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diff --git a/old/pfirs10.txt b/old/pfirs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab7b419 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pfirs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4713 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of "The Country of the Pointed Firs" +by Sarah Orne Jewett + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +The Country of +the Pointed Firs + +SARAH ORNE JEWETT + + + +Note + +SARAH ORNE JEWETT (1849-1909) was born and died in South Berwick, +Maine. Her father was the region's most distinguished doctor and, +as a child, Jewett often accompanied him on his round of patient +visits. She began writing poetry at an early age and when she was +only 19 her short story "Mr. Bruce" was accepted by the Atlantic +Monthly. Her association with that magazine continued, and +William Dean Howells, who was editor at that time, encouraged her +to publish her first book, Deephaven (1877), a collection of +sketches published earlier in the Atlantic Monthly. Through +her friendship with Howells, Jewett became acquainted with Boston's +literary elite, including Annie Fields, with whom she developed one +of the most intimate and lasting relationships of her life. + +The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is considered +Jewett's finest work, described by Henry James as her "beautiful +little quantum of achievement." Despite James's diminutives, the +novel remains a classic. Because it is loosely structured, many +critics view the book not as a novel, but a series of sketches; +however, its structure is unified through both setting and theme. +Jewett herself felt that her strengths as a writer lay not in plot +development or dramatic tension, but in character development. +Indeed, she determined early in her career to preserve a +disappearing way of life, and her novel can be read as a study of +the effects of isolation and hardship on the inhabitants who lived +in the decaying fishing villages along the Maine coast. + +Jewett died in 1909, eight years after an accident that +effectively ended her writing career. Her reputation had grown +during her lifetime, extending far beyond the bounds of the New +England she loved. + + + +Contents +------------------------------------------------------------------- + + I The Return + II Mrs. Todd + III The Schoolhouse + IV At the Schoolhouse Window + V Captain Littlepage + VI The Waiting Place + VII The Outer Island + VIII Green Island + IX William + X Where Pennyroyal Grew + XI The Old Singers + XII A Strange Sail + XIII Poor Joanna + XIV The Hermitage + XV On Shell-heap Island + XVI The Great Expedition + XVII A Country Road +XVIII The Bowden Reunion + XIX The Feast's End + XX Along Shore + XXI The Backward View + + + + + + +I + +The Return + +THERE WAS SOMETHING about the coast town of Dunnet which made it +seem more attractive than other maritime villages of eastern Maine. +Perhaps it was the simple fact of acquaintance with that +neighborhood which made it so attaching, and gave such interest to +the rocky shore and dark woods, and the few houses which seemed to +be securely wedged and tree-nailed in among the ledges by the +Landing. These houses made the most of their seaward view, and +there was a gayety and determined floweriness in their bits of +garden ground; the small-paned high windows in the peaks of their +steep gables were like knowing eyes that watched the harbor and the +far sea-line beyond, or looked northward all along the shore and +its background of spruces and balsam firs. When one really knows +a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming +acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at +first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the +growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair. + +After a first brief visit made two or three summers before in +the course of a yachting cruise, a lover of Dunnet Landing returned +to find the unchanged shores of the pointed firs, the same +quaintness of the village with its elaborate conventionalities; all +that mixture of remoteness, and childish certainty of being the +centre of civilization of which her affectionate dreams had told. +One evening in June, a single passenger landed upon the steamboat +wharf. The tide was high, there was a fine crowd of spectators, +and the younger portion of the company followed her with subdued +excitement up the narrow street of the salt-aired, white- +clapboarded little town. + + + + +II + + +Mrs. Todd + +LATER, THERE WAS only one fault to find with this choice of a +summer lodging-place, and that was its complete lack of seclusion. +At first the tiny house of Mrs. Almira Todd, which stood with its +end to the street, appeared to be retired and sheltered enough from +the busy world, behind its bushy bit of a green garden, in which +all the blooming things, two or three gay hollyhocks and some +London-pride, were pushed back against the gray-shingled wall. It +was a queer little garden and puzzling to a stranger, the few +flowers being put at a disadvantage by so much greenery; but the +discovery was soon made that Mrs. Todd was an ardent lover of +herbs, both wild and tame, and the sea-breezes blew into the low +end-window of the house laden with not only sweet-brier and sweet- +mary, but balm and sage and borage and mint, wormwood and +southernwood. If Mrs. Todd had occasion to step into the far +corner of her herb plot, she trod heavily upon thyme, and made its +fragrant presence known with all the rest. Being a very large +person, her full skirts brushed and bent almost every slender stalk +that her feet missed. You could always tell when she was stepping +about there, even when you were half awake in the morning, and +learned to know, in the course of a few weeks' experience, in +exactly which corner of the garden she might be. + +At one side of this herb plot were other growths of a rustic +pharmacopoeia, great treasures and rarities among the commoner +herbs. There were some strange and pungent odors that roused a dim +sense and remembrance of something in the forgotten past. Some of +these might once have belonged to sacred and mystic rites, and have +had some occult knowledge handed with them down the centuries; but +now they pertained only to humble compounds brewed at intervals +with molasses or vinegar or spirits in a small caldron on Mrs. +Todd's kitchen stove. They were dispensed to suffering neighbors, +who usually came at night as if by stealth, bringing their own +ancient-looking vials to be filled. One nostrum was called the +Indian remedy, and its price was but fifteen cents; the whispered +directions could be heard as customers passed the windows. With +most remedies the purchaser was allowed to depart unadmonished from +the kitchen, Mrs. Todd being a wise saver of steps; but with +certain vials she gave cautions, standing in the doorway, and +there were other doses which had to be accompanied on their healing +way as far as the gate, while she muttered long chapters of +directions, and kept up an air of secrecy and importance to the +last. It may not have been only the common aids of humanity with +which she tried to cope; it seemed sometimes as if love and hate +and jealousy and adverse winds at sea might also find their proper +remedies among the curious wild-looking plants in Mrs. Todd's +garden. + +The village doctor and this learned herbalist were upon the +best of terms. The good man may have counted upon the unfavorable +effect of certain potions which he should find his opportunity in +counteracting; at any rate, he now and then stopped and exchanged +greetings with Mrs. Todd over the picket fence. The conversation +became at once professional after the briefest preliminaries, and +he would stand twirling a sweet-scented sprig in his fingers, and +make suggestive jokes, perhaps about her faith in a too persistent +course of thoroughwort elixir, in which my landlady professed such +firm belief as sometimes to endanger the life and usefulness of +worthy neighbors. + +To arrive at this quietest of seaside villages late in June, +when the busy herb-gathering season was just beginning, was also to +arrive in the early prime of Mrs. Todd's activity in the brewing of +old-fashioned spruce beer. This cooling and refreshing drink had +been brought to wonderful perfection through a long series of +experiments; it had won immense local fame, and the supplies for +its manufacture were always giving out and having to be +replenished. For various reasons, the seclusion and uninterrupted +days which had been looked forward to proved to be very rare in +this otherwise delightful corner of the world. My hostess and I +had made our shrewd business agreement on the basis of a simple +cold luncheon at noon, and liberal restitution in the matter of hot +suppers, to provide for which the lodger might sometimes be seen +hurrying down the road, late in the day, with cunner line in hand. +It was soon found that this arrangement made large allowance for +Mrs. Todd's slow herb-gathering progresses through woods and +pastures. The spruce-beer customers were pretty steady in hot +weather, and there were many demands for different soothing syrups +and elixirs with which the unwise curiosity of my early residence +had made me acquainted. Knowing Mrs. Todd to be a widow, who had +little beside this slender business and the income from one hungry +lodger to maintain her, one's energies and even interest were +quickly bestowed, until it became a matter of course that she +should go afield every pleasant day, and that the lodger should +answer all peremptory knocks at the side door. + +In taking an occasional wisdom-giving stroll in Mrs. Todd's +company, and in acting as business partner during her +frequent absences, I found the July days fly fast, and it was not +until I felt myself confronted with too great pride and pleasure in +the display, one night, of two dollars and twenty-seven cents which +I had taken in during the day, that I remembered a long piece of +writing, sadly belated now, which I was bound to do. To have been +patted kindly on the shoulder and called "darlin'," to have been +offered a surprise of early mushrooms for supper, to have had all +the glory of making two dollars and twenty-seven cents in a single +day, and then to renounce it all and withdraw from these pleasant +successes, needed much resolution. Literary employments are so +vexed with uncertainties at best, and it was not until the voice of +conscience sounded louder in my ears than the sea on the nearest +pebble beach that I said unkind words of withdrawal to Mrs. Todd. +She only became more wistfully affectionate than ever in her +expressions, and looked as disappointed as I expected when I +frankly told her that I could no longer enjoy the pleasure of what +we called "seein' folks." I felt that I was cruel to a whole +neighborhood in curtailing her liberty in this most important +season for harvesting the different wild herbs that were so much +counted upon to ease their winter ails. + +"Well, dear," she said sorrowfully, "I've took great advantage +o' your bein' here. I ain't had such a season for years, but I +have never had nobody I could so trust. All you lack is a few +qualities, but with time you'd gain judgment an' experience, an' be +very able in the business. I'd stand right here an' say it to +anybody." + + +Mrs. Todd and I were not separated or estranged by the change +in our business relations; on the contrary, a deeper intimacy +seemed to begin. I do not know what herb of the night it was that +used sometimes to send out a penetrating odor late in the evening, +after the dew had fallen, and the moon was high, and the cool air +came up from the sea. Then Mrs. Todd would feel that she must talk +to somebody, and I was only too glad to listen. We both fell under +the spell, and she either stood outside the window, or made an +errand to my sitting-room, and told, it might be very commonplace +news of the day, or, as happened one misty summer night, all that +lay deepest in her heart. It was in this way that I came to know +that she had loved one who was far above her. + +"No, dear, him I speak of could never think of me," she said. +"When we was young together his mother didn't favor the match, an' +done everything she could to part us; and folks thought we both +married well, but't wa'n't what either one of us wanted most; an' +now we're left alone again, an' might have had each other all the +time. He was above bein' a seafarin' man, an' prospered more +than most; he come of a high family, an' my lot was plain an' hard- +workin'. I ain't seen him for some years; he's forgot our youthful +feelin's, I expect, but a woman's heart is different; them feelin's +comes back when you think you've done with 'em, as sure as spring +comes with the year. An' I've always had ways of hearin' about +him." + +She stood in the centre of a braided rug, and its rings of +black and gray seemed to circle about her feet in the dim light. +Her height and massiveness in the low room gave her the look of a +huge sibyl, while the strange fragrance of the mysterious herb blew +in from the little garden. + + + + +III + + +The Schoolhouse + +FOR SOME DAYS after this, Mrs. Todd's customers came and went past +my windows, and, haying-time being nearly over, strangers began to +arrive from the inland country, such was her widespread reputation. +Sometimes I saw a pale young creature like a white windflower left +over into midsummer, upon whose face consumption had set its bright +and wistful mark; but oftener two stout, hard-worked women from the +farms came together, and detailed their symptoms to Mrs. Todd in +loud and cheerful voices, combining the satisfactions of a friendly +gossip with the medical opportunity. They seemed to give much from +their own store of therapeutic learning. I became aware of the +school in which my landlady had strengthened her natural gift; but +hers was always the governing mind, and the final command, "Take of +hy'sop one handful" (or whatever herb it was), was received in +respectful silence. One afternoon, when I had listened,--it was +impossible not to listen, with cottonless ears,--and then laughed +and listened again, with an idle pen in my hand, during a +particularly spirited and personal conversation, I reached for my +hat, and, taking blotting-book and all under my arm, I resolutely +fled further temptation, and walked out past the fragrant green +garden and up the dusty road. The way went straight uphill, and +presently I stopped and turned to look back. + +The tide was in, the wide harbor was surrounded by its dark +woods, and the small wooden houses stood as near as they could get +to the landing. Mrs. Todd's was the last house on the way +inland. The gray ledges of the rocky shore were well covered with +sod in most places, and the pasture bayberry and wild roses grew +thick among them. I could see the higher inland country and the +scattered farms. On the brink of the hill stood a little white +schoolhouse, much wind-blown and weather-beaten, which was a +landmark to seagoing folk; from its door there was a most beautiful +view of sea and shore. The summer vacation now prevailed, and +after finding the door unfastened, and taking a long look through +one of the seaward windows, and reflecting afterward for some time +in a shady place near by among the bayberry bushes, I returned to +the chief place of business in the village, and, to the amusement +of two of the selectmen, brothers and autocrats of Dunnet Landing, +I hired the schoolhouse for the rest of the vacation for fifty +cents a week. + +Selfish as it may appear, the retired situation seemed to +possess great advantages, and I spent many days there quite +undisturbed, with the sea-breeze blowing through the small, high +windows and swaying the heavy outside shutters to and fro. I hung +my hat and luncheon-basket on an entry nail as if I were a small +scholar, but I sat at the teacher's desk as if I were that great +authority, with all the timid empty benches in rows before me. Now +and then an idle sheep came and stood for a long time looking in at +the door. At sundown I went back, feeling most businesslike, down +toward the village again, and usually met the flavor, not of the +herb garden, but of Mrs. Todd's hot supper, halfway up the hill. +On the nights when there were evening meetings or other public +exercises that demanded her presence we had tea very early, and I +was welcomed back as if from a long absence. + +Once or twice I feigned excuses for staying at home, while +Mrs. Todd made distant excursions, and came home late, with both +hands full and a heavily laden apron. This was in pennyroyal time, +and when the rare lobelia was in its prime and the elecampane was +coming on. One day she appeared at the schoolhouse itself, partly +out of amused curiosity about my industries; but she explained that +there was no tansy in the neighborhood with such snap to it as some +that grew about the schoolhouse lot. Being scuffed down all the +spring made it grow so much the better, like some folks that had it +hard in their youth, and were bound to make the most of themselves +before they died. + + + + +IV + + +At the Schoolhouse Window + +ONE DAY I reached the schoolhouse very late, owing to attendance +upon the funeral of an acquaintance and neighbor, with whose sad +decline in health I had been familiar, and whose last days both the +doctor and Mrs. Todd had tried in vain to ease. The services had +taken place at one o'clock, and now, at quarter past two, I stood +at the schoolhouse window, looking down at the procession as it +went along the lower road close to the shore. It was a walking +funeral, and even at that distance I could recognize most of the +mourners as they went their solemn way. Mrs. Begg had been very +much respected, and there was a large company of friends following +to her grave. She had been brought up on one of the neighboring +farms, and each of the few times that I had seen her she professed +great dissatisfaction with town life. The people lived too close +together for her liking, at the Landing, and she could not get used +to the constant sound of the sea. She had lived to lament three +seafaring husbands, and her house was decorated with West Indian +curiosities, specimens of conch shells and fine coral which they +had brought home from their voyages in lumber-laden ships. Mrs. +Todd had told me all our neighbor's history. They had been girls +together, and, to use her own phrase, had "both seen trouble till +they knew the best and worst on 't." I could see the sorrowful, +large figure of Mrs. Todd as I stood at the window. She made a +break in the procession by walking slowly and keeping the after- +part of it back. She held a handkerchief to her eyes, and I knew, +with a pang of sympathy, that hers was not affected grief. + +Beside her, after much difficulty, I recognized the one +strange and unrelated person in all the company, an old man who had +always been mysterious to me. I could see his thin, bending +figure. He wore a narrow, long-tailed coat and walked with a +stick, and had the same "cant to leeward" as the wind-bent trees on +the height above. + +This was Captain Littlepage, whom I had seen only once or +twice before, sitting pale and old behind a closed window; never +out of doors until now. Mrs. Todd always shook her head gravely +when I asked a question, and said that he wasn't what he had been +once, and seemed to class him with her other secrets. He might +have belonged with a simple which grew in a certain slug-haunted +corner of the garden, whose use she could never be betrayed +into telling me, though I saw her cutting the tops by moonlight +once, as if it were a charm, and not a medicine, like the great +fading bloodroot leaves. + +I could see that she was trying to keep pace with the old +captain's lighter steps. He looked like an aged grasshopper of +some strange human variety. Behind this pair was a short, +impatient, little person, who kept the captain's house, and gave it +what Mrs. Todd and others believed to be no proper sort of care. +She was usually called "that Mari' Harris" in subdued conversation +between intimates, but they treated her with anxious civility when +they met her face to face. + +The bay-sheltered islands and the great sea beyond stretched +away to the far horizon southward and eastward; the little +procession in the foreground looked futile and helpless on the edge +of the rocky shore. It was a glorious day early in July, with a +clear, high sky; there were no clouds, there was no noise of the +sea. The song sparrows sang and sang, as if with joyous knowledge +of immortality, and contempt for those who could so pettily concern +themselves with death. I stood watching until the funeral +procession had crept round a shoulder of the slope below and +disappeared from the great landscape as if it had gone into a cave. + +An hour later I was busy at my work. Now and then a bee +blundered in and took me for an enemy; but there was a useful stick +upon the teacher's desk, and I rapped to call the bees to order as +if they were unruly scholars, or waved them away from their riots +over the ink, which I had bought at the Landing store, and +discovered to be scented with bergamot, as if to refresh the labors +of anxious scribes. One anxious scribe felt very dull that day; a +sheep-bell tinkled near by, and called her wandering wits after it. +The sentences failed to catch these lovely summer cadences. For +the first time I began to wish for a companion and for news from +the outer world, which had been, half unconsciously, forgotten. +Watching the funeral gave one a sort of pain. I began to wonder if +I ought not to have walked with the rest, instead of hurrying away +at the end of the services. Perhaps the Sunday gown I had put on +for the occasion was making this disastrous change of feeling, but +I had now made myself and my friends remember that I did not really +belong to Dunnet Landing. + +I sighed, and turned to the half-written page again. + + + + +V + + +Captain Littlepage + +IT WAS A long time after this; an hour was very long in that coast +town where nothing stole away the shortest minute. I had lost +myself completely in work, when I heard footsteps outside. There +was a steep footpath between the upper and the lower road, which I +climbed to shorten the way, as the children had taught me, but I +believed that Mrs. Todd would find it inaccessible, unless she had +occasion to seek me in great haste. I wrote on, feeling like a +besieged miser of time, while the footsteps came nearer, and the +sheep-bell tinkled away in haste as if someone had shaken a stick +in its wearer's face. Then I looked, and saw Captain Littlepage +passing the nearest window; the next moment he tapped politely at +the door. + +"Come in, sir," I said, rising to meet him; and he entered, +bowing with much courtesy. I stepped down from the desk and +offered him a chair by the window, where he seated himself at once, +being sadly spent by his climb. I returned to my fixed seat behind +the teacher's desk, which gave him the lower place of a scholar. + +"You ought to have the place of honor, Captain Littlepage," I +said. + + +"A happy, rural seat of various views," + +he quoted, as he gazed out into the sunshine and up the long wooded +shore. Then he glanced at me, and looked all about him as pleased +as a child. + +"My quotation was from Paradise Lost: the greatest of poems, +I suppose you know?" and I nodded. "There's nothing that ranks, to +my mind, with Paradise Lost; it's all lofty, all lofty," he +continued. "Shakespeare was a great poet; he copied life, but you +have to put up with a great deal of low talk." + +I now remembered that Mrs. Todd had told me one day that +Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading; she +had also made dark reference to his having "spells" of some +unexplainable nature. I could not help wondering what errand had +brought him out in search of me. There was something quite +charming in his appearance: it was a face thin and delicate with +refinement, but worn into appealing lines, as if he had suffered +from loneliness and misapprehension. He looked, with his +careful precision of dress, as if he were the object of cherishing +care on the part of elderly unmarried sisters, but I knew Mari' +Harris to be a very common-place, inelegant person, who would have +no such standards; it was plain that the captain was his own +attentive valet. He sat looking at me expectantly. I could not +help thinking that, with his queer head and length of thinness, he +was made to hop along the road of life rather than to walk. The +captain was very grave indeed, and I bade my inward spirit keep +close to discretion. + +"Poor Mrs. Begg has gone," I ventured to say. I still wore my +Sunday gown by way of showing respect. + +"She has gone," said the captain,--"very easy at the last, I +was informed; she slipped away as if she were glad of the +opportunity." + +I thought of the Countess of Carberry, and felt that history +repeated itself. + +"She was one of the old stock," continued Captain Littlepage, +with touching sincerity. "She was very much looked up to in this +town, and will be missed." + +I wondered, as I looked at him, if he had sprung from a line +of ministers; he had the refinement of look and air of command +which are the heritage of the old ecclesiastical families of New +England. But as Darwin says in his autobiography, "there is no +such king as a sea-captain; he is greater even than a king or a +schoolmaster!" + +Captain Littlepage moved his chair out of the wake of the +sunshine, and still sat looking at me. I began to be very eager to +know upon what errand he had come. + +"It may be found out some o' these days," he said earnestly. +"We may know it all, the next step; where Mrs. Begg is now, for +instance. Certainty, not conjecture, is what we all desire." + +"I suppose we shall know it all some day," said I. + +"We shall know it while yet below," insisted the captain, with +a flush of impatience on his thin cheeks. "We have not looked for +truth in the right direction. I know what I speak of; those who +have laughed at me little know how much reason my ideas are based +upon." He waved his hand toward the village below. "In that +handful of houses they fancy that they comprehend the universe." + +I smiled, and waited for him to go on. + +"I am an old man, as you can see," he continued, "and I have +been a shipmaster the greater part of my life,--forty-three years +in all. You may not think it, but I am above eighty years of age." + +He did not look so old, and I hastened to say so. + +"You must have left the sea a good many years ago, then, +Captain Littlepage?" I said. + +"I should have been serviceable at least five or six years +more," he answered. "My acquaintance with certain--my experience +upon a certain occasion, I might say, gave rise to prejudice. I do +not mind telling you that I chanced to learn of one of the greatest +discoveries that man has ever made." + +Now we were approaching dangerous ground, but a sudden sense +of his sufferings at the hands of the ignorant came to my help, and +I asked to hear more with all the deference I really felt. A +swallow flew into the schoolhouse at this moment as if a kingbird +were after it, and beat itself against the walls for a minute, and +escaped again to the open air; but Captain Littlepage took no +notice whatever of the flurry. + +"I had a valuable cargo of general merchandise from the London +docks to Fort Churchill, a station of the old company on Hudson's +Bay," said the captain earnestly. "We were delayed in lading, and +baffled by head winds and a heavy tumbling sea all the way north- +about and across. Then the fog kept us off the coast; and when I +made port at last, it was too late to delay in those northern +waters with such a vessel and such a crew as I had. They cared for +nothing, and idled me into a fit of sickness; but my first mate was +a good, excellent man, with no more idea of being frozen in there +until spring than I had, so we made what speed we could to get +clear of Hudson's Bay and off the coast. I owned an eighth of the +vessel, and he owned a sixteenth of her. She was a full-rigged +ship, called the Minerva, but she was getting old and leaky. I +meant it should be my last v'y'ge in her, and so it proved. She +had been an excellent vessel in her day. Of the cowards aboard her +I can't say so much." + +"Then you were wrecked?" I asked, as he made a long pause. + +"I wa'n't caught astern o' the lighter by any fault of mine," +said the captain gloomily. "We left Fort Churchill and run out +into the Bay with a light pair o' heels; but I had been vexed to +death with their red-tape rigging at the company's office, and +chilled with stayin' on deck an' tryin' to hurry up things, and +when we were well out o' sight o' land, headin' for Hudson's +Straits, I had a bad turn o' some sort o' fever, and had to stay +below. The days were getting short, and we made good runs, all +well on board but me, and the crew done their work by dint of hard +driving." + +I began to find this unexpected narrative a little dull. +Captain Littlepage spoke with a kind of slow correctness that +lacked the longshore high flavor to which I had grown used; but I +listened respectfully while he explained the winds having become +contrary, and talked on in a dreary sort of way about his voyage, +the bad weather, and the disadvantages he was under in the +lightness of his ship, which bounced about like a chip in a +bucket, and would not answer the rudder or properly respond to the +most careful setting of sails. + +"So there we were blowin' along anyways," he complained; but +looking at me at this moment, and seeing that my thoughts were +unkindly wandering, he ceased to speak. + +"It was a hard life at sea in those days, I am sure," said I, +with redoubled interest. + +"It was a dog's life," said the poor old gentleman, quite +reassured, "but it made men of those who followed it. I see a +change for the worse even in our own town here; full of loafers +now, small and poor as 'tis, who once would have followed the sea, +every lazy soul of 'em. There is no occupation so fit for just +that class o' men who never get beyond the fo'cas'le. I view it, +in addition, that a community narrows down and grows dreadful +ignorant when it is shut up to its own affairs, and gets no +knowledge of the outside world except from a cheap, unprincipled +newspaper. In the old days, a good part o' the best men here knew +a hundred ports and something of the way folks lived in them. They +saw the world for themselves, and like's not their wives and +children saw it with them. They may not have had the best of +knowledge to carry with 'em sight-seein', but they were some +acquainted with foreign lands an' their laws, an' could see outside +the battle for town clerk here in Dunnet; they got some sense o' +proportion. Yes, they lived more dignified, and their houses were +better within an' without. Shipping's a terrible loss to this part +o' New England from a social point o' view, ma'am." + +"I have thought of that myself," I returned, with my interest +quite awakened. "It accounts for the change in a great many +things,--the sad disappearance of sea-captains,--doesn't it?" + +"A shipmaster was apt to get the habit of reading," said my +companion, brightening still more, and taking on a most touching +air of unreserve. "A captain is not expected to be familiar with +his crew, and for company's sake in dull days and nights he turns +to his book. Most of us old shipmasters came to know 'most +everything about something; one would take to readin' on farming +topics, and some were great on medicine,--but Lord help their poor +crews!--or some were all for history, and now and then there'd be +one like me that gave his time to the poets. I was well acquainted +with a shipmaster that was all for bees an' beekeepin'; and if you +met him in port and went aboard, he'd sit and talk a terrible while +about their havin' so much information, and the money that could be +made out of keepin' 'em. He was one of the smartest captains that +ever sailed the seas, but they used to call the Newcastle, +a great bark he commanded for many years, Tuttle's beehive. There +was old Cap'n Jameson: he had notions of Solomon's Temple, and made +a very handsome little model of the same, right from the Scripture +measurements, same's other sailors make little ships and design new +tricks of rigging and all that. No, there's nothing to take the +place of shipping in a place like ours. These bicycles offend me +dreadfully; they don't afford no real opportunities of experience +such as a man gained on a voyage. No: when folks left home in the +old days they left it to some purpose, and when they got home they +stayed there and had some pride in it. There's no large-minded way +of thinking now: the worst have got to be best and rule everything; +we're all turned upside down and going back year by year." + +"Oh no, Captain Littlepage, I hope not," said I, trying to +soothe his feelings. + +There was a silence in the schoolhouse, but we could hear the +noise of the water on a beach below. It sounded like the strange +warning wave that gives notice of the turn of the tide. A late +golden robin, with the most joyful and eager of voices, was singing +close by in a thicket of wild roses. + + + + +VI + + +The Waiting Place + +"HOW DID YOU manage with the rest of that rough voyage on the +Minerva?" I asked. + +"I shall be glad to explain to you," said Captain Littlepage, +forgetting his grievances for the moment. "If I had a map at hand +I could explain better. We were driven to and fro 'way up toward +what we used to call Parry's Discoveries, and lost our bearings. +It was thick and foggy, and at last I lost my ship; she drove on a +rock, and we managed to get ashore on what I took to be a barren +island, the few of us that were left alive. When she first struck, +the sea was somewhat calmer than it had been, and most of the crew, +against orders, manned the long-boat and put off in a hurry, and +were never heard of more. Our own boat upset, but the carpenter +kept himself and me above water, and we drifted in. I had no +strength to call upon after my recent fever, and laid down to die; +but he found the tracks of a man and dog the second day, and +got along the shore to one of those far missionary stations that +the Moravians support. They were very poor themselves, and in +distress; 'twas a useless place. There were but few Esquimaux left +in that region. There we remained for some time, and I became +acquainted with strange events. + +The captain lifted his head and gave me a questioning glance. +I could not help noticing that the dulled look in his eyes had +gone, and there was instead a clear intentness that made them seem +dark and piercing. + +"There was a supply ship expected, and the pastor, an +excellent Christian man, made no doubt that we should get passage +in her. He was hoping that orders would come to break up the +station; but everything was uncertain, and we got on the best we +could for a while. We fished, and helped the people in other ways; +there was no other way of paying our debts. I was taken to the +pastor's house until I got better; but they were crowded, and I +felt myself in the way, and made excuse to join with an old seaman, +a Scotchman, who had built him a warm cabin, and had room in it for +another. He was looked upon with regard, and had stood by the +pastor in some troubles with the people. He had been on one of +those English exploring parties that found one end of the road to +the north pole, but never could find the other. We lived like dogs +in a kennel, or so you'd thought if you had seen the hut from the +outside; but the main thing was to keep warm; there were piles of +bird-skins to lie on, and he'd made him a good bunk, and there was +another for me. 'Twas dreadful dreary waitin' there; we begun to +think the supply steamer was lost, and my poor ship broke up and +strewed herself all along the shore. We got to watching on the +headlands; my men and me knew the people were short of supplies and +had to pinch themselves. It ought to read in the Bible, 'Man +cannot live by fish alone,' if they'd told the truth of things; +'taint bread that wears the worst on you! First part of the time, +old Gaffett, that I lived with, seemed speechless, and I didn't +know what to make of him, nor he of me, I dare say; but as we got +acquainted, I found he'd been through more disasters than I had, +and had troubles that wa'n't going to let him live a great while. +It used to ease his mind to talk to an understanding person, so we +used to sit and talk together all day, if it rained or blew so that +we couldn't get out. I'd got a bad blow on the back of my head at +the time we came ashore, and it pained me at times, and my strength +was broken, anyway; I've never been so able since." + +Captain Littlepage fell into a reverie. + +"Then I had the good of my reading," he explained presently. +"I had no books; the pastor spoke but little English, and all his +books were foreign; but I used to say over all I could remember. +The old poets little knew what comfort they could be to a +man. I was well acquainted with the works of Milton, but up there +it did seem to me as if Shakespeare was the king; he has his sea +terms very accurate, and some beautiful passages were calming to +the mind. I could say them over until I shed tears; there was +nothing beautiful to me in that place but the stars above and those +passages of verse. + +"Gaffett was always brooding and brooding, and talking to +himself; he was afraid he should never get away, and it preyed upon +his mind. He thought when I got home I could interest the +scientific men in his discovery: but they're all taken up with +their own notions; some didn't even take pains to answer the +letters I wrote. You observe that I said this crippled man Gaffett +had been shipped on a voyage of discovery. I now tell you that the +ship was lost on its return, and only Gaffett and two officers were +saved off the Greenland coast, and he had knowledge later that +those men never got back to England; the brig they shipped on was +run down in the night. So no other living soul had the facts, and +he gave them to me. There is a strange sort of a country 'way up +north beyond the ice, and strange folks living in it. Gaffett +believed it was the next world to this." + +"What do you mean, Captain Littlepage?" I exclaimed. The old +man was bending forward and whispering; he looked over his shoulder +before he spoke the last sentence. + +"To hear old Gaffett tell about it was something awful," he +said, going on with his story quite steadily after the moment of +excitement had passed. "'Twas first a tale of dogs and sledges, +and cold and wind and snow. Then they begun to find the ice grow +rotten; they had been frozen in, and got into a current flowing +north, far up beyond Fox Channel, and they took to their boats when +the ship got crushed, and this warm current took them out of sight +of the ice, and into a great open sea; and they still followed it +due north, just the very way they had planned to go. Then they +struck a coast that wasn't laid down or charted, but the cliffs +were such that no boat could land until they found a bay and struck +across under sail to the other side where the shore looked lower; +they were scant of provisions and out of water, but they got sight +of something that looked like a great town. 'For God's sake, +Gaffett!' said I, the first time he told me. 