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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/23007-0.txt b/23007-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e5eabc --- /dev/null +++ b/23007-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1164 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Village Convict, 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: The Village Convict + First published in the “Century Magazine” + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23007] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE CONVICT *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +THE VILLAGE CONVICT + +By Heman White Chaplin + +1887 + +First published in the “Century Magazine.” + + +“Wonder 'f Eph's got back; they say his sentence run out yisterday.” + +The speaker, John Doane, was a sunburnt fisherman, one of a circle +of well-salted individuals who sat, some on chairs, some on boxes and +barrels, around the stove in a country store. + +“Yes,” said Captain Seth, a middle-aged little man with ear-rings; “he +come on the stage to-noon. Would n't hardly speak a word, Jim says. +Looked kind o' sot and sober.” + +“Wall,” said the first speaker, “I only hope he won't go to burnin' +us out of house and home, same as he burnt up Eliphalet's barn. I was +ruther in hopes he 'd 'a' made off West. Seems to me I should, in his +place, hevin' ben in State's-prison.” + +“Now, I allers hed quite a parcel o' sympathy for Eph,” said a short, +thickset coasting captain, who sat tilted back in a three-legged chair, +smoking lazily. “You see, he wa'n't but about twenty-one or two then, +and he was allers a mighty high-strung boy; and then Eliphalet did act +putty ha'sh, foreclosin' on Eph's mother, and turnin' her out o' the +farm in winter, when everybody knew she could ha' pulled through by +waitin.' Eph sot great store by the old lady, and I expect he was putty +mad with Eliphalet that night.” + +“I allers,” said Doane, “approved o' his plan o' leadin' out all the +critters, 'fore he touched off the barn. 'T ain't everybody 't would hev +taken pains to do that. But all the same, I tell Sarai 't I feel kind o' +skittish, nights, to hev to turn in, feelin' 't there's a convict in the +place.” + +“I hain't got no barn to burn,” said Captain Seth; “but if he allots my +hen-house to the flames, I hope he'll lead out the hens and hitch 'em to +the apple-trees, same's he did Eliphalet's critters. Think he ought to +deal ekally by all.” + +A mild general chuckle greeted this sally, cheered by which the speaker +added,-- + +“Thought some o' takin' out a policy o' insurance on my cockerel.” + +“Trade's lookin' up, William,” said Captain Seth to the storekeeper, +as some one was heard to kick the snow off his boots on the door-step. +“Somebody 's found he's got to hev a shoestring 'fore mornin'.” + +The door opened, and closed behind a strongly-made man of twenty-six +or seven, of homely features, with black hair, in clothes which he had +outgrown. It was a bitter night, but he had no coat over his flannel +jacket. He walked straight down the store, between the dry-goods +counters, to the snug corner at the rear, where the knot of talkers sat; +nodded, without a smile, to each of them, and then asked the storekeeper +for some simple articles of food, which he wished to buy. It was Eph. + +While the purchases were being put up, an awkward silence prevailed, +which the oil-suits hanging on the walls, broadly displaying their arms +and legs, seemed to mock, in dumb show. + +Nothing was changed, to Eph's eyes, as he looked about. Even the +handbill of familiar pattern-- + + “STANDING WOOD FOR SALE. + Apply to J. CARTER, Admin'r,” + +seemed to have always been there. + +The village parliament remained spellbound. Mr. Adams tied up the +purchases, and mildly inquired,-- + +“Shall I charge this?” + +Not that he was anxious to open an account, but that he would probably +have gone to the length of selling Eph a barrel of molasses “on tick” + rather than run any risk of offending so formidable a character. + +“No,” said Eph; “I will pay for the things.” + +And having put the packages into a canvas bag, and selected some +fish-hooks and lines from the show-case, where they lay environed +by jack-knives, jews-harps, and gum-drops,--dear to the eyes of +childhood,--he paid what was due, said “Good-night, William,” to the +storekeeper, and walked steadily out into the night. + +“Wall,” said the skipper, “I am surprised! I strove to think o' suthin' +to say, all the time he was here, but I swow I couldn't think o' +nothin'. I could n't ask him if it seemed good to git home, nor how the +thermometer had varied in different parts o' the town where he 'd been. +Everything seemed to fetch right up standin' to the State's-prison.” + +“I was just goin' to say, 'How'd ye leave everybody?'” said Doane; +“but that kind o' seemed to bring up them he 'd left. I felt real bad, +though, to hev the feller go off 'thout none on us speakin' to him. He +'s got a hard furrer to plough; and yet I don't s'pose there 's much +harm in him, 'f Eliphalet only keeps quiet.” + +“Eliphalet!” said a young sailor, contemptuously. “No fear o' him! +They say he 's so sca't of Eph he hain't hardly swallowed nothin' for a +week.” + +“But where will he live?” asked a short, curly-haired young man, whom +Eph had seemed not to recognize. It was the new doctor, who, after +having made his way through college and the great medical school in +Boston, had, two years before, settled in this village. + +“I believe,” said Mr. Adams, rubbing his hands, “that he wrote to Joshua +Carr last winter, when his mother died, not to let the little place she +left, on the Salt Hay Road; and I understand that he is going to make +his home there. It is an old house, you know, and not worth much, but it +is weather-tight, I should say.” + +“Speakin' of his writin' to Joshua,” said Doane, “I have heard such a +sound as that he used to shine up to Joshua's Susan, years back. But +that 's all ended now. You won't catch Susan marryin' no jailbirds.” + +“But how will he live?” said the doctor. “Will anybody give him work?” + +“Let him alone for livin',” said Doane. “He can ketch more fish than +any other two men in the place--allers seemed to kind o' hev a knack o' +whistlin' 'em right into the boat. And then Nelson Briggs, that settled +up his mother's estate, allows he 's got over a hundred and ten dollars +for him, after payin' debts and all probate expenses. That and the place +is all he needs to start on.” + +“I will go to see him,” said the doctor to himself, as he went out upon +the requisition of a grave man in a red tippet, who had just come for +him. “He does n't look so very dangerous, and I think he can be tamed. I +remember that his mother told me about him.” + +Late that night, returning from his seven miles' drive, as he left +the causeway, built across a wide stretch of salt-marsh, crossed the +rattling plank bridge, and ascended the hill, he saw a light in the +cottage window, where he had often been to attend Aunt Lois. “I will +stop now,” said he. And, tying his horse to the front fence, he went +toward the kitchen door. As he passed the window, he glanced in. A +lamp was burning on the table. On a settle, lying upon his face, was +stretched the convict, his arms beneath his head. The canvas bag lay on +the floor beside him. “I will not disturb him now,” said the doctor. + +***** + +A few days later Dr. Burt was driving in his sleigh with his wife along +the Salt Hay Road. It was a clear, crisp winter forenoon. As they neared +Eph's house, he said,-- + +“Mary, suppose I lay siege to the fort this morning. I see a curl of +smoke rising from the little shop in the barn. He must be making himself +a jimmy or a dark-lantern to break into our vegetable cellar with.” + +“Well,” said she, “I think it would be a good plan; only, you know, you +must be very, very careful not to hint, even in the faintest way, at +his imprisonment. You mustn't so much as _suspect_ that he has ever been +away from the place. People hardly dare to speak to him, for fear he +will see some reference to his having been in prison, and get angry.” + +“You shall see my sly tact,” said her husband, laughing. “I will be +as innocent as a lamb. I will ask him why I have not seen him at the +Sabbath-school this winter.” + +“You may make fun,” said she, “but you will end by taking my advice, all +the same. Now, do be careful what you say.” + +“I will,” he replied. “I will compose my remarks carefully upon the back +of an envelope and read them to him, so as to be absolutely sure. I will +leave on his mind an impression that I have been in prison, and that he +was the judge that tried me.” + +He drove in at the open gate, hitched his horse in a warm corner by +the kitchen door, and then stopped for a moment to enjoy the view. The +situation of the little house, half a mile from any other, was beautiful +in summer, but it was bleak enough in winter. In the small front +dooryard stood three lofty, wind-blown poplars, all heading away from +the sea, and between them you could look down the bay or across the +salt-marshes, while in the opposite direction were to be seen the roofs +and the glittering spires of the village. + +“It is social for him here, to say the least,” said the doctor, as he +turned and walked alone to the shop. He opened the door and went in. It +was a long, low lean-to, such as farmers often furnish for domestic work +with a carpenter's bench, a grindstone, and a few simple tools. It was +lighted by three square windows above the bench. An air-tight stove, +projecting its funnel through a hole in one of the panes, gave out a +cheerful crackling. + +Eph, in his shirt-sleeves, his hands in his pockets, was standing, his +back against the bench, surveying, with something of a mechanic's eye, +the frame of a boat which was set up on the floor. + +He looked up and colored slightly. The doctor took out a cigarette, lit +it, sat down on the bench, and smoked, clasping one knee in his hands +and eying the boat. + +“Centre-board?” he asked, at length. + +“Yes,” said Eph. + +“Cat-rig?” + +“Yes.” + +“Going fishing?” + +“Yes.” + +“Alone?” + +“Yes.” + +“I was brought up to sail a boat,” said the doctor, “and I go fishing in +summer--when I get a chance. I shall try your boat, some time.” + +No reply. + +“The timbers aren't seasoned, are they? They look like pitch-pine, just +out of the woods. Won't they warp?” + +“No. Pitch-pine goes right in, green. I s'pose the pitch keeps it, if +it's out of the sun.” + +“Where did you cut it?” + +Eph colored a little. + +“In my back lot.” + +The doctor smoked on calmly, and studied the boat. + +“I don't know as I know you,” said Eph, relaxing a little. + +“Good reason,” said the doctor. “I 've only been here two years;” and +after a moment's pause, he added: “I am the doctor here, now. You 've +heard of my father, Dr. Burt, of Broad River?” + +Eph nodded assent; everybody knew him, all through the country,--a +fatherly old man, who rode on long journeys at everybody's call, and +never sent in his bills. + +The visitor had a standing with Eph at once. + +“Doctors never pick at folks,” he said to himself--“at any rate, not old +Dr. Burt's son. + +“I used to come here to see your mother,” said the doctor, “when she was +sick. She used to talk a great deal about you, and said she wanted me to +get acquainted with you, when your time was out.” + +Eph started, but said nothing. + +“She was a good woman, Aunt Lois,” added the doctor; “one of the best +women I ever saw.” + +“I don't want anybody to bother himself on my account,” said Eph. “I ask +no favors.” + +“You will have to take favors, though,” said the doctor, “before the +winter is over. You will be careless and get sick; you have been living +for a long time entirely in-doors, with regular hours and work and +food. Now you are going to live out-of-doors, and get your own meals, +irregularly. You did n't have on a thick coat the other night, when I saw +you at the store.” + +“I haven't got any that's large enough for me,” said Eph, a little less +harshly, “and I 've got to keep my money for other things.” + +“Then look out and wear flannel shirts enough,” said the doctor, “if you +want to be independent. But before I go, I want to go into the house. I +want my wife to see Aunt Lois's room, and the view from the west window;” + and he led the way to the sleigh. + +Eph hesitated a moment, and then followed him. + +“Mary, this is Ephraim Morse. We are going in to see the Dutch tiles I +have told you of.” + +She smiled as she held out her mittened hand to Eph, who took it +awkwardly. + +The square front room, which had been originally intended for a +keeping-room, but had been Aunt Lois's bedroom, looked out from two +windows upon the road, and from two upon the rolling, tumbling bay, +and the shining sea beyond. A tall clock, with a rocking ship above the +face, ticked in the corner. The painted floor with bright rag mats, +the little table with a lacquer work-box, the stiff chairs and the +old-fashioned bedstead, the china ornaments upon the mantel-piece, the +picture of “The Emeline G. in the Harbor of Canton,” were just as they +had been when the patient invalid had lain there, looking from her +pillow out to sea. In twelve rude tiles, set around the open fireplace, +the Hebrews were seen in twelve stages of their escape from Egypt. It +would appear from this representation that