in the lane. I've been wishing for an opportunity to speak with you for +two or three days past, but the Ark is such a popular resort for the +youth of Wallencamp, and the children seem to be always following you. +Well, they regard the school teacher as their special property, and would +Consider me worse than an intruder if I should go in to take even the +lowest seat in the synagogue. I've been wanting to speak with you ever +since that first night—when I stared at you so stupidly at Captain +Keeler's—when I went up to borrow the oars, and you were engaged, you +remember," said Mr. Rollin, laughing gently, "in wresting particles of +hulled corn from the ocean depths of that kettle."</p> + +<p>"I remember," I said, trying to smother what annoyance I still felt at +the recollection. "I admit that it was a very striking scene. It was very +good," I added, religiously, referring to the corn. Mr. Rollin ought to +know, I thought, that I had come to Wallencamp on a mission, and that if +he wished to scoff at the ways of its defenceless inhabitants, he +shouldn't look to find a confidante in me.</p> + +<p>"The hulled corn? Oh! yes, indeed!" he answered with a sprightly air. +"We have it served in the same way at Emily's, and we think it's +just—a—rich, you know. But I wanted to tell you. If you could have +known how confoundedly struck up I was when I went into the Ark that +night, you wouldn't think it so strange my standing staring there like a +fool. You see we fellows, picking up everything of interest down here to +amuse ourselves with, heard that there was a new school-teacher coming, +so we gave our imaginations free rein. We were laughing it over among +ourselves, and Smith said, 'she'd probably have hair like Rollin's,' and +Jake said 'she'd wear spectacles, and have a nose like the Clipper in +the <i>Three Fates</i>', and all that sort of thing. So I went up that night +to see, just for the deuce of it, and not to get the oars at all, and I +was deucedly well paid for it, too. In fact, Miss Hungerford," said the +fisherman, darting a keen glance at me from his laughing eyes, "I did go +up to scoff, but I remained to pray."</p> + +<p>My ears had never been conscientiously closed to the voice of idle +praise, but with this, for some reason, I was not well pleased.</p> + +<p>"Your attitude was certainly devotional," I answered, without haste. +"Your friend," I added, "must be something of a seer. Here are the +literal glasses!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said Mr. Rollin, coloring slightly; "you know I didn't mean +that—just being a little near-sighted. I said spectacles. Besides," and +the fisherman looked me full and unblushingly in the face—"if I +had such eyes as yours, by Jove, I wouldn't mind whether I could see +anything out of 'em or not!"</p> + +<p>"You will hardly expect me to thank you for that," I murmured, with a +sincere flash of indignation; not that I was unmindful of certain +reckless moods of old, when I had found it not impossible to listen, even +with calmness, to vain demonstrations of this sort, but I felt that I was +a different person now, in a different sphere of action.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin knew nothing of me except that I was the teacher of the +Wallencamp school—a doubtful position to his mind.</p> + +<p>He fancied that he might "pick me up," to "amuse" himself with, I +thought, and at the reflection I felt an angry glow rising from heart to +cheek.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the fisherman gnawed his moustache ruefully. This idle +worldling could assume, occasionally, a whimsical helplessness of +expression, with an air of aggrieved and childlike candor, somewhat +baffling to the stern designs of justice.</p> + +<p>"Now I've offended you," he began, exchanging his tone of easy +nonchalance for one of slow and awkward dejection. "And you think I've +had the impudence—well, if either one of us two is going to be taken in, +Miss Hungerford, I can tell you it's a blamed sight more likely to be me; +but you're prejudiced against me, I can see. You were prejudiced against +me that first night. I know how those old women talk. They've got an +idea, somehow, that I'm a scapegrace, and a desperate character. And, on +my word, Miss Hungerford, I'm considered a real model chap there at home, +and make speeches to the little boys and girls in Sunday School, and all +that sort of thing. On my word, I do."</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin spoke quite warmly. I could not help laughing at his droll +self-vindication.</p> + +<p>"I should like to ask you to speak to my little boys and girls!" I said; +"but it's too harrowing to the feelings. I listened to one address this +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"The 'Turkey Mogul?' Oh, that isn't my style!" said Mr. Rollin. "I don't +sear their young vision with the prospect of eternal flames. I entice +them with the blandishments of future reward. Let me go in some +day, and I promise you in one brief half hour to destroy the cankering +effect of all that the 'Turkey Mogul' has ever said. At least, I shall +serve as an antidote—a cheerful and allaying antidote to the wormwood of +censorious criticism."</p> + +<p>Thus the voluble fisherman ran on, with an air of simple and charming +ingenuousness; while I reflected that here possibly was a light and +aimless creature whom I had mentally convicted of ungracious designs, +that, although his presence in Wallencamp, as a representative of the +great world I believed I had left behind me, was rather <i>mal à propos</i>, +it might be that I ought to consider him providentially included in my +field of labor, and as one of the objects of my regenerating care.</p> + +<p>Whether Mr. Rollin detected anything of this philanthropic intention I do +not know. When we got to the gate he said:—</p> + +<p>"Will you go with me for a drive to-morrow, Miss Hungerford? You know +what the Wallencamp equipages are. They furnish entertainment, at all +events. The drive to West Wallen is really beautiful—even at this +season of the year, with such uncommonly fine weather, and you have a +holiday, and the mail hasn't been brought from West Wallen for nearly a +week."</p> + +<p>I thanked the fisherman almost eagerly, thinking, at that instant, of the +longed-for letters that I knew were waiting for me in the West Wallen +Post Office.</p> + +<p>Then, suddenly, I felt Rebecca's little note grow heavy in my hand.</p> + +<p>To act voluntarily for others—to consider as serious any obstacles in +the way of following out my personal inclinations—these were experiences +too new to me, and my resolve was not a natural one, but forced and +impatient.</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," I said; "but I can't go to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The two little Keelers came running out of the Ark to meet me. I was +secretly relieved. Mr. Rollin had been watching me narrowly; his lips +curled, and his eyes flashed with a half angry, half scornful light. He +cast an unloving glance at the little Keelers.</p> + +<p>"I can't, of course, question the justice of your decision," he said +shortly, and touched his hat and walked away without another word.</p> + +<p>I considered this as one of the least among my many trials and +perplexities. Oftentimes I sighed for the light-hearted, "irresponsible" +days of yore, when "missions" were, as yet, to me unknown.</p> + +<p>School was the greatest perplexity. Grandma Keeler's tenderness grew more +impressive each day.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me you're a growin' bleak and holler-eyed, teacher," she +would say to me when I came home at night.</p> + +<p>So I indulged more and more in a deeply sentimental self-pity, and felt a +growing satisfaction in the consciousness that I was enduring martyrdom. +It was more by reason of a stubborn and desperate pride, I think, than +from higher motives, that, in my letters home, I said nothing of the +discomforts and discouragements which attended my course. I chose to +dilate on the beautiful scenery of Wallencamp, and the quaint originality +of its inhabitants.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>GRANDMA KEELER GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL.</h3> + + +<p>Sunday morning nothing arose in Wallencamp save the sun.</p> + +<p>At least, that celestial orb had long forgotten all the roseate flaming +of his youth, in an honest, straightforward march through the heavens, +ere the first signs of smoke came curling lazily up from the Wallencamp +chimneys.</p> + +<p>I had retired at night, very weary, with the delicious consciousness that +it wouldn't make any difference when I woke up the next morning, or +whether, indeed. I woke at all. So I opened my eyes leisurely and lay +half-dreaming, half-meditating on a variety of things.</p> + +<p>I deciphered a few of the texts on the scriptural patch-work quilt which +covered my couch. There were—"Let not your heart be troubled," "Remember +Lot's wife," and "Philander Keeler," traced in inky hieroglyphics, all in +close conjunction.</p> + +<p>Finally, I reached out for my watch, and, having ascertained the time of +day, I got up and proceeded to dress hastily enough, wondering to hear no +signs of life in the house.</p> + +<p>I went noiselessly down the stairs. All was silent below, except for the +peaceful snoring of Mrs. Philander and the little Keelers, which was +responded to from some remote western corner of the Ark by the triumphant +snores of Grandma and Grandpa Keeler.</p> + +<p>I attempted to kindle a fire in the stove, but it sizzled a little while, +spitefully, as much as to say, "What, Sunday morning? Not I!" and went +out. So I concluded to put on some wraps and go out and warm myself in +the sun.</p> + +<p>I climbed the long hill back of the Ark, descended, and walked along the +bank of the river. It was a beautiful morning. The air was—everything +that could be desired in the way of air, but I felt a desperate need of +something more substantial.</p> + +<p>Standing alone with nature, on the bank of the lovely liver, I thought, +with tears in my eyes, of the delicious breakfast already recuperating +the exhausted energies of my far-away home friends.</p> + +<p>When I got back to the house, Mrs. Philander, in simple and unaffected +attire, was bustling busily about the stove.</p> + +<p>The snores from Grandma and Grandpa's quarter had ceased, signifying that +they, also, had advanced a stage in the grand processes of Sunday +morning.</p> + +<p>The children came teasing me to dress them, so I fastened for them a +variety of small articles which I flattered myself on having combined in +a very ingenious and artistic manner, though I believe those infant +Keelers went weeping to Grandma afterwards, and were remodeled by her +all-comforting hand with much skill and patience.</p> + +<p>In the midst of her preparations for breakfast, Madeline abruptly assumed +her hat and shawl, and was seen from the window, walking leisurely across +the fields in the direction of the woods. She returned in due time, +bearing an armful of fresh evergreens, which she twisted around the +family register.</p> + +<p>When the ancient couple made their appearance, I remarked silently, in +regard to Grandma Keeler's hair, what proved afterward to be its usual +holiday morning arrangement. It was confined in six infinitesimal braids +which appeared to be sprouting out, perpendicularly, in all directions +from her head. The effect of redundancy and expansiveness thus heightened +and increased on Grandma's features was striking in the extreme.</p> + +<p>While we were eating breakfast, that good soul observed to Grandpa +Keeler: "Wall, pa, I suppose you'll be all ready when the time comes to +take teacher and me over to West Wallen to Sunday school, won't ye?"</p> + +<p>Grandpa coughed, and coughed again, and raised his eyes helplessly to the +window.</p> + +<p>"Looks some like showers," said he. "A-hem! ahem! Looks mightily to me +like showers, over yonder."</p> + +<p>"Thar', r'aly, husband! I must say I feel mortified for ye," said +Grandma. "Seein' as you're a professor, too, and thar' ain't been a +single Sunday mornin' since I've lived with ye, pa, summer or winter, but +what you've seen showers, and it r'aly seems to me it's dreadful +inconsistent when thar' ain't no cloud in the sky, and don't look no more +like rain than I do." And Grandma's face, in spite of her reproachful +tones, was, above all, blandly sunlike and expressive of anything rather +than deluge and watery disaster.</p> + +<p>Grandpa was silent a little while, then coughed again I had never seen +Grandpa in worse straits.</p> + +<p>"A-hem! a-hem! 'Fanny' seems to be a little lame, this mornin'," said he. +"I shouldn't wonder. She's been goin' pretty stiddy this week."</p> + +<p>"It does beat all, pa," continued Grandma Keeler, "how't all the horses +you've ever had since I've known ye have always been took lame Sunday +mornin'. Thar' was 'Happy Jack,' he could go anywhers through the week, +and never limp a step, as nobody could see, and Sunday mornin' he was +always took lame! And thar' was 'Tantrum'——"</p> + +<p>"Tantrum" was the horse that had run away with Grandma when she was +thrown from the wagon, and generally smashed to pieces. And now, Grandma +branched off into the thrilling reminiscences connected with this +incident of her life, which was the third time during the week that the +horrible tale had been repeated for my delectation.</p> + +<p>When she had finished, Grandpa shook his head with painful earnestness, +reverting to the former subject of discussion.</p> + +<p>"It's a long jaunt!" said he; "a long jaunt!"</p> + +<p>"Thar's a long hill to climb before we reach Zion's mount," said Grandma +Keeler, impressively.</p> + +<p>"Wall, there's a darned sight harder one on the road to West Wallen!" +burst out the old sea-captain desperately; "say nothin' about the +devilish stones!"</p> + +<p>"Thar' now," said Grandma, with calm though awful reproof; "I think we've +gone fur enough for one day; we've broke the Sabbath, and took the name +of the Lord in vain, and that ought to be enough for perfessors."</p> + +<p>Grandpa replied at length in a greatly subdued tone: "Wall, if you and +the teacher want to go over to Sunday school to-day, I suppose we can go +if we get ready," a long submissive sigh—"I suppose we can."</p> + +<p>"They have preachin' service in the mornin', I suppose," said Grandma. +"But we don't generally git along to that. It makes such an early start. +We generally try to get around, when we go, in time for Sunday school. +They have singin' and all. It's just about as interestin', I think, as +preachin'. The old man ra'ly likes it," she observed aside to me; "when +he once gets started, but he kind o' dreads the gittin' started."</p> + +<p>When I beheld the ordeal through which Grandpa Keeler was called to pass, +at the hands of his faithful consort, before he was considered in a fit +condition of mind and body to embark for the sanctuary, I marvelled not +at the old man's reluctance, nor that he had indeed seen clouds and +tempest fringing the horizon.</p> + +<p>Immediately after breakfast, he set out for the barn, ostensibly to "see +to the chores;" really, I believe, to obtain a few moments' respite, +before worse evil should come upon him.</p> + +<p>Pretty soon Grandma was at the back door calling in firm though +persuasive tones:—</p> + +<p>"Husband! husband! come in, now, and get ready."</p> + +<p>No answer. Then it was in another key, weighty, yet expressive of no weak +irritation, that Grandma called "Come, pa! pa-a! pa-a-a!" Still no +answer.</p> + +<p>Then that voice of Grandma's sung out like a trumpet, terrible with +meaning—"Bijonah Keeler!"</p> + +<p>But Grandpa appeared not. Next, I saw Grandma slowly but surely +gravitating in the direction of the barn, and soon she returned, bringing +with her that ancient delinquent, who looked like a lost sheep indeed and +a truly unreconciled one.</p> + +<p>"Now the first thing," said Grandma, looking her forlorn captive over; +"is boots. Go and get on yer meetin' gaiters, pa."</p> + +<p>The old gentleman, having invested himself with those sacred relics, came +pathetically limping into the room.</p> + +<p>"I declare, ma," said he; "somehow these things—phew! Somehow they pinch +my feet dreadfully. I don't know what it is,—phew! They're dreadful +oncomf'table things somehow."</p> + +<p>"Since I've known ye, pa," solemnly ejaculated Grandma Keeler, "you've +never had a pair o' meetin' boots that set easy on yer feet. You'd ought +to get boots big enough for ye, pa," she continued looking down +disapprovingly on the old gentleman's pedal extremities, which resembled +two small scows at anchor in black cloth encasements: "and not be so +proud as to go to pinchin' yer feet into gaiters a number o' sizes too +small for ye."</p> + +<p>"They're number tens, I tell ye!" roared Grandpa nettled outrageously by +this cutting taunt.</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar', now, pa," said Grandma, soothingly; "if I had sech feet as +that, I wouldn't go to spreadin' it all over town, if I was you—but it's +time we stopped bickerin' now, husband, and got ready for meetin'; so set +down and let me wash yer head."</p> + +<p>"I've washed once this mornin'. It's clean enough," Grandpa protested, +but in vain. He was planted in a chair, and Grandma Keeler, with rag and +soap and a basin of water, attacked the old gentleman vigorously, much as +I have seen cruel mothers wash the faces of their earth-begrimed infants. +He only gave expression to such groans as:—</p> + +<p>"Thar', ma! don't tear my ears to pieces! Come, ma! you've got my eyes so +full o' soap now, ma, that I can't see nothin'. Phew! Lordy! ain't ye +most through with this, ma?"</p> + +<p>Then came the dyeing process, which Grandma Keeler assured me, aside, +made Grandpa "look like a man o' thirty;" but to me, after it he looked +neither old nor young, human nor inhuman, nor like anything that I had +ever seen before under the sun.</p> + +<p>"There's the lotion, the potion, the dye-er, and the setter," said +Grandma, pointing to four bottles on the table. "Now whar's the +directions, Madeline?"</p> + +<p>These having been produced from between the leaves of the family Bible, +Madeline read, while Grandma made a vigorous practical application of the +various mixtures.</p> + +<p>"This admirable lotion"—in soft ecstatic tones Madeline rehearsed the +flowery language of the recipe—"though not so instantaneously startling +in its effect as our inestimable dyer and setter, yet forms a most +essential part of the whole process, opening, as it does, the dry and +lifeless pores of the scalp, imparting to them new life and beauty, and +rendering them more easily susceptible to the applications which follow. +But we must go deeper than this; a tone must be given to the whole system +by means of the cleansing and rejuvenating of the very centre of our +beings, and, for this purpose, we have prepared our wonderful potion." +Here Grandpa, with a wry face, was made to swallow a spoonful of the +mixture. "Our unparalleled dyer," Madeline continued, "restores black +hair to a more than original gloss and brilliancy, and gives to the faded +golden tress the sunny flashes of youth." Grandpa was dyed. "Our +world-renowned setter completes and perfects the whole process by adding +tone and permanency to the efficacious qualities of the lotion, potion, +and dyer, etc.;" while on Grandpa's head the unutterable dye was set.</p> + +<p>"Now, read teacher some of the testimonials, daughter," said Grandma +Keeler, whose face was one broad, generous illustration of that rare and +peculiar virtue called faith.</p> + +<p>So Madeline continued: "Mrs. Hiram Briggs, or North Dedham, writes: 'I +was terribly afflicted with baldness, so that, for months, I was little +more than an outcast from society, and an object of pity to my most +familiar friends. I tried every remedy in vain. At length I heard of your +wonderful restorative. After a week's application, my hair had already +begun to grow in what seemed the most miraculous manner. At the end of +ten months, it had assumed such length and proportions as to be a most +luxurious burden, and where I had before been regarded with pity and +aversion, I became the envied and admired of all beholders."</p> + +<p>"Just think!" said Grandma Keeler, with rapturous sympathy and gratitude, +"how that poor creetur must a' felt!"</p> + +<p>"'Orion Spaulding of Weedsville, Vermont,'" Madeline went on—but, here, +I had to beg to be excused, and went to my room to get ready for the +Sunday school.</p> + +<p>When I came down again, Grandpa Keeler was seated, completely arrayed in +his best clothes, opposite Grandma, who held the big family Bible in her +lap, and a Sunday-school question book in one hand.</p> + +<p>"Now, pa," said she; "what tribe was it in sacred writ that wore +bunnits?"</p> + +<p>I was compelled to infer from the tone of Grandpa Keeler's answer that +his temper had not undergone a mollifying process during my absence.</p> + +<p>"Come, ma," said he; "how much longer ye goin' to pester me in this way?"</p> + +<p>"Why, pa," Grandma rejoined calmly; "until you git a proper understandin' +of it. What tribe was it in sacred writ that wore bunnits?"</p> + +<p>"Lordy!" exclaimed the old man. "How d'ye suppose I know! They must'a' +been a tarnal old womanish lookin' set any way."</p> + +<p>"The tribe o' Judah, pa," said Grandma, gravely. "Now, how good it is, +husband, to have your understandin' all freshened up on the scripters!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, ma!" said Grandpa, rising nervously, "It's time we was +startin'. When I make up my mind to go anywhere I always want to git +there in time. If I was goin' to the Old Harry, I should want to git +there in time."</p> + +<p>"It's my consarn that we shall git thar' before time, some on us," said +Grandma, with sad meaning, "unless we larn to use more respec'ful +language."</p> + +<p>I shall never forget how we set off for church that Sabbath morning, way +out at one of the sunny back doors of the Ark: for there was Madeline's +little cottage that fronted the highway, or lane, and then there was a +long backward extension of the Ark, only one story in height. This +belonged peculiarly to Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. It contained the +"parlor" and three "keepin'" rooms opening one into the other, all of the +same size and general bare and gloomy appearance, all possessing the same +sacredly preserved atmosphere, through which we passed with becoming +silence and solemnity into the "end" room, the sunny kitchen where +Grandma and Grandpa kept house by themselves in the summer time, and +there at the door, her very yellow coat reflecting the rays of the sun, +stood Fanny, presenting about as much appearance of life and animation as +a pensive summer squash.</p> + +<p>The carriage, I thought, was a fac-simile of the one in which I had been +brought from West Wallen on the night of my arrival. One of the most +striking peculiarities of this sort of vehicle was the width at which the +wheels were set apart. The body seemed comparatively narrow. It was very +long, and covered with white canvas. It had neither windows nor doors, +but just the one guarded opening in front. There were no steps leading to +this, and, indeed, a variety of obstacles before it. And the way Grandma +effected an entrance was to put a chair on a mound of earth, and a +cricket on top of the chair, and thus, having climbed up to Fanny's +reposeful back, she slipped passively down, feet foremost, to the +whiffle-tree; from thence she easily gained the plane of the carriage +floor.</p> + +<p>Grandpa and I took a less circuitous, though, perhaps, not less difficult +route.</p> + +<p>I sat with Grandpa on the "front" seat—it may be remarked that the +"front" seat was very much front, and the "back" seat very much +back—there was a kind of wooden shelf built outside as a resting-place +for the feet, so that while our heads were under cover, our feet were +out, utterly exposed to the weather, and we must either lay them on the +shelf or let them hang off into space.</p> + +<p>Madeline and the children stood at the door to see us off.</p> + +<p>"All aboard! ship ballasted! wind fa'r! go ahead, thar', Fanny!" shouted +Grandpa, who seemed quite restored in spirits, and held the reins and +wielded the whip with a masterful air.</p> + +<p>He spun sea-yarns, too, all the way—marvellous ones, and Grandma's +reproving voice was mellowed by the distance, and so confusedly mingled +with the rumbling of the wheels, that it seemed hardly to reach him at +all. Not that Grandma looked discomfited on this account, or in bad +humor. On the contrary, as she sat back there in the ghostly shadows, +with her hands folded, and her hair combed out in resplendent waves on +either side of her head, she appeared conscious that every word she +uttered was taking root in some obdurate heart. She was, in every +respect, the picture of good-will and contentment.</p> + +<p>But the face under Grandpa's antiquated beaver began to give me a fresh +shock every time I looked up at him, for the light and air were rapidly +turning his rejuvenated locks and his poor, thin fringe of whiskers to an +unnatural greenish tint, while his bushy eyebrows, untouched by the hand +of art, shone as white as ever.</p> + +<p>In spite of the old sea-captain's entertaining stories, it seemed, +indeed, "a long jaunt" to West Wallen.</p> + +<p>To say that Fanny was a slow horse would be but a feeble expression of +the truth.</p> + +<p>A persevering "click! click! click!" began to arise from Grandma's +quarter. This annoyed Grandpa exceedingly.</p> + +<p>"Shet up, ma!" he was moved to exclaim at last. "I'm steerin' this +craft."</p> + +<p>"Click! click! click!" came perseveringly from behind.</p> + +<p>"Dum it, ma! thar', ma!" cried Grandpa, exasperated beyond measure. "How +is this hoss goin' to hear anything that I say ef you keep up such a +tarnal cacklin'?"</p> + +<p>Just as we were coming out of the thickest part of the woods, about a +mile beyond Wallencamp, we discovered a man walking in the distance. It +was the only human being we had seen since we started.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, there's Lovell!" exclaimed Grandpa. "I was wonderin' why we +hadn't overtook him before. We gin'ally take him in on the road. Yis, +yis; that's Lovell, ain't it, teacher?"</p> + +<p>I put up my glasses, helplessly.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure," I said, "I can't tell, positively. I have seen Mr. Barlow but +once, and at that distance I shouldn't know my own father."</p> + +<p>"Must be Lovell," said Grandpa. "Yis, I know him! Hullo, thar'! Ship +ahoy! ship ahoy!"</p> + +<p>Grandpa's voice suggested something of the fire and vigor it must have +had when it rang out across the foam of waves and pierced the tempest's +roar.</p> + +<p>The man turned and looked at us, and then went on again.</p> + +<p>"He don't seem to re<i>cog</i>nize us," said Grandma.</p> + +<p>"Ship a-hoy! Ship a-hoy!" shouted Grandpa.</p> + +<p>The man turned and looked at us again, and this time he stopped and kept +on looking.</p> + +<p>When we got up to him we saw that it wasn't Lovell Barlow at all, but a +stranger of trampish appearance, drunk and fiery, and fixed in an +aggressive attitude.</p> + +<p>I was naturally terrified. What if he should attack us in that lonely +spot! Grandpa was so old! And moreover, Grandpa was so taken aback to +find that it wasn't Lovell that he began some blunt and stammering +expression of surprise, which only served to increase the stranger's ire. +Grandma, imperturbable soul! Who never failed to come to the rescue even +in the most desperate emergencies—Grandma climbed over to the front, +thrust out her benign head, and said in that deep, calm voice of hers:—</p> + +<p>"We're a goin' to the house of God, brother; won't you git in and go +too?"</p> + +<p>"No!" our brother replied, doubling up his fists and shaking them +menacingly in our faces: "I won't go to no house o' God. What d'ye mean +by overhauling me on the road, and askin' me to git into yer d——d +old travelling lunatic asylum?"</p> + +<p>"Drive on, pa," said Grandma, coldly: "He ain't in no condition to be +labored with now. Drive on kind o' quick!"</p> + +<p>'Kind o' quick' we could not go, but Fanny was made to do her best, and +we did not pause to look behind.</p> + +<p>When we got to the church, Sunday-school had already begun. There was +Lovell Barlow looking preternaturally stiff in his best clothes, sitting +with a class of young men. He saw us when we came in, and gave me a look +of deep meaning. It was the same expression—as though there was some +solemn, mutual understanding between us—which he had worn on that night +when he gave me his picture.</p> + +<p>"There's plenty of young folks' classes," said Grandma; "but seein' as +we're late maybe you'd jest as soon go right along in with us."</p> + +<p>I said that I should like that best, so I went into the "old folks'" +class with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler.</p> + +<p>There were three pews of old people in front of us, and the teacher, who +certainly seemed to me the oldest person I had ever seen, sat in an +otherwise vacant pew in front of all, so that, his voice being very thin +and querulous, we could hear very little that he said, although we were +edified in some faint sense by his pious manner of shaking his head and +rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.</p> + +<p>The church was a square wooden edifice, of medium size, and contained +three stoves all burning brightly. Against this, and the drowsy effect of +their long drive in the sun and wind, my two companions proved powerless +to struggle.</p> + +<p>Grandpa looked furtively up at Grandma, then endeavored to put on as a +sort of apology for what he felt was inevitably coming, a sanctimonious +expression which was most unnatural to him, and which soon faded away as +the sweet unconsciousness of slumber overspread his features. His head +fell back helplessly, his mouth opened wide. He snored, but not very +loudly. I looked at Grandma, wondering why her vigilance had failed on +this occasion, and lo! her head was falling peacefully from side to side. +She was fast asleep, too. She woke up first, however, and then Grandpa +was speedily and adroitly aroused by some means, I think it was a pin; +and Grandma fed him with bits of unsweetened flag-root which he munched +penitently, though evidently without relish, until he dropped off to +sleep again, and she dropped off to sleep again, and so they continued.</p> + +<p>But it always happened that Grandma woke up first. And whereas Grandpa, +when the avenging pin pierced his shins, recovered himself with a start +and an air of guilty confusion, Grandma opened her eyes at regular +intervals, with the utmost calm and placidity, as though she had merely +been closing them to engage in a few moments of silent prayer.</p> + +<p>Our class occupied an humble place in the sanctuary, near the door. +Behind the pew in which Grandma, Grandpa, and I were sitting there was +one more vacant. Presently the door opened, admitting a delightful waft +of fresh air, and some one entered that pew, and bowed his head forward +on the desk in a devotional attitude.</p> + +<p>After the brief excitement caused by the advent of this new and very late +comer had subsided, the Sunday-school resumed its former lethargic +condition, and then I heard my own name whispered very softly in my ear.</p> + +<p>I had to turn my head but a little to meet the deprecating, though +evidently irreverent eyes of Emily's fisherman.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Miss Hungerford?" he murmured brightly. "Please don't +consider me in the light of an intruder. I know I'm rather young for the +class, to which you are admitted by reason of some extraordinary +acquaintance with biblical lore."</p> + +<p>"But it's an excellent opportunity for you to address the little boys and +girls," I said.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said Mr. Rollin, reddening. "I only meant that for a joke, +you know."</p> + +<p>Without pausing to reflect at all on the moral consequences of the act, I +welcomed the appearance of this voluble, fashionably-dressed young man +among the "ancient and fish-like" odors of the West Wallen meeting-house +with a positive sense of relief.</p> + +<p>"If I might venture to suppose," Mr. Rollin continued, whispering, "that +I came here to-day clothed, in any sense, as an angel of light—and, +indeed, I feel a good deal like that sort of thing to-day—so sweet are +the solaces of an approving conscience, and the consciousness of having +resisted temptation. You see I was—yes, I was going fishing this +morning, but I saw Captain Keeler go by to church—observe, too, the +beauty of setting a good example—and I persuaded myself that it was +wrong to go fishing on Sunday, and so I concluded to come to church, +too."</p> + +<p>At the light mockery of the fisherman's tone, the bolder flattery of his +eyes, I felt the same quick flash of resentment that his words had +occasioned when he walked with me up the lane. I turned my head away +with the noble resolve to keep it there persistently.</p> + +<p>Then I heard the whisper, "Miss Hungerford, you are driving me to the +last extreme of idol worship. I shall, keep on addressing my petitions to +that ostrich tip in your hat until you give me, at least, the benefit of +your profile."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why you should say such irreverent things to me, Mr. +Rollin," I said, quite seriously, turning, and looking him full in the +face, for an instant.</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid!" he replied, in an almost inaudible tone. "And if I could +have conceived of such a thing, I would beg your pardon. You have +brothers, Miss Hungerford?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered, nodding my head slightly, with my eyes fixed +steadfastly on the ancient instructor of our class.</p> + +<p>"How would you feel if your brother was off, alone, in some wild country, +in need of good and gentle influences, and some young lady should treat +him as you are treating me? Please turn your head a little this way. +But, on the whole, I'm very glad I'm not your brother. Shall I tell you +Why? Miss Hungerford," the fisherman continued, after a pause, "do you +know I've always heard that auburn-haired people come, by right, into +possession of the worst tempers. Your hair is brown—dark brown, and mine +is red, almost—don't you think so?—and yet my mind is all peace within, +and hope, and joy, and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'What is the blooming tincture of the skin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To peace of mind and purity, within?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Miss Hungerford, it has been full two minutes, by my watch, since I +caught the last beam from your eye. Let us forget the idle wranglings of +the hour, and compose our minds to the great subjects which agitate +eternity. One of those insects which infest ancient church edifices has +been hovering about Captain Keeler's mouth. It has been drawn in. It has +disappeared. Such are we, hovering on the vortex of eternity. How calm +and undisturbed the old captain's face! how utterly unconscious of the +tragedy just enacted! So eternity swallows us and leaves no trace behind, +and no ripple marks its surface. How infer—how more than odd the old +captain looks, anyway! I say, she ought to have touched up his eyebrows a +little, you know, while she was at the nefarious business, Miss +Hungerford."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered, listening deliberately.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose that the time will ever come when she to whom I once gave +the love of my young heart, and all that sort of thing, you know, will +take me in hand, and dye my hair, and rig me up, and make such an +infernal-looking old guy of me?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you can escape," I said. "But you won't care so much, +then."</p> + +<p>"No, that's true." Mr. Rollin sighed deeply "I shall be old, then;—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When I am old, I shall not care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To deck with flowers my faded hair.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The idea of Mr. Rollin decking his hair with flowers was a specially +entertaining one to me.</p> + +<p>Presently, he continued:—</p> + +<p>"To descend for a moment to secular subjects—I've got my own horses here +now, Miss Hungerford. I had my man Bob bring them down from Providence. +They got here last night, and they're a pair of spankers, too, if I do +say it that shouldn't, as the phrase is. That was one of the inducements +which led me to follow your—to follow Captain Keeler's example in coming +to church this morning. And now I have a calm, serious, and reasonable +proposal to make. No doubt we are both familiar with the small +conventionalities of life, but on such a day as this, and with such a +glorious air outside, and such a unique framework of society—everything +delightfully pagan—scruples worthy only of small consideration at any +time should be thrown aside. I don't know what perils you encountered +on your way to church this morning, in the canvas-covered vehicle. But, +if you will drive back to Wallencamp with me, I promise to take you there +fleetly and safely, and you may have the consciousness, besides, if you +care for it, that you have made the day one of spiritual reclamation to +an erring fellow-creature."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/visitors.jpg" width="700" height="403" alt="VISITORS DAY AT THE WALLENCAMP SCHOOL-HOUSE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">VISITORS' DAY AT THE WALLENCAMP SCHOOL-HOUSE.</span> +</div> + +<p>The Sunday-school had risen to its feet and was slowly droning "Yield not +to temptation," etc. The situation was odd enough. Mr. Rollin's repressed +laughing voice was in my ear: "Will you yield?" and I yielded.</p> + +<p>At the close of the Sunday-school, as we were going out of the church, I +told Grandma that I should drive home with Emily's fisherman.</p> + +<p>She drew me gravely to one side. "We shall be very sorry to lose your +company, teacher," she said; "only we hadn't ought to lose no precious +opportunity, and I do hope as you'll labor for that young man's soul." I +felt hopelessly conscience-stricken.</p> + +<p>We drove home through "Lost Cedars"—a good many miles out of the +ordinary course—and I was cheerfully consenting to the divergence.</p> + +<p>Wild and tenantless, in the midst of a wild and tenantless landscape, +Lost Cedars wore that air of lovely, though utter, desolation which might +easily have suggested its name.</p> + +<p>There was a still unfrozen lake, which the setting sun, more like the sun +of an Italian winter than of rugged New England, was painting in gorgeous +colors, when we reached the place.</p> + +<p>"We come fishing here, sometimes," said Mr. Rollin; "I keep a little boat +down there under the bush, and I happen to have the key of the boat here +in my pocket. It looks awfully tempting, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>I had always been passionately fond of out-door life, and prided myself +in having acquired no little skill at the oar. We were out on the painted +lake, and I was rowing the light boat, and taking much selfish enjoyment +out of the scene around me, when I became conscious that the fisherman +was leaning far forward from his seat in the boat, addressing me in a low +tone.</p> + +<p>"To discuss a topic appropriate to the day, Miss Hungerford: I suppose +you've read about that fellow who was looking for the pearl of great +price, haven't you?—that is, as I take it, you know, it was something +that was going to be of more value to him than anything else in the +world,—well, now, I believe that every man thinks he's going to be lucky +enough to fall in with something of that sort some day, don't you?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin's tone was unusually serious and even slightly embarrassed. I +looked up with curious surprise from my dreamy observation of the water. +Then I thought of what Grandma Keeler had said to me about laboring for +this young man's spiritual good.</p> + +<p>"I think we all ought to seek it," I observed tritely, giving a long, +studied artistic stroke to the oars. "I don't see why you shouldn't find +it, I'm sure—if you ask. I wish that I were good enough to talk to you +real helpfully on this subject."</p> + +<p>I was startled at the inspiriting effect my brief exhortation seemed +already to have produced on the soul of Emily's fisherman.</p> + +<p>"To ask! Is that all!" he exclaimed in the same low breath. And looking +at the glowing, though rather unsanctified light on his features, my +interest suddenly expanded to take in the possible drift of his words. I +concluded that it was time for me to show myself eminently discreet; +having departed so far from the immediate object of my mission as to +spend a considerable part of the Sabbath driving and rowing with a +strange young man, miles from every place of refuge.</p> + +<p>"I'm tired," I said. "Please row back now, I should like to go home."</p> + +<p>I rose to give Mr. Rollin my place at the oar. He held out his hand to +assist me, and, whether by any malicious design of his or not, at that +moment the boat gave a sudden lurch, and I was precipitated helplessly +forward into his arms. I felt his kiss burning on my lips.</p> + +<p>With anger at the fisherman's unfairness, and bitterness at what I felt +to be the mortifying result of my own folly and indiscretion—"Oh," I +exclaimed; "I hate you! I wish you would never speak to me again! I wish +I had fallen into the water."</p> + +<p>The fisherman sent the boat leaping on with long strokes. "D——n it!" +he muttered softly: "I wish you had, and I after you!"</p> + +<p>We drove for several miles on the way homeward in silence. Then Mr. +Rollin spoke. I had been meditating upon Rebecca, upon my determination +to make my life in Wallencamp one of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion +to duty, and had concluded, in a deeply repentant mind, that this +unpleasant incident at the close of the day was only the natural +consequence of my error in departing from the prescribed limits of my +self-appointed task.</p> + +<p>I felt that after this experience it would be unwise for me further to +extend my mission work in Mr. Rollin's behalf. So I answered him but +briefly, and in a tone of martyr-like composure, which I could not help +observing perplexed and irritated him more than anger or the most frigid +silence would have done.</p> + +<p>I was strengthened in this frame of mind when we parted at the little +gate in front of the Ark, and Mr. Rollin proposed another drive for the +ensuing week.</p> + +<p>Then I revealed to the fisherman the grave burden of my soul.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Rollin," I said; "if I had come to Wallencamp merely in search of my +own pleasure and diversion, I should doubtless find it very easy to do +some things which I do not consider harmful in themselves, but which it +is wrong for me to do under the circumstances. I may tell you that I have +been very reckless, very thoughtless in my life, but I came here +resolving to devote myself to an earnest, serious work. I hoped to do +these people good. They do seem to believe in me. They trust me. I cannot +bear that they should think me in any way unworthy of their trust. When +you asked me to drive this evening,—it was just as it used to be—I did +not think. You were very kind. It was pleasant, and I thank you,—but I +ought not to have gone—don't you see? I believe, now, that it would have +been so much better if I had not."</p> + +<p>"I don't see," said Mr. Rollin; "why should you leave <i>me</i> out +altogether? Don't I believe in you? Don't I need to be done some good +to?"</p> + +<p>At this last childishly whimsical appeal I was in sore danger of being +diverted from the serious channel of my thoughts. Then the door of the +Ark softly opened a little way, and there, nightcapped in white, like a +full, benignant moon, appeared the head of Grandma Keeler, as she peered +blindly out into the night.</p> + +<p>"Poor old soul!" I said. "She has probably been 'waiting and watching.' +Don't you see already one of the results of my sinning? Good night," I +said, extending my hand to the fisherman, who had fixed on that innocent +and unconscious nightcap a darkly withering gaze.</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind me," he muttered, turning abruptly. "Only take care of +this infernal old nest of Hoosiers, and respectable people may go to the +devil!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>BECKY AND THE CRADLEBOW.</h3> + + +<p>"Teacher's got Beck's beau!"</p> + +<p>"Teacher's got Beck's beau!" I heard it whispered among the school +children. Rebecca heard, too, and paled a little, but looked up at me and +smiled as frankly as ever.</p> + +<p>Seeing her alone afterwards, I took occasion to remark, incidentally, +"how kind it was of her friend, Mr. Rollin, to bring me home from church. +Fanny was so slow! And I thought he was a very pleasant young man, but +even the most estimable people, you know," I added, laughing, with an +undertone of studied significance; "are not just fitted to enjoy each +other's society always."</p> + +<p>Then I blushed under the girl's clear, trustful gaze.</p> + +<p>"You don't think I mind what the children talk!" she said.</p> + +<p>Every day Rebecca appealed more and more, unconsciously, to what was most +generous and grave and heedful in my nature. She seemed to be demanding +of me, with mute, gentle importunity, to make real my ideal of life, to +be what I knew she believed me to be. Her faith in my superior wisdom and +goodness, her slow, timid way of confiding in me, with tears and blushes +even; it was all very flattering, very captivating to one who had but so +lately risen to occupy the pedestal of a moral instructress, and "my +child," "my dear child," I said to her in many private discourses, with +more than the tranquil grace and dignity with which such terms had been +applied to me, only a year before, by the august principal of Mt. B—— +Seminary.</p> + +<p>Rebecca read my books, and I drew her out to talk with me about them. She +prepared her lessons, with me, out of school. She knew that she might +come whenever she chose to my little room at the Ark, which the chimney +kept comfortably warm, and often I heard her footsteps on the stairs and +her gentle knock at the door.</p> + +<p>If I was troubled or perplexed on any account, Rebecca always seemed to +understand in that quiet, unobtrusive way of hers, and followed my +movements with a grave, restful sympathy in her eyes. On several +occasions I had asked her, playfully, to walk up the lane with me after +school. So it became a matter of course that she should wait for me. +Often we took longer walks, for it was an "open winter," with only one +or two light falls of snow.</p> + +<p>Then I believed the "Tempter" came to me, in the form of another +invitation to drive, from Mr. Rollin.</p> + +<p>Occupied with my duties in the school-room, one afternoon, I was startled +to observe these characters as suddenly and mysteriously raised as if by +the unseen hand of a modern sibyl on the blackboard:—</p> + +<p>"teecher's Bo is a setting On the Fens."</p> + +<p>Involuntarily raising my eyes to the window, I was unable to discover on +the fence opposite anything of the nature indicated in those words. I +concluded that the whole was to be taken as one of those deeply +allegorical expressions in which the Wallencamp tongue abounded.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterward, a boy who had been playing truant and the Jews' harp +at the same time, in a subdued and melancholy way under the window, and +who had, doubtless, been bribed to undertake his present commission +through some extraordinary means, entered the school-room, and laid on my +desk a note from the auburn-haired fisherman. It was hastily scrawled in +lead pencil, on a leaf torn from a memorandum.</p> + +<p>The fisherman confessed to all the meekness and long suffering, without +the cheerful intrepidity of Mary's little lamb! He would do all his +waiting outside. Mr. Levi was down from West Wallen to-day, and said that +he had heard somebody say that there were four letters came for the +teacher in last night's mail. Would I like to drive over to West Wallen +and get them. The fisherman did not believe that I had been in earnest in +the prudish and unreasonable notions I had propounded when he left me the +other evening.</p> + +<p>"Prudish!" In my newly-acquired elevation of mind, I hugged the term with +a deep, intense, and mysterious delight. Oh, if my mother could only +know—if my elder sister could only know that I had actually been accused +of prudishness! It was in the glow and inspiration of this idea that I +indited the answer to Mr. Rollin's missive: "Why would he make it +unpleasant and disagreeable for me to do what seemed so plainly my +duty?"—and dispatched the same by the pensive and unpunished truant, who +was soon heard again revelling in the stolen sweets of his Jews' harp +beneath the window.</p> + +<p>After this I had no further intercourse with the fisherman for some days. +If I chanced to meet him in the lane, Rebecca was always with me. He came +one evening to the Ark. The young people were there, singing.</p> + +<p>Then I heard, from time to time, of his taking Rebecca to drive, and +congratulated myself that, through my composed wisdom and forethought, +the little world of Wallencamp was destined to move very smoothly, on the +whole.</p> + +<p>"I wonder why Mr. Rollin don't go home," observed Grandma Keeler, +complacently, on one of those rare occasions when the Keeler family +circle held quiet possession of the Ark before the songful company had +arrived. "He didn't use to stay but a week or two at a time, and all the +rest o' the fishermen have been gone some time now; and he keeps them +horses down here, and goes loungin' around with no more object than a +butterfly in December."</p> + +<p>"I tell ye he's a makin' up to Beck," said Grandpa Keeler, with the +knowing air of an old man accustomed to fathom mysteries of this peculiar +nature.</p> + +<p>A spark shot out of Madeline's great, black eyes. Then she laughed +unpleasantly. "There's something in the wind besides Beck," said she.</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't know," said Grandma; "he don't hang around there very much, +may be, but they say he takes her to ride, and I'm sure he don't wait on +nobody else. But I should think, if he was a going to speak out he'd +ought to do it, and not waste his time a keepin' a puttin' it off. Why, +my fust husband wasn't but a week makin' up his mind, and pa," she +continued, referring openly to Grandpa Keeler, "he wan't quite so +outspoken, to be sure; but he came around to it in the course of a month +or two, and kind o' beat around the bush then, and wanted to know what I +thought on't, and—wall, I told him 'yes,'—I didn't see no use in bein' +squeamish so long as I'd once made up my mind to it."</p> + +<p>"I asked ye as soon as I could!" exclaimed Grandpa, bristling on the +defensive. "I wanted to be sure o' gittin' a house fust."</p> + +<p>"There!" said Madeline briskly, putting down her foot, and tossing her +head as she addressed the old couple. "Be good, children! Be good!—and +now, do you mark my words, it isn't Becky Weir that Dave Rollin is +hanging around here for. There's some folks to be made up to, and there's +some folks, jest as good, to be stepped on. And Dave Rollin—what does he +think of Wallencamp folks, anyway? He wouldn't take the trouble to kick +'em out of his road; he'd jest step on 'em, and he's steppin' on Beck +Weir. He don't care enough about her to let her alone."</p> + +<p>"Wall, I—don't—know!" said Grandma. "What's he stayin' for, then?"</p> + +<p>"Staying! Lord, ma!" said Madeline sharply, with a strange cold glitter +in her eye. "How do I know what he's stayin' for? Oh," she added, in a +tone of lighter bitterness, "It's a mild winter and open roads. He's +sketching they say, and exploring the Cape. Let him explore from one end +to the other, he won't find such another fool as himself."</p> + +<p>"We can't help nothin' by talkin' that way;" said Grandma Keeler, a +little pale, though calmly cognizant of Madeline's emotion.</p> + +<p>"You know I had an experience of my own once, ma," said Madeline, +terribly white about the lips.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't rake up old wounds, daughter." There was nothing unfeeling in +Grandma Keeler's tone.</p> + +<p>The daughter shut her lips together tightly, as though more than she had +intended to reveal had already escaped them, and applied herself +desperately to her sewing.</p> + +<p>I fancied that I had detected a personally aggressive quality in +Madeline's indignant tone.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why we should feel that way about Rebecca," I said. "The +more one gets acquainted with her, the more lovable and worthy of respect +she seems. I knew a great many girls, at school—girls with every +advantage of wealth and culture, too, who had not half of Rebecca's grace +and refinement, nor a tenth part of her beauty!"</p> + +<p>Madeline said nothing, bending to her work with the same bitter +compression of the lips.</p> + +<p>"It's right you should stand up for her, teacher," said Grandma Keeler, +pleasantly. "Miss Waite, she begun by makin' a kind o' pet o' her, but I +don't think Rebecca ever set her heart on her as she has on you, and it's +easy to see you've took lots o' pains with her. She's a gittin' them same +kind o' sorter interestin' high-flowed ways—why, she used to be just +like the rest of 'em—jest sich a rompin', roarin' thing as Drussilly +Weir is now."</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious, ma!" Madeline put in again, sharply. "What good is it +going to do Beck Weir to put on airs? Better stick to her own ways, and +her own folks—she'll find they'll stand by her best in the end, I +guess—than to be fillin' her head with notions to hurt her feelin's over +by and by. She's a fool, I think, for treatin' George Olver as she does. +He's worth a dozen Dave Rollins, if his coat don't set quite so fine, and +would work his fingers off to suit her if she'd only settle down to him +and be sensible."</p> + +<p>"Wall," said Grandma Keeler, in a tone that was a curious contrast to +Madeline's, "our feelin's won't always go as we'd ought to have em', +daughter."</p> + +<p>"No, they won't!" Madeline snapped out excitedly, "but, ma, you know I'm +in the right of it just as well as I do; and there's Lute Cradlebow's got +to dreamin' and moonin' around in the same way. Took it into his head +he wanted to get an education—well, what hasn't he took into his head! +So he must begin recitin' to teacher. Well, he had in his mind to study, +I don't doubt, to begin with, and used to come two or three times a +week, and rattle off a string, and now he's here every day of his life, +and, if there's any reciting going on, I don't hear it—not that I want +to meddle with other folks' business, but I've known those boys a good +many years, and I hate to see anybody hurt and run over, even if they be +young and ignorant, and making fools of themselves. Some folks are none +too good, I think, for all their airs, and had better look out to see +where they're going!"</p> + +<p>"Why, thar', Madeline!" said Grandma, with a decided touch of +disapproval in her voice. "R'a'ly, seems to me you're kind o' out. I'm +sure Luther Larkin seems to be a gittin' along finely with his Latin and +Algibbery—I'm sure I've heard a lot of it, when I've been goin' through +the room, if you ain't; and if he's took it into his head to git book +larnin', and maybe scratch enough together to go away somewheres to +school, why, I'm sure, there's older boys than him, and not so bright, +have ketched up if they set there minds to it, and as for our +teacher—Madeline!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've no doubt but what Miss Hungerford meant kindly," said Madeline, +with the lightness she could so suddenly assume. "It's a mighty queer +world, that's all!" she added presently, rising and putting on her +bonnet; "and managed very queerly, for I suppose it is managed. I'm going +out, ma. Those children have split my head with their noise to-day, and I +promised Patty I'd come in and sit awhile. Now, if I've been cross and +crazy, don't you and teacher talk me over," she said, looking back and +trying hard to smile—and she did look very tired and white, as though +she had been suffering—"and if those children wake up and begin to +squall"—with a glance towards the little bedroom—"let 'em squall. If +I've wished it once to-day, I have a hundred times, that they was the +other side of sunset!"</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd step into Lihu's—such a poor, sufferin' creetur as he +is—with these," said Grandma, appearing from the pantry with some eggs +in her apron. "I wish you could take the consolations of religion with +you, Madeline," she continued gravely, as Mrs. Philander was closing the +door.</p> + +<p>"Lord, ma! my pocket's full now!" exclaimed Madeline. "Besides, they +might break the eggs!" And the latch fell down with a click.</p> + +<p>"I wish Madeline was a believer," Grandma sighed, purposely rattling +about the cover of the stove to wake up Grandpa, who had fallen asleep in +his chair.</p> + +<p>Grandpa looked at me, and smiled feebly, then roused himself to meet this +supposed challenge like a man.</p> + +<p>"Believer, ma?" said he; "why ain't I a believer? As old Cap'n Gates +said to me on his last voyage"—Grandpa yawned alarmingly (poor old man! +he was but half awake), as this unlucky reminiscence of his sea-faring +life flitted through his brain—"says he, 'I read my almanick and my +Bible, both, Bijonah;' says he, 'I read 'em both, and I believe there's a +great deal o' truth in both on 'em.'"</p> + +<p>"Thar, pa!" said Grandma, solemnly, "you'd <i>better</i> go to sleep! you'd +<i>better</i> close your eyes, Bijonah Keeler! What if you should never open +'em again on earthly scenes, and them words on your lips,—and you a +perfessor!"</p> + +<p>Grandpa scratched his head in drowsy bewilderment, passed his hand once +or twice over the coarse stubble on his face, and again committed himself +helplessly to the sweet obliviousness of slumber.</p> + +<p>I drew my chair up confidentially close to Grandma Keeler's, and rested +my arms on the table as I looked into her face.</p> + +<p>"Grandma!" I said, for I knew that she was better pleased to have me call +her that; "I begin to think that I ought never to have come to Wallencamp +on a mission, that perhaps it would be just as well if I had never come +to Wallencamp at all, I mean. I didn't think. At first, it seemed more +than anything else, like something very new to entertain myself with. I +didn't think enough of the responsibility. Then, perhaps, I thought too +much of it. I don't know. I wish I were out of it all. Grandma, I never +tried to do the right thing so hard before in my life. I never worked so +hard before—and I don't mind that; but I meant it all for the best, and +it's no use, it's just like all the rest. I'm tired. I wish I were out of +it."</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar' now, darlin'," said Grandma, employing to the full her tone +of infinite consolation. "You ain't the first one as mistook a stump for +livin' creetur in the night, and don't you talk about givin' up nor +nothin' like it, darlin', for we couldn't do without you noways—nor you +without us, for yet a while, I'm thinkin', though it does seem +strange—and never you mind one straw for what Madeline said, for she was +kind o' out to-night, anyway, not having got no letter from Philander, I +suppose. But then she ought not to feel so. Why, there was time and time +agin that I didn't git no letter from Bijonah Keeler when he was +voyagin', and to be sure, they wasn't much better than nothin' when they +did come; for pa"—Grandma cast a calmly comprehensive glance at her +unconscious mate—"pa was a man that had a great many idees in general, +but, when he set down to write a letter, somehow he seemed to consider +that it wasn't no place for idees, a letter wasn't—seemed as though he +managed a'most a purpose not to get none in."</p> + +<p>"Grandma," I said, leaning forward, laughing, and folding my hands in her +lap, "you're the best comforter I know of."</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar'," said she; "it's a good deal in feelin's, and Madeline +ain't r'al well, so she kind o' allows 'em to overcome her sometimes."</p> + +<p>"And what did she mean by saying that about Rebecca?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she just meant girls will be girls, that's all!" replied Grandma; +"why, mercy! I know all about that. I don't feel like nothin' much more +than a girl myself, half the time; and we all have to have our +experiences, to be sure. They ain't nobody else can wear 'em for us, but, +dear me! the Lord ain't going to let our experiences hurt us; they're for +our betterin'."</p> + +<p>"And Lute Cradlebow, Grandma?" I said; "what did she mean about him?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she just meant boys will be boys, that's all—especially big +ones—but thar'! I've known 'em to get over it a hundred times and not +hurt 'em none. If you're always lookin' at human natur' on the dark side, +it seems kind o' desp'rit. My first husband, he wasn't a fretful man, but +he was always viewin' the dark side o' things. I suppose one reason was +he didn't have no father nor mother, and so he kind o' begun life as a +took-in boy, but Pollos Slocum, he done very well by him, for he hadn't +no children of his own, but his brother—that was Daniel Slocum—he had +six. There was two boys and four girls. Mary, she came fust. She was born +February nineteenth"——</p> + +<p>I was sorry that Grandma's thoughts had drifted into this hopeless and +interminable channel.</p> + +<p>I had considered carefully what Madeline had said, and determined on a +little new advice for my friend, Rebecca. So, the next time we were alone +in my room together, I directed the conversation with a view to this +end.</p> + +<p>"And I wouldn't trust any one, my dear," I said with cheerful +earnestness; "then if people prove true, why, it's all the more +delightful; and if not, one isn't disappointed; so you can hold the +scales quite indifferently in your own hand, and are always master of the +situation. Oh, I wouldn't trust people! It would be very nice if +this were the sort of world that you could do it in, but it isn't. It's a +very deceitful world."</p> + +<p>"But I can trust you, can't I?" Rebecca held me with her gravely +questioning eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know;" I began with the determination to be severely true +to my text, but the look in Rebecca's eyes hurt me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! little girl," I continued, falling into the half-tender, +half-playful tone that it was always easiest to assume with her; "of +course, you must trust me I Haven't I been a good teacher to you, so +far?" And I sought by smiling in the girl's face, to chase the grieved +expression away from it. "What I meant was that I wouldn't trust people +generally, because it's a selfish world, and such is the depravity of the +human mind that if it appears at all convenient, we are apt, you know, to +sacrifice other people to our own interests; so, with all the little +kindnesses and politenesses which are current in society, it is still the +common practice—and if is best that it should be so—to keep, in the +main, a sharp look out for 'Number One!'"</p> + +<p>Having proceeded so far, it occurred to me that the occasion was +favorable for the discharge of another duty which I had been meditating +in regard to Rebecca.</p> + +<p>"You are what Grandma Keeler calls a believer, are you not, dear?" I +said, with the same composedly dictatorial manner: "in distinction from a +professor, I mean."</p> + +<p>Rebecca gave a little gasp, and turned her head away, for an instant. +When she looked back, there were tears of distress in her eyes.</p> + +<p>I felt a vague wonder and regret.</p> + +<p>"No," she said; "I thought, once—I wanted—I hoped——"</p> + +<p>"Why, child!" I hastened to exclaim. "I didn't ask you because I had any +reason to doubt that you were one—quite the contrary—but simply for +this. It seems to me it would be such a desirable thing for you, situated +as you are, here, with so few surroundings of a refining and elevating +nature, if you could attach yourself, if it were merely for a feeling of +fellowship and sympathy—for of course, you could not attend, often—to +some simple Orthodox body of believers—like the Methodist church at West +Wallen, for instance. It seems to me, that, in your case, believing +simply and unquestionably, as I have no doubt you do, it would be a sort +of assurance, a sort of continual rest and support to you. It would be a +great relief to me if I felt that you were so guarded. Not that I +consider it essential at all; to some people, indeed, of a deeply +thoughtful and inquisitive mind, such a course would appear impossible. +You have never troubled yourself, Becky," I continued, in a tone of +reassuring lightness; "you have never troubled yourself with doubts and +speculations on religious subjects?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Becky replied, the look of perplexity and distress +deepening in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why should you?" I murmured, softly stroking her hair; "He carries the +lambs in His bosom." I had been little in the habit of quoting +Scripture—the words, coming to my mind, struck me as particularly +Beautiful and applicable on this occasion. "And so what I have suggested, +would be the easiest and most natural thing in the world for you to do. I +suppose it might be necessary for you to have come to some conclusion in +regard to the first principles of Theology; but probably you have already +satisfied yourself as to these in your own mind."</p> + +<p>Rebecca looked little like one who had arrived at the calm plane of +philosophical conclusion of any sort.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she gasped.</p> + +<p>"Well, take the Trinity, for instance," I continued, in a tone highly +suggestive of calm and supreme forbearance with helpless ignorance. +"Probably you believe in the Trinity?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," said Rebecca. "I don't know what it means. Nobody +ever told me; nobody ever talked to me about those things before."</p> + +<p>"It's simply," I said; "a term implying the existence of three persons in +the Godhead. So the Trinitarians are distinguished from the Unitarians +who believe that it consists of one. I'm not particularly informed as to +the Methodist credentials of faith. You will always hear that they +believe that salvation is free to all who will accept of it. Some people +believe that man is a free agent, and may accept or refuse the means of +grace, and if he refuses, is eternally lost. And then, again, there are +the Universalists, who believe that all will be eventually saved. There +is the Calvinistic element—those who believe in predestination—that +is——"</p> + +<p>Becky had laid her head down on the bed, and was quietly sobbing.</p> + +<p>"My poor child," I exclaimed, with swift compassion, "don't think +anything more about what I have said to you. Let it go. It isn't vital."</p> + +<p>"You don't hate me for not knowing anything?" sobbed Becky. "Nobody ever +tried to have me understand, before."</p> + +<p>"You know enough; quite enough, dear!" I remarked hastily, producing from +my trunk a quantity of illustrated magazines. These we looked over +together, and when Becky went away, the tears were dried in her eyes, and +she was laughing as merrily as ever.</p> + +<p>With the severely implied reproach of Madeline's words still in my mind, +I took pains to assume toward Luther Larkin a more elder-sisterly air +even than before.</p> + +<p>It was true, I felt that I had been unjustly stung, having, amid the +press of other duties, undertaken the advancement of that bright youth, +from motives, I believed, of an ideal and disinterested nature. It was +also true, that, after the first enthusiasm with respect to his lessons +had passed away, as well as the natural diffidence he had at first felt +in my presence, Luther Larkin, though punctual to the hour of recitation, +had gradually fallen into a habit of more lively and discursive inquiry +than that furnished within the dull range of his text-books. He had a +singularly fearless manner of challenging the inexplicable in thought and +life, with a light conversational flow of much brilliancy. Moreover, +he was a delightful dreamer.</p> + +<p>We had our recitation, for quiet, in one of Grandma's gloomy and +mysterious keepin'-rooms. The only object inviting to sedentary posture +in this room was Grandpa's huge "chist," which occupied a position +"along side" the East window. Those sacred window curtains, of green +paper, flowered with crimson roses, were never rolled up; but as the +light strayed in at one side, and fell on the Cradlebow's fine head, +often I reflected that under certain other conditions of life, meaning +conditions more favorable to Luther Larkin, I might have regarded him +very tenderly, and invested the strength and beauty of his young manhood +with heroic meaning.</p> + +<p>As it was, I assumed that I was years beyond him in the gravest respects. +And if there was any truth in what Madeline had intimated, possibly I had +been at fault for not impressing this fact more deeply on his mind.</p> + +<p>"So you are getting sadly behindhand with your lessons, Luther," I said. +"I wish you would make a brave effort to catch up. There is no true +attainment to be reached without a corresponding degree of effort—of +perseverance."</p> + +<p>I spoke with a serious and gracious air, as though this sentiment, +gleaned from a profound experience, had occurred to me as an idea +peculiarly my own.</p> + +<p>"Never mind the lessons!" replied my audacious pupil, brightly. +"Teacher," he added presently, having fallen into a gently musing +attitude; "how shiny those crimples in your hair look, with that streak +of sun lighting on 'em!"</p> + +<p>"Luther," said I, very gravely: "you ought not to talk to me about my +hair. Suppose we give our attention to these books. Now you were getting +along so fast, I'm very sorry——"</p> + +<p>"Do you think I'm to blame, teacher?" exclaimed Luther, earnestly, "There +wasn't a stick of wood to be had in our house this morning! And I've had +to be off, all day, chopping, with Scudder—you ought to have seen the +black snake we killed this morning. It was six feet long. If you don't +believe it, Scudder's got the carcass. It was lying all curled up in the +bushes with its head up so—'you watch him, Lute,' says Scudder, 'and +I'll run and get the axe!' I couldn't help laughing. The axe was over the +other side of the bog, and the snake began to stretch himself out and +slide along. I brought my boot-heel down once or twice on his head, about +as quick and strong as I could make it. I killed him. It's a good sign to +kill a snake, teacher. It's a good sign to dream of killing one; but you +come across one so, accidentally, and kill it, and it's sure to bring +good luck, Granny says."</p> + +<p>"That's more significant than a great many of your signs and symbols," I +said. "That means that you will slay the tempter in your path, and be +successful in overcoming difficulties. In short, it means that whatever +there has been to divert you, you are coming back to the resolve to study +and improve yourself; to be all the stronger for having a few chance +obstacles to dispose of."</p> + +<p>Luther's head began to droop a little. I thought it was time that the +melancholy atmosphere of the room should have begun to exercise its usual +depressive effect on his spirits.</p> + +<p>"You think I don't like the books, teacher," he said. "I do, but there's +most always something else to be doing. Father's lame. He can't do any +work, and there's the rest to take care of. First, I sat up nights to +study, then I got so sleepy I couldn't. But I'd got so in the habit of +coming in to talk a little while after you got home from school, teacher, +that I—I forgot to forget it. Have I been a great bother to you? You've +been real good. I don't want you to think I forget that. And if I'd had a +chance at the books early, or to push right along with 'em now, I might +make out something in that line."</p> + +<p>Luther did not speak complainingly, nor even with hopeless regret. He +rose and stretched himself, with solemn satisfaction, to the extent of +his goodly proportions.</p> + +<p>"But I'm a man now, teacher," he said. "I shall be twenty in June, and +life is short. A man hasn't got time for everything. He'd be a fool to +waste it crying for what he didn't happen to have. He'd better push +along and work for the best. I meant to tell you. I'm going to sea, +teacher! I'm going trading. I was down to New Bedford, to see Captain +Sparhauk yesterday, for I was out with him once before, and got a good +deal of the hang of the business then; and he offered me a place on his +ship next time he sails."</p> + +<p>Luther stood with flushed face, regarding me with a bright restless look +of inquiry in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Are you going away, really, Luther? I'm very sorry!" I said.</p> + +<p>"You don't care! what do you care?" he exclaimed almost rudely, with an +unnatural touch of hardness in his laugh. "It's the way you talk to all +the rest. A fellow might get to thinking too much about it. A fellow +might get to caring—if he believed it—I don't."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think I shouldn't care if you were going away?" I +continued, with the dispassionately gentle and reproving tone I +considered it wisest to assume on the occasion. "I should care, I should +be very sorry. Come and sit down here, please, and tell me all about it, +when you are going, and where, and what you are going for?"</p> + +<p>Luther came slowly back to the light. He seemed verily to have grown +older and handsomer in a moment. I experienced a deeper feeling of regret +than ever before, that the circumstances of his life could not have been +conducive to heroism.</p> + +<p>"The captain couldn't tell me just when he should sail," said he; "and +I'm going to get money. I know a good deal of the Spanish and Portugal, I +learned to talk them before—and I shall go to a great many places, I may +not come back when the ship does. Say, what strange eyes you've got, +teacher; now they're brown—and now, they're black, and now, they're a +sort of—a—purplish gray."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear boy," I exclaimed, with a sudden accession of wisdom, +sighing deeply; "you ought not to talk to me about the color of my eyes." +At the same time to deepen the effect of this condescending tenderness, I +pushed back lightly from his forehead a stray lock of hair that was +hanging there.</p> + +<p>"Don't do that!" the boy cried with startling impetuosity. "Don't call me +that again! I mean, teacher," he went on in a gentler tone, though none +the less excitedly;—"if you should know somebody, that had set his heart +on something, very much, and didn't want anything else if he couldn't +have that, and if he should know that he hadn't any right to ask for it +now, but go off and work for it real hard, and, maybe come back lucky in +a few years, with a right to ask for it then;—do you think, teacher, +that there'd be any chance of his finding—of his getting what he wanted +most? If you were in anybody's place, now, teacher, would you give him a +word of encouragement to try?"</p> + +<p>"I think that the person you speak of would be much more likely to +succeed in a practical undertaking, without any hallucination of that +sort before his eyes—and if, as you say, it isn't right that he should +ask for it now, can we predict that it would be any more reasonable and +expedient in the future? These idle fancies of ours soon pass away, +Luther, and will look laughable and grotesque enough to us by and by. +Life is so full of changes, and people change, oh, so much!"</p> + +<p>In spite of the vanity of my soul, I comforted myself with the reflection +that Luther would not care long. I did not really believe that he would +go to sea. I stood with him a moment in the door of Grandma's kitchen. +He looked over to the woods, behind which the water lay, and the fire and +impatience had all gone out of his manner. His gentleness touched me +deeply, yet I was determined not to feel his hurt, nor—"if only the +circumstances of his life had been different"—what might have been mine +also!</p> + +<p>"Hark! It's high tide. It's making quite a fuss over there," he said. "I +think a man feels more quiet somehow, when he's out there, teacher. +Father says I'm a wild chap and uneasy. I guess that's so. I can take +care of them just as well too if I go, and better. Only if I should +die—" there was nothing affected or forlorn in the Cradlebow's tone—"I +should like to be buried on the hill, with father's folks. You've been +across there. You look one way and there's the river, oftenest still—and +the other way, you hear the old Bay scooting along the sand. I like it, +being used to hearing it go always. Granny says it makes a difference +then, where you lie, about the resting easy. I don't know. Sometimes it +seems as though I should rest easier there."</p> + +<p>"A dissertation on the graveyard," I began in a tone of affected +lightness, and then paused, convicted of untruth by the solemn light in +the Cradlebow's strange, grand eyes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>LUTE CRADLEBOW KISSES THE TEACHER.</h3> + + +<p>Wallencamp had its peculiar seasons. After the season of hulled corn, +came the reign of baked beans. It was during this latter dispensation +that my courage failed considerably.</p> + +<p>Madeline used to remark, throwing a rare musical halo about her words: +"These beans are better than they look. Ain't they, teacher?"</p> + +<p>And I was wont to reply conscientiously enough, though with a sweetly +wearied glance at the familiar dish; "Certainly, they do taste better +than they look."</p> + +<p>Occasionally we had what Harvey Dole called, "squash on the shell," an +ingenious term for the last of the winter pumpkins boiled in halves, and +served <i>au naturel</i>.</p> + +<p>Grandpa, too, pined and put away his food. He used to look across the +table at me, with a feeble appeal for sympathy in his expression. +Oftentimes he sighed deeply, and related anecdotes redolent of "red +salmon" and "deer flesh," "strawberries as big as teacups" and "peaches +as big as pint bowls," in places where he had sailed.</p> + +<p>Once, he ventured to remark, apologetically, referring to the beans and +pumpkins, that "bein' sich a mild winter, somehow he didn't hanker arter +sech bracin' food, and he guessed he'd go over to Ware'am, and git some +pork."</p> + +<p>"Wall, thar' now, pa!" said Grandma; "seems to me we'd ought ter consider +all the fruits o' God's bounty as good and relishin' in their season."</p> + +<p>"I call that punkin out of season," said Grandpa, recklessly. "Strikes me +so."</p> + +<p>"I was talkin' about fruits. I wasn't talkin' about punkins," said +Grandma, with derisive conclusiveness.</p> + +<p>"Wall," said Grandpa, very much aroused, "if you call them tarnal white +beans the fruits of God, I don't!"</p> + +<p>"Don't you consider that God made beans, pa?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't!"</p> + +<p>"Who, then—" continued Grandma, in an awful tone—"do you consider made +beans, pa?"</p> + +<p>Grandpa's eyes, as he glared at the dish, were large and round, and +significant of unspeakable things.</p> + +<p>"Bijonah Keeler!" Grandma hastened to say; "my ears have heard enough!"</p> + +<p>As for Grandma, neither her appetite, nor her spirits, flagged. In spite +of her confirmed habit of tantalizing Grandpa—and this was from no +malevolence of motive, but simply as the conscientious fulfilment of a +sacred religious and domestic duty—she was the most delightful soul I +ever knew.</p> + +<p>At supper, it was a habit for her to sit at the table long after we had +finished our meal, and to continue eating and talking in her slow, +automatic, sublimely philosophical manner, until not a vestige of +anything eatable remained, and then as she rose, she would remark, +simply, with a glance at the denuded board:—</p> + +<p>"It beats all, how near you guessed the vittles to-night, daughter!"</p> + +<p>Then Grandma resorted to an occasional pastime, harmless and playful +enough in itself, yet intended as a special means of discipline for +Grandpa, and certainly, a source of great torment and anxiety to that +poor old man.</p> + +<p>Between the hours of eight and nine P.M., Grandma would deftly glide out +of the family circle, and be seen no more that night. At bedtime, Grandpa +would begin the search, while Madeline and I ungenerously retired.</p> + +<p>In the privacy of my own chamber, I could hear the old Captain tramping +desolately about the Ark, calling, "Ma! ma!" Could hear the outside door +swung open, and imagine Grandpa's wild face peering into the darkness, +while still he called; "Ma! ma! where be ye? It's half after ten!"</p> + +<p>Then, from the foot of the stairs would arise his distressed, appealing +cry; "Come, ma, where be ye? It's half after ten!" Silence everywhere. +With a mighty groan, Grandpa would come shuffling up the steep stairs, +and what was most remarkable, Grandma was invariably found secluded amid +the rubbish in the old garret. Then the whisperings that arose between +those two would have pierced through denser substances by far than the +little red door which separated me from the scene.</p> + +<p>"How'd I know, ma, but what you'd gone out and broke yer leg, or +somethin'? Come, ma—" with exasperated persuasiveness—"what do ye want +to pester me this way for?"</p> + +<p>"Why, pa," arose the calm, mellifluous accents of Grandma Keeler, "so't +you might know how you'd feel if I should be took away!"</p> + +<p>Next, the little staircase would resound with loud creaks and groans, as +this reunited couple cautiously—and I have no doubt that they believed +the whole affair had been conducted with the utmost secrecy—made their +way down in their stocking feet.</p> + +<p>Grandma—Heaven bless her, always devoted, though original—never saw a +human ill that she did not long to alleviate. So, as Grandpa and I daily +refused our food, she affirmed, as her opinion, that the one need of our +deranged systems was a clarifier! And she forthwith prepared a mixture of +onions and molasses, with various bitter roots, which latter she, upon +her knees, had wrested from the frosty bosom of the earth in an arena +immediately adjoining the Ark. Thus I beheld her one wintry day, and +wondered greatly what she was at. When I came home from school at night, +through a strangely permeated atmosphere, I beheld the clarifier +simmering on the stove.</p> + +<p>Grandpa already stood shivering over the fire. He smiled when I came in, +but it was a faint and deathly smile—the smile of one who has returned, +per force, to weak, defenceless infancy.</p> + +<p>Grandma pressed me kindly to partake. I preferred to keep what ills I +had, rather than fly to others that I knew not of. So I gently and firmly +declined. But for several days in succession, Grandpa was made the victim +of this ghastly remedy.</p> + +<p>His sufferings went beyond the power of mad expostulation to express, and +came nigh to produce upon his features the aspect of a saintly +resignation.</p> + +<p>Never shall I forget his appearance during this clarifying period—his +occasional faint and fleeting attempts at wit—his usually hopeless and +world-weary air. The wonder to me was that he did not then enter upon a +celestial state of existence, being eminently fitted to go, as far as the +attenuation of his mortal frame was concerned. It was at this time that I +wrote home that I had never had such an appetite before in my life as now +in Wallencamp (which, in one sense, I felt to be perfectly true); that +the food was of a most remarkable variety (which I also felt to be true); +but that it was rather difficult to procure oranges and the like. +Whereupon, I received from home a large box, containing all manner of +pleasant fruits, and thus poor old Grandpa Keeler and I were enabled to +take a new lease of life.</p> + +<p>I found that it was considered indispensable to the proper discharge of +my duties in Wallencamp that I should make frequent calls on the parents +of my flock, throughout the entire community. If I failed in any measure +in this respect, they reproached me with being "unsociable," and said; +"Seems to me you ain't very neighborly, teacher."</p> + +<p>I had called myself a student of human nature. It seemed to me, now, +that in those dingy Wallencamp houses, I stood for the first time, awed +and delighted before the real article. Sometimes the men sent out great +volumes of smoke from their pipes, in the low rooms, that were not +delightful; but as far as they knew, they exerted themselves to the +utmost, men and women both, to make their homes pleasant and attractive +to me.</p> + +<p>Godfrey Cradlebow's place was as small and poor as any. There was one +room that served as kitchen, dining-room, and parlor, with a +corresponding medley of furniture. A very finely chased gold watch hung +against the loose brown boards of the wall—a reminder of Godfrey +Cradlebow's youth. But what distinguished this house from all the others, +was the profusion of books it contained. There were books on the tables, +books under the tables, books piled up in the corner of the room.</p> + +<p>Godfrey Cradlebow himself was confined in-doors much of the time with the +rheumatism. He made nets for the fishermen. I used to like to watch his +fingers moving deftly while he talked.</p> + +<p>Things having gone wrong with him, and he having suffered much acute +physical pain, besides—(that was evident from the manner in which his +stalwart frame had been bent with his disease) he had "taken to drink," +not excessively, but he seemed to be, most of the time, in a lightly +inebriated condition. He was a strange and fluent talker, often ecstatic.</p> + +<p>"It is commonly believed, Miss Hungerford," he said to me, once; "that we +start on the summit of life, that we descend into the valley, that the +sun is westering; but as for me, I seem to look far below there on the +mists and dew of earlier years. I walk among the hills. The horizon +widens. The air grows thin. I see the solemn streaks of dawn appearing +through the gloom. Ah," he murmured, again; "weak and erring though I +undoubtedly am, I have a kinship with the living Christ. Yes, even such +kinship as human worthlessness may have with infinite perfection. People +will say to you about here, Miss Hungerford; 'Oh, never mind Godfrey +Cradlebow. He's always being converted, why, he has been converted twenty +times already!' very true, ay, and a hundred times, and I trust I shall +taste the sweets of conversion many times more before I die. I do not +believe the soul to be a barren tract, so far removed from the ocean of +God's love, that it may be washed by the waves only once in a lifetime, +and that, in case of some terrible flood. But I rejoice daily in the +sweet and natural return of the tide. How the shores wait for it! Strewn +with weeds and wreck, scorched by the sun, chilled by the night, how it +listens for the sound of its coming! until it rushes in—ah! roar after +roar—all-covering, all-hiding, all-embracing!"</p> + +<p>Godfrey Cradlebow shook his head rapturously, tears rolled down his +cheeks, and all the while he went on rapidly with his netting.</p> + +<p>He had the natural tact and grace of a gentleman, and was especially +courteous to his wife. This brought down upon him the derision of the +Wallencampers, whose conjugal relations were seldom more delicately +implied than by a reference—"my woman thar'!" or "my man over thar'!" +with an accompanying jerk of the thumb.</p> + +<p>Lydia, Godfrey Cradlebow's wife, was tall and slight, with dark hair and +eyes—a perfect face, though worn and sad. She invariably wore over her +cotton gown, on occasions when she went out, a very fine, very thin +old-fashioned mantilla, bordered with a deep black fringe. This pathetic +remnant of gentility, borne rudely about by the Wallencamp winds, with +Lydia's refined face and melancholy dark eyes, gave her a very +interesting and picturesque appearance; though I never thought she wore +the mantilla during the winter for effect. She was shy, though +exceedingly gentle in her manners. At first, I had thought that she +avoided me. But one time, when making the round of my parochial calls, I +stopped at the Cradlebows', and Mr. Cradlebow discoursing fluently on the +Phenomenon, recommended a severe method of discipline as best adapted to +his case, I replied, laughingly, that he had better be cautious about +making any suggestions of that sort, for Simeon and I were getting to be +great friends; the mother, on whose heart I had had no design, took my +hand at the door, when I went away, in a clinging, almost an affectionate +way.</p> + +<p>"You are good to my boys, teacher," she said; "and I thank you for it. +They make you a great deal of trouble."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," I answered lightly, returning with a sense of pleasure the +pressure of her hand, and it was not until afterwards, walking slowly +down the lane that I sighed gently, thinking of that troublesome boy who +had told me he was going to sea.</p> + +<p>Removed from the world of newspapers, the ordinary active interest in the +affairs of church and state, there was a great deal of the lively gadding +about, neighborly dropping in element in Wallencamp. This applied to the +men equally as well as to the women. I remember that Abbie Ann once put +out her washing, and this fact kept the whole social element of +Wallencamp on the <i>qui vive</i> for a number of days.</p> + +<p>The caller would appear at the door at anytime during the day with a +good-natured matter-of-fact "I was a passin' by, and thought I'd drop in +a minit, jest to see how ye was gittin' along."</p> + +<p>"Won't you set?" would be the cordial response. "Do set."</p> + +<p>"Wall, I don't know how to spend the time anyway," the visitor +would reply; "there's so many things a drivin' on me."</p> + +<p>But this care-belabored victim of fate usually concluded by sitting quite +complacently for any length of time.</p> + +<p>When such visitations occurred out of school hours, and I remained up in +my room, as I frequently did at first, the droppers in felt very much +aggrieved, as though I had wittingly offended the instincts of good +society.</p> + +<p>Besides all which, seldom an evening passed that the young people did not +come to the Ark <i>en masse</i> to sing.</p> + +<p>Then Madeline or Rebecca, or (very rarely) I propelled a strain of +doubtful melody from Madeline's little melodeon, while the singers—boys +and girls together—chimed in, joyfully rendering with a perfect +fearlessness of utterance and deep intensity of expression such songs as +"Go, bury thy sorrow, the world hath its share," and "Jesus, keep me near +the cross," and "Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow; now wash me, +and I shall be whiter than snow."</p> + +<p>They knew no other songs. They would sing through a large proportion of +the Moody and Sankey Hymnal in a single evening.</p> + +<p>At first I listened half amused or thoroughly wearied. But, as the +strains grew more familiar and I sang occasionally with the others, I +felt each day more tired and more conscious of my own incompetency. And +still the Words rang in my ears; "I hear the Saviour say, thy strength +indeed is small;" with much about trusting in Him, and his willingness to +bear it all. As the wind beat against the Ark on wild nights, so that we +could hardly tell which was the wind and which was the roar of the +maddened sea, and still those voices chanted hopefully of the "stormless +home beyond the river," etc., the words began to strike on something +deeper than my physical or intellectual sense, and that not rudely.</p> + +<p>I smiled to catch myself humming them over often, and in the school-room, +when I felt that my patience was fast oozing, and I experienced a wild +desire to loose the reins and let all go, unconsciously I took refuge in +repeating those same simple words, going over with them, again and again, +beneath my breath, holding on to them as though they possessed some +unknown charm to keep me still and strong.</p> + +<p>I went to the evening meetings. They were held in the school-house, and +were very popular in Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>By some provision of the government on behalf of the Indians, a small +meeting-house had been built for those in the vicinity of Wallencamp, and +they were also provided with a minister for several months during the +year. On this account the Indians rather set themselves up above the +benighted Wallencampers, whom government had not endowed with the +privileges of the sanctuary, while they, in turn, made derisive allusions +to the "Nigger-camp" minister, and regarded with contempt its prescribed +means of grace.</p> + +<p>The Indians enjoyed, for part of the time that I was in Wallencamp, the +ministrations of a Baptist clergyman, a truly earnest and intelligent +man, gifted with a most forceful manner of utterance, but so lean as to +present a phenomenal appearance. This good man feared nothing but that he +should fail in some part of the performance of his duty. He believed that +it was his duty to come over and preach to the Wallencampers also, in +their school-house, and he did so.</p> + +<p>I think that the Wallencampers regarded this, on the whole, as a doubtful +though entertaining move.</p> + +<p>I do not think that they took any particular pains to harass or annoy the +Rev. Mr. Rivers. But they certainly did not restrict themselves in that +natural freedom which they always enjoyed on the occasions of their +spiritual feasts.</p> + +<p>They attended, as usual—the old and the young, the good, the bad, the +indifferent, with a lively sprinkling of babies.</p> + +<p>Though not a cold night, they kept the stove gorged with fuel. It roared +furiously. They were restless. They made signs audibly expressive of the +fact that the air of the room was insufferably close, and very audibly +slammed up the windows. They whispered and giggled; they went out and +came in, as they pleased. They drank a great deal of water. I remember +particularly, how at the most earnest and affecting part of the Rev. Mr. +Rivers' discourse, the immortal Estella, <i>alias</i> the "Modoc," arose in +gawky innocence and all good faith from her seat immediately in front of +the speaker, and walked to the back part of the room to regale herself +with a draught.</p> + +<p>The Baptist minister discharged a withering and conscientious reproof at +them through his nose.</p> + +<p>Now, for, the Wallencampers to be reproved, however scathingly, by some +zealous and inspired individual of their own number, was considered, on +the whole, as an apt and appropriate thing, but to be reproved by the +"Nigger-camp" minister! When, after the meeting he walked with the Keeler +family back to the Ark, where he had been hospitably entertained, the +Wallencamp boys saw us depart in silent wrath, and I feared that +Treachery lay in wait for the Rev. Mr. Rivers.</p> + +<p>He sat and talked with us at the Ark for an hour or more, perhaps, before +bidding us good-night, and during that time I caught glimpses of faces +that appeared at the window, and then vanished again instantly—familiar +faces, expressive of much scornful merriment. Now and then I heard a +smothered giggle outside, and a scrambling among the bushes. It was a +dark night. When the Rev. Mr. Rivers finally rose to depart, and had got +as far as the gate, he became helplessly entangled in a perfect network +of small ropes. He could neither advance nor recede. In a pitiable and +ignominious condition, he called to us for help.</p> + +<p>"Those devilish boys!" said Grandpa, with religious fervor of tone, at +the same time glancing at me with a delighted twinkle in his eye. "I knew +they was up to something. I heered 'em out there;" and he patiently lit +his lantern, and went out to cut the minister free; but the Rev. Mr. +Rivers did not come to the Wallencamp school-house to preach again.</p> + +<p>Among those who looked on with quiet approval at this childish and +barbarous performance of the Wallencamp youth, I learned afterwards, were +staid Lovell Barlow and little Bachelor Lot.</p> + +<p>Left to their own spiritual devices, the Wallencampers carried on their +evening meetings after methods formerly approved. They rose and +talked—or prayed—or diverted themselves socially—or sang. Everything +they were moved to do, they did.</p> + +<p>The lame giant, Godfrey Cradlebow, at seasons when the tide came in, +would pour forth the utterances of his soul with the most earnest +eloquence. At other times, he was morbid and silent, or made skeptical +and sneering remarks aside.</p> + +<p>Lovell Barlow, though generally regarded as a believer, had never so far +overcome his natural modesty and reserve as to address the Wallencamp +meeting. But one night, spurred to make the attempt by some of his +malicious and fun-loving compatriots, he surprised us all by rising with +a violent motion from his seat, and making a sudden plunge forward as +though his audience were a cold bath, and he had determined to wade in.</p> + +<p>"Boys!" he began, with a most unnatural ferociousness. Then I felt +Lovell's eyes fixed on my face. "And girls, too," he added, more gently; +"and girls, too, certainly, <i>I</i> think so;" he continued; "<i>I</i> think so." +His tone became very feeble. He glanced about with a wild eye for his +hat, grasped it, and went out, and I saw him afterwards, through the +window, standing like a statue, in the moonlight, with his arms folded, +and with a perfectly cold and emotionless cast of countenance.</p> + +<p>Among the professors, Godfrey Cradlebow's mother, Aunt Sibylla, with +quite as much fire and less delicacy of expression than characterized the +speech of the strange lame man, was always ready to warn, threaten, and +exhort.</p> + +<p>Grandpa Keeler, too, though not subjected to the renovating and +rejuvenating processes of the Sabbath, but just touched up a little here +and there, enough to give him a slight "odor of sanctity," and a saving +sense of personal discomfort, was always led to the meeting, and kept +close by Grandma Keeler's side on the most prominent bench.</p> + +<p>When there was one of those frightful pauses which sometimes occurred +even in the cheerful concourse of the Wallencampers, casting a depressing +influence over all hearts, Grandma Keeler by a series of covert pokes and +nudges, would signify to Grandpa that now was the appointed moment for +him to arise and let his light shine.</p> + +<p>And Grandpa Keeler was not a timid man, but since the event of his +clarification, he had shown a stronger dislike than ever to being +pestered, and was abnormally quick to detect and resist any advances of +that kind. So his movements on these occasions were marked by an angry +deliberation, though the old sea-captain never failed in the end, to +arise and "hand in his testimony."</p> + +<p>His remarks were (originally) clear cut and terse.</p> + +<p>"There's no need o' my gittin' up. You all know how I stand" (an +admonitory nudge from Grandma)—"What's the matter now, ma?" I could hear +the old man swear, mentally, but he went on with the amendment—"or try +to. I'm afeered that even the best on us, at some time or nuther, have +been up to some devil"—(sly, but awfully emphatic nudge from Grandma) +"ahem! we're all born under a cuss!" persisted Grandpa, with irate +satisfaction. "I've steered through a good many oceans," he continued, +more softly, "but thar' ain't none so—misty—as this—a—" (portentous +nudge from Grandma,) "as this pesky ocean of Life! We've got to keep a +sharp look-out" (another nudge from Grandma), "ahem, steer clear of the +rocks," (persistent nudges from Grandma), "ahem! ahem! trust in God +Almighty!" admitted Grandpa with telling force, and sat down.</p> + +<p>As for Grandma, she was herself always prompt and faithful in the +discharge of duty, however trying the circumstances. She was no +hypocrite, this dear old soul! She could not have feigned sentiments +which she did not feel, yet it was invariably the case that, as she rose +in meeting, her usually cheerful face became in the highest degree +tearful and lugubrious. The thought of so many precious souls drifting +toward destruction filled her tender heart with woe. She besought them +in the gentlest and most persuasive terms to "turn to Jesus." She dwelt +long upon His love, standing always with hands reverently clasped before +her, and eyes downcast with awe.</p> + +<p>I used to long to hear her speak. The sound of that low, tender monotone +was in itself inexpressibly soothing. But Grandma's tongue had its mild +edge, as well.</p> + +<p>Once, when she was speaking, a number of the young people—it was a +common occurrence—rose to go out.</p> + +<p>Grandma went on talking without raising either her voice or her eyes; but +when they had reached the door, "What—" said she, in that tone which, +though so mild, somehow unaccountably arrested their progress; +"what—poor, wanderin' creeturs—if your understandin's should give out!" +meaning, what if you should suddenly be deprived of the use of your legs! +"Have you never heered," she continued; "the story of Antynias and +Sapf<i>i</i>ry?"</p> + +<p>But she did not recount the tale. If possible, she would rather use words +of love than of malediction.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the faithful manner in which she narrated Abraham's +intercession with the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah.</p> + +<p>"And Abraham said to the Lord, 'Periodventure there be fifty righteous +found,' he said; 'willest thou destroy the city, and them in it? Oh, no! +that ain't like the Lord,' he says; 'for to slay the righteous and the +wicked together—fur be it.' And the Lord says; 'No. If I find fifty +righteous I'll spare all the rest,' he says, 'on account o' them fifty,' +he says, and Abraham says, 'O Lord, now I've begun,' he says, 'and you +don't seem so very much put out with me as I expected, I've a good mind +to keep on askin' ye a little more, jest to see what ye'll say,' he says; +'O Lord, periodventure what if there shouldn't be but forty-five?' he +says."</p> + +<p>Grandma went through the list of "periodventures," depicting Abraham's +growing fear and obsequiousness in the most tragic manner until she got +to the hypothetical ten.</p> + +<p>"And Abraham said; 'O Lord, I know you won't like it this time, but I've +gone so fur now, that I'm going to out with't; and don't—don't git put +out, O Lord! and I won't put it one mite lower. Periodventure, O Lord, +what if there shouldn't be but ten?' and the Lord said, 'If there wasn't +but ten, he wouldn't destroy them wicked cities.' Now," continued +Grandma, with tearful impressiveness, "if Abraham had even a ventured to +put it down one five more, what more chance do you think there'd be for +us here in Wallencamp?"</p> + +<p>After the meeting, Captain Sartell and Bachelor Lot held their usual +theological levee, outside the school-house.</p> + +<p>"Wall, Bachelder," said the captain, who always took the initiative with +extreme recklessness; "if it was a goin' to take ten to clear Sodom and +Germorrer, how many righteous men do you calkalate it 'ud take ter lift +the mortgage off'n this ere peninsheler, eh?"</p> + +<p>Bachelor Lot was unusually thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Heh!" said he, in his thin drawl. "The Lord knew he was seafe +enough—knew he'd a been seafe enough if he'd a said tew; knew he'd a +been seafe enough if he'd a said eone, for there's his own statement to +the effect—heh!—that there wasn't a righteous man eanywhere, no, not +eone."</p> + +<p>"Not much leeway, that's a fact, Bachelder," said Captain Sartell, who +had an embarrassed way, particularly when discussing subjects of a +religious nature, of twisting his powerful blonde head about, and +swallowing very hard. "D——d little leeway, I must confess,—wall—all +the same for you and me, Bachelder."</p> + +<p>Bachelor Lot smiled a little.</p> + +<p>"Heh! What was it about that couple, Almiry (Grandma Keeler) was tellin' +about—Antynias and Sapfiry—heh, Captain? What streuck 'em eany way? It +wasn't because they went out o' meetin', was it? I think it would be a +satisfaction to the company, Captain, if you would relate the +circumstance."</p> + +<p>The brave and honest captain craned his neck about with several hard +gulps.</p> + +<p>"Wall, to tell the truth, Bachelder, I ain't quite so well posted with +the Old Testament as I be with the New, but," he continued, resolutely, +"if it would be any favor to the company—as near as I calkalate, this +ere Antynias heered that the Lord was a goin' by, and, as near as I +calkalate, he clim' up in a tree to see him pass." The captain writhed +fearfully, but did not flinch, "And, as near as I calkalate, he got on to +a rotten limb, and it let him down. That is," he remarked, with +concluding agony, "as near as I calkalate."</p> + +<p>"Heh! yees, much obleeged, I'm sure," said Bachelor Lot. "I, heh! I +recall the anecdote now, perfectly, but wheere—wheere was Sapf<i>i</i>ry?"</p> + +<p>"Wall," the captain gave a gulp that actually brought the tears to his +eyes; "as near as I calkalate, Sapf<i>i</i>ry was under the limb."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Bachelor Lot; "certainly! and a veery unfortunate +poseetion for Sapf<i>i</i>ry it was, too. I weesh you would be so kind as to +eenform the company in what part of the Sacred Writ this little anecdote +is recorded, Captain, as I for one should very much leike to look it up."</p> + +<p>Captain Sartell took a determined step forward. "Look y' here, +Bachelder," said he; "I don't want no hard words betwixt you and me, for +there never has been. But a man's word is a man's word, and a man's +friends had ought to stick by it, and I want you to understand that, on +this ere point, I ain't agoin' to have no lookin' up."</p> + +<p>"Heh!" Bachelor Lot smiled and nodded his head, cheerfully. "I'd be +willing to waeger my life, Captain, that if anybody's made a mistake on +this point—heh—it ain't you." And with this amicable conclusion, the +two stars withdrew.</p> + +<p>George Olver sometimes rose in meeting and made a few remarks indicative +of a manly spirit and much sound common sense. He was very fond of +Rebecca, that was plain. Her continued indifference to him made him sore +at heart, and the people in Wallencamp suggested that on this account he +was more serious than he would otherwise have been.</p> + +<p>As for Rebecca, they said she had given up "seekin' religion," and had +returned to the world. She did not rise for prayers any more, and she did +not "lead the singin'" any more. And it was true that she seemed to me to +have changed, somehow. I knew that she was as girlishly devoted to me as +ever, as thoughtful as ever to please me. One Saturday morning, knowing +that I had letters in the West Wallen Post Office, which I was anxious to +get before Sunday, she walked the whole distance alone to get them, and +sent them up to me by one of the school children, so that I should not +know who went after them. She was careful lest I should notice any change +in her. But I caught a reckless, mocking gleam in her eyes, at times, +that had never shone there when I knew her first. She associated more +with the "other girls," now. I heard her talking and laughing with them +in as loud and careless a tone as their own. She even whispered and +laughed in the evening meetings. And this, after all the earnest, serious +discourse I had had with her, the "refining," "elevating" influences I +had tried to throw around her, having first taken her so graciously under +my wing! She knew what belonged to agreeable manners, and the advantage +of paying a graceful obedience to the dictates of one's moral sense! +Something must be very innately wrong in Rebecca, I thought, something I +Had not hitherto suspected, else why should she fail in any degree under +so admirable a method!</p> + +<p>"My dear," I said to her: "I am often tempted to do wrong—especially +because my life has been hitherto so vain and thoughtless—but, having +resolved to struggle with temptation, and to repel my own selfish +inclinations, I will not be content until I come off conqueror; I will +not fall out or loiter by the way; I have trials and perplexities, but I +will not submit to them, nor be driven from my purpose. Now, are you +struggling to resist the little temptations that come to you day by day? +Are you striving to make the very best of yourself, Becky?"</p> + +<p>I knew how easily I could move Rebecca, either to laughter or tears, so I +was not surprised to see her lip tremble, and her eyes fill; but I was +surprised at the look of intense anguish, almost of horror, that came +into her face. I had not supposed that she was capable of such strong +emotion, and I marvelled greatly, what could be the cause.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she said; "you don't know, teacher, you don't know! It never seemed +so bad before I knew you. I was different brought up from you, and I +loved you, and when I knew, oh, then I could die, but I couldn't tell +you! Oh, you wouldn't kiss me again, ever, if you knew; and I wish you +wouldn't, for it hurts, it hurts worse than if you didn't!"</p> + +<p>Rebecca had turned very pale, and drew her breath in long gasping sobs.</p> + +<p>"Baby!" I said reassuringly, stroking her hair; "I don't believe you have +done anything very wrong." But Rebecca drew away from me.</p> + +<p>"You don't know," she said. "I was brought up different—and it was +before you came, and I never knew that, what you told me about not +trusting people. I thought it was all true, and oh!—there ain't anybody +to help! Oh, I wish I was dead! I wish I was dead!"</p> + +<p>"Rebecca," I said, a little frightened, and convinced that the girl had +some serious trouble at heart. "Tell me what the trouble is? Has any one +deceived you? And why should any one wish to deceive you, child?"</p> + +<p>Rebecca only moaned and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"But you must tell me," I said; "I can't help you unless you do."