'You don't mean a +town two degrees farther north than ships had ever been?' for he'd +got their course marked on an old chart that he'd pieced out at the +top; but he insisted upon it, and told it over and over again, to +be sure I had it straight to carry to those who would be +interested. There was no snow and ice, he said, after they had +sailed some days with that warm current, which seemed to come right +from under the ice that they'd been pinched up in and had +been crossing on foot for weeks." + +"But what about the town?" I asked. "Did they get to the +town?" + +"They did," said the captain, "and found inhabitants; 'twas an +awful condition of things. It appeared, as near as Gaffett could +express it, like a place where there was neither living nor dead. +They could see the place when they were approaching it by sea +pretty near like any town, and thick with habitations; but all at +once they lost sight of it altogether, and when they got close +inshore they could see the shapes of folks, but they never could +get near them,--all blowing gray figures that would pass along +alone, or sometimes gathered in companies as if they were watching. +The men were frightened at first, but the shapes never came near +them,--it was as if they blew back; and at last they all got bold +and went ashore, and found birds' eggs and sea fowl, like any wild +northern spot where creatures were tame and folks had never been, +and there was good water. Gaffett said that he and another man +came near one o' the fog-shaped men that was going along slow with +the look of a pack on his back, among the rocks, an' they chased +him; but, Lord! he flittered away out o' sight like a leaf the wind +takes with it, or a piece of cobweb. They would make as if they +talked together, but there was no sound of voices, and 'they acted +as if they didn't see us, but only felt us coming towards them,' +says Gaffett one day, trying to tell the particulars. They +couldn't see the town when they were ashore. One day the captain +and the doctor were gone till night up across the high land where +the town had seemed to be, and they came back at night beat out and +white as ashes, and wrote and wrote all next day in their +notebooks, and whispered together full of excitement, and they were +sharp-spoken with the men when they offered to ask any questions. + +"Then there came a day," said Captain Littlepage, leaning +toward me with a strange look in his eyes, and whispering quickly. +"The men all swore they wouldn't stay any longer; the man on watch +early in the morning gave the alarm, and they all put off in the +boat and got a little way out to sea. Those folks, or whatever +they were, come about 'em like bats; all at once they raised +incessant armies, and come as if to drive 'em back to sea. They +stood thick at the edge o' the water like the ridges o' grim war; +no thought o' flight, none of retreat. Sometimes a standing fight, +then soaring on main wing tormented all the air. And when they'd +got the boat out o' reach o' danger, Gaffett said they looked back, +and there was the town again, standing up just as they'd seen it +first, comin' on the coast. Say what you might, they all believed +'twas a kind of waiting-place between this world an' the next." + +The captain had sprung to his feet in his excitement, and made +excited gestures, but he still whispered huskily. + +"Sit down, sir," I said as quietly as I could, and he sank +into his chair quite spent. + +"Gaffett thought the officers were hurrying home to report and +to fit out a new expedition when they were all lost. At the time, +the men got orders not to talk over what they had seen," the old +man explained presently in a more natural tone. + +"Weren't they all starving, and wasn't it a mirage or +something of that sort?" I ventured to ask. But he looked at me +blankly. + +"Gaffett had got so that his mind ran on nothing else," he +went on. "The ship's surgeon let fall an opinion to the captain, +one day, that 'twas some condition o' the light and the magnetic +currents that let them see those folks. 'Twa'n't a right-feeling +part of the world, anyway; they had to battle with the compass to +make it serve, an' everything seemed to go wrong. Gaffett had +worked it out in his own mind that they was all common ghosts, but +the conditions were unusual favorable for seeing them. He was +always talking about the Ge'graphical Society, but he never took +proper steps, as I viewed it now, and stayed right there at the +mission. He was a good deal crippled, and thought they'd confine +him in some jail of a hospital. He said he was waiting to find the +right men to tell, somebody bound north. Once in a while they +stopped there to leave a mail or something. He was set in his +notions, and let two or three proper explorin' expeditions go by +him because he didn't like their looks; but when I was there he had +got restless, fearin' he might be taken away or something. He had +all his directions written out straight as a string to give the +right ones. I wanted him to trust 'em to me, so I might have +something to show, but he wouldn't. I suppose he's dead now. I +wrote to him an' I done all I could. 'Twill be a great exploit +some o' these days." + +I assented absent-mindedly, thinking more just then of my +companion's alert, determined look and the seafaring, ready aspect +that had come to his face; but at this moment there fell a sudden +change, and the old, pathetic, scholarly look returned. Behind me +hung a map of North America, and I saw, as I turned a little, that +his eyes were fixed upon the northernmost regions and their careful +recent outlines with a look of bewilderment. + + + + +VII + + +The Outer Island + + +GAFFETT WITH HIS good bunk and the bird-skins, the story of +the wreck of the Minerva, the human-shaped creatures of fog and +cobweb, the great words of Milton with which he described their +onslaught upon the crew, all this moving tale had such an air of +truth that I could not argue with Captain Littlepage. The old man +looked away from the map as if it had vaguely troubled him, and +regarded me appealingly. + +"We were just speaking of"--and he stopped. I saw that he had +suddenly forgotten his subject. + +"There were a great many persons at the funeral," I hastened +to say. + +"Oh yes," the captain answered, with satisfaction. "All +showed respect who could. The sad circumstances had for a moment +slipped my mind. Yes, Mrs. Begg will be very much missed. She was +a capital manager for her husband when he was at sea. Oh yes, +shipping is a very great loss." And he sighed heavily. "There was +hardly a man of any standing who didn't interest himself in some +way in navigation. It always gave credit to a town. I call it +low-water mark now here in Dunnet." + +He rose with dignity to take leave, and asked me to stop at +his house some day, when he would show me some outlandish things +that he had brought home from sea. I was familiar with the subject +of the decadence of shipping interests in all its affecting +branches, having been already some time in Dunnet, and I felt sure +that Captain Littlepage's mind had now returned to a safe level. + +As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided, +and when I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece +of sidewalk which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the +best of friends. "Step in some afternoon," he said, as +affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee +shore of age like himself. I turned toward home, and presently met +Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an anxious expression. + +"I see you sleevin' the old gentleman down the hill," she +suggested. + +"Yes. I've had a very interesting afternoon with him," I +answered, and her face brightened. + +"Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 'twas one o' his +flighty spells, an' Mari' Harris wouldn't"-- + +"Yes," I returned, smiling, "he has been telling me some old +stories, but we talked about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and +Paradise Lost." + +"I expect he got tellin' of you some o' his great narratives," +she answered, looking at me shrewdly. "Funerals always sets him +goin'. Some o' them tales hangs together toler'ble well," she +added, with a sharper look than before. "An' he's been a great +reader all his seafarin' days. Some thinks he overdid, and +affected his head, but for a man o' his years he's amazin' now when +he's at his best. Oh, he used to be a beautiful man!" + + +We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor and +its long stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the +pointed firs, darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to +embark. As we looked far seaward among the outer islands, the +trees seemed to march seaward still, going steadily over the +heights and down to the water's edge. + +It had been growing gray and cloudy, like the first evening of +autumn, and a shadow had fallen on the darkening shore. Suddenly, +as we looked, a gleam of golden sunshine struck the outer islands, +and one of them shone out clear in the light, and revealed itself +in a compelling way to our eyes. Mrs. Todd was looking off across +the bay with a face full of affection and interest. The sunburst +upon that outermost island made it seem like a sudden revelation of +the world beyond this which some believe to be so near. + +"That's where mother lives," said Mrs. Todd. "Can't we see it +plain? I was brought up out there on Green Island. I know every +rock an' bush on it." + +"Your mother!" I exclaimed, with great interest. + +"Yes, dear, cert'in; I've got her yet, old's I be. She's one +of them spry, light-footed little women; always was, an' light- +hearted, too," answered Mrs. Todd, with satisfaction. "She's seen +all the trouble folks can see, without it's her last sickness; an' +she's got a word of courage for everybody. Life ain't spoilt her +a mite. She's eighty-six an' I'm sixty-seven, and I've seen the +time I've felt a good sight the oldest. 'Land sakes alive!' says +she, last time I was out to see her. 'How you do lurch about +steppin' into a bo't?' I laughed so I liked to have gone right +over into the water; an' we pushed off, an' left her laughin' there +on the shore." + +The light had faded as we watched. Mrs. Todd had mounted a +gray rock, and stood there grand and architectural, like a +caryatide. Presently she stepped down, and we continued our +way homeward. + +"You an' me, we'll take a bo't an' go out some day and see +mother," she promised me. "'Twould please her very much, +an' there's one or two sca'ce herbs grows better on the island than +anywhere else. I ain't seen their like nowheres here on the main." + +"Now I'm goin' right down to get us each a mug o' my beer," +she announced as we entered the house, "an' I believe I'll sneak in +a little mite o' camomile. Goin' to the funeral an' all, I feel to +have had a very wearin' afternoon." + +I heard her going down into the cool little cellar, and then +there was considerable delay. When she returned, mug in hand, I +noticed the taste of camomile, in spite of my protest; but its +flavor was disguised by some other herb that I did not know, and +she stood over me until I drank it all and said that I liked it. + +"I don't give that to everybody," said Mrs. Todd kindly; and +I felt for a moment as if it were part of a spell and incantation, +and as if my enchantress would now begin to look like the cobweb +shapes of the arctic town. Nothing happened but a quiet evening +and some delightful plans that we made about going to Green Island, +and on the morrow there was the clear sunshine and blue sky of +another day. + + + + +VIII + + +Green Island + +ONE MORNING, very early, I heard Mrs. Todd in the garden outside my +window. By the unusual loudness of her remarks to a passer-by, and +the notes of a familiar hymn which she sang as she worked among the +herbs, and which came as if directed purposely to the sleepy ears +of my consciousness, I knew that she wished I would wake up and +come and speak to her. + +In a few minutes she responded to a morning voice from behind +the blinds. "I expect you're goin' up to your schoolhouse to pass +all this pleasant day; yes, I expect you're goin' to be dreadful +busy," she said despairingly. + +"Perhaps not," said I. "Why, what's going to be the matter +with you, Mrs. Todd?" For I supposed that she was tempted by the +fine weather to take one of her favorite expeditions along the +shore pastures to gather herbs and simples, and would like to have +me keep the house. + +"No, I don't want to go nowhere by land," she answered +gayly,--"no, not by land; but I don't know's we shall have a better +day all the rest of the summer to go out to Green Island an' see +mother. I waked up early thinkin' of her. The wind's light +northeast,--'twill take us right straight out, an' this time o' +year it's liable to change round southwest an' fetch us home +pretty, 'long late in the afternoon. Yes, it's goin' to be a good +day." + +"Speak to the captain and the Bowden boy, if you see anybody +going by toward the landing," said I. "We'll take the big boat." + +"Oh, my sakes! now you let me do things my way," said Mrs. +Todd scornfully. "No, dear, we won't take no big bo't. I'll just +git a handy dory, an' Johnny Bowden an' me, we'll man her +ourselves. I don't want no abler bo't than a good dory, an' a nice +light breeze ain't goin' to make no sea; an' Johnny's my cousin's +son,--mother'll like to have him come; an' he'll be down to the +herrin' weirs all the time we're there, anyway; we don't want to +carry no men folks havin' to be considered every minute an' takin' +up all our time. No, you let me do; we'll just slip out an' see +mother by ourselves. I guess what breakfast you'll want's about +ready now." + +I had become well acquainted with Mrs. Todd as landlady, herb- +gatherer, and rustic philosopher; we had been discreet fellow- +passengers once or twice when I had sailed up the coast to a larger +town than Dunnet Landing to do some shopping; but I was yet to +become acquainted with her as a mariner. An hour later we pushed +off from the landing in the desired dory. The tide was just on the +turn, beginning to fall, and several friends and acquaintances +stood along the side of the dilapidated wharf and cheered us by +their words and evident interest. Johnny Bowden and I were both +rowing in haste to get out where we could catch the breeze and put +up the small sail which lay clumsily furled along the gunwale. +Mrs. Todd sat aft, a stern and unbending lawgiver. + +"You better let her drift; we'll get there 'bout as quick; the +tide'll take her right out from under these old buildin's; there's +plenty wind outside." + +"Your bo't ain't trimmed proper, Mis' Todd!" exclaimed a voice +from shore. "You're lo'ded so the bo't'll drag; you can't git her +before the wind, ma'am. You set 'midships, Mis' Todd, an' let the +boy hold the sheet 'n' steer after he gits the sail up; you won't +never git out to Green Island that way. She's lo'ded bad, your +bo't is,--she's heavy behind's she is now!" + +Mrs. Todd turned with some difficulty and regarded the anxious +adviser, my right oar flew out of water, and we seemed about to +capsize. "That you, Asa? Good-mornin'," she said politely. +"I al'ays liked the starn seat best. When'd you git back from up +country?" + +This allusion to Asa's origin was not lost upon the rest of +the company. We were some little distance from shore, but we could +hear a chuckle of laughter, and Asa, a person who was too ready +with his criticism and advice on every possible subject, turned and +walked indignantly away. + +When we caught the wind we were soon on our seaward course, +and only stopped to underrun a trawl, for the floats of which Mrs. +Todd looked earnestly, explaining that her mother might not be +prepared for three extra to dinner; it was her brother's trawl, and +she meant to just run her eye along for the right sort of a little +haddock. I leaned over the boat's side with great interest and +excitement, while she skillfully handled the long line of hooks, +and made scornful remarks upon worthless, bait-consuming creatures +of the sea as she reviewed them and left them on the trawl or shook +them off into the waves. At last we came to what she pronounced a +proper haddock, and having taken him on board and ended his life +resolutely, we went our way. + +As we sailed along I listened to an increasingly delightful +commentary upon the islands, some of them barren rocks, or at best +giving sparse pasturage for sheep in the early summer. On one of +these an eager little flock ran to the water's edge and bleated at +us so affectingly that I would willingly have stopped; but Mrs. +Todd steered away from the rocks, and scolded at the sheep's mean +owner, an acquaintance of hers, who grudged the little salt and +still less care which the patient creatures needed. The hot +midsummer sun makes prisons of these small islands that are a +paradise in early June, with their cool springs and short thick- +growing grass. On a larger island, farther out to sea, my +entertaining companion showed me with glee the small houses of two +farmers who shared the island between them, and declared that for +three generations the people had not spoken to each other even in +times of sickness or death or birth. "When the news come that the +war was over, one of 'em knew it a week, and never stepped across +his wall to tell the other," she said. "There, they enjoy it; +they've got to have somethin' to interest 'em in such a place; 'tis +a good deal more tryin' to be tied to folks you don't like than +'tis to be alone. Each of 'em tell the neighbors their wrongs; +plenty likes to hear and tell again; them as fetch a bone'll carry +one, an' so they keep the fight a-goin'. I must say I like variety +myself; some folks washes Monday an' irons Tuesday the whole year +round, even if the circus is goin' by!" + +A long time before we landed at Green Island we could see the +small white house, standing high like a beacon, where Mrs. Todd was +born and where her mother lived, on a green slope above the +water, with dark spruce woods still higher. There were crops in +the fields, which we presently distinguished from one another. +Mrs. Todd examined them while we were still far at sea. "Mother's +late potatoes looks backward; ain't had rain enough so far," she +pronounced her opinion. "They look weedier than what they call +Front Street down to Cowper Centre. I expect brother William is so +occupied with his herrin' weirs an' servin' out bait to the +schooners that he don't think once a day of the land." + +"What's the flag for, up above the spruces there behind the +house?" I inquired, with eagerness. + +"Oh, that's the sign for herrin'," she explained kindly, while +Johnny Bowden regarded me with contemptuous surprise. "When they +get enough for schooners they raise that flag; an' when 'tis a poor +catch in the weir pocket they just fly a little signal down by the +shore, an' then the small bo'ts comes and get enough an' over for +their trawls. There, look! there she is: mother sees us; she's +wavin' somethin' out o' the fore door! She'll be to the landin'- +place quick's we are." + +I looked, and could see a tiny flutter in the doorway, but a +quicker signal had made its way from the heart on shore to the +heart on the sea. + +"How do you suppose she knows it is me?" said Mrs. Todd, with +a tender smile on her broad face. "There, you never get over bein' +a child long's you have a mother to go to. Look at the chimney, +now; she's gone right in an' brightened up the fire. Well, there, +I'm glad mother's well; you'll enjoy seein' her very much." + +Mrs. Todd leaned back into her proper position, and the boat +trimmed again. She took a firmer grasp of the sheet, and gave an +impatient look up at the gaff and the leech of the little sail, and +twitched the sheet as if she urged the wind like a horse. There +came at once a fresh gust, and we seemed to have doubled our speed. +Soon we were near enough to see a tiny figure with handkerchiefed +head come down across the field and stand waiting for us at the +cove above a curve of pebble beach. + +Presently the dory grated on the pebbles, and Johnny Bowden, +who had been kept in abeyance during the voyage, sprang out and +used manful exertions to haul us up with the next wave, so that +Mrs. Todd could make a dry landing. + +"You don that very well," she said, mounting to her feet, and +coming ashore somewhat stiffly, but with great dignity, refusing +our outstretched hands, and returning to possess herself of a bag +which had lain at her feet. + +"Well, mother, here I be!" she announced with indifference; +but they stood and beamed in each other's faces. + +"Lookin' pretty well for an old lady, ain't she?" said Mrs. +Todd's mother, turning away from her daughter to speak to me. She +was a delightful little person herself, with bright eyes and an +affectionate air of expectation like a child on a holiday. You +felt as if Mrs. Blackett were an old and dear friend before you let +go her cordial hand. We all started together up the hill. + +"Now don't you haste too fast, mother," said Mrs. Todd +warningly; "'tis a far reach o' risin' ground to the fore door, and +you won't set an' get your breath when you're once there, but go +trotting about. Now don't you go a mite faster than we proceed +with this bag an' basket. Johnny, there, 'll fetch up the haddock. +I just made one stop to underrun William's trawl till I come to +jes' such a fish's I thought you'd want to make one o' your nice +chowders of. I've brought an onion with me that was layin' about +on the window-sill at home." + +"That's just what I was wantin'," said the hostess. "I give +a sigh when you spoke o' chowder, knowin' my onions was out. +William forgot to replenish us last time he was to the Landin'. +Don't you haste so yourself Almiry, up this risin' ground. I hear +you commencin' to wheeze a'ready." + +This mild revenge seemed to afford great pleasure to both +giver and receiver. They laughed a little, and looked at each +other affectionately, and then at me. Mrs. Todd considerately +paused, and faced about to regard the wide sea view. I was glad to +stop, being more out of breath than either of my companions, and I +prolonged the halt by asking the names of the neighboring islands. +There was a fine breeze blowing, which we felt more there on the +high land than when we were running before it in the dory. + +"Why, this ain't that kitten I saw when I was out last, the +one that I said didn't appear likely?" exclaimed Mrs. Todd as we +went our way. + +"That's the one, Almiry," said her mother. "She always had a +likely look to me, an' she's right after business. I never see +such a mouser for one of her age. If't wan't for William, I never +should have housed that other dronin' old thing so long; but he +sets by her on account of her havin' a bob tail. I don't deem it +advisable to maintain cats just on account of their havin' bob +tails; they're like all other curiosities, good for them that wants +to see 'm twice. This kitten catches mice for both, an' keeps me +respectable as I ain't been for a year. She's a real understandin' +little help, this kitten is. I picked her from among five Miss +Augusta Pernell had over to Burnt Island," said the old woman, +trudging along with the kitten close at her skirts. "Augusta, she +says to me, 'Why, Mis' Blackett, you've took and homeliest;' +and, says I, 'I've got the smartest; I'm satisfied.'" + +"I'd trust nobody sooner'n you to pick out a kitten, mother," +said the daughter handsomely, and we went on in peace and harmony. + +The house was just before us now, on a green level that looked +as if a huge hand had scooped it out of the long green field we had +been ascending. A little way above, the dark, spruce woods began +to climb the top of the hill and cover the seaward slopes of the +island. There was just room for the small farm and the forest; we +looked down at the fish-house and its rough sheds, and the weirs +stretching far out into the water. As we looked upward, the tops +of the firs came sharp against the blue sky. There was a great +stretch of rough pasture-land round the shoulder of the island to +the eastward, and here were all the thick-scattered gray rocks that +kept their places, and the gray backs of many sheep that forever +wandered and fed on the thin sweet pasturage that fringed the +ledges and made soft hollows and strips of green turf like growing +velvet. I could see the rich green of bayberry bushes here and +there, where the rocks made room. The air was very sweet; one +could not help wishing to be a citizen of such a complete and tiny +continent and home of fisherfolk. + +The house was broad and clean, with a roof that looked heavy +on its low walls. It was one of the houses that seem firm-rooted +in the ground, as if they were two-thirds below the surface, like +icebergs. The front door stood hospitably open in expectation of +company, and an orderly vine grew at each side; but our path led to +the kitchen door at the house-end, and there grew a mass of gay +flowers and greenery, as if they had been swept together by some +diligent garden broom into a tangled heap: there were portulacas +all along under the lower step and straggling off into the grass, +and clustering mallows that crept as near as they dared, like poor +relations. I saw the bright eyes and brainless little heads of two +half-grown chickens who were snuggled down among the mallows as if +they had been chased away from the door more than once, and +expected to be again. + +"It seems kind o' formal comin' in this way," said Mrs. Todd +impulsively, as we passed the flowers and came to the front +doorstep; but she was mindful of the proprieties, and walked before +us into the best room on the left. + +"Why, mother, if you haven't gone an' turned the carpet!" she +exclaimed, with something in her voice that spoke of awe and +admiration. "When'd you get to it? I s'pose Mis' Addicks come +over an' helped you, from White Island Landing?" + +"No, she didn't," answered the old woman, standing proudly +erect, and making the most of a great moment. "I done it all +myself with William's help. He had a spare day, an' took right +holt with me; an' 'twas all well beat on the grass, an' turned, an' +put down again afore we went to bed. I ripped an' sewed over two +o' them long breadths. I ain't had such a good night's sleep for +two years." + +"There, what do you think o' havin' such a mother as that for +eighty-six year old?" said Mrs. Todd, standing before us like a +large figure of Victory. + +As for the mother, she took on a sudden look of youth; you +felt as if she promised a great future, and was beginning, not +ending, her summers and their happy toils. + +"My, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd. "I couldn't ha' done it +myself, I've got to own it." + +"I was much pleased to have it off my mind," said Mrs. +Blackett, humbly; "the more so because along at the first of the +next week I wasn't very well. I suppose it may have been the +change of weather." + +Mrs. Todd could not resist a significant glance at me, but, +with charming sympathy, she forbore to point the lesson or to +connect this illness with its apparent cause. She loomed larger +than ever in the little old-fashioned best room, with its few +pieces of good furniture and pictures of national interest. The +green paper curtains were stamped with conventional landscapes of +a foreign order,--castles on inaccessible crags, and lovely lakes +with steep wooded shores; under-foot the treasured carpet was +covered thick with home-made rugs. There were empty glass lamps +and crystallized bouquets of grass and some fine shells on the +narrow mantelpiece. + +"I was married in this room," said Mrs. Todd unexpectedly; and +I heard her give a sigh after she had spoken, as if she could not +help the touch of regret that would forever come with all her +thoughts of happiness. + +"We stood right there between the windows," she added, "and +the minister stood here. William wouldn't come in. He was always +odd about seein' folks, just's he is now. I run to meet 'em from +a child, an' William, he'd take an' run away." + +"I've been the gainer," said the old mother cheerfully. +"William has been son an' daughter both since you was married off +the island. He's been 'most too satisfied to stop at home 'long o' +his old mother, but I always tell 'em I'm the gainer." + +We were all moving toward the kitchen as if by common +instinct. The best room was too suggestive of serious occasions, +and the shades were all pulled down to shut out the summer +light and air. It was indeed a tribute to Society to find a room +set apart for her behests out there on so apparently neighborless +and remote an island. Afternoon visits and evening festivals must +be few in such a bleak situation at certain seasons of the year, +but Mrs. Blackett was of those who do not live to themselves, and +who have long since passed the line that divides mere self-concern +from a valued share in whatever Society can give and take. There +were those of her neighbors who never had taken the trouble to +furnish a best room, but Mrs. Blackett was one who knew the uses of +a parlor. + +"Yes, do come right out into the old kitchen; I shan't make +any stranger of you," she invited us pleasantly, after we had been +properly received in the room appointed to formality. "I expect +Almiry, here, 'll be driftin' out 'mongst the pasture-weeds quick's +she can find a good excuse. 'Tis hot now. You'd better content +yourselves till you get nice an' rested, an' 'long after dinner the +sea-breeze 'll spring up, an' then you can take your walks, an' go +up an' see the prospect from the big ledge. Almiry'll want to show +off everything there is. Then I'll get you a good cup o' tea +before you start to go home. The days are plenty long now." + +While we were talking in the best room the selected fish had +been mysteriously brought up from the shore, and lay all cleaned +and ready in an earthen crock on the table. + +"I think William might have just stopped an' said a word," +remarked Mrs. Todd, pouting with high affront as she caught sight +of it. "He's friendly enough when he comes ashore, an' was +remarkable social the last time, for him." + +"He ain't disposed to be very social with the ladies," +explained William's mother, with a delightful glance at me, as if +she counted upon my friendship and tolerance. "He's very +particular, and he's all in his old fishin'-clothes to-day. He'll +want me to tell him everything you said and done, after you've +gone. William has very deep affections. He'll want to see you, +Almiry. Yes, I guess he'll be in by an' by." + +"I'll search for him by 'n' by, if he don't," proclaimed Mrs. +Todd, with an air of unalterable resolution. "I know all of his +burrows down 'long the shore. I'll catch him by hand 'fore he +knows it. I've got some business with William, anyway. I brought +forty-two cents with me that was due him for them last lobsters he +brought in." + +"You can leave it with me," suggested the little old mother, +who was already stepping about among her pots and pans in the +pantry, and preparing to make the chowder. + +I became possessed of a sudden unwonted curiosity in regard to +William, and felt that half the pleasure of my visit would be lost +if I could not make his interesting acquaintance. + + + + +IX + + +William + +MRS. TODD HAD taken the onion out of her basket and laid it down +upon the kitchen table. "There's Johnny Bowden come with us, you +know," she reminded her mother. "He'll be hungry enough to eat his +size." + +"I've got new doughnuts, dear," said the little old lady. +"You don't often catch William 'n' me out o' provisions. I expect +you might have chose a somewhat larger fish, but I'll try an' make +it do. I shall have to have a few extra potatoes, but there's a +field full out there, an' the hoe's leanin' against the well-house, +in 'mongst the climbin'-beans." She smiled and gave her daughter +a commanding nod. + +"Land sakes alive! Le's blow the horn for William," insisted +Mrs. Todd, with some excitement. "He needn't break his spirit so +far's to come in. He'll know you need him for something +particular, an' then we can call to him as he comes up the path. +I won't put him to no pain." + +Mrs. Blackett's old face, for the first time, wore a look of +trouble, and I found it necessary to counteract the teasing spirit +of Almira. It was too pleasant to stay indoors altogether, even in +such rewarding companionship; besides, I might meet William; and, +straying out presently, I found the hoe by the well-house and an +old splint basket at the woodshed door, and also found my way down +to the field where there was a great square patch of rough, weedy +potato-tops and tall ragweed. One corner was already dug, and I +chose a fat-looking hill where the tops were well withered. There +is all the pleasure that one can have in gold-digging in finding +one's hopes satisfied in the riches of a good hill of potatoes. I +longed to go on; but it did not seem frugal to dig any longer after +my basket was full, and at last I took my hoe by the middle and +lifted the basket to go back up the hill. I was sure that Mrs. +Blackett must be waiting impatiently to slice the potatoes into the +chowder, layer after layer, with the fish. + +"You let me take holt o' that basket, ma'am," said the +pleasant, anxious voice behind me. + +I turned, startled in the silence of the wide field, and saw +an elderly man, bent in the shoulders as fishermen often are, gray- +headed and clean-shaven, and with a timid air. It was William. He +looked just like his mother, and I had been imagining that he was +large and stout like his sister, Almira Todd; and, strange to say, +my fancy had led me to picture him not far from thirty and a little +loutish. It was necessary instead to pay William the respect due +to age. + +I accustomed myself to plain facts on the instant, and we said +good-morning like old friends. The basket was really heavy, and I +put the hoe through its handle and offered him one end; then we +moved easily toward the house together, speaking of the fine +weather and of mackerel which were reported to be striking in all +about the bay. William had been out since three o'clock, and had +taken an extra fare of fish. I could feel that Mrs. Todd's eyes +were upon us as we approached the house, and although I fell behind +in the narrow path, and let William take the basket alone and +precede me at some little distance the rest of the way, I could +plainly hear her greet him. + +"Got round to comin' in, didn't you?" she inquired, with +amusement. "Well, now, that's clever. Didn't know's I should see +you to-day, William, an' I wanted to settle an account." + +I felt somewhat disturbed and responsible, but when I joined +them they were on most simple and friendly terms. It became +evident that, with William, it was the first step that cost, and +that, having once joined in social interests, he was able to pursue +them with more or less pleasure. He was about sixty, and not +young-looking for his years, yet so undying is the spirit of youth, +and bashfulness has such a power of survival, that I felt all the +time as if one must try to make the occasion easy for some one who +was young and new to the affairs of social life. He asked politely +if I would like to go up to the great ledge while dinner was +getting ready; so, not without a deep sense of pleasure, and a +delighted look of surprise from the two hostesses, we started, +William and I, as if both of us felt much younger than we looked. +Such was the innocence and simplicity of the moment that when I +heard Mrs. Todd laughing behind us in the kitchen I laughed too, +but William did not even blush. I think he was a little deaf, and +he stepped along before me most businesslike and intent upon his +errand. + +We went from the upper edge of the field above the house into +a smooth, brown path among the dark spruces. The hot sun brought +out the fragrance of the pitchy bark, and the shade was pleasant as +we climbed the hill. William stopped once or twice to show +me a great wasps'-nest close by, or some fishhawks'-nests below in +a bit of swamp. He picked a few sprigs of late-blooming linnaea as +we came out upon an open bit of pasture at the top of the island, +and gave them to me without speaking, but he knew as well as I that +one could not say half he wished about linnaea. Through this piece +of rough pasture ran a huge shape of stone like the great backbone +of an enormous creature. At the end, near the woods, we could +climb up on it and walk along to the highest point; there above the +circle of pointed firs we could look down over all the island, and +could see the ocean that circled this and a hundred other bits of +island ground, the mainland shore and all the far horizons. It +gave a sudden sense of space, for nothing stopped the eye or hedged +one in,--that sense of liberty in space and time which great +prospects always give. + +"There ain't no such view in the world, I expect," said +William proudly, and I hastened to speak my heartfelt tribute of +praise; it was impossible not to feel as if an untraveled boy had +spoken, and yet one loved to have him value his native heath. + + + + +X + + +Where Pennyroyal Grew + +WE WERE a little late to dinner, but Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. Todd +were lenient, and we all took our places after William had paused +to wash his hands, like a pious Brahmin, at the well, and put on a +neat blue coat which he took from a peg behind the kitchen door. +Then he resolutely asked a blessing in words that I could not hear, +and we ate the chowder and were thankful. The kitten went round +and round the table, quite erect, and, holding on by her fierce +young claws, she stopped to mew with pathos at each elbow, or +darted off to the open door when a song sparrow forgot himself and +lit in the grass too near. William did not talk much, but his +sister Todd occupied the time and told all the news there was to +tell of Dunnet Landing and its coasts, while the old mother +listened with delight. Her hospitality was something exquisite; +she had the gift which so many women lack, of being able to make +themselves and their houses belong entirely to a guest's +pleasure,--that charming surrender for the moment of themselves and +whatever belongs to them, so that they make a part of one's +own life that can never be forgotten. Tact is after all a kind of +mindreading, and my hostess held the golden gift. Sympathy is of +the mind as well as the heart, and Mrs. Blackett's world and mine +were one from the moment we met. Besides, she had that final, that +highest gift of heaven, a perfect self-forgetfulness. Sometimes, +as I watched her eager, sweet old face, I wondered why she had been +set to shine on this lonely island of the northern coast. It must +have been to keep the balance true, and make up to all her +scattered and depending neighbors for other things which they may +have lacked. + +When we had finished clearing away the old blue plates, and +the kitten had taken care of her share of the fresh haddock, just +as we were putting back the kitchen chairs in their places, Mrs. +Todd said briskly that she must go up into the pasture now to +gather the desired herbs. + +"You can stop here an' rest, or you can accompany me," she +announced. "Mother ought to have her nap, and when we come back +she an' William'll sing for you. She admires music," said Mrs. +Todd, turning to speak to her mother. + +But Mrs. Blackett tried to say that she couldn't sing as she +used, and perhaps William wouldn't feel like it. She looked tired, +the good old soul, or I should have liked to sit in the peaceful +little house while she slept; I had had much pleasant experience of +pastures already in her daughter's company. But it seemed best to +go with Mrs. Todd, and off we went. + +Mrs. Todd carried the gingham bag which she had brought from +home, and a small heavy burden in the bottom made it hang straight +and slender from her hand. The way was steep, and she soon grew +breathless, so that we sat down to rest awhile on a convenient +large stone among the bayberry. + +"There, I wanted you to see this,--'tis mother's picture," +said Mrs. Todd; "'twas taken once when she was up to Portland soon +after she was married. That's me," she added, opening another worn +case, and displaying the full face of the cheerful child she looked +like still in spite of being past sixty. "And here's William an' +father together. I take after father, large and heavy, an' William +is like mother's folks, short an' thin. He ought to have made +something o' himself, bein' a man an' so like mother; but though +he's been very steady to work, an' kept up the farm, an' done his +fishin' too right along, he never had mother's snap an' power o' +seein' things just as they be. He's got excellent judgment, too," +meditated William's sister, but she could not arrive at any +satisfactory decision upon what she evidently thought his failure +in life. "I think it is well to see any one so happy an' makin' +the most of life just as it falls to hand," she said as she began +to put the daguerreotypes away again; but I reached out my +hand to see her mother's once more, a most flowerlike face of a +lovely young woman in quaint dress. There was in the eyes a look +of anticipation and joy, a far-off look that sought the horizon; +one often sees it in seafaring families, inherited by girls and +boys alike from men who spend their lives at sea, and are always +watching for distant sails or the first loom of the land. At sea +there is nothing to be seen close by, and this has its counterpart +in a sailor's character, in the large and brave and patient traits +that are developed, the hopeful pleasantness that one loves so in +a seafarer. + +When the family pictures were wrapped again in a big +handkerchief, we set forward in a narrow footpath and made our way +to a lonely place that faced northward, where there was more +pasturage and fewer bushes, and we went down to the edge of short +grass above some rocky cliffs where the deep sea broke with a great +noise, though the wind was down and the water looked quiet a little +way from shore. Among the grass grew such pennyroyal as the rest +of the world could not provide. There was a fine fragrance in the +air as we gathered it sprig by sprig and stepped along carefully, +and Mrs. Todd pressed her aromatic nosegay between her hands and +offered it to me again and again. + +"There's nothin' like it," she said; "oh no, there's no such +pennyr'yal as this in the state of Maine. It's the right pattern +of the plant, and all the rest I ever see is but an imitation. +Don't it do you good?" And I answered with enthusiasm. + +"There, dear, I never showed nobody else but mother where to +find this place; 'tis kind of sainted to me. Nathan, my husband, +an' I used to love this place when we was courtin', and"--she +hesitated, and then spoke softly--"when he was lost, 'twas just off +shore tryin' to get in by the short channel out there between Squaw +Islands, right in sight o' this headland where we'd set an' made +our plans all summer long." + +I had never heard her speak of her husband before, but I felt +that we were friends now since she had brought me to this place. + +"'Twas but a dream with us," Mrs. Todd said. "I knew it when +he was gone. I knew it"--and she whispered as if she were at +confession--"I knew it afore he started to go to sea. My heart was +gone out o' my keepin' before I ever saw Nathan; but he loved me +well, and he made me real happy, and he died before he ever knew +what he'd had to know if we'd lived long together. 