they had not restricted their +borrowings to the jewels of their oppressors, but had taken for the +journey certain Dutch clothing of the fashion of the seventeenth +century. The scenery, too, was much like that about Leyden. + +“I think,” said the doctor's wife, “that the painter was just a little +absent-minded when he put in that beer-barrel. And a wharf, by the Red +Sea!” + +“I wish you would conclude to rig your boat with a new sail,” said the +doctor, as he took up the reins, at parting. “There is n't a boat here +that 's kept clean, and I should like to hire yours once or twice a week +in summer, if you keep her as neat as you do your house. Come in and see +me some evening, and we 'll talk it over.” + +***** + +Eph built his boat, and, in spite of his evident dislike of visitors, +the inside finish and the arrangements of the little cabin were so +ingenious and so novel that everybody had to pay him a visit. + +True to his plan of being independent, he built in the side of the hill, +near his barn, by a little gravelly pond, an ice-house, and with the +hardest labor filled it, all by himself. With this supply, he would not +have to go to the general wharf at Sandy Point to sell his fish, with +the other men, but could pack and ship them himself. And he could do +better, in this way, he thought, even after paying for teaming them to +the cars. + +The knowing ones laughed to see that, from asking no advice, he had +miscalculated and laid in three times as much as he could use. + +“Guess Eph cal'lates to fish with two lines in each hand an' another 'n +his teeth,” said Mr. Wing. “He 's plannin' out for a great lay o' fish.” + +The spring came slowly on, and the first boat that went out that season +was Eph's. That day was one of unmixed delight to him. What a sense of +absolute freedom, when he was fairly out beyond the lightship, with the +fresh swiftness of the wind in his face! What an exquisite consciousness +of power and control, as his boat went beating through the long waves! +Two or three men from another village sailed across his wake. His boat +lay over, almost showing her keel, now high out of water, now settling +between the waves, while Eph stood easily in the stern, in his +shirt-sleeves, backing against the tiller, smoking a pipe, and ranging +the waters with his eyes. + +“Takes it natural ag'in, don't he? Stands as easy as ef he was loafin' +on a wharf,” said one of the observers. “Expect it 's quite a treat to +be out. But they do say he 's gittin' everybody's good opinion. They +looked for a reg'-lar ruffi'n when he come home,--cuttin' nets, killin' +cats, chasin' hens, gittin' drunk! They say Eliphalet Wood didn't hardly +dare to go ou' doors for a month, 'thout havin' his hired man along. But +he 's turned out as peaceful as a little gal.” + +***** + +One June day, as Eph was slitting blue-fish at the little pier which he +had built on the bay shore, near his rude ice-house, two men came up. + +“Hullo, Eph!” + +“Hullo!” + +“We 've got about sick, tradin' down to the wharf; we can't git no fair +show. About one time in three, they tell us they don't want our fish, +and won't take 'em unless we heave 'em in for next to nothin',--and we +know there ain't no sense in it. So we just thought we 'd slip down and +see 'f you would n't take 'em, seein's you 've got ice, and send 'em up +with yourn.” + +Eph was taken all aback with this mark of confidence. The offer must be +declined. It evidently sprang from some mere passing vexation. + +“I can't buy fish,” said he. “I have no scales to weigh 'em.” + +“Then send ourn in separate berrels,” said one of the men. + +“But I haven't any money to pay you,” he said. “I only get my pay once a +month.” + +“We'll git tick at William's, and you can settle 'th us when you git +your pay.” + +“Well,” said he, unable to refuse, “I 'll take 'em, if you say so.” + +Before the season was over, he had still another customer, and could +have had three or four more, if he had had ice enough. He felt strongly +inclined that fall to build a larger icehouse; and although he was a +little afraid of bringing ridicule upon himself in case no fish should +be brought to him the next summer, he decided to do so, on the assurance +of three or four men that they meant to come to him. Nobody else had +such a chance,--a pond right by the shore. + +One evening there was a knock at the door of Eliphalet Wood, the owner +of the burned barn. Eliphalet went to the door, but turned pale at +seeing Eph there. + +“Oh, come in, come in!” he panted. “Glad to see you. Walk in. Have a +chair. Take a seat. Sit down.” + +But he thought his hour had come: he was alone in the house, and there +was no neighbor within call. + +Eph took out a roll of bills, counted out eighty dollars, laid the money +on the table, and said quietly,-- + +“Give me a receipt on account.” + +When it was written he walked out, leaving Eliphalet stupefied. + +***** + +Joshua Carr was at work, one June afternoon, by the roadside, in front +of his low cottage, by an enormous pile of poles, which he was shaving +down for barrel-hoops, when Eph appeared. + +“Hard at it, Joshua!” he said. + +“Yes, yes!” said Joshua, looking up through his steel-bowed spectacles. +“Hev to work hard to make a livin'--though I don't know's I ought to +call it hard, neither; and yet it is ruther hard, too; but then, on t' +other hand, 't ain't so hard as a good many other things--though there +is a good many jobs that's easier. That's so! that 's so! + + 'Must we be kerried to the skies + On feathery beds of ease?' + +Though I don't know's I ought to quote a hymn on such a matter; but +then--I don' know's there's any partic'lar harm in't, neither.” + +Eph sat down on a pile of shavings and chewed a sliver; and the old man +kept on at his work. + +“Hoop-poles goin' up and hoops goin' down,” he continued. “Cur'us, +ain't it? But then, I don' know as 'tis; woods all bein' cut off--poles +gittin' scurcer--hoops bein' shoved in from Down East. That don't seem +just right, now, does it? But then, other folks must make a livin', too. +Still, I should think they might take up suthin' else; and yet, they +might say that about me. Understand, I don't mean to say that they +actually do say so; I don't want to run down any man unless I know--” + +“I can't stand this,” said Eph to himself; “I don't wonder that they +always used to put Joshua off at the first port, when he tried to go +coasting. They said he talked them crazy with nothing. + +“I 'll go into the house and see Aunt Lyddy,” he said aloud. “I 'm +loafing, this afternoon.” + +“All right! all right!” said Joshua. “Lyddy 'll be glad to see you--that +is, as glad as she would be to see anybody,” he added, reaching out for +a pole. “Now, I don't s'pose that sounds very well; but still, you know +how she is--she allers likes to hev folks to talk, and then she's allers +sayin' talkin' wears on her; but I ought not to say that to you, because +she allers likes to see you--that is, as much as she likes to see +anybody. In fact, I think, on the whole--” + +“Well, I'll take my chances,” said Eph, laughing; and he opened the gate +and went in. + +Joshua's wife, whom everybody called Aunt Lyddy, was rocking in a +high-backed-chair in the kitchen, and knitting. It was currently +reported that Joshua's habit of endlessly retracting and qualifying +every idea and modification of an idea which he advanced, so as to +commit himself to nothing, was the effect of Aunt Lyddy's careful +revision. + +“I s'pose she thought 't was fun to be talked deef when they was +courtin',” Captain Seth had once sagely remarked. “Prob'ly it sounded +then like a putty piece on a seraphine; but I allers cal'lated she 'd +git her fill of it, sooner or later. You most gin'lly git your fill o' +one tune.” + +“How are you this afternoon, Aunt Lyddy?” asked Eph, walking in without +knocking, and sitting down near her. + +“So as to be able to keep about,” she replied. “It is a great mercy I +ain't afflicted with falling out of my chair, like Hepsy Jones, ain't +it?” + +“I 've brought you some oysters,” he said. “I set the basket down on +the door-step. I just took them out of the water myself from the bed I +planted to the west of the water-fence.” + +“I always heard you was a great fisherman,” said Aunt Lyddy, “but I +had no idea you would ever come here and boast of being able to catch +oysters. Poor things! How could they have got away? But why don't you +bring them in? They won't be afraid of me, will they?” + +He stepped to the door and brought in a peck basket full of large, +black, twisted shells, and with a heavy clasp-knife proceeded to open +one, and took out a great oyster, which he held up on the point of the +blade. + +“Try it,” he said; and then Aunt Lyddy, after she had swallowed it, +laughed to think what a tableau they had made,--a man who had been in +the State prison standing over her with a great knife! And then she +laughed again. + +“What are you laughing at?” he said. + +“It popped into my head, supposing Susan should have looked in at the +south window and Joshua in at the door, when you was feeding out that +oyster to me, what they would have thought!” + +Eph laughed too; and, surely enough, just then a stout, light-haired, +rather plain-looking young woman came up to the south window and leaned +in. She had on a sun-bonnet, which had not prevented her from securing +a few choice freckles. She had been working with a trowel in her +flower-garden. + +“What's the matter?” she said, nodding easily to Eph. “What do you two +always find to laugh about?” + +“Ephraim was feeding me with spoon-meat,” said Aunt Lyddy, pointing to +the basket, which looked like a basket of anthracite coal. + +“It looks like spoon-meat!” said Susan, and then she laughed too. “I 'll +roast some of them for supper,” she added,--“a new way that I know.” + +Eph was not invited to stay to supper, but he stayed, none the less: +that was always understood. + +“Well, well, well!” said Joshua, coming to the door-step, and washing +his hands and arms just outside, in a tin basin. “I thought I see you +set down a parcel of oysters--but there was sea-weed over 'em, and I +don' know's I could have said they was oysters; but then, if the square +question had been put to me, 'Mr. Carr, be them oysters or be they +not?' I s'pose I should have said they was; still, if they 'd asked me +how I knew--” + +“Come, come, father!” said Aunt Lyddy, “do give poor Ephraim a little +peace. Why don't you just say you thought they were oysters, and done +with it?” + +“Say I _thought_ they was?” he replied, innocently. “I knew well enough +they was--that is--knew? No, I did n't know, but--” + +Aunt Lyddy, with an air of mock resignation, gave up, while Joshua +endeavored to fix, to a hair, the exact extent of his knowledge. + +Eph smiled; but he remembered what would have made him pardon, a +thousand times over, the old man's garrulousness. He remembered who +alone had never failed, once a year, to visit a certain prisoner, at +the cost of a long and tiresome journey, and who had written to that +homesick prisoner kind and cheering letters, and had sent him baskets of +simple dainties for holidays. + +Susan bustled about, and made a fire of crackling sticks, and began to +roast the oysters in a way that made a most savory smell. She set the +table, and then sat down at the melodeon, while she was waiting, and +sang a hymn; for she was of a musical turn, and was one of the choir. +Then she jumped up and took out the steaming oysters, and they all sat +down. + +“Well, well, well!” said her father; “these be good! I did n't s'pose +you hed any very good oysters in your bed, Ephraim. But there, now--I +don't s'pose I ought to have said that; that was n't very polite; +but what I meant was, I did n't s'pose you hed any that was _real_ +good--though I don' know but I 've said about the same thing, now. Well, +any way, these be splendid; they 're full as good as those co-hogs we +had t'other night.” + +“Quahaugs!” said Susan. “The idea of comparing these oysters with +quahaugs!” + +“Well, well! that's so!” said her father. “I did n't say right, did I, +when I said that! Of course, there ain't no comparison--that +is--_no_ comparison? Why, of course, they is a comparison between +everything,--but then, cohogs don't really compare with oysters! That's +true!” + +And then he paused to eat a few. + +He was silent so long at this occupation that they all laughed. + +“Well, well!” he said, laying down his fork, and smiling innocently; +“what be you all laughin' at? Not but what I allers like to hev folks +laugh--but then, I did n't see nothin' to laugh at. Still, perhaps they +was suthin' to laugh at that I didn't see; sometimes one man 'll be +lookin' down into his plate, all taken up with his victuals, and others, +that's lookin' around the room, may see the kittens frolickin', or some +such thing. 