</p> + +<p>She drew herself farther away from me, with only these convulsive sobs +for a reply. I did not attempt to get nearer to her, to comfort her as it +had been my first impulse to do. She had repulsed me once. "You are +nervous and excited, my dear," I decided to say; "and something of little +consequence, probably, looks like a mountain of difficulty to you. At any +rate, when you get ready to confide in me, you must come to me. I shall +not question you again."</p> + +<p>So I left her, less with a feeling of commiseration for her than with a +deep sense of my own pressing burdens and responsibilities.</p> + +<p>I had another ex-pupil (Rebecca had been out of school for several +weeks), who was a source of considerable anxiety to me—Luther Larkin. He +had ceased coming to the Ark to sing with the others. He had not played +on his violin since that first night when the string broke.</p> + +<p>I heard that he had gone to New Bedford; and it was a day or two +afterwards that, coming out of the school-house after the meeting, I saw +him standing on the steps alone. I knew that an escort from among the +Wallencamp youths was close behind me. I hastened to put my hand on +Luther's arm.</p> + +<p>"Will you walk home with me?" I said, looking up in his face and smiling. +I knew that the face lifted to his then was a beautiful one, that the +hand resting on his arm was small and daintily gloved, unlike the bare +coarse hands of the Wallencampers. I knew that my dress had an air and a +grace also foreign to Wallencamp, that a delicate perfume went up from my +garments, that my voice was more than usually winning. I experienced a +dangerous sense of satisfaction in the conquest of this unsophisticated +youth—a conquest not wholly without its retributive pain and +intoxication.</p> + +<p>I felt the Cradlebow's arm tremble as we walked up the lane.</p> + +<p>"I have a little private lecture to give you, Luther," I said. "Of course +you have been very much absorbed in your own affairs lately, but is that +an excuse for forsaking your old friends entirely? Especially if you are +going away. Are you going away?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Luther.</p> + +<p>"When?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"In April," he answered briefly.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/grandma.jpg" width="700" height="397" alt="GRANDMA KEELER INTRODUCES THE NEW TEACHER" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GRANDMA KEELER INTRODUCES THE NEW TEACHER.</span> +</div> + +<p>"And weren't you ever coming to see me, again?" I murmured with designing +soft reproach.</p> + +<p>"I was coming up by and by, to say good-bye," said Luther, brokenly.</p> + +<p>"Only for that?" I questioned, and sighed with a perfect abandonment of +rectitude and good faith to the selfish gratification of that moment.</p> + +<p>"What else should I come up for?" he exclaimed, breaking out into sudden +passion. "Except to tell you what you don't want to hear; that I love +you, teacher, I love you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush!" I cried with a little accent of unaffected pain. "It isn't +right for me to let you talk to me in that way, Luther. Oh, don't you +see? you're nothing but a boy to me!"</p> + +<p>"That's a lie!" the boy replied, with face and eyes aflame. "And because +I am poor, and because I am more ignorant than you, you make it an excuse +to trifle with me—and you look only to the outside, but you know I have +lived as long as you—a boy's head, you mean," he went on with choking, +fiery bitterness. "And it may be, and you are very kind, God knows! But I +can tell you one thing, teacher, it isn't a boy's heart for you to put +your foot on!"</p> + +<p>It was not a boy's strength in the quivering frame and tense, drawn +muscles. In his rare passions I admired Lute Cradlebow.</p> + +<p>The greater meekness and patience which always followed, I attributed to +a lack of perseverance or a too easy abandonment of purpose.</p> + +<p>"I hope you will be very happy all your life through, teacher;" he said, +as we stood at the door of the Ark; and he spoke very gently, and as +though he was going away then forever. Madeline had the key; she and her +companions had lingered at the school-house, as usual, after the meeting. +I murmured something about being very happy to have such a kind, true +friend; that I should probably leave Wallencamp before he went to sea, +but I hoped he would write me about his wanderings over the world, and I +should always be happy to answer and give him my sisterly advice.</p> + +<p>Luther continued, thoughtfully, almost smiling:—</p> + +<p>"You remember that night, teacher, ever so long ago it seems, before I +knew you, when the boys dragged me into the Ark and I kissed you? I've +always kissed the girls when they come home from anywhere, and I never +thought, you know. I didn't mean anything by it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said. I think I must have looked amused. Luther answered the +laugh in my eyes with quiet appreciation.</p> + +<p>"Well, teacher," he said; "I should like to kiss you just once to-night, +and mean it."</p> + +<p>"That's a remarkable request," I said; "to come from my oldest pupil; but +it is my privilege to bestow, just once. If you will bend down from your +commanding height, and put yourself in an humble and submissive attitude +before me."</p> + +<p>The Cradlebow knelt on the doorstep. I would have stooped to his +forehead, but he put up his arm with an extremely boyish, inoffensive +gesture, almost with a sob, I thought, to draw me closer.</p> + +<p>I would have had that kiss as passionless as though it had been given to +a child. The Cradlebow's breath was pure upon my cheek—but I was +compelled to feel the answering flame creep slowly in my own blood.</p> + +<p>"Never ask me to do that again!" I exclaimed, in righteous exculpation of +the act. "Never!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK.</h3> + + +<p>Up from the beach, lightly tripping, capacious reticule in hand, came +Mrs. Barlow to spend the day at the Ark, unexpectedly! The inspired and +felicitous customs of the Wallencampers admitted of no rude surprises; +rational joy, alone, pervaded the Ark at this matutinal advent.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Barlow, Lovell's mother, presented a charmingly antique +appearance—antique not in the sense of advanced years, but the young +antique—the gay, the lively, the never-fading antique. She had even a +girlish way of simpering and uttering absurdly rapturous exclamations. +Her face might have struck one at first as being of a strangely elongated +cast, but for its extreme prettiness and simplicity of expression. Her +nose was marked by a becoming scallop or two. Her eyes were of the ocean +blue. Her dark hair was arranged, behind, in the simplest and most +compact manner possible but, in front, art held delightful play. There, +it was parted, slightly to the left, over a broad, high forehead, and +disposed in braids of eight strands each, gracefully and lovingly looped +over Mrs. Barlow's ears.</p> + +<p>The tide of cheerful converse was at its full when I came from school to +lunch. Amid this preponderance of female society, my friend, Grandpa, +shone with an ardent though faintly tolerated light, giving to the lively +flow of the discourse, an occasional salty and comprehensive flavor, +which dear Grandma Keeler held herself ever in calm and religious +readiness to restrain.</p> + +<p>I listened, intensely interested, to the conversation, quite content, for +my own part, to keep silence; but I caught Mrs. Barlow's eye fixed on me +as if in abstracted, beatific thought. Soon was made known the result of +her meditation. She had concluded that I was incapable of descending to +subjects of an ordinary nature. Leaning far forward on the table, with a +smile more ecstatic than any that had gone before, she directed these +words at me in a clear, swift-flowing treble:—</p> + +<p>"Oh, ain't it dreadful about them poor delewded Mormons?"</p> + +<p>"Why?" I exclaimed, involuntarily, blinded by the absolute unexpectedness +of the question, and not knowing, in a dearth of daily papers, but that +the infatuated people alluded to had been swallowed up of an earthquake, +or fallen in a body into the Great Salt Lake.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing!" said Mrs. Barlow; "only I think it's dreadful, don't yew, +settin' such an example to Christian nations?"</p> + +<p>"Dreadful! certainly!" I murmured, with intense relief, and allowed my +glasses to drop into my lap again.</p> + +<p>Thus the conversation turned to subjects of a religious nature.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think it's so nice to have direct dealin's with the Almighty; +don't yew?" said Mrs. Barlow. "Oh, I think it is! Brother Mark Barlow +says he can hear the Lord speakin' to him jest as plain as they could in +Old Testament times; oh, yes, jest as plain exactly; Abraham and all +them, yew know! And Brother Mark Barlow generally means to go to Sunday +school. He says he thinks it's so interestin'; but it's sich an awful +ways. Don't yew think it is? Oh, yes, it's a dreadful ways! He don't +always. But yew remember that Saturday we had sich a dreadful storm? oh, +wasn't it dreadful! Oh, yes! Well, the next day, that was Sunday, Brother +Mark Barlow said he heard the Lord sayin' to him, jest as plain as day; +'Mark Barlow, don't you go to Sunday school to-day! You stay home and +pick up laths!' and he did, and oh, he got a dreadful pile! most ten +dollars worth; but I think it's so nice, don't yew, to have direct +dealin's with the Almighty!"</p> + +<p>The Barlows, by the way, were regarded with a sort of contemptuous +toleration by the Wallencampers in general, on account of their thrift +and penuriousness, the branded qualities of sordid and unpoetic natures.</p> + +<p>I was sorry when the brief hour of the noon intermission was over, and I +had to go back to school.</p> + +<p>But at night the Ark became alive. Soon after supper, Mr. Barlow arrived +and "Brother Mark Barlow" and Lovell. Then the little room began to fill +rapidly. We adjourned to the "parlor" and the melodeon.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do think them plaster Paris picters are so beautiful, don't yew?" +said Mrs. Barlow, enraptured over a statuette or two of that truly vague +description, which adorned the mantelpiece. But she became perfectly +lost in delight when Lovell began to sing.</p> + +<p>Lovell's was the one execrable voice among the Wallencampers—if anything +so weak could be designated by so strong a term—and his manner of +keeping time with his head was clock-like in its regularity and painfully +arduous; yet, out of that pristine naughtiness which found a hiding-place +in the hearts of the Wallencamp youth, Lovell was frequently encouraged +to come to the front during their musicals, and if not actually beguiled +into executing a solo, was generously applauded in the performance of +minor parts. There was comfort, however, in the reflection that if Lovell +had indeed possessed the tuneful gift of a Heaven-elected artist, he +could not have been so supremely confident of the merit of his own +performances, nor could his mother have been more delighted at their +brilliancy. She sat with hands clasped in her lap and gazed at her manly +offspring.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do think it's so beautiful!" she murmured occasionally to me, +aside. "Oh, yes, ain't it beautiful?"</p> + +<p>Once, she remarked in greater confidence; "Oh, he's dreadful wild!"</p> + +<p>"Lovell?" I inquired, with impulsive incredulity.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dreadful!" she continued. "I don't know what he'd ben if we hadn't +always restrained him. But somehow, I think there's something dreadful +bewitchin' about such folks. Don't yew?"</p> + +<p>"Very," I answered with vague, though ardent sympathy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dreadful!" she responded.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the perspiration stood out on Lovell's grave countenance, and +his head, like a laborious sledge-hammer, was swaying mechanically +backward and forward.</p> + +<p>"Sing bass, now, Lovell," said Mrs. Barlow; and the expression of awed +delight and expectancy on her face, as she uttered these words, was a +rebuke to all cynics and unbelievers of any sort whatever.</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, so I will, certainly," said Lovell; "so I will, and if I hadn't +got such a cold, I'd come down heavy on it too."</p> + +<p>"What do you think?" Mrs. Barlow went on in the same confidential aside +to me; "he's took it into his head that he wants to get married! Oh, yes, +he has really! and I think it's a wonder he never got set on it before. +But he never has so but what we could restrain him. But William and I, +we're beginning to think he might as well if he wants to. Oh, yes, I +think it will be so nice. Don't yew? I think it will be just splendid! +And I tell William, Lovell's wife shan't do nothing but set in the parlor +and fold her hands, if she don't want to; and she shall have a music, and +everything. When we built our new house, you know we used to live in that +little house that Brother Mark Barlow lives in now, oh, yes, and I think +it's so nice to have a new house, don't yew? I had 'em make the window +seats low on purpose, so that Lovell's children could sit on them! Oh, I +think it will be so pleasant, don't yew?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Barlow turned her enraptured gaze on me.</p> + +<p>"Lovell's wife," I hastened to reply, toying with my glasses; "whoever +she may be, is certainly to be envied—and Lovell's children, too"—I +added, induced by that transcendently beaming smile; "who will have such +a broad window seat to sit on."</p> + +<p>Never an evening began in heartier fashion at the Ark.</p> + +<p>George Olver, standing next to Rebecca, rolled out a grand and powerful +bass.</p> + +<p>Lars Thorjon, the Norwegian, maintained a smiling silence, except when he +was giving utterance in song to his inspiring tenor.</p> + +<p>Madeline played the "music."</p> + +<p>I saw her wince sometimes, when the fine though untutored voices around +her took on a too wild and exuberant strain. The little woman's own voice +was exceedingly gentle and refined; more than that, it had a passionately +sweet, sad tone, a rare pathos. I used to wonder what there was in +Madeline's heart—what there had been in her life—to make her sing so. +Then I remembered how easy it was for her to get out of temper, and how +often she slapped the children, and I concluded that it was only a voice +after all, and not necessarily indicative of any inward sentiment or +emotion.</p> + +<p>And the mischievous Harvey Dole—could it be the same youth who stood +there now with tearful eyes, chanting his longings to be pure and +sanctified and heavenly. This merry youth had a predilection for those +religious songs which contained the deepest and saddest sentiment.</p> + +<p>"Now, what's the matter with you, Harvey?" said Emily Gaskell, who had +but just dropped in. "You know you'll go along hum to-night stunin' my +cats! You know what a precious nice time you're calculatin' to have, +about two months from now, up in my trees stealin' my peaches, you young +devil. 'Wash you from your sins!' Humph! Yes, you need it bad enough, +Lord knows! A good poundin', and boilin', and sudzin', you need—and a +good soakin' in the bluein' water over night, too."</p> + +<p>Emily's eyes sparkled with keen though good-natured satire. There was a +flood of crimson color in her cheeks, not entirely the effect of her +brisk walk in the open air. She had a spasm of coughing, which she +endured as though such discomforts had become quite a matter of course, +merely remarking when she had recovered herself sufficiently to speak:—</p> + +<p>"Thar', that'll last me for one spell, I guess."</p> + +<p>"Won't you set, Emily?" said Grandma.</p> + +<p>"No," said Emily. "I can't. I jest come up to tell my man, there, to go +home! Levi is over from West Wallen, and wants to see him. Lord, I didn't +know you'd got a party, Miss Keeler!" she continued, glancing with an +irresistibly comical expression about the room.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! we ain't got no party," said Grandma Keeler, pleasantly. "They +jest happened to drop in along."</p> + +<p>"Wall now, I should think there'd ben a shower and rained 'em all down at +once:" again surveying the occupants of the room with a comprehensively +critical air that was hardly flattering.</p> + +<p>"I don't see what on 'arth!" she went on. "Half the time you might +ransack Wallencamp from top to bottom, and you'd find everybody a'most +somewhere, and nobody to hum! It ain't much like the cake Silvy made last +week—she's crazier than ever—'Where's the raisins, Silvy?' says I—I +always make it chock full of 'em, and there wasn't one,—'Oh,' says +Silvy, 'I mixed 'em up so thorough you can't a hardly find 'em.' 'I guess +that's jest about the way the Lord put the idees into your head, Silvy,' +says I. 'Bless the Lord!' says that poor fool, as slow and solemn as a +minister."</p> + +<p>"We've been a singing" interposed Grandma Keeler in a voice that +contrasted with Emily's, like the flow of a great calm river with the +impatient fall of a cataract. "It seems a' most as though I'd been in +Heaven. They was jest a singin'—'The Light of the World is Jesus,' I +shall never forgit, when I was down to camp-meetin' to Marthy's Vin'yard +a good while ago—there was a little blind boy stood up on a bench and +sung it all alone; and it made me cry to see him standin' there with his +poor little white face, and eyes that couldn't see a' one of all the +faces lookin' up to him, a singin' that out as bold and free, and he did +pronounce the words so beautiful so as everybody could hear—I can hear +him a singin' of it out, now—'The Light of the World is Jesus.' And I +suppose we git to thinkin' that the light's in our eyes, maybe, or the +light's in the sun, or the light's in the lamp, maybe. But you might put +out my eyes,"—said Grandma Keeler, closing her eyes as she spoke, and +looking very peaceful and happy—"and you might put out the sun, and you +might put out the lamp, and say—'Thar', Almiry's all in the dark room, +she can't see nothin' now'—but the Light of the World 'ud be thar jest +the same, you couldn't put out the light—'The Light of the World is +Jesus.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't know ye was havin' a meetin'," said Emily Gaskell, +mockingly.</p> + +<p>"No more we ain't, Emily," said Grandma Keeler. "We was jest cheerin' +ourselves up a little, singin' about home. Come you, now, and sing with +us":</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"We're goin' home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more to roam."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>With eyes still closed, with head thrown back, and a heavenly serene +expression on her face, Grandma began the refrain, while Madeline struck +the chords on the melodeon, and the singers took up the words with a +hearty cheer:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"We're goin' home,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">No more to roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more to sin and sorrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">No more to wear<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The brow of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We're goin' home to-morrow."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then the chorus, "We're going home," joyfully repeated, died away at +last, more plaintively, "We're going home to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Wall, I'm goin' home to-night," said Emily, and, as I looked up at her, +I caught the same mischievous gleam in her unsoftened eyes. "So strike up +Something lively now, and I'll waltz down the lane to it. 'Are your +windows open towards Jerusalem?'—Lord, can't you think o' something +warmer than that for this weather?"</p> + +<p>But the singers were going on gloriously:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though as captives here a little while we stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the coming of the King in His glory,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are you watching, day by day?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Emily tightened the shawl around her neck with a quick motion. In going +out, she took an indirect course through the room, purposely to pass by +where I was sitting.</p> + +<p>"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem?" said she, stooping and +whispering in my ear: "Dave Rollin's out there hangin' onto the fence one +side the bushes, and Lute Cradlebow the other, and they don't see each +other no more than two bats."</p> + +<p>"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem" was a favorite with the +Wallencampers. On this occasion they repeated it several times. Captain +Sartell and Bachelor Lot, who had been engaging in a game of checkers in +the little kitchen, left the board as the well-loved strains greeted +their ears, and came in to join the group.</p> + +<p>Grandpa had been consigned to the kitchen stove, with a corn-popper. I do +not think that he regretted being removed, somewhat from the more +inspiring scenes which animated the Ark. I was amused to follow, with my +ear, the old gentleman's progress in the successive stages of his +corn-shelling and corn-popping operations with certain contingent +misfortunes, as when he went into the pantry to look for a pan, and +brought down a large quantity of tin-ware clanging about his ears, and +rolling in all directions over the floor, while I immediately inferred +from the tones of his voice that he was enjoying a little unembarrassed +colloquy with the powers of darkness. Once, in his shuffling +peregrinations, he tipped over the little bench which sustained the +water-pail. A deep sigh of horror and despair escaped his lips, and was +followed by a "What the Devil!" borne in upon the song-laden air with +unmistakable force and distinctness.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, ma," said Madeline, looking up sharply; "what can pa +be a' doin??"</p> + +<p>"Oh," calmly said Grandma Keeler, "I guess he's only settlin' down."</p> + +<p>And with Grandma, indeed, the turmoils of this sublunary sphere implied +only a vast ultimate settling down.</p> + +<p>But if such deep rest came to Grandpa, it was only as a dream from which +he was soon to be rudely awakened.</p> + +<p>The sound of his footsteps had ceased. I knew that he was seated in his +chair by the fire, and I heard the long-handled popper shaken back and +forth upon the stove, at first as if moved by the power of a steadfast +purpose. But the sound grew fainter, the motions less regular. They were +several times desperately renewed, and then ceased altogether, so quickly +had Grandpa soared beyond the low vicissitudes of a corn-popping world. +Soon a burning smell arose. Then the door of the kitchen opened. Grandpa +was startled. I knew the catastrophe. The corn-popper with its contents +had been precipitated to the floor. Then I heard a courteous male voice, +with just a touch of suppressed merriment in it:—</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Captain! small business for you, steering such a slim craft +as that, eh? On a red-hot, stove, too!"</p> + +<p>"Humph! Topmast heavier than the hull," replied Grandpa, accepting with +gratitude, in this extremity, the sympathy of the new-comer.</p> + +<p>The other gave a low laugh.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Captain!" he repeated, "we'll have it slick here in a minute. +Let me take the broom. You've got it wrong side up. By Harry, we've got +the deluge <i>inside</i> the Ark this time, Captain!"</p> + +<p>"Tarnal water-pail slipped moorin's," confessed Grandpa.</p> + +<p>Then followed a vigorous sound of corn rattling, and water swashing +against the sides of the room, and I knew that Mr. Rollin, the elegant, +was sweeping out the kitchen of the Ark.</p> + +<p>"I guess they's somebody else come," exclaimed Grandma, with hospitable +glee. "Wall, I declare for't. I guess I'll go out into my kitchen and git +that little no-back cheer. Seems to me as though we'd got all the rest on +'em in use, pretty much."</p> + +<p>"I'll go, ma," said Madeline. "Teacher'll be wanted to play now, and may +be she will? though she can't be got to do it for common folks."</p> + +<p>I did not enjoy playing on Madeline's melodeon. Any performances of that +kind which I had undertaken had been confined exclusively to an audience +of the Wallencampers. I had certainly never made an exception for the +amusement of the fisherman. But I flattered myself that there was no +trace of resentment in my tone when I said, "Sit still, Madeline, please, +I know where the chair is. Don't I, Grandma?" and was groping my way out +through the green curtained "keepin'" rooms, towards Grandma's culinary +apartment, thankful for a momentary escape from the heated atmosphere of +the "parlor," when I heard just behind me a voice of the most exquisite +smoothness:—</p> + +<p>"Miss Hungerford, allow me."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Rollin!" I exclaimed, with an overwhelming sense of the +ludicrousness of the situation: "How dared you come through the room +where they were all sitting and follow me out here! Did Grandma tell you +that I had gone after a little no-back chair for you to sit on?"</p> + +<p>"She did," replied Mr. Rollin, with impressive gravity: "and I took it as +most divinely kind of you, too; though, if I might be allowed any choice +in the matter, I think I should be likely to assume a much more graceful +and more easeful and natural position in a chair constructed after the +ordinary pattern, Miss Hungerford, especially as after my exertions in +the kitchen I feel the need of entire repose."</p> + +<p>"But this is the only one left," I answered, with suppressed laughter. +"Do you think you can find it, Mr. Rollin?"</p> + +<p>"If you should leave me now," replied the fisherman; "I should have +positively no idea whither to direct my steps."</p> + +<p>"Then I shall be very happy to get it for you," I said.</p> + +<p>"But I could not think," he continued, "of allowing you to pursue your +way through this utter darkness to the extreme rear of the Ark alone. I +beg you to show me the way."</p> + +<p>I was not disposed to commit so gross an impropriety as to linger with +Mr. Rollin in "Grandma's kitchen," which we had reached, and through +whose broad, uncurtained windows the moonlight was pouring in with a +clear, fantastic radiance.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this glorious!" exclaimed the fisherman, in a tone nearly as +rapturous as Mrs. Barlow's own. "Oh, you don't think of going back now, +Miss Hungerford! After I've mopped the kitchen floor, and braved all +Wallencamp in its lair, and groped my way out through those infernally +black rooms, for the chance of having a few quiet words with you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin's eyes were not snaky, nor his manner suggestive of dark +duplicity; yet I always felt a certain unaccountable discomfort while in +his presence, as though there was need of keeping my own conscience +particularly on the alert.</p> + +<p>I knew that the group in the parlor would be counting the moments of our +absence.</p> + +<p>"How can you ask me—" I began, in a tone of cheerful remonstrance, at the +same time readjusting my glasses to glance about for the little "no-back" +chair—"How can you ask me to stay out here talking with you, when you +know——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know." Mr. Rollin interrupted quickly. "I know how very thoughtful +and considerate you are for those people, Miss Hungerford. I know what +lofty ideas you have just now of consecrating yourself to the work of +refining and elevating the Wallencampers. I know how coolly you can fix +your eyes on a certain goal, and stumble indiscriminately over everything +that comes in your way. I know what a deucedly superior state of mind +you've gotten into. I know too about Miss B's school, and Miss L's +school, and the Seminary at Mount Blank, and the winters in New York."</p> + +<p>There was triumph at last, in Mr. Rollin's tone.</p> + +<p>"You have taken pains to collect a great deal of information about me;" I +replied, virtuously concluding that I should disappoint the fisherman +more by not appearing vexed.</p> + +<p>"Is it strange?" he continued earnestly, with an unconscious parody on +his usually suave and insinuating manner. "You will allow, Miss +Hungerford, that you might strike one, at first, as not being exactly in +the ordinary line of home missionaries, that is, as not having been +trained for the work, exactly; a sort of novitiate, I mean—confound it! +You will allow that you might strike one at first, as being deucedly new +In that <i>rôle</i>."</p> + +<p>After this, I smiled with a faintly malicious sense of satisfaction at +Mr. Rollin's confusion, though I felt that I had been cut to the heart.</p> + +<p>"And when I spoke about having found out about your past life," he went +on, struggling desperately with his lost cause; "I did not mean that +there was anything bad, you know; only that you sought pleasant +diversions in common with the rest of humanity, and enjoyed the +Heaven-born instinct of knowing how to have a good time, and weren't +always the ambitious recluse and religious devotee that you choose to be +just at present; though I've sometimes wished that I could turn saint so +all of a sudden, but I couldn't," added the fisherman, despondently; "if +I should go to the ends of the earth in that capacity, nobody'd take any +stock in me, whatever; and, after all, what does it amount to?</p> + +<p>"This isn't what I meant to say, any of it;" he sighed angrily. "It's +just what I meant <i>not</i> to say—confound it! You've done gloriously; +you've played the thing through to perfection; you've made an inimitable +success of it; but Wallencamp doesn't offer scope wide enough for your +powers. I offer you a field hitherto untilled, left to the wandering +winds and the birds of the air, extensive enough in its forlorn iniquity, +I assure you, to engage your patient and continued efforts. It may prove +productive of good results yet, who knows? Is it my fault that I didn't +know you sooner?"</p> + +<p>I did not mistake the change in Mr. Rollin's tone, nor the meaning in his +eyes, but as we stood there by the window, in the full moonlight, I +caught a glimpse of another face outside, vanishing up the lane—almost +like a ghostly apparition it seemed to me—the handsome pale young face. +I guessed instinctively whose it was, and suffered a pang of sharp, +unconfessed pain, while the fisherman was murmuring in my ear.</p> + +<p>"Don't speak to me again of missions!" I cried with the strong and tragic +air of consciously blighted aspirations. "I shall go on no more missions, +great or small. It is very true what you have tried so delicately to +intimate. I was not fit for the work I undertook to do. I have only made +mistakes all the way along. Possibly I have been only 'playing a part.' +What does it amount to, indeed! What does it amount to!"</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" said Mr. Rollin; "play a part, by all means; never be sincere +in anything you do. I never tried it but once, and I've made a desperate +mess of it. Can't you understand that what I said was only in the purest +sort of self-defence? You weigh my words so nicely. Well, you are +considerate enough, God knows, of those dirty brats and ignorant +louts—coddling that girl, Rebecca, who is a good-hearted creature +enough, but not fit for respectable people to touch their hands to; and +associating with such conceited boors as that George Olver, and that +grinning clown, Harvey, and that poor fool, Lovell Barlow, and that +what-d'ye-call him—that fiddling young devil with the bird-like +name——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin stopped suddenly.</p> + +<p>"You might make allowances for a man in a passion," he said; "instead of +dissecting his words in that cold-blooded way."</p> + +<p>"I had no notion of dissecting your words," I said, provoked into a +desperate honesty; "I believe them, as a whole, to be utterly false."</p> + +<p>"From the very beginning," said Mr. Rollin; "thank you; so I can begin +all over again; meanwhile,—you will forgive me? Imagine that I'm one of +those dirty little beggars that go to school to you. If one of them +should come to you and say that he was sorry?—"</p> + +<p>"I should only be intensely surprised," I said; "they never do such +things."</p> + +<p>"Then I have a superior claim on your clemency," said the fisherman; "for +I am sorry and humiliate my soul to the lowest depths of the +confessional."</p> + +<p>It was the voice of the plausible, easy-going fisherman again.</p> + +<p>My hand was on the latch. "I am not angry; I would rather be friends," I +said with averted face, as we were returning through the dark +"keeping-rooms."</p> + +<p>"When you get out of this realm of myths and missions, and general dread +and discomfort," said Mr. Rollin, "on to comprehensible soil again, where +ordinary sinners are sure of some sort of a footing,—and bad as a fellow +is he knows there are plenty more like him,—then I shan't appear to you +in such a deucedly poor light as I do now, a doubtful sort of pearl in a +setting of isolated cedars, with my beauty and my genius and my heavenly +aspirations all unappreciated, or made to descend as a greater measure of +condemnation on my devoted auburn head. Truly, I believe that an evil +star attends my course in Wallencamp. My own ideas seem strange to me. I +cannot grasp them. My language is wild and disconnected, I fancy, like +that of the early Norse poets. When I meet you in the world, I shall hope +to recover some of the old-time coherence and felicity of speech which I +remember to have heard practised among the world's people; and it isn't +long now, thank Heaven, before you'll leave Wallencamp behind you. When +you go home——"</p> + +<p>When I should go home, indeed! I had hardly dared to cherish the thought. +I stifled the rising flood of exultation in my breast—but how pale and +interesting I should look! And, then, I would describe Wallencamp to my +own loving friends as it really was, and what a lion they would make of +me! Had they not always lionized my virtuous efforts to the fullest +extent!</p> + +<p>My face must have been very happy in the dark. I felt even almost kindly +towards Mr. Rollin. We were at the last door. As we entered the lighted +room, Grandma's broad face began to beam with slow surprise, "Why," said +she; "where's the little no-back cheer?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollin's resources in such extremities usually bespoke a lifetime of +patient and adroit application, but now he hesitated. The accumulated +glory of years seemed likely to be wrecked on the phantom of a little +no-back chair.</p> + +<p>"Moonstruck? Eh, Mr. Rollin?" inquired Harvey Dole.</p> + +<p>The fisherman regarded Harvey with a smile of quiet and amused +sufferance.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Mrs. Keeler," said he, with a graceful bow in Grandma's direction; +"Mrs. Philander did me the honor when I came in, to ask me to stand up +with the singers at the melodeon; a position which I shall be most happy +to take, although I fear that my vocal powers are of an exceptionally +poor order."</p> + +<p>The fisherman turned over the leaves of the despised Moody and Sankey +hymnal for Madeline, was profoundly attentive while the singing was going +on, and made suave and affable remarks here and there during the +intervals; then glanced at his watch with an expression of +highly-affected concern, bade an elaborate adieu to the company, and +retired from the scene.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think that Mr. Rollin is so elegant, don't yew?" said Mrs. Barlow. +"Oh, yes; I think he's so genteel!"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> don't think so at all," said Lovell. "<i>I</i> don't, certainly. <i>I</i> +don't think so."</p> + +<p>"He <i>ain't</i> got much voice;" said Mrs. Barlow, clasping her hands in +raptured appreciation of her matchless Lovell.</p> + +<p>Finally, Grandpa, with a haggard smile on his features, stumbled across +the little landing of the stairway, between the parlor and the kitchen, +bearing with him a pan of much scorched and battered pop-corn.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>ain't</i> them beautiful!" arose Mrs. Barlow's reassuring cry.</p> + +<p>Grandma had already set an example to her guests by making a convenient +receptacle of her capacious lap, and pouring some of the corn into it, an +example which the fortunate scions of the skirted tribe, now arranged in +rows on one side of the room, followed, each in turn. Of the male species +on the other side of the room, Lovell happened to be first in line. As +the corn came nearer and nearer to him, he began to look about wildly, +and to cough. His legs trembled violently with the effort he was making +to keep them close together. He accepted the pan of pop-corn with a +gesture of feverish haste, and proceeded to pour the contents into his +lap, but, as he poured they disappeared, and the faster he poured the +faster they disappeared, and the more strenuous exertions he made to keep +his legs close together, the wider seemed to grow the chasm through which +the corn went rattling down on to the floor, until Lovell's eyes began to +whirl in their orbits and drops of sweat stood out upon his forehead.</p> + +<p>Harvey, who appreciated the situation and was bursting with a desire to +roar out his mirthful emotions, showed a kind heart above all, and turned +the tables nicely in poor Lovell's behalf.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Lovell!" he cried; "that's a pretty trick to play on us +fellows, you rascal! you'd better let up on that, now!"</p> + +<p>Lovell grasped at the idea as a drowning man might grasp at a good +substantial raft that should come floating down his way.</p> + +<p>"T-that's so," he stammered. "It is too bad, Harvey. It-t-t is, +certainly, but anything for a j-joke, you know. Here, take it yourself, +Harvey, t-take it; take it, quick!"</p> + +<p>And Lovell got down on his knees as though he would have rendered dumb +thanks to Heaven for his unexpected deliverance, and proceeded to gather +up the corn with glad alacrity.</p> + +<p>After this, the water was passed, and, at such times, it was always +comforting to consider how bountiful nature had been in this respect to +Wallencamp, and that the demand could never be quite equal to the supply.</p> + +<p>Then the company began to disperse with many hand-shakings and "Why don't +ye all drop into my house?" etc., etc.</p> + +<p>Lovell Barlow came back twice to shake hands with me; and returning the +third time, got lost, somehow, in the general confusion, and shook hands +very fervently with his mother, who was standing in the door.</p> + +<p>I heard one of the departing visitors exclaim: "Why, where's Lute? I +should a thought he'd a dropped in, sure!"</p> + +<p>And another answered: "Oh, he's got some new notion into his head, I +reckon! goin' on a cruise, may be!"</p> + +<p>Rebecca was going out with a girl companion, talking rather loudly. I was +moved to take her hand a moment, gently detaining her. She looked +exceedingly bright and pretty. Her physical beauty was perfect, yet I +believed that the soul was only half awakened in the girl.</p> + +<p>So as I held her hand a moment, with the others taking noisy leave about +us, I looked into her face with what she might have read as: "Weren't you +laughing rather loudly, my dear? I can see now that you are not so happy +as you would have people believe. Why not confide in me, and let me +straighten your difficulty out for you?"</p> + +<p>But Rebecca's eyes were downcast, and her cheeks crimson. She let her +hand slip passively out of mine, and passed on, without a word.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>LOVELL "POPS THE QUESTION."</h3> + + +<p>One morning, ere we had breakfasted at the Ark, Lovell Barlow, like some +new-fangled orb of day, was seen to surmount the ruddy verge of the +horizon. He bore a gun upon his shoulders, and advanced with a singularly +martial and self-confident tread. As he entered the Ark, he placed the +gun against the wall, and sat down and folded his arms, and looked as +though he could be brave without it.</p> + +<p>"Well, Madeline," said he, with a determined gaze fixed straight before +him on vacuity, and with a desperate affectation of spontaneity in his +tone—"Well, Madeline, mother and father have gone to Aunt Marcia's, <i>I</i> +suppose to spend a week, <i>I</i> suppose—ahem!—ahem!—<i>I</i> suppose so."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so, Lovell!" exclaimed Madeline. "And what'll poor Robin +do now, Lovell? Oh, what'll poor Robin do now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he gravely; "that's what <i>they</i> thought, ahem! <i>They</i> thought +they should stay a week, <i>they</i> thought so, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Wall, I declar' for't, Lovell," said Grandma; "now's the time you'd +ought to have a wife. Jest to think how comf'table 'twould be fu ye, now, +instead of stayin' there all alone, if ye only had a nice little wife to +home, to cook for ye, and watch for ye, and keep ye company, and——"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> think so," exclaimed Lovell, giving a quick glance backward in the +direction of his gun. "Certainly, ahem! <i>I</i> think so. <i>I</i> do."</p> + +<p>"Lookin' for game? Eh, Lovell?" inquired Grandpa.</p> + +<p>"Pa," said Grandma, solemnly: "I wish you'd put another stick of wood in +the stove."</p> + +<p>Grandpa was awake now, and a youthful and satanic gleam shone from under +his shaggy eyebrows; he glanced at me, too, as was his habit on such +occasions, as though I had a sort of sympathy for and fellowship with him +in his bold iniquities of speech.</p> + +<p>But the guileless Lovell interpreted not the deeper meaning of Grandpa's +words.</p> + +<p>"I think some of it, Cap'n," he answered unsmilingly, and then continued: +"It's been—ahem!—it's been a very mild winter on the—ahem!—I should +say on the Cape. It's been a very mild winter on the Cape, Miss +Hungerford."</p> + +<p>Lovell's nervous glance falling again on his gun, took me in wildly on +the way.</p> + +<p>I had been directing some letters that I expected to have an opportunity +to send that morning.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," I said, looking up. "Yes, you don't often have such +mild winters on the Cape, Mr. Barlow!"</p> + +<p>"No'm, we don't," said Lovell, "not very often, ahem!" He moved his chair +a peg nearer the gun. "Quite a—ahem!—quite a little fall of snow we had +last night, Miss Hungerford."</p> + +<p>"Any deer tracks? Eh, Lovell?" inquired Grandpa.</p> + +<p>"Pa," said Grandma; "I wish you'd fill Abigail—seems to me she smells +sorter dry."</p> + +<p>"She ain't, for sartin', ma," replied Grandpa, giving the tea-kettle a +shake to verify his assertions; "and Rachel's chock full!"</p> + +<p>Grandma then gave Grandpa a meaning look, and put her fingers on her +lips.</p> + +<p>"Well, Cap'n, I saw more rabbit tracks," replied Lovell, innocently +amused at the ludicrousness of the old Captain's speech. "I did, +rather—ahem!—yes, I saw more rabbit tracks—ahem!—ahem!" He gave his +chair a desperate hitch gunward. "I don't suppose they ever do such a +thing, where you live, Miss Hungerford, as to go—ahem!—to go +sleigh-riding, now, do they, Miss Hungerford?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," I said; "they always do in the winter. I haven't been home +through the winter for a year or two past, but I remember what splendid +times we used to have."</p> + +<p>I was thinking particularly of a certain snow-fall, that came when I was +seventeen years old, and John Cable had just returned from College, with +a moustache and patriarchal airs.</p> + +<p>Some grinning recollections of the past were also floating through +Grandpa's mind. The look of reprehensible mirth was still in his eyes, +and he showed his teeth, which gleamed oddly white and strong in contrast +with his grizzled countenance.</p> + +<p>"I remember"—he began.</p> + +<p>"Pa," said Grandma, with an expressive wink of one eye, and only part of +her face visible around the corner of the doorway, through which Madeline +had already disappeared; "pa—I wish you'd come out here a minute, now—I +want to see ye."</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, can't ye see me here, ma? What makes ye so dreadful anxious +to see me all of a sudden?" inquired Grandpa. But his face did not lose +its thoughtful illumination. "Wall, as I was a tellin' ye, teacher," he +went on; "I was only a little shaver then—a little shaver—and my father +had one of those 'ere pungs, as we used to call 'em, that he used to ride +around in—and he was a dreadful man to swear, my father was, +teacher—Lordy, how he would swear!—--"</p> + +<p>"Pa!" said the great calm voice at the door; "I'm a waitin' for you to +come out, so't I can shet the door."</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, ma, shet the door if ye want to, I've no objections to +havin' the door shet——and we had an old hoss, teacher. Lordy, how lean +he was, lean as a skate, and——"</p> + +<p>"Bijonah Keeler!"</p> + +<p>"Yis, yis, I'm a comin', ma, I'm a comin'." And wonderful indeed, I +thought must have been the tale, which, even under these exasperating +circumstances, kept Grandpa's face a-grin as he ran and shuffled towards +the door.</p> + +<p>The door was quickly closed behind him by other hands than his own, and +then I observed that Lovell's chair had been drawn into frightfully close +proximity to his gun.</p> + +<p>"I—I think it's pleasanter, that is—I—I sometimes think it's warmer +for t-t-two in a sleigh, than—a—'tis—for one, don't you, Miss +Hungerford?" said Lovell, and gasped for breath and continued; "Now, I +think of it, you—you wouldn't think of such a thing as going to ride +with me to-night, would you, Miss Hungerford? You—you wouldn't think of +such a thing, would you now?"</p> + +<p>"Why—if you are kind enough to invite me to go sleigh-riding with you, +Mr. Barlow?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> think so;" said Lovell, grasping his gun, and becoming immediately +pale, though composed. "Yes'm, <i>I</i> think so, certainly, <i>I</i> do."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I will go with pleasure," I said.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell, rising hurriedly. "I wish you +a pleasant day—<i>I</i> do, with pleasure, and I hope that nothing will happen +to prevent!"</p> + +<p>And Lovell marched back across the fields as valiantly as a man may, who, +on occasions of doubt and peril, takes the precaution to go suitably +armed.</p> + +<p>During the day the Wallencampers indulged in a mode of recreation, +suggestive of that unique sort of inspiration to which they not +unfrequently fell victims.</p> + +<p>They attached a horse to a boat, a demoralized old boat, which had +hitherto occupied a modest place amid the <i>débris</i> surrounding the Ark, +and thus equipped, they rode or sailed up and down the lane. It proved a +stormy sea, and often, as the boat capsized, the air was rent with +screams of mock terror and yells of unaffected delight.</p> + +<p>Thus the youth of Wallencamp, yes, and those who heeded not the swift +decline of years, by reason of the immortal freshness of their spirits, +disported themselves. And I was not amazed, catching a glimpse through +the school-house windows of this joyous boat on one of her return voyages +up the lane, to see Grandma Keeler swaying wildly in the stern.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, I managed to keep my flock indoors. But when, at four o'clock, +I took my ruler in hand to give the usual signal of dismissal, the +Phenomenon's heels had already vanished through the window, and the +repressed animal spirits of a whole barbaric epoch sounded in the whoop +with which the Modoc shot through the door.</p> + +<p>Finally, I, myself, rode up the lane in the boat. The path was well worn +by this time, and there was no danger of a catastrophe. It seemed to me a +novel performance enough, but I had not yet been to ride in Lovell's +sleigh.</p> + +<p>Lovell came very early, and preferred to wait outside until I had +finished eating my supper. Then, with that deep self-satisfaction which +predominated in my soul, even over its appreciation of the novel and +amusing, I donned my seal-brown cloak, and stepping out of the door, +gathered up my skirts, and smiled at Mr. Lovell with a pair of seal-brown +eyes, and was not surprised to hear him ejaculate, coughing slightly; +"Ahem! <i>I</i> think so, certainly, yes'm, <i>I</i> think so; <i>I</i> do."</p> + +<p>Lovell's was the only sleigh in Wallencamp, and, as he informed me, it +was one that he had himself constructed. It had, indeed, already +suggested to my mind the workings of no ordinary intellect. Perhaps its +most impressive features were its lowness and its height—the general +lowness and length of its body, into which one could step easily, the +floor being covered with a carpet of straw, suggesting field-mice; and +the unusual height to which it rose in the back, being surmounted by two +glittering knobs, like those on the head-board of an old-fashioned +bedstead. Half-way down the back of this imposing structure the arms or +wings sprouted out, giving to the whole the appearance of an immense +Pterodactyl, or some other fossil bird of fabulous proportions, and +Effectually shutting in the occupants of the sleigh from any +Contemplation of the possible charms of the scenery. The seat was made +very low, and it was, perhaps, on this account that the horse seemed so +abnormally high. It was a white horse, and from our lowly position, there +seemed to be something awful and shadowy in the motions of its legs. The +red of sunset had not gone out of the sky when we started, and a pale +young moon was already getting up in the heavens, but we could see +neither fading sky nor rising moon, nor rock, nor tree, nor snowy +expanse, naught but the gigantic hoof-falls of our phantom steed.</p> + +<p>Being thus hopelessly debarred from any communication with external +nature, and fearing to give myself up to my own thoughts, which were of a +somewhat dangerous character, I endeavored to engage my companion in +lively and cheerful converse by the way; but he was in a position of +actual physical suffering, for the reins were short—too short, that is, +to form a happy connecting link between him and the horse, and poor +Lovell was obliged to lean forward at an acute angle in order to grasp +them at all. Whenever the ghostly quadruped made a plunge forward, as he +not unfrequently did, Lovell was thrust violently down into the straw, +and throughout all this he comported himself with such firm and hopeless +dignity that, with the respect due to suffering, I was moved to witness +the struggle, at length, with silent commiseration. Once, having kept his +seat for a longer time than usual, Lovell said:—</p> + +<p>"I'll give you a riddle, Miss Hungerford, <i>I</i> will. Ahem! 'Why—why does +a hen go around the road,' Miss Hungerford?"</p> + +<p>I posed my head in an attitude of deep thought.</p> + +<p>"Because," Lovell hastened to say; "because she can't go across—no, that +wasn't right—why—ahem! why does a hen go <i>across</i> the road, Miss +Hungerford?" and the next instant he was wallowing in the straw at my +feet.</p> + +<p>My soul was filled with unutterable compassion for him.</p> + +<p>"Because," I ventured, when Lovell reappeared again, affecting a tone of +lively inspiration: "because she can't go around it?"</p> + +<p>"You—you've heard of it before!" gravely protested Lovell.</p> + +<p>"I confess," said I, "that I have. It used to be my favorite riddle."</p> + +<p>"It—it used to be mine, too," said Lovell. "It <i>used</i> to be, Miss +Hungerford—ahem! It <i>used</i> to be—You—you couldn't tell what I was +thinking of when I—ahem—when I started from home to-night, now, could +you, Miss Hungerford?" said Lovell, at length.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I couldn't, Mr. Barlow," said I: "but I hope it was something +very agreeable."</p> + +<p>"But it wasn't," said Lovell; "that is, not very, Miss Hungerford; ahem! +not very. I was—I was—ahem! I was thinking of it, you know, of—of such +a thing as getting married, you know."</p> + +<p>"I hope," said I, cheerfully, after a pause; "that as you consider the +subject longer, it will be a less painful one to you."</p> + +<p>"I hope so, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell. "Ahem! I hope so, certainly;" +but there was little of that sanguine quality expressed in his tones.</p> + +<p>The great white horse made another plunge forward, and Lovell recovered +himself with a desperate effort.</p> + +<p>"What should you think now, Miss Hungerford," he continued, moistening +his parched lips; "if I should do such a thing as to—ahem!—as to speak +of such a thing as—ahem!—as something of that sort to you, now, Miss +Hungerford? Now, what should you think of such a thing? now, really?"</p> + +<p>"I should think you were very inconsiderate," I said, "and would probably +regret your rashness afterwards."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> think so," said Lovell; "ahem! <i>I</i> think so, Miss Hungerford; <i>I</i> +do, certainly."</p> + +<p>After this it seemed as though a weight had been lifted from Lovell's +mind. He kept his seat better. His was not a buoyant spirit, but there +was, on this occasion, an air of repressed cheerfulness about him such as +I had never before seen him exhibit. I tried to think that it was a +joyous mental rebound from the contemplation of those dark riddles which +trouble humanity, "Why does the hen go across the road," etc.</p> + +<p>After a brief pause, Lovell said; "You—you wouldn't mind if I should +sing a little now, now would you, Miss Hungerford?"</p> + +<p>I assured him that I should be very glad to have him do so, and he sang, +I remember, all the rest of the way home. At the gate, I thanked him for +the ride and its cheerful vocal accompaniment, and Lovell said; "Do you +like to hear me sing, now? Do you—do you, really, now, Miss Hungerford?" +and turned away with a smile on his face to seek his home by the sea.</p> + +<p>But Lovell was not long lonely, for, in less than a week, his father and +mother returned from their visit at Aunt Marcia's and brought to Lovell a +wife.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Barlow herself informed me that "it was an awful shock to him, at +first, oh, dreadful! but he'd made up his mind to get married, and he'd +never a' done it in the world, if we hadn't took it into our own hands. +She was a good girl, and we knew it, and Lovell wasn't no more fit to +pick out a wife, anyway, than a chicken, not a bit more fit than a +chicken!"</p> + +<p>This girl lived in the same town with Aunt Marcia, and was confidently +recommended by her to Lovell's parents as one who would be likely to make +him a wise and suitable helpmeet, and was, indeed, an uncommonly fair and +wholesome looking individual. She had a mind, too, whose clear, practical +common sense had never been obscured by the idle theories of romance. She +was pure and hearty and substantial. She was neither diffident, nor slow +of speech, nor vacillating. She came, at the invitation of Lovell's +parents, to marry Lovell, and if he had refused, she would have boxed his +ears as a wholesome means of correction, and married him on the spot.</p> + +<p>So Lovell's destined wife was brought home to him in the morning, and in +the afternoon of that same day the connubial knot was tied.</p> + +<p>Half an hour after the arrival of the bride, it was known throughout the +length and breadth of Wallencamp, to every one, I believe, save Lovell +himself, who was gathering driftwood a mile or two down the beach, that +Lovell was going to be married!</p> + +<p>At three o'clock P.M., Brother Mark Barlow was despatched to West Wallen +for a minister.</p> + +<p>Small scouts had been sent out to watch, where the road from the beach +winds into the main road, and when word was brought back that "Mark had +gone by," the Wallencampers proceeded to make all due preparations; and +soon might have been seen winding in a body towards the scene of +interest.</p> + +<p>The small paraphernalia of invitations and wedding cards were unknown in +Wallencamp. The Wallencampers would have considered that there was little +virtue in a ceremony of any sort, performed without the sanction and +approval of their united presence.</p> + +<p>In regard to the particular nature of this entertainment, there was some +snickering in the corners of the room, but the general aspect was +funereal.</p> + +<p>The season during which, with Lovell at one end of the room, and the +bride at the other, we sat waiting the arrival of the minister, was as +solemn as anything I had ever known.</p> + +<p>I made a congratulatory remark, in a low tone, to Mrs. Barlow, who sat at +my side with her hands clasped gazing first at Lovell and then at the +bride; but I was forced to experience the uncomfortable sensation of one +who has inadvertently spoken out loud in meeting. No one said anything.</p> + +<p>The helpless snicker which started occasionally from Harvey Dole's +corner, and was echoed faintly from other quarters of the room, only +heightened, by, contrast, the effect of the succeeding gloom.</p> + +<p>The bride was perfectly composed, with a high, natural color in her +cheeks, and an air of being duly impressed with the importance of the +occasion.</p> + +<p>She had assumed a large white bonnet, though I do not think that she and +Lovell took so much as a stroll to the beach after the ceremony—and her +plump and shapely hands were encased in a pair of green kid gloves. She +gazed thoughtfully, at each occupant of the room in turn, not omitting +Lovell, who never once stirred or lifted his eyes.</p> + +<p>Mr. William Barlow was silently passing the water, when Brother Mark +arrived with the minister.</p> + +<p>That grave dignitary advanced with measured tread to a small stand, +draped with a long white sheet, that had been prepared for him in the +centre of the room.</p> + +<p>He took off his gloves, and folded them; he took off his overcoat, and +laid it on the back of a chair; and if he had then reached down into his +pockets and taken out a rope, and proceeded to adjust a hanging-noose, +his audience could not have shown a more ghastly and breathless interest +in his performance.</p> + +<p>"Will the parties"—his sonorous voice resounded through the awful +stillness—"Will the parties—about—to be joined—in holy +wedlock—now—come forward?"</p> + +<p>As Lovell then arose and walked, with an automatic hitch in his legs, +across the room to his bride, there was about him all the stiffness and +pallor of the grave without its smile of peace.</p> + +<p>"Lovell and Nancy"—arose the deep intonation—will you—now—join hands?</p> + +<p>It was a warm strong hand in the green kid glove. Its grasp might have +sent a thrill of life through Lovell's rigid frame, for when the minister +inquired:</p> + +<p>"And do you, Lovell, take this woman?" etc., etc.</p> + +<p>Lovell bent his body, moved his lips, and replied in a strange, far-away +tone, "Yes'm, <i>I</i> think so. <i>I</i> do, certainly."</p> + +<p>But when the question was put to the bride, she, Nancy, promised to take +Lovell to be her wedded husband, to love and cherish, yes, and to cleave +to, with a round, full "I do," that left no possible room for doubt in +the mind of any one present, and seemed to send back the flood of frozen +terror to Lovell's veins.</p> + +<p>Lovell and Nancy were pronounced man and wife, and Nancy then divested +herself of her bonnet and gloves, and joined in the festivities which +followed with a hearty good-will, that proved her to be quite at home +among the Wallencampers, and won at once their affection and esteem. The +manner, particularly, in which she carried beans from her plate to her +mouth, gracefully balanced on the extreme verge of her knife, as an +adroit and finished work of art, provoked the wonder and admiration of +all those whose beans sometimes wandered and fell off by the way.</p> + +<p>And all the while, Mrs. Barlow's adjectives flowed in a full and copious +stream.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lovell had been so wild," she said to me. "Oh, dreadful! But didn't +I think he looked like a husband now? So quick, too! Oh, yes, wasn't it +beautiful! Abbie Ann said he looked as though he'd been a husband fifteen +years!"</p> + +<p>After the ceremony, Lovell had taken his pipe and retired a little from +the active scenes which were being enacted around him.</p> + +<p>I saw him, as I was going away, standing in the door and looking out upon +the bay. I held out my hand to him, in passing. "I congratulate you, Mr. +Barlow," I said. Lovell put his hand to his mouth and coughed slightly +several times, as though he were striving to think of the polite thing to +say. Then he replied: "I—I—ahem! I wish you the same, Miss Hungerford, +<i>I</i> do, certainly."</p> + +<p>Lovell was not so pale as he had been, but looked very serious and +pensive with his eyes fixed on the mysterious depths of the ocean. Lovell +had propounded riddles to me, but never before had I caught such a +glimpse of the deeply philosophical workings of his mind.</p> + +<p>"When you come to think of it, life—ahem—life is very uncertain, Miss +Hungerford."</p> + +<p>I replied that it was very uncertain.</p> + +<p>"And short, too, when you come to think of it. It's very short, too, Miss +Hungerford."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," I answered, "very."</p> + +<p>"Ahem! It was—it was dreadful sudden, somehow," said Lovell.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so, Mr. Barlow," I replied gravely; "great and unexpected joys +are sometimes said to be as benumbing in their first effects as griefs +coming in the same way."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> think so," said Lovell. "Ahem! <i>I</i> think so, Miss Hungerford, <i>I</i> +do, certainly."</p> + +<p>Madeline joined me at the door, and I bade Lovell good-night.</p> + +<p>We clambered down the cliffs, walking a little while along on the beach +on our way homeward.</p> + +<p>It was growing dark, and the voice of the ocean was infinitely mournful +and sublime. No wonder, I thought, that life had seemed very short and +uncertain to Lovell as he stood in the door listening to the waves.</p> + +<p>What a little thing it seemed indeed, comparatively—this life with its +fears and hopes, its poor idle jests and fleeting shows.</p> + +<p>"And there shall be no more sea"—but this poor human soul that looks out +so blindly, and utters itself so feebly through the senses, shall live +for ever and ever.</p> + +<p>"Lovell's folks have picked out a good wife for him, anyhow," said +Madeline, briskly. "She's got a sight more sense than anybody <i>he'd</i> ever +a' picked out."</p> + +<p>I crept back into my shell again. "I think so, certainly, Madeline," said +I, smiling at having unconsciously repeated Lovell's favorite phrase.</p> + +<p>"She'll make Lovell all over, and get some new ideas into him, I can tell +you," said Madeline.</p> + +<p>And though I did not stay in Wallencamp long enough to witness with my +own eyes the fulfillment of this prophecy, I know that it was abundantly +fulfilled—that Lovell soon recovered from the shock incident to his +wedding; that under the influence of his wholesome, active wife, and with +the weight of greater responsibilities, he grew more manly and admirable +in character, as well as happier, with each succeeding year; and that +Lovell's children—a joyful and robust group, adored of Mrs. Barlow, +senior—play on the "broad window seat" that looks off towards the sea.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN.</h3> + + +<p>The fisherman had gone back to Providence. Rebecca, herself, returning +from the Post Office at West Wallen, brought me a letter distinguished by +its peculiar dashing chirography. As she handed it to me, the girl, whose +glance had been downcast of late, gave me a clear, straightforward, +unembarrassed look.</p> + +<p>"Do you like him, teacher?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I tolerate him, my dear," I answered. "We're not expected to +entertain a particular liking or dislike for everybody we know. There are +a great many people we must just simply tolerate."</p> + +<p>Rebecca's eyes fell again. "He won't harm you, teacher," she said; "for +you was used to folks. Sometime you might remember—I wasn't used to +folks."</p> + +<p>Occupied with my own thoughts, I passed lightly over the girl's slow, +trembling speech. She turned away, and I bent to the complacent perusal +of my letter. In my then composed and exalted frame of mind its contents +were not calculated to create in me either great emotion or surprise. And +not because the mere fact of the fisherman's absence had suddenly +rendered him more desirable in my eyes, but as the result of a recent +determination on my part to take an utterly worldly and practical view of +life, I resolved to give this letter the most careful and serious +consideration.</p> + +<p>The fisherman was of good family, and he was rich; these statements, +artistically interwoven by him with the lighter fabric of his letter, +were confirmed by an acquaintance of mine in Providence, of whom, in +writing, I had incidentally inquired concerning the gentleman.</p> + +<p>Respectability and wealth—items not supposed to weigh too heavily with +the romantic mind of youth—but I believed that I was no longer either +young or romantic. Moreover, I was slowly realizing the fact that +school-teaching in Wallencamp was not likely to furnish me the means for +making an excessively brilliant personal display, nor for carrying out to +any extent my subordinate plans for a world-wide philanthropy.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, after all then," I argued; "it is only left for me to give up +my ideas about being unique and independent and sublime, 'take up with a +good offer,' and step resolutely, without any sentimental awe, into the +great orderly ranks of the married sisterhood."</p> + +<p>My life had been but a varied list of surprises to my family and +acquaintances, why not effect the crowning surprise of all, by doing +something they might have expected of me?</p> + +<p>Well, I had dreamed of higher things—but this was a strange, restless, +disappointing world. If one saw a plain path open before one's feet, one +might as well walk quietly along that way. There were thorns in every +path, and it would be nice to be rich, very rich.</p> + +<p>My thoughts wandered through a wide field of imaginary delight, +encountering only one serious obstacle in the way of their elysium, and +that was the fisherman himself considered as a life-long escort and +companion.</p> + +<p>In my youthful dreams, I had cherished, to be sure, a score of mild +Arthur Greys and stern Stephen Montgomerys. My Arthurs had all died of +inherited consumption. I had taken leave of their departing spirits under +the most thrilling circumstances, having frequently been married to them +at their deathbeds, and had lived but to plant flowers on their graves +and wear crape for them ever afterwards; and my dark-browed Stephen +Montgomerys had all gone to swell the avenging tide of righteous war, and +had been fatally shot, while I remained to shed tears of unavailing grief +over the locks of raven hair they left with me on the morning of their +departure. But to marry a real, live, omnipresent man—a man, with red +hair, sound lungs, and no wars to go to! My aspiring soul shrank from the +realistic vision.</p> + +<p>And all the while a tenderer vision would rise before my eyes, clothed +with its pitiful romance—the Cradlebow, like some sadly out-of-fashion +guest, arising unsolicited out of a half-forgotten dreamland, passing +indeed both the ideal strength of the warlike Stephen and the gentleness +of the saintly Arthur, but, alas! so crude, so unworldly, so ridiculously +poor! And the vision extended and then narrowed helplessly to a home in +one of the forlorn houses in Wallencamp by the sea, with its dingy walls +and bare floors, its general confusion of objects and misery, and my +lord's grand eyes obscured, perchance, behind clouds of tobacco smoke, +while I set the scanty table and fried the briny herrings.</p> + +<p>With a shudder for romance, I returned to the contemplation of wealth and +respectability; and took up graciously, once more, the briefly abandoned +idea of duty.</p> + +<p>I had often been told that it was my duty to accommodate myself to other +people's views. Perhaps I should accomplish my designs for +self-immolation, and thus, in one sense, effect my highest spiritual +good, by marrying the fisherman and accommodating myself to his +views—ah! but how could that be, I reflected, unsmilingly, when my views +were so infinitely superior to his!</p> + +<p>I wondered, for one thing, why he should have entertained, of late, such +an excessive dislike for Wallencamp and its inhabitants. The natural +beauty of Wallencamp had impressed me daily more and more, and the people +were harmless, to say the least. I thought he should have enjoyed them; +he had a humorous vein; he was not too snobbish; and he seemed of a +nature to wish to make himself generally agreeable to people; but for +these special objects of my care he had expressed only derision and +contempt, with often a touch of positive malice; and had not been able to +abstain from giving me a hard cut or two on my mission, barely avoiding +it in his letter, and rejoicing with what seemed to me an unwarrantable +warmth in the hope that I should soon quit forever the abominable place.</p> + +<p>Then, in my miserable short-sightedness, my thoughts wandered indirectly +to Rebecca. I wondered if she had taken to heart anything in the +acquaintance she was said to have had with Mr. Rollin, before I came to +Wallencamp, which had caused the change in her. I did not believe she +had. The girl was too artless and simple to have concealed so completely +the resentment she would naturally have cherished—too childish to have +borne it so silently. As far as the fisherman was implicated in the +affair, even if he had trifled a little for his own amusement with the +vague impulses, possibly the affections, of this unsophisticated girl, +the act was by no means unprecedented among people of wealth and +respectability. It was a diversion in which Arthur Grey and Stephen +Montgomery would not have indulged, perhaps, "but this," I mused, "is a +sadly commonplace sort of world, viewed in the broad daylight of wisdom +and experience (and with such penetrating rays I felt my own optics to be +only too wearily oppressed); we must give up our high ideals, take people +as we find then, and submit gracefully to the inevitable."</p> + +<p>Still I was in as much of a quandary as ever as to what I should choose +to consider the inevitable in my own path. It never occurred to me in +this dilemma to seek advice from the elder members of my own family. They +knew nothing really of my situation in Wallencamp, and even if they had +been informed more truthfully in regard to it, I thought they could +hardly be expected to appreciate the peculiarly trying circumstances in +which I was placed just at present.</p> + +<p>Mothers were excellent for mending gloves, taking ink stains out of white +dresses with lemon juice, etc., etc.; but there were certain exigencies +in the remote and exalted life of those who go on "missions" which their +humble though loving skill must ever fail to reach.</p> + +<p>I did write home, by the way, for more spending-money. I had been obliged +to send to Boston for a few of the latest novels, fresh ribbons, cologne +water, and various other articles indispensable to the career of a truly +devoted propagandist. I preferred my request no longer as the dependent +offspring seeking gifts from a fond and indulgent parent, but as the +solicitor of a mere temporary loan, until I should be able to draw on my +salary at the close of the term.</p> + +<p>One morning, having inured myself to extreme worldliness of soul and +begun a deliberately reckless response to the fisherman's letter, I +looked out through my window to see the Cradlebow trudging manfully down +the lane, with a grotesquely antiquated portmanteau in his hand, and the +general air of one who has started a-foot on a journey.</p> + +<p>With a singular readiness to be diverted, I found that the picture was, +somehow, not conducive to further worldliness of meditation; and when in +the evening, Mrs. Cradlebow came in to call, in her mantilla, the +impression thus made on my mind was inexpressibly deepened.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cradlebow was not a frequent caller. She had almost earned among the +Wallencampers the direful anathema of "not being neighborly."</p> + +<p>She informed me, while the singers were gathered, as usual, at the Ark, +that Luther had gone to make farewell visits to his friends. He had +three married sisters living in different parts of the State. They had +children. The children were very fond of him, and he was going on such a +long voyage. Mrs. Cradlebow was looking beyond the singers, her eyes +shining clear and sad above the pathetic smile on her lips—</p> + +<p>"And he says he shan't come back again until he comes to give me such +pleasure as I never dreamed of."</p> + +<p>Those words come to me now, either as part of the endless mockery of +life, or as strains of hidden music, deep and true, running ever beneath +the world's dull misinterpretation.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, the choir of voices in the room formed an effectual shield +for confidential conversation.</p> + +<p>"You don't know what a good boy he's always been to me, teacher," Mrs. +Cradlebow continued, with a manner unusual to her, I thought, as of one +seeking for sympathy; "so that I've learned to depend so much on him, +more, I think, than on anybody else. Some boys when they're growing up +so, they feel independent and they answer you back short, but the older +he grew, the gentler he was to me, always, and if he had any trouble, it +never made him cross to me; and I think it's harder to see anybody so +than if they was cross, for he's quick in ways, I know, but when things +go real hard against him, he's patient."</p> + +<p>"He ought not to know much about trouble yet," I answered hopefully, with +the consciousness of one who has fathomed all the mysteries of grief and +can yet speak gayly of the forlorn background.</p> + +<p>"He doesn't know enough about the world, I'm afraid," said Mrs. +Cradlebow, and her eyes, fixed on my face, seemed to me to be looking +gently into my inmost heart. "He expects so much, and he never looks out +for himself. I wish he'd be content to go fishing with the other +boys—they always come back in the autumn—and not want to sail so far."</p> + +<p>I was almost angry because of the embarrassment I felt under that clear +glance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/meeting.jpg" width="700" height="405" alt="THE MEETING IN THE SCHOOL-HOUSE" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE MEETING IN THE SCHOOL-HOUSE.</span> +</div> + +<p>"Don't you think, Mrs. Cradlebow," I said nervously; "that young people +are never content until they find out the world for themselves?" It was +an interrogation, but it was sagely uttered.</p> + +<p>"I know, I know," she said. "Perhaps it's best he should go." She spoke +very quietly and with uncommon composure of demeanor. She withdrew her +eyes from my face, but the smile trembled on her lips, and I knew that +her heart was breaking over the words, for Luther was her darling.</p> + +<p>I wished, almost impatiently, for my own part, that it might all have +happened differently; that I might leave everything in Wallencamp just as +I had found it, so delightfully happy and peaceful it had seemed to me. +I could not bear, in looking back, to think of one face as wearing upon +it any unaccustomed grief. At all events, I felt that my thoughts had +been helplessly turned from their prescribed channel, and the fisherman's +letter remained from day to day still unanswered.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, winter was vanishing at the Cape. As salient points in its +quaint and cherished memory, I recall the frequent clamming excursions, +when we rattled own to the beach, at low-tide, in a cart whose groaning +members lacked every element of elasticity. Often there were as many as +sixteen persons in one cart, and the same number of hoes and baskets—the +baskets being filled with small children as a means of keeping both them +and the children stationary.</p> + +<p>Grandma was always present on these occasions, and the hilarity of the +Wallencampers, as they were jounced and joggled over the stones, in a +manner which to some might have been productive of great bodily agony, +concealed, with them, no undercurrent of nervous dread or pain. They were +kind enough to regard the presence of the "teacher" as indispensable to +their complete enjoyment, while I was ready to congratulate myself that +my society alone was the object desired, for though I brought my +near-sighted vision to bear faithfully upon the sands, I never succeeded +in capturing a clam.</p> + +<p>I heard that Bachelor Lot had confided aside to Captain Sartell that +"Teacher'd ought to bring a hook and line. The clams 'ud go for it in a +minute if she'd only bring a hook and line;" and, stung by the unsheathed +sarcasm of this remark, I was accustomed afterwards to wander off towards +"Steeple Rock." The rock was accessible at low-tide, and from thence I +could watch the ocean on one side, and the clam-diggers on the other; +could see Grandma on her hands and knees, a dot of broad good nature +in the distance, always remaining apparently in the one place, and +always, somehow, getting her basket full of clams as she gradually sank +deeper and deeper into the briny soil; but no true Wallencamper ever +caught cold by soaking in the brine.</p> + +<p>I could distinguish Madeline wandering lightly about among the rocks, +scraping off mussels with her hoe; and the Modoc, the champion +clam-digger of all, spreading her tentacles here and there, and never +failing to come up with a bivalve. It was a picturesque scene, viewed +from the great rock; and when the tide began to sweep in again, George +Olver sent a piercing whistle along shore, to call the stragglers +together; clams, children, and all were loaded into the cart, and jostled +gayly homeward erased by the fresh sea breezes.</p> + +<p>For the chowder, which in due course of events arose to take its place +among the viands on the Ark board, I would leave it to that sacred and +tenfold mystery with which, to my mind, it was ever enshrouded.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I recall the exhibitions held at the school-house, confined exclusively +to the native talent of Wallencamp, at which the old and young were +assembled to speak pieces.</p> + +<p>It was then that Aunt Rhoda and Aunt Cinthia, matrons of portly frame and +perilous foothold, engaged in a metrical dialogue concerning the robbing +of a bird's nest, in which lively diversion they assumed to have +participated. And Bachelor Lot rendered "My beautiful Annabel Lee" with +unique effect; and Grandma Keeler spoke mysteriously though hopefully +of—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hope and Harnah<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Double-decked schooner<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cap'n John Homer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marster and owner<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound for Bermudy."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The strange effect produced upon me by the first of these rhetorical +entertainments is still as fresh in my mind as though it had been +yesterday, so luminous was the night with stars; so loud and prolonged +the preliminary blowing of the horn; so festive the appearance of the +school-house, loaded as it was with evergreens; so abnormal the +proportions of the stage, which had been extended to comprise nearly +two-thirds of the school-room.</p> + +<p>It comes to me again, the first shock of surprise at finding all +Wallencamp on the stage, Grandpa and I, alone, being left like ostracized +owls among the shrubbery of the auditorium. Our sense of isolation was +only intensified by hearing the sounds of mirth which proceeded from the +other side of the curtain, and seeing a foot or an elbow occasionally +thrust out into our own green though silent realm.</p> + +<p>Thrice Aunt Rhoda appeared before the curtain to proclaim in pregnant +tones, "We are now awaiting for Josiah and Annie."</p> + +<p>Josiah, by the way, had married a Wallencamp girl and taken her to West +Wallen to live, yet the two were ever faithful attendants at the +Wallencamp festivities.</p> + +<p>"Declaration" after "declaration" was announced by Aunt Rhoda, and as the +declaimers finished their parts, they descended to sit with us, until at +last the curtain was drawn aside, revealing Madeline, alone upon the +stage, seated at her "music."</p> + +<p>She opened the Hymnal, and struck the leading chord, mid straightway, +from the Wallencampers, all gathered now below, there arose a burst of +melody as it had been one mighty voice.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. 'Lihu Dole—Harvey's father—lay dying, and all the Wallencampers +were assembled in and about the house.</p> + +<p>It was night, and one was going out from among them to launch his lonely +bark on a deeper, more mysterious ocean than that whose moan came up to +them from behind the cedars. There was awe on their faces, and a touch of +terror, too, but above all there was a strange, childlike wonder.</p> + +<p>They had seen death before. It might come to them at any time, they knew. +Its spirit sounded in the dirges of the waves along the shore, yet, none +the less, for time or fate, or moan of solemn wave, grew this exceeding +mystery.</p> + +<p>Was it like a cold black flood, to die at night, and no stars shining—a +cold flood creeping more and more above the heart? Oh, the wonder on +those poor faces, if there might be, indeed, some fairer harbor lights +beyond death's tide, and gentler music lulling the dread surge, so that +the voyager, with untold joy at last, felt the worn boat-keel loosen on +the strand and drift off from this shore!</p> + +<p>Emily and Aunt Cinthia were alone in the room with the dying man. They +were his sisters. His wife had been dead for years.</p> + +<p>In the adjoining room sat a group of females, a single candle burning +dimly on a table in their midst. Grandma Bartlett was there, and Grandma +Keeler, and Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow.</p> + +<p>Occasionally, a whisper from one of these three pierced the gloom, a +whisper appropriately sepulchral in tone, but more penetrating than any +voice of buoyant life and hope.</p> + +<p>I sat in the door with Madeline, Rebecca on the step below, very still +and thoughtful.</p> + +<p>The men and the young people, for the most part, were waiting about +outside.</p> + +<p>I caught the low murmur of a discussion between Captain Sartell and +Bachelor Lot, who were sitting on the fence, and knew by the attitude of +the listeners gathered around them, that the subject was one of no +ordinary interest. I could not help wondering what those two argued +concerning death and the immortality of the soul.</p> + +<p>The tick! tick! tick! of the clock sounded with persistent distinctness +in the room where the women sat, and Grandma Bartlett sighed, and then +came the awful whisper:—</p> + +<p>"Ah, death's vary sahd—vary sahd."</p> + +<p>Grandma Bartlett, superannuated as she was, was the most trite of the +Wallencampers.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow accepted the lifeless phrase with something almost +like a smile of disdain in her magnificent eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's like everything else," she whispered. "It's a mixter! It's a +mixter!"</p> + +<p>Once the door of the little bedroom opened softly, and Emily appeared on +the scene.</p> + +<p>"He's got most to the end of <i>his</i> rope," she said, dryly, in answer to +the inquiring faces lifted to her own. There was an unnatural brightness +in Emily's tearless eyes, and her tone was as sprightly as ever.</p> + +<p>"He don't see nothin', and he don't feel nothin', and he don't hear +nothin'," she continued; "and it's sech poor work a breathin', he's most +give that up, too. It might stop any minute and he not know it. Cinthy's +cryin'; I don't see nothin' to cry about. It'll storm before to-morrow, +likely—it's dark enough, Lord knows—and them east winds always hurt him +so. 'I don't know whether he's worse off, or better off, Cinthy,' says I, +'or whether he's off entirety. But I don't believe a righteous God'll +make poor 'Lihu suffer any worse than he has in the last ten weeks.' But +it's strange, all the time I was a' sittin' there by him, when he was +worst, it kept comin' up before me, jest as he was when he was a little +boy. I hadn't thought on him so for years, but it seemed jest as though +'twas back in New Hampshire, where we was born, a' playin' around the old +mill again. Him and me was the youngest, we was always together, and I +couldn't 'a' called him up so before me, to save me; but there he was, as +plain as life, with his little blue checked apron on, a skippin' along +towards me over the logs, and his eyes a dancin', and the wind a blowin' +his hair out; and all the while I couldn't help a knowin' that 'Lihu was +a man grown, a dyin' there before me on the bed.</p> + +<p>"'Seems as though a man that's been a wearin' out as long as he has had +ought to die easier, Cinthy,' says I. 'It's pretty hard to have forty +years' consumption, and then go off with a fever,' 'We can't question the +Lord's doin's,' says Cinthy. But for all that, she wouldn't stay in the +room to see him. He couldn't ketch his breath and he was as crazy as a +loon. Lord, how he worried! All day, yesterday, he was a loadin' ship +down to the shore. It would a' made your bones ache to hear him workin' +so; and all night long he was a loadin', and a loadin.' Thinks I, won't +there never be no end to this, for I felt hard, and him a loadin' and a +loadin' all through them long hours, jest as faithful as life, with his +eyes like blood, and the sweat a rollin' off'n him. He couldn't stand +that forever. This mornin' the pain sorter left him, but there was that +one idee on his mind. The ship was all loaded, and he'd got to wait for +high tide to git it off, and he wanted to go to sleep, but he couldn't, +because he'd got to watch the tide.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, if I could only rest, now,' he kep' a savin', weak and slow. 'If I +could only go to sleep now;' and so he moaned and moaned.</p> + +<p>"So I got close to his ear and I says, 'You go to sleep, now, 'Lihu, and +I'll watch,' I says; 'I'll wake you up when it's high tide,' I says; but +he only shook his head. So then, I says, 'Aint there none o' the folks +you can trust to watch?' And he shook his head, and so he moaned and +moaned.</p> + +<p>"By and by, all of a sudden, 'Lihu looked up at me different, with his +eyes wide open, so that for a minute, I was most fool enough to think +'Lihu was gittin' well, and he smiled as though he wanted to say +something. So I leant over. 'I—know—somebody,' he says, as slow as +that, for he was all worn out. 'Who then, 'Lihu?' says I. 'Jesus,' says +he, with that queer, smilin' look, as though it was the naturalest thing +on earth. 'He'll—wake—me—up—when—', and he couldn't wait no longer, +his head fell over as heavy as a log, and that's the way he's been ever +since, sleepin' like death.</p> + +<p>"Wall, Cinthy thinks somebody'd ought to come in and make a prayer. 'He +wasn't a perfessor,' says she. 'Lord knows, if he had a been,' says I, +'there'd be more need on't!' 'Anyway,' says I, 'he can't hear nothin', it +won't do him no harm.' So I thought I'd come out and see. It'll make +Cinthy feel easier."</p> + +<p>There was a whispered consultation among the women, but Emily came over +to where I sat.</p> + +<p>"Come, teacher," said she. "Your voice ain't as raspin' as some, and +you've got a knack o' stringin' words together, that sound likely, and +don't hit nobody—you come in."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" I cried, grasping the woman's hand, thinking only, then, that it +would seem like sacrilege for any one to speak aloud in the room where +one was waiting for Christ to wake him. I had forgotten at that moment +that I was out of the habit of praying, even for myself. Emily's tale had +moved me so, it seemed only its sweet and fitting consummation, and +nothing incredible to my mind then, that Christ should come down out of +the starless sky to touch that heavy sleeper's brow.</p> + +<p>It was finally decided that there should be a quiet little prayer-meeting +in the room where the women sat, in behalf of Mr. 'Lihu's soul; but +before all the preliminary steps had been taken, and the men and youth +noiselessly ingathered, Mr. 'Lihu's breathing had ceased, without a +parting pang or gasp, and the tide was at its full.</p> + +<p>Harvey had been standing with a group near the door. Once at some +irrelevancy in the proceedings, while the women were organizing the +prayer-meeting, I heard his irrepressible little giggle creeping in; but +when the words so mysteriously uttered were passed out to him—"Lihu's +gone!"—the poor boy, realizing only at that instant their terrible +meaning, that his father had indeed gone, gone away from him forever, ran +forward a pace or two, and then fell, with his face to the ground.</p> + +<p>So he lay, shaking and sobbing helplessly.</p> + +<p>Grandma Bartlett, standing in the door, studied him for some moments with +her fossilized eyes:—</p> + +<p>"Fatherless and motherless, now," said she. "Poor creetur, humph! Vary +sahd."</p> + +<p>Then she blinked, and, simultaneously, the subject seemed to have slipped +from her mind, and she to have become vaguely contemplative concerning +worlds and ages remote.</p> + +<p>The boy was still lying prone on the ground, when I left the place of +mourning with Grandma and Madeline. I spoke to him, and shrank +instinctively from his face as he turned it towards me. It was swollen +and disfigured with weeping. He had bruised it, too, in falling. He rose, +trembling, and walked with me. For my own part, the emotional had given +place to feelings of a more sustained and ordinary nature.</p> + +<p>I strove to impress upon Harvey's mind the beautiful and poetic manner in +which his father had been released from his sufferings.</p> + +<p>I reminded him of the shortness of life, "even from your point of view, +Harvey;" and the necessity there was always, for not allowing ourselves +to be overcome by our griefs or passions, or diverted from the supreme +satisfaction of performing our appointed tasks, etc.</p> + +<p>And Harvey listened patiently throughout, and said "good night," with a +brave attempt at a smile, and a sob still choking in his throat.</p> + +<p>I turned an instant, to look at him as he walked away. He wore, +generally, a coat of ministerial form and complexion; this, taken in +connection with his round, laughing face, his boyish figure, and +propensity for playing tricks, had often made me smile, hitherto. But, +now, there was something in the attitude of those long, black tails that +brought the tears to my eyes.</p> + +<p>It occurred to me, indirectly, what Emily had said about my stringing +words together, and I marvelled if possibly my exhortation had soared +over poor Harvey's head and left his heart aching for an ordinary word of +sympathy, or a simple reference to One who as a man of sorrows, was best +fitted to understand and console his grief. To any sentiments of the +latter nature, Harvey was particularly susceptible.</p> + +<p>"Children, all of them!" Thus gently apostrophizing the Wallencampers, I +dismissed the cause of my brief mental discomfiture, with a half-pitying +smile.</p> + +<p>The day after Mr. 'Lihu's death, I looked down from my desk in school to +see the infant Sophronia weeping bitterly.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Sophronia?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Carietta's been to see the cops twice," she sobbed; "and I ain't been +any."</p> + +<p>I only gathered from this that Carietta was somehow implicated as being +the cause of the infant Sophronia's sufferings.</p> + +<p>"Now," said I gravely; "tell me what you mean?"</p> + +<p>"She means the cops!" cried Carietta, her small face distorted with a +leer of the most horrid satisfaction, "'Lihu's cops. 'Phrony means +the——"</p> + +<p>"That will do," I said. "I understand you perfectly. I understand you +only too well. This is about as bad," I reflected; "as anything in my +experience."</p> + +<p>After admonishing my pupils with that sincere emotion to which the +occasion had given rise, that they should speak always respectfully of +their elders, but especially in the most tender and solemn tones of the +dead; after pointing out to them the perniciousness of a low and vulgar +curiosity, and expatiating on the vastness and superiority of the +spiritual life, compared with the earthly and carnal, I paused, only to +give, further on, a fuller illustration to my words, and said:—</p> + +<p>"Now, Sophronia, you have an immortal soul?"</p> + +<p>There was evidence of some faint hankering in Sophronia's face as she +mentally ran over the list of her possessions.</p> + +<p>"No'm," said she; "I hain't—but I've got a cornycopia!"</p> + +<p>I think it was then and there that my hopes for the elevation of juvenile +Wallencamp received their deathblow, and my labors, which had before been +cheered by a dream of partially satisfying success, at least, took on +an utterly goal-less and prosaical form.</p> + +<p>These children, I was forced to admit, regarded the day of Mr. 'Lihu's +funeral as a holiday of rare and special interest, mysteriously bestowed +by Heaven.</p> + +<p>Aunt Rhoda had previously informed me that it was expected I would have +no school that afternoon.</p> + +<p>The West Wallen minister officiated on the occasion with an aspect +neither more nor less funereal than he had worn at Lovell's wedding. He +spoke in such a labored, trumpet-like tone of voice that the +Wallencampers seemed, at first, inspired with a lively hope, expecting +momentarily that his breath would give out, but in this they were doomed +to ever-increasing disappointment.</p> + +<p>At length, Captain Sartell drew a bucketful of fresh water from the well, +and passed it around the room, winking expansively at each individual in +turn, by way of silent encouragement and support.</p> + +<p>Grandma Bartlett, observing the generally tearless aspect of the +community, conscientiously attempted to weep, but being entirely out of +tears, at her time of life, she only succeeded in screwing her face up +into what, in earlier years, might have appeared as a lachrymose +expression, but now took the shape of a fixed and ogreish grin.</p> + +<p>The infant Sophronia was seated on a bench of an exceedingly temporary +nature, between Grandma Keeler and Aunt Lobelia, both persons of weight, +and it so chanced, or, rather, it followed as a matter of course, an +equal pressure being applied to both sides, that the board sustaining the +three, broke directly under that diminutive victim of fate, awaking her +thereby from feverish slumber; and whether the infant Sophronia had an +immortal soul or not, no one there present could doubt that she possessed +an uncommon pair of lungs.</p> + +<p>The little room where we sat was hot and overcrowded, and the thought was +running in my mind continually. "Poor, restless Wallencampers! and how +happy Mr. 'Lihu is not to have any connection with his funeral."</p> + +<p>When the procession was about to start for the burying-ground, the +request was made to me that I would blow the horn, even as the bell is +usually tolled on such occasions, for it would seem inappropriate for one +of the Wallencampers to do so, they all having been related to the +deceased.</p> + +<p>At such a time, I could not refuse, though the emotions with which I +crossed over to the school-house to perform this grim duty, were of a +nature best known to, and appreciated by, myself. My terror of the +Wallencamp horn had waxed daily. I believed that there was nothing in the +whole world of inanimate things on which I would not sooner have +attempted to sound a funeral dirge. Though capable of some variety of +expression, it had never yet been seduced into emitting any sound in the +least indicative of the designs struggling in the mind of the blower. The +human was paralyzed before it—a mere machine to blow into it and let +come what would. And, now, for the first time in my experience, it took +on a jubilant strain. I blew slowly; I blew solemnly. Still, it sounded +like nothing else than a glad, exultant rallying-call.</p> + +<p>I paused, horrified. From the rear of the moving procession, Aunt Patty, +with a yell and a frantic gesture of the hands, entreated me to "keep a +blowin'!"</p> + +<p>And, as I stood thus on the steps of the deserted school-house and blew, +only to hear the wild lamentations of my soul translated into strains of +fiendish mirth through the medium of the horn, the Turkey Mogul, arrived +on his second visit of examination to the Wallencamp school, seemed to be +descending before my eyes, in a vortex of the giddy atmosphere. In fact, +he was alighting from his buggy, and a grim, though reassuring smile sat +on his features.</p> + +<p>"I see! I see!" he nodded his head. "You've given them a good start," he +added, succinctly, indicating the direction of the Wallencampers; "humph! +yes! they are always up to something!"</p> + +<p>He thrust his hands in his pockets, and, maintaining the same sardonic +grin, he, too, stood and watched that receding column.</p> + +<p>It was an odd combination of circumstances. I had ceased my mad though +involuntary jubilate, on the horn, and was slowly aspiring to that +equanimity of mind which the exigencies of the case seemed to require, +when the Turkey Mogul turned abruptly, and without speaking a word, +handed me a soiled and wrinkled little sheet of paper, the contents of +which caused my heart, for an instant, to cease beating, and then set it +throbbing with a wild joy and exultation.</p> + +<p>It was simply a petition—wrought out of whose brain I know not, but most +curiously inscribed in Aunt Patty's own hand, and signed by all the +Wallencampers, with "CAPTAIN SARTELL," at the head, and "b. lot" at the +foot—to the effect that it was their desire that my labors might be +longer continued among them.</p> + +<p>Only one, who, having made a play-day of life, turns, at last, to attempt +some earnest work, and fails, as he believes, utterly, and then catches a +glimpse of unexpected light in the darkness, can understand the impulse +given me by that dirty little scroll. It was such happiness as I had +never felt before. It made me strangely weak.</p> + +<p>"You'll stay," said the Turkey Mogul, at length, "another term, or we'll +consider this term extended, if you please."</p> + +<p>"I'll stay a few more weeks, anyway," I said, and the Turkey Mogul must +have marvelled at the childish faith and joy with which I clung to this +new-found rock of my salvation; "but I hadn't thought of it before," I +added, a little faintly, thinking of home.</p> + +<p>"You're tired!" said the Turkey Mogul, almost sympathetically; "and +hungry!" he subjoined, quickly, in a different tone.</p> + +<p>I knew by this time that the Turkey Mogul's eyes were dangerously prone +to have twinkles in the corners of them, yet I believe I met their +derisive questioning with a simple seriousness in my own.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's right!" he exclaimed. "Stick to 'em! Stick to 'em! I'll be +down to conduct another—humph! another examination in a week or two. +Good-bye!" and he gave me his hand, and was off almost before the little +line of mourners had disappeared over the crest of the hill. Yet I +remember that Grandma Bartlett, who had been deterred by the infirmity of +age from joining the procession, and had remained at the window, alone, +regaled the Wallencampers, on their return, with a choice fancy, in which +the Turkey Mogul and I had stood "talkin' and chatterin' on the +school-house steps, for an hour or more." Grandma Bartlett, though not +actively disposed to work mischief, nor possessed, indeed, of any animate +quality, still cherished a few of the dry formulas of scandal, which she +applied to any seemingly favorable combination of circumstances. The +Wallencampers, at any time, paid but little attention to her words.</p> + +<p>And, at the close of this strange day, I sat alone, in my little room in +the Ark, and indited a letter to the following effect:—</p> + +<p>"Having received gratifying overtures from the people of my charge, I had +decided, for reasons which I could not then explain, to remain at +Wallencamp until May, to which time I looked forward with the delightful +hope of seeing my dear ones once more.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, I hoped they would not consider it strange, or ungracious of +me to say that I should very much prefer not to have Brother Will, or any +one else, come to Wallencamp to look after me, as Brother Will and some +others had kindly suggested doing. It would seem to imply that I was not +capable of taking care of myself, a mania which I trusted no longer held +possession of the family brain. Moreover, Wallencamp, though so charming +a place, had but few facilities for the accommodation of guests. I should +draw on my salary, now, very shortly, and would then remit the sums I had +borrowed in mere temporary embarrassment," etc.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>BECKY'S CONFESSION.</h3> + + +<p>The Wallencamp bonfire, like Christmas or a Fourth of July celebration in +less ingenious and erratic communities, came only once a year. It was +kindled on Eagle Hill, that runs out from the mainland of Wallencamp into +Herrin' River,—the Wallencampers called the Hill an island,—and from +most points of view it answered to the geographical description of "Land +entirely surrounded by water," seeming, indeed, to stand solitary in the +river, with an air of infinite repose on its broad, sloping sides; green +and gold, so I remember it ever, with the sun setting over it in the +spring-time,—green and gold, in a crimson river!</p> + +<p>It had an air of sublimity, too, looking over and beyond the cedars to +the bay, and down the length of the winding stream that fretted at its +feet or lapped them quietly.</p> + +<p>There I planned to build a house, in some bright future day, that should +be in effective keeping with the natural grandeur of the place,—quaint, +lordly, substantial, with the appearance of having fallen somewhat into +disuse, ivy growing over the dark stone walls, and moss in the winding +drives, and carved lions at the gate.</p> + +<p>The hill was a favorite resort of mine, and Rebecca had generally +accompanied me on my excursions thither.</p> + +<p>Once she said—it was in the days when she had been happier—"I guess +<i>this</i> place is just as God made it to begin with."</p> + +<p>Rebecca had been struck with and had retained an idea which she had +probably heard promulgated sometime at the West Wallen Sunday-school, +that, at the time of man's spiritual fall, the earth also, with all +terrestrial things, had undergone a general mixing up. Her own idea in +regard to Eagle Hill she expressed very modestly, looking off with a +childish content and assurance in her eyes. And I was delighted with her.</p> + +<p>"You are always thinking such things as that," I exclaimed, +enthusiastically. "I know you are!"</p> + +<p>Rebecca blushed, smiling, and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I ain't often sure," she said.</p> + +<p>I think I told her then that when I had my house on the hill, she should +be the housekeeper to guard my keys and conduct my affairs; "that is, my +dear, attend to all the little practical details connected with living," +and Rebecca, to whom my castles on the Hill were never castles in the +air, but who believed most implicitly that I would, sooner or later, +perform all things that ever I dreamed of doing, accepted her prospective +matronship with a becoming sense of its advantage and dignity.</p> + +<p>Eagle Hill was haunted by a horse, a pure white horse—not Lovell's—with +a flowing mane and tail, and a beautiful arched neck. His motions, the +Wallencampers said, were most fiery and graceful. Occasionally he paused +and fell back, quivering on his haunches, looked this way and that, and +then, with a wild plunge, swept on again, swifter than before. Every true +Wallencamper could both see and hear the "white horse" when, at night, +clearly outlined against the sky, he galloped back and forth along the +very summit of the hill.</p> + +<p>It was on one of the blackest nights of the season that the fuel, which +less grand and poetic souls would doubtless have reserved for another +winter's use, was borne in jubilant triumph by the Wallencampers up the +sides of this sacred and illustrious steep, and there consumed in a most +glorious conflagration. The spectacle was appalling. At intervals in the +roaring and crackling of the flames was heard the roar of the near ocean, +while the familiar features of the landscape and the faces of the +encircling spectators, stood out with unreal and terrible distinctness in +the hellish light.</p> + +<p>Emily, who had coughed all the way climbing up the hill, stood stirring +the fire with a long pole, and making reckless and facetious remarks the +while, which, uttered in the midst of that unearthly scene, struck me +cold with horror.</p> + +<p>"Come, Bachelder," said she; "git onto the end of my pole, and I'll hold +ye over there a while. Ye might as well be gittin' used to it!"</p> + +<p>"Heh! yes," said Bachelor Lot. "But what I'm a thinkin' is, you'd ought +to have a subordinate. I never heered—heh!—of putting a person of such +importance in the Kingdom—heh!—however efficient—into the position of +Fire Tender!"</p> + +<p>"Crazy Silvy" was at the bonfire. I had never seen her before. Silvy did +not go out on ordinary occasions. I watched her as she stood with a +scant, thin shawl thrown over her head, looking intently into the flames, +shivering often, and smiling as she moved her lips in apparently +delightful conversation with herself.</p> + +<p>Some of the children essayed to tease her; she seemed quite unconscious +of their efforts, but I turned and spoke to them rather sharply. The next +time I looked up, her strange, smiling eyes were fixed full on my face. +I glanced away quickly, with a nervous shiver, and moved a little farther +off. As I did so, Silvy, regarding me in that same dreamily contemplative +manner, walked toward me a step or two, and as I continued to move away, +she walked slowly after me.</p> + +<p>My acquaintance with the unconfined insane had not been extensive enough +to allow me to regard her motions with that mingled amusement and +curiosity, which was the only sentiment expressed on the countenances of +the Wallencampers who stood watching us; but I concluded that it was +better to face about, and meet my pursuer with an air of fearlessness. I +did so, and held out my hand to her as she came up.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Silvy?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" said Silvy, thrusting her hands behind her, laughing softly, +and shaking her head. "Not with the queen of heaven! Not with the queen +of heaven!"</p> + +<p>I thought I detected Emily's derisive influence in this poor, simple +creature's words. Silvy was so perfectly mild and harmless in appearance, +however, that I began to feel reassured.</p> + +<p>"I've heard about you, Silvy," I continued, cheerfully. "I'm the teacher, +you know. You've heard them speak of the teacher?"</p> + +<p>"So glad," continued Silvy, in the same low, cooing tone; "so glad to +meet the queen of heaven."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said I then. "You mustn't say that again. Draw your shawl up +tighter." For in spite of the bonfire, the wind was blowing cold on the +hill.</p> + +<p>While I spoke Silvy had become absorbed in watching the fire again. I +would have walked quietly away, but as I turned to go she thrust her head +toward me quickly and whispered:—</p> + +<p>"Wait! don't—you—ever—tell!"</p> + +<p>Silvy put her hand to her lips.</p> + +<p>"No," said I, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Silvy never told," she went on; "except to you. You've got a key. +Silvy's got a key. She keeps things all locked up, Silvy does. Emily +don't have any key. She talks—she talks all over—don't you tell—but +Silvy lives with Emily—so bad," said Silvy, heaving a gentle sigh and +speaking in a tone of the deepest confidence; "so bad not to have any +key."</p> + +<p>"That's true, I think," said I, beginning to find my strange companion +rather interesting.</p> + +<p>"Yes." Silvy nodded her head several times as though we understood, we +two, and she was delighted to have discovered the fact.</p> + +<p>Then her eyes wandered again to the fire, and she resumed her happy, +smiling conversation with herself.</p> + +<p>I thought she had forgotten me, or concluded not to unlock anything with +her key, when she turned slowly and looked at me, and seemed to gather up +the lost train of her ideas in my face.</p> + +<p>"Silvy watched the fishermen at Emily's," she went on. "They said, 'Poor +Silvy!' 'See you again next time, Silvy!' They are very p'lite, thank +you, and they laugh once. 'Ha! ha!' But David Rollin, he laughs twice. +'Ha! ha!' and behind his sleeve, too. Such things are damnable!"</p> + +<p>Silvy's dulcet tones ran over that hard word with the mildest and softest +of accents.</p> + +<p>"And they bring wine," she continued. "Silvy cl'ared off the table one +night. She heard 'em sing, and they says to him, 'What about pretty +Beck?' and he says 'We must have a little fun, you know, ha! ha!' and +then, 'ha! ha!' behind his sleeve. Now if Silvy could keep it all +together, you'd straighten it out maybe. Silvy can't straighten it out. +Where did she hear so much, I wonder! She hears too much, Silvy does." +She knitted her brows in pitiful perplexity.</p> + +<p>"You were talking about the fishermen," said I.</p> + +<p>"No," said Silvy, shaking her head; "about Beck. She never says, 'Crazy +Silvy! There she goes! Look at Silvy!' She says, 'Come and see me, +Silvy,' so. So soft spoken. Silvy loves her."