'Tis very +strange about love. No, Nathan never found out, but my heart was +troubled when I knew him first. There's more women likes to be +loved than there is of those that loves. I spent some happy hours +right here. I always liked Nathan, and he never knew. But this +pennyr'yal always reminded me, as I'd sit and gather it and hear +him talkin'--it always would remind me of--the other one." + +She looked away from me, and presently rose and went on by +herself. There was something lonely and solitary about her great +determined shape. She might have been Antigone alone on the Theban +plain. It is not often given in a noisy world to come to the +places of great grief and silence. An absolute, archaic grief +possessed this countrywoman; she seemed like a renewal of some +historic soul, with her sorrows and the remoteness of a daily life +busied with rustic simplicities and the scents of primeval herbs. + + +I was not incompetent at herb-gathering, and after a while, +when I had sat long enough waking myself to new thoughts, and +reading a page of remembrance with new pleasure, I gathered some +bunches, as I was bound to do, and at last we met again higher up +the shore, in the plain every-day world we had left behind when we +went down to the penny-royal plot. As we walked together along the +high edge of the field we saw a hundred sails about the bay and +farther seaward; it was mid-afternoon or after, and the day was +coming to an end. + +"Yes, they're all makin' towards the shore,--the small craft +an' the lobster smacks an' all," said my companion. "We must spend +a little time with mother now, just to have our tea, an' then put +for home." + +"No matter if we lose the wind at sundown; I can row in with +Johnny," said I; and Mrs. Todd nodded reassuringly and kept to her +steady plod, not quickening her gait even when we saw William come +round the corner of the house as if to look for us, and wave his +hand and disappear. + +"Why, William's right on deck; I didn't know's we should see +any more of him!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd. "Now mother'll put the +kettle right on; she's got a good fire goin'." I too could see the +blue smoke thicken, and then we both walked a little faster, while +Mrs. Todd groped in her full bag of herbs to find the +daguerreotypes and be ready to put them in their places. + + + + +XI + + +The Old Singers + +WILLIAM WAS sitting on the side door step, and the old mother was +busy making her tea; she gave into my hand an old flowered-glass +tea-caddy. + +"William thought you'd like to see this, when he was settin' +the table. My father brought it to my mother from the island +of Tobago; an' here's a pair of beautiful mugs that came with it." +She opened the glass door of a little cupboard beside the chimney. +"These I call my best things, dear," she said. "You'd laugh to see +how we enjoy 'em Sunday nights in winter: we have a real company +tea 'stead o' livin' right along just the same, an' I make +somethin' good for a s'prise an' put on some o' my preserves, an' +we get a'talkin' together an' have real pleasant times." + +Mrs. Todd laughed indulgently, and looked to see what I +thought of such childishness. + +"I wish I could be here some Sunday evening," said I. + +"William an' me'll be talkin' about you an' thinkin' o' this +nice day," said Mrs. Blackett affectionately, and she glanced at +William, and he looked up bravely and nodded. I began to discover +that he and his sister could not speak their deeper feelings before +each other. + +"Now I want you an' mother to sing," said Mrs. Todd abruptly, +with an air of command, and I gave William much sympathy in his +evident distress. + +"After I've had my cup o' tea, dear," answered the old hostess +cheerfully; and so we sat down and took our cups and made merry +while they lasted. It was impossible not to wish to stay on +forever at Green Island, and I could not help saying so. + +"I'm very happy here, both winter an' summer," said old Mrs. +Blackett. "William an' I never wish for any other home, do we, +William? I'm glad you find it pleasant; I wish you'd come an' +stay, dear, whenever you feel inclined. But here's Almiry; I +always think Providence was kind to plot an' have her husband leave +her a good house where she really belonged. She'd been very +restless if she'd had to continue here on Green Island. You wanted +more scope, didn't you, Almiry, an' to live in a large place where +more things grew? Sometimes folks wonders that we don't live +together; perhaps we shall some time," and a shadow of sadness and +apprehension flitted across her face. "The time o' sickness an' +failin' has got to come to all. But Almiry's got an herb that's +good for everything." She smiled as she spoke, and looked bright +again. + +"There's some herb that's good for everybody, except for them +that thinks they're sick when they ain't," announced Mrs. Todd, +with a truly professional air of finality. "Come, William, let's +have Sweet Home, an' then mother'll sing Cupid an' the Bee for us." + +Then followed a most charming surprise. William mastered his +timidity and began to sing. His voice was a little faint and +frail, like the family daguerreotypes, but it was a tenor voice, +and perfectly true and sweet. I have never heard Home, Sweet Home +sung as touchingly and seriously as he sang it; he seemed to +make it quite new; and when he paused for a moment at the end of +the first line and began the next, the old mother joined him and +they sang together, she missing only the higher notes, where he +seemed to lend his voice to hers for the moment and carry on her +very note and air. It was the silent man's real and only means of +expression, and one could have listened forever, and have asked for +more and more songs of old Scotch and English inheritance and the +best that have lived from the ballad music of the war. Mrs. Todd +kept time visibly, and sometimes audibly, with her ample foot. I +saw the tears in her eyes sometimes, when I could see beyond the +tears in mine. But at last the songs ended and the time came to +say good-by; it was the end of a great pleasure. + +Mrs. Blackett, the dear old lady, opened the door of her +bedroom while Mrs. Todd was tying up the herb bag, and William had +gone down to get the boat ready and to blow the horn for Johnny +Bowden, who had joined a roving boat party who were off the shore +lobstering. + +I went to the door of the bedroom, and thought how pleasant it +looked, with its pink-and-white patchwork quilt and the brown +unpainted paneling of its woodwork. + +"Come right in, dear," she said. "I want you to set down in +my old quilted rockin'-chair there by the window; you'll say it's +the prettiest view in the house. I set there a good deal to rest +me and when I want to read." + +There was a worn red Bible on the lightstand, and Mrs. +Blackett's heavy silver-bowed glasses; her thimble was on the +narrow window-ledge, and folded carefully on the table was a thick +striped-cotton shirt that she was making for her son. Those dear +old fingers and their loving stitches, that heart which had made +the most of everything that needed love! Here was the real home, +the heart of the old house on Green Island! I sat in the rocking- +chair, and felt that it was a place of peace, the little brown +bedroom, and the quiet outlook upon field and sea and sky. + +I looked up, and we understood each other without speaking. +"I shall like to think o' your settin' here to-day," said Mrs. +Blackett. "I want you to come again. It has been so pleasant for +William." + +The wind served us all the way home, and did not fall or let +the sail slacken until we were close to the shore. We had a +generous freight of lobsters in the boat, and new potatoes which +William had put aboard, and what Mrs. Todd proudly called a full +"kag" of prime number one salted mackerel; and when we landed we +had to make business arrangements to have these conveyed to her +house in a wheelbarrow. + +I never shall forget the day at Green Island. The town of +Dunnet Landing seemed large and noisy and oppressive as we came +ashore. Such is the power of contrast; for the village was +so still that I could hear the shy whippoorwills singing that night +as I lay awake in my downstairs bedroom, and the scent of Mrs. +Todd's herb garden under the window blew in again and again with +every gentle rising of the seabreeze. + + + + +XII + + +A Strange Sail + +EXCEPT FOR a few stray guests, islanders or from the inland +country, to whom Mrs. Todd offered the hospitalities of a single +meal, we were quite by ourselves all summer; and when there were +signs of invasion, late in July, and a certain Mrs. Fosdick +appeared like a strange sail on the far horizon, I suffered much +from apprehension. I had been living in the quaint little house +with as much comfort and unconsciousness as if it were a larger +body, or a double shell, in whose simple convolutions Mrs. Todd and +I had secreted ourselves, until some wandering hermit crab of a +visitor marked the little spare room for her own. Perhaps now and +then a castaway on a lonely desert island dreads the thought of +being rescued. I heard of Mrs. Fosdick for the first time with a +selfish sense of objection; but after all, I was still vacation- +tenant of the schoolhouse, where I could always be alone, and it +was impossible not to sympathize with Mrs. Todd, who, in spite of +some preliminary grumbling, was really delighted with the prospect +of entertaining an old friend. + +For nearly a month we received occasional news of Mrs. +Fosdick, who seemed to be making a royal progress from house to +house in the inland neighborhood, after the fashion of Queen +Elizabeth. One Sunday after another came and went, disappointing +Mrs. Todd in the hope of seeing her guest at church and fixing the +day for the great visit to begin; but Mrs. Fosdick was not ready to +commit herself to a date. An assurance of "some time this week" +was not sufficiently definite from a free-footed housekeeper's +point of view, and Mrs. Todd put aside all herb-gathering plans, +and went through the various stages of expectation, provocation, +and despair. At last she was ready to believe that Mrs. Fosdick +must have forgotten her promise and returned to her home, which was +vaguely said to be over Thomaston way. But one evening, just as +the supper-table was cleared and "readied up," and Mrs. Todd had +put her large apron over her head and stepped forth for an +evening stroll in the garden, the unexpected happened. She heard +the sound of wheels, and gave an excited cry to me, as I sat by the +window, that Mrs. Fosdick was coming right up the street. + +"She may not be considerate, but she's dreadful good company," +said Mrs. Todd hastily, coming back a few steps from the +neighborhood of the gate. "No, she ain't a mite considerate, but +there's a small lobster left over from your tea; yes, it's a real +mercy there's a lobster. Susan Fosdick might just as well have +passed the compliment o' comin' an hour ago." + +"Perhaps she has had her supper," I ventured to suggest, +sharing the housekeeper's anxiety, and meekly conscious of an +inconsiderate appetite for my own supper after a long expedition up +the bay. There were so few emergencies of any sort at Dunnet +Landing that this one appeared overwhelming. + +"No, she's rode 'way over from Nahum Brayton's place. I +expect they were busy on the farm, and couldn't spare the horse in +proper season. You just sly out an' set the teakittle on again, +dear, an' drop in a good han'ful o' chips; the fire's all alive. +I'll take her right up to lay off her things, as she'll be occupied +with explanations an' gettin' her bunnit off, so you'll have plenty +o' time. She's one I shouldn't like to have find me unprepared." + +Mrs. Fosdick was already at the gate, and Mrs. Todd now turned +with an air of complete surprise and delight to welcome her. + +"Why, Susan Fosdick," I heard her exclaim in a fine unhindered +voice, as if she were calling across a field, "I come near giving +of you up! I was afraid you'd gone an' 'portioned out my visit to +somebody else. I s'pose you've been to supper?" + +"Lor', no, I ain't, Almiry Todd," said Mrs. Fosdick +cheerfully, as she turned, laden with bags and bundles, from making +her adieux to the boy driver. "I ain't had a mite o' supper, dear. +I've been lottin' all the way on a cup o' that best tea o' yourn,-- +some o' that Oolong you keep in the little chist. I don't want +none o' your useful herbs." + +"I keep that tea for ministers' folks," gayly responded Mrs. +Todd. "Come right along in, Susan Fosdick. I declare if you ain't +the same old sixpence!" + +As they came up the walk together, laughing like girls, I +fled, full of cares, to the kitchen, to brighten the fire and be +sure that the lobster, sole dependence of a late supper, was well +out of reach of the cat. There proved to be fine reserves of wild +raspberries and bread and butter, so that I regained my composure, +and waited impatiently for my own share of this illustrious visit +to begin. There was an instant sense of high festivity in +the evening air from the moment when our guest had so frankly +demanded the Oolong tea. + +The great moment arrived. I was formally presented at the +stair-foot, and the two friends passed on to the kitchen, where I +soon heard a hospitable clink of crockery and the brisk stirring of +a tea-cup. I sat in my high-backed rocking-chair by the window in +the front room with an unreasonable feeling of being left out, like +the child who stood at the gate in Hans Andersen's story. Mrs. +Fosdick did not look, at first sight, like a person of great social +gifts. She was a serious-looking little bit of an old woman, with +a birdlike nod of the head. I had often been told that she was the +"best hand in the world to make a visit,"--as if to visit were the +highest of vocations; that everybody wished for her, while few +could get her; and I saw that Mrs. Todd felt a comfortable sense of +distinction in being favored with the company of this eminent +person who "knew just how." It was certainly true that Mrs. +Fosdick gave both her hostess and me a warm feeling of enjoyment +and expectation, as if she had the power of social suggestion to +all neighboring minds. + +The two friends did not reappear for at least an hour. I +could hear their busy voices, loud and low by turns, as they ranged +from public to confidential topics. At last Mrs. Todd kindly +remembered me and returned, giving my door a ceremonious knock +before she stepped in, with the small visitor in her wake. She +reached behind her and took Mrs. Fosdick's hand as if she were +young and bashful, and gave her a gentle pull forward. + +"There, I don't know whether you're goin' to take to each +other or not; no, nobody can't tell whether you'll suit each other, +but I expect you'll get along some way, both having seen the +world," said our affectionate hostess. "You can inform Mis' +Fosdick how we found the folks out to Green Island the other day. +She's always been well acquainted with mother. I'll slip out now +an' put away the supper things an' set my bread to rise, if you'll +both excuse me. You can come an' keep me company when you get +ready, either or both." And Mrs. Todd, large and amiable, +disappeared and left us. + +Being furnished not only with a subject of conversation, but +with a safe refuge in the kitchen in case of incompatibility, Mrs. +Fosdick and I sat down, prepared to make the best of each other. +I soon discovered that she, like many of the elder women of the +coast, had spent a part of her life at sea, and was full of a good +traveler's curiosity and enlightenment. By the time we thought it +discreet to join our hostess we were already sincere friends. + +You may speak of a visit's setting in as well as a tide's, and +it was impossible, as Mrs. Todd whispered to me, not to be +pleased at the way this visit was setting in; a new impulse and +refreshing of the social currents and seldom visited bays of memory +appeared to have begun. Mrs. Fosdick had been the mother of a +large family of sons and daughters,--sailors and sailors' wives,-- +and most of them had died before her. I soon grew more or less +acquainted with the histories of all their fortunes and +misfortunes, and subjects of an intimate nature were no more +withheld from my ears than if I had been a shell on the +mantelpiece. Mrs. Fosdick was not without a touch of dignity and +elegance; she was fashionable in her dress, but it was a curiously +well-preserved provincial fashion of some years back. In a wider +sphere one might have called her a woman of the world, with her +unexpected bits of modern knowledge, but Mrs. Todd's wisdom was an +intimation of truth itself. She might belong to any age, like an +idyl of Theocritus; but while she always understood Mrs. Fosdick, +that entertaining pilgrim could not always understand Mrs. Todd. + +That very first evening my friends plunged into a borderless +sea of reminiscences and personal news. Mrs. Fosdick had been +staying with a family who owned the farm where she was born, and +she had visited every sunny knoll and shady field corner; but when +she said that it might be for the last time, I detected in her tone +something expectant of the contradiction which Mrs. Todd promptly +offered. + +"Almiry," said Mrs. Fosdick, with sadness, "you may say what +you like, but I am one of nine brothers and sisters brought up on +the old place, and we're all dead but me." + +"Your sister Dailey ain't gone, is she? Why, no, Louisa ain't +gone!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd, with surprise. "Why, I never heard of +that occurrence!" + +"Yes'm; she passed away last October, in Lynn. She had made +her distant home in Vermont State, but she was making a visit to +her youngest daughter. Louisa was the only one of my family whose +funeral I wasn't able to attend, but 'twas a mere accident. All +the rest of us were settled right about home. I thought it was +very slack of 'em in Lynn not to fetch her to the old place; but +when I came to hear about it, I learned that they'd recently put up +a very elegant monument, and my sister Dailey was always great for +show. She'd just been out to see the monument the week before she +was taken down, and admired it so much that they felt sure of her +wishes." + +"So she's really gone, and the funeral was up to Lynn!" +repeated Mrs. Todd, as if to impress the sad fact upon her mind. +"She was some years younger than we be, too. I recollect the first +day she ever came to school; 'twas that first year mother +sent me inshore to stay with aunt Topham's folks and get my +schooling. You fetched little Louisa to school one Monday mornin' +in a pink dress an' her long curls, and she set between you an' me, +and got cryin' after a while, so the teacher sent us home with her +at recess." + +"She was scared of seeing so many children about her; there +was only her and me and brother John at home then; the older boys +were to sea with father, an' the rest of us wa'n't born," explained +Mrs. Fosdick. "That next fall we all went to sea together. Mother +was uncertain till the last minute, as one may say. The ship was +waiting orders, but the baby that then was, was born just in time, +and there was a long spell of extra bad weather, so mother got +about again before they had to sail, an' we all went. I remember +my clothes were all left ashore in the east chamber in a basket +where mother'd took them out o' my chist o' drawers an' left 'em +ready to carry aboard. She didn't have nothing aboard, of her own, +that she wanted to cut up for me, so when my dress wore out she +just put me into a spare suit o' John's, jacket and trousers. I +wasn't but eight years old an' he was most seven and large of his +age. Quick as we made a port she went right ashore an' fitted me +out pretty, but we was bound for the East Indies and didn't put in +anywhere for a good while. So I had quite a spell o' freedom. +Mother made my new skirt long because I was growing, and I poked +about the deck after that, real discouraged, feeling the hem at my +heels every minute, and as if youth was past and gone. I liked the +trousers best; I used to climb the riggin' with 'em and frighten +mother till she said an' vowed she'd never take me to sea again." + +I thought by the polite absent-minded smile on Mrs. Todd's +face this was no new story. + +"Little Louisa was a beautiful child; yes, I always thought +Louisa was very pretty," Mrs. Todd said. "She was a dear little +girl in those days. She favored your mother; the rest of you took +after your father's folks." + +"We did certain," agreed Mrs. Fosdick, rocking steadily. +"There, it does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance +that knows what you know. I see so many of these new folks +nowadays, that seem to have neither past nor future. +Conversation's got to have some root in the past, or else you've +got to explain every remark you make, an' it wears a person out." + +Mrs. Todd gave a funny little laugh. "Yes'm, old friends is +always best, 'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an +old one out of," she said, and we gave an affectionate glance at +each other which Mrs. Fosdick could not have understood, being the +latest comer to the house. + + + + +XIII + + +Poor Joanna + +ONE EVENING my ears caught a mysterious allusion which Mrs. Todd +made to Shell-heap Island. It was a chilly night of cold +northeasterly rain, and I made a fire for the first time in the +Franklin stove in my room, and begged my two housemates to come in +and keep me company. The weather had convinced Mrs. Todd that it +was time to make a supply of cough-drops, and she had been bringing +forth herbs from dark and dry hiding-places, until now the pungent +dust and odor of them had resolved themselves into one mighty +flavor of spearmint that came from a simmering caldron of syrup in +the kitchen. She called it done, and well done, and had +ostentatiously left it to cool, and taken her knitting-work because +Mrs. Fosdick was busy with hers. They sat in the two rocking- +chairs, the small woman and the large one, but now and then I could +see that Mrs. Todd's thoughts remained with the cough-drops. The +time of gathering herbs was nearly over, but the time of syrups and +cordials had begun. + +The heat of the open fire made us a little drowsy, but +something in the way Mrs. Todd spoke of Shell-heap Island waked my +interest. I waited to see if she would say any more, and then took +a roundabout way back to the subject by saying what was first in my +mind: that I wished the Green Island family were there to spend the +evening with us,--Mrs. Todd's mother and her brother William. + +Mrs. Todd smiled, and drummed on the arm of the rocking-chair. +"Might scare William to death," she warned me; and Mrs. Fosdick +mentioned her intention of going out to Green Island to stay two or +three days, if the wind didn't make too much sea. + +"Where is Shell-heap Island?" I ventured to ask, seizing the +opportunity. + +"Bears nor-east somewheres about three miles from Green +Island; right off-shore, I should call it about eight miles out," +said Mrs. Todd. "You never was there, dear; 'tis off the +thoroughfares, and a very bad place to land at best." + +"I should think 'twas," agreed Mrs. Fosdick, smoothing down +her black silk apron. "'Tis a place worth visitin' when you once +get there. Some o' the old folks was kind o' fearful about it. +'Twas 'counted a great place in old Indian times; you can +pick up their stone tools 'most any time if you hunt about. +There's a beautiful spring o' water, too. Yes, I remember when +they used to tell queer stories about Shell-heap Island. Some said +'twas a great bangeing-place for the Indians, and an old chief +resided there once that ruled the winds; and others said they'd +always heard that once the Indians come down from up country an' +left a captive there without any bo't, an' 'twas too far to swim +across to Black Island, so called, an' he lived there till he +perished." + +"I've heard say he walked the island after that, and sharp- +sighted folks could see him an' lose him like one o' them citizens +Cap'n Littlepage was acquainted with up to the north pole," +announced Mrs. Todd grimly. "Anyway, there was Indians--you can +see their shell-heap that named the island; and I've heard myself +that 'twas one o' their cannibal places, but I never could believe +it. There never was no cannibals on the coast o' Maine. All the +Indians o' these regions are tame-looking folks." + +"Sakes alive, yes!" exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick. "Ought to see +them painted savages I've seen when I was young out in the South +Sea Islands! That was the time for folks to travel, 'way back in +the old whalin' days!" + +"Whalin' must have been dull for a lady, hardly ever makin' a +lively port, and not takin' in any mixed cargoes," said Mrs. Todd. +"I never desired to go a whalin' v'y'ge myself." + +"I used to return feelin' very slack an' behind the times, +'tis true," explained Mrs. Fosdick, "but 'twas excitin', an' we +always done extra well, and felt rich when we did get ashore. I +liked the variety. There, how times have changed; how few +seafarin' families there are left! What a lot o' queer folks there +used to be about here, anyway, when we was young, Almiry. +Everybody's just like everybody else, now; nobody to laugh about, +and nobody to cry about." + +It seemed to me that there were peculiarities of character in +the region of Dunnet Landing yet, but I did not like to interrupt. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Todd after a moment of meditation, "there was +certain a good many curiosities of human natur' in this +neighborhood years ago. There was more energy then, and in some +the energy took a singular turn. In these days the young folks is +all copy-cats, 'fraid to death they won't be all just alike; as for +the old folks, they pray for the advantage o' bein' a little +different." + +"I ain't heard of a copy-cat this great many years," said Mrs. +Fosdick, laughing; "'twas a favorite term o' my grandfather's. No, +I wa'n't thinking o' those things, but of them strange straying +creatur's that used to rove the country. You don't see them now, +or the ones that used to hive away in their own houses with some +strange notion or other." + +I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but my companions were +not reminded of his name; and there was brother William at Green +Island, whom we all three knew. + +"I was talking o' poor Joanna the other day. I hadn't thought +of her for a great while," said Mrs. Fosdick abruptly. "Mis' +Brayton an' I recalled her as we sat together sewing. She was one +o' your peculiar persons, wa'n't she? Speaking of such persons," +she turned to explain to me, "there was a sort of a nun or hermit +person lived out there for years all alone on Shell-heap Island. +Miss Joanna Todd, her name was,--a cousin o' Almiry's late +husband." + +I expressed my interest, but as I glanced at Mrs. Todd I saw +that she was confused by sudden affectionate feeling and +unmistakable desire for reticence. + +"I never want to hear Joanna laughed about," she said +anxiously. + +"Nor I," answered Mrs. Fosdick reassuringly. "She was crossed +in love,--that was all the matter to begin with; but as I look +back, I can see that Joanna was one doomed from the first to fall +into a melancholy. She retired from the world for good an' all, +though she was a well-off woman. All she wanted was to get away +from folks; she thought she wasn't fit to live with anybody, and +wanted to be free. Shell-heap Island come to her from her father, +and first thing folks knew she'd gone off out there to live, and +left word she didn't want no company. 'Twas a bad place to get to, +unless the wind an' tide were just right; 'twas hard work to make +a landing." + +"What time of year was this?" I asked. + +"Very late in the summer," said Mrs. Fosdick. "No, I never +could laugh at Joanna, as some did. She set everything by the +young man, an' they were going to marry in about a month, when he +got bewitched with a girl 'way up the bay, and married her, and +went off to Massachusetts. He wasn't well thought of,--there were +those who thought Joanna's money was what had tempted him; but +she'd given him her whole heart, an' she wa'n't so young as she had +been. All her hopes were built on marryin', an' havin' a real home +and somebody to look to; she acted just like a bird when its nest +is spoilt. The day after she heard the news she was in dreadful +woe, but the next she came to herself very quiet, and took the +horse and wagon, and drove fourteen miles to the lawyer's, and +signed a paper givin' her half of the farm to her brother. They +never had got along very well together, but he didn't want to sign +it, till she acted so distressed that he gave in. Edward Todd's +wife was a good woman, who felt very bad indeed, and used every +argument with Joanna; but Joanna took a poor old boat that had been +her father's and lo'ded in a few things, and off she put all +alone, with a good land breeze, right out to sea. Edward Todd ran +down to the beach, an' stood there cryin' like a boy to see her go, +but she was out o' hearin'. She never stepped foot on the mainland +again long as she lived." + +"How large an island is it? How did she manage in winter?" I +asked. + +"Perhaps thirty acres, rocks and all," answered Mrs. Todd, +taking up the story gravely. "There can't be much of it that the +salt spray don't fly over in storms. No, 'tis a dreadful small +place to make a world of; it has a different look from any of the +other islands, but there's a sheltered cove on the south side, with +mud-flats across one end of it at low water where there's excellent +clams, and the big shell-heap keeps some o' the wind off a little +house her father took the trouble to build when he was a young man. +They said there was an old house built o' logs there before that, +with a kind of natural cellar in the rock under it. He used to +stay out there days to a time, and anchor a little sloop he had, +and dig clams to fill it, and sail up to Portland. They said the +dealers always gave him an extra price, the clams were so noted. +Joanna used to go out and stay with him. They were always great +companions, so she knew just what 'twas out there. There was a few +sheep that belonged to her brother an' her, but she bargained for +him to come and get them on the edge o' cold weather. Yes, she +desired him to come for the sheep; an' his wife thought perhaps +Joanna'd return, but he said no, an' lo'ded the bo't with warm +things an' what he thought she'd need through the winter. He come +home with the sheep an' left the other things by the house, but she +never so much as looked out o' the window. She done it for a +penance. She must have wanted to see Edward by that time." + +Mrs. Fosdick was fidgeting with eagerness to speak. + +"Some thought the first cold snap would set her ashore, but +she always remained," concluded Mrs. Todd soberly. + +"Talk about the men not having any curiosity!" exclaimed Mrs. +Fosdick scornfully. "Why, the waters round Shell-heap Island were +white with sails all that fall. 'Twas never called no great of a +fishin'-ground before. Many of 'em made excuse to go ashore to get +water at the spring; but at last she spoke to a bo't-load, very +dignified and calm, and said that she'd like it better if they'd +make a practice of getting water to Black Island or somewheres else +and leave her alone, except in case of accident or trouble. But +there was one man who had always set everything by her from a boy. +He'd have married her if the other hadn't come about an' spoilt his +chance, and he used to get close to the island, before light, on +his way out fishin', and throw a little bundle way up the green +slope front o' the house. His sister told me she happened to see, +the first time, what a pretty choice he made o' useful +things that a woman would feel lost without. He stood off fishin', +and could see them in the grass all day, though sometimes she'd +come out and walk right by them. There was other bo'ts near, out +after mackerel. But early next morning his present was gone. He +didn't presume too much, but once he took her a nice firkin o' +things he got up to Portland, and when spring come he landed her a +hen and chickens in a nice little coop. There was a good many old +friends had Joanna on their minds." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Todd, losing her sad reserve in the growing +sympathy of these reminiscences. "How everybody used to notice +whether there was smoke out of the chimney! The Black Island folks +could see her with their spy-glass, and if they'd ever missed +getting some sign o' life they'd have sent notice to her folks. +But after the first year or two Joanna was more and more forgotten +as an every-day charge. Folks lived very simple in those days, you +know," she continued, as Mrs. Fosdick's knitting was taking much +thought at the moment. "I expect there was always plenty of +driftwood thrown up, and a poor failin' patch of spruces covered +all the north side of the island, so she always had something to +burn. She was very fond of workin' in the garden ashore, and that +first summer she began to till the little field out there, and +raised a nice parcel o' potatoes. She could fish, o' course, and +there was all her clams an' lobsters. You can always live well in +any wild place by the sea when you'd starve to death up country, +except 'twas berry time. Joanna had berries out there, +blackberries at least, and there was a few herbs in case she needed +them. Mullein in great quantities and a plant o' wormwood I +remember seeing once when I stayed there, long before she fled out +to Shell-heap. Yes, I recall the wormwood, which is always a +planted herb, so there must have been folks there before the Todds' +day. A growin' bush makes the best gravestone; I expect that +wormwood always stood for somebody's solemn monument. Catnip, too, +is a very endurin' herb about an old place." + +"But what I want to know is what she did for other things," +interrupted Mrs. Fosdick. "Almiry, what did she do for clothin' +when she needed to replenish, or risin' for her bread, or the +piece-bag that no woman can live long without?" + +"Or company," suggested Mrs. Todd. "Joanna was one that loved +her friends. There must have been a terrible sight o' long winter +evenin's that first year." + +"There was her hens," suggested Mrs. Fosdick, after reviewing +the melancholy situation. "She never wanted the sheep after that +first season. There wa'n't no proper pasture for sheep after the +June grass was past, and she ascertained the fact and couldn't bear +to see them suffer; but the chickens done well. I remember +sailin' by one spring afternoon, an' seein' the coops out front o' +the house in the sun. How long was it before you went out with the +minister? You were the first ones that ever really got ashore to +see Joanna." + +I had been reflecting upon a state of society which admitted +such personal freedom and a voluntary hermitage. There was +something mediaeval in the behavior of poor Joanna Todd under a +disappointment of the heart. The two women had drawn closer +together, and were talking on, quite unconscious of a listener. + +"Poor Joanna!" said Mrs. Todd again, and sadly shook her head +as if there were things one could not speak about. + +"I called her a great fool," declared Mrs. Fosdick, with +spirit, "but I pitied her then, and I pity her far more now. Some +other minister would have been a great help to her,--one that +preached self-forgetfulness and doin' for others to cure our own +ills; but Parson Dimmick was a vague person, well meanin', but very +numb in his feelin's. I don't suppose at that troubled time Joanna +could think of any way to mend her troubles except to run off and +hide." + +"Mother used to say she didn't see how Joanna lived without +having nobody to do for, getting her own meals and tending her own +poor self day in an' day out," said Mrs. Todd sorrowfully. + +"There was the hens," repeated Mrs. Fosdick kindly. "I expect +she soon came to makin' folks o' them. No, I never went to work to +blame Joanna, as some did. She was full o' feeling, and her +troubles hurt her more than she could bear. I see it all now as I +couldn't when I was young." + +"I suppose in old times they had their shut-up convents for +just such folks," said Mrs. Todd, as if she and her friend had +disagreed about Joanna once, and were now in happy harmony. She +seemed to speak with new openness and freedom. "Oh yes, I was only +too pleased when the Reverend Mr. Dimmick invited me to go out with +him. He hadn't been very long in the place when Joanna left home +and friends. 'Twas one day that next summer after she went, and I +had been married early in the spring. He felt that he ought to go +out and visit her. She was a member of the church, and might wish +to have him consider her spiritual state. I wa'n't so sure o' +that, but I always liked Joanna, and I'd come to be her cousin by +marriage. Nathan an' I had conversed about goin' out to pay her a +visit, but he got his chance to sail sooner'n he expected. He +always thought everything of her, and last time he come home, +knowing nothing of her change, he brought her a beautiful coral pin +from a port he'd touched at somewheres up the Mediterranean. So I +wrapped the little box in a nice piece of paper and put it +in my pocket, and picked her a bunch of fresh lemon balm, and off +we started." + +Mrs. Fosdick laughed. "I remember hearin' about your trials +on the v'y'ge," she said." + +"Why, yes," continued Mrs. Todd in her company manner. "I +picked her the balm, an' we started. Why, yes, Susan, the minister +liked to have cost me my life that day. He would fasten the sheet, +though I advised against it. He said the rope was rough an' cut +his hand. There was a fresh breeze, an' he went on talking rather +high flown, an' I felt some interested. All of a sudden there come +up a gust, and he gave a screech and stood right up and called for +help, 'way out there to sea. I knocked him right over into the +bottom o' the bo't, getting by to catch hold of the sheet an' untie +it. He wasn't but a little man; I helped him right up after the +squall passed, and made a handsome apology to him, but he did act +kind o' offended." + +"I do think they ought not to settle them landlocked folks in +parishes where they're liable to be on the water," insisted Mrs. +Fosdick. "Think of the families in our parish that was scattered +all about the bay, and what a sight o' sails you used to see, in +Mr. Dimmick's day, standing across to the mainland on a pleasant +Sunday morning, filled with church-going folks, all sure to want +him some time or other! You couldn't find no doctor that would +stand up in the boat and screech if a flaw struck her." + +"Old Dr. Bennett had a beautiful sailboat, didn't he?" +responded Mrs. Todd. "And how well he used to brave the weather! +Mother always said that in time o' trouble that tall white sail +used to look like an angel's wing comin' over the sea to them that +was in pain. Well, there's a difference in gifts. Mr. Dimmick was +not without light." + +"'Twas light o' the moon, then," snapped Mrs. Fosdick; "he was +pompous enough, but I never could remember a single word he said. +There, go on, Mis' Todd; I forget a great deal about that day you +went to see poor Joanna." + +"I felt she saw us coming, and knew us a great way off; yes, +I seemed to feel it within me," said our friend, laying down her +knitting. "I kept my seat, and took the bo't inshore without +saying a word; there was a short channel that I was sure Mr. +Dimmick wasn't acquainted with, and the tide was very low. She +never came out to warn us off nor anything, and I thought, as I +hauled the bo't up on a wave and let the Reverend Mr. Dimmick step +out, that it was somethin' gained to be safe ashore. There was a +little smoke out o' the chimney o' Joanna's house, and it did look +sort of homelike and pleasant with wild mornin'-glory vines trained +up; an' there was a plot o' flowers under the front window, +portulacas and things. I believe she'd made a garden once, +when she was stopping there with her father, and some things must +have seeded in. It looked as if she might have gone over to the +other side of the island. 