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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/23005-0.txt b/23005-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a86cd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/23005-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1473 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Eli, by Heman White Chaplin + +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: Eli + First published in the “Century Magazine” + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23005] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +ELI + +By Heman White Chaplin + +1887 + +First published in the “Century Magazine.” + + + + + +I. + +Under a boat, high and dry at low tide, on the beach, John Wood was +seated in the sand, sheltered from the sun in the boat's shadow, +absorbed in the laying on of verdigris. The dull, worn color was rapidly +giving place to a brilliant, shining green. Occasionally a scraper, +which lay by, was taken up to remove the last trace of a barnacle. + +It was Wood's boat, but he was not a boatman; he painted cleverly, but +he was not a painter. He kept the brown store under the elms of the main +street, now hot and still, where at this-moment his blushing sister was +captivating the heart of an awkward farmer's boy as she sold him a pair +of striped suspenders. + +As the church clock struck the last of twelve decided blows, three +children came rushing out of the house on the bank above the beach. It +was one of those deceptive New England cottages, weather-worn without, +but bright and bountifully home-like within,--with its trim parlor, +proud of a cabinet organ; with its front hall, now cooled by the light +sea-breeze drifting through the blind-door, where a tall clock issued +its monotonous call to a siesta on the rattan lounge; with its spare +room, open now, opposite the parlor, and now, too, drawing in the salt +air through close-shut blinds, in anticipation of the joyful arrival +this evening of Sister Sarah, with her little brood, from the city. + +The children scampered across the road, and then the eldest hushed the +others and sent a little brother ahead to steal, barefoot, along the +shining sea-weed to his father. + +The plotted surprise appeared to succeed completely. The painter was +seized by the ears from behind, and captured. + +“Guess who 's here, or you can't get up,” said the infant captor. + +“It 's Napoleon Bonaparte; don't joggle,” said his father, running a +brush steadily along the water-line. + +“No! no! no!” with shouts of laughter from the whole attacking party. + +“Then it's Captain Ezekiel.” + +This excited great merriment: Captain Ezekiel was an aged, purblind man, +who leaned on a cane. + +After attempts to identify the invader--with the tax-collector come for +taxes, then with the elderly minister making a pastoral call, with the +formal schoolmaster, and with Samuel J. Tilden--the victim reached over +his shoulder, and, seizing the assailant by a handful of calico jacket, +brought him around, squirming, before him. + +“Now,” he said, “I 'll give you a coat of verdigris. (Great applause +from the reserve force behind.) + +“I suppose Mother sent you to say dinner's ready,” said the father, +rising and surveying the green bottom of the boat. “I must eat quick, so +as to do the other side before half-flood.” + +And with a child on each shoulder, and the third pushing him from +behind with her head, he marched toward the vine-covered kitchen, where, +between two opposite netted doors, the table was trimly set. + +“Father, you look like a mermaid, with your green hands,” said his wife, +laughing, as she handed him the spirits of turpentine. “A woman could +paint that boat, in a light dress, and not get a spot on her.” + +He smiled good-naturedly: he never spoke much. + +“I guess Louise won't have much trade today,” said his wife, as they all +sat down; “it's so hot in the sun that everybody 'll wait till night. +But she has her tatting-work to do, and she 's got a book, too, that she +wanted to finish.” + +Her husband nodded, and ate away. + +“Oh, can't we go up street and see her, this afternoon?” said one of the +children. + +“Who can that be?” said the mother, as an elderly, half-official-looking +man stopped his horse at the front gate and alighted. The man left the +horse unchecked to browse by the roadside, and came to the door. + +“Oh, it 's you, Captain Nourse,” said Wood, rising to open the netting +door, and holding out his hand. “Come to summons me as a witness in +something about the bank case, I suppose. Let me introduce Captain +Nourse, Mary,” he said, “deputy sheriff. Sit down, Captain, and have +some dinner with us.” + +“No, I guess I won't set,” said the captain. “I cal'lated not to eat +till I got home, in the middle o' the afternoon. No, I 'll set down in +eye-shot of the mare, and read the paper while you eat.” + +“I hope they don't want me to testify anywhere to-day,” said Wood; +“because my boat's half verdigris'd, and I want to finish her this +afternoon.” + +“No testimony to-day,” said the captain. “Hi! hi! Kitty!” he called to +the mare, as she began to meander across the road; and he went out to +a tree by the front fence, and sat down on a green bench, beside a +work-basket and a half-finished child's dress, and read the country +paper which he had taken from the office as he came along. + +After dinner Wood went out bareheaded, and leaned on the fence by the +captain. His wife stood just inside the door, looking out at them. + +The “bank case” was the great sensation of the town, and Wood was one +of the main witnesses, for he had been taking the place of the absent +cashier when the safe was broken open and rifled to the widespread +distress of depositors and stockholders, and the ruin of Hon. Edward +Clark, the president. Wood had locked the safe on the afternoon before +the eventful night, and had carried home the key with him, and he was to +testify to the contents of the safe as he had left it. + +“I guess they 're glad they 've got such a witness as John,” said his +wife to herself, as she looked at him fondly, “and I guess they think +there won't be much doubt about what he says.” + +“Well, Captain,” said Wood, jocosely, breaking a spear of grass to bits +in his fingers, “I did n't know but you 'd come to arrest me.” + +The captain calmly smiled as only a man can smile who has been accosted +with the same humorous remark a dozen times a day for twenty years. +He folded his paper carefully, put it in his pocket, took off +his spectacles and put them in their silver case, took a red silk +handkerchief from his hat, wiped his face, and put the handkerchief +back. Then he said shortly,-- + +“That's what I _have_ come for.” + +Wood, still leaning on the fence, looked at him, and said nothing. + +“That's just what I 've come for,” said Captain Nourse. “I 've got to +arrest you; here's the warrant.” And he handed it to him. + +“What does this mean?” said Wood. “I can't make head or tail of this.” + +“Well,” said the captain, “the long and short is, these high-toned +detectives that they 've hed down from town, seein' as our own force +was n't good enough, allow that the safe was unlocked with a key, in due +form, and then the lock was broke afterward, to look as if it had been +forced open. They 've hed the foreman of the safe-men down, too, and he +says the same thing. Naturally, the argument is, there was only two keys +in existence,--one was safe with the president of the bank, and is about +all he 's got to show out of forty years' savings; the only other one +you hed: consequently, it heaves it onto you.” + +“I see,” said Wood. “I will go with you. Do you want to come into the +house with me while I get my coat?” + +“Well, I suppose I must keep you in sight,--now you know.” + +And they went into the house. + +“Mary,” said her husband, “the folks that lost by Clark when the bank +broke have been at him until he 's felt obliged to pitch on somebody, +and he's pitched on me; and Captain Nourse has come to arrest me. I +shall get bail before long.” + +She said nothing, and did not shed a tear till he was gone. + +But then-- + + + + +II. + +Wide wastes of salt-marsh to the right, imprisoning the upland with a +vain promise of infinite liberty, and, between low, distant sandhills, +a rim of sea. Stretches of pine woods behind, shutting in from the great +outer world, and soon to darken into evening gloom. Ploughed fields and +elm-dotted pastures to the left, and birch-lined roads leading by white +farm-houses to the village, all speaking of cheer and freedom to the +prosperous and the happy, but to the unfortunate and the indebted, of +meshes invisible but strong as steel. But, before, no lonesome marshes, +no desolate forest, no farm or village street, but the free blue ocean, +rolling and tumbling still from the force of an expended gale. + +In the open doorway of a little cottage, warmed by the soft slanting +rays of the September sun, a rough man, burnt and freckled, was sitting, +at his feet a net, engaged upon some handiwork which two little girls +were watching. Close by him lay a setter, his nose between his paws. +Occasionally the man raised his eyes to scan the sea. + +“There's Joel,” he said, “comin' in around the Bar. Not much air +stirrin' now!” + +Then he turned to his work again. + +“First, you go _so_ fash',” he said to the children, as he drew a +thread; “then you go _so_ fash'.” + +And as he worked he made a great show of labor, much to their diversion. + +But the sight of Joel's broad white sail had not brought pleasant +thoughts to his mind; for Joel had hailed him, off the Shoal, the +afternoon before, and had obligingly offered to buy his fish right +there, and so let him go directly home, omitting to mention that sudden +jump of price due to an empty market. + +“Wonder what poor man he 's took a dollar out of to-day! Well, I s'pose +it's all right: those that 's got money, want money.” + +“What be you, Eli--ganging on hooks?” said Aunt Patience, as she tiptoed +into the kitchen behind him, from his wife's sick-room, and softly +closed the door after her. + +“No,” said the elder of the children; “he 's mending our stockings, and +showing me how.” + +“Well, you do have a hard time, don't you?” said Aunt Patience, looking +down over his shoulder; “to slave and tug and scrape to get a house over +your head, and then to have to turn square 'round, and stay to home with +a sick woman, and eat all into it with mortgages!” + +“Oh, well,” he said, “we 'll fetch, somehow.” + +Aunt Patience went to the glass, and holding a black pin in her mouth, +carefully tied the strings of her sun-bonnet. + +“Anyway,” she says, “you take it good-natured. Though if there is one +thing that's harder than another, it is to be good-natured all the +time, without being aggravating. I have known men that was so awfully +good-natured that they was harder to live with than if they was cross!” + +And without specifying further, she opened her plaid parasol and stepped +out at the porch. + +Though, on this quiet afternoon of Saturday, the peace of the +approaching Sabbath seemed already brooding over the little dwelling, +peace had not lent her hand to the building of the home. Every foot of +land, every shingle, every nail, had been wrung from the reluctant sea. +Every voyage had contributed something. It was a great day when Eli was +able to buy the land. Then, between two voyages, he dug a cellar and +laid a foundation; then he saved enough to build the main part of the +cottage and to finish the front room, lending his own hand to the work. +Then he used to get letters at every port, telling of progress,--how +Lizzie, his wife, had adorned the front room with a bright ninepenny +paper, of which a little piece was enclosed,--which he kept as a sort +of charm about him and exhibited to his friends; how she and her little +brother had lathed the entry and the kitchen, and how they had set out +blackberry vines from the woods. Then another letter told of a surprise +awaiting him on his return; and, in due time, coming home as third mate +from Hong-Kong to a seaman's tumultuous welcome, he had found that a +great, good-natured mason, with whose sick child his wife had watched +night after night, had appeared one day with lime and hair and sand, +and in white raiment, and had plastered the entry and the kitchen, and +finished a room upstairs. + +And so, for years, at home and on the sea, at New York and at Valparaiso +and in the Straits of Malacca, the little house and the little family +within it had grown into the fibre of Eli's heart. Nothing had given him +more delight than to meet, in the strange streets of Calcutta or before +the Mosque of Omar, some practical Yankee from Stonington or Machias, +and, whittling to discuss with him, among the turbans of the Orient, +the comparative value of shaved and of sawed shingles, or the economy +of “Swedes-iron” nails, and to go over with him the estimates and plans +which he had worked out in his head under all the constellations of the +skies. + +The supper things were cleared away. The children had said good-night +and gone to bed, and Eli had been sitting for an hour by his wife's +bedside. He had had to tax his patience and ingenuity heavily during the +long months that she had lain there to entertain her for a little while +in the evening, after his hard, wet day's work. He had been talking now +of the coming week, when he was to serve upon the jury in the adjoining +county-town. + +“I cal'late I can come home about every night,” he said, “and it 'll be +quite a change, at any rate.” + +“But you don't seem so cheerful about it as I counted you would be,” + said his wife. “Are you afraid you'll have to be on the bank case?” + +“Not much!” he answered. “No trouble 'n that case! Jury won't leave +their seats. These city fellers 'll find they 've bit off more 'n they +can chew when they try to figure out John Wood done that. I only hope +I 'll have the luck to be on that case--all hands on the jury whisper +together a minute, and then clear him, right on the spot, and then shake +hands with him all 'round!” + +“But something is worrying you,” she said. “What is it? You have looked +it since noon.” + +“Oh, nothin',” he replied--“only George Cahoon came up to-noon to say +that he was goin' West next week, and that he would have to have that +money he let me have awhile ago. And where to get it--I don't know.” + + + + +III. + +The court-room was packed. John Wood's trial was drawing to its close. +Eli was on the jury. Some one had advised the prosecuting attorney, in a +whisper, to challenge him, but he had shaken his head and said,-- + +“Oh, I could n't afford to challenge him for that; it would only leak +out, and set the jury against me. I 'll risk his standing out against +this evidence.” + +The trial had been short. It had been shown how the little building +of the bank had been entered. Skilled locksmiths from the city had +testified that the safe was opened with a key, and that the lock was +broken afterward, from the inside, plainly to raise the theory of a +forcible entry by strangers. + +It had been proved that the only key in existence, not counting that +kept by the president, was in the possession of Wood, who was filling, +for a few days, the place of the cashier--the president's brother--in +his absence. It had been shown that Wood was met, at one o'clock of +the night in question, crossing the fields toward his home, from +the direction of the bank, with a large wicker basket slung over his +shoulders, returning, as he had said, from eel-spearing in Harlow's +Creek; and there was other circumstantial evidence. + +Mr. Clark, the president of the bank, had won the sympathy of every one +by the modest way in which, with his eye-glasses in his hand, he had +testified to the particulars of the loss which had left him penniless, +and had ruined others whose little all was in his hands. And then in +reply to the formal question, he had testified, amid roars of laughter +from the court-room, that it was not he who robbed the safe. At this, +even the judge and Wood's lawyer had not restrained a smile. + +This had left the guilt with Wood. His lawyer, an inexperienced young +attorney,--who had done more or less business for the bank and would +hardly have ventured to defend this case but that the president had +kindly expressed his entire willingness that he should do so,--had, of +course, not thought it worth while to cross-examine Mr. Clark, and had +directed his whole argument against the theory that the safe had been +opened with a key, and not by strangers. But he had felt all through +that, as a man politely remarked to him when he finished, he was only +butting his “head ag'in a stone wall.” + +And while he was arguing, a jolly-looking old lawyer had written, in +the fly-leaf of a law-book on his knee, and had passed with a wink to a +young man near him who had that very morning been admitted to the bar, +these lines:-- + + “When callow Blackstones soar too high, + Quit common-sense, and reckless fly, + Soon, Icarus-like, they headlong fall, + And down come client, case, and all.” + +The district-attorney had not thought it worth while to expend much +strength upon his closing argument; but being a jovial stump-speaker, of +a wide reputation within narrow limits, he had not been able to refrain +from making merry over Wood's statement that the basket which he had +been seen bearing home, on the eventful night, was a basket of eels. + +“Fine eels those, gentlemen! We have seen gold-fish and silver-fish, but +golden eels are first discovered by this defendant The apostle, in Holy +Writ, caught a fish with a coin in its mouth; but this man leaves the +apostle in the dim distance when he finds eels that are all money. No +storied fisherman of Bagdad, catching enchanted princes disguised as +fishes in the sea, ever hooked such a treasure as this defendant hooked +when he hooked that basket of eels! [Rustling appreciation of the jest +among the jury.] If a squirming, twisting, winding, wriggling eel, +gentlemen, can be said at any given moment to have a back, we may +distinguish this new-found species as the greenback eel. It is a common +saying that no man can hold an eel and remain a Christian. I should like +to have viewed the pious equanimity of this good man when he laid his +hands on that whole bed of eels. In happy, barefoot boyhood, gentlemen, +we used to find mud-turtles marked with initials or devices cut in their +shells; but what must have been our friend's surprise to find, in the +muddy bed of Harlow's Creek, eels marked with a steel-engraving of the +landing of Columbus and the signature of the Register of the Treasury! I +hear that a corporation is now being formed by the title of The Harlow's +Creek Greenback National Bank-bill Eel-fishing Company, to follow up, +with seines and spears, our worthy friend's discovery! I learn that the +news of this rich placer has spread to the golden mountains of the West, +and that the exhausted intellects which have been reduced to such names +for their mines as 'The Tombstone,' 'The Red Dog,' the 'Mrs. E. J. +Parkhurst,' are likely now to flood us with prospectuses of the 'Eel +Mine,' 'The Flat Eel,' 'The Double Eel,' and then, when they get ready +to burst upon confiding friends, 'The Consolidated Eels.'” + +It takes but little to make a school or a court-room laugh, and the +speech had appeared to give a good deal of amusement to the listeners. + +To all? + +Did it amuse that man who sat, with folded arms, harsh and rigid, at +the dock? Did it divert that white-faced woman, cowering in a corner, +listening as in a dream? + +The judge now charged the jury briefly. It was unnecessary for him, +he said, to recapitulate evidence of so simple a character. The chief +question for the jury was as to the credibility of the witnesses. If the +witnesses for the prosecution were truthful and were not mistaken, the +inference of guilt seemed inevitable; this the