</p> + +<p>"I love her, too," I said, gently; for Silvy had paused again, and was +knitting her brows in that painful manner, as though the effort to think +gave her actual physical suffering.</p> + +<p>"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She exclaimed suddenly, her face all smooth +and softly smiling now. "Never—you—trust a neat man," impressively. +"Never you trust 'em—for why? They wasn't made so. God made 'em. God +made 'em to clutter. And there was that Dave Rollin. He was always a' +hangin' things up. He was always foldin' of 'em. He was always a hangin' +'em up in his room. Silvy knows. But there was a piece of writin' got +over behind the bury. And it didn't fall. But it stuck. Silvy knows. She +reads writin'. She reads it over and over. He didn't love Beck any more. +But he's afraid. And he'll give money. 'Oh, go anywhere! Only keep still, +Beck. For Heaven's sake, keep still.' Why, she wouldn't hurt him! Beck +wouldn't hurt him," said Silvy, in a slow tone full of wonder.</p> + +<p>"He needn't be afraid. But Silvy won't tell him so. Why not? Oh, she +likes to be amused. Silvy likes to be amused!</p> + +<p>"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She continued, after another terrible pause. +"She set eyes on you, standin' there. That's the one, she says, and she +says it a long time. That's the queen of Heaven. She wouldn't hurt Silvy, +poor Silvy! She's got a key. So she'll straighten it out maybe. Silvy +can't, she's so tired. When Silvy got up in the mornin', it was early. +Oh, so still! And a bird was flyin' up—up. Silvy couldn't see—so far to +heaven. It made Silvy cry. So strange not to be any tired in the +mornin'."</p> + +<p>Silvy made a last painful effort to collect her thoughts, before her face +resumed its habitual, far away, half smiling expression.</p> + +<p>Then she said, "Silvy comes up the hill all alone. Not the way them +others, and she see the fire burnin'. But it was dark in the bush. Silvy +heard 'em talkin' terribly. It was Beck and George Olver. 'I'll make an +honest home for you, Beck.' And she says, terribly, she no deserve. And +he says, she better than him, and won't she come? And she cries so, 'My +heart is broke!' And how good to live with him she knows, now—so honest +and true—but she no fit, and, oh, 'My heart is broke! my heart is +broke!'"</p> + +<p>The scene, the vividness of these words had not yet faded in the least +from Silvy's memory.</p> + +<p>"Then," said she; "they keep on talkin', terribly. But Silvy—she hears +so much—poor Silvy! She goes 'round very still, 'nother way. Silvy's +tired."</p> + +<p>And, as unceremoniously as she had approached me, she turned and walked +slowly back to her old position before the fire. She did not look at me. +She seemed to have become utterly unconscious of my presence. The scant, +thin shawl had fallen back from her head. She shivered as she stood +gazing into the flames, but the dreamy expression was ever in her eyes +and the soft laugh on her lips, as she continued murmuring to herself.</p> + +<p>The Wallencampers were not content to let the fire go out after the first +grand illumination. They were bringing up more brush from the landward +side of the hill, amid a confusion of wild shouts and excited laughter.</p> + +<p>I found Rebecca among a group of girls.</p> + +<p>"When you go home to-night," I said; "I want you to step in and see me. +Come up to my room."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Rebecca, and I noticed how pale she turned in the fire-light. +I did not say any more to her, then.</p> + +<p>After hearing Silvy's story, I believed that Mr. Rollin had acted a +heartless and unmanly part towards Rebecca, made love to her which he +could not doubt the poor girl took in earnest, and even promises which +he knew he should lightly break sometime, and then, for his own purposes, +he begged her to keep silence. I thought I understood, and resolved to +instruct Rebecca to forget the red-haired fisherman; to be "sensible," +and "marry good, honest George Olver," who loved her so devotedly.</p> + +<p>Lute Cradlebow had come home, and was one among the many figures at this +brilliant fête. Indeed, the bonfire had been deferred until later than +usual in the season, by reason of his absence, and now he was noticeably +the lion of the evening, in a brave dark blue cravat that was borne +outward by the wind, or fluttered becomingly under his chin, to the envy +and despair of all the Wallencamp youth. He exchanged a pleasant greeting +with every one, and brought the largest young tree of all up the hill on +his broad shoulders.</p> + +<p>When, at length, the Wallencampers had permitted the fire to burn low, +they joined hands in a ring around the embers, and sang the saddest and +sweetest songs in the Hymnal. I sat on a rock near by, engaged as I had +been much of the time since my arrival in Wallencamp, in trying to +realize the situation—the awful gloom of the night, the river now +invisible, below, the sound of the surf farther off, that made my heart +sick, and with it the strange mingling of those religious songs, the +lonely hill, the smouldering fire, the fantastic group gathered around.</p> + +<p>When I got back to the Ark, I found Rebecca waiting for me. She followed +me up to my room, and I closed the door.</p> + +<p>"You see I waited long enough for you to come of your own accord," I +said, laughing. Then I drew a chair in front of her. She sat at the foot +of the bed, and I addressed her gravely:—</p> + +<p>"Now, Becky, something is the matter. You are not the merry, +light-hearted girl you were when I first knew you. And I can help you, +perhaps. I will help you. Tell me what the trouble is!"</p> + +<p>I thought I should see the tears gathering in Rebecca's eyes, but she +looked, instead, so stonily disconsolate, that I was rather dismayed.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to tell you," said she; "but you can't help me. They'll all +know before long, I guess. I don't care. You talk good, but you don't say +much about God. I guess you don't believe there is none. I don't, I can't +understand. I'm like I'd got lost, somehow, and when they found me, +they'd stone me—I don't care. I've felt enough. I don't feel no more. +I've cried so much, I guess I can't cry no more. If I could it 'ud be +now, tellin' you.</p> + +<p>"When Miss Waite came here to teach, I hadn't ever had no friend except +the girls here, and they wasn't bad, but we was always runnin' wild +around in the lots, and down to shore, and always laughin' and plaguin' +the teacher in school. And when Miss Waite came, she wasn't like you, nor +she didn't have such clothes, nor such ways as yours. I didn't love her +very much, but she used to talk to me, and wanted me to be a Christian. +And she didn't tell me all it was to be a Christian like you have, or I +wouldn't 'a' been such a fool to think I could be; but she talked like it +wasn't anything to understand, only to want Christ in your heart, and try +to be good, and, first, I didn't pretend to mind much what she said, and +used to tell the girls, and they'd tell me, too, and we'd laugh. Only one +time, she was talkin' to me, and it seemed as though I couldn't hold out +no longer, and I cried and cried, and when I got up I felt happy. Just as +though He was there. Seemed as though He was all around everywhere, and +goin' down the lane, there was a whip-poor-will singin', and it sounded +like it never had before—so strange and happy—and I always loved 'em +after that—but I never shall again.</p> + +<p>"And I tried to be good, and quieter, and have the other girls and the +children at home; and when father was drunk and noisy, and some of the +folks laughed, I wouldn't give up—quite. Oh, I didn't feel like I was +bad then! I didn't! You might remember that. I hadn't much manners, but I +never thought anything bad. Some time you might remember that.</p> + +<p>"Then Mr. Rollin came, and he might 'a' killed me, and it 'ud been a +kindness; but he hadn't no such kind heart as that. He used to make +excuses for meetin' me. He wouldn't look at any of the other girls. He +said he couldn't see no beauty in anybody else. He said I was the only +one on earth he loved. He said he wouldn't care what became of him if I +wasn't good to him.</p> + +<p>"I thought George never talked to me so much as that, and I trusted him +every word. It was all so different. I thought I loved him, too. He +talked about how he should take me to Providence, and I said I hadn't +much manners or education, and they'd laugh at me. He said there wasn't +another such a face there, and if he was suited, they might laugh. And he +used to talk about how I'd look all dressed up in his house, down +there—and I don't see! I don't see! I trusted every word.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't have been no different, anyway. I loved you when you came. +When he went with you, I tried to hate you. I hated him, but I never +hated you! In my heart, teacher, I never hated you. You might think of +that, some time——"</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear little girl," I interrupted her; "it seems we have both +been deceived in the fisherman, but, doubtless, we shall recover in time. +You don't like him, neither do I. We'll dismiss the subject from our +minds, forever. There's a good, honest boy here in Wallencamp that a girl +I know ought to busy her head about. Why trouble ourselves with +disagreeable things?"</p> + +<p>"You might think, some time," Rebecca went on, with the same hopeless +expression, and in the same tense voice; "I never knew that about not +trustin' anybody till you told me. I hadn't never be'n away from here. I +wasn't brought up like you, and I wasn't so strong as you—you might +think, some time—but not now. I don't ask to have you now—you don't +see. I knew you wouldn't—you can forget—you're so happy—think of that, +sometime, how happy you was, sittin' there—but I never can forget any +more. I say it 'ud be'n better if I'd a died. It's the sin and the shame. +I've nothin' but to bear 'em, now, as long as I live. Oh, you might think +what it was not to have no hope anywheres!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" I cried, as it rushed over me in that instant what I +had been too heedless and slow to comprehend, the possible wretched +meaning of her words. "What do you mean?" rising and standing over her, +with a terrible sense of power to convict.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Becky, you didn't mean that—worst?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said she, with no visible change on her poor, set face—"yes—I +do."</p> + +<p>"I wish you would go out of my room, and leave me!" I exclaimed, then; "I +am not used to such people as you! Do you suppose I would have been with +you all these weeks if I had known? Don't you see how you have wronged +me? I never want to see you again, never! Go! go! and leave me alone!"</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the look with which Rebecca rose wearily, and went +to the door—not an angry look, not a look of terror nor even of pleading +reproach; but it was as if her soul, sinful, crushed and bleeding though +it was, in that one moment, rose above my soul and condemned it with +sorrowful, clear eyes.</p> + +<p>I listened to her step going down the stairs. I did not call her back. I +heard her latch the outer door of the Ark. No thought of pity for her +wrong, or commiseration for her desolation moved me. I thought only in my +proud selfish passion, how miserably, how bitterly I had been deceived.</p> + +<p>I sought out the fisherman's letter before retiring, and the one I had +begun in answer, and tore them both into shreds, believing that I should +as easily rid my mind of the whole miserable affair with which I had been +unwittingly complicated.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE.</h3> + + +<p>"It's be'n a mild winter on the Cape;" the Wallencampers congratulated +one another, blinking, with a delicious sense of warmth and comfort, in +the rays of a strong March sun.</p> + +<p>The Wallencampers were not, perhaps, generally incited by that love of +stern, unceasing, and vigorous exertion which is, geographically +considered, one of the chief characteristics of our hardy northern races. +True poets and idealists, they were lazy, and they had but few clothes, +both excellent reasons for inclining kindly to the warm weather.</p> + +<p>And yet, notwithstanding this, they had grown used to a wild ruggedness +of nature and condition, a terrible, sublime uncertainty about life and +things in general when the wind blew, missing which, in this earthly +state, they would have pined most sadly. And I do not believe that they +would have exchanged their rugged, storm-swept, wind-beleaguered little +section of Cape Cod for a realm in sunny Italy itself; no, not even if +the waves of that bright clime had rippled over sands of literal gold, +and their winter had been nine months in the year instead of the +customary six and a half.</p> + +<p>"A mild winter on the Cape." Grandpa Keeler often repeated the words; and +sitting by the fire at night, his eyes grew big and wild, and his tones +took on a terrible impressiveness as he told of <i>rough</i> winters on the +Cape, when the snow lay drifted high across the fences in the lane, and +"every time she came in yender"—pointing in the direction of the +Bay—"she licked offa slice or two o' bank, and the old Ark whirled and +shuk—O Lordy, teacher!—as ef she'd slipped her moorin's and gone off on +a high sea, and ef you'd a heered the wind a screechin' inter them +winders, you'd a thought the"——</p> + +<p>"Bijonah Keeler!" Grandma Keeler spoke. She said no more. It was enough.</p> + +<p>"You'd a thought something had got loose, sure," concluded Grandpa, with +a keen glance aside to me that revealed, as with tenfold significance, +the obstructed force of his narrative.</p> + +<p>In the daytime, Grandpa was now much out of doors. He had most frequent +and loving recourse to an interesting looking pile of rubbish at the +south end of the barn. There he sat, and napped and nodded, and employed +the brief interims of wakefulness in whittling bean poles, preparatory +for another year's supply of that dreaded and inexorable crop. Earth's +disturbing voices, Grandma Keeler herself, seldom reached him there.</p> + +<p>Early, too, I saw him in the garden, leaning pensively on his hoe—a +becalmed and striking figure in a ragged snuff-colored coat, and a hat +marked by numerous small orifices, through which, here and there, strands +from his silvery fringe of hair strayed and waved in the breezes.</p> + +<p>It was Grandma and Grandpa Keeler's custom at the first approach of +spring to detach themselves from Madeline's household, and to form a +separate and complete establishment of their own in the sunny kitchen, +away out at the end of the Ark. I was still, nominally, Madeline's +boarder, and sat at the table with her and the little Keelers; but the +impulses of my heart were ever guiding my feet to that other dear resort, +where doors and hearts seemed always open to receive me, and an +inexpressible warmth and light and comfort pervaded the atmosphere.</p> + +<p>It was early in March, when, returning from school one day at the +noontide intermission, I found Grandma standing without the Ark, +singularly occupied. The sun was shining on her uncovered head, and the +tranquil glow on her face was clearly the exponent of no fictitious +happiness. In her apron she had a quantity of empty egg-shells, so +carefully drained of their contents as to present an almost perfect +external appearance, and these she was arranging on the twigs of a large +bush that grew just outside the window.</p> + +<p>I was glad, afterwards, that I intruded then no skeptical questions as to +her purpose, for, as I stood and looked at her, her action gradually lost +for me the tinge of eccentricity, with which it had at first seemed +imbued. I realized that there was something grander than reason, more +exalted than philosophy.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've heerd about egg-plants, teacher;" said she, at length, +turning to me, while the sun in her face broke up into scintillant beams +that penetrated my being, and quickened my very soul. "This 'ere old +bush ain't bore nothin' for years, and it looked so bare and sorrerful, +somehow, standin' out here all alone, and everything else a kinder wakin' +up in the spring, I thought I'd try to sorter liven it up a little;" and +she resumed her placid occupation.</p> + +<p>"Blessed Grandma," I could only murmur, as I turned to enter the Ark; +"inspired, delightful soul!"</p> + +<p>It was in March that the Wallencamp sun-bonnets came forth, all in a +single day, a curious and startling pageant. The Modoc, who had gone +bareheaded through the winter, assumed hers as a turban of impressive +altitude, while the diminutive Carietta and the infant Sophronia appeared +but as vagrant telescopes on insufficient pegs.</p> + +<p>In March the "pipers" lifted up their homesick notes at nightfall, in the +meadows. On the last day of that month, I found arbutus in bloom under +the leaves in the cedar woods.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had the first faint signs of herbage appeared on the earth ere +the Wallencamp cows and horses were given over exclusively to the +guardianship of nature, and to wander whithersoever they would, for the +Wallencamp fences had ceased to present themselves as obstacles in the +way. Indeed, some portions of them had been utterly obliterated, and this +was easily traced to a habit prevalent among the Wallencampers of +resorting to them for fuel when, on some winter night, other resources +were found to be low.</p> + +<p>Other portions of them were decayed, or blown over in the wind, so that +there was just enough left to sit on for private soliloquy, or social +debate, and to give a picturesque charm to the landscape; yet, it was a +fact which I found worthy of notice, that, in going from one place to +another, no true Wallencamper ever walked over a broken-down part of the +fence, or went through a gap in the fence; he always selected an upright +part of the fence to climb over, even going a little out of the way, if +necessary, to effect this purpose.</p> + +<p>The Wallencampers were staunch on the matter of individual rights; they +turned each his own horse and cow into his own door-yard. Animated, +doubtless, by something of the same principle, those attenuated animals, +having made an impartial <i>détour</i> of the premises, congregated, as of one +accord, along the highway, especially in that part of the lane between +the Ark and the school-house.</p> + +<p>I made my way through these new perils from day to day, in safety, until +the deepening green of the hills and fields called the herd away to wider +pastures.</p> + +<p>Dr. Aberdeen, however, remained behind. Dr. Aberdeen, as he was termed by +the Wallencampers, was a horse of peculiar and distinguished parts. Among +his other eccentric gifts, he had a harmless habit of chasing beings of a +superior race. In what manner this propensity had first manifested +itself, I do not know, but it had been eagerly seized upon as ground for +further development by the juvenile element of Wallencamp, and especially +by the Modoc, under whose lively tuition the animal had reached an almost +strategic ability in the art.</p> + +<p>Dr. Aberdeen was truly of the mildest disposition imaginable. He had +never been known to kick. He had never even been known to open his mouth +and snap at a fly, but the expression of his countenance, if it might be +so called, when he was on the chase, was vicious and determined in the +extreme, and by no means betrayed the purely facetious nature of his +intentions. During school hours he seldom wandered from the immediate +vicinity of the school-house, where he appeared to be waiting for the +children to come out to play. Often have I looked up to see him gazing in +at the windows with a gleam of evil expectancy in his melancholy dun +brown eye.</p> + +<p>With the joyful advent of the spring came, also, Tommy's tame owl and +"Happy Moses." Tommy's owl emerged from his winter-quarters, and took up +his daily post of observation on the fence on the shady side of the +school-house. He was blind in one eye, which eye was always open, the +other was always closed. Yet with that one glassy, unblinking orb, +Tommy's owl seemed to me, as I lifted my eyes to the window, to be +reviewing the past with an indifference as calm and all-embracing as that +with which he sent his inexorable gaze into the future; and to take in me +and the passing events of the school-room as a mere speck in his +kaleidoscopic vision of the ages.</p> + +<p>What was the winter's thraldom from which Happy Moses had escaped, I +never learned. He was a broad-shouldered fellow, six feet in height, with +a beard like flax, and a sunny, ingenuous countenance. What term should +have been applied to his eccentricities in politer circles I cannot say, +but in Wallencamp, he was artlessly designated as "the fool." Whether it +was on this account, that with a certain rashness of perception peculiar +to the Wallencampers, they always prefixed the adjective "happy" to his +name, or merely on account of the transparent sunniness of his +disposition, I cannot say, either.</p> + +<p>Happy Moses played with the children. He regarded me, as one of the class +of those who presume to teach, with mingled scorn and aversion. When I +went to the door to blow the children in from their play, he invariably +turned his back upon me, cocked his hat on one side of his head, and +walked away with an air that was palpably reckless, defiant, and jaunty.</p> + +<p>When he reappeared, it was usually with his knitting-work, to which he +devoted himself in a desultory way, reclining on the school-house steps. +But sometimes he sat on the fence with the owl, and then it was +noticeable that while the gaze of the one was transient and silly, the +gaze of the other seemed to grow the more unutterably searching and +profound. So, at last, the new term was fairly established with these +three—Dr. Aberdeen, Happy Moses, and the owl.</p> + +<p>Hulled corn and beans had now become but as a dream of the past in +Wallencamp, and for a brief season before the accession of lobsters, life +was mainly supported on winter-green-berries, or box-berries, as they +were called. These grew in large quantities at "Black Ground," a section +of the woods which had been burned over. Daily I met happy groups of +Wallencampers, with baskets and pails in their hands, going "boxberry +plummin.'"</p> + +<p>We had boxberry bread, boxberry stews and pies, and one day, I caught a +glimpse of Grandma, in her part of the Ark, frying boxberry +griddle-cakes.</p> + +<p>Grandpa, when I met him, at this time, wore an air of deep dejection; yet +he bore his woes in silence, doubtless avoiding any concession that +should suggest the need of another clarification of his system. Once, +when nobody was looking, he cautiously withdrew a handful of scraped +birch bark from his pocket and gave it to me, remarking that he thought +it was "a little more bracin' than them tarnal woodsy plums."</p> + +<p>Next in the order of events, as the Modoc stood in her place in the +reading-class and slowly enunciated each separate syllable of the lesson +in a tone as remarkable for a loud distinctness as it was for a total +lack of meaning and modulation, from that side of her dress which had +been sagging most heavily, something fell with a crash to the floor. It +was a boiled lobster of anomalous proportions. The pocket had given way +at last under its overpowering burden, and now appeared ignominiously +upborne on the claws of its former prisoner. The Modoc seized the +crustacean with glittering defiance in her eyes, and at recess, I saw +that turbaned Amazon devouring it, with a group of wistful and admiring +faces gathered round. The boys were out in the bay "setting pots" and +"trolling for bait." Soon, not a child at Wallencamp was lobsterless. I +discovered two under the infant Sophronia's desk one morning, and +afterwards kept a sharp eye in that direction. Sophronia's conduct +throughout the session was in an unusual degree exemplary. I detected no +guilty blush on her countenance, I heard not the crackling of a claw, +but when she went out, I observed that she took no lobsters with her.</p> + +<p>Investigating the place where she had been sitting, I found a wild +confusion of claws and shells, as carefully denuded of meat as though +they had been turned inside out for that purpose.</p> + +<p>What was my surprise and mortification to find a like collection at +nearly every seat in the school-room, and all the while my flock had +seemed unusually silent and attentive; such proficiency had those +children acquired in the art of dissecting lobsters.</p> + +<p>I saw how many they devoured day by day, and how much water they drank, +and I fancied that they themselves grew to partake more and more of the +form and character of marine animals. I believed that they could have +existed equally well crawling at the bottom of the deep or swimming on +its surface.</p> + +<p>We had lobsters, too, at the Ark. For the first day or two of this +dispensation, Grandpa's face perceptibly brightened. At the end of two +weeks it was longer than ever before.</p> + +<p>He came over from his potato patch, I remember, and leaned on the fence, +as I was going by to school.</p> + +<p>"It's be'n a mild winter on the Cape, teacher," he observed, studying the +heavens with an air of utter abstraction. Then his glance fell as it were +inadvertently in the direction of the house, and he immediately continued +with a peculiar spark of animation kindling in his eye; "I've et so many +o' them 'tarnal critters, teacher, that I swon if I don't feel like a +'tarnal, long-fingered, sprawlin' shell-fish myself! But it's comin' nigh +time for ale-whops. They're very good, teacher, ale-whops are—very good, +though they're bony as the—they're 'tarnal bony, teacher. They're what +we call herrin's in the winter."</p> + +<p>Grandpa then laughed a little and showed his teeth.</p> + +<p>"I was goin' to tell ye, Bachelder Lot, here," he went on; "he was a' +askin' Captain Sartell what kind o' fish them was that it's recorded in +the Scripters to 'a' fed the multitude, and then took up so many baskets +full o' leavin's; and the Captain told him that as to exactly what manner +of fish them was, he hadn't sufficient acquaintance with the book of +Jonah to say, but, as near as he could calk'late, he reckoned they was +ale-whops.</p> + +<p>"And the Bachelder told him that it seemed to him he was right, and had +solved a mystery, for it stood to reason that there wa'n't no other fish +<i>but</i> an ale-whop, that they could feed five thousand folks out of seven +little ones and then take up twelve bushel baskets full of bones!</p> + +<p>"And the Captain was pleased, and kind o' half owned up that he hadn't +felt no ways sure as to his surmise to begin with, but he said when the +question was put to him, he didn't think no man ought to hesitate to come +down strong on a doctrinal p'int.</p> + +<p>"Wall, as I was a sayin', teacher," concluded Grandpa, his teeth still +skinned and gleaming, "it's be'n a mild winter on the Cape."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW.</h3> + + +<p>The ship in which the Cradlebow expected to take flight was to sail from +New Bedford on the twentieth of June. Meantime, having abjured my +friendly relations with Rebecca, and missing the quiet sustenance +hitherto supplied my vanity in the girl's thoughtful devotion, I found a +measure of relief for my wounded spirit in the companionship of this +other—my boyish and ardent ex-pupil.</p> + +<p>Many times, after my last interview with Rebecca, had I regretted that I +did not leave Wallencamp at the close of the first term. The school grew +continually more irksome to me. I was not so strong as when I had first +undertaken it, and no longer overlooked the discomforts of my situation +in the delight I had then experienced in its novelty. Often I longed to +get away from it all, to rid myself abruptly of the perplexities and +distasteful duties which bound me; and yet, all the while, there was +a truer impulse, a deeper longing within me, to stay. Had I not been, all +my life so far, forsaking my unfinished tasks, quitting an object as soon +as it seemed any the less attractive. I willed to stay, and labored, +still blindly, under the conviction that my regenerating work among the +Wallencampers (not theirs in me; ah, no!) was not yet accomplished.</p> + +<p>Toward Rebecca I had not softened. I was bitterly disappointed in her. +She had been the formless, pliable clay, on which I purposed to prove my +pet theories for development and culture. I had taken her as a perfectly +fresh and untainted being, naïvely unconscious even, of the elements, +either good or bad, of which her own nature was composed, waiting only +for the hand of a wise and skillful modeller, like myself, to bring her +up to the highest condition of manners and morals.</p> + +<p>This elegant superstructure, a purely mental product of my own, had +fallen away, revealing the erring, passionate nature beneath. But, deeply +as I mourned the fall of my idol, I felt still more keenly a sense of +personal injury, because the inner structure on which I had been +building, had not spoken out and said, "I shall contaminate you. I am not +fit for the touch, of your fine hands."</p> + +<p>Clearly there could no longer be any sympathy between Rebecca and me. I +avoided any occasion for private interview with the girl. Meeting her +casually in the lane, or at the neighbors' houses, I acknowledged her +presence with a nod or a smile, colder, I knew, than as if I had ignored +her utterly.</p> + +<p>She understood; she was quiet and unobtrusive. She made no attempt to +break down the wall thus established between us. And I was determined, on +the whole, to be more than just with Rebecca. I would be kind to her in +her disgrace. I would palliate her weakness as far as I could +consistently with a pure and high standard of action. I even +congratulated myself on the magnanimity of my intentions, except when I +met the clear, sad gaze of those dispassionate eyes. Then I experienced +an unaccountable sensation, as though I had received a blow inwardly, +that staggered me, for an instant, in my fine conceptions of honor, and +set my conclusions out of order.</p> + +<p>The Wallencampers were quick to note the estrangement between us, and +affirmed that "Beck was mad, and wouldn't speak to teacher, along o' +teacher's goin' with Beck's beau."</p> + +<p>This gratuitous solution of the mystery was not evolved in my presence. +Still I knew, that all through those lonely, suffering days, it was often +repeated to Rebecca; that those who had borne the girl any grudge, or +deemed that she was taking airs above them, took pains, now, that the +taunt should reach her ears; and even the children, who had always loved +her, uttered it before her with childish thoughtlessness.</p> + +<p>But, for the Cradlebow; his bright dream of seeking his fortune over wide +seas and in distant lands, his dreadless enthusiasm in the belief that he +should find so much waiting for him in that unsounded world, his +determination, above all, to acquit himself truthfully and bravely—all +these made him, to my mind, ever an object of more inspiring and romantic +interest.</p> + +<p>He seemed, somehow, to have divested himself entirely of the old, +heedless irresolution. His speech expressed little of doubt or hesitancy. +It was full of a bold, bright affirmation; and his step, in these days, +had none of the ordinary slow, smiling, philosophical Wallencamp shuffle. +He brought to my weariness and dejection such an atmosphere of vigorous, +tireless life; he was so confident, helpful, unselfish; I was so +faithless and disheartened a burden-bearer; that I grew almost +unconsciously to find for myself a certain rest in his strength, which, +whatever high and heroic qualities it may have lacked, developed, at +least, rare resources of patience, constancy, and forbearance.</p> + +<p>He did not say: "You have changed your mind, you will wait for me, +teacher, till I come back from over the seas?" but his eyes were +eloquent. What if I was moved, I had grown so weak, to answer their +question, at last, with a half-involuntary admission in my own.</p> + +<p>Ah, no! I assured myself that my attitude towards the Cradlebow was +sisterly—sisterly, merely—although I might have reflected that the +yearnings of that amiable affection had never, hitherto, in the ordinary +walks of life, constrained me to hem so many as a dozen +pocket-handkerchiefs for my brothers, which irksome task I cheerfully +performed as a surprise for the sailor boy, not to speak of a pair of +scarlet hose which I had already begun to knit, under Grandma's tuition.</p> + +<p>And now the life in Wallencamp seemed never like real life to me, even in +the broadest daylight. It was like a dream—the sweet, warm, brightening +of the landscape; the vines growing over the low, brown houses; the lazy, +summer voices in the air; the skies, too, were a dream—and Luther, with +his ideally beautiful face and his quaintness and ardor and +unworldliness, was a part of the dream. I knew that when he went away, I +should follow him long in my thoughts, and wonder much concerning him; +that at home again with my own people, in gayer, different scenes, I +should never hear the wind blowing up strong at night, or see the winter +settling down gloomily, or watch the opening of another spring-time, +without following him afar and wondering, with a vague, sorrowful, tender +regret, what chance was befalling him in the world.</p> + +<p>Then an incident occurred which changed, not me, perhaps, but the +complexion of my dream.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, at low tide, I wandered down to the beach and ensconced +myself comfortably, with book and shawl, on the roof of Steeple Rock. The +rock was an old acquaintance of mine by this time.</p> + +<p>There was a group of children playing, a little farther down the beach. +My eyes turned ever to them from the written page, following them with a +languid pleasure, as they revelled in the sand at the water's edge with +their bare brown feet and legs. I had a sense of safety, too, in their +proximity. I knew that they generally returned home passing by the place +where I was.</p> + +<p>It was warm on the rock. I was very tired. As I lay there, I became only +conscious, at length, that my book was slipping out of my hand, and down +the shelving side of the rock, and I was too listless to attempt to +reclaim it. I heard a little, dull thud on the ground below, and a faint +flutter of leaves—and the long, white beach, the ragged cliffs, the +laughing children, had faded from my sight.</p> + +<p>Then I dreamed, indeed, in the ordinary sense of the word; I was back +again in Newtown, in my own home, in my own white bed, and I was very +glad, looking at the pictures on the wall, and out on the familiar hills. +I was glad to hear my sister playing for me down stairs, only it was the +same tune always, and I wished that she would play more softly.</p> + +<p>And the pillow was hard, but I did not mind that so much, for my mother +stood over me, looking very sweet and grave, and she said: "Why didn't +you tell us that the pillow was hard!"</p> + +<p>My father was there, too, and repeated the same question, and my +brothers,—they all kept saying: "Why didn't you tell us that the pillow +was hard?" and seemed to be pitying me and admiring me at the same time, +until John Cable came in, friend of the old Newtown days, and his face +was hard and stern.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me the pillow was hard?" he said. "Now, I can't wake +you! Don't you see, I can't wake you, now?" and he shook his head and +would not look at me. So they took him out of the room, and went on +pitying and admiring me, but my sister kept playing louder and louder, +and it troubled me so that I could not rest. Then I heard a voice, that +was not in my dream, calling to me in a sharp, clear, cheering tone, +"Teacher! Teacher!" and I looked up to see Luther coming towards me in a +boat, his face aglow with excitement.</p> + +<p>This first—before I realized that I had fallen asleep on the rock, and +that what I had dreamed was my sister playing, was the sound of the tide +coming in, and that I was already sprinkled from head to foot with the +spray. The Cradlebow continued calling to me cheerily, and would not give +me time to consider the terrors of the situation then, nor afterwards, +when I strove, in my half-stunned condition of mind, to weigh and +appreciate the peril from which I had been rescued.</p> + +<p>The children had wandered a mile or more along the beach and had gone +home by another road. It was not yet dark. No alarm had been occasioned +in Wallencamp as to my absence, but the Cradlebow, knowing that I had +gone in the direction of the beach, had been moved to search for me, and +had discovered me on the rock, where, in a few moments more, I should +have waked to find myself at the mercy of the waves.</p> + +<p>My deliverer laughed reassuringly, sending the boat leaping upon the +shore, holding out his hand to me, as though this were merely an everyday +occurrence, the close of some ordinary excursion, but, to me, life had +suddenly grown significant.</p> + +<p>The strong warm hand which clasped mine, weak and trembling, as I stepped +from the boat, I must recognize henceforth, I knew, as the link between +me and the living world.</p> + +<p>For several days afterwards I considered the matter of my relation to the +Cradlebow in a new and serious light, especially in the light of present +gratitude, with a sense of life-long obligation; but the Cradlebow was +too generous and noble to recognize the obligation, or take advantage of +the gratitude. He loved me, I knew. He had watched for me. He had saved +my life. He should know, I resolved, that if he wished it still I would +wait for him.</p> + +<p>And the idea was not foreign to my heart, but it grew, at last, too light +of wing, and disposed to take up permanent abode in the realm of fancy. A +poor, handsome young lover, seeking his fortune at the ends of the earth, +and the future—ah, it did send a little stab to my conscience, to think +that the uncertainty of that lover's future should so have heightened, to +my mind, the romance of the picture. However, meeting him in the lane one +evening, as I was returning from one of my parochial calls—it was just +at dusk, I remember, and we stood under the balm-of-Gilead tree, in front +of Emily's gate—I said very gravely and with none of that embarrassment +which the occasion might seem to have warranted:—</p> + +<p>"Luther, although I seem to myself much older than you, we are really, I +suppose, of about the same age. I have known very happy attachments where +inconsistencies of birth, habit, education were far greater, perhaps, +than with us. I have made up my mind that, if you still desire it, I will +wait for you."</p> + +<p>"Wait for me, teacher!" exclaimed the Cradlebow, opening his eyes with a +solemn, wide surprise; "why, of course!"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course?" I questioned faintly, not knowing whether to smile at +being thus abruptly disarmed, or to feel the least little bit piqued at +the youth's unconscious audacity.</p> + +<p>"What else should two people do who love each other?" There was nothing +either of doubt or arraignment in the Cradlebow's serious eyes. +"Besides," he continued; "I've known it all along. See here, teacher!" +and he took from his pocket, and carefully unfolded, a sheet of paper +against the background of which there lay revealed a dainty star fish, +most curiously twisted about with some rare and beautiful sea vine.</p> + +<p>"You won't find that vine washed up on this beach every day," he said +eagerly. "When I showed it to Granny—'If Heaven itself had spoken, boy,' +says she, 'I should be no surer it was a fair voyage waiting you than I +be now;' though I was thinking of something besides the voyage, teacher, +but it's all the same, it means good luck; and wouldn't you like to keep +it for us?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/women.jpg" width="400" height="687" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Oh, no!" I answered, laughingly refusing the delicate talisman. "I +should blast its good intentions. I should stifle it with my cold +unbelief."</p> + +<p>The Cradlebow tenderly replaced his treasure, and laughed with me +good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"It isn't your fault, teacher," said he, "that you weren't better brought +up. If you'd always lived with our people, down here, you'd be more +believing."</p> + +<p>At all events, my severe and protracted mental exertions had proved quite +unnecessary, I thought, although after this there was, in some respects, +a tacitly admitted change in our converse with each other. A sort of +vague, venturesome house-building for the future, in which the Cradlebow +seemed to wish that I would oftener show an interest in the feminine +details within doors, while I had a grand and absorbing predilection for +constructing imaginary grades and turrets and mediæval door-posts, +receiving any thoughtful suggestions as to tin-kettles and pantry-shelves +with gracious and smiling forbearance.</p> + +<p>The Cradlebow seemed particularly pleased, when he came into the Ark of +an evening, if I chanced to be knitting on the scarlet stockings. I did +have a new and not unpleasant sense of housewifely dignity while engaged +at this task, and undoubtedly assumed an air calculated to serve as an +impressive exponent to my emotion. The poor scarlet stockings +lengthened, meanwhile, but it was a disheartening and almost +imperceptible growth. Where the article should have been most +voluminous, at the calf of the leg, it grew, in spite of me, more +alarmingly narrow at every round. This was after I had graduated from +under Grandma Keeler's tuition, and assumed my own responsibility in the +matter; so that I disdained to appeal to her for assistance in the +dilemma, but thoughtfully devised means of my own for widening the +stocking.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell ye what it is, teacher," said Grandpa, who had been regarding +me with that wild look which sometimes visited the old man's face when a +problem seemed well nigh insoluble; "I'm afeerd, teacher, I'm afeerd that +that ere stockin' ain't a goin' to fit nobody! I'll tell ye what it makes +me think on. It makes me think o' one o' these 'ere accordions that ye +open and shet. I'm afeerd, teacher, that it ain't a goin' to fit!"</p> + +<p>"Thar! 'sh! 'sh! pa," said Grandma, with all the unction of holy +disapproval; but, for once, my ever dear friend and champion was +compelled to turn her back upon the scene.</p> + +<p>In this position, she exclaimed in a low, broken tone of voice, "There +may be legs, pa, as we don't know on!"</p> + +<p>Grandpa was curiously aroused.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye, I've travelled to the four quarters of the 'arth, ma," said +he; "and set eyes on the tarnalest critters under God's canopy, but I +never see anybody yit that 'ud fit into that 'ere. Besides," he added, +knowingly, in a milder tone; "I reckin that 'ere stockin's meant for +somebody nearer hum, and a pretty straight-legged fellow, too."</p> + +<p>I was enabled to judge something still further of the speculations waking +in the Wallencamp brain, when, having to keep Henry G. after school, one +night, as a means of discipline, he bawled out:—</p> + +<p>"Ye don't keep Simmy B. after school no more! And why not?" continued the +aggrieved infant, at the same time framing for himself an answer of +malicious significance: "Oh, 'cause he's Lute Cradlebow's brother!"</p> + +<p>Social converse was at its high tide, now, in Wallencamp among the birds +in the trees and the fowls in the door-yards, and quite as naturally and +harmlessly so, for the most part, I think, among the beings of a superior +order. They had little other recreation.</p> + +<p>The bonfire had marked the close of the gay epoch in Wallencamp. It was +too warm now for the livelier recreations of the winter. Religious +interest, especially, was at a low ebb. At the evening prayer-meetings, +the number of worshippers appeared but as a handful compared with the +number of the unconcerned who lingered outside in the pleasant moonlight. +Conspicuous among these latter, replacing the fervid debates of the +winter with a calm philosophy befitting a warmer season, were Captain +Sartell and Bachelor Lot.</p> + +<p>The old songs held the same charm for them all, however. They sang them +ever with pathos in their voices and tears in their eyes.</p> + +<p>The little unpremeditated chats by gate and roadside, the neighborly +"droppings-in," grew more and more frequent.</p> + +<p>But when poor Rebecca was taken up on the tide of social wonder and +debate, and I heard whisperings concerning her, and knew that an evil +suspicion had taken hold of the mind of the little community, and when +finally Emily said to me; "I guess you done about right shirking off +Beck, teacher. I guess she ain't no better than she ought to be:" in +spite of what I felt to be my own unblemished conscience in the matter +and the justice of the retribution which was overtaking Rebecca, I went +often to my little room and cried bitterly for her, as well as for +myself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>DAVID ROLLIN IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Philander Keeler grew kind. At first, especially while the fisherman +was in Wallencamp, her demeanor towards me had been marked by a decided +touch of coldness and mistrust. She suspected me, I thought, of trifling +with the Cradlebow; now, she invariably deferred to me as a person worthy +of all honor and consideration—of congratulation even, in an eminent +degree.</p> + +<p>She assumed to be on the most frank and confiding terms with me. She +found a thousand little ways for promoting my physical comfort that had +never occurred to her before.</p> + +<p>So I was the more surprised, when after school, one Friday afternoon, as +I was sitting in my room, this same Madeline suddenly appeared before me +with her eyes glittering, her lips compressed, and her complexion of that +positive green hue which it always wore when she was in a high passion.</p> + +<p>"There's a gentleman down stairs, waiting to see you, teacher," she said, +with a peculiarly dark inflection on the word gentleman. "Oh, he's got on +an awful interesting look!" snapped out Madeline, with a spiteful little +laugh; "and a suit of light clothes, and a new spring overcoat, and he +looked at me as though I was a pane of window-glass, and he says, +'Oh—ah—yes—is Miss Hungerford in?' I wonder if he's come back to make +his farewell calls—" with another unpleasant laugh. "One thing I can +tell him, he'd better steer clear of George Olver!"</p> + +<p>Was ever a zealous young devotee, I pondered, more perplexed!</p> + +<p>"Come this way, please," I said, holding out my hand to Madeline; and +leaning back in my chair with unaffected weariness, at least. "Is Mr. +Rollin down stairs?"</p> + +<p>"They call him that, I believe," said Madeline, sententiously; "things +don't always get their right names in this world."</p> + +<p>"Well, you may tell him," I said; "that I can't see him."</p> + +<p>Madeline's countenance changed wonderfully in an instant. She gave me a +bright look, and without waiting for another word, ran down the stairs.</p> + +<p>When she came back her tongue ran on glibly:—</p> + +<p>"I told him," said she; "that you couldn't see him, and he kept on in +that window-glass way of looking, and his head as high as ever, and he +took his hat and 'I'm very sorry,' he says, 'that Miss Hungerford is +indisposed, and I hope I shall have an opportunity of seeing her this +evening.'</p> + +<p>"He said he came to-day, and was going away to-morrow morning, and he had +something of importance to communicate, and I knew he expected I'd go up +and see you again about it, but I didn't. So he said he'd call again this +evening or to-morrow morning, just which 'd be most agreeable, and +expected I'd budge then, sure, but I didn't show any signs of it; and I +told him rightly, I guessed one time would be about as agreeable as +another; and I suppose he thought he wouldn't show mad before such common +bred folks. He smiled that window-glass looking smile of his, and says; +'Ah, thank you; now I won't detain you any longer, Mrs. Keeler,' and out +he went.</p> + +<p>"I suppose he's come down to smooth everything over, and have it hushed +up with Beck and her folks. Well, money'll do a good deal for a man, but +it wouldn't stand him much if he got into George Olver's hands. However, +teacher," concluded Madeline, in a sprightly tone; "give the Devil his +due. It's better'n as if he'd run off and never showed his head again; +and I don't suppose he'll get much satisfaction out of you, if you do see +him, teacher. It's better to trust honest folks than rogues, and nobody +knows that better than the rogues themselves."</p> + +<p>I knew that this last clause was not designed as a personal thrust by +Madeline, yet I could not help musing a little over it, smilingly, after +she had gone. The fiction, of which I was living a part, in Wallencamp, +was taking on, it seemed to me, a tinge even of the tragic—perplexities +were deepening. I was becoming, more than ever, the suffering though +exalted heroine of a romance.</p> + +<p>I rose, and dressed myself before the glass, I remember, with particular +care. I did not know why I should dread or avoid seeing the fisherman in +the evening, since the part I had to sustain in the interview was so +distinctly calm, dispassionate, and spiritually remote. At the same +time, I wished that my cheeks had not grown so pale and my eyes so +dark-rimmed and hollow. They bespoke the interesting part I had to play +in the world's tragedy, but were not, otherwise, so becoming as I could +have wished.</p> + +<p>Earlier, the fisherman had sent me books from Providence. I would rather, +I thought, that he should take them back again. I remembered that I had +left one of them in my desk at the school-house, and put on my hat to go +after it.</p> + +<p>"Going out to spend the evening, teacher?" said Madeline, as I opened the +door of the Ark, giving me at the same time a gay and knowing look.</p> + +<p>"No," I said, gravely tolerant of the little woman's surveillance; "I'm +only going to the school-house for a book that I want. I shall be back in +a few moments."</p> + +<p>It was hardly dusk then.</p> + +<p>Aunt Patty, as usual after school on Friday, had swept the room and put +down the dark and dingy paper curtains.</p> + +<p>I opened the door and stood an instant looking into the gloom before +entering. Then I saw that there was some one sitting in my chair—a man +with his head bent forward and buried in his arms, which were folded on +the desk.</p> + +<p>It was Mr. Rollin, and before I had time to retreat, he lifted his head +and saw me standing at the door.</p> + +<p>I had expected that the first revelation of that glance would contain +something of grief, wretchedness, remorse. The fisherman's countenance +wore a shadow of annoyance, but it was expressive, above all, of a +childish petulance and irritation.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he exclaimed, speaking with the utmost abruptness, and rising from +the chair; "if you had only left this place at the end of the first term, +it would have saved the whole of this abominable misadventure!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I understand you," I said, freezing now in sober earnest.</p> + +<p>"Because in your eyes only, it is a misadventure," he continued rapidly, +with growing excitement. "You came to this miserable hole—this +Wallencamp—resolved to view everything in a new light—the light of +unselfish devotion to great ends, and exalted aspiration, and ideal +perfection, and all that. Well, how has the wretched, giggling, conniving +little community shown out in that light? I suppose there's one—that +larking Cradlebow—who has stood the test and come out creditably, by +reason of an uncommonly artistic shock of hair and a Raphaelite +countenance. As for me, taken in the ordinary sense, I'm no worse than a +thousand others, but I say that it was a decidedly unfortunate light to +put me in! It was a decidedly unfair light!"</p> + +<p>"I have no wish to judge you in any light," I said, and explaining +briefly my errand to the school-house, I expressed regret at having +interrupted the fisherman's meditations, and turned to go.</p> + +<p>"Miss Hungerford!" he exclaimed, with a gesture of whimsical force and +impatience; "it's my last chance for an explanation. Don't, for God's +sake, cut it short at this point. You might know—you might <i>know</i>, that +I'm not a bad fellow at heart. But you will never see the best side of +me—there's fate in it. I never wanted to seem specially contrite but I +must set myself jumping like a jack-in-the box for your infernally cold +amusement! I had an explanation at my tongue's end. D—n it! I don't +remember a word of it."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it is necessary," I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" he continued in a deeply aggrieved, almost a whining tone; +"nothing's necessary that would set me out in a little better shape! +Anything will do for these grovelling Wallencampers, but just as soon as +it comes to me, all the extenuating circumstances of my life—that I was +left so early orphaned, sisterless, brotherless, my nearest of kin a +wicked, carousing old uncle; taken to see the world here, and to see the +world there; homeless, if ever one was homeless; never trained to any +correct way of thinking, or settled manner of life, but just to spend my +money and aim at enjoying myself—they all amount to nothing in my case.</p> + +<p>"Well, I used to come to Wallencamp just for that same purpose—to have a +good time; it was such a jolly wild place to let the Old Nick loose in; +and now it seems that's to be taken for a man's natural level, and the +best that he's capable of! Then I met you. You would voluntarily give up +ease and luxury, for a time, for the sake of an abstract idea—whether +misguided or not, I will not say, the fact remains the same—and I swear +it was a new revelation to me. It was strange and perverse, and it was +deuced taking! Then I tried to get you to include <i>me</i> among the objects +of your mission, to accept <i>me</i> as a candidate for temporal leniency and +final salvation, and you wouldn't. It is only the happy, ragged, +unconscious heathen that are looked out for in this world; the real ones +don't get any sympathy."</p> + +<p>The fisherman paused.</p> + +<p>"I should be glad to give you the first lesson in the code of salvation," +I said—"that the fate of souls is not left to human hands."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've heard that formula somewhere before!" exclaimed the fisherman, +impatiently, with a little sneer in his laugh. "Why don't you tell me +that God will help me? Perhaps you will even remember me in your prayers, +some time."</p> + +<p>At those last words an unbearable pang of self-conviction and remorse +shot through my heart. I, who had not felt greatly the need of any +supernatural aid, but rather that I was able to manage my own affairs +with becoming discretion—of what saving power and grace could I speak to +one who was weak enough to fall, and for whom there was no help in +himself? In the dark school-room I involuntarily lifted my hands to my +face. When I heard the fisherman's voice again, he had come a step or two +nearer to me down the aisle.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you what I was thinking about when you came in," he said, in +an altered tone. "Rather, how I was allowing my imagination to run away +with itself, for my own particular delectation. I was imagining, when +you opened the door and stood revealed there in the light, how you might +come to me, indeed, as the angel of some better life and hope, offering +me a forgiveness as full as it was unmerited."</p> + +<p>"It is not I who have to forgive you," I repeated.</p> + +<p>"It is you, if any one," replied the fisherman, quickly. "I tell you, you +feel that girl Becky Weir's fault ten times more deeply than she feels it +for herself. You should never have come to this place. It was deucedly +odd and entertaining, but it was a step in the wrong direction. You put +yourself in the place of these people and translate all their possible +moods and tenses according to your own. It's a mistake. That girl, Becky, +would stare in perfect bewilderment if she could know of some of the +thoughts and emotions you doubtless attribute to her. She might even +laugh at you for your pains."</p> + +<p>"I do not believe you," I said, not angrily nor resentfully, as might +have been earlier in our acquaintance, but with a painful, slow +positiveness. "Perhaps I was wrong in assuming the place I did in +Wallencamp, but it was not in the way you think. I don't know—I can't +see the way myself, clearly—always, but I believe that what you have +said is utterly false!"</p> + +<p>"At least," continued the fisherman, in the old gay, frivolous tone, +which I heard now for the first time during this conversation; "I can +make her tenfold and abundant reparation—ah, you don't know—I say you +don't understand these people. It's a disagreeable subject; let it go! +But I'm very rich, you know," with an easy laugh, and the air of a man +only conscious, at last, of his good worldly fortune, and the exquisite +fit of his clothes. "Oh, I've got no end of money. After all, that's the +chief thing in this world. If a fellow's ordinarily clever and +good-natured, with a good reputation in town, what's a little row in the +suburban districts! It's an awfully insignificant affair, anyway, it +seems to me. We may as well talk sense, and the plainer the better. +People don't employ lenses for shortsightedness in that +particular—common sense, I mean. You walk without seeing, Miss +Hungerford, and you're bound to get infernally cheated, in some shape. +Why not me, I say, as well as another?"</p> + +<p>Still, the fisherman's words roused no bitterness in me. His hardened +recklessness of speech served rather to strengthen me in the part I had +to play of the unapproachably sublime.</p> + +<p>"I cannot consider that question," I said, with my hand on the door.</p> + +<p>He swept my face with a keen glance that had lost none of its derisive +quality.</p> + +<p>"So it's true, then!" he said. "The ultimatum has been reached, at last, +in the possessor of a pretty face and a broken fiddle! and dreams for the +restoration of the race are to end in a broken-down hovel by the sea, +in darning the Cradlebow's socks, and dressing the clams for dinner, +while the bucolic George Olver and the versatile Harvey, and all the rest +of the awkward, moon-gazing crew, take turns in sitting on the door-step, +and dilating on the weather! Ravishing idyll but it lacks substantiality. +It lacks seriousness."</p> + +<p>I heard that mocking laugh again without emotion, except it might be for +a faint, far-off echo in my breast of the fisherman's own scorn. Above +all, I was weary, and willing to make my escape.</p> + +<p>"We cannot help each other by standing here talking," I said, and added a +"good bye."</p> + +<p>It was the last time, probably, that I should see the fisherman's face; +but he refused the valediction with a toss of the head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" he said; "it isn't time for my obsequies. I shall return to +town for a few days or weeks only; this detestable place has always +thrown a spell over me. I can't rid myself of it. Like the natives of +Wallencamp, I always drift back to it again."</p> + +<p>It was growing dark. I found Madeline waiting for me in the lane. +Somewhat piqued at the persistency of the little woman's ministrations, I +informed her briefly, that I had found the fisherman in the school-house, +and had been conversing with him there; but she put her hand in my arm +with an air of unshaken confidence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>GEORGE OLVER'S LOVE FOR BECKY.</h3> + + +<p>"I'd like to see you alone a few minutes, teacher, if you please."</p> + +<p>It was George Olver who spoke, in his sturdy, resolute bass. The words +hardly took on the form of a suave request: they were uttered in too +earnest, grave, and intent a tone.</p> + +<p>I had dismissed my school for the day. The roar of the young lions just +released from bondage had not died away when George Olver entered the +school-room, closed the door behind him, and stood in a manly and +self-reliant attitude, his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am," he said, in answer to some gesture of mine; "I'll be much +obleeged if <i>you'll</i> set down in the chair."</p> + +<p>"There's times, teacher," he then went on, gravely and steadily; "when +ordinary friends, like you and me, meetin' each other in the road, or in +a neighbor's house, maybe, we say, 'How d'ye do?' or 'It's a pleasant +day,' or the like o' that, and all well and good. It's a fair +understandin', and enough said 'twixt you and me: and then ag'in, there's +times when the wind blows up rough, as ye might say, and oncommon dark, +and some harm a befallin' of us, when we git closter together and more a +dependin' on each other, and then them old words ain't o' much account to +us, but to speak out different what need be without fear or shame."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, much impressed by George Olver's manner. He was held +somewhat in awe among the Wallencampers, and regarded generally as a +"close-mouthed" fellow.</p> + +<p>"I hear," he resumed; "that Dave Rollin has been down this way ag'in. +They say it was lucky for him I wasn't to home that day; maybe so. Ef +he'd a turned up suddenly in my path—I can't say—I might 'a' trod on +him. I never done anythin' like that for the fun on't. I'd rather go +round one any time than step on't, but if I'd a come on him so, +onexpected, I can't say for what might 'a' been the consequences. Wall, +he comes down here, and he goes to her with money! Her, that ain't used +to all the devilish ways o' the world, nor as fine clo's as some, but +that's got a lady's heart in her, for all that; and she told him—I know +just how she said it, in that quiet way she's had along lately—that it +was the last thing he could do to hurt her—but he'd made a mistake if he +thought she could take that.</p> + +<p>"So, then, as I've heered, he went to her father, a tryin' to make it +appear, as nigh as I can make out, that he'd got suthin' in the shape of +a conscience that he wanted to whiten over a little more to his own +satisfaction afore he went away.</p> + +<p>"Wall, Bede and his daughter used to be called about one piece for +temper, though I don't reckon that temper's lackin' allays 'cause it +don't show. There's them as jest keeps the steam down a workin' the whole +machinery patient and stiddy; but Bede, he's allays a histin' the cover, +and lettin' on't out in one general bust, and I reckon that was what he +did when he was a talkin' with the fisherman; he histed up the cover and +let off a good deal of onnecessary steam, but he come to the right point +in the end; that the fisherman had made a mistake thar', too, and—as +near as I can make out—this Dave Rollin was kind o' took back and +disappointed. He hadn't calkilated that the folks down here had any sech +feelin's as his sort o' folks.</p> + +<p>"Thar' ain't any use in talkin' about him. I feel hard thar', I confess, +but that can't help her none, now. What I want is to help her. I tell ye, +teacher,"—the strong voice trembled slightly—"there's been times when +I've felt as though I've been a sinkin', as ye might say, and a wantin' +to call out for help! help! like any weak, drowning fool, instead o' +swimmin' above it strong, and helpin' them as was weaker than me.</p> + +<p>"No shame for me to say, teacher, I've allays had it in my mind that +Becky'd marry me. It grew up with me. I never thought o' no other girl +but her. Ye see she'd always knowed me, and it was more like a brother, +she said. She hadn't thought o' <i>that</i>. So, I says, I'll bide my time +patient, but I believed she'd turn to me.</p> + +<p>"When Dave Rollin began to hang around there, I didn't feel exactly +kindly towards him, I don't pretend. The folks, they tried to set me on. +It 'ud a been mighty easy to 'a' gone on! I guess there ain't nobody +as knows us two 'ud deny I could handle four o' such as him, but a man +has got to say, fa'r play! fa'r play! and not put himself in other folks' +light. Thinks I, if his intentions are all squar' and honorable—and I +hadn't no reason, then, to say they wa'n't—and them, two take a fancy to +each other, why, it ain't no more than nateral!</p> + +<p>"She was handsome enough, for a queen, and he had different manners from +us fellows down here, and purtier ways o' talkin' and lookin' at a girl, +as though if she didn't have him, it was goin' to knock 'im straight, and +she'd lived with such different folks, it made it vary interestin'; that +was nateral. Thinks I, a man in my place had ought to have sense enough +to back out quiet.</p> + +<p>"You know what he done, teacher. He took the best, and when he got tired +on't, he threw it away,"—the brawny hand at George Olver's side was +clinched so as to appear almost colorless, yet there was little +discomposure in his voice—"but cursin' him ain't a goin' to help us now. +When a thing that's allays been precious to us has once fell, we can't +never make it quite like it was afore, but we can keep care on't patient, +a waitin' God Almighty's time to make it whole. I know what folks say. I +know, but I don't keer. She ain't no less precious to me, now, than she +was afore, only it's more for her, now, maybe, and less for myself. And +she sees, now. She does keer for me, now. Ay, I know what they'll say, +but they don't know that girl as well as I do, teacher. They ain't +nothin' would 'a' wrung them words from her ef they hadn't 'a' be'n true; +no, not ef it had been savin' her life to say 'em. She does keer, now, +but she won't never take me now, she says, because it 'ud be wrongin' me; +and I might 'a' knowed what she'd 'a' said, what it was nateral and noble +for her to say.</p> + +<p>"But," continued George Olver, with a flash of magnificent fire in his +eyes, and thrusting his arm out straight; "what's right atween me and my +God needn't be afeard o' no man's face! I want to take that girl and keer +for her, and keep her from meddlin' tongues. Let 'em say what they choose +to me; they must be keerful what they say afore her, that's all.</p> + +<p>"I've waited a good while. I could bide my time, but not now, when she's +heart broke and sufferin', and nobody ter put out a hand to help her. +There's be'n a look on her face, lately, that I don't like to see. It's +afore my eyes all the time, and it werries me night and day—as though +she didn't hold herself o' no account, and might make away wi' herself.</p> + +<p>"Teacher, you've got a woman's heart, and you can save that other woman! +It's a task that they needn't nobody be ashamed on, for the Lord Jesus +himself set the example. I guess she thinks you've turned agin her, too, +but I knew that couldn't be, for no friend 'ud leave another when they +was perishin', not even if they was more to fault than she was; and she +was apt to mind ye more than any one. I thought if you'd go in and speak +to her as a woman could, and tell her she'd got a right to hope, and tell +her her friends would not forsake her, least of all would it be likely +God would forsake her, and tell her—"</p> + +<p>George Olver seemed both to be looking at me and beyond me with his +beautiful, brave eyes; "Tell her thar's somebody that don't find any +cause to be sorry for havin' loved her, but knows how she's been +werrited, and suffers along with her, and 'ud be more glad and content +than of anythin' else in his heart this minute, to protect her and keer +for her as it's right—yes, tell her as it's right that she should let +him do; and if she asks from whom that comes"—George Olver smiled +brightly, with that far-seeing look still in his eyes—"why, it's no +secret from whom it comes. Will you go, teacher?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, with a vague sense of having caught a glimpse of a +hitherto unknown world; "I will go."</p> + +<p>George Olver came forward, gave my hand a firm grasp, and then turned +resolutely and walked out.</p> + +<p>Left to myself and my own thoughts, I dreaded more and more the +concession there would seem to be in my seeking Rebecca now, for the poor +girl could hardly be expected, I thought, to appreciate the magnanimity +of such an act.</p> + +<p>I deferred going to see her until evening, and even thought of writing a +letter instead of going at all, signifying my willingness to take her +back into my favor, in a limited sort of way, and reinforcing her with a +share of that counsel and advice which she must have missed so sadly of +late; but I was conscious of the fact that I should not thus be keeping +my promise to George Olver.</p> + +<p>After supper, the singers came in and wailed some peculiarly touching +songs about rescuing the fallen and the erring. As Grandma Keeler was +preparing to go on an errand of mercy down the lane, I joined her, and +stopped at Bede Weir's door.</p> + +<p>Aunt Patty, Rebecca's mother, appeared in answer to my knock. Her glances +had fallen rather reproachfully on me, of late. Seeing me now, she cast +down her eyes, a steely expression gathering about her mouth.</p> + +<p>"You've come too late, teacher," said she, her voice breaking suddenly +into a sob as she lifted her apron to her eyes.</p> + +<p>In that instant it flashed through my mind,—the fear George Olver had +expressed lest Rebecca should make away with herself. I fancied that I +turned terribly pale.</p> + +<p>"Come in, teacher!" Aunt Patty exclaimed, with a quick motion of her +hand, and she continued rapidly:—</p> + +<p>"Becky went away this afternoon. She's gone to Taunton. She didn't tell +nobody but me. If you'd 'a' come sooner you might 'a' kep' her, teacher. +She's gone to Jane Meredith's that works thar, in the shops and Beck used +to know her. She hires a room, and Beck she's saved a little money +cranberryin'. She says she's a goin' to stay thar' as long as it holds +out, and 'maybe,' she says, 'I can git work;' she says thar' ain't nobody +here cares for her but me. 'And it's only a trouble to you, mother,' she +says; 'and maybe, I shan't never come back again.' If you could 'a' seen +how she looked. Oh, my God!" As the poor woman held her hands to her +face, I saw the tears springing out between her fingers. "There's nobody +knows how I feel this night! She wa'n't a bad girl, my Becky wa'n't. She +was deceived, but it'll make her bad, everybody turnin' agin her so—and +that Jane Meredith, she was sech a wild girl! Oh, I'm afeard! I'm +afeard!"</p> + +<p>"But we'll have Becky back again, Mrs. Weir," I said, intensely relieved, +even at this state of things; "and, more than that, we shall see her very +happy yet. I will write to her, myself, to-night."</p> + +<p>"I don't know,"—Aunt Patty shook her head sadly—"she might think I'd +got you to do it. I seen she took it to heart, you're turnin' agin her +so, and I didn't believe you'd 'a' done it if you'd known all. I wanted +to go up and see yer, for I knew you'd soften, but no, she wouldn't let +me. She said she'd never forgive me ef I did. No; she'd think I'd been a +puttin' ye up to it." Aunt Patty dried her tears, helplessly.</p> + +<p>"You ought to have come to me!" I exclaimed with grave emphasis; "whether +she wanted you to or not!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I had, teacher," said Aunt Patty, meekly; "but you couldn't 'a' +gone agin her ef you'd been in my place. She wasn't vexed, teacher, but +she was awful set, and she looked so wore out! I couldn't go agin her."</p> + +<p>"All the more reason," I continued, fortifying myself with new +confidence; "why you should have been firm with her. She is not fit to go +off by herself in that way. She's a child! a child! She needs some one to +tell her what to do."</p> + +<p>"I know that; that's what worries me!" cried Aunt Patty, bursting into +tears; "but what could I do, teacher? what could I do?"</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind," I said, assuming with readiness the attitude of the +consoler; "we will have Becky home again in a very short time. I will +write this evening and if she does not come, why, we shall have to go +after her, that's all!"</p> + +<p>This last I was able to utter almost gayly, looking into Aunt Patty's +face.</p> + +<p>The woman's poor, worn hand placed in mine, the look of confidence +upturned to me in her tearful eyes, her readiness to forgive, to forget +any resentment which she might have cherished towards me, all touched me +deeply and strengthened me in a sincere determination to win Rebecca +back.</p> + +<p>"She made me promise I wouldn't let George Olver know where she was, +teacher," said Aunt Patty, breathlessly, as I was going out of the door. +"She had her reasons; we'd ought to respect 'em some. I wouldn't be +deceiving her entirely."</p> + +<p>On my way homeward, I reflected how altogether burdensome it was to +one-half of humanity that the other half was not better calculated to +take care of itself, and resolved that my letter to Rebecca should be at +once dignified, imperative, and kind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>TEACHER HAS THE FEVER.—DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE.</h3> + + +<p>There were oppressive days in Wallencamp, when no fresh winds were borne +to us from the ocean. The sun shone hot on the stunted cedars. The tides +crept in lazily. All one weary afternoon, in the hum and stir of the +dusty school-room, little Bessie Sartell—Captain Sartell's youngest, and +his darling—sat stringing lilac blossoms together in a chain. She was +such a cunning edition of the big Captain. She had the same strong Saxon +physique in miniature, the same clear pink and white complexion, eyes +hardly more limpidly blue than his, and hair that was sunniest flax, like +the ends of the Captain's beard. And how patient the chubby little +fingers were at their task. What small, charmingly despairing sighs +escaped the child when some link fell out in the chain of purple flowers! +I was struck with her air of weary, patient endeavor—so important it +seemed—so important that the chain should be finished before school was +out. And, at last, little Bessie lifted it to wear upon her neck, and it +broke and fell in pieces on the floor.</p> + +<p>Then there was a look of gentle dismay in the blue eyes, a tear or two, +and Bessie folded her arms on the desk, her head sank slowly down on +them, and she fell asleep.</p> + +<p>She was still sleeping when I dismissed the school. The sound of the +others going out did not wake her; the Phenomenon, disappearing through +the door, pointed a finger at her, his face full of scornful +merriment—so incredible was it to him that any one should sleep when +school was out.</p> + +<p>I went down to Bessie and woke her gently. She looked at me, at first, +with startled, feverish eyes, as though she did not know me, and screamed +in pain or terror. I noticed then that the color of her cheeks was +unnaturally bright. I put my hand on her pulse. It was throbbing +violently. I was thoroughly frightened.</p> + +<p>"Come, Bess," I said, as winningly and soothingly as I could; "come home +with teacher, now. Teacher will lead you, all the way."</p> + +<p>For answer, the child's head fell heavily on one side. I tried to take +her in my arms, but she was very heavy. I found one of the small boys +lingering outside the school-house and sent him for Bessie's father.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the look with which Captain Sartell lifted his baby +in his arms. He had seven other children; he was a poor man, a +Wallencamper, but one would have thought him a king, and that the only +hope of his line lay treasured in the mass of flaxen curls pressed +against his shoulder, as he carried her home.</p> + +<p>The next morning, early, Captain Sartell appeared at the Ark with a +blanched face. Bess had been growing worse, he said. They feared it was a +fever. He was going to West Wallen for a doctor. "She thinks," he +continued, with absolute white bewilderment on his features, "that she's +in school all the while, and it's a gettin' late, and the teacher ain't +there, and so she keeps a callin' for the teacher; and I wouldn't ask ye +to go up, teacher, if you was anyways afeard, but it 'ud break your heart +to hear her."</p> + +<p>For one of my years, I knew singularly little, either of sickness or +death, so I was the more readily susceptible to the slight disrespect the +Captain seemed to have cast on my wisdom and fortitude.</p> + +<p>"Certainly I will go and see her," I said; "why should I be afraid?"</p> + +<p>"I was only thinkin' it was fair to say," said the Captain; "she was took +so sudden and so violent like, it might be—might be—suthin'—suthin' +kitchin', perhaps. They was a case or two o' scarlet fever up to Wallen, +but she wasn't exposed no way that we know on. She wasn't exposed."</p> + +<p>The Captain, regarding me intently, repeated the words, thrusting his +neck out with a pitiful gulp, his hand on the latch. Observing him, the +expression of my face changed; he groaned as he went out, closing the +door silently.</p> + +<p>My first impulse then was to pack my trunk and start for home, but the +wailing of Mrs. Philander, and of the other women who had followed the +Captain in, lamenting one with another in an agony of helpless fear, +appealed to my courage and presence of mind, and had a strangely +sustaining and quieting effect upon me. I suggested after a few moments' +reflection, that very likely the case was not so bad as Captain Sartell +supposed. I determined to have no school that day, and advised the women +what they should do, in case their children had been already exposed to a +contagious disease. Then a happy thought struck me. I went out in the +other part of the Ark to seek Grandma Keeler. I wondered why we had not +thought of her, before.</p> + +<p>She entered the room where the women sat. Calm and sunshine was Grandma +Keeler—calm and sunshine breaking through a storm.</p> + +<p>If it was scarlet fever, she knew just what to do. She and pa had it +years ago, and they'd lived through it; but she didn't believe that it +was nothin' half so bad, and "What if it is, you poor critturs, you," +said Grandma, in such a tone as she would have used to soothe a +frightened child; "every time there's a squall must we go to takin' on as +though it was our doin's? The Lord, He makes the squalls, and he don't +put it on us to manage 'em; but up thar' in His fa'r weather, He looks +down on the storms that we know not whither, but are only drivin' of us +landward safe, and 'Keep ye still,' He says, 'Jest keep ye still!' No +need o' strainin' eyes, but fix 'em thar', on Him, I've seen a many times +when no words but them would do."</p> + +<p>The tears stood in Grandma's eyes. Beautiful soul! Whatever storms she +might have known in her life's voyage, she only seemed to lie at anchor +now, in a sure haven; and all the while, her heart was going out in the +tenderest sympathy to those still tossing on the seas and striving to +make perilous passages, even to those watching false harbor lights in the +distance. She had had an experience wide enough for all. She had found +where it was still. She longed to draw all others into that stillness.</p> + +<p>Soon Grandma was on her way to give help and consolation where it was +most needed—in Captain Sartell's household. She did not come back until +near mid-day.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Philander's children were kept carefully out of the room when she +entered.</p> + +<p>"The Lord is a goin' to take that little one to Himself, teacher," she +said to me, very impressively.</p> + +<p>Captain Sartell had not yet returned with the doctor. Possibly he had +been obliged to drive to the next town. Poor Mrs. Sartell was nearly +distracted. Bessie's fever had gone to the brain.</p> + +<p>"We couldn't quiet her, no way," Grandma continued; "and she's a growin' +weak, but when them spells come on, she's ravin', first about one thing +and then another, but mostly it's school, school. 'It's a gittin' so late +in school and the teacher not there'—and then she screams and moans so! +Poor, sufferin' darlin'! ye can't ease her no way."</p> + +<p>With a desperate determination not to yield myself to my own thoughts, I +informed Mrs. Philander that I was going to live with Grandma a while, +that I should not go through that part of the Ark where she and the +children were, and she must keep the little door at the foot of the +stairway locked, and not let the children follow me; and I sprinkled +myself with camphor and went back with Grandma to Captain Sartell's +house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Sartell was alone in the room with Bess. I expected that she would +meet me with an almost reproachful look, but there was only sorrow in her +face, a sorrow that seemed intensified by the smile she lifted to us as +we entered. The air in the room was very pure and sweet. The bed on which +Bess lay was as white as snow. But what a change a day had wrought in the +little face pressed against the pillow.</p> + +<p>"Teacher's come," said Grandma Keeler, with soft; pathetic cheer, bending +over the child.</p> + +<p>"Would she care now?" I thought. "Would she know me?"</p> + +<p>Just once she opened her eyes wide, smiled, and threw her arms towards me +feebly. I would have taken her then, I thought, if it had been my death.</p> + +<p>They wrapped a shawl around her, and I took her in my arms, rocked her +gently and sang to her, very softly, the songs she loved best. She moved +a little restlessly, and then lay very still with her head on my breast.</p> + +<p>So I rocked and sang to Bess, and the two women moved noiselessly about +the room until Grandma Keeler came and looked down very intently into the +little one's face.</p> + +<p>"She's asleep," I murmured, placing a finger on my lips.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she's asleep," said Grandma, in a trembling voice, solemnly. +"Sweet, purty little one," she went on, with tears running down her +cheeks, and she turned to the mother—"Thank God, you!" she exclaimed, +with sudden strength and firmness in her voice, that was yet thrilled +with emotion; "from sorrowin' and from pain forevermore, the Lord has +took His lamb!"</p> + +<p>Ay, life's chain of dewy morning flowers was broken! The baby fingers had +dropped those purple fragments without grief, now, or dismay—only the +peace of some sweet unfolding mystery over the veiled blue eyes!</p> + +<p>Still, she seemed to me asleep—only asleep. I felt no shrinking from the +dead child in my arms. When they took her away from me and laid her on +the bed, I looked at her tranquil face, and the mother's passionate grief +seemed out of place. Why should one wish to wake another from such +repose? I could not comprehend the mother's aching sense of loss. But +later, when we heard the sound of wheels and saw Captain Sartell and the +doctor driving very fast up the lane, I went down the stairs and passed +out before them. I could not bear to watch the strong man's face when he +should find his baby dead.</p> + +<p>Little Bess was buried under the lilac blossoms. The fever which had so +soon smitten her down was not properly a contagious one. I went on with +my school again, missing the sweet face of the dead child more and more +each succeeding day.</p> + +<p>Not one of the children with whom she had played was taken sick, but it +was scarcely two weeks after her death that I was taken sick as she had +been. In the interval George Olver had come to me and I had written to +Rebecca, but Rebecca had not come back to Wallencamp nor answered my +letter. I was more anxious and troubled about her than I dared confess to +any one. Then suddenly I ceased to care for any of those things. Of my +last afternoon in school I could recall very little afterwards, except +that the clock on the shelf back of me seemed to be ticking in my brain, +and the voices in the room sounded indistinct. My own voice sounded to me +like that of some one else speaking from a long way off.</p> + +<p>And at evening, in the Ark, I put my little room in perfect order, my +head growing heavy with pain. I felt that I must finish this task before +I lay down, and there was another intention to which I clung with a +painful pertinacity of mind.</p> + +<p>I sat down at my table and wrote half a dozen or more brief letters +home. These were filled with irrelevant anecdotes pertaining to my +experience among the Wallencampers, a few desultory descriptions of +character and scenery, with a philosophical digression or two.</p> + +<p>To one not intimately acquainted with the epistolary products of my pen, +these letters would have undoubtedly suggested the workings of a crazed +and feverish brain, but they were not calculated to arouse any particular +alarm in the minds of my friends at home, unless, indeed, it was by +reason of the unusual care and painstaking evinced in their chirography +and the punctilious manner in which they were dated. The first one I +dated for the evening on which I was writing. The next for a time several +days in advance of that, and so on, performing this strange act with +utter indifference to the presumption of it.</p> + +<p>When it was finished, I seemed to have forgotten what next to do. Grandma +Keeler told me afterwards, that I went to the head of the stairs and +called to her, that she came up, and I told her very gravely that I was +going to be sick, but I knew I was not going to die, and adjured her with +a look in my eyes which she said, "I couldn't go ag'inst, teacher, for it +was more convincin' than health," not to write to my friends of my +sickness, and instructed her how to send the letters which I had sealed, +stamped, directed, and methodically arranged on the table, in their +proper order to the post.</p> + +<p>For the rest, all through the pain and impotence and vague mental +wanderings of the days that followed, I had a restful, comforting +consciousness that a kind, loving face, like the lamp of my salvation, +was hanging ever over me—always it was Grandma Keeler's face, though it +seemed to have grown strangely young and fair, and the eyes that followed +me with such a loving, tireless, wistful expression in them were like +other eyes that I had known, and the watcher's voice was clear and +musical, with a youthful repression in it. Still, somehow, it was +Grandma's face, <i>her</i> eyes, <i>her</i> voice—and when at last, I woke one +morning very weak, but able to recognize clearly all the familiar objects +in the room, it was Grandma Keeler indeed, who sat by my bed, beaming +gloriously upon me.</p> + +<p>"Is it most school time, Grandma?" I inquired, feebly, slowly +concentrating my gaze on her face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, laws, no!" said Grandma, with cheerful emphasis, and then continued +talking in her quiet monotone. I hardly heard what she said. I was +painfully endeavoring to pick up the lost thread of my consciousness +where I had left it on that night when I put my room in order and went so +wearily to bed. At last I inquired, still vaguely, "How long?"</p> + +<p>Grandma understood. She smiled reassuringly.</p> + +<p>"Only a little while, teacher," she said. "You've only been sick a little +while—a few days, maybe," and she immediately proffered me some broth +which was a triumph of the good soul's art, and seemed to partake of her +own comfortable and sustaining nature. I lay back on the pillows, +contented to be very still for a little while.</p> + +<p>When I next looked up and recognized that familiar figure sitting by the +bed, I said, "Has Becky come back?"</p> + +<p>"Yis, Becky's come back!" said Grandma, in a tone which seemed to imply, +in the very best faith, that during my illness the world had been running +on excellently well. "You take some more broth now, teacher, and keep +r'al slow-minded and easy, and hev' a good night's rest, and to-morrer +I'll tell ye all about it!"</p> + +<p>But I persisted; so Grandma continued gently:—</p> + +<p>"Wall, it wa'n't much to tell, only the doctor said ye wasn't to be +talked to much, nor worked up; but I reckon a little pleasant news ain't +a gonter hurt nobody. Ye see, when you was took sick, George Olver, he +got a hold of where Becky was; he had a mistrustin' of it, somehow—and +he went and told her, and it brought her, hearin' you was dangerous, and +she calculated she might be o' use to ye now, for <i>some</i>, they <i>be</i> sich +friends!" said Grandma, making this observation with the most guileless +enthusiasm. "And Becky, she wa'n't much brought up, and used to be as +wild and harum-scarum as any of 'em; but I allus said that there was a +good deal to Becky, after all. Wall, George Olver, he recognized where +she was and he went down thar' and found her, and they wa'n't anybody +ventured to say a word, and what need? for everybody respec's George +Olver, knowin' he's uncommon ser'ous and high-minded; and the very same +hour they came home, Becky, she come up here, and she turned me right out +of the room, as ye might say. 'It's my place, Grandma,' says she, 'and +I'm better able than you. I understand. It's my place.' And she wa'n't +vary strong, but she wouldn't give up to nobody, and only run home a +little while between spells to rest, and watched and tended ye as +faithful as though she was keepin' count of every breath; and when the +fever turned a Monday night, and you fell off into a kind of a natural +sleep, the doctor, he says to her, what it ain't a very common thing for +a doctor to say: 'It's you saved her life!' he says. 'She was vary sick.' +And he shook his head the way they do. 'You've tended vary faithful,' he +says; and Becky, she hardly spoke, but I seen when she looked up that her +eyes was a shinin', and that happy look that she's had somehow, sence she +came back—I can't tell ye exactly, teacher, but it's most like as ef +somebody should have a bad dream, and be wakin' up kinder surprised and +thankful—but when the doctor said them words, I'll never forget how her +eyes went a shinin', and she says to me, 'I'm goin' home now, and never +you tell her, when she wakes up, for she thought it was you watchin' with +her all the time, and kep' a callin "Grandma! Grandma!" says she; 'and +don't you tell her! don't you; for it would seem as though I was obligin' +her, and if she forgives me and is friendly I don't want it to be for +that,' And I didn't say as I should or shouldn't tell," said Grandma, +smilingly unconscious of the two large tears that were stealing down her +cheeks; "but I knowed pretty well what I had on my mind!"</p> + +<p>Grandma ceased speaking, and began to busy herself about the room, +humming softly her favorite refrain:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Light of the World is Jesus."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I lay very still, thinking—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Once I was blind but now I can see!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That low, glad, tremulous murmur brought no peace to my troubled heart.</p> + +<p>When Grandma Keeler looked at me again, I fancied she met a helpless, +appealing, almost an aggrieved expression in my eyes.</p> + +<p>"I want to see her," I said. "I want to see Becky, of course."</p> + +<p>"Yis, yis," said Grandma, "to-morrer. You'd want to talk, and you've had +enough for one day. I'll tell her, and she'll understand."</p> + +<p>"But I want to see her now," I persisted.</p> + +<p>"They's some folks just come in to inquire," continued Grandma, giving an +easeful touch to the pillows. "They's been a good many in to inquire. May +be, she's amongst 'em. I'll go down and see."</p> + +<p>Soon I heard the old, girlish, familiar step on the stairs. Rebecca +hesitated, standing an instant on the threshold. In spite of the new and +loftier soul looking out of her eyes, in spite of the new and womanly +dignity which she bore so reposefully, she read my face with that quick, +intuitive glance I had learned to know so well.</p> + +<p>Then coming towards me, she put her arm gently around my neck, kissed me, +understanding all, hushing all, forgiving all; and smiling a tender +prohibition in her eyes, put her finger on my lips.</p> + +<p>Sobbing inwardly, I accepted this divine retaliation in silence, and +rested a while in that loving, warm embrace.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>LUTE CRADLEBOW GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR.</h3> + + +<p>One morning, early in my convalescence, I was startled by a mighty +rumbling and scraping sound on the narrow stairway, as of some unwieldy +object pushed steadily upward. The summit reached, I heard the retreat of +manly feet, and this leviathan presented itself with Grandma Keeler as an +animating force, breathless and smiling, in the rear.</p> + +<p>"He didn't have time to paint it, teacher," she began joyfully; "but +it'll be jest as comf'table to set in. He's been explainin' of it to +me—Lute has—ye see, it's a cheer. He made it for ye, himself. And all +you've got to do is to turn this 'ere crank, here—" Grandma's +countenance was radiant with wonder and approval—"and up it'll go—so—as +high as ye want it! and this 'ere can be shoved in and out for ye to put +yer feet on, and this 'ere back can be let anyways ye want it. He seen a +picture o' one in a paper, once, and he went and made this by his own +eye, and all the hinges and cranks, and everythin' as slick as a pin! He +didn't say anythin'," Grandma continued, in a slightly lowered, +insinuating tone of voice; "about likin' to come up and see ye, when ye +was able to set up, and you know, teacher, as I don't believe in meddlin' +in young folks' affairs; but it appeared to me, havin' had so much +experience with the men folks as I have, that may be he was kind o' +hangin' around waitin' for an invitation—for ye see, they're goin' to +sail now in a vary few days."</p> + +<p>So, a little later, I sat up in my new chair and received the Cradlebow, +in a loose, trailing gown of rich material, daintily embroidered. In the +midst of my narrow and humble surroundings I had an exiled-princess sort +of consciousness, and recognized with a new pleasure the Cradlebow's +lordly face and bearing, as he stooped on entering the little red door.</p> + +<p>Living in a reverie, still,—a fancy, a day-dream, strangely vivid and +life-like, but not real,—not real, I was so far softened by my illness +that, with the delicious sense of returning health and strength, I was +content, for a time, to live simply in the present, to dismiss the stern +warden, Duty, from my thoughts, and that ever-grave necessity for +maintaining a mental and moral superiority which had so oppressed me.</p> + +<p>"It had been weary work living on the heights, and what had it all +amounted to?" I asked myself, with a recklessness too tranquil, now, to +be converted into bitterness. "It was so much easier and safer, lower +down." But while I doubted and almost gave up the struggle, the +Cradlebow aspired ever to greater faith and hope in life, and enthusiasm +for life's work.</p> + +<p>And with all this, it was evident that there had been with him an inward +struggle and preparation, a silent conquering of self. With a vain +discontent for my own failure, I marvelled at the glory which had crowned +his humble efforts. "This, too," I thought, "is a sort of heroism:" and +my spirit of condescension towards the youth took on something new, like +reverence.</p> + +<p>It was even with pride that I reflected, "Here is a strength I may rely +upon by and by;" and I was proud that my lover's kiss was so pure upon my +lips, his breath on my cheek—ah, foolish sleeping heart! It was well +that the dream should grow passionate, even intense, for the awakening +was near.</p> + +<p>In the bewildered and feverish condition of mind in which I had last left +the Wallencamp school-house, I had been consciously impressed, at least, +with the idea that I should probably never enter those familiar walls +again, never again as the teacher. And now, I had no intention of +resuming my labors there.</p> + +<p>But I did not wish to flaunt my boasted independence before the family +circle at Newtown, until my eyes should have assumed a little more nearly +their usual proportions, and my manner of going up and down stairs +should have become less strikingly feeble.</p> + +<p>I decided to remain in Wallencamp a few days to recuperate. I was not +impatient nor especially chagrined on account of this necessity. Secretly +willing to await the departure of the Cradlebow's ship, to have a brief +season of rest from all care and responsibility among the scenes of my +past labors—a little breathing space in which to study these people +quietly, to exchange unhurried kindly words with them before I should go +away from them forever—I was glad to have it so.</p> + +<p>Such welcomings and congratulations as I received from the Wallencampers +when I was able to get down the stairs once more! I felt very happy, +almost humble, sitting where the sunlight poured in at the open door +of Grandma's living-room.</p> + +<p>That picture is still before my mind: the bare, shining floor, the +unpainted table, the chimney-shelf, and a clock, the successful working +of whose machinery demanded a crazily tilted attitude; a Bible on the +shelf, too, and Grandma's spectacles lying askew. Then, a commodious +lounge of exceedingly simple construction set up straight against the +wall and extending the whole length of the room. The original framework +of this lounge, by the way, disclosed itself in many bold and striking +instances, under a unique method of upholstery. It was stuffed +sectionally. There was the "old paper corner," within whose rustling +precincts Lovell was reputed once to have endured agonies, during a +religious meeting held at the Ark. There was the "sawdust" section, +substantial, but by no means billowy to the touch; and the "dried yarb" +section, of a nature similar to the sawdust; and, omitting the "old +clothes section" with its insidious buttons, and the "corn-cob" section, +and the "cotton-wood bark" section, there was the "feather corner," at +the other end, generally conceded to be luxurious, but silently avoided, +as having given, on more than one occasion, a sharp suggestion of quills. +Over the whole, depressions and excrescences, was stretched a faded +chintz cover. But woe to the luckless wight who thought to find repose +by throwing himself carelessly down on this hitherto untried structure! +It was reserved only to the knowing few to find a comfortable seat on the +lounge.</p> + +<p>The cat, without having subjected herself to those trials which some of +us endured, had discovered, with true feline instinct, wherein the +deepest rest lay, and had established herself on a suspended bridge of +chintz between two overhanging systems.</p> + +<p>There were a few chairs in the room besides, but the doorsteps were wide. +Grandpa sat always in the south door, Grandma on the steps looking +towards the lane, and it was at this latter inviting spot that the +neighbors, the "passers by," paused most frequently and disposed +themselves, with a grateful air.</p> + +<p>I listened to their talk, while the birds struggled to make noisy +interruptions and cast their fleeting shadows in the sunlight on the +floor, and the peach-blossoms outside were falling noiselessly.</p> + +<p>Grandma Keeler had been telling me in a happy, droning voice, though +gravely enough, of the "awakenin'" that was going on in Wallencamp—how +"a good many o' the young folks was impressed," and "Cap'n Sartell had +been seekin', ever since little Bessie died, and some that had seemed to +be forgitful and backslidin' had come forward and told where they stood, +until it seemed as though the Lord was a sendin' a blessin' down, jest as +soft and beautiful as them blossoms;" and Grandma's eyes wandered towards +the peach-tree with a tearful fervor in them.</p> + +<p>Aunt Patty was a temporary occupant of the steps. Her anxious, care-lined +face was turned indoors, away from the light and the falling blossoms. +There was an anxious, restless ring in her voice, too.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to hev such a time, I'm sure," said she. "We need it bad +enough, any time, Lord knows!—but it seems a queer season o' the year +for't. When we've had 'em before it's generally been along in the winter. +I never heered of an awakenin' before right in the midst o' +tater-buggin'."</p> + +<p>Aunt Patty was not intentionally irreverent. Life, with her, had been so +narrow and hard pressed, always a painful reckoning of times and seasons.</p> + +<p>The allusion to "tater-buggin'" gave Grandpa an opportunity of a sort of +which he had not been slow to avail himself lately—to engage in a little +old-time, secular conversation. His voice, however, as it sounded from +the south doorway, was impressive enough for any subject.</p> + +<p>"Grists on 'em, this year!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Heaps!" Aunt Patty responded, readily. "I don't see how ever the +children could be speered to go to school now, anyway. Randal had all +eight o' hisn out yesterday, with a four-quart pail apiece, and him and +Lucindy pickin' into the half-bushel besides; and Rodney told Bede, for +the livin' truth, he'd seen a lantern movin' around last night right in +the dead o' night, and he looked out and it was the Dean and Abbie Ann +out tater-buggin', and everybody knows they wasn't out in the daytime, it +was so dreadful hot. I'm sure we never had such queer weather afore. But +them bugs are the hardest critturs to kill. It's almost impossible to +dispose on 'em; and it does seem enough, what with ploughin' and plantin' +and harrowin' and hoein' to git a few potatoes, and like enough, wet +weather to rot 'em, without havin' to fight over 'em, for the last chance, +with a whole army of varmint. I'm sure this 'ere way o' gittin' a livin', +as old Grandther Skewer used to say, 'It costs more than it's wuth.'"</p> + +<p>Led by the screams of the little Keelers in Madeline's apartment, Grandma +had left the room for a moment, and Grandpa cleared his throat and began, +hopefully:—</p> + +<p>"Talkin' about tater-bugs," he said, and he glanced at me with a +preliminary gleam in his eye; "Bachelder Lot was tellin' me the other +mornin,—he said he was eddicatin' a couple on 'em. He said thar' wa'n't +no other way to get rid on 'em, but to appeal to their moral natur', and +he said when he'd got 'em eddicated up to the highest p'int o' morality, +he was a goin' to send 'em out as missionaries ter convart the rest. +Bachelder said he'd got 'em fur enough along, now, so't they'd pass +examination along o' average folks that wa'n't admitted church +members——"</p> + +<p>"Bijonah Keeler!"</p> + +<p>Grandma, unexpectedly returning, had caught the last word only of +Grandpa's discourse, but taking this in connection with the bright and +mirthful expression of his countenance, she judged that his sentiments +had been of an unusually reprehensible nature.</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, with an evident notion of continuing his +narration; "what now, ma?"</p> + +<p>"I hope, pa," said Grandma, giving one the impression that she felt she +couldn't put the case too strongly; "that you are as innocent o' what +you've be'n a sayin' as the babe unborn, and to your credit, pa, I +believe you be!"</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, now mentally lost and bewildered; "I +guess I know what I'm talkin' about!"</p> + +<p>"And if you do, pa," said Grandma, with a solemnity that was unutterably +conclusive; "you know more than I do!"</p> + +<p>Then, while the women talked, Grandpa, sitting alone in the south door, +sighed and whittled, and abstractedly scanned the horizon. Once, he made +a singularly bold attempt to entice Aunt Patty again into the channels of +profane conversation, by an introductory speculation as to the prospect +of the bean crop; but Grandma Keeler nipped this reckless and irreverent +adventure in the bud, by replying in a calm, vast tone:—</p> + +<p>"Pa, it r'aly seems to me that for a vain creetur in a fleetin' world, +and a perfessor besides, there'd ought to be more things to talk about +than beans!"</p> + +<p>Grandpa Keeler sighed still more deeply, gazed wistfully towards the +barn, as though he would fain have shuffled out in that direction; but +the weather being so warm, he refrained. He glanced at me with a feeble, +helpless smile, his head fell backward, his eyes gradually closed, and, +in spite of the iniquities which covered his ancient head, he fell into a +slumber that had all the semblance of childlike and unblemished +innocence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW.</h3> + + +<p>While Grandpa Keeler dozed peacefully, Emily Gaskell, also "passin' by," +joined the group of women on the doorsteps of the Ark.</p> + +<p>Emily, by the way, was regarded as a hopeful subject of the "awakenin'." +She had been to see a doctor in Farmouth, who told her she could not live +through another winter "with that cough on her." She sat very still in +the meetings, it was said, and seemed "tetched and wonderful," whereas +she had been wont formerly, on occasions of this solemn nature, to evince +many signs of restlessness, and even to engage in droll and sly +diversions for the greater delectation of the "unconsarned."</p> + +<p>Emily herself was particularly unreserved on the subject of her spiritual +condition. Her tone had lost none of its former bright vivacity, though I +thought I saw frequently now, while she was talking, a softer shadow +steal over the restless, consuming fire in her blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"I know what some on 'em say," said she; "I know what I might 'a' +said, jest as like as not, if it had been somebody else in my place. Oh, +she's afraid she ain't a goin' to git well, and so she's a seekin' +religion. She's scart into it!</p> + +<p>"Wall, if folks that know me are a mind to say that, they may; though if +it comes to bein' scart into religion by what the doctors said, I should +'a' jined the church twenty times over!</p> + +<p>"It ain't because I'm afraid o' what'll happen to me after I'm all dead +and peaceable. It's because I want a little more comfort while I'm a +livin'. Seems to me there's more comfort needed for the livin'.</p> + +<p>"And ever since my Brother 'Lihu died, seems as though them last words o' +hisn have been a ringin' in my ears. 'I know somebody that'll watch. Who? +Jesus will! Jesus will!' over and over again. And when I get to worryin' +about things, and can't see no way through, or whoever's a goin' to +straighten em' out, it keeps agoin', 'Who, then? Jesus will! Jesus will!' +over and over. And 'Lihu wasn't a professor, neither; and maybe he hadn't +no right to take the comfort out o' them words that he did; and maybe I +hain't no right, and it's only like a string o' music that'll keep a +runnin' in a body's head sometimes and they not thinkin' nor meanin' any +thin'.</p> + +<p>"I don't see any further into it than I did afore. I don't know as I'm +what you'd call any more believin', but when I've laid till after +midnight with my eyes as wide open as daylight, and no shut to 'em, +thinkin' and worryin' and coughin', I've seen it ag'in, jest the way he +rolled and tossed that night, and then them words come to him, and he +smiled and went to sleep peacefuller nor any child; and so <i>I've</i> said +'em, and faith or no faith, believin' or no believin', they've set me a +cryin', time and ag'in, and they've put me to sleep! thar', they've put +me to sleep!"</p> + +<p>"And who else could they 'a' be'n meant for but him and you?" cried +Grandma, in a gush of sympathy; "him and you, and anybody else as you +seen needed them words and could give 'em to 'em to quiet 'em; for, dear +woman! there ain't none on us that see into it, but jest to say it over. +Dear woman! we don't know no more. It's what's a restin' all on us. It's +what's a restin' all on us!"</p> + +<p>I looked up and saw tears in Madeline's eyes. I had not heard Madeline +spoken of as among the number of the impressed. There were tears in my +own eyes, I knew; there had grown to be such a pathos in those women's +voices.</p> + +<p>A little later, Emily lapsed into a strain of sprightly gossip.</p> + +<p>"And who do you think's kitin' around in this region ag'in?" she began. +"Somebody you'd expect least of all, I reckon; wall, it's Dave Rollin," +and she nodded her head quickly and expressively at the others.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean," she continued; "that he's been in Wallencamp, but Levi +was down from Wallen this mornin', and he said they stopped last night in +Wallen Harbor—him and some other fellers, mighty stylish lookin', but he +said it was Dave Rollin's yacht, as fine and fancy-rigged as ever he see, +and there was some that looked like common sailors, and they all come +ashore, and the common ones was the quietest. But he reckoned the +fisherman was off on 'a time,' and stopped there jest for fun, and to +show off, maybe.</p> + +<p>"Wall, Levi told me that, and to-day, 'long about the middle o' the +forenoon, my man come up to the house—he's down to shore, you know, +along o' Cap'n Sartell and George Olver and Lute Cradlebow and all the +rest, down there a mendin' up the old schooner, 'cause Cap'n wanted Lute +to see to it afore he went away. My man come up for a wrench, and 'Who do +you think's a scootin' around down on the Bay?' says he. 'Wall, it's Dave +Rollin,' says he; 'in the purtiest little craft, that runs jest like a +picter,' and he said they couldn't see but two men aboard of her then; he +guessed they wan't many. It was jest like Dave Rollin to take a run from +Wallen down this way to show what he could do alone, for he was always +braggin' about bein' so stiddy on his sea-legs, and how't he understood +this shore better'n any o' the old uns.</p> + +<p>"My man said they didn't know who 'twas out there, at first, for it ain't +the kind o' vessel often seen, and it skimmed along on the edge o' the +water, Sim said, like a bird, in and out amongst the rocks, so't +anybody'd a thought, not knowin' who they was—and them, maybe, not +knowin' the shore—that they was drunk or gone crazy; and Sim said they +hollered to 'em to look out for the rocks, and they heered a kind of a +laugh on the water, and somebody shouted back:</p> + +<p>"'Stow your gab, land lubbers!' and they knew from the voice it was Dave +Rollin.