'Twas neat and pretty all about the +house, and a lovely day in July. We walked up from the beach +together very sedate, and I felt for poor Nathan's little pin to +see if 'twas safe in my dress pocket. All of a sudden Joanna come +right to the fore door and stood there, not sayin' a word." + + + + +XIV + + +The Hermitage + +MY COMPANION and I had been so intent upon the subject of the +conversation that we had not heard any one open the gate, but at +this moment, above the noise of the rain, we heard a loud knocking. +We were all startled as we sat by the fire, and Mrs. Todd rose +hastily and went to answer the call, leaving her rocking-chair in +violent motion. Mrs. Fosdick and I heard an anxious voice at the +door speaking of a sick child, and Mrs. Todd's kind, motherly voice +inviting the messenger in: then we waited in silence. There was a +sound of heavy dropping of rain from the eaves, and the distant +roar and undertone of the sea. My thoughts flew back to the lonely +woman on her outer island; what separation from humankind she must +have felt, what terror and sadness, even in a summer storm like +this! + +"You send right after the doctor if she ain't better in half +an hour," said Mrs. Todd to her worried customer as they parted; +and I felt a warm sense of comfort in the evident resources of even +so small a neighborhood, but for the poor hermit Joanna there was +no neighbor on a winter night. + + +"How did she look?" demanded Mrs. Fosdick, without preface, as +our large hostess returned to the little room with a mist about her +from standing long in the wet doorway, and the sudden draught of +her coming beat out the smoke and flame from the Franklin stove. +"How did poor Joanna look?" + +"She was the same as ever, except I thought she looked +smaller," answered Mrs. Todd after thinking a moment; perhaps it +was only a last considering thought about her patient. +"Yes, she was just the same, and looked very nice, Joanna did. I +had been married since she left home, an' she treated me like her +own folks. I expected she'd look strange, with her hair turned +gray in a night or somethin', but she wore a pretty gingham dress +I'd often seen her wear before she went away; she must have kept it +nice for best in the afternoons. She always had beautiful, quiet +manners. I remember she waited till we were close to her, and then +kissed me real affectionate, and inquired for Nathan before she +shook hands with the minister, and then she invited us both in. +'Twas the same little house her father had built him when he was a +bachelor, with one livin'-room, and a little mite of a bedroom out +of it where she slept, but 'twas neat as a ship's cabin. There was +some old chairs, an' a seat made of a long box that might have held +boat tackle an' things to lock up in his fishin' days, and a good +enough stove so anybody could cook and keep warm in cold weather. +I went over once from home and stayed 'most a week with Joanna when +we was girls, and those young happy days rose up before me. Her +father was busy all day fishin' or clammin'; he was one o' the +pleasantest men in the world, but Joanna's mother had the grim +streak, and never knew what 'twas to be happy. The first minute my +eyes fell upon Joanna's face that day I saw how she had grown to +look like Mis' Todd. 'Twas the mother right over again." + +"Oh dear me!" said Mrs. Fosdick. + +"Joanna had done one thing very pretty. There was a little +piece o' swamp on the island where good rushes grew plenty, and +she'd gathered 'em, and braided some beautiful mats for the floor +and a thick cushion for the long bunk. She'd showed a good deal of +invention; you see there was a nice chance to pick up pieces o' +wood and boards that drove ashore, and she'd made good use o' what +she found. There wasn't no clock, but she had a few dishes on a +shelf, and flowers set about in shells fixed to the walls, so it +did look sort of homelike, though so lonely and poor. I couldn't +keep the tears out o' my eyes, I felt so sad. I said to myself, I +must get mother to come over an' see Joanna; the love in mother's +heart would warm her, an' she might be able to advise." + +"Oh no, Joanna was dreadful stern," said Mrs. Fosdick. + +"We were all settin' down very proper, but Joanna would keep +stealin' glances at me as if she was glad I come. She had but +little to say; she was real polite an' gentle, and yet forbiddin'. +The minister found it hard," confessed Mrs. Todd; "he got +embarrassed, an' when he put on his authority and asked her if she +felt to enjoy religion in her present situation, an' she replied +that she must be excused from answerin', I thought I should fly. +She might have made it easier for him; after all, he was the +minister and had taken some trouble to come out, though 'twas kind +of cold an' unfeelin' the way he inquired. I thought he might have +seen the little old Bible a-layin' on the shelf close by him, an' +I wished he knew enough to just lay his hand on it an' read +somethin' kind an' fatherly 'stead of accusin' her, an' then given +poor Joanna his blessin' with the hope she might be led to comfort. +He did offer prayer, but 'twas all about hearin' the voice o' God +out o' the whirlwind; and I thought while he was goin' on that +anybody that had spent the long cold winter all alone out on Shell- +heap Island knew a good deal more about those things than he did. +I got so provoked I opened my eyes and stared right at him. + +"She didn't take no notice, she kep' a nice respectful manner +towards him, and when there come a pause she asked if he had any +interest about the old Indian remains, and took down some queer +stone gouges and hammers off of one of her shelves and showed them +to him same's if he was a boy. He remarked that he'd like to walk +over an' see the shell-heap; so she went right to the door and +pointed him the way. I see then that she'd made her some kind o' +sandal-shoes out o' the fine rushes to wear on her feet; she +stepped light an' nice in 'em as shoes." + +Mrs. Fosdick leaned back in her rocking-chair and gave a heavy +sigh. + +"I didn't move at first, but I'd held out just as long as I +could," said Mrs. Todd, whose voice trembled a little. "When +Joanna returned from the door, an' I could see that man's stupid +back departin' among the wild rose bushes, I just ran to her an' +caught her in my arms. I wasn't so big as I be now, and she was +older than me, but I hugged her tight, just as if she was a child. +'Oh, Joanna dear,' I says, 'won't you come ashore an' live 'long o' +me at the Landin', or go over to Green Island to mother's when +winter comes? Nobody shall trouble you an' mother finds it hard +bein' alone. I can't bear to leave you here'--and I burst right +out crying. I'd had my own trials, young as I was, an' she knew +it. Oh, I did entreat her; yes, I entreated Joanna." + +"What did she say then?" asked Mrs. Fosdick, much moved. + +"She looked the same way, sad an' remote through it all," said +Mrs. Todd mournfully. "She took hold of my hand, and we sat down +close together; 'twas as if she turned round an' made a child of +me. 'I haven't got no right to live with folks no more,' she said. +'You must never ask me again, Almiry: I've done the only thing I +could do, and I've made my choice. I feel a great comfort in your +kindness, but I don't deserve it. I have committed the +unpardonable sin; you don't understand,' says she humbly. 'I was +in great wrath and trouble, and my thoughts was so wicked towards +God that I can't expect ever to be forgiven. I have come to +know what it is to have patience, but I have lost my hope. You +must tell those that ask how 'tis with me,' she said, 'an' tell +them I want to be alone.' I couldn't speak; no, there wa'n't +anything I could say, she seemed so above everything common. I was +a good deal younger then than I be now, and I got Nathan's little +coral pin out o' my pocket and put it into her hand; and when she +saw it and I told her where it come from, her face did really light +up for a minute, sort of bright an' pleasant. 'Nathan an' I was +always good friends; I'm glad he don't think hard of me,' says she. +'I want you to have it, Almiry, an' wear it for love o' both o' +us,' and she handed it back to me. 'You give my love to Nathan,-- +he's a dear good man,' she said; 'an' tell your mother, if I should +be sick she mustn't wish I could get well, but I want her to be the +one to come.' Then she seemed to have said all she wanted to, as +if she was done with the world, and we sat there a few minutes +longer together. It was real sweet and quiet except for a good +many birds and the sea rollin' up on the beach; but at last she +rose, an' I did too, and she kissed me and held my hand in hers a +minute, as if to say good-by; then she turned and went right away +out o' the door and disappeared. + +"The minister come back pretty soon, and I told him I was all +ready, and we started down to the bo't. He had picked up some +round stones and things and was carrying them in his pocket- +handkerchief; an' he sat down amidships without making any +question, and let me take the rudder an' work the bo't, an' made no +remarks for some time, until we sort of eased it off speaking of +the weather, an' subjects that arose as we skirted Black Island, +where two or three families lived belongin' to the parish. He +preached next Sabbath as usual, somethin' high soundin' about the +creation, and I couldn't help thinkin' he might never get no +further; he seemed to know no remedies, but he had a great use of +words." + +Mrs. Fosdick sighed again. "Hearin' you tell about Joanna +brings the time right back as if 'twas yesterday," she said. "Yes, +she was one o' them poor things that talked about the great sin; we +don't seem to hear nothing about the unpardonable sin now, but you +may say 'twas not uncommon then." + +"I expect that if it had been in these days, such a person +would be plagued to death with idle folks," continued Mrs. Todd, +after a long pause. "As it was, nobody trespassed on her; all the +folks about the bay respected her an' her feelings; but as time +wore on, after you left here, one after another ventured to make +occasion to put somethin' ashore for her if they went that way. I +know mother used to go to see her sometimes, and send William over +now and then with something fresh an' nice from the farm. +There is a point on the sheltered side where you can lay a boat +close to shore an' land anything safe on the turf out o' reach o' +the water. There were one or two others, old folks, that she would +see, and now an' then she'd hail a passin' boat an' ask for +somethin'; and mother got her to promise that she would make some +sign to the Black Island folks if she wanted help. I never saw her +myself to speak to after that day." + +"I expect nowadays, if such a thing happened, she'd have gone +out West to her uncle's folks or up to Massachusetts and had a +change, an' come home good as new. The world's bigger an' freer +than it used to be," urged Mrs. Fosdick. + +"No," said her friend. "'Tis like bad eyesight, the mind of +such a person: if your eyes don't see right there may be a remedy, +but there's no kind of glasses to remedy the mind. No, Joanna was +Joanna, and there she lays on her island where she lived and did +her poor penance. She told mother the day she was dyin' that she +always used to want to be fetched inshore when it come to the last; +but she'd thought it over, and desired to be laid on the island, if +'twas thought right. So the funeral was out there, a Saturday +afternoon in September. 'Twas a pretty day, and there wa'n't +hardly a boat on the coast within twenty miles that didn't head for +Shell-heap cram-full o' folks an' all real respectful, same's if +she'd always stayed ashore and held her friends. Some went out o' +mere curiosity, I don't doubt,--there's always such to every +funeral; but most had real feelin', and went purpose to show it. +She'd got most o' the wild sparrows as tame as could be, livin' out +there so long among 'em, and one flew right in and lit on the +coffin an' begun to sing while Mr. Dimmick was speakin'. He was +put out by it, an' acted as if he didn't know whether to stop or go +on. I may have been prejudiced, but I wa'n't the only one thought +the poor little bird done the best of the two." + +"What became o' the man that treated her so, did you ever +hear?" asked Mrs. Fosdick. "I know he lived up to Massachusetts +for a while. Somebody who came from the same place told me that he +was in trade there an' doin' very well, but that was years ago." + +"I never heard anything more than that; he went to the war in +one o' the early regiments. No, I never heard any more of him," +answered Mrs. Todd. "Joanna was another sort of person, and +perhaps he showed good judgment in marryin' somebody else, if only +he'd behaved straight-forward and manly. He was a shifty-eyed, +coaxin' sort of man, that got what he wanted out o' folks, an' only +gave when he wanted to buy, made friends easy and lost 'em without +knowin' the difference. She'd had a piece o' work tryin' to make +him walk accordin' to her right ideas, but she'd have had +too much variety ever to fall into a melancholy. Some is meant to +be the Joannas in this world, an' 'twas her poor lot." + + + + +XV + + +On Shell-heap Island + +SOME TIME AFTER Mrs. Fosdick's visit was over and we had returned +to our former quietness, I was out sailing alone with Captain +Bowden in his large boat. We were taking the crooked northeasterly +channel seaward, and were well out from shore while it was still +early in the afternoon. I found myself presently among some +unfamiliar islands, and suddenly remembered the story of poor +Joanna. There is something in the fact of a hermitage that cannot +fail to touch the imagination; the recluses are a sad kindred, but +they are never commonplace. Mrs. Todd had truly said that Joanna +was like one of the saints in the desert; the loneliness of sorrow +will forever keep alive their sad succession. + +"Where is Shell-heap Island?" I asked eagerly. + +"You see Shell-heap now, layin' 'way out beyond Black Island +there," answered the captain, pointing with outstretched arm as he +stood, and holding the rudder with his knee. + +"I should like very much to go there," said I, and the +captain, without comment, changed his course a little more to the +eastward and let the reef out of his mainsail. + +"I don't know's we can make an easy landin' for ye," he +remarked doubtfully. "May get your feet wet; bad place to land. +Trouble is I ought to have brought a tag-boat; but they clutch on +to the water so, an' I do love to sail free. This gre't boat gets +easy bothered with anything trailin'. 'Tain't breakin' much on the +meetin'-house ledges; guess I can fetch in to Shell-heap." + +"How long is it since Miss Joanna Todd died?" I asked, partly +by way of explanation. + +"Twenty-two years come September," answered the captain, after +reflection. "She died the same year as my oldest boy was born, an' +the town house was burnt over to the Port. I didn't know but you +merely wanted to hunt for some o' them Indian relics. Long's you +want to see where Joanna lived--No, 'tain't breakin' over +the ledges; we'll manage to fetch across the shoals somehow, 'tis +such a distance to go 'way round, and tide's a-risin'," he ended +hopefully, and we sailed steadily on, the captain speechless with +intent watching of a difficult course, until the small island with +its low whitish promontory lay in full view before us under the +bright afternoon sun. + +The month was August, and I had seen the color of the islands +change from the fresh green of June to a sunburnt brown that made +them look like stone, except where the dark green of the spruces +and fir balsam kept the tint that even winter storms might deepen, +but not fade. The few wind-bent trees on Shell-heap Island were +mostly dead and gray, but there were some low-growing bushes, and +a stripe of light green ran along just above the shore, which I +knew to be wild morning-glories. As we came close I could see the +high stone walls of a small square field, though there were no +sheep left to assail it; and below, there was a little harbor-like +cove where Captain Bowden was boldly running the great boat in to +seek a landing-place. There was a crooked channel of deep water +which led close up against the shore. + +"There, you hold fast for'ard there, an' wait for her to lift +on the wave. You'll make a good landin' if you're smart; right on +the port-hand side!" the captain called excitedly; and I, standing +ready with high ambition, seized my chance and leaped over to the +grassy bank. + +"I'm beat if I ain't aground after all!" mourned the captain +despondently. + +But I could reach the bowsprit, and he pushed with the boat- +hook, while the wind veered round a little as if on purpose and +helped with the sail; so presently the boat was free and began to +drift out from shore. + +"Used to call this p'int Joanna's wharf privilege, but 't has +worn away in the weather since her time. I thought one or two +bumps wouldn't hurt us none,--paint's got to be renewed, anyway,-- +but I never thought she'd tetch. I figured on shyin' by," the +captain apologized. "She's too gre't a boat to handle well in +here; but I used to sort of shy by in Joanna's day, an' cast a +little somethin' ashore--some apples or a couple o' pears if I had +'em--on the grass, where she'd be sure to see." + +I stood watching while Captain Bowden cleverly found his way +back to deeper water. "You needn't make no haste," he called to +me; "I'll keep within call. Joanna lays right up there in the far +corner o' the field. There used to be a path led to the place. I +always knew her well. I was out here to the funeral." + +I found the path; it was touching to discover that this lonely +spot was not without its pilgrims. Later generations will know +less and less of Joanna herself, but there are paths trodden to the +shrines of solitude the world over,--the world cannot forget +them, try as it may; the feet of the young find them out because of +curiosity and dim foreboding; while the old bring hearts full of +remembrance. This plain anchorite had been one of those whom +sorrow made too lonely to brave the sight of men, too timid to +front the simple world she knew, yet valiant enough to live alone +with her poor insistent human nature and the calms and passions of +the sea and sky. + +The birds were flying all about the field; they fluttered up +out of the grass at my feet as I walked along, so tame that I liked +to think they kept some happy tradition from summer to summer of +the safety of nests and good fellowship of mankind. Poor Joanna's +house was gone except the stones of its foundations, and there was +little trace of her flower garden except a single faded sprig of +much-enduring French pinks, which a great bee and a yellow +butterfly were befriending together. I drank at the spring, and +thought that now and then some one would follow me from the busy, +hard-worked, and simple-thoughted countryside of the mainland, +which lay dim and dreamlike in the August haze, as Joanna must have +watched it many a day. There was the world, and here was she with +eternity well begun. In the life of each of us, I said to myself, +there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret +or secret happiness; we are each the uncompanioned hermit and +recluse of an hour or a day; we understand our fellows of the cell +to whatever age of history they may belong. + +But as I stood alone on the island, in the sea-breeze, +suddenly there came a sound of distant voices; gay voices and +laughter from a pleasure-boat that was going seaward full of boys +and girls. I knew, as if she had told me, that poor Joanna must +have heard the like on many and many a summer afternoon, and must +have welcomed the good cheer in spite of hopelessness and winter +weather, and all the sorrow and disappointment in the world. + + + + +XVI + + +The Great Expedition + +MRS. TODD never by any chance gave warning over night of her great +projects and adventures by sea and land. She first came to an +understanding with the primal forces of nature, and never trusted +to any preliminary promise of good weather, but examined the +day for herself in its infancy. Then, if the stars were +propitious, and the wind blew from a quarter of good inheritance +whence no surprises of sea-turns or southwest sultriness might be +feared, long before I was fairly awake I used to hear a rustle and +knocking like a great mouse in the walls, and an impatient tread on +the steep garret stairs that led to Mrs. Todd's chief place of +storage. She went and came as if she had already started on her +expedition with utmost haste and kept returning for something that +was forgotten. When I appeared in quest of my breakfast, she would +be absent-minded and sparing of speech, as if I had displeased her, +and she was now, by main force of principle, holding herself back +from altercation and strife of tongues. + +These signs of a change became familiar to me in the course of +time, and Mrs. Todd hardly noticed some plain proofs of divination +one August morning when I said, without preface, that I had just +seen the Beggs' best chaise go by, and that we should have to take +the grocery. Mrs. Todd was alert in a moment. + +"There! I might have known!" she exclaimed. "It's the 15th +of August, when he goes and gets his money. He heired an annuity +from an uncle o' his on his mother's side. I understood the uncle +said none o' Sam Begg's wife's folks should make free with it, so +after Sam's gone it'll all be past an' spent, like last summer. +That's what Sam prospers on now, if you can call it prosperin'. +Yes, I might have known. 'Tis the 15th o' August with him, an' he +gener'ly stops to dinner with a cousin's widow on the way home. +Feb'uary n' August is the times. Takes him 'bout all day to go an' +come." + +I heard this explanation with interest. The tone of Mrs. +Todd's voice was complaining at the last. + +"I like the grocery just as well as the chaise," I hastened to +say, referring to a long-bodied high wagon with a canopy-top, like +an attenuated four-posted bedstead on wheels, in which we sometimes +journeyed. "We can put things in behind--roots and flowers and +raspberries, or anything you are going after--much better than if +we had the chaise." + +Mrs. Todd looked stony and unwilling. "I counted upon the +chaise," she said, turning her back to me, and roughly pushing back +all the quiet tumblers on the cupboard shelf as if they had been +impertinent. "Yes, I desired the chaise for once. I ain't goin' +berryin' nor to fetch home no more wilted vegetation this year. +Season's about past, except for a poor few o' late things," she +added in a milder tone. "I'm goin' up country. No, I ain't +intendin' to go berryin'. I've been plottin' for it the past +fortnight and hopin' for a good day." + +"Would you like to have me go too?" I asked frankly, but not +without a humble fear that I might have mistaken the purpose of +this latest plan. + +"Oh certain, dear!" answered my friend affectionately. "Oh +no, I never thought o' any one else for comp'ny, if it's convenient +for you, long's poor mother ain't come. I ain't nothin' like so +handy with a conveyance as I be with a good bo't. Comes o' my +early bringing-up. I expect we've got to make that great high +wagon do. The tires want settin' and 'tis all loose-jointed, so I +can hear it shackle the other side o' the ridge. We'll put the +basket in front. I ain't goin' to have it bouncin' an' twirlin' +all the way. Why, I've been makin' some nice hearts and rounds to +carry." + +These were signs of high festivity, and my interest deepened +moment by moment. + +"I'll go down to the Beggs' and get the horse just as soon as +I finish my breakfast," said I. "Then we can start whenever you +are ready." + +Mrs. Todd looked cloudy again. "I don't know but you look +nice enough to go just as you be," she suggested doubtfully. "No, +you wouldn't want to wear that pretty blue dress o' yourn 'way up +country. 'Taint dusty now, but it may be comin' home. No, I +expect you'd rather not wear that and the other hat." + +"Oh yes. I shouldn't think of wearing these clothes," said I, +with sudden illumination. "Why, if we're going up country and are +likely to see some of your friends, I'll put on my blue dress, and +you must wear your watch; I am not going at all if you mean to wear +the big hat." + +"Now you're behavin' pretty," responded Mrs. Todd, with a gay +toss of her head and a cheerful smile, as she came across the room, +bringing a saucerful of wild raspberries, a pretty piece of salvage +from supper-time. "I was cast down when I see you come to +breakfast. I didn't think 'twas just what you'd select to wear to +the reunion, where you're goin' to meet everybody." + +"What reunion do you mean?" I asked, not without amazement. +"Not the Bowden Family's? I thought that was going to take place +in September." + +"To-day's the day. They sent word the middle o' the week. I +thought you might have heard of it. Yes, they changed the day. I +been thinkin' we'd talk it over, but you never can tell beforehand +how it's goin' to be, and 'taint worth while to wear a day all out +before it comes." Mrs. Todd gave no place to the pleasures of +anticipation, but she spoke like the oracle that she was. "I wish +mother was here to go," she continued sadly. "I did look for her +last night, and I couldn't keep back the tears when the dark really +fell and she wa'n't here, she does so enjoy a great occasion. If +William had a mite o' snap an' ambition, he'd take the lead +at such a time. Mother likes variety, and there ain't but a few +nice opportunities 'round here, an' them she has to miss 'less she +contrives to get ashore to me. I do re'lly hate to go to the +reunion without mother, an' 'tis a beautiful day; everybody'll be +asking where she is. Once she'd have got here anyway. Poor +mother's beginnin' to feel her age." + +"Why, there's your mother now!" I exclaimed with joy, I was so +glad to see the dear old soul again. "I hear her voice at the +gate." But Mrs. Todd was out of the door before me. + +There, sure enough, stood Mrs. Blackett, who must have left +Green Island before daylight. She had climbed the steep road from +the waterside so eagerly that she was out of breath, and was +standing by the garden fence to rest. She held an old-fashioned +brown wicker cap-basket in her hand, as if visiting were a thing of +every day, and looked up at us as pleased and triumphant as a +child. + +"Oh, what a poor, plain garden! Hardly a flower in it except +your bush o' balm!" she said. "But you do keep your garden neat, +Almiry. Are you both well, an' goin' up country with me?" She +came a step or two closer to meet us, with quaint politeness and +quite as delightful as if she were at home. She dropped a quick +little curtsey before Mrs. Todd. + +"There, mother, what a girl you be! I am so pleased! I was +just bewailin' you," said the daughter, with unwonted feeling. "I +was just bewailin' you, I was so disappointed, an' I kep' myself +awake a good piece o' the night scoldin' poor William. I watched +for the boat till I was ready to shed tears yisterday, and when +'twas comin' dark I kep' making errands out to the gate an' down +the road to see if you wa'n't in the doldrums somewhere down the +bay." + +"There was a head-wind, as you know," said Mrs. Blackett, +giving me the cap-basket, and holding my hand affectionately as we +walked up the clean-swept path to the door. "I was partly ready to +come, but dear William said I should be all tired out and might get +cold, havin' to beat all the way in. So we give it up, and set +down and spent the evenin' together. It was a little rough and +windy outside, and I guess 'twas better judgment; we went to bed +very early and made a good start just at daylight. It's been a +lovely mornin' on the water. William thought he'd better fetch +across beyond Bird Rocks, rowin' the greater part o' the way; then +we sailed from there right over to the landin', makin' only one +tack. William'll be in again for me to-morrow, so I can come back +here an' rest me over night, an' go to meetin' to-morrow, and have +a nice, good visit." + +"She was just havin' her breakfast," said Mrs. Todd, who had +listened eagerly to the long explanation without a word of +disapproval, while her face shone more and more with joy. "You +just sit right down an' have a cup of tea and rest you while we +make our preparations. Oh, I am so gratified to think you've come! +Yes, she was just havin' her breakfast, and we were speakin' of +you. Where's William?" + +"He went right back; said he expected some schooners in about +noon after bait, but he'll come an' have his dinner with us +tomorrow, unless it rains; then next day. I laid his best things +out all ready," explained Mrs. Blackett, a little anxiously. "This +wind will serve him nice all the way home. Yes, I will take a cup +of tea, dear,--a cup of tea is always good; and then I'll rest a +minute and be all ready to start." + +"I do feel condemned for havin' such hard thoughts o' +William," openly confessed Mrs. Todd. She stood before us so large +and serious that we both laughed and could not find it in our +hearts to convict so rueful a culprit. "He shall have a good +dinner to-morrow, if it can be got, and I shall be real glad to see +William," the confession ended handsomely, while Mrs. Blackett +smiled approval and made haste to praise the tea. Then I hurried +away to make sure of the grocery wagon. Whatever might be the good +of the reunion, I was going to have the pleasure and delight of a +day in Mrs. Blackett's company, not to speak of Mrs. Todd's. + +The early morning breeze was still blowing, and the warm, +sunshiny air was of some ethereal northern sort, with a cool +freshness as it came over new-fallen snow. The world was filled +with a fragrance of fir-balsam and the faintest flavor of seaweed +from the ledges, bare and brown at low tide in the little harbor. +It was so still and so early that the village was but half awake. +I could hear no voices but those of the birds, small and great,-- +the constant song sparrows, the clink of a yellow-hammer over in +the woods, and the far conversation of some deliberate crows. I +saw William Blackett's escaping sail already far from land, and +Captain Littlepage was sitting behind his closed window as I passed +by, watching for some one who never came. I tried to speak to him, +but he did not see me. There was a patient look on the old man's +face, as if the world were a great mistake and he had nobody with +whom to speak his own language or find companionship. + + + + +XVII + + +A Country Road + +WHATEVER DOUBTS and anxieties I may have had about the +inconvenience of the Begg's high wagon for a person of Mrs. +Blackett's age and shortness, they were happily overcome by the aid +of a chair and her own valiant spirit. Mrs. Todd bestowed great +care upon seating us as if we were taking passage by boat, but she +finally pronounced that we were properly trimmed. When we had gone +only a little way up the hill she remembered that she had left the +house door wide open, though the large key was safe in her pocket. +I offered to run back, but my offer was met with lofty scorn, and +we lightly dismissed the matter from our minds, until two or three +miles further on we met the doctor, and Mrs. Todd asked him to stop +and ask her nearest neighbor to step over and close the door if the +dust seemed to blow in the afternoon. + +"She'll be there in her kitchen; she'll hear you the minute +you call; 'twont give you no delay," said Mrs. Todd to the doctor. +"Yes, Mis' Dennett's right there, with the windows all open. It +isn't as if my fore door opened right on the road, anyway." At +which proof of composure Mrs. Blackett smiled wisely at me. + +The doctor seemed delighted to see our guest; they were +evidently the warmest friends, and I saw a look of affectionate +confidence in their eyes. The good man left his carriage to speak +to us, but as he took Mrs. Blackett's hand he held it a moment, +and, as if merely from force of habit, felt her pulse as they +talked; then to my delight he gave the firm old wrist a commending +pat. + +"You're wearing well; good for another ten years at this +rate," he assured her cheerfully, and she smiled back. "I like to +keep a strict account of my old stand-bys," and he turned to me. +"Don't you let Mrs. Todd overdo to-day,--old folks like her are apt +to be thoughtless;" and then we all laughed, and, parting, went our +ways gayly. + +"I suppose he puts up with your rivalry the same as ever?" +asked Mrs. Blackett. "You and he are as friendly as ever, I see, +Almiry," and Almira sagely nodded. + +"He's got too many long routes now to stop to 'tend to all his +door patients," she said, "especially them that takes pleasure in +talkin' themselves over. The doctor and me have got to be kind of +partners; he's gone a good deal, far an' wide. Looked +tired, didn't he? I shall have to advise with him an' get him off +for a good rest. He'll take the big boat from Rockland an' go off +up to Boston an' mouse round among the other doctors, one in two or +three years, and come home fresh as a boy. I guess they think +consider'ble of him up there." Mrs. Todd shook the reins and +reached determinedly for the whip, as if she were compelling public +opinion. + +Whatever energy and spirit the white horse had to begin with +were soon exhausted by the steep hills and his discernment of a +long expedition ahead. We toiled slowly along. Mrs. Blackett and +I sat together, and Mrs. Todd sat alone in front with much majesty +and the large basket of provisions. Part of the way the road was +shaded by thick woods, but we also passed one farmhouse after +another on the high uplands, which we all three regarded with deep +interest, the house itself and the barns and garden-spots and +poultry all having to suffer an inspection of the shrewdest sort. +This was a highway quite new to me; in fact, most of my journeys +with Mrs. Todd had been made afoot and between the roads, in open +pasturelands. My friends stopped several times for brief dooryard +visits, and made so many promises of stopping again on the way home +that I began to wonder how long the expedition would last. I had +often noticed how warmly Mrs. Todd was greeted by her friends, but +it was hardly to be compared with the feeling now shown toward Mrs. +Blackett. A look of delight came to the faces of those who +recognized the plain, dear old figure beside me; one revelation +after another was made of the constant interest and intercourse +that had linked the far island and these scattered farms into a +golden chain of love and dependence. + +"Now, we mustn't stop again if we can help it," insisted Mrs. +Todd at last. "You'll get tired, mother, and you'll think the less +o' reunions. We can visit along here any day. There, if they +ain't frying doughnuts in this next house, too! These are new +folks, you know, from over St. George way; they took this old +Talcot farm last year. 'Tis the best water on the road, and the +check-rein's come undone--yes, we'd best delay a little and water +the horse." + +We stopped, and seeing a party of pleasure-seekers in holiday +attire, the thin, anxious mistress of the farmhouse came out with +wistful sympathy to hear what news we might have to give. Mrs. +Blackett first spied her at the half-closed door, and asked with +such cheerful directness if we were trespassing that, after a few +words, she went back to her kitchen and reappeared with a plateful +of doughnuts. + +"Entertainment for man and beast," announced Mrs. Todd with +satisfaction. "Why, we've perceived there was new doughnuts +all along the road, but you're the first that has treated us." + +Our new acquaintance flushed with pleasure, but said nothing. + +"They're very nice; you've had good luck with 'em," pronounced +Mrs. Todd. "Yes, we've observed there was doughnuts all the way +along; if one house is frying all the rest is; 'tis so with a great +many things." + +"I don't suppose likely you're goin' up to the Bowden +reunion?" asked the hostess as the white horse lifted his head and +we were saying good-by. + +"Why, yes," said Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. Todd and I, all +together. + +"I am connected with the family. Yes, I expect to be there +this afternoon. I've been lookin' forward to it," she told us +eagerly. + +"We shall see you there. Come and sit with us if it's +convenient," said dear Mrs. Blackett, and we drove away. + +"I wonder who she was before she was married?" said Mrs. Todd, +who was usually unerring in matters of genealogy. "She must have +been one of that remote branch that lived down beyond Thomaston. +We can find out this afternoon. I expect that the families'll +march together, or be sorted out some way. I'm willing to own a +relation that has such proper ideas of doughnuts." + +"I seem to see the family looks," said Mrs. Blackett. "I wish +we'd asked her name. She's a stranger, and I want to help make it +pleasant for all such." + +"She resembles Cousin Pa'lina Bowden about the forehead," said +Mrs. Todd with decision. + +We had just passed a piece of woodland that shaded the road, +and come out to some open fields beyond, when Mrs. Todd suddenly +reined in the horse as if somebody had stood on the roadside and +stopped her. She even gave that quick reassuring nod of her head +which was usually made to answer for a bow, but I discovered that +she was looking eagerly at a tall ash-tree that grew just inside +the field fence. + +"I thought 'twas goin' to do well," she said complacently as +we went on again. "Last time I was up this way that tree was kind +of drooping and discouraged. Grown trees act that way sometimes, +same's folks; then they'll put right to it and strike their roots +off into new ground and start all over again with real good +courage. Ash-trees is very likely to have poor spells; they ain't +got the resolution of other trees." + +I listened hopefully for more; it was this peculiar wisdom +that made one value Mrs. Todd's pleasant company. + +"There's sometimes a good hearty tree growin' right out of the +bare rock, out o' some crack that just holds the roots;" she went +on to say, "right on the pitch o' one o' them bare stony hills +where you can't seem to see a wheel-barrowful o' good earth +in a place, but that tree'll keep a green top in the driest summer. +You lay your ear down to the ground an' you'll hear a little stream +runnin'. Every such tree has got its own livin' spring; there's +folk made to match 'em." + +I could not help turning to look at Mrs. Blackett, close +beside me. Her hands were clasped placidly in their thin black +woolen gloves, and she was looking at the flowery wayside as we +went slowly along, with a pleased, expectant smile. I do not think +she had heard a word about the trees. + +"I just saw a nice plant o' elecampane growin' back there," +she said presently to her daughter. + +"I haven't got my mind on herbs to-day," responded Mrs. Todd, +in the most matter-of-fact way. "I'm bent on seeing folks," and +she shook the reins again. + +I for one had no wish to hurry, it was so pleasant in the +shady roads. The woods stood close to the road on the right; on +the left were narrow fields and pastures where there were as many +acres of spruces and pines as there were acres of bay and juniper +and huckleberry, with a little turf between. When I thought we +were in the heart of the inland country, we reached the top of a +hill, and suddenly there lay spread out before us a wonderful great +view of well-cleared fields that swept down to the wide water of a +bay. Beyond this were distant shores like another country in the +midday haze which half hid the hills beyond, and the faraway pale +blue mountains on the northern horizon. There was a schooner with +all sails set coming down the bay from a white village that was +sprinkled on the shore, and there were many sailboats flitting +about it. It was a noble landscape, and my eyes, which had grown +used to the narrow inspection of a shaded roadside, could hardly +take it in. + +"Why, it's the upper bay," said Mrs. Todd. "You can see 'way +over into the town of Fessenden. Those farms 'way over there are +all in Fessenden. Mother used to have a sister that lived up that +shore. If we started as early's we could on a summer mornin', we +couldn't get to her place from Green Island till late afternoon, +even with a fair, steady breeze, and you had to strike the time +just right so as to fetch up 'long o' the tide and land near the +flood. 