'T ain't the fust time I 've known all hands to laugh all to +once-t, when I didn't see nothin'.” + +Susan helped him again, and secured another brief respite. + +“Ephraim,” said he, after a while, “you ain't skilled to cook oysters +like this, I don't believe. You ought to git married! I was sayin' to +Susan t'other day--well, now, mother, hev I said anything out o' the +way? Well, I don't s'pose 't was just _my_ place to have said anything +about gitt'n' married, to Ephraim, seein's--” + +“Come, come, father,” said Aunt Lyddy, “that'll do, now. You must let +Ephraim alone, and not joke him about such things.” + +Meanwhile Susan had hastily gone into the pantry to look for a pie, +which she seemed unable at once to find. + +“Pie got adrift?” called out Joshua. “Seems to me you don't hook on to +it very quick. Now that looks good,” he added, when she came out. + +“That looks like cookin'! All I meant was, 't Ephraim ought not to be +doin' his own cookin'--that is, 'f you can call it cookin. But then, of +course, 'tis cookin'--there's all kinds o' cookin'. I went cook myself, +when I was a boy.” + +After supper, Aunt Lyddy sat down to knit, and Joshua drew his chair up +to an open window, to smoke his pipe. In this vice Aunt Lyddy encouraged +him. The odor of Virginia tobacco was a sweet savor in her nostrils. +No breezes from Araby ever awoke more grateful feelings than did the +fragrance of Uncle Joshua's pipe. To Aunt Lyddy it meant quiet and +peace. + +Susan and Eph sat down on the broad flag door-stone, and talked quietly +of the simple news of the neighborhood, and of the days when they used +to go to school, and come home, always together. + +“I did n't much think then,” said Eph, “that I should ever bring up +where I have, and get ashore before I was fairly out to sea!” + +“Jehiel's schooner got ashore on the bar, years ago,” said Susan, “and +yet they towed her off, and I saw her this morning, from my chamber +window, before sunrise, all sail set, going by to the eastward.” + +“I know what you mean,” said Eph. “But here--I got mad once, and I +almost had a right to, and I can't get started again; I never shall. +I can get a living, of course; but I shall always be pointed out as a +jailbird, and could no more get any footing in the world than Portuguese +Jim.” + +Portuguese Jim was the sole professional criminal of the town,--a weak, +good-natured, knock-kneed vagabond, who stole hens, and spent every +winter in the House of Correction as an “idle and disorderly person.” + +Susan laughed outright at the picture. Eph smiled too, but a little +bitterly. + +“I suppose it was more ugliness than anything else,” he said, “that made +me come back here to live, where everybody knows I 've been in jail and +is down on me.” + +“They are not down on you,” said Susan. “Nobody is down on you. It 's +all your own imagination. And if you had gone anywhere that you was a +stranger, you know that the first thing that you would have done would +have been to call a meeting and tell all the people that you had burned +down a man's barn and been in the State's-prison, and that you wanted +them all to know it at the start; and you wouldn't have told them why +you did it, and how young you was then, and how Eliphalet treated your +mother, and how you was going to pay him for all he lost Here, everybody +knows that side of it. In fact,” she added, with a little twinkle in her +eye, “I have sometimes had an idea that the main thing they don't like +is, to see you saving every cent to pay to Eliphalet.” + +“And yet it was on your say that I took up that plan,” said Eph. “I +never thought of it till you asked me when I was going to begin to pay +him up.” + +“And you ought to,” said Susan. “He has a right to the money--and then, +you don't want to be under obligations to that man all your life. Now, +what you want to do is to cheer up and go around among folks. Why, now +you 're the only fish-buyer there is that the men don't watch when he 's +weighing their fish. You'll own up to that, for one thing, won't you?” + +“Well, they are good fellows that bring fish to me,” he said. + +“They were n't good fellows when they traded at the great wharf,” said +Susan. “They had a quarrel down there once a week, regularly.” + +“Well, suppose they do trust me in that,” said Eph. “I can never rub out +that I 've been in State's-prison.” + +“You don't want to rub it out. You can't rub anything out that's ever +been; but you can do better than rub it out.” + +“What do you mean?” + +“Take things just the way they are,” said Susan, “and show what can be +done. Perhaps you 'll stake a new channel out for others to follow in, +that haven't half so much chance as you have. And that's what you will +do, too,” she added. + +“Susan!” he said, “if there 's anything I can ever do, in this world or +the next, for you or your folks, that's all I ask for,--the chance to do +it. Your folks and you shall never want for anything while I'm alive. + +“There's one thing sure,” he added, rising. “I'll live by myself and be +independent of everybody, and make my way all alone in the world; and +if I can make 'em all finally own up and admit that I'm honest with 'em, +I'm satisfied. That's all I 'll ever ask of anybody. But there's one +thing that worries me sometimes,--that is, whether I ought to come here +so often. I 'm afraid, sometimes, that it 'll hinder your father from +gettin' work, or--something--for you folks to be friends with me.” + +“I think such things take care of themselves,” said Susan, quietly. “If +a chip won't float, let it sink.” + +“Good-night,” said Eph; and he walked off, and went home to his echoing +house. + +After that, his visits to Joshua's became less frequent. + +***** + +It was a bright day in March,--one of those which almost redeem the +reputation of that desperado of a month. Eph was leaning on his fence, +looking now down the bay and now to where the sun was sinking in the +marshes. He knew that all the other men had gone to the town-meeting, +where he had had no heart to intrude himself,--that free democratic +parliament where he had often gone with his father in childhood; where +the boys, rejoicing in a general assembly of their own, had played ball +outside, while the men debated gravely within. He recalled the time when +he himself had so proudly given his first vote for President, and how +his father had introduced him then to friends from distant parts of the +town. He remembered how he had heard his father speak there, and how +respectfully everybody had listened to him. That was in the long ago, +when they had lived at the great farm. And then came the thought of the +mortgage, and of Eliphalet's foreclosure, and-- + +“Hullo, Eph!” + +It was one of the men from whom he took fish,--a plain-spoken, sincere +little man. + +“Why wa'n't you down to town-meet'n'?” + +“I was busy,” said Eph. + +“How'd ye like the news?” + +“What news?” + +There was never any good news for him now. + +“Hain't heard who 's elected town-clerk?” + +“No.” + +Had they elected Eliphalet, and so expressed their settled distrust of +him, and sympathy for the man whom he had injured? + +“Who is elected?” he asked harshly. + +“You be!” said the man; “went in flyin',--all hands clappin' and +stompin' their feet!” + +***** + +An hour later the doctor drove up, stopped, and walked toward the +kitchen door. As he passed the window, he looked in. + +Eph was lying on his face, upon the settle, as he had first seen him +there, his arms beneath his head. + +“I will not disturb him now,” said the doctor. + +***** + +One breezy afternoon, in the following summer, Captain Seth laid +aside his easy every-day clothes, and transformed himself into a stiff +broadcloth image, with a small silk hat and creaking boots. So attired, +he set out in a high open buggy, with his wife, also in black, but +with gold spectacles, to the funeral of an aunt. As they pursued their +jog-trot journey along the Salt Hay Road, and came to Ephraim Morse's +cottage, they saw Susan sitting in a shady little porch at the front +door, shelling peas and looking down the bay. + +“How is everything, Susan?” called out Captain Seth; “'bout time for Eph +to be gitt'n' in?” + +“Yes,” she answered, nodding and smiling, and pointing with a pea-pod; +“that's our boat, just coming to the wharf, with her peak down.” + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Village Convict, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE CONVICT *** + +***** This file should be named 23007-0.txt or 23007-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23007/ + +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: The Village Convict + First published in the "Century Magazine" + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23007] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE CONVICT *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE VILLAGE CONVICT + </h1> + <h2> + By Heman White Chaplin 1887 <br /> <br /> First published in the “Century + Magazine.” + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + “Wonder 'f Eph's got back; they say his sentence run out yisterday.” + </p> + <p> + The speaker, John Doane, was a sunburnt fisherman, one of a circle of + well-salted individuals who sat, some on chairs, some on boxes and + barrels, around the stove in a country store. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Captain Seth, a middle-aged little man with ear-rings; “he + come on the stage to-noon. Would n't hardly speak a word, Jim says. Looked + kind o' sot and sober.” + </p> + <p> + “Wall,” said the first speaker, “I only hope he won't go to burnin' us out + of house and home, same as he burnt up Eliphalet's barn. I was ruther in + hopes he 'd 'a' made off West. Seems to me I should, in his place, hevin' + ben in State's-prison.” + </p> + <p> + “Now, I allers hed quite a parcel o' sympathy for Eph,” said a short, + thickset coasting captain, who sat tilted back in a three-legged chair, + smoking lazily. “You see, he wa'n't but about twenty-one or two then, and + he was allers a mighty high-strung boy; and then Eliphalet did act putty + ha'sh, foreclosin' on Eph's mother, and turnin' her out o' the farm in + winter, when everybody knew she could ha' pulled through by waitin.' Eph + sot great store by the old lady, and I expect he was putty mad with + Eliphalet that night.” + </p> + <p> + “I allers,” said Doane, “approved o' his plan o' leadin' out all the + critters, 'fore he touched off the barn. 'T ain't everybody 't would hev + taken pains to do that. But all the same, I tell Sarai 't I feel kind o' + skittish, nights, to hev to turn in, feelin' 't there's a convict in the + place.” + </p> + <p> + “I hain't got no barn to burn,” said Captain Seth; “but if he allots my + hen-house to the flames, I hope he'll lead out the hens and hitch 'em to + the apple-trees, same's he did Eliphalet's critters. Think he ought to + deal ekally by all.” + </p> + <p> + A mild general chuckle greeted this sally, cheered by which the speaker + added,— + </p> + <p> + “Thought some o' takin' out a policy o' insurance on my cockerel.” + </p> + <p> + “Trade's lookin' up, William,” said Captain Seth to the storekeeper, as + some one was heard to kick the snow off his boots on the door-step. + “Somebody 's found he's got to hev a shoestring 'fore mornin'.” + </p> + <p> + The door opened, and closed behind a strongly-made man of twenty-six or + seven, of homely features, with black hair, in clothes which he had + outgrown. It was a bitter night, but he had no coat over his flannel + jacket. He walked straight down the store, between the dry-goods counters, + to the snug corner at the rear, where the knot of talkers sat; nodded, + without a smile, to each of them, and then asked the storekeeper for some + simple articles of food, which he wished to buy. It was Eph. + </p> + <p> + While the purchases were being put up, an awkward silence prevailed, which + the oil-suits hanging on the walls, broadly displaying their arms and + legs, seemed to mock, in dumb show. + </p> + <p> + Nothing was changed, to Eph's eyes, as he looked about. Even the handbill + of familiar pattern— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “STANDING WOOD FOR SALE. + Apply to J. CARTER, Admin'r,” + </pre> + <p> + seemed to have always been there. + </p> + <p> + The village parliament remained spellbound. Mr. Adams tied up the + purchases, and mildly inquired,— + </p> + <p> + “Shall I charge this?” + </p> + <p> + Not that he was anxious to open an account, but that he would probably + have gone to the length of selling Eph a barrel of molasses “on tick” + rather than run any risk of offending so formidable a character. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Eph; “I will pay for the things.” + </p> + <p> + And having put the packages into a canvas bag, and selected some + fish-hooks and lines from the show-case, where they lay environed by + jack-knives, jews-harps, and gum-drops,—dear to the eyes of + childhood,—he paid what was due, said “Good-night, William,” to the + storekeeper, and walked steadily out into the night. + </p> + <p> + “Wall,” said the skipper, “I am surprised! I strove to think o' suthin' to + say, all the time he was here, but I swow I couldn't think o' nothin'. I + could n't ask him if it seemed good to git home, nor how the thermometer + had varied in different parts o' the town where he 'd been. Everything + seemed to fetch right up standin' to the State's-prison.” + </p> + <p> + “I was just goin' to say, 'How'd ye leave everybody?'” said Doane; “but + that kind o' seemed to bring up them he 'd left. I felt real bad, though, + to hev the feller go off 'thout none on us speakin' to him. He 's got a + hard furrer to plough; and yet I don't s'pose there 's much harm in him, + 'f Eliphalet only keeps quiet.” + </p> + <p> + “Eliphalet!” said a young sailor, contemptuously. “No fear o' him! They + say he 's so sca't of Eph he hain't hardly swallowed nothin' for a week.” + </p> + <p> + “But where will he live?” asked a short, curly-haired young man, whom Eph + had seemed not to recognize. It was the new doctor, who, after having made + his way through college and the great medical school in Boston, had, two + years before, settled in this village. + </p> + <p> + “I believe,” said Mr. Adams, rubbing his hands, “that he wrote to Joshua + Carr last winter, when his mother died, not to let the little place she + left, on the Salt Hay Road; and I understand that he is going to make his + home there. It is an old house, you know, and not worth much, but it is + weather-tight, I should say.” + </p> + <p> + “Speakin' of his writin' to Joshua,” said Doane, “I have heard such a + sound as that he used to shine up to Joshua's Susan, years back. But that + 's all ended now. You won't catch Susan marryin' no jailbirds.” + </p> + <p> + “But how will he live?” said the doctor. “Will anybody give him work?” + </p> + <p> + “Let him alone for livin',” said Doane. “He can ketch more fish than any + other two men in the place—allers seemed to kind o' hev a knack o' + whistlin' 'em right into the boat. And then Nelson Briggs, that settled up + his mother's estate, allows he 's got over a hundred and ten dollars for + him, after payin' debts and all probate expenses. That and the place is + all he needs to start on.” + </p> + <p> + “I will go to see him,” said the doctor to himself, as he went out upon + the requisition of a grave man in a red tippet, who had just come for him. + “He does n't look so very dangerous, and I think he can be tamed. I + remember that his mother told me about him.” + </p> + <p> + Late that night, returning from his seven miles' drive, as he left the + causeway, built across a wide stretch of salt-marsh, crossed the rattling + plank bridge, and ascended the hill, he saw a light in the cottage window, + where he had often been to attend Aunt Lois. “I will stop now,” said he. + And, tying his horse to the front fence, he went toward the kitchen door. + As he passed the window, he glanced in. A lamp was burning on the table. + On a settle, lying upon his face, was stretched the convict, his arms + beneath his head. The canvas bag lay on the floor beside him. “I will not + disturb him now,” said the doctor. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + A few days later Dr. Burt was driving in his sleigh with his wife along + the Salt Hay Road. It was a clear, crisp winter forenoon. As they neared + Eph's house, he said,— + </p> + <p> + “Mary, suppose I lay siege to the fort this morning. I see a curl of smoke + rising from the little shop in the barn. He must be making himself a jimmy + or a dark-lantern to break into our vegetable cellar with.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said she, “I think it would be a good plan; only, you know, you + must be very, very careful not to hint, even in the faintest way, at his + imprisonment. You mustn't so much as <i>suspect</i> that he has ever been + away from the place. People hardly dare to speak to him, for fear he will + see some reference to his having been in prison, and get angry.” + </p> + <p> + “You shall see my sly tact,” said her husband, laughing. “I will be as + innocent as a lamb. I will ask him why I have not seen him at the + Sabbath-school this winter.” + </p> + <p> + “You may make fun,” said she, “but you will end by taking my advice, all + the same. Now, do be careful what you say.” + </p> + <p> + “I will,” he replied. “I will compose my remarks carefully upon the back + of an envelope and read them to him, so as to be absolutely sure. I will + leave on his mind an impression that I have been in prison, and that he + was the judge that tried me.” + </p> + <p> + He drove in at the open gate, hitched his horse in a warm corner by the + kitchen door, and then stopped for a moment to enjoy the view. The + situation of the little house, half a mile from any other, was beautiful + in summer, but it was bleak enough in winter. In the small front dooryard + stood three lofty, wind-blown poplars, all heading away from the sea, and + between them you could look down the bay or across the salt-marshes, while + in the opposite direction were to be seen the roofs and the glittering + spires of the village. + </p> + <p> + “It is social for him here, to say the least,” said the doctor, as he + turned and walked alone to the shop. He opened the door and went in. It + was a long, low lean-to, such as farmers often furnish for domestic work + with a carpenter's bench, a grindstone, and a few simple tools. It was + lighted by three square windows above the bench. An air-tight stove, + projecting its funnel through a hole in one of the panes, gave out a + cheerful crackling. + </p> + <p> + Eph, in his shirt-sleeves, his hands in his pockets, was standing, his + back against the bench, surveying, with something of a mechanic's eye, the + frame of a boat which was set up on the floor. + </p> + <p> + He looked up and colored slightly. The doctor took out a cigarette, lit + it, sat down on the bench, and smoked, clasping one knee in his hands and + eying the boat. + </p> + <p> + “Centre-board?” he asked, at length. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Eph. + </p> + <p> + “Cat-rig?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Going fishing?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Alone?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “I was brought up to sail a boat,” said the doctor, “and I go fishing in + summer—when I get a chance. I shall try your boat, some time.” + </p> + <p> + No reply. + </p> + <p> + “The timbers aren't seasoned, are they? They look like pitch-pine, just + out of the woods. Won't they warp?” + </p> + <p> + “No. Pitch-pine goes right in, green. I s'pose the pitch keeps it, if it's + out of the sun.” + </p> + <p> + “Where did you cut it?” + </p> + <p> + Eph colored a little. + </p> + <p> + “In my back lot.” + </p> + <p> + The doctor smoked on calmly, and studied the boat. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know as I know you,” said Eph, relaxing a little. + </p> + <p> + “Good reason,” said the doctor. “I 've only been here two years;” and + after a moment's pause, he added: “I am the doctor here, now. You 've + heard of my father, Dr. Burt, of Broad River?” + </p> + <p> + Eph nodded assent; everybody knew him, all through the country,—a + fatherly old man, who rode on long journeys at everybody's call, and never + sent in his bills. + </p> + <p> + The visitor had a standing with Eph at once. + </p> + <p> + “Doctors never pick at folks,” he said to himself—“at any rate, not + old Dr. Burt's son. + </p> + <p> + “I used to come here to see your mother,” said the doctor, “when she was + sick. She used to talk a great deal about you, and said she wanted me to + get acquainted with you, when your time was out.” + </p> + <p> + Eph started, but said nothing. + </p> + <p> + “She was a good woman, Aunt Lois,” added the doctor; “one of the best + women I ever saw.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't want anybody to bother himself on my account,” said Eph. “I ask + no favors.” + </p> + <p> + “You will have to take favors, though,” said the doctor, “before the + winter is over. You will be careless and get sick; you have been living + for a long time entirely in-doors, with regular hours and work and food. + Now you are going to live out-of-doors, and get your own meals, + irregularly. You did n't have on a thick coat the other night, when I saw + you at the store.” + </p> + <p> + “I haven't got any that's large enough for me,” said Eph, a little less + harshly, “and I 've got to keep my money for other things.” + </p> + <p> + “Then look out and wear flannel shirts enough,” said the doctor, “if you + want to be independent. But before I go, I want to go into the house. I + want my wife to see Aunt Lois's room, and the view from the west window;” + and he led the way to the sleigh. + </p> + <p> + Eph hesitated a moment, and then followed him. + </p> + <p> + “Mary, this is Ephraim Morse. We are going in to see the Dutch tiles I + have told you of.” + </p> + <p> + She smiled as she held out her mittened hand to Eph, who took it + awkwardly. + </p> + <p> + The square front room, which had been originally intended for a + keeping-room, but had been Aunt Lois's bedroom, looked out from two + windows upon the road, and from two upon the rolling, tumbling bay, and + the shining sea beyond. A tall clock, with a rocking ship above the face, + ticked in the corner. The painted floor with bright rag mats, the little + table with a lacquer work-box, the stiff chairs and the old-fashioned + bedstead, the china ornaments upon the mantel-piece, the picture of “The + Emeline G. in the Harbor of Canton,” were just as they had been when the + patient invalid had lain there, looking from her pillow out to sea. In + twelve rude tiles, set around the open fireplace, the Hebrews were seen in + twelve stages of their escape from Egypt. It would appear from this + representation that they had not restricted their borrowings to the jewels + of their oppressors, but had taken for the journey certain Dutch clothing + of the fashion of the seventeenth century. The scenery, too, was much like + that about Leyden. + </p> + <p> + “I think,” said the doctor's wife, “that the painter was just a little + absent-minded when he put in that beer-barrel. And a wharf, by the Red + Sea!” + </p> + <p> + “I wish you would conclude to rig your boat with a new sail,” said the + doctor, as he took up the reins, at parting. “There is n't a boat here + that 's kept clean, and I should like to hire yours once or twice a week + in summer, if you keep her as neat as you do your house. Come in and see + me some evening, and we 'll talk it over.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + Eph built his boat, and, in spite of his evident dislike of visitors, the + inside finish and the arrangements of the little cabin were so ingenious + and so novel that everybody had to pay him a visit. + </p> + <p> + True to his plan of being independent, he built in the side of the hill, + near his barn, by a little gravelly pond, an ice-house, and with the + hardest labor filled it, all by himself. With this supply, he would not + have to go to the general wharf at Sandy Point to sell his fish, with the + other men, but could pack and ship them himself. And he could do better, + in this way, he thought, even after paying for teaming them to the cars. + </p> + <p> + The knowing ones laughed to see that, from asking no advice, he had + miscalculated and laid in three times as much as he could use. + </p> + <p> + “Guess Eph cal'lates to fish with two lines in each hand an' another 'n + his teeth,” said Mr. Wing. “He 's plannin' out for a great lay o' fish.” + </p> + <p> + The spring came slowly on, and the first boat that went out that season + was Eph's. That day was one of unmixed delight to him. What a sense of + absolute freedom, when he was fairly out beyond the lightship, with the + fresh swiftness of the wind in his face! What an exquisite consciousness + of power and control, as his boat went beating through the long waves! Two + or three men from another village sailed across his wake. His boat lay + over, almost showing her keel, now high out of water, now settling between + the waves, while Eph stood easily in the stern, in his shirt-sleeves, + backing against the tiller, smoking a pipe, and ranging the waters with + his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Takes it natural ag'in, don't he? Stands as easy as ef he was loafin' on + a wharf,” said one of the observers. “Expect it 's quite a treat to be + out. But they do say he 's gittin' everybody's good opinion. They looked + for a reg'-lar ruffi'n when he come home,—cuttin' nets, killin' + cats, chasin' hens, gittin' drunk! They say Eliphalet Wood didn't hardly + dare to go ou' doors for a month, 'thout havin' his hired man along. But + he 's turned out as peaceful as a little gal.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + One June day, as Eph was slitting blue-fish at the little pier which he + had built on the bay shore, near his rude ice-house, two men came up. + </p> + <p> + “Hullo, Eph!” + </p> + <p> + “Hullo!” + </p> + <p> + “We 've got about sick, tradin' down to the wharf; we can't git no fair + show. About one time in three, they tell us they don't want our fish, and + won't take 'em unless we heave 'em in for next to nothin',—and we + know there ain't no sense in it. So we just thought we 'd slip down and + see 'f you would n't take 'em, seein's you 've got ice, and send 'em up + with yourn.” + </p> + <p> + Eph was taken all aback with this mark of confidence. The offer must be + declined. It evidently sprang from some mere passing vexation. + </p> + <p> + “I can't buy fish,” said he. “I have no scales to weigh 'em.” + </p> + <p> + “Then send ourn in separate berrels,” said one of the men. + </p> + <p> + “But I haven't any money to pay you,” he said. “I only get my pay once a + month.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll git tick at William's, and you can settle 'th us when you git your + pay.