</p> + +<p>"He was probably meanin' to put in there, and might 'a' come ashore may +be,—he was wild enough—but he seen our men and that kind o' hindered +him; he didn't want to turn round and put right back neither, lookin' +as though he was scared, so he kep' on, and Sim said they watched 'em +clean out o' sight; 'but,' says he, 'I never seen a man turn whiter'n +George Olver did for a minute, and then he onclinched his fist and went +to work ag'in, harder than ever, for you can allays depend on Jim, +somehow—George Olver—but he's a dreadful close-mouthed fellow!"</p> + +<p>During the recital of this narrative, recalling so much to my mind, I +experienced more than anything else a feeling of annoyance, almost of +resentment, that the fisherman should appear, however remotely, to +disturb the serenity of these last few days in which I had to live out +my Wallencamp idyl.</p> + +<p>For the others the story seemed to have created a momentary excitement, +but they regarded it, on the whole, as of little consequence.</p> + +<p>Aunt Patty had passed on to the doorway of another neighbor, and George +Olver's relations with Rebecca soon constituted the theme of a more +general and lively discourse, in which the remarks concerning Rebecca +were mostly kind and considerate, and the praise of George Olver's +conduct enthusiastic; and, at the close of which, I remember, Grandma +said that "the higher minded folks gits to be, the pitifuller they be +a'most always!"</p> + +<p>The fact of the fisherman's transient appearance on the Bay was not again +alluded to, nor do I think the mind of any one present reverted to it, +when Grandpa Keeler, looking up with that utterly dazed and bewildered +air which betokened a decisive awakening on his part, cast his eye along +the horizon, and observed gravely,—</p> + +<p>"Storm a brewin', ma."</p> + +<p>"You've been asleep, pa," said Grandma, in sweetly mollifying tones; and +Emily Gaskell, almost involuntarily, glanced up at me with a mischievous, +anticipative wink.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/men.jpg" width="400" height="669" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Asleep, ma," said Grandpa Keeler; "no, I hain't been asleep, neither! +And what if I had, ma? That don't hender a storm's brewin', does it?"</p> + +<p>"We've be'n seein' them little wind clouds passin' afore the sun for half +an hour past," explained Grandma Keeler, composedly.</p> + +<p>But Grandpa scanned the sky with a dark, keen glance—the air of an old +voyager on stormy and literal seas, and he shook his head, sagely.</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, ma," he said, "it don't make no difference whether it's a +wind-storm or a rain-storm that I know on, but a tempest it's brewin', +sartin sure. I remember once, we'd had a spell o' weather jest like this, +and it begun to gether up in the same way. It was in the same latitude, +teacher, same latitude. I was off cruisin' with Bob Henchy—whew! That +ar' was a singin' gale! I remember it as well as yesterday. I was off +with Bob——"</p> + +<p>"Are you sure it was Bob ye was off with, pa," interrupted Grandma. "I +could almost write a book, pa, while you was tellin' a story."</p> + +<p>"Wall, wall, ma! Write a book, if ye want to!" exclaimed Grandpa, with +sweeping force. "I'm sure nobody wants to hender yer writing a book if ye +want to, ma!"</p> + +<p>Grandma Keeler heeded not those derisive words. Her mind was bent on +pursuits of a far loftier and more engrossing nature. In respect to the +weather—except on Sabbath mornings, when it was impossible to credit +Grandpa with perfect fairness and impartiality of judgment—Grandma, it +must be said, had real faith in the old sea-captain's prognostications.</p> + +<p>"It does look like a shower, and a mighty sudden one," said Emily. She +thrust her knitting-work in her pocket, donned her sun-bonnet, and +departed with other chance occupants of the doorsteps. And Grandma, too, +admitted the prospect of foul weather by throwing a handkerchief over her +head and going out to fetch the milk-pans.</p> + +<p>Since early spring Grandma Keeler had put her milk-pans to dry in the sun +on a bench half-way up the "Pastur-Hill." Why she should choose to place +them at such a seemingly capricious and unnecessary distance from the +house, for it was really no inconsiderable journey for Grandma, taking +into account her peculiar style of locomotion; whether she considered +that the rays of the morning sun visited them more directly on that +plane, or that the elevation exposed them to peculiar atmospheric +advantages; these were questions which the curious mind was left to solve +for itself, for the grave office of carrying out and bringing in the +milk-pans was performed by Grandma with an air of mysterious calm, which +admitted of no profane comment or speculation.</p> + +<p>Madeline laughed, watching her, the musical notes ringing out with a +touch of insane gayety.</p> + +<p>"If ma knew it was Judgment Day," said she, "she'd carry those milk-pans +up the hill to dry, and if she knew it was Judgment Hour she'd go to +fetch 'em."</p> + +<p>The scene grew rapidly weird as the sky darkened. A low sigh, like a +premonition, crept through the heavy atmosphere and shivered among the +peach-blossoms.</p> + +<p>The first gust of wind seized Grandma, returning with the milk-pans. It +was a zephyr compared with the blasts that followed, but it had the +effect of giving to that good soul's usually composed and reassuring +presence, something of the appearance of a crazy and dismantled ship, +rolling in a high sea.</p> + +<p>Grandpa was quick at detecting the resemblance, and hailed her approach +in thrilling nautical terms, such as: "Why didn't ye reef yer topgallant, +ma!" when the handkerchief was torn off her head; and "hang to the +main-royal, ma," as Grandma's apron was caught up and borne, wildly +fluttering, about her ears; and "keep your ballast, ma," with frequent +ejaculations of "Lor', how she pitches! how she pitches!"</p> + +<p>These were not thrown out as light shafts of ridicule. It was no occasion +for such. There was an awful earnestness in Grandpa Keeler's eye and in +his tone, that invested his words with due solemnity. Grandma, struggling +with the wind, had not heard them. She entered the Ark, however, cheerful +though panting.</p> + +<p>"Bijonah Keeler," said she, in accents of real affection, "I wouldn't +have you out in that wind for no money—not for no money, nor our +teacher, neither. Why, no stronger than she is now, it 'ud take the +breath right out of our teacher's body! Why, ef it hadn't been for the +cargo I had on board, pa," continued Grandma, naturally falling into the +same train of ideas we had followed, while watching her battle with the +elements, "I should 'a' slipped moorin's, sure!"</p> + +<p>A casual listener might have smiled at this, in view of Grandma's +substantial physique.</p> + +<p>Presently she said, as though the thought had just struck her; "I hope +fisherman's got back to Wallen Harbor, pa."</p> + +<p>"And if he ain't, ma," replied Grandpa Keeler, sententiously, "he'll know +what it is to be out in a squall! but I reckon he's looked out for +himself."</p> + +<p>The old Captain's face grew graver; his eyes, in that closed room, which +had grown so suddenly dark, took on an intensely solemn look. He did not +attempt the narration of any stormy adventures of old. Perhaps the scenes +of the past rose too vividly before his eyes. But, as the fiercest gusts +came, he kept muttering:—</p> + +<p>"I knew what it meant—mild winter on the Cape! There's the devil in the +old Cape weather, teacher, and he never skipped four seasons yit! If it +ain't one time, it must be another. Yis, yis! mild winter on the Cape, +and no March to speak on, and a hurricane in summer! Wall, we're both on +us right, ma, and we're both on us wrong. It ain't neither wind ner rain, +but the heavens let loose, and God A'mighty's own power a blowin' of it. +Yis, yis! I had my misgivin's all along; thinks I, better a little more +weather now, than to blast every livin' thing by and by; but I hadn't no +idee o' this! The Lord ha' mercy! The Lord ha' mercy!"</p> + +<p>For all that one could see through the windows was a great black sheet of +driving rain, and the roar of the storm was terrible. The Ark shook. It +seemed, at each successive blast, as though the walls would fall in over +our heads. One could easily imagine the whole crazy structure borne +onward before the resistless tempest, to take a final wild leap from the +cliffs.</p> + +<p>"Wallencamp's a gittin' all mixed up," said Grandpa, without the faintest +tinge of humor, now. "We sha'n't know where to find ourselves when we git +out o' this 'ere, ef we ever do git out on't. Lord ha' mercy!"</p> + +<p>Madeline sat very white and still, resting her chin on her hands, her +great eyes staring out.</p> + +<p>Grandma held the two frightened children in her lap. She was rocking and +singing to them in a low, crooning tone. Though she was pale and her lips +trembled, there was still about her a soothing atmosphere of peace.</p> + +<p>I was frightened, like the children. I longed to cry out as they had +done; to bury my head away from the terrors somewhere, as they did in +Grandma's lap.</p> + +<p>"That was the blackest squall," said Grandpa Keeler, afterwards; "that +ever swep' across the Cape!"</p> + +<p>Terrible as it had been, it died quickly. The transition seemed +miraculous from the sullen roar of the wind and torrent-fall of rain, to +the renewed chirping of the birds, the quiet dripping of the eaves, and +sunshine over all.</p> + +<p>But the young peach-tree that had stood by the window of the Ark, and +sent its fragrance into my little room above, lay prone upon the ground. +When she saw that, Grandma Keeler moaned heart-brokenly, as though it had +been some fair human life stripped suddenly of its promise and left to +wither fruitlessly.</p> + +<p>There were traces of the storm everywhere. Trees that had stood isolated +in the fields lay, some of them, with roots exposed; others were broken +off at the trunk, left with only a branch or two, helpless figures with +outstretched arms, to give a weird desolation to the landscape by and by, +I thought with a shudder, when winter should come again to Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>The fences—what remained of them from former depredations—had either +fallen utterly to the ground, or assumed a strikingly precarious +position.</p> + +<p>Part of the roof of Mr. Randal's house had been blown off, and the +chimneys of several of the Wallencamp houses demolished, and Grandpa's +barn twisted and distorted almost beyond recognition.</p> + +<p>That poor old gentleman put on his hat and stepped out of the door +cautiously, looking about him like one in a dream.</p> + +<p>The Ark had stood firm, apparently, in its old resting-place. Grandma and +Madeline proceeded to sweep out the rain which had been driven in through +the cracks, and then it was that little Henry G. came running, with a +white face, to the door. He had an air of childish importance, too, as +being the first to bear tidings of some strange and dreadful event, and +eager to hasten to other doors.</p> + +<p>"Where's the rest?" he gasped, seeing only me in the room. "You tell 'em, +teacher, Lute Cradlebow's drownded!" and the boy disappeared, without +another word.</p> + +<p>I was already faint from the reaction of the excitement incident to the +storm, weak with the effort I had made to "hold myself still." I heard +Grandma calling quickly, "Child! child!" I saw her coming towards me, and +then I lost consciousness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At evening, while the sun went down over the hill by which the +transfigured river flowed, Captain Sartell sat in the door of the Ark, +and told the story.</p> + +<p>The marvellous light was on his face, too. It fell, in shafts of glory, +on the bright foliage of the fallen tree.</p> + +<p>Grandma was at Godfrey Cradlebow's, but Grandpa Keeler was within the +Ark, and Madeline caressing her children with a new fondness. There were +a few of the neighbors present; they looked neither frightened nor +curious, but ineffably exalted.</p> + +<p>"We'd got our work about done," said Captain Sartell, speaking +mechanically and with little of his customary hesitation of manner. "As +near as I calk'late, there wa'n't a half hour's more work to do on the +old craft, and it had got to be sometime arter noon, but says the boys, +'Let's finish her off, now we've got so near through, and not have to +come back ag'in.' They was always a cheery set—especially <i>him</i>—when +they took hold of a job, to put it through.</p> + +<p>"We'd seen them sailin' fellows go by a while before; and we knew Rollin +was one of 'em. They wasn't but two, as we could see, managin' the craft; +and they was full sail, clippin' it lively. I calk'late there ain't many +knows this shore better'n me, but I wouldn't 'a' durst skirted along the +adge down thar' at sech a rate, not in the finest day blowin'. First, we +thought it was somebody didn't know what they was about. When we made +out it was Rollin, we knew, if he <i>was</i> drunk, he was tol'able well +acquainted with the rocks along shore, and 'ud probably put further out +when he got through showin' off. We didn't worry about 'em, nor think no +more about 'em, in special. The boys didn't want to talk to rile George +Olver.</p> + +<p>"So we kep' to work, and in a minute, cheery ag'in with the hammers +click, clickin'—and every now and then the boys 'ud strike up a singin' +something'. 'Beyond the River,' and 'Homeward Bound.'</p> + +<p>"It sounded dredful purty down thar' by the water, with the water and the +wideness all around sorter softenin' of it. It made a man feel curious +and wishful somehow.</p> + +<p>"Well, by and by, <i>him</i> and George Olver struck up a song. I've heern 'em +sing it before, them two. As nigh as I calk'late, it's about findin' rest +in Jesus, and one a askin' questions, all fa'r and squar', to know the +way and whether it's a goin' to lead thar' straight or not, and the other +answerin'. And <i>he</i>—he was a tinkerin', 'way up on the foremast, George +Olver and the rest on us was astern,—and I'll hear to my dyin' day how +his voice came a floatin' down to us thar'—chantin'-like it was—cl'ar +and fearless and slow. So he asks, for findin' Jesus, ef thar's any marks +to foller by; and George Olver, he answers about them bleedin' +nail-prints, and the great one in His side. So then that voice comes down +ag'in, askin' if thar's any crown, like other kings, to tell Him by; and +George Olver, he answers straight about that crown o' thorns. Then says +that other voice, floatin' so strong and cl'ar, and if he gin up all and +hollered, what should he have? what now?</p> + +<p>"So George Olver, he sings deep o' the trial and the sorrowin'. But that +other voice never shook, a askin', and what if he helt to Him to the end, +what then should it be, what then? George Olver answers: 'Forever-more, +the sorrowin' ended—Death gone over.'</p> + +<p>"Then he sings out, like his mind was all made up, 'And if he undertook +it, would he likely be turned away?'</p> + +<p>"'And it's likelier,' George Olver answers him; 'that heaven and earth +shall pass.'</p> + +<p>"So I'll hear it to my dyin' day—his voice a floatin' down to me from up +above thar', somewhar', askin' them questions that nobody could ever +answer like, so soon, he answered 'em for himself—and when I looked up, +thar' was Harvey, with his hammer dropped, and his mouth wide open, a +starin' up thar', and the tears rollin' down his cheeks like he was a +baby.</p> + +<p>"They didn't sing no more, after that. They was still for about five +minutes, I calk'late. Harvey, he was still, too; but pretty soon, he +wakes up and says, 'Gad, boys! Did ye ever see sech a queer look in the +sky? I believe thar's a September gale brewin'."</p> + +<p>"'It's a little wind storm, I reckon,' says Bachelder. Bachelder was +settin', with his legs curled up under him, mendin' sail, and he begun to +spin one o' them yarns o' hisn, with his voice pitched up middlin' high, +and the boys, they begun to laugh and cheer.</p> + +<p>"Then Harvey says; 'I'll run up to headquarters, and find out about the +weather;' and clim' up the main-mast as limber as a squirrel, and when he +came back, thar' was Tommy's hat stickin' way up top o' the mast; so +Tommy, he promised to pay him—them two was always foolin' together, but +good-natered enough." The captain introduced this little incident, in the +midst of his narration, with a dull, pathetic gravity, "It was the last +thing we thought on, o' bein' fearful, or calk'latin' any danger. We +reckoned it was a brisk little shower comin' up, maybe, and the boys was +runnin' one another about gittin' into the cabin, and runnin' on about +the old craft.</p> + +<p>"Then thar' come, all of a sudden, sech a strange feelin', as ef the +'arth and the water was a tremblin', and a dreadful moanin' sound runnin' +through 'em. Seemed as though it came swirlin' across the bay. Then it +bust on us in a fury.</p> + +<p>"He was out, sorter lookin' around him, Bachelder was, and the wind took +Bachelder up, and keeled 'im over two or three times runnin'.</p> + +<p>"Black it grew as the Jedgement day. Then come no sich rain as ever I +see, even the pourin'est, but the clouds fallin' all to once, and the +wind a scatterin' of 'em, and up on the cliffs, we could jest hear a +creakin' and a bendin' whar' the trees was turned as white as ghosts in +that 'ere blackness, and the old Bay, in sech a minute, was spinnin' into +foam.</p> + +<p>"We was shelterin' around the old craft now, sure enough, and nobody +speakin' a word, but jest a holdin' our breaths a waitin', when, in among +them other noises, thar' come, out on the water, sech a low, dull sound +as sent the awful truth on us in a minute, and for a minute, that ar' +right hand of mine was numb.</p> + +<p>"Then Harvey, he had hold o' me, a pintin' out, and whether he spoke a +word or not, I seen it—through wind and rain and foam, all in my eyes to +once, I seen—reelin' and tossin' and pitching out thar' on the Bay, +lost, lost for sure—I seen that fancy ship!</p> + +<p>"Thar' wa'n't no hand on 'arth could guide it, now. Every second was like +to see it keeled squar' over, or slipped and driv' in, straight on to the +rocks.</p> + +<p>"We're used to other'n fa'r weather along this shore. I calk'late we +ain't used to frighten at a little danger, but knowin' the sea so well, +we know the helplessness a'most o' puttin' out in sech a gale as that.</p> + +<p>"I heered the sound. It only came but once: and Bede hissed through his +teeth, a cryin' too, a'most: 'Ain't thar' no other way to werry us, but +they must come in here to drown afore our very eyes! A fool's ventur'! +what could ye expect but a fool's end! Ef he must drown, let the +red-haired devil drown!'</p> + +<p>"But when they heered it, them two, <i>him</i> and George Olver, I knowed how +it would be. I hardly durst to look. I seen them flash at one another +with their great eyes, as ef it wa'n't enough to do man's work, but when +thar' come a chance, they must go act like God! I seen in jest that +flash, them two agreein' solemnly.</p> + +<p>"Then it was all done in a minute's space, like you'll live yer life +through sometimes, in a dream. They had Bill Barlow's eight-oar ready. +They pushed us back. They'd a' gone alone, them two. I kep' the third +place. Harvey and Tommy scuffled, in a breath, and Harvey, he thrust +Tommy back, and we was off.</p> + +<p>"God knows I never expected we'd come back again. You heern the wind. You +can calk'late what it was out thar' with the rain a drivin', and the salt +foam blowed into our eyes. I calk'late we never fetched a harder pull, +no, nor a blinder one.</p> + +<p>"And she, the cursed thing, mad with twitchin' at her cable, lay over to +one side. But she was dyin' mad. I tell ye she was dyin' mad. Thar' was +them two a hangin' to her—thar' hadn't be'n but them. So we hauled +Rollin in, but that other one, when he seen us, the chance o' bein' +saved, it crazed him, and he sent up a quick, glad sort of a yell and +throwed his arms out straight, and back he fell, like lead, into the +water. And Rollin, crouchin' thar' and shiverin', 'He couldn't swim! He's +sunk! he's sunk!' he says. Then <i>he</i>, he ris up in a flash, and out he +dove into that hell.</p> + +<p>"Then come another gust, a blindin', blindin', blindin'. 'He'll weather +it! He'll weather it!' George Olver kep' a mutterin', but his teeth was +set; his eyes shot through me like a tiger's—them two was brothers, and +more'n brothers, always. But when thar' come a half lull so't we could +see, and we looked out and seen him risin' on the wave, grippin' that +other one, in spite o' hope I scurse believed my eyes, and what a shout +they sent up from that boat!</p> + +<p>"Ay, thar' they was, for sure, but—God, how fur away! Not much for +common weather, but then they looked as fur to me as 'arth from heaven. +Ef we could reach 'em afore the next sweel come; and every man, it seemed +as though he put his livin' soul into his arms. 'Pull! pull!' says +George, and seemed to git the strength of seven, but still we went too +slow. We missed <i>him</i> at the oar. And <i>he</i>, he was the strongest swimmer +that I ever knowed, but who could live in the like o' that? We pulled for +life or death, and that brave head kep' risin' on the wave.</p> + +<p>"Ef we could 'a' had another minute afore the next sweel come! George +Olver felt it. He sent the rope out with a giant's throw. Then it was all +and more than we could do to held the boat ag'in the wind. It come so +fast ye scurse could see them next ye in the boat. 'He's grappled it! +he's thar'! he's thar'! says they, and when they pulled it in, thar' was +that other one belt fast, and only him.</p> + +<p>"God knows! I calk'late he made sure o' the other first, and thar' wa'n't +jest the breath's time left for him, blinded so sudden maybe, and fell +death faint. I've knowed it be so with the strongest; no wonder thar'; +the wonder was in what he done. He was the strongest swimmer that I ever +knowed, the strongest and the fearlessest!</p> + +<p>"George Olver never'll be content. He would 'a' gone in after <i>him</i>. We'd +be'n driv' a furlong back, I reckon, and every mark was lost. It 'ud be'n +naught but to swaller him, too. He lost his sense. We had to holt him +back. He raved thar', like a madman. It blew a bitter spell, longest of +all, and when it helt a bit so we could take our bearin's some'at, what +hope! What hope!</p> + +<p>"But poor George, of a suddint he grew quiet as a lamb, and set a lookin' +out, with his hand light on the oar, as ef 'twas pleasant weather, and he +could see <i>him</i> ridin' in thar' easy on the wave; and his eyes was fur +off and smilin', but they looked as though they died.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe—I know no more.</p> + +<p>"We found him arterwards. Thar' wa'n't no mark nor stain on him. You +think I talk dry-eyed. Go you and look at him. Somehow it don't leave +ary breath for cryin'. It's like as ef he knowed. It's more than +quietness, seemin' to say, for all he loved his life and fou't so hard +out thar', ter lose his own at last—givin' or losin', he never missed o' +naught! he never missed o' naught!</p> + +<p>"I can't tell what's the thought comes nighest to ye when we look at him. +I hain't got high enough for that, but I can tell ye what's the +furderest—weepin' and sorrowin'. Since I seen him and my little Bessie +fell asleep, please God I die a half so trustful or so brave, I make no +fear o' death!"</p> + +<p>The Captain sighed a long, ecstatic sigh and rose, the after-glow still +shining on his face. In passing through the room, he pressed something +softly into my hand.</p> + +<p>"We found it in the breast-pocket of his coat, teacher," he said. "The +coat lay in the bottom o' the boat, and was soaked with brine. It had +your name on't."</p> + +<p>When I unfolded it, it was the little star-fish the Cradlebow had showed +me, days before, still folded close in its delicate vine wreath.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>GEORGE OLVER'S ORATION.</h3> + + +<p>The Wallencampers gathered at the Ark, singing a calm and high farewell +to earth, that alone was meet for the untroubled lips of that silent +singer in their midst.</p> + +<p>They gathered at the Ark. No other place seemed to them sacred enough for +such a meeting, now; no other place dear enough for the celebration of +such a solemn, long farewell.</p> + +<p>Over the threshold, where he had come so often bounding in his life, they +brought the dead; there was the same strange look of exaltation on their +faces that I had noticed while Captain Sartell told the story of the +storm; stricken and white, the poor faces, yet touched with some daring, +unutterable hope—so clear a message they read on that wondrously still +and reconciled face, so without fear the dead lips spoke to them.</p> + +<p>To me, the message was one of infinite pathos and rebuke, speaking of a +heroism beyond my poor conception, of a height of glory of which I had +not dreamed.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, forevermore," the fathomless far voice murmured to my despair, +and slowly and repeatedly; "Farewell, forevermore. I am beyond the need +of your poor love."</p> + +<p>And my heart turned to stone, with all the passionate, pure sorrow that +might have been, the tears in which I might have found relief.</p> + +<p>Grandma Keeler's sacred "keepin' rooms" were opened wide for the +reception of this guest, yet the sunshine stole in with a hallowed light, +the entering breeze sighed low and softly. The children, always present, +were, on this occasion, attentively still.</p> + +<p>There were no external signs of woe for the poor Wallencampers to assume; +they made no mad demonstrations of their grief; the suffering and the +wonder were too deep.</p> + +<p>Lydia—they all knew how she had loved this son. When they returned from +their perilous quest in the storm, the first words Captain Sartell said +were; "Who must go up now, and break Lyddy's heart?"</p> + +<p>She stood among the others, very still, the old faded mantilla folded +decently over her shoulders, the great dark eyes, <i>his</i> eyes, shining out +even kindly from the worn face on those who came to speak to her.</p> + +<p>Godfrey Cradlebow stood at the outer door, and addressed the people as +they entered. Some said, afterwards, that he had been drinking; others +declared he had not touched a drop for days. In the room where I stood, I +heard his musical, deep tones, now swelling with the fervor of his +harangue, now broken and trembling with emotion.</p> + +<p>"Enter, my friends!" said this strange man. "Go in, and look on +quietness. What do we seek for most, my friends? Look out on the world. +It's a whole world of seekers. How they jostle against one another! How +they sweat! how they strive! how they toil! And why all this? What seek +they for? For quietness, my friends, even so—the quietness of wealth to +gain, may be, or competence; may be, the quietness of some renown. And +some go seeking over land and sea for their lost health, and quietness +from pain.</p> + +<p>"My friends, within there was as restless a seeker as I ever knew. Pity +the old, my friends, but pity more the young! Never such dreams of rest! +Never such restlessness! Hush! when he heard, he answered well. He put +all by. Somehow, we think he has obtained—wealth, honor, perfect health. +My friends, pass in! behold this wonder!</p> + +<p>"My friends, you look up at the sky. Ah, what a sky! purple and deep! Yet +I see something in your eyes that is not quietness; for storms will come, +too well you know, and the cold blasts of winter; but if you knew that +never any sorrowful, hard wind could sweep across yon blue—then, my +friends, you would look as he looks who lies within there. Pass in! pass +in! behold this wonder."</p> + +<p>Within, Grandma Keeler stood with closed eyes and folded hands. Her +cheeks were wet. She wore a heavenly, trustful expression of countenance. +Her lips moved as if in prayer.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow rose in her place—majestic and weird she looked, +like some old Eastern prophetess, a grand forecasting in her shadowy +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Gether in the sheaves," she began; "the bright sheaves, early ripe and +ready for the harvestin'; and begrudge not the Master of His harvestin'. +Why, O Lord, Lord, this sheaf, while there be them that stand, late +harvest day, bowed and witherin' in the cornfield? Because He reckons not +o' time. Glory, glory, to the Lord o' the harvestin'! But gether in for +me, He says, my bright sheaves, early ripe! my sheaves o' the golden +wine!</p> + +<p>"It was the night but two before my grandson died, I seen a death-sign in +a dream, and so I speaks to my son's wife, but 'Fear you not,' I says; +'it was the blessed sign o' blessed death;' and thought o' some one old +and helpless, sick maybe, gettin' release thereby. Why this sheaf, O +Lord?—Glory, glory, to the Lord o' the harvestin'! For I dreamt there +was a bird ketched in my room, and flutterin' here and there, and beatin' +'ginst the window with its wings. And dreamin' I ris up, and there was +such a light along the floor as never any moonlight that I see was half +so solemn or so beautiful. But when I stretched my hand to free the poor, +blind, flutterin' bird, it ris away from me, and spread its wings, +snow-white, and out it flew, and sharp and clear along that shinin' +track. Then when I woke, I knew it was the sign o' blessed death, nor +ever feared. And God will bear me true, it was the very night they +brought my grandson home that, lyin' down to rest a while from watchin' +with the rest, nor ever wonderin' nor layin' it to mind what I had +dreamed afore, but tired and heart-broke only, I seen the long, bright +shinin' track ag'in, a pourin' through the window; and 'My son's son!' I +cries, 'dear boy! dear boy!'—for it was like him playin' on his +violin—'What tunes must be,' I cries, 'that you play so and scarce a day +in heaven!' But when I ris up, callin', it grew dim along the track, and +there was mornin' in the room, and then I heered them cryin' where they +watched.</p> + +<p>"Why this sheaf, O Lord?—gether in the sheaves, O Lord, the bright +sheaves, early ripe and ready for the harvestin'. Glory, glory to the +Lord o' the harvestin'!"</p> + +<p>Then the Wallencampers sang tremblingly of the "Harvest Home." They were +glad when they saw George Olver stand up in their midst—George Olver, +least subject of them all to dreams or ecstasies, but with his slow, +labored speech, and his sorrowful, bowed head. He took his place beside +the coffin of his friend, looked gently at that face, and squared his +shoulders for a moment then, and held his head with the old manly air:</p> + +<p>"When Uncle 'Lihu died," said he; "my friend and me walked home together +from the funeral, and Luther says to me: 'I want you to promise me, +George, that if I shed die, you wouldn't have that man to preach over +me,' meanin' the minister, though he was kindly to him; 'and he means +well,' says he; 'but he don't understand us; he knows naught about us +'ceptin' that now we're dead, and not bein' used to them long texts o' +hisn, it frets our folks,' says he. 'They weary on't, so long a string +they bar'ly understand; but I would rather,' Luther says, 'have some one +amongst my folks that knowed me well, git up and speak, ef it was only: +<i>This was my friend lies here; I loved him</i>. And promise me, George, ef I +shed die, you'd hev no stranger preachin' over me, but speak some such +easy words yourself for love o' me.' And I felt with him thar', and +promised him, and he me; but I remember thinkin', as I looked at him, +it's little likely I'll ever stand above your grave.</p> + +<p>"Enough said. 'This was our friend lies here. We loved him.' We thank him +for them words. Better nor more, they cl'ar it all up on this side twixt +him and us. No need ter tell o' what he was, or what he done. 'Tain't +likely we'll forgit. He didn't say ter praise him. He wanted none o' +that, but jest we knowed and loved him.</p> + +<p>"And so it might 'a' been enough, but now, my God! my God! as I stand +here aside o' him, he bids me, plain as day, to speak a word beyent; ef I +could only name it, ef I could only name it, what looks so cl'ar and +beautiful thar' on his face.</p> + +<p>"'Hold strong;' he says, 'below thar'. Keep heart and make cl'ar +reckonin', for it's losin' all may be, in this 'ere mystery, makes +cl'arest gain o' all. There's fairer day to rest ye arter storm. All's +well! all's well!' he says; 'all's well beyent. All's well along this +shore!'"</p> + +<p>Here George Olver's husky voice failed him; sobs rose in the room.</p> + +<p>Then the "farewell" was sung, and bravely; but at the last, I heard only +Madeline's voice, it grew so surpassingly clear and sweet; it seemed to +float solitary in the room, and to play triumphantly about the sleeper's +lips—the voice, indeed, of a free spirit in its bliss, thrilled only +with some plaintive memory of human woe and loss.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Farewell, ye dreams of night;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Jesus is mine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lost in this dawning bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Jesus is mine!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All that my soul has tried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left but a dismal void;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jesus has satisfied.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Jesus is mine!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Farewell, mortality!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Jesus is mine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome, eternity!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Jesus is mine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome, the loved and blest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome, bright scenes of rest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome, my Saviour's breast!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Jesus is mine!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Scarcely had the leaves of the fallen peach-tree by the window begun to +wither when the strong bearers passed out with their beautiful, stainless +burden, while slowly, reverently, the little community of mourners +followed to the grave.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP.</h3> + + +<p>Yet another week passed in Wallencamp before I was able to complete the +preparations for my departure.</p> + +<p>One day, I set myself with a sort of listless fidelity to the summing up +of my accounts. I found, on deducting the amount of my actual expenses +from the sum total of my earnings in Wallencamp, that I had +sixty-two cents left!</p> + +<p>The revelation caused me some surprise; strangely little perturbation of +spirit. I thought what tragic tales might sometimes lie hidden beneath a +seemingly dry and senseless combination of figures, while, in my own +case, I was merely struck with the justice of those figures.</p> + +<p>For such eccentric and distracted services as I had rendered in +Wallencamp, the superintendent of schools had paid me in full at the +price stipulated, eight dollars per week.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the column of insolvency, I considered that the West +Wallen Doctor's bill was an expression of modesty itself. The sum due my +Dear Madeline for "board," at two dollars and a half per week, though I +trusted it was some compensation for the merely temporal advantages to be +enjoyed in Wallencamp, did not appear as an astounding aggregate. The +list of "minor details" was well portrayed, and presented an aspect of +clear use and value.</p> + +<p>My once fond dream of a "private bank account" had gradually faded from +my memory. I saw the last spar in that fair wreck go down, now, without a +sigh. And the "loans solicited," in labored phrase, as "mere temporary +conveniences," from the friends at home—these, I was satisfied, must +remain only as the sweet continuation of a life-long debt. But how was I +to get home?</p> + +<p>The combined fares on that route, I remembered, had amounted to something +over nine dollars! So the question haunted me, not restlessly, but with a +vague, tranquil, melancholy interest, as pertaining to the history of +some one who had lived and died a few years before; so long indeed, it +seemed to me, since I had performed the journey to Wallencamp.</p> + +<p>I had not written home as to the day of my probable arrival, in this +yielding passively to the force of habit, which had ever constrained me +to plan my returns as "surprises" to my family and friends.</p> + +<p>But for myself, I had fixed the day of my departure from Wallencamp, and, +in spite of the discovery made in regard to the insufficient state of my +finances, looked forward to that event without any trepidation, so that, +I remember—it was actually the day before the one fixed on, and still no +hope had dawned on the financial horizon,—when Grandma Keeler embraced +me with some tender words premonitory of our parting, I kissed her +gratefully, musing at the same time in dreamy, untroubled fashion: "Yes, +I must be going home to-morrow."</p> + +<p>It was on this same day that we drove to "Wallen Town," Grandma and +Madeline and Becky and I. The excursion was one Grandma had planned +several weeks before, and I had no intention of making it the opportunity +which I finally did.</p> + +<p>As we were passing a dingy-looking establishment, where some doubtful +articles of <i>virtu</i> appeared in the window, an idea seized me, as new as +it was comprehensive of my difficulties.</p> + +<p>I went in, ostensibly to purchase a watch-key, really to engage in +negotiations of a more serious and complicated nature. The proprietor of +the shop became the temporary guardian of my watch, while I was invested +with the funds necessary for my homeward journey. I learned, afterwards, +that this man had made an exception in the usually limited range of his +operations, in my favor, his establishment not being, by any means, that +of a pawnbroker, but, in every sense, of the most highly moral and +respectable nature.</p> + +<p>He gave me such "ready cash" as his coffers would yield, with an +improvised pawnbroker's check, at the composition of which we had both +seriously and ingeniously labored. I can testify both to his honesty +and obligingness. He insisted on my taking with me, "jest to tell the +time o' day," a very large watch in a tarnished silver case.</p> + +<p>Not wishing to seem to cast any disparagement on his wares, I became the +helpless recipient of this favor. The article in question was far too +large for my watch-pocket, and had a persistent habit of holding its +mouth wide open like a too weary shell-fish. On the interior of the case, +one on either side, were pasted photographs of individuals to me unknown, +male and female, their countenances such as the blinded eye of affection +alone, I thought, could have rendered mutually entertaining; and the +watch maintained, on all occasions, a system of chronology peculiarly its +own.</p> + +<p>As we drove back to Wallencamp, Grandma Keeler, her great heart close to +Nature that sunny afternoon, beguiled the way with a gentle hilarity +which never shocked or offended, but Becky put her hand often in mine, +looking up with the old helpless, pleading expression in her eyes—Becky, +I knew, would remember longest.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, as my hand wandered almost unconsciously to caress the +precious coin in my pocket, instead of the wild tract of stunted cedars +through which our road lay, I fancied I saw the great elms of Newtown, +the wide, straight street, the familiar house, an open door, and—ah! It +wasn't the first time I had been taken in at that door, the survivor of +wrecked ambition and misguided hope, only to hear my shortcomings made +tenderly light of, my most desperate follies lovingly ignored and +forgiven.</p> + +<p>But I had meant that it should be so different this time! I had gone out +as a missionary; and deeper than ever in my consciousness, I must feel +the want and woe of the returning prodigal; the same old story, the +ever-recurring failure. It seemed as though all the wonder and impatience +might well go out of my despair.</p> + +<p>Then as I lent myself more and more to the contemplation of that home +picture, how restful and happy it grew! but poor old Wallencamp—for we +were nearing the little settlement now, and the sun was fast +westering—poor, squalid, solitary, beautiful Wallencamp, as I looked +down upon it from the brow of Stony Hill, thrilled me with a troubled +sense of some diviner, some half-comprehended glory.</p> + +<p>The crimson glow had not quite faded in the sky when I took my last walk +across the fields to where the new grave had been made on the hillside. +This is the new burying-ground of the Wallencampers; the old one lies +a mile farther up the river, near the Indian encampment. Here I saw more +than one simple slab, bearing the name of Cradlebow. Here little Bess +lies, too. The hill, meet for such sublime repose, looks ever calmly on +the humble, straggling homes of the Wallencampers below, and sees the +lonely river winding near, and hears, by night and day, the monody of +deeper waters.</p> + +<p>I thought the voice of that great ocean of restlessness sounding along +the shore might quiet my unrest, but the beat of the waves, the growing +gloom of that still evening hour, oppressed me with a feeling unutterably +sad. I could not bear it, at last. It seemed as though another deep was +rising and breaking in my heart, the flood of proud, half-stifled passion +waking in one awful moment to overwhelm me. No light upon that sea—but +hope wronged, the mockery of death for yearning love, the unguided clash +of drifting human lives!</p> + +<p>An agony of blindness swam before my eyes. I felt my weak hands clutching +at the grass, and gasped, as though it had been indeed in the blindness +and pain of physical death, the prayer wrung from my selfish need. But +the answer was of infinite love and compassion. It came to me then—not +as some grave revelation of truth to the "enlightened seeker," but like +the kiss or peace to a tired child, a door mysteriously opened to the +self-bound captive, to one ignorant, the light shining along a plain, +straight way. And the doubt and terror and anguish went out of the world; +even the sorrowless farewell of frozen lips changed to tender +benediction.</p> + +<p>When I looked up at last, wondering, peaceful, my face wet with happy +tears, the stars had come out in the sky, and, down below, the windows of +the Ark were shining. The faint murmur of a song was borne up to me. The +Wallencampers had gathered at the Ark to celebrate our last "meeting" +together, and I went down to join them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At what ghostly hour of the next morning Grandma Keeler awoke Grandpa to +the unusual exigencies of the occasion, I cannot say. It was necessary +for me to start very early from the Ark to take the train at West Wallen, +but when I descended the stairs, by candle-light, Grandpa Keeler had been +already washed and dyed and arrayed, as for the Sabbath, in his best. +Yes, and I was constrained to believe that he had even been instructed in +the mysteries of Sunday-school lore, for there was about him an air of +haggard and feverish excitement, and he glared at my familiar presence +with wild, unseeing eyes.</p> + +<p>Memorable were the colloquies held that morning between Grandma and +Grandpa Keeler; Grandpa's tragic assumption of manly consequence, and +solemn fears lest we should miss the train, directed in astute syllables +of warning towards Grandma Keeler; Grandma's increased deliberation, and +imperturbable quietude of soul.</p> + +<p>I recall the strange, unearthly aspect of the scenes enacted in the Ark +at that early hour, the fleeting vision of a morning repast which formed +some accidental part in the chaos of vaster proceedings.</p> + +<p>Then, when the first faint signs of dawn were beginning to break through +the gray in the eastern sky, I bade farewell to the Ark forever, +lingering a moment on the old familiar doorstep for a last word with +those of the neighbors who had gathered there to see us off, for the +whole Keeler family accompanied me to the station.</p> + +<p>There were others waiting at the gate to say good-bye, and at various +posts all the way down the lane. At the big white house, Emily came +running out, breathless. She whispered hurriedly in my ear; "There was a +message left. Ye wasn't well. I reckon 'twas a message. When fisherman +and that other one came up from the shore, day o' the storm, he came to +our house for Sim to take him to Wallen. He said it was better to be the +dead one than him. He was awful white, and Sim got harnessed, and just as +fisherman was goin' out, he left a message along o' me, though there +wasn't no names mentioned, and he talked queer; but he wanted as somebody +should know that he realized it all now, and he couldn't make up for it, +never; but it was go'n' to be new or nothin' for him, and they shouldn't +want for nothin', never, and kep' a sayin' more, and no message, exactly, +as ye could call a message, but I reckoned—I thought—may be—"</p> + +<p>Emily's glowing eyes, fixed on my face, grew very wide and grave. I could +only press her hand in parting for Grandpa, growing impatient, had +succeeded in clucking Fanny on again.</p> + +<p>We drove along the river road, and, passing through the Indian +encampment, there were more good-byes exchanged by the roadside.</p> + +<p>Then climbing up "Sandy Slope," beyond the settlement, we heard the +shrill "Hullo!" of a familiar voice, and looking back, saw Bachelor Lot +running after us very swiftly, his head destitute of covering, and his +little wizened face glowing red as the celestial Mars in the distance. He +looked like some odd, fantastic toy that had been wound up and set going.</p> + +<p>So he came up with us, and trying to conceal his breathlessness in polite +little "hums and haws," delivered aside, he offered me a huge bouquet, +composed, I should think, of every sort of wild-flower available on the +Cape at that season, and showing, in its arrangement, marks of the most +arduous striving after artistic effect. In the other hand, he held out to +me a basket of large, selected boxberries.</p> + +<p>I accepted the gifts with unaffected delight, and thanked Bachelor Lot +warmly. I looked back at him, trudging cheerfully homeward through the +sand, so withered and small, with the gray in his hair, and his coat so +much too long for him—back to the poor brown house, which no tender love +had ever hallowed, or merry waiting laugh made bright for him; and I +wondered, along his life's way which looked so sad and desolate, what +hidden wild flowers God had strewed for him, that he seemed always so +humbly cheerful and content, and brought his best of offerings with a +smile to bless the happier lot of others.</p> + +<p>For the rest of the way, the wild untenanted stretch was unbroken by any +incident; yet I remember no tedium by the way; and I believe that a trip +taken with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler through the most trackless desert +would inevitably have been made to teem with diversion. Those blessed +souls! I smile, looking back, but through tears, and with a reverence +and tenderness far deeper than the smile.</p> + +<p>By the time we reached the West Wallen depot the sky had clouded over.</p> + +<p>"A little shower comin' up," Grandma said, but Grandpa shook his head and +prophesied "a long, stiddy spell o' weather."</p> + +<p>I persuaded my friends not to wait with me for the arrival of the train +which, owing to some discrepancy in the matter of time between Wallencamp +and West Wallen, would not be due for an hour or more.</p> + +<p>I watched them out of sight, the last of my Wallencamp! How deeply, how +utterly it had grown into my life, so that now, in spite of the secret, +glad exultation I felt at the thought of going home, my heart went +running out after that quaint, receding vehicle, and aching sensibly.</p> + +<p>On board the train at last, I began to experience something of the +sensation of one who awakens from a long sleep to the half-forgotten ways +of men and life with a vague, untroubled wonder as to the latest styles +in dress; or, like a traveller from a strange country, weary, and +way-worn, and out of date, who yet can smile, hugging in his breast the +happy secret of boundless wealth in the gold-mine he has discovered far +away.</p> + +<p>I had neither umbrella, portmanteau, nor shawl-strap; such ordinary +paraphernalia of travel I remembered once to have possessed, and tried in +vain to recall the particular occasions on which they had been wrecked in +Wallencamp. I bore with me my bouquet, my basket of boxberries, some +small cedar trees for transplanting, and half of the largest clam-shell +the shores of Cape Cod had ever produced; this last a parting gift from +Lovell Barlow.</p> + +<p>I was far from being troubled with the consciousness of anything quaint +or <i>bizarre</i> in my appearance. I felt no mortification on account of +these treasures so intrinsically dear to my heart; but Grandma Keeler had +insisted on binding a mustard paste on my chest. It was a parting +request—I could not have refused—but in the close air of the car the +physical torture began to be extreme. Tears fell on the cedar spray at my +side, yet was I withal strangely, peacefully happy.</p> + +<p>It was raining when I passed through Boston. Once more in the din of a +city, jolting noisily over the rough, uneven pavements, I found myself +wondering continually if the Keelers had reached home, and imagining how +the rain was falling gently, quietly, on the roof of the Ark.</p> + +<p>At the next stage, at Hartford, I was half afraid that I should meet +brother or sister or some member of the family, and so have the complete +effect of my "surprise" destroyed; but I saw none of them. There were few +passengers on board the Newtown-bound train. It was raining still. I was +growing more and more glad at heart, and looking out with my arm pressed +against the window, when I heard a voice right over me—a soft, pitiful, +thrilling exclamation:—</p> + +<p>"Great Heavens!"</p> + +<p>I looked up and saw John Cable.</p> + +<p>He sank slowly down into the seat in front of me and, for a moment, +neither of us spoke. I did not mind meeting John. I had not thought of +including him in the surprise. The sight of his familiar, friendly face +gave me a positive thrill of pleasure, but there was something in his +manner that kept me silent.</p> + +<p>I said: "I am going to surprise them, John."</p> + +<p>There was nothing offensive in the grave, swift glance with which John +Cable then took me in, me and my bouquet of wilted wild-flowers and my +small cedar trees, only a slow, solemn distinctness in his tone.</p> + +<p>"You will succeed," he said. "Undoubtedly you will succeed."</p> + +<p>Still I felt no resentment. A gentle, sorrowful perplexity filled my +breast.</p> + +<p>"Why, do—I—look—very—very—unusual, John?" I questioned, and looking +in his face I wondered why, in the old days of careless jest and +repartee, he had never seemed so moved.</p> + +<p>More words he said, but I could not bear them then, and tears from an +inward pain fell on the cedar spray, yet I was glad that I had not grown +so unusual that people would never like me any more.</p> + +<p>Next, the surprise was a success, as John Cable had predicted, but that +was the one point in my career in which my genius had never failed me. My +surprises, though inclined to take something of the nature of an +accumulation of calamities, had never lacked the great element of +awe-producing wonder.</p> + +<p>For the rest, I had known that I should be forgiven and received with the +usual <i>éclât</i> of the returned prodigal into the family bosom—but to be +held up on successive days as an object of ever-increasing marvel and +interest, as one whose words and acts were endowed with a peculiar +significance, as the light of the social fireside, the enchanter of small +spell-bound audiences! Well, I had been spoiled so early in life that +little was needed to complete the wreck. I felt a deeper satisfaction +when, as I was meekly beseeching our Bridget's instruction in some +particular branch of the culinary art, that majestic female observed, as +she folded her arms and looked down on me complacently:—</p> + +<p>"There's one thing I like better about you than I used to, miss—you do +have to wade through a great deal o' flour to larn a little plain cooking +but Job himself couldn't a' be'n no patienter." And it was indeed true +that my "Graham gems" never quite reached perfection, though they bore +with them marks of earnest and faithful endeavor.</p> + +<p>I found new sources of interest everywhere, and in ways which I had +formerly regarded with aversion and disdain.</p> + +<p>At the "Newtown Ladies' Charitable Sewing Society," I was elevated from +among the common stitchers and sewers, for faithfulness in service,—I +believe, though malicious fingers would point to the distortion of the +legs of little heathens' trousers—to a place on the "cutting circle." +From the cutting circle, it is needless to say, I was speedily exalted to +a presidential chair of easeful observation and general vague +superintendency.</p> + +<p>Later, there was a revival of the "Literary Club." There John Cable and I +shone once more amid a group of familiar and undimmed luminaries. John +Cable never took up the exact thread of the discourse broken off so +abruptly on the day of my return, in the cars, but it was when coming +home from the club one evening that he expressed himself to the effect +that I had always been a great burden on his mind, ever since the first +day he led me to school, and, to be sure, I had shown signs of +improvement lately, but there was always a pardonable doubt as to what I +might do next, and it was wearing on him, and would I set his mind at +rest by allowing him, in some sense, to take the direction of my life +into his own hands?</p> + +<p>John, though of adverse views, had been heatedly discussing the merits of +the Capital Punishment question at the club, so I was not surprised at +the unusual grace and flow of his address.</p> + +<p>Years have passed since that evening. I have been very happy as John's +wife. If I wander in my story, be it said that little John is running a +model express-train on the floor over my head. Little John, when not +dreaming, exercises a vast amount of destructive physical force.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A little more than a year after I left Wallencamp, I heard of Grandma and +Grandpa Keeler's death. "Very quiet and peaceful," they said concerning +Grandma, but I had known what sort of a death-bed hers would be. Scarcely +a week after she had passed away, Grandpa Keeler followed her. I had it +from good authority that he kept about the house till the last. There was +a "rainy spell," and he stood often gazing out of the window "with a lost +look on his face," and once he said with a wistful, broken utterance and +a pathetic longing in his eyes that did away forever with any opprobrium +there might have been in connection with the term, that "it was gittin' +to be very lonely about the house without ma pesterin' on him."</p> + +<p>Since then, I have not heard from Wallencamp. It is doubtful whether I +ever get another letter from that source. Though singularly gifted in the +epistolary art, it is but a dull and faint means of expression to the +souls of the Wallencampers—and <i>they</i> will not forget. From the storms +that shake their earthly habitations, they pass to their sweet, wild rest +beside the sea; and by and by, when I meet them, I shall hear them sing.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD FOLKS *** + +***** This file should be named 19708-h.htm or 19708-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/0/19708/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stacy Brown, Emily and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/19708-h/images/boat.jpg b/19708-h/images/boat.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4ca06f --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/boat.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/folks.jpg b/19708-h/images/folks.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1456df --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/folks.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/goodnight.jpg b/19708-h/images/goodnight.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..55e11e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/goodnight.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/grandma.jpg b/19708-h/images/grandma.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c24aa98 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/grandma.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/insults.jpg b/19708-h/images/insults.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..701b5a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/insults.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/meeting.jpg b/19708-h/images/meeting.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe7df94 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/meeting.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/men.jpg b/19708-h/images/men.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9059b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/men.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/visitors.jpg b/19708-h/images/visitors.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7d0011 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/visitors.jpg diff --git a/19708-h/images/women.jpg b/19708-h/images/women.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2969724 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708-h/images/women.jpg diff --git a/19708.txt b/19708.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5225d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10221 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cape Cod Folks + +Author: Sarah P. McLean Greene + +Release Date: November 4, 2006 [EBook #19708] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD FOLKS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stacy Brown, Emily and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: CAPE COD FOLKS.] + + + +CAPE COD +FOLKS + +BY + +SARAH P. MCLEAN GREENE +(SALLY PRATT McLEAN) + +_With Illustrations from the Play_ + + + + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP +PUBLISHERS + +Copyrighted, 1881, +By A. WILLIAMS & Co. + +Copyrighted, 1904, + +BY DEWOLFE, FISKE & Co. + + + + +TO W.N.G. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. ON A MISSION + +II. I BLOW THE HORN + +III. THE BEAUX OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY + +IV. THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES + +V. GRANDMA KEELER GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL + +VI. BECKY AND THE CRADLEBOW + +VII. LUTE CRADLEBOW KISSES THE TEACHER + +VIII. FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK + +IX. LOVELL BARLOW "POPS THE QUESTION." + +X. A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN + +XI. A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL + +XII. BECKY'S CONFESSION + +XIII. A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE + +XIV. RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW + +XV. DAVID ROLLIN IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM + +XVI. GEORGE OLVER'S LOVE FOR BECKY + +XVII. TEACHER HAS THE FEVER.--DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE + +XVIII. LUTE CRADLEBOW GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR + +XIX. DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW + +XX. GEORGE OLVER'S ORATION + +XXI. FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP + + + + +[Illustration] + + +CHAPTER I. + +ON A MISSION. + + + "Lo, on a narrer neck o' land, + 'Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand!" + +Aunt Sibylla was not sporting, now, in the airy realms of metaphor. Aunt +Sibylla stood upon Cape Cod, and her voice rang out with that peculiar +sweep and power which the presence of a dread reality alone can give. +Something of the precariousness of her situation, too, was expressed in +The wild, alarming, though graceful, gesture of her arms. + +It was before the long-projected canal separating Cape Cod from the +mainland had been put under active process of preparation. + +It was at an evening meeting in the Wallencamp school-house. A row of +dingy, smoking lanterns had been set against the wall and afforded the +only light cast upon the scene. Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow, the speaker, was +tall and dark-eyed, with an almost superhuman litheness of body, and a +weird, beautiful face. + +"And, oh, my dear brothers and sisters and onconvarted friends!" she +continued; "how little do we realize the reskiness of our situwation +here on the Cape! Here we stand with them ar identical unbounded seas a +rollin' up on ary side of us! the world a pintin' at us as them that +should be always ready, with our lamps trimmed and burnin'! and, yit, oh +my dear brothers and sisters and onconvarted friends! as fur as I have +been inland--and I have been a consid'able ways inland, as you all know, +whar it would seem no more than nateral that folks should settle down +kind o' safe and easy on a dry land univarse--I say, as fur as I have +been inland, I never see sech keeryins on and carnal works, sech +keerlessness for the present and onconsarn for the futur', as I have +amongst the benighted critturs who stand before me this evenin', a +straddlin' this poor, old, Godforsaken Pot Hook!" + +Clearer and louder grew Aunt Sibylla's tones; her eyes lightened with +terrible meaning; her words flowed with an unction that was unmistakable; +and, at length, "Oh, run for the Ark, ye poor, lost sinners," she +exclaimed. "Oh, run for the Ark, my onconvarted friends! Don't ye hear +the waves a comin' in? They're a rollin' swift and sure! They're a +rollin' in sure as death! Run for the Ark! Run for the Ark!" + +Now, there was in Wallencamp a literal Ark, otherwise this exhortation +would have lacked its most convincing force and significance. But Aunt +Sibylla paused. Among the usually restless audience, there was a moment +of almost breathless suspense. Not half a mile away, behind a strip of +cedar woods, we could plainly hear the surf rolling in from the bay, +breaking hard against the shore with its awful, monotonous moan, moan, +moan. + +My heart was already faint with home-sickness. The effect of that waiting +moment was as sombre as anything I had ever experienced. Much to my +distaste, I found myself sympathizing with the vague terror and unrest +around me. I can hear it still, the voice that then rose, singing, +through the sullen gloom of the school-room, a strangely sweet and +rapturous voice--Madeline's. I learned to know it well afterwards. I +listened with rapt surprise to the pathos with which it thrilled the +simple words of the song:-- + + "Shall we meet beyond the River, + Where the surges cease to roll, + Where, in all the bright forever, + Sorrow ne'er shall press the soul?" + +A keenly responsive chord had been touched in the simple, agitated +breasts of the Wallencampers, and they joined in the chorus--those rough +people--not with their usual reckless exuberance of tone, but +plaintively, tremblingly even, as though, whatever the words, they would +make of them a prayer in which to hide some secret doubt or longing of +their souls. + + "Shall we meet, shall we meet, + Shall we meet beyond the River?" + +The strain was repeated with a most pathetic quaver in the rendering, +and then big Captain Sartell broke down, with a helpless gulp in his +voice, and I, who believed myself of too superior and refined a nature +to be moved by such tawdry sentiment, was further dismayed to feel the +tears gathering fast in my own eyes. + +After the meeting, on the school-house steps, the big Captain, as if to +atone for any unmanly exhibition of feeling into which he might have +been betrayed inside, took little Bachelor Lot up by the shoulders, and +gently and playfully held him suspended in mid-air, while he put to him +the following riddle:-- + +"I'll wager a quarter, on a good, squar' guess, Bachelder. Why is--why +air Aunt Sibby's remarks like this 'ere peninshaler, eh, Bachelder?" + +"Because--ahem!--because they're always a runnin' to a p'int, eh?" +inquired the keen little bachelor. + +"No, by thunder!" exclaimed the discomfited Captain, setting the +magician down promptly. "As near as I calk'late," he continued, +endeavoring to resume his former air of cool and reckless raillery; "as +near as I calk'late, Bachelder,--yes, sir, as near as I +calk'late,--it's--it's--by thunder! it's because they're both liable to +squalls in fa'r weather!" + +Amazed, and almost frightened at the unexpected brilliancy of his evil +success, the Captain yet kept a rueful and furtive eye on the little +bachelor. + +Bachelor Lot coughed slightly and smiled. "Very true," he drawled, +cheerfully, in his small, thin voice; "I'm--ahem!--I'm not a married man +myself, you know, Captain. However," he added; "you should have given me +another try. I had the correct answer on my tongue's end." + +During this brief exchange between the stars of the Wallencamp debate +ground, murmurs of appreciative applause arose from the group of +bystanders, and "Pretty tight pinch for you, Captain!" and "Three cheers +for Bachelder! ye can't git ahead of Bachelder!" sprang delightedly from +lip to lip. + +Aunt Sibylla had scented from within this buoyant resumption of the +Wallencamp mirth, and now appeared on the scene, bearing a burning +lantern in her hand. She first turned the glare of its full orb on the +late sin-convicted Captain, who stood revealed with a guilty grin frozen +helplessly on his alarmed features, and next directed the beams of +disclosing justice towards the form of the little bachelor, who, with +too pronounced meekness, was engaged in readjusting the collar of his +coat. + +"At it ag'in!" Aunt Sibylla exclaimed, with slow and cutting emphasis. +"At it ag'in! I do believe you're all possessed of the devil!" + +Then, with one sweep of the lantern, she took a comprehensive survey of +the shivering group, and passed on without another word, while in the +breast of every guilty Wallencamper then present there rested a deep +sense of merited condemnation. + +Aunt Sibylla was soon followed by the other lantern-bearers, who +dispersed homeward, along the four roads diverging from the school-house, +and, the night being starless, the children of the darkness followed +meekly in their wake. + +The longest route lay before those who took the River Road leading to +the Indian Encampment. Bachelor Lot was the hindmost in this receding +column. Bachelor Lot, though too withered and brown of visage to afford +immediate enlightenment as to his species, was held to be of +unquestionable white descent. Yet he kept house, alone, at the Indian +Encampment. + +Then there was the Stony Hill Road, up which a few pilgrims toiled; and +the Cross Lot Road to the beach--thither went the Barlows. Last of all, +there was the Lane, and it was somewhat in the rear of the lane +procession that I musingly wended my way, led by the beams of Grandma +Keeler's slowly swaying lantern. + +I was the Wallencamp school-teacher. I had come to "this rock-bound +coast," imagining myself impelled by much the same necessity as that +which fired the bosoms of the earlier pilgrims. Not that I had been +restricted in respect to religious privileges, but I sought for a true +independence of life and aim; and furthermore, it should be said, I had +come to Wallencamp on a mission. "On a mission!" how the thought had +tickled my fancy and roused my warmest enthusiasm but a few short days +before! Indeed, I had not been yet a week in Wallencamp, and now, as I +walked up the lane in a mood quite the reverse of enthusiastic, I was +painfully trying to gather from my small and scattered sources of +information what the exact meaning of the phrase might be. + +I had entered on the performance of my errand to Wallencamp under +circumstances not usual, perhaps, among propagandists; nevertheless, I +had been singularly free from misgivings. + +A girl of nineteen years, I had a home endowed with every luxury; a +circle of family acquaintance, which, I admitted, did me great +credit; congenial companions; while as for my education, I was pleased +to call it completed. My career at boarding-schools had been of a +delightfully varied and elective nature, for I had not deigned to toil +with squalid studiousness, or even to sail with politic and inglorious +ease through the prescribed course of study at any institution. Any +misadventures necessarily following from this course my friends had +gilded over with the flattering insinuation that I was "too vivacious" +for this sort of discipline, or "too fragile" for that, though I am +bound to say that, in such cases, my "vivacity" had generally sealed my +fate before the delicacy of my constitution became too alarmingly +apparent. + +I had, to be sure, a few commendable aspirations, but I had started out +fresh so many times with them only to see them meet the same end! + +Though not by nature of a self-depreciatory turn of mind, I had +occasional flashes of inspiration, to the effect that, in spite of the +soft flattery of friends, I really was amounting to very little after +all. It was in a mood induced by one of these supernatural gleams that I +stood on one occasion, leaning a pair of very plump arms on the graveyard +wall, looking wistfully over into the place of tombs, and thinking how +nice it would be to have done forever with the fret and turmoil of life! +And it was at such a time, too, that I received from a school friend, +Mary Waite, the letter which was the moving cause of my mission to +Wallencamp. + +Mary Waite, by the way, was one of those "prosy, ridiculous girls"--so I +had been compelled to classify her, although I was secretly troubled by +a sincere admiration of her virtues,--who had made it an absorbing +pursuit of her school-days to probe her text-books for useful +information, and was also accustomed to defer to her teachers as high +authority on matters of daily discipline. She was not in "our set." She +was poor, and studious, and obedient, yet a friendship had sprung up +between her and me, and I was moved to forgive her the, in many respects, +grovelling tendencies of her nature. I even ascended occasionally to her +room on the fourth floor to shock her with my sentiments, when there was +nothing livelier going on. + +She wrote:-- + + "MY DEAR S----: Are you still perfectly happy, as you used to try to + have me think you were always--the old restlessness, the better + longings unsatisfied, do they never come up again? [That was Mary's + insidious way of stating a difficulty.] Don't you believe you would + be happier to _do_ something in real earnest? Something for people + _outside_, I mean. [I flushed a little at that. An insinuation of + that sort can't be put too delicately.] I have tried to imagine how + the proposal I am going to make will strike you--but never mind. I + am teaching, you know, in Kedarville. I leave here, at the close of + the term, for another field of labor, and now I want you to apply + for the Kedarville school. Yes, it is a remote, poverty-stricken + place. It contains no society, no church, no library, not even a + little country store! It would seem to you, I dare say, like going + back to the half-barbarous conditions of life. The people are simple + and kind-hearted; but they need training--oh, how much!--physically, + mentally, and morally. I can assure you, here is scope for the most + daring missionary enterprise, and you,--I believe that you could do + it if you would. Consider the matter seriously; consult with your + friends about it, and if you do decide to try the experiment, write + as legibly as you possibly can to the Superintendent of Schools, + Farmouth, Mass., stating your qualifications, etc." + +The idea struck me with such strange and immediate favor that I quite +forbore to consult with my friends in regard to it. I resolved to go on +the instant, and wrote my friend Mary to that effect, congratulating +her, with an undercurrent of mischievous intention, on having been the +happy means of setting my powers drifting in the right direction at +last; and reproached her gently with having seemed to imply, once, in +her letter, some occult reason why I had not been regarded, heretofore +as specially designed to work in the cause of missions, whereas I had +always felt myself drifting inevitably towards that end. + +I wrote to the Superintendent of the Farmouth schools. But here I had an +earnest purpose to serve, and a real desire to succeed, and here met +with a difficulty. I had not the art of presenting my earnest purposes +in the most assuring and credible manner. They _would_ wear, in spite of +me, an uneasy air of novelty; yet I aimed nobly. I dilated largely on +some of the evils existing in the present system of education, and hinted +at reforms not yet meditated by the world at large; but skilfully forgot +to mention my own qualifications. + +On reading the letter over, I was astonished at the flattering nature of +the result, and, with the buoyant pride of one who believes he has +suddenly discovered a new resource in himself, I sent a copy of my +application to Mary Waite. She answered in the language of sorrowful +reproach:-- + +"Oh, S., how could you?" + +I was forced to conclude that, as usual, I had somehow made a misstep, +and sought to conceal my mortification as best I might, by persuading +myself and my friend that I had only regarded the matter as a joke all +through. Nevertheless, I was bitterly disappointed. + +What was my surprise, then, a few days afterwards, to receive this +communication from the Superintendent of Schools:-- + +"You are accepted to fill the position of teacher in the Kedarville +school." Then followed terse directions as to the best way of reaching +Kedarville, and, finally: "Mrs. Philander Keeler will board you for two +Dollars and fifty cents per week." + +As I read this last clause everything that had made a sudden tumult in +my mind before was lulled into a mysterious calm. + +It was not the low value set upon the means of subsistence in Kedarville. +Mercenary motives were, with me, as yet out of the question. It was not +the oppressive charm of Mrs. Philander Keeler's name that affected me so +strangely. It was the expressive combination of the whole, at once so +clear cut and unique. I murmured it softly to myself on my way home from +the Post-office. + +"Han," said I, quite gravely, to my elder sister on entering the house; +"Mrs. Philander Keeler will board me for two dollars and fifty cents per +week:" and handed her the letter in pensive, though triumphant, +confirmation of my words. + +"When did you do this?" she gasped, and, before I could answer, "how are +you going to get out of it?" she faintly demanded. + +"Simply by getting into it, my dear," I answered, with that unyielding +sweetness of demeanor for which I fancied I had ever been distinguished +in the family circle. + +I began to make my preparations for departure without delay. + +Tender remonstrances, studied expostulations, were alike of no avail, and +they helped me to pack, finally--those dear good people at home--putting +as brave a face as they could upon it, and hoping for the best. My father +assured my mother, though with trembling lip and tearful eye, that "God +would temper the wind to the shorn lamb." I smiled at the part I was +meant to play in this cheerful allegory, though it seemed to me rather +inappropriate, as I had a new sealskin cloak that very winter. + +At the last I gathered from the new and sprightlier form which the family +submissiveness assumed, as well as from certain inadvertent disclosures +of Bridget's, that I was confidently expected home again "in the course +of a week or two." And I thereupon doubly confirmed myself in the resolve +to see this thing through or die in the attempt. + +I cannot define the motives which actuated me at this time. They do not +appear to have flowed in a clear and pellucid stream. I discover a thirst +for the surprising and experimental, for situations, dilemmas, and +emergencies, sustained by the most sublime recklessness as to +consequences. Then I see a dread of sinking into humdrum--the impulse +never to be at rest; deeper than all this, I find a secret +dissatisfaction with myself, a vague longing to use the best that is in +me to some true purpose; a desire to leave the tangled skein, and "begin +all over again." + +It was early in January when I set out on my mission to the distant +shores of Cape Cod. It was also, I remember, very early in the morning, +and John Cable occupied a seat in the car. I had reason to know that John +shared in the family disapproval of my sublime conduct. He sat, looking +very glum behind his paper, and appeared not to notice me when I came in. +Having finished reading his paper, he gnawed his moustache and gazed, +still with glaring unconsciousness of my presence, out of the window. But +as we neared Hartford, where I was to take the train for Boston, he came +over to where I sat. + +"I hope you'll enjoy yourself at Sandy Creek this winter," he said. + +Now, I knew that John had designed this as sarcasm the most scathing, but +he was himself conscious of failure, and the thought filled him with +deeper gloom. He sought to reveal his baffled intentions in a scowl, +which lent to his manly and intelligent features the darkness of +spiritual night. And I replied, that "the recollection of his face, as it +then appeared to me, would be in itself an inspiration through all the +days to come." + +There was silence for a space, and then John continued:-- + +"Have you found it on the map, yet?" + +"What, please?" + +"Kedarville!" with bitter emphasis. + +"Oh! certainly not." + +"It may be a little island out there somewhere, you know," delivered with +the effect of a masterpiece. + +"Yes; or a lighthouse, possibly." + +I saw that John wished he had thought of that himself. He became dejected +again. Then, presently, he threw oil the cloak of bitterness which sat so +ill on him, and, resuming his usual kindliness and benignity of manner, +succeeded in making himself unconsciously tantalizing. + +"If you do find it," he said; "and if you--if you conclude to stay for +any length of time, I think I will go down some time this winter and hunt +you up." + +"If you do, John Cable," I answered, with unaccountable warmth; "I'll +never forgive you as long as I live--never." + +At Hartford, John took the train for Boston, too. We were very old +friends. Latterly, we had read Shakespeare together at the Newtown +Literary Club. We concluded not to quarrel for the rest of the way. I +had an influx of gay spirits, and John was almost without exception +"nice." + +There were several hours to wait in Boston before the train on the Old +Colony road would go out. We had dinner (I little realized how long it +would be before I should eat again), and John tamely suggested driving +about to look at some of the places of interest. I assured him that +there was nothing so dispiriting as looking at places of interest, and +he answered, cheerfully, after some moments of thought, that we could +"shut our eyes when we went by them, then." + +I had reason to dread a decline of spirits. Mine were rapidly on the +wane. By the time we stopped at the Old Colony _depot_ they were low, +indeed. And the hardest of all was, that I would not, for my life, let +my companion know. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and already +quite dark. The atmosphere was heavy and chill; the sky ominous with +clouds. I had an unknown journey yet to take in search of an unknown +destination. The car into which I got on the Cape-bound train was dismal +and weird-seeming enough. + +"I wish, if you must go, you would let me see you to the end of this," +said John. + +I answered, laughing, with an unnecessary tinge of defiance in my tone. +It would have been so much easier to cry. I thought, "If John would only +try to look cross again!" as he did in the morning--anything but that +expression of grieved and compassionate disapproval with which he sat, +talking so earnestly to me, for the last few moments in that dark car. I +thought he was cruel. He was trying to make me _think_ and I was trying +so hard _not_ to think! I felt a childish desire to scream out. Then, +when the signal for starting rang, and John took my hand an instant, in +parting, looking down at me with his kind, familiar eyes, the impulse +swept up strong within me to beg him to take me out of that dreadful car +and take me back home, and I would be good, oh, so good, and "prosy," +yes, and "humdrum," and never ask to go on any more missions to forlorn +pieces of land sticking out into the water. + +So there must have been a wild extravagance in the airy recklessness of +tone with which I bade John "good-bye." A sense of utter helplessness +came over me as he turned and went out. + +I observed, particularly, but two passengers in the car. One was a man, +very much bandaged as to his head, who sat gazing into the coal-stove, +which occupied the centre of the car, with weakly meditative, burnt-out +eyes. The other was a girl, occupying the seat directly in front of me. +She might have been nine years old, but she had a singularly faded and +mature countenance. As the train started, she turned to me with some +excitement:-- + +"There!" said she, pointing towards the window; "your beau's walking +off! He's walking fast! He ain't looking back!" + +"Thank you," said I, in a low, expressionless tone, not intended as an +inducement to further conversation. + +This girl had a parcel of confectionery, the contents of which she +occasionally took out, and ranged in a row on the window ledge, selecting +therefrom the smallest and least inviting fragment, and having eaten it +with the hasty air of one who treats herself under protest to the +luscious prerogatives of childhood, put the rest back in the paper-bag, +carefully replacing the string every time. She selected and handed to me +the very largest specimen in her collection, which I had the +gracelessness to refuse, though without show of disgust. Afterwards she +asked if she might come and sit in the seat with me. I thought she was +very disagreeable. Besides, I was so miserable I wanted to commune apart +with my own loneliness. However, I made room for her. + +She proceeded to confide to me all of her past history. She was returning +home from a visit to her aunt. Her mother had died a good many years ago, +"when Johnnie was a mere baby." She "kept house for father, and took care +of Johnnie." She "tried hard not to have father feel his loss. It was +very hard," she added, gravely, "for a man to be left alone so." She had +bought a little book for Johnnie, but she never had much time to read; +besides she wasn't quick to learn. She could pick the words out, to be +sure, but, somehow, it didn't make good sense, and would I read the book +to her? + +Oh, to take counsel of my own despair! How dark and wild it was growing +outside! Where was I going? whom should I meet there? + +And so I read, at the foot of gorgeously-illuminated pages, how-- + + "Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky got started for the fair, + When Goosie Poosie and Turkey Lurkey went out to view the air," etc., + +the range of characters swiftly widening as the narrative increased in +power. To my surprise, the mature child listened to this nonsense with +the utmost gravity and interest. No shadow of derision played on her +attentive features. When I had finished--it was soon finished--she +said:-- + +"Oh, that sounded so good; it made such good sense," and sighed, very +wistfully. + +"Do you want me to read it again?" I exclaimed, in despair. + +_Would_ I read it again? she asked. + +I read it again. + +After that she was silent and thoughtful for some time. Then she said, +looking gravely into my face:-- + +"Do you love Jesus?" + +"No, my dear," said I, surprised into much gentleness. + +The faded blue eyes filled with tears. She had no notion of harassing me +on the subject, but spoke quietly and at length of her own religious +convictions. + +The east wind crept in through the window, and once my little companion +shivered. I noticed that she was rather thinly clad. I unstrapped my +shawl and wrapped it around her. She let her head fall at my side, and +went to sleep. Slowly, I was constrained to draw her up closer and put +my arm around her as support. In so doing, I received from some source +an unaccountable strength and calm of spirit. + +At Braintree, which the child had told me was her home, I woke her up, +and she got off. + +I was to stop at West Wallen, the railway station least remote from +Kedarville, and expected there to meet Mrs. Philander Keeler, or some +member of that mysterious family, to convey me to Wallencamp. + +It seemed as though the train had had time to travel the whole +interminable length of the Cape, and plunge off into the ocean beyond, +when, in fact, we were just entering upon that peculiar body of land at +West Wallen. + +There was no one there to meet me. The little _depot_ was held by a +strange night brigade of boys and girls, playing "blind-man's buff." +They shouted like cannibals, and bore down on all opposing objects with +resistless force. I did not attempt an entrance. A rough, good-natured +looking man stood on the platform outside. + +I put on my glasses (I was sadly and unaffectedly near-sighted), and +having further assured myself of his seeming honesty, inquired if there +was such a place as Kedarville in the vicinity. + +"Waal, no, miss, thar' ain't," said he, with a noonday smile, which +informed me that there was yet something to hope for. "Thar's no +_Kedarville_ that I know on. Thar's a Wallencamp some miles up yender. +We don't often tackle no Sunday go-to-meeting names on to it, but I +reckon, maybe, it's the same you're a-lookin' for." + +He had spoken with such startling indefiniteness of the distance that I +asked him how far it was to Wallencamp. + +"Waal, thar' you've got me," said he, beaming on me in a broadly +complimentary way, as though I had actually circumvented him in some +skilful play at words. "Fact is, thar' ain't never been no survey run +down in that direction that I know on. We call it four miles, more or +less. That's Cape Cod measure--means most anythin' lineal measure. +Talkin' 'bout Cape Cod miles," he continued, with an irresistible air of +raillery; "little Bachelder Lot lives up thar' to Wallencamp, and they +don't have no church nor nothin' thar', so Bachelder and some on 'em they +come up here, once in a while, ter Sunday-school. Deacon Lancy, he'd +rather see the Old Boy comin' into Sunday-school class any time than +Bachelder; for he's quiet, the little bachelder is, but dry as a herrin'. +So the Deacon thought he'd stick him on distances. The Deacon is a great +stickler on distances. + +"'How fur, Bachelder,' says he, 'did Adam and Eve go when they was turned +out of the garden of Eden?' says he. + +"'Waal,' says Bachelder, coughing a little, so--that's Bachelder's way +o' talking--'we have sufficient reason to eenfer, Deacon, that, in all +probabeelity, they went a _Ceape Cod mile_.'" + +My informant's delight at this reminiscence was huge. It yielded to a +more subdued sense of the ludicrous when I asked him if there was any +public conveyance to Wallencamp. He made a polite effort to restrain his +mirth, but the muscles of his face twitched violently. + +"Waal, no, miss," said he; "we don't run no reg'lar express up to +Wallencamp; might be a very healthy oc'pation, but not as lukertive as +some, I reckon--not as lukertive as pickin' 'tater-bugs: that's what they +do, mostly, down thar'. Fact is, miss," he concluded, with considerable +gravity; "we don't vary often go down to Wallencamp unless we're obliged +to." + +On my proposing to make it lucrative, he immediately called, in a loud +voice, to one of the playful occupants of the _depot_: + +"Hi, thar!' 'Rasmus! 'Rasmus! Here's a lady wants to be conveyed down to +Wallencamp; you run home and tackle, now! You be lively, now!" + +'Rasmus was lively. In a very few moments something of an unusual and +ghostly appearance--so much only I could discover of what afterwards +became a very familiar sort of vehicle--was waiting for me alongside the +platform. The only means of getting into it was through an opening +directly in front. Towards this I was encouraged to climb over the +thills, but met with an obstacle, in the form of my trunk, which seemed +effectually to block up the entrance. + +"Thar', now! I told ye so," exclaimed one of the bystanders, a large +number of whom had mysteriously gathered about the scene. "You'd orter +got _her_ in first." + +A disconsolate silence prevailed. The trunk had been elevated to its +present position through the most painful exertions. + +"Perhaps I can climb over it," I said, and bravely made the attempt. + +No one knew, in the voiceless darkness, of the suddenly helpless and +collapsed condition in which I landed on the other side. I groped about +for a seat, and finally succeeded in finding one at the extreme rear of +the vehicle. + +'Rasmus drove. He was situated somewhere, somehow--I could not tell where +nor how--in the realm of vacancy on the other side of the trunk; I only +know that he seemed a long way off. Under these circumstances +conversation was rendered extremely difficult. I learned that Mr. +Philander Keeler was away at sea; that Mrs. Philander Keeler lived at the +_Ark_, with Cap'n and Grandma Keeler, and the two little Keelers. + +'Rasmus was the unmistakable son of his father. + +"And it ain't no _got-up_ ark, neither!" he yelled at me, in a tone which +pierced through the distance and the darkness, and every intervening +obstacle. "It's the reg'lar old _Ark_! It's what Noer, and the elephant, +and them fellows come over in!" + +I did not wonder, as we journeyed on, that my informant of the _depot_ +platform had used his "ups" and "downs" indiscriminately in indicating +the direction of Wallencamp. In the inky blackness by which I was +surrounded I was conscious, clearly, of but one sensation--that of going +_up_ and _down_. The rumbling of the wheels reached me as something far +off and indefinably dreadful. + +Then we stopped, and I crawled out like one in a dream. There was no +light at the Ark to make it a distinguishable feature of the gloom. +'Rasmus found the door and knocked loudly. I became dimly conscious of +the knocking, and followed 'Rasmus. + +"I reckon they're to bed," said he, and knocked louder. + +Pretty soon a clear, feminine voice, startled into musical sharpness, +issued from a room quite near, with--"Who's there?" and was followed by +two small, squealing voices, in unison,--"Who's there?" + +Then other sounds arose--sounds from some quarter mysterious and +remote--low, mumbling, comfortable refrain, and ominous snatches of an +uneasy grumble; then a roar that shook the Ark to its foundations:-- + +"Who the devil's making such a rumpus out there at this time in the +mornin'?" (It was nine o'clock P.M.) 'Rasmus sent back an intrepid +yell:-- + +"It's the _tea-cher_! It's pretty late," he said, aside, to me. "I guess +I won't go in. I reckon they won't have much style on. I seen ye pay +father; that's all right. I'll tip yer trunk up under the shed, and the +old Cap'n 'll see to gettin' it in in the mornin'. Here's a letter the +postmaster sent down to the Cap'n's folks. Good night." + +'Rasmus, my only hope! I made a convulsive grasp for him in the darkness, +but he was gone. + +It was she of the soothing, comfortable voice who took me in; and Grandma +Keeler's _taking in_ I understand always in the divinest and fullest +sense of the term. + +Further than that, I was conscious that there were white-robed and +nightcapped figures moving about the room. So unearthly was their +appearance that I had, at last, a confused notion of having become +disengaged from the entanglements of the flesh, and fallen in with a +small planetary system in the course of my wanderings through space. The +centre of attraction seemed to be a table, to which the figures were +constantly bringing more _pies_. + +The letter which 'Rasmus had directed me to hand to the "folks" was read +with interest, being the one I had dispatched from Newtown, a week or two +before, informing them as to the time of my arrival. + +Madeline rendered the brief and business-like epistle with the full +effect of her peculiarly thrilling intonation, and Grandma listened with +rapt attention; but, meanwhile, Grandpa Keeler and the two little Keelers +found time surreptitiously to dispose of nearly a whole pie, with the +serious aspect of those who will not allow a mere fleeting diversion to +hinder them in the improvement of a rare opportunity. + +Having declined to partake of pie, through Grandma Keeler's kind +interposition, I was not further urged. + +"Thar', poor darlin'," said she; "fix her up a good cup o' your golden +seal, pa, and she shall go to bed right in the parlor to-night, seem' as +we didn't get the letter, and hain't got her room fixed upstairs. It's +all nice and warm, and thar', darlin', thar', we're r'al good for nussin' +folks up." + +In the parlor, I saw only one great, delicious object--a bed. My weary +brain hardly exaggerated its dimensions, which could not have failed to +strike with astonishment even the most indifferent observer. It was long; +it was broad; it was deep; and, alas! it was high, I disrobed as best I +might, and stood before it, gazing despairingly up at its snowy summit. + +Then, remembering my experience with the trunk, I approached at one +extreme, scaled the headboard, fell over into an absorbing sea of +feathers, and, at that very instant it seemed, the perplexing nature of +mortal affairs ceased to burden my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +I BLOW THE HORN. + + +Morning dawned on my mission to Wallencamp. My wakening was not an +Enthusiastic one. Slowly my bewildered vision became fixed on an object +on the wall opposite, as the least fantastic amid a group of objects. It +was a sketch in water-colors of a woman in an expansive hoop and a skirt +of brilliant hue, flounced to the waist. She stood with a singularly +erect and dauntless front, over a grave on which was written "Consort." I +observed, with a childlike wonder, which concealed no latent vein of +criticism, the glowing carmine of her cheeks, the unmixed blue of her +pupilless eyes, from a point exactly in the centre of which a geometric +row of tears curved to the earth. A weeping willow--somewhat too green, +alas!--drooped with evident reluctance over the scene, but cast no shade +on its contrasting richness. The title of the piece was "_Bereavement_" +By some strange means, it served as the pole-star to my wandering +thoughts. + +As I gazed and wondered my life took on again a definite form and +purpose. The events of the preceding day rose in gradual succession +before me, and I proceeded to descend from the heights I had scaled the +night before. + +[Illustration: DAVID ROLLIN INSULTS LUTHER.] + +I looked at my watch. It was eight o'clock, and school should begin at +nine. Yet the occasion witnessed no feverish display of haste on my part, +I saw that the difficulties which I was destined to endure in the +Performance of my toilet that morning called either for philosophy or +madness. I chose philosophy. + +The portion of the Ark surrounding my bed was cut up into little +recesses, crannies, nooks,--used, presumably, for storing the different +pairs of animals in the trying events which preceded the Flood. In one of +these, I had a dim recollection of having secreted my clothes, in the +disordered condition of my brain the night before. So I cast desultory +glances about me for these articles on the way, having first set out on a +search for a looking-glass. In one dark recess I came into forcible +contact with a hanging-shelf of pies. I thought what a moment that would +have been for Grandpa Keeler and the little Keelers! but I had been +brought up on hygienic, as well as moral, principles, and moved away +without a sigh. In another sequestered nook, I paused with a sinful +mixture of curiosity and delight, before a Chinese idol standing alone on +a pedestal. + +There was a strangeness and a newness about things at the Ark that began +to be exhilarating, I was reminded, in a negative sort of way, that I had +intended to begin my work on this new day with a prayer to the true God +for strength and assistance. I had found it necessary to make this +resolve because, although I had a "fixed habit of prayer," it was +reserved rather for occasions of special humiliation than resorted to as +an everyday indulgence; practically, I had well nigh dispensed with it +altogether. + +However, I started back in an intently serious frame of mind to find my +couch. I lost my way, and stumbling against a swinging-door which opened +into a comparatively spacious apartment, what was my joy to discover my +trunk, with the portmanteau containing my keys on top of it. + +I then proceeded to array myself with an absorbing ardor and devotion, +doing my hair before a hand-glass with rare resignation of spirit. I +began to feel more and more like an incorporated existence, and admitted +a sudden eagerness to join the Keeler family at breakfast. + +I had no hesitation which direction to take, being guided by the sound of +voices and wafts of penetrating odors. + +It was a fortunate direction, for I discovered on the way my lost apparel +artfully concealed under a small melodeon, and, strangely enough, I was +again brought face to face with my deserted couch and the weeping lady on +the wall. She held me a moment with the old fascination. As I put up my +glasses, I thought I detected in her face a hitherto unnoticed buoyancy +of expression and not having wholly escaped in my life from ideas of a +worldly nature, I reflected that, probably, her regretted consort had +left her with a sufficient number of thousands. + +In this same connection, I was reminded that I, myself, had started out +on an independent career, and wondered if it would be unkind or undutiful +in me to start a private bank account of my own. I concluded that it +would not. + +When I entered the little room where the Keeler family was assembled:-- + +"Why, here's our teacher!" exclaimed Grandma Keeler in accents of +delight, and came to meet me with outstretched arms. "We couldn't abear +to wake ye up, dearie," she went on, "knowin' ye was so tired this +mornin'; and there's plenty o' time--plenty o' time. My Casindana come +home!" she murmured, with a smile and a tremble of the lips, and a +far-away look, for the instant, in her gentle eyes. + +In fact, the whole Keeler family received me with outstretched arms. If I +had been a long-lost child, or a friend known and loved in days gone by, +I could not have been more cordially and enthusiastically welcomed. + +The best chair was set for me; glances of eager and inquiring interest +were bent upon me. + +I accepted it all coolly, though not without a certain air of affability, +too, for I had a natural desire to make myself agreeable to people, when +it wasn't too much trouble; but I was quite firm, at this time, in the +conviction that there was little or no faith to be put in human nature. +On the whole I was much entertained and interested. + +The two children came to climb into my lap, but this part of the +acquaintance did not progress very fast. I thought they must have been +struck by something in my eye (I was merely wondering abstractedly if +their heads were not out of proportion to the rest of their bodies), for +they paused, and Mrs. Philander called them away sharply. + +Mrs. Philander was a frail little woman,--she could not have been over +thirty or thirty-two years old,--not pretty, though she had a very airy +and graceful way of comporting herself. Her eyes were large and dark, +with a strange, melancholy gleam in them. + +I never knew the secrets of Mrs. Philanders heart. She had often a tired, +tense look about the mouth, and seemed often sorely discontent; but she +had the sweetest voice I ever heard. She was familiarly called Madeline. + +Grandpa or Cap'n Keeler was over eighty years old. He had a tall, +powerful frame--at least, it spoke of great power in the past--and I +thought his eye must have been uncommonly dark and keen once. + +From his manly irascibility of temperament, and his frequent would-be +authoritativeness of tone, one might have inferred, from a passing +glimpse, that Grandpa Keeler was something of a tyrant in the family; but +I soon learned that his sway was of an extremely vague and illusory +nature. + +Grandma Keeler was twenty years his junior. She had not married him until +she was herself quite advanced in life, and had had one husband. + +"To be sure," I heard her say once, "I ain't quite so far advanced as +husband, but, then, it don't make no difference how young the girl is, +you know." + +She used to sit down and laugh--one of Grandma's "r'al good laughs" was +incompatible with a standing posture--until the tears rolled down her +cheeks, and she had to wipe them off with the corner of her apron. + +She had been thrown from a wagon once--how often and thrillingly have I +heard dear Grandma Keeler relate the particulars of that accident! She +had broken at that time, I believe, nearly every bone in her body. Long +was the story of her fall, but longer still the tale of her recuperation. +In due course of time, she had grown together again; could now use all +her limbs, and was in superabundant flesh. There was an unnatural sort of +stiffness about her movements, however, her way of walking particularly. +She advanced but slowly, and allowed her weight to fall from one foot to +Another without any perceptible bend of any joint whatever. + +I have stood at one end of a room and seen Grandma Keeler approaching +from the other, when it seemed as though she was not making any progress +at all, but merely going through with an odd sort of balancing process +in order to maintain her equilibrium. + +As for Grandma Keeler's face, there was enough in it to make several +ordinary scrimped faces. Besides large physical proportions, there was +enough in it of generosity, enough of whole-heartedness, a world of +sympathy. The great catastrophe of her life had affected the muscles of +her face so that although she enunciated her words very distinctly, she +had a slow, automatic way of moving her lips. + +The room where the breakfast-table was set was the same that I had +entered first, on my arrival at Wallencamp. It was low and small, but +capable, as I learned afterward, of holding any amount of things and +people without ever seeming crowded. There was a cooking-stove in it, and +many other articles of modest worth, so artlessly scattered about as to +present a scene of the wildest and richest profusion. + +Art was not entirely wanting, however. There was a ray of it on the wall +behind the stove-pipe, the companion-piece to "Bereavement," entitled +"Joy," and represented my heroine of the bed-chamber, reclining on a +rustic bench in rather an unflounced and melancholy condition. In one +place there hung a yellow family register, which was kept faithfully +supplied from week to week with a wreath of fresh evergreens. It was +headed by a woodcut representing a funeral, Grandma Keeler said; but +Grandpa Keeler afterwards informed me, aside, with much solemnity, that +it was a "marriage ceremony." Near the foot of the list of births, +marriages and deaths, I saw "Casindana Keeler; died, aged twenty." + +We sat down at the table. There was a brief altercation between Dinslow +and Grace, the little Keelers, in which impromptu missiles, such as +spoons and knives and small tin-cups, were hurled across the table with +unguided wrath, and both infants yelled furiously. + +Grandma had nearly succeeded in quieting them, when Madeline remarked to +Grandpa Keeler, in her lively and flippant style:-- + +"Come, pa, say your piece." + +"How am I going to say anything?" inquired Grandpa, wrathfully, "in such +a bedlam?" + +"Thar', now, thar'!" said Grandma Keeler, in her soothing tone; "It's all +quiet now and time we was eatin' breakfast, so ask the blessin', pa, and +don't let's have no more words about it." + +Whereupon the old sea-captain bowed his head, and, with a decided touch +of asperity still lingering in his voice, sped through the lines:-- + + "God bless the food which now we take; + May it do us good, for Jesus' sake." + +"Now, Dinnie," said Grandma Keeler, beguilingly; but it was not until +after much coaxing and threatening, and the promise of a spoonful of +sugar when it was over, that Dinslow was induced to solicit the same +blessing, in the same poetical terms, and with an expedition still more +alarming. + +Then Gracie, with tears not yet dried from the late conflict, lifted up +her voice in a rapture of miniature delight; "Dinnie says, 'gobble the +food'! Dinnie says, 'gobble the food!'" + +"Didn't say 'gobble the food!'" exclaimed Dinslow, blacker than a little +thunder-cloud. + +Madeline anticipated the rising storm, and stamped her foot and cried: +"_Will_ you be still?" + +It was Grandma Keeler who quietly and adroitly restored peace to the +troubled waters. + +The Wallencampers, including the Keeler family, were not accustomed to +speak of bread as a compact and staple article of food, but rather as one +of the hard means of sustaining existence represented by the term +"hunks." At the table, it was not "will you pass me the bread?" but--and +I shall never forget the sweet tunefulness of Madeline's tone in this +connection--"Will you hand me a hunk?" + +The hunks were an unleavened mixture of flour and water, about the size +and consistency of an ordinary laborer's fist. + +I was impressed, in first sitting down at the Keelers' table, with a +sense of my own ignorance as to the most familiar details of life, but +soon learned to speak confidently of "hunks," and "fortune stew," and +"slit herrin'," and "golden seal." + +Fortune stew was a dish of small, round blue potatoes, served perfectly +whole in a milk gravy. + +I cherish the memory of this dish as sacred, as well as that of all the +other dishes that ever appeared on the Wallencamp table. They were the +products of faithful and loving hands to which nature had given a +peculiar direction, perhaps, but which strove always to the best of their +ability. + +Slit herrin' was a long-dried, deep-salted edition of the native alewife, +a fish in which Wallencamp abounded. They hung in massive tiers from the +roofs of the Wallencamp barns. The herrin' was cut open, and without +having been submitted to any mollifying process whatever, not one +assuaging touch of its native element, was laid flat in the spider, and +fried. + +I saw the Keeler family, from the greatest to the least, partake of this +arid and rasping substance unblinkingly, and I partook also. The brine +rose to my eyes and coursed its way down my cheeks, and Grandma Keeler +said I was "homesick, poor thing!" + +The golden seal, a "remedy for toothache, headache, sore-throat, sprains, +etc., etc.," was served in a diluted state with milk and sugar, and taken +as a beverage. The herrin' had destroyed my sense of taste; anything in a +liquid state was alike delectable to me, and while I drank, I had a sense +of having become somehow mysteriously connected with the book of +revelations. "We used to think," Grandma proceeded mildly to elucidate, +"that it had ought to be took externally, but husband, he was painin' +around one time, and nothin' didn't seem to do him no good, and so we +ventured some of it inside of him, and he didn't complain no more for a +great while afterwards." I appreciated the hidden meaning of these words +when I saw how sparingly Grandpa Keeler partook of the golden seal. "So +then we tried some of it ourselves, and ra'ly begun to like it, so we've +got into the habit of drinkin' it along through the winter, it's so +quietin', and may not be no special need of it, so far as we can see, but +then, it's allus well enough to be on the safe side, for there's no +knowin'," concluded Grandma, solemnly, "what disease may be a growin' up +inside of you." + +"My brother invented on't," said Grandpa Keeler, looking up at me from +under his shaggy eyebrows with questionable pride. He went on more +glowingly, however; "There's a picter of my brother on every bottle, +teacher." (Madeline immediately ran from her chair, went into an +adjoining room, and brought out a bottle to show me.) "Ye see, he used to +wear them air long ringlets, though he was a powerful man, John was; but +his hair curled as pretty as a girl's. Oh, he was a great dandy, John +was; a great dandy." Grandpa Keeler straightened himself up and his eyes +brightened perceptibly. + +"Never wore nothin' but the finest broadcloth; why, there's a pair of +black broadcloth pants o' his'n that you'll see, come Sunday, teacher!" + +"Wall, thar', now, pa," said Grandma Keeler, reprovingly; "I wouldn't +tell everything." + +"Le' me see," continued Grandpa; "I had eight brothers, teacher, yis, +yis, there was nine boys in all," nodding his head emphatically, and +proceeding to count on his fingers. + +Grandma Keeler laid her knife and fork aside, as though she felt that the +occasion was an important one, and that she had a grave duty to perform +in regard to it. + +"Thar' was Philemon, he comes first, that makes one, don't it? and there +was Doddridge-- + +"Sure he comes next, pa?" interposed Grandma; "for now you're namin' of +em, you might as well git 'em right." + +"Yis, yis, ma," replied the old man, hastily. "Then there was Winfield +and John, they're all dead now, and Bartholomew, he was first mate in a +sailin' vessel; fine man, Bartholomew was, fine man; he----" + +"Wall, thar' now," said Grandma; "you'll never git through namin' on 'em, +pa, if you stop to talk about 'em." + +"Yis, yis," continued Grandpa, hopelessly confused, and showing dark +symptoms of smouldering wrath; "there was Bartholomew. That makes a,--le' +me see, Bartholomew,----" + +"How many Bartholomews was there?" inquired Grandma, with pitiless +coolness of demeanor. + +"Thar', now, ma, ye've put me all out!" cried Grandpa, taking refuge in +loud and desperate reproach; "I was gettin' along first-rate; why +couldn't ye a kept still and let me reckoned 'em through?" + +"Yer musn't blame me, pa, 'cause yer can't carry yer own brothers in yer +head." There was a touch of gentle reproach in Grandma's calm voice. +"Why, there was my mother's cousin 'Statia, that was only second cousin +to me, and no relation at all, on my father's side, and she had thirteen +children, three of 'em was twins and one of 'em was thrins, and I could +name 'em all through, and tell you what year they was born, and what day, +and who vaccinated 'em. There was Amelia Day, she was born April ninth, +eighteen hundred and seventeen, Doctor Sweet vaccinated her, and it took +in five days." And so on Grandma went through the entire list, gradually +going more and more into particulars, but always coming out strong on the +main facts. + +The effect could not have failed to deepen in Grandpa's bosom a +mortifying sense of his own incompetency. + +When I got up from the Keelers' breakfast table there was something +choking me besides the herrin' and golden seal, and it was not +homesickness, either; but as I stepped out of Mrs. Philander's low door +into the light and air, all lesser impulses were forgotten in a glow and +thrill of exultation. I wondered if that far, intense blue was the +natural color of the Cape Cod sky in winter, and if its January sun +always showered down such rich and golden beams. There was no snow on the +ground; the fields presented an almost spring-like aspect, in contrast +with the swarthy green of the cedars. The river ran sparkling in +summer-fashion at the foot of "Eagle Hill." From the bay, the sea air +came up fresh and strong. I drank it with deep inspirations. At that +moment it seemed to me that I had indeed been born to perform a mission. +It was so hopeful to turn over an entire fresh leaf in the book of life, +and I was resolved to do it heroically, at any cost. I reflected, not +without a shade of annoyance, that I had forgotten to say my prayers, +after all. At the same time I had a sort of conviction that it wasn't so +unfortunate a remissness on my part as it would have been for some less +qualified by nature to take care of themselves. + +I discovered the school-house at the end of the lane. The general air of +the Wallencamp houses was stranded and unsettled, as though, detained in +their present position for some brief and restless season, they dreamed +ever of unknown voyages yet to be made on the sea of life. They were very +poor, very old. Some of them were painted red in front, some of them had +only a red door, being otherwise quite brown and unadorned. There was one +exception,--Emily Gaskell's--that stood on the hill, and was painted all +over and had green blinds. + +I heard a mighty rushing sound mingled with whoops and yells and the +terrible clamp of running feet, and was made aware that a detachment from +my flock was coming up the lane to meet me. + +A girl, taller than I, with stooping shoulders and a piquant and +good-natured cast of features, seized my hand and swung it in childish +and confiding fashion. She had warts. I wondered, uneasily, if they would +be contagious through my gloves. + +I was struck with the uncommon beauty of one sturdy little fellow. He was +barefooted (on Cape Cod, in January), and ragged enough to have satisfied +the most crazy devotee of the picturesque. His shapely head was set on +his shoulders in an exceedingly high-bred way, while its bad archangel +effect was intensified by rings of curling black hair and great, +seductive black eyes. + +The children walked back, in comparative quiet, toward the school-house, +except this boy. To him care was evidently a thing unknown. He managed, +while keeping the distance undiminished between himself and me, to +perform a great variety of antics, in which, by way of an occasional +relief, his head was seen to rise above his heels. + +Emily's wash had been left out to dry during the night. The wind had torn +various articles from the line and carried them down in the direction of +the lane fence. + +My gymnastic-performing imp vanished through the bars. In an incredibly +short space of time he reappeared, clothed--but, alas! I cannot tell how +the imp was clothed, except to say that Emily being a tall, woman and the +imp but a well-grown boy of ten, the effect was strangely voluminous and +oriental. + +This part of the lane was marked by some insignificant though very abrupt +depressions and elevations of the surface. Occasionally he of the +floating apparel was lost to sight; then he would appear all glorious on +some small height, while the mind was compelled to revert irreverently to +the picture of Moses on Mount Pisgah. He was the personification of +impudence, withal, looking back and showing his teeth in superlative +appreciation of his own sinfulness. He descended, and I looked to see him +arise again, but I saw him no more. + +I had a faint and fleeting vision, afterwards, of an apostolic figure +flying back across the fields. It was so indistinct as to remain only +among the ephemera of my fancy. + +In a fork of the roads, opposite the school-house, stood a house with a +red door. It was loaded, in summer, with honeysuckle vines. Aunt Lobelia +sat always at the window. Sometimes she had the asthma and sometimes she +sang. This morning her favorite refrain from the Moody and Sankey Hymnal +was wafted in loud accents up the lane:-- + + "Dar' to be a Danyell! + Dar' to be a Danyell! + Dar' to make it known!" + +As I entered the school-house, the inspiring strains still followed me. + +There was a large Franklin stove within, which exhibited the most +enormous draught power, emitting sparks and roaring in a manner frightful +to contemplate. + +Aunt Patty, who acted the part of janitress of the school-house at night +and morning, had written on the blackboard in a large admonitory hand, +"No spitting on this floor, you ninnies!" + +The bench, containing the water-pail, occupied the most central position +in the room. At one side of the bench hung a long-handled tin dipper; on +the other, another tin instrument, resembling an ear-trumpet, profoundly +exaggerated in size. + +"That's what you've got to blow to call us in," exclaimed a small child, +with anticipative enlivenment. + +I went to the door with the instrument. + + "Dar' to be a Danyell! + Dar' to make it known." + +The stirring measures came across from Aunt Lobelia's window. Then the +singer paused. + +There were other faces at other windows. The countenances of the boys and +girls gathered about the door were ominously expressive. I lifted the +horn to my lips. I blew upon it what was intended for a cheerful and +exuberant call to duty, but to my chagrin it emitted no sound whatever. I +attempted a gentle, soul-stirring strain; it was as silent as the grave. +I seized it with both hands, and, oblivious to the hopeful derision +Gathering on the faces of those about me, I breathed into it all the +despair and anguish of my expiring breath. It gave forth a hollow, +soulless, and lugubrious squeak, utterly out of proportion to the vital +force expended, yet I felt that I had triumphed, and detected a new +expression of awe and admiration on the faces of my flock. + +"I don't see how she done it," I heard one freckled-faced boy exclaim, +confidingly to another; "with a hull button in thar'!" + +"Who put the button in the horn?" I inquired of the youngster afterwards, +quite in a pleasant tone, and with a smile on which I had learned to +depend for a particularly delusive effect; at the same time I put up my +glasses to impress him with a sense of awe. + +"Simmy B.," he answered. + +"And which is Simmy B.?" I questioned, glancing about the school-room. + +"Oh, he ain't comin' in," gasped my informer; "he run over cross-lots +with Emily's clo's on." + +I had planned not to confine my pupils to the ordinary method of imbibing +knowledge through the medium of text-books, but by means of lectures, +which should be interspersed with lively anecdotes and rich with the +fruitful products of my own experience, to teach them. + +My first lecture was, quite appropriately, on the duty of close +application and faithful persistence in the acquisition of knowledge, +depicting the results that would inevitably accrue from the observance of +such a course, and here, glowing and dazzled by my theme, I even secretly +regretted that modesty forbade me to recommend to my pupils, as a +forcible illustration, one who occupied so conspicuous a position before +them. + +My new method of instruction, though not appreciated, perhaps, in its +intrinsic design, was received, I could not but observe, with the most +unbounded favor. + +After the first open-mouthed surprise had passed away from the +countenances of my audience, I was loudly importuned on all sides for +water. I was myself extravagantly thirsty. I requested all those who had +"slit herrin'" for breakfast to raise their hands. + +Every hand was raised. + +I gravely inquired if slit herrin' formed an ordinary or accustomed +repast in Wallencamp, and was unanimously assured in the affirmative. + +After dwelling briefly on the gratitude that should fill our hearts in +view of the unnumbered blessings of Providence, I inaugurated a system by +which a pail of fresh water was to be drawn from one of the neighboring +wells, and impartially distributed among the occupants of the +school-room, once during each successive hour of the day. The water was +to be passed about in the tin dipper, in an orderly manner, by some +member of the flock, properly appointed to that office, either on account +of general excellence or some particular mark of good behavior; though I +afterwards found it advisable not to insist on any qualifications of this +sort, but to elect the water-bearers merely according to their respective +rank in age. This really proved to be one of the most lively and +interesting exercises of the school, was always cheerfully undertaken, +executed in the most complete and faithful manner, and never on any +account forgotten or omitted. + +I drank, and continued my lecture, but the first look of attractive +surprise never came back to the faces of my audience. They sought +diversion in a variety of ways, acquitting themselves throughout with a +commendable degree of patience until they found it necessary gently to +admonish me that it was time for recess. + +After recess, as the result of deep meditation, in which I had concluded +that the mind of the Wallencamp youth was not yet prepared for the +introduction of new and advanced methods, I examined my pupils +preparatory to giving them lessons and arranging them in classes, in +the ordinary way. I found that they could not read, but they could write +in a truly fluent and unconventional style; they could not commit +prosaical facts to memory, but they could sing songs containing any +number of irrelevant stanzas. They could not "cipher," but they had +witty and salient answers ready for any emergency. There seemed to be no +particular distinction among them in regard to the degree of literary +attainment, so I arranged them in classes, with an eye mainly to the +novel and picturesque in appearance. + +They were a little disappointed at the turn in affairs, having evidently +anticipated much from the continuation of the lecture system, yet they +were disposed to look forward to school-life, in any case, as not without +its ameliorating conditions. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BEAUX OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY. + + +"We have our r'al, good, comfortin' meal at night," Grandma Keeler had +said, and the thought was uppermost in my mind at the close of my first +day's labor in Wallencamp. I had taken a walk to the beach; a strong east +wind had come up, and the surf was rolling in magnificently; a wild +scene, from a wild shore, more awful then, in the gathering gloom. The +long rays of light streaming out of the windows of the Ark guided me back +across the fields. Within, all was warmth and cheer and festive +expectation. Grandma Keeler was in such spirits; a wave of mirthful +inspiration would strike her, she would sink into a chair, the tears +would roll down her cheeks, and she would shake with irrepressible +laughter. It was in one of her serious moments that she said to me:-- + +"Thar', teacher, I actually believe that I ain't made you acquainted with +my two tea-kettles." They stood side by side on the stove, one very tall +and lean, the other very short and plump. "This 'ere," said Grandma, +pointing to the short one; "is Rachel, and this 'ere," pointing to the +tall one, "is Abigail, and Abigail's a graceful creetur' to be sure," +Grandma reflected admiringly; "but then Rachel has the most powerful +delivery!" + +I was thus enabled to understand the allusions I had already heard to +Rachel's being "dry," or Abigail's being as "full as a tick," or _vice +versa_. + +The table was neatly spread with a white cloth; there was an empty bowl +and a spoon at each individual's place. In the centre of the table stood +a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. Grandpa Keeler having asked the +blessing after the approved manner of the morning, there was a general +uprising and moving, bowl in hand, towards the cauldron of hulled corn on +the stove. This was lively, and there was a pleasurable excitement about +skimming the swollen kernels of corn out of the boiling, seething liquid +in which they were immersed. Eaten afterwards with milk and sugar and a +little salt, the compound became possessed of a truly "comforting" +nature. + +I stood, for the second time, over the kettle with my eye-glasses +securely adjusted, very earnestly and thoughtfully occupied in wielding +the skimmer, when the door of the Ark suddenly opened and a mischievously +smiling young man appeared on the threshold. He was not a Wallencamper, I +saw at a glance. There was about him an unmistakable air of the great +world. He was fashionably dressed and rather good-looking, with a short +upper lip and a decided tinge of red in his hair. He stood staring at me +with such manifest appreciation of the situation in his laughing eyes, +that I felt a barbarous impulse to throw the skimmer of hot corn at him. +It was as though some flimsy product of an advanced civilization had come +in to sneer at the sacred customs of antiquity. + +"I beg your pardon," the intruder began, addressing the Keeler family +with exceeding urbanity of voice and manner; "I fear that I have happened +in rather inopportunely, but I dared not of course transgress our +happy Arcadian laws by knocking at the door." + +"Oh, Lordy, yis, yis, and the fewer words the better. You know our ways +by this time, fisherman," exclaimed Grandpa Keeler. "Come in! come in! +Nobody that calls me friend need knock at my door." + +"Come in! come in, fisherman! Won't you set, fisherman?" hospitably +chimed in Grandma Keeler. + +"Ah, thank you! may I consider your kind invitation deferred, merely," +said the fisherman, suavely, "and excuse me if I introduce a little +matter of business with the Captain. We carelessly left our oars on the +banks yesterday, Captain Keeler, they were washed off, I have ordered +some more, but can't get them by to-morrow. I hear you have a pair laid +by, I should like to purchase." + +"What, is it the old oars ye want?" interrupted Grandpa, "why, Lord a +massy! you know whar' they be, fisherman, alongside that old pile o' +rubbish on hither side o' the barn, and don't talk about purchasin'--take +'em and keep 'em as long as ye want, they ain't no account to me now." + +"I am very much obliged to you, Captain," the fisherman said, "I am very +sorry to have interrupted this--a--" + +"Why, no interruption, I'm sure," said Grandma Keeler, good-naturedly, +"we've kep' right along eatin'." + +"Want a lantern to look for 'em eh?" inquired Grandpa Keeler, for the +fisherman lingered, hesitating, on the threshold. + +"This is our teacher, fisherman," said Grandma, in her gentle, +tranquillizing tones, "and this 'ere is one of Emily's fishermen, +teacher, and may the Lord bless ye in yer acquaintance," she added with +simple fervor. + +The fisherman saluted me with a bow which reflected great credit on his +former dancing-master. He murmured the polite formula in a low tone, at +the same time shooting another covertly laughing glance at me out of his +eyes. As the door closed behind him, "Ah, that's a sleek devil!" said +Grandpa Keeler, giving me a meaning glance from under his shaggy +eyebrows. + +"Wall, thar' now, pa, I wouldn't blaspheme, not if I'd made the +professions you have," said Grandma, with grave reproval. + +"A sleek dog," continued Grandpa Keeler; "tongue as smooth as butter, all +'how d' yer do!' and 'how d' yer do!' but I don't trust them fishermen +much, myself, teacher." + +"Who are the fishermen?" I inquired. + +"They board up to Emily's," said Grandma. "They come from Providence and +around, and they stay here, off and on, a week or two to a time, along +through the winter, some of 'em. They fish pickerel on the river, and +sometimes they're blue-fishin' out in the bay, and quite generally +they're just kitin' round as young men will, I suppose. Sometimes they +have vittles sent to 'em and Emily she cooks for 'em.'" + +"Why, they're off on a spree, that's all," said Grandpa Keeler, +comprehensively, giving me another significant glance; "they're off on a +spree, and ye see they think this 'ere is jest a right fur enough out the +way place for 'em. This 'ere red-haired one that was in here this +evenin', Rollin his name is, he's a dreadful rich one, I suppose, +dreadful rich! I've heered all about him. He's an old bachelder, I +reckon, that is, he keeps mighty spruce, but I reckon he's hard on to +thirty. Emily's got a cousin that works for some o' them big folks down +to Providence, and she's heered all about him, this red-haired one, and +how he keeps a big house down thar', and sarvants enough, massy! and half +the time he's hither and yon, and a throwin' out money like water. His +father and mother they're dead, so I've heered, and he used to have +gardeens over him, but he haint kep' no gardeens lately, I reckon," said +Grandpa, with grim facetiousness. + +"Why, he's been a waitin' on Weir's daughter, down here--Becky. She goes +to school to you, teacher," the old man added, presently, brightening +with a senile predilection for gossip. + +"Becky's a very sensible girl," said Grandma Keeler; "and don't cast no +sheep's eyes, but goes right along and minds her own business. Becky +plays very purty on the music, too." + +"Yes. But you know Dave Rollin wouldn't any more think of marrying Becky +Weir than he would of marrying me," cried Mrs. Philander. "Of all the +fishermen that have come down here not one of them ever married in +Wallencamp. He's just trifling, and she thinks he's in real earnest; +anybody can see that. You've only to mention his name to see her flush up +as red as a rose. I tell you this is a strange world," Madeline snapped +out sharply; "and Dave Rollin, I suppose, is one of the gentlemen." + +"We ain't no right to say but what he's honest," said Grandma Keeler; +"Becky she's honest herself, and she takes it in other folks. She's more +quiet than some of our girls be, and higher notions, and she's young and +haint never been away nowhere, and no wonder if he waits on her she +should take a kind o' fancy to him." + +"You know, ma," continued Madeline, "that Dave Rollin would never take +her home among his folks, never; and if I was Becky's mother I'd shut the +door in his face before I'd ever have him fooling around my house, and +she should never stir out of the house with him, never!" + +"I don't suppose there's much use in talking to the girl," said Grandma: +"Emily was in here the other day, and Becky, she happened to come in the +same time, and I didn't see no use in Emily's speaking up in the way she +did; for, says she, 'What do you have that Dave Rollin flirtin' around +you for, Beck? What do you suppose he wants o' you 'cept to amuse himself +a little when he ain't nothin' better to do, and then go off and forgit +he's seen ye!' And Becky didn't say nothin', but she give Emily a +dreadful long, quiet kind of a look out of her eyes." + +"She hasn't lost quite all of Weir's temper since she's been seeking +religion," said Madeline, in a strangely light and vivacious tone. +Grandma and Grandpa Keeler, by the way, were good Methodists, but +Madeline was not a "professor." + +"Seeking religion, eh?" inquired Grandpa Keeler. "She'd better let Dave +Rollin alone, then," he added. + +"Let us hope that we shall all on us be brought to a better state of +mind," concluded Grandma Keeler, with solemn pertinency. + +Before the meal was finished and the table cleared away, the latch of the +Ark had been often lifted. + +On all occasions, afterwards, there was a marked and cheerful variety in +the nature of the droppers-in at the Ark--the children and all the young +men and maidens making their appearance with a promiscuousness which +precluded the possibility of design--but to-night the Wallencamp mind had +evidently aimed at some great system of conventionality, and had been +eminently successful in evolving a plan. + +The callers were young men exclusively--the native youth of Wallencamp. +Their blowzy, well-favored faces, which ever afterward appeared to beam +with good nature, to-night expressed a sense of some grave affliction +heroically to be endured. + +Their best clothes, it was obvious, had been purchased by them +"ready-made," and had been designed, originally, for the sons of a less +stalwart community. The young men were especially pinched as to their +expansive chests, the broadcloth coming much too short at this point, and +shrugging up oddly enough at the shoulders, while the phenomenally slick +arrangement of their hair was calculated to produce a depressing effect +on the mind of the observer. + +As they came in one by one, in a matter of fact way, and Grandma Keeler +announced hopefully to each in turn--"and this is our teacher!" they +accepted the fact with no more flattering sign than that of a dumb and +helpless resignation to the inevitable. They seated themselves about the +room in punctilious order, assuming positions painfully suggestive of a +conscientious disregard for ease, and seemed to draw some silent support +and sympathy out of their hats, which they caressed with lingering +affection touching to behold. + +Grandma beckoned me aside into the pantry which immediately adjoined the +kitchen, and informed me in one of her reverberating whispers, that I +"mustn't mind the boys being slicked up, for they'd sorter dropped in to +make my acquaintance, and, if we wanted the pop-corn, it was in a bag down +under where the almanac hung, to the furtherest corner of the wood-box." + +I pondered these mysterious injunctions in silence, and realizing the +fact that the Wallencamp beaux had appeared in a body for the express +purpose of making my acquaintance, I essayed to show my appreciation of +this amiable design by an attempt to engage them in conversation. My +various efforts in this line proved alike futile, and they seemed but to +grow impressed with a deeper sense of misery. + +I had a vague intention of going in search of the pop-corn, when, to my +sudden dismay, Grandma Keeler and Madeline, who had been noiselessly +clearing off the table, emerged from a brief consultation in the pantry, +bearing with them a lighted candle, and having given Grandpa Keeler a nod +of unmistakable force and significance, disappeared through the door +which led into that indefinite extension of the Ark beyond. + +But Grandpa Keeler remained wilfully indifferent to these broadly +insinuating tactics. He fancied, poor, deluded old man, that here was a +choice opportunity to tell a tale of the seas after a fashion dear to his +own heart, unshackled by the restraints of family surveillance. + +A singularly childlike and unapprehensive smile played across his +features. He drew his chair up closer to the stove and began: "Jest +after I was a roundin' Cape Horn the fourth time, I believe,--yis, yis, +le'me see--twenty times I've rounded the Horn,--wall, this ere, I reckon, +was somewhere nigh about the fourth time." + +Scarcely had Grandpa arranged the merest preliminaries of his tale when +ominous footsteps were heard returning along the way whither Grandma and +Madeline had so recently departed, and he was interrupted by a strangely +calm though authoritative voice from behind the door; "Pa!" + +"Wall, wall, ma! what ye want, ma?" exclaimed Grandpa, turning his head +aside, with a slight shade of annoyance on his face. + +No answer immediately forthcoming, that wofully illusory smile returned +again to his features. He moved still nearer to the stove, and was just +at the point of resuming the thread of his narrative when-- + +"Bijonah Keeler!" came from behind the door in accents still calm, +indeed, but freighted with a significance which words have faint power to +express. + +"Yis, yis, ma! I'm a coming, ma!" replied Grandpa, rising hastily and +shuffling toward the door; "I'm a coming, ma! I'm a coming!" + +The door opened wide enough to receive him, and then closed upon him in +all his ignominy. + +The sound of his voice in irate expostulation, mingled with the steady +flow of those serener tones, grew gradually faint in the distance, and I +was left alone with the sepulchral group of young men. + +They arose, still maintaining the weighty aspect of those elected to the +hour, and abruptly opened their lips in song. + +There was no repression now; the Ark fairly rang with the sonorous +strains of that wild Jubilate. + +They sang:-- + + "Light in the darkness, sailor, + Day is at hand; + See, o'er the foaming billows, + Fair haven stands." + +Their voices rolling in at the chorus with the resistless sweep of the +ocean-waves:-- + + "Pull for the shore, sailor, + Pull for the shore; + Heed not the rolling waves, + But bend to the oar:" + +and with a final "Pull for the shore," that sent that imaginary life-boat +bounding high and dry on the strand at the hands of its impulsive crew. + +Then they sat down and wiped the perspiration from their faces, which had +become transfigured with a sudden zest and radiance. + +I recovered myself sufficiently to express a bewildered sense of pleasure +and gratitude. + +"Do you sing, teacher?" asked Harvey Dole, a round-faced youth with an +irrepressible fund of mirth in his eyes, who had broken in on the former +silence with an unguarded little snicker. + +Lovell Barlow, he of the dignified countenance and spade-shaped beard, +had faintly and helplessly echoed that snicker, and now repeated Harvey's +words:-- + +"Ahem, certainly--Do you sing, teacher? Do you, now? Do you sing, you +know?" + +I had some new and seriously awakened doubts on the subject. However, the +degree of attainment not being brought into question, I felt that I could +answer in the affirmative. + +The countenances of the group brightened still more perceptibly. + +"And do you sing No. 2?" inquired Harvey, eagerly. + +I tried to assume, in reply, a tone of equal animation. + +"Is it something new? I don't think I've heard of it before." + +"Why, it's the Moody and Sankey hymn-book!" exclaimed Harvey, looking +suddenly blank. + +I strove to soften the effect of this blow by a lively show of +recognition. + +"Oh, yes, I know perfectly now. It's 'Hold the Fort,' 'Ring the Bells of +Heaven,' and all those songs, isn't it?" + +"'Hold the Fort' 's in No. 1," said George Olver, a new speaker, with +beautiful, brave, brown eyes, and a soldierly bearing. + +He spoke, correcting me, but with the tender consideration which a father +might display toward an unenlightened child. + +"There's three numbers," said Harvey Dole, "and you ought to learn to +sing 'em, teacher. We sing 'em all the time, down here." + +"You are fond of singing?" I questioned. + +Ned Vickery, of lithe figure and straight black hair, a denizen of the +Indian encampment, started up, flushing through his dark skin. + +"I lul-love it!" he said. + +Ned Vickery sang with the most exquisite smoothness, but stumbled a +little in prosaical conversation. + +A silent Norwegian, Lars Thorjon, who had sat gazing at me and smiling, +flushed also at the words, and murmured something rapturous with a +foreign accent. + +"Yes, we're rather fond of singing." I heard George Giver's resolute +tones. + +Harvey Dole gave a low, expressive whistle. + +"I like it, certainly, ahem! _I_ do. _I_ like it, you know," said Lovell +Barlow. + +"We have a singin' time generally every night," said Harvey. "Sometimes +Madeline plays for us on her music, and sometimes we go down to Becky's. +Madeline's melodeon is very soft and purty, but George here, he likes the +tone of Beck's organ best, I reckon. Eh, George?" + +Harvey winked facetiously at George Olver, who reddened deeply but did +not cast down his eyes. + +"If I was you, George," continued the merciless Harvey; "I'd lay for that +Rollin. Gad, I'd set a match to his hair. I'd nettle him!" + +"I'd show him his p-p-place!" stammered Ned Vickery, with considerable +warmth. + +"_I_ would, certainly," reiterated the automatic Lovell "I'd show him his +place, you know; _I_ would certainly." + +The big veins swollen out in George Giver's forehead knitted themselves +there for an instant sternly. + +"I don't interfere with no man's business," said he. "So long as he means +honorable, and car'ies out his actions fa'r and squar', I don't begrudge +him his chance nor meddle in his affa'rs." + +Our attention was suddenly diverted from this subject, which was +evidently growing to be a painful one to one of the company, by the sound +of a violin played with, singular skill and correctness just outside the +window. + +"Glory, there's Lute!" exclaimed Harvey, bounding ecstatically from his +chair. + +"Come in, Lute, come in?" he shouted; "and show us what can be got out of +a fiddle!" + +"Let him alone," said George Olver, but the group had already vanished +through the door, Lovell following mechanically. + +"That's Lute Cradlebow fiddlin' out thar'," George Olver explained to me. +"I don't want 'em to skeer him off, for it ain't every night Lute takes +kindly to his fiddle. There's times he won't touch it for days and days. +Talkin' about Lute's fiddlin'--I suppose it's true--there was some +fellows out from Boston happened to hear him playin' one night, up to +Sandwich te-own, and they offered him a hundred and fifty a month--I +Reckon that's true--to go along with some fiddlin' company thar' to +Boston, and he'd got more if he'd stuck to it, but Lute, he come driftin' +back in the course of a week or two. I don't blame him. He said he was +sick on't. + +"I tell you how 'tis, teacher. Folks that lives along this shore are +allus talkin' more'n any other sort of folks about going off, and +complainin' about the hard livin', and cussin' the stingy sile, but +thar's suthin' about it sorter holts to 'em. They allus come a driftin' +back in some shape or other, in the course of a year or two at the +farderest." + +The door was thrown wide open and my recreant guests reappeared +half-dragging, half-pushing before them a matchless Adonis in glazed +tarpaulin trousers and a coarse sailor's blouse. + +I recognized at once in the perfect physical beauty of the eccentric +fiddler only a reproduction, in a larger form, of that sadly depraved +young cherub who had danced before me in ghostly habiliments on the way +to school. It was the imp's older brother. + +"Here's Lute, teacher!" cried Harvey; "he wouldn't come in 'cause he +wasn't slicked up. But I tell him clo's don't make much difference with a +humly dog, anyway. Come along, Lute, and put them blushes in your +pocket to keep yer hands warm in cold weather. Teacher, this is our +champion fiddler, inventor, whale-fisher, cranberry-picker, and +potato-bugger,--Luther Larkin Cradlebow!" + +The youth of the tuneful and birdlike name dealt his tormentor a hearty +though affectionate cuff on the ears, and being thus suddenly thrust +forward, he doffed his broad souwester, took the hand I held out to him, +and, stooping down, kissed me, quite in a simple and audible manner, on +the cheek. + +It was done with such gentle, serious embarrassment, and Luther Larkin +Cradlebow was so boyish and quaint looking, withal, that I felt not the +slightest inclination to blush, but I heard Harvey's saucy giggle. + +"Gad!" said he; "hear the old women talk about Lute's being bashful and +not knowin' how to act with the girls! Now I call them party easy +manners, eh, Lovell? What do you think, Lovell?" + +"Ahem, certainly,--" responded Lovell, smiling in vague sympathy with the +laughing group. "_I_ call them so,--certainly,--_I_ do." + +Only George Olver turned a sober, reassuring face to the blushing +Cradlebow. + +"Give us a tune, Lutie," said he. "Lord, _I'd_ laugh if I could get the +music out o' them strings that you can." + +The Cradlebow sat down, drew his bow across the strings with a full, +quivering, premonitory touch, and, straightway, the fiddle began to talk +to him as though they two were friends alone together in the room. How +it played for him,--the fiddle--as though it were morning. How it +shouted, laughed, ran with him in a world of sunshine and tossing +blossoms! + +How it hoped for him, swelling out in grander strains, wild with +exultation, tremulous with passion! + +How it mourned for him, with dying, sweet despair, until one almost saw +the night fall on the water, and the lone sea-birds flying, and heard the +desolate shrieking of the wind along the shore. + +I heard a real sob near me, and looking up saw the tears rolling down +Harvey's rosy cheeks. + +It was in the midst of a simple melody,--I think it was the "Sweet +By-and-By"--the player stopped and turned suddenly pale. + +"That was a new string, too!" he said; "and only half tight." Then he +blushed violently, seeking to hide the irritation of his tone under a +careless laugh. + +"Oh, I don't mind the string," he went on; "that's easy mended, but I +happened to think it's a bad sign, that's all--to break down so in the +middle of a tune." + +"Darn the sign!" exclaimed Harvey, "I wanted to hear that played +through." + +"You remember Willie Reene?" Luther turned his eyes, still unnaturally +bright with excitement, towards George Olver. + +"Ay, I remember," said George Olver. "I was goin' mackerellin' with ye +myself that time, only I wrinched my wrist so." + +[Illustration: "Good Night"] + +"We was out on deck together," Luther continued. "I was lying down,--it +was a strange, warmish sort of a night--and Willie played. He played a +long time. It was just in the middle of a tune he was playin', +that--snap! the string went in just that way. I never thought anything +about it. I tried to laugh him out of it, and he laughed, but says he, +'It's a bad sign, Lute.' Likely it had nothin' to do with it, but I think +of it sometimes, and then it seems as though I must go to that same place +and look for him again. I never done anything harder than when I left him +there." + +"You done the best you could," George Olver answered stoutly, "They said +you dove for him long and long after it wasn't no use." + +"No use," Luther repeated, shaking his head sadly and abstractedly; "no +use." + +"There's naught in a sign, anyway," George Olver affirmed. + +"They don't worry me much, you can depend"--the player looked up at +length with a singularly bright and gentle smile. "But Grannie, she +believes in 'em, truly. She's got a sign in a dream for everything, +Grannie has so I hear lots of it." + +Harvey Dole had quite recovered by this time from his tearfully +sentimental mood. + +"Now it's strange," he began, with an air of mysterious solemnity; "there +was three nights runnin' that I dreamed I found a thousand-dollar bill to +the right hand corner of my bury drawer, and every mornin' when I woke up +and went to git it--it wa'n't there, so I know the rats must 'a' carried +it off in the night, and a pretty shabby trick to play on a feller, +too--but then you can't blame the poor devils for wantin' a little pin +money. + +"Did I ever tell ye how Uncle Randal tried to clear 'em out 'o his barn? +Wall, he traded with Sim Peck up to West Wallen, a peck o' clams for an +old cat o' hisn, that was about the size, Uncle Randal said, of a +yearlin' calf, and he turned her into the barn along o' the rats, and +shut the door, and the next mornin', he went out and there was a few +little pieces of fur flyin' around and devil a--devil a cat! Uncle Randal +said." + +"You're the D--d--d--you're it, yourself, Harvey!" stammered Ned Vickery. + +"You'd better look out, Ned," Harvey giggled, "we're all a little +nearer'n second cousins down here to Wallencamp. Ned's mother didn't use +to let him go to school much, teacher," Harvey added, turning to me; "it +used to wear him out luggin' home his 'Reward o' merit' cards." + +"I n-n-never got any," Ned retorted, blushing desperately through his +dark skin; "n-n-nor you either!" + +"I guess that's so, Harvey," said Lovell Barlow, quite gravely; "I rather +think that's so, Harvey--ahem, I guess it is." + +When my visitors rose to depart they formed in line, with George Olver +and Luther at the head. George Olver was the spokesman of the group. He +offered me his strong brown hand in hearty corroboration of his words: +"We're a roughish sort of a set down here, teacher, but whenever you want +friends you'll know right whar' to find us; we mean that straight through +and fair an' kindly." + +I thanked him, and then Luther gave me his hand, but did not kiss me, in +departing. + +Each member of the phalanx gave me his hand in turn, with a hearty "Good +night," and so they passed out. The door closed behind them. I meditated +a space, and when I looked up, there was Lovell Barlow's pale face +peering into the room. + +"Ahem--Miss Hungerford!" he murmured, in awful accents: "Miss +Hungerford!" + +Could it be some telegram from my home thus mysteriously arrived? The +thought flashed through my mind before reason could act. + +"What is it?" I gasped, hastening to meet the informer. + +Lovell Barlow handed me a picture; it was a small daguerreotype, in which +the mild and beneficent features of that worthy being himself shone above +his own unmistakable spade-shaped whiskers. + +"Would you like it, Miss Hungerford?" said he, still with the same deeply +impressive air; "would you, now, really, Miss Hungerford? would you like +it, now?" + +"Why, certainly," I exclaimed, with intense relief; and before I could +fully appreciate the situation, Lovell Barlow cast a cautious glance +about him, leaned his head forward, and whispered hoarsely, "I've got +some more, at home--ahem! I've got six, Miss Hungerford. Mother wants to +keep two and she's promised Aunt Marcia one; but you can have one any +time, Miss Hungerford. Ahem! ahem! _You_ can, you know." + +"Thank you," I murmured, while it seemed as though my faculties were +desperately searching for light on a hitherto unsounded sea. "I think +this will do for the present." + +Lovell nodded his head with a grave good-night and disappeared. + +Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa Keeler and Madeline were absorbing this +last impressive scene as they slowly emerged from that unknown quarter of +the Ark whither they had retreated. + +Grandpa looked at me with a peculiar twinkle in his eye. + +"So Lovell came back to give ye his picter, eh, teacher?" said he. + +I returned Grandpa's look with cheerful and unoffended alacrity; but +Grandma interrupted, "Thar', now, pa! Thar', now! We mustn't inquire into +everything we happen to get a little wind on. Ye see, teacher," she +continued, in tones of the broadest gentleness, "we knew they'd be sorter +bashful gettin' acquainted the first night, and so we thought it 'ud be +easier for 'em if we should leave 'em to themselves, and we knew you was +so--we knew you wouldn't care." + +As Grandpa resumed his accustomed seat by the fire, an expansive grin +still lingered on his features. + +"Ah, he's a queer fellow, that Lovell," said he; "but he's quick to larn, +they say, larns like a book. I'll tell ye what's the trouble with him, +teacher. He's been tied too long to his mother's apron-strings. He don't +know no more about the world than a chicken. He's thirty odd now, I +guess, and I reckon he ain't never been further away from the beach than +Sandwich te-own." + +"I don't know as we'd ought to blame him," said Grandma Keeler; "though +to be sure, Lovell's more quiet-natured than some that likes to be +wanderin' off as young folks will, generally; but he was the only one +they had, and Lovell's allus been a good boy. Pa and me, when we go to +meetin', we most allus come across him a carryin' his Sunday School book +under his arm, and may be," concluded Grandma Keeler, "there'll be +a time when we shall more on us wish that thar' wan't nothin' wuss could +be brought against us than being innocent." + +We pondered these suggestive words a few moments in silence; then Grandpa +Keeler boldly interposed:-- + +"That Lute Cradlebow--he's a handsome boy, teacher. Ah, he's a handsome +one. They're a handsome family, them Cradlebows. + +"There's the old grannie, Aunt Sibby they call her. Lord, she's got a +head on her like a picter! They're high-bred, too, I reckon. To begin +with, why, Godfrey--Godfrey Cradlebow--that's Lute's father, teacher; +he's college bred, I suppose! He had a rich uncle thar', that took a +shine to him, and kind o' 'dopted him and eddicated him, but Godfrey, he +took a shine to a poor girl thar', dreadfully handsome, she was, but yet +they was both of 'em young, and it didn't suit the old uncle, so he left +him to shift for himself. And Godfrey, he tried one thing and another, +and never held long to nothin', I guess, and finally he drifted down this +way, and here he stuck. + +"He's got a good head, Godfrey has, but he wasn't never extry fond o' +work, I reckon, and he's growed dreadful rheumatiky lame, and he has his +sprees, occasionally. + +"Liddy, that's his wife, teacher, she was full good enough for him when +ye come to the p'int. Oh, she's a smart wife, and she's had a hard row, +so many children and nothin' to do with, as ye might say. Why, they've +had thirteen children, ain't they, ma? + +"Le' me see--four on 'em dead, and three on 'em--no! four on 'em married, +and three on 'em--How is't, ma?" + +Grandma then took up the tangled thread of the old Captain's discourse, +with calm disdain, and proceeded to disclose an appalling array of +statistics, not only in regard to the Cradlebow family, but including +generations of men hitherto unknown and remote. + +When I signified a desire to retire for the night, Madeline informed me, +with a brisk and hopeful air, that my room was "all ready now." + +She led the way up a short and narrow little staircase into a low garret, +where, amid a dark confusion of objects, I was forcibly reminded of the +rows of hard substances suspended from the rafters. Turning to the left, +the rays of the candle revealed a small red door framed in among the +unpainted boards of the wall. + +There, Madeline bade me a flippant and musical good night, and I entered +my room, alone. + +Within, the contrast between the door and the brown walls was still more +effectively drawn. + +The bed, neatly made, stood in a niche where the roof slanted perceptibly +downward, so that the sweetly unconscious sleeper (as I found afterwards) +perchance tossing his head upward, in a dream, was doomed to bring that +member into resounding contact with the ceiling, I judged something of +the restless proclivities of the last occupants of the room by the amount +of plastering of which this particular section had been deprived. In +this, and in other places where it had fallen, it had been collected and +tacked up again to the ceiling in cloth bags which presented a graceful +and drooping, though at first sight, rather enigmatical appearance. + +The chimney ran through the room forming a sort of unique centre-piece. + +This and more I accepted, wearily, and then sank down by the bed and +cried. Outside, before the one small window, stood a peach tree. +Afterward, when this had grown to be a very dear little room to me, I +looked out cheerfully through its branches, warm with sunshine, and +fragrant with bloom; but now it was bare and ghostly, and, as the wind +blew, one forlorn twig trailed back and forth across the window. + +For an hour or more after my head touched the pillow, I lay awake +listening to the unaccustomed sound of the surf and those skeleton +fingers tapping at the pane. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES. + + +I studied Becky Weir in school, the next day, with special interest. She +was a girl of seventeen or eighteen, with the stately, substantial +presence of one of nature's own goddesses. She had a fresh, constant +color in her cheeks, a pure, low forehead, and eyes that were clear, +gray, and large, but with a strangely appealing, helplessly animal +expression in them, I fancied, as she lifted them, oft-times, to mine. +She was distinguished among my young disciples by the faithful, though +evidently labored and wearisome attention, she gave to her books. + +Her glance, bent on some small wretch who was misbehaving, had a +peculiarly significant force. The little ones all seemed to love her and +to stand rather in awe of her, too. + +Entering the school-room in the morning, she discovered a network of +strings, which one Lemuel Biddy had artfully laid between the desks, +intending thereby to waylay and prostrate his human victim, and stooping +down, she boxed the miscreant, not cruelly but effectively, on the ears. +I was surprised to see that the boy seemed to regard this infliction as +the simple and natural award of justice, bowed his head and wept +penitently, and was subdued for some time afterward. + +To me, whose earliest years had been guided and illuminated on the +principle that reason and persuasion alone are to be used in the training +of the tender twig, this little occurrence afforded food for serious +wonder and reflection. I doubted if the logic of the sages or the wooing +of the celestial seraphim would have wrought with such convincing power +on the mind and ears of Lemuel Biddy. + +If Rebecca perchance, after painfully protracted exertions, succeeded in +working out some simple problem in arithmetic, her slate containing the +solution was freely handed about among her unaspiring comrades; so that I +judged her to be "weakly generous" as well as "plodding,"--qualities not +of a high order, I esteemed, yet by no means insuperable barriers to +friendship when found to enter more or less largely into the composition +of one's friends. + +There was something in my novel relation to the girl as her teacher +peculiarly fascinating to me. At recess she remained in her seat and kept +quietly at her work. + +I went down and stood over her. "Can I help you, my dear?" I said. + +Whatever might have been the pedantic or obtrusively condescending +quality of those words, Rebecca seemed to find nothing distasteful in +them. She looked up with a "Thank you," and a pleased, trustful face like +a child's. "I can't do this one," said she. "I've finished the rest, but +this wouldn't come right, somehow." + +It was a sum in simple addition. I could not help a feeling of deep +surprise and commiseration that one of Rebecca's age should have stumbled +at it at all, but I essayed to examine it very closely and worked it out +for her as slowly as possible. "Do you see your mistake?" I said. + +She blushed painfully. The tears almost stood in her eyes. + +"Yes, and I knew you'd have to find out how dull I was," she said; "but I +dreaded it. When Miss Waite was here, mother was sick and I didn't go to +school at all, and Miss Waite took me for a friend; and I told mother I'd +most rather not go to school to you, for Miss Waite said you'd be a real +friend, and I knew you wouldn't want me when you found how dull I was." + +I looked at the girl, and a bright, hesitating smile woke in her face. + +"Do you know, Rebecca," I said, "I don't choose my friends for their +mental qualifications--for what they know; I select them just as people +do horses--by their teeth. Let me see yours." + +Rebecca laughed most musically, thus disclosing two brilliant rows of +ivories. I had noticed them before. + +"You'll do!" I exclaimed, lightly. "I take you into my heart of hearts. +Now, what is your standard of choice? What charming characteristic do you +First require in a friend, Rebecca?" + +"Oh!" said she, gasping a little and speaking very slowly; +"I--don't--know. I--don't--think--I've got any." + +"Don't be afraid lest you shall guess something that I have not, my +dear," I said; "You can hardly go astray. Begin with modesty, if you +please, truly the chief of virtues." + +Rebecca caught quickly the meaning in my tone, and answered with a low +ripple of laughter. When I urged her, she grew gravely embarrassed. + +"Well," said she; "I don't think I should want anybody that I thought I +couldn't ever help them any, you know. That wouldn't ever need me, I +mean, and I know," she went on more hastily; "it seems funny to say that +to you, because it seems as though there wasn't anything that I could +ever do for you--because you--you seem--not to need anybody--but I didn't +know but some time--there might be something--I thought--maybe--some +time." + +Rebecca paused and looked up at me with that pitifully beseeching +expression in her eyes. + +"Oh, yes," I answered, still carelessly; "no doubt I shall be a great +burden to you in time. But you do help me now, dear, by your conduct in +school. You helped me this morning when you boxed Lemuel Biddy's ears. +I shall have to take boxing lessons of you." + +"You be the scholar," Rebecca answered quickly, her lips parting again +with a merry outburst of laughter. + +"Wretch!" said I, well pleased but affecting a tone of deep severity; +"you must not be saucy to your teacher! I shall keep you in the rest of +your recess for that. + +"Do you like to study, Rebecca?" I added presently. + +"No-o," said she, much abashed at the admission, and yet evidently +incapable of speaking otherwise than according to the simple dictates of +her conscience. "I don't think I should care anything about it if it +didn't make you so dull not to. I mean," she continued; "perhaps I might +'a' liked it if I'd been to school right along, but we never did. And I +was to the mills up to Taunton. I didn't stay long there. Then mother was +sick. They don't any of the scholars be let to go very regular. Sometimes +they're wanted to work out. So they forget. So they don't care much, I +think. They get to dreading it. I wanted to tell you so you wouldn't +think it so much blame--our bein' so backward." + +"It is the faithful improvement of what opportunities we have, Rebecca," +I began and then paused, somewhat confused by the throng of lively +reminiscences which suddenly crowded my mental horoscope. "You are +young yet, my dear," I concluded gravely, with a resigned sigh for my own +departed youth; "you can make up for lost time. It is pleasant to give, +but there may be circumstances in which it is our duty imperatively to +receive. You must let me do all I can for you this winter. I do want you +for a friend, but I would rather it should be on these plainly implied +conditions." + +Rebecca had been studying my face, thoughtfully, with a still expression +of wonder. + +"I'll try to learn," said she, slowly. "I'll do anything you want me to." + +"Do you like to read?" I inquired, in a brighter tone. + +"Stories?" said Rebecca, a sparkle waking in her eyes. + +"Stories mixed with other things," I insisted, gently; and was then +compelled to wonder how many of those "other things" had found their way +into the literary appointment of my trunk. + +"I'll try," said Rebecca. + +"Come to the Ark, after school, and look over the books I have. We will +talk some more about it, and you shall select as you please, or I will +select for you, if you desire," I said, looking at Rebecca with kindly +though severe penetration. + +"I'd rather you would," said Rebecca, obediently. + +To inflict this particular sort of patronage was a delightfully new +experience for me. The glaring inconsistencies which confronted me at +every turn only gave a heightened zest to the pursuit. + +When I went to the door to blow the horn I felt that Rebecca already +regarded me as her patron, guide, and spiritual mentor, and I was +seriously resolved to fill these positions hopefully for her and with +credit to myself. With respect to the rest of my flock, I felt a +different sort of interest--the wide-awake concern of one who finds +himself suddenly perched on the back of a mettlesome, untried steed. + +Any one member of that benighted corps, taken as the subject of pruning +and cultivating effort, would have occupied, I believed, the faithful +labors of a lifetime. Considered as a gloriously rampant mass, the aspect +of the field was appalling. + +I was especially impressed with this view of the case when I went to toot +them in from those free and reckless diversions in, which their souls +expanded and their bodies became as the winged creatures of the earth. + +The horn was still an object of terror to me, though experience had made +me wise enough to institute, on all occasions, a careful preliminary +search for buttons. + +Its blast, freighted with baleful meaning to the ears of sportive +innocence, found a melancholy echo among the deeper woes of my own heart, +and, if it chanced to be one of Aunt Lobelia's singing days, the "Dar' to +be a Dan-yell! Dar' to be a Dan-yell!" which floated across the lane, had +but a doubtfully inspiriting effect. + +I felt, indeed, like a Daniel doomed to convocate my own lions, and +lacking that faith in a preserving Providence which is believed to have +cheered and elevated the spirit of the ancient prophet, I confidently +expected, on the whole, to be devoured. + +Gathered into their den, my lively herd gasped some moments as though +suffering the last loud agony of expiring breath, and then, bethinking +them of that only one of their free and native elements now obtainable, +they sent up a universal cry for "water!" + +Ah! what to do with them through the long hours of the day--beautiful +creatures! by no means unlovable, with their bright, clear eyes, their +restless, restless feet, their overflowing spirits; their bodies all +alive, but with minds unfitted by birth, unskilled by domestic +discipline, to any sort of earnest and prolonged effort. Long, weary +hours, therefore, not of furnishing instruction to the hungry and +inquiring mind--ah, no!--but of a desperately sustained struggle in +which, with every faculty on the alert to discover the truest expedients, +with every nerve strained to the utmost, I strove for the mastery over +this antic, untamed animal, until I could throw the reins loose at night, +and drop my head down on my desk in the deserted school-room, tired, +tired, tired! + +The parents of the children "dropped in" often at the Ark, and savored +the lively and varied flow of their discourse with choice dissertations +on methods of discipline. + +"I want my children whipped," said Mr. Randall Alden. "That's what they +need. They git enough of it at home. It won't skeer 'em any--and I tell +the folks if they'd all talk like that, they wouldn't be no trouble in +the school." + +"Ye can't drive Milton P.," said that hopeful's mother. "He's been drove +so much that he don't take no notice of it. If coaxing won't fetch him, +nothin' won't; and I tell 'em if they was all like that they wouldn't be +no trouble in the school." + +"Well," said Emily Gaskell, the matron of the painted house, a tall, +angular woman, with the hectic of the orthodox Yankee consumption on her +cheeks, and the orthodox Yankee twinkle in her eye; "ye can manage +my boys whatever way ye please, teacher. I ain't pertickeler. They've +been coaxed and they've been whipped, but they've always made out to mind +by doin' pretty much as they was a mind to. They're smart boys, too," she +added, with sincere pride; "but they don't take to larnin'. I never see +sich boys. Ye can't git no larnin' into 'em no way. They'd rather be +whipped than go to school. Sim had a man to work on our cranberry bog, +and he found out that he was first-rate in 'rithmetic, this man was, and +so Sim, says he,--I'll give ye the same ye git on the bog,' says he, 'to +stay up to the house and larn my boys 'rithmetic,' says he; and the man, +he tried it, and in the course of a day or two, he come around to Sim, +and wanted to know if he couldn't go back to clarin' bog again." + +Emily took in the broadly contemplative expression on Grandma Keeler's +benign features, and then winked at me facetiously: "I tell 'em if they +was all like that," said she; "and I guess they be, pretty much, they +might as well be out o' doors as in, and less worryin' to the teacher." + +It might have been the third day of my labors in Wallencamp that a man, +having the appearance of a lame giant, entered the school-room, and +advanced to meet me with an imposing dignity of mien. He held captive, +with one powerful hand, a stubbornly speechless, violently struggling +boy. I recognized the man as Godfrey Cradlebow, the handsome fiddler's +father, and the boy was none other than the imp whose eyes, scorching and +defiant now, had first sent mocking glances back at me while their +light-limbed owner kicked out a jaunty rigadoon from under the encircling +folds of his sacerdotal vestments. + +"Miss Hungerford, I beg your pardon," said the elder Cradlebow, with a +distinct, refined enunciation foreign to the native element of +Wallencamp, whose ordinary locution had something of a Hoosier accent +"After a good deal of trouble in catching him, I have finally succeeded +in bringing you in this--a--this little dev"--he made an impressive +pause, patted his fiery offspring on the head with fatherly dignity, and +eyed him, at once doubtfully and reflectively. + +I was interested in observing the aspect of the two faces. + +"The little boy resembles you, I think," I said. + +The lame man struck his cane down hard upon the floor and laughed +immoderately. + +"If you knew what I had in my mind to say!" he exclaimed--"ah! that was +well put, well put!--though but dubiously complimentary, but dubiously +so, I assure you, either to father or son!" + +The idea still continuing to tickle him, he laughed more gently, beating +a sympathetic tattoo with his cane on the floor. + +"To pursue directly the cause of my intrusion here," he went on, at +length, "this little--well, for present purposes, we will call him the +_Phenomenon_. I confess it is a name to which he is not totally unused. +This little phenomenon, whom you see before you, is the youngest but one +in a flock of thirteen. Some of that beautiful band--" here Mr. Cradlebow +raised a very shaky hand for an instant to his eyes, and although a +fitting occasion for sentiment, I was compelled to think of what Grandpa +Keeler had said about Godfrey Cradlebow's "sprees"--"some of that +beautiful band rest in the graveyard, yonder. Some of them already +know what it is themselves to be parents. Some of them still linger in +the poor old home nest. I see you have here, my Alvin, and my Wallace, +and my youngest, the infant Sophronia. Well, you find them good children, +I dare say. Ah! they have an estimable mother." Again, he lifted his hand +to his eyes. "Mischievous enough, you find them, probably, but +amenable--there it is, amenable--but this lad"--Mr. Cradlebow paused +again, shaking his head with a meaning to which he gravely declined +further expression. + +"What is your name?" I inquired of the little boy, hopefully. + +"Simmy B.," he answered revengefully in a tone of alarming hoarseness. + +"Such colds as that boy has!" exclaimed the paternal Cradlebow. "They're +like all the rest of him--they're phenomenal. There are times when that +boy appears to be nothing but one frightful, perambulating cold! Well," +he sighed, "and yet it's a strange fact, that the more depraved and +miserable a little devil is, the more his mother'll coddle him. + +"Now there's this one and my Lute--Luther Larkin--a good boy, but lacking +all capacity for rest--always lacking the capacity for rest--uneasy, both +of them--always uneasy! but how the mother would give her own rest for +them, and seem to love them the better for it! strange! They have always +been her idols, too. Well, I have captured Simeon and brought him in. I +hope you may keep him. The rest you must learn for yourself. The Lord +help me!" he groaned, as he picked up his cane, with evident physical +pain, and hobbled cut of the room. + +Within the school-room, things resumed their customary, Niagara-like +roar, until a lamentable voice rose above the others, and was straightway +followed by another voice in indignant explanation. + +"Teacher, can't Simmy B. stop? He's puttin' beans down Amber G.'s neck!" + +"Simeon!" I exclaimed, in accents calculated to melt that youthful heart +of stone, and then added; "I will speak with you a few moments alone, at +recess." + +Simeon looked no longer helplessly angry as when his father brought him +in. He appeared, on the whole, well pleased, but I scanned his angelic +features in vain for any trace of repentance. + +There followed a few moments of comparative quiet. Then came a startling, +sickening sound as of some one undergoing the tortures of strangulation. +Then, a long, convulsive gasp. I looked down upon a sea of round eyes and +uplifted hands. + +"Teacher, Simmy's swallered a slate-pencil! Simmy's swallered a +slate-pencil!" + +"He's swallered most a whole one!" cried the owner of one pair of +protruding orbs. + +"It wa'n't!" retorted Simeon, flaming with righteous indignation--"It +wa'n't but harf a one!" + +"He t-t-told me," cried a young scion of the stammering Vickery race, all +breathless with excitement, "that he was going to p-p-put it into his +m-m-mouth and t-t-take it out of his n-n-nose, and he did and it +t-t-t--and it slip-p-ped!" + +"Wall, jest you keep your eyes peeled and your ears cocked," replied the +sturdy Simeon, in hoarse and jarring accents; "and see if I don't take it +out of my nose, yet." + +The signs of that painful struggle slowly faded out of Simeon's face and +there was an unusual calm in the school-room. + +Perhaps a quarter of an hour elapsed. I was thoughtfully engaged in +hearing one of my classes when startled by the sound of a window closed +with a sharp bang. At the same time arose the universal voice: + +"Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder! Simmy B.'s got out o' the winder!" + +I looked out across the snowless fields, and there having already scaled +two fences and put many a good rod between himself and the scene of his +brief imprisonment, I beheld, borne as on the wings of the wind, the form +of the retreating Simeon. + +An incident at the close of my first week in Wallencamp was the visit of +the "Turkey Mogul." Such was the name given by the Wallencampers to Mr. +Baxter, the superintendent of schools. + +Mr. Baxter lived many miles away in Farmouth, and was, properly, the +visitor of the schools in Farmouth County. Wallencamp was not in Farmouth +County. Nevertheless, Mr. Baxter had charge of the Wallencamp school. I +had been informed that he drove over at the beginning and close of each +term, put the scholars through the most "dreadful examins," and gave an +indiscriminate "blowin' up" to persons and things in the place. So I +looked forward to his coming with a curiosity not unmingled with more +doubtful emotions. + +It was Friday, and so near the close of the afternoon session that I had +quite dismissed from my mind the contemplation of any dread advent for +that day. It was just at that trying hour of Friday afternoon when only +the spelling-classes remained to be heard, and teacher and scholars both +were conscious, the one with a deep inward sense of relief, the others +with many restless demonstrations of impatience, that the week was near +its close; and that "to-morrow" would be Saturday and a holiday. + +Estella the raven-haired--familiarly known as the "Modoc," a long and +ungainly creature, with arms and legs so seemingly profuse and +unmanageable, that they reminded one of the tentacles of a +cuttle-fish--Estella was "passing around the water." + +She was performing this accustomed office with a grin of such supreme +delight and satisfaction as seemed actually to illuminate the back of her +head, when the door of the school-room opened, and there, without any +previous warning, appeared a grim, fierce-looking little man, whom I knew +at once to be the "Turkey Mogul." + +The extreme exigency of the case inspired me with a certain calmness of +despair. Having advanced to meet this august personage, conducted him to +the desk, and placed for him the official chair, which he shortly +refused, I lifted my eyes, "prepared for any fate," to observe what might +be the condition of my turbulent flock, and lo--all the tops, and +Jews-harps, and apples, and whirligigs, and miniature buzz-saws had +disappeared, and there was an array of pallid faces bent over another +array of books--many of the latter were upside down, but the effect was +unbroken. Even Estella, moved by some sudden divine sense of the fitness +of things, had ceased her desultory wanderings about the room with the +tin dipper, and, not having had time to procure a book, was working out +imaginary problems on her fingers with the air of a Herschel, and I +became slowly conscious that there was such a stillness in that room as +had not been--no, nor anything like unto it,--since the first time I +entered there. + +I think Mr. Baxter must have observed something of the look of helpless +astonishment which transfixed my features. I certainly saw the shadow of +a smile lurking in his steel-gray eyes. + +"Yes," he snarled, addressing the school; "yes, if I didn't know you, +now, and if your books were not, most of 'em, bottom side up, and if I +shouldn't be compelled in two minutes to prove the contrary, I might +possibly imagine that you were studying--yes--humph!" + +I said to Mr. Baxter, as cheerfully as possible, that "we were nearly +through with our usual routine of classes for the day, but I should be +happy, of course, to repeat any of the recitations which he might care to +hear." + +"Would you?" said he, looking at me not unpleasantly. "Do you really ask +me to believe that? um-m-m," he murmured, resuming his stern aspect. "Let +me see--Geography--yes, Miss Hungerford, you may call the first class in +Geography." + +I did not accuse the Superintendent of Schools of malevolent intentions, +but I could honestly have affirmed that of all the divisions and +subdivisions of my empire the first class in Geography was the one least +calculated to shine on an occasion like the present. + +I groaned inwardly, and called them forth. Their forlorn and wilted +appearance as they formed in line went to my heart. I was resolved to +defend them at whatever cost. + +"Now," said Mr. Baxter, planting himself firmly, with his legs rather far +apart, thrusting his hands in his pockets, and staring steadily at the +shivering group from under his awful brows; "what _is_ Geography? To +begin with. That's the first thing. What _is_ Geography?" + +For a moment there was no reply. I almost began to hope that there would +be none. I felt that here "Silence was golden," and if maintained, all +might be comparatively well; when, to my dismay, there was a sort of +flank movement in the ranks and the ill-starred Estella raised her hand. + +"Well," said Mr. Baxter, pointing his finger steadfastly at her as if to +impart a vein of concentration to her palpably loose and floating +appearance; "You! You ought to know. What is Geography, eh?" + +Some fair wreck of an idea, formerly appropriated in this connection, +floated through the brain of the "Mo-doc." She opened her mouth and in +those loud and startling accents, for which she was ever distinguished, +gave utterance to these memorable words: + +"A--round! like a ball!" + +Mr. Baxter glared fiercely at her for a moment, and then permitted his +scorn to escape in a long, sarcastic hiss. + +"Yes-s-s," said he; "yes-s-s! around like a ball! Do you find it much in +your way, eh? Do you often give it such a kick as that, eh? Well, take +your seats! take your seats!" + +The Superintendent of Schools seemed disinclined to evoke any further +catastrophes of this sort, but proceeded to discourse to me, aside, in a +confidential growl, on the peculiar and erratic natures of the benighted +Wallencampers. + +"Their minds," he said, with a grim smile, "have no receptivity. They +must originate, or they are naught. Parents and children--they are all +the same. I am convinced that there is no scholarship to be established +here. It has been tried and the attempt has failed a hundred times. It's +not in the nature of things. Get on the good side of them, that's all. +That has failed sometimes, but it is not among the impossible things. Get +on the good side of them." + +Finally, he turned to address the children. The "examins" had certainly +not been severe, but the "blowin' up" was faithfully and liberally +performed. + +Never before had I felt so drawn to my poor, wondering, wolf-besieged +flock, and in proportion to my tenderness for them waxed my indignation +toward the "Turkey Mogul." + +"You can't learn," said he. "That's a sufficiently established fact, but +if you don't behave, your teacher is going to write to me, mind! and I +shall come down here in my buggy, and take you right up and off to +Farmouth where we have a place to keep all such naughty boys and girls." + +This last was evoked as a benediction. Mr. Baxter looked at his watch, +and remarked that it was a long drive to Farmouth, and he must be going. +"Dismiss your school, Miss Hungerford," he said. + +Now the children were accustomed--it was a special privilege they had +requested--to sing, before the school closed at night, one of the hymns +with which they were all so familiar in Wallencamp. + +I would have dismissed them, on this occasion, without further ceremony, +but before I had time to tap my ruler on the desk as a signal for +dismissal, they all struck up as with one voice:-- + + "What a friend we have in Jesus, + All our griefs and woes to share! + What a privilege to carry + Everything to God in prayer." + +At first I was a little amused at the incongruity of the thing. Then it +began to seem to me inexpressibly touching. + +The Superintendent of Schools stood with a cold, supercilious grin on his +face, a stern, self-sufficient man, not one likely to echo the spirit of +these simple words. + +I stood beside him, weary and perplexed enough, but ever taking counsel +of the pride of my own heart. And those poor children, with their hard, +toilsome, barren lives before them, how they sang! their clear, young +voices ringing out fearlessly, carelessly--they knew the words. I +wondered if any one in the room appreciated the song as having inner +truth and meaning. + +As I was locking my desk, before leaving the room, I discovered this +little note, which Rebecca had dropped in it. + + "dere teecher, + + "I wanted to do sumthyng to help yu wen I seen him come in To Day + fur I new jus howe yu felt but thay wasent no wours than thay always + was, and he nose it! and thay studdid more fur yu I think than thay + did for any but I think it mus be harrd for yu not bein' use to us. + I think yu was tired. When we was singin' I thot howe tired yu was, + but thar' was always won to help. Excus writin' pleas but I wanted + to let yu no for yu was good to me and I luv yu. + + Becky Weir." + +Somehow, the little note rested and comforted me, more than I would have +imagined, a week before, any expression of this humble disciple of mine +could have done. + +I held the letter crumpled in my hand going up the lane. Going up the +lane, too, I met Emily's fisherman coming gayly home from the river. + +Mr. Rollin stopped, and gallantly requested the pleasure of carrying a +small book which I held in my hand. He walked back to the Ark with me, +talking very fluently the while. + +"Do you know," he began; "I think I'm awfully fortunate meeting you here +in the lane. I've been wishing for an opportunity to speak with you for +two or three days past, but the Ark is such a popular resort for the +youth of Wallencamp, and the children seem to be always following you. +Well, they regard the school teacher as their special property, and would +Consider me worse than an intruder if I should go in to take even the +lowest seat in the synagogue. I've been wanting to speak with you ever +since that first night--when I stared at you so stupidly at Captain +Keeler's--when I went up to borrow the oars, and you were engaged, you +remember," said Mr. Rollin, laughing gently, "in wresting particles of +hulled corn from the ocean depths of that kettle." + +"I remember," I said, trying to smother what annoyance I still felt at +the recollection. "I admit that it was a very striking scene. It was very +good," I added, religiously, referring to the corn. Mr. Rollin ought to +know, I thought, that I had come to Wallencamp on a mission, and that if +he wished to scoff at the ways of its defenceless inhabitants, he +shouldn't look to find a confidante in me. + +"The hulled corn? Oh! yes, indeed!" he answered with a sprightly air. +"We have it served in the same way at Emily's, and we think it's +just--a--rich, you know. But I wanted to tell you. If you could have +known how confoundedly struck up I was when I went into the Ark that +night, you wouldn't think it so strange my standing staring there like a +fool. You see we fellows, picking up everything of interest down here to +amuse ourselves with, heard that there was a new school-teacher coming, +so we gave our imaginations free rein. We were laughing it over among +ourselves, and Smith said, 'she'd probably have hair like Rollin's,' and +Jake said 'she'd wear spectacles, and have a nose like the Clipper in +the _Three Fates_', and all that sort of thing. So I went up that night +to see, just for the deuce of it, and not to get the oars at all, and I +was deucedly well paid for it, too. In fact, Miss Hungerford," said the +fisherman, darting a keen glance at me from his laughing eyes, "I did go +up to scoff, but I remained to pray." + +My ears had never been conscientiously closed to the voice of idle +praise, but with this, for some reason, I was not well pleased. + +"Your attitude was certainly devotional," I answered, without haste. +"Your friend," I added, "must be something of a seer. Here are the +literal glasses!" + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Rollin, coloring slightly; "you know I didn't mean +that--just being a little near-sighted. I said spectacles. Besides," and +the fisherman looked me full and unblushingly in the face--"if I +had such eyes as yours, by Jove, I wouldn't mind whether I could see +anything out of 'em or not!" + +"You will hardly expect me to thank you for that," I murmured, with a +sincere flash of indignation; not that I was unmindful of certain +reckless moods of old, when I had found it not impossible to listen, even +with calmness, to vain demonstrations of this sort, but I felt that I was +a different person now, in a different sphere of action. + +Mr. Rollin knew nothing of me except that I was the teacher of the +Wallencamp school--a doubtful position to his mind. + +He fancied that he might "pick me up," to "amuse" himself with, I +thought, and at the reflection I felt an angry glow rising from heart to +cheek. + +Meanwhile the fisherman gnawed his moustache ruefully. This idle +worldling could assume, occasionally, a whimsical helplessness of +expression, with an air of aggrieved and childlike candor, somewhat +baffling to the stern designs of justice. + +"Now I've offended you," he began, exchanging his tone of easy +nonchalance for one of slow and awkward dejection. "And you think I've +had the impudence--well, if either one of us two is going to be taken in, +Miss Hungerford, I can tell you it's a blamed sight more likely to be me; +but you're prejudiced against me, I can see. You were prejudiced against +me that first night. I know how those old women talk. They've got an +idea, somehow, that I'm a scapegrace, and a desperate character. And, on +my word, Miss Hungerford, I'm considered a real model chap there at home, +and make speeches to the little boys and girls in Sunday School, and all +that sort of thing. On my word, I do." + +Mr. Rollin spoke quite warmly. I could not help laughing at his droll +self-vindication. + +"I should like to ask you to speak to my little boys and girls!" I said; +"but it's too harrowing to the feelings. I listened to one address this +afternoon." + +"The 'Turkey Mogul?' Oh, that isn't my style!" said Mr. Rollin. "I don't +sear their young vision with the prospect of eternal flames. I entice +them with the blandishments of future reward. Let me go in some +day, and I promise you in one brief half hour to destroy the cankering +effect of all that the 'Turkey Mogul' has ever said. At least, I shall +serve as an antidote--a cheerful and allaying antidote to the wormwood of +censorious criticism." + +Thus the voluble fisherman ran on, with an air of simple and charming +ingenuousness; while I reflected that here possibly was a light and +aimless creature whom I had mentally convicted of ungracious designs, +that, although his presence in Wallencamp, as a representative of the +great world I believed I had left behind me, was rather _mal a propos_, +it might be that I ought to consider him providentially included in my +field of labor, and as one of the objects of my regenerating care. + +Whether Mr. Rollin detected anything of this philanthropic intention I do +not know. When we got to the gate he said:-- + +"Will you go with me for a drive to-morrow, Miss Hungerford? You know +what the Wallencamp equipages are. They furnish entertainment, at all +events. The drive to West Wallen is really beautiful--even at this +season of the year, with such uncommonly fine weather, and you have a +holiday, and the mail hasn't been brought from West Wallen for nearly a +week." + +I thanked the fisherman almost eagerly, thinking, at that instant, of the +longed-for letters that I knew were waiting for me in the West Wallen +Post Office. + +Then, suddenly, I felt Rebecca's little note grow heavy in my hand. + +To act voluntarily for others--to consider as serious any obstacles in +the way of following out my personal inclinations--these were experiences +too new to me, and my resolve was not a natural one, but forced and +impatient. + +"You are very kind," I said; "but I can't go to-morrow." + +The two little Keelers came running out of the Ark to meet me. I was +secretly relieved. Mr. Rollin had been watching me narrowly; his lips +curled, and his eyes flashed with a half angry, half scornful light. He +cast an unloving glance at the little Keelers. + +"I can't, of course, question the justice of your decision," he said +shortly, and touched his hat and walked away without another word. + +I considered this as one of the least among my many trials and +perplexities. Oftentimes I sighed for the light-hearted, "irresponsible" +days of yore, when "missions" were, as yet, to me unknown. + +School was the greatest perplexity. Grandma Keeler's tenderness grew more +impressive each day. + +"It seems to me you're a growin' bleak and holler-eyed, teacher," she +would say to me when I came home at night. + +So I indulged more and more in a deeply sentimental self-pity, and felt a +growing satisfaction in the consciousness that I was enduring martyrdom. +It was more by reason of a stubborn and desperate pride, I think, than +from higher motives, that, in my letters home, I said nothing of the +discomforts and discouragements which attended my course. I chose to +dilate on the beautiful scenery of Wallencamp, and the quaint originality +of its inhabitants. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +GRANDMA KEELER GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL. + + +Sunday morning nothing arose in Wallencamp save the sun. + +At least, that celestial orb had long forgotten all the roseate flaming +of his youth, in an honest, straightforward march through the heavens, +ere the first signs of smoke came curling lazily up from the Wallencamp +chimneys. + +I had retired at night, very weary, with the delicious consciousness that +it wouldn't make any difference when I woke up the next morning, or +whether, indeed. I woke at all. So I opened my eyes leisurely and lay +half-dreaming, half-meditating on a variety of things. + +I deciphered a few of the texts on the scriptural patch-work quilt which +covered my couch. There were--"Let not your heart be troubled," "Remember +Lot's wife," and "Philander Keeler," traced in inky hieroglyphics, all in +close conjunction. + +Finally, I reached out for my watch, and, having ascertained the time of +day, I got up and proceeded to dress hastily enough, wondering to hear no +signs of life in the house. + +I went noiselessly down the stairs. All was silent below, except for the +peaceful snoring of Mrs. Philander and the little Keelers, which was +responded to from some remote western corner of the Ark by the triumphant +snores of Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. + +I attempted to kindle a fire in the stove, but it sizzled a little while, +spitefully, as much as to say, "What, Sunday morning? Not I!" and went +out. So I concluded to put on some wraps and go out and warm myself in +the sun. + +I climbed the long hill back of the Ark, descended, and walked along the +bank of the river. It was a beautiful morning. The air was--everything +that could be desired in the way of air, but I felt a desperate need of +something more substantial. + +Standing alone with nature, on the bank of the lovely liver, I thought, +with tears in my eyes, of the delicious breakfast already recuperating +the exhausted energies of my far-away home friends. + +When I got back to the house, Mrs. Philander, in simple and unaffected +attire, was bustling busily about the stove. + +The snores from Grandma and Grandpa's quarter had ceased, signifying that +they, also, had advanced a stage in the grand processes of Sunday +morning. + +The children came teasing me to dress them, so I fastened for them a +variety of small articles which I flattered myself on having combined in +a very ingenious and artistic manner, though I believe those infant +Keelers went weeping to Grandma afterwards, and were remodeled by her +all-comforting hand with much skill and patience. + +In the midst of her preparations for breakfast, Madeline abruptly assumed +her hat and shawl, and was seen from the window, walking leisurely across +the fields in the direction of the woods. She returned in due time, +bearing an armful of fresh evergreens, which she twisted around the +family register. + +When the ancient couple made their appearance, I remarked silently, in +regard to Grandma Keeler's hair, what proved afterward to be its usual +holiday morning arrangement. It was confined in six infinitesimal braids +which appeared to be sprouting out, perpendicularly, in all directions +from her head. The effect of redundancy and expansiveness thus heightened +and increased on Grandma's features was striking in the extreme. + +While we were eating breakfast, that good soul observed to Grandpa +Keeler: "Wall, pa, I suppose you'll be all ready when the time comes to +take teacher and me over to West Wallen to Sunday school, won't ye?" + +Grandpa coughed, and coughed again, and raised his eyes helplessly to the +window. + +"Looks some like showers," said he. "A-hem! ahem! Looks mightily to me +like showers, over yonder." + +"Thar', r'aly, husband! I must say I feel mortified for ye," said +Grandma. "Seein' as you're a professor, too, and thar' ain't been a +single Sunday mornin' since I've lived with ye, pa, summer or winter, but +what you've seen showers, and it r'aly seems to me it's dreadful +inconsistent when thar' ain't no cloud in the sky, and don't look no more +like rain than I do." And Grandma's face, in spite of her reproachful +tones, was, above all, blandly sunlike and expressive of anything rather +than deluge and watery disaster. + +Grandpa was silent a little while, then coughed again I had never seen +Grandpa in worse straits. + +"A-hem! a-hem! 'Fanny' seems to be a little lame, this mornin'," said he. +"I shouldn't wonder. She's been goin' pretty stiddy this week." + +"It does beat all, pa," continued Grandma Keeler, "how't all the horses +you've ever had since I've known ye have always been took lame Sunday +mornin'. Thar' was 'Happy Jack,' he could go anywhers through the week, +and never limp a step, as nobody could see, and Sunday mornin' he was +always took lame! And thar' was 'Tantrum'----" + +"Tantrum" was the horse that had run away with Grandma when she was +thrown from the wagon, and generally smashed to pieces. And now, Grandma +branched off into the thrilling reminiscences connected with this +incident of her life, which was the third time during the week that the +horrible tale had been repeated for my delectation. + +When she had finished, Grandpa shook his head with painful earnestness, +reverting to the former subject of discussion. + +"It's a long jaunt!" said he; "a long jaunt!" + +"Thar's a long hill to climb before we reach Zion's mount," said Grandma +Keeler, impressively. + +"Wall, there's a darned sight harder one on the road to West Wallen!" +burst out the old sea-captain desperately; "say nothin' about the +devilish stones!" + +"Thar' now," said Grandma, with calm though awful reproof; "I think we've +gone fur enough for one day; we've broke the Sabbath, and took the name +of the Lord in vain, and that ought to be enough for perfessors." + +Grandpa replied at length in a greatly subdued tone: "Wall, if you and +the teacher want to go over to Sunday school to-day, I suppose we can go +if we get ready," a long submissive sigh--"I suppose we can." + +"They have preachin' service in the mornin', I suppose," said Grandma. +"But we don't generally git along to that. It makes such an early start. +We generally try to get around, when we go, in time for Sunday school. +They have singin' and all. It's just about as interestin', I think, as +preachin'. The old man ra'ly likes it," she observed aside to me; "when +he once gets started, but he kind o' dreads the gittin' started." + +When I beheld the ordeal through which Grandpa Keeler was called to pass, +at the hands of his faithful consort, before he was considered in a fit +condition of mind and body to embark for the sanctuary, I marvelled not +at the old man's reluctance, nor that he had indeed seen clouds and +tempest fringing the horizon. + +Immediately after breakfast, he set out for the barn, ostensibly to "see +to the chores;" really, I believe, to obtain a few moments' respite, +before worse evil should come upon him. + +Pretty soon Grandma was at the back door calling in firm though +persuasive tones:-- + +"Husband! husband! come in, now, and get ready." + +No answer. Then it was in another key, weighty, yet expressive of no weak +irritation, that Grandma called "Come, pa! pa-a! pa-a-a!" Still no +answer. + +Then that voice of Grandma's sung out like a trumpet, terrible with +meaning--"Bijonah Keeler!" + +But Grandpa appeared not. Next, I saw Grandma slowly but surely +gravitating in the direction of the barn, and soon she returned, bringing +with her that ancient delinquent, who looked like a lost sheep indeed and +a truly unreconciled one. + +"Now the first thing," said Grandma, looking her forlorn captive over; +"is boots. Go and get on yer meetin' gaiters, pa." + +The old gentleman, having invested himself with those sacred relics, came +pathetically limping into the room. + +"I declare, ma," said he; "somehow these things--phew! Somehow they pinch +my feet dreadfully. I don't know what it is,--phew! They're dreadful +oncomf'table things somehow." + +"Since I've known ye, pa," solemnly ejaculated Grandma Keeler, "you've +never had a pair o' meetin' boots that set easy on yer feet. You'd ought +to get boots big enough for ye, pa," she continued looking down +disapprovingly on the old gentleman's pedal extremities, which resembled +two small scows at anchor in black cloth encasements: "and not be so +proud as to go to pinchin' yer feet into gaiters a number o' sizes too +small for ye." + +"They're number tens, I tell ye!" roared Grandpa nettled outrageously by +this cutting taunt. + +"Wall, thar', now, pa," said Grandma, soothingly; "if I had sech feet as +that, I wouldn't go to spreadin' it all over town, if I was you--but it's +time we stopped bickerin' now, husband, and got ready for meetin'; so set +down and let me wash yer head." + +"I've washed once this mornin'. It's clean enough," Grandpa protested, +but in vain. He was planted in a chair, and Grandma Keeler, with rag and +soap and a basin of water, attacked the old gentleman vigorously, much as +I have seen cruel mothers wash the faces of their earth-begrimed infants. +He only gave expression to such groans as:-- + +"Thar', ma! don't tear my ears to pieces! Come, ma! you've got my eyes so +full o' soap now, ma, that I can't see nothin'. Phew! Lordy! ain't ye +most through with this, ma?" + +Then came the dyeing process, which Grandma Keeler assured me, aside, +made Grandpa "look like a man o' thirty;" but to me, after it he looked +neither old nor young, human nor inhuman, nor like anything that I had +ever seen before under the sun. + +"There's the lotion, the potion, the dye-er, and the setter," said +Grandma, pointing to four bottles on the table. "Now whar's the +directions, Madeline?" + +These having been produced from between the leaves of the family Bible, +Madeline read, while Grandma made a vigorous practical application of the +various mixtures. + +"This admirable lotion"--in soft ecstatic tones Madeline rehearsed the +flowery language of the recipe--"though not so instantaneously startling +in its effect as our inestimable dyer and setter, yet forms a most +essential part of the whole process, opening, as it does, the dry and +lifeless pores of the scalp, imparting to them new life and beauty, and +rendering them more easily susceptible to the applications which follow. +But we must go deeper than this; a tone must be given to the whole system +by means of the cleansing and rejuvenating of the very centre of our +beings, and, for this purpose, we have prepared our wonderful potion." +Here Grandpa, with a wry face, was made to swallow a spoonful of the +mixture. "Our unparalleled dyer," Madeline continued, "restores black +hair to a more than original gloss and brilliancy, and gives to the faded +golden tress the sunny flashes of youth." Grandpa was dyed. "Our +world-renowned setter completes and perfects the whole process by adding +tone and permanency to the efficacious qualities of the lotion, potion, +and dyer, etc.;" while on Grandpa's head the unutterable dye was set. + +"Now, read teacher some of the testimonials, daughter," said Grandma +Keeler, whose face was one broad, generous illustration of that rare and +peculiar virtue called faith. + +So Madeline continued: "Mrs. Hiram Briggs, or North Dedham, writes: 'I +was terribly afflicted with baldness, so that, for months, I was little +more than an outcast from society, and an object of pity to my most +familiar friends. I tried every remedy in vain. At length I heard of your +wonderful restorative. After a week's application, my hair had already +begun to grow in what seemed the most miraculous manner. At the end of +ten months, it had assumed such length and proportions as to be a most +luxurious burden, and where I had before been regarded with pity and +aversion, I became the envied and admired of all beholders." + +"Just think!" said Grandma Keeler, with rapturous sympathy and gratitude, +"how that poor creetur must a' felt!" + +"'Orion Spaulding of Weedsville, Vermont,'" Madeline went on--but, here, +I had to beg to be excused, and went to my room to get ready for the +Sunday school. + +When I came down again, Grandpa Keeler was seated, completely arrayed in +his best clothes, opposite Grandma, who held the big family Bible in her +lap, and a Sunday-school question book in one hand. + +"Now, pa," said she; "what tribe was it in sacred writ that wore +bunnits?" + +I was compelled to infer from the tone of Grandpa Keeler's answer that +his temper had not undergone a mollifying process during my absence. + +"Come, ma," said he; "how much longer ye goin' to pester me in this way?" + +"Why, pa," Grandma rejoined calmly; "until you git a proper understandin' +of it. What tribe was it in sacred writ that wore bunnits?" + +"Lordy!" exclaimed the old man. "How d'ye suppose I know! They must'a' +been a tarnal old womanish lookin' set any way." + +"The tribe o' Judah, pa," said Grandma, gravely. "Now, how good it is, +husband, to have your understandin' all freshened up on the scripters!" + +"Come, come, ma!" said Grandpa, rising nervously, "It's time we was +startin'. When I make up my mind to go anywhere I always want to git +there in time. If I was goin' to the Old Harry, I should want to git +there in time." + +"It's my consarn that we shall git thar' before time, some on us," said +Grandma, with sad meaning, "unless we larn to use more respec'ful +language." + +I shall never forget how we set off for church that Sabbath morning, way +out at one of the sunny back doors of the Ark: for there was Madeline's +little cottage that fronted the highway, or lane, and then there was a +long backward extension of the Ark, only one story in height. This +belonged peculiarly to Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. It contained the +"parlor" and three "keepin'" rooms opening one into the other, all of the +same size and general bare and gloomy appearance, all possessing the same +sacredly preserved atmosphere, through which we passed with becoming +silence and solemnity into the "end" room, the sunny kitchen where +Grandma and Grandpa kept house by themselves in the summer time, and +there at the door, her very yellow coat reflecting the rays of the sun, +stood Fanny, presenting about as much appearance of life and animation as +a pensive summer squash. + +The carriage, I thought, was a fac-simile of the one in which I had been +brought from West Wallen on the night of my arrival. One of the most +striking peculiarities of this sort of vehicle was the width at which the +wheels were set apart. The body seemed comparatively narrow. It was very +long, and covered with white canvas. It had neither windows nor doors, +but just the one guarded opening in front. There were no steps leading to +this, and, indeed, a variety of obstacles before it. And the way Grandma +effected an entrance was to put a chair on a mound of earth, and a +cricket on top of the chair, and thus, having climbed up to Fanny's +reposeful back, she slipped passively down, feet foremost, to the +whiffle-tree; from thence she easily gained the plane of the carriage +floor. + +Grandpa and I took a less circuitous, though, perhaps, not less difficult +route. + +I sat with Grandpa on the "front" seat--it may be remarked that the +"front" seat was very much front, and the "back" seat very much +back--there was a kind of wooden shelf built outside as a resting-place +for the feet, so that while our heads were under cover, our feet were +out, utterly exposed to the weather, and we must either lay them on the +shelf or let them hang off into space. + +Madeline and the children stood at the door to see us off. + +"All aboard! ship ballasted! wind fa'r! go ahead, thar', Fanny!" shouted +Grandpa, who seemed quite restored in spirits, and held the reins and +wielded the whip with a masterful air. + +He spun sea-yarns, too, all the way--marvellous ones, and Grandma's +reproving voice was mellowed by the distance, and so confusedly mingled +with the rumbling of the wheels, that it seemed hardly to reach him at +all. Not that Grandma looked discomfited on this account, or in bad +humor. On the contrary, as she sat back there in the ghostly shadows, +with her hands folded, and her hair combed out in resplendent waves on +either side of her head, she appeared conscious that every word she +uttered was taking root in some obdurate heart. She was, in every +respect, the picture of good-will and contentment. + +But the face under Grandpa's antiquated beaver began to give me a fresh +shock every time I looked up at him, for the light and air were rapidly +turning his rejuvenated locks and his poor, thin fringe of whiskers to an +unnatural greenish tint, while his bushy eyebrows, untouched by the hand +of art, shone as white as ever. + +In spite of the old sea-captain's entertaining stories, it seemed, +indeed, "a long jaunt" to West Wallen. + +To say that Fanny was a slow horse would be but a feeble expression of +the truth. + +A persevering "click! click! click!" began to arise from Grandma's +quarter. This annoyed Grandpa exceedingly. + +"Shet up, ma!" he was moved to exclaim at last. "I'm steerin' this +craft." + +"Click! click! click!" came perseveringly from behind. + +"Dum it, ma! thar', ma!" cried Grandpa, exasperated beyond measure. "How +is this hoss goin' to hear anything that I say ef you keep up such a +tarnal cacklin'?" + +Just as we were coming out of the thickest part of the woods, about a +mile beyond Wallencamp, we discovered a man walking in the distance. It +was the only human being we had seen since we started. + +"Hullo, there's Lovell!" exclaimed Grandpa. "I was wonderin' why we +hadn't overtook him before. We gin'ally take him in on the road. Yis, +yis; that's Lovell, ain't it, teacher?" + +I put up my glasses, helplessly. + +"I'm sure," I said, "I can't tell, positively. I have seen Mr. Barlow but +once, and at that distance I shouldn't know my own father." + +"Must be Lovell," said Grandpa. "Yis, I know him! Hullo, thar'! Ship +ahoy! ship ahoy!" + +Grandpa's voice suggested something of the fire and vigor it must have +had when it rang out across the foam of waves and pierced the tempest's +roar. + +The man turned and looked at us, and then went on again. + +"He don't seem to re_cog_nize us," said Grandma. + +"Ship a-hoy! Ship a-hoy!" shouted Grandpa. + +The man turned and looked at us again, and this time he stopped and kept +on looking. + +When we got up to him we saw that it wasn't Lovell Barlow at all, but a +stranger of trampish appearance, drunk and fiery, and fixed in an +aggressive attitude. + +I was naturally terrified. What if he should attack us in that lonely +spot! Grandpa was so old! And moreover, Grandpa was so taken aback to +find that it wasn't Lovell that he began some blunt and stammering +expression of surprise, which only served to increase the stranger's ire. +Grandma, imperturbable soul! Who never failed to come to the rescue even +in the most desperate emergencies--Grandma climbed over to the front, +thrust out her benign head, and said in that deep, calm voice of hers:-- + +"We're a goin' to the house of God, brother; won't you git in and go +too?" + +"No!" our brother replied, doubling up his fists and shaking them +menacingly in our faces: "I won't go to no house o' God. What d'ye mean +by overhauling me on the road, and askin' me to git into yer d----d +old travelling lunatic asylum?" + +"Drive on, pa," said Grandma, coldly: "He ain't in no condition to be +labored with now. Drive on kind o' quick!" + +'Kind o' quick' we could not go, but Fanny was made to do her best, and +we did not pause to look behind. + +When we got to the church, Sunday-school had already begun. There was +Lovell Barlow looking preternaturally stiff in his best clothes, sitting +with a class of young men. He saw us when we came in, and gave me a look +of deep meaning. It was the same expression--as though there was some +solemn, mutual understanding between us--which he had worn on that night +when he gave me his picture. + +"There's plenty of young folks' classes," said Grandma; "but seein' as +we're late maybe you'd jest as soon go right along in with us." + +I said that I should like that best, so I went into the "old folks'" +class with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler. + +There were three pews of old people in front of us, and the teacher, who +certainly seemed to me the oldest person I had ever seen, sat in an +otherwise vacant pew in front of all, so that, his voice being very thin +and querulous, we could hear very little that he said, although we were +edified in some faint sense by his pious manner of shaking his head and +rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. + +The church was a square wooden edifice, of medium size, and contained +three stoves all burning brightly. Against this, and the drowsy effect of +their long drive in the sun and wind, my two companions proved powerless +to struggle. + +Grandpa looked furtively up at Grandma, then endeavored to put on as a +sort of apology for what he felt was inevitably coming, a sanctimonious +expression which was most unnatural to him, and which soon faded away as +the sweet unconsciousness of slumber overspread his features. His head +fell back helplessly, his mouth opened wide. He snored, but not very +loudly. I looked at Grandma, wondering why her vigilance had failed on +this occasion, and lo! her head was falling peacefully from side to side. +She was fast asleep, too. She woke up first, however, and then Grandpa +was speedily and adroitly aroused by some means, I think it was a pin; +and Grandma fed him with bits of unsweetened flag-root which he munched +penitently, though evidently without relish, until he dropped off to +sleep again, and she dropped off to sleep again, and so they continued. + +But it always happened that Grandma woke up first. And whereas Grandpa, +when the avenging pin pierced his shins, recovered himself with a start +and an air of guilty confusion, Grandma opened her eyes at regular +intervals, with the utmost calm and placidity, as though she had merely +been closing them to engage in a few moments of silent prayer. + +Our class occupied an humble place in the sanctuary, near the door. +Behind the pew in which Grandma, Grandpa, and I were sitting there was +one more vacant. Presently the door opened, admitting a delightful waft +of fresh air, and some one entered that pew, and bowed his head forward +on the desk in a devotional attitude. + +After the brief excitement caused by the advent of this new and very late +comer had subsided, the Sunday-school resumed its former lethargic +condition, and then I heard my own name whispered very softly in my ear. + +I had to turn my head but a little to meet the deprecating, though +evidently irreverent eyes of Emily's fisherman. + +"How do you do, Miss Hungerford?" he murmured brightly. "Please don't +consider me in the light of an intruder. I know I'm rather young for the +class, to which you are admitted by reason of some extraordinary +acquaintance with biblical lore." + +"But it's an excellent opportunity for you to address the little boys and +girls," I said. + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Rollin, reddening. "I only meant that for a joke, +you know." + +Without pausing to reflect at all on the moral consequences of the act, I +welcomed the appearance of this voluble, fashionably-dressed young man +among the "ancient and fish-like" odors of the West Wallen meeting-house +with a positive sense of relief. + +"If I might venture to suppose," Mr. Rollin continued, whispering, "that +I came here to-day clothed, in any sense, as an angel of light--and, +indeed, I feel a good deal like that sort of thing to-day--so sweet are +the solaces of an approving conscience, and the consciousness of having +resisted temptation. You see I was--yes, I was going fishing this +morning, but I saw Captain Keeler go by to church--observe, too, the +beauty of setting a good example--and I persuaded myself that it was +wrong to go fishing on Sunday, and so I concluded to come to church, +too." + +At the light mockery of the fisherman's tone, the bolder flattery of his +eyes, I felt the same quick flash of resentment that his words had +occasioned when he walked with me up the lane. I turned my head away +with the noble resolve to keep it there persistently. + +Then I heard the whisper, "Miss Hungerford, you are driving me to the +last extreme of idol worship. I shall, keep on addressing my petitions to +that ostrich tip in your hat until you give me, at least, the benefit of +your profile." + +"I don't see why you should say such irreverent things to me, Mr. +Rollin," I said, quite seriously, turning, and looking him full in the +face, for an instant. + +"Heaven forbid!" he replied, in an almost inaudible tone. "And if I could +have conceived of such a thing, I would beg your pardon. You have +brothers, Miss Hungerford?" + +"Yes," I answered, nodding my head slightly, with my eyes fixed +steadfastly on the ancient instructor of our class. + +"How would you feel if your brother was off, alone, in some wild country, +in need of good and gentle influences, and some young lady should treat +him as you are treating me? Please turn your head a little this way. +But, on the whole, I'm very glad I'm not your brother. Shall I tell you +Why? Miss Hungerford," the fisherman continued, after a pause, "do you +know I've always heard that auburn-haired people come, by right, into +possession of the worst tempers. Your hair is brown--dark brown, and mine +is red, almost--don't you think so?--and yet my mind is all peace within, +and hope, and joy, and + + 'What is the blooming tincture of the skin, + To peace of mind and purity, within?' + +Miss Hungerford, it has been full two minutes, by my watch, since I +caught the last beam from your eye. Let us forget the idle wranglings of +the hour, and compose our minds to the great subjects which agitate +eternity. One of those insects which infest ancient church edifices has +been hovering about Captain Keeler's mouth. It has been drawn in. It has +disappeared. Such are we, hovering on the vortex of eternity. How calm +and undisturbed the old captain's face! how utterly unconscious of the +tragedy just enacted! So eternity swallows us and leaves no trace behind, +and no ripple marks its surface. How infer--how more than odd the old +captain looks, anyway! I say, she ought to have touched up his eyebrows a +little, you know, while she was at the nefarious business, Miss +Hungerford." + +"Yes," I answered, listening deliberately. + +"Do you suppose that the time will ever come when she to whom I once gave +the love of my young heart, and all that sort of thing, you know, will +take me in hand, and dye my hair, and rig me up, and make such an +infernal-looking old guy of me?" + +"I don't see how you can escape," I said. "But you won't care so much, +then." + +"No, that's true." Mr. Rollin sighed deeply "I shall be old, then;-- + + 'When I am old, I shall not care + To deck with flowers my faded hair.'" + +The idea of Mr. Rollin decking his hair with flowers was a specially +entertaining one to me. + +Presently, he continued:-- + +"To descend for a moment to secular subjects--I've got my own horses here +now, Miss Hungerford. I had my man Bob bring them down from Providence. +They got here last night, and they're a pair of spankers, too, if I do +say it that shouldn't, as the phrase is. That was one of the inducements +which led me to follow your--to follow Captain Keeler's example in coming +to church this morning. And now I have a calm, serious, and reasonable +proposal to make. No doubt we are both familiar with the small +conventionalities of life, but on such a day as this, and with such a +glorious air outside, and such a unique framework of society--everything +delightfully pagan--scruples worthy only of small consideration at any +time should be thrown aside. I don't know what perils you encountered +on your way to church this morning, in the canvas-covered vehicle. But, +if you will drive back to Wallencamp with me, I promise to take you there +fleetly and safely, and you may have the consciousness, besides, if you +care for it, that you have made the day one of spiritual reclamation to +an erring fellow-creature." + +[Illustration: VISITORS' DAY AT THE WALLENCAMP SCHOOL-HOUSE. +Scene from the Play.] + +The Sunday-school had risen to its feet and was slowly droning "Yield not +to temptation," etc. The situation was odd enough. Mr. Rollin's repressed +laughing voice was in my ear: "Will you yield?" and I yielded. + +At the close of the Sunday-school, as we were going out of the church, I +told Grandma that I should drive home with Emily's fisherman. + +She drew me gravely to one side. "We shall be very sorry to lose your +company, teacher," she said; "only we hadn't ought to lose no precious +opportunity, and I do hope as you'll labor for that young man's soul." I +felt hopelessly conscience-stricken. + +We drove home through "Lost Cedars"--a good many miles out of the +ordinary course--and I was cheerfully consenting to the divergence. + +Wild and tenantless, in the midst of a wild and tenantless landscape, +Lost Cedars wore that air of lovely, though utter, desolation which might +easily have suggested its name. + +There was a still unfrozen lake, which the setting sun, more like the sun +of an Italian winter than of rugged New England, was painting in gorgeous +colors, when we reached the place. + +"We come fishing here, sometimes," said Mr. Rollin; "I keep a little boat +down there under the bush, and I happen to have the key of the boat here +in my pocket. It looks awfully tempting, doesn't it?" + +I had always been passionately fond of out-door life, and prided myself +in having acquired no little skill at the oar. We were out on the painted +lake, and I was rowing the light boat, and taking much selfish enjoyment +out of the scene around me, when I became conscious that the fisherman +was leaning far forward from his seat in the boat, addressing me in a low +tone. + +"To discuss a topic appropriate to the day, Miss Hungerford: I suppose +you've read about that fellow who was looking for the pearl of great +price, haven't you?