'Twas ticklish business, an' we didn't visit back an' forth +as much as mother desired. You have to go 'way down the co'st to +Cold Spring Light an' round that long point,--up here's what they +call the Back Shore." + +"No, we were 'most always separated, my dear sister and me, +after the first year she was married," said Mrs. Blackett. "We had +our little families an' plenty o' cares. We were always lookin' +forward to the time we could see each other more. Now and then +she'd get out to the island for a few days while her husband'd go +fishin'; and once he stopped with her an' two children, and +made him some flakes right there and cured all his fish for winter. +We did have a beautiful time together, sister an' me; she used to +look back to it long's she lived. + +"I do love to look over there where she used to live," Mrs. +Blackett went on as we began to go down the hill. "It seems as if +she must still be there, though she's long been gone. She loved +their farm,--she didn't see how I got so used to our island; but +somehow I was always happy from the first." + +"Yes, it's very dull to me up among those slow farms," +declared Mrs. Todd. "The snow troubles 'em in winter. They're all +besieged by winter, as you may say; 'tis far better by the shore +than up among such places. I never thought I should like to live +up country." + +"Why, just see the carriages ahead of us on the next rise!" +exclaimed Mrs. Blackett. "There's going to be a great gathering, +don't you believe there is, Almiry? It hasn't seemed up to now as +if anybody was going but us. An' 'tis such a beautiful day, with +yesterday cool and pleasant to work an' get ready, I shouldn't +wonder if everybody was there, even the slow ones like Phebe Ann +Brock." + +Mrs. Blackett's eyes were bright with excitement, and even +Mrs. Todd showed remarkable enthusiasm. She hurried the horse and +caught up with the holiday-makers ahead. "There's all the +Dep'fords goin', six in the wagon," she told us joyfully; "an' Mis' +Alva Tilley's folks are now risin' the hill in their new carry- +all." + +Mrs. Blackett pulled at the neat bow of her black bonnet- +strings, and tied them again with careful precision. I believe +your bonnet's on a little bit sideways, dear," she advised Mrs. +Todd as if she were a child; but Mrs. Todd was too much occupied to +pay proper heed. We began to feel a new sense of gayety and of +taking part in the great occasion as we joined the little train. + + + + +XVIII + + +The Bowden Reunion + +IT IS VERY RARE in country life, where high days and holidays are +few, that any occasion of general interest proves to be less than +great. Such is the hidden fire of enthusiasm in the New England +nature that, once given an outlet, it shines forth with +almost volcanic light and heat. In quiet neighborhoods such inward +force does not waste itself upon those petty excitements of every +day that belong to cities, but when, at long intervals, the altars +to patriotism, to friendship, to the ties of kindred, are reared in +our familiar fields, then the fires glow, the flames come up as if +from the inexhaustible burning heart of the earth; the primal fires +break through the granite dust in which our souls are set. Each +heart is warm and every face shines with the ancient light. Such +a day as this has transfiguring powers, and easily makes friends of +those who have been cold-hearted, and gives to those who are dumb +their chance to speak, and lends some beauty to the plainest face. + +"Oh, I expect I shall meet friends today that I haven't seen +in a long while," said Mrs. Blackett with deep satisfaction. +"'Twill bring out a good many of the old folks, 'tis such a lovely +day. I'm always glad not to have them disappointed." + +"I guess likely the best of 'em'll be there," answered Mrs. +Todd with gentle humor, stealing a glance at me. "There's one +thing certain: there's nothing takes in this whole neighborhood +like anything related to the Bowdens. Yes, I do feel that when you +call upon the Bowdens you may expect most families to rise up +between the Landing and the far end of the Back Cove. Those that +aren't kin by blood are kin by marriage." + +"There used to be an old story goin' about when I was a girl," +said Mrs. Blackett, with much amusement. "There was a great many +more Bowdens then than there are now, and the folks was all setting +in meeting a dreadful hot Sunday afternoon, and a scatter-witted +little bound girl came running to the meetin'-house door all out o' +breath from somewheres in the neighborhood. 'Mis' Bowden, Mis' +Bowden!' says she. 'Your baby's in a fit!' They used to tell that +the whole congregation was up on its feet in a minute and right out +into the aisles. All the Mis' Bowdens was setting right out for +home; the minister stood there in the pulpit tryin' to keep sober, +an' all at once he burst right out laughin'. He was a very nice +man, they said, and he said he'd better give 'em the benediction, +and they could hear the sermon next Sunday, so he kept it over. My +mother was there, and she thought certain 'twas me." + +"None of our family was ever subject to fits," interrupted +Mrs. Todd severely. "No, we never had fits, none of us; and 'twas +lucky we didn't 'way out there to Green Island. Now these folks +right in front; dear sakes knows the bunches o' soothing catnip an' +yarrow I've had to favor old Mis' Evins with dryin'! You can see +it right in their expressions, all them Evins folks. There, just +you look up to the crossroads, mother," she suddenly exclaimed. +"See all the teams ahead of us. And, oh, look down on the +bay; yes, look down on the bay! See what a sight o' boats, all +headin' for the Bowden place cove!" + +"Oh, ain't it beautiful!" said Mrs. Blackett, with all the +delight of a girl. She stood up in the high wagon to see +everything, and when she sat down again she took fast hold of my +hand. + +"Hadn't you better urge the horse a little, Almiry?" she +asked. "He's had it easy as we came along, and he can rest when we +get there. The others are some little ways ahead, and I don't want +to lose a minute." + +We watched the boats drop their sails one by one in the cove +as we drove along the high land. The old Bowden house stood, low- +storied and broad-roofed, in its green fields as if it were a +motherly brown hen waiting for the flock that came straying toward +it from every direction. The first Bowden settler had made his +home there, and it was still the Bowden farm; five generations of +sailors and farmers and soldiers had been its children. And +presently Mrs. Blackett showed me the stone-walled burying-ground +that stood like a little fort on a knoll overlooking the bay, but, +as she said, there were plenty of scattered Bowdens who were not +laid there,--some lost at sea, and some out West, and some who died +in the war; most of the home graves were those of women. + +We could see now that there were different footpaths from +along shore and across country. In all these there were straggling +processions walking in single file, like old illustrations of the +Pilgrim's Progress. There was a crowd about the house as if huge +bees were swarming in the lilac bushes. Beyond the fields and cove +a higher point of land ran out into the bay, covered with woods +which must have kept away much of the northwest wind in winter. +Now there was a pleasant look of shade and shelter there for the +great family meeting. + +We hurried on our way, beginning to feel as if we were very +late, and it was a great satisfaction at last to turn out of the +stony highroad into a green lane shaded with old apple-trees. Mrs. +Todd encouraged the horse until he fairly pranced with gayety as we +drove round to the front of the house on the soft turf. There was +an instant cry of rejoicing, and two or three persons ran toward us +from the busy group. + +"Why, dear Mis' Blackett!--here's Mis' Blackett!" I heard them +say, as if it were pleasure enough for one day to have a sight of +her. Mrs. Todd turned to me with a lovely look of triumph and +self-forgetfulness. An elderly man who wore the look of a +prosperous sea-captain put up both arms and lifted Mrs. Blackett +down from the high wagon like a child, and kissed her with hearty +affection. "I was master afraid she wouldn't be here," he said, +looking at Mrs. Todd with a face like a happy sunburnt schoolboy, +while everybody crowded round to give their welcome. + +"Mother's always the queen," said Mrs. Todd. "Yes, they'll +all make everything of mother; she'll have a lovely time to-day. +I wouldn't have had her miss it, and there won't be a thing she'll +ever regret, except to mourn because William wa'n't here." + +Mrs. Blackett having been properly escorted to the house, Mrs. +Todd received her own full share of honor, and some of the men, +with a simple kindness that was the soul of chivalry, waited upon +us and our baskets and led away the white horse. I already knew +some of Mrs. Todd's friends and kindred, and felt like an adopted +Bowden in this happy moment. It seemed to be enough for anyone to +have arrived by the same conveyance as Mrs. Blackett, who presently +had her court inside the house, while Mrs. Todd, large, hospitable, +and preeminent, was the centre of a rapidly increasing crowd about +the lilac bushes. Small companies were continually coming up the +long green slope from the water, and nearly all the boats had come +to shore. I counted three or four that were baffled by the light +breeze, but before long all the Bowdens, small and great, seemed to +have assembled, and we started to go up to the grove across the +field. + +Out of the chattering crowd of noisy children, and large- +waisted women whose best black dresses fell straight to the ground +in generous folds, and sunburnt men who looked as serious as if it +were town-meeting day, there suddenly came silence and order. I +saw the straight, soldierly little figure of a man who bore a fine +resemblance to Mrs. Blackett, and who appeared to marshal us with +perfect ease. He was imperative enough, but with a grand military +sort of courtesy, and bore himself with solemn dignity of +importance. We were sorted out according to some clear design of +his own, and stood as speechless as a troop to await his orders. +Even the children were ready to march together, a pretty flock, and +at the last moment Mrs. Blackett and a few distinguished +companions, the ministers and those who were very old, came out of +the house together and took their places. We ranked by fours, and +even then we made a long procession. + +There was a wide path mowed for us across the field, and, as +we moved along, the birds flew up out of the thick second crop of +clover, and the bees hummed as if it still were June. There was a +flashing of white gulls over the water where the fleet of boats +rode the low waves together in the cove, swaying their small masts +as if they kept time to our steps. The plash of the water could be +heard faintly, yet still be heard; we might have been a company of +ancient Greeks going to celebrate a victory, or to worship the god +of harvests, in the grove above. It was strangely moving to see +this and to make part of it. The sky, the sea, have watched +poor humanity at its rites so long; we were no more a New England +family celebrating its own existence and simple progress; we +carried the tokens and inheritance of all such households from +which this had descended, and were only the latest of our line. We +possessed the instincts of a far, forgotten childhood; I found +myself thinking that we ought to be carrying green branches and +singing as we went. So we came to the thick shaded grove still +silent, and were set in our places by the straight trees that +swayed together and let sunshine through here and there like a +single golden leaf that flickered down, vanishing in the cool +shade. + +The grove was so large that the great family looked far +smaller than it had in the open field; there was a thick growth of +dark pines and firs with an occasional maple or oak that gave a +gleam of color like a bright window in the great roof. On three +sides we could see the water, shining behind the tree-trunks, and +feel the cool salt breeze that began to come up with the tide just +as the day reached its highest point of heat. We could see the +green sunlit field we had just crossed as if we looked out at it +from a dark room, and the old house and its lilacs standing +placidly in the sun, and the great barn with a stockade of +carriages from which two or three care-taking men who had lingered +were coming across the field together. Mrs. Todd had taken off her +warm gloves and looked the picture of content. + +"There!" she exclaimed. "I've always meant to have you see +this place, but I never looked for such a beautiful opportunity-- +weather an' occasion both made to match. Yes, it suits me: I don't +ask no more. I want to know if you saw mother walkin' at the head! +It choked me right up to see mother at the head, walkin' with the +ministers," and Mrs. Todd turned away to hide the feelings she +could not instantly control. + +"Who was the marshal?" I hastened to ask. "Was he an old +soldier?" + +"Don't he do well?" answered Mrs. Todd with satisfaction. + +"He don't often have such a chance to show off his gifts," +said Mrs. Caplin, a friend from the Landing who had joined us. +"That's Sant Bowden; he always takes the lead, such days. Good for +nothing else most o' his time; trouble is, he"-- + +I turned with interest to hear the worst. Mrs. Caplin's tone +was both zealous and impressive. + +"Stim'lates," she explained scornfully. + +"No, Santin never was in the war," said Mrs. Todd with lofty +indifference. "It was a cause of real distress to him. He kep' +enlistin', and traveled far an' wide about here, an' even took the +bo't and went to Boston to volunteer; but he ain't a sound man, an' +they wouldn't have him. They say he knows all their +tactics, an' can tell all about the battle o' Waterloo well's he +can Bunker Hill. I told him once the country'd lost a great +general, an' I meant it, too." + +"I expect you're near right," said Mrs. Caplin, a little +crestfallen and apologetic. + +"I be right," insisted Mrs. Todd with much amiability. "'Twas +most too bad to cramp him down to his peaceful trade, but he's a +most excellent shoemaker at his best, an' he always says it's a +trade that gives him time to think an' plan his maneuvers. Over to +the Port they always invite him to march Decoration Day, same as +the rest, an' he does look noble; he comes of soldier stock." + +I had been noticing with great interest the curiously French +type of face which prevailed in this rustic company. I had said to +myself before that Mrs. Blackett was plainly of French descent, in +both her appearance and her charming gifts, but this is not +surprising when one has learned how large a proportion of the early +settlers on this northern coast of New England were of Huguenot +blood, and that it is the Norman Englishman, not the Saxon, who +goes adventuring to a new world. + +"They used to say in old times," said Mrs. Todd modestly, +"that our family came of very high folks in France, and one of 'em +was a great general in some o' the old wars. I sometimes think +that Santin's ability has come 'way down from then. 'Tain't +nothin' he's ever acquired; 'twas born in him. I don't know's he +ever saw a fine parade, or met with those that studied up such +things. He's figured it all out an' got his papers so he knows how +to aim a cannon right for William's fish-house five miles out on +Green Island, or up there on Burnt Island where the signal is. He +had it all over to me one day, an' I tried hard to appear +interested. His life's all in it, but he will have those poor +gloomy spells come over him now an' then, an' then he has to +drink." + +Mrs. Caplin gave a heavy sigh. + +"There's a great many such strayaway folks, just as there is +plants," continued Mrs. Todd, who was nothing if not botanical. "I +know of just one sprig of laurel that grows over back here in a +wild spot, an' I never could hear of no other on this coast. I had +a large bunch brought me once from Massachusetts way, so I know it. +This piece grows in an open spot where you'd think 'twould do well, +but it's sort o' poor-lookin'. I've visited it time an' again, +just to notice its poor blooms. 'Tis a real Sant Bowden, out of +its own place." + +Mrs. Caplin looked bewildered and blank. "Well, all I know +is, last year he worked out some kind of plan so's to parade the +county conference in platoons, and got 'em all flustered up tryin' +to sense his ideas of a holler square," she burst forth. +"They was holler enough anyway after ridin' 'way down from up +country into the salt air, and they'd been treated to a sermon on +faith an' works from old Fayther Harlow that never knows when to +cease. 'Twa'n't no time for tactics then,--they wa'n't a'thinkin' +of the church military. Sant, he couldn't do nothin' with 'em. +All he thinks of, when he sees a crowd, is how to march 'em. 'Tis +all very well when he don't 'tempt too much. He never did act like +other folks." + +"Ain't I just been maintainin' that he ain't like 'em?" urged +Mrs. Todd decidedly. "Strange folks has got to have strange ways, +for what I see." + +"Somebody observed once that you could pick out the likeness +of 'most every sort of a foreigner when you looked about you in our +parish," said Sister Caplin, her face brightening with sudden +illumination. "I didn't see the bearin' of it then quite so plain. +I always did think Mari' Harris resembled a Chinee." + +"Mari' Harris was pretty as a child, I remember," said the +pleasant voice of Mrs. Blackett, who, after receiving the +affectionate greetings of nearly the whole company, came to join +us,--to see, as she insisted, that we were out of mischief. + +"Yes, Mari' was one o' them pretty little lambs that make +dreadful homely old sheep," replied Mrs. Todd with energy. "Cap'n +Littlepage never'd look so disconsolate if she was any sort of a +proper person to direct things. She might divert him; yes, she +might divert the old gentleman, an' let him think he had his own +way, 'stead o' arguing everything down to the bare bone. +'Twouldn't hurt her to sit down an' hear his great stories once in +a while." + +"The stories are very interesting," I ventured to say. + +"Yes, you always catch yourself a-thinkin' what if they all +was true, and he had the right of it," answered Mrs. Todd. "He's +a good sight better company, though dreamy, than such sordid +creatur's as Mari' Harris." + +"Live and let live," said dear old Mrs. Blackett gently. "I +haven't seen the captain for a good while, now that I ain't so +constant to meetin'," she added wistfully. "We always have known +each other." + +"Why, if it is a good pleasant day tomorrow, I'll get William +to call an' invite the capt'in to dinner. William'll be in early +so's to pass up the street without meetin' anybody." + +"There, they're callin' out it's time to set the tables," said +Mrs. Caplin, with great excitement. + +"Here's Cousin Sarah Jane Blackett! Well, I am pleased, +certain!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd, with unaffected delight; and these +kindred spirits met and parted with the promise of a good talk +later on. After this there was no more time for +conversation until we were seated in order at the long tables. + +"I'm one that always dreads seeing some o' the folks that I +don't like, at such a time as this," announced Mrs. Todd privately +to me after a season of reflection. We were just waiting for the +feast to begin. "You wouldn't think such a great creatur' 's I be +could feel all over pins an' needles. I remember, the day I +promised to Nathan, how it come over me, just's I was feelin' +happy's I could, that I'd got to have an own cousin o' his for my +near relation all the rest o' my life, an' it seemed as if die I +should. Poor Nathan saw somethin' had crossed me,--he had very +nice feelings,--and when he asked what 'twas, I told him. 'I never +could like her myself,' said he. 'You sha'n't be bothered, dear,' +he says; an' 'twas one o' the things that made me set a good deal +by Nathan, he did not make a habit of always opposin', like some +men. 'Yes,' says I, 'but think o' Thanksgivin' times an' funerals; +she's our relation, an' we've got to own her.' Young folks don't +think o' those things. There she goes now, do let's pray her by!" +said Mrs. Todd, with an alarming transition from general opinions +to particular animosities. "I hate her just the same as I always +did; but she's got on a real pretty dress. I do try to remember +that she's Nathan's cousin. Oh dear, well; she's gone by after +all, an' ain't seen me. I expected she'd come pleasantin' round +just to show off an' say afterwards she was acquainted." + +This was so different from Mrs. Todd's usual largeness of mind +that I had a moment's uneasiness; but the cloud passed quickly over +her spirit, and was gone with the offender. + +There never was a more generous out-of-door feast along the +coast then the Bowden family set forth that day. To call it a +picnic would make it seem trivial. The great tables were edged +with pretty oak-leaf trimming, which the boys and girls made. We +brought flowers from the fence-thickets of the great field; and out +of the disorder of flowers and provisions suddenly appeared as +orderly a scheme for the feast as the marshal had shaped for the +procession. I began to respect the Bowdens for their inheritance +of good taste and skill and a certain pleasing gift of formality. +Something made them do all these things in a finer way than most +country people would have done them. As I looked up and down the +tables there was a good cheer, a grave soberness that shone with +pleasure, a humble dignity of bearing. There were some who should +have sat below the salt for lack of this good breeding; but they +were not many. So, I said to myself, their ancestors may have sat +in the great hall of some old French house in the Middle Ages, when +battles and sieges and processions and feasts were familiar things. +The ministers and Mrs. Blackett, with a few of their rank +and age, were put in places of honor, and for once that I looked +any other way I looked twice at Mrs. Blackett's face, serene and +mindful of privilege and responsibility, the mistress by simple +fitness of this great day. + +Mrs. Todd looked up at the roof of green trees, and then +carefully surveyed the company. "I see 'em better now they're all +settin' down," she said with satisfaction. "There's old Mr. +Gilbraith and his sister. I wish they were sittin' with us; +they're not among folks they can parley with, an' they look +disappointed." + +As the feast went on, the spirits of my companion steadily +rose. The excitement of an unexpectedly great occasion was a +subtle stimulant to her disposition, and I could see that sometimes +when Mrs. Todd had seemed limited and heavily domestic, she had +simply grown sluggish for lack of proper surroundings. She was not +so much reminiscent now as expectant, and as alert and gay as a +girl. We who were her neighbors were full of gayety, which was but +the reflected light from her beaming countenance. It was not the +first time that I was full of wonder at the waste of human ability +in this world, as a botanist wonders at the wastefulness of nature, +the thousand seeds that die, the unused provision of every sort. +The reserve force of society grows more and more amazing to one's +thought. More than one face among the Bowdens showed that only +opportunity and stimulus were lacking,--a narrow set of +circumstances had caged a fine able character and held it captive. +One sees exactly the same types in a country gathering as in the +most brilliant city company. You are safe to be understood if the +spirit of your speech is the same for one neighbor as for the +other. + + + + +XIX + + +The Feast's End + +THE FEAST was a noble feast, as has already been said. There was +an elegant ingenuity displayed in the form of pies which delighted +my heart. Once acknowledge that an American pie is far to be +preferred to its humble ancestor, the English tart, and it is +joyful to be reassured at a Bowden reunion that invention has not +yet failed. Beside a delightful variety of material, the +decorations went beyond all my former experience; dates and +names were wrought in lines of pastry and frosting on the tops. +There was even more elaborate reading matter on an excellent early- +apple pie which we began to share and eat, precept upon precept. +Mrs. Todd helped me generously to the whole word BOWDEN, and +consumed REUNION herself, save an undecipherable fragment; +but the most renowned essay in cookery on the tables was a model of +the old Bowden house made of durable gingerbread, with all the +windows and doors in the right places, and sprigs of genuine lilac +set at the front. It must have been baked in sections, in one of +the last of the great brick ovens, and fastened together on the +morning of the day. There was a general sigh when this fell into +ruin at the feast's end, and it was shared by a great part of the +assembly, not without seriousness, and as if it were a pledge and +token of loyalty. I met the maker of the gingerbread house, which +had called up lively remembrances of a childish story. She had the +gleaming eye of an enthusiast and a look of high ideals. + +"I could just as well have made it all of frosted cake," she +said, "but 'twouldn't have been the right shade; the old house, as +you observe, was never painted, and I concluded that plain +gingerbread would represent it best. It wasn't all I expected it +would be," she said sadly, as many an artist had said before her of +his work. + +There were speeches by the ministers; and there proved to be +a historian among the Bowdens, who gave some fine anecdotes of the +family history; and then appeared a poetess, whom Mrs. Todd +regarded with wistful compassion and indulgence, and when the long +faded garland of verses came to an appealing end, she turned to me +with words of praise. + +"Sounded pretty," said the generous listener. "Yes, I thought +she did very well. We went to school together, an' Mary Anna had +a very hard time; trouble was, her mother thought she'd given birth +to a genius, an' Mary Anna's come to believe it herself. There, I +don't know what we should have done without her; there ain't nobody +else that can write poetry between here and 'way up towards +Rockland; it adds a great deal at such a time. When she speaks o' +those that are gone, she feels it all, and so does everybody else, +but she harps too much. I'd laid half of that away for next time, +if I was Mary Anna. There comes mother to speak to her, an' old +Mr. Gilbreath's sister; now she'll be heartened right up. +Mother'll say just the right thing." + +The leave-takings were as affecting as the meetings of these +old friends had been. There were enough young persons at the +reunion, but it is the old who really value such opportunities; as +for the young, it is the habit of every day to meet their +comrades,--the time of separation has not come. To see the +joy with which these elder kinsfolk and acquaintances had looked in +one another's faces, and the lingering touch of their friendly +hands; to see these affectionate meetings and then the reluctant +partings, gave one a new idea of the isolation in which it was +possible to live in that after all thinly settled region. They did +not expect to see one another again very soon; the steady, hard +work on the farms, the difficulty of getting from place to place, +especially in winter when boats were laid up, gave double value to +any occasion which could bring a large number of families together. +Even funerals in this country of the pointed firs were not without +their social advantages and satisfactions. I heard the words "next +summer" repeated many times, though summer was still ours and all +the leaves were green. + +The boats began to put out from shore, and the wagons to drive +away. Mrs. Blackett took me into the old house when we came back +from the grove: it was her father's birthplace and early home, and +she had spent much of her own childhood there with her grandmother. +She spoke of those days as if they had but lately passed; in fact, +I could imagine that the house looked almost exactly the same to +her. I could see the brown rafters of the unfinished roof as I +looked up the steep staircase, though the best room was as handsome +with its good wainscoting and touch of ornament on the cornice as +any old room of its day in a town. + +Some of the guests who came from a distance were still sitting +in the best room when we went in to take leave of the master and +mistress of the house. We all said eagerly what a pleasant day it +had been, and how swiftly the time had passed. Perhaps it is the +great national anniversaries which our country has lately kept, and +the soldiers' meetings that take place everywhere, which have made +reunions of every sort the fashion. This one, at least, had been +very interesting. I fancied that old feuds had been overlooked, +and the old saying that blood is thicker than water had again +proved itself true, though from the variety of names one argued a +certain adulteration of the Bowden traits and belongings. +Clannishness is an instinct of the heart,--it is more than a +birthright, or a custom; and lesser rights were forgotten in the +claim to a common inheritance. + +We were among the very last to return to our proper lives and +lodgings. I came near to feeling like a true Bowden, and parted +from certain new friends as if they were old friends; we were rich +with the treasure of a new remembrance. + +At last we were in the high wagon again; the old white horse +had been well fed in the Bowden barn, and we drove away and soon +began to climb the long hill toward the wooded ridge. The road was +new to me, as roads always are, going back. Most of our companions +had been full of anxious thoughts of home,--of the cows, or +of young children likely to fall into disaster,--but we had no +reasons for haste, and drove slowly along, talking and resting by +the way. Mrs. Todd said once that she really hoped her front door +had been shut on account of the dust blowing in, but added that +nothing made any weight on her mind except not to forget to turn a +few late mullein leaves that were drying on a newspaper in the +little loft. Mrs. Blackett and I gave our word of honor that we +would remind her of this heavy responsibility. The way seemed +short, we had so much to talk about. We climbed hills where we +could see the great bay and the islands, and then went down into +shady valleys where the air began to feel like evening, cool and +camp with a fragrance of wet ferns. Mrs. Todd alighted once or +twice, refusing all assistance in securing some boughs of a rare +shrub which she valued for its bark, though she proved +incommunicative as to her reasons. We passed the house where we +had been so kindly entertained with doughnuts earlier in the day, +and found it closed and deserted, which was a disappointment. + +"They must have stopped to tea somewheres and thought they'd +finish up the day," said Mrs. Todd. "Those that enjoyed it best'll +want to get right home so's to think it over." + +"I didn't see the woman there after all, did you?" asked Mrs. +Blackett as the horse stopped to drink at the trough. + +"Oh yes, I spoke with her," answered Mrs. Todd, with but scant +interest or approval. "She ain't a member o' our family." + +"I thought you said she resembled Cousin Pa'lina Bowden about +the forehead," suggested Mrs. Blackett. + +"Well, she don't," answered Mrs. Todd impatiently. "I ain't +one that's ord'narily mistaken about family likenesses, and she +didn't seem to meet with friends, so I went square up to her. 'I +expect you're a Bowden by your looks,' says I. 'Yes, I can take it +you're one o' the Bowdens.' 'Lor', no,' says she. 'Dennett was my +maiden name, but I married a Bowden for my first husband. I +thought I'd come an' just see what was a-goin' on!" + +Mrs. Blackett laughed heartily. "I'm goin' to remember to +tell William o' that," she said. "There, Almiry, the only thing +that's troubled me all this day is to think how William would have +enjoyed it. I do so wish William had been there." + +"I sort of wish he had, myself," said Mrs. Todd frankly. + +"There wa'n't many old folks there, somehow," said Mrs. +Blackett, with a touch of sadness in her voice. "There ain't so +many to come as there used to be, I'm aware, but I expected to see +more." + +"I thought they turned out pretty well, when you come to think +of it; why, everybody was sayin' so an' feelin' gratified," +answered Mrs. Todd hastily with pleasing unconsciousness; then I +saw the quick color flash into her cheek, and presently she made +some excuse to turn and steal an anxious look at her mother. Mrs. +Blackett was smiling and thinking about her happy day, though she +began to look a little tired. Neither of my companions was +troubled by her burden of years. I hoped in my heart that I might +be like them as I lived on into age, and then smiled to think that +I too was no longer very young. So we always keep the same hearts, +though our outer framework fails and shows the touch of time. + +"'Twas pretty when they sang the hymn, wasn't it?" asked Mrs. +Blackett at suppertime, with real enthusiasm. "There was such a +plenty o' men's voices; where I sat it did sound beautiful. I had +to stop and listen when they came to the last verse." + +I saw that Mrs. Todd's broad shoulders began to shake. "There +was good singers there; yes, there was excellent singers," she +agreed heartily, putting down her teacup, "but I chanced to drift +alongside Mis' Peter Bowden o' Great Bay, an' I couldn't help +thinkin' if she was as far out o' town as she was out o' tune, she +wouldn't get back in a day." + + + + +XX + + +Along Shore + +ONE DAY as I went along the shore beyond the old wharves and the +newer, high-stepped fabric of the steamer landing, I saw that all +the boats were beached, and the slack water period of the early +afternoon prevailed. Nothing was going on, not even the most +leisurely of occupations, like baiting trawls or mending nets, or +repairing lobster pots; the very boats seemed to be taking an +afternoon nap in the sun. I could hardly discover a distant sail +as I looked seaward, except a weather-beaten lobster smack, which +seemed to have been taken for a plaything by the light airs that +blew about the bay. It drifted and turned about so aimlessly in +the wide reach off Burnt Island, that I suspected there was nobody +at the wheel, or that she might have parted her rusty anchor chain +while all the crew were asleep. + +I watched her for a minute or two; she was the old Miranda, +owned by some of the Caplins, and I knew her by an odd +shaped patch of newish duck that was set into the peak of her dingy +mainsail. Her vagaries offered such an exciting subject for +conversation that my heart rejoiced at the sound of a hoarse voice +behind me. At that moment, before I had time to answer, I saw +something large and shapeless flung from the Miranda's deck that +splashed the water high against her black side, and my companion +gave a satisfied chuckle. The old lobster smack's sail caught the +breeze again at this moment, and she moved off down the bay. +Turning, I found old Elijah Tilley, who had come softly out of his +dark fish-house, as if it were a burrow. + +"Boy got kind o' drowsy steerin' of her; Monroe he hove him +right overboard; 'wake now fast enough," explained Mr. Tilley, and +we laughed together. + +I was delighted, for my part, that the vicissitudes and +dangers of the Miranda, in a rocky channel, should have given me +this opportunity to make acquaintance with an old fisherman to whom +I had never spoken. At first he had seemed to be one of those +evasive and uncomfortable persons who are so suspicious of you that +they make you almost suspicious of yourself. Mr. Elijah Tilley +appeared to regard a stranger with scornful indifference. You +might see him standing on the pebble beach or in a fish-house +doorway, but when you came nearer he was gone. He was one of the +small company of elderly, gaunt-shaped great fisherman whom I used +to like to see leading up a deep-laden boat by the head, as if it +were a horse, from the water's edge to the steep slope of the +pebble beach. There were four of these large old men at the +Landing, who were the survivors of an earlier and more vigorous +generation. There was an alliance and understanding between them, +so close that it was apparently speechless. They gave much time to +watching one another's boats go out or come in; they lent a ready +hand at tending one another's lobster traps in rough weather; they +helped to clean the fish or to sliver porgies for the trawls, as if +they were in close partnership; and when a boat came in from deep- +sea fishing they were never too far out of the way, and hastened to +help carry it ashore, two by two, splashing alongside, or holding +its steady head, as if it were a willful sea colt. As a matter of +fact no boat could help being steady and way-wise under their +instant direction and companionship. Abel's boat and Jonathan +Bowden's boat were as distinct and experienced personalities as the +men themselves, and as inexpressive. Arguments and opinions were +unknown to the conversation of these ancient friends; you would as +soon have expected to hear small talk in a company of elephants as +to hear old Mr. Bowden or Elijah Tilley and their two mates waste +breath upon any form of trivial gossip. They made brief +statements to one another from time to time. As you came to know +them you wondered more and more that they should talk at all. +Speech seemed to be a light and elegant accomplishment, and their +unexpected acquaintance with its arts made them of new value to the +listener. You felt almost as if a landmark pine should suddenly +address you in regard to the weather, or a lofty-minded old camel +make a remark as you stood respectfully near him under the circus +tent. + +I often wondered a great deal about the inner life and thought +of these self-contained old fishermen; their minds seemed to be +fixed upon nature and the elements rather than upon any +contrivances of man, like politics or theology. My friend, Captain +Bowden, who was the nephew of the eldest of this group, regarded +them with deference; but he did not belong to their secret +companionship, though he was neither young nor talkative. + +"They've gone together ever since they were boys, they know +most everything about the sea amon'st them," he told me once. +"They was always just as you see 'em now since the memory of man." + +These ancient seafarers had houses and lands not outwardly +different from other Dunnet Landing dwellings, and two of them were +fathers of families, but their true dwelling places were the sea, +and the stony beach that edged its familiar shore, and the fish- +houses, where much salt brine from the mackerel kits had soaked the +very timbers into a state of brown permanence and petrifaction. It +had also affected the old fishermen's hard complexions, until one +fancied that when Death claimed them it could only be with the aid, +not of any slender modern dart, but the good serviceable harpoon of +a seventeenth century woodcut. + +Elijah Tilley was such an evasive, discouraged-looking person, +heavy-headed, and stooping so that one could never look him in the +face, that even after his friendly exclamation about Monroe +Pennell, the lobster smack's skipper, and the sleepy boy, I did not +venture at once to speak again. Mr. Tilley was carrying a small +haddock in one hand, and presently shifted it to the other hand +lest it might touch my skirt. I knew that my company was accepted, +and we walked together a little way. + +"You mean to have a good supper," I ventured to say, by way of +friendliness. + +"Goin' to have this 'ere haddock an' some o' my good baked +potatoes; must eat to live," responded my companion with great +pleasantness and open approval. I found that I had suddenly left +the forbidding coast and come into the smooth little harbor of +friendship. + +"You ain't never been up to my place," said the old man. +"Folks don't come now as they used to; no, 'tain't no use to +ask folks now. My poor dear she was a great hand to draw young +company." + +I remembered that Mrs. Todd had once said that this old +fisherman had been sore stricken and unconsoled at the death of his +wife. + +"I should like very much to come," said I. "Perhaps you are +going to be at home later on?" + +Mr. Tilley agreed, by a sober nod, and went his way bent- +shouldered and with a rolling gait. There was a new patch high on +the shoulder of his old waistcoat, which corresponded to the +renewing of the Miranda's mainsail down the bay, and I wondered if +his own fingers, clumsy with much deep-sea fishing, had set it in. + +"Was there a good catch to-day?" I asked, stopping a moment. +"I didn't happen to be on the shore when the boats came in." + +"No; all come in pretty light," answered Mr. Tilley. "Addicks +an' Bowden they done the best; Abel an' me we had but a slim fare. +We went out 'arly, but not so 'arly as sometimes; looked like a +poor mornin'. I got nine haddick, all small, and seven fish; the +rest on 'em got more fish than haddick. Well, I don't expect they +feel like bitin' every day; we l'arn to humor 'em a little, an' let +'em have their way 'bout it. These plaguey dog-fish kind of worry +'em." Mr. Tilley pronounced the last sentence with much sympathy, +as if he looked upon himself as a true friend of all the haddock +and codfish that lived on the fishing grounds, and so we parted. + + +Later in the afternoon I went along the beach again until I +came to the foot of Mr. Tilley's land, and found his rough track +across the cobblestones and rocks to the field edge, where there +was a heavy piece of old wreck timber, like a ship's bone, full of +tree-nails. From this a little footpath, narrow with one man's +treading, led up across the small green field that made Mr. +Tilley's whole estate, except a straggling pasture that tilted on +edge up the steep hillside beyond the house and road. I could hear +the tinkle-tankle of a cow-bell somewhere among the spruces by +which the pasture was being walked over and forested from every +side; it was likely to be called the wood before long, but the +field was unmolested. I could not see a bush or a brier anywhere +within its walls, and hardly a stray pebble showed itself. This +was most surprising in that country of firm ledges, and scattered +stones which all the walls that industry could devise had hardly +begun to clear away off the land. In the narrow field I noticed +some stout stakes, apparently planted at random in the grass and +among the hills of potatoes, but carefully painted yellow and white +to match the house, a neat sharp-edged little dwelling, which +looked strangely modern for its owner. I should have much +sooner believed that the smart young wholesale egg merchant of the +Landing was its occupant than Mr. Tilley, since a man's house is +really but his larger body, and expresses in a way his nature and +character. + +I went up the field, following the smooth little path to the +side door. As for using the front door, that was a matter of great +ceremony; the long grass grew close against the high stone