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said he, unable to refuse, “I 'll take 'em, if you say so.” + </p> + <p> + Before the season was over, he had still another customer, and could have + had three or four more, if he had had ice enough. He felt strongly + inclined that fall to build a larger icehouse; and although he was a + little afraid of bringing ridicule upon himself in case no fish should be + brought to him the next summer, he decided to do so, on the assurance of + three or four men that they meant to come to him. Nobody else had such a + chance,—a pond right by the shore. + </p> + <p> + One evening there was a knock at the door of Eliphalet Wood, the owner of + the burned barn. Eliphalet went to the door, but turned pale at seeing Eph + there. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, come in, come in!” he panted. “Glad to see you. Walk in. Have a + chair. Take a seat. Sit down.” + </p> + <p> + But he thought his hour had come: he was alone in the house, and there was + no neighbor within call. + </p> + <p> + Eph took out a roll of bills, counted out eighty dollars, laid the money + on the table, and said quietly,— + </p> + <p> + “Give me a receipt on account.” + </p> + <p> + When it was written he walked out, leaving Eliphalet stupefied. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + Joshua Carr was at work, one June afternoon, by the roadside, in front of + his low cottage, by an enormous pile of poles, which he was shaving down + for barrel-hoops, when Eph appeared. + </p> + <p> + “Hard at it, Joshua!” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes!” said Joshua, looking up through his steel-bowed spectacles. + “Hev to work hard to make a livin'—though I don't know's I ought to + call it hard, neither; and yet it is ruther hard, too; but then, on t' + other hand, 't ain't so hard as a good many other things—though + there is a good many jobs that's easier. That's so! that 's so! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'Must we be kerried to the skies + On feathery beds of ease?' +</pre> + <p> + Though I don't know's I ought to quote a hymn on such a matter; but then—I + don' know's there's any partic'lar harm in't, neither.” + </p> + <p> + Eph sat down on a pile of shavings and chewed a sliver; and the old man + kept on at his work. + </p> + <p> + “Hoop-poles goin' up and hoops goin' down,” he continued. “Cur'us, ain't + it? But then, I don' know as 'tis; woods all bein' cut off—poles + gittin' scurcer—hoops bein' shoved in from Down East. That don't + seem just right, now, does it? But then, other folks must make a livin', + too. Still, I should think they might take up suthin' else; and yet, they + might say that about me. Understand, I don't mean to say that they + actually do say so; I don't want to run down any man unless I know—” + </p> + <p> + “I can't stand this,” said Eph to himself; “I don't wonder that they + always used to put Joshua off at the first port, when he tried to go + coasting. They said he talked them crazy with nothing. + </p> + <p> + “I 'll go into the house and see Aunt Lyddy,” he said aloud. “I 'm + loafing, this afternoon.” + </p> + <p> + “All right! all right!” said Joshua. “Lyddy 'll be glad to see you—that + is, as glad as she would be to see anybody,” he added, reaching out for a + pole. “Now, I don't s'pose that sounds very well; but still, you know how + she is—she allers likes to hev folks to talk, and then she's allers + sayin' talkin' wears on her; but I ought not to say that to you, because + she allers likes to see you—that is, as much as she likes to see + anybody. In fact, I think, on the whole—” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I'll take my chances,” said Eph, laughing; and he opened the gate + and went in. + </p> + <p> + Joshua's wife, whom everybody called Aunt Lyddy, was rocking in a + high-backed-chair in the kitchen, and knitting. It was currently reported + that Joshua's habit of endlessly retracting and qualifying every idea and + modification of an idea which he advanced, so as to commit himself to + nothing, was the effect of Aunt Lyddy's careful revision. + </p> + <p> + “I s'pose she thought 't was fun to be talked deef when they was + courtin',” Captain Seth had once sagely remarked. “Prob'ly it sounded then + like a putty piece on a seraphine; but I allers cal'lated she 'd git her + fill of it, sooner or later. You most gin'lly git your fill o' one tune.” + </p> + <p> + “How are you this afternoon, Aunt Lyddy?” asked Eph, walking in without + knocking, and sitting down near her. + </p> + <p> + “So as to be able to keep about,” she replied. “It is a great mercy I + ain't afflicted with falling out of my chair, like Hepsy Jones, ain't it?” + </p> + <p> + “I 've brought you some oysters,” he said. “I set the basket down on the + door-step. I just took them out of the water myself from the bed I planted + to the west of the water-fence.” + </p> + <p> + “I always heard you was a great fisherman,” said Aunt Lyddy, “but I had no + idea you would ever come here and boast of being able to catch oysters. + Poor things! How could they have got away? But why don't you bring them + in? They won't be afraid of me, will they?” + </p> + <p> + He stepped to the door and brought in a peck basket full of large, black, + twisted shells, and with a heavy clasp-knife proceeded to open one, and + took out a great oyster, which he held up on the point of the blade. + </p> + <p> + “Try it,” he said; and then Aunt Lyddy, after she had swallowed it, + laughed to think what a tableau they had made,—a man who had been in + the State prison standing over her with a great knife! And then she + laughed again. + </p> + <p> + “What are you laughing at?” he said. + </p> + <p> + “It popped into my head, supposing Susan should have looked in at the + south window and Joshua in at the door, when you was feeding out that + oyster to me, what they would have thought!” + </p> + <p> + Eph laughed too; and, surely enough, just then a stout, light-haired, + rather plain-looking young woman came up to the south window and leaned + in. She had on a sun-bonnet, which had not prevented her from securing a + few choice freckles. She had been working with a trowel in her + flower-garden. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” she said, nodding easily to Eph. “What do you two + always find to laugh about?” + </p> + <p> + “Ephraim was feeding me with spoon-meat,” said Aunt Lyddy, pointing to the + basket, which looked like a basket of anthracite coal. + </p> + <p> + “It looks like spoon-meat!” said Susan, and then she laughed too. “I 'll + roast some of them for supper,” she added,—“a new way that I know.” + </p> + <p> + Eph was not invited to stay to supper, but he stayed, none the less: that + was always understood. + </p> + <p> + “Well, well, well!” said Joshua, coming to the door-step, and washing his + hands and arms just outside, in a tin basin. “I thought I see you set down + a parcel of oysters—but there was sea-weed over 'em, and I don' + know's I could have said they was oysters; but then, if the square + question had been put to me, 'Mr. Carr, be them oysters or be they not?' I + s'pose I should have said they was; still, if they 'd asked me how I knew—” + </p> + <p> + “Come, come, father!” said Aunt Lyddy, “do give poor Ephraim a little + peace. Why don't you just say you thought they were oysters, and done with + it?” + </p> + <p> + “Say I <i>thought</i> they was?” he replied, innocently. “I knew well + enough they was—that is—knew? No, I did n't know, but—” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Lyddy, with an air of mock resignation, gave up, while Joshua + endeavored to fix, to a hair, the exact extent of his knowledge. + </p> + <p> + Eph smiled; but he remembered what would have made him pardon, a thousand + times over, the old man's garrulousness. He remembered who alone had never + failed, once a year, to visit a certain prisoner, at the cost of a long + and tiresome journey, and who had written to that homesick prisoner kind + and cheering letters, and had sent him baskets of simple dainties for + holidays. + </p> + <p> + Susan bustled about, and made a fire of crackling sticks, and began to + roast the oysters in a way that made a most savory smell. She set the + table, and then sat down at the melodeon, while she was waiting, and sang + a hymn; for she was of a musical turn, and was one of the choir. Then she + jumped up and took out the steaming oysters, and they all sat down. + </p> + <p> + “Well, well, well!” said her father; “these be good! I did n't s'pose you + hed any very good oysters in your bed, Ephraim. But there, now—I + don't s'pose I ought to have said that; that was n't very polite; but what + I meant was, I did n't s'pose you hed any that was <i>real</i> good—though + I don' know but I 've said about the same thing, now. Well, any way, these + be splendid; they 're full as good as those co-hogs we had t'other night.” + </p> + <p> + “Quahaugs!” said Susan. “The idea of comparing these oysters with + quahaugs!” + </p> + <p> + “Well, well! that's so!” said her father. “I did n't say right, did I, + when I said that! Of course, there ain't no comparison—that is—<i>no</i> + comparison? Why, of course, they is a comparison between everything,—but + then, cohogs don't really compare with oysters! That's true!” + </p> + <p> + And then he paused to eat a few. + </p> + <p> + He was silent so long at this occupation that they all laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Well, well!” he said, laying down his fork, and smiling innocently; “what + be you all laughin' at? Not but what I allers like to hev folks laugh—but + then, I did n't see nothin' to laugh at. Still, perhaps they was suthin' + to laugh at that I didn't see; sometimes one man 'll be lookin' down into + his plate, all taken up with his victuals, and others, that's lookin' + around the room, may see the kittens frolickin', or some such thing. 'T + ain't the fust time I 've known all hands to laugh all to once-t, when I + didn't see nothin'.” + </p> + <p> + Susan helped him again, and secured another brief respite. + </p> + <p> + “Ephraim,” said he, after a while, “you ain't skilled to cook oysters like + this, I don't believe. You ought to git married! I was sayin' to Susan + t'other day—well, now, mother, hev I said anything out o' the way? + Well, I don't s'pose 't was just <i>my</i> place to have said anything + about gitt'n' married, to Ephraim, seein's—” + </p> + <p> + “Come, come, father,” said Aunt Lyddy, “that'll do, now. You must let + Ephraim alone, and not joke him about such things.” + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Susan had hastily gone into the pantry to look for a pie, which + she seemed unable at once to find. + </p> + <p> + “Pie got adrift?” called out Joshua. “Seems to me you don't hook on to it + very quick. Now that looks good,” he added, when she came out. + </p> + <p> + “That looks like cookin'! All I meant was, 't Ephraim ought not to be + doin' his own cookin'—that is, 'f you can call it cookin. But then, + of course, 'tis cookin'—there's all kinds o' cookin'. I went cook + myself, when I was a boy.” + </p> + <p> + After supper, Aunt Lyddy sat down to knit, and Joshua drew his chair up to + an open window, to smoke his pipe. In this vice Aunt Lyddy encouraged him. + The odor of Virginia tobacco was a sweet savor in her nostrils. No breezes + from Araby ever awoke more grateful feelings than did the fragrance of + Uncle Joshua's pipe. To Aunt Lyddy it meant quiet and peace. + </p> + <p> + Susan and Eph sat down on the broad flag door-stone, and talked quietly of + the simple news of the neighborhood, and of the days when they used to go + to school, and come home, always together. + </p> + <p> + “I did n't much think then,” said Eph, “that I should ever bring up where + I have, and get ashore before I was fairly out to sea!” + </p> + <p> + “Jehiel's schooner got ashore on the bar, years ago,” said Susan, “and yet + they towed her off, and I saw her this morning, from my chamber window, + before sunrise, all sail set, going by to the eastward.” + </p> + <p> + “I know what you mean,” said Eph. “But here—I got mad once, and I + almost had a right to, and I can't get started again; I never shall. I can + get a living, of course; but I shall always be pointed out as a jailbird, + and could no more get any footing in the world than Portuguese Jim.” + </p> + <p> + Portuguese Jim was the sole professional criminal of the town,—a + weak, good-natured, knock-kneed vagabond, who stole hens, and spent every + winter in the House of Correction as an “idle and disorderly person.” + </p> + <p> + Susan laughed outright at the picture. Eph smiled too, but a little + bitterly. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose it was more ugliness than anything else,” he said, “that made + me come back here to live, where everybody knows I 've been in jail and is + down on me.” + </p> + <p> + “They are not down on you,” said Susan. “Nobody is down on you. It 's all + your own imagination. And if you had gone anywhere that you was a + stranger, you know that the first thing that you would have done would + have been to call a meeting and tell all the people that you had burned + down a man's barn and been in the State's-prison, and that you wanted them + all to know it at the start; and you wouldn't have told them why you did + it, and how young you was then, and how Eliphalet treated your mother, and + how you was going to pay him for all he lost Here, everybody knows that + side of it. In fact,” she added, with a little twinkle in her eye, “I have + sometimes had an idea that the main thing they don't like is, to see you + saving every cent to pay to Eliphalet.” + </p> + <p> + “And yet it was on your say that I took up that plan,” said Eph. “I never + thought of it till you asked me when I was going to begin to pay him up.” + </p> + <p> + “And you ought to,” said Susan. “He has a right to the money—and + then, you don't want to be under obligations to that man all your life. + Now, what you want to do is to cheer up and go around among folks. Why, + now you 're the only fish-buyer there is that the men don't watch when he + 's weighing their fish. You'll own up to that, for one thing, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, they are good fellows that bring fish to me,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “They were n't good fellows when they traded at the great wharf,” said + Susan. “They had a quarrel down there once a week, regularly.