--that is, as I take it, you know, it was something +that was going to be of more value to him than anything else in the +world,--well, now, I believe that every man thinks he's going to be lucky +enough to fall in with something of that sort some day, don't you?" + +Mr. Rollin's tone was unusually serious and even slightly embarrassed. I +looked up with curious surprise from my dreamy observation of the water. +Then I thought of what Grandma Keeler had said to me about laboring for +this young man's spiritual good. + +"I think we all ought to seek it," I observed tritely, giving a long, +studied artistic stroke to the oars. "I don't see why you shouldn't find +it, I'm sure--if you ask. I wish that I were good enough to talk to you +real helpfully on this subject." + +I was startled at the inspiriting effect my brief exhortation seemed +already to have produced on the soul of Emily's fisherman. + +"To ask! Is that all!" he exclaimed in the same low breath. And looking +at the glowing, though rather unsanctified light on his features, my +interest suddenly expanded to take in the possible drift of his words. I +concluded that it was time for me to show myself eminently discreet; +having departed so far from the immediate object of my mission as to +spend a considerable part of the Sabbath driving and rowing with a +strange young man, miles from every place of refuge. + +"I'm tired," I said. "Please row back now, I should like to go home." + +I rose to give Mr. Rollin my place at the oar. He held out his hand to +assist me, and, whether by any malicious design of his or not, at that +moment the boat gave a sudden lurch, and I was precipitated helplessly +forward into his arms. I felt his kiss burning on my lips. + +With anger at the fisherman's unfairness, and bitterness at what I felt +to be the mortifying result of my own folly and indiscretion--"Oh," I +exclaimed; "I hate you! I wish you would never speak to me again! I wish +I had fallen into the water." + +The fisherman sent the boat leaping on with long strokes. "D----n it!" +he muttered softly: "I wish you had, and I after you!" + +We drove for several miles on the way homeward in silence. Then Mr. +Rollin spoke. I had been meditating upon Rebecca, upon my determination +to make my life in Wallencamp one of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion +to duty, and had concluded, in a deeply repentant mind, that this +unpleasant incident at the close of the day was only the natural +consequence of my error in departing from the prescribed limits of my +self-appointed task. + +I felt that after this experience it would be unwise for me further to +extend my mission work in Mr. Rollin's behalf. So I answered him but +briefly, and in a tone of martyr-like composure, which I could not help +observing perplexed and irritated him more than anger or the most frigid +silence would have done. + +I was strengthened in this frame of mind when we parted at the little +gate in front of the Ark, and Mr. Rollin proposed another drive for the +ensuing week. + +Then I revealed to the fisherman the grave burden of my soul. + +"Mr. Rollin," I said; "if I had come to Wallencamp merely in search of my +own pleasure and diversion, I should doubtless find it very easy to do +some things which I do not consider harmful in themselves, but which it +is wrong for me to do under the circumstances. I may tell you that I have +been very reckless, very thoughtless in my life, but I came here +resolving to devote myself to an earnest, serious work. I hoped to do +these people good. They do seem to believe in me. They trust me. I cannot +bear that they should think me in any way unworthy of their trust. When +you asked me to drive this evening,--it was just as it used to be--I did +not think. You were very kind. It was pleasant, and I thank you,--but I +ought not to have gone--don't you see? I believe, now, that it would have +been so much better if I had not." + +"I don't see," said Mr. Rollin; "why should you leave _me_ out +altogether? Don't I believe in you? Don't I need to be done some good +to?" + +At this last childishly whimsical appeal I was in sore danger of being +diverted from the serious channel of my thoughts. Then the door of the +Ark softly opened a little way, and there, nightcapped in white, like a +full, benignant moon, appeared the head of Grandma Keeler, as she peered +blindly out into the night. + +"Poor old soul!" I said. "She has probably been 'waiting and watching.' +Don't you see already one of the results of my sinning? Good night," I +said, extending my hand to the fisherman, who had fixed on that innocent +and unconscious nightcap a darkly withering gaze. + +"Oh, never mind me," he muttered, turning abruptly. "Only take care of +this infernal old nest of Hoosiers, and respectable people may go to the +devil!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BECKY AND THE CRADLEBOW. + + +"Teacher's got Beck's beau!" + +"Teacher's got Beck's beau!" I heard it whispered among the school +children. Rebecca heard, too, and paled a little, but looked up at me and +smiled as frankly as ever. + +Seeing her alone afterwards, I took occasion to remark, incidentally, +"how kind it was of her friend, Mr. Rollin, to bring me home from church. +Fanny was so slow! And I thought he was a very pleasant young man, but +even the most estimable people, you know," I added, laughing, with an +undertone of studied significance; "are not just fitted to enjoy each +other's society always." + +Then I blushed under the girl's clear, trustful gaze. + +"You don't think I mind what the children talk!" she said. + +Every day Rebecca appealed more and more, unconsciously, to what was most +generous and grave and heedful in my nature. She seemed to be demanding +of me, with mute, gentle importunity, to make real my ideal of life, to +be what I knew she believed me to be. Her faith in my superior wisdom and +goodness, her slow, timid way of confiding in me, with tears and blushes +even; it was all very flattering, very captivating to one who had but so +lately risen to occupy the pedestal of a moral instructress, and "my +child," "my dear child," I said to her in many private discourses, with +more than the tranquil grace and dignity with which such terms had been +applied to me, only a year before, by the august principal of Mt. B---- +Seminary. + +Rebecca read my books, and I drew her out to talk with me about them. She +prepared her lessons, with me, out of school. She knew that she might +come whenever she chose to my little room at the Ark, which the chimney +kept comfortably warm, and often I heard her footsteps on the stairs and +her gentle knock at the door. + +If I was troubled or perplexed on any account, Rebecca always seemed to +understand in that quiet, unobtrusive way of hers, and followed my +movements with a grave, restful sympathy in her eyes. On several +occasions I had asked her, playfully, to walk up the lane with me after +school. So it became a matter of course that she should wait for me. +Often we took longer walks, for it was an "open winter," with only one +or two light falls of snow. + +Then I believed the "Tempter" came to me, in the form of another +invitation to drive, from Mr. Rollin. + +Occupied with my duties in the school-room, one afternoon, I was startled +to observe these characters as suddenly and mysteriously raised as if by +the unseen hand of a modern sibyl on the blackboard:-- + +"teecher's Bo is a setting On the Fens." + +Involuntarily raising my eyes to the window, I was unable to discover on +the fence opposite anything of the nature indicated in those words. I +concluded that the whole was to be taken as one of those deeply +allegorical expressions in which the Wallencamp tongue abounded. + +Shortly afterward, a boy who had been playing truant and the Jews' harp +at the same time, in a subdued and melancholy way under the window, and +who had, doubtless, been bribed to undertake his present commission +through some extraordinary means, entered the school-room, and laid on my +desk a note from the auburn-haired fisherman. It was hastily scrawled in +lead pencil, on a leaf torn from a memorandum. + +The fisherman confessed to all the meekness and long suffering, without +the cheerful intrepidity of Mary's little lamb! He would do all his +waiting outside. Mr. Levi was down from West Wallen to-day, and said that +he had heard somebody say that there were four letters came for the +teacher in last night's mail. Would I like to drive over to West Wallen +and get them. The fisherman did not believe that I had been in earnest in +the prudish and unreasonable notions I had propounded when he left me the +other evening. + +"Prudish!" In my newly-acquired elevation of mind, I hugged the term with +a deep, intense, and mysterious delight. Oh, if my mother could only +know--if my elder sister could only know that I had actually been accused +of prudishness! It was in the glow and inspiration of this idea that I +indited the answer to Mr. Rollin's missive: "Why would he make it +unpleasant and disagreeable for me to do what seemed so plainly my +duty?"--and dispatched the same by the pensive and unpunished truant, who +was soon heard again revelling in the stolen sweets of his Jews' harp +beneath the window. + +After this I had no further intercourse with the fisherman for some days. +If I chanced to meet him in the lane, Rebecca was always with me. He came +one evening to the Ark. The young people were there, singing. + +Then I heard, from time to time, of his taking Rebecca to drive, and +congratulated myself that, through my composed wisdom and forethought, +the little world of Wallencamp was destined to move very smoothly, on the +whole. + +"I wonder why Mr. Rollin don't go home," observed Grandma Keeler, +complacently, on one of those rare occasions when the Keeler family +circle held quiet possession of the Ark before the songful company had +arrived. "He didn't use to stay but a week or two at a time, and all the +rest o' the fishermen have been gone some time now; and he keeps them +horses down here, and goes loungin' around with no more object than a +butterfly in December." + +"I tell ye he's a makin' up to Beck," said Grandpa Keeler, with the +knowing air of an old man accustomed to fathom mysteries of this peculiar +nature. + +A spark shot out of Madeline's great, black eyes. Then she laughed +unpleasantly. "There's something in the wind besides Beck," said she. + +"Why, I don't know," said Grandma; "he don't hang around there very much, +may be, but they say he takes her to ride, and I'm sure he don't wait on +nobody else. But I should think, if he was a going to speak out he'd +ought to do it, and not waste his time a keepin' a puttin' it off. Why, +my fust husband wasn't but a week makin' up his mind, and pa," she +continued, referring openly to Grandpa Keeler, "he wan't quite so +outspoken, to be sure; but he came around to it in the course of a month +or two, and kind o' beat around the bush then, and wanted to know what I +thought on't, and--wall, I told him 'yes,'--I didn't see no use in bein' +squeamish so long as I'd once made up my mind to it." + +"I asked ye as soon as I could!" exclaimed Grandpa, bristling on the +defensive. "I wanted to be sure o' gittin' a house fust." + +"There!" said Madeline briskly, putting down her foot, and tossing her +head as she addressed the old couple. "Be good, children! Be good!--and +now, do you mark my words, it isn't Becky Weir that Dave Rollin is +hanging around here for. There's some folks to be made up to, and there's +some folks, jest as good, to be stepped on. And Dave Rollin--what does he +think of Wallencamp folks, anyway? He wouldn't take the trouble to kick +'em out of his road; he'd jest step on 'em, and he's steppin' on Beck +Weir. He don't care enough about her to let her alone." + +"Wall, I--don't--know!" said Grandma. "What's he stayin' for, then?" + +"Staying! Lord, ma!" said Madeline sharply, with a strange cold glitter +in her eye. "How do I know what he's stayin' for? Oh," she added, in a +tone of lighter bitterness, "It's a mild winter and open roads. He's +sketching they say, and exploring the Cape. Let him explore from one end +to the other, he won't find such another fool as himself." + +"We can't help nothin' by talkin' that way;" said Grandma Keeler, a +little pale, though calmly cognizant of Madeline's emotion. + +"You know I had an experience of my own once, ma," said Madeline, +terribly white about the lips. + +"I wouldn't rake up old wounds, daughter." There was nothing unfeeling in +Grandma Keeler's tone. + +The daughter shut her lips together tightly, as though more than she had +intended to reveal had already escaped them, and applied herself +desperately to her sewing. + +I fancied that I had detected a personally aggressive quality in +Madeline's indignant tone. + +"I don't see why we should feel that way about Rebecca," I said. "The +more one gets acquainted with her, the more lovable and worthy of respect +she seems. I knew a great many girls, at school--girls with every +advantage of wealth and culture, too, who had not half of Rebecca's grace +and refinement, nor a tenth part of her beauty!" + +Madeline said nothing, bending to her work with the same bitter +compression of the lips. + +"It's right you should stand up for her, teacher," said Grandma Keeler, +pleasantly. "Miss Waite, she begun by makin' a kind o' pet o' her, but I +don't think Rebecca ever set her heart on her as she has on you, and it's +easy to see you've took lots o' pains with her. She's a gittin' them same +kind o' sorter interestin' high-flowed ways--why, she used to be just +like the rest of 'em--jest sich a rompin', roarin' thing as Drussilly +Weir is now." + +"Goodness gracious, ma!" Madeline put in again, sharply. "What good is it +going to do Beck Weir to put on airs? Better stick to her own ways, and +her own folks--she'll find they'll stand by her best in the end, I +guess--than to be fillin' her head with notions to hurt her feelin's over +by and by. She's a fool, I think, for treatin' George Olver as she does. +He's worth a dozen Dave Rollins, if his coat don't set quite so fine, and +would work his fingers off to suit her if she'd only settle down to him +and be sensible." + +"Wall," said Grandma Keeler, in a tone that was a curious contrast to +Madeline's, "our feelin's won't always go as we'd ought to have em', +daughter." + +"No, they won't!" Madeline snapped out excitedly, "but, ma, you know I'm +in the right of it just as well as I do; and there's Lute Cradlebow's got +to dreamin' and moonin' around in the same way. Took it into his head +he wanted to get an education--well, what hasn't he took into his head! +So he must begin recitin' to teacher. Well, he had in his mind to study, +I don't doubt, to begin with, and used to come two or three times a +week, and rattle off a string, and now he's here every day of his life, +and, if there's any reciting going on, I don't hear it--not that I want +to meddle with other folks' business, but I've known those boys a good +many years, and I hate to see anybody hurt and run over, even if they be +young and ignorant, and making fools of themselves. Some folks are none +too good, I think, for all their airs, and had better look out to see +where they're going!" + +"Why, thar', Madeline!" said Grandma, with a decided touch of +disapproval in her voice. "R'a'ly, seems to me you're kind o' out. I'm +sure Luther Larkin seems to be a gittin' along finely with his Latin and +Algibbery--I'm sure I've heard a lot of it, when I've been goin' through +the room, if you ain't; and if he's took it into his head to git book +larnin', and maybe scratch enough together to go away somewheres to +school, why, I'm sure, there's older boys than him, and not so bright, +have ketched up if they set there minds to it, and as for our +teacher--Madeline!" + +"Oh, I've no doubt but what Miss Hungerford meant kindly," said Madeline, +with the lightness she could so suddenly assume. "It's a mighty queer +world, that's all!" she added presently, rising and putting on her +bonnet; "and managed very queerly, for I suppose it is managed. I'm going +out, ma. Those children have split my head with their noise to-day, and I +promised Patty I'd come in and sit awhile. Now, if I've been cross and +crazy, don't you and teacher talk me over," she said, looking back and +trying hard to smile--and she did look very tired and white, as though +she had been suffering--"and if those children wake up and begin to +squall"--with a glance towards the little bedroom--"let 'em squall. If +I've wished it once to-day, I have a hundred times, that they was the +other side of sunset!" + +"I wish you'd step into Lihu's--such a poor, sufferin' creetur as he +is--with these," said Grandma, appearing from the pantry with some eggs +in her apron. "I wish you could take the consolations of religion with +you, Madeline," she continued gravely, as Mrs. Philander was closing the +door. + +"Lord, ma! my pocket's full now!" exclaimed Madeline. "Besides, they +might break the eggs!" And the latch fell down with a click. + +"I wish Madeline was a believer," Grandma sighed, purposely rattling +about the cover of the stove to wake up Grandpa, who had fallen asleep in +his chair. + +Grandpa looked at me, and smiled feebly, then roused himself to meet this +supposed challenge like a man. + +"Believer, ma?" said he; "why ain't I a believer? As old Cap'n Gates +said to me on his last voyage"--Grandpa yawned alarmingly (poor old man! +he was but half awake), as this unlucky reminiscence of his sea-faring +life flitted through his brain--"says he, 'I read my almanick and my +Bible, both, Bijonah;' says he, 'I read 'em both, and I believe there's a +great deal o' truth in both on 'em.'" + +"Thar, pa!" said Grandma, solemnly, "you'd _better_ go to sleep! you'd +_better_ close your eyes, Bijonah Keeler! What if you should never open +'em again on earthly scenes, and them words on your lips,--and you a +perfessor!" + +Grandpa scratched his head in drowsy bewilderment, passed his hand once +or twice over the coarse stubble on his face, and again committed himself +helplessly to the sweet obliviousness of slumber. + +I drew my chair up confidentially close to Grandma Keeler's, and rested +my arms on the table as I looked into her face. + +"Grandma!" I said, for I knew that she was better pleased to have me call +her that; "I begin to think that I ought never to have come to Wallencamp +on a mission, that perhaps it would be just as well if I had never come +to Wallencamp at all, I mean. I didn't think. At first, it seemed more +than anything else, like something very new to entertain myself with. I +didn't think enough of the responsibility. Then, perhaps, I thought too +much of it. I don't know. I wish I were out of it all. Grandma, I never +tried to do the right thing so hard before in my life. I never worked so +hard before--and I don't mind that; but I meant it all for the best, and +it's no use, it's just like all the rest. I'm tired. I wish I were out of +it." + +"Wall, thar' now, darlin'," said Grandma, employing to the full her tone +of infinite consolation. "You ain't the first one as mistook a stump for +livin' creetur in the night, and don't you talk about givin' up nor +nothin' like it, darlin', for we couldn't do without you noways--nor you +without us, for yet a while, I'm thinkin', though it does seem +strange--and never you mind one straw for what Madeline said, for she was +kind o' out to-night, anyway, not having got no letter from Philander, I +suppose. But then she ought not to feel so. Why, there was time and time +agin that I didn't git no letter from Bijonah Keeler when he was +voyagin', and to be sure, they wasn't much better than nothin' when they +did come; for pa"--Grandma cast a calmly comprehensive glance at her +unconscious mate--"pa was a man that had a great many idees in general, +but, when he set down to write a letter, somehow he seemed to consider +that it wasn't no place for idees, a letter wasn't--seemed as though he +managed a'most a purpose not to get none in." + +"Grandma," I said, leaning forward, laughing, and folding my hands in her +lap, "you're the best comforter I know of." + +"Wall, thar'," said she; "it's a good deal in feelin's, and Madeline +ain't r'al well, so she kind o' allows 'em to overcome her sometimes." + +"And what did she mean by saying that about Rebecca?" I asked. + +"Oh, she just meant girls will be girls, that's all!" replied Grandma; +"why, mercy! I know all about that. I don't feel like nothin' much more +than a girl myself, half the time; and we all have to have our +experiences, to be sure. They ain't nobody else can wear 'em for us, but, +dear me! the Lord ain't going to let our experiences hurt us; they're for +our betterin'." + +"And Lute Cradlebow, Grandma?" I said; "what did she mean about him?" + +"Oh, she just meant boys will be boys, that's all--especially big +ones--but thar'! I've known 'em to get over it a hundred times and not +hurt 'em none. If you're always lookin' at human natur' on the dark side, +it seems kind o' desp'rit. My first husband, he wasn't a fretful man, but +he was always viewin' the dark side o' things. I suppose one reason was +he didn't have no father nor mother, and so he kind o' begun life as a +took-in boy, but Pollos Slocum, he done very well by him, for he hadn't +no children of his own, but his brother--that was Daniel Slocum--he had +six. There was two boys and four girls. Mary, she came fust. She was born +February nineteenth"---- + +I was sorry that Grandma's thoughts had drifted into this hopeless and +interminable channel. + +I had considered carefully what Madeline had said, and determined on a +little new advice for my friend, Rebecca. So, the next time we were alone +in my room together, I directed the conversation with a view to this +end. + +"And I wouldn't trust any one, my dear," I said with cheerful +earnestness; "then if people prove true, why, it's all the more +delightful; and if not, one isn't disappointed; so you can hold the +scales quite indifferently in your own hand, and are always master of the +situation. Oh, I wouldn't trust people! It would be very nice if +this were the sort of world that you could do it in, but it isn't. It's a +very deceitful world." + +"But I can trust you, can't I?" Rebecca held me with her gravely +questioning eyes. + +"Well, I don't know;" I began with the determination to be severely true +to my text, but the look in Rebecca's eyes hurt me. + +"Oh, yes! little girl," I continued, falling into the half-tender, +half-playful tone that it was always easiest to assume with her; "of +course, you must trust me I Haven't I been a good teacher to you, so +far?" And I sought by smiling in the girl's face, to chase the grieved +expression away from it. "What I meant was that I wouldn't trust people +generally, because it's a selfish world, and such is the depravity of the +human mind that if it appears at all convenient, we are apt, you know, to +sacrifice other people to our own interests; so, with all the little +kindnesses and politenesses which are current in society, it is still the +common practice--and if is best that it should be so--to keep, in the +main, a sharp look out for 'Number One!'" + +Having proceeded so far, it occurred to me that the occasion was +favorable for the discharge of another duty which I had been meditating +in regard to Rebecca. + +"You are what Grandma Keeler calls a believer, are you not, dear?" I +said, with the same composedly dictatorial manner: "in distinction from a +professor, I mean." + +Rebecca gave a little gasp, and turned her head away, for an instant. +When she looked back, there were tears of distress in her eyes. + +I felt a vague wonder and regret. + +"No," she said; "I thought, once--I wanted--I hoped----" + +"Why, child!" I hastened to exclaim. "I didn't ask you because I had any +reason to doubt that you were one--quite the contrary--but simply for +this. It seems to me it would be such a desirable thing for you, situated +as you are, here, with so few surroundings of a refining and elevating +nature, if you could attach yourself, if it were merely for a feeling of +fellowship and sympathy--for of course, you could not attend, often--to +some simple Orthodox body of believers--like the Methodist church at West +Wallen, for instance. It seems to me, that, in your case, believing +simply and unquestionably, as I have no doubt you do, it would be a sort +of assurance, a sort of continual rest and support to you. It would be a +great relief to me if I felt that you were so guarded. Not that I +consider it essential at all; to some people, indeed, of a deeply +thoughtful and inquisitive mind, such a course would appear impossible. +You have never troubled yourself, Becky," I continued, in a tone of +reassuring lightness; "you have never troubled yourself with doubts and +speculations on religious subjects?" + +"I don't know," Becky replied, the look of perplexity and distress +deepening in her eyes. + +"Why should you?" I murmured, softly stroking her hair; "He carries the +lambs in His bosom." I had been little in the habit of quoting +Scripture--the words, coming to my mind, struck me as particularly +Beautiful and applicable on this occasion. "And so what I have suggested, +would be the easiest and most natural thing in the world for you to do. I +suppose it might be necessary for you to have come to some conclusion in +regard to the first principles of Theology; but probably you have already +satisfied yourself as to these in your own mind." + +Rebecca looked little like one who had arrived at the calm plane of +philosophical conclusion of any sort. + +"I don't know," she gasped. + +"Well, take the Trinity, for instance," I continued, in a tone highly +suggestive of calm and supreme forbearance with helpless ignorance. +"Probably you believe in the Trinity?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Rebecca. "I don't know what it means. Nobody +ever told me; nobody ever talked to me about those things before." + +"It's simply," I said; "a term implying the existence of three persons in +the Godhead. So the Trinitarians are distinguished from the Unitarians +who believe that it consists of one. I'm not particularly informed as to +the Methodist credentials of faith. You will always hear that they +believe that salvation is free to all who will accept of it. Some people +believe that man is a free agent, and may accept or refuse the means of +grace, and if he refuses, is eternally lost. And then, again, there are +the Universalists, who believe that all will be eventually saved. There +is the Calvinistic element--those who believe in predestination--that +is----" + +Becky had laid her head down on the bed, and was quietly sobbing. + +"My poor child," I exclaimed, with swift compassion, "don't think +anything more about what I have said to you. Let it go. It isn't vital." + +"You don't hate me for not knowing anything?" sobbed Becky. "Nobody ever +tried to have me understand, before." + +"You know enough; quite enough, dear!" I remarked hastily, producing from +my trunk a quantity of illustrated magazines. These we looked over +together, and when Becky went away, the tears were dried in her eyes, and +she was laughing as merrily as ever. + +With the severely implied reproach of Madeline's words still in my mind, +I took pains to assume toward Luther Larkin a more elder-sisterly air +even than before. + +It was true, I felt that I had been unjustly stung, having, amid the +press of other duties, undertaken the advancement of that bright youth, +from motives, I believed, of an ideal and disinterested nature. It was +also true, that, after the first enthusiasm with respect to his lessons +had passed away, as well as the natural diffidence he had at first felt +in my presence, Luther Larkin, though punctual to the hour of recitation, +had gradually fallen into a habit of more lively and discursive inquiry +than that furnished within the dull range of his text-books. He had a +singularly fearless manner of challenging the inexplicable in thought and +life, with a light conversational flow of much brilliancy. Moreover, +he was a delightful dreamer. + +We had our recitation, for quiet, in one of Grandma's gloomy and +mysterious keepin'-rooms. The only object inviting to sedentary posture +in this room was Grandpa's huge "chist," which occupied a position +"along side" the East window. Those sacred window curtains, of green +paper, flowered with crimson roses, were never rolled up; but as the +light strayed in at one side, and fell on the Cradlebow's fine head, +often I reflected that under certain other conditions of life, meaning +conditions more favorable to Luther Larkin, I might have regarded him +very tenderly, and invested the strength and beauty of his young manhood +with heroic meaning. + +As it was, I assumed that I was years beyond him in the gravest respects. +And if there was any truth in what Madeline had intimated, possibly I had +been at fault for not impressing this fact more deeply on his mind. + +"So you are getting sadly behindhand with your lessons, Luther," I said. +"I wish you would make a brave effort to catch up. There is no true +attainment to be reached without a corresponding degree of effort--of +perseverance." + +I spoke with a serious and gracious air, as though this sentiment, +gleaned from a profound experience, had occurred to me as an idea +peculiarly my own. + +"Never mind the lessons!" replied my audacious pupil, brightly. +"Teacher," he added presently, having fallen into a gently musing +attitude; "how shiny those crimples in your hair look, with that streak +of sun lighting on 'em!" + +"Luther," said I, very gravely: "you ought not to talk to me about my +hair. Suppose we give our attention to these books. Now you were getting +along so fast, I'm very sorry----" + +"Do you think I'm to blame, teacher?" exclaimed Luther, earnestly, "There +wasn't a stick of wood to be had in our house this morning! And I've had +to be off, all day, chopping, with Scudder--you ought to have seen the +black snake we killed this morning. It was six feet long. If you don't +believe it, Scudder's got the carcass. It was lying all curled up in the +bushes with its head up so--'you watch him, Lute,' says Scudder, 'and +I'll run and get the axe!' I couldn't help laughing. The axe was over the +other side of the bog, and the snake began to stretch himself out and +slide along. I brought my boot-heel down once or twice on his head, about +as quick and strong as I could make it. I killed him. It's a good sign to +kill a snake, teacher. It's a good sign to dream of killing one; but you +come across one so, accidentally, and kill it, and it's sure to bring +good luck, Granny says." + +"That's more significant than a great many of your signs and symbols," I +said. "That means that you will slay the tempter in your path, and be +successful in overcoming difficulties. In short, it means that whatever +there has been to divert you, you are coming back to the resolve to study +and improve yourself; to be all the stronger for having a few chance +obstacles to dispose of." + +Luther's head began to droop a little. I thought it was time that the +melancholy atmosphere of the room should have begun to exercise its usual +depressive effect on his spirits. + +"You think I don't like the books, teacher," he said. "I do, but there's +most always something else to be doing. Father's lame. He can't do any +work, and there's the rest to take care of. First, I sat up nights to +study, then I got so sleepy I couldn't. But I'd got so in the habit of +coming in to talk a little while after you got home from school, teacher, +that I--I forgot to forget it. Have I been a great bother to you? You've +been real good. I don't want you to think I forget that. And if I'd had a +chance at the books early, or to push right along with 'em now, I might +make out something in that line." + +Luther did not speak complainingly, nor even with hopeless regret. He +rose and stretched himself, with solemn satisfaction, to the extent of +his goodly proportions. + +"But I'm a man now, teacher," he said. "I shall be twenty in June, and +life is short. A man hasn't got time for everything. He'd be a fool to +waste it crying for what he didn't happen to have. He'd better push +along and work for the best. I meant to tell you. I'm going to sea, +teacher! I'm going trading. I was down to New Bedford, to see Captain +Sparhauk yesterday, for I was out with him once before, and got a good +deal of the hang of the business then; and he offered me a place on his +ship next time he sails." + +Luther stood with flushed face, regarding me with a bright restless look +of inquiry in his eyes. + +"Are you going away, really, Luther? I'm very sorry!" I said. + +"You don't care! what do you care?" he exclaimed almost rudely, with an +unnatural touch of hardness in his laugh. "It's the way you talk to all +the rest. A fellow might get to thinking too much about it. A fellow +might get to caring--if he believed it--I don't." + +"What makes you think I shouldn't care if you were going away?" I +continued, with the dispassionately gentle and reproving tone I +considered it wisest to assume on the occasion. "I should care, I should +be very sorry. Come and sit down here, please, and tell me all about it, +when you are going, and where, and what you are going for?" + +Luther came slowly back to the light. He seemed verily to have grown +older and handsomer in a moment. I experienced a deeper feeling of regret +than ever before, that the circumstances of his life could not have been +conducive to heroism. + +"The captain couldn't tell me just when he should sail," said he; "and +I'm going to get money. I know a good deal of the Spanish and Portugal, I +learned to talk them before--and I shall go to a great many places, I may +not come back when the ship does. Say, what strange eyes you've got, +teacher; now they're brown--and now, they're black, and now, they're a +sort of--a--purplish gray." + +"Oh, my dear boy," I exclaimed, with a sudden accession of wisdom, +sighing deeply; "you ought not to talk to me about the color of my eyes." +At the same time to deepen the effect of this condescending tenderness, I +pushed back lightly from his forehead a stray lock of hair that was +hanging there. + +"Don't do that!" the boy cried with startling impetuosity. "Don't call me +that again! I mean, teacher," he went on in a gentler tone, though none +the less excitedly;--"if you should know somebody, that had set his heart +on something, very much, and didn't want anything else if he couldn't +have that, and if he should know that he hadn't any right to ask for it +now, but go off and work for it real hard, and, maybe come back lucky in +a few years, with a right to ask for it then;--do you think, teacher, +that there'd be any chance of his finding--of his getting what he wanted +most? If you were in anybody's place, now, teacher, would you give him a +word of encouragement to try?" + +"I think that the person you speak of would be much more likely to +succeed in a practical undertaking, without any hallucination of that +sort before his eyes--and if, as you say, it isn't right that he should +ask for it now, can we predict that it would be any more reasonable and +expedient in the future? These idle fancies of ours soon pass away, +Luther, and will look laughable and grotesque enough to us by and by. +Life is so full of changes, and people change, oh, so much!" + +In spite of the vanity of my soul, I comforted myself with the reflection +that Luther would not care long. I did not really believe that he would +go to sea. I stood with him a moment in the door of Grandma's kitchen. +He looked over to the woods, behind which the water lay, and the fire and +impatience had all gone out of his manner. His gentleness touched me +deeply, yet I was determined not to feel his hurt, nor--"if only the +circumstances of his life had been different"--what might have been mine +also! + +"Hark! It's high tide. It's making quite a fuss over there," he said. "I +think a man feels more quiet somehow, when he's out there, teacher. +Father says I'm a wild chap and uneasy. I guess that's so. I can take +care of them just as well too if I go, and better. Only if I should +die--" there was nothing affected or forlorn in the Cradlebow's tone--"I +should like to be buried on the hill, with father's folks. You've been +across there. You look one way and there's the river, oftenest still--and +the other way, you hear the old Bay scooting along the sand. I like it, +being used to hearing it go always. Granny says it makes a difference +then, where you lie, about the resting easy. I don't know. Sometimes it +seems as though I should rest easier there." + +"A dissertation on the graveyard," I began in a tone of affected +lightness, and then paused, convicted of untruth by the solemn light in +the Cradlebow's strange, grand eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LUTE CRADLEBOW KISSES THE TEACHER. + + +Wallencamp had its peculiar seasons. After the season of hulled corn, +came the reign of baked beans. It was during this latter dispensation +that my courage failed considerably. + +Madeline used to remark, throwing a rare musical halo about her words: +"These beans are better than they look. Ain't they, teacher?" + +And I was wont to reply conscientiously enough, though with a sweetly +wearied glance at the familiar dish; "Certainly, they do taste better +than they look." + +Occasionally we had what Harvey Dole called, "squash on the shell," an +ingenious term for the last of the winter pumpkins boiled in halves, and +served _au naturel_. + +Grandpa, too, pined and put away his food. He used to look across the +table at me, with a feeble appeal for sympathy in his expression. +Oftentimes he sighed deeply, and related anecdotes redolent of "red +salmon" and "deer flesh," "strawberries as big as teacups" and "peaches +as big as pint bowls," in places where he had sailed. + +Once, he ventured to remark, apologetically, referring to the beans and +pumpkins, that "bein' sich a mild winter, somehow he didn't hanker arter +sech bracin' food, and he guessed he'd go over to Ware'am, and git some +pork." + +"Wall, thar' now, pa!" said Grandma; "seems to me we'd ought ter consider +all the fruits o' God's bounty as good and relishin' in their season." + +"I call that punkin out of season," said Grandpa, recklessly. "Strikes me +so." + +"I was talkin' about fruits. I wasn't talkin' about punkins," said +Grandma, with derisive conclusiveness. + +"Wall," said Grandpa, very much aroused, "if you call them tarnal white +beans the fruits of God, I don't!" + +"Don't you consider that God made beans, pa?" + +"No, I don't!" + +"Who, then--" continued Grandma, in an awful tone--"do you consider made +beans, pa?" + +Grandpa's eyes, as he glared at the dish, were large and round, and +significant of unspeakable things. + +"Bijonah Keeler!" Grandma hastened to say; "my ears have heard enough!" + +As for Grandma, neither her appetite, nor her spirits, flagged. In spite +of her confirmed habit of tantalizing Grandpa--and this was from no +malevolence of motive, but simply as the conscientious fulfilment of a +sacred religious and domestic duty--she was the most delightful soul I +ever knew. + +At supper, it was a habit for her to sit at the table long after we had +finished our meal, and to continue eating and talking in her slow, +automatic, sublimely philosophical manner, until not a vestige of +anything eatable remained, and then as she rose, she would remark, +simply, with a glance at the denuded board:-- + +"It beats all, how near you guessed the vittles to-night, daughter!" + +Then Grandma resorted to an occasional pastime, harmless and playful +enough in itself, yet intended as a special means of discipline for +Grandpa, and certainly, a source of great torment and anxiety to that +poor old man. + +Between the hours of eight and nine P.M., Grandma would deftly glide out +of the family circle, and be seen no more that night. At bedtime, Grandpa +would begin the search, while Madeline and I ungenerously retired. + +In the privacy of my own chamber, I could hear the old Captain tramping +desolately about the Ark, calling, "Ma! ma!" Could hear the outside door +swung open, and imagine Grandpa's wild face peering into the darkness, +while still he called; "Ma! ma! where be ye? It's half after ten!" + +Then, from the foot of the stairs would arise his distressed, appealing +cry; "Come, ma, where be ye? It's half after ten!" Silence everywhere. +With a mighty groan, Grandpa would come shuffling up the steep stairs, +and what was most remarkable, Grandma was invariably found secluded amid +the rubbish in the old garret. Then the whisperings that arose between +those two would have pierced through denser substances by far than the +little red door which separated me from the scene. + +"How'd I know, ma, but what you'd gone out and broke yer leg, or +somethin'? Come, ma--" with exasperated persuasiveness--"what do ye want +to pester me this way for?" + +"Why, pa," arose the calm, mellifluous accents of Grandma Keeler, "so't +you might know how you'd feel if I should be took away!" + +Next, the little staircase would resound with loud creaks and groans, as +this reunited couple cautiously--and I have no doubt that they believed +the whole affair had been conducted with the utmost secrecy--made their +way down in their stocking feet. + +Grandma--Heaven bless her, always devoted, though original--never saw a +human ill that she did not long to alleviate. So, as Grandpa and I daily +refused our food, she affirmed, as her opinion, that the one need of our +deranged systems was a clarifier! And she forthwith prepared a mixture of +onions and molasses, with various bitter roots, which latter she, upon +her knees, had wrested from the frosty bosom of the earth in an arena +immediately adjoining the Ark. Thus I beheld her one wintry day, and +wondered greatly what she was at. When I came home from school at night, +through a strangely permeated atmosphere, I beheld the clarifier +simmering on the stove. + +Grandpa already stood shivering over the fire. He smiled when I came in, +but it was a faint and deathly smile--the smile of one who has returned, +per force, to weak, defenceless infancy. + +Grandma pressed me kindly to partake. I preferred to keep what ills I +had, rather than fly to others that I knew not of. So I gently and firmly +declined. But for several days in succession, Grandpa was made the victim +of this ghastly remedy. + +His sufferings went beyond the power of mad expostulation to express, and +came nigh to produce upon his features the aspect of a saintly +resignation. + +Never shall I forget his appearance during this clarifying period--his +occasional faint and fleeting attempts at wit--his usually hopeless and +world-weary air. The wonder to me was that he did not then enter upon a +celestial state of existence, being eminently fitted to go, as far as the +attenuation of his mortal frame was concerned. It was at this time that I +wrote home that I had never had such an appetite before in my life as now +in Wallencamp (which, in one sense, I felt to be perfectly true); that +the food was of a most remarkable variety (which I also felt to be true); +but that it was rather difficult to procure oranges and the like. +Whereupon, I received from home a large box, containing all manner of +pleasant fruits, and thus poor old Grandpa Keeler and I were enabled to +take a new lease of life. + +I found that it was considered indispensable to the proper discharge of +my duties in Wallencamp that I should make frequent calls on the parents +of my flock, throughout the entire community. If I failed in any measure +in this respect, they reproached me with being "unsociable," and said; +"Seems to me you ain't very neighborly, teacher." + +I had called myself a student of human nature. It seemed to me, now, +that in those dingy Wallencamp houses, I stood for the first time, awed +and delighted before the real article. Sometimes the men sent out great +volumes of smoke from their pipes, in the low rooms, that were not +delightful; but as far as they knew, they exerted themselves to the +utmost, men and women both, to make their homes pleasant and attractive +to me. + +Godfrey Cradlebow's place was as small and poor as any. There was one +room that served as kitchen, dining-room, and parlor, with a +corresponding medley of furniture. A very finely chased gold watch hung +against the loose brown boards of the wall--a reminder of Godfrey +Cradlebow's youth. But what distinguished this house from all the others, +was the profusion of books it contained. There were books on the tables, +books under the tables, books piled up in the corner of the room. + +Godfrey Cradlebow himself was confined in-doors much of the time with the +rheumatism. He made nets for the fishermen. I used to like to watch his +fingers moving deftly while he talked. + +Things having gone wrong with him, and he having suffered much acute +physical pain, besides--(that was evident from the manner in which his +stalwart frame had been bent with his disease) he had "taken to drink," +not excessively, but he seemed to be, most of the time, in a lightly +inebriated condition. He was a strange and fluent talker, often ecstatic. + +"It is commonly believed, Miss Hungerford," he said to me, once; "that we +start on the summit of life, that we descend into the valley, that the +sun is westering; but as for me, I seem to look far below there on the +mists and dew of earlier years. I walk among the hills. The horizon +widens. The air grows thin. I see the solemn streaks of dawn appearing +through the gloom. Ah," he murmured, again; "weak and erring though I +undoubtedly am, I have a kinship with the living Christ. Yes, even such +kinship as human worthlessness may have with infinite perfection. People +will say to you about here, Miss Hungerford; 'Oh, never mind Godfrey +Cradlebow. He's always being converted, why, he has been converted twenty +times already!' very true, ay, and a hundred times, and I trust I shall +taste the sweets of conversion many times more before I die. I do not +believe the soul to be a barren tract, so far removed from the ocean of +God's love, that it may be washed by the waves only once in a lifetime, +and that, in case of some terrible flood. But I rejoice daily in the +sweet and natural return of the tide. How the shores wait for it! Strewn +with weeds and wreck, scorched by the sun, chilled by the night, how it +listens for the sound of its coming! until it rushes in--ah! roar after +roar--all-covering, all-hiding, all-embracing!" + +Godfrey Cradlebow shook his head rapturously, tears rolled down his +cheeks, and all the while he went on rapidly with his netting. + +He had the natural tact and grace of a gentleman, and was especially +courteous to his wife. This brought down upon him the derision of the +Wallencampers, whose conjugal relations were seldom more delicately +implied than by a reference--"my woman thar'!" or "my man over thar'!" +with an accompanying jerk of the thumb. + +Lydia, Godfrey Cradlebow's wife, was tall and slight, with dark hair and +eyes--a perfect face, though worn and sad. She invariably wore over her +cotton gown, on occasions when she went out, a very fine, very thin +old-fashioned mantilla, bordered with a deep black fringe. This pathetic +remnant of gentility, borne rudely about by the Wallencamp winds, with +Lydia's refined face and melancholy dark eyes, gave her a very +interesting and picturesque appearance; though I never thought she wore +the mantilla during the winter for effect. She was shy, though +exceedingly gentle in her manners. At first, I had thought that she +avoided me. But one time, when making the round of my parochial calls, I +stopped at the Cradlebows', and Mr. Cradlebow discoursing fluently on the +Phenomenon, recommended a severe method of discipline as best adapted to +his case, I replied, laughingly, that he had better be cautious about +making any suggestions of that sort, for Simeon and I were getting to be +great friends; the mother, on whose heart I had had no design, took my +hand at the door, when I went away, in a clinging, almost an affectionate +way. + +"You are good to my boys, teacher," she said; "and I thank you for it. +They make you a great deal of trouble." + +"Oh, no," I answered lightly, returning with a sense of pleasure the +pressure of her hand, and it was not until afterwards, walking slowly +down the lane that I sighed gently, thinking of that troublesome boy who +had told me he was going to sea. + +Removed from the world of newspapers, the ordinary active interest in the +affairs of church and state, there was a great deal of the lively gadding +about, neighborly dropping in element in Wallencamp. This applied to the +men equally as well as to the women. I remember that Abbie Ann once put +out her washing, and this fact kept the whole social element of +Wallencamp on the _qui vive_ for a number of days. + +The caller would appear at the door at anytime during the day with a +good-natured matter-of-fact "I was a passin' by, and thought I'd drop in +a minit, jest to see how ye was gittin' along." + +"Won't you set?" would be the cordial response. "Do set." + +"Wall, I don't know how to spend the time anyway," the visitor +would reply; "there's so many things a drivin' on me." + +But this care-belabored victim of fate usually concluded by sitting quite +complacently for any length of time. + +When such visitations occurred out of school hours, and I remained up in +my room, as I frequently did at first, the droppers in felt very much +aggrieved, as though I had wittingly offended the instincts of good +society. + +Besides all which, seldom an evening passed that the young people did not +come to the Ark _en masse_ to sing. + +Then Madeline or Rebecca, or (very rarely) I propelled a strain of +doubtful melody from Madeline's little melodeon, while the singers--boys +and girls together--chimed in, joyfully rendering with a perfect +fearlessness of utterance and deep intensity of expression such songs as +"Go, bury thy sorrow, the world hath its share," and "Jesus, keep me near +the cross," and "Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow; now wash me, +and I shall be whiter than snow." + +They knew no other songs. They would sing through a large proportion of +the Moody and Sankey Hymnal in a single evening. + +At first I listened half amused or thoroughly wearied. But, as the +strains grew more familiar and I sang occasionally with the others, I +felt each day more tired and more conscious of my own incompetency. And +still the Words rang in my ears; "I hear the Saviour say, thy strength +indeed is small;" with much about trusting in Him, and his willingness to +bear it all. As the wind beat against the Ark on wild nights, so that we +could hardly tell which was the wind and which was the roar of the +maddened sea, and still those voices chanted hopefully of the "stormless +home beyond the river," etc., the words began to strike on something +deeper than my physical or intellectual sense, and that not rudely. + +I smiled to catch myself humming them over often, and in the school-room, +when I felt that my patience was fast oozing, and I experienced a wild +desire to loose the reins and let all go, unconsciously I took refuge in +repeating those same simple words, going over with them, again and again, +beneath my breath, holding on to them as though they possessed some +unknown charm to keep me still and strong. + +I went to the evening meetings. They were held in the school-house, and +were very popular in Wallencamp. + +By some provision of the government on behalf of the Indians, a small +meeting-house had been built for those in the vicinity of Wallencamp, and +they were also provided with a minister for several months during the +year. On this account the Indians rather set themselves up above the +benighted Wallencampers, whom government had not endowed with the +privileges of the sanctuary, while they, in turn, made derisive allusions +to the "Nigger-camp" minister, and regarded with contempt its prescribed +means of grace. + +The Indians enjoyed, for part of the time that I was in Wallencamp, the +ministrations of a Baptist clergyman, a truly earnest and intelligent +man, gifted with a most forceful manner of utterance, but so lean as to +present a phenomenal appearance. This good man feared nothing but that he +should fail in some part of the performance of his duty. He believed that +it was his duty to come over and preach to the Wallencampers also, in +their school-house, and he did so. + +I think that the Wallencampers regarded this, on the whole, as a doubtful +though entertaining move. + +I do not think that they took any particular pains to harass or annoy the +Rev. Mr. Rivers. But they certainly did not restrict themselves in that +natural freedom which they always enjoyed on the occasions of their +spiritual feasts. + +They attended, as usual--the old and the young, the good, the bad, the +indifferent, with a lively sprinkling of babies. + +Though not a cold night, they kept the stove gorged with fuel. It roared +furiously. They were restless. They made signs audibly expressive of the +fact that the air of the room was insufferably close, and very audibly +slammed up the windows. They whispered and giggled; they went out and +came in, as they pleased. They drank a great deal of water. I remember +particularly, how at the most earnest and affecting part of the Rev. Mr. +Rivers' discourse, the immortal Estella, _alias_ the "Modoc," arose in +gawky innocence and all good faith from her seat immediately in front of +the speaker, and walked to the back part of the room to regale herself +with a draught. + +The Baptist minister discharged a withering and conscientious reproof at +them through his nose. + +Now, for, the Wallencampers to be reproved, however scathingly, by some +zealous and inspired individual of their own number, was considered, on +the whole, as an apt and appropriate thing, but to be reproved by the +"Nigger-camp" minister! When, after the meeting he walked with the Keeler +family back to the Ark, where he had been hospitably entertained, the +Wallencamp boys saw us depart in silent wrath, and I feared that +Treachery lay in wait for the Rev. Mr. Rivers. + +He sat and talked with us at the Ark for an hour or more, perhaps, before +bidding us good-night, and during that time I caught glimpses of faces +that appeared at the window, and then vanished again instantly--familiar +faces, expressive of much scornful merriment. Now and then I heard a +smothered giggle outside, and a scrambling among the bushes. It was a +dark night. When the Rev. Mr. Rivers finally rose to depart, and had got +as far as the gate, he became helplessly entangled in a perfect network +of small ropes. He could neither advance nor recede. In a pitiable and +ignominious condition, he called to us for help. + +"Those devilish boys!" said Grandpa, with religious fervor of tone, at +the same time glancing at me with a delighted twinkle in his eye. "I knew +they was up to something. I heered 'em out there;" and he patiently lit +his lantern, and went out to cut the minister free; but the Rev. Mr. +Rivers did not come to the Wallencamp school-house to preach again. + +Among those who looked on with quiet approval at this childish and +barbarous performance of the Wallencamp youth, I learned afterwards, were +staid Lovell Barlow and little Bachelor Lot. + +Left to their own spiritual devices, the Wallencampers carried on their +evening meetings after methods formerly approved. They rose and +talked--or prayed--or diverted themselves socially--or sang. Everything +they were moved to do, they did. + +The lame giant, Godfrey Cradlebow, at seasons when the tide came in, +would pour forth the utterances of his soul with the most earnest +eloquence. At other times, he was morbid and silent, or made skeptical +and sneering remarks aside. + +Lovell Barlow, though generally regarded as a believer, had never so far +overcome his natural modesty and reserve as to address the Wallencamp +meeting. But one night, spurred to make the attempt by some of his +malicious and fun-loving compatriots, he surprised us all by rising with +a violent motion from his seat, and making a sudden plunge forward as +though his audience were a cold bath, and he had determined to wade in. + +"Boys!" he began, with a most unnatural ferociousness. Then I felt +Lovell's eyes fixed on my face. "And girls, too," he added, more gently; +"and girls, too, certainly, _I_ think so;" he continued; "_I_ think so." +His tone became very feeble. He glanced about with a wild eye for his +hat, grasped it, and went out, and I saw him afterwards, through the +window, standing like a statue, in the moonlight, with his arms folded, +and with a perfectly cold and emotionless cast of countenance. + +Among the professors, Godfrey Cradlebow's mother, Aunt Sibylla, with +quite as much fire and less delicacy of expression than characterized the +speech of the strange lame man, was always ready to warn, threaten, and +exhort. + +Grandpa Keeler, too, though not subjected to the renovating and +rejuvenating processes of the Sabbath, but just touched up a little here +and there, enough to give him a slight "odor of sanctity," and a saving +sense of personal discomfort, was always led to the meeting, and kept +close by Grandma Keeler's side on the most prominent bench. + +When there was one of those frightful pauses which sometimes occurred +even in the cheerful concourse of the Wallencampers, casting a depressing +influence over all hearts, Grandma Keeler by a series of covert pokes and +nudges, would signify to Grandpa that now was the appointed moment for +him to arise and let his light shine. + +And Grandpa Keeler was not a timid man, but since the event of his +clarification, he had shown a stronger dislike than ever to being +pestered, and was abnormally quick to detect and resist any advances of +that kind. So his movements on these occasions were marked by an angry +deliberation, though the old sea-captain never failed in the end, to +arise and "hand in his testimony." + +His remarks were (originally) clear cut and terse. + +"There's no need o' my gittin' up. You all know how I stand" (an +admonitory nudge from Grandma)--"What's the matter now, ma?" I could hear +the old man swear, mentally, but he went on with the amendment--"or try +to. I'm afeered that even the best on us, at some time or nuther, have +been up to some devil"--(sly, but awfully emphatic nudge from Grandma) +"ahem! we're all born under a cuss!" persisted Grandpa, with irate +satisfaction. "I've steered through a good many oceans," he continued, +more softly, "but thar' ain't none so--misty--as this--a--" (portentous +nudge from Grandma,) "as this pesky ocean of Life! We've got to keep a +sharp look-out" (another nudge from Grandma), "ahem, steer clear of the +rocks," (persistent nudges from Grandma), "ahem! ahem! trust in God +Almighty!" admitted Grandpa with telling force, and sat down. + +As for Grandma, she was herself always prompt and faithful in the +discharge of duty, however trying the circumstances. She was no +hypocrite, this dear old soul! She could not have feigned sentiments +which she did not feel, yet it was invariably the case that, as she rose +in meeting, her usually cheerful face became in the highest degree +tearful and lugubrious. The thought of so many precious souls drifting +toward destruction filled her tender heart with woe. She besought them +in the gentlest and most persuasive terms to "turn to Jesus." She dwelt +long upon His love, standing always with hands reverently clasped before +her, and eyes downcast with awe. + +I used to long to hear her speak. The sound of that low, tender monotone +was in itself inexpressibly soothing. But Grandma's tongue had its mild +edge, as well. + +Once, when she was speaking, a number of the young people--it was a +common occurrence--rose to go out. + +Grandma went on talking without raising either her voice or her eyes; but +when they had reached the door, "What--" said she, in that tone which, +though so mild, somehow unaccountably arrested their progress; +"what--poor, wanderin' creeturs--if your understandin's should give out!" +meaning, what if you should suddenly be deprived of the use of your legs! +"Have you never heered," she continued; "the story of Antynias and +Sapf_i_ry?" + +But she did not recount the tale. If possible, she would rather use words +of love than of malediction. + +I shall never forget the faithful manner in which she narrated Abraham's +intercession with the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah. + +"And Abraham said to the Lord, 'Periodventure there be fifty righteous +found,' he said; 'willest thou destroy the city, and them in it? Oh, no! +that ain't like the Lord,' he says; 'for to slay the righteous and the +wicked together--fur be it.' And the Lord says; 'No. If I find fifty +righteous I'll spare all the rest,' he says, 'on account o' them fifty,' +he says, and Abraham says, 'O Lord, now I've begun,' he says, 'and you +don't seem so very much put out with me as I expected, I've a good mind +to keep on askin' ye a little more, jest to see what ye'll say,' he says; +'O Lord, periodventure what if there shouldn't be but forty-five?' he +says." + +Grandma went through the list of "periodventures," depicting Abraham's +growing fear and obsequiousness in the most tragic manner until she got +to the hypothetical ten. + +"And Abraham said; 'O Lord, I know you won't like it this time, but I've +gone so fur now, that I'm going to out with't; and don't--don't git put +out, O Lord! and I won't put it one mite lower. Periodventure, O Lord, +what if there shouldn't be but ten?' and the Lord said, 'If there wasn't +but ten, he wouldn't destroy them wicked cities.' Now," continued +Grandma, with tearful impressiveness, "if Abraham had even a ventured to +put it down one five more, what more chance do you think there'd be for +us here in Wallencamp?" + +After the meeting, Captain Sartell and Bachelor Lot held their usual +theological levee, outside the school-house. + +"Wall, Bachelder," said the captain, who always took the initiative with +extreme recklessness; "if it was a goin' to take ten to clear Sodom and +Germorrer, how many righteous men do you calkalate it 'ud take ter lift +the mortgage off'n this ere peninsheler, eh?" + +Bachelor Lot was unusually thoughtful. + +"Heh!" said he, in his thin drawl. "The Lord knew he was seafe +enough--knew he'd a been seafe enough if he'd a said tew; knew he'd a +been seafe enough if he'd a said eone, for there's his own statement to +the effect--heh!--that there wasn't a righteous man eanywhere, no, not +eone." + +"Not much leeway, that's a fact, Bachelder," said Captain Sartell, who +had an embarrassed way, particularly when discussing subjects of a +religious nature, of twisting his powerful blonde head about, and +swallowing very hard. "D----d little leeway, I must confess,--wall--all +the same for you and me, Bachelder." + +Bachelor Lot smiled a little. + +"Heh! What was it about that couple, Almiry (Grandma Keeler) was tellin' +about--Antynias and Sapfiry--heh, Captain? What streuck 'em eany way? It +wasn't because they went out o' meetin', was it? I think it would be a +satisfaction to the company, Captain, if you would relate the +circumstance." + +The brave and honest captain craned his neck about with several hard +gulps. + +"Wall, to tell the truth, Bachelder, I ain't quite so well posted with +the Old Testament as I be with the New, but," he continued, resolutely, +"if it would be any favor to the company--as near as I calkalate, this +ere Antynias heered that the Lord was a goin' by, and, as near as I +calkalate, he clim' up in a tree to see him pass." The captain writhed +fearfully, but did not flinch, "And, as near as I calkalate, he got on to +a rotten limb, and it let him down. That is," he remarked, with +concluding agony, "as near as I calkalate." + +"Heh! yees, much obleeged, I'm sure," said Bachelor Lot. "I, heh! I +recall the anecdote now, perfectly, but wheere--wheere was Sapf_i_ry?" + +"Wall," the captain gave a gulp that actually brought the tears to his +eyes; "as near as I calkalate, Sapf_i_ry was under the limb." + +"Certainly," said Bachelor Lot; "certainly! and a veery unfortunate +poseetion for Sapf_i_ry it was, too. I weesh you would be so kind as to +eenform the company in what part of the Sacred Writ this little anecdote +is recorded, Captain, as I for one should very much leike to look it up." + +Captain Sartell took a determined step forward. "Look y' here, +Bachelder," said he; "I don't want no hard words betwixt you and me, for +there never has been. But a man's word is a man's word, and a man's +friends had ought to stick by it, and I want you to understand that, on +this ere point, I ain't agoin' to have no lookin' up." + +"Heh!" Bachelor Lot smiled and nodded his head, cheerfully. "I'd be +willing to waeger my life, Captain, that if anybody's made a mistake on +this point--heh--it ain't you." And with this amicable conclusion, the +two stars withdrew. + +George Olver sometimes rose in meeting and made a few remarks indicative +of a manly spirit and much sound common sense. He was very fond of +Rebecca, that was plain. Her continued indifference to him made him sore +at heart, and the people in Wallencamp suggested that on this account he +was more serious than he would otherwise have been. + +As for Rebecca, they said she had given up "seekin' religion," and had +returned to the world. She did not rise for prayers any more, and she did +not "lead the singin'" any more. And it was true that she seemed to me to +have changed, somehow. I knew that she was as girlishly devoted to me as +ever, as thoughtful as ever to please me. One Saturday morning, knowing +that I had letters in the West Wallen Post Office, which I was anxious to +get before Sunday, she walked the whole distance alone to get them, and +sent them up to me by one of the school children, so that I should not +know who went after them. She was careful lest I should notice any change +in her. But I caught a reckless, mocking gleam in her eyes, at times, +that had never shone there when I knew her first. She associated more +with the "other girls," now. I heard her talking and laughing with them +in as loud and careless a tone as their own. She even whispered and +laughed in the evening meetings. And this, after all the earnest, serious +discourse I had had with her, the "refining," "elevating" influences I +had tried to throw around her, having first taken her so graciously under +my wing! She knew what belonged to agreeable manners, and the advantage +of paying a graceful obedience to the dictates of one's moral sense! +Something must be very innately wrong in Rebecca, I thought, something I +Had not hitherto suspected, else why should she fail in any degree under +so admirable a method! + +"My dear," I said to her: "I am often tempted to do wrong--especially +because my life has been hitherto so vain and thoughtless--but, having +resolved to struggle with temptation, and to repel my own selfish +inclinations, I will not be content until I come off conqueror; I will +not fall out or loiter by the way; I have trials and perplexities, but I +will not submit to them, nor be driven from my purpose. Now, are you +struggling to resist the little temptations that come to you day by day? +Are you striving to make the very best of yourself, Becky?" + +I knew how easily I could move Rebecca, either to laughter or tears, so I +was not surprised to see her lip tremble, and her eyes fill; but I was +surprised at the look of intense anguish, almost of horror, that came +into her face. I had not supposed that she was capable of such strong +emotion, and I marvelled greatly, what could be the cause. + +"Oh," she said; "you don't know, teacher, you don't know! It never seemed +so bad before I knew you. I was different brought up from you, and I +loved you, and when I knew, oh, then I could die, but I couldn't tell +you! Oh, you wouldn't kiss me again, ever, if you knew; and I wish you +wouldn't, for it hurts, it hurts worse than if you didn't!" + +Rebecca had turned very pale, and drew her breath in long gasping sobs. + +"Baby!" I said reassuringly, stroking her hair; "I don't believe you have +done anything very wrong." But Rebecca drew away from me. + +"You don't know," she said. "I was brought up different--and it was +before you came, and I never knew that, what you told me about not +trusting people. I thought it was all true, and oh!--there ain't anybody +to help! Oh, I wish I was dead! I wish I was dead!" + +"Rebecca," I said, a little frightened, and convinced that the girl had +some serious trouble at heart. "Tell me what the trouble is? Has any one +deceived you? And why should any one wish to deceive you, child?" + +Rebecca only moaned and shook her head. + +"But you must tell me," I said; "I can't help you unless you do." + +She drew herself farther away from me, with only these convulsive sobs +for a reply. I did not attempt to get nearer to her, to comfort her as it +had been my first impulse to do. She had repulsed me once. "You are +nervous and excited, my dear," I decided to say; "and something of little +consequence, probably, looks like a mountain of difficulty to you. At any +rate, when you get ready to confide in me, you must come to me. I shall +not question you again." + +So I left her, less with a feeling of commiseration for her than with a +deep sense of my own pressing burdens and responsibilities. + +I had another ex-pupil (Rebecca had been out of school for several +weeks), who was a source of considerable anxiety to me--Luther Larkin. He +had ceased coming to the Ark to sing with the others. He had not played +on his violin since that first night when the string broke. + +I heard that he had gone to New Bedford; and it was a day or two +afterwards that, coming out of the school-house after the meeting, I saw +him standing on the steps alone. I knew that an escort from among the +Wallencamp youths was close behind me. I hastened to put my hand on +Luther's arm. + +"Will you walk home with me?" I said, looking up in his face and smiling. +I knew that the face lifted to his then was a beautiful one, that the +hand resting on his arm was small and daintily gloved, unlike the bare +coarse hands of the Wallencampers. I knew that my dress had an air and a +grace also foreign to Wallencamp, that a delicate perfume went up from my +garments, that my voice was more than usually winning. I experienced a +dangerous sense of satisfaction in the conquest of this unsophisticated +youth--a conquest not wholly without its retributive pain and +intoxication. + +I felt the Cradlebow's arm tremble as we walked up the lane. + +"I have a little private lecture to give you, Luther," I said. "Of course +you have been very much absorbed in your own affairs lately, but is that +an excuse for forsaking your old friends entirely? Especially if you are +going away. Are you going away?" + +"Yes," said Luther. + +"When?" I asked. + +"In April," he answered briefly. + +[Illustration: GRANDMA KEELER INTRODUCES THE NEW TEACHER. +Scene from the Play.] + +"And weren't you ever coming to see me, again?" I murmured with designing +soft reproach. + +"I was coming up by and by, to say good-bye," said Luther, brokenly. + +"Only for that?" I questioned, and sighed with a perfect abandonment of +rectitude and good faith to the selfish gratification of that moment. + +"What else should I come up for?" he exclaimed, breaking out into sudden +passion. "Except to tell you what you don't want to hear; that I love +you, teacher, I love you." + +"Oh, hush!" I cried with a little accent of unaffected pain. "It isn't +right for me to let you talk to me in that way, Luther. Oh, don't you +see? you're nothing but a boy to me!" + +"That's a lie!" the boy replied, with face and eyes aflame. "And because +I am poor, and because I am more ignorant than you, you make it an excuse +to trifle with me--and you look only to the outside, but you know I have +lived as long as you--a boy's head, you mean," he went on with choking, +fiery bitterness. "And it may be, and you are very kind, God knows! But I +can tell you one thing, teacher, it isn't a boy's heart for you to put +your foot on!" + +It was not a boy's strength in the quivering frame and tense, drawn +muscles. In his rare passions I admired Lute Cradlebow. + +The greater meekness and patience which always followed, I attributed to +a lack of perseverance or a too easy abandonment of purpose. + +"I hope you will be very happy all your life through, teacher;" he said, +as we stood at the door of the Ark; and he spoke very gently, and as +though he was going away then forever. Madeline had the key; she and her +companions had lingered at the school-house, as usual, after the meeting. +I murmured something about being very happy to have such a kind, true +friend; that I should probably leave Wallencamp before he went to sea, +but I hoped he would write me about his wanderings over the world, and I +should always be happy to answer and give him my sisterly advice. + +Luther continued, thoughtfully, almost smiling:-- + +"You remember that night, teacher, ever so long ago it seems, before I +knew you, when the boys dragged me into the Ark and I kissed you? I've +always kissed the girls when they come home from anywhere, and I never +thought, you know. I didn't mean anything by it." + +"Yes," I said. I think I must have looked amused. Luther answered the +laugh in my eyes with quiet appreciation. + +"Well, teacher," he said; "I should like to kiss you just once to-night, +and mean it." + +"That's a remarkable request," I said; "to come from my oldest pupil; but +it is my privilege to bestow, just once. If you will bend down from your +commanding height, and put yourself in an humble and submissive attitude +before me." + +The Cradlebow knelt on the doorstep. I would have stooped to his +forehead, but he put up his arm with an extremely boyish, inoffensive +gesture, almost with a sob, I thought, to draw me closer. + +I would have had that kiss as passionless as though it had been given to +a child. The Cradlebow's breath was pure upon my cheek--but I was +compelled to feel the answering flame creep slowly in my own blood. + +"Never ask me to do that again!" I exclaimed, in righteous exculpation of +the act. "Never!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK. + + +Up from the beach, lightly tripping, capacious reticule in hand, came +Mrs. Barlow to spend the day at the Ark, unexpectedly! The inspired and +felicitous customs of the Wallencampers admitted of no rude surprises; +rational joy, alone, pervaded the Ark at this matutinal advent. + +Mrs. Barlow, Lovell's mother, presented a charmingly antique +appearance--antique not in the sense of advanced years, but the young +antique--the gay, the lively, the never-fading antique. She had even a +girlish way of simpering and uttering absurdly rapturous exclamations. +Her face might have struck one at first as being of a strangely elongated +cast, but for its extreme prettiness and simplicity of expression. Her +nose was marked by a becoming scallop or two. Her eyes were of the ocean +blue. Her dark hair was arranged, behind, in the simplest and most +compact manner possible but, in front, art held delightful play. There, +it was parted, slightly to the left, over a broad, high forehead, and +disposed in braids of eight strands each, gracefully and lovingly looped +over Mrs. Barlow's ears. + +The tide of cheerful converse was at its full when I came from school to +lunch. Amid this preponderance of female society, my friend, Grandpa, +shone with an ardent though faintly tolerated light, giving to the lively +flow of the discourse, an occasional salty and comprehensive flavor, +which dear Grandma Keeler held herself ever in calm and religious +readiness to restrain. + +I listened, intensely interested, to the conversation, quite content, for +my own part, to keep silence; but I caught Mrs. Barlow's eye fixed on me +as if in abstracted, beatific thought. Soon was made known the result of +her meditation. She had concluded that I was incapable of descending to +subjects of an ordinary nature. Leaning far forward on the table, with a +smile more ecstatic than any that had gone before, she directed these +words at me in a clear, swift-flowing treble:-- + +"Oh, ain't it dreadful about them poor delewded Mormons?" + +"Why?" I exclaimed, involuntarily, blinded by the absolute unexpectedness +of the question, and not knowing, in a dearth of daily papers, but that +the infatuated people alluded to had been swallowed up of an earthquake, +or fallen in a body into the Great Salt Lake. + +"Oh, nothing!" said Mrs. Barlow; "only I think it's dreadful, don't yew, +settin' such an example to Christian nations?" + +"Dreadful! certainly!" I murmured, with intense relief, and allowed my +glasses to drop into my lap again. + +Thus the conversation turned to subjects of a religious nature. + +"Oh, I think it's so nice to have direct dealin's with the Almighty; +don't yew?" said Mrs. Barlow. "Oh, I think it is! Brother Mark Barlow +says he can hear the Lord speakin' to him jest as plain as they could in +Old Testament times; oh, yes, jest as plain exactly; Abraham and all +them, yew know! And Brother Mark Barlow generally means to go to Sunday +school. He says he thinks it's so interestin'; but it's sich an awful +ways. Don't yew think it is? Oh, yes, it's a dreadful ways! He don't +always. But yew remember that Saturday we had sich a dreadful storm? oh, +wasn't it dreadful! Oh, yes! Well, the next day, that was Sunday, Brother +Mark Barlow said he heard the Lord sayin' to him, jest as plain as day; +'Mark Barlow, don't you go to Sunday school to-day! You stay home and +pick up laths!' and he did, and oh, he got a dreadful pile! most ten +dollars worth; but I think it's so nice, don't yew, to have direct +dealin's with the Almighty!" + +The Barlows, by the way, were regarded with a sort of contemptuous +toleration by the Wallencampers in general, on account of their thrift +and penuriousness, the branded qualities of sordid and unpoetic natures. + +I was sorry when the brief hour of the noon intermission was over, and I +had to go back to school. + +But at night the Ark became alive. Soon after supper, Mr. Barlow arrived +and "Brother Mark Barlow" and Lovell. Then the little room began to fill +rapidly. We adjourned to the "parlor" and the melodeon. + +"Oh, I do think them plaster Paris picters are so beautiful, don't yew?" +said Mrs. Barlow, enraptured over a statuette or two of that truly vague +description, which adorned the mantelpiece. But she became perfectly +lost in delight when Lovell began to sing. + +Lovell's was the one execrable voice among the Wallencampers--if anything +so weak could be designated by so strong a term--and his manner of +keeping time with his head was clock-like in its regularity and painfully +arduous; yet, out of that pristine naughtiness which found a hiding-place +in the hearts of the Wallencamp youth, Lovell was frequently encouraged +to come to the front during their musicals, and if not actually beguiled +into executing a solo, was generously applauded in the performance of +minor parts. There was comfort, however, in the reflection that if Lovell +had indeed possessed the tuneful gift of a Heaven-elected artist, he +could not have been so supremely confident of the merit of his own +performances, nor could his mother have been more delighted at their +brilliancy. She sat with hands clasped in her lap and gazed at her manly +offspring. + +"Oh, I do think it's so beautiful!" she murmured occasionally to me, +aside. "Oh, yes, ain't it beautiful?" + +Once, she remarked in greater confidence; "Oh, he's dreadful wild!" + +"Lovell?" I inquired, with impulsive incredulity. + +"Oh, dreadful!" she continued. "I don't know what he'd ben if we hadn't +always restrained him. But somehow, I think there's something dreadful +bewitchin' about such folks. Don't yew?" + +"Very," I answered with vague, though ardent sympathy. + +"Oh, dreadful!" she responded. + +Meanwhile the perspiration stood out on Lovell's grave countenance, and +his head, like a laborious sledge-hammer, was swaying mechanically +backward and forward. + +"Sing bass, now, Lovell," said Mrs. Barlow; and the expression of awed +delight and expectancy on her face, as she uttered these words, was a +rebuke to all cynics and unbelievers of any sort whatever. + +"Yes'm, so I will, certainly," said Lovell; "so I will, and if I hadn't +got such a cold, I'd come down heavy on it too." + +"What do you think?" Mrs. Barlow went on in the same confidential aside +to me; "he's took it into his head that he wants to get married! Oh, yes, +he has really! and I think it's a wonder he never got set on it before. +But he never has so but what we could restrain him. But William and I, +we're beginning to think he might as well if he wants to. Oh, yes, I +think it will be so nice. Don't yew? I think it will be just splendid! +And I tell William, Lovell's wife shan't do nothing but set in the parlor +and fold her hands, if she don't want to; and she shall have a music, and +everything. When we built our new house, you know we used to live in that +little house that Brother Mark Barlow lives in now, oh, yes, and I think +it's so nice to have a new house, don't yew? I had 'em make the window +seats low on purpose, so that Lovell's children could sit on them! Oh, I +think it will be so pleasant, don't yew?" + +Mrs. Barlow turned her enraptured gaze on me. + +"Lovell's wife," I hastened to reply, toying with my glasses; "whoever +she may be, is certainly to be envied--and Lovell's children, too"--I +added, induced by that transcendently beaming smile; "who will have such +a broad window seat to sit on." + +Never an evening began in heartier fashion at the Ark. + +George Olver, standing next to Rebecca, rolled out a grand and powerful +bass. + +Lars Thorjon, the Norwegian, maintained a smiling silence, except when he +was giving utterance in song to his inspiring tenor. + +Madeline played the "music." + +I saw her wince sometimes, when the fine though untutored voices around +her took on a too wild and exuberant strain. The little woman's own voice +was exceedingly gentle and refined; more than that, it had a passionately +sweet, sad tone, a rare pathos. I used to wonder what there was in +Madeline's heart--what there had been in her life--to make her sing so. +Then I remembered how easy it was for her to get out of temper, and how +often she slapped the children, and I concluded that it was only a voice +after all, and not necessarily indicative of any inward sentiment or +emotion. + +And the mischievous Harvey Dole--could it be the same youth who stood +there now with tearful eyes, chanting his longings to be pure and +sanctified and heavenly. This merry youth had a predilection for those +religious songs which contained the deepest and saddest sentiment. + +"Now, what's the matter with you, Harvey?" said Emily Gaskell, who had +but just dropped in. "You know you'll go along hum to-night stunin' my +cats! You know what a precious nice time you're calculatin' to have, +about two months from now, up in my trees stealin' my peaches, you young +devil. 'Wash you from your sins!' Humph! Yes, you need it bad enough, +Lord knows! A good poundin', and boilin', and sudzin', you need--and a +good soakin' in the bluein' water over night, too." + +Emily's eyes sparkled with keen though good-natured satire. There was a +flood of crimson color in her cheeks, not entirely the effect of her +brisk walk in the open air. She had a spasm of coughing, which she +endured as though such discomforts had become quite a matter of course, +merely remarking when she had recovered herself sufficiently to speak:-- + +"Thar', that'll last me for one spell, I guess." + +"Won't you set, Emily?" said Grandma. + +"No," said Emily. "I can't. I jest come up to tell my man, there, to go +home! Levi is over from West Wallen, and wants to see him. Lord, I didn't +know you'd got a party, Miss Keeler!" she continued, glancing with an +irresistibly comical expression about the room. + +"Oh, no! we ain't got no party," said Grandma Keeler, pleasantly. "They +jest happened to drop in along." + +"Wall now, I should think there'd ben a shower and rained 'em all down at +once:" again surveying the occupants of the room with a comprehensively +critical air that was hardly flattering. + +"I don't see what on 'arth!" she went on. "Half the time you might +ransack Wallencamp from top to bottom, and you'd find everybody a'most +somewhere, and nobody to hum! It ain't much like the cake Silvy made last +week--she's crazier than ever--'Where's the raisins, Silvy?' says I--I +always make it chock full of 'em, and there wasn't one,--'Oh,' says +Silvy, 'I mixed 'em up so thorough you can't a hardly find 'em.' 'I guess +that's jest about the way the Lord put the idees into your head, Silvy,' +says I. 'Bless the Lord!' says that poor fool, as slow and solemn as a +minister." + +"We've been a singing" interposed Grandma Keeler in a voice that +contrasted with Emily's, like the flow of a great calm river with the +impatient fall of a cataract. "It seems a' most as though I'd been in +Heaven. They was jest a singin'--'The Light of the World is Jesus,' I +shall never forgit, when I was down to camp-meetin' to Marthy's Vin'yard +a good while ago--there was a little blind boy stood up on a bench and +sung it all alone; and it made me cry to see him standin' there with his +poor little white face, and eyes that couldn't see a' one of all the +faces lookin' up to him, a singin' that out as bold and free, and he did +pronounce the words so beautiful so as everybody could hear--I can hear +him a singin' of it out, now--'The Light of the World is Jesus.' And I +suppose we git to thinkin' that the light's in our eyes, maybe, or the +light's in the sun, or the light's in the lamp, maybe. But you might put +out my eyes,"--said Grandma Keeler, closing her eyes as she spoke, and +looking very peaceful and happy--"and you might put out the sun, and you +might put out the lamp, and say--'Thar', Almiry's all in the dark room, +she can't see nothin' now'--but the Light of the World 'ud be thar jest +the same, you couldn't put out the light--'The Light of the World is +Jesus.'" + +"Oh, I didn't know ye was havin' a meetin'," said Emily Gaskell, +mockingly. + +"No more we ain't, Emily," said Grandma Keeler. "We was jest cheerin' +ourselves up a little, singin' about home. Come you, now, and sing with +us": + + "We're goin' home, + No more to roam." + +With eyes still closed, with head thrown back, and a heavenly serene +expression on her face, Grandma began the refrain, while Madeline struck +the chords on the melodeon, and the singers took up the words with a +hearty cheer:-- + + "We're goin' home, + No more to roam, + No more to sin and sorrow; + No more to wear + The brow of care, + We're goin' home to-morrow." + +Then the chorus, "We're going home," joyfully repeated, died away at +last, more plaintively, "We're going home to-morrow." + +"Wall, I'm goin' home to-night," said Emily, and, as I looked up at her, +I caught the same mischievous gleam in her unsoftened eyes. "So strike up +Something lively now, and I'll waltz down the lane to it. 'Are your +windows open towards Jerusalem?'--Lord, can't you think o' something +warmer than that for this weather?" + +But the singers were going on gloriously: + + "Are your windows open towards Jerusalem? + Though as captives here a little while we stay + For the coming of the King in His glory, + Are you watching, day by day?" + +Emily tightened the shawl around her neck with a quick motion. In going +out, she took an indirect course through the room, purposely to pass by +where I was sitting. + +"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem?" said she, stooping and +whispering in my ear: "Dave Rollin's out there hangin' onto the fence one +side the bushes, and Lute Cradlebow the other, and they don't see each +other no more than two bats." + +"Are your windows open towards Jerusalem" was a favorite with the +Wallencampers. On this occasion they repeated it several times. Captain +Sartell and Bachelor Lot, who had been engaging in a game of checkers in +the little kitchen, left the board as the well-loved strains greeted +their ears, and came in to join the group. + +Grandpa had been consigned to the kitchen stove, with a corn-popper. I do +not think that he regretted being removed, somewhat from the more +inspiring scenes which animated the Ark. I was amused to follow, with my +ear, the old gentleman's progress in the successive stages of his +corn-shelling and corn-popping operations with certain contingent +misfortunes, as when he went into the pantry to look for a pan, and +brought down a large quantity of tin-ware clanging about his ears, and +rolling in all directions over the floor, while I immediately inferred +from the tones of his voice that he was enjoying a little unembarrassed +colloquy with the powers of darkness. Once, in his shuffling +peregrinations, he tipped over the little bench which sustained the +water-pail. A deep sigh of horror and despair escaped his lips, and was +followed by a "What the Devil!" borne in upon the song-laden air with +unmistakable force and distinctness. + +"For Heaven's sake, ma," said Madeline, looking up sharply; "what can pa +be a' doin??" + +"Oh," calmly said Grandma Keeler, "I guess he's only settlin' down." + +And with Grandma, indeed, the turmoils of this sublunary sphere implied +only a vast ultimate settling down. + +But if such deep rest came to Grandpa, it was only as a dream from which +he was soon to be rudely awakened. + +The sound of his footsteps had ceased. I knew that he was seated in his +chair by the fire, and I heard the long-handled popper shaken back and +forth upon the stove, at first as if moved by the power of a steadfast +purpose. But the sound grew fainter, the motions less regular. They were +several times desperately renewed, and then ceased altogether, so quickly +had Grandpa soared beyond the low vicissitudes of a corn-popping world. +Soon a burning smell arose. Then the door of the kitchen opened. Grandpa +was startled. I knew the catastrophe. The corn-popper with its contents +had been precipitated to the floor. Then I heard a courteous male voice, +with just a touch of suppressed merriment in it:-- + +"Never mind, Captain! small business for you, steering such a slim craft +as that, eh? On a red-hot, stove, too!" + +"Humph! Topmast heavier than the hull," replied Grandpa, accepting with +gratitude, in this extremity, the sympathy of the new-comer. + +The other gave a low laugh. + +"Never mind, Captain!" he repeated, "we'll have it slick here in a minute. +Let me take the broom. You've got it wrong side up. By Harry, we've got +the deluge _inside_ the Ark this time, Captain!" + +"Tarnal water-pail slipped moorin's," confessed Grandpa. + +Then followed a vigorous sound of corn rattling, and water swashing +against the sides of the room, and I knew that Mr. Rollin, the elegant, +was sweeping out the kitchen of the Ark. + +"I guess they's somebody else come," exclaimed Grandma, with hospitable +glee. "Wall, I declare for't. I guess I'll go out into my kitchen and git +that little no-back cheer. Seems to me as though we'd got all the rest on +'em in use, pretty much." + +"I'll go, ma," said Madeline. "Teacher'll be wanted to play now, and may +be she will? though she can't be got to do it for common folks." + +I did not enjoy playing on Madeline's melodeon. Any performances of that +kind which I had undertaken had been confined exclusively to an audience +of the Wallencampers. I had certainly never made an exception for the +amusement of the fisherman. But I flattered myself that there was no +trace of resentment in my tone when I said, "Sit still, Madeline, please, +I know where the chair is. Don't I, Grandma?" and was groping my way out +through the green curtained "keepin'" rooms, towards Grandma's culinary +apartment, thankful for a momentary escape from the heated atmosphere of +the "parlor," when I heard just behind me a voice of the most exquisite +smoothness:-- + +"Miss Hungerford, allow me." + +"Mr. Rollin!" I exclaimed, with an overwhelming sense of the +ludicrousness of the situation: "How dared you come through the room +where they were all sitting and follow me out here! Did Grandma tell you +that I had gone after a little no-back chair for you to sit on?" + +"She did," replied Mr. Rollin, with impressive gravity: "and I took it as +most divinely kind of you, too; though, if I might be allowed any choice +in the matter, I think I should be likely to assume a much more graceful +and more easeful and natural position in a chair constructed after the +ordinary pattern, Miss Hungerford, especially as after my exertions in +the kitchen I feel the need of entire repose." + +"But this is the only one left," I answered, with suppressed laughter. +"Do you think you can find it, Mr. Rollin?" + +"If you should leave me now," replied the fisherman; "I should have +positively no idea whither to direct my steps." + +"Then I shall be very happy to get it for you," I said. + +"But I could not think," he continued, "of allowing you to pursue your +way through this utter darkness to the extreme rear of the Ark alone. I +beg you to show me the way." + +I was not disposed to commit so gross an impropriety as to linger with +Mr. Rollin in "Grandma's kitchen," which we had reached, and through +whose broad, uncurtained windows the moonlight was pouring in with a +clear, fantastic radiance. + +"Isn't this glorious!" exclaimed the fisherman, in a tone nearly as +rapturous as Mrs. Barlow's own. "Oh, you don't think of going back now, +Miss Hungerford! After I've mopped the kitchen floor, and braved all +Wallencamp in its lair, and groped my way out through those infernally +black rooms, for the chance of having a few quiet words with you." + +Mr. Rollin's eyes were not snaky, nor his manner suggestive of dark +duplicity; yet I always felt a certain unaccountable discomfort while in +his presence, as though there was need of keeping my own conscience +particularly on the alert. + +I knew that the group in the parlor would be counting the moments of our +absence. + +"How can you ask me--" I began, in a tone of cheerful remonstrance, at the +same time readjusting my glasses to glance about for the little "no-back" +chair--"How can you ask me to stay out here talking with you, when you +know----" + +"Oh, I know." Mr. Rollin interrupted quickly. "I know how very thoughtful +and considerate you are for those people, Miss Hungerford. I know what +lofty ideas you have just now of consecrating yourself to the work of +refining and elevating the Wallencampers. I know how coolly you can fix +your eyes on a certain goal, and stumble indiscriminately over everything +that comes in your way. I know what a deucedly superior state of mind +you've gotten into. I know too about Miss B's school, and Miss L's +school, and the Seminary at Mount Blank, and the winters in New York." + +There was triumph at last, in Mr. Rollin's tone. + +"You have taken pains to collect a great deal of information about me;" I +replied, virtuously concluding that I should disappoint the fisherman +more by not appearing vexed. + +"Is it strange?" he continued earnestly, with an unconscious parody on +his usually suave and insinuating manner. "You will allow, Miss +Hungerford, that you might strike one, at first, as not being exactly in +the ordinary line of home missionaries, that is, as not having been +trained for the work, exactly; a sort of novitiate, I mean--confound it! +You will allow that you might strike one at first, as being deucedly new +In that _role_." + +After this, I smiled with a faintly malicious sense of satisfaction at +Mr. Rollin's confusion, though I felt that I had been cut to the heart. + +"And when I spoke about having found out about your past life," he went +on, struggling desperately with his lost cause; "I did not mean that +there was anything bad, you know; only that you sought pleasant +diversions in common with the rest of humanity, and enjoyed the +Heaven-born instinct of knowing how to have a good time, and weren't +always the ambitious recluse and religious devotee that you choose to be +just at present; though I've sometimes wished that I could turn saint so +all of a sudden, but I couldn't," added the fisherman, despondently; "if +I should go to the ends of the earth in that capacity, nobody'd take any +stock in me, whatever; and, after all, what does it amount to? + +"This isn't what I meant to say, any of it;" he sighed angrily. "It's +just what I meant _not_ to say--confound it! You've done gloriously; +you've played the thing through to perfection; you've made an inimitable +success of it; but Wallencamp doesn't offer scope wide enough for your +powers. I offer you a field hitherto untilled, left to the wandering +winds and the birds of the air, extensive enough in its forlorn iniquity, +I assure you, to engage your patient and continued efforts. It may prove +productive of good results yet, who knows? Is it my fault that I didn't +know you sooner?" + +I did not mistake the change in Mr. Rollin's tone, nor the meaning in his +eyes, but as we stood there by the window, in the full moonlight, I +caught a glimpse of another face outside, vanishing up the lane--almost +like a ghostly apparition it seemed to me--the handsome pale young face. +I guessed instinctively whose it was, and suffered a pang of sharp, +unconfessed pain, while the fisherman was murmuring in my ear. + +"Don't speak to me again of missions!" I cried with the strong and tragic +air of consciously blighted aspirations. "I shall go on no more missions, +great or small. It is very true what you have tried so delicately to +intimate. I was not fit for the work I undertook to do. I have only made +mistakes all the way along. Possibly I have been only 'playing a part.' +What does it amount to, indeed! What does it amount to!" + +"Heavens!" said Mr. Rollin; "play a part, by all means; never be sincere +in anything you do. I never tried it but once, and I've made a desperate +mess of it. Can't you understand that what I said was only in the purest +sort of self-defence? You weigh my words so nicely. Well, you are +considerate enough, God knows, of those dirty brats and ignorant +louts--coddling that girl, Rebecca, who is a good-hearted creature +enough, but not fit for respectable people to touch their hands to; and +associating with such conceited boors as that George Olver, and that +grinning clown, Harvey, and that poor fool, Lovell Barlow, and that +what-d'ye-call him--that fiddling young devil with the bird-like +name----" + +Mr. Rollin stopped suddenly. + +"You might make allowances for a man in a passion," he said; "instead of +dissecting his words in that cold-blooded way." + +"I had no notion of dissecting your words," I said, provoked into a +desperate honesty; "I believe them, as a whole, to be utterly false." + +"From the very beginning," said Mr. Rollin; "thank you; so I can begin +all over again; meanwhile,--you will forgive me? Imagine that I'm one of +those dirty little beggars that go to school to you. If one of them +should come to you and say that he was sorry?--" + +"I should only be intensely surprised," I said; "they never do such +things." + +"Then I have a superior claim on your clemency," said the fisherman; "for +I am sorry and humiliate my soul to the lowest depths of the +confessional." + +It was the voice of the plausible, easy-going fisherman again. + +My hand was on the latch. "I am not angry; I would rather be friends," I +said with averted face, as we were returning through the dark +"keeping-rooms." + +"When you get out of this realm of myths and missions, and general dread +and discomfort," said Mr. Rollin, "on to comprehensible soil again, where +ordinary sinners are sure of some sort of a footing,--and bad as a fellow +is he knows there are plenty more like him,--then I shan't appear to you +in such a deucedly poor light as I do now, a doubtful sort of pearl in a +setting of isolated cedars, with my beauty and my genius and my heavenly +aspirations all unappreciated, or made to descend as a greater measure of +condemnation on my devoted auburn head. Truly, I believe that an evil +star attends my course in Wallencamp. My own ideas seem strange to me. I +cannot grasp them. My language is wild and disconnected, I fancy, like +that of the early Norse poets. When I meet you in the world, I shall hope +to recover some of the old-time coherence and felicity of speech which I +remember to have heard practised among the world's people; and it isn't +long now, thank Heaven, before you'll leave Wallencamp behind you. When +you go home----" + +When I should go home, indeed! I had hardly dared to cherish the thought. +I stifled the rising flood of exultation in my breast--but how pale and +interesting I should look! And, then, I would describe Wallencamp to my +own loving friends as it really was, and what a lion they would make of +me! Had they not always lionized my virtuous efforts to the fullest +extent! + +My face must have been very happy in the dark. I felt even almost kindly +towards Mr. Rollin. We were at the last door. As we entered the lighted +room, Grandma's broad face began to beam with slow surprise, "Why," said +she; "where's the little no-back cheer?" + +Mr. Rollin's resources in such extremities usually bespoke a lifetime of +patient and adroit application, but now he hesitated. The accumulated +glory of years seemed likely to be wrecked on the phantom of a little +no-back chair. + +"Moonstruck? Eh, Mr. Rollin?" inquired Harvey Dole. + +The fisherman regarded Harvey with a smile of quiet and amused +sufferance. + +"Ah! Mrs. Keeler," said he, with a graceful bow in Grandma's direction; +"Mrs. Philander did me the honor when I came in, to ask me to stand up +with the singers at the melodeon; a position which I shall be most happy +to take, although I fear that my vocal powers are of an exceptionally +poor order." + +The fisherman turned over the leaves of the despised Moody and Sankey +hymnal for Madeline, was profoundly attentive while the singing was going +on, and made suave and affable remarks here and there during the +intervals; then glanced at his watch with an expression of +highly-affected concern, bade an elaborate adieu to the company, and +retired from the scene. + +"Oh, I think that Mr. Rollin is so elegant, don't yew?" said Mrs. Barlow. +"Oh, yes; I think he's so genteel!" + +"_I_ don't think so at all," said Lovell. "_I_ don't, certainly. _I_ +don't think so." + +"He _ain't_ got much voice;" said Mrs. Barlow, clasping her hands in +raptured appreciation of her matchless Lovell. + +Finally, Grandpa, with a haggard smile on his features, stumbled across +the little landing of the stairway, between the parlor and the kitchen, +bearing with him a pan of much scorched and battered pop-corn. + +"Oh, _ain't_ them beautiful!" arose Mrs. Barlow's reassuring cry. + +Grandma had already set an example to her guests by making a convenient +receptacle of her capacious lap, and pouring some of the corn into it, an +example which the fortunate scions of the skirted tribe, now arranged in +rows on one side of the room, followed, each in turn. Of the male species +on the other side of the room, Lovell happened to be first in line. As +the corn came nearer and nearer to him, he began to look about wildly, +and to cough. His legs trembled violently with the effort he was making +to keep them close together. He accepted the pan of pop-corn with a +gesture of feverish haste, and proceeded to pour the contents into his +lap, but, as he poured they disappeared, and the faster he poured the +faster they disappeared, and the more strenuous exertions he made to keep +his legs close together, the wider seemed to grow the chasm through which +the corn went rattling down on to the floor, until Lovell's eyes began to +whirl in their orbits and drops of sweat stood out upon his forehead. + +Harvey, who appreciated the situation and was bursting with a desire to +roar out his mirthful emotions, showed a kind heart above all, and turned +the tables nicely in poor Lovell's behalf. + +"Look here, Lovell!" he cried; "that's a pretty trick to play on us +fellows, you rascal! you'd better let up on that, now!" + +Lovell grasped at the idea as a drowning man might grasp at a good +substantial raft that should come floating down his way. + +"T-that's so," he stammered. "It is too bad, Harvey. It-t-t is, +certainly, but anything for a j-joke, you know. Here, take it yourself, +Harvey, t-take it; take it, quick!" + +And Lovell got down on his knees as though he would have rendered dumb +thanks to Heaven for his unexpected deliverance, and proceeded to gather +up the corn with glad alacrity. + +After this, the water was passed, and, at such times, it was always +comforting to consider how bountiful nature had been in this respect to +Wallencamp, and that the demand could never be quite equal to the supply. + +Then the company began to disperse with many hand-shakings and "Why don't +ye all drop into my house?" etc., etc. + +Lovell Barlow came back twice to shake hands with me; and returning the +third time, got lost, somehow, in the general confusion, and shook hands +very fervently with his mother, who was standing in the door. + +I heard one of the departing visitors exclaim: "Why, where's Lute? I +should a thought he'd a dropped in, sure!" + +And another answered: "Oh, he's got some new notion into his head, I +reckon! goin' on a cruise, may be!" + +Rebecca was going out with a girl companion, talking rather loudly. I was +moved to take her hand a moment, gently detaining her. She looked +exceedingly bright and pretty. Her physical beauty was perfect, yet I +believed that the soul was only half awakened in the girl. + +So as I held her hand a moment, with the others taking noisy leave about +us, I looked into her face with what she might have read as: "Weren't you +laughing rather loudly, my dear? I can see now that you are not so happy +as you would have people believe. Why not confide in me, and let me +straighten your difficulty out for you?" + +But Rebecca's eyes were downcast, and her cheeks crimson. She let her +hand slip passively out of mine, and passed on, without a word. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LOVELL "POPS THE QUESTION." + + +One morning, ere we had breakfasted at the Ark, Lovell Barlow, like some +new-fangled orb of day, was seen to surmount the ruddy verge of the +horizon. He bore a gun upon his shoulders, and advanced with a singularly +martial and self-confident tread. As he entered the Ark, he placed the +gun against the wall, and sat down and folded his arms, and looked as +though he could be brave without it. + +"Well, Madeline," said he, with a determined gaze fixed straight before +him on vacuity, and with a desperate affectation of spontaneity in his +tone--"Well, Madeline, mother and father have gone to Aunt Marcia's, _I_ +suppose to spend a week, _I_ suppose--ahem!--ahem!--_I_ suppose so." + +"You don't say so, Lovell!" exclaimed Madeline. "And what'll poor Robin +do now, Lovell? Oh, what'll poor Robin do now?" + +"Yes," said he gravely; "that's what _they_ thought, ahem! _They_ thought +they should stay a week, _they_ thought so, certainly." + +"Wall, I declar' for't, Lovell," said Grandma; "now's the time you'd +ought to have a wife. Jest to think how comf'table 'twould be fu ye, now, +instead of stayin' there all alone, if ye only had a nice little wife to +home, to cook for ye, and watch for ye, and keep ye company, and----" + +"_I_ think so," exclaimed Lovell, giving a quick glance backward in the +direction of his gun. "Certainly, ahem! _I_ think so. _I_ do." + +"Lookin' for game? Eh, Lovell?" inquired Grandpa. + +"Pa," said Grandma, solemnly: "I wish you'd put another stick of wood in +the stove." + +Grandpa was awake now, and a youthful and satanic gleam shone from under +his shaggy eyebrows; he glanced at me, too, as was his habit on such +occasions, as though I had a sort of sympathy for and fellowship with him +in his bold iniquities of speech. + +But the guileless Lovell interpreted not the deeper meaning of Grandpa's +words. + +"I think some of it, Cap'n," he answered unsmilingly, and then continued: +"It's been--ahem!--it's been a very mild winter on the--ahem!--I should +say on the Cape. It's been a very mild winter on the Cape, Miss +Hungerford." + +Lovell's nervous glance falling again on his gun, took me in wildly on +the way. + +I had been directing some letters that I expected to have an opportunity +to send that morning. + +"I beg your pardon," I said, looking up. "Yes, you don't often have such +mild winters on the Cape, Mr. Barlow!" + +"No'm, we don't," said Lovell, "not very often, ahem!" He moved his chair +a peg nearer the gun. "Quite a--ahem!--quite a little fall of snow we had +last night, Miss Hungerford." + +"Any deer tracks? Eh, Lovell?" inquired Grandpa. + +"Pa," said Grandma; "I wish you'd fill Abigail--seems to me she smells +sorter dry." + +"She ain't, for sartin', ma," replied Grandpa, giving the tea-kettle a +shake to verify his assertions; "and Rachel's chock full!" + +Grandma then gave Grandpa a meaning look, and put her fingers on her +lips. + +"Well, Cap'n, I saw more rabbit tracks," replied Lovell, innocently +amused at the ludicrousness of the old Captain's speech. "I did, +rather--ahem!--yes, I saw more rabbit tracks--ahem!--ahem!" He gave his +chair a desperate hitch gunward. "I don't suppose they ever do such a +thing, where you live, Miss Hungerford, as to go--ahem!--to go +sleigh-riding, now, do they, Miss Hungerford?" + +"Why, yes," I said; "they always do in the winter. I haven't been home +through the winter for a year or two past, but I remember what splendid +times we used to have." + +I was thinking particularly of a certain snow-fall, that came when I was +seventeen years old, and John Cable had just returned from College, with +a moustache and patriarchal airs. + +Some grinning recollections of the past were also floating through +Grandpa's mind. The look of reprehensible mirth was still in his eyes, +and he showed his teeth, which gleamed oddly white and strong in contrast +with his grizzled countenance. + +"I remember"--he began. + +"Pa," said Grandma, with an expressive wink of one eye, and only part of +her face visible around the corner of the doorway, through which Madeline +had already disappeared; "pa--I wish you'd come out here a minute, now--I +want to see ye." + +"Wall, wall, can't ye see me here, ma? What makes ye so dreadful anxious +to see me all of a sudden?" inquired Grandpa. But his face did not lose +its thoughtful illumination. "Wall, as I was a tellin' ye, teacher," he +went on; "I was only a little shaver then--a little shaver--and my father +had one of those 'ere pungs, as we used to call 'em, that he used to ride +around in--and he was a dreadful man to swear, my father was, +teacher--Lordy, how he would swear!