step, +and a snowberry bush leaned over it, top-heavy with the weight of +a morning-glory vine that had managed to take what the fishermen +might call a half hitch about the door-knob. Elijah Tilley came to +the side door to receive me; he was knitting a blue yarn stocking +without looking on, and was warmly dressed for the season in a +thick blue flannel shirt with white crockery buttons, a faded +waistcoat and trousers heavily patched at the knees. These were +not his fishing clothes. There was something delightful in the +grasp of his hand, warm and clean, as if it never touched anything +but the comfortable woolen yarn, instead of cold sea water and +slippery fish. + +"What are the painted stakes for, down in the field?" I +hastened to ask, and he came out a step or two along the path to +see; and looked at the stakes as if his attention were called to +them for the first time. + +"Folks laughed at me when I first bought this place an' come +here to live," he explained. "They said 'twa'n't no kind of a +field privilege at all; no place to raise anything, all full o' +stones. I was aware 'twas good land, an' I worked some on it--odd +times when I didn't have nothin' else on hand--till I cleared them +loose stones all out. You never see a prettier piece than 'tis +now; now did ye? Well, as for them painted marks, them's my buoys. +I struck on to some heavy rocks that didn't show none, but a plow'd +be liable to ground on 'em, an' so I ketched holt an' buoyed 'em +same's you see. They don't trouble me no more'n if they wa'n't +there." + +"You haven't been to sea for nothing," I said laughing. + +"One trade helps another," said Elijah with an amiable smile. +"Come right in an' set down. Come in an' rest ye," he exclaimed, +and led the way into his comfortable kitchen. The sunshine poured +in at the two further windows, and a cat was curled up sound asleep +on the table that stood between them. There was a new-looking +light oilcloth of a tiled pattern on the floor, and a crockery +teapot, large for a household of only one person, stood on the +bright stove. I ventured to say that somebody must be a very good +housekeeper. + +"That's me," acknowledged the old fisherman with frankness. +"There ain't nobody here but me. I try to keep things looking +right, same's poor dear left 'em. You set down here in this chair, +then you can look off an' see the water. None on 'em +thought I was goin' to get along alone, no way, but I wa'n't goin' +to have my house turned upsi' down an' all changed about; no, not +to please nobody. I was the only one knew just how she liked to +have things set, poor dear, an' I said I was goin' to make shift, +and I have made shift. I'd rather tough it out alone." And he +sighed heavily, as if to sigh were his familiar consolation. + +We were both silent for a minute; the old man looked out the +window, as if he had forgotten I was there. + +"You must miss her very much?" I said at last. + +"I do miss her," he answered, and sighed again. "Folks all +kep' repeatin' that time would ease me, but I can't find it does. +No, I miss her just the same every day." + +"How long is it since she died?" I asked. + +"Eight year now, come the first of October. It don't seem +near so long. I've got a sister that comes and stops 'long o' me +a little spell, spring an' fall, an' odd times if I send after her. +I ain't near so good a hand to sew as I be to knit, and she's very +quick to set everything to rights. She's a married woman with a +family; her son's folks lives at home, an' I can't make no great +claim on her time. But it makes me a kind o' good excuse, when I +do send, to help her a little; she ain't none too well off. Poor +dear always liked her, and we used to contrive our ways together. +'Tis full as easy to be alone. I set here an' think it all over, +an' think considerable when the weather's bad to go outside. I get +so some days it feels as if poor dear might step right back into +this kitchen. I keep a-watchin' them doors as if she might step in +to ary one. Yes, ma'am, I keep a-lookin' off an' droppin' o' my +stitches; that's just how it seems. I can't git over losin' of her +no way nor no how. Yes, ma'am, that's just how it seems to me." + +I did not say anything, and he did not look up. + +"I git feelin' so sometimes I have to lay everything by an' go +out door. She was a sweet pretty creatur' long's she lived," the +old man added mournfully. "There's that little rockin' chair o' +her'n, I set an' notice it an' think how strange 'tis a creatur' +like her should be gone an' that chair be here right in its old +place." + + +"I wish I had known her; Mrs. Todd told me about your wife one +day," I said. + +"You'd have liked to come and see her; all the folks did," +said poor Elijah. "She'd been so pleased to hear everything and +see somebody new that took such an int'rest. She had a kind o' +gift to make it pleasant for folks. I guess likely Almiry Todd +told you she was a pretty woman, especially in her young days; late +years, too, she kep' her looks and come to be so pleasant +lookin'. There, 'tain't so much matter, I shall be done afore a +great while. No; I sha'n't trouble the fish a great sight more." + +The old widower sat with his head bowed over his knitting, as +if he were hastily shortening the very thread of time. The minutes +went slowly by. He stopped his work and clasped his hands firmly +together. I saw he had forgotten his guest, and I kept the +afternoon watch with him. At last he looked up as if but a moment +had passed of his continual loneliness. + +"Yes, ma'am, I'm one that has seen trouble," he said, and +began to knit again. + +The visible tribute of his careful housekeeping, and the clean +bright room which had once enshrined his wife, and now enshrined +her memory, was very moving to me; he had no thought for any one +else or for any other place. I began to see her myself in her +home,--a delicate-looking, faded little woman, who leaned upon his +rough strength and affectionate heart, who was always watching for +his boat out of this very window, and who always opened the door +and welcomed him when he came home. + +"I used to laugh at her, poor dear," said Elijah, as if he +read my thought. "I used to make light of her timid notions. She +used to be fearful when I was out in bad weather or baffled about +gittin' ashore. She used to say the time seemed long to her, but +I've found out all about it now. I used to be dreadful thoughtless +when I was a young man and the fish was bitin' well. I'd stay out +late some o' them days, an' I expect she'd watch an' watch an' lose +heart a-waitin'. My heart alive! what a supper she'd git, an' be +right there watchin' from the door, with somethin' over her head if +'twas cold, waitin' to hear all about it as I come up the field. +Lord, how I think o' all them little things!" + +"This was what she called the best room; in this way," he said +presently, laying his knitting on the table, and leading the way +across the front entry and unlocking a door, which he threw open +with an air of pride. The best room seemed to me a much sadder and +more empty place than the kitchen; its conventionalities lacked the +simple perfection of the humbler room and failed on the side of +poor ambition; it was only when one remembered what patient saving, +and what high respect for society in the abstract go to such +furnishing that the little parlor was interesting at all. I could +imagine the great day of certain purchases, the bewildering shops +of the next large town, the aspiring anxious woman, the clumsy sea- +tanned man in his best clothes, so eager to be pleased, but at ease +only when they were safe back in the sailboat again, going down the +bay with their precious freight, the hoarded money all spent and +nothing to think of but tiller and sail. I looked at the unworn +carpet, the glass vases on the mantelpiece with their prim +bunches of bleached swamp grass and dusty marsh rosemary, and I +could read the history of Mrs. Tilley's best room from its very +beginning. + +"You see for yourself what beautiful rugs she could make; now +I'm going to show you her best tea things she thought so much of," +said the master of the house, opening the door of a shallow +cupboard. "That's real chiny, all of it on those two shelves," he +told me proudly. "I bought it all myself, when we was first +married, in the port of Bordeaux. There never was one single piece +of it broke until-- Well, I used to say, long as she lived, there +never was a piece broke, but long at the last I noticed she'd look +kind o' distressed, an' I thought 'twas 'count o' me boastin'. +When they asked if they should use it when the folks was here to +supper, time o' her funeral, I knew she'd want to have everything +nice, and I said 'certain.' Some o' the women they come runnin' to +me an' called me, while they was takin' of the chiny down, an' +showed me there was one o' the cups broke an' the pieces wropped in +paper and pushed way back here, corner o' the shelf. They didn't +want me to go an' think they done it. Poor dear! I had to put +right out o' the house when I see that. I knowed in one minute how +'twas. We'd got so used to sayin' 'twas all there just's I fetched +it home, an' so when she broke that cup somehow or 'nother she +couldn't frame no words to come an' tell me. She couldn't think +'twould vex me, 'twas her own hurt pride. I guess there wa'n't no +other secret ever lay between us." + +The French cups with their gay sprigs of pink and blue, the +best tumblers, an old flowered bowl and tea caddy, and a japanned +waiter or two adorned the shelves. These, with a few +daguerreotypes in a little square pile, had the closet to +themselves, and I was conscious of much pleasure in seeing them. +One is shown over many a house in these days where the interest may +be more complex, but not more definite. + +"Those were her best things, poor dear," said Elijah as he +locked the door again. "She told me that last summer before she +was taken away that she couldn't think o' anything more she wanted, +there was everything in the house, an' all her rooms was furnished +pretty. I was goin' over to the Port, an' inquired for errands. +I used to ask her to say what she wanted, cost or no cost--she was +a very reasonable woman, an' 'twas the place where she done all but +her extra shopping. It kind o' chilled me up when she spoke so +satisfied." + +"You don't go out fishing after Christmas?" I asked, as we +came back to the bright kitchen. + +"No; I take stiddy to my knitting after January sets in," said +the old seafarer. "'Tain't worth while, fish make off into deeper +water an' you can't stand no such perishin' for the sake o' +what you get. I leave out a few traps in sheltered coves an' do a +little lobsterin' on fair days. The young fellows braves it out, +some on 'em; but, for me, I lay in my winter's yarn an' set here +where 'tis warm, an' knit an' take my comfort. Mother learnt me +once when I was a lad; she was a beautiful knitter herself. I was +laid up with a bad knee, an' she said 'twould take up my time an' +help her; we was a large family. They'll buy all the folks can do +down here to Addicks' store. They say our Dunnet stockin's is +gettin' to be celebrated up to Boston,--good quality o' wool an' +even knittin' or somethin'. I've always been called a pretty hand +to do nettin', but seines is master cheap to what they used to be +when they was all hand worked. I change off to nettin' long +towards spring, and I piece up my trawls and lines and get my +fishin' stuff to rights. Lobster pots they require attention, but +I make 'em up in spring weather when it's warm there in the barn. +No; I ain't one o' them that likes to set an' do nothin'." + +"You see the rugs, poor dear did them; she wa'n't very partial +to knittin'," old Elijah went on, after he had counted his +stitches. "Our rugs is beginnin' to show wear, but I can't master +none o' them womanish tricks. My sister, she tinkers 'em up. She +said last time she was here that she guessed they'd last my time." + +"The old ones are always the prettiest," I said. + +"You ain't referrin' to the braided ones now?" answered Mr. +Tilley. "You see ours is braided for the most part, an' their good +looks is all in the beginnin'. Poor dear used to say they made an +easier floor. I go shufflin' round the house same's if 'twas a +bo't, and I always used to be stubbin' up the corners o' the hooked +kind. Her an' me was always havin' our jokes together same's a boy +an' girl. Outsiders never'd know nothin' about it to see us. She +had nice manners with all, but to me there was nobody so +entertainin'. She'd take off anybody's natural talk winter +evenin's when we set here alone, so you'd think 'twas them a- +speakin'. There, there!" + +I saw that he had dropped a stitch again, and was snarling the +blue yarn round his clumsy fingers. He handled it and threw it off +at arm's length as if it were a cod line; and frowned impatiently, +but I saw a tear shining on his cheek. + +I said that I must be going, it was growing late, and asked if +I might come again, and if he would take me out to the fishing +grounds someday. + +"Yes, come any time you want to," said my host, "'tain't so +pleasant as when poor dear was here. Oh, I didn't want to lose her +an' she didn't want to go, but it had to be. Such things ain't for +us to say; there's no yes an' no to it." + +"You find Almiry Todd one o' the best o' women?" said Mr. +Tilley as we parted. He was standing in the doorway and I had +started off down the narrow green field. "No, there ain't a better +hearted woman in the State o' Maine. I've known her from a girl. +She's had the best o' mothers. You tell her I'm liable to fetch +her up a couple or three nice good mackerel early tomorrow," he +said. "Now don't let it slip your mind. Poor dear, she always +thought a sight o' Almiry, and she used to remind me there was +nobody to fish for her; but I don't rec'lect it as I ought to. I +see you drop a line yourself very handy now an' then." + +We laughed together like the best of friends, and I spoke +again about the fishing grounds, and confessed that I had no fancy +for a southerly breeze and a ground swell. + +"Nor me neither," said the old fisherman. "Nobody likes 'em, +say what they may. Poor dear was disobliged by the mere sight of +a bo't. Almiry's got the best o' mothers, I expect you know; Mis' +Blackett out to Green Island; and we was always plannin' to go out +when summer come; but there, I couldn't pick no day's weather that +seemed to suit her just right. I never set out to worry her +neither, 'twa'n't no kind o' use; she was so pleasant we couldn't +have no fret nor trouble. 'Twas never 'you dear an' you darlin'' +afore folks, an' 'you divil' behind the door!" + +As I looked back from the lower end of the field I saw him +still standing, a lonely figure in the doorway. "Poor dear," I +repeated to myself half aloud; "I wonder where she is and what she +knows of the little world she left. I wonder what she has been +doing these eight years!" + +I gave the message about the mackerel to Mrs. Todd. + +"Been visitin' with 'Lijah?" she asked with interest. "I +expect you had kind of a dull session; he ain't the talkin' kind; +dwellin' so much long o' fish seems to make 'em lose the gift o' +speech." But when I told her that Mr. Tilley had been talking to +me that day, she interrupted me quickly. + +"Then 'twas all about his wife, an' he can't say nothin' too +pleasant neither. She was modest with strangers, but there ain't +one o' her old friends can ever make up her loss. For me, I don't +want to go there no more. There's some folks you miss and some +folks you don't, when they're gone, but there ain't hardly a day I +don't think o' dear Sarah Tilley. She was always right there; yes, +you knew just where to find her like a plain flower. 'Lijah's +worthy enough; I do esteem 'Lijah, but he's a ploddin' man." + + + + +XXI + + +The Backward View + +AT LAST IT WAS the time of late summer, when the house was cool and +damp in the morning, and all the light seemed to come through green +leaves; but at the first step out of doors the sunshine always laid +a warm hand on my shoulder, and the clear, high sky seemed to lift +quickly as I looked at it. There was no autumnal mist on the +coast, nor any August fog; instead of these, the sea, the sky, all +the long shore line and the inland hills, with every bush of bay +and every fir-top, gained a deeper color and a sharper clearness. +There was something shining in the air, and a kind of lustre on the +water and the pasture grass,--a northern look that, except at this +moment of the year, one must go far to seek. The sunshine of a +northern summer was coming to its lovely end. + +The days were few then at Dunnet Landing, and I let each of +them slip away unwillingly as a miser spends his coins. I wished +to have one of my first weeks back again, with those long hours +when nothing happened except the growth of herbs and the course of +the sun. Once I had not even known where to go for a walk; now +there were many delightful things to be done and done again, as if +I were in London. I felt hurried and full of pleasant engagements, +and the days flew by like a handful of flowers flung to the sea +wind. + +At last I had to say good-by to all my Dunnet Landing friends, +and my homelike place in the little house, and return to the world +in which I feared to find myself a foreigner. There may be +restrictions to such a summer's happiness, but the ease that +belongs to simplicity is charming enough to make up for whatever a +simple life may lack, and the gifts of peace are not for those who +live in the thick of battle. + +I was to take the small unpunctual steamer that went down the +bay in the afternoon, and I sat for a while by my window looking +out on the green herb garden, with regret for company. Mrs. Todd +had hardly spoken all day except in the briefest and most +disapproving way; it was as if we were on the edge of a quarrel. +It seemed impossible to take my departure with anything like +composure. At last I heard a footstep, and looked up to find that +Mrs. Todd was standing at the door. + +"I've seen to everything now," she told me in an unusually +loud and business-like voice. "Your trunks are on the w'arf by +this time. Cap'n Bowden he come and took 'em down himself, +an' is going to see that they're safe aboard. Yes, I've seen to +all your 'rangements," she repeated in a gentler tone. "These +things I've left on the kitchen table you'll want to carry by hand; +the basket needn't be returned. I guess I shall walk over towards +the Port now an' inquire how old Mis' Edward Caplin is." + +I glanced at my friend's face, and saw a look that touched me +to the heart. I had been sorry enough before to go away. + +"I guess you'll excuse me if I ain't down there to stand +around on the w'arf and see you go," she said, still trying to be +gruff. "Yes, I ought to go over and inquire for Mis' Edward +Caplin; it's her third shock, and if mother gets in on Sunday +she'll want to know just how the old lady is." With this last word +Mrs. Todd turned and left me as if with sudden thought of something +she had forgotten, so that I felt sure she was coming back, but +presently I heard her go out of the kitchen door and walk down the +path toward the gate. I could not part so; I ran after her to say +good-by, but she shook her head and waved her hand without looking +back when she heard my hurrying steps, and so went away down the +street. + +When I went in again the little house had suddenly grown +lonely, and my room looked empty as it had the day I came. I and +all my belongings had died out of it, and I knew how it would seem +when Mrs. Todd came back and found her lodger gone. So we die +before our own eyes; so we see some chapters of our lives come to +their natural end. + +I found the little packages on the kitchen table. There was +a quaint West Indian basket which I knew its owner had valued, and +which I had once admired; there was an affecting provision laid +beside it for my seafaring supper, with a neatly tied bunch of +southernwood and a twig of bay, and a little old leather box which +held the coral pin that Nathan Todd brought home to give to poor +Joanna. + + +There was still an hour to wait, and I went up the hill just +above the schoolhouse and sat there thinking of things, and looking +off to sea, and watching for the boat to come in sight. I could +see Green Island, small and darkly wooded at that distance; below +me were the houses of the village with their apple-trees and bits +of garden ground. Presently, as I looked at the pastures beyond, +I caught a last glimpse of Mrs. Todd herself, walking slowly in the +footpath that led along, following the shore toward the Port. At +such a distance one can feel the large, positive qualities that +control a character. Close at hand, Mrs. Todd seemed able and +warm-hearted and quite absorbed in her bustling industries, but her +distant figure looked mateless and appealing, with something about +it that was strangely self-possessed and mysterious. Now +and then she stooped to pick something,--it might have been her +favorite pennyroyal,--and at last I lost sight of her as she slowly +crossed an open space on one of the higher points of land, and +disappeared again behind a dark clump of juniper and the pointed +firs. + +As I came away on the little coastwise steamer, there was an +old sea running which made the surf leap high on all the rocky +shores. I stood on deck, looking back, and watched the busy gulls +agree and turn, and sway together down the long slopes of air, then +separate hastily and plunge into the waves. The tide was setting +in, and plenty of small fish were coming with it, unconscious of +the silver flashing of the great birds overhead and the quickness +of their fierce beaks. The sea was full of life and spirit, the +tops of the waves flew back as if they were winged like the gulls +themselves, and like them had the freedom of the wind. Out in the +main channel we passed a bent-shouldered old fisherman bound for +the evening round among his lobster traps. He was toiling along +with short oars, and the dory tossed and sank and tossed again with +the steamer's waves. I saw that it was old Elijah Tilley, and +though we had so long been strangers we had come to be warm +friends, and I wished that he had waited for one of his mates, it +was such hard work to row along shore through rough seas and tend +the traps alone. As we passed I waved my hand and tried to call to +him, and he looked up and answered my farewells by a solemn nod. +The little town, with the tall masts of its disabled schooners in +the inner bay, stood high above the flat sea for a few minutes then +it sank back into the uniformity of the coast, and became +indistinguishable from the other towns that looked as if they were +crumbled on the furzy-green stoniness of the shore. + +The small outer islands of the bay were covered among the +ledges with turf that looked as fresh as the early grass; there had +been some days of rain the week before, and the darker green of the +sweet-fern was scattered on all the pasture heights. It looked +like the beginning of summer ashore, though the sheep, round and +warm in their winter wool, betrayed the season to double the long +sheltering headland of the cape, and when I looked back again, the +islands and the headland had run together and Dunnet Landing and +all its coasts were lost to sight. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of "The Country of the Pointed Firs" + diff --git a/old/pfirs10.zip b/old/pfirs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..678ce52 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pfirs10.zip diff --git a/old/pfirs11.txt b/old/pfirs11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7207bed --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pfirs11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4717 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of "The Country of the Pointed Firs" +by Sarah Orne Jewett + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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She began writing poetry at an early age and when she was +only 19 her short story "Mr. Bruce" was accepted by the Atlantic +Monthly. Her association with that magazine continued, and +William Dean Howells, who was editor at that time, encouraged her +to publish her first book, Deephaven (1877), a collection of +sketches published earlier in the Atlantic Monthly. Through +her friendship with Howells, Jewett became acquainted with Boston's +literary elite, including Annie Fields, with whom she developed one +of the most intimate and lasting relationships of her life. + +The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is considered +Jewett's finest work, described by Henry James as her "beautiful +little quantum of achievement." Despite James's diminutives, the +novel remains a classic. Because it is loosely structured, many +critics view the book not as a novel, but a series of sketches; +however, its structure is unified through both setting and theme. +Jewett herself felt that her strengths as a writer lay not in plot +development or dramatic tension, but in character development. +Indeed, she determined early in her career to preserve a +disappearing way of life, and her novel can be read as a study of +the effects of isolation and hardship on the inhabitants who lived +in the decaying fishing villages along the Maine coast. + +Jewett died in 1909, eight years after an accident that +effectively ended her writing career. Her reputation had grown +during her lifetime, extending far beyond the bounds of the New +England she loved. + + + +Contents +------------------------------------------------------------------- + + I The Return + II Mrs. Todd + III The Schoolhouse + IV At the Schoolhouse Window + V Captain Littlepage + VI The Waiting Place + VII The Outer Island + VIII Green Island + IX William + X Where Pennyroyal Grew + XI The Old Singers + XII A Strange Sail + XIII Poor Joanna + XIV The Hermitage + XV On Shell-heap Island + XVI The Great Expedition + XVII A Country Road +XVIII The Bowden Reunion + XIX The Feast's End + XX Along Shore + XXI The Backward View + + + + + + +I + +The Return + +THERE WAS SOMETHING about the coast town of Dunnet which made it +seem more attractive than other maritime villages of eastern Maine. +Perhaps it was the simple fact of acquaintance with that +neighborhood which made it so attaching, and gave such interest to +the rocky shore and dark woods, and the few houses which seemed to +be securely wedged and tree-nailed in among the ledges by the +Landing. These houses made the most of their seaward view, and +there was a gayety and determined floweriness in their bits of +garden ground; the small-paned high windows in the peaks of their +steep gables were like knowing eyes that watched the harbor and the +far sea-line beyond, or looked northward all along the shore and +its background of spruces and balsam firs. When one really knows +a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming +acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at +first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the +growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair. + +After a first brief visit made two or three summers before in +the course of a yachting cruise, a lover of Dunnet Landing returned +to find the unchanged shores of the pointed firs, the same +quaintness of the village with its elaborate conventionalities; all +that mixture of remoteness, and childish certainty of being the +centre of civilization of which her affectionate dreams had told. +One evening in June, a single passenger landed upon the steamboat +wharf. The tide was high, there was a fine crowd of spectators, +and the younger portion of the company followed her with subdued +excitement up the narrow street of the salt-aired, white- +clapboarded little town. + + + + +II + + +Mrs. Todd + +LATER, THERE WAS only one fault to find with this choice of a +summer lodging-place, and that was its complete lack of seclusion. +At first the tiny house of Mrs. Almira Todd, which stood with its +end to the street, appeared to be retired and sheltered enough from +the busy world, behind its bushy bit of a green garden, in which +all the blooming things, two or three gay hollyhocks and some +London-pride, were pushed back against the gray-shingled wall. It +was a queer little garden and puzzling to a stranger, the few +flowers being put at a disadvantage by so much greenery; but the +discovery was soon made that Mrs. Todd was an ardent lover of +herbs, both wild and tame, and the sea-breezes blew into the low +end-window of the house laden with not only sweet-brier and sweet- +mary, but balm and sage and borage and mint, wormwood and +southernwood. If Mrs. Todd had occasion to step into the far +corner of her herb plot, she trod heavily upon thyme, and made its +fragrant presence known with all the rest. Being a very large +person, her full skirts brushed and bent almost every slender stalk +that her feet missed. You could always tell when she was stepping +about there, even when you were half awake in the morning, and +learned to know, in the course of a few weeks' experience, in +exactly which corner of the garden she might be. + +At one side of this herb plot were other growths of a rustic +pharmacopoeia, great treasures and rarities among the commoner +herbs. There were some strange and pungent odors that roused a dim +sense and remembrance of something in the forgotten past. Some of +these might once have belonged to sacred and mystic rites, and have +had some occult knowledge handed with them down the centuries; but +now they pertained only to humble compounds brewed at intervals +with molasses or vinegar or spirits in a small caldron on Mrs. +Todd's kitchen stove. They were dispensed to suffering neighbors, +who usually came at night as if by stealth, bringing their own +ancient-looking vials to be filled. One nostrum was called the +Indian remedy, and its price was but fifteen cents; the whispered +directions could be heard as customers passed the windows. With +most remedies the purchaser was allowed to depart unadmonished from +the kitchen, Mrs. Todd being a wise saver of steps; but with +certain vials she gave cautions, standing in the doorway, and +there were other doses which had to be accompanied on their healing +way as far as the gate, while she muttered long chapters of +directions, and kept up an air of secrecy and importance to the +last. It may not have been only the common aids of humanity with +which she tried to cope; it seemed sometimes as if love and hate +and jealousy and adverse winds at sea might also find their proper +remedies among the curious wild-looking plants in Mrs. Todd's +garden. + +The village doctor and this learned herbalist were upon the +best of terms. The good man may have counted upon the unfavorable +effect of certain potions which he should find his opportunity in +counteracting; at any rate, he now and then stopped and exchanged +greetings with Mrs. Todd over the picket fence. The conversation +became at once professional after the briefest preliminaries, and +he would stand twirling a sweet-scented sprig in his fingers, and +make suggestive jokes, perhaps about her faith in a too persistent +course of thoroughwort elixir, in which my landlady professed such +firm belief as sometimes to endanger the life and usefulness of +worthy neighbors. + +To arrive at this quietest of seaside villages late in June, +when the busy herb-gathering season was just beginning, was also to +arrive in the early prime of Mrs. Todd's activity in the brewing of +old-fashioned spruce beer. This cooling and refreshing drink had +been brought to wonderful perfection through a long series of +experiments; it had won immense local fame, and the supplies for +its manufacture were always giving out and having to be +replenished. For various reasons, the seclusion and uninterrupted +days which had been looked forward to proved to be very rare in +this otherwise delightful corner of the world. My hostess and I +had made our shrewd business agreement on the basis of a simple +cold luncheon at noon, and liberal restitution in the matter of hot +suppers, to provide for which the lodger might sometimes be seen +hurrying down the road, late in the day, with cunner line in hand. +It was soon found that this arrangement made large allowance for +Mrs. Todd's slow herb-gathering progresses through woods and +pastures. The spruce-beer customers were pretty steady in hot +weather, and there were many demands for different soothing syrups +and elixirs with which the unwise curiosity of my early residence +had made me acquainted. Knowing Mrs. Todd to be a widow, who had +little beside this slender business and the income from one hungry +lodger to maintain her, one's energies and even interest were +quickly bestowed, until it became a matter of course that she +should go afield every pleasant day, and that the lodger should +answer all peremptory knocks at the side door. + +In taking an occasional wisdom-giving stroll in Mrs. Todd's +company, and in acting as business partner during her +frequent absences, I found the July days fly fast, and it was not +until I felt myself confronted with too great pride and pleasure in +the display, one night, of two dollars and twenty-seven cents which +I had taken in during the day, that I remembered a long piece of +writing, sadly belated now, which I was bound to do. To have been +patted kindly on the shoulder and called "darlin'," to have been +offered a surprise of early mushrooms for supper, to have had all +the glory of making two dollars and twenty-seven cents in a single +day, and then to renounce it all and withdraw from these pleasant +successes, needed much resolution. Literary employments are so +vexed with uncertainties at best, and it was not until the voice of +conscience sounded louder in my ears than the sea on the nearest +pebble beach that I said unkind words of withdrawal to Mrs. Todd. +She only became more wistfully affectionate than ever in her +expressions, and looked as disappointed as I expected when I +frankly told her that I could no longer enjoy the pleasure of what +we called "seein' folks." I felt that I was cruel to a whole +neighborhood in curtailing her liberty in this most important +season for harvesting the different wild herbs that were so much +counted upon to ease their winter ails. + +"Well, dear," she said sorrowfully, "I've took great advantage +o' your bein' here. I ain't had such a season for years, but I +have never had nobody I could so trust. All you lack is a few +qualities, but with time you'd gain judgment an' experience, an' be +very able in the business. I'd stand right here an' say it to +anybody." + + +Mrs. Todd and I were not separated or estranged by the change +in our business relations; on the contrary, a deeper intimacy +seemed to begin. I do not know what herb of the night it was that +used sometimes to send out a penetrating odor late in the evening, +after the dew had fallen, and the moon was high, and the cool air +came up from the sea. Then Mrs. Todd would feel that she must talk +to somebody, and I was only too glad to listen. We both fell under +the spell, and she either stood outside the window, or made an +errand to my sitting-room, and told, it might be very commonplace +news of the day, or, as happened one misty summer night, all that +lay deepest in her heart. It was in this way that I came to know +that she had loved one who was far above her. + +"No, dear, him I speak of could never think of me," she said. +"When we was young together his mother didn't favor the match, an' +done everything she could to part us; and folks thought we both +married well, but't wa'n't what either one of us wanted most; an' +now we're left alone again, an' might have had each other all the +time. He was above bein' a seafarin' man, an' prospered more +than most; he come of a high family, an' my lot was plain an' hard- +workin'. I ain't seen him for some years; he's forgot our youthful +feelin's, I expect, but a woman's heart is different; them feelin's +comes back when you think you've done with 'em, as sure as spring +comes with the year. An' I've always had ways of hearin' about +him." + +She stood in the centre of a braided rug, and its rings of +black and gray seemed to circle about her feet in the dim light. +Her height and massiveness in the low room gave her the look of a +huge sibyl, while the strange fragrance of the mysterious herb blew +in from the little garden. + + + + +III + + +The Schoolhouse + +FOR SOME DAYS after this, Mrs. Todd's customers came and went past +my windows, and, haying-time being nearly over, strangers began to +arrive from the inland country, such was her widespread reputation. +Sometimes I saw a pale young creature like a white windflower left +over into midsummer, upon whose face consumption had set its bright +and wistful mark; but oftener two stout, hard-worked women from the +farms came together, and detailed their symptoms to Mrs. Todd in +loud and cheerful voices, combining the satisfactions of a friendly +gossip with the medical opportunity. They seemed to give much from +their own store of therapeutic learning. I became aware of the +school in which my landlady had strengthened her natural gift; but +hers was always the governing mind, and the final command, "Take of +hy'sop one handful" (or whatever herb it was), was received in +respectful silence. One afternoon, when I had listened,--it was +impossible not to listen, with cottonless ears,--and then laughed +and listened again, with an idle pen in my hand, during a +particularly spirited and personal conversation, I reached for my +hat, and, taking blotting-book and all under my arm, I resolutely +fled further temptation, and walked out past the fragrant green +garden and up the dusty road. The way went straight uphill, and +presently I stopped and turned to look back. + +The tide was in, the wide harbor was surrounded by its dark +woods, and the small wooden houses stood as near as they could get +to the landing. Mrs. Todd's was the last house on the way +inland. The gray ledges of the rocky shore were well covered with +sod in most places, and the pasture bayberry and wild roses grew +thick among them. I could see the higher inland country and the +scattered farms. On the brink of the hill stood a little white +schoolhouse, much wind-blown and weather-beaten, which was a +landmark to seagoing folk; from its door there was a most beautiful +view of sea and shore. The summer vacation now prevailed, and +after finding the door unfastened, and taking a long look through +one of the seaward windows, and reflecting afterward for some time +in a shady place near by among the bayberry bushes, I returned to +the chief place of business in the village, and, to the amusement +of two of the selectmen, brothers and autocrats of Dunnet Landing, +I hired the schoolhouse for the rest of the vacation for fifty +cents a week. + +Selfish as it may appear, the retired situation seemed to +possess great advantages, and I spent many days there quite +undisturbed, with the sea-breeze blowing through the small, high +windows and swaying the heavy outside shutters to and fro. I hung +my hat and luncheon-basket on an entry nail as if I were a small +scholar, but I sat at the teacher's desk as if I were that great +authority, with all the timid empty benches in rows before me. Now +and then an idle sheep came and stood for a long time looking in at +the door. At sundown I went back, feeling most businesslike, down +toward the village again, and usually met the flavor, not of the +herb garden, but of Mrs. Todd's hot supper, halfway up the hill. +On the nights when there were evening meetings or other public +exercises that demanded her presence we had tea very early, and I +was welcomed back as if from a long absence. + +Once or twice I feigned excuses for staying at home, while +Mrs. Todd made distant excursions, and came home late, with both +hands full and a heavily laden apron. This was in pennyroyal time, +and when the rare lobelia was in its prime and the elecampane was +coming on. One day she appeared at the schoolhouse itself, partly +out of amused curiosity about my industries; but she explained that +there was no tansy in the neighborhood with such snap to it as some +that grew about the schoolhouse lot. Being scuffed down all the +spring made it grow so much the better, like some folks that had it +hard in their youth, and were bound to make the most of themselves +before they died. + + + + +IV + + +At the Schoolhouse Window + +ONE DAY I reached the schoolhouse very late, owing to attendance +upon the funeral of an acquaintance and neighbor, with whose sad +decline in health I had been familiar, and whose last days both the +doctor and Mrs. Todd had tried in vain to ease. The services had +taken place at one o'clock, and now, at quarter past two, I stood +at the schoolhouse window, looking down at the procession as it +went along the lower road close to the shore. It was a walking +funeral, and even at that distance I could recognize most of the +mourners as they went their solemn way. Mrs. Begg had been very +much respected, and there was a large company of friends following +to her grave. She had been brought up on one of the neighboring +farms, and each of the few times that I had seen her she professed +great dissatisfaction with town life. The people lived too close +together for