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, suppose they do trust me in that,” said Eph. “I can never rub out + that I 've been in State's-prison.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't want to rub it out. You can't rub anything out that's ever + been; but you can do better than rub it out.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” + </p> + <p> + “Take things just the way they are,” said Susan, “and show what can be + done. Perhaps you 'll stake a new channel out for others to follow in, + that haven't half so much chance as you have. And that's what you will do, + too,” she added. + </p> + <p> + “Susan!” he said, “if there 's anything I can ever do, in this world or + the next, for you or your folks, that's all I ask for,—the chance to + do it. Your folks and you shall never want for anything while I'm alive. + </p> + <p> + “There's one thing sure,” he added, rising. “I'll live by myself and be + independent of everybody, and make my way all alone in the world; and if I + can make 'em all finally own up and admit that I'm honest with 'em, I'm + satisfied. That's all I 'll ever ask of anybody. But there's one thing + that worries me sometimes,—that is, whether I ought to come here so + often. I 'm afraid, sometimes, that it 'll hinder your father from gettin' + work, or—something—for you folks to be friends with me.” + </p> + <p> + “I think such things take care of themselves,” said Susan, quietly. “If a + chip won't float, let it sink.” + </p> + <p> + “Good-night,” said Eph; and he walked off, and went home to his echoing + house. + </p> + <p> + After that, his visits to Joshua's became less frequent. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + It was a bright day in March,—one of those which almost redeem the + reputation of that desperado of a month. Eph was leaning on his fence, + looking now down the bay and now to where the sun was sinking in the + marshes. He knew that all the other men had gone to the town-meeting, + where he had had no heart to intrude himself,—that free democratic + parliament where he had often gone with his father in childhood; where the + boys, rejoicing in a general assembly of their own, had played ball + outside, while the men debated gravely within. He recalled the time when + he himself had so proudly given his first vote for President, and how his + father had introduced him then to friends from distant parts of the town. + He remembered how he had heard his father speak there, and how + respectfully everybody had listened to him. That was in the long ago, when + they had lived at the great farm. And then came the thought of the + mortgage, and of Eliphalet's foreclosure, and— + </p> + <p> + “Hullo, Eph!” + </p> + <p> + It was one of the men from whom he took fish,—a plain-spoken, + sincere little man. + </p> + <p> + “Why wa'n't you down to town-meet'n'?” + </p> + <p> + “I was busy,” said Eph. + </p> + <p> + “How'd ye like the news?” + </p> + <p> + “What news?” + </p> + <p> + There was never any good news for him now. + </p> + <p> + “Hain't heard who 's elected town-clerk?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + Had they elected Eliphalet, and so expressed their settled distrust of + him, and sympathy for the man whom he had injured? + </p> + <p> + “Who is elected?” he asked harshly. + </p> + <p> + “You be!” said the man; “went in flyin',—all hands clappin' and + stompin' their feet!” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + An hour later the doctor drove up, stopped, and walked toward the kitchen + door. As he passed the window, he looked in. + </p> + <p> + Eph was lying on his face, upon the settle, as he had first seen him + there, his arms beneath his head. + </p> + <p> + “I will not disturb him now,” said the doctor. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + One breezy afternoon, in the following summer, Captain Seth laid aside his + easy every-day clothes, and transformed himself into a stiff broadcloth + image, with a small silk hat and creaking boots. So attired, he set out in + a high open buggy, with his wife, also in black, but with gold spectacles, + to the funeral of an aunt. As they pursued their jog-trot journey along + the Salt Hay Road, and came to Ephraim Morse's cottage, they saw Susan + sitting in a shady little porch at the front door, shelling peas and + looking down the bay. + </p> + <p> + “How is everything, Susan?” called out Captain Seth; “'bout time for Eph + to be gitt'n' in?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she answered, nodding and smiling, and pointing with a pea-pod; + “that's our boat, just coming to the wharf, with her peak down.” + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Village Convict, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE CONVICT *** + +***** This file should be named 23007-h.htm or 23007-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23007/ + +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: The Village Convict + First published in the "Century Magazine" + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23007] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE CONVICT *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +THE VILLAGE CONVICT + +By Heman White Chaplin + +1887 + +First published in the "Century Magazine." + + +"Wonder 'f Eph's got back; they say his sentence run out yisterday." + +The speaker, John Doane, was a sunburnt fisherman, one of a circle +of well-salted individuals who sat, some on chairs, some on boxes and +barrels, around the stove in a country store. + +"Yes," said Captain Seth, a middle-aged little man with ear-rings; "he +come on the stage to-noon. Would n't hardly speak a word, Jim says. +Looked kind o' sot and sober." + +"Wall," said the first speaker, "I only hope he won't go to burnin' +us out of house and home, same as he burnt up Eliphalet's barn. I was +ruther in hopes he 'd 'a' made off West. Seems to me I should, in his +place, hevin' ben in State's-prison." + +"Now, I allers hed quite a parcel o' sympathy for Eph," said a short, +thickset coasting captain, who sat tilted back in a three-legged chair, +smoking lazily. "You see, he wa'n't but about twenty-one or two then, +and he was allers a mighty high-strung boy; and then Eliphalet did act +putty ha'sh, foreclosin' on Eph's mother, and turnin' her out o' the +farm in winter, when everybody knew she could ha' pulled through by +waitin.' Eph sot great store by the old lady, and I expect he was putty +mad with Eliphalet that night." + +"I allers," said Doane, "approved o' his plan o' leadin' out all the +critters, 'fore he touched off the barn. 'T ain't everybody 't would hev +taken pains to do that. But all the same, I tell Sarai 't I feel kind o' +skittish, nights, to hev to turn in, feelin' 't there's a convict in the +place." + +"I hain't got no barn to burn," said Captain Seth; "but if he allots my +hen-house to the flames, I hope he'll lead out the hens and hitch 'em to +the apple-trees, same's he did Eliphalet's critters. Think he ought to +deal ekally by all." + +A mild general chuckle greeted this sally, cheered by which the speaker +added,-- + +"Thought some o' takin' out a policy o' insurance on my cockerel." + +"Trade's lookin' up, William," said Captain Seth to the storekeeper, +as some one was heard to kick the snow off his boots on the door-step. +"Somebody 's found he's got to hev a shoestring 'fore mornin'." + +The door opened, and closed behind a strongly-made man of twenty-six +or seven, of homely features, with black hair, in clothes which he had +outgrown. It was a bitter night, but he had no coat over his flannel +jacket. He walked straight down the store, between the dry-goods +counters, to the snug corner at the rear, where the knot of talkers sat; +nodded, without a smile, to each of them, and then asked the storekeeper +for some simple articles of food, which he wished to buy. It was Eph. + +While the purchases were being put up, an awkward silence prevailed, +which the oil-suits hanging on the walls, broadly displaying their arms +and legs, seemed to mock, in dumb show. + +Nothing was changed, to Eph's eyes, as he looked about. Even the +handbill of familiar pattern-- + + "STANDING WOOD FOR SALE. + Apply to J. CARTER, Admin'r," + +seemed to have always been there. + +The village parliament remained spellbound. Mr. Adams tied up the +purchases, and mildly inquired,-- + +"Shall I charge this?" + +Not that he was anxious to open an account, but that he would probably +have gone to the length of selling Eph a barrel of molasses "on tick" +rather than run any risk of offending so formidable a character. + +"No," said Eph; "I will pay for the things." + +And having put the packages into a canvas bag, and selected some +fish-hooks and lines from the show-case, where they lay environed +by jack-knives, jews-harps, and gum-drops,--dear to the eyes of +childhood,--he paid what was due, said "Good-night, William," to the +storekeeper, and walked steadily out into the night. + +"Wall," said the skipper, "I am surprised! I strove to think o' suthin' +to say, all the time he was here, but I swow I couldn't think o' +nothin'. I could n't ask him if it seemed good to git home, nor how the +thermometer had varied in different parts o' the town where he 'd been. +Everything seemed to fetch right up standin' to the State's-prison." + +"I was just goin' to say, 'How'd ye leave everybody?'" said Doane; +"but that kind o' seemed to bring up them he 'd left. I felt real bad, +though, to hev the feller go off 'thout none on us speakin' to him. He +'s got a hard furrer to plough; and yet I don't s'pose there 's much +harm in him, 'f Eliphalet only keeps quiet." + +"Eliphalet!" said a young sailor, contemptuously. "No fear o' him! +They say he 's so sca't of Eph he hain't hardly swallowed nothin' for a +week." + +"But where will he live?" asked a short, curly-haired young man, whom +Eph had seemed not to recognize. It was the new doctor, who, after +having made his way through college and the great medical school in +Boston, had, two years before, settled in this village. + +"I believe," said Mr. Adams, rubbing his hands, "that he wrote to Joshua +Carr last winter, when his mother died, not to let the little place she +left, on the Salt Hay Road; and I understand that he is going to make +his home there. It is an old house, you know, and not worth much, but it +is weather-tight, I should say." + +"Speakin' of his writin' to Joshua," said Doane, "I have heard such a +sound as that he used to shine up to Joshua's Susan, years back. But +that 's all ended now. You won't catch Susan marryin' no jailbirds." + +"But how will he live?" said the doctor. "Will anybody give him work?" + +"Let him alone for livin'," said Doane. "He can ketch more fish than +any other two men in the place--allers seemed to kind o' hev a knack o' +whistlin' 'em right into the boat. And then Nelson Briggs, that settled +up his mother's estate, allows he 's got over a hundred and ten dollars +for him, after payin' debts and all probate expenses. That and the place +is all he needs to start on." + +"I will go to see him," said the doctor to himself, as he went out upon +the requisition of a grave man in a red tippet, who had just come for +him. "He does n't look so very dangerous, and I think he can be tamed. I +remember that his mother told me about him." + +Late that night, returning from his seven miles' drive, as he left +the causeway, built across a wide stretch of salt-marsh, crossed the +rattling plank bridge, and ascended the hill, he saw a light in the +cottage window, where he had often been to attend Aunt Lois. "I will +stop now," said he. And, tying his horse to the front fence, he went +toward the kitchen door. As he passed the window, he glanced in. A +lamp was burning on the table. On a settle, lying upon his face, was +stretched the convict, his arms beneath his head. The canvas bag lay on +the floor beside him. "I will not disturb him now," said the doctor. + +***** + +A few days later Dr. Burt was driving in his sleigh with his wife along +the Salt Hay Road. It was a clear, crisp winter forenoon. As they neared +Eph's house, he said,-- + +"Mary, suppose I lay siege to the fort this morning. I see a curl of +smoke rising from the little shop in the barn. He must be making himself +a jimmy or a dark-lantern to break into our vegetable cellar with." + +"Well," said she, "I think it would be a good plan; only, you know, you +must be very, very careful not to hint, even in the faintest way, at +his imprisonment. You mustn't so much as _suspect_ that he has ever been +away from the place. People hardly dare to speak to him, for fear he +will see