defendant's counsel had +conceded. The defendant had proved a good reputation; upon that point +there was only this to be said: that, while such evidence was entitled +to weight, yet, on the other hand, crimes involving a breach of trust +could, from their very nature, be committed only by persons whose good +reputations secured them positions of trust. + +The jury-room had evidently not been furnished by a ring. It had a long +table for debate, twelve hard chairs for repose, twelve spittoons for +luxury, and a clock. + +The jury sat in silence for a few moments, as old Captain Nourse, who +had them in his keeping, and eyed them as if he was afraid that he might +lose one of them in a crack and be held accountable on his bond, rattled +away at the unruly lock. Looking at them then, you would have seen faces +all of a New England cast but one. There was a tall, powerful negro +called George Washington, a man well known in this county town, to which +he had come, as driftwood from the storm of war, in '65. Some of the +“boys” had heard him, in a great prayer-meeting in Washington--a city +which he always spoke of as his “namesake”--at the time of the great +review, say, in his strong voice, with that pathetic quaver in it: “Like +as de parched an' weary traveller hangs his harp upon de winder, an' +sighs for oysters in de desert, so I longs to res' my soul an' my +foot in Mass'-chusetts;” and they were so delighted with him that they +invited him on the spot to go home with them, and took up a collection +to pay his fare; and so he was a public character. As for his +occupation,--when the census-taker, with a wink to the boys in the +store, had asked him what it was, he had said, in that same odd tone: +“Putties up glass a little--whitewashes a little--” and, when the man +had made a show of writing all that down, “preaches a little.” He might +have said, “preaches a big,” for you could hear him half a mile away. + +The foreman was a retired sea-captain. “Good cap'n--Cap'n Thomas,” one +of his neighbors had said of him. “Allers gits good ships--never hez to +go huntin' 'round for a vessel. But it is astonishin' what differences +they is! Now there 's Cap'n A. K. P. Bassett, down to the West Harbor. +You let it git 'round that Cap'n A. K. P. is goin' off on a Chiny +voyage, and you 'll see half a dozen old shays to once-t, hitched all +along his fence of an arternoon, and wimmen inside the house, to git +Cap'n A. K. P. to take their boys. But you let Cap'n Thomas give out +that he wants boys, and he hez to glean 'em--from the poor-house, and +from step-mothers, and where he can: the women knows! Still,” he added, +“Cap'n Thomas 's a good cap'n. I've nothin' to say ag'in him. He's +smart!” + +“Gentlemen,” said the foreman, when the officer, at last, had securely +locked them in, “shall we go through the formality of a ballot? If the +case were a less serious one, we might have rendered a verdict in our +seats.” + +“What's the use foolin' 'round ballotin'?” said a thick-set butcher. +“Ain't we all o' one mind?” + +“It is for you to say, gentlemen,” said the foreman. “I should n't want +to have it go abroad that we had not acted formally, if there was any +one disposed to cavil.” + +“Mr. Speaker,” said George Washington, rising and standing in the +attitude of Webster, “I rises to appoint to order. We took ballast in de +prior cases, and why make flesh of one man an' a fowl of another?” + +“Very well,” said the foreman, a trifle sharply; “'the longest way round +is the shortest way home.'” + +Twelve slips of paper were handed out, to be indorsed guilty, +“for form.” They were collected in a hat and the foreman told them +over--“just for form.” “'Guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,'--wait a +minute,” he said, “here is a mistake. Here is one 'not guilty'--whose is +this?” + +There was a pause. + +“Whose is it?” said the foreman, sharply. + +Eli turned a little red. + +“It's mine,” he said. + +“Do you mean it?” said the foreman. + +“Of course I mean it,” he answered. + +“Whew!” whistled the foreman. “Very well, sir; we'll have an +understanding, then. This case is proved to the satisfaction of every +man who heard it, I may safely say, but one. Will that one please state +the grounds of his opinion?” + +“I ain't no talker,” said Eli, “but I ain't satisfied he 's +guilty--that's all.” + +“Don't you believe the witnesses?” + +“Mostly.” + +“Which one don't you believe?” + +“I can't say. I don't believe he's guilty.” + +“Is there one that you think lied?” + +No answer. + +“Now it seems to me--” said a third juryman. + +“One thing at a time, gentlemen,” said the foreman. “Let us wait for +an answer from Mr. Smith. Is there any one that you think lied? We will +wait, gentlemen, for an answer.” + +There was a long pause. The trial seemed to Eli Smith to have shifted +from the court to this shabby room, and he was now the culprit. + +All waited for him; all eyes were fixed upon him. + +The clock ticked loud! Eli counted the seconds. He knew the +determination of the foreman. + +The silence became intense. + +“I want to say my say,” said a short man in a pea-jacket,--a retired +San Francisco pilot, named Eldridge. “I entertain no doubt the man is +guilty. At the same time, I allow for differences of opinion. I +don't know this man that's voted 'not guilty,' but he seems to be a +well-meaning man. I don't know his reasons; probably he don't understand +the case. I should like to have the foreman tell the evidence over, so +as if he don't see it clear, he can ask questions, and we can explain.” + +“I second de motion,” said George Washington. + +There was a general rustle of approval. + +“I move it,” said the pilot, encouraged. + +“Very well, Mr. Eldridge,” said the foreman. “If there is no objection, +I will state the evidence, and if there is any loop-hole, I will trouble +Mr. Smith to suggest it as I go along;” and he proceeded to give a +summary of the testimony, with homely force. + +“Now, sir?” he said, when he had finished. + +“I move for another ballot,” said Mr. Eldridge. + +The result was the same. Eli had voted “not guilty.” + +“Mr. Smith,” said the foreman, “this must be settled in some way. This +is no child's play. You can't keep eleven men here, trifling with them, +giving no pretence of a reason.” + +“I have n't no reasons, only that I don't believe he 's guilty,” said +Eli. “I 'm not goin' to vote a man into State's-prison, when I don't +believe he done it,” and he rose and walked to the window and looked +out. It was low tide. There was a broad stretch of mud in the distance, +covered with boats lying over disconsolate. A driving storm had emptied +the streets. He beat upon the rain-dashed glass a moment with his +fingers, and then he sat down again. + +“Well, sir,” said the foreman, “this is singular conduct. What do you +propose to do?” + +Silence. + +“I suppose you realize that the rest of us are pretty rapidly forming a +conclusion on this matter,” said the foreman. + +“Come! come!” said Mr. Eldridge; “don't be quite so hard on him, +Captain. Now, Mr. Smith,” he said, standing up with his hands in his +coat-pockets and looking at Eli, “we know that there often is crooked +sticks on juries, that hold out alone--that's to be expected; but they +always argue, and stand to it the rest are fools, and all that. Now, +all is, we don't see why you don't sort of argue, if you 've got reasons +satisfactory to you. Come, now,” he added, walking up to Eli, and +resting one foot on the seat of his chair, “why don't you tell it over? +and if we 're wrong, I 'm ready to join you.” + +Eli looked up at him. + +“Did n't you ever know,” he said, “of a man's takin' a cat off, to lose, +that his little girl did n't want drownded, and leavin' him ashore, +twenty or thirty miles, bee-line, from home, and that cat's bein' back +again the next day, purrin' 'round 's if nothin' had happened?” + +“Yes,” said Mr. Eldridge--“knew of just such a case.” + +“Very well,” said Eli; “how does he find his way home?” + +“Don't know,” said Mr. Eldridge; “always has been a standing mystery to +me.” + +“Well,” said Eli, “mark my words. There's such a thing as arguin', and +there 's such a thing as knowin' outright; and when you 'll tell me +how that cat inquires his way home, I '11 tell you how I know John Wood +ain't guilty.” + +This made a certain sensation, and Eli's stock went up. + +An old, withered man rapped on the table. + +“That's so!” he said; “and there's other sing'lar things! How is it that +a seafarin' man, that 's dyin' to home, will allers die on the ebbtide? +It never fails, but how does it happen? Tell me that! And there's more +ways than one of knowin' things, too!” + +“I know that man ain't guilty,” said Eli. + +“Hark ye!” said a dark old man with a troubled face, rising and pointing +his finger toward Eli. “_Know_, you say? I _knew_, wunst. I _knew_ that +my girl, my only child, was good. One night she went off with a married +man that worked in my store, and stole my money--and where is she now?” + And then he added, “What I _know_ is, that every man hes his price. I +hev mine, and you hev yourn!” + +“'Xcuse me, Mr. Speaker,” said George Washington, rising with his hand +in his bosom; “as de question is befo' us, I wish to say that de las' +bro' mus' have spoken under 'xcitement. Every man _don_' have his price! +An' I hope de bro' will recant--like as de Psalmist goes out o' his way +to say '_In my haste_ I said, All men are liars.' He was a very +busy man, de Psalmist--writin' down hymns all day, sharpen'n' his +lead-pencil, bossin' 'roun' de choir--callin' Selah! Well, bro'n an' +sisters “--both arms going out, and his voice going up--” one day, +seems like, he was in gre't haste--got to finish a psalm for a monthly +concert, or such--and some man in-corrupted him, and lied; and bein' in +gre't haste--and a little old Adam in him--he says, right off, quick: +'_All_ men are liars!' But see! When he gits a little time to set back +and meditate, he says: 'Dis won' do--dere's Moses an' Job, an' Paul--dey +ain't liars!' An' den he don' sneak out, and 'low he said, 'All men is +lions,' or such. No! de Psalmist ain't no such man; but he owns up, 'an +'xplains. '_In my haste_,' he says, 'I said it.'” + +The foreman rose and rapped. + +“I await a motion,” said he, “if our friend will allow me the privilege +of speaking.” + +Mr. Washington calmly bowed. + +Then the foreman, when nobody seemed disposed to move, speaking slowly +at first, and piecemeal, alternating language with smoke, gradually +edged into the current of the evidence, and ended by going all over it +again, with fresh force and point. His cigar glowed and chilled in the +darkening room as he talked. + +“Now,” he said, when he had drawn all the threads together to the point +of guilt, “what are we going to do upon this evidence?” + +“I 'll tell you something,” said Eli. “I did n't want to say it because +I know what you 'll all think, but I 'll tell you, all the same.” + +“Ah!” said the foreman. + +Eli stood up and faced the others. + +“'Most all o' you know what our Bar is in a southeast gale. They ain't a +man here that would dare to try and cross it when the sea's breakin' on +it. The man that says he would, lies!” And he looked at the foreman, and +waited a moment. + +“When my wife took sick, and I stopped goin' to sea, two year ago, and +took up boat-fishin', I did n't know half as much about the coast as the +young boys do, and one afternoon it was blowin' a gale, and we was all +hands comin' in, and passin' along the Bar to go sheer 'round it to the +west'ard, and Captain Fred Cook--he's short-sighted--got on to the Bar +before he knew it, and then he hed to go ahead, whether or no; and I was +right after him, and I s'posed he knew, and I followed him. Well, he was +floated over, as luck was, all right; but when I 'd just got on the Bar, +a roller dropped back and let my bowsprit down into the sand, and then +come up quicker'n lightnin' and shouldered the boat over, t' other end +first, and slung me into the water; and when I come up, I see somethin' +black, and there was John Wood's boat runnin' by me before the wind with +a rush--and 'fore I knew an'thing, he had me by the hair by one hand, +and in his boat, and we was over the Bar. Now, I tell you, a man that +looks the way I saw him look when I come over the gunwale, face up, +don't go 'round breakin' in and hookin' things. He hed n't one chance +in five, and he was a married man, too, with small children. And what's +more,” he added incautiously, “he did n't stop there. When he found out, +this last spring, that I was goin' to lose my place, he lent me money +enough to pay the interest that was overdue on the mortgage, of his own +accord.” + +And he stopped suddenly. + +“You have certainly explained yourself,” said the foreman. “I think we +understand you distinctly.” + +“There is n't one word of truth in that idea,” said Eli, flushing up, +“and you know it. I 've paid him back every cent. I know him better 'n +any of you, that's all, and when I know he ain't guilty, I won't say he +is; and I can set here as long as any other man.” + +“Lively times some folks 'll hev, when they go home,” said a spare +tin-pedler, stroking his long yellow goatee. “Go into the store: nobody +speak to you; go to cattle-show: everybody follow you 'round; go to the +wharf: nobody weigh your fish; go to buy seed-cakes to the cart: baker +won't give no tick.” + +“How much does it cost, Mr. Foreman,” said the butcher, “for a man 't +'s obliged to leave town, to move a family out West? I only ask for +information. I have known a case where a man had to leave--could n't +live there no longer--wa' n't wanted.” + +There was a knock. An officer, sent by the judge, inquired whether the +jury were likely soon to agree. + +“It rests with you, sir,” said the foreman, looking at Eli. + +But Eli sat doggedly with his hands in his pockets, and did not look up +or speak. + +“Say to the judge that I cannot tell,” said the foreman. + +It was eight o'clock when the officer returned, with orders to take the +jury across the street to the hotel, to supper. They went out in pairs, +except that the juryman who was left to fall in with Eli made three +with the file ahead, and left Eli to walk alone. This was noticed by the +bystanders. At the hotel, Eli could not eat a mouthful. He was seated +at one end of the table, and was left entirely out of the conversation. +When the jury were escorted back to the courthouse, rumors had evidently +begun to arise from his having walked alone, for there was quite a +little crowd at the hotel door, to see them. They went as before: four +pairs, a file of three, and Eli alone. Then the spectators understood +it. + +When the jury were locked into their room again for the night, Mr. +Eldridge sat down by Eli and lit his pipe. + +“I understand,” he said, “just how you feel. Now, between you and me, +there was a good-hearted fellow that kept me out of a bad mess once. I +'ve never told anybody just what it was, and I don't mean to tell you +now, but it brought my blood up standing, to find how near I 'd come to +putting a fine steamer and two hundred and forty passengers under water. +Well, one day, a year or so after that, this man had a chance to get a +good ship, only there was some talk against him, that he drank a little. +Well, the owners told him they wanted to see me, and he come to me, and +says he, 'Mr. Eldridge, I hope you 'll speak a good word for me; if +you do, I 'll get the ship, but if they refuse me this one, I 'm dished +everywhere.' Well, the owners put me the square question, and I had to +tell 'em. Well, I met him that afternoon on Sacramento Street, as white +as a sheet, and he would n't speak to me, but passed right by, and that +night he went and shipped before the mast. That's the last I ever heard +of him; but I had to do it. Now,” he added, “this man 's been good to +you; but the case is proved, and you ought to vote with the rest of us.” + +“It ain't proved,” said Eli. “The judge said that if any man had a +reasonable doubt, he ought to hold out. Now, I ain't convinced.” + +“Well, that 's easy said,” replied Mr. Eldridge, a little hotly, and he +arose, and left him. + +The jurymen broke up into little knots, tilted their chairs back, and +settled into the easiest positions that their cramped quarters allowed. +Most of them lit their pipes; the captain, and one or two whom he +honored, smoked fragrant cigars, and the room was soon filled with a +dense cloud. + +Eli sat alone by the window. + +“Sometimes sell two at one house,” said a lank book-agent, arousing +himself from a reverie; “once sold three.” + +“I think the Early Rose is about as profitable as any,” said a little +farmer, with a large circular beard. “I used to favor Jacobs's Seedling, +but they have n't done so well with me of late years.” + +“Sometimes,” said the book-agent, picking his teeth with a quill, “you +'ll go to a house, and they 'll say they can't be induced to buy a book +of any kind, historical, fictitious, or religious; but you just keep on +talking, and show the pictures--'Grant in Boyhood,' 'Grant a Tanner,' +Grant at Head-quarters,' 'Grant in the White House,' 'Grant before Queen +Victoria,' and they warm up, I tell you, and not infrequently buy.” + +“Do you sell de 'Illustrated Bible',” asked Washington, “wid de +Hypocrypha?” + +“No; I have a more popular treatise--the 'Illustrated History of the +Bible.' Greater variety. Brings in the surrounding nations, in costume. +Cloth, three dollars; sheep, three-fifty; half calf, five-seventy-five; +full morocco, gilt edges, seven-fifty. Six hundred and seven +illustrations on wood and steel. Three different engravings of Abraham +alone. Four of Noah,--'Noah before the Flood,' 'Noah Building the +Ark,' 'Noah Welcoming the Dove,' 'Noah on Ararat,' Steel engraving of +Ezekiel's Wheel, explaining prophecy. Jonah under the gourd, Nineveh in +the distance.” + +Mr. Eldridge and Captain Thomas had drifted into a discussion of +harbors, and the captain had drawn his chair up to the table, and, with +a cigar in his mouth, was explaining an ingeniously constructed foreign +harbor. He was making a rough sketch, with a pen. + +“Here is north,” he said; “here is the coastline; here are the flats; +here are the sluicegates; they store the water here, in--” + +Some of the younger men had their heads together, in a corner, about +the tin-pedler, who was telling stories of people he had met in his +journeys, which brought out repeated bursts of laughter. + +In the corner farthest from Eli, a delicate-looking man began to tell +the butcher about Eli's wife. + +“Twelve years ago this fall,” he said, “I taught district-school in the +parish where she lived. She was about fourteen then. Her father was +a poor farmer, without any faculty. Her mother was dead, and she kept +house. I stayed there one week, boarding 'round.” + +“Prob'ly did n't git not much of any fresh meat that week,” suggested +the butcher. + +“She never said much, but it used to divert me to see her order around +her big brothers, just as if she was their mother. She and I got to be +great friends; but she was a queer piece. One day at school the girls in +her row were communicating, and annoying me, while the third class +was reciting in 'First Steps in Numbers,' and I was so incensed that +I called Lizzie--that's her name--right out, and had her stand up for +twenty minutes. She was a shy little thing, and set great store by +perfect marks. I saw that she was troubled a good deal, to have all of +them looking and laughing at her. But she stood there, with her hands +folded behind her, and not a smile or a word.” + +“Look out for a sullen cow,” said the butcher. + +“I felt afraid I had been too hasty with her, and I was rather sorry I +had been so decided--although, to be sure, she did n't pretend to deny +that she had been communicating.” + +“Of course,” said the butcher: “no use lyin' when you 're caught in the +act.” + +“Well, after school, she stayed at her desk, fixing her dinner-pail, and +putting her books in a strap, and all that, till all the rest had gone, +and then she came up to my desk, where I was correcting compositions.” + +“Now for music!” said the butcher. + +“She had been crying a little. Well, she looked straight in my face, and +said she, 'Mr. Pollard, I just wanted to say to you that I was n't doing +anything at all when you called me up;' and off she went. Now, that was +just like her,--too proud to say a word before the school.” + +But here his listener's attention was diverted by the voice of the +book-agent. + +“The very best Bible for teachers, of course, is the limp-cover, +protected edges, full Levant morocco, Oxford, silk-sewed, kid-lined, +Bishop's Divinity Circuit, with concordance, maps of the Holy Land, +weights, measures, and money-tables of the Jews. Nothing like having a +really--” + +“And so,” said the captain, moving back his chair, “they let on the +whole head of water, and scour out the channel to a T.” + +And then he rapped upon the table. + +“Gentlemen,” he said, “please draw your chairs up, and let us take +another ballot.” + +The count resulted as before. + +The foreman muttered something which had a scriptural sound. In a few +moments he drew Mr. Eldridge and two others aside. “Gentlemen,” he +said to them, “I shall quietly divide the jury into watches, under your +charge: ten can sleep, while one wakes to keep Mr. Smith discussing the +question. I don't propose to have the night wasted.” + +And, by one man or another, Eli was kept awake. + +“I don't see,” said the book-agent, “why you should feel obliged to +stick it out any longer. Of course, you are under obligations. But you +'ve done more than enough already, so as that he can't complain of you, +and if you give in now, everybody 'll give you credit for trying to save +your friend, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, for giving in to +the evidence. So you 'll get credit both ways.” + +An hour later, the tin-pedler came on duty. He had not followed closely +the story about John Wood's loan, and had got it a little awry. + +“Now, how foolish you be,” he said, in a confidential tone. “Can't +you see that if you cave in now, after stan'n' out nine hours”--and +he looked at a silver watch with a brass chain, and stroked his +goatee--“nine hours and twenty-seven minutes--that you 've made jest +rumpus enough so as't he won't dare to foreclose on you, for fear they +'ll say you went back on a trade. On t' other hand, if you hold clear +out, he'll turn you out-o'-doors to-morrow, for a blind, so 's to look +as if there wa' n't no trade between you. Once he gits off, he won't +know Joseph, you bet! That's what I 'd do,” he added, with a sly laugh. +“Take your uncle's advice.” + +“The only trouble with that,” said Eli, shortly, “is that I don't owe +him anything.” + +“Oh,” said the pedler; “that makes a difference. I understood you did.” + +Three o'clock came, and brought Mr. El-dridge. He found Eli worn out +with excitement. + +“Now, I don't judge you the way the others do,” said Mr. Eldridge, in a +low tone, with his hand on Eli's knee. “I know, as I told you, just the +way you feel. But we can't help such things. Suppose, now, that I had +kept dark, and allowed to the owners that that man was always sober, +and I had heard, six months after, of thirty or forty men going to the +bottom because the captain was a little off his base; and then to think +of their wives and children at home. We have to do some hard things; but +I say, do the square thing, and let her slide.” + +“But I can't believe he 's guilty,” said Eli. + +“But don't you allow,” said Mr. Eldridge, “that eleven men are more sure +to hit it right than one man?” + +“Yes,” said Eli, reluctantly, “as a general thing.” + +“Well, there's always got to be some give to a jury, just as in +everything else, and you ought to lay right down on the rest of us. It +is n't as if we were at all squirmish. Now, you know that if you hold +out, he 'll be tried again.” + +“Yes, I suppose so.” + +“Got to be--no other way,” said Mr. Eldridge. “Now, the next time, there +won't be anybody like you to stand out, and the judge 'll know of this +scrape, and he'll just sock it to him.” + +Eli turned uneasily in his chair. + +“And then it won't be understood in your place, and folks 'll turn +against you every way, and, what's worse, let you alone.” + +“I can stand it,” said Eli, angrily. “Let 'em do as they like. They +can't kill me.” + +“They can kill your wife and break down your children,” said Mr. +Eldridge. “Women and children can't stand it. Now, there's that man they +were speaking of; he lived down my way. He sued a poor, shiftless fellow +that had come from Pennsylvania to his daughter's funeral, and had him +arrested and taken off, crying, just before the funeral begun--after +they 'd even set the flowers on the coffin; and nobody'd speak to him +after that--they just let him alone; and after a while his wife took +sick of it--she was a nice, kindly woman--and she had sort of hysterics, +and finally he moved off West. And 't was n't long before the woman +died. Now, you can't undertake to do different from everybody else.” + +“Well,” said Eli, “I know I wish it was done with.” + +Mr. Eldridge stretched his arms and yawned. Then he began to walk up and +down, and hum, out of tune. Then he stopped at Captain Thomas's chair. + +“Suppose we try a ballot,” he said. “He seems to give a little.” + +In a moment the foreman rapped. + +“It is time we were taking another ballot, gentlemen,” he said. + +The sleepers rose, grumbling, from uneasy dreams. + +“I will write 'guilty' on twelve ballots,” said the foreman, “and if any +one desires to write in 'not,' of course he can.” + +When the hat came to Eli, he took one of the ballots and held it in his +hand a moment, and then he laid it on the table. There was a general +murmur. The picture which Mr. El-dridge had drawn loomed up before him. +But with a hasty hand he wrote in “not,” dropped in the ballot, and +going back to his chair by the window, sat down. + +There was a cold wave of silence. + +Then Eli suddenly walked up to the foreman and faced him. + +“Now,” he said, “we 'll stop. The very next turn breaks ground. If you, +or any other man that you set on, tries to talk to me when I don't want +to hear, to worry me to death--look out!” + +How the long hours wore on! How easy, sometimes, to resist an open +pressure, and how hard, with the resistance gone, to fight, as one that +beats the air! How the prospect of a whole hostile town loomed up, in +a mirage, before Eli! And then the picture rose before him of a long, +stately bark, now building, whose owner had asked him yesterday to be +first mate. And if his wife were only well, and he were only free from +this night's trouble, how soon, upon the long, green waves, he could +begin to redeem his little home! + +And then came Mr. Eldridge, kind and friendly, to have another little +chat. + +Morning came, cold and drizzly. An officer knocked at the door, and +called out, “Breakfast!” And in a moment, unwashed, and all uncombed, +except the tin-pedler, who always carried a beard-comb in his pocket, +they were marched across the street to the hotel. + +There were a number of men on the piazza waiting to see them,--jurymen, +witnesses, and the accused himself, for he was on bail. He had seen the +procession the night before, and, like the others, had read its meaning. + +“Eli knows I would n't do it,” he had said to himself, “and he's going +to hang out, sure.” + +The jury began to turn from the court-house door. Everybody looked. A +file of two men, another file, another, another; would there come three +men, and then one? No; Eli no longer walked alone. + +Everybody looked at Wood; he turned sharply away. + +But this time the order of march in fact showed nothing, one way or the +other. It only meant that the judge, who had happened to see the jury +the night before returning from their supper, had sent for the high +sheriff in some temper,--for judges are human,--and had vigorously +intimated that if that statesman did not look after his fool of a +deputy, who let a jury parade secrets to the public view, he would! + +The jury were in their room again. At nine o'clock came a rap, and a +summons from the court. The prosecuting attorney was speaking with the +judge when they went in. In a moment he took his seat. + +“John Wood!” called out the clerk, and the defendant arose. His attorney +was not there. + +“Mr. Foreman!” said the judge, rising. The jury arose. The silence of +the crowded courtroom was intense. + +“Before the clerk asks you for a verdict, gentlemen,” said the judge, “I +have something of the first importance to say to you, which has but this +moment come to my knowledge.” + +Eli changed color, and the whole court-room looked at him. + +“There were some most singular rumors, after the case was given to you, +gentlemen, to the effect that there had been in this cause a criminal +abuse of justice. It is painful to suspect, and shocking to know, +that courts and juries are liable ever to suffer by such unprincipled +practices. After ten years upon the bench, I never witness a conviction +of crime without pain; but that pain is light, compared with the +distress of knowing of a wilful perversion of justice. It is a relief +to me to be able to say to you that such instances are, in my judgment, +exceedingly rare, and--so keen is the awful searching power of +truth--are almost invariably discovered.” + +The foreman touched his neighbor with his elbow. Eli folded his arms. + +“As I said,” continued the judge, “there were most singular rumors. +During the evening and the night, rumor, as is often the case, led to +evidence, and evidence has led to confession and to certainty. And the +district attorney now desires me to say to you that the chief officer of +the bank--who held the second key to the safe--is now under arrest for a +heavy defalcation, which a sham robbery was to conceal, and that you may +find the prisoner at the bar--not guilty. I congratulate you, gentlemen, +that you had not rendered an adverse verdict.” + +“Your Honor!” said Eli, and he cleared his throat, “I desire it to be +known that, even as the case stood last night, this jury had not agreed +to convict, and never would have!” + +There was a hush, while a loud scratching pen indorsed the record of +acquittal. Then Wood walked down to the jury-box and took Eli's hand. + +“Just what I told my wife all through,” he said. “I knew you 'd hang +out!” + +Eli's jury was excused for the rest the of day, and by noon he was in +his own village, relieved, too, of his most pressing burden: for George +Cahoon had met him on the road, and told him that he was not going to +the West, after all, for the present, and should not need his money. +But, as he turned the bend of the road and neared his house, he felt a +rising fear that some disturbing rumor might have reached his wife about +his action on the jury. And, to his distress and amazement, there she +was, sitting in a chair at the door. + +“Lizzie!” he said, “what does this mean? Are you crazy?” + +“I'll tell you what it means,” she said, as she stood up with a little +smile and clasped her hands behind her. “This morning it got around and +came to me that you was standing out all alone for John Wood, and that +the talk was that they 'd be down on you, and drive you out of town, +and that everybody pitied _me_,--_pitied me!_ And when I heard that, +I thought I 'd see! And my strength seemed to come all back, and I got +right up and dressed myself. And what's more, I 'm going to get well +now!” + +And she did. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eli, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI *** + +***** This file should be named 23005-0.txt or 23005-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23005/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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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: Eli + First published in the "Century Magazine" + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23005] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + ELI + </h1> + <h2> + By Heman White Chaplin <br /> <br />1887 <br /> <br /> First published in the + “Century Magazine.” <br /> <br /> + </h2> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III. </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. + </h2> + <p> + Under a boat, high and dry at low tide, on the beach, John Wood was seated + in the sand, sheltered from the sun in the boat's shadow, absorbed in the + laying on of verdigris. The dull, worn color was rapidly giving place to a + brilliant, shining green. Occasionally a scraper, which lay by, was taken + up to remove the last trace of a barnacle. + </p> + <p> + It was Wood's boat, but he was not a boatman; he painted cleverly, but he + was not a painter. He kept the brown store under the elms of the main + street, now hot and still, where at this-moment his blushing sister was + captivating the heart of an awkward farmer's boy as she sold him a pair of + striped suspenders. + </p> + <p> + As the church clock struck the last of twelve decided blows, three + children came rushing out of the house on the bank above the beach. It was + one of those deceptive New England cottages, weather-worn without, but + bright and bountifully home-like within,—with its trim parlor, proud + of a cabinet organ; with its front hall, now cooled by the light + sea-breeze drifting through the blind-door, where a tall clock issued its + monotonous call to a siesta on the rattan lounge; with its spare room, + open now, opposite the parlor, and now, too, drawing in the salt air + through close-shut blinds, in anticipation of the joyful arrival this + evening of Sister Sarah, with her little brood, from the city. + </p> + <p> + The children scampered across the road, and then the eldest hushed the + others and sent a little brother ahead to steal, barefoot, along the + shining sea-weed to his father. + </p> + <p> + The plotted surprise appeared to succeed completely. The painter was + seized by the ears from behind, and captured. + </p> + <p> + “Guess who 's here, or you can't get up,” said the infant captor. + </p> + <p> + “It 's Napoleon Bonaparte; don't joggle,” said his father, running a brush + steadily along the water-line. + </p> + <p> + “No! no! no!” with shouts of laughter from the whole attacking party. + </p> + <p> + “Then it's Captain Ezekiel.” + </p> + <p> + This excited great merriment: Captain Ezekiel was an aged, purblind man, + who leaned on a cane. + </p> + <p> + After attempts to identify the invader—with the tax-collector come + for taxes, then with the elderly minister making a pastoral call, with the + formal schoolmaster, and with Samuel J. Tilden—the victim reached + over his shoulder, and, seizing the assailant by a handful of calico + jacket, brought him around, squirming, before him. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” he said, “I 'll give you a coat of verdigris. (Great applause from + the reserve force behind.) + </p> + <p> + “I suppose Mother sent you to say dinner's ready,” said the father, rising + and surveying the green bottom of the boat. “I must eat quick, so as to do + the other side before half-flood.” + </p> + <p> + And with a child on each shoulder, and the third pushing him from behind + with her head, he marched toward the vine-covered kitchen, where, between + two opposite netted doors, the table was trimly set. + </p> + <p> + “Father, you look like a mermaid, with your green hands,” said his wife, + laughing, as she handed him the spirits of turpentine. “A woman could + paint that boat, in a light dress, and not get a spot on her.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled good-naturedly: he never spoke much. + </p> + <p> + “I guess Louise won't have much trade today,” said his wife, as they all + sat down; “it's so hot in the sun that everybody 'll wait till night. But + she has her tatting-work to do, and she 's got a book, too, that she + wanted to finish.” + </p> + <p> + Her husband nodded, and ate away. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, can't we go up street and see her, this afternoon?” said one of the + children. + </p> + <p> + “Who can that be?” said the mother, as an elderly, half-official-looking + man stopped his horse at the front gate and alighted. The man left the + horse unchecked to browse by the roadside, and came to the door. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it 's you, Captain Nourse,” said Wood, rising to open the netting + door, and holding out his hand. “Come to summons me as a witness in + something about the bank case, I suppose. Let me introduce Captain Nourse, + Mary,” he said, “deputy sheriff. Sit down, Captain, and have some dinner + with us.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I guess I won't set,” said the captain. “I cal'lated not to eat till + I got home, in the middle o' the afternoon. No, I 'll set down in eye-shot + of the mare, and read the paper while you eat.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope they don't want me to testify anywhere to-day,” said Wood; + “because my boat's half verdigris'd, and I want to finish her this + afternoon.” + </p> + <p> + “No testimony to-day,” said the captain. “Hi! hi! Kitty!” he called to the + mare, as she began to meander across the road; and he went out to a tree + by the front fence, and sat down on a green bench, beside a work-basket + and a half-finished child's dress, and read the country paper which he had + taken from the office as he came along. + </p> + <p> + After dinner Wood went out bareheaded, and leaned on the fence by the + captain. His wife stood just inside the door, looking out at them. + </p> + <p> + The “bank case” was the great sensation of the town, and Wood was one of + the main witnesses, for he had been taking the place of the absent cashier + when the safe was broken open and rifled to the widespread distress of + depositors and stockholders, and the ruin of Hon. Edward Clark, the + president. Wood had locked the safe on the afternoon before the eventful + night, and had carried home the key with him, and he was to testify to the + contents of the safe as he had left it. + </p> + <p> + “I guess they 're glad they 've got such a witness as John,” said his wife + to herself, as she looked at him fondly, “and I guess they think there + won't be much doubt about what he says.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, Captain,” said Wood, jocosely, breaking a spear of grass to bits in + his fingers, “I did n't know but you 'd come to arrest me.” + </p> + <p> + The captain calmly smiled as only a man can smile who has been accosted + with the same humorous remark a dozen times a day for twenty years. He + folded his paper carefully, put it in his pocket, took off his spectacles + and put them in their silver case, took a red silk handkerchief from his + hat, wiped his face, and put the handkerchief back. Then he said shortly,— + </p> + <p> + “That's what I <i>have</i> come for.” + </p> + <p> + Wood, still leaning on the fence, looked at him, and said nothing. + </p> + <p> + “That's just what I 've come for,” said Captain Nourse. “I 've got to + arrest you; here's the warrant.” And he handed it to him. + </p> + <p> + “What does this mean?” said Wood. “I can't make head or tail of this.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the captain, “the long and short is, these high-toned + detectives that they 've hed down from town, seein' as our own force was + n't good enough, allow that the safe was unlocked with a key, in due form, + and then the lock was broke afterward, to look as if it had been forced + open. They 've hed the foreman of the safe-men down, too, and he says the + same thing. Naturally, the argument is, there was only two keys in + existence,—one was safe with the president of the bank, and is about + all he 's got to show out of forty years' savings; the only other one you + hed: consequently, it heaves it onto you.