her liking, at the Landing, and she could not get used +to the constant sound of the sea. She had lived to lament three +seafaring husbands, and her house was decorated with West Indian +curiosities, specimens of conch shells and fine coral which they +had brought home from their voyages in lumber-laden ships. Mrs. +Todd had told me all our neighbor's history. They had been girls +together, and, to use her own phrase, had "both seen trouble till +they knew the best and worst on 't." I could see the sorrowful, +large figure of Mrs. Todd as I stood at the window. She made a +break in the procession by walking slowly and keeping the after- +part of it back. She held a handkerchief to her eyes, and I knew, +with a pang of sympathy, that hers was not affected grief. + +Beside her, after much difficulty, I recognized the one +strange and unrelated person in all the company, an old man who had +always been mysterious to me. I could see his thin, bending +figure. He wore a narrow, long-tailed coat and walked with a +stick, and had the same "cant to leeward" as the wind-bent trees on +the height above. + +This was Captain Littlepage, whom I had seen only once or +twice before, sitting pale and old behind a closed window; never +out of doors until now. Mrs. Todd always shook her head gravely +when I asked a question, and said that he wasn't what he had been +once, and seemed to class him with her other secrets. He might +have belonged with a simple which grew in a certain slug-haunted +corner of the garden, whose use she could never be betrayed +into telling me, though I saw her cutting the tops by moonlight +once, as if it were a charm, and not a medicine, like the great +fading bloodroot leaves. + +I could see that she was trying to keep pace with the old +captain's lighter steps. He looked like an aged grasshopper of +some strange human variety. Behind this pair was a short, +impatient, little person, who kept the captain's house, and gave it +what Mrs. Todd and others believed to be no proper sort of care. +She was usually called "that Mari' Harris" in subdued conversation +between intimates, but they treated her with anxious civility when +they met her face to face. + +The bay-sheltered islands and the great sea beyond stretched +away to the far horizon southward and eastward; the little +procession in the foreground looked futile and helpless on the edge +of the rocky shore. It was a glorious day early in July, with a +clear, high sky; there were no clouds, there was no noise of the +sea. The song sparrows sang and sang, as if with joyous knowledge +of immortality, and contempt for those who could so pettily concern +themselves with death. I stood watching until the funeral +procession had crept round a shoulder of the slope below and +disappeared from the great landscape as if it had gone into a cave. + +An hour later I was busy at my work. Now and then a bee +blundered in and took me for an enemy; but there was a useful stick +upon the teacher's desk, and I rapped to call the bees to order as +if they were unruly scholars, or waved them away from their riots +over the ink, which I had bought at the Landing store, and +discovered to be scented with bergamot, as if to refresh the labors +of anxious scribes. One anxious scribe felt very dull that day; a +sheep-bell tinkled near by, and called her wandering wits after it. +The sentences failed to catch these lovely summer cadences. For +the first time I began to wish for a companion and for news from +the outer world, which had been, half unconsciously, forgotten. +Watching the funeral gave one a sort of pain. I began to wonder if +I ought not to have walked with the rest, instead of hurrying away +at the end of the services. Perhaps the Sunday gown I had put on +for the occasion was making this disastrous change of feeling, but +I had now made myself and my friends remember that I did not really +belong to Dunnet Landing. + +I sighed, and turned to the half-written page again. + + + + +V + + +Captain Littlepage + +IT WAS A long time after this; an hour was very long in that coast +town where nothing stole away the shortest minute. I had lost +myself completely in work, when I heard footsteps outside. There +was a steep footpath between the upper and the lower road, which I +climbed to shorten the way, as the children had taught me, but I +believed that Mrs. Todd would find it inaccessible, unless she had +occasion to seek me in great haste. I wrote on, feeling like a +besieged miser of time, while the footsteps came nearer, and the +sheep-bell tinkled away in haste as if someone had shaken a stick +in its wearer's face. Then I looked, and saw Captain Littlepage +passing the nearest window; the next moment he tapped politely at +the door. + +"Come in, sir," I said, rising to meet him; and he entered, +bowing with much courtesy. I stepped down from the desk and +offered him a chair by the window, where he seated himself at once, +being sadly spent by his climb. I returned to my fixed seat behind +the teacher's desk, which gave him the lower place of a scholar. + +"You ought to have the place of honor, Captain Littlepage," I +said. + + +"A happy, rural seat of various views," + +he quoted, as he gazed out into the sunshine and up the long wooded +shore. Then he glanced at me, and looked all about him as pleased +as a child. + +"My quotation was from Paradise Lost: the greatest of poems, +I suppose you know?" and I nodded. "There's nothing that ranks, to +my mind, with Paradise Lost; it's all lofty, all lofty," he +continued. "Shakespeare was a great poet; he copied life, but you +have to put up with a great deal of low talk." + +I now remembered that Mrs. Todd had told me one day that +Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading; she +had also made dark reference to his having "spells" of some +unexplainable nature. I could not help wondering what errand had +brought him out in search of me. There was something quite +charming in his appearance: it was a face thin and delicate with +refinement, but worn into appealing lines, as if he had suffered +from loneliness and misapprehension. He looked, with his +careful precision of dress, as if he were the object of cherishing +care on the part of elderly unmarried sisters, but I knew Mari' +Harris to be a very common-place, inelegant person, who would have +no such standards; it was plain that the captain was his own +attentive valet. He sat looking at me expectantly. I could not +help thinking that, with his queer head and length of thinness, he +was made to hop along the road of life rather than to walk. The +captain was very grave indeed, and I bade my inward spirit keep +close to discretion. + +"Poor Mrs. Begg has gone," I ventured to say. I still wore my +Sunday gown by way of showing respect. + +"She has gone," said the captain,--"very easy at the last, I +was informed; she slipped away as if she were glad of the +opportunity." + +I thought of the Countess of Carberry, and felt that history +repeated itself. + +"She was one of the old stock," continued Captain Littlepage, +with touching sincerity. "She was very much looked up to in this +town, and will be missed." + +I wondered, as I looked at him, if he had sprung from a line +of ministers; he had the refinement of look and air of command +which are the heritage of the old ecclesiastical families of New +England. But as Darwin says in his autobiography, "there is no +such king as a sea-captain; he is greater even than a king or a +schoolmaster!" + +Captain Littlepage moved his chair out of the wake of the +sunshine, and still sat looking at me. I began to be very eager to +know upon what errand he had come. + +"It may be found out some o' these days," he said earnestly. +"We may know it all, the next step; where Mrs. Begg is now, for +instance. Certainty, not conjecture, is what we all desire." + +"I suppose we shall know it all some day," said I. + +"We shall know it while yet below," insisted the captain, with +a flush of impatience on his thin cheeks. "We have not looked for +truth in the right direction. I know what I speak of; those who +have laughed at me little know how much reason my ideas are based +upon." He waved his hand toward the village below. "In that +handful of houses they fancy that they comprehend the universe." + +I smiled, and waited for him to go on. + +"I am an old man, as you can see," he continued, "and I have +been a shipmaster the greater part of my life,--forty-three years +in all. You may not think it, but I am above eighty years of age." + +He did not look so old, and I hastened to say so. + +"You must have left the sea a good many years ago, then, +Captain Littlepage?" I said. + +"I should have been serviceable at least five or six years +more," he answered. "My acquaintance with certain--my experience +upon a certain occasion, I might say, gave rise to prejudice. I do +not mind telling you that I chanced to learn of one of the greatest +discoveries that man has ever made." + +Now we were approaching dangerous ground, but a sudden sense +of his sufferings at the hands of the ignorant came to my help, and +I asked to hear more with all the deference I really felt. A +swallow flew into the schoolhouse at this moment as if a kingbird +were after it, and beat itself against the walls for a minute, and +escaped again to the open air; but Captain Littlepage took no +notice whatever of the flurry. + +"I had a valuable cargo of general merchandise from the London +docks to Fort Churchill, a station of the old company on Hudson's +Bay," said the captain earnestly. "We were delayed in lading, and +baffled by head winds and a heavy tumbling sea all the way north- +about and across. Then the fog kept us off the coast; and when I +made port at last, it was too late to delay in those northern +waters with such a vessel and such a crew as I had. They cared for +nothing, and idled me into a fit of sickness; but my first mate was +a good, excellent man, with no more idea of being frozen in there +until spring than I had, so we made what speed we could to get +clear of Hudson's Bay and off the coast. I owned an eighth of the +vessel, and he owned a sixteenth of her. She was a full-rigged +ship, called the Minerva, but she was getting old and leaky. I +meant it should be my last v'y'ge in her, and so it proved. She +had been an excellent vessel in her day. Of the cowards aboard her +I can't say so much." + +"Then you were wrecked?" I asked, as he made a long pause. + +"I wa'n't caught astern o' the lighter by any fault of mine," +said the captain gloomily. "We left Fort Churchill and run out +into the Bay with a light pair o' heels; but I had been vexed to +death with their red-tape rigging at the company's office, and +chilled with stayin' on deck an' tryin' to hurry up things, and +when we were well out o' sight o' land, headin' for Hudson's +Straits, I had a bad turn o' some sort o' fever, and had to stay +below. The days were getting short, and we made good runs, all +well on board but me, and the crew done their work by dint of hard +driving." + +I began to find this unexpected narrative a little dull. +Captain Littlepage spoke with a kind of slow correctness that +lacked the longshore high flavor to which I had grown used; but I +listened respectfully while he explained the winds having become +contrary, and talked on in a dreary sort of way about his voyage, +the bad weather, and the disadvantages he was under in the +lightness of his ship, which bounced about like a chip in a +bucket, and would not answer the rudder or properly respond to the +most careful setting of sails. + +"So there we were blowin' along anyways," he complained; but +looking at me at this moment, and seeing that my thoughts were +unkindly wandering, he ceased to speak. + +"It was a hard life at sea in those days, I am sure," said I, +with redoubled interest. + +"It was a dog's life," said the poor old gentleman, quite +reassured, "but it made men of those who followed it. I see a +change for the worse even in our own town here; full of loafers +now, small and poor as 'tis, who once would have followed the sea, +every lazy soul of 'em. There is no occupation so fit for just +that class o' men who never get beyond the fo'cas'le. I view it, +in addition, that a community narrows down and grows dreadful +ignorant when it is shut up to its own affairs, and gets no +knowledge of the outside world except from a cheap, unprincipled +newspaper. In the old days, a good part o' the best men here knew +a hundred ports and something of the way folks lived in them. They +saw the world for themselves, and like's not their wives and +children saw it with them. They may not have had the best of +knowledge to carry with 'em sight-seein', but they were some +acquainted with foreign lands an' their laws, an' could see outside +the battle for town clerk here in Dunnet; they got some sense o' +proportion. Yes, they lived more dignified, and their houses were +better within an' without. Shipping's a terrible loss to this part +o' New England from a social point o' view, ma'am." + +"I have thought of that myself," I returned, with my interest +quite awakened. "It accounts for the change in a great many +things,--the sad disappearance of sea-captains,--doesn't it?" + +"A shipmaster was apt to get the habit of reading," said my +companion, brightening still more, and taking on a most touching +air of unreserve. "A captain is not expected to be familiar with +his crew, and for company's sake in dull days and nights he turns +to his book. Most of us old shipmasters came to know 'most +everything about something; one would take to readin' on farming +topics, and some were great on medicine,--but Lord help their poor +crews!--or some were all for history, and now and then there'd be +one like me that gave his time to the poets. I was well acquainted +with a shipmaster that was all for bees an' beekeepin'; and if you +met him in port and went aboard, he'd sit and talk a terrible while +about their havin' so much information, and the money that could be +made out of keepin' 'em. He was one of the smartest captains that +ever sailed the seas, but they used to call the Newcastle, +a great bark he commanded for many years, Tuttle's beehive. There +was old Cap'n Jameson: he had notions of Solomon's Temple, and made +a very handsome little model of the same, right from the Scripture +measurements, same's other sailors make little ships and design new +tricks of rigging and all that. No, there's nothing to take the +place of shipping in a place like ours. These bicycles offend me +dreadfully; they don't afford no real opportunities of experience +such as a man gained on a voyage. No: when folks left home in the +old days they left it to some purpose, and when they got home they +stayed there and had some pride in it. There's no large-minded way +of thinking now: the worst have got to be best and rule everything; +we're all turned upside down and going back year by year." + +"Oh no, Captain Littlepage, I hope not," said I, trying to +soothe his feelings. + +There was a silence in the schoolhouse, but we could hear the +noise of the water on a beach below. It sounded like the strange +warning wave that gives notice of the turn of the tide. A late +golden robin, with the most joyful and eager of voices, was singing +close by in a thicket of wild roses. + + + + +VI + + +The Waiting Place + +"HOW DID YOU manage with the rest of that rough voyage on the +Minerva?" I asked. + +"I shall be glad to explain to you," said Captain Littlepage, +forgetting his grievances for the moment. "If I had a map at hand +I could explain better. We were driven to and fro 'way up toward +what we used to call Parry's Discoveries, and lost our bearings. +It was thick and foggy, and at last I lost my ship; she drove on a +rock, and we managed to get ashore on what I took to be a barren +island, the few of us that were left alive. When she first struck, +the sea was somewhat calmer than it had been, and most of the crew, +against orders, manned the long-boat and put off in a hurry, and +were never heard of more. Our own boat upset, but the carpenter +kept himself and me above water, and we drifted in. I had no +strength to call upon after my recent fever, and laid down to die; +but he found the tracks of a man and dog the second day, and +got along the shore to one of those far missionary stations that +the Moravians support. They were very poor themselves, and in +distress; 'twas a useless place. There were but few Esquimaux left +in that region. There we remained for some time, and I became +acquainted with strange events. + +The captain lifted his head and gave me a questioning glance. +I could not help noticing that the dulled look in his eyes had +gone, and there was instead a clear intentness that made them seem +dark and piercing. + +"There was a supply ship expected, and the pastor, an +excellent Christian man, made no doubt that we should get passage +in her. He was hoping that orders would come to break up the +station; but everything was uncertain, and we got on the best we +could for a while. We fished, and helped the people in other ways; +there was no other way of paying our debts. I was taken to the +pastor's house until I got better; but they were crowded, and I +felt myself in the way, and made excuse to join with an old seaman, +a Scotchman, who had built him a warm cabin, and had room in it for +another. He was looked upon with regard, and had stood by the +pastor in some troubles with the people. He had been on one of +those English exploring parties that found one end of the road to +the north pole, but never could find the other. We lived like dogs +in a kennel, or so you'd thought if you had seen the hut from the +outside; but the main thing was to keep warm; there were piles of +bird-skins to lie on, and he'd made him a good bunk, and there was +another for me. 'Twas dreadful dreary waitin' there; we begun to +think the supply steamer was lost, and my poor ship broke up and +strewed herself all along the shore. We got to watching on the +headlands; my men and me knew the people were short of supplies and +had to pinch themselves. It ought to read in the Bible, 'Man +cannot live by fish alone,' if they'd told the truth of things; +'taint bread that wears the worst on you! First part of the time, +old Gaffett, that I lived with, seemed speechless, and I didn't +know what to make of him, nor he of me, I dare say; but as we got +acquainted, I found he'd been through more disasters than I had, +and had troubles that wa'n't going to let him live a great while. +It used to ease his mind to talk to an understanding person, so we +used to sit and talk together all day, if it rained or blew so that +we couldn't get out. I'd got a bad blow on the back of my head at +the time we came ashore, and it pained me at times, and my strength +was broken, anyway; I've never been so able since." + +Captain Littlepage fell into a reverie. + +"Then I had the good of my reading," he explained presently. +"I had no books; the pastor spoke but little English, and all his +books were foreign; but I used to say over all I could remember. +The old poets little knew what comfort they could be to a +man. I was well acquainted with the works of Milton, but up there +it did seem to me as if Shakespeare was the king; he has his sea +terms very accurate, and some beautiful passages were calming to +the mind. I could say them over until I shed tears; there was +nothing beautiful to me in that place but the stars above and those +passages of verse. + +"Gaffett was always brooding and brooding, and talking to +himself; he was afraid he should never get away, and it preyed upon +his mind. He thought when I got home I could interest the +scientific men in his discovery: but they're all taken up with +their own notions; some didn't even take pains to answer the +letters I wrote. You observe that I said this crippled man Gaffett +had been shipped on a voyage of discovery. I now tell you that the +ship was lost on its return, and only Gaffett and two officers were +saved off the Greenland coast, and he had knowledge later that +those men never got back to England; the brig they shipped on was +run down in the night. So no other living soul had the facts, and +he gave them to me. There is a strange sort of a country 'way up +north beyond the ice, and strange folks living in it. Gaffett +believed it was the next world to this." + +"What do you mean, Captain Littlepage?" I exclaimed. The old +man was bending forward and whispering; he looked over his shoulder +before he spoke the last sentence. + +"To hear old Gaffett tell about it was something awful," he +said, going on with his story quite steadily after the moment of +excitement had passed. "'Twas first a tale of dogs and sledges, +and cold and wind and snow. Then they begun to find the ice grow +rotten; they had been frozen in, and got into a current flowing +north, far up beyond Fox Channel, and they took to their boats when +the ship got crushed, and this warm current took them out of sight +of the ice, and into a great open sea; and they still followed it +due north, just the very way they had planned to go. Then they +struck a coast that wasn't laid down or charted, but the cliffs +were such that no boat could land until they found a bay and struck +across under sail to the other side where the shore looked lower; +they were scant of provisions and out of water, but they got sight +of something that looked like a great town. 'For God's sake, +Gaffett!' said I, the first time he told me. 'You don't mean a +town two degrees farther north than ships had ever been?' for he'd +got their course marked on an old chart that he'd pieced out at the +top; but he insisted upon it, and told it over and over again, to +be sure I had it straight to carry to those who would be +interested. There was no snow and ice, he said, after they had +sailed some days with that warm current, which seemed to come right +from under the ice that they'd been pinched up in and had +been crossing on foot for weeks." + +"But what about the town?" I asked. "Did they get to the +town?" + +"They did," said the captain, "and found inhabitants; 'twas an +awful condition of things. It appeared, as near as Gaffett could +express it, like a place where there was neither living nor dead. +They could see the place when they were approaching it by sea +pretty near like any town, and thick with habitations; but all at +once they lost sight of it altogether, and when they got close +inshore they could see the shapes of folks, but they never could +get near them,--all blowing gray figures that would pass along +alone, or sometimes gathered in companies as if they were watching. +The men were frightened at first, but the shapes never came near +them,--it was as if they blew back; and at last they all got bold +and went ashore, and found birds' eggs and sea fowl, like any wild +northern spot where creatures were tame and folks had never been, +and there was good water. Gaffett said that he and another man +came near one o' the fog-shaped men that was going along slow with +the look of a pack on his back, among the rocks, an' they chased +him; but, Lord! he flittered away out o' sight like a leaf the wind +takes with it, or a piece of cobweb. They would make as if they +talked together, but there was no sound of voices, and 'they acted +as if they didn't see us, but only felt us coming towards them,' +says Gaffett one day, trying to tell the particulars. They +couldn't see the town when they were ashore. One day the captain +and the doctor were gone till night up across the high land where +the town had seemed to be, and they came back at night beat out and +white as ashes, and wrote and wrote all next day in their +notebooks, and whispered together full of excitement, and they were +sharp-spoken with the men when they offered to ask any questions. + +"Then there came a day," said Captain Littlepage, leaning +toward me with a strange look in his eyes, and whispering quickly. +"The men all swore they wouldn't stay any longer; the man on watch +early in the morning gave the alarm, and they all put off in the +boat and got a little way out to sea. Those folks, or whatever +they were, come about 'em like bats; all at once they raised +incessant armies, and come as if to drive 'em back to sea. They +stood thick at the edge o' the water like the ridges o' grim war; +no thought o' flight, none of retreat. Sometimes a standing fight, +then soaring on main wing tormented all the air. And when they'd +got the boat out o' reach o' danger, Gaffett said they looked back, +and there was the town again, standing up just as they'd seen it +first, comin' on the coast. Say what you might, they all believed +'twas a kind of waiting-place between this world an' the next." + +The captain had sprung to his feet in his excitement, and made +excited gestures, but he still whispered huskily. + +"Sit down, sir," I said as quietly as I could, and he sank +into his chair quite spent. + +"Gaffett thought the officers were hurrying home to report and +to fit out a new expedition when they were all lost. At the time, +the men got orders not to talk over what they had seen," the old +man explained presently in a more natural tone. + +"Weren't they all starving, and wasn't it a mirage or +something of that sort?" I ventured to ask. But he looked at me +blankly. + +"Gaffett had got so that his mind ran on nothing else," he +went on. "The ship's surgeon let fall an opinion to the captain, +one day, that 'twas some condition o' the light and the magnetic +currents that let them see those folks. 'Twa'n't a right-feeling +part of the world, anyway; they had to battle with the compass to +make it serve, an' everything seemed to go wrong. Gaffett had +worked it out in his own mind that they was all common ghosts, but +the conditions were unusual favorable for seeing them. He was +always talking about the Ge'graphical Society, but he never took +proper steps, as I viewed it now, and stayed right there at the +mission. He was a good deal crippled, and thought they'd confine +him in some jail of a hospital. He said he was waiting to find the +right men to tell, somebody bound north. Once in a while they +stopped there to leave a mail or something. He was set in his +notions, and let two or three proper explorin' expeditions go by +him because he didn't like their looks; but when I was there he had +got restless, fearin' he might be taken away or something. He had +all his directions written out straight as a string to give the +right ones. I wanted him to trust 'em to me, so I might have +something to show, but he wouldn't. I suppose he's dead now. I +wrote to him an' I done all I could. 'Twill be a great exploit +some o' these days." + +I assented absent-mindedly, thinking more just then of my +companion's alert, determined look and the seafaring, ready aspect +that had come to his face; but at this moment there fell a sudden +change, and the old, pathetic, scholarly look returned. Behind me +hung a map of North America, and I saw, as I turned a little, that +his eyes were fixed upon the northernmost regions and their careful +recent outlines with a look of bewilderment. + + + + +VII + + +The Outer Island + + +GAFFETT WITH HIS good bunk and the bird-skins, the story of +the wreck of the Minerva, the human-shaped creatures of fog and +cobweb, the great words of Milton with which he described their +onslaught upon the crew, all this moving tale had such an air of +truth that I could not argue with Captain Littlepage. The old man +looked away from the map as if it had vaguely troubled him, and +regarded me appealingly. + +"We were just speaking of"--and he stopped. I saw that he had +suddenly forgotten his subject. + +"There were a great many persons at the funeral," I hastened +to say. + +"Oh yes," the captain answered, with satisfaction. "All +showed respect who could. The sad circumstances had for a moment +slipped my mind. Yes, Mrs. Begg will be very much missed. She was +a capital manager for her husband when he was at sea. Oh yes, +shipping is a very great loss." And he sighed heavily. "There was +hardly a man of any standing who didn't interest himself in some +way in navigation. It always gave credit to a town. I call it +low-water mark now here in Dunnet." + +He rose with dignity to take leave, and asked me to stop at +his house some day, when he would show me some outlandish things +that he had brought home from sea. I was familiar with the subject +of the decadence of shipping interests in all its affecting +branches, having been already some time in Dunnet, and I felt sure +that Captain Littlepage's mind had now returned to a safe level. + +As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided, +and when I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece +of sidewalk which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the +best of friends. "Step in some afternoon," he said, as +affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee +shore of age like himself. I turned toward home, and presently met +Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an anxious expression. + +"I see you sleevin' the old gentleman down the hill," she +suggested. + +"Yes. I've had a very interesting afternoon with him," I +answered, and her face brightened. + +"Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 'twas one o' his +flighty spells, an' Mari' Harris wouldn't"-- + +"Yes," I returned, smiling, "he has been telling me some old +stories, but we talked about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and +Paradise Lost." + +"I expect he got tellin' of you some o' his great narratives," +she answered, looking at me shrewdly. "Funerals always sets him +goin'. Some o' them tales hangs together toler'ble well," she +added, with a sharper look than before. "An' he's been a great +reader all his seafarin' days. Some thinks he overdid, and +affected his head, but for a man o' his years he's amazin' now when +he's at his best. Oh, he used to be a beautiful man!" + + +We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor and +its long stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the +pointed firs, darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to +embark. As we looked far seaward among the outer islands, the +trees seemed to march seaward still, going steadily over the +heights and down to the water's edge. + +It had been growing gray and cloudy, like the first evening of +autumn, and a shadow had fallen on the darkening shore. Suddenly, +as we looked, a gleam of golden sunshine struck the outer islands, +and one of them shone out clear in the light, and revealed itself +in a compelling way to our eyes. Mrs. Todd was looking off across +the bay with a face full of affection and interest. The sunburst +upon that outermost island made it seem like a sudden revelation of +the world beyond this which some believe to be so near. + +"That's where mother lives," said Mrs. Todd. "Can't we see it +plain? I was brought up out there on Green Island. I know every +rock an' bush on it." + +"Your mother!" I exclaimed, with great interest. + +"Yes, dear, cert'in; I've got her yet, old's I be. She's one +of them spry, light-footed little women; always was, an' light- +hearted, too," answered Mrs. Todd, with satisfaction. "She's seen +all the trouble folks can see, without it's her last sickness; an' +she's got a word of courage for everybody. Life ain't spoilt her +a mite. She's eighty-six an' I'm sixty-seven, and I've seen the +time I've felt a good sight the oldest. 'Land sakes alive!' says +she, last time I was out to see her. 'How you do lurch about +steppin' into a bo't?' I laughed so I liked to have gone right +over into the water; an' we pushed off, an' left her laughin' there +on the shore." + +The light had faded as we watched. Mrs. Todd had mounted a +gray rock, and stood there grand and architectural, like a +caryatide. Presently she stepped down, and we continued our +way homeward. + +"You an' me, we'll take a bo't an' go out some day and see +mother," she promised me. "'Twould please her very much, +an' there's one or two sca'ce herbs grows better on the island than +anywhere else. I ain't seen their like nowheres here on the main." + +"Now I'm goin' right down to get us each a mug o' my beer," +she announced as we entered the house, "an' I believe I'll sneak in +a little mite o' camomile. Goin' to the funeral an' all, I feel to +have had a very wearin' afternoon." + +I heard her going down into the cool little cellar, and then +there was considerable delay. When she returned, mug in hand, I +noticed the taste of camomile, in spite of my protest; but its +flavor was disguised by some other herb that I did not know, and +she stood over me until I drank it all and said that I liked it. + +"I don't give that to everybody," said Mrs. Todd kindly; and +I felt for a moment as if it were part of a spell and incantation, +and as if my enchantress would now begin to look like the cobweb +shapes of the arctic town. Nothing happened but a quiet evening +and some delightful plans that we made about going to Green Island, +and on the morrow there was the clear sunshine and blue sky of +another day. + + + + +VIII + + +Green Island + +ONE MORNING, very early, I heard Mrs. Todd in the garden outside my +window. By the unusual loudness of her remarks to a passer-by, and +the notes of a familiar hymn which she sang as she worked among the +herbs, and which came as if directed purposely to the sleepy ears +of my consciousness, I knew that she wished I would wake up and +come and speak to her. + +In a few minutes she responded to a morning voice from behind +the blinds. "I expect you're goin' up to your schoolhouse to pass +all this pleasant day; yes, I expect you're goin' to be dreadful +busy," she said despairingly. + +"Perhaps not," said I. "Why, what's going to be the matter +with you, Mrs. Todd?" For I supposed that she was tempted by the +fine weather to take one of her favorite expeditions along the +shore pastures to gather herbs and simples, and would like to have +me keep the house. + +"No, I don't want to go nowhere by land," she answered +gayly,--"no, not by land; but I don't know's we shall have a better +day all the rest of the summer to go out to Green Island an' see +mother. I waked up early thinkin' of her. The wind's light +northeast,--'twill take us right straight out, an' this time o' +year it's liable to change round southwest an' fetch us home +pretty, 'long late in the afternoon. Yes, it's goin' to be a good +day." + +"Speak to the captain and the Bowden boy, if you see anybody +going by toward the landing," said I. "We'll take the big boat." + +"Oh, my sakes! now you let me do things my way," said Mrs. +Todd scornfully. "No, dear, we won't take no big bo't. I'll just +git a handy dory, an' Johnny Bowden an' me, we'll man her +ourselves. I don't want no abler bo't than a good dory, an' a nice +light breeze ain't goin' to make no sea; an' Johnny's my cousin's +son,--mother'll like to have him come; an' he'll be down to the +herrin' weirs all the time we're there, anyway; we don't want to +carry no men folks havin' to be considered every minute an' takin' +up all our time. No, you let me do; we'll just slip out an' see +mother by ourselves. I guess what breakfast you'll want's about +ready now." + +I had become well acquainted with Mrs. Todd as landlady, herb- +gatherer, and rustic philosopher; we had been discreet fellow- +passengers once or twice when I had sailed up the coast to a larger +town than Dunnet Landing to do some shopping; but I was yet to +become acquainted with her as a mariner. An hour later we pushed +off from the landing in the desired dory. The tide was just on the +turn, beginning to fall, and several friends and acquaintances +stood along the side of the dilapidated wharf and cheered us by +their words and evident interest. Johnny Bowden and I were both +rowing in haste to get out where we could catch the breeze and put +up the small sail which lay clumsily furled along the gunwale. +Mrs. Todd sat aft, a stern and unbending lawgiver. + +"You better let her drift; we'll get there 'bout as quick; the +tide'll take her right out from under these old buildin's; there's +plenty wind outside." + +"Your bo't ain't trimmed proper, Mis' Todd!" exclaimed a voice +from shore. "You're lo'ded so the bo't'll drag; you can't git her +before the wind, ma'am. You set 'midships, Mis' Todd, an' let the +boy hold the sheet 'n' steer after he gits the sail up; you won't +never git out to Green Island that way. She's lo'ded bad, your +bo't is,--she's heavy behind's she is now!" + +Mrs. Todd turned with some difficulty and regarded the anxious +adviser, my right oar flew out of water, and we seemed about to +capsize. "That you, Asa? Good-mornin'," she said politely. +"I al'ays liked the starn seat best. When'd you git back from up +country?" + +This allusion to Asa's origin was not lost upon the rest of +the company. We were some little distance from shore, but we could +hear a chuckle of laughter, and Asa, a person who was too ready +with his criticism and advice on every possible subject, turned and +walked indignantly away. + +When we caught the wind we were soon on our seaward course, +and only stopped to underrun a trawl, for the floats of which Mrs. +Todd looked earnestly, explaining that her mother might not be +prepared for three extra to dinner; it was her brother's trawl, and +she meant to just run her eye along for the right sort of a little +haddock. I leaned over the boat's side with great interest and +excitement, while she skillfully handled the long line of hooks, +and made scornful remarks upon worthless, bait-consuming creatures +of the sea as she reviewed them and left them on the trawl or shook +them off into the waves. At last we came to what she pronounced a +proper haddock, and having taken him on board and ended his life +resolutely, we went our way. + +As we sailed along I listened to an increasingly delightful +commentary upon the islands, some of them barren rocks, or at best +giving sparse pasturage for sheep in the early summer. On one of +these an eager little flock ran to the water's edge and bleated at +us so affectingly that I would willingly have stopped; but Mrs. +Todd steered away from the rocks, and scolded at the sheep's mean +owner, an acquaintance of hers, who grudged the little salt and +still less care which the patient creatures needed. The hot +midsummer sun makes prisons of these small islands that are a +paradise in early June, with their cool springs and short thick- +growing grass. On a larger island, farther out to sea, my +entertaining companion showed me with glee the small houses of two +farmers who shared the island between them, and declared that for +three generations the people had not spoken to each other even in +times of sickness or death or birth. "When the news come that the +war was over, one of 'em knew it a week, and never stepped across +his wall to tell the other," she said. "There, they enjoy it; +they've got to have somethin' to interest 'em in such a place; 'tis +a good deal more tryin' to be tied to folks you don't like than +'tis to be alone. Each of 'em tell the neighbors their wrongs; +plenty likes to hear and tell again; them as fetch a bone'll carry +one, an' so they keep the fight a-goin'. I must say I like variety +myself; some folks washes Monday an' irons Tuesday the whole year +round, even if the circus is goin' by!" + +A long time before we landed at Green Island we could see the +small white house, standing high like a beacon, where Mrs. Todd was +born and where her mother lived, on a green slope above the +water, with dark spruce woods still higher. There were crops in +the fields, which we presently distinguished from one another. +Mrs. Todd examined them while we were still far at sea. "Mother's +late potatoes looks backward; ain't had rain enough so far," she +pronounced her opinion. "They look weedier than what they call +Front Street down to Cowper Centre. I expect brother William is so +occupied with his herrin' weirs an' servin' out bait to the +schooners that he don't think once a day of the land." + +"What's the flag for, up above the spruces there behind the +house?" I inquired, with eagerness. + +"Oh, that's the sign for herrin'," she explained kindly, while +Johnny Bowden regarded me with contemptuous surprise. "When they +get enough for schooners they raise that flag; an' when 'tis a poor +catch in the weir pocket they just fly a little signal down by the +shore, an' then the small bo'ts comes and get enough an' over for +their trawls. There, look! there she is: mother sees us; she's +wavin' somethin' out o' the fore door! She'll be to the landin'- +place quick's we are." + +I looked, and could see a tiny flutter in the doorway, but a +quicker signal had made its way from the heart on shore to the +heart on the sea. + +"How do you suppose she knows it is me?" said Mrs. Todd, with +a tender smile on her broad face. "There, you never get over bein' +a child long's you have a mother to go to. Look at the chimney, +now; she's gone right in an' brightened up the fire. Well, there, +I'm glad mother's well; you'll enjoy seein' her very much." + +Mrs. Todd leaned back into her proper position, and the boat +trimmed again. She took a firmer grasp of the sheet, and gave an +impatient look up at the gaff and the leech of the little sail, and +twitched the sheet as if she urged the wind like a horse. There +came at once a fresh gust, and we seemed to have doubled our speed. +Soon we were near enough to see a