some reference to his having been in prison, and get angry." + +"You shall see my sly tact," said her husband, laughing. "I will be +as innocent as a lamb. I will ask him why I have not seen him at the +Sabbath-school this winter." + +"You may make fun," said she, "but you will end by taking my advice, all +the same. Now, do be careful what you say." + +"I will," he replied. "I will compose my remarks carefully upon the back +of an envelope and read them to him, so as to be absolutely sure. I will +leave on his mind an impression that I have been in prison, and that he +was the judge that tried me." + +He drove in at the open gate, hitched his horse in a warm corner by +the kitchen door, and then stopped for a moment to enjoy the view. The +situation of the little house, half a mile from any other, was beautiful +in summer, but it was bleak enough in winter. In the small front +dooryard stood three lofty, wind-blown poplars, all heading away from +the sea, and between them you could look down the bay or across the +salt-marshes, while in the opposite direction were to be seen the roofs +and the glittering spires of the village. + +"It is social for him here, to say the least," said the doctor, as he +turned and walked alone to the shop. He opened the door and went in. It +was a long, low lean-to, such as farmers often furnish for domestic work +with a carpenter's bench, a grindstone, and a few simple tools. It was +lighted by three square windows above the bench. An air-tight stove, +projecting its funnel through a hole in one of the panes, gave out a +cheerful crackling. + +Eph, in his shirt-sleeves, his hands in his pockets, was standing, his +back against the bench, surveying, with something of a mechanic's eye, +the frame of a boat which was set up on the floor. + +He looked up and colored slightly. The doctor took out a cigarette, lit +it, sat down on the bench, and smoked, clasping one knee in his hands +and eying the boat. + +"Centre-board?" he asked, at length. + +"Yes," said Eph. + +"Cat-rig?" + +"Yes." + +"Going fishing?" + +"Yes." + +"Alone?" + +"Yes." + +"I was brought up to sail a boat," said the doctor, "and I go fishing in +summer--when I get a chance. I shall try your boat, some time." + +No reply. + +"The timbers aren't seasoned, are they? They look like pitch-pine, just +out of the woods. Won't they warp?" + +"No. Pitch-pine goes right in, green. I s'pose the pitch keeps it, if +it's out of the sun." + +"Where did you cut it?" + +Eph colored a little. + +"In my back lot." + +The doctor smoked on calmly, and studied the boat. + +"I don't know as I know you," said Eph, relaxing a little. + +"Good reason," said the doctor. "I 've only been here two years;" and +after a moment's pause, he added: "I am the doctor here, now. You 've +heard of my father, Dr. Burt, of Broad River?" + +Eph nodded assent; everybody knew him, all through the country,--a +fatherly old man, who rode on long journeys at everybody's call, and +never sent in his bills. + +The visitor had a standing with Eph at once. + +"Doctors never pick at folks," he said to himself--"at any rate, not old +Dr. Burt's son. + +"I used to come here to see your mother," said the doctor, "when she was +sick. She used to talk a great deal about you, and said she wanted me to +get acquainted with you, when your time was out." + +Eph started, but said nothing. + +"She was a good woman, Aunt Lois," added the doctor; "one of the best +women I ever saw." + +"I don't want anybody to bother himself on my account," said Eph. "I ask +no favors." + +"You will have to take favors, though," said the doctor, "before the +winter is over. You will be careless and get sick; you have been living +for a long time entirely in-doors, with regular hours and work and +food. Now you are going to live out-of-doors, and get your own meals, +irregularly. You did n't have on a thick coat the other night, when I saw +you at the store." + +"I haven't got any that's large enough for me," said Eph, a little less +harshly, "and I 've got to keep my money for other things." + +"Then look out and wear flannel shirts enough," said the doctor, "if you +want to be independent. But before I go, I want to go into the house. I +want my wife to see Aunt Lois's room, and the view from the west window;" +and he led the way to the sleigh. + +Eph hesitated a moment, and then followed him. + +"Mary, this is Ephraim Morse. We are going in to see the Dutch tiles I +have told you of." + +She smiled as she held out her mittened hand to Eph, who took it +awkwardly. + +The square front room, which had been originally intended for a +keeping-room, but had been Aunt Lois's bedroom, looked out from two +windows upon the road, and from two upon the rolling, tumbling bay, +and the shining sea beyond. A tall clock, with a rocking ship above the +face, ticked in the corner. The painted floor with bright rag mats, +the little table with a lacquer work-box, the stiff chairs and the +old-fashioned bedstead, the china ornaments upon the mantel-piece, the +picture of "The Emeline G. in the Harbor of Canton," were just as they +had been when the patient invalid had lain there, looking from her +pillow out to sea. In twelve rude tiles, set around the open fireplace, +the Hebrews were seen in twelve stages of their escape from Egypt. It +would appear from this representation that they had not restricted their +borrowings to the jewels of their oppressors, but had taken for the +journey certain Dutch clothing of the fashion of the seventeenth +century. The scenery, too, was much like that about Leyden. + +"I think," said the doctor's wife, "that the painter was just a little +absent-minded when he put in that beer-barrel. And a wharf, by the Red +Sea!" + +"I wish you would conclude to rig your boat with a new sail," said the +doctor, as he took up the reins, at parting. "There is n't a boat here +that 's kept clean, and I should like to hire yours once or twice a week +in summer, if you keep her as neat as you do your house. Come in and see +me some evening, and we 'll talk it over." + +***** + +Eph built his boat, and, in spite of his evident dislike of visitors, +the inside finish and the arrangements of the little cabin were so +ingenious and so novel that everybody had to pay him a visit. + +True to his plan of being independent, he built in the side of the hill, +near his barn, by a little gravelly pond, an ice-house, and with the +hardest labor filled it, all by himself. With this supply, he would not +have to go to the general wharf at Sandy Point to sell his fish, with +the other men, but could pack and ship them himself. And he could do +better, in this way, he thought, even after paying for teaming them to +the cars. + +The knowing ones laughed to see that, from asking no advice, he had +miscalculated and laid in three times as much as he could use. + +"Guess Eph cal'lates to fish with two lines in each hand an' another 'n +his teeth," said Mr. Wing. "He 's plannin' out for a great lay o' fish." + +The spring came slowly on, and the first boat that went out that season +was Eph's. That day was one of unmixed delight to him. What a sense of +absolute freedom, when he was fairly out beyond the lightship, with the +fresh swiftness of the wind in his face! What an exquisite consciousness +of power and control, as his boat went beating through the long waves! +Two or three men from another village sailed across his wake. His boat +lay over, almost showing her keel, now high out of water, now settling +between the waves, while Eph stood easily in the stern, in his +shirt-sleeves, backing against the tiller, smoking a pipe, and ranging +the waters with his eyes. + +"Takes it natural ag'in, don't he? Stands as easy as ef he was loafin' +on a wharf," said one of the observers. "Expect it 's quite a treat to +be out. But they do say he 's gittin' everybody's good opinion. They +looked for a reg'-lar ruffi'n when he come home,--cuttin' nets, killin' +cats, chasin' hens, gittin' drunk! They say Eliphalet Wood didn't hardly +dare to go ou' doors for a month, 'thout havin' his hired man along. But +he 's turned out as peaceful as a little gal." + +***** + +One June day, as Eph was slitting blue-fish at the little pier which he +had built on the bay shore, near his rude ice-house, two men came up. + +"Hullo, Eph!" + +"Hullo!" + +"We 've got about sick, tradin' down to the wharf; we can't git no fair +show. About one time in three, they tell us they don't want our fish, +and won't take 'em unless we heave 'em in for next to nothin',--and we +know there ain't no sense in it. So we just thought we 'd slip down and +see 'f you would n't take 'em, seein's you 've got ice, and send 'em up +with yourn." + +Eph was taken all aback with this mark of confidence. The offer must be +declined. It evidently sprang from some mere passing vexation. + +"I can't buy fish," said he. "I have no scales to weigh 'em." + +"Then send ourn in separate berrels," said one of the men. + +"But I haven't any money to pay you," he said. "I only get my pay once a +month." + +"We'll git tick at William's, and you can settle 'th us when you git +your pay." + +"Well," said he, unable to refuse, "I 'll take 'em, if you say so." + +Before the season was over, he had still another customer, and could +have had three or four more, if he had had ice enough. He felt strongly +inclined that fall to build a larger icehouse; and although he was a +little afraid of bringing ridicule upon himself in case no fish should +be brought to him the next summer, he decided to do so, on the assurance +of three or four men that they meant to come to him. Nobody else had +such a chance,--a pond right by the shore. + +One evening there was a knock at the door of Eliphalet Wood, the owner +of the burned barn. Eliphalet went to the door, but turned pale at +seeing Eph there. + +"Oh, come in, come in!" he panted. "Glad to see you. Walk in. Have a +chair. Take a seat. Sit down." + +But he thought his hour had come: he was alone in the house, and there +was no neighbor within call. + +Eph took out a roll of bills, counted out eighty dollars, laid the money +on the table, and said quietly,-- + +"Give me a receipt on account." + +When it was written he walked out, leaving Eliphalet stupefied. + +***** + +Joshua Carr was at work, one June afternoon, by the roadside, in front +of his low cottage, by an enormous pile of poles, which he was shaving +down for barrel-hoops, when Eph appeared. + +"Hard at it, Joshua!" he said. + +"Yes, yes!" said Joshua, looking up through his steel-bowed spectacles. +"Hev to work hard to make a livin'--though I don't know's I ought to +call it hard, neither; and yet it is ruther hard, too; but then, on t' +other hand, 't ain't so hard as a good many other things--though there +is a good many jobs that's easier. That's so! that 's so! + + 'Must we be kerried to the skies + On feathery beds of ease?' + +Though I don't know's I ought to quote a hymn on such a matter; but +then--I don' know's there's any partic'lar harm in't, neither." + +Eph sat down on a pile of shavings and chewed a sliver; and the old man +kept on at his work. + +"Hoop-poles goin' up and hoops goin' down," he continued. "Cur'us, +ain't it? But then, I don' know as 'tis; woods all bein' cut off--poles +gittin' scurcer--hoops bein' shoved in from Down East. That don't seem +just right, now, does it? But then, other folks must make a livin', too. +Still, I should think they might take up suthin' else; and yet, they +might say that about me. Understand, I don't mean to say that they +actually do say so; I don't want to run down any man unless I know--" + +"I can't stand this," said Eph to himself; "I don't wonder that they +always used to put Joshua off at the first port, when he tried to go +coasting. They said he talked them crazy with nothing. + +"I 'll go into the house and see Aunt Lyddy," he said aloud. "I 'm +loafing, this afternoon." + +"All right! all right!" said Joshua. "Lyddy 'll be glad to see you--that +is, as glad as she would be to see anybody," he added, reaching out for +a pole. "Now, I don't s'pose that sounds very well; but still, you know +how she is--she allers likes to hev folks to talk, and then she's allers +sayin' talkin' wears on her; but I ought not to say that to you, because +she allers likes to see you--that is, as much as she likes to see +anybody. In fact, I think, on the whole--" + +"Well, I'll take my chances," said Eph, laughing; and he opened the gate +and went in. + +Joshua's wife, whom everybody called Aunt Lyddy, was rocking in a +high-backed-chair in the kitchen, and knitting. It was currently +reported that Joshua's habit of endlessly retracting and qualifying +every idea and modification of an idea which he advanced, so as to +commit himself to nothing, was the effect of Aunt Lyddy's careful +revision. + +"I s'pose she thought 't was fun to be talked deef when they was +courtin'," Captain Seth had once sagely remarked. "Prob'ly it sounded +then like a putty piece on a seraphine; but I allers cal'lated she 'd +git her fill of it, sooner or later. You most gin'lly git your fill o' +one tune." + +"How are you this afternoon, Aunt Lyddy?" asked Eph, walking in without +knocking, and sitting down near her. + +"So as to be able to keep about," she replied. "It is a great mercy I +ain't afflicted with falling out of my chair, like Hepsy Jones, ain't +it?" + +"I 've brought you some oysters," he said. "I set the basket down on +the door-step. I