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said Wood. “I will go with you. Do you want to come into the + house with me while I get my coat?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I suppose I must keep you in sight,—now you know.” + </p> + <p> + And they went into the house. + </p> + <p> + “Mary,” said her husband, “the folks that lost by Clark when the bank + broke have been at him until he 's felt obliged to pitch on somebody, and + he's pitched on me; and Captain Nourse has come to arrest me. I shall get + bail before long.” + </p> + <p> + She said nothing, and did not shed a tear till he was gone. + </p> + <p> + But then— + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. + </h2> + <p> + Wide wastes of salt-marsh to the right, imprisoning the upland with a vain + promise of infinite liberty, and, between low, distant sandhills, a rim of + sea. Stretches of pine woods behind, shutting in from the great outer + world, and soon to darken into evening gloom. Ploughed fields and + elm-dotted pastures to the left, and birch-lined roads leading by white + farm-houses to the village, all speaking of cheer and freedom to the + prosperous and the happy, but to the unfortunate and the indebted, of + meshes invisible but strong as steel. But, before, no lonesome marshes, no + desolate forest, no farm or village street, but the free blue ocean, + rolling and tumbling still from the force of an expended gale. + </p> + <p> + In the open doorway of a little cottage, warmed by the soft slanting rays + of the September sun, a rough man, burnt and freckled, was sitting, at his + feet a net, engaged upon some handiwork which two little girls were + watching. Close by him lay a setter, his nose between his paws. + Occasionally the man raised his eyes to scan the sea. + </p> + <p> + “There's Joel,” he said, “comin' in around the Bar. Not much air stirrin' + now!” + </p> + <p> + Then he turned to his work again. + </p> + <p> + “First, you go <i>so</i> fash',” he said to the children, as he drew a + thread; “then you go <i>so</i> fash'.” + </p> + <p> + And as he worked he made a great show of labor, much to their diversion. + </p> + <p> + But the sight of Joel's broad white sail had not brought pleasant thoughts + to his mind; for Joel had hailed him, off the Shoal, the afternoon before, + and had obligingly offered to buy his fish right there, and so let him go + directly home, omitting to mention that sudden jump of price due to an + empty market. + </p> + <p> + “Wonder what poor man he 's took a dollar out of to-day! Well, I s'pose + it's all right: those that 's got money, want money.” + </p> + <p> + “What be you, Eli—ganging on hooks?” said Aunt Patience, as she + tiptoed into the kitchen behind him, from his wife's sick-room, and softly + closed the door after her. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the elder of the children; “he 's mending our stockings, and + showing me how.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you do have a hard time, don't you?” said Aunt Patience, looking + down over his shoulder; “to slave and tug and scrape to get a house over + your head, and then to have to turn square 'round, and stay to home with a + sick woman, and eat all into it with mortgages!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, well,” he said, “we 'll fetch, somehow.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Patience went to the glass, and holding a black pin in her mouth, + carefully tied the strings of her sun-bonnet. + </p> + <p> + “Anyway,” she says, “you take it good-natured. Though if there is one + thing that's harder than another, it is to be good-natured all the time, + without being aggravating. I have known men that was so awfully + good-natured that they was harder to live with than if they was cross!” + </p> + <p> + And without specifying further, she opened her plaid parasol and stepped + out at the porch. + </p> + <p> + Though, on this quiet afternoon of Saturday, the peace of the approaching + Sabbath seemed already brooding over the little dwelling, peace had not + lent her hand to the building of the home. Every foot of land, every + shingle, every nail, had been wrung from the reluctant sea. Every voyage + had contributed something. It was a great day when Eli was able to buy the + land. Then, between two voyages, he dug a cellar and laid a foundation; + then he saved enough to build the main part of the cottage and to finish + the front room, lending his own hand to the work. Then he used to get + letters at every port, telling of progress,—how Lizzie, his wife, + had adorned the front room with a bright ninepenny paper, of which a + little piece was enclosed,—which he kept as a sort of charm about + him and exhibited to his friends; how she and her little brother had + lathed the entry and the kitchen, and how they had set out blackberry + vines from the woods. Then another letter told of a surprise awaiting him + on his return; and, in due time, coming home as third mate from Hong-Kong + to a seaman's tumultuous welcome, he had found that a great, good-natured + mason, with whose sick child his wife had watched night after night, had + appeared one day with lime and hair and sand, and in white raiment, and + had plastered the entry and the kitchen, and finished a room upstairs. + </p> + <p> + And so, for years, at home and on the sea, at New York and at Valparaiso + and in the Straits of Malacca, the little house and the little family + within it had grown into the fibre of Eli's heart. Nothing had given him + more delight than to meet, in the strange streets of Calcutta or before + the Mosque of Omar, some practical Yankee from Stonington or Machias, and, + whittling to discuss with him, among the turbans of the Orient, the + comparative value of shaved and of sawed shingles, or the economy of + “Swedes-iron” nails, and to go over with him the estimates and plans which + he had worked out in his head under all the constellations of the skies. + </p> + <p> + The supper things were cleared away. The children had said good-night and + gone to bed, and Eli had been sitting for an hour by his wife's bedside. + He had had to tax his patience and ingenuity heavily during the long + months that she had lain there to entertain her for a little while in the + evening, after his hard, wet day's work. He had been talking now of the + coming week, when he was to serve upon the jury in the adjoining + county-town. + </p> + <p> + “I cal'late I can come home about every night,” he said, “and it 'll be + quite a change, at any rate.” + </p> + <p> + “But you don't seem so cheerful about it as I counted you would be,” said + his wife. “Are you afraid you'll have to be on the bank case?” + </p> + <p> + “Not much!” he answered. “No trouble 'n that case! Jury won't leave their + seats. These city fellers 'll find they 've bit off more 'n they can chew + when they try to figure out John Wood done that. I only hope I 'll have + the luck to be on that case—all hands on the jury whisper together a + minute, and then clear him, right on the spot, and then shake hands with + him all 'round!” + </p> + <p> + “But something is worrying you,” she said. “What is it? You have looked it + since noon.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, nothin',” he replied—“only George Cahoon came up to-noon to say + that he was goin' West next week, and that he would have to have that + money he let me have awhile ago. And where to get it—I don't know.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. + </h2> + <p> + The court-room was packed. John Wood's trial was drawing to its close. Eli + was on the jury. Some one had advised the prosecuting attorney, in a + whisper, to challenge him, but he had shaken his head and said,— + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I could n't afford to challenge him for that; it would only leak out, + and set the jury against me. I 'll risk his standing out against this + evidence.” + </p> + <p> + The trial had been short. It had been shown how the little building of the + bank had been entered. Skilled locksmiths from the city had testified that + the safe was opened with a key, and that the lock was broken afterward, + from the inside, plainly to raise the theory of a forcible entry by + strangers. + </p> + <p> + It had been proved that the only key in existence, not counting that kept + by the president, was in the possession of Wood, who was filling, for a + few days, the place of the cashier—the president's brother—in + his absence. It had been shown that Wood was met, at one o'clock of the + night in question, crossing the fields toward his home, from the direction + of the bank, with a large wicker basket slung over his shoulders, + returning, as he had said, from eel-spearing in Harlow's Creek; and there + was other circumstantial evidence. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Clark, the president of the bank, had won the sympathy of every one by + the modest way in which, with his eye-glasses in his hand, he had + testified to the particulars of the loss which had left him penniless, and + had ruined others whose little all was in his hands. And then in reply to + the formal question, he had testified, amid roars of laughter from the + court-room, that it was not he who robbed the safe. At this, even the + judge and Wood's lawyer had not restrained a smile. + </p> + <p> + This had left the guilt with Wood. His lawyer, an inexperienced young + attorney,—who had done more or less business for the bank and would + hardly have ventured to defend this case but that the president had kindly + expressed his entire willingness that he should do so,—had, of + course, not thought it worth while to cross-examine Mr. Clark, and had + directed his whole argument against the theory that the safe had been + opened with a key, and not by strangers. But he had felt all through that, + as a man politely remarked to him when he finished, he was only butting + his “head ag'in a stone wall.” + </p> + <p> + And while he was arguing, a jolly-looking old lawyer had written, in the + fly-leaf of a law-book on his knee, and had passed with a wink to a young + man near him who had that very morning been admitted to the bar, these + lines:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “When callow Blackstones soar too high, + Quit common-sense, and reckless fly, + Soon, Icarus-like, they headlong fall, + And down come client, case, and all.” + </pre> + <p> + The district-attorney had not thought it worth while to expend much + strength upon his closing argument; but being a jovial stump-speaker, of a + wide reputation within narrow limits, he had not been able to refrain from + making merry over Wood's statement that the basket which he had been seen + bearing home, on the eventful night, was a basket of eels. + </p> + <p> + “Fine eels those, gentlemen! We have seen gold-fish and silver-fish, but + golden eels are first discovered by this defendant The apostle, in Holy + Writ, caught a fish with a coin in its mouth; but this man leaves the + apostle in the dim distance when he finds eels that are all money. No + storied fisherman of Bagdad, catching enchanted princes disguised as + fishes in the sea, ever hooked such a treasure as this defendant hooked + when he hooked that basket of eels! [Rustling appreciation of the jest + among the jury.] If a squirming, twisting, winding, wriggling eel, + gentlemen, can be said at any given moment to have a back, we may + distinguish this new-found species as the greenback eel. It is a common + saying that no man can hold an eel and remain a Christian. I should like + to have viewed the pious equanimity of this good man when he laid his + hands on that whole bed of eels. In happy, barefoot boyhood, gentlemen, we + used to find mud-turtles marked with initials or devices cut in their + shells; but what must have been our friend's surprise to find, in the + muddy bed of Harlow's Creek, eels marked with a steel-engraving of the + landing of Columbus and the signature of the Register of the Treasury! I + hear that a corporation is now being formed by the title of The Harlow's + Creek Greenback National Bank-bill Eel-fishing Company, to follow up, with + seines and spears, our worthy friend's discovery! I learn that the news of + this rich placer has spread to the golden mountains of the West, and that + the exhausted intellects which have been reduced to such names for their + mines as 'The Tombstone,' 'The Red Dog,' the 'Mrs. E. J. Parkhurst,' are + likely now to flood us with prospectuses of the 'Eel Mine,' 'The Flat + Eel,' 'The Double Eel,' and then, when they get ready to burst upon + confiding friends, 'The Consolidated Eels.'” + </p> + <p> + It takes but little to make a school or a court-room laugh, and the speech + had appeared to give a good deal of amusement to the listeners. + </p> + <p> + To all? + </p> + <p> + Did it amuse that man who sat, with folded arms, harsh and rigid, at the + dock? Did it divert that white-faced woman, cowering in a corner, + listening as in a dream? + </p> + <p> + The judge now charged the jury briefly. It was unnecessary for him, he + said, to recapitulate evidence of so simple a character. The chief + question for the jury was as to the credibility of the witnesses. If the + witnesses for the prosecution were truthful and were not mistaken, the + inference of guilt seemed inevitable; this the defendant's counsel had + conceded. The defendant had proved a good reputation; upon that point + there was only this to be said: that, while such evidence was entitled to + weight, yet, on the other hand, crimes involving a breach of trust could, + from their very nature, be committed only by persons whose good + reputations secured them positions of trust. + </p> + <p> + The jury-room had evidently not been furnished by a ring. It had a long + table for debate, twelve hard chairs for repose, twelve spittoons for + luxury, and a clock. + </p> + <p> + The jury sat in silence for a few moments, as old Captain Nourse, who had + them in his keeping, and eyed them as if he was afraid that he might lose + one of them in a crack and be held accountable on his bond, rattled away + at the unruly lock. Looking at them then, you would have seen faces all of + a New England cast but one. There was a tall, powerful negro called George + Washington, a man well known in this county town, to which he had come, as + driftwood from the storm of war, in '65. Some of the “boys” had heard him, + in a great prayer-meeting in Washington—a city which he always spoke + of as his “namesake”—at the time of the great review, say, in his + strong voice, with that pathetic quaver in it: “Like as de parched an' + weary traveller hangs his harp upon de winder, an' sighs for oysters in de + desert, so I longs to res' my soul an' my foot in Mass'-chusetts;” and + they were so delighted with him that they invited him on the spot to go + home with them, and took up a collection to pay his fare; and so he was a + public character. As for his occupation,—when the census-taker, with + a wink to the boys in the store, had asked him what it was, he had said, + in that same odd tone: “Putties up glass a little—whitewashes a + little—” and, when the man had made a show of writing all that down, + “preaches a little.” He might have said, “preaches a big,” for you could + hear him half a mile away. + </p> + <p> + The foreman was a retired sea-captain. “Good cap'n—Cap'n Thomas,” + one of his neighbors had said of him. “Allers gits good ships—never + hez to go huntin' 'round for a vessel. But it is astonishin' what + differences they is! Now there 's Cap'n A. K. P. Bassett, down to the West + Harbor. You let it git 'round that Cap'n A. K. P. is goin' off on a Chiny + voyage, and you 'll see half a dozen old shays to once-t, hitched all + along his fence of an arternoon, and wimmen inside the house, to git Cap'n + A. K. P. to take their boys. But you let Cap'n Thomas give out that he + wants boys, and he hez to glean 'em—from the poor-house, and from + step-mothers, and where he can: the women knows! Still,” he added, “Cap'n + Thomas 's a good cap'n. I've nothin' to say ag'in him. He's smart!” + </p> + <p> + “Gentlemen,” said the foreman, when the officer, at last, had securely + locked them in, “shall we go through the formality of a ballot? If the + case were a less serious one, we might have rendered a verdict in our + seats.” + </p> + <p> + “What's the use foolin' 'round ballotin'?” said a thick-set butcher. + “Ain't we all o' one mind?” + </p> + <p> + “It is for you to say, gentlemen,” said the foreman. “I should n't want to + have it go abroad that we had not acted formally, if there was any one + disposed to cavil.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Speaker,” said George Washington, rising and standing in the attitude + of Webster, “I rises to appoint to order. We took ballast in de prior + cases, and why make flesh of one man an' a fowl of another?” + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” said the foreman, a trifle sharply; “'the longest way round + is the shortest way home.'” + </p> + <p> + Twelve slips of paper were handed out, to be indorsed guilty, “for form.” + They were collected in a hat and the foreman told them over—“just + for form.” “'Guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,'—wait a minute,” + he said, “here is a mistake. Here is one 'not guilty'—whose is + this?” + </p> + <p> + There was a pause. + </p> + <p> + “Whose is it?” said the foreman, sharply. + </p> + <p> + Eli turned a little red. + </p> + <p> + “It's mine,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean it?” said the foreman. + </p> + <p> + “Of course I mean it,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “Whew!” whistled the foreman. “Very well, sir; we'll have an + understanding, then. This case is proved to the satisfaction of every man + who heard it, I may safely say, but one. Will that one please state the + grounds of his opinion?” + </p> + <p> + “I ain't no talker,” said Eli, “but I ain't satisfied he 's guilty—that's + all.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't you believe the witnesses?” + </p> + <p> + “Mostly.” + </p> + <p> + “Which one don't you believe?” + </p> + <p> + “I can't say. I don't believe he's guilty.” + </p> + <p> + “Is there one that you think lied?” + </p> + <p> + No answer. + </p> + <p> + “Now it seems to me—” said a third juryman. + </p> + <p> + “One thing at a time, gentlemen,” said the foreman. “Let us wait for an + answer from Mr. Smith. Is there any one that you think lied? We will wait, + gentlemen, for an answer.” + </p> + <p> + There was a long pause. The trial seemed to Eli Smith to have shifted from + the court to this shabby room, and he was now the culprit. + </p> + <p> + All waited for him; all eyes were fixed upon him. + </p> + <p> + The clock ticked loud! Eli counted the seconds. He knew the determination + of the foreman. + </p> + <p> + The silence became intense. + </p> + <p> + “I want to say my say,” said a short man in a pea-jacket,—a retired + San Francisco pilot, named Eldridge. “I entertain no doubt the man is + guilty. At the same time, I allow for differences of opinion. I don't know + this man that's voted 'not guilty,' but he seems to be a well-meaning man. + I don't know his reasons; probably he don't understand the case. I should + like to have the foreman tell the evidence over, so as if he don't see it + clear, he can ask questions, and we can explain.” + </p> + <p> + “I second de motion,” said George Washington. + </p> + <p> + There was a general rustle of approval. + </p> + <p> + “I move it,” said the pilot, encouraged. + </p> + <p> + “Very well, Mr. Eldridge,” said the foreman. “If there is no objection, I + will state the evidence, and if there is any loop-hole, I will trouble Mr. + Smith to suggest it as I go along;” and he proceeded to give a summary of + the testimony, with homely force. + </p> + <p> + “Now, sir?” he said, when he had finished. + </p> + <p> + “I move for another ballot,” said Mr. Eldridge. + </p> + <p> + The result was the same. Eli had voted “not guilty.