----" + +"Pa!" said the great calm voice at the door; "I'm a waitin' for you to +come out, so't I can shet the door." + +"Wall, wall, ma, shet the door if ye want to, I've no objections to +havin' the door shet----and we had an old hoss, teacher. Lordy, how lean +he was, lean as a skate, and----" + +"Bijonah Keeler!" + +"Yis, yis, I'm a comin', ma, I'm a comin'." And wonderful indeed, I +thought must have been the tale, which, even under these exasperating +circumstances, kept Grandpa's face a-grin as he ran and shuffled towards +the door. + +The door was quickly closed behind him by other hands than his own, and +then I observed that Lovell's chair had been drawn into frightfully close +proximity to his gun. + +"I--I think it's pleasanter, that is--I--I sometimes think it's warmer +for t-t-two in a sleigh, than--a--'tis--for one, don't you, Miss +Hungerford?" said Lovell, and gasped for breath and continued; "Now, I +think of it, you--you wouldn't think of such a thing as going to ride +with me to-night, would you, Miss Hungerford? You--you wouldn't think of +such a thing, would you now?" + +"Why--if you are kind enough to invite me to go sleigh-riding with you, +Mr. Barlow?" + +"_I_ think so;" said Lovell, grasping his gun, and becoming immediately +pale, though composed. "Yes'm, _I_ think so, certainly, _I_ do." + +"Thank you, I will go with pleasure," I said. + +"Thank you, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell, rising hurriedly. "I wish you +a pleasant day--_I_ do, with pleasure, and I hope that nothing will happen +to prevent!" + +And Lovell marched back across the fields as valiantly as a man may, who, +on occasions of doubt and peril, takes the precaution to go suitably +armed. + +During the day the Wallencampers indulged in a mode of recreation, +suggestive of that unique sort of inspiration to which they not +unfrequently fell victims. + +They attached a horse to a boat, a demoralized old boat, which had +hitherto occupied a modest place amid the _debris_ surrounding the Ark, +and thus equipped, they rode or sailed up and down the lane. It proved a +stormy sea, and often, as the boat capsized, the air was rent with +screams of mock terror and yells of unaffected delight. + +Thus the youth of Wallencamp, yes, and those who heeded not the swift +decline of years, by reason of the immortal freshness of their spirits, +disported themselves. And I was not amazed, catching a glimpse through +the school-house windows of this joyous boat on one of her return voyages +up the lane, to see Grandma Keeler swaying wildly in the stern. + +Meanwhile, I managed to keep my flock indoors. But when, at four o'clock, +I took my ruler in hand to give the usual signal of dismissal, the +Phenomenon's heels had already vanished through the window, and the +repressed animal spirits of a whole barbaric epoch sounded in the whoop +with which the Modoc shot through the door. + +Finally, I, myself, rode up the lane in the boat. The path was well worn +by this time, and there was no danger of a catastrophe. It seemed to me a +novel performance enough, but I had not yet been to ride in Lovell's +sleigh. + +Lovell came very early, and preferred to wait outside until I had +finished eating my supper. Then, with that deep self-satisfaction which +predominated in my soul, even over its appreciation of the novel and +amusing, I donned my seal-brown cloak, and stepping out of the door, +gathered up my skirts, and smiled at Mr. Lovell with a pair of seal-brown +eyes, and was not surprised to hear him ejaculate, coughing slightly; +"Ahem! _I_ think so, certainly, yes'm, _I_ think so; _I_ do." + +Lovell's was the only sleigh in Wallencamp, and, as he informed me, it +was one that he had himself constructed. It had, indeed, already +suggested to my mind the workings of no ordinary intellect. Perhaps its +most impressive features were its lowness and its height--the general +lowness and length of its body, into which one could step easily, the +floor being covered with a carpet of straw, suggesting field-mice; and +the unusual height to which it rose in the back, being surmounted by two +glittering knobs, like those on the head-board of an old-fashioned +bedstead. Half-way down the back of this imposing structure the arms or +wings sprouted out, giving to the whole the appearance of an immense +Pterodactyl, or some other fossil bird of fabulous proportions, and +Effectually shutting in the occupants of the sleigh from any +Contemplation of the possible charms of the scenery. The seat was made +very low, and it was, perhaps, on this account that the horse seemed so +abnormally high. It was a white horse, and from our lowly position, there +seemed to be something awful and shadowy in the motions of its legs. The +red of sunset had not gone out of the sky when we started, and a pale +young moon was already getting up in the heavens, but we could see +neither fading sky nor rising moon, nor rock, nor tree, nor snowy +expanse, naught but the gigantic hoof-falls of our phantom steed. + +Being thus hopelessly debarred from any communication with external +nature, and fearing to give myself up to my own thoughts, which were of a +somewhat dangerous character, I endeavored to engage my companion in +lively and cheerful converse by the way; but he was in a position of +actual physical suffering, for the reins were short--too short, that is, +to form a happy connecting link between him and the horse, and poor +Lovell was obliged to lean forward at an acute angle in order to grasp +them at all. Whenever the ghostly quadruped made a plunge forward, as he +not unfrequently did, Lovell was thrust violently down into the straw, +and throughout all this he comported himself with such firm and hopeless +dignity that, with the respect due to suffering, I was moved to witness +the struggle, at length, with silent commiseration. Once, having kept his +seat for a longer time than usual, Lovell said:-- + +"I'll give you a riddle, Miss Hungerford, _I_ will. Ahem! 'Why--why does +a hen go around the road,' Miss Hungerford?" + +I posed my head in an attitude of deep thought. + +"Because," Lovell hastened to say; "because she can't go across--no, that +wasn't right--why--ahem! why does a hen go _across_ the road, Miss +Hungerford?" and the next instant he was wallowing in the straw at my +feet. + +My soul was filled with unutterable compassion for him. + +"Because," I ventured, when Lovell reappeared again, affecting a tone of +lively inspiration: "because she can't go around it?" + +"You--you've heard of it before!" gravely protested Lovell. + +"I confess," said I, "that I have. It used to be my favorite riddle." + +"It--it used to be mine, too," said Lovell. "It _used_ to be, Miss +Hungerford--ahem! It _used_ to be--You--you couldn't tell what I was +thinking of when I--ahem--when I started from home to-night, now, could +you, Miss Hungerford?" said Lovell, at length. + +"I'm sure I couldn't, Mr. Barlow," said I: "but I hope it was something +very agreeable." + +"But it wasn't," said Lovell; "that is, not very, Miss Hungerford; ahem! +not very. I was--I was--ahem! I was thinking of it, you know, of--of such +a thing as getting married, you know." + +"I hope," said I, cheerfully, after a pause; "that as you consider the +subject longer, it will be a less painful one to you." + +"I hope so, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell. "Ahem! I hope so, certainly;" +but there was little of that sanguine quality expressed in his tones. + +The great white horse made another plunge forward, and Lovell recovered +himself with a desperate effort. + +"What should you think now, Miss Hungerford," he continued, moistening +his parched lips; "if I should do such a thing as to--ahem!--as to speak +of such a thing as--ahem!--as something of that sort to you, now, Miss +Hungerford? Now, what should you think of such a thing? now, really?" + +"I should think you were very inconsiderate," I said, "and would probably +regret your rashness afterwards." + +"_I_ think so," said Lovell; "ahem! _I_ think so, Miss Hungerford; _I_ +do, certainly." + +After this it seemed as though a weight had been lifted from Lovell's +mind. He kept his seat better. His was not a buoyant spirit, but there +was, on this occasion, an air of repressed cheerfulness about him such as +I had never before seen him exhibit. I tried to think that it was a +joyous mental rebound from the contemplation of those dark riddles which +trouble humanity, "Why does the hen go across the road," etc. + +After a brief pause, Lovell said; "You--you wouldn't mind if I should +sing a little now, now would you, Miss Hungerford?" + +I assured him that I should be very glad to have him do so, and he sang, +I remember, all the rest of the way home. At the gate, I thanked him for +the ride and its cheerful vocal accompaniment, and Lovell said; "Do you +like to hear me sing, now? Do you--do you, really, now, Miss Hungerford?" +and turned away with a smile on his face to seek his home by the sea. + +But Lovell was not long lonely, for, in less than a week, his father and +mother returned from their visit at Aunt Marcia's and brought to Lovell a +wife. + +Mrs. Barlow herself informed me that "it was an awful shock to him, at +first, oh, dreadful! but he'd made up his mind to get married, and he'd +never a' done it in the world, if we hadn't took it into our own hands. +She was a good girl, and we knew it, and Lovell wasn't no more fit to +pick out a wife, anyway, than a chicken, not a bit more fit than a +chicken!" + +This girl lived in the same town with Aunt Marcia, and was confidently +recommended by her to Lovell's parents as one who would be likely to make +him a wise and suitable helpmeet, and was, indeed, an uncommonly fair and +wholesome looking individual. She had a mind, too, whose clear, practical +common sense had never been obscured by the idle theories of romance. She +was pure and hearty and substantial. She was neither diffident, nor slow +of speech, nor vacillating. She came, at the invitation of Lovell's +parents, to marry Lovell, and if he had refused, she would have boxed his +ears as a wholesome means of correction, and married him on the spot. + +So Lovell's destined wife was brought home to him in the morning, and in +the afternoon of that same day the connubial knot was tied. + +Half an hour after the arrival of the bride, it was known throughout the +length and breadth of Wallencamp, to every one, I believe, save Lovell +himself, who was gathering driftwood a mile or two down the beach, that +Lovell was going to be married! + +At three o'clock P.M., Brother Mark Barlow was despatched to West Wallen +for a minister. + +Small scouts had been sent out to watch, where the road from the beach +winds into the main road, and when word was brought back that "Mark had +gone by," the Wallencampers proceeded to make all due preparations; and +soon might have been seen winding in a body towards the scene of +interest. + +The small paraphernalia of invitations and wedding cards were unknown in +Wallencamp. The Wallencampers would have considered that there was little +virtue in a ceremony of any sort, performed without the sanction and +approval of their united presence. + +In regard to the particular nature of this entertainment, there was some +snickering in the corners of the room, but the general aspect was +funereal. + +The season during which, with Lovell at one end of the room, and the +bride at the other, we sat waiting the arrival of the minister, was as +solemn as anything I had ever known. + +I made a congratulatory remark, in a low tone, to Mrs. Barlow, who sat at +my side with her hands clasped gazing first at Lovell and then at the +bride; but I was forced to experience the uncomfortable sensation of one +who has inadvertently spoken out loud in meeting. No one said anything. + +The helpless snicker which started occasionally from Harvey Dole's +corner, and was echoed faintly from other quarters of the room, only +heightened, by, contrast, the effect of the succeeding gloom. + +The bride was perfectly composed, with a high, natural color in her +cheeks, and an air of being duly impressed with the importance of the +occasion. + +She had assumed a large white bonnet, though I do not think that she and +Lovell took so much as a stroll to the beach after the ceremony--and her +plump and shapely hands were encased in a pair of green kid gloves. She +gazed thoughtfully, at each occupant of the room in turn, not omitting +Lovell, who never once stirred or lifted his eyes. + +Mr. William Barlow was silently passing the water, when Brother Mark +arrived with the minister. + +That grave dignitary advanced with measured tread to a small stand, +draped with a long white sheet, that had been prepared for him in the +centre of the room. + +He took off his gloves, and folded them; he took off his overcoat, and +laid it on the back of a chair; and if he had then reached down into his +pockets and taken out a rope, and proceeded to adjust a hanging-noose, +his audience could not have shown a more ghastly and breathless interest +in his performance. + +"Will the parties"--his sonorous voice resounded through the awful +stillness--"Will the parties--about--to be joined--in holy +wedlock--now--come forward?" + +As Lovell then arose and walked, with an automatic hitch in his legs, +across the room to his bride, there was about him all the stiffness and +pallor of the grave without its smile of peace. + +"Lovell and Nancy"--arose the deep intonation--will you--now--join hands? + +It was a warm strong hand in the green kid glove. Its grasp might have +sent a thrill of life through Lovell's rigid frame, for when the minister +inquired: + +"And do you, Lovell, take this woman?" etc., etc. + +Lovell bent his body, moved his lips, and replied in a strange, far-away +tone, "Yes'm, _I_ think so. _I_ do, certainly." + +But when the question was put to the bride, she, Nancy, promised to take +Lovell to be her wedded husband, to love and cherish, yes, and to cleave +to, with a round, full "I do," that left no possible room for doubt in +the mind of any one present, and seemed to send back the flood of frozen +terror to Lovell's veins. + +Lovell and Nancy were pronounced man and wife, and Nancy then divested +herself of her bonnet and gloves, and joined in the festivities which +followed with a hearty good-will, that proved her to be quite at home +among the Wallencampers, and won at once their affection and esteem. The +manner, particularly, in which she carried beans from her plate to her +mouth, gracefully balanced on the extreme verge of her knife, as an +adroit and finished work of art, provoked the wonder and admiration of +all those whose beans sometimes wandered and fell off by the way. + +And all the while, Mrs. Barlow's adjectives flowed in a full and copious +stream. + +"Oh, Lovell had been so wild," she said to me. "Oh, dreadful! But didn't +I think he looked like a husband now? So quick, too! Oh, yes, wasn't it +beautiful! Abbie Ann said he looked as though he'd been a husband fifteen +years!" + +After the ceremony, Lovell had taken his pipe and retired a little from +the active scenes which were being enacted around him. + +I saw him, as I was going away, standing in the door and looking out upon +the bay. I held out my hand to him, in passing. "I congratulate you, Mr. +Barlow," I said. Lovell put his hand to his mouth and coughed slightly +several times, as though he were striving to think of the polite thing to +say. Then he replied: "I--I--ahem! I wish you the same, Miss Hungerford, +_I_ do, certainly." + +Lovell was not so pale as he had been, but looked very serious and +pensive with his eyes fixed on the mysterious depths of the ocean. Lovell +had propounded riddles to me, but never before had I caught such a +glimpse of the deeply philosophical workings of his mind. + +"When you come to think of it, life--ahem--life is very uncertain, Miss +Hungerford." + +I replied that it was very uncertain. + +"And short, too, when you come to think of it. It's very short, too, Miss +Hungerford." + +"Oh, yes," I answered, "very." + +"Ahem! It was--it was dreadful sudden, somehow," said Lovell. + +"I suppose so, Mr. Barlow," I replied gravely; "great and unexpected joys +are sometimes said to be as benumbing in their first effects as griefs +coming in the same way." + +"_I_ think so," said Lovell. "Ahem! _I_ think so, Miss Hungerford, _I_ +do, certainly." + +Madeline joined me at the door, and I bade Lovell good-night. + +We clambered down the cliffs, walking a little while along on the beach +on our way homeward. + +It was growing dark, and the voice of the ocean was infinitely mournful +and sublime. No wonder, I thought, that life had seemed very short and +uncertain to Lovell as he stood in the door listening to the waves. + +What a little thing it seemed indeed, comparatively--this life with its +fears and hopes, its poor idle jests and fleeting shows. + +"And there shall be no more sea"--but this poor human soul that looks out +so blindly, and utters itself so feebly through the senses, shall live +for ever and ever. + +"Lovell's folks have picked out a good wife for him, anyhow," said +Madeline, briskly. "She's got a sight more sense than anybody _he'd_ ever +a' picked out." + +I crept back into my shell again. "I think so, certainly, Madeline," said +I, smiling at having unconsciously repeated Lovell's favorite phrase. + +"She'll make Lovell all over, and get some new ideas into him, I can tell +you," said Madeline. + +And though I did not stay in Wallencamp long enough to witness with my +own eyes the fulfillment of this prophecy, I know that it was abundantly +fulfilled--that Lovell soon recovered from the shock incident to his +wedding; that under the influence of his wholesome, active wife, and with +the weight of greater responsibilities, he grew more manly and admirable +in character, as well as happier, with each succeeding year; and that +Lovell's children--a joyful and robust group, adored of Mrs. Barlow, +senior--play on the "broad window seat" that looks off towards the sea. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN. + + +The fisherman had gone back to Providence. Rebecca, herself, returning +from the Post Office at West Wallen, brought me a letter distinguished by +its peculiar dashing chirography. As she handed it to me, the girl, whose +glance had been downcast of late, gave me a clear, straightforward, +unembarrassed look. + +"Do you like him, teacher?" she said. + +"Oh, I tolerate him, my dear," I answered. "We're not expected to +entertain a particular liking or dislike for everybody we know. There are +a great many people we must just simply tolerate." + +Rebecca's eyes fell again. "He won't harm you, teacher," she said; "for +you was used to folks. Sometime you might remember--I wasn't used to +folks." + +Occupied with my own thoughts, I passed lightly over the girl's slow, +trembling speech. She turned away, and I bent to the complacent perusal +of my letter. In my then composed and exalted frame of mind its contents +were not calculated to create in me either great emotion or surprise. And +not because the mere fact of the fisherman's absence had suddenly +rendered him more desirable in my eyes, but as the result of a recent +determination on my part to take an utterly worldly and practical view of +life, I resolved to give this letter the most careful and serious +consideration. + +The fisherman was of good family, and he was rich; these statements, +artistically interwoven by him with the lighter fabric of his letter, +were confirmed by an acquaintance of mine in Providence, of whom, in +writing, I had incidentally inquired concerning the gentleman. + +Respectability and wealth--items not supposed to weigh too heavily with +the romantic mind of youth--but I believed that I was no longer either +young or romantic. Moreover, I was slowly realizing the fact that +school-teaching in Wallencamp was not likely to furnish me the means for +making an excessively brilliant personal display, nor for carrying out to +any extent my subordinate plans for a world-wide philanthropy. + +"Perhaps, after all then," I argued; "it is only left for me to give up +my ideas about being unique and independent and sublime, 'take up with a +good offer,' and step resolutely, without any sentimental awe, into the +great orderly ranks of the married sisterhood." + +My life had been but a varied list of surprises to my family and +acquaintances, why not effect the crowning surprise of all, by doing +something they might have expected of me? + +Well, I had dreamed of higher things--but this was a strange, restless, +disappointing world. If one saw a plain path open before one's feet, one +might as well walk quietly along that way. There were thorns in every +path, and it would be nice to be rich, very rich. + +My thoughts wandered through a wide field of imaginary delight, +encountering only one serious obstacle in the way of their elysium, and +that was the fisherman himself considered as a life-long escort and +companion. + +In my youthful dreams, I had cherished, to be sure, a score of mild +Arthur Greys and stern Stephen Montgomerys. My Arthurs had all died of +inherited consumption. I had taken leave of their departing spirits under +the most thrilling circumstances, having frequently been married to them +at their deathbeds, and had lived but to plant flowers on their graves +and wear crape for them ever afterwards; and my dark-browed Stephen +Montgomerys had all gone to swell the avenging tide of righteous war, and +had been fatally shot, while I remained to shed tears of unavailing grief +over the locks of raven hair they left with me on the morning of their +departure. But to marry a real, live, omnipresent man--a man, with red +hair, sound lungs, and no wars to go to! My aspiring soul shrank from the +realistic vision. + +And all the while a tenderer vision would rise before my eyes, clothed +with its pitiful romance--the Cradlebow, like some sadly out-of-fashion +guest, arising unsolicited out of a half-forgotten dreamland, passing +indeed both the ideal strength of the warlike Stephen and the gentleness +of the saintly Arthur, but, alas! so crude, so unworldly, so ridiculously +poor! And the vision extended and then narrowed helplessly to a home in +one of the forlorn houses in Wallencamp by the sea, with its dingy walls +and bare floors, its general confusion of objects and misery, and my +lord's grand eyes obscured, perchance, behind clouds of tobacco smoke, +while I set the scanty table and fried the briny herrings. + +With a shudder for romance, I returned to the contemplation of wealth and +respectability; and took up graciously, once more, the briefly abandoned +idea of duty. + +I had often been told that it was my duty to accommodate myself to other +people's views. Perhaps I should accomplish my designs for +self-immolation, and thus, in one sense, effect my highest spiritual +good, by marrying the fisherman and accommodating myself to his +views--ah! but how could that be, I reflected, unsmilingly, when my views +were so infinitely superior to his! + +I wondered, for one thing, why he should have entertained, of late, such +an excessive dislike for Wallencamp and its inhabitants. The natural +beauty of Wallencamp had impressed me daily more and more, and the people +were harmless, to say the least. I thought he should have enjoyed them; +he had a humorous vein; he was not too snobbish; and he seemed of a +nature to wish to make himself generally agreeable to people; but for +these special objects of my care he had expressed only derision and +contempt, with often a touch of positive malice; and had not been able to +abstain from giving me a hard cut or two on my mission, barely avoiding +it in his letter, and rejoicing with what seemed to me an unwarrantable +warmth in the hope that I should soon quit forever the abominable place. + +Then, in my miserable short-sightedness, my thoughts wandered indirectly +to Rebecca. I wondered if she had taken to heart anything in the +acquaintance she was said to have had with Mr. Rollin, before I came to +Wallencamp, which had caused the change in her. I did not believe she +had. The girl was too artless and simple to have concealed so completely +the resentment she would naturally have cherished--too childish to have +borne it so silently. As far as the fisherman was implicated in the +affair, even if he had trifled a little for his own amusement with the +vague impulses, possibly the affections, of this unsophisticated girl, +the act was by no means unprecedented among people of wealth and +respectability. It was a diversion in which Arthur Grey and Stephen +Montgomery would not have indulged, perhaps, "but this," I mused, "is a +sadly commonplace sort of world, viewed in the broad daylight of wisdom +and experience (and with such penetrating rays I felt my own optics to be +only too wearily oppressed); we must give up our high ideals, take people +as we find then, and submit gracefully to the inevitable." + +Still I was in as much of a quandary as ever as to what I should choose +to consider the inevitable in my own path. It never occurred to me in +this dilemma to seek advice from the elder members of my own family. They +knew nothing really of my situation in Wallencamp, and even if they had +been informed more truthfully in regard to it, I thought they could +hardly be expected to appreciate the peculiarly trying circumstances in +which I was placed just at present. + +Mothers were excellent for mending gloves, taking ink stains out of white +dresses with lemon juice, etc., etc.; but there were certain exigencies +in the remote and exalted life of those who go on "missions" which their +humble though loving skill must ever fail to reach. + +I did write home, by the way, for more spending-money. I had been obliged +to send to Boston for a few of the latest novels, fresh ribbons, cologne +water, and various other articles indispensable to the career of a truly +devoted propagandist. I preferred my request no longer as the dependent +offspring seeking gifts from a fond and indulgent parent, but as the +solicitor of a mere temporary loan, until I should be able to draw on my +salary at the close of the term. + +One morning, having inured myself to extreme worldliness of soul and +begun a deliberately reckless response to the fisherman's letter, I +looked out through my window to see the Cradlebow trudging manfully down +the lane, with a grotesquely antiquated portmanteau in his hand, and the +general air of one who has started a-foot on a journey. + +With a singular readiness to be diverted, I found that the picture was, +somehow, not conducive to further worldliness of meditation; and when in +the evening, Mrs. Cradlebow came in to call, in her mantilla, the +impression thus made on my mind was inexpressibly deepened. + +Mrs. Cradlebow was not a frequent caller. She had almost earned among the +Wallencampers the direful anathema of "not being neighborly." + +She informed me, while the singers were gathered, as usual, at the Ark, +that Luther had gone to make farewell visits to his friends. He had +three married sisters living in different parts of the State. They had +children. The children were very fond of him, and he was going on such a +long voyage. Mrs. Cradlebow was looking beyond the singers, her eyes +shining clear and sad above the pathetic smile on her lips-- + +"And he says he shan't come back again until he comes to give me such +pleasure as I never dreamed of." + +Those words come to me now, either as part of the endless mockery of +life, or as strains of hidden music, deep and true, running ever beneath +the world's dull misinterpretation. + +Afterwards, the choir of voices in the room formed an effectual shield +for confidential conversation. + +"You don't know what a good boy he's always been to me, teacher," Mrs. +Cradlebow continued, with a manner unusual to her, I thought, as of one +seeking for sympathy; "so that I've learned to depend so much on him, +more, I think, than on anybody else. Some boys when they're growing up +so, they feel independent and they answer you back short, but the older +he grew, the gentler he was to me, always, and if he had any trouble, it +never made him cross to me; and I think it's harder to see anybody so +than if they was cross, for he's quick in ways, I know, but when things +go real hard against him, he's patient." + +"He ought not to know much about trouble yet," I answered hopefully, with +the consciousness of one who has fathomed all the mysteries of grief and +can yet speak gayly of the forlorn background. + +"He doesn't know enough about the world, I'm afraid," said Mrs. +Cradlebow, and her eyes, fixed on my face, seemed to me to be looking +gently into my inmost heart. "He expects so much, and he never looks out +for himself. I wish he'd be content to go fishing with the other +boys--they always come back in the autumn--and not want to sail so far." + +I was almost angry because of the embarrassment I felt under that clear +glance. + +[Illustration: THE MEETING IN THE SCHOOL-HOUSE. +Scene from the Play.] + +"Don't you think, Mrs. Cradlebow," I said nervously; "that young people +are never content until they find out the world for themselves?" It was +an interrogation, but it was sagely uttered. + +"I know, I know," she said. "Perhaps it's best he should go." She spoke +very quietly and with uncommon composure of demeanor. She withdrew her +eyes from my face, but the smile trembled on her lips, and I knew that +her heart was breaking over the words, for Luther was her darling. + +I wished, almost impatiently, for my own part, that it might all have +happened differently; that I might leave everything in Wallencamp just as +I had found it, so delightfully happy and peaceful it had seemed to me. +I could not bear, in looking back, to think of one face as wearing upon +it any unaccustomed grief. At all events, I felt that my thoughts had +been helplessly turned from their prescribed channel, and the fisherman's +letter remained from day to day still unanswered. + +Meanwhile, winter was vanishing at the Cape. As salient points in its +quaint and cherished memory, I recall the frequent clamming excursions, +when we rattled own to the beach, at low-tide, in a cart whose groaning +members lacked every element of elasticity. Often there were as many as +sixteen persons in one cart, and the same number of hoes and baskets--the +baskets being filled with small children as a means of keeping both them +and the children stationary. + +Grandma was always present on these occasions, and the hilarity of the +Wallencampers, as they were jounced and joggled over the stones, in a +manner which to some might have been productive of great bodily agony, +concealed, with them, no undercurrent of nervous dread or pain. They were +kind enough to regard the presence of the "teacher" as indispensable to +their complete enjoyment, while I was ready to congratulate myself that +my society alone was the object desired, for though I brought my +near-sighted vision to bear faithfully upon the sands, I never succeeded +in capturing a clam. + +I heard that Bachelor Lot had confided aside to Captain Sartell that +"Teacher'd ought to bring a hook and line. The clams 'ud go for it in a +minute if she'd only bring a hook and line;" and, stung by the unsheathed +sarcasm of this remark, I was accustomed afterwards to wander off towards +"Steeple Rock." The rock was accessible at low-tide, and from thence I +could watch the ocean on one side, and the clam-diggers on the other; +could see Grandma on her hands and knees, a dot of broad good nature +in the distance, always remaining apparently in the one place, and +always, somehow, getting her basket full of clams as she gradually sank +deeper and deeper into the briny soil; but no true Wallencamper ever +caught cold by soaking in the brine. + +I could distinguish Madeline wandering lightly about among the rocks, +scraping off mussels with her hoe; and the Modoc, the champion +clam-digger of all, spreading her tentacles here and there, and never +failing to come up with a bivalve. It was a picturesque scene, viewed +from the great rock; and when the tide began to sweep in again, George +Olver sent a piercing whistle along shore, to call the stragglers +together; clams, children, and all were loaded into the cart, and jostled +gayly homeward erased by the fresh sea breezes. + +For the chowder, which in due course of events arose to take its place +among the viands on the Ark board, I would leave it to that sacred and +tenfold mystery with which, to my mind, it was ever enshrouded. + + * * * * * + +I recall the exhibitions held at the school-house, confined exclusively +to the native talent of Wallencamp, at which the old and young were +assembled to speak pieces. + +It was then that Aunt Rhoda and Aunt Cinthia, matrons of portly frame and +perilous foothold, engaged in a metrical dialogue concerning the robbing +of a bird's nest, in which lively diversion they assumed to have +participated. And Bachelor Lot rendered "My beautiful Annabel Lee" with +unique effect; and Grandma Keeler spoke mysteriously though hopefully +of-- + + "Hope and Harnah + Double-decked schooner + Cap'n John Homer + Marster and owner + Bound for Bermudy." + +The strange effect produced upon me by the first of these rhetorical +entertainments is still as fresh in my mind as though it had been +yesterday, so luminous was the night with stars; so loud and prolonged +the preliminary blowing of the horn; so festive the appearance of the +school-house, loaded as it was with evergreens; so abnormal the +proportions of the stage, which had been extended to comprise nearly +two-thirds of the school-room. + +It comes to me again, the first shock of surprise at finding all +Wallencamp on the stage, Grandpa and I, alone, being left like ostracized +owls among the shrubbery of the auditorium. Our sense of isolation was +only intensified by hearing the sounds of mirth which proceeded from the +other side of the curtain, and seeing a foot or an elbow occasionally +thrust out into our own green though silent realm. + +Thrice Aunt Rhoda appeared before the curtain to proclaim in pregnant +tones, "We are now awaiting for Josiah and Annie." + +Josiah, by the way, had married a Wallencamp girl and taken her to West +Wallen to live, yet the two were ever faithful attendants at the +Wallencamp festivities. + +"Declaration" after "declaration" was announced by Aunt Rhoda, and as the +declaimers finished their parts, they descended to sit with us, until at +last the curtain was drawn aside, revealing Madeline, alone upon the +stage, seated at her "music." + +She opened the Hymnal, and struck the leading chord, mid straightway, +from the Wallencampers, all gathered now below, there arose a burst of +melody as it had been one mighty voice. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL. + + +Mr. 'Lihu Dole--Harvey's father--lay dying, and all the Wallencampers +were assembled in and about the house. + +It was night, and one was going out from among them to launch his lonely +bark on a deeper, more mysterious ocean than that whose moan came up to +them from behind the cedars. There was awe on their faces, and a touch of +terror, too, but above all there was a strange, childlike wonder. + +They had seen death before. It might come to them at any time, they knew. +Its spirit sounded in the dirges of the waves along the shore, yet, none +the less, for time or fate, or moan of solemn wave, grew this exceeding +mystery. + +Was it like a cold black flood, to die at night, and no stars shining--a +cold flood creeping more and more above the heart? Oh, the wonder on +those poor faces, if there might be, indeed, some fairer harbor lights +beyond death's tide, and gentler music lulling the dread surge, so that +the voyager, with untold joy at last, felt the worn boat-keel loosen on +the strand and drift off from this shore! + +Emily and Aunt Cinthia were alone in the room with the dying man. They +were his sisters. His wife had been dead for years. + +In the adjoining room sat a group of females, a single candle burning +dimly on a table in their midst. Grandma Bartlett was there, and Grandma +Keeler, and Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow. + +Occasionally, a whisper from one of these three pierced the gloom, a +whisper appropriately sepulchral in tone, but more penetrating than any +voice of buoyant life and hope. + +I sat in the door with Madeline, Rebecca on the step below, very still +and thoughtful. + +The men and the young people, for the most part, were waiting about +outside. + +I caught the low murmur of a discussion between Captain Sartell and +Bachelor Lot, who were sitting on the fence, and knew by the attitude of +the listeners gathered around them, that the subject was one of no +ordinary interest. I could not help wondering what those two argued +concerning death and the immortality of the soul. + +The tick! tick! tick! of the clock sounded with persistent distinctness +in the room where the women sat, and Grandma Bartlett sighed, and then +came the awful whisper:-- + +"Ah, death's vary sahd--vary sahd." + +Grandma Bartlett, superannuated as she was, was the most trite of the +Wallencampers. + +Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow accepted the lifeless phrase with something almost +like a smile of disdain in her magnificent eyes. + +"Oh, it's like everything else," she whispered. "It's a mixter! It's a +mixter!" + +Once the door of the little bedroom opened softly, and Emily appeared on +the scene. + +"He's got most to the end of _his_ rope," she said, dryly, in answer to +the inquiring faces lifted to her own. There was an unnatural brightness +in Emily's tearless eyes, and her tone was as sprightly as ever. + +"He don't see nothin', and he don't feel nothin', and he don't hear +nothin'," she continued; "and it's sech poor work a breathin', he's most +give that up, too. It might stop any minute and he not know it. Cinthy's +cryin'; I don't see nothin' to cry about. It'll storm before to-morrow, +likely--it's dark enough, Lord knows--and them east winds always hurt him +so. 'I don't know whether he's worse off, or better off, Cinthy,' says I, +'or whether he's off entirety. But I don't believe a righteous God'll +make poor 'Lihu suffer any worse than he has in the last ten weeks.' But +it's strange, all the time I was a' sittin' there by him, when he was +worst, it kept comin' up before me, jest as he was when he was a little +boy. I hadn't thought on him so for years, but it seemed jest as though +'twas back in New Hampshire, where we was born, a' playin' around the old +mill again. Him and me was the youngest, we was always together, and I +couldn't 'a' called him up so before me, to save me; but there he was, as +plain as life, with his little blue checked apron on, a skippin' along +towards me over the logs, and his eyes a dancin', and the wind a blowin' +his hair out; and all the while I couldn't help a knowin' that 'Lihu was +a man grown, a dyin' there before me on the bed. + +"'Seems as though a man that's been a wearin' out as long as he has had +ought to die easier, Cinthy,' says I. 'It's pretty hard to have forty +years' consumption, and then go off with a fever,' 'We can't question the +Lord's doin's,' says Cinthy. But for all that, she wouldn't stay in the +room to see him. He couldn't ketch his breath and he was as crazy as a +loon. Lord, how he worried! All day, yesterday, he was a loadin' ship +down to the shore. It would a' made your bones ache to hear him workin' +so; and all night long he was a loadin', and a loadin.' Thinks I, won't +there never be no end to this, for I felt hard, and him a loadin' and a +loadin' all through them long hours, jest as faithful as life, with his +eyes like blood, and the sweat a rollin' off'n him. He couldn't stand +that forever. This mornin' the pain sorter left him, but there was that +one idee on his mind. The ship was all loaded, and he'd got to wait for +high tide to git it off, and he wanted to go to sleep, but he couldn't, +because he'd got to watch the tide. + +"'Oh, if I could only rest, now,' he kep' a savin', weak and slow. 'If I +could only go to sleep now;' and so he moaned and moaned. + +"So I got close to his ear and I says, 'You go to sleep, now, 'Lihu, and +I'll watch,' I says; 'I'll wake you up when it's high tide,' I says; but +he only shook his head. So then, I says, 'Aint there none o' the folks +you can trust to watch?' And he shook his head, and so he moaned and +moaned. + +"By and by, all of a sudden, 'Lihu looked up at me different, with his +eyes wide open, so that for a minute, I was most fool enough to think +'Lihu was gittin' well, and he smiled as though he wanted to say +something. So I leant over. 'I--know--somebody,' he says, as slow as +that, for he was all worn out. 'Who then, 'Lihu?' says I. 'Jesus,' says +he, with that queer, smilin' look, as though it was the naturalest thing +on earth. 'He'll--wake--me--up--when--', and he couldn't wait no longer, +his head fell over as heavy as a log, and that's the way he's been ever +since, sleepin' like death. + +"Wall, Cinthy thinks somebody'd ought to come in and make a prayer. 'He +wasn't a perfessor,' says she. 'Lord knows, if he had a been,' says I, +'there'd be more need on't!' 'Anyway,' says I, 'he can't hear nothin', it +won't do him no harm.' So I thought I'd come out and see. It'll make +Cinthy feel easier." + +There was a whispered consultation among the women, but Emily came over +to where I sat. + +"Come, teacher," said she. "Your voice ain't as raspin' as some, and +you've got a knack o' stringin' words together, that sound likely, and +don't hit nobody--you come in." + +"Hush!" I cried, grasping the woman's hand, thinking only, then, that it +would seem like sacrilege for any one to speak aloud in the room where +one was waiting for Christ to wake him. I had forgotten at that moment +that I was out of the habit of praying, even for myself. Emily's tale had +moved me so, it seemed only its sweet and fitting consummation, and +nothing incredible to my mind then, that Christ should come down out of +the starless sky to touch that heavy sleeper's brow. + +It was finally decided that there should be a quiet little prayer-meeting +in the room where the women sat, in behalf of Mr. 'Lihu's soul; but +before all the preliminary steps had been taken, and the men and youth +noiselessly ingathered, Mr. 'Lihu's breathing had ceased, without a +parting pang or gasp, and the tide was at its full. + +Harvey had been standing with a group near the door. Once at some +irrelevancy in the proceedings, while the women were organizing the +prayer-meeting, I heard his irrepressible little giggle creeping in; but +when the words so mysteriously uttered were passed out to him--"Lihu's +gone!"--the poor boy, realizing only at that instant their terrible +meaning, that his father had indeed gone, gone away from him forever, ran +forward a pace or two, and then fell, with his face to the ground. + +So he lay, shaking and sobbing helplessly. + +Grandma Bartlett, standing in the door, studied him for some moments with +her fossilized eyes:-- + +"Fatherless and motherless, now," said she. "Poor creetur, humph! Vary +sahd." + +Then she blinked, and, simultaneously, the subject seemed to have slipped +from her mind, and she to have become vaguely contemplative concerning +worlds and ages remote. + +The boy was still lying prone on the ground, when I left the place of +mourning with Grandma and Madeline. I spoke to him, and shrank +instinctively from his face as he turned it towards me. It was swollen +and disfigured with weeping. He had bruised it, too, in falling. He rose, +trembling, and walked with me. For my own part, the emotional had given +place to feelings of a more sustained and ordinary nature. + +I strove to impress upon Harvey's mind the beautiful and poetic manner in +which his father had been released from his sufferings. + +I reminded him of the shortness of life, "even from your point of view, +Harvey;" and the necessity there was always, for not allowing ourselves +to be overcome by our griefs or passions, or diverted from the supreme +satisfaction of performing our appointed tasks, etc. + +And Harvey listened patiently throughout, and said "good night," with a +brave attempt at a smile, and a sob still choking in his throat. + +I turned an instant, to look at him as he walked away. He wore, +generally, a coat of ministerial form and complexion; this, taken in +connection with his round, laughing face, his boyish figure, and +propensity for playing tricks, had often made me smile, hitherto. But, +now, there was something in the attitude of those long, black tails that +brought the tears to my eyes. + +It occurred to me, indirectly, what Emily had said about my stringing +words together, and I marvelled if possibly my exhortation had soared +over poor Harvey's head and left his heart aching for an ordinary word of +sympathy, or a simple reference to One who as a man of sorrows, was best +fitted to understand and console his grief. To any sentiments of the +latter nature, Harvey was particularly susceptible. + +"Children, all of them!" Thus gently apostrophizing the Wallencampers, I +dismissed the cause of my brief mental discomfiture, with a half-pitying +smile. + +The day after Mr. 'Lihu's death, I looked down from my desk in school to +see the infant Sophronia weeping bitterly. + +"What is the matter, Sophronia?" I said. + +"Carietta's been to see the cops twice," she sobbed; "and I ain't been +any." + +I only gathered from this that Carietta was somehow implicated as being +the cause of the infant Sophronia's sufferings. + +"Now," said I gravely; "tell me what you mean?" + +"She means the cops!" cried Carietta, her small face distorted with a +leer of the most horrid satisfaction, "'Lihu's cops. 'Phrony means +the----" + +"That will do," I said. "I understand you perfectly. I understand you +only too well. This is about as bad," I reflected; "as anything in my +experience." + +After admonishing my pupils with that sincere emotion to which the +occasion had given rise, that they should speak always respectfully of +their elders, but especially in the most tender and solemn tones of the +dead; after pointing out to them the perniciousness of a low and vulgar +curiosity, and expatiating on the vastness and superiority of the +spiritual life, compared with the earthly and carnal, I paused, only to +give, further on, a fuller illustration to my words, and said:-- + +"Now, Sophronia, you have an immortal soul?" + +There was evidence of some faint hankering in Sophronia's face as she +mentally ran over the list of her possessions. + +"No'm," said she; "I hain't--but I've got a cornycopia!" + +I think it was then and there that my hopes for the elevation of juvenile +Wallencamp received their deathblow, and my labors, which had before been +cheered by a dream of partially satisfying success, at least, took on +an utterly goal-less and prosaical form. + +These children, I was forced to admit, regarded the day of Mr. 'Lihu's +funeral as a holiday of rare and special interest, mysteriously bestowed +by Heaven. + +Aunt Rhoda had previously informed me that it was expected I would have +no school that afternoon. + +The West Wallen minister officiated on the occasion with an aspect +neither more nor less funereal than he had worn at Lovell's wedding. He +spoke in such a labored, trumpet-like tone of voice that the +Wallencampers seemed, at first, inspired with a lively hope, expecting +momentarily that his breath would give out, but in this they were doomed +to ever-increasing disappointment. + +At length, Captain Sartell drew a bucketful of fresh water from the well, +and passed it around the room, winking expansively at each individual in +turn, by way of silent encouragement and support. + +Grandma Bartlett, observing the generally tearless aspect of the +community, conscientiously attempted to weep, but being entirely out of +tears, at her time of life, she only succeeded in screwing her face up +into what, in earlier years, might have appeared as a lachrymose +expression, but now took the shape of a fixed and ogreish grin. + +The infant Sophronia was seated on a bench of an exceedingly temporary +nature, between Grandma Keeler and Aunt Lobelia, both persons of weight, +and it so chanced, or, rather, it followed as a matter of course, an +equal pressure being applied to both sides, that the board sustaining the +three, broke directly under that diminutive victim of fate, awaking her +thereby from feverish slumber; and whether the infant Sophronia had an +immortal soul or not, no one there present could doubt that she possessed +an uncommon pair of lungs. + +The little room where we sat was hot and overcrowded, and the thought was +running in my mind continually. "Poor, restless Wallencampers! and how +happy Mr. 'Lihu is not to have any connection with his funeral." + +When the procession was about to start for the burying-ground, the +request was made to me that I would blow the horn, even as the bell is +usually tolled on such occasions, for it would seem inappropriate for one +of the Wallencampers to do so, they all having been related to the +deceased. + +At such a time, I could not refuse, though the emotions with which I +crossed over to the school-house to perform this grim duty, were of a +nature best known to, and appreciated by, myself. My terror of the +Wallencamp horn had waxed daily. I believed that there was nothing in the +whole world of inanimate things on which I would not sooner have +attempted to sound a funeral dirge. Though capable of some variety of +expression, it had never yet been seduced into emitting any sound in the +least indicative of the designs struggling in the mind of the blower. The +human was paralyzed before it--a mere machine to blow into it and let +come what would. And, now, for the first time in my experience, it took +on a jubilant strain. I blew slowly; I blew solemnly. Still, it sounded +like nothing else than a glad, exultant rallying-call. + +I paused, horrified. From the rear of the moving procession, Aunt Patty, +with a yell and a frantic gesture of the hands, entreated me to "keep a +blowin'!" + +And, as I stood thus on the steps of the deserted school-house and blew, +only to hear the wild lamentations of my soul translated into strains of +fiendish mirth through the medium of the horn, the Turkey Mogul, arrived +on his second visit of examination to the Wallencamp school, seemed to be +descending before my eyes, in a vortex of the giddy atmosphere. In fact, +he was alighting from his buggy, and a grim, though reassuring smile sat +on his features. + +"I see! I see!" he nodded his head. "You've given them a good start," he +added, succinctly, indicating the direction of the Wallencampers; "humph! +yes! they are always up to something!" + +He thrust his hands in his pockets, and, maintaining the same sardonic +grin, he, too, stood and watched that receding column. + +It was an odd combination of circumstances. I had ceased my mad though +involuntary jubilate, on the horn, and was slowly aspiring to that +equanimity of mind which the exigencies of the case seemed to require, +when the Turkey Mogul turned abruptly, and without speaking a word, +handed me a soiled and wrinkled little sheet of paper, the contents of +which caused my heart, for an instant, to cease beating, and then set it +throbbing with a wild joy and exultation. + +It was simply a petition--wrought out of whose brain I know not, but most +curiously inscribed in Aunt Patty's own hand, and signed by all the +Wallencampers, with "CAPTAIN SARTELL," at the head, and "b. lot" at the +foot--to the effect that it was their desire that my labors might be +longer continued among them. + +Only one, who, having made a play-day of life, turns, at last, to attempt +some earnest work, and fails, as he believes, utterly, and then catches a +glimpse of unexpected light in the darkness, can understand the impulse +given me by that dirty little scroll. It was such happiness as I had +never felt before. It made me strangely weak. + +"You'll stay," said the Turkey Mogul, at length, "another term, or we'll +consider this term extended, if you please." + +"I'll stay a few more weeks, anyway," I said, and the Turkey Mogul must +have marvelled at the childish faith and joy with which I clung to this +new-found rock of my salvation; "but I hadn't thought of it before," I +added, a little faintly, thinking of home. + +"You're tired!" said the Turkey Mogul, almost sympathetically; "and +hungry!" he subjoined, quickly, in a different tone. + +I knew by this time that the Turkey Mogul's eyes were dangerously prone +to have twinkles in the corners of them, yet I believe I met their +derisive questioning with a simple seriousness in my own. + +"Well, that's right!" he exclaimed. "Stick to 'em! Stick to 'em! I'll be +down to conduct another--humph! another examination in a week or two. +Good-bye!" and he gave me his hand, and was off almost before the little +line of mourners had disappeared over the crest of the hill. Yet I +remember that Grandma Bartlett, who had been deterred by the infirmity of +age from joining the procession, and had remained at the window, alone, +regaled the Wallencampers, on their return, with a choice fancy, in which +the Turkey Mogul and I had stood "talkin' and chatterin' on the +school-house steps, for an hour or more." Grandma Bartlett, though not +actively disposed to work mischief, nor possessed, indeed, of any animate +quality, still cherished a few of the dry formulas of scandal, which she +applied to any seemingly favorable combination of circumstances. The +Wallencampers, at any time, paid but little attention to her words. + +And, at the close of this strange day, I sat alone, in my little room in +the Ark, and indited a letter to the following effect:-- + +"Having received gratifying overtures from the people of my charge, I had +decided, for reasons which I could not then explain, to remain at +Wallencamp until May, to which time I looked forward with the delightful +hope of seeing my dear ones once more. + +"Meanwhile, I hoped they would not consider it strange, or ungracious of +me to say that I should very much prefer not to have Brother Will, or any +one else, come to Wallencamp to look after me, as Brother Will and some +others had kindly suggested doing. It would seem to imply that I was not +capable of taking care of myself, a mania which I trusted no longer held +possession of the family brain. Moreover, Wallencamp, though so charming +a place, had but few facilities for the accommodation of guests. I should +draw on my salary, now, very shortly, and would then remit the sums I had +borrowed in mere temporary embarrassment," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +BECKY'S CONFESSION. + + +The Wallencamp bonfire, like Christmas or a Fourth of July celebration in +less ingenious and erratic communities, came only once a year. It was +kindled on Eagle Hill, that runs out from the mainland of Wallencamp into +Herrin' River,--the Wallencampers called the Hill an island,--and from +most points of view it answered to the geographical description of "Land +entirely surrounded by water," seeming, indeed, to stand solitary in the +river, with an air of infinite repose on its broad, sloping sides; green +and gold, so I remember it ever, with the sun setting over it in the +spring-time,--green and gold, in a crimson river! + +It had an air of sublimity, too, looking over and beyond the cedars to +the bay, and down the length of the winding stream that fretted at its +feet or lapped them quietly. + +There I planned to build a house, in some bright future day, that should +be in effective keeping with the natural grandeur of the place,--quaint, +lordly, substantial, with the appearance of having fallen somewhat into +disuse, ivy growing over the dark stone walls, and moss in the winding +drives, and carved lions at the gate. + +The hill was a favorite resort of mine, and Rebecca had generally +accompanied me on my excursions thither. + +Once she said--it was in the days when she had been happier--"I guess +_this_ place is just as God made it to begin with." + +Rebecca had been struck with and had retained an idea which she had +probably heard promulgated sometime at the West Wallen Sunday-school, +that, at the time of man's spiritual fall, the earth also, with all +terrestrial things, had undergone a general mixing up. Her own idea in +regard to Eagle Hill she expressed very modestly, looking off with a +childish content and assurance in her eyes. And I was delighted with her. + +"You are always thinking such things as that," I exclaimed, +enthusiastically. "I know you are!" + +Rebecca blushed, smiling, and shook her head. + +"I ain't often sure," she said. + +I think I told her then that when I had my house on the hill, she should +be the housekeeper to guard my keys and conduct my affairs; "that is, my +dear, attend to all the little practical details connected with living," +and Rebecca, to whom my castles on the Hill were never castles in the +air, but who believed most implicitly that I would, sooner or later, +perform all things that ever I dreamed of doing, accepted her prospective +matronship with a becoming sense of its advantage and dignity. + +Eagle Hill was haunted by a horse, a pure white horse--not Lovell's--with +a flowing mane and tail, and a beautiful arched neck. His motions, the +Wallencampers said, were most fiery and graceful. Occasionally he paused +and fell back, quivering on his haunches, looked this way and that, and +then, with a wild plunge, swept on again, swifter than before. Every true +Wallencamper could both see and hear the "white horse" when, at night, +clearly outlined against the sky, he galloped back and forth along the +very summit of the hill. + +It was on one of the blackest nights of the season that the fuel, which +less grand and poetic souls would doubtless have reserved for another +winter's use, was borne in jubilant triumph by the Wallencampers up the +sides of this sacred and illustrious steep, and there consumed in a most +glorious conflagration. The spectacle was appalling. At intervals in the +roaring and crackling of the flames was heard the roar of the near ocean, +while the familiar features of the landscape and the faces of the +encircling spectators, stood out with unreal and terrible distinctness in +the hellish light. + +Emily, who had coughed all the way climbing up the hill, stood stirring +the fire with a long pole, and making reckless and facetious remarks the +while, which, uttered in the midst of that unearthly scene, struck me +cold with horror. + +"Come, Bachelder," said she; "git onto the end of my pole, and I'll hold +ye over there a while. Ye might as well be gittin' used to it!" + +"Heh! yes," said Bachelor Lot. "But what I'm a thinkin' is, you'd ought +to have a subordinate. I never heered--heh!--of putting a person of such +importance in the Kingdom--heh!--however efficient--into the position of +Fire Tender!" + +"Crazy Silvy" was at the bonfire. I had never seen her before. Silvy did +not go out on ordinary occasions. I watched her as she stood with a +scant, thin shawl thrown over her head, looking intently into the flames, +shivering often, and smiling as she moved her lips in apparently +delightful conversation with herself. + +Some of the children essayed to tease her; she seemed quite unconscious +of their efforts, but I turned and spoke to them rather sharply. The next +time I looked up, her strange, smiling eyes were fixed full on my face. +I glanced away quickly, with a nervous shiver, and moved a little farther +off. As I did so, Silvy, regarding me in that same dreamily contemplative +manner, walked toward me a step or two, and as I continued to move away, +she walked slowly after me. + +My acquaintance with the unconfined insane had not been extensive enough +to allow me to regard her motions with that mingled amusement and +curiosity, which was the only sentiment expressed on the countenances of +the Wallencampers who stood watching us; but I concluded that it was +better to face about, and meet my pursuer with an air of fearlessness. I +did so, and held out my hand to her as she came up. + +"How do you do, Silvy?" I said. + +"Oh, no!" said Silvy, thrusting her hands behind her, laughing softly, +and shaking her head. "Not with the queen of heaven! Not with the queen +of heaven!" + +I thought I detected Emily's derisive influence in this poor, simple +creature's words. Silvy was so perfectly mild and harmless in appearance, +however, that I began to feel reassured. + +"I've heard about you, Silvy," I continued, cheerfully. "I'm the teacher, +you know. You've heard them speak of the teacher?" + +"So glad," continued Silvy, in the same low, cooing tone; "so glad to +meet the queen of heaven." + +"Hush!" said I then. "You mustn't say that again. Draw your shawl up +tighter." For in spite of the bonfire, the wind was blowing cold on the +hill. + +While I spoke Silvy had become absorbed in watching the fire again. I +would have walked quietly away, but as I turned to go she thrust her head +toward me quickly and whispered:-- + +"Wait! don't--you--ever--tell!" + +Silvy put her hand to her lips. + +"No," said I, smiling. + +"Silvy never told," she went on; "except to you. You've got a key. +Silvy's got a key. She keeps things all locked up, Silvy does. Emily +don't have any key. She talks--she talks all over--don't you tell--but +Silvy lives with Emily--so bad," said Silvy, heaving a gentle sigh and +speaking in a tone of the deepest confidence; "so bad not to have any +key." + +"That's true, I think," said I, beginning to find my strange companion +rather interesting. + +"Yes." Silvy nodded her head several times as though we understood, we +two, and she was delighted to have discovered the fact. + +Then her eyes wandered again to the fire, and she resumed her happy, +smiling conversation with herself. + +I thought she had forgotten me, or concluded not to unlock anything with +her key, when she turned slowly and looked at me, and seemed to gather up +the lost train of her ideas in my face. + +"Silvy watched the fishermen at Emily's," she went on. "They said, 'Poor +Silvy!' 'See you again next time, Silvy!' They are very p'lite, thank +you, and they laugh once. 'Ha! ha!' But David Rollin, he laughs twice. +'Ha! ha!' and behind his sleeve, too. Such things are damnable!" + +Silvy's dulcet tones ran over that hard word with the mildest and softest +of accents. + +"And they bring wine," she continued. "Silvy cl'ared off the table one +night. She heard 'em sing, and they says to him, 'What about pretty +Beck?' and he says 'We must have a little fun, you know, ha! ha!' and +then, 'ha! ha!' behind his sleeve. Now if Silvy could keep it all +together, you'd straighten it out maybe. Silvy can't straighten it out. +Where did she hear so much, I wonder! She hears too much, Silvy does." +She knitted her brows in pitiful perplexity. + +"You were talking about the fishermen," said I. + +"No," said Silvy, shaking her head; "about Beck. She never says, 'Crazy +Silvy! There she goes! Look at Silvy!' She says, 'Come and see me, +Silvy,' so. So soft spoken. Silvy loves her." + +"I love her, too," I said, gently; for Silvy had paused again, and was +knitting her brows in that painful manner, as though the effort to think +gave her actual physical suffering. + +"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She exclaimed suddenly, her face all smooth +and softly smiling now. "Never--you--trust a neat man," impressively. +"Never you trust 'em--for why? They wasn't made so. God made 'em. God +made 'em to clutter. And there was that Dave Rollin. He was always a' +hangin' things up. He was always foldin' of 'em. He was always a hangin' +'em up in his room. Silvy knows. But there was a piece of writin' got +over behind the bury. And it didn't fall. But it stuck. Silvy knows. She +reads writin'. She reads it over and over. He didn't love Beck any more. +But he's afraid. And he'll give money. 'Oh, go anywhere! Only keep still, +Beck. For Heaven's sake, keep still.' Why, she wouldn't hurt him! Beck +wouldn't hurt him," said Silvy, in a slow tone full of wonder. + +"He needn't be afraid. But Silvy won't tell him so. Why not? Oh, she +likes to be amused. Silvy likes to be amused! + +"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She continued, after another terrible pause. +"She set eyes on you, standin' there. That's the one, she says, and she +says it a long time. That's the queen of Heaven. She wouldn't hurt Silvy, +poor Silvy! She's got a key. So she'll straighten it out maybe. Silvy +can't, she's so tired. When Silvy got up in the mornin', it was early. +Oh, so still! And a bird was flyin' up--up. Silvy couldn't see--so far to +heaven. It made Silvy cry. So strange not to be any tired in the +mornin'." + +Silvy made a last painful effort to collect her thoughts, before her face +resumed its habitual, far away, half smiling expression. + +Then she said, "Silvy comes up the hill all alone. Not the way them +others, and she see the fire burnin'. But it was dark in the bush. Silvy +heard 'em talkin' terribly. It was Beck and George Olver. 'I'll make an +honest home for you, Beck.' And she says, terribly, she no deserve. And +he says, she better than him, and won't she come? And she cries so, 'My +heart is broke!' And how good to live with him she knows, now--so honest +and true--but she no fit, and, oh, 'My heart is broke! my heart is +broke!'" + +The scene, the vividness of these words had not yet faded in the least +from Silvy's memory. + +"Then," said she; "they keep on talkin', terribly. But Silvy--she hears +so much--poor Silvy! She goes 'round very still, 'nother way. Silvy's +tired." + +And, as unceremoniously as she had approached me, she turned and walked +slowly back to her old position before the fire. She did not look at me. +She seemed to have become utterly unconscious of my presence. The scant, +thin shawl had fallen back from her head. She shivered as she stood +gazing into the flames, but the dreamy expression was ever in her eyes +and the soft laugh on her lips, as she continued murmuring to herself. + +The Wallencampers were not content to let the fire go out after the first +grand illumination. They were bringing up more brush from the landward +side of the hill, amid a confusion of wild shouts and excited laughter. + +I found Rebecca among a group of girls. + +"When you go home to-night," I said; "I want you to step in and see me. +Come up to my room." + +"Yes," said Rebecca, and I noticed how pale she turned in the fire-light. +I did not say any more to her, then. + +After hearing Silvy's story, I believed that Mr. Rollin had acted a +heartless and unmanly part towards Rebecca, made love to her which he +could not doubt the poor girl took in earnest, and even promises which +he knew he should lightly break sometime, and then, for his own purposes, +he begged her to keep silence. I thought I understood, and resolved to +instruct Rebecca to forget the red-haired fisherman; to be "sensible," +and "marry good, honest George Olver," who loved her so devotedly. + +Lute Cradlebow had come home, and was one among the many figures at this +brilliant fete. Indeed, the bonfire had been deferred until later than +usual in the season, by reason of his absence, and now he was noticeably +the lion of the evening, in a brave dark blue cravat that was borne +outward by the wind, or fluttered becomingly under his chin, to the envy +and despair of all the Wallencamp youth. He exchanged a pleasant greeting +with every one, and brought the largest young tree of all up the hill on +his broad shoulders. + +When, at length, the Wallencampers had permitted the fire to burn low, +they joined hands in a ring around the embers, and sang the saddest and +sweetest songs in the Hymnal. I sat on a rock near by, engaged as I had +been much of the time since my arrival in Wallencamp, in trying to +realize the situation--the awful gloom of the night, the river now +invisible, below, the sound of the surf farther off, that made my heart +sick, and with it the strange mingling of those religious songs, the +lonely hill, the smouldering fire, the fantastic group gathered around. + +When I got back to the Ark, I found Rebecca waiting for me. She followed +me up to my room, and I closed the door. + +"You see I waited long enough for you to come of your own accord," I +said, laughing. Then I drew a chair in front of her. She sat at the foot +of the bed, and I addressed her gravely:-- + +"Now, Becky, something is the matter. You are not the merry, +light-hearted girl you were when I first knew you. And I can help you, +perhaps. I will help you. Tell me what the trouble is!" + +I thought I should see the tears gathering in Rebecca's eyes, but she +looked, instead, so stonily disconsolate, that I was rather dismayed. + +"I'm going to tell you," said she; "but you can't help me. They'll all +know before long, I guess. I don't care. You talk good, but you don't say +much about God. I guess you don't believe there is none. I don't, I can't +understand. I'm like I'd got lost, somehow, and when they found me, +they'd stone me--I don't care. I've felt enough. I don't feel no more. +I've cried so much, I guess I can't cry no more. If I could it 'ud be +now, tellin' you. + +"When Miss Waite came here to teach, I hadn't ever had no friend except +the girls here, and they wasn't bad, but we was always runnin' wild +around in the lots, and down to shore, and always laughin' and plaguin' +the teacher in school. And when Miss Waite came, she wasn't like you, nor +she didn't have such clothes, nor such ways as yours. I didn't love her +very much, but she used to talk to me, and wanted me to be a Christian. +And she didn't tell me all it was to be a Christian like you have, or I +wouldn't 'a' been such a fool to think I could be; but she talked like it +wasn't anything to understand, only to want Christ in your heart, and try +to be good, and, first, I didn't pretend to mind much what she said, and +used to tell the girls, and they'd tell me, too, and we'd laugh. Only one +time, she was talkin' to me, and it seemed as though I couldn't hold out +no longer, and I cried and cried, and when I got up I felt happy. Just as +though He was there. Seemed as though He was all around everywhere, and +goin' down the lane, there was a whip-poor-will singin', and it sounded +like it never had before--so strange and happy--and I always loved 'em +after that--but I never shall again. + +"And I tried to be good, and quieter, and have the other girls and the +children at home; and when father was drunk and noisy, and some of the +folks laughed, I wouldn't give up--quite. Oh, I didn't feel like I was +bad then! I didn't! You might remember that. I hadn't much manners, but I +never thought anything bad. Some time you might remember that. + +"Then Mr. Rollin came, and he might 'a' killed me, and it 'ud been a +kindness; but he hadn't no such kind heart as that. He used to make +excuses for meetin' me. He wouldn't look at any of the other girls. He +said he couldn't see no beauty in anybody else. He said I was the only +one on earth he loved. He said he wouldn't care what became of him if I +wasn't good to him. + +"I thought George never talked to me so much as that, and I trusted him +every word. It was all so different. I thought I loved him, too. He +talked about how he should take me to Providence, and I said I hadn't +much manners or education, and they'd laugh at me. He said there wasn't +another such a face there, and if he was suited, they might laugh. And he +used to talk about how I'd look all dressed up in his house, down +there--and I don't see! I don't see! I trusted every word. + +"It wouldn't have been no different, anyway. I loved you when you came. +When he went with you, I tried to hate you. I hated him, but I never +hated you! In my heart, teacher, I never hated you. You might think of +that, some time----" + +"Well, my dear little girl," I interrupted her; "it seems we have both +been deceived in the fisherman, but, doubtless, we shall recover in time. +You don't like him, neither do I. We'll dismiss the subject from our +minds, forever. There's a good, honest boy here in Wallencamp that a girl +I know ought to busy her head about. Why trouble ourselves with +disagreeable things?" + +"You might think, some time," Rebecca went on, with the same hopeless +expression, and in the same tense voice; "I never knew that about not +trustin' anybody till you told me. I hadn't never be'n away from here. I +wasn't brought up like you, and I wasn't so strong as you--you might +think, some time--but not now. I don't ask to have you now--you don't +see. I knew you wouldn't--you can forget--you're so happy--think of that, +sometime, how happy you was, sittin' there--but I never can forget any +more. I say it 'ud be'n better if I'd a died. It's the sin and the shame. +I've nothin' but to bear 'em, now, as long as I live. Oh, you might think +what it was not to have no hope anywheres!" + +"What do you mean?" I cried, as it rushed over me in that instant what I +had been too heedless and slow to comprehend, the possible wretched +meaning of her words. "What do you mean?" rising and standing over her, +with a terrible sense of power to convict. + +"Oh, Becky, you didn't mean that--worst?" + +"Yes," said she, with no visible change on her poor, set face--"yes--I +do." + +"I wish you would go out of my room, and leave me!" I exclaimed, then; "I +am not used to such people as you! Do you suppose I would have been with +you all these weeks if I had known? Don't you see how you have wronged +me? I never want to see you again, never! Go! go! and leave me alone!" + +I shall never forget the look with which Rebecca rose wearily, and went +to the door--not an angry look, not a look of terror nor even of pleading +reproach; but it was as if her soul, sinful, crushed and bleeding though +it was, in that one moment, rose above my soul and condemned it with +sorrowful, clear eyes. + +I listened to her step going down the stairs. I did not call her back. I +heard her latch the outer door of the Ark. No thought of pity for her +wrong, or commiseration for her desolation moved me. I thought only in my +proud selfish passion, how miserably, how bitterly I had been deceived. + +I sought out the fisherman's letter before retiring, and the one I had +begun in answer, and tore them both into shreds, believing that I should +as easily rid my mind of the whole miserable affair with which I had been +unwittingly complicated. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE. + + +"It's be'n a mild winter on the Cape;" the Wallencampers congratulated +one another, blinking, with a delicious sense of warmth and comfort, in +the rays of a strong March sun. + +The Wallencampers were not, perhaps, generally incited by that love of +stern, unceasing, and vigorous exertion which is, geographically +considered, one of the chief characteristics of our hardy northern races. +True poets and idealists, they were lazy, and they had but few clothes, +both excellent reasons for inclining kindly to the warm weather. + +And yet, notwithstanding this, they had grown used to a wild ruggedness +of nature and condition, a terrible, sublime uncertainty about life and +things in general when the wind blew, missing which, in this earthly +state, they would have pined most sadly. And I do not believe that they +would have exchanged their rugged, storm-swept, wind-beleaguered little +section of Cape Cod for a realm in sunny Italy itself; no, not even if +the waves of that bright clime had rippled over sands of literal gold, +and their winter had been nine months in the year instead of the +customary six and a half. + +"A mild winter on the Cape." Grandpa Keeler often repeated the words; and +sitting by the fire at night, his eyes grew big and wild, and his tones +took on a terrible impressiveness as he told of _rough_ winters on the +Cape, when the snow lay drifted high across the fences in the lane, and +"every time she came in yender"--pointing in the direction of the +Bay--"she licked offa slice or two o' bank, and the old Ark whirled and +shuk--O Lordy, teacher!--as ef she'd slipped her moorin's and gone off on +a high sea, and ef you'd a heered the wind a screechin' inter them +winders, you'd a thought the"---- + +"Bijonah Keeler!" Grandma Keeler spoke. She said no more. It was enough. + +"You'd a thought something had got loose, sure," concluded Grandpa, with +a keen glance aside to me that revealed, as with tenfold significance, +the obstructed force of his narrative. + +In the daytime, Grandpa was now much out of doors. He had most frequent +and loving recourse to an interesting looking pile of rubbish at the +south end of the barn. There he sat, and napped and nodded, and employed +the brief interims of wakefulness in whittling bean poles, preparatory +for another year's supply of that dreaded and inexorable crop. Earth's +disturbing voices, Grandma Keeler herself, seldom reached him there. + +Early, too, I saw him in the garden, leaning pensively on his hoe--a +becalmed and striking figure in a ragged snuff-colored coat, and a hat +marked by numerous small orifices, through which, here and there, strands +from his silvery fringe of hair strayed and waved in the breezes. + +It was Grandma and Grandpa Keeler's custom at the first approach of +spring to detach themselves from Madeline's household, and to form a +separate and complete establishment of their own in the sunny kitchen, +away out at the end of the Ark. I was still, nominally, Madeline's +boarder, and sat at the table with her and the little Keelers; but the +impulses of my heart were ever guiding my feet to that other dear resort, +where doors and hearts seemed always open to receive me, and an +inexpressible warmth and light and comfort pervaded the atmosphere. + +It was early in March, when, returning from school one day at the +noontide intermission, I found Grandma standing without the Ark, +singularly occupied. The sun was shining on her uncovered head, and the +tranquil glow on her face was clearly the exponent of no fictitious +happiness. In her apron she had a quantity of empty egg-shells, so +carefully drained of their contents as to present an almost perfect +external appearance, and these she was arranging on the twigs of a large +bush that grew just outside the window. + +I was glad, afterwards, that I intruded then no skeptical questions as to +her purpose, for, as I stood and looked at her, her action gradually lost +for me the tinge of eccentricity, with which it had at first seemed +imbued. I realized that there was something grander than reason, more +exalted than philosophy. + +"I suppose you've heerd about egg-plants, teacher;" said she, at length, +turning to me, while the sun in her face broke up into scintillant beams +that penetrated my being, and quickened my very soul. "This 'ere old +bush ain't bore nothin' for years, and it looked so bare and sorrerful, +somehow, standin' out here all alone, and everything else a kinder wakin' +up in the spring, I thought I'd try to sorter liven it up a little;" and +she resumed her placid occupation. + +"Blessed Grandma," I could only murmur, as I turned to enter the Ark; +"inspired, delightful soul!" + +It was in March that the Wallencamp sun-bonnets came forth, all in a +single day, a curious and startling pageant. The Modoc, who had gone +bareheaded through the winter, assumed hers as a turban of impressive +altitude, while the diminutive Carietta and the infant Sophronia appeared +but as vagrant telescopes on insufficient pegs. + +In March the "pipers" lifted up their homesick notes at nightfall, in the +meadows. On the last day of that month, I found arbutus in bloom under +the leaves in the cedar woods. + +Scarcely had the first faint signs of herbage appeared on the earth ere +the Wallencamp cows and horses were given over exclusively to the +guardianship of nature, and to wander whithersoever they would, for the +Wallencamp fences had ceased to present themselves as obstacles in the +way. Indeed, some portions of them had been utterly obliterated, and this +was easily traced to a habit prevalent among the Wallencampers of +resorting to them for fuel when, on some winter night, other resources +were found to be low. + +Other portions of them were decayed, or blown over in the wind, so that +there was just enough left to sit on for private soliloquy, or social +debate, and to give a picturesque charm to the landscape; yet, it was a +fact which I found worthy of notice, that, in going from one place to +another, no true Wallencamper ever walked over a broken-down part of the +fence, or went through a gap in the fence; he always selected an upright +part of the fence to climb over, even going a little out of the way, if +necessary, to effect this purpose. + +The Wallencampers were staunch on the matter of individual rights; they +turned each his own horse and cow into his own door-yard. Animated, +doubtless, by something of the same principle, those attenuated animals, +having made an impartial _detour_ of the premises, congregated, as of one +accord, along the highway, especially in that part of the lane between +the Ark and the school-house. + +I made my way through these new perils from day to day, in safety, until +the deepening green of the hills and fields called the herd away to wider +pastures. + +Dr. Aberdeen, however, remained behind. Dr. Aberdeen, as he was termed by +the Wallencampers, was a horse of peculiar and distinguished parts. Among +his other eccentric gifts, he had a harmless habit of chasing beings of a +superior race. In what manner this propensity had first manifested +itself, I do not know, but it had been eagerly seized upon as ground for +further development by the juvenile element of Wallencamp, and especially +by the Modoc, under whose lively tuition the animal had reached an almost +strategic ability in the art. + +Dr. Aberdeen was truly of the mildest disposition imaginable. He had +never been known to kick. He had never even been known to open his mouth +and snap at a fly, but the expression of his countenance, if it might be +so called, when he was on the chase, was vicious and determined in the +extreme, and by no means betrayed the purely facetious nature of his +intentions. During school hours he seldom wandered from the immediate +vicinity of the school-house, where he appeared to be waiting for the +children to come out to play. Often have I looked up to see him gazing in +at the windows with a gleam of evil expectancy in his melancholy dun +brown eye. + +With the joyful advent of the spring came, also, Tommy's tame owl and +"Happy Moses." Tommy's owl emerged from his winter-quarters, and took up +his daily post of observation on the fence on the shady side of the +school-house. He was blind in one eye, which eye was always open, the +other was always closed. Yet with that one glassy, unblinking orb, +Tommy's owl seemed to me, as I lifted my eyes to the window, to be +reviewing the past with an indifference as calm and all-embracing as that +with which he sent his inexorable gaze into the future; and to take in me +and the passing events of the school-room as a mere speck in his +kaleidoscopic vision of the ages. + +What was the winter's thraldom from which Happy Moses had escaped, I +never learned. He was a broad-shouldered fellow, six feet in height, with +a beard like flax, and a sunny, ingenuous countenance. What term should +have been applied to his eccentricities in politer circles I cannot say, +but in Wallencamp, he was artlessly designated as "the fool." Whether it +was on this account, that with a certain rashness of perception peculiar +to the Wallencampers, they always prefixed the adjective "happy" to his +name, or merely on account of the transparent sunniness of his +disposition, I cannot say, either. + +Happy Moses played with the children. He regarded me, as one of the class +of those who presume to teach, with mingled scorn and aversion. When I +went to the door to blow the children in from their play, he invariably +turned his back upon me, cocked his hat on one side of his head, and +walked away with an air that was palpably reckless, defiant, and jaunty. + +When he reappeared, it was usually with his knitting-work, to which he +devoted himself in a desultory way, reclining on the school-house steps. +But sometimes he sat on the fence with the owl, and then it was +noticeable that while the gaze of the one was transient and silly, the +gaze of the other seemed to grow the more unutterably searching and +profound. So, at last, the new term was fairly established with these +three--Dr. Aberdeen, Happy Moses, and the owl. + +Hulled corn and beans had now become but as a dream of the past in +Wallencamp, and for a brief season before the accession of lobsters, life +was mainly supported on winter-green-berries, or box-berries, as they +were called. These grew in large quantities at "Black Ground," a section +of the woods which had been burned over. Daily I met happy groups of +Wallencampers, with baskets and pails in their hands, going "boxberry +plummin.'" + +We had boxberry bread, boxberry stews and pies, and one day, I caught a +glimpse of Grandma, in her part of the Ark, frying boxberry +griddle-cakes. + +Grandpa, when I met him, at this time, wore an air of deep dejection; yet +he bore his woes in silence, doubtless avoiding any concession that +should suggest the need of another clarification of his system. Once, +when nobody was looking, he cautiously withdrew a handful of scraped +birch bark from his pocket and gave it to me, remarking that he thought +it was "a little more bracin' than them tarnal woodsy plums." + +Next in the order of events, as the Modoc stood in her place in the +reading-class and slowly enunciated each separate syllable of the lesson +in a tone as remarkable for a loud distinctness as it was for a total +lack of meaning and modulation, from that side of her dress which had +been sagging most heavily, something fell with a crash to the floor. It +was a boiled lobster of anomalous proportions. The pocket had given way +at last under its overpowering burden, and now appeared ignominiously +upborne on the claws of its former prisoner. The Modoc seized the +crustacean with glittering defiance in her eyes, and at recess, I saw +that turbaned Amazon devouring it, with a group of wistful and admiring +faces gathered round. The boys were out in the bay "setting pots" and +"trolling for bait." Soon, not a child at Wallencamp was lobsterless. I +discovered two under the infant Sophronia's desk one morning, and +afterwards kept a sharp eye in that direction. Sophronia's conduct +throughout the session was in an unusual degree exemplary. I detected no +guilty blush on her countenance, I heard not the crackling of a claw, +but when she went out, I observed that she took no lobsters with her. + +Investigating the place where she had been sitting, I found a wild +confusion of claws and shells, as carefully denuded of meat as though +they had been turned inside out for that purpose. + +What was my surprise and mortification to find a like collection at +nearly every seat in the school-room, and all the while my flock had +seemed unusually silent and attentive; such proficiency had those +children acquired in the art of dissecting lobsters. + +I saw how many they devoured day by day, and how much water they drank, +and I fancied that they themselves grew to partake more and more of the +form and character of marine animals. I believed that they could have +existed equally well crawling at the bottom of the deep or swimming on +its surface. + +We had lobsters, too, at the Ark. For the first day or two of this +dispensation, Grandpa's face perceptibly brightened. At the end of two +weeks it was longer than ever before. + +He came over from his potato patch, I remember, and leaned on the fence, +as I was going by to school. + +"It's be'n a mild winter on the Cape, teacher," he observed, studying the +heavens with an air of utter abstraction. Then his glance fell as it were +inadvertently in the direction of the house, and he immediately continued +with a peculiar spark of animation kindling in his eye; "I've et so many +o' them 'tarnal critters, teacher, that I swon if I don't feel like a +'tarnal, long-fingered, sprawlin' shell-fish myself! But it's comin' nigh +time for ale-whops. They're very good, teacher, ale-whops are--very good, +though they're bony as the--they're 'tarnal bony, teacher. They're what +we call herrin's in the winter." + +Grandpa then laughed a little and showed his teeth. + +"I was goin' to tell ye, Bachelder Lot, here," he went on; "he was a' +askin' Captain Sartell what kind o' fish them was that it's recorded in +the Scripters to 'a' fed the multitude, and then took up so many baskets +full o' leavin's; and the Captain told him that as to exactly what manner +of fish them was, he hadn't sufficient acquaintance with the book of +Jonah to say, but, as near as he could calk'late, he reckoned they was +ale-whops. + +"And the Bachelder told him that it seemed to him he was right, and had +solved a mystery, for it stood to reason that there wa'n't no other fish +_but_ an ale-whop, that they could feed five thousand folks out of seven +little ones and then take up twelve bushel baskets full of bones! + +"And the Captain was pleased, and kind o' half owned up that he hadn't +felt no ways sure as to his surmise to begin with, but he said when the +question was put to him, he didn't think no man ought to hesitate to come +down strong on a doctrinal p'int. + +"Wall, as I was a sayin', teacher," concluded Grandpa, his teeth still +skinned and gleaming, "it's be'n a mild winter on the Cape." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW. + + +The ship in which the Cradlebow expected to take flight was to sail from +New Bedford on the twentieth of June. Meantime, having abjured my +friendly relations with Rebecca, and missing the quiet sustenance +hitherto supplied my vanity in the girl's thoughtful devotion, I found a +measure of relief for my wounded spirit in the companionship of this +other--my boyish and ardent ex-pupil. + +Many times, after my last interview with Rebecca, had I regretted that I +did not leave Wallencamp at the close of the first term. The school grew +continually more irksome to me. I was not so strong as when I had first +undertaken it, and no longer overlooked the discomforts of my situation +in the delight I had then experienced in its novelty. Often I longed to +get away from it all, to rid myself abruptly of the perplexities and +distasteful duties which bound me; and yet, all the while, there was +a truer impulse, a deeper longing within me, to stay. Had I not been, all +my life so far, forsaking my unfinished tasks, quitting an object as soon +as it seemed any the less attractive. I willed to stay, and labored, +still blindly, under the conviction that my regenerating work among the +Wallencampers (not theirs in me; ah, no!) was not yet accomplished. + +Toward Rebecca I had not softened. I was bitterly disappointed in her. +She had been the formless, pliable clay, on which I purposed to prove my +pet theories for development and culture. I had taken her as a perfectly +fresh and untainted being, naively unconscious even, of the elements, +either good or bad, of which her own nature was composed, waiting only +for the hand of a wise and skillful modeller, like myself, to bring her +up to the highest condition of manners and morals. + +This elegant superstructure, a purely mental product of my own, had +fallen away, revealing the erring, passionate nature beneath. But, deeply +as I mourned the fall of my idol, I felt still more keenly a sense of +personal injury, because the inner structure on which I had been +building, had not spoken out and said, "I shall contaminate you. I am not +fit for the touch, of your fine hands." + +Clearly there could no longer be any sympathy between Rebecca and me. I +avoided any occasion for private interview with the girl. Meeting her +casually in the lane, or at the neighbors' houses, I acknowledged her +presence with a nod or a smile, colder, I knew, than as if I had ignored +her utterly. + +She understood; she was quiet and unobtrusive. She made no attempt to +break down the wall thus established between us. And I was determined, on +the whole, to be more than just with Rebecca. I would be kind to her in +her disgrace. I would palliate her weakness as far as I could +consistently with a pure and high standard of action. I even +congratulated myself on the magnanimity of my intentions, except when I +met the clear, sad gaze of those dispassionate eyes. Then I experienced +an unaccountable sensation, as though I had received a blow inwardly, +that staggered me, for an instant, in my fine conceptions of honor, and +set my conclusions out of order. + +The Wallencampers were quick to note the estrangement between us, and +affirmed that "Beck was mad, and wouldn't speak to teacher, along o' +teacher's goin' with Beck's beau." + +This gratuitous solution of the mystery was not evolved in my presence. +Still I knew, that all through those lonely, suffering days, it was often +repeated to Rebecca; that those who had borne the girl any grudge, or +deemed that she was taking airs above them, took pains, now, that the +taunt should reach her ears; and even the children, who had always loved +her, uttered it before her with childish thoughtlessness. + +But, for the Cradlebow; his bright dream of seeking his fortune over wide +seas and in distant lands, his dreadless enthusiasm in the belief that he +should find so much waiting for him in that unsounded world, his +determination, above all, to acquit himself truthfully and bravely--all +these made him, to my mind, ever an object of more inspiring and romantic +interest. + +He seemed, somehow, to have divested himself entirely of the old, +heedless irresolution. His speech expressed little of doubt or hesitancy. +It was full of a bold, bright affirmation; and his step, in these days, +had none of the ordinary slow, smiling, philosophical Wallencamp shuffle. +He brought to my weariness and dejection such an atmosphere of vigorous, +tireless life; he was so confident, helpful, unselfish; I was so +faithless and disheartened a burden-bearer; that I grew almost +unconsciously to find for myself a certain rest in his strength, which, +whatever high and heroic qualities it may have lacked, developed, at +least, rare resources of patience, constancy, and forbearance. + +He did not say: "You have changed your mind, you will wait for me, +teacher, till I come back from over the seas?" but his eyes were +eloquent. What if I was moved, I had grown so weak, to answer their +question, at last, with a half-involuntary admission in my own. + +Ah, no! I assured myself that my attitude towards the Cradlebow was +sisterly--sisterly, merely--although I might have reflected that the +yearnings of that amiable affection had never, hitherto, in the ordinary +walks of life, constrained me to hem so many as a dozen +pocket-handkerchiefs for my brothers, which irksome task I cheerfully +performed as a surprise for the sailor boy, not to speak of a pair of +scarlet hose which I had already begun to knit, under Grandma's tuition. + +And now the life in Wallencamp seemed never like real life to me, even in +the broadest daylight. It was like a dream--the sweet, warm, brightening +of the landscape; the vines growing over the low, brown houses; the lazy, +summer voices in the air; the skies, too, were a dream--and Luther, with +his ideally beautiful face and his quaintness and ardor and +unworldliness, was a part of the dream. I knew that when he went away, I +should follow him long in my thoughts, and wonder much concerning him; +that at home again with my own people, in gayer, different scenes, I +should never hear the wind blowing up strong at night, or see the winter +settling down gloomily, or watch the opening of another spring-time, +without following him afar and wondering, with a vague, sorrowful, tender +regret, what chance was befalling him in the world. + +Then an incident occurred which changed, not me, perhaps, but the +complexion of my dream. + +One afternoon, at low tide, I wandered down to the beach and ensconced +myself comfortably, with book and shawl, on the roof of Steeple Rock. The +rock was an old acquaintance of mine by this time. + +There was a group of children playing, a little farther down the beach. +My eyes turned ever to them from the written page, following them with a +languid pleasure, as they revelled in the sand at the water's edge with +their bare brown feet and legs. I had a sense of safety, too, in their +proximity. I knew that they generally returned home passing by the place +where I was. + +It was warm on the rock. I was very tired. As I lay there, I became only +conscious, at length, that my book was slipping out of my hand, and down +the shelving side of the rock, and I was too listless to attempt to +reclaim it. I heard a little, dull thud on the ground below, and a faint +flutter of leaves--and the long, white beach, the ragged cliffs, the +laughing children, had faded from my sight. + +Then I dreamed, indeed, in the ordinary sense of the word; I was back +again in Newtown, in my own home, in my own white bed, and I was very +glad, looking at the pictures on the wall, and out on the familiar hills. +I was glad to hear my sister playing for me down stairs, only it was the +same tune always, and I wished that she would play more softly. + +And the pillow was hard, but I did not mind that so much, for my mother +stood over me, looking very sweet and grave, and she said: "Why didn't +you tell us that the pillow was hard!" + +My father was there, too, and repeated the same question, and my +brothers,--they all kept saying: "Why didn't you tell us that the pillow +was hard?" and seemed to be pitying me and admiring me at the same time, +until John Cable came in, friend of the old Newtown days, and his face +was hard and stern. + +"Why didn't you tell me the pillow was hard?" he said. "Now, I can't wake +you! Don't you see, I can't wake you, now?" and he shook his head and +would not look at me. So they took him out of the room, and went on +pitying and admiring me, but my sister kept playing louder and louder, +and it troubled me so that I could not rest. Then I heard a voice, that +was not in my dream, calling to me in a sharp, clear, cheering tone, +"Teacher! Teacher!" and I looked up to see Luther coming towards me in a +boat, his face aglow with excitement. + +This first--before I realized that I had fallen asleep on the rock, and +that what I had dreamed was my sister playing, was the sound of the tide +coming in, and that I was already sprinkled from head to foot with the +spray. The Cradlebow continued calling to me cheerily, and would not give +me time to consider the terrors of the situation then, nor afterwards, +when I strove, in my half-stunned condition of mind, to weigh and +appreciate the peril from which I had been rescued. + +The children had wandered a mile or more along the beach and had gone +home by another road. It was not yet dark. No alarm had been occasioned +in Wallencamp as to my absence, but the Cradlebow, knowing that I had +gone in the direction of the beach, had been moved to search for me, and +had discovered me on the rock, where, in a few moments more, I should +have waked to find myself at the mercy of the waves. + +My deliverer laughed reassuringly, sending the boat leaping upon the +shore, holding out his hand to me, as though this were merely an everyday +occurrence, the close of some ordinary excursion, but, to me, life had +suddenly grown significant. + +The strong warm hand which clasped mine, weak and trembling, as I stepped +from the boat, I must recognize henceforth, I knew, as the link between +me and the living world. + +For several days afterwards I considered the matter of my relation to the +Cradlebow in a new and serious light, especially in the light of present +gratitude, with a sense of life-long obligation; but the Cradlebow was +too generous and noble to recognize the obligation, or take advantage of +the gratitude. He loved me, I knew. He had watched for me. He had saved +my life. He should know, I resolved, that if he wished it still I would +wait for him. + +And the idea was not foreign to my heart, but it grew, at last, too light +of wing, and disposed to take up permanent abode in the realm of fancy. A +poor, handsome young lover, seeking his fortune at the ends of the earth, +and the future--ah, it did send a little stab to my conscience, to think +that the uncertainty of that lover's future should so have heightened, to +my mind, the romance of the picture. However, meeting him in the lane one +evening, as I was returning from one of my parochial calls--it was just +at dusk, I remember, and we stood under the balm-of-Gilead tree, in front +of Emily's gate--I said very gravely and with none of that embarrassment +which the occasion might seem to have warranted:-- + +"Luther, although I seem to myself much older than you, we are really, I +suppose, of about the same age. I have known very happy attachments where +inconsistencies of birth, habit, education were far greater, perhaps, +than with us. I have made up my mind that, if you still desire it, I will +wait for you." + +"Wait for me, teacher!" exclaimed the Cradlebow, opening his eyes with a +solemn, wide surprise; "why, of course!" + +"Why, of course?" I questioned faintly, not knowing whether to smile at +being thus abruptly disarmed, or to feel the least little bit piqued at +the youth's unconscious audacity. + +"What else should two people do who love each other?" There was nothing +either of doubt or arraignment in the Cradlebow's serious eyes. +"Besides," he continued; "I've known it all along. See here, teacher!" +and he took from his pocket, and carefully unfolded, a sheet of paper +against the background of which there lay revealed a dainty star fish, +most curiously twisted about with some rare and beautiful sea vine. + +"You won't find that vine washed up on this beach every day," he said +eagerly. "When I showed it to Granny--'If Heaven itself had spoken, boy,' +says she, 'I should be no surer it was a fair voyage waiting you than I +be now;' though I was thinking of something besides the voyage, teacher, +but it's all the same, it means good luck; and wouldn't you like to keep +it for us?" + +[Illustration] + +"Oh, no!" I answered, laughingly refusing the delicate talisman. "I +should blast its good intentions. I should stifle it with my cold +unbelief." + +The Cradlebow tenderly replaced his treasure, and laughed with me +good-naturedly. + +"It isn't your fault, teacher," said he, "that you weren't better brought +up. If you'd always lived with our people, down here, you'd be more +believing." + +At all events, my severe and protracted mental exertions had proved quite +unnecessary, I thought, although after this there was, in some respects, +a tacitly admitted change in our converse with each other. A sort of +vague, venturesome house-building for the future, in which the Cradlebow +seemed to wish that I would oftener show an interest in the feminine +details within doors, while I had a grand and absorbing predilection for +constructing imaginary grades and turrets and mediaeval door-posts, +receiving any thoughtful suggestions as to tin-kettles and pantry-shelves +with gracious and smiling forbearance. + +The Cradlebow seemed particularly pleased, when he came into the Ark of +an evening, if I chanced to be knitting on the scarlet stockings. I did +have a new and not unpleasant sense of housewifely dignity while engaged +at this task, and undoubtedly assumed an air calculated to serve as an +impressive exponent to my emotion. The poor scarlet stockings +lengthened, meanwhile, but it was a disheartening and almost +imperceptible growth. Where the article should have been most +voluminous, at the calf of the leg, it grew, in spite of me, more +alarmingly narrow at every round. This was after I had graduated from +under Grandma Keeler's tuition, and assumed my own responsibility in the +matter; so that I disdained to appeal to her for assistance in the +dilemma, but thoughtfully devised means of my own for widening the +stocking. + +"I'll tell ye what it is, teacher," said Grandpa, who had been regarding +me with that wild look which sometimes visited the old man's face when a +problem seemed well nigh insoluble; "I'm afeerd, teacher, I'm afeerd that +that ere stockin' ain't a goin' to fit nobody! I'll tell ye what it makes +me think on. It makes me think o' one o' these 'ere accordions that ye +open and shet. I'm afeerd, teacher, that it ain't a goin' to fit!" + +"Thar! 'sh! 'sh! pa," said Grandma, with all the unction of holy +disapproval; but, for once, my ever dear friend and champion was +compelled to turn her back upon the scene. + +In this position, she exclaimed in a low, broken tone of voice, "There +may be legs, pa, as we don't know on!" + +Grandpa was curiously aroused. + +"I tell ye, I've travelled to the four quarters of the 'arth, ma," said +he; "and set eyes on the tarnalest critters under God's canopy, but I +never see anybody yit that 'ud fit into that 'ere. Besides," he added, +knowingly, in a milder tone; "I reckin that 'ere stockin's meant for +somebody nearer hum, and a pretty straight-legged fellow, too." + +I was enabled to judge something still further of the speculations waking +in the Wallencamp brain, when, having to keep Henry G. after school, one +night, as a means of discipline, he bawled out:-- + +"Ye don't keep Simmy B. after school no more! And why not?" continued the +aggrieved infant, at the same time framing for himself an answer of +malicious significance: "Oh, 'cause he's Lute Cradlebow's brother!" + +Social converse was at its high tide, now, in Wallencamp among the birds +in the trees and the fowls in the door-yards, and quite as naturally and +harmlessly so, for the most part, I think, among the beings of a superior +order. They had little other recreation. + +The bonfire had marked the close of the gay epoch in Wallencamp. It was +too warm now for the livelier recreations of the winter. Religious +interest, especially, was at a low ebb. At the evening prayer-meetings, +the number of worshippers appeared but as a handful compared with the +number of the unconcerned who lingered outside in the pleasant moonlight. +Conspicuous among these latter, replacing the fervid debates of the +winter with a calm philosophy befitting a warmer season, were Captain +Sartell and Bachelor Lot. + +The old songs held the same charm for them all, however. They sang them +ever with pathos in their voices and tears in their eyes. + +The little unpremeditated chats by gate and roadside, the neighborly +"droppings-in," grew more and more frequent. + +But when poor Rebecca was taken up on the tide of social wonder and +debate, and I heard whisperings concerning her, and knew that an evil +suspicion had taken hold of the mind of the little community, and when +finally Emily said to me; "I guess you done about right shirking off +Beck, teacher. I guess she ain't no better than she ought to be:" in +spite of what I felt to be my own unblemished conscience in the matter +and the justice of the retribution which was overtaking Rebecca, I went +often to my little room and cried bitterly for her, as well as for +myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +DAVID ROLLIN IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. + + +Mrs. Philander Keeler grew kind. At first, especially while the fisherman +was in Wallencamp, her demeanor towards me had been marked by a decided +touch of coldness and mistrust. She suspected me, I thought, of trifling +with the Cradlebow; now, she invariably deferred to me as a person worthy +of all honor and consideration--of congratulation even, in an eminent +degree. + +She assumed to be on the most frank and confiding terms with me. She +found a thousand little ways for promoting my physical comfort that had +never occurred to her before. + +So I was the more surprised, when after school, one Friday afternoon, as +I was sitting in my room, this same Madeline suddenly appeared before me +with her eyes glittering, her lips compressed, and her complexion of that +positive green hue which it always wore when she was in a high passion. + +"There's a gentleman down stairs, waiting to see you, teacher," she said, +with a peculiarly dark inflection on the word gentleman. "Oh, he's got on +an awful interesting look!" snapped out Madeline, with a spiteful little +laugh; "and a suit of light clothes, and a new spring overcoat, and he +looked at me as though I was a pane of window-glass, and he says, +'Oh--ah--yes--is Miss Hungerford in?' I wonder if he's come back to make +his farewell calls--" with another unpleasant laugh. "One thing I can +tell him, he'd better steer clear of George Olver!" + +Was ever a zealous young devotee, I pondered, more perplexed! + +"Come this way, please," I said, holding out my hand to Madeline; and +leaning back in my chair with unaffected weariness, at least. "Is Mr. +Rollin down stairs?" + +"They call him that, I believe," said Madeline, sententiously; "things +don't always get their right names in this world." + +"Well, you may tell him," I said; "that I can't see him." + +Madeline's countenance changed wonderfully in an instant. She gave me a +bright look, and without waiting for another word, ran down the stairs. + +When she came back her tongue ran on glibly:-- + +"I told him," said she; "that you couldn't see him, and he kept on in +that window-glass way of looking, and his head as high as ever, and he +took his hat and 'I'm very sorry,' he says, 'that Miss Hungerford is +indisposed, and I hope I shall have an opportunity of seeing her this +evening.' + +"He said he came to-day, and was going away to-morrow morning, and he had +something of importance to communicate, and I knew he expected I'd go up +and see you again about it, but I didn't. So he said he'd call again this +evening or to-morrow morning, just which 'd be most agreeable, and +expected I'd budge then, sure, but I didn't show any signs of it; and I +told him rightly, I guessed one time would be about as agreeable as +another; and I suppose he thought he wouldn't show mad before such common +bred folks. He smiled that window-glass looking smile of his, and says; +'Ah, thank you; now I won't detain you any longer, Mrs. Keeler,' and out +he went. + +"I suppose he's come down to smooth everything over, and have it hushed +up with Beck and her folks. Well, money'll do a good deal for a man, but +it wouldn't stand him much if he got into George Olver's hands. However, +teacher," concluded Madeline, in a sprightly tone; "give the Devil his +due. It's better'n as if he'd run off and never showed his head again; +and I don't suppose he'll get much satisfaction out of you, if you do see +him, teacher. It's better to trust honest folks than rogues, and nobody +knows that better than the rogues themselves." + +I knew that this last clause was not designed as a personal thrust by +Madeline, yet I could not help musing a little over it, smilingly, after +she had gone. The fiction, of which I was living a part, in Wallencamp, +was taking on, it seemed to me, a tinge even of the tragic--perplexities +were deepening. I was becoming, more than ever, the suffering though +exalted heroine of a romance. + +I rose, and dressed myself before the glass, I remember, with particular +care. I did not know why I should dread or avoid seeing the fisherman in +the evening, since the part I had to sustain in the interview was so +distinctly calm, dispassionate, and spiritually remote. At the same +time, I wished that my cheeks had not grown so pale and my eyes so +dark-rimmed and hollow. They bespoke the interesting part I had to play +in the world's tragedy, but were not, otherwise, so becoming as I could +have wished. + +Earlier, the fisherman had sent me books from Providence. I would rather, +I thought, that he should take them back again. I remembered that I had +left one of them in my desk at the school-house, and put on my hat to go +after it. + +"Going out to spend the evening, teacher?" said Madeline, as I opened the +door of the Ark, giving me at the same time a gay and knowing look. + +"No," I said, gravely tolerant of the little woman's surveillance; "I'm +only going to the school-house for a book that I want. I shall be back in +a few moments." + +It was hardly dusk then. + +Aunt Patty, as usual after school on Friday, had swept the room and put +down the dark and dingy paper curtains. + +I opened the door and stood an instant looking into the gloom before +entering. Then I saw that there was some one sitting in my chair--a man +with his head bent forward and buried in his arms, which were folded on +the desk. + +It was Mr. Rollin, and before I had time to retreat, he lifted his head +and saw me standing at the door. + +I had expected that the first revelation of that glance would contain +something of grief, wretchedness, remorse. The fisherman's countenance +wore a shadow of annoyance, but it was expressive, above all, of a +childish petulance and irritation. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, speaking with the utmost abruptness, and rising from +the chair; "if you had only left this place at the end of the first term, +it would have saved the whole of this abominable misadventure!" + +"I don't think I understand you," I said, freezing now in sober earnest. + +"Because in your eyes only, it is a misadventure," he continued rapidly, +with growing excitement. "You came to this miserable hole--this +Wallencamp--resolved to view everything in a new light--the light of +unselfish devotion to great ends, and exalted aspiration, and ideal +perfection, and all that. Well, how has the wretched, giggling, conniving +little community shown out in that light? I suppose there's one--that +larking Cradlebow--who has stood the test and come out creditably, by +reason of an uncommonly artistic shock of hair and a Raphaelite +countenance. As for me, taken in the ordinary sense, I'm no worse than a +thousand others, but I say that it was a decidedly unfortunate light to +put me in! It was a decidedly unfair light!" + +"I have no wish to judge you in any light," I said, and explaining +briefly my errand to the school-house, I expressed regret at having +interrupted the fisherman's meditations, and turned to go. + +"Miss Hungerford!" he exclaimed, with a gesture of whimsical force and +impatience; "it's my last chance for an explanation. Don't, for God's +sake, cut it short at this point. You might know--you might _know_, that +I'm not a bad fellow at heart. But you will never see the best side of +me--there's fate in it. I never wanted to seem specially contrite but I +must set myself jumping like a jack-in-the box for your infernally cold +amusement! I had an explanation at my tongue's end. D--n it! I don't +remember a word of it." + +"I don't think it is necessary," I said. + +"Oh, no!" he continued in a deeply aggrieved, almost a whining tone; +"nothing's necessary that would set me out in a little better shape! +Anything will do for these grovelling Wallencampers, but just as soon as +it comes to me, all the extenuating circumstances of my life--that I was +left so early orphaned, sisterless, brotherless, my nearest of kin a +wicked, carousing old uncle; taken to see the world here, and to see the +world there; homeless, if ever one was homeless; never trained to any +correct way of thinking, or settled manner of life, but just to spend my +money and aim at enjoying myself--they all amount to nothing in my case. + +"Well, I used to come to Wallencamp just for that same purpose--to have a +good time; it was such a jolly wild place to let the Old Nick loose in; +and now it seems that's to be taken for a man's natural level, and the +best that he's capable of! Then I met you. You would voluntarily give up +ease and luxury, for a time, for the sake of an abstract idea--whether +misguided or not, I will not say, the fact remains the same--and I swear +it was a new revelation to me. It was strange and perverse, and it was +deuced taking! Then I tried to get you to include _me_ among the objects +of your mission, to accept _me_ as a candidate for temporal leniency and +final salvation, and you wouldn't. It is only the happy, ragged, +unconscious heathen that are looked out for in this world; the real ones +don't get any sympathy." + +The fisherman paused. + +"I should be glad to give you the first lesson in the code of salvation," +I said--"that the fate of souls is not left to human hands." + +"Oh, I've heard that formula somewhere before!" exclaimed the fisherman, +impatiently, with a little sneer in his laugh. "Why don't you tell me +that God will help me? Perhaps you will even remember me in your prayers, +some time." + +At those last words an unbearable pang of self-conviction and remorse +shot through my heart. I, who had not felt greatly the need of any +supernatural aid, but rather that I was able to manage my own affairs +with becoming discretion--of what saving power and grace could I speak to +one who was weak enough to fall, and for whom there was no help in +himself? In the dark school-room I involuntarily lifted my hands to my +face. When I heard the fisherman's voice again, he had come a step or two +nearer to me down the aisle. + +"Let me tell you what I was thinking about when you came in," he said, in +an altered tone. "Rather, how I was allowing my imagination to run away +with itself, for my own particular delectation. I was imagining, when +you opened the door and stood revealed there in the light, how you might +come to me, indeed, as the angel of some better life and hope, offering +me a forgiveness as full as it was unmerited." + +"It is not I who have to forgive you," I repeated. + +"It is you, if any one," replied the fisherman, quickly. "I tell you, you +feel that girl Becky Weir's fault ten times more deeply than she feels it +for herself. You should never have come to this place. It was deucedly +odd and entertaining, but it was a step in the wrong direction. You put +yourself in the place of these people and translate all their possible +moods and tenses according to your own. It's a mistake. That girl, Becky, +would stare in perfect bewilderment if she could know of some of the +thoughts and emotions you doubtless attribute to her. She might even +laugh at you for your pains." + +"I do not believe you," I said, not angrily nor resentfully, as might +have been earlier in our acquaintance, but with a painful, slow +positiveness. "Perhaps I was wrong in assuming the place I did in +Wallencamp, but it was not in the way you think. I don't know--I can't +see the way myself, clearly--always, but I believe that what you have +said is utterly false!" + +"At least," continued the fisherman, in the old gay, frivolous tone, +which I heard now for the first time during this conversation; "I can +make her tenfold and abundant reparation--ah, you don't know--I say you +don't understand these people. It's a disagreeable subject; let it go! +But I'm very rich, you know," with an easy laugh, and the air of a man +only conscious, at last, of his good worldly fortune, and the exquisite +fit of his clothes. "Oh, I've got no end of money. After all, that's the +chief thing in this world. If a fellow's ordinarily clever and +good-natured, with a good reputation in town, what's a little row in the +suburban districts! It's an awfully insignificant affair, anyway, it +seems to me. We may as well talk sense, and the plainer the better. +People don't employ lenses for shortsightedness in that +particular--common sense, I mean. You walk without seeing, Miss +Hungerford, and you're bound to get infernally cheated, in some shape. +Why not me, I say, as well as another?" + +Still, the fisherman's words roused no bitterness in me. His hardened +recklessness of speech served rather to strengthen me in the part I had +to play of the unapproachably sublime. + +"I cannot consider that question," I said, with my hand on the door. + +He swept my face with a keen glance that had lost none of its derisive +quality. + +"So it's true, then!" he said. "The ultimatum has been reached, at last, +in the possessor of a pretty face and a broken fiddle! and dreams for the +restoration of the race are to end in a broken-down hovel by the sea, +in darning the Cradlebow's socks, and dressing the clams for dinner, +while the bucolic George Olver and the versatile Harvey, and all the rest +of the awkward, moon-gazing crew, take turns in sitting on the door-step, +and dilating on the weather! Ravishing idyll but it lacks substantiality. +It lacks seriousness." + +I heard that mocking laugh again without emotion, except it might be for +a faint, far-off echo in my breast of the fisherman's own scorn. Above +all, I was weary, and willing to make my escape. + +"We cannot help each other by standing here talking," I said, and added a +"good bye." + +It was the last time, probably, that I should see the fisherman's face; +but he refused the valediction with a toss of the head. + +"Oh, no!" he said; "it isn't time for my obsequies. I shall return to +town for a few days or weeks only; this detestable place has always +thrown a spell over me. I can't rid myself of it. Like the natives of +Wallencamp, I always drift back to it again." + +It was growing dark. I found Madeline waiting for me in the lane. +Somewhat piqued at the persistency of the little woman's ministrations, I +informed her briefly, that I had found the fisherman in the school-house, +and had been conversing with him there; but she put her hand in my arm +with an air of unshaken confidence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +GEORGE OLVER'S LOVE FOR BECKY. + + +"I'd like to see you alone a few minutes, teacher, if you please." + +It was George Olver who spoke, in his sturdy, resolute bass. The words +hardly took on the form of a suave request: they were uttered in too +earnest, grave, and intent a tone. + +I had dismissed my school for the day. The roar of the young lions just +released from bondage had not died away when George Olver entered the +school-room, closed the door behind him, and stood in a manly and +self-reliant attitude, his hat in his hand. + +"No, ma'am," he said, in answer to some gesture of mine; "I'll be much +obleeged if _you'll_ set down in the chair." + +"There's times, teacher," he then went on, gravely and steadily; "when +ordinary friends, like you and me, meetin' each other in the road, or in +a neighbor's house, maybe, we say, 'How d'ye do?' or 'It's a pleasant +day,' or the like o' that, and all well and good. It's a fair +understandin', and enough said 'twixt you and me: and then ag'in, there's +times when the wind blows up rough, as ye might say, and oncommon dark, +and some harm a befallin' of us, when we git closter together and more a +dependin' on each other, and then them old words ain't o' much account to +us, but to speak out different what need be without fear or shame." + +"Yes," I said, much impressed by George Olver's manner. He was held +somewhat in awe among the Wallencampers, and regarded generally as a +"close-mouthed" fellow. + +"I hear," he resumed; "that Dave Rollin has been down this way ag'in. +They say it was lucky for him I wasn't to home that day; maybe so. Ef +he'd a turned up suddenly in my path--I can't say--I might 'a' trod on +him. I never done anythin' like that for the fun on't. I'd rather go +round one any time than step on't, but if I'd a come on him so, +onexpected, I can't say for what might 'a' been the consequences. Wall, +he comes down here, and he goes to her with money! Her, that ain't used +to all the devilish ways o' the world, nor as fine clo's as some, but +that's got a lady's heart in her, for all that; and she told him--I know +just how she said it, in that quiet way she's had along lately--that it +was the last thing he could do to hurt her--but he'd made a mistake if he +thought she could take that. + +"So, then, as I've heered, he went to her father, a tryin' to make it +appear, as nigh as I can make out, that he'd got suthin' in the shape of +a conscience that he wanted to whiten over a little more to his own +satisfaction afore he went away. + +"Wall, Bede and his daughter used to be called about one piece for +temper, though I don't reckon that temper's lackin' allays 'cause it +don't show. There's them as jest keeps the steam down a workin' the whole +machinery patient and stiddy; but Bede, he's allays a histin' the cover, +and lettin' on't out in one general bust, and I reckon that was what he +did when he was a talkin' with the fisherman; he histed up the cover and +let off a good deal of onnecessary steam, but he come to the right point +in the end; that the fisherman had made a mistake thar', too, and--as +near as I can make out--this Dave Rollin was kind o' took back and +disappointed. He hadn't calkilated that the folks down here had any sech +feelin's as his sort o' folks. + +"Thar' ain't any use in talkin' about him. I feel hard thar', I confess, +but that can't help her none, now. What I want is to help her. I tell ye, +teacher,"--the strong voice trembled slightly--"there's been times when +I've felt as though I've been a sinkin', as ye might say, and a wantin' +to call out for help! help! like any weak, drowning fool, instead o' +swimmin' above it strong, and helpin' them as was weaker than me. + +"No shame for me to say, teacher, I've allays had it in my mind that +Becky'd marry me. It grew up with me. I never thought o' no other girl +but her. Ye see she'd always knowed me, and it was more like a brother, +she said. She hadn't thought o' _that_. So, I says, I'll bide my time +patient, but I believed she'd turn to me. + +"When Dave Rollin began to hang around there, I didn't feel exactly +kindly towards him, I don't pretend. The folks, they tried to set me on. +It 'ud a been mighty easy to 'a' gone on! I guess there ain't nobody +as knows us two 'ud deny I could handle four o' such as him, but a man +has got to say, fa'r play! fa'r play! and not put himself in other folks' +light. Thinks I, if his intentions are all squar' and honorable--and I +hadn't no reason, then, to say they wa'n't--and them, two take a fancy to +each other, why, it ain't no more than nateral! + +"She was handsome enough, for a queen, and he had different manners from +us fellows down here, and purtier ways o' talkin' and lookin' at a girl, +as though if she didn't have him, it was goin' to knock 'im straight, and +she'd lived with such different folks, it made it vary interestin'; that +was nateral. Thinks I, a man in my place had ought to have sense enough +to back out quiet. + +"You know what he done, teacher. He took the best, and when he got tired +on't, he threw it away,"--the brawny hand at George Olver's side was +clinched so as to appear almost colorless, yet there was little +discomposure in his voice--"but cursin' him ain't a goin' to help us now. +When a thing that's allays been precious to us has once fell, we can't +never make it quite like it was afore, but we can keep care on't patient, +a waitin' God Almighty's time to make it whole. I know what folks say. I +know, but I don't keer. She ain't no less precious to me, now, than she +was afore, only it's more for her, now, maybe, and less for myself. And +she sees, now. She does keer for me, now. Ay, I know what they'll say, +but they don't know that girl as well as I do, teacher. They ain't +nothin' would 'a' wrung them words from her ef they hadn't 'a' be'n true; +no, not ef it had been savin' her life to say 'em. She does keer, now, +but she won't never take me now, she says, because it 'ud be wrongin' me; +and I might 'a' knowed what she'd 'a' said, what it was nateral and noble +for her to say. + +"But," continued George Olver, with a flash of magnificent fire in his +eyes, and thrusting his arm out straight; "what's right atween me and my +God needn't be afeard o' no man's face! I want to take that girl and keer +for her, and keep her from meddlin' tongues. Let 'em say what they choose +to me; they must be keerful what they say afore her, that's all. + +"I've waited a good while. I could bide my time, but not now, when she's +heart broke and sufferin', and nobody ter put out a hand to help her. +There's be'n a look on her face, lately, that I don't like to see. It's +afore my eyes all the time, and it werries me night and day--as though +she didn't hold herself o' no account, and might make away wi' herself. + +"Teacher, you've got a woman's heart, and you can save that other woman! +It's a task that they needn't nobody be ashamed on, for the Lord Jesus +himself set the example. I guess she thinks you've turned agin her, too, +but I knew that couldn't be, for no friend 'ud leave another when they +was perishin', not even if they was more to fault than she was; and she +was apt to mind ye more than any one. I thought if you'd go in and speak +to her as a woman could, and tell her she'd got a right to hope, and tell +her her friends would not forsake her, least of all would it be likely +God would forsake her, and tell her--" + +George Olver seemed both to be looking at me and beyond me with his +beautiful, brave eyes; "Tell her thar's somebody that don't find any +cause to be sorry for havin' loved her, but knows how she's been +werrited, and suffers along with her, and 'ud be more glad and content +than of anythin' else in his heart this minute, to protect her and keer +for her as it's right--yes, tell her as it's right that she should let +him do; and if she asks from whom that comes"--George Olver smiled +brightly, with that far-seeing look still in his eyes--"why, it's no +secret from whom it comes. Will you go, teacher?" + +"Yes," said I, with a vague sense of having caught a glimpse of a +hitherto unknown world; "I will go." + +George Olver came forward, gave my hand a firm grasp, and then turned +resolutely and walked out. + +Left to myself and my own thoughts, I dreaded more and more the +concession there would seem to be in my seeking Rebecca now, for the poor +girl could hardly be expected, I thought, to appreciate the magnanimity +of such an act. + +I deferred going to see her until evening, and even thought of writing a +letter instead of going at all, signifying my willingness to take her +back into my favor, in a limited sort of way, and reinforcing her with a +share of that counsel and advice which she must have missed so sadly of +late; but I was conscious of the fact that I should not thus be keeping +my promise to George Olver. + +After supper, the singers came in and wailed some peculiarly touching +songs about rescuing the fallen and the erring. As Grandma Keeler was +preparing to go on an errand of mercy down the lane, I joined her, and +stopped at Bede Weir's door. + +Aunt Patty, Rebecca's mother, appeared in answer to my knock. Her glances +had fallen rather reproachfully on me, of late. Seeing me now, she cast +down her eyes, a steely expression gathering about her mouth. + +"You've come too late, teacher," said she, her voice breaking suddenly +into a sob as she lifted her apron to her eyes. + +In that instant it flashed through my mind,--the fear George Olver had +expressed lest Rebecca should make away with herself. I fancied that I +turned terribly pale. + +"Come in, teacher!" Aunt Patty exclaimed, with a quick motion of her +hand, and she continued rapidly:-- + +"Becky went away this afternoon. She's gone to Taunton. She didn't tell +nobody but me. If you'd 'a' come sooner you might 'a' kep' her, teacher. +She's gone to Jane Meredith's that works thar, in the shops and Beck used +to know her. She hires a room, and Beck she's saved a little money +cranberryin'. She says she's a goin' to stay thar' as long as it holds +out, and 'maybe,' she says, 'I can git work;' she says thar' ain't nobody +here cares for her but me. 'And it's only a trouble to you, mother,' she +says; 'and maybe, I shan't never come back again.' If you could 'a' seen +how she looked. Oh, my God!" As the poor woman held her hands to her +face, I saw the tears springing out between her fingers. "There's nobody +knows how I feel this night! She wa'n't a bad girl, my Becky wa'n't. She +was deceived, but it'll make her bad, everybody turnin' agin her so--and +that Jane Meredith, she was sech a wild girl! Oh, I'm afeard! I'm +afeard!" + +"But we'll have Becky back again, Mrs. Weir," I said, intensely relieved, +even at this state of things; "and, more than that, we shall see her very +happy yet. I will write to her, myself, to-night." + +"I don't know,"--Aunt Patty shook her head sadly--"she might think I'd +got you to do it. I seen she took it to heart, you're turnin' agin her +so, and I didn't believe you'd 'a' done it if you'd known all. I wanted +to go up and see yer, for I knew you'd soften, but no, she wouldn't let +me. She said she'd never forgive me ef I did. No; she'd think I'd been a +puttin' ye up to it." Aunt Patty dried her tears, helplessly. + +"You ought to have come to me!" I exclaimed with grave emphasis; "whether +she wanted you to or not!" + +"Perhaps I had, teacher," said Aunt Patty, meekly; "but you couldn't 'a' +gone agin her ef you'd been in my place. She wasn't vexed, teacher, but +she was awful set, and she looked so wore out! I couldn't go agin her." + +"All the more reason," I continued, fortifying myself with new +confidence; "why you should have been firm with her. She is not fit to go +off by herself in that way. She's a child! a child! She needs some one to +tell her what to do." + +"I know that; that's what worries me!" cried Aunt Patty, bursting into +tears; "but what could I do, teacher? what could I do?" + +"Well, never mind," I said, assuming with readiness the attitude of the +consoler; "we will have Becky home again in a very short time. I will +write this evening and if she does not come, why, we shall have to go +after her, that's all!" + +This last I was able to utter almost gayly, looking into Aunt Patty's +face. + +The woman's poor, worn hand placed in mine, the look of confidence +upturned to me in her tearful eyes, her readiness to forgive, to forget +any resentment which she might have cherished towards me, all touched me +deeply and strengthened me in a sincere determination to win Rebecca +back. + +"She made me promise I wouldn't let George Olver know where she was, +teacher," said Aunt Patty, breathlessly, as I was going out of the door. +"She had her reasons; we'd ought to respect 'em some. I wouldn't be +deceiving her entirely." + +On my way homeward, I reflected how altogether burdensome it was to +one-half of humanity that the other half was not better calculated to +take care of itself, and resolved that my letter to Rebecca should be at +once dignified, imperative, and kind. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +TEACHER HAS THE FEVER.--DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE. + + +There were oppressive days in Wallencamp, when no fresh winds were borne +to us from the ocean. The sun shone hot on the stunted cedars. The tides +crept in lazily. All one weary afternoon, in the hum and stir of the +dusty school-room, little Bessie Sartell--Captain Sartell's youngest, and +his darling--sat stringing lilac blossoms together in a chain. She was +such a cunning edition of the big Captain. She had the same strong Saxon +physique in miniature, the same clear pink and white complexion, eyes +hardly more limpidly blue than his, and hair that was sunniest flax, like +the ends of the Captain's beard. And how patient the chubby little +fingers were at their task. What small, charmingly despairing sighs +escaped the child when some link fell out in the chain of purple flowers! +I was struck with her air of weary, patient endeavor--so important it +seemed--so important that the chain should be finished before school was +out. And, at last, little Bessie lifted it to wear upon her neck, and it +broke and fell in pieces on the floor. + +Then there was a look of gentle dismay in the blue eyes, a tear or two, +and Bessie folded her arms on the desk, her head sank slowly down on +them, and she fell asleep. + +She was still sleeping when I dismissed the school. The sound of the +others going out did not wake her; the Phenomenon, disappearing through +the door, pointed a finger at her, his face full of scornful +merriment--so incredible was it to him that any one should sleep when +school was out. + +I went down to Bessie and woke her gently. She looked at me, at first, +with startled, feverish eyes, as though she did not know me, and screamed +in pain or terror. I noticed then that the color of her cheeks was +unnaturally bright. I put my hand on her pulse. It was throbbing +violently. I was thoroughly frightened. + +"Come, Bess," I said, as winningly and soothingly as I could; "come home +with teacher, now. Teacher will lead you, all the way." + +For answer, the child's head fell heavily on one side. I tried to take +her in my arms, but she was very heavy. I found one of the small boys +lingering outside the school-house and sent him for Bessie's father. + +I shall never forget the look with which Captain Sartell lifted his baby +in his arms. He had seven other children; he was a poor man, a +Wallencamper, but one would have thought him a king, and that the only +hope of his line lay treasured in the mass of flaxen curls pressed +against his shoulder, as he carried her home. + +The next morning, early, Captain Sartell appeared at the Ark with a +blanched face. Bess had been growing worse, he said. They feared it was a +fever. He was going to West Wallen for a doctor. "She thinks," he +continued, with absolute white bewilderment on his features, "that she's +in school all the while, and it's a gettin' late, and the teacher ain't +there, and so she keeps a callin' for the teacher; and I wouldn't ask ye +to go up, teacher, if you was anyways afeard, but it 'ud break your heart +to hear her." + +For one of my years, I knew singularly little, either of sickness or +death, so I was the more readily susceptible to the slight disrespect the +Captain seemed to have cast on my wisdom and fortitude. + +"Certainly I will go and see her," I said; "why should I be afraid?" + +"I was only thinkin' it was fair to say," said the Captain; "she was took +so sudden and so violent like, it might be--might be--suthin'--suthin' +kitchin', perhaps. They was a case or two o' scarlet fever up to Wallen, +but she wasn't exposed no way that we know on. She wasn't exposed." + +The Captain, regarding me intently, repeated the words, thrusting his +neck out with a pitiful gulp, his hand on the latch. Observing him, the +expression of my face changed; he groaned as he went out, closing the +door silently. + +My first impulse then was to pack my trunk and start for home, but the +wailing of Mrs. Philander, and of the other women who had followed the +Captain in, lamenting one with another in an agony of helpless fear, +appealed to my courage and presence of mind, and had a strangely +sustaining and quieting effect upon me. I suggested after a few moments' +reflection, that very likely the case was not so bad as Captain Sartell +supposed. I determined to have no school that day, and advised the women +what they should do, in case their children had been already exposed to a +contagious disease. Then a happy thought struck me. I went out in the +other part of the Ark to seek Grandma Keeler. I wondered why we had not +thought of her, before. + +She entered the room where the women sat. Calm and sunshine was Grandma +Keeler--calm and sunshine breaking through a storm. + +If it was scarlet fever, she knew just what to do. She and pa had it +years ago, and they'd lived through it; but she didn't believe that it +was nothin' half so bad, and "What if it is, you poor critturs, you," +said Grandma, in such a tone as she would have used to soothe a +frightened child; "every time there's a squall must we go to takin' on as +though it was our doin's? The Lord, He makes the squalls, and he don't +put it on us to manage 'em; but up thar' in His fa'r weather, He looks +down on the storms that we know not whither, but are only drivin' of us +landward safe, and 'Keep ye still,' He says, 'Jest keep ye still!' No +need o' strainin' eyes, but fix 'em thar', on Him, I've seen a many times +when no words but them would do." + +The tears stood in Grandma's eyes. Beautiful soul! Whatever storms she +might have known in her life's voyage, she only seemed to lie at anchor +now, in a sure haven; and all the while, her heart was going out in the +tenderest sympathy to those still tossing on the seas and striving to +make perilous passages, even to those watching false harbor lights in the +distance. She had had an experience wide enough for all. She had found +where it was still. She longed to draw all others into that stillness. + +Soon Grandma was on her way to give help and consolation where it was +most needed--in Captain Sartell's household. She did not come back until +near mid-day. + +Mrs. Philander's children were kept carefully out of the room when she +entered. + +"The Lord is a goin' to take that little one to Himself, teacher," she +said to me, very impressively. + +Captain Sartell had not yet returned with the doctor. Possibly he had +been obliged to drive to the next town. Poor Mrs. Sartell was nearly +distracted. Bessie's fever had gone to the brain. + +"We couldn't quiet her, no way," Grandma continued; "and she's a growin' +weak, but when them spells come on, she's ravin', first about one thing +and then another, but mostly it's school, school. 'It's a gittin' so late +in school and the teacher not there'--and then she screams and moans so! +Poor, sufferin' darlin'! ye can't ease her no way." + +With a desperate determination not to yield myself to my own thoughts, I +informed Mrs. Philander that I was going to live with Grandma a while, +that I should not go through that part of the Ark where she and the +children were, and she must keep the little door at the foot of the +stairway locked, and not let the children follow me; and I sprinkled +myself with camphor and went back with Grandma to Captain Sartell's +house. + +Mrs. Sartell was alone in the room with Bess. I expected that she would +meet me with an almost reproachful look, but there was only sorrow in her +face, a sorrow that seemed intensified by the smile she lifted to us as +we entered. The air in the room was very pure and sweet. The bed on which +Bess lay was as white as snow. But what a change a day had wrought in the +little face pressed against the pillow. + +"Teacher's come," said Grandma Keeler, with soft; pathetic cheer, bending +over the child. + +"Would she care now?" I thought. "Would she know me?" + +Just once she opened her eyes wide, smiled, and threw her arms towards me +feebly. I would have taken her then, I thought, if it had been my death. + +They wrapped a shawl around her, and I took her in my arms, rocked her +gently and sang to her, very softly, the songs she loved best. She moved +a little restlessly, and then lay very still with her head on my breast. + +So I rocked and sang to Bess, and the two women moved noiselessly about +the room until Grandma Keeler came and looked down very intently into the +little one's face. + +"She's asleep," I murmured, placing a finger on my lips. + +"Yes, she's asleep," said Grandma, in a trembling voice, solemnly. +"Sweet, purty little one," she went on, with tears running down her +cheeks, and she turned to the mother--"Thank God, you!" she exclaimed, +with sudden strength and firmness in her voice, that was yet thrilled +with emotion; "from sorrowin' and from pain forevermore, the Lord has +took His lamb!" + +Ay, life's chain of dewy morning flowers was broken! The baby fingers had +dropped those purple fragments without grief, now, or dismay--only the +peace of some sweet unfolding mystery over the veiled blue eyes! + +Still, she seemed to me asleep--only asleep. I felt no shrinking from the +dead child in my arms. When they took her away from me and laid her on +the bed, I looked at her tranquil face, and the mother's passionate grief +seemed out of place. Why should one wish to wake another from such +repose? I could not comprehend the mother's aching sense of loss. But +later, when we heard the sound of wheels and saw Captain Sartell and the +doctor driving very fast up the lane, I went down the stairs and passed +out before them. I could not bear to watch the strong man's face when he +should find his baby dead. + +Little Bess was buried under the lilac blossoms. The fever which had so +soon smitten her down was not properly a contagious one. I went on with +my school again, missing the sweet face of the dead child more and more +each succeeding day. + +Not one of the children with whom she had played was taken sick, but it +was scarcely two weeks after her death that I was taken sick as she had +been. In the interval George Olver had come to me and I had written to +Rebecca, but Rebecca had not come back to Wallencamp nor answered my +letter. I was more anxious and troubled about her than I dared confess to +any one. Then suddenly I ceased to care for any of those things. Of my +last afternoon in school I could recall very little afterwards, except +that the clock on the shelf back of me seemed to be ticking in my brain, +and the voices in the room sounded indistinct. My own voice sounded to me +like that of some one else speaking from a long way off. + +And at evening, in the Ark, I put my little room in perfect order, my +head growing heavy with pain. I felt that I must finish this task before +I lay down, and there was another intention to which I clung with a +painful pertinacity of mind. + +I sat down at my table and wrote half a dozen or more brief letters +home. These were filled with irrelevant anecdotes pertaining to my +experience among the Wallencampers, a few desultory descriptions of +character and scenery, with a philosophical digression or two. + +To one not intimately acquainted with the epistolary products of my pen, +these letters would have undoubtedly suggested the workings of a crazed +and feverish brain, but they were not calculated to arouse any particular +alarm in the minds of my friends at home, unless, indeed, it was by +reason of the unusual care and painstaking evinced in their chirography +and the punctilious manner in which they were dated. The first one I +dated for the evening on which I was writing. The next for a time several +days in advance of that, and so on, performing this strange act with +utter indifference to the presumption of it. + +When it was finished, I seemed to have forgotten what next to do. Grandma +Keeler told me afterwards, that I went to the head of the stairs and +called to her, that she came up, and I told her very gravely that I was +going to be sick, but I knew I was not going to die, and adjured her with +a look in my eyes which she said, "I couldn't go ag'inst, teacher, for it +was more convincin' than health," not to write to my friends of my +sickness, and instructed her how to send the letters which I had sealed, +stamped, directed, and methodically arranged on the table, in their +proper order to the post. + +For the rest, all through the pain and impotence and vague mental +wanderings of the days that followed, I had a restful, comforting +consciousness that a kind, loving face, like the lamp of my salvation, +was hanging ever over me--always it was Grandma Keeler's face, though it +seemed to have grown strangely young and fair, and the eyes that followed +me with such a loving, tireless, wistful expression in them were like +other eyes that I had known, and the watcher's voice was clear and +musical, with a youthful repression in it. Still, somehow, it was +Grandma's face, _her_ eyes, _her_ voice--and when at last, I woke one +morning very weak, but able to recognize clearly all the familiar objects +in the room, it was Grandma Keeler indeed, who sat by my bed, beaming +gloriously upon me. + +"Is it most school time, Grandma?" I inquired, feebly, slowly +concentrating my gaze on her face. + +"Oh, laws, no!" said Grandma, with cheerful emphasis, and then continued +talking in her quiet monotone. I hardly heard what she said. I was +painfully endeavoring to pick up the lost thread of my consciousness +where I had left it on that night when I put my room in order and went so +wearily to bed. At last I inquired, still vaguely, "How long?" + +Grandma understood. She smiled reassuringly. + +"Only a little while, teacher," she said. "You've only been sick a little +while--a few days, maybe," and she immediately proffered me some broth +which was a triumph of the good soul's art, and seemed to partake of her +own comfortable and sustaining nature. I lay back on the pillows, +contented to be very still for a little while. + +When I next looked up and recognized that familiar figure sitting by the +bed, I said, "Has Becky come back?" + +"Yis, Becky's come back!" said Grandma, in a tone which seemed to imply, +in the very best faith, that during my illness the world had been running +on excellently well. "You take some more broth now, teacher, and keep +r'al slow-minded and easy, and hev' a good night's rest, and to-morrer +I'll tell ye all about it!" + +But I persisted; so Grandma continued gently:-- + +"Wall, it wa'n't much to tell, only the doctor said ye wasn't to be +talked to much, nor worked up; but I reckon a little pleasant news ain't +a gonter hurt nobody. Ye see, when you was took sick, George Olver, he +got a hold of where Becky was; he had a mistrustin' of it, somehow--and +he went and told her, and it brought her, hearin' you was dangerous, and +she calculated she might be o' use to ye now, for _some_, they _be_ sich +friends!" said Grandma, making this observation with the most guileless +enthusiasm. "And Becky, she wa'n't much brought up, and used to be as +wild and harum-scarum as any of 'em; but I allus said that there was a +good deal to Becky, after all. Wall, George Olver, he recognized where +she was and he went down thar' and found her, and they wa'n't anybody +ventured to say a word, and what need? for everybody respec's George +Olver, knowin' he's uncommon ser'ous and high-minded; and the very same +hour they came home, Becky, she come up here, and she turned me right out +of the room, as ye might say. 'It's my place, Grandma,' says she, 'and +I'm better able than you. I understand. It's my place.' And she wa'n't +vary strong, but she wouldn't give up to nobody, and only run home a +little while between spells to rest, and watched and tended ye as +faithful as though she was keepin' count of every breath; and when the +fever turned a Monday night, and you fell off into a kind of a natural +sleep, the doctor, he says to her, what it ain't a very common thing for +a doctor to say: 'It's you saved her life!' he says. 'She was vary sick.' +And he shook his head the way they do. 'You've tended vary faithful,' he +says; and Becky, she hardly spoke, but I seen when she looked up that her +eyes was a shinin', and that happy look that she's had somehow, sence she +came back--I can't tell ye exactly, teacher, but it's most like as ef +somebody should have a bad dream, and be wakin' up kinder surprised and +thankful--but when the doctor said them words, I'll never forget how her +eyes went a shinin', and she says to me, 'I'm goin' home now, and never +you tell her, when she wakes up, for she thought it was you watchin' with +her all the time, and kep' a callin "Grandma! Grandma!" says she; 'and +don't you tell her! don't you; for it would seem as though I was obligin' +her, and if she forgives me and is friendly I don't want it to be for +that,' And I didn't say as I should or shouldn't tell," said Grandma, +smilingly unconscious of the two large tears that were stealing down her +cheeks; "but I knowed pretty well what I had on my mind!" + +Grandma ceased speaking, and began to busy herself about the room, +humming softly her favorite refrain:-- + + "The Light of the World is Jesus." + +I lay very still, thinking-- + + "Once I was blind but now I can see!" + +That low, glad, tremulous murmur brought no peace to my troubled heart. + +When Grandma Keeler looked at me again, I fancied she met a helpless, +appealing, almost an aggrieved expression in my eyes. + +"I want to see her," I said. "I want to see Becky, of course." + +"Yis, yis," said Grandma, "to-morrer. You'd want to talk, and you've had +enough for one day. I'll tell her, and she'll understand." + +"But I want to see her now," I persisted. + +"They's some folks just come in to inquire," continued Grandma, giving an +easeful touch to the pillows. "They's been a good many in to inquire. May +be, she's amongst 'em. I'll go down and see." + +Soon I heard the old, girlish, familiar step on the stairs. Rebecca +hesitated, standing an instant on the threshold. In spite of the new and +loftier soul looking out of her eyes, in spite of the new and womanly +dignity which she bore so reposefully, she read my face with that quick, +intuitive glance I had learned to know so well. + +Then coming towards me, she put her arm gently around my neck, kissed me, +understanding all, hushing all, forgiving all; and smiling a tender +prohibition in her eyes, put her finger on my lips. + +Sobbing inwardly, I accepted this divine retaliation in silence, and +rested a while in that loving, warm embrace. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LUTE CRADLEBOW GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR. + + +One morning, early in my convalescence, I was startled by a mighty +rumbling and scraping sound on the narrow stairway, as of some unwieldy +object pushed steadily upward. The summit reached, I heard the retreat of +manly feet, and this leviathan presented itself with Grandma Keeler as an +animating force, breathless and smiling, in the rear. + +"He didn't have time to paint it, teacher," she began joyfully; "but +it'll be jest as comf'table to set in. He's been explainin' of it to +me--Lute has--ye see, it's a cheer. He made it for ye, himself. And all +you've got to do is to turn this 'ere crank, here--" Grandma's +countenance was radiant with wonder and approval--"and up it'll go--so--as +high as ye want it! and this 'ere can be shoved in and out for ye to put +yer feet on, and this 'ere back can be let anyways ye want it. He seen a +picture o' one in a paper, once, and he went and made this by his own +eye, and all the hinges and cranks, and everythin' as slick as a pin! He +didn't say anythin'," Grandma continued, in a slightly lowered, +insinuating tone of voice; "about likin' to come up and see ye, when ye +was able to set up, and you know, teacher, as I don't believe in meddlin' +in young folks' affairs; but it appeared to me, havin' had so much +experience with the men folks as I have, that may be he was kind o' +hangin' around waitin' for an invitation--for ye see, they're goin' to +sail now in a vary few days." + +So, a little later, I sat up in my new chair and received the Cradlebow, +in a loose, trailing gown of rich material, daintily embroidered. In the +midst of my narrow and humble surroundings I had an exiled-princess sort +of consciousness, and recognized with a new pleasure the Cradlebow's +lordly face and bearing, as he stooped on entering the little red door. + +Living in a reverie, still,--a fancy, a day-dream, strangely vivid and +life-like, but not real,--not real, I was so far softened by my illness +that, with the delicious sense of returning health and strength, I was +content, for a time, to live simply in the present, to dismiss the stern +warden, Duty, from my thoughts, and that ever-grave necessity for +maintaining a mental and moral superiority which had so oppressed me. + +"It had been weary work living on the heights, and what had it all +amounted to?" I asked myself, with a recklessness too tranquil, now, to +be converted into bitterness. "It was so much easier and safer, lower +down." But while I doubted and almost gave up the struggle, the +Cradlebow aspired ever to greater faith and hope in life, and enthusiasm +for life's work. + +And with all this, it was evident that there had been with him an inward +struggle and preparation, a silent conquering of self. With a vain +discontent for my own failure, I marvelled at the glory which had crowned +his humble efforts. "This, too," I thought, "is a sort of heroism:" and +my spirit of condescension towards the youth took on something new, like +reverence. + +It was even with pride that I reflected, "Here is a strength I may rely +upon by and by;" and I was proud that my lover's kiss was so pure upon my +lips, his breath on my cheek--ah, foolish sleeping heart! It was well +that the dream should grow passionate, even intense, for the awakening +was near. + +In the bewildered and feverish condition of mind in which I had last left +the Wallencamp school-house, I had been consciously impressed, at least, +with the idea that I should probably never enter those familiar walls +again, never again as the teacher. And now, I had no intention of +resuming my labors there. + +But I did not wish to flaunt my boasted independence before the family +circle at Newtown, until my eyes should have assumed a little more nearly +their usual proportions, and my manner of going up and down stairs +should have become less strikingly feeble. + +I decided to remain in Wallencamp a few days to recuperate. I was not +impatient nor especially chagrined on account of this necessity. Secretly +willing to await the departure of the Cradlebow's ship, to have a brief +season of rest from all care and responsibility among the scenes of my +past labors--a little breathing space in which to study these people +quietly, to exchange unhurried kindly words with them before I should go +away from them forever--I was glad to have it so. + +Such welcomings and congratulations as I received from the Wallencampers +when I was able to get down the stairs once more! I felt very happy, +almost humble, sitting where the sunlight poured in at the open door +of Grandma's living-room. + +That picture is still before my mind: the bare, shining floor, the +unpainted table, the chimney-shelf, and a clock, the successful working +of whose machinery demanded a crazily tilted attitude; a Bible on the +shelf, too, and Grandma's spectacles lying askew. Then, a commodious +lounge of exceedingly simple construction set up straight against the +wall and extending the whole length of the room. The original framework +of this lounge, by the way, disclosed itself in many bold and striking +instances, under a unique method of upholstery. It was stuffed +sectionally. There was the "old paper corner," within whose rustling +precincts Lovell was reputed once to have endured agonies, during a +religious meeting held at the Ark. There was the "sawdust" section, +substantial, but by no means billowy to the touch; and the "dried yarb" +section, of a nature similar to the sawdust; and, omitting the "old +clothes section" with its insidious buttons, and the "corn-cob" section, +and the "cotton-wood bark" section, there was the "feather corner," at +the other end, generally conceded to be luxurious, but silently avoided, +as having given, on more than one occasion, a sharp suggestion of quills. +Over the whole, depressions and excrescences, was stretched a faded +chintz cover. But woe to the luckless wight who thought to find repose +by throwing himself carelessly down on this hitherto untried structure! +It was reserved only to the knowing few to find a comfortable seat on the +lounge. + +The cat, without having subjected herself to those trials which some of +us endured, had discovered, with true feline instinct, wherein the +deepest rest lay, and had established herself on a suspended bridge of +chintz between two overhanging systems. + +There were a few chairs in the room besides, but the doorsteps were wide. +Grandpa sat always in the south door, Grandma on the steps looking +towards the lane, and it was at this latter inviting spot that the +neighbors, the "passers by," paused most frequently and disposed +themselves, with a grateful air. + +I listened to their talk, while the birds struggled to make noisy +interruptions and cast their fleeting shadows in the sunlight on the +floor, and the peach-blossoms outside were falling noiselessly. + +Grandma Keeler had been telling me in a happy, droning voice, though +gravely enough, of the "awakenin'" that was going on in Wallencamp--how +"a good many o' the young folks was impressed," and "Cap'n Sartell had +been seekin', ever since little Bessie died, and some that had seemed to +be forgitful and backslidin' had come forward and told where they stood, +until it seemed as though the Lord was a sendin' a blessin' down, jest as +soft and beautiful as them blossoms;" and Grandma's eyes wandered towards +the peach-tree with a tearful fervor in them. + +Aunt Patty was a temporary occupant of the steps. Her anxious, care-lined +face was turned indoors, away from the light and the falling blossoms. +There was an anxious, restless ring in her voice, too. + +"I'm glad to hev such a time, I'm sure," said she. "We need it bad +enough, any time, Lord knows!--but it seems a queer season o' the year +for't. When we've had 'em before it's generally been along in the winter. +I never heered of an awakenin' before right in the midst o' +tater-buggin'." + +Aunt Patty was not intentionally irreverent. Life, with her, had been so +narrow and hard pressed, always a painful reckoning of times and seasons. + +The allusion to "tater-buggin'" gave Grandpa an opportunity of a sort of +which he had not been slow to avail himself lately--to engage in a little +old-time, secular conversation. His voice, however, as it sounded from +the south doorway, was impressive enough for any subject. + +"Grists on 'em, this year!" he said. + +"Heaps!" Aunt Patty responded, readily. "I don't see how ever the +children could be speered to go to school now, anyway. Randal had all +eight o' hisn out yesterday, with a four-quart pail apiece, and him and +Lucindy pickin' into the half-bushel besides; and Rodney told Bede, for +the livin' truth, he'd seen a lantern movin' around last night right in +the dead o' night, and he looked out and it was the Dean and Abbie Ann +out tater-buggin', and everybody knows they wasn't out in the daytime, it +was so dreadful hot. I'm sure we never had such queer weather afore. But +them bugs are the hardest critturs to kill. It's almost impossible to +dispose on 'em; and it does seem enough, what with ploughin' and plantin' +and harrowin' and hoein' to git a few potatoes, and like enough, wet +weather to rot 'em, without havin' to fight over 'em, for the last chance, +with a whole army of varmint. I'm sure this 'ere way o' gittin' a livin', +as old Grandther Skewer used to say, 'It costs more than it's wuth.'" + +Led by the screams of the little Keelers in Madeline's apartment, Grandma +had left the room for a moment, and Grandpa cleared his throat and began, +hopefully:-- + +"Talkin' about tater-bugs," he said, and he glanced at me with a +preliminary gleam in his eye; "Bachelder Lot was tellin' me the other +mornin,--he said he was eddicatin' a couple on 'em. He said thar' wa'n't +no other way to get rid on 'em, but to appeal to their moral natur', and +he said when he'd got 'em eddicated up to the highest p'int o' morality, +he was a goin' to send 'em out as missionaries ter convart the rest. +Bachelder said he'd got 'em fur enough along, now, so't they'd pass +examination along o' average folks that wa'n't admitted church +members----" + +"Bijonah Keeler!" + +Grandma, unexpectedly returning, had caught the last word only of +Grandpa's discourse, but taking this in connection with the bright and +mirthful expression of his countenance, she judged that his sentiments +had been of an unusually reprehensible nature. + +"Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, with an evident notion of continuing his +narration; "what now, ma?" + +"I hope, pa," said Grandma, giving one the impression that she felt she +couldn't put the case too strongly; "that you are as innocent o' what +you've be'n a sayin' as the babe unborn, and to your credit, pa, I +believe you be!" + +"Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, now mentally lost and bewildered; "I +guess I know what I'm talkin' about!" + +"And if you do, pa," said Grandma, with a solemnity that was unutterably +conclusive; "you know more than I do!" + +Then, while the women talked, Grandpa, sitting alone in the south door, +sighed and whittled, and abstractedly scanned the horizon. Once, he made +a singularly bold attempt to entice Aunt Patty again into the channels of +profane conversation, by an introductory speculation as to the prospect +of the bean crop; but Grandma Keeler nipped this reckless and irreverent +adventure in the bud, by replying in a calm, vast tone:-- + +"Pa, it r'aly seems to me that for a vain creetur in a fleetin' world, +and a perfessor besides, there'd ought to be more things to talk about +than beans!" + +Grandpa Keeler sighed still more deeply, gazed wistfully towards the +barn, as though he would fain have shuffled out in that direction; but +the weather being so warm, he refrained. He glanced at me with a feeble, +helpless smile, his head fell backward, his eyes gradually closed, and, +in spite of the iniquities which covered his ancient head, he fell into a +slumber that had all the semblance of childlike and unblemished +innocence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW. + + +While Grandpa Keeler dozed peacefully, Emily Gaskell, also "passin' by," +joined the group of women on the doorsteps of the Ark. + +Emily, by the way, was regarded as a hopeful subject of the "awakenin'." +She had been to see a doctor in Farmouth, who told her she could not live +through another winter "with that cough on her." She sat very still in +the meetings, it was said, and seemed "tetched and wonderful," whereas +she had been wont formerly, on occasions of this solemn nature, to evince +many signs of restlessness, and even to engage in droll and sly +diversions for the greater delectation of the "unconsarned." + +Emily herself was particularly unreserved on the subject of her spiritual +condition. Her tone had lost none of its former bright vivacity, though I +thought I saw frequently now, while she was talking, a softer shadow +steal over the restless, consuming fire in her blue eyes. + +"I know what some on 'em say," said she; "I know what I might 'a' +said, jest as like as not, if it had been somebody else in my place. Oh, +she's afraid she ain't a goin' to git well, and so she's a seekin' +religion. She's scart into it! + +"Wall, if folks that know me are a mind to say that, they may; though if +it comes to bein' scart into religion by what the doctors said, I should +'a' jined the church twenty times over! + +"It ain't because I'm afraid o' what'll happen to me after I'm all dead +and peaceable. It's because I want a little more comfort while I'm a +livin'. Seems to me there's more comfort needed for the livin'. + +"And ever since my Brother 'Lihu died, seems as though them last words o' +hisn have been a ringin' in my ears. 'I know somebody that'll watch. Who? +Jesus will! Jesus will!' over and over again. And when I get to worryin' +about things, and can't see no way through, or whoever's a goin' to +straighten em' out, it keeps agoin', 'Who, then? Jesus will! Jesus will!' +over and over. And 'Lihu wasn't a professor, neither; and maybe he hadn't +no right to take the comfort out o' them words that he did; and maybe I +hain't no right, and it's only like a string o' music that'll keep a +runnin' in a body's head sometimes and they not thinkin' nor meanin' any +thin'. + +"I don't see any further into it than I did afore. I don't know as I'm +what you'd call any more believin', but when I've laid till after +midnight with my eyes as wide open as daylight, and no shut to 'em, +thinkin' and worryin' and coughin', I've seen it ag'in, jest the way he +rolled and tossed that night, and then them words come to him, and he +smiled and went to sleep peacefuller nor any child; and so _I've_ said +'em, and faith or no faith, believin' or no believin', they've set me a +cryin', time and ag'in, and they've put me to sleep! thar', they've put +me to sleep!" + +"And who else could they 'a' be'n meant for but him and you?" cried +Grandma, in a gush of sympathy; "him and you, and anybody else as you +seen needed them words and could give 'em to 'em to quiet 'em; for, dear +woman! there ain't none on us that see into it, but jest to say it over. +Dear woman! we don't know no more. It's what's a restin' all on us. It's +what's a restin' all on us!" + +I looked up and saw tears in Madeline's eyes. I had not heard Madeline +spoken of as among the number of the impressed. There were tears in my +own eyes, I knew; there had grown to be such a pathos in those women's +voices. + +A little later, Emily lapsed into a strain of sprightly gossip. + +"And who do you think's kitin' around in this region ag'in?" she began. +"Somebody you'd expect least of all, I reckon; wall, it's Dave Rollin," +and she nodded her head quickly and expressively at the others. + +"I don't mean," she continued; "that he's been in Wallencamp, but Levi +was down from Wallen this mornin', and he said they stopped last night in +Wallen Harbor--him and some other fellers, mighty stylish lookin', but he +said it was Dave Rollin's yacht, as fine and fancy-rigged as ever he see, +and there was some that looked like common sailors, and they all come +ashore, and the common ones was the quietest. But he reckoned the +fisherman was off on 'a time,' and stopped there jest for fun, and to +show off, maybe. + +"Wall, Levi told me that, and to-day, 'long about the middle o' the +forenoon, my man come up to the house--he's down to shore, you know, +along o' Cap'n Sartell and George Olver and Lute Cradlebow and all the +rest, down there a mendin' up the old schooner, 'cause Cap'n wanted Lute +to see to it afore he went away. My man come up for a wrench, and 'Who do +you think's a scootin' around down on the Bay?' says he. 'Wall, it's Dave +Rollin,' says he; 'in the purtiest little craft, that runs jest like a +picter,' and he said they couldn't see but two men aboard of her then; he +guessed they wan't many. It was jest like Dave Rollin to take a run from +Wallen down this way to show what he could do alone, for he was always +braggin' about bein' so stiddy on his sea-legs, and how't he understood +this shore better'n any o' the old uns. + +"My man said they didn't know who 'twas out there, at first, for it ain't +the kind o' vessel often seen, and it skimmed along on the edge o' the +water, Sim said, like a bird, in and out amongst the rocks, so't +anybody'd a thought, not knowin' who they was--and them, maybe, not +knowin' the shore--that they was drunk or gone crazy; and Sim said they +hollered to 'em to look out for the rocks, and they heered a kind of a +laugh on the water, and somebody shouted back: + +"'Stow your gab, land lubbers!' and they knew from the voice it was Dave +Rollin. + +"He was probably meanin' to put in there, and might 'a' come ashore may +be,--he was wild enough--but he seen our men and that kind o' hindered +him; he didn't want to turn round and put right back neither, lookin' +as though he was scared, so he kep' on, and Sim said they watched 'em +clean out o' sight; 'but,' says he, 'I never seen a man turn whiter'n +George Olver did for a minute, and then he onclinched his fist and went +to work ag'in, harder than ever, for you can allays depend on Jim, +somehow--George Olver--but he's a dreadful close-mouthed fellow!" + +During the recital of this narrative, recalling so much to my mind, I +experienced more than anything else a feeling of annoyance, almost of +resentment, that the fisherman should appear, however remotely, to +disturb the serenity of these last few days in which I had to live out +my Wallencamp idyl. + +For the others the story seemed to have created a momentary excitement, +but they regarded it, on the whole, as of little consequence. + +Aunt Patty had passed on to the doorway of another neighbor, and George +Olver's relations with Rebecca soon constituted the theme of a more +general and lively discourse, in which the remarks concerning Rebecca +were mostly kind and considerate, and the praise of George Olver's +conduct enthusiastic; and, at the close of which, I remember, Grandma +said that "the higher minded folks gits to be, the pitifuller they be +a'most always!" + +The fact of the fisherman's transient appearance on the Bay was not again +alluded to, nor do I think the mind of any one present reverted to it, +when Grandpa Keeler, looking up with that utterly dazed and bewildered +air which betokened a decisive awakening on his part, cast his eye along +the horizon, and observed gravely,-- + +"Storm a brewin', ma." + +"You've been asleep, pa," said Grandma, in sweetly mollifying tones; and +Emily Gaskell, almost involuntarily, glanced up at me with a mischievous, +anticipative wink. + +[Illustration] + +"Asleep, ma," said Grandpa Keeler; "no, I hain't been asleep, neither! +And what if I had, ma? That don't hender a storm's brewin', does it?" + +"We've be'n seein' them little wind clouds passin' afore the sun for half +an hour past," explained Grandma Keeler, composedly. + +But Grandpa scanned the sky with a dark, keen glance--the air of an old +voyager on stormy and literal seas, and he shook his head, sagely. + +"Wall, wall, ma," he said, "it don't make no difference whether it's a +wind-storm or a rain-storm that I know on, but a tempest it's brewin', +sartin sure. I remember once, we'd had a spell o' weather jest like this, +and it begun to gether up in the same way. It was in the same latitude, +teacher, same latitude. I was off cruisin' with Bob Henchy--whew! That +ar' was a singin' gale! I remember it as well as yesterday. I was off +with Bob----" + +"Are you sure it was Bob ye was off with, pa," interrupted Grandma. "I +could almost write a book, pa, while you was tellin' a story." + +"Wall, wall, ma! Write a book, if ye want to!" exclaimed Grandpa, with +sweeping force. "I'm sure nobody wants to hender yer writing a book if ye +want to, ma!" + +Grandma Keeler heeded not those derisive words. Her mind was bent on +pursuits of a far loftier and more engrossing nature. In respect to the +weather--except on Sabbath mornings, when it was impossible to credit +Grandpa with perfect fairness and impartiality of judgment--Grandma, it +must be said, had real faith in the old sea-captain's prognostications. + +"It does look like a shower, and a mighty sudden one," said Emily. She +thrust her knitting-work in her pocket, donned her sun-bonnet, and +departed with other chance occupants of the doorsteps. And Grandma, too, +admitted the prospect of foul weather by throwing a handkerchief over her +head and going out to fetch the milk-pans. + +Since early spring Grandma Keeler had put her milk-pans to dry in the sun +on a bench half-way up the "Pastur-Hill." Why she should choose to place +them at such a seemingly capricious and unnecessary distance from the +house, for it was really no inconsiderable journey for Grandma, taking +into account her peculiar style of locomotion; whether she considered +that the rays of the morning sun visited them more directly on that +plane, or that the elevation exposed them to peculiar atmospheric +advantages; these were questions which the curious mind was left to solve +for itself, for the grave office of carrying out and bringing in the +milk-pans was performed by Grandma with an air of mysterious calm, which +admitted of no profane comment or speculation. + +Madeline laughed, watching her, the musical notes ringing out with a +touch of insane gayety. + +"If ma knew it was Judgment Day," said she, "she'd carry those milk-pans +up the hill to dry, and if she knew it was Judgment Hour she'd go to +fetch 'em." + +The scene grew rapidly weird as the sky darkened. A low sigh, like a +premonition, crept through the heavy atmosphere and shivered among the +peach-blossoms. + +The first gust of wind seized Grandma, returning with the milk-pans. It +was a zephyr compared with the blasts that followed, but it had the +effect of giving to that good soul's usually composed and reassuring +presence, something of the appearance of a crazy and dismantled ship, +rolling in a high sea. + +Grandpa was quick at detecting the resemblance, and hailed her approach +in thrilling nautical terms, such as: "Why didn't ye reef yer topgallant, +ma!" when the handkerchief was torn off her head; and "hang to the +main-royal, ma," as Grandma's apron was caught up and borne, wildly +fluttering, about her ears; and "keep your ballast, ma," with frequent +ejaculations of "Lor', how she pitches! how she pitches!" + +These were not thrown out as light shafts of ridicule. It was no occasion +for such. There was an awful earnestness in Grandpa Keeler's eye and in +his tone, that invested his words with due solemnity. Grandma, struggling +with the wind, had not heard them. She entered the Ark, however, cheerful +though panting. + +"Bijonah Keeler," said she, in accents of real affection, "I wouldn't +have you out in that wind for no money--not for no money, nor our +teacher, neither. Why, no stronger than she is now, it 'ud take the +breath right out of our teacher's body! Why, ef it hadn't been for the +cargo I had on board, pa," continued Grandma, naturally falling into the +same train of ideas we had followed, while watching her battle with the +elements, "I should 'a' slipped moorin's, sure!" + +A casual listener might have smiled at this, in view of Grandma's +substantial physique. + +Presently she said, as though the thought had just struck her; "I hope +fisherman's got back to Wallen Harbor, pa." + +"And if he ain't, ma," replied Grandpa Keeler, sententiously, "he'll know +what it is to be out in a squall! but I reckon he's looked out for +himself." + +The old Captain's face grew graver; his eyes, in that closed room, which +had grown so suddenly dark, took on an intensely solemn look. He did not +attempt the narration of any stormy adventures of old. Perhaps the scenes +of the past rose too vividly before his eyes. But, as the fiercest gusts +came, he kept muttering:-- + +"I knew what it meant--mild winter on the Cape! There's the devil in the +old Cape weather, teacher, and he never skipped four seasons yit! If it +ain't one time, it must be another. Yis, yis! mild winter on the Cape, +and no March to speak on, and a hurricane in summer! Wall, we're both on +us right, ma, and we're both on us wrong. It ain't neither wind ner rain, +but the heavens let loose, and God A'mighty's own power a blowin' of it. +Yis, yis! I had my misgivin's all along; thinks I, better a little more +weather now, than to blast every livin' thing by and by; but I hadn't no +idee o' this! The Lord ha' mercy! The Lord ha' mercy!" + +For all that one could see through the windows was a great black sheet of +driving rain, and the roar of the storm was terrible. The Ark shook. It +seemed, at each successive blast, as though the walls would fall in over +our heads. One could easily imagine the whole crazy structure borne +onward before the resistless tempest, to take a final wild leap from the +cliffs. + +"Wallencamp's a gittin' all mixed up," said Grandpa, without the faintest +tinge of humor, now. "We sha'n't know where to find ourselves when we git +out o' this 'ere, ef we ever do git out on't. Lord ha' mercy!" + +Madeline sat very white and still, resting her chin on her hands, her +great eyes staring out. + +Grandma held the two frightened children in her lap. She was rocking and +singing to them in a low, crooning tone. Though she was pale and her lips +trembled, there was still about her a soothing atmosphere of peace. + +I was frightened, like the children. I longed to cry out as they had +done; to bury my head away from the terrors somewhere, as they did in +Grandma's lap. + +"That was the blackest squall," said Grandpa Keeler, afterwards; "that +ever swep' across the Cape!" + +Terrible as it had been, it died quickly. The transition seemed +miraculous from the sullen roar of the wind and torrent-fall of rain, to +the renewed chirping of the birds, the quiet dripping of the eaves, and +sunshine over all. + +But the young peach-tree that had stood by the window of the Ark, and +sent its fragrance into my little room above, lay prone upon the ground. +When she saw that, Grandma Keeler moaned heart-brokenly, as though it had +been some fair human life stripped suddenly of its promise and left to +wither fruitlessly. + +There were traces of the storm everywhere. Trees that had stood isolated +in the fields lay, some of them, with roots exposed; others were broken +off at the trunk, left with only a branch or two, helpless figures with +outstretched arms, to give a weird desolation to the landscape by and by, +I thought with a shudder, when winter should come again to Wallencamp. + +The fences--what remained of them from former depredations--had either +fallen utterly to the ground, or assumed a strikingly precarious +position. + +Part of the roof of Mr. Randal's house had been blown off, and the +chimneys of several of the Wallencamp houses demolished, and Grandpa's +barn twisted and distorted almost beyond recognition. + +That poor old gentleman put on his hat and stepped out of the door +cautiously, looking about him like one in a dream. + +The Ark had stood firm, apparently, in its old resting-place. Grandma and +Madeline proceeded to sweep out the rain which had been driven in through +the cracks, and then it was that little Henry G. came running, with a +white face, to the door. He had an air of childish importance, too, as +being the first to bear tidings of some strange and dreadful event, and +eager to hasten to other doors. + +"Where's the rest?" he gasped, seeing only me in the room. "You tell 'em, +teacher, Lute Cradlebow's drownded!" and the boy disappeared, without +another word. + +I was already faint from the reaction of the excitement incident to the +storm, weak with the effort I had made to "hold myself still." I heard +Grandma calling quickly, "Child! child!" I saw her coming towards me, and +then I lost consciousness. + + * * * * * + +At evening, while the sun went down over the hill by which the +transfigured river flowed, Captain Sartell sat in the door of the Ark, +and told the story. + +The marvellous light was on his face, too. It fell, in shafts of glory, +on the bright foliage of the fallen tree. + +Grandma was at Godfrey Cradlebow's, but Grandpa Keeler was within the +Ark, and Madeline caressing her children with a new fondness. There were +a few of the neighbors present; they looked neither frightened nor +curious, but ineffably exalted. + +"We'd got our work about done," said Captain Sartell, speaking +mechanically and with little of his customary hesitation of manner. "As +near as I calk'late, there wa'n't a half hour's more work to do on the +old craft, and it had got to be sometime arter noon, but says the boys, +'Let's finish her off, now we've got so near through, and not have to +come back ag'in.' They was always a cheery set--especially _him_--when +they took hold of a job, to put it through. + +"We'd seen them sailin' fellows go by a while before; and we knew Rollin +was one of 'em. They wasn't but two, as we could see, managin' the craft; +and they was full sail, clippin' it lively. I calk'late there ain't many +knows this shore better'n me, but I wouldn't 'a' durst skirted along the +adge down thar' at sech a rate, not in the finest day blowin'. First, we +thought it was somebody didn't know what they was about. When we made +out it was Rollin, we knew, if he _was_ drunk, he was tol'able well +acquainted with the rocks along shore, and 'ud probably put further out +when he got through showin' off. We didn't worry about 'em, nor think no +more about 'em, in special. The boys didn't want to talk to rile George +Olver. + +"So we kep' to work, and in a minute, cheery ag'in with the hammers +click, clickin'--and every now and then the boys 'ud strike up a singin' +something'. 'Beyond the River,' and 'Homeward Bound.' + +"It sounded dredful purty down thar' by the water, with the water and the +wideness all around sorter softenin' of it. It made a man feel curious +and wishful somehow. + +"Well, by and by, _him_ and George Olver struck up a song. I've heern 'em +sing it before, them two. As nigh as I calk'late, it's about findin' rest +in Jesus, and one a askin' questions, all fa'r and squar', to know the +way and whether it's a goin' to lead thar' straight or not, and the other +answerin'. And _he_--he was a tinkerin', 'way up on the foremast, George +Olver and the rest on us was astern,--and I'll hear to my dyin' day how +his voice came a floatin' down to us thar'--chantin'-like it was--cl'ar +and fearless and slow. So he asks, for findin' Jesus, ef thar's any marks +to foller by; and George Olver, he answers about them bleedin' +nail-prints, and the great one in His side. So then that voice comes down +ag'in, askin' if thar's any crown, like other kings, to tell Him by; and +George Olver, he answers straight about that crown o' thorns. Then says +that other voice, floatin' so strong and cl'ar, and if he gin up all and +hollered, what should he have? what now? + +"So George Olver, he sings deep o' the trial and the sorrowin'. But that +other voice never shook, a askin', and what if he helt to Him to the end, +what then should it be, what then? George Olver answers: 'Forever-more, +the sorrowin' ended--Death gone over.' + +"Then he sings out, like his mind was all made up, 'And if he undertook +it, would he likely be turned away?' + +"'And it's likelier,' George Olver answers him; 'that heaven and earth +shall pass.' + +"So I'll hear it to my dyin' day--his voice a floatin' down to me from up +above thar', somewhar', askin' them questions that nobody could ever +answer like, so soon, he answered 'em for himself--and when I looked up, +thar' was Harvey, with his hammer dropped, and his mouth wide open, a +starin' up thar', and the tears rollin' down his cheeks like he was a +baby. + +"They didn't sing no more, after that. They was still for about five +minutes, I calk'late. Harvey, he was still, too; but pretty soon, he +wakes up and says, 'Gad, boys! Did ye ever see sech a queer look in the +sky? I believe thar's a September gale brewin'." + +"'It's a little wind storm, I reckon,' says Bachelder. Bachelder was +settin', with his legs curled up under him, mendin' sail, and he begun to +spin one o' them yarns o' hisn, with his voice pitched up middlin' high, +and the boys, they begun to laugh and cheer. + +"Then Harvey says; 'I'll run up to headquarters, and find out about the +weather;' and clim' up the main-mast as limber as a squirrel, and when he +came back, thar' was Tommy's hat stickin' way up top o' the mast; so +Tommy, he promised to pay him--them two was always foolin' together, but +good-natered enough." The captain introduced this little incident, in the +midst of his narration, with a dull, pathetic gravity, "It was the last +thing we thought on, o' bein' fearful, or calk'latin' any danger. We +reckoned it was a brisk little shower comin' up, maybe, and the boys was +runnin' one another about gittin' into the cabin, and runnin' on about +the old craft. + +"Then thar' come, all of a sudden, sech a strange feelin', as ef the +'arth and the water was a tremblin', and a dreadful moanin' sound runnin' +through 'em. Seemed as though it came swirlin' across the bay. Then it +bust on us in a fury. + +"He was out, sorter lookin' around him, Bachelder was, and the wind took +Bachelder up, and keeled 'im over two or three times runnin'. + +"Black it grew as the Jedgement day. Then come no sich rain as ever I +see, even the pourin'est, but the clouds fallin' all to once, and the +wind a scatterin' of 'em, and up on the cliffs, we could jest hear a +creakin' and a bendin' whar' the trees was turned as white as ghosts in +that 'ere blackness, and the old Bay, in sech a minute, was spinnin' into +foam. + +"We was shelterin' around the old craft now, sure enough, and nobody +speakin' a word, but jest a holdin' our breaths a waitin', when, in among +them other noises, thar' come, out on the water, sech a low, dull sound +as sent the awful truth on us in a minute, and for a minute, that ar' +right hand of mine was numb. + +"Then Harvey, he had hold o' me, a pintin' out, and whether he spoke a +word or not, I seen it--through wind and rain and foam, all in my eyes to +once, I seen--reelin' and tossin' and pitching out thar' on the Bay, +lost, lost for sure--I seen that fancy ship! + +"Thar' wa'n't no hand on 'arth could guide it, now. Every second was like +to see it keeled squar' over, or slipped and driv' in, straight on to the +rocks. + +"We're used to other'n fa'r weather along this shore. I calk'late we +ain't used to frighten at a little danger, but knowin' the sea so well, +we know the helplessness a'most o' puttin' out in sech a gale as that. + +"I heered the sound. It only came but once: and Bede hissed through his +teeth, a cryin' too, a'most: 'Ain't thar' no other way to werry us, but +they must come in here to drown afore our very eyes! A fool's ventur'! +what could ye expect but a fool's end! Ef he must drown, let the +red-haired devil drown!' + +"But when they heered it, them two, _him_ and George Olver, I knowed how +it would be. I hardly durst to look. I seen them flash at one another +with their great eyes, as ef it wa'n't enough to do man's work, but when +thar' come a chance, they must go act like God! I seen in jest that +flash, them two agreein' solemnly. + +"Then it was all done in a minute's space, like you'll live yer life +through sometimes, in a dream. They had Bill Barlow's eight-oar ready. +They pushed us back. They'd a' gone alone, them two. I kep' the third +place. Harvey and Tommy scuffled, in a breath, and Harvey, he thrust +Tommy back, and we was off. + +"God knows I never expected we'd come back again. You heern the wind. You +can calk'late what it was out thar' with the rain a drivin', and the salt +foam blowed into our eyes. I calk'late we never fetched a harder pull, +no, nor a blinder one. + +"And she, the cursed thing, mad with twitchin' at her cable, lay over to +one side. But she was dyin' mad. I tell ye she was dyin' mad. Thar' was +them two a hangin' to her--thar' hadn't be'n but them. So we hauled +Rollin in, but that other one, when he seen us, the chance o' bein' +saved, it crazed him, and he sent up a quick, glad sort of a yell and +throwed his arms out straight, and back he fell, like lead, into the +water. And Rollin, crouchin' thar' and shiverin', 'He couldn't swim! He's +sunk! he's sunk!' he says. Then _he_, he ris up in a flash, and out he +dove into that hell. + +"Then come another gust, a blindin', blindin', blindin'. 'He'll weather +it! He'll weather it!' George Olver kep' a mutterin', but his teeth was +set; his eyes shot through me like a tiger's--them two was brothers, and +more'n brothers, always. But when thar' come a half lull so't we could +see, and we looked out and seen him risin' on the wave, grippin' that +other one, in spite o' hope I scurse believed my eyes, and what a shout +they sent up from that boat! + +"Ay, thar' they was, for sure, but--God, how fur away! Not much for +common weather, but then they looked as fur to me as 'arth from heaven. +Ef we could reach 'em afore the next sweel come; and every man, it seemed +as though he put his livin' soul into his arms. 'Pull! pull!' says +George, and seemed to git the strength of seven, but still we went too +slow. We missed _him_ at the oar. And _he_, he was the strongest swimmer +that I ever knowed, but who could live in the like o' that? We pulled for +life or death, and that brave head kep' risin' on the wave. + +"Ef we could 'a' had another minute afore the next sweel come! George +Olver felt it. He sent the rope out with a giant's throw. Then it was all +and more than we could do to held the boat ag'in the wind. It come so +fast ye scurse could see them next ye in the boat. 'He's grappled it! +he's thar'! he's thar'! says they, and when they pulled it in, thar' was +that other one belt fast, and only him. + +"God knows! I calk'late he made sure o' the other first, and thar' wa'n't +jest the breath's time left for him, blinded so sudden maybe, and fell +death faint. I've knowed it be so with the strongest; no wonder thar'; +the wonder was in what he done. He was the strongest swimmer that I ever +knowed, the strongest and the fearlessest! + +"George Olver never'll be content. He would 'a' gone in after _him_. We'd +be'n driv' a furlong back, I reckon, and every mark was lost. It 'ud be'n +naught but to swaller him, too. He lost his sense. We had to holt him +back. He raved thar', like a madman. It blew a bitter spell, longest of +all, and when it helt a bit so we could take our bearin's some'at, what +hope! What hope! + +"But poor George, of a suddint he grew quiet as a lamb, and set a lookin' +out, with his hand light on the oar, as ef 'twas pleasant weather, and he +could see _him_ ridin' in thar' easy on the wave; and his eyes was fur +off and smilin', but they looked as though they died. + +"Mebbe--I know no more. + +"We found him arterwards. Thar' wa'n't no mark nor stain on him. You +think I talk dry-eyed. Go you and look at him. Somehow it don't leave +ary breath for cryin'. It's like as ef he knowed. It's more than +quietness, seemin' to say, for all he loved his life and fou't so hard +out thar', ter lose his own at last--givin' or losin', he never missed o' +naught! he never missed o' naught! + +"I can't tell what's the thought comes nighest to ye when we look at him. +I hain't got high enough for that, but I can tell ye what's the +furderest--weepin' and sorrowin'. Since I seen him and my little Bessie +fell asleep, please God I die a half so trustful or so brave, I make no +fear o' death!" + +The Captain sighed a long, ecstatic sigh and rose, the after-glow still +shining on his face. In passing through the room, he pressed something +softly into my hand. + +"We found it in the breast-pocket of his coat, teacher," he said. "The +coat lay in the bottom o' the boat, and was soaked with brine. It had +your name on't." + +When I unfolded it, it was the little star-fish the Cradlebow had showed +me, days before, still folded close in its delicate vine wreath. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +GEORGE OLVER'S ORATION. + + +The Wallencampers gathered at the Ark, singing a calm and high farewell +to earth, that alone was meet for the untroubled lips of that silent +singer in their midst. + +They gathered at the Ark. No other place seemed to them sacred enough for +such a meeting, now; no other place dear enough for the celebration of +such a solemn, long farewell. + +Over the threshold, where he had come so often bounding in his life, they +brought the dead; there was the same strange look of exaltation on their +faces that I had noticed while Captain Sartell told the story of the +storm; stricken and white, the poor faces, yet touched with some daring, +unutterable hope--so clear a message they read on that wondrously still +and reconciled face, so without fear the dead lips spoke to them. + +To me, the message was one of infinite pathos and rebuke, speaking of a +heroism beyond my poor conception, of a height of glory of which I had +not dreamed. + +"Farewell, forevermore," the fathomless far voice murmured to my despair, +and slowly and repeatedly; "Farewell, forevermore. I am beyond the need +of your poor love." + +And my heart turned to stone, with all the passionate, pure sorrow that +might have been, the tears in which I might have found relief. + +Grandma Keeler's sacred "keepin' rooms" were opened wide for the +reception of this guest, yet the sunshine stole in with a hallowed light, +the entering breeze sighed low and softly. The children, always present, +were, on this occasion, attentively still. + +There were no external signs of woe for the poor Wallencampers to assume; +they made no mad demonstrations of their grief; the suffering and the +wonder were too deep. + +Lydia--they all knew how she had loved this son. When they returned from +their perilous quest in the storm, the first words Captain Sartell said +were; "Who must go up now, and break Lyddy's heart?" + +She stood among the others, very still, the old faded mantilla folded +decently over her shoulders, the great dark eyes, _his_ eyes, shining out +even kindly from the worn face on those who came to speak to her. + +Godfrey Cradlebow stood at the outer door, and addressed the people as +they entered. Some said, afterwards, that he had been drinking; others +declared he had not touched a drop for days. In the room where I stood, I +heard his musical, deep tones, now swelling with the fervor of his +harangue, now broken and trembling with emotion. + +"Enter, my friends!" said this strange man. "Go in, and look on +quietness. What do we seek for most, my friends? Look out on the world. +It's a whole world of seekers. How they jostle against one another! How +they sweat! how they strive! how they toil! And why all this? What seek +they for? For quietness, my friends, even so--the quietness of wealth to +gain, may be, or competence; may be, the quietness of some renown. And +some go seeking over land and sea for their lost health, and quietness +from pain. + +"My friends, within there was as restless a seeker as I ever knew. Pity +the old, my friends, but pity more the young! Never such dreams of rest! +Never such restlessness! Hush! when he heard, he answered well. He put +all by. Somehow, we think he has obtained--wealth, honor, perfect health. +My friends, pass in! behold this wonder! + +"My friends, you look up at the sky. Ah, what a sky! purple and deep! Yet +I see something in your eyes that is not quietness; for storms will come, +too well you know, and the cold blasts of winter; but if you knew that +never any sorrowful, hard wind could sweep across yon blue--then, my +friends, you would look as he looks who lies within there. Pass in! pass +in! behold this wonder." + +Within, Grandma Keeler stood with closed eyes and folded hands. Her +cheeks were wet. She wore a heavenly, trustful expression of countenance. +Her lips moved as if in prayer. + +Aunt Sibylla Cradlebow rose in her place--majestic and weird she looked, +like some old Eastern prophetess, a grand forecasting in her shadowy +eyes. + +"Gether in the sheaves," she began; "the bright sheaves, early ripe and +ready for the harvestin'; and begrudge not the Master of His harvestin'. +Why, O Lord, Lord, this sheaf, while there be them that stand, late +harvest day, bowed and witherin' in the cornfield? Because He reckons not +o' time. Glory, glory, to the Lord o' the harvestin'! But gether in for +me, He says, my bright sheaves, early ripe! my sheaves o' the golden +wine! + +"It was the night but two before my grandson died, I seen a death-sign in +a dream, and so I speaks to my son's wife, but 'Fear you not,' I says; +'it was the blessed sign o' blessed death;' and thought o' some one old +and helpless, sick maybe, gettin' release thereby. Why this sheaf, O +Lord?--Glory, glory, to the Lord o' the harvestin'! For I dreamt there +was a bird ketched in my room, and flutterin' here and there, and beatin' +'ginst the window with its wings. And dreamin' I ris up, and there was +such a light along the floor as never any moonlight that I see was half +so solemn or so beautiful. But when I stretched my hand to free the poor, +blind, flutterin' bird, it ris away from me, and spread its wings, +snow-white, and out it flew, and sharp and clear along that shinin' +track. Then when I woke, I knew it was the sign o' blessed death, nor +ever feared. And God will bear me true, it was the very night they +brought my grandson home that, lyin' down to rest a while from watchin' +with the rest, nor ever wonderin' nor layin' it to mind what I had +dreamed afore, but tired and heart-broke only, I seen the long, bright +shinin' track ag'in, a pourin' through the window; and 'My son's son!' I +cries, 'dear boy! dear boy!'--for it was like him playin' on his +violin--'What tunes must be,' I cries, 'that you play so and scarce a day +in heaven!' But when I ris up, callin', it grew dim along the track, and +there was mornin' in the room, and then I heered them cryin' where they +watched. + +"Why this sheaf, O Lord?--gether in the sheaves, O Lord, the bright +sheaves, early ripe and ready for the harvestin'. Glory, glory to the +Lord o' the harvestin'!" + +Then the Wallencampers sang tremblingly of the "Harvest Home." They were +glad when they saw George Olver stand up in their midst--George Olver, +least subject of them all to dreams or ecstasies, but with his slow, +labored speech, and his sorrowful, bowed head. He took his place beside +the coffin of his friend, looked gently at that face, and squared his +shoulders for a moment then, and held his head with the old manly air: + +"When Uncle 'Lihu died," said he; "my friend and me walked home together +from the funeral, and Luther says to me: 'I want you to promise me, +George, that if I shed die, you wouldn't have that man to preach over +me,' meanin' the minister, though he was kindly to him; 'and he means +well,' says he; 'but he don't understand us; he knows naught about us +'ceptin' that now we're dead, and not bein' used to them long texts o' +hisn, it frets our folks,' says he. 'They weary on't, so long a string +they bar'ly understand; but I would rather,' Luther says, 'have some one +amongst my folks that knowed me well, git up and speak, ef it was only: +_This was my friend lies here; I loved him_. And promise me, George, ef I +shed die, you'd hev no stranger preachin' over me, but speak some such +easy words yourself for love o' me.' And I felt with him thar', and +promised him, and he me; but I remember thinkin', as I looked at him, +it's little likely I'll ever stand above your grave. + +"Enough said. 'This was our friend lies here. We loved him.' We thank him +for them words. Better nor more, they cl'ar it all up on this side twixt +him and us. No need ter tell o' what he was, or what he done. 'Tain't +likely we'll forgit. He didn't say ter praise him. He wanted none o' +that, but jest we knowed and loved him. + +"And so it might 'a' been enough, but now, my God! my God! as I stand +here aside o' him, he bids me, plain as day, to speak a word beyent; ef I +could only name it, ef I could only name it, what looks so cl'ar and +beautiful thar' on his face. + +"'Hold strong;' he says, 'below thar'. Keep heart and make cl'ar +reckonin', for it's losin' all may be, in this 'ere mystery, makes +cl'arest gain o' all. There's fairer day to rest ye arter storm. All's +well! all's well!' he says; 'all's well beyent. All's well along this +shore!'" + +Here George Olver's husky voice failed him; sobs rose in the room. + +Then the "farewell" was sung, and bravely; but at the last, I heard only +Madeline's voice, it grew so surpassingly clear and sweet; it seemed to +float solitary in the room, and to play triumphantly about the sleeper's +lips--the voice, indeed, of a free spirit in its bliss, thrilled only +with some plaintive memory of human woe and loss. + + * * * * * + + Farewell, ye dreams of night; + Jesus is mine! + Lost in this dawning bright; + Jesus is mine! + + All that my soul has tried, + Left but a dismal void; + Jesus has satisfied. + Jesus is mine! + + Farewell, mortality! + Jesus is mine! + Welcome, eternity! + Jesus is mine! + Welcome, the loved and blest! + Welcome, bright scenes of rest! + Welcome, my Saviour's breast! + Jesus is mine! + +Scarcely had the leaves of the fallen peach-tree by the window begun to +wither when the strong bearers passed out with their beautiful, stainless +burden, while slowly, reverently, the little community of mourners +followed to the grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP. + + +Yet another week passed in Wallencamp before I was able to complete the +preparations for my departure. + +One day, I set myself with a sort of listless fidelity to the summing up +of my accounts. I found, on deducting the amount of my actual expenses +from the sum total of my earnings in Wallencamp, that I had +sixty-two cents left! + +The revelation caused me some surprise; strangely little perturbation of +spirit. I thought what tragic tales might sometimes lie hidden beneath a +seemingly dry and senseless combination of figures, while, in my own +case, I was merely struck with the justice of those figures. + +For such eccentric and distracted services as I had rendered in +Wallencamp, the superintendent of schools had paid me in full at the +price stipulated, eight dollars per week. + +On the other hand, the column of insolvency, I considered that the West +Wallen Doctor's bill was an expression of modesty itself. The sum due my +Dear Madeline for "board," at two dollars and a half per week, though I +trusted it was some compensation for the merely temporal advantages to be +enjoyed in Wallencamp, did not appear as an astounding aggregate. The +list of "minor details" was well portrayed, and presented an aspect of +clear use and value. + +My once fond dream of a "private bank account" had gradually faded from +my memory. I saw the last spar in that fair wreck go down, now, without a +sigh. And the "loans solicited," in labored phrase, as "mere temporary +conveniences," from the friends at home--these, I was satisfied, must +remain only as the sweet continuation of a life-long debt. But how was I +to get home? + +The combined fares on that route, I remembered, had amounted to something +over nine dollars! So the question haunted me, not restlessly, but with a +vague, tranquil, melancholy interest, as pertaining to the history of +some one who had lived and died a few years before; so long indeed, it +seemed to me, since I had performed the journey to Wallencamp. + +I had not written home as to the day of my probable arrival, in this +yielding passively to the force of habit, which had ever constrained me +to plan my returns as "surprises" to my family and friends. + +But for myself, I had fixed the day of my departure from Wallencamp, and, +in spite of the discovery made in regard to the insufficient state of my +finances, looked forward to that event without any trepidation, so that, +I remember--it was actually the day before the one fixed on, and still no +hope had dawned on the financial horizon,--when Grandma Keeler embraced +me with some tender words premonitory of our parting, I kissed her +gratefully, musing at the same time in dreamy, untroubled fashion: "Yes, +I must be going home to-morrow." + +It was on this same day that we drove to "Wallen Town," Grandma and +Madeline and Becky and I. The excursion was one Grandma had planned +several weeks before, and I had no intention of making it the opportunity +which I finally did. + +As we were passing a dingy-looking establishment, where some doubtful +articles of _virtu_ appeared in the window, an idea seized me, as new as +it was comprehensive of my difficulties. + +I went in, ostensibly to purchase a watch-key, really to engage in +negotiations of a more serious and complicated nature. The proprietor of +the shop became the temporary guardian of my watch, while I was invested +with the funds necessary for my homeward journey. I learned, afterwards, +that this man had made an exception in the usually limited range of his +operations, in my favor, his establishment not being, by any means, that +of a pawnbroker, but, in every sense, of the most highly moral and +respectable nature. + +He gave me such "ready cash" as his coffers would yield, with an +improvised pawnbroker's check, at the composition of which we had both +seriously and ingeniously labored. I can testify both to his honesty +and obligingness. He insisted on my taking with me, "jest to tell the +time o' day," a very large watch in a tarnished silver case. + +Not wishing to seem to cast any disparagement on his wares, I became the +helpless recipient of this favor. The article in question was far too +large for my watch-pocket, and had a persistent habit of holding its +mouth wide open like a too weary shell-fish. On the interior of the case, +one on either side, were pasted photographs of individuals to me unknown, +male and female, their countenances such as the blinded eye of affection +alone, I thought, could have rendered mutually entertaining; and the +watch maintained, on all occasions, a system of chronology peculiarly its +own. + +As we drove back to Wallencamp, Grandma Keeler, her great heart close to +Nature that sunny afternoon, beguiled the way with a gentle hilarity +which never shocked or offended, but Becky put her hand often in mine, +looking up with the old helpless, pleading expression in her eyes--Becky, +I knew, would remember longest. + +Sometimes, as my hand wandered almost unconsciously to caress the +precious coin in my pocket, instead of the wild tract of stunted cedars +through which our road lay, I fancied I saw the great elms of Newtown, +the wide, straight street, the familiar house, an open door, and--ah! It +wasn't the first time I had been taken in at that door, the survivor of +wrecked ambition and misguided hope, only to hear my shortcomings made +tenderly light of, my most desperate follies lovingly ignored and +forgiven. + +But I had meant that it should be so different this time! I had gone out +as a missionary; and deeper than ever in my consciousness, I must feel +the want and woe of the returning prodigal; the same old story, the +ever-recurring failure. It seemed as though all the wonder and impatience +might well go out of my despair. + +Then as I lent myself more and more to the contemplation of that home +picture, how restful and happy it grew! but poor old Wallencamp--for we +were nearing the little settlement now, and the sun was fast +westering--poor, squalid, solitary, beautiful Wallencamp, as I looked +down upon it from the brow of Stony Hill, thrilled me with a troubled +sense of some diviner, some half-comprehended glory. + +The crimson glow had not quite faded in the sky when I took my last walk +across the fields to where the new grave had been made on the hillside. +This is the new burying-ground of the Wallencampers; the old one lies +a mile farther up the river, near the Indian encampment. Here I saw more +than one simple slab, bearing the name of Cradlebow. Here little Bess +lies, too. The hill, meet for such sublime repose, looks ever calmly on +the humble, straggling homes of the Wallencampers below, and sees the +lonely river winding near, and hears, by night and day, the monody of +deeper waters. + +I thought the voice of that great ocean of restlessness sounding along +the shore might quiet my unrest, but the beat of the waves, the growing +gloom of that still evening hour, oppressed me with a feeling unutterably +sad. I could not bear it, at last. It seemed as though another deep was +rising and breaking in my heart, the flood of proud, half-stifled passion +waking in one awful moment to overwhelm me. No light upon that sea--but +hope wronged, the mockery of death for yearning love, the unguided clash +of drifting human lives! + +An agony of blindness swam before my eyes. I felt my weak hands clutching +at the grass, and gasped, as though it had been indeed in the blindness +and pain of physical death, the prayer wrung from my selfish need. But +the answer was of infinite love and compassion. It came to me then--not +as some grave revelation of truth to the "enlightened seeker," but like +the kiss or peace to a tired child, a door mysteriously opened to the +self-bound captive, to one ignorant, the light shining along a plain, +straight way. And the doubt and terror and anguish went out of the world; +even the sorrowless farewell of frozen lips changed to tender +benediction. + +When I looked up at last, wondering, peaceful, my face wet with happy +tears, the stars had come out in the sky, and, down below, the windows of +the Ark were shining. The faint murmur of a song was borne up to me. The +Wallencampers had gathered at the Ark to celebrate our last "meeting" +together, and I went down to join them. + + * * * * * + +At what ghostly hour of the next morning Grandma Keeler awoke Grandpa to +the unusual exigencies of the occasion, I cannot say. It was necessary +for me to start very early from the Ark to take the train at West Wallen, +but when I descended the stairs, by candle-light, Grandpa Keeler had been +already washed and dyed and arrayed, as for the Sabbath, in his best. +Yes, and I was constrained to believe that he had even been instructed in +the mysteries of Sunday-school lore, for there was about him an air of +haggard and feverish excitement, and he glared at my familiar presence +with wild, unseeing eyes. + +Memorable were the colloquies held that morning between Grandma and +Grandpa Keeler; Grandpa's tragic assumption of manly consequence, and +solemn fears lest we should miss the train, directed in astute syllables +of warning towards Grandma Keeler; Grandma's increased deliberation, and +imperturbable quietude of soul. + +I recall the strange, unearthly aspect of the scenes enacted in the Ark +at that early hour, the fleeting vision of a morning repast which formed +some accidental part in the chaos of vaster proceedings. + +Then, when the first faint signs of dawn were beginning to break through +the gray in the eastern sky, I bade farewell to the Ark forever, +lingering a moment on the old familiar doorstep for a last word with +those of the neighbors who had gathered there to see us off, for the +whole Keeler family accompanied me to the station. + +There were others waiting at the gate to say good-bye, and at various +posts all the way down the lane. At the big white house, Emily came +running out, breathless. She whispered hurriedly in my ear; "There was a +message left. Ye wasn't well. I reckon 'twas a message. When fisherman +and that other one came up from the shore, day o' the storm, he came to +our house for Sim to take him to Wallen. He said it was better to be the +dead one than him. He was awful white, and Sim got harnessed, and just as +fisherman was goin' out, he left a message along o' me, though there +wasn't no names mentioned, and he talked queer; but he wanted as somebody +should know that he realized it all now, and he couldn't make up for it, +never; but it was go'n' to be new or nothin' for him, and they shouldn't +want for nothin', never, and kep' a sayin' more, and no message, exactly, +as ye could call a message, but I reckoned--I thought--may be--" + +Emily's glowing eyes, fixed on my face, grew very wide and grave. I could +only press her hand in parting for Grandpa, growing impatient, had +succeeded in clucking Fanny on again. + +We drove along the river road, and, passing through the Indian +encampment, there were more good-byes exchanged by the roadside. + +Then climbing up "Sandy Slope," beyond the settlement, we heard the +shrill "Hullo!" of a familiar voice, and looking back, saw Bachelor Lot +running after us very swiftly, his head destitute of covering, and his +little wizened face glowing red as the celestial Mars in the distance. He +looked like some odd, fantastic toy that had been wound up and set going. + +So he came up with us, and trying to conceal his breathlessness in polite +little "hums and haws," delivered aside, he offered me a huge bouquet, +composed, I should think, of every sort of wild-flower available on the +Cape at that season, and showing, in its arrangement, marks of the most +arduous striving after artistic effect. In the other hand, he held out to +me a basket of large, selected boxberries. + +I accepted the gifts with unaffected delight, and thanked Bachelor Lot +warmly. I looked back at him, trudging cheerfully homeward through the +sand, so withered and small, with the gray in his hair, and his coat so +much too long for him--back to the poor brown house, which no tender love +had ever hallowed, or merry waiting laugh made bright for him; and I +wondered, along his life's way which looked so sad and desolate, what +hidden wild flowers God had strewed for him, that he seemed always so +humbly cheerful and content, and brought his best of offerings with a +smile to bless the happier lot of others. + +For the rest of the way, the wild untenanted stretch was unbroken by any +incident; yet I remember no tedium by the way; and I believe that a trip +taken with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler through the most trackless desert +would inevitably have been made to teem with diversion. Those blessed +souls! I smile, looking back, but through tears, and with a reverence +and tenderness far deeper than the smile. + +By the time we reached the West Wallen depot the sky had clouded over. + +"A little shower comin' up," Grandma said, but Grandpa shook his head and +prophesied "a long, stiddy spell o' weather." + +I persuaded my friends not to wait with me for the arrival of the train +which, owing to some discrepancy in the matter of time between Wallencamp +and West Wallen, would not be due for an hour or more. + +I watched them out of sight, the last of my Wallencamp! How deeply, how +utterly it had grown into my life, so that now, in spite of the secret, +glad exultation I felt at the thought of going home, my heart went +running out after that quaint, receding vehicle, and aching sensibly. + +On board the train at last, I began to experience something of the +sensation of one who awakens from a long sleep to the half-forgotten ways +of men and life with a vague, untroubled wonder as to the latest styles +in dress; or, like a traveller from a strange country, weary, and +way-worn, and out of date, who yet can smile, hugging in his breast the +happy secret of boundless wealth in the gold-mine he has discovered far +away. + +I had neither umbrella, portmanteau, nor shawl-strap; such ordinary +paraphernalia of travel I remembered once to have possessed, and tried in +vain to recall the particular occasions on which they had been wrecked in +Wallencamp. I bore with me my bouquet, my basket of boxberries, some +small cedar trees for transplanting, and half of the largest clam-shell +the shores of Cape Cod had ever produced; this last a parting gift from +Lovell Barlow. + +I was far from being troubled with the consciousness of anything quaint +or _bizarre_ in my appearance. I felt no mortification on account of +these treasures so intrinsically dear to my heart; but Grandma Keeler had +insisted on binding a mustard paste on my chest. It was a parting +request--I could not have refused--but in the close air of the car the +physical torture began to be extreme. Tears fell on the cedar spray at my +side, yet was I withal strangely, peacefully happy. + +It was raining when I passed through Boston. Once more in the din of a +city, jolting noisily over the rough, uneven pavements, I found myself +wondering continually if the Keelers had reached home, and imagining how +the rain was falling gently, quietly, on the roof of the Ark. + +At the next stage, at Hartford, I was half afraid that I should meet +brother or sister or some member of the family, and so have the complete +effect of my "surprise" destroyed; but I saw none of them. There were few +passengers on board the Newtown-bound train. It was raining still. I was +growing more and more glad at heart, and looking out with my arm pressed +against the window, when I heard a voice right over me--a soft, pitiful, +thrilling exclamation:-- + +"Great Heavens!" + +I looked up and saw John Cable. + +He sank slowly down into the seat in front of me and, for a moment, +neither of us spoke. I did not mind meeting John. I had not thought of +including him in the surprise. The sight of his familiar, friendly face +gave me a positive thrill of pleasure, but there was something in his +manner that kept me silent. + +I said: "I am going to surprise them, John." + +There was nothing offensive in the grave, swift glance with which John +Cable then took me in, me and my bouquet of wilted wild-flowers and my +small cedar trees, only a slow, solemn distinctness in his tone. + +"You will succeed," he said. "Undoubtedly you will succeed." + +Still I felt no resentment. A gentle, sorrowful perplexity filled my +breast. + +"Why, do--I--look--very--very--unusual, John?" I questioned, and looking +in his face I wondered why, in the old days of careless jest and +repartee, he had never seemed so moved. + +More words he said, but I could not bear them then, and tears from an +inward pain fell on the cedar spray, yet I was glad that I had not grown +so unusual that people would never like me any more. + +Next, the surprise was a success, as John Cable had predicted, but that +was the one point in my career in which my genius had never failed me. My +surprises, though inclined to take something of the nature of an +accumulation of calamities, had never lacked the great element of +awe-producing wonder. + +For the rest, I had known that I should be forgiven and received with the +usual _eclat_ of the returned prodigal into the family bosom--but to be +held up on successive days as an object of ever-increasing marvel and +interest, as one whose words and acts were endowed with a peculiar +significance, as the light of the social fireside, the enchanter of small +spell-bound audiences! Well, I had been spoiled so early in life that +little was needed to complete the wreck. I felt a deeper satisfaction +when, as I was meekly beseeching our Bridget's instruction in some +particular branch of the culinary art, that majestic female observed, as +she folded her arms and looked down on me complacently:-- + +"There's one thing I like better about you than I used to, miss--you do +have to wade through a great deal o' flour to larn a little plain cooking +but Job himself couldn't a' be'n no patienter." And it was indeed true +that my "Graham gems" never quite reached perfection, though they bore +with them marks of earnest and faithful endeavor. + +I found new sources of interest everywhere, and in ways which I had +formerly regarded with aversion and disdain. + +At the "Newtown Ladies' Charitable Sewing Society," I was elevated from +among the common stitchers and sewers, for faithfulness in service,--I +believe, though malicious fingers would point to the distortion of the +legs of little heathens' trousers--to a place on the "cutting circle." +From the cutting circle, it is needless to say, I was speedily exalted to +a presidential chair of easeful observation and general vague +superintendency. + +Later, there was a revival of the "Literary Club." There John Cable and I +shone once more amid a group of familiar and undimmed luminaries. John +Cable never took up the exact thread of the discourse broken off so +abruptly on the day of my return, in the cars, but it was when coming +home from the club one evening that he expressed himself to the effect +that I had always been a great burden on his mind, ever since the first +day he led me to school, and, to be sure, I had shown signs of +improvement lately, but there was always a pardonable doubt as to what I +might do next, and it was wearing on him, and would I set his mind at +rest by allowing him, in some sense, to take the direction of my life +into his own hands? + +John, though of adverse views, had been heatedly discussing the merits of +the Capital Punishment question at the club, so I was not surprised at +the unusual grace and flow of his address. + +Years have passed since that evening. I have been very happy as John's +wife. If I wander in my story, be it said that little John is running a +model express-train on the floor over my head. Little John, when not +dreaming, exercises a vast amount of destructive physical force. + + * * * * * + +A little more than a year after I left Wallencamp, I heard of Grandma and +Grandpa Keeler's death. "Very quiet and peaceful," they said concerning +Grandma, but I had known what sort of a death-bed hers would be. Scarcely +a week after she had passed away, Grandpa Keeler followed her. I had it +from good authority that he kept about the house till the last. There was +a "rainy spell," and he stood often gazing out of the window "with a lost +look on his face," and once he said with a wistful, broken utterance and +a pathetic longing in his eyes that did away forever with any opprobrium +there might have been in connection with the term, that "it was gittin' +to be very lonely about the house without ma pesterin' on him." + +Since then, I have not heard from Wallencamp. It is doubtful whether I +ever get another letter from that source. Though singularly gifted in the +epistolary art, it is but a dull and faint means of expression to the +souls of the Wallencampers--and _they_ will not forget. From the storms +that shake their earthly habitations, they pass to their sweet, wild rest +beside the sea; and by and by, when I meet them, I shall hear them sing. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPE COD FOLKS *** + +***** This file should be named 19708.txt or 19708.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/0/19708/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stacy Brown, Emily and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/19708.zip b/19708.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdb9e31 --- /dev/null +++ b/19708.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99a8db8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #19708 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19708) |