just took them out of the water myself from the bed I +planted to the west of the water-fence." + +"I always heard you was a great fisherman," said Aunt Lyddy, "but I +had no idea you would ever come here and boast of being able to catch +oysters. Poor things! How could they have got away? But why don't you +bring them in? They won't be afraid of me, will they?" + +He stepped to the door and brought in a peck basket full of large, +black, twisted shells, and with a heavy clasp-knife proceeded to open +one, and took out a great oyster, which he held up on the point of the +blade. + +"Try it," he said; and then Aunt Lyddy, after she had swallowed it, +laughed to think what a tableau they had made,--a man who had been in +the State prison standing over her with a great knife! And then she +laughed again. + +"What are you laughing at?" he said. + +"It popped into my head, supposing Susan should have looked in at the +south window and Joshua in at the door, when you was feeding out that +oyster to me, what they would have thought!" + +Eph laughed too; and, surely enough, just then a stout, light-haired, +rather plain-looking young woman came up to the south window and leaned +in. She had on a sun-bonnet, which had not prevented her from securing +a few choice freckles. She had been working with a trowel in her +flower-garden. + +"What's the matter?" she said, nodding easily to Eph. "What do you two +always find to laugh about?" + +"Ephraim was feeding me with spoon-meat," said Aunt Lyddy, pointing to +the basket, which looked like a basket of anthracite coal. + +"It looks like spoon-meat!" said Susan, and then she laughed too. "I 'll +roast some of them for supper," she added,--"a new way that I know." + +Eph was not invited to stay to supper, but he stayed, none the less: +that was always understood. + +"Well, well, well!" said Joshua, coming to the door-step, and washing +his hands and arms just outside, in a tin basin. "I thought I see you +set down a parcel of oysters--but there was sea-weed over 'em, and I +don' know's I could have said they was oysters; but then, if the square +question had been put to me, 'Mr. Carr, be them oysters or be they +not?' I s'pose I should have said they was; still, if they 'd asked me +how I knew--" + +"Come, come, father!" said Aunt Lyddy, "do give poor Ephraim a little +peace. Why don't you just say you thought they were oysters, and done +with it?" + +"Say I _thought_ they was?" he replied, innocently. "I knew well enough +they was--that is--knew? No, I did n't know, but--" + +Aunt Lyddy, with an air of mock resignation, gave up, while Joshua +endeavored to fix, to a hair, the exact extent of his knowledge. + +Eph smiled; but he remembered what would have made him pardon, a +thousand times over, the old man's garrulousness. He remembered who +alone had never failed, once a year, to visit a certain prisoner, at +the cost of a long and tiresome journey, and who had written to that +homesick prisoner kind and cheering letters, and had sent him baskets of +simple dainties for holidays. + +Susan bustled about, and made a fire of crackling sticks, and began to +roast the oysters in a way that made a most savory smell. She set the +table, and then sat down at the melodeon, while she was waiting, and +sang a hymn; for she was of a musical turn, and was one of the choir. +Then she jumped up and took out the steaming oysters, and they all sat +down. + +"Well, well, well!" said her father; "these be good! I did n't s'pose +you hed any very good oysters in your bed, Ephraim. But there, now--I +don't s'pose I ought to have said that; that was n't very polite; +but what I meant was, I did n't s'pose you hed any that was _real_ +good--though I don' know but I 've said about the same thing, now. Well, +any way, these be splendid; they 're full as good as those co-hogs we +had t'other night." + +"Quahaugs!" said Susan. "The idea of comparing these oysters with +quahaugs!" + +"Well, well! that's so!" said her father. "I did n't say right, did I, +when I said that! Of course, there ain't no comparison--that +is--_no_ comparison? Why, of course, they is a comparison between +everything,--but then, cohogs don't really compare with oysters! That's +true!" + +And then he paused to eat a few. + +He was silent so long at this occupation that they all laughed. + +"Well, well!" he said, laying down his fork, and smiling innocently; +"what be you all laughin' at? Not but what I allers like to hev folks +laugh--but then, I did n't see nothin' to laugh at. Still, perhaps they +was suthin' to laugh at that I didn't see; sometimes one man 'll be +lookin' down into his plate, all taken up with his victuals, and others, +that's lookin' around the room, may see the kittens frolickin', or some +such thing. 'T ain't the fust time I 've known all hands to laugh all to +once-t, when I didn't see nothin'." + +Susan helped him again, and secured another brief respite. + +"Ephraim," said he, after a while, "you ain't skilled to cook oysters +like this, I don't believe. You ought to git married! I was sayin' to +Susan t'other day--well, now, mother, hev I said anything out o' the +way? Well, I don't s'pose 't was just _my_ place to have said anything +about gitt'n' married, to Ephraim, seein's--" + +"Come, come, father," said Aunt Lyddy, "that'll do, now. You must let +Ephraim alone, and not joke him about such things." + +Meanwhile Susan had hastily gone into the pantry to look for a pie, +which she seemed unable at once to find. + +"Pie got adrift?" called out Joshua. "Seems to me you don't hook on to +it very quick. Now that looks good," he added, when she came out. + +"That looks like cookin'! All I meant was, 't Ephraim ought not to be +doin' his own cookin'--that is, 'f you can call it cookin. But then, of +course, 'tis cookin'--there's all kinds o' cookin'. I went cook myself, +when I was a boy." + +After supper, Aunt Lyddy sat down to knit, and Joshua drew his chair up +to an open window, to smoke his pipe. In this vice Aunt Lyddy encouraged +him. The odor of Virginia tobacco was a sweet savor in her nostrils. +No breezes from Araby ever awoke more grateful feelings than did the +fragrance of Uncle Joshua's pipe. To Aunt Lyddy it meant quiet and +peace. + +Susan and Eph sat down on the broad flag door-stone, and talked quietly +of the simple news of the neighborhood, and of the days when they used +to go to school, and come home, always together. + +"I did n't much think then," said Eph, "that I should ever bring up +where I have, and get ashore before I was fairly out to sea!" + +"Jehiel's schooner got ashore on the bar, years ago," said Susan, "and +yet they towed her off, and I saw her this morning, from my chamber +window, before sunrise, all sail set, going by to the eastward." + +"I know what you mean," said Eph. "But here--I got mad once, and I +almost had a right to, and I can't get started again; I never shall. +I can get a living, of course; but I shall always be pointed out as a +jailbird, and could no more get any footing in the world than Portuguese +Jim." + +Portuguese Jim was the sole professional criminal of the town,--a weak, +good-natured, knock-kneed vagabond, who stole hens, and spent every +winter in the House of Correction as an "idle and disorderly person." + +Susan laughed outright at the picture. Eph smiled too, but a little +bitterly. + +"I suppose it was more ugliness than anything else," he said, "that made +me come back here to live, where everybody knows I 've been in jail and +is down on me." + +"They are not down on you," said Susan. "Nobody is down on you. It 's +all your own imagination. And if you had gone anywhere that you was a +stranger, you know that the first thing that you would have done would +have been to call a meeting and tell all the people that you had burned +down a man's barn and been in the State's-prison, and that you wanted +them all to know it at the start; and you wouldn't have told them why +you did it, and how young you was then, and how Eliphalet treated your +mother, and how you was going to pay him for all he lost Here, everybody +knows that side of it. In fact," she added, with a little twinkle in her +eye, "I have sometimes had an idea that the main thing they don't like +is, to see you saving every cent to pay to Eliphalet." + +"And yet it was on your say that I took up that plan," said Eph. "I +never thought of it till you asked me when I was going to begin to pay +him up." + +"And you ought to," said Susan. "He has a right to the money--and then, +you don't want to be under obligations to that man all your life. Now, +what you want to do is to cheer up and go around among folks. Why, now +you 're the only fish-buyer there is that the men don't watch when he 's +weighing their fish. You'll own up to that, for one thing, won't you?" + +"Well, they are good fellows that bring fish to me," he said. + +"They were n't good fellows when they traded at the great wharf," said +Susan. "They had a quarrel down there once a week, regularly." + +"Well, suppose they do trust me in that," said Eph. "I can never rub out +that I 've been in State's-prison." + +"You don't want to rub it out. You can't rub anything out that's ever +been; but you can do better than rub it out." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Take things just the way they are," said Susan, "and show what can be +done. Perhaps you 'll stake a new channel out for others to follow in, +that haven't half so much chance as you have. And that's what you will +do, too," she added. + +"Susan!" he said, "if there 's anything I can ever do, in this world or +the next, for you or your folks, that's all I ask for,--the chance to do +it. Your folks and you shall never want for anything while I'm alive. + +"There's one thing sure," he added, rising. "I'll live by myself and be +independent of everybody, and make my way all alone in the world; and +if I can make 'em all finally own up and admit that I'm honest with 'em, +I'm satisfied. That's all I 'll ever ask of anybody. But there's one +thing that worries me sometimes,--that is, whether I ought to come here +so often. I 'm afraid, sometimes, that it 'll hinder your father from +gettin' work, or--something--for you folks to be friends with me." + +"I think such things take care of themselves," said Susan, quietly. "If +a chip won't float, let it sink." + +"Good-night," said Eph; and he walked off, and went home to his echoing +house. + +After that, his visits to Joshua's became less frequent. + +***** + +It was a bright day in March,--one of those which almost redeem the +reputation of that desperado of a month. Eph was leaning on his fence, +looking now down the bay and now to where the sun was sinking in the +marshes. He knew that all the other men had gone to the town-meeting, +where he had had no heart to intrude himself,--that free democratic +parliament where he had often gone with his father in childhood; where +the boys, rejoicing in a general assembly of their own, had played ball +outside, while the men debated gravely within. He recalled the time when +he himself had so proudly given his first vote for President, and how +his father had introduced him then to friends from distant parts of the +town. He remembered how he had heard his father speak there, and how +respectfully everybody had listened to him. That was in the long ago, +when they had lived at the great farm. And then came the thought of the +mortgage, and of Eliphalet's foreclosure, and-- + +"Hullo, Eph!" + +It was one of the men from whom he took fish,--a plain-spoken, sincere +little man. + +"Why wa'n't you down to town-meet'n'?" + +"I was busy," said Eph. + +"How'd ye like the news?" + +"What news?" + +There was never any good news for him now. + +"Hain't heard who 's elected town-clerk?" + +"No." + +Had they elected Eliphalet, and so expressed their settled distrust of +him, and sympathy for the man whom he had injured? + +"Who is elected?" he asked harshly. + +"You be!" said the man; "went in flyin',--all hands clappin' and +stompin' their feet!" + +***** + +An hour later the doctor drove up, stopped, and walked toward the +kitchen door. As he passed the window, he looked in. + +Eph was lying on his face, upon the settle, as he had first seen him +there, his arms beneath his head. + +"I will not disturb him now," said the doctor. + +***** + +One breezy afternoon, in the following summer, Captain Seth laid +aside his easy every-day clothes, and transformed himself into a stiff +broadcloth image, with a small silk hat and creaking boots. So attired, +he set out in a high open buggy, with his wife, also in black, but +with gold spectacles, to the funeral of an aunt. As they pursued their +jog-trot journey along the Salt Hay Road, and came to Ephraim Morse's +cottage, they saw Susan sitting in a shady little porch at the front +door, shelling peas and looking down the bay. + +"How is everything, Susan?" called out Captain Seth; "'bout time for Eph +to be gitt'n' in?" + +"Yes," she answered, nodding and smiling, and pointing with a pea-pod; +"that's our boat, just coming to the wharf, with her peak down." + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Village Convict, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE CONVICT *** + +***** This file should be named 23007.txt or 23007.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23007/ + +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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