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Smith,” said the foreman, “this must be settled in some way. This is + no child's play. You can't keep eleven men here, trifling with them, + giving no pretence of a reason.” + </p> + <p> + “I have n't no reasons, only that I don't believe he 's guilty,” said Eli. + “I 'm not goin' to vote a man into State's-prison, when I don't believe he + done it,” and he rose and walked to the window and looked out. It was low + tide. There was a broad stretch of mud in the distance, covered with boats + lying over disconsolate. A driving storm had emptied the streets. He beat + upon the rain-dashed glass a moment with his fingers, and then he sat down + again. + </p> + <p> + “Well, sir,” said the foreman, “this is singular conduct. What do you + propose to do?” + </p> + <p> + Silence. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you realize that the rest of us are pretty rapidly forming a + conclusion on this matter,” said the foreman. + </p> + <p> + “Come! come!” said Mr. Eldridge; “don't be quite so hard on him, Captain. + Now, Mr. Smith,” he said, standing up with his hands in his coat-pockets + and looking at Eli, “we know that there often is crooked sticks on juries, + that hold out alone—that's to be expected; but they always argue, + and stand to it the rest are fools, and all that. Now, all is, we don't + see why you don't sort of argue, if you 've got reasons satisfactory to + you. Come, now,” he added, walking up to Eli, and resting one foot on the + seat of his chair, “why don't you tell it over? and if we 're wrong, I 'm + ready to join you.” + </p> + <p> + Eli looked up at him. + </p> + <p> + “Did n't you ever know,” he said, “of a man's takin' a cat off, to lose, + that his little girl did n't want drownded, and leavin' him ashore, twenty + or thirty miles, bee-line, from home, and that cat's bein' back again the + next day, purrin' 'round 's if nothin' had happened?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Mr. Eldridge—“knew of just such a case.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” said Eli; “how does he find his way home?” + </p> + <p> + “Don't know,” said Mr. Eldridge; “always has been a standing mystery to + me.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Eli, “mark my words. There's such a thing as arguin', and + there 's such a thing as knowin' outright; and when you 'll tell me how + that cat inquires his way home, I '11 tell you how I know John Wood ain't + guilty.” + </p> + <p> + This made a certain sensation, and Eli's stock went up. + </p> + <p> + An old, withered man rapped on the table. + </p> + <p> + “That's so!” he said; “and there's other sing'lar things! How is it that a + seafarin' man, that 's dyin' to home, will allers die on the ebbtide? It + never fails, but how does it happen? Tell me that! And there's more ways + than one of knowin' things, too!” + </p> + <p> + “I know that man ain't guilty,” said Eli. + </p> + <p> + “Hark ye!” said a dark old man with a troubled face, rising and pointing + his finger toward Eli. “<i>Know</i>, you say? I <i>knew</i>, wunst. I <i>knew</i> + that my girl, my only child, was good. One night she went off with a + married man that worked in my store, and stole my money—and where is + she now?” And then he added, “What I <i>know</i> is, that every man hes + his price. I hev mine, and you hev yourn!” + </p> + <p> + “'Xcuse me, Mr. Speaker,” said George Washington, rising with his hand in + his bosom; “as de question is befo' us, I wish to say that de las' bro' + mus' have spoken under 'xcitement. Every man <i>don</i>' have his price! + An' I hope de bro' will recant—like as de Psalmist goes out o' his + way to say '<i>In my haste</i> I said, All men are liars.' He was a very + busy man, de Psalmist—writin' down hymns all day, sharpen'n' his + lead-pencil, bossin' 'roun' de choir—callin' Selah! Well, bro'n an' + sisters “—both arms going out, and his voice going up—” one + day, seems like, he was in gre't haste—got to finish a psalm for a + monthly concert, or such—and some man in-corrupted him, and lied; + and bein' in gre't haste—and a little old Adam in him—he says, + right off, quick: '<i>All</i> men are liars!' But see! When he gits a + little time to set back and meditate, he says: 'Dis won' do—dere's + Moses an' Job, an' Paul—dey ain't liars!' An' den he don' sneak out, + and 'low he said, 'All men is lions,' or such. No! de Psalmist ain't no + such man; but he owns up, 'an 'xplains. '<i>In my haste</i>,' he says, 'I + said it.'” + </p> + <p> + The foreman rose and rapped. + </p> + <p> + “I await a motion,” said he, “if our friend will allow me the privilege of + speaking.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Washington calmly bowed. + </p> + <p> + Then the foreman, when nobody seemed disposed to move, speaking slowly at + first, and piecemeal, alternating language with smoke, gradually edged + into the current of the evidence, and ended by going all over it again, + with fresh force and point. His cigar glowed and chilled in the darkening + room as he talked. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” he said, when he had drawn all the threads together to the point of + guilt, “what are we going to do upon this evidence?” + </p> + <p> + “I 'll tell you something,” said Eli. “I did n't want to say it because I + know what you 'll all think, but I 'll tell you, all the same.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” said the foreman. + </p> + <p> + Eli stood up and faced the others. + </p> + <p> + “'Most all o' you know what our Bar is in a southeast gale. They ain't a + man here that would dare to try and cross it when the sea's breakin' on + it. The man that says he would, lies!” And he looked at the foreman, and + waited a moment. + </p> + <p> + “When my wife took sick, and I stopped goin' to sea, two year ago, and + took up boat-fishin', I did n't know half as much about the coast as the + young boys do, and one afternoon it was blowin' a gale, and we was all + hands comin' in, and passin' along the Bar to go sheer 'round it to the + west'ard, and Captain Fred Cook—he's short-sighted—got on to + the Bar before he knew it, and then he hed to go ahead, whether or no; and + I was right after him, and I s'posed he knew, and I followed him. Well, he + was floated over, as luck was, all right; but when I 'd just got on the + Bar, a roller dropped back and let my bowsprit down into the sand, and + then come up quicker'n lightnin' and shouldered the boat over, t' other + end first, and slung me into the water; and when I come up, I see + somethin' black, and there was John Wood's boat runnin' by me before the + wind with a rush—and 'fore I knew an'thing, he had me by the hair by + one hand, and in his boat, and we was over the Bar. Now, I tell you, a man + that looks the way I saw him look when I come over the gunwale, face up, + don't go 'round breakin' in and hookin' things. He hed n't one chance in + five, and he was a married man, too, with small children. And what's + more,” he added incautiously, “he did n't stop there. When he found out, + this last spring, that I was goin' to lose my place, he lent me money + enough to pay the interest that was overdue on the mortgage, of his own + accord.” + </p> + <p> + And he stopped suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “You have certainly explained yourself,” said the foreman. “I think we + understand you distinctly.” + </p> + <p> + “There is n't one word of truth in that idea,” said Eli, flushing up, “and + you know it. I 've paid him back every cent. I know him better 'n any of + you, that's all, and when I know he ain't guilty, I won't say he is; and I + can set here as long as any other man.” + </p> + <p> + “Lively times some folks 'll hev, when they go home,” said a spare + tin-pedler, stroking his long yellow goatee. “Go into the store: nobody + speak to you; go to cattle-show: everybody follow you 'round; go to the + wharf: nobody weigh your fish; go to buy seed-cakes to the cart: baker + won't give no tick.” + </p> + <p> + “How much does it cost, Mr. Foreman,” said the butcher, “for a man 't 's + obliged to leave town, to move a family out West? I only ask for + information. I have known a case where a man had to leave—could n't + live there no longer—wa' n't wanted.” + </p> + <p> + There was a knock. An officer, sent by the judge, inquired whether the + jury were likely soon to agree. + </p> + <p> + “It rests with you, sir,” said the foreman, looking at Eli. + </p> + <p> + But Eli sat doggedly with his hands in his pockets, and did not look up or + speak. + </p> + <p> + “Say to the judge that I cannot tell,” said the foreman. + </p> + <p> + It was eight o'clock when the officer returned, with orders to take the + jury across the street to the hotel, to supper. They went out in pairs, + except that the juryman who was left to fall in with Eli made three with + the file ahead, and left Eli to walk alone. This was noticed by the + bystanders. At the hotel, Eli could not eat a mouthful. He was seated at + one end of the table, and was left entirely out of the conversation. When + the jury were escorted back to the courthouse, rumors had evidently begun + to arise from his having walked alone, for there was quite a little crowd + at the hotel door, to see them. They went as before: four pairs, a file of + three, and Eli alone. Then the spectators understood it. + </p> + <p> + When the jury were locked into their room again for the night, Mr. + Eldridge sat down by Eli and lit his pipe. + </p> + <p> + “I understand,” he said, “just how you feel. Now, between you and me, + there was a good-hearted fellow that kept me out of a bad mess once. I 've + never told anybody just what it was, and I don't mean to tell you now, but + it brought my blood up standing, to find how near I 'd come to putting a + fine steamer and two hundred and forty passengers under water. Well, one + day, a year or so after that, this man had a chance to get a good ship, + only there was some talk against him, that he drank a little. Well, the + owners told him they wanted to see me, and he come to me, and says he, + 'Mr. Eldridge, I hope you 'll speak a good word for me; if you do, I 'll + get the ship, but if they refuse me this one, I 'm dished everywhere.' + Well, the owners put me the square question, and I had to tell 'em. Well, + I met him that afternoon on Sacramento Street, as white as a sheet, and he + would n't speak to me, but passed right by, and that night he went and + shipped before the mast. That's the last I ever heard of him; but I had to + do it. Now,” he added, “this man 's been good to you; but the case is + proved, and you ought to vote with the rest of us.” + </p> + <p> + “It ain't proved,” said Eli. “The judge said that if any man had a + reasonable doubt, he ought to hold out. Now, I ain't convinced.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, that 's easy said,” replied Mr. Eldridge, a little hotly, and he + arose, and left him. + </p> + <p> + The jurymen broke up into little knots, tilted their chairs back, and + settled into the easiest positions that their cramped quarters allowed. + Most of them lit their pipes; the captain, and one or two whom he honored, + smoked fragrant cigars, and the room was soon filled with a dense cloud. + </p> + <p> + Eli sat alone by the window. + </p> + <p> + “Sometimes sell two at one house,” said a lank book-agent, arousing + himself from a reverie; “once sold three.” + </p> + <p> + “I think the Early Rose is about as profitable as any,” said a little + farmer, with a large circular beard. “I used to favor Jacobs's Seedling, + but they have n't done so well with me of late years.” + </p> + <p> + “Sometimes,” said the book-agent, picking his teeth with a quill, “you 'll + go to a house, and they 'll say they can't be induced to buy a book of any + kind, historical, fictitious, or religious; but you just keep on talking, + and show the pictures—'Grant in Boyhood,' 'Grant a Tanner,' Grant at + Head-quarters,' 'Grant in the White House,' 'Grant before Queen Victoria,' + and they warm up, I tell you, and not infrequently buy.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you sell de 'Illustrated Bible',” asked Washington, “wid de + Hypocrypha?” + </p> + <p> + “No; I have a more popular treatise—the 'Illustrated History of the + Bible.' Greater variety. Brings in the surrounding nations, in costume. + Cloth, three dollars; sheep, three-fifty; half calf, five-seventy-five; + full morocco, gilt edges, seven-fifty. Six hundred and seven illustrations + on wood and steel. Three different engravings of Abraham alone. Four of + Noah,—'Noah before the Flood,' 'Noah Building the Ark,' 'Noah + Welcoming the Dove,' 'Noah on Ararat,' Steel engraving of Ezekiel's Wheel, + explaining prophecy. Jonah under the gourd, Nineveh in the distance.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Eldridge and Captain Thomas had drifted into a discussion of harbors, + and the captain had drawn his chair up to the table, and, with a cigar in + his mouth, was explaining an ingeniously constructed foreign harbor. He + was making a rough sketch, with a pen. + </p> + <p> + “Here is north,” he said; “here is the coastline; here are the flats; here + are the sluicegates; they store the water here, in—” + </p> + <p> + Some of the younger men had their heads together, in a corner, about the + tin-pedler, who was telling stories of people he had met in his journeys, + which brought out repeated bursts of laughter. + </p> + <p> + In the corner farthest from Eli, a delicate-looking man began to tell the + butcher about Eli's wife. + </p> + <p> + “Twelve years ago this fall,” he said, “I taught district-school in the + parish where she lived. She was about fourteen then. Her father was a poor + farmer, without any faculty. Her mother was dead, and she kept house. I + stayed there one week, boarding 'round.” + </p> + <p> + “Prob'ly did n't git not much of any fresh meat that week,” suggested the + butcher. + </p> + <p> + “She never said much, but it used to divert me to see her order around her + big brothers, just as if she was their mother. She and I got to be great + friends; but she was a queer piece. One day at school the girls in her row + were communicating, and annoying me, while the third class was reciting in + 'First Steps in Numbers,' and I was so incensed that I called Lizzie—that's + her name—right out, and had her stand up for twenty minutes. She was + a shy little thing, and set great store by perfect marks. I saw that she + was troubled a good deal, to have all of them looking and laughing at her. + But she stood there, with her hands folded behind her, and not a smile or + a word.” + </p> + <p> + “Look out for a sullen cow,” said the butcher. + </p> + <p> + “I felt afraid I had been too hasty with her, and I was rather sorry I had + been so decided—although, to be sure, she did n't pretend to deny + that she had been communicating.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” said the butcher: “no use lyin' when you 're caught in the + act.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, after school, she stayed at her desk, fixing her dinner-pail, and + putting her books in a strap, and all that, till all the rest had gone, + and then she came up to my desk, where I was correcting compositions.” + </p> + <p> + “Now for music!” said the butcher. + </p> + <p> + “She had been crying a little. Well, she looked straight in my face, and + said she, 'Mr. Pollard, I just wanted to say to you that I was n't doing + anything at all when you called me up;' and off she went. Now, that was + just like her,—too proud to say a word before the school.” + </p> + <p> + But here his listener's attention was diverted by the voice of the + book-agent. + </p> + <p> + “The very best Bible for teachers, of course, is the limp-cover, protected + edges, full Levant morocco, Oxford, silk-sewed, kid-lined, Bishop's + Divinity Circuit, with concordance, maps of the Holy Land, weights, + measures, and money-tables of the Jews. Nothing like having a really—” + </p> + <p> + “And so,” said the captain, moving back his chair, “they let on the whole + head of water, and scour out the channel to a T.” + </p> + <p> + And then he rapped upon the table. + </p> + <p> + “Gentlemen,” he said, “please draw your chairs up, and let us take another + ballot.” + </p> + <p> + The count resulted as before. + </p> + <p> + The foreman muttered something which had a scriptural sound. In a few + moments he drew Mr. Eldridge and two others aside. “Gentlemen,” he said to + them, “I shall quietly divide the jury into watches, under your charge: + ten can sleep, while one wakes to keep Mr. Smith discussing the question. + I don't propose to have the night wasted.” + </p> + <p> + And, by one man or another, Eli was kept awake. + </p> + <p> + “I don't see,” said the book-agent, “why you should feel obliged to stick + it out any longer. Of course, you are under obligations. But you 've done + more than enough already, so as that he can't complain of you, and if you + give in now, everybody 'll give you credit for trying to save your friend, + on the one hand, and, on the other hand, for giving in to the evidence. So + you 'll get credit both ways.” + </p> + <p> + An hour later, the tin-pedler came on duty. He had not followed closely + the story about John Wood's loan, and had got it a little awry. + </p> + <p> + “Now, how foolish you be,” he said, in a confidential tone. “Can't you see + that if you cave in now, after stan'n' out nine hours”—and he looked + at a silver watch with a brass chain, and stroked his goatee—“nine + hours and twenty-seven minutes—that you 've made jest rumpus enough + so as't he won't dare to foreclose on you, for fear they 'll say you went + back on a trade. On t' other hand, if you hold clear out, he'll turn you + out-o'-doors to-morrow, for a blind, so 's to look as if there wa' n't no + trade between you. Once he gits off, he won't know Joseph, you bet! That's + what I 'd do,” he added, with a sly laugh. “Take your uncle's advice.” + </p> + <p> + “The only trouble with that,” said Eli, shortly, “is that I don't owe him + anything.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh,” said the pedler; “that makes a difference. I understood you did.” + </p> + <p> + Three o'clock came, and brought Mr. El-dridge. He found Eli worn out with + excitement. + </p> + <p> + “Now, I don't judge you the way the others do,” said Mr. Eldridge, in a + low tone, with his hand on Eli's knee. “I know, as I told you, just the + way you feel. But we can't help such things. Suppose, now, that I had kept + dark, and allowed to the owners that that man was always sober, and I had + heard, six months after, of thirty or forty men going to the bottom + because the captain was a little off his base; and then to think of their + wives and children at home. We have to do some hard things; but I say, do + the square thing, and let her slide.” + </p> + <p> + “But I can't believe he 's guilty,” said Eli. + </p> + <p> + “But don't you allow,” said Mr. Eldridge, “that eleven men are more sure + to hit it right than one man?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Eli, reluctantly, “as a general thing.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, there's always got to be some give to a jury, just as in everything + else, and you ought to lay right down on the rest of us. It is n't as if + we were at all squirmish. Now, you know that if you hold out, he 'll be + tried again.