tiny figure with handkerchiefed +head come down across the field and stand waiting for us at the +cove above a curve of pebble beach. + +Presently the dory grated on the pebbles, and Johnny Bowden, +who had been kept in abeyance during the voyage, sprang out and +used manful exertions to haul us up with the next wave, so that +Mrs. Todd could make a dry landing. + +"You don that very well," she said, mounting to her feet, and +coming ashore somewhat stiffly, but with great dignity, refusing +our outstretched hands, and returning to possess herself of a bag +which had lain at her feet. + +"Well, mother, here I be!" she announced with indifference; +but they stood and beamed in each other's faces. + +"Lookin' pretty well for an old lady, ain't she?" said Mrs. +Todd's mother, turning away from her daughter to speak to me. She +was a delightful little person herself, with bright eyes and an +affectionate air of expectation like a child on a holiday. You +felt as if Mrs. Blackett were an old and dear friend before you let +go her cordial hand. We all started together up the hill. + +"Now don't you haste too fast, mother," said Mrs. Todd +warningly; "'tis a far reach o' risin' ground to the fore door, and +you won't set an' get your breath when you're once there, but go +trotting about. Now don't you go a mite faster than we proceed +with this bag an' basket. Johnny, there, 'll fetch up the haddock. +I just made one stop to underrun William's trawl till I come to +jes' such a fish's I thought you'd want to make one o' your nice +chowders of. I've brought an onion with me that was layin' about +on the window-sill at home." + +"That's just what I was wantin'," said the hostess. "I give +a sigh when you spoke o' chowder, knowin' my onions was out. +William forgot to replenish us last time he was to the Landin'. +Don't you haste so yourself Almiry, up this risin' ground. I hear +you commencin' to wheeze a'ready." + +This mild revenge seemed to afford great pleasure to both +giver and receiver. They laughed a little, and looked at each +other affectionately, and then at me. Mrs. Todd considerately +paused, and faced about to regard the wide sea view. I was glad to +stop, being more out of breath than either of my companions, and I +prolonged the halt by asking the names of the neighboring islands. +There was a fine breeze blowing, which we felt more there on the +high land than when we were running before it in the dory. + +"Why, this ain't that kitten I saw when I was out last, the +one that I said didn't appear likely?" exclaimed Mrs. Todd as we +went our way. + +"That's the one, Almiry," said her mother. "She always had a +likely look to me, an' she's right after business. I never see +such a mouser for one of her age. If't wan't for William, I never +should have housed that other dronin' old thing so long; but he +sets by her on account of her havin' a bob tail. I don't deem it +advisable to maintain cats just on account of their havin' bob +tails; they're like all other curiosities, good for them that wants +to see 'm twice. This kitten catches mice for both, an' keeps me +respectable as I ain't been for a year. She's a real understandin' +little help, this kitten is. I picked her from among five Miss +Augusta Pernell had over to Burnt Island," said the old woman, +trudging along with the kitten close at her skirts. "Augusta, she +says to me, 'Why, Mis' Blackett, you've took and homeliest;' +and, says I, 'I've got the smartest; I'm satisfied.'" + +"I'd trust nobody sooner'n you to pick out a kitten, mother," +said the daughter handsomely, and we went on in peace and harmony. + +The house was just before us now, on a green level that looked +as if a huge hand had scooped it out of the long green field we had +been ascending. A little way above, the dark, spruce woods began +to climb the top of the hill and cover the seaward slopes of the +island. There was just room for the small farm and the forest; we +looked down at the fish-house and its rough sheds, and the weirs +stretching far out into the water. As we looked upward, the tops +of the firs came sharp against the blue sky. There was a great +stretch of rough pasture-land round the shoulder of the island to +the eastward, and here were all the thick-scattered gray rocks that +kept their places, and the gray backs of many sheep that forever +wandered and fed on the thin sweet pasturage that fringed the +ledges and made soft hollows and strips of green turf like growing +velvet. I could see the rich green of bayberry bushes here and +there, where the rocks made room. The air was very sweet; one +could not help wishing to be a citizen of such a complete and tiny +continent and home of fisherfolk. + +The house was broad and clean, with a roof that looked heavy +on its low walls. It was one of the houses that seem firm-rooted +in the ground, as if they were two-thirds below the surface, like +icebergs. The front door stood hospitably open in expectation of +company, and an orderly vine grew at each side; but our path led to +the kitchen door at the house-end, and there grew a mass of gay +flowers and greenery, as if they had been swept together by some +diligent garden broom into a tangled heap: there were portulacas +all along under the lower step and straggling off into the grass, +and clustering mallows that crept as near as they dared, like poor +relations. I saw the bright eyes and brainless little heads of two +half-grown chickens who were snuggled down among the mallows as if +they had been chased away from the door more than once, and +expected to be again. + +"It seems kind o' formal comin' in this way," said Mrs. Todd +impulsively, as we passed the flowers and came to the front +doorstep; but she was mindful of the proprieties, and walked before +us into the best room on the left. + +"Why, mother, if you haven't gone an' turned the carpet!" she +exclaimed, with something in her voice that spoke of awe and +admiration. "When'd you get to it? I s'pose Mis' Addicks come +over an' helped you, from White Island Landing?" + +"No, she didn't," answered the old woman, standing proudly +erect, and making the most of a great moment. "I done it all +myself with William's help. He had a spare day, an' took right +holt with me; an' 'twas all well beat on the grass, an' turned, an' +put down again afore we went to bed. I ripped an' sewed over two +o' them long breadths. I ain't had such a good night's sleep for +two years." + +"There, what do you think o' havin' such a mother as that for +eighty-six year old?" said Mrs. Todd, standing before us like a +large figure of Victory. + +As for the mother, she took on a sudden look of youth; you +felt as if she promised a great future, and was beginning, not +ending, her summers and their happy toils. + +"My, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd. "I couldn't ha' done it +myself, I've got to own it." + +"I was much pleased to have it off my mind," said Mrs. +Blackett, humbly; "the more so because along at the first of the +next week I wasn't very well. I suppose it may have been the +change of weather." + +Mrs. Todd could not resist a significant glance at me, but, +with charming sympathy, she forbore to point the lesson or to +connect this illness with its apparent cause. She loomed larger +than ever in the little old-fashioned best room, with its few +pieces of good furniture and pictures of national interest. The +green paper curtains were stamped with conventional landscapes of +a foreign order,--castles on inaccessible crags, and lovely lakes +with steep wooded shores; under-foot the treasured carpet was +covered thick with home-made rugs. There were empty glass lamps +and crystallized bouquets of grass and some fine shells on the +narrow mantelpiece. + +"I was married in this room," said Mrs. Todd unexpectedly; and +I heard her give a sigh after she had spoken, as if she could not +help the touch of regret that would forever come with all her +thoughts of happiness. + +"We stood right there between the windows," she added, "and +the minister stood here. William wouldn't come in. He was always +odd about seein' folks, just's he is now. I run to meet 'em from +a child, an' William, he'd take an' run away." + +"I've been the gainer," said the old mother cheerfully. +"William has been son an' daughter both since you was married off +the island. He's been 'most too satisfied to stop at home 'long o' +his old mother, but I always tell 'em I'm the gainer." + +We were all moving toward the kitchen as if by common +instinct. The best room was too suggestive of serious occasions, +and the shades were all pulled down to shut out the summer +light and air. It was indeed a tribute to Society to find a room +set apart for her behests out there on so apparently neighborless +and remote an island. Afternoon visits and evening festivals must +be few in such a bleak situation at certain seasons of the year, +but Mrs. Blackett was of those who do not live to themselves, and +who have long since passed the line that divides mere self-concern +from a valued share in whatever Society can give and take. There +were those of her neighbors who never had taken the trouble to +furnish a best room, but Mrs. Blackett was one who knew the uses of +a parlor. + +"Yes, do come right out into the old kitchen; I shan't make +any stranger of you," she invited us pleasantly, after we had been +properly received in the room appointed to formality. "I expect +Almiry, here, 'll be driftin' out 'mongst the pasture-weeds quick's +she can find a good excuse. 'Tis hot now. You'd better content +yourselves till you get nice an' rested, an' 'long after dinner the +sea-breeze 'll spring up, an' then you can take your walks, an' go +up an' see the prospect from the big ledge. Almiry'll want to show +off everything there is. Then I'll get you a good cup o' tea +before you start to go home. The days are plenty long now." + +While we were talking in the best room the selected fish had +been mysteriously brought up from the shore, and lay all cleaned +and ready in an earthen crock on the table. + +"I think William might have just stopped an' said a word," +remarked Mrs. Todd, pouting with high affront as she caught sight +of it. "He's friendly enough when he comes ashore, an' was +remarkable social the last time, for him." + +"He ain't disposed to be very social with the ladies," +explained William's mother, with a delightful glance at me, as if +she counted upon my friendship and tolerance. "He's very +particular, and he's all in his old fishin'-clothes to-day. He'll +want me to tell him everything you said and done, after you've +gone. William has very deep affections. He'll want to see you, +Almiry. Yes, I guess he'll be in by an' by." + +"I'll search for him by 'n' by, if he don't," proclaimed Mrs. +Todd, with an air of unalterable resolution. "I know all of his +burrows down 'long the shore. I'll catch him by hand 'fore he +knows it. I've got some business with William, anyway. I brought +forty-two cents with me that was due him for them last lobsters he +brought in." + +"You can leave it with me," suggested the little old mother, +who was already stepping about among her pots and pans in the +pantry, and preparing to make the chowder. + +I became possessed of a sudden unwonted curiosity in regard to +William, and felt that half the pleasure of my visit would be lost +if I could not make his interesting acquaintance. + + + + +IX + + +William + +MRS. TODD HAD taken the onion out of her basket and laid it down +upon the kitchen table. "There's Johnny Bowden come with us, you +know," she reminded her mother. "He'll be hungry enough to eat his +size." + +"I've got new doughnuts, dear," said the little old lady. +"You don't often catch William 'n' me out o' provisions. I expect +you might have chose a somewhat larger fish, but I'll try an' make +it do. I shall have to have a few extra potatoes, but there's a +field full out there, an' the hoe's leanin' against the well-house, +in 'mongst the climbin'-beans." She smiled and gave her daughter +a commanding nod. + +"Land sakes alive! Le's blow the horn for William," insisted +Mrs. Todd, with some excitement. "He needn't break his spirit so +far's to come in. He'll know you need him for something +particular, an' then we can call to him as he comes up the path. +I won't put him to no pain." + +Mrs. Blackett's old face, for the first time, wore a look of +trouble, and I found it necessary to counteract the teasing spirit +of Almira. It was too pleasant to stay indoors altogether, even in +such rewarding companionship; besides, I might meet William; and, +straying out presently, I found the hoe by the well-house and an +old splint basket at the woodshed door, and also found my way down +to the field where there was a great square patch of rough, weedy +potato-tops and tall ragweed. One corner was already dug, and I +chose a fat-looking hill where the tops were well withered. There +is all the pleasure that one can have in gold-digging in finding +one's hopes satisfied in the riches of a good hill of potatoes. I +longed to go on; but it did not seem frugal to dig any longer after +my basket was full, and at last I took my hoe by the middle and +lifted the basket to go back up the hill. I was sure that Mrs. +Blackett must be waiting impatiently to slice the potatoes into the +chowder, layer after layer, with the fish. + +"You let me take holt o' that basket, ma'am," said the +pleasant, anxious voice behind me. + +I turned, startled in the silence of the wide field, and saw +an elderly man, bent in the shoulders as fishermen often are, gray- +headed and clean-shaven, and with a timid air. It was William. He +looked just like his mother, and I had been imagining that he was +large and stout like his sister, Almira Todd; and, strange to say, +my fancy had led me to picture him not far from thirty and a little +loutish. It was necessary instead to pay William the respect due +to age. + +I accustomed myself to plain facts on the instant, and we said +good-morning like old friends. The basket was really heavy, and I +put the hoe through its handle and offered him one end; then we +moved easily toward the house together, speaking of the fine +weather and of mackerel which were reported to be striking in all +about the bay. William had been out since three o'clock, and had +taken an extra fare of fish. I could feel that Mrs. Todd's eyes +were upon us as we approached the house, and although I fell behind +in the narrow path, and let William take the basket alone and +precede me at some little distance the rest of the way, I could +plainly hear her greet him. + +"Got round to comin' in, didn't you?" she inquired, with +amusement. "Well, now, that's clever. Didn't know's I should see +you to-day, William, an' I wanted to settle an account." + +I felt somewhat disturbed and responsible, but when I joined +them they were on most simple and friendly terms. It became +evident that, with William, it was the first step that cost, and +that, having once joined in social interests, he was able to pursue +them with more or less pleasure. He was about sixty, and not +young-looking for his years, yet so undying is the spirit of youth, +and bashfulness has such a power of survival, that I felt all the +time as if one must try to make the occasion easy for some one who +was young and new to the affairs of social life. He asked politely +if I would like to go up to the great ledge while dinner was +getting ready; so, not without a deep sense of pleasure, and a +delighted look of surprise from the two hostesses, we started, +William and I, as if both of us felt much younger than we looked. +Such was the innocence and simplicity of the moment that when I +heard Mrs. Todd laughing behind us in the kitchen I laughed too, +but William did not even blush. I think he was a little deaf, and +he stepped along before me most businesslike and intent upon his +errand. + +We went from the upper edge of the field above the house into +a smooth, brown path among the dark spruces. The hot sun brought +out the fragrance of the pitchy bark, and the shade was pleasant as +we climbed the hill. William stopped once or twice to show +me a great wasps'-nest close by, or some fishhawks'-nests below in +a bit of swamp. He picked a few sprigs of late-blooming linnaea as +we came out upon an open bit of pasture at the top of the island, +and gave them to me without speaking, but he knew as well as I that +one could not say half he wished about linnaea. Through this piece +of rough pasture ran a huge shape of stone like the great backbone +of an enormous creature. At the end, near the woods, we could +climb up on it and walk along to the highest point; there above the +circle of pointed firs we could look down over all the island, and +could see the ocean that circled this and a hundred other bits of +island ground, the mainland shore and all the far horizons. It +gave a sudden sense of space, for nothing stopped the eye or hedged +one in,--that sense of liberty in space and time which great +prospects always give. + +"There ain't no such view in the world, I expect," said +William proudly, and I hastened to speak my heartfelt tribute of +praise; it was impossible not to feel as if an untraveled boy had +spoken, and yet one loved to have him value his native heath. + + + + +X + + +Where Pennyroyal Grew + +WE WERE a little late to dinner, but Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. Todd +were lenient, and we all took our places after William had paused +to wash his hands, like a pious Brahmin, at the well, and put on a +neat blue coat which he took from a peg behind the kitchen door. +Then he resolutely asked a blessing in words that I could not hear, +and we ate the chowder and were thankful. The kitten went round +and round the table, quite erect, and, holding on by her fierce +young claws, she stopped to mew with pathos at each elbow, or +darted off to the open door when a song sparrow forgot himself and +lit in the grass too near. William did not talk much, but his +sister Todd occupied the time and told all the news there was to +tell of Dunnet Landing and its coasts, while the old mother +listened with delight. Her hospitality was something exquisite; +she had the gift which so many women lack, of being able to make +themselves and their houses belong entirely to a guest's +pleasure,--that charming surrender for the moment of themselves and +whatever belongs to them, so that they make a part of one's +own life that can never be forgotten. Tact is after all a kind of +mindreading, and my hostess held the golden gift. Sympathy is of +the mind as well as the heart, and Mrs. Blackett's world and mine +were one from the moment we met. Besides, she had that final, that +highest gift of heaven, a perfect self-forgetfulness. Sometimes, +as I watched her eager, sweet old face, I wondered why she had been +set to shine on this lonely island of the northern coast. It must +have been to keep the balance true, and make up to all her +scattered and depending neighbors for other things which they may +have lacked. + +When we had finished clearing away the old blue plates, and +the kitten had taken care of her share of the fresh haddock, just +as we were putting back the kitchen chairs in their places, Mrs. +Todd said briskly that she must go up into the pasture now to +gather the desired herbs. + +"You can stop here an' rest, or you can accompany me," she +announced. "Mother ought to have her nap, and when we come back +she an' William'll sing for you. She admires music," said Mrs. +Todd, turning to speak to her mother. + +But Mrs. Blackett tried to say that she couldn't sing as she +used, and perhaps William wouldn't feel like it. She looked tired, +the good old soul, or I should have liked to sit in the peaceful +little house while she slept; I had had much pleasant experience of +pastures already in her daughter's company. But it seemed best to +go with Mrs. Todd, and off we went. + +Mrs. Todd carried the gingham bag which she had brought from +home, and a small heavy burden in the bottom made it hang straight +and slender from her hand. The way was steep, and she soon grew +breathless, so that we sat down to rest awhile on a convenient +large stone among the bayberry. + +"There, I wanted you to see this,--'tis mother's picture," +said Mrs. Todd; "'twas taken once when she was up to Portland soon +after she was married. That's me," she added, opening another worn +case, and displaying the full face of the cheerful child she looked +like still in spite of being past sixty. "And here's William an' +father together. I take after father, large and heavy, an' William +is like mother's folks, short an' thin. He ought to have made +something o' himself, bein' a man an' so like mother; but though +he's been very steady to work, an' kept up the farm, an' done his +fishin' too right along, he never had mother's snap an' power o' +seein' things just as they be. He's got excellent judgment, too," +meditated William's sister, but she could not arrive at any +satisfactory decision upon what she evidently thought his failure +in life. "I think it is well to see any one so happy an' makin' +the most of life just as it falls to hand," she said as she began +to put the daguerreotypes away again; but I reached out my +hand to see her mother's once more, a most flowerlike face of a +lovely young woman in quaint dress. There was in the eyes a look +of anticipation and joy, a far-off look that sought the horizon; +one often sees it in seafaring families, inherited by girls and +boys alike from men who spend their lives at sea, and are always +watching for distant sails or the first loom of the land. At sea +there is nothing to be seen close by, and this has its counterpart +in a sailor's character, in the large and brave and patient traits +that are developed, the hopeful pleasantness that one loves so in +a seafarer. + +When the family pictures were wrapped again in a big +handkerchief, we set forward in a narrow footpath and made our way +to a lonely place that faced northward, where there was more +pasturage and fewer bushes, and we went down to the edge of short +grass above some rocky cliffs where the deep sea broke with a great +noise, though the wind was down and the water looked quiet a little +way from shore. Among the grass grew such pennyroyal as the rest +of the world could not provide. There was a fine fragrance in the +air as we gathered it sprig by sprig and stepped along carefully, +and Mrs. Todd pressed her aromatic nosegay between her hands and +offered it to me again and again. + +"There's nothin' like it," she said; "oh no, there's no such +pennyr'yal as this in the state of Maine. It's the right pattern +of the plant, and all the rest I ever see is but an imitation. +Don't it do you good?" And I answered with enthusiasm. + +"There, dear, I never showed nobody else but mother where to +find this place; 'tis kind of sainted to me. Nathan, my husband, +an' I used to love this place when we was courtin', and"--she +hesitated, and then spoke softly--"when he was lost, 'twas just off +shore tryin' to get in by the short channel out there between Squaw +Islands, right in sight o' this headland where we'd set an' made +our plans all summer long." + +I had never heard her speak of her husband before, but I felt +that we were friends now since she had brought me to this place. + +"'Twas but a dream with us," Mrs. Todd said. "I knew it when +he was gone. I knew it"--and she whispered as if she were at +confession--"I knew it afore he started to go to sea. My heart was +gone out o' my keepin' before I ever saw Nathan; but he loved me +well, and he made me real happy, and he died before he ever knew +what he'd had to know if we'd lived long together. 'Tis very +strange about love. No, Nathan never found out, but my heart was +troubled when I knew him first. There's more women likes to be +loved than there is of those that loves. I spent some happy hours +right here. I always liked Nathan, and he never knew. But this +pennyr'yal always reminded me, as I'd sit and gather it and hear +him talkin'--it always would remind me of--the other one." + +She looked away from me, and presently rose and went on by +herself. There was something lonely and solitary about her great +determined shape. She might have been Antigone alone on the Theban +plain. It is not often given in a noisy world to come to the +places of great grief and silence. An absolute, archaic grief +possessed this countrywoman; she seemed like a renewal of some +historic soul, with her sorrows and the remoteness of a daily life +busied with rustic simplicities and the scents of primeval herbs. + + +I was not incompetent at herb-gathering, and after a while, +when I had sat long enough waking myself to new thoughts, and +reading a page of remembrance with new pleasure, I gathered some +bunches, as I was bound to do, and at last we met again higher up +the shore, in the plain every-day world we had left behind when we +went down to the penny-royal plot. As we walked together along the +high edge of the field we saw a hundred sails about the bay and +farther seaward; it was mid-afternoon or after, and the day was +coming to an end. + +"Yes, they're all makin' towards the shore,--the small craft +an' the lobster smacks an' all," said my companion. "We must spend +a little time with mother now, just to have our tea, an' then put +for home." + +"No matter if we lose the wind at sundown; I can row in with +Johnny," said I; and Mrs. Todd nodded reassuringly and kept to her +steady plod, not quickening her gait even when we saw William come +round the corner of the house as if to look for us, and wave his +hand and disappear. + +"Why, William's right on deck; I didn't know's we should see +any more of him!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd. "Now mother'll put the +kettle right on; she's got a good fire goin'." I too could see the +blue smoke thicken, and then we both walked a little faster, while +Mrs. Todd groped in her full bag of herbs to find the +daguerreotypes and be ready to put them in their places. + + + + +XI + + +The Old Singers + +WILLIAM WAS sitting on the side door step, and the old mother was +busy making her tea; she gave into my hand an old flowered-glass +tea-caddy. + +"William thought you'd like to see this, when he was settin' +the table. My father brought it to my mother from the island +of Tobago; an' here's a pair of beautiful mugs that came with it." +She opened the glass door of a little cupboard beside the chimney. +"These I call my best things, dear," she said. "You'd laugh to see +how we enjoy 'em Sunday nights in winter: we have a real company +tea 'stead o' livin' right along just the same, an' I make +somethin' good for a s'prise an' put on some o' my preserves, an' +we get a'talkin' together an' have real pleasant times." + +Mrs. Todd laughed indulgently, and looked to see what I +thought of such childishness. + +"I wish I could be here some Sunday evening," said I. + +"William an' me'll be talkin' about you an' thinkin' o' this +nice day," said Mrs. Blackett affectionately, and she glanced at +William, and he looked up bravely and nodded. I began to discover +that he and his sister could not speak their deeper feelings before +each other. + +"Now I want you an' mother to sing," said Mrs. Todd abruptly, +with an air of command, and I gave William much sympathy in his +evident distress. + +"After I've had my cup o' tea, dear," answered the old hostess +cheerfully; and so we sat down and took our cups and made merry +while they lasted. It was impossible not to wish to stay on +forever at Green Island, and I could not help saying so. + +"I'm very happy here, both winter an' summer," said old Mrs. +Blackett. "William an' I never wish for any other home, do we, +William? I'm glad you find it pleasant; I wish you'd come an' +stay, dear, whenever you feel inclined. But here's Almiry; I +always think Providence was kind to plot an' have her husband leave +her a good house where she really belonged. She'd been very +restless if she'd had to continue here on Green Island. You wanted +more scope, didn't you, Almiry, an' to live in a large place where +more things grew? Sometimes folks wonders that we don't live +together; perhaps we shall some time," and a shadow of sadness and +apprehension flitted across her face. "The time o' sickness an' +failin' has got to come to all. But Almiry's got an herb that's +good for everything." She smiled as she spoke, and looked bright +again. + +"There's some herb that's good for everybody, except for them +that thinks they're sick when they ain't," announced Mrs. Todd, +with a truly professional air of finality. "Come, William, let's +have Sweet Home, an' then mother'll sing Cupid an' the Bee for us." + +Then followed a most charming surprise. William mastered his +timidity and began to sing. His voice was a little faint and +frail, like the family daguerreotypes, but it was a tenor voice, +and perfectly true and sweet. I have never heard Home, Sweet Home +sung as touchingly and seriously as he sang it; he seemed to +make it quite new; and when he paused for a moment at the end of +the first line and began the next, the old mother joined him and +they sang together, she missing only the higher notes, where he +seemed to lend his voice to hers for the moment and carry on her +very note and air. It was the silent man's real and only means of +expression, and one could have listened forever, and have asked for +more and more songs of old Scotch and English inheritance and the +best that have lived from the ballad music of the war. Mrs. Todd +kept time visibly, and sometimes audibly, with her ample foot. I +saw the tears in her eyes sometimes, when I could see beyond the +tears in mine. But at last the songs ended and the time came to +say good-by; it was the end of a great pleasure. + +Mrs. Blackett, the dear old lady, opened the door of her +bedroom while Mrs. Todd was tying up the herb bag, and William had +gone down to get the boat ready and to blow the horn for Johnny +Bowden, who had joined a roving boat party who were off the shore +lobstering. + +I went to the door of the bedroom, and thought how pleasant it +looked, with its pink-and-white patchwork quilt and the brown +unpainted paneling of its woodwork. + +"Come right in, dear," she said. "I want you to set down in +my old quilted rockin'-chair there by the window; you'll say it's +the prettiest view in the house. I set there a good deal to rest +me and when I want to read." + +There was a worn red Bible on the lightstand, and Mrs. +Blackett's heavy silver-bowed glasses; her thimble was on the +narrow window-ledge, and folded carefully on the table was a thick +striped-cotton shirt that she was making for her son. Those dear +old fingers and their loving stitches, that heart which had made +the most of everything that needed love! Here was the real home, +the heart of the old house on Green Island! I sat in the rocking- +chair, and felt that it was a place of peace, the little brown +bedroom, and the quiet outlook upon field and sea and sky. + +I looked up, and we understood each other without speaking. +"I shall like to think o' your settin' here to-day," said Mrs. +Blackett. "I want you to come again. It has been so pleasant for +William." + +The wind served us all the way home, and did not fall or let +the sail slacken until we were close to the shore. We had a +generous freight of lobsters in the boat, and new potatoes which +William had put aboard, and what Mrs. Todd proudly called a full +"kag" of prime number one salted mackerel; and when we landed we +had to make business arrangements to have these conveyed to her +house in a wheelbarrow. + +I never shall forget the day at Green Island. The town of +Dunnet Landing seemed large and noisy and oppressive as we came +ashore. Such is the power of contrast; for the village was +so still that I could hear the shy whippoorwills singing that night +as I lay awake in my downstairs bedroom, and the scent of Mrs. +Todd's herb garden under the window blew in again and again with +every gentle rising of the seabreeze. + + + + +XII + + +A Strange Sail + +EXCEPT FOR a few stray guests, islanders or from the inland +country, to whom Mrs. Todd offered the hospitalities of a single +meal, we were quite by ourselves all summer; and when there were +signs of invasion, late in July, and a certain Mrs. Fosdick +appeared like a strange sail on the far horizon, I suffered much +from apprehension. I had been living in the quaint little house +with as much comfort and unconsciousness as if it were a larger +body, or a double shell, in whose simple convolutions Mrs. Todd and +I had secreted ourselves, until some wandering hermit crab of a +visitor marked the little spare room for her own. Perhaps now and +then a castaway on a lonely desert island dreads the thought of +being rescued. I heard of Mrs. Fosdick for the first time with a +selfish sense of objection; but after all, I was still vacation- +tenant of the schoolhouse, where I could always be alone, and it +was impossible not to sympathize with Mrs. Todd, who, in spite of +some preliminary grumbling, was really delighted with the prospect +of entertaining an old friend. + +For nearly a month we received occasional news of Mrs. +Fosdick, who seemed to be making a royal progress from house to +house in the inland neighborhood, after the fashion of Queen +Elizabeth. One Sunday after another came and went, disappointing +Mrs. Todd in the hope of seeing her guest at church and fixing the +day for the great visit to begin; but Mrs. Fosdick was not ready to +commit herself to a date. An assurance of "some time this week" +was not sufficiently definite from a free-footed housekeeper's +point of view, and Mrs. Todd put aside all herb-gathering plans, +and went through the various stages of expectation, provocation, +and despair. At last she was ready to believe that Mrs. Fosdick +must have forgotten her promise and returned to her home, which was +vaguely said to be over Thomaston way. But one evening, just as +the supper-table was cleared and "readied up," and Mrs. Todd had +put her large apron over her head and stepped forth for an +evening stroll in the garden, the unexpected happened. She heard +the sound of wheels, and gave an excited cry to me, as I sat by the +window, that Mrs. Fosdick was coming right up the street. + +"She may not be considerate, but she's dreadful good company," +said Mrs. Todd hastily, coming back a few steps from the +neighborhood of the gate. "No, she ain't a mite considerate, but +there's a small lobster left over from your tea; yes, it's a real +mercy there's a lobster. Susan Fosdick might just as well have +passed the compliment o' comin' an hour ago." + +"Perhaps she has had her supper," I ventured to suggest, +sharing the housekeeper's anxiety, and meekly conscious of an +inconsiderate appetite for my own supper after a long expedition up +the bay. There were so few emergencies of any sort at Dunnet +Landing that this one appeared overwhelming. + +"No, she's rode 'way over from Nahum Brayton's place. I +expect they were busy on the farm, and couldn't spare the horse in +proper season. You just sly out an' set the teakittle on again, +dear, an' drop in a good han'ful o' chips; the fire's all alive. +I'll take her right up to lay off her things, as she'll be occupied +with explanations an' gettin' her bunnit off, so you'll have plenty +o' time. She's one I shouldn't like to have find me unprepared." + +Mrs. Fosdick was already at the gate, and Mrs. Todd now turned +with an air of complete surprise and delight to welcome her. + +"Why, Susan Fosdick," I heard her exclaim in a fine unhindered +voice, as if she were calling across a field, "I come near giving +of you up! I was afraid you'd gone an' 'portioned out my visit to +somebody else. I s'pose you've been to supper?" + +"Lor', no, I ain't, Almiry Todd," said Mrs. Fosdick +cheerfully, as she turned, laden with bags and bundles, from making +her adieux to the boy driver. "I ain't had a mite o' supper, dear. +I've been lottin' all the way on a cup o' that best tea o' yourn,-- +some o' that Oolong you keep in the little chist. I don't want +none o' your useful herbs." + +"I keep that tea for ministers' folks," gayly responded Mrs. +Todd. "Come right along in, Susan Fosdick. I declare if you ain't +the same old sixpence!" + +As they came up the walk together, laughing like girls, I +fled, full of cares, to the kitchen, to brighten the fire and be +sure that the lobster, sole dependence of a late supper, was well +out of reach of the cat. There proved to be fine reserves of wild +raspberries and bread and butter, so that I regained my composure, +and waited impatiently for my own share of this illustrious visit +to begin. There was an instant sense of high festivity in +the evening air from the moment when our guest had so frankly +demanded the Oolong tea. + +The great moment arrived. I was formally presented at the +stair-foot, and the two friends passed on to the kitchen, where I +soon heard a hospitable clink of crockery and the brisk stirring of +a tea-cup. I sat in my high-backed rocking-chair by the window in +the front room with an unreasonable feeling of being left out, like +the child who stood at the gate in Hans Andersen's story. Mrs. +Fosdick did not look, at first sight, like a person of great social +gifts. She was a serious-looking little bit of an old woman, with +a birdlike nod of the head. I had often been told that she was the +"best hand in the world to make a visit,"--as if to visit were the +highest of vocations; that everybody wished for her, while few +could get her; and I saw that Mrs. Todd felt a comfortable sense of +distinction in being favored with the company of this eminent +person who "knew just how." It was certainly true that Mrs. +Fosdick gave both her hostess and me a warm feeling of enjoyment +and expectation, as if she had the power of social suggestion to +all neighboring minds. + +The two friends did not reappear for at least an hour. I +could hear their busy voices, loud and low by turns, as they ranged +from public to confidential topics. At last Mrs. Todd kindly +remembered me and returned, giving my door a ceremonious knock +before she stepped in, with the small visitor in her wake. She +reached behind her and took Mrs. Fosdick's hand as if she were +young and bashful, and gave her a gentle pull forward. + +"There, I don't know whether you're goin' to take to each +other or not; no, nobody can't tell whether you'll suit each other, +but I expect you'll get along some way, both having seen the +world," said our affectionate hostess. "You can inform Mis' +Fosdick how we found the folks out to Green Island the other day. +She's always been well acquainted with mother. I'll slip out now +an' put away the supper things an' set my bread to rise, if you'll +both excuse me. You can come an' keep me company when you get +ready, either or both." And Mrs. Todd, large and amiable, +disappeared and left us. + +Being furnished not only with a subject of conversation, but +with a safe refuge in the kitchen in case of incompatibility, Mrs. +Fosdick and I sat down, prepared to make the best of each other. +I soon discovered that she, like many of the elder women of the +coast, had spent a part of her life at sea, and was full of a good +traveler's curiosity and enlightenment. By the time we thought it +discreet to join our hostess we were already sincere friends. + +You may speak of a visit's setting in as well as a tide's, and +it was impossible, as Mrs. Todd whispered to me, not to be +pleased at the way this visit was setting in; a new impulse and +refreshing of the social currents and seldom visited bays of memory +appeared to have begun. Mrs. Fosdick had been the mother of a +large family of sons and daughters,--sailors and sailors' wives,-- +and most of them had died before her. I soon grew more or less +acquainted with the histories of all their fortunes and +misfortunes, and subjects of an intimate nature were no more +withheld from my ears than if I had been a shell on the +mantelpiece. Mrs. Fosdick was not without a touch of dignity and +elegance; she was fashionable in her dress, but it was a curiously +well-preserved provincial fashion of some years back. In a wider +sphere one might have called her a woman of the world, with her +unexpected bits of modern knowledge, but Mrs. Todd's wisdom was an +intimation of truth itself. She might belong to any age, like an +idyl of Theocritus; but while she always understood Mrs. Fosdick, +that entertaining pilgrim could not always understand Mrs. Todd. + +That very first evening my friends plunged into a borderless +sea of reminiscences and personal news. Mrs. Fosdick had been +staying with a family who owned the farm where she was born, and +she had visited every sunny knoll and shady field corner; but when +she said that it might be for the last time, I detected in her tone +something expectant of the contradiction which Mrs. Todd promptly +offered. + +"Almiry," said Mrs. Fosdick, with sadness, "you may say what +you like, but I am one of nine brothers and sisters brought up on +the old place, and we're all dead but me." + +"Your sister Dailey ain't gone, is she? Why, no, Louisa ain't +gone!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd, with surprise. "Why, I never heard of +that occurrence!" + +"Yes'm; she passed away last October, in Lynn. She had made +her distant home in Vermont State, but she was making a visit to +her youngest daughter. Louisa was the only one of my family whose +funeral I wasn