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I suppose so.” + </p> + <p> + “Got to be—no other way,” said Mr. Eldridge. “Now, the next time, + there won't be anybody like you to stand out, and the judge 'll know of + this scrape, and he'll just sock it to him.” + </p> + <p> + Eli turned uneasily in his chair. + </p> + <p> + “And then it won't be understood in your place, and folks 'll turn against + you every way, and, what's worse, let you alone.” + </p> + <p> + “I can stand it,” said Eli, angrily. “Let 'em do as they like. They can't + kill me.” + </p> + <p> + “They can kill your wife and break down your children,” said Mr. Eldridge. + “Women and children can't stand it. Now, there's that man they were + speaking of; he lived down my way. He sued a poor, shiftless fellow that + had come from Pennsylvania to his daughter's funeral, and had him arrested + and taken off, crying, just before the funeral begun—after they 'd + even set the flowers on the coffin; and nobody'd speak to him after that—they + just let him alone; and after a while his wife took sick of it—she + was a nice, kindly woman—and she had sort of hysterics, and finally + he moved off West. And 't was n't long before the woman died. Now, you + can't undertake to do different from everybody else.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Eli, “I know I wish it was done with.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Eldridge stretched his arms and yawned. Then he began to walk up and + down, and hum, out of tune. Then he stopped at Captain Thomas's chair. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose we try a ballot,” he said. “He seems to give a little.” + </p> + <p> + In a moment the foreman rapped. + </p> + <p> + “It is time we were taking another ballot, gentlemen,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The sleepers rose, grumbling, from uneasy dreams. + </p> + <p> + “I will write 'guilty' on twelve ballots,” said the foreman, “and if any + one desires to write in 'not,' of course he can.” + </p> + <p> + When the hat came to Eli, he took one of the ballots and held it in his + hand a moment, and then he laid it on the table. There was a general + murmur. The picture which Mr. El-dridge had drawn loomed up before him. + But with a hasty hand he wrote in “not,” dropped in the ballot, and going + back to his chair by the window, sat down. + </p> + <p> + There was a cold wave of silence. + </p> + <p> + Then Eli suddenly walked up to the foreman and faced him. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” he said, “we 'll stop. The very next turn breaks ground. If you, or + any other man that you set on, tries to talk to me when I don't want to + hear, to worry me to death—look out!” + </p> + <p> + How the long hours wore on! How easy, sometimes, to resist an open + pressure, and how hard, with the resistance gone, to fight, as one that + beats the air! How the prospect of a whole hostile town loomed up, in a + mirage, before Eli! And then the picture rose before him of a long, + stately bark, now building, whose owner had asked him yesterday to be + first mate. And if his wife were only well, and he were only free from + this night's trouble, how soon, upon the long, green waves, he could begin + to redeem his little home! + </p> + <p> + And then came Mr. Eldridge, kind and friendly, to have another little + chat. + </p> + <p> + Morning came, cold and drizzly. An officer knocked at the door, and called + out, “Breakfast!” And in a moment, unwashed, and all uncombed, except the + tin-pedler, who always carried a beard-comb in his pocket, they were + marched across the street to the hotel. + </p> + <p> + There were a number of men on the piazza waiting to see them,—jurymen, + witnesses, and the accused himself, for he was on bail. He had seen the + procession the night before, and, like the others, had read its meaning. + </p> + <p> + “Eli knows I would n't do it,” he had said to himself, “and he's going to + hang out, sure.” + </p> + <p> + The jury began to turn from the court-house door. Everybody looked. A file + of two men, another file, another, another; would there come three men, + and then one? No; Eli no longer walked alone. + </p> + <p> + Everybody looked at Wood; he turned sharply away. + </p> + <p> + But this time the order of march in fact showed nothing, one way or the + other. It only meant that the judge, who had happened to see the jury the + night before returning from their supper, had sent for the high sheriff in + some temper,—for judges are human,—and had vigorously + intimated that if that statesman did not look after his fool of a deputy, + who let a jury parade secrets to the public view, he would! + </p> + <p> + The jury were in their room again. At nine o'clock came a rap, and a + summons from the court. The prosecuting attorney was speaking with the + judge when they went in. In a moment he took his seat. + </p> + <p> + “John Wood!” called out the clerk, and the defendant arose. His attorney + was not there. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Foreman!” said the judge, rising. The jury arose. The silence of the + crowded courtroom was intense. + </p> + <p> + “Before the clerk asks you for a verdict, gentlemen,” said the judge, “I + have something of the first importance to say to you, which has but this + moment come to my knowledge.” + </p> + <p> + Eli changed color, and the whole court-room looked at him. + </p> + <p> + “There were some most singular rumors, after the case was given to you, + gentlemen, to the effect that there had been in this cause a criminal + abuse of justice. It is painful to suspect, and shocking to know, that + courts and juries are liable ever to suffer by such unprincipled + practices. After ten years upon the bench, I never witness a conviction of + crime without pain; but that pain is light, compared with the distress of + knowing of a wilful perversion of justice. It is a relief to me to be able + to say to you that such instances are, in my judgment, exceedingly rare, + and—so keen is the awful searching power of truth—are almost + invariably discovered.” + </p> + <p> + The foreman touched his neighbor with his elbow. Eli folded his arms. + </p> + <p> + “As I said,” continued the judge, “there were most singular rumors. During + the evening and the night, rumor, as is often the case, led to evidence, + and evidence has led to confession and to certainty. And the district + attorney now desires me to say to you that the chief officer of the bank—who + held the second key to the safe—is now under arrest for a heavy + defalcation, which a sham robbery was to conceal, and that you may find + the prisoner at the bar—not guilty. I congratulate you, gentlemen, + that you had not rendered an adverse verdict.” + </p> + <p> + “Your Honor!” said Eli, and he cleared his throat, “I desire it to be + known that, even as the case stood last night, this jury had not agreed to + convict, and never would have!” + </p> + <p> + There was a hush, while a loud scratching pen indorsed the record of + acquittal. Then Wood walked down to the jury-box and took Eli's hand. + </p> + <p> + “Just what I told my wife all through,” he said. “I knew you 'd hang out!” + </p> + <p> + Eli's jury was excused for the rest the of day, and by noon he was in his + own village, relieved, too, of his most pressing burden: for George Cahoon + had met him on the road, and told him that he was not going to the West, + after all, for the present, and should not need his money. But, as he + turned the bend of the road and neared his house, he felt a rising fear + that some disturbing rumor might have reached his wife about his action on + the jury. And, to his distress and amazement, there she was, sitting in a + chair at the door. + </p> + <p> + “Lizzie!” he said, “what does this mean? Are you crazy?” + </p> + <p> + “I'll tell you what it means,” she said, as she stood up with a little + smile and clasped her hands behind her. “This morning it got around and + came to me that you was standing out all alone for John Wood, and that the + talk was that they 'd be down on you, and drive you out of town, and that + everybody pitied <i>me</i>,—<i>pitied me!</i> And when I heard that, + I thought I 'd see! And my strength seemed to come all back, and I got + right up and dressed myself. And what's more, I 'm going to get well now!” + </p> + <p> + And she did. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eli, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI *** + +***** This file should be named 23005-h.htm or 23005-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23005/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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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: Eli + First published in the "Century Magazine" + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +ELI + +By Heman White Chaplin + +1887 + +First published in the "Century Magazine." + + + + + +I. + +Under a boat, high and dry at low tide, on the beach, John Wood was +seated in the sand, sheltered from the sun in the boat's shadow, +absorbed in the laying on of verdigris. The dull, worn color was rapidly +giving place to a brilliant, shining green. Occasionally a scraper, +which lay by, was taken up to remove the last trace of a barnacle. + +It was Wood's boat, but he was not a boatman; he painted cleverly, but +he was not a painter. He kept the brown store under the elms of the main +street, now hot and still, where at this-moment his blushing sister was +captivating the heart of an awkward farmer's boy as she sold him a pair +of striped suspenders. + +As the church clock struck the last of twelve decided blows, three +children came rushing out of the house on the bank above the beach. It +was one of those deceptive New England cottages, weather-worn without, +but bright and bountifully home-like within,--with its trim parlor, +proud of a cabinet organ; with its front hall, now cooled by the light +sea-breeze drifting through the blind-door, where a tall clock issued +its monotonous call to a siesta on the rattan lounge; with its spare +room, open now, opposite the parlor, and now, too, drawing in the salt +air through close-shut blinds, in anticipation of the joyful arrival +this evening of Sister Sarah, with her little brood, from the city. + +The children scampered across the road, and then the eldest hushed the +others and sent a little brother ahead to steal, barefoot, along the +shining sea-weed to his father. + +The plotted surprise appeared to succeed completely. The painter was +seized by the ears from behind, and captured. + +"Guess who 's here, or you can't get up," said the infant captor. + +"It 's Napoleon Bonaparte; don't joggle," said his father, running a +brush steadily along the water-line. + +"No! no! no!" with shouts of laughter from the whole attacking party. + +"Then it's Captain Ezekiel." + +This excited great merriment: Captain Ezekiel was an aged, purblind man, +who leaned on a cane. + +After attempts to identify the invader--with the tax-collector come for +taxes, then with the elderly minister making a pastoral call, with the +formal schoolmaster, and with Samuel J. Tilden--the victim reached over +his shoulder, and, seizing the assailant by a handful of calico jacket, +brought him around, squirming, before him. + +"Now," he said, "I 'll give you a coat of verdigris. (Great applause +from the reserve force behind.) + +"I suppose Mother sent you to say dinner's ready," said the father, +rising and surveying the green bottom of the boat. "I must eat quick, so +as to do the other side before half-flood." + +And with a child on each shoulder, and the third pushing him from +behind with her head, he marched toward the vine-covered kitchen, where, +between two opposite netted doors, the table was trimly set. + +"Father, you look like a mermaid, with your green hands," said his wife, +laughing, as she handed him the spirits of turpentine. "A woman could +paint that boat, in a light dress, and not get a spot on her." + +He smiled good-naturedly: he never spoke much. + +"I guess Louise won't have much trade today," said his wife, as they all +sat down; "it's so hot in the sun that everybody 'll wait till night. +But she has her tatting-work to do, and she 's got a book, too, that she +wanted to finish." + +Her husband nodded, and ate away. + +"Oh, can't we go up street and see her, this afternoon?" said one of the +children. + +"Who can that be?" said the mother, as an elderly, half-official-looking +man stopped his horse at the front gate and alighted. The man left the +horse unchecked to browse by the roadside, and came to the door. + +"Oh, it 's you, Captain Nourse," said Wood, rising to open the netting +door, and holding out his hand. "Come to summons me as a witness in +something about the bank case, I suppose. Let me introduce Captain +Nourse, Mary," he said, "deputy sheriff. Sit down, Captain, and have +some dinner with us." + +"No, I guess I won't set," said the captain. "I cal'lated not to eat +till I got home, in the middle o' the afternoon. No, I 'll set down in +eye-shot of the mare, and read the paper while you eat." + +"I hope they don't want me to testify anywhere to-day," said Wood; +"because my boat's half verdigris'd, and I want to finish her this +afternoon." + +"No testimony to-day," said the captain. "Hi! hi! Kitty!" he called to +the mare, as she began to meander across the road; and he went out to +a tree by the front fence, and sat down on a green bench, beside a +work-basket and a half-finished child's dress, and read the country +paper which he had taken from the office as he came along. + +After dinner Wood went out bareheaded, and leaned on the fence by the +captain. His wife stood just inside the door, looking out at them. + +The "bank case" was the great sensation of the town, and Wood was one +of the main witnesses, for he had been taking the place of the absent +cashier when the safe was broken open and rifled to the widespread +distress of depositors and stockholders, and the ruin of Hon. Edward +Clark, the president. Wood had locked the safe on the afternoon before +the eventful night, and had carried home the key with him, and he was to +testify to the contents of the safe as he had left it. + +"I guess they 're glad they 've got such a witness as John," said his +wife to herself, as she looked at him fondly, "and I guess they think +there won't be much doubt about what he says." + +"Well, Captain," said Wood, jocosely, breaking a spear of grass to bits +in his fingers, "I did n't know but you 'd come to arrest me." + +The captain calmly smiled as only a man can smile who has been accosted +with the same humorous remark a dozen times a day for twenty years. +He folded his paper carefully, put it in his pocket, took off +his spectacles and put them in their silver case, took a red silk +handkerchief from his hat, wiped his face, and put the handkerchief +back. Then he said shortly,-- + +"That's what I _have_ come for." + +Wood, still leaning on the fence, looked at him, and said nothing. + +"That's just what I 've come for," said Captain Nourse. "I 've got to +arrest you; here's the warrant." And he handed it to him. + +"What does this mean?" said Wood. "I can't make head or tail of this." + +"Well," said the captain, "the long and short is, these high-toned +detectives that they 've hed down from town, seein' as our own force +was n't good enough, allow that the safe was unlocked with a key, in due +form, and then the lock was broke afterward, to look as if it had been +forced open. They 've hed the foreman of the safe-men down, too, and he +says the same thing. Naturally, the argument is, there was only two keys +in existence,--one was safe with the president of the bank, and is about +all he 's got to show out of forty years' savings; the only other one +you hed: consequently, it heaves it onto you." + +"I see," said Wood. "I will go with you. Do you want to come into the +house with me while I get my coat?" + +"Well, I suppose I must keep you in sight,--now you know." + +And they went into the house. + +"Mary," said her husband, "the folks that lost by Clark when the bank +broke have been at him until he 's felt obliged to pitch on somebody, +and he's pitched on me; and Captain Nourse has come to arrest me. I +shall get bail before long." + +She said nothing, and did not shed a tear till he was gone. + +But then-- + + + + +II. + +Wide wastes of salt-marsh to the right, imprisoning the upland with a +vain promise of infinite liberty, and, between low, distant sandhills, +a rim of sea. Stretches of pine woods behind, shutting in from the great +outer world, and soon to darken into evening gloom. Ploughed fields and +elm-dotted pastures to the left, and birch-lined roads leading by white +farm-houses to the village, all speaking of cheer and freedom to the +prosperous and the happy, but to the unfortunate and the indebted, of +meshes invisible but strong as steel. But, before, no lonesome marshes, +no desolate forest, no farm or village street, but the free blue ocean, +rolling and tumbling still from the force of an expended gale. + +In the open doorway of a little cottage, warmed by the soft slanting +rays of the September sun, a rough man, burnt and freckled, was sitting, +at his feet a net, engaged upon some handiwork which two little girls +were watching. Close by him lay a setter, his nose between his paws. +Occasionally the man raised his eyes to scan the sea. + +"There's Joel," he said, "comin' in around the Bar. Not much air +stirrin' now!" + +Then he turned to his work again. + +"First, you go _so_ fash'," he said to the children, as he drew a +thread; "then you go _so_ fash'." + +And as he worked he made a great show of labor, much to their diversion. + +But the sight of Joel's broad white sail had not brought pleasant +thoughts to his mind; for Joel had hailed him, off the Shoal, the +afternoon before, and had obligingly offered to buy his fish right +there, and so let him go directly home, omitting to mention that sudden +jump of price due to an empty market. + +"Wonder what poor man he 's took a dollar out of to-day! Well, I s'pose +it's all right: those that 's got money, want money." + +"What be you, Eli--ganging on hooks?" said Aunt Patience, as she tiptoed +into the kitchen behind him, from his wife's sick-room, and softly +closed the door after her. + +"No," said the elder of the children; "he 's mending our stockings, and +showing me how." + +"Well, you do have a hard time, don't you?" said Aunt Patience, looking +down over his shoulder; "to slave and tug and scrape to get a house over +your head, and then to have to turn square 'round, and stay to home with +a sick woman, and eat all into it with mortgages!" + +"Oh, well," he said, "we 'll fetch, somehow." + +Aunt Patience went to the glass, and holding a black pin in her mouth, +carefully tied the strings of her sun-bonnet. + +"Anyway," she says, "you take it good-natured. Though if there is one +thing that's harder than another, it is to be good-natured all the +time, without being aggravating. I have known men that was so awfully +good-natured that they was harder to live with than if they was cross!" + +And without specifying further, she opened her plaid parasol and stepped +out at the porch. + +Though, on this quiet afternoon of Saturday, the peace of the +approaching Sabbath seemed already brooding over the little dwelling, +peace had not lent her hand to the building of the home. Every foot of +land, every shingle, every nail, had been wrung from the reluctant sea. +Every voyage had contributed something. It was a great day when Eli was +able to buy the land. Then, between two voyages, he dug a cellar and +laid a foundation; then he saved enough to build the main part of the +cottage and to finish the front room, lending his own hand to the work. +Then he used to get letters at every port, telling of progress,--how +Lizzie, his wife, had adorned the front room with a bright ninepenny +paper, of which a little piece was enclosed,--which he kept as a sort +of charm about him and exhibited to his friends; how she and her little +brother had lathed the entry and the kitchen, and how they had set out +blackberry vines from the woods. Then another letter told of a surprise +awaiting him on his return; and, in due time, coming home as third mate +from Hong-Kong to a seaman's tumultuous welcome, he had found that a +great, good-natured mason, with whose sick child his wife had watched +night after night, had appeared one day with lime and hair and sand, +and in white raiment, and had plastered the entry and the kitchen, and +finished a room upstairs. + +And so, for years, at home and on the sea, at New York and at Valparaiso +and in the Straits of Malacca, the little house and the little family +within it had grown into the fibre of Eli's heart. Nothing had given him +more delight than to meet, in the strange streets of Calcutta or before +the Mosque of Omar, some practical Yankee from Stonington or Machias, +and, whittling to discuss with him, among the turbans of the Orient, +the comparative value of shaved and of sawed shingles, or the economy +of "Swedes-iron" nails, and to go over with him the estimates and plans +which he had worked out in his head under all the constellations of the +skies. + +The supper things were cleared away. The children had said good-night +and gone to bed, and Eli had been sitting for an hour by his wife's +bedside. He had had to tax his patience and ingenuity heavily during the +long months that she had lain there to entertain her for a little while +in the evening, after his hard, wet day's work. He had been talking now +of the coming week, when he was to serve upon the jury in the adjoining +county-town. + +"I cal'late I can come home about every night," he said, "and it 'll be +quite a change, at any rate." + +"But you don't seem so cheerful about it as I counted you would be," +said his wife. "Are you afraid you'll have to be on the bank case?" + +"Not much!" he answered. "No trouble 'n that case! Jury won't leave +their seats. These city fellers 'll find they 've bit off more 'n they +can chew when they try to figure out John Wood done that. I only hope +I 'll have the luck to be on that case--all hands on the jury whisper +together a minute, and then clear him, right on the spot, and then shake +hands with him all 'round!" + +"But something is worrying you," she said. "What is it? You have looked +it since noon." + +"Oh, nothin'," he replied--"only George Cahoon came up to-noon to say +that he was goin' West next week, and that he would have to have that +money he let me have awhile ago. And where to get it--I don't know." + + + + +III. + +The court-room was packed. John Wood's trial was drawing to its close. +Eli was on the jury. Some one had advised the prosecuting attorney, in a +whisper, to challenge him, but he had shaken his head and said,-- + +"Oh, I could n't afford to challenge him for that; it would only leak +out, and set the jury against me. I 'll risk his standing out against +this evidence." + +The trial had been short. It had been shown how the little building +of the bank had been entered. Skilled locksmiths from the city had +testified that the safe was opened with a key, and that the lock was +broken afterward, from the inside, plainly to raise the theory of a +forcible entry by strangers. + +It had been proved that the only key in existence, not counting that +kept by the president, was in the possession of Wood, who was filling, +for a few days, the place of the cashier--the president's brother--in +his absence. It had been shown that Wood was met, at one o'clock of +the night in question, crossing the fields toward his home, from +the direction of the bank, with a large wicker basket slung over his +shoulders, returning, as he had said, from eel-spearing in Harlow's +Creek; and there was other circumstantial evidence. + +Mr. Clark, the president of the bank, had won the sympathy of every one +by the modest way in which, with his eye-glasses in his hand, he had +testified to the particulars of the loss which had left him penniless, +and had ruined others whose little all was in his hands. And then in +reply to the formal question, he had testified, amid roars of laughter +from the court-room, that it was not he who robbed the safe. At this, +even the judge and Wood's lawyer had not restrained a smile. + +This had left the guilt with Wood. His lawyer, an inexperienced young +attorney,--who had done more or less business for the bank and would +hardly have ventured to defend this case but that the president had +kindly expressed his entire willingness that he should do so,--had, of +course, not thought it worth while to cross-examine Mr. Clark, and had +directed his whole argument against the theory that the safe had been +opened with a key, and not by strangers. But he had felt all through +that, as a man politely remarked to him when he finished, he was only +butting his "head ag'in a stone wall." + +And while he was arguing, a jolly-looking old lawyer had written, in +the fly-leaf of a law-book on his knee, and had passed with a wink to a +young man near him who had that very morning been admitted to the bar, +these lines:-- + + "When callow Blackstones soar too high, + Quit common-sense, and reckless fly, + Soon, Icarus-like, they headlong fall, + And down come client, case, and all." + +The district-attorney had not thought it worth while to expend much +strength upon his closing argument; but being a jovial stump-speaker, of +a wide reputation within narrow limits, he had not been able to refrain +from making merry over Wood's statement that the basket which he had +been seen bearing home, on the eventful night, was a basket of eels. + +"Fine eels those, gentlemen! We have seen gold-fish and silver-fish, but +golden eels are first discovered by this defendant The apostle, in Holy +Writ, caught a fish with a coin in its mouth; but this man leaves the +apostle in the dim distance when he finds eels that are all money. No +storied fisherman of Bagdad, catching enchanted princes disguised as +fishes in the sea, ever hooked such a treasure as this defendant hooked +when he hooked that basket of eels! [Rustling appreciation of the jest +among the jury.] If a squirming, twisting, winding, wriggling eel, +gentlemen, can be said at any given moment to have a back, we may +distinguish this new-found species as the greenback eel. It is a common +saying that no man can hold an eel and remain a Christian. I should like +to have viewed the pious equanimity of this good man when he laid his +hands on that whole bed of eels. In happy, barefoot boyhood, gentlemen, +we used to find mud-turtles marked with initials or devices cut in their +shells; but what must have been our friend's surprise to find, in the +muddy bed of Harlow's Creek, eels marked with a steel-engraving of the +landing of Columbus and the signature of the Register of the Treasury! I +hear that a corporation is now being formed by the title of The Harlow's +Creek Greenback National Bank-bill Eel-fishing Company, to follow up, +with seines and spears, our worthy friend's discovery! I learn that the +news of this rich placer has spread to the golden mountains of the West, +and that the exhausted intellects which have been reduced to such names +for their mines as 'The Tombstone,' 'The Red Dog,' the 'Mrs. E. J. +Parkhurst,' are likely now to flood us with prospectuses of the 'Eel +Mine,' 'The Flat Eel,' 'The Double Eel,' and then, when they get ready +to burst upon confiding friends, 'The Consolidated Eels.'" + +It takes but little to make a school or a court-room laugh, and the +speech had appeared to give a good deal of amusement to the listeners. + +To all? + +Did it amuse that man who sat, with folded arms, harsh and rigid, at +the dock? Did it divert that white-faced woman, cowering in a corner, +listening as in a dream? + +The judge now charged the jury briefly. It was unnecessary for him, +he said, to recapitulate evidence of so simple a character. The chief +question for the jury was as to the credibility of the witnesses. If the +witnesses for the prosecution were truthful and were not mistaken, the +inference of guilt seemed inevitable; this the defendant's counsel had +conceded. The defendant had proved a good reputation; upon that point +there was only this to be said: that, while such evidence was entitled +to weight, yet, on the other hand, crimes involving a breach of trust +could, from their very nature, be committed only by persons whose good +reputations secured them positions of trust. + +The jury-room had evidently not been furnished by a ring. It had a long +table for debate, twelve hard chairs for repose, twelve spittoons for +luxury, and a clock. + +The jury sat in silence for a few moments, as old Captain Nourse, who +had them in his keeping, and eyed them as if he was afraid that he might +lose one of them in a crack and be held accountable on his bond, rattled +away at the unruly lock. Looking at them then, you would have seen faces +all of a New England cast but one. There was a tall, powerful negro +called George Washington, a man well known in this county town, to which +he had come, as driftwood from the storm of war, in '65. Some of the +"boys" had heard him, in a great prayer-meeting in Washington--a city +which he always spoke of as his "namesake"--at the time of the great +review, say, in his strong voice, with that pathetic quaver in it: "Like +as de parched an' weary traveller hangs his harp upon de winder, an' +sighs for oysters in de desert, so I longs to res' my soul an' my +foot in Mass'-chusetts;" and they were so delighted with him that they +invited him on the spot to go home with them, and took up a collection +to pay his fare; and so he was a public character. As for his +occupation,--when the census-taker, with a wink to the boys in the +store, had asked him what it was, he had said, in that same odd tone: +"Putties up glass a little--whitewashes a little--" and, when the man +had made a show of writing all that down, "preaches a little." He might +have said, "preaches a big," for you could hear him half a mile away. + +The foreman was a retired sea-captain. "Good cap'n--Cap'n Thomas," one +of his neighbors had said of him. "Allers gits good ships--never hez to +go huntin' 'round for a vessel. But it is astonishin' what differences +they is! Now there 's Cap'n A. K. P. Bassett, down to the West Harbor. +You let it git 'round that Cap'n A. K. P. is goin' off on a Chiny +voyage, and you 'll see half a dozen old shays to once-t, hitched all +along his fence of an arternoon, and wimmen inside the house, to git +Cap'n A. K. P. to take their boys. But you let Cap'n Thomas give out +that he wants boys, and he hez to glean 'em--from the poor-house, and +from step-mothers, and where he can: the women knows! Still," he added, +"Cap'n Thomas 's a good cap'n. I've nothin' to say ag'in him. He's +smart!" + +"Gentlemen," said the foreman, when the officer, at last, had securely +locked them in, "shall we go through the formality of a ballot? If the +case were a less serious one, we might have rendered a verdict in our +seats." + +"What's the use foolin' 'round ballotin'?" said a thick-set butcher. +"Ain't we all o' one mind?" + +"It is for you to say, gentlemen," said the foreman. "I should n't want +to have it go abroad that we had not acted formally, if there was any +one disposed to cavil." + +"Mr. Speaker," said George Washington, rising and standing in the +attitude of Webster, "I rises to appoint to order. We took ballast in de +prior cases, and why make flesh of one man an' a fowl of another?" + +"Very well," said the foreman, a trifle sharply; "'the longest way round +is the shortest way home.'" + +Twelve slips of paper were handed out, to be indorsed guilty, +"for form." They were collected in a hat and the foreman told them +over--"just for form." "'Guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,'--wait a +minute," he said, "here is a mistake. Here is one 'not guilty'--whose is +this?" + +There was a pause. + +"Whose is it?" said the foreman, sharply. + +Eli turned a little red. + +"It's mine," he said. + +"Do you mean it?" said the foreman. + +"Of course I mean it," he answered. + +"Whew!" whistled the foreman. "Very well, sir; we'll have an +understanding, then. This case is proved to the satisfaction of every +man who heard it, I may safely say, but one. Will that one please state +the grounds of his opinion?" + +"I ain't no talker," said Eli, "but I ain't satisfied he 's +guilty--that's all." + +"Don't you believe the witnesses?" + +"Mostly." + +"Which one don't you believe?" + +"I can't say. I don't believe he's guilty." + +"Is there one that you think lied?" + +No answer. + +"Now it seems to me--" said a third juryman. + +"One thing at a time, gentlemen," said the foreman. "Let us wait for +an answer from Mr. Smith. Is there any one that you think lied? We will +wait, gentlemen, for an answer." + +There was a long pause. The trial seemed to Eli Smith to have shifted +from the court to this shabby room, and he was now the culprit. + +All waited for him; all eyes were fixed upon him. + +The clock ticked loud! Eli counted the seconds. He knew the +determination of the foreman. + +The silence became intense. + +"I want to say my say," said a short man in a pea-jacket,--a retired +San Francisco pilot, named Eldridge. "I entertain no doubt the man is +guilty. At the same time, I allow for differences of opinion. I +don't know this man that's voted 'not guilty,' but he seems to be a +well-meaning man. I don't know his reasons; probably he don't understand +the case. I should like to have the foreman tell the evidence over, so +as if he don't see it clear, he can ask questions, and we can explain." + +"I second de motion," said George Washington. + +There was a general rustle of approval. + +"I move it," said the pilot, encouraged. + +"Very well, Mr. Eldridge," said the foreman. "If there is no objection, +I will state the evidence, and if there is any loop-hole, I will trouble +Mr. Smith to suggest it as I go along;" and he proceeded to give a +summary of the testimony, with homely force. + +"Now, sir?" he said, when he had finished. + +"I move for another ballot," said Mr. Eldridge. + +The result was the same. Eli had voted "not guilty." + +"Mr. Smith," said the foreman, "this must be settled in some way. This +is no child's play. You can't keep eleven men here, trifling with them, +giving no pretence of a reason." + +"I have n't no reasons, only that I don't believe he 's guilty," said +Eli. "I 'm not goin' to vote a man into State's-prison, when I don't +believe he done it," and he rose and walked to the window and looked +out. It was low tide. There was a broad stretch of mud in the distance, +covered with boats lying over disconsolate. A driving storm had emptied +the streets. He beat upon the rain-dashed glass a moment with his +fingers, and then he sat down again. + +"Well, sir," said the foreman, "this is singular conduct. What do you +propose to do?" + +Silence. + +"I suppose you realize that the rest of us are pretty rapidly forming a +conclusion on this matter," said the foreman. + +"Come! come!" said Mr. Eldridge; "don't be quite so hard on him, +Captain. Now, Mr. Smith," he said, standing up with his hands in his +coat-pockets and looking at Eli, "we know that there often is crooked +sticks on juries, that hold out alone--that's to be expected; but they +always argue, and stand to it the rest are fools, and all that. Now, +all is, we don't see why you don't sort of argue, if you 've got reasons +satisfactory to you. Come, now," he added, walking up to Eli, and +resting one foot on the seat of his chair, "why don't you tell it over? +and if we 're wrong, I 'm ready to join you." + +Eli looked up at him. + +"Did n't you ever know," he said, "of a man's takin' a cat off, to lose, +that his little girl did n't want drownded, and leavin' him ashore, +twenty or thirty miles, bee-line, from home, and that cat's bein' back +again the next day, purrin' 'round 's if nothin' had happened?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Eldridge--"knew of just such a case." + +"Very well," said Eli; "how does he find his way home?" + +"Don't know," said Mr. Eldridge; "always has been a standing mystery to +me." + +"Well," said Eli, "mark my words. There's such a thing as arguin', and +there 's such a thing as knowin' outright; and when you 'll tell me +how that cat inquires his way home, I '11 tell you how I know John Wood +ain't guilty." + +This made a certain sensation, and Eli's stock went up. + +An old, withered man rapped on the table. + +"That's so!" he said; "and there's other sing'lar things! How is it that +a seafarin' man, that 's dyin' to home, will allers die on the ebbtide? +It never fails, but how does it happen? Tell me that! And there's more +ways than one of knowin' things, too!" + +"I know that man ain't guilty," said Eli. + +"Hark ye!" said a dark old man with a troubled face, rising and pointing +his finger toward Eli. "_Know_, you say? I _knew_, wunst. I _knew_ that +my girl, my only child, was good. One night she went off with a married +man that worked in my store, and stole my money--and where is she now?" +And then he added, "What I _know_ is, that every man hes his price. I +hev mine, and you hev yourn!" + +"'Xcuse me, Mr. Speaker," said George Washington, rising with his hand +in his bosom; "as de question is befo' us, I wish to say that de las' +bro' mus' have spoken under 'xcitement. Every man _don_' have his price! +An' I hope de bro' will recant--like as de Psalmist goes out o' his way +to say '_In my haste_ I said, All men are liars.' He was a very +busy man, de Psalmist--writin' down hymns all day, sharpen'n' his +lead-pencil, bossin' 'roun' de choir--callin' Selah! Well, bro'n an' +sisters "--both arms going out, and his voice going up--" one day, +seems like, he was in gre't haste--got to finish a psalm for a monthly +concert, or such--and some man in-corrupted him, and lied; and bein' in +gre't haste--and a little old Adam in him--he says, right off, quick: +'_All_ men are liars!' But see! When he gits a little time to set back +and meditate, he says: 'Dis won' do--dere's Moses an' Job, an' Paul--dey +ain't liars!' An' den he don' sneak out, and 'low he said, 'All men is +lions,' or such. No! de Psalmist ain't no such man; but he owns up, 'an +'xplains. '_In my haste_,' he says, 'I said it.'" + +The foreman rose and rapped. + +"I await a motion," said he, "if our friend will allow me the privilege +of speaking." + +Mr. Washington calmly bowed. + +Then the foreman, when nobody seemed disposed to move, speaking slowly +at first, and piecemeal, alternating language with smoke, gradually +edged into the current of the evidence, and ended by going all over it +again, with fresh force and point. His cigar glowed and chilled in the +darkening room as he talked. + +"Now," he said, when he had drawn all the threads together to the point +of guilt, "what are we going to do upon this evidence?" + +"I 'll tell you something," said Eli. "I did n't want to say it because +I know what you 'll all think, but I 'll tell you, all the same." + +"Ah!" said the foreman. + +Eli stood up and faced the others. + +"'Most all o' you know what our Bar is in a southeast gale. They ain't a +man here that would dare to try and cross it when the sea's breakin' on +it. The man that says he would, lies!" And he looked at the foreman, and +waited a moment. + +"When my wife took sick, and I stopped goin' to sea, two year ago, and +took up boat-fishin', I did n't know half as much about the coast as the +young boys do, and one afternoon it was blowin' a gale, and we was all +hands comin' in, and passin' along the Bar to go sheer 'round it to the +west'ard, and Captain Fred Cook--he's short-sighted--got on to the Bar +before he knew it, and then he hed to go ahead, whether or no; and I was +right after him, and I s'posed he knew, and I followed him. Well, he was +floated over, as luck was, all right; but when I 'd just got on the Bar, +a roller dropped back and let my bowsprit down into the sand, and then +come up quicker'n lightnin' and shouldered the boat over, t' other end +first, and slung me into the water; and when I come up, I see somethin' +black, and there was John Wood's boat runnin' by me before the wind with +a rush--and 'fore I knew an'thing, he had me by the hair by one hand, +and in his boat, and we was over the Bar. Now, I tell you, a man that +looks the way I saw him look when I come over the gunwale, face up, +don't go 'round breakin' in and hookin' things. He hed n't one chance +in five, and he was a married man, too, with small children. And what's +more," he added incautiously, "he did n't stop there. When he found out, +this last spring, that I was goin' to lose my place, he lent me money +enough to pay the interest that was overdue on the mortgage, of his own +accord." + +And he stopped suddenly. + +"You have certainly explained yourself," said the foreman. "I think we +understand you distinctly." + +"There is n't one word of truth in that idea," said Eli, flushing up, +"and you know it. I 've paid him back every cent. I know him better 'n +any of you, that's all, and when I know he ain't guilty, I won't say he +is; and I can set here as long as any other man." + +"Lively times some folks 'll hev, when they go home," said a spare +tin-pedler, stroking his long yellow goatee. "Go into the store: nobody +speak to you; go to cattle-show: everybody follow you 'round; go to the +wharf: nobody weigh your fish; go to buy seed-cakes to the cart: baker +won't give no tick." + +"How much does it cost, Mr. Foreman," said the butcher, "for a man 't +'s obliged to leave town, to move a family out West? I only ask for +information. I have known a case where a man had to leave--could n't +live there no longer--wa' n't wanted." + +There was a knock. An officer, sent by the judge, inquired whether the +jury were likely soon to agree. + +"It rests with you, sir," said the foreman, looking at Eli. + +But Eli sat doggedly with his hands in his pockets, and did not look up +or speak. + +"Say to the judge that I cannot tell," said the foreman. + +It was eight o'clock when the officer returned, with orders to take the +jury across the street to the hotel, to supper. They went out in pairs, +except that the juryman who was left to fall in with Eli made three +with the file ahead, and left Eli to walk alone. This was noticed by the +bystanders. At the hotel, Eli could not eat a mouthful. He was seated +at one end of the table, and was left entirely out of the conversation. +When the jury were escorted back to the courthouse, rumors had evidently +begun to arise from his having walked alone, for there was quite a +little crowd at the hotel door, to see them. They went as before: four +pairs, a file of three, and Eli alone. Then the spectators understood +it. + +When the jury were locked into their room again for the night, Mr. +Eldridge sat down by Eli and lit his pipe. + +"I understand," he said, "just how you feel. Now, between you and me, +there was a good-hearted fellow that kept me out of a bad mess once. I +'ve never told anybody just what it was, and I don't mean to tell you +now, but it brought my blood up standing, to find how near I 'd come to +putting a fine steamer and two hundred and forty passengers under water. +Well, one day, a year or so after that, this man had a chance to get a +good ship, only there was some talk against him, that he drank a little. +Well, the owners told him they wanted to see me, and he come to me, and +says he, 'Mr. Eldridge, I hope you 'll speak a good word for me; if +you do, I 'll get the ship, but if they refuse me this one, I 'm dished +everywhere.' Well, the owners put me the square question, and I had to +tell 'em. Well, I met him that afternoon on Sacramento Street, as white +as a sheet, and he would n't speak to me, but passed right by, and that +night he went and shipped before the mast. That's the last I ever heard +of him; but I had to do it. Now," he added, "this man 's been good to +you; but the case is proved, and you ought to vote with the rest of us." + +"It ain't proved," said Eli. "The judge said that if any man had a +reasonable doubt, he ought to hold out. Now, I ain't convinced." + +"Well, that 's easy said," replied Mr. Eldridge, a little hotly, and he +arose, and left him. + +The jurymen broke up into little knots, tilted their chairs back, and +settled into the easiest positions that their cramped quarters allowed. +Most of them lit their pipes; the captain, and one or two whom he +honored, smoked fragrant cigars, and the room was soon filled with a +dense cloud. + +Eli sat alone by the window. + +"Sometimes sell two at one house," said a lank book-agent, arousing +himself from a reverie; "once sold three." + +"I think the Early Rose is about as profitable as any," said a little +farmer, with a large circular beard. "I used to favor Jacobs's Seedling, +but they have n't done so well with me of late years." + +"Sometimes," said the book-agent, picking his teeth with a quill, "you +'ll go to a house, and they 'll say they can't be induced to buy a book +of any kind, historical, fictitious, or religious; but you just keep on +talking, and show the pictures--'Grant in Boyhood,' 'Grant a Tanner,' +Grant at Head-quarters,' 'Grant in the White House,' 'Grant before Queen +Victoria,' and they warm up, I tell you, and not infrequently buy." + +"Do you sell de 'Illustrated Bible'," asked Washington, "wid de +Hypocrypha?" + +"No; I have a more popular treatise--the 'Illustrated History of the +Bible.' Greater variety. Brings in the surrounding nations, in costume. +Cloth, three dollars; sheep, three-fifty; half calf, five-seventy-five; +full morocco, gilt edges, seven-fifty. Six hundred and seven +illustrations on wood and steel. Three different engravings of Abraham +alone. Four of Noah,--'Noah before the Flood,' 'Noah Building the +Ark,' 'Noah Welcoming the Dove,' 'Noah on Ararat,' Steel engraving of +Ezekiel's Wheel, explaining prophecy. Jonah under the gourd, Nineveh in +the distance." + +Mr. Eldridge and Captain Thomas had drifted into a discussion of +harbors, and the captain had drawn his chair up to the table, and, with +a cigar in his mouth, was explaining an ingeniously constructed foreign +harbor. He was making a rough sketch, with a pen. + +"Here is north," he said; "here is the coastline; here are the flats; +here are the sluicegates; they store the water here, in--" + +Some of the younger men had their heads together, in a corner, about +the tin-pedler, who was telling stories of people he had met in his +journeys, which brought out repeated bursts of laughter. + +In the corner farthest from Eli, a delicate-looking man began to tell +the butcher about Eli's wife. + +"Twelve years ago this fall," he said, "I taught district-school in the +parish where she lived. She was about fourteen then. Her father was +a poor farmer, without any faculty. Her mother was dead, and she kept +house. I stayed there one week, boarding 'round." + +"Prob'ly did n't git not much of any fresh meat that week," suggested +the butcher. + +"She never said much, but it used to divert me to see her order around +her big brothers, just as if she was their mother. She and I got to be +great friends; but she was a queer piece. One day at school the girls in +her row were communicating, and annoying me, while the third class +was reciting in 'First Steps in Numbers,' and I was so incensed that +I called Lizzie--that's her name--right out, and had her stand up for +twenty minutes. She was a shy little thing, and set great store by +perfect marks. I saw that she was troubled a good deal, to have all of +them looking and laughing at her. But she stood there, with her hands +folded behind her, and not a smile or a word." + +"Look out for a sullen cow," said the butcher. + +"I felt afraid I had been too hasty with her, and I was rather sorry I +had been so decided--although, to be sure, she did n't pretend to deny +that she had been communicating." + +"Of course," said the butcher: "no use lyin' when you 're caught in the +act." + +"Well, after school, she stayed at her desk, fixing her dinner-pail, and +putting her books in a strap, and all that, till all the rest had gone, +and then she came up to my desk, where I was correcting compositions." + +"Now for music!" said the butcher. + +"She had been crying a little. Well, she looked straight in my face, and +said she, 'Mr. Pollard, I just wanted to say to you that I was n't doing +anything at all when you called me up;' and off she went. Now, that was +just like her,--too proud to say a word before the school." + +But here his listener's attention was diverted by the voice of the +book-agent. + +"The very best Bible for teachers, of course, is the limp-cover, +protected edges, full Levant morocco, Oxford, silk-sewed, kid-lined, +Bishop's Divinity Circuit, with concordance, maps of the Holy Land, +weights, measures, and money-tables of the Jews. Nothing like having a +really--" + +"And so," said the captain, moving back his chair, "they let on the +whole head of water, and scour out the channel to a T." + +And then he rapped upon the table. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "please draw your chairs up, and let us take +another ballot." + +The count resulted as before. + +The foreman muttered something which had a scriptural sound. In a few +moments he drew Mr. Eldridge and two others aside. "Gentlemen," he +said to them, "I shall quietly divide the jury into watches, under your +charge: ten can sleep, while one wakes to keep Mr. Smith discussing the +question. I don't propose to have the night wasted." + +And, by one man or another, Eli was kept awake. + +"I don't see," said the book-agent, "why you should feel obliged to +stick it out any longer. Of course, you are under obligations. But you +'ve done more than enough already, so as that he can't complain of you, +and if you give in now, everybody 'll give you credit for trying to save +your friend, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, for giving in to +the evidence. So you 'll get credit both ways." + +An hour later, the tin-pedler came on duty. He had not followed closely +the story about John Wood's loan, and had got it a little awry. + +"Now, how foolish you be," he said, in a confidential tone. "Can't +you see that if you cave in now, after stan'n' out nine hours"--and +he looked at a silver watch with a brass chain, and stroked his +goatee--"nine hours and twenty-seven minutes--that you 've made jest +rumpus enough so as't he won't dare to foreclose on you, for fear they +'ll say you went back on a trade. On t' other hand, if you hold clear +out, he'll turn you out-o'-doors to-morrow, for a blind, so 's to look +as if there wa' n't no trade between you. Once he gits off, he won't +know Joseph, you bet! That's what I 'd do," he added, with a sly laugh. +"Take your uncle's advice." + +"The only trouble with that," said Eli, shortly, "is that I don't owe +him anything." + +"Oh," said the pedler; "that makes a difference. I understood you did." + +Three o'clock came, and brought Mr. El-dridge. He found Eli worn out +with excitement. + +"Now, I don't judge you the way the others do," said Mr. Eldridge, in a +low tone, with his hand on Eli's knee. "I know, as I told you, just the +way you feel. But we can't help such things. Suppose, now, that I had +kept dark, and allowed to the owners that that man was always sober, +and I had heard, six months after, of thirty or forty men going to the +bottom because the captain was a little off his base; and then to think +of their wives and children at home. We have to do some hard things; but +I say, do the square thing, and let her slide." + +"But I can't believe he 's guilty," said Eli. + +"But don't you allow," said Mr. Eldridge, "that eleven men are more sure +to hit it right than one man?" + +"Yes," said Eli, reluctantly, "as a general thing." + +"Well, there's always got to be some give to a jury, just as in +everything else, and you ought to lay right down on the rest of us. It +is n't as if we were at all squirmish. Now, you know that if you hold +out, he 'll be tried again." + +"Yes, I suppose so." + +"Got to be--no other way," said Mr. Eldridge. "Now, the next time, there +won't be anybody like you to stand out, and the judge 'll know of this +scrape, and he'll just sock it to him." + +Eli turned uneasily in his chair. + +"And then it won't be understood in your place, and folks 'll turn +against you every way, and, what's worse, let you alone." + +"I can stand it," said Eli, angrily. "Let 'em do as they like. They +can't kill me." + +"They can kill your wife and break down your children," said Mr. +Eldridge. "Women and children can't stand it. Now, there's that man they +were speaking of; he lived down my way. He sued a poor, shiftless fellow +that had come from Pennsylvania to his daughter's funeral, and had him +arrested and taken off, crying, just before the funeral begun--after +they 'd even set the flowers on the coffin; and nobody'd speak to him +after that--they just let him alone; and after a while his wife took +sick of it--she was a nice, kindly woman--and she had sort of hysterics, +and finally he moved off West. And 't was n't long before the woman +died. Now, you can't undertake to do different from everybody else." + +"Well," said Eli, "I know I wish it was done with." + +Mr. Eldridge stretched his arms and yawned. Then he began to walk up and +down, and hum, out of tune. Then he stopped at Captain Thomas's chair. + +"Suppose we try a ballot," he said. "He seems to give a little." + +In a moment the foreman rapped. + +"It is time we were taking another ballot, gentlemen," he said. + +The sleepers rose, grumbling, from uneasy dreams. + +"I will write 'guilty' on twelve ballots," said the foreman, "and if any +one desires to write in 'not,' of course he can." + +When the hat came to Eli, he took one of the ballots and held it in his +hand a moment, and then he laid it on the table. There was a general +murmur. The picture which Mr. El-dridge had drawn loomed up before him. +But with a hasty hand he wrote in "not," dropped in the ballot, and +going back to his chair by the window, sat down. + +There was a cold wave of silence. + +Then Eli suddenly walked up to the foreman and faced him. + +"Now," he said, "we 'll stop. The very next turn breaks ground. If you, +or any other man that you set on, tries to talk to me when I don't want +to hear, to worry me to death--look out!" + +How the long hours wore on! How easy, sometimes, to resist an open +pressure, and how hard, with the resistance gone, to fight, as one that +beats the air! How the prospect of a whole hostile town loomed up, in +a mirage, before Eli! And then the picture rose before him of a long, +stately bark, now building, whose owner had asked him yesterday to be +first mate. And if his wife were only well, and he were only free from +this night's trouble, how soon, upon the long, green waves, he could +begin to redeem his little home! + +And then came Mr. Eldridge, kind and friendly, to have another little +chat. + +Morning came, cold and drizzly. An officer knocked at the door, and +called out, "Breakfast!" And in a moment, unwashed, and all uncombed, +except the tin-pedler, who always carried a beard-comb in his pocket, +they were marched across the street to the hotel. + +There were a number of men on the piazza waiting to see them,--jurymen, +witnesses, and the accused himself, for he was on bail. He had seen the +procession the night before, and, like the others, had read its meaning. + +"Eli knows I would n't do it," he had said to himself, "and he's going +to hang out, sure." + +The jury began to turn from the court-house door. Everybody looked. A +file of two men, another file, another, another; would there come three +men, and then one? No; Eli no longer walked alone. + +Everybody looked at Wood; he turned sharply away. + +But this time the order of march in fact showed nothing, one way or the +other. It only meant that the judge, who had happened to see the jury +the night before returning from their supper, had sent for the high +sheriff in some temper,--for judges are human,--and had vigorously +intimated that if that statesman did not look after his fool of a +deputy, who let a jury parade secrets to the public view, he would! + +The jury were in their room again. At nine o'clock came a rap, and a +summons from the court. The prosecuting attorney was speaking with the +judge when they went in. In a moment he took his seat. + +"John Wood!" called out the clerk, and the defendant arose. His attorney +was not there. + +"Mr. Foreman!" said the judge, rising. The jury arose. The silence of +the crowded courtroom was intense. + +"Before the clerk asks you for a verdict, gentlemen," said the judge, "I +have something of the first importance to say to you, which has but this +moment come to my knowledge." + +Eli changed color, and the whole court-room looked at him. + +"There were some most singular rumors, after the case was given to you, +gentlemen, to the effect that there had been in this cause a criminal +abuse of justice. It is painful to suspect, and shocking to know, +that courts and juries are liable ever to suffer by such unprincipled +practices. After ten years upon the bench, I never witness a conviction +of crime without pain; but that pain is light, compared with the +distress of knowing of a wilful perversion of justice. It is a relief +to me to be able to say to you that such instances are, in my judgment, +exceedingly rare, and--so keen is the awful searching power of +truth--are almost invariably discovered." + +The foreman touched his neighbor with his elbow. Eli folded his arms. + +"As I said," continued the judge, "there were most singular rumors. +During the evening and the night, rumor, as is often the case, led to +evidence, and evidence has led to confession and to certainty. And the +district attorney now desires me to say to you that the chief officer of +the bank--who held the second key to the safe--is now under arrest for a +heavy defalcation, which a sham robbery was to conceal, and that you may +find the prisoner at the bar--not guilty. I congratulate you, gentlemen, +that you had not rendered an adverse verdict." + +"Your Honor!" said Eli, and he cleared his throat, "I desire it to be +known that, even as the case stood last night, this jury had not agreed +to convict, and never would have!" + +There was a hush, while a loud scratching pen indorsed the record of +acquittal. Then Wood walked down to the jury-box and took Eli's hand. + +"Just what I told my wife all through," he said. "I knew you 'd hang +out!" + +Eli's jury was excused for the rest the of day, and by noon he was in +his own village, relieved, too, of his most pressing burden: for George +Cahoon had met him on the road, and told him that he was not going to +the West, after all, for the present, and should not need his money. +But, as he turned the bend of the road and neared his house, he felt a +rising fear that some disturbing rumor might have reached his wife about +his action on the jury. And, to his distress and amazement, there she +was, sitting in a chair at the door. + +"Lizzie!" he said, "what does this mean? Are you crazy?" + +"I'll tell you what it means," she said, as she stood up with a little +smile and clasped her hands behind her. "This morning it got around and +came to me that you was standing out all alone for John Wood, and that +the talk was that they 'd be down on you, and drive you out of town, +and that everybody pitied _me_,--_pitied me!_ And when I heard that, +I thought I 'd see! And my strength seemed to come all back, and I got +right up and dressed myself. And what's more, I 'm going to get well +now!" + +And she did. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eli, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELI *** + +***** This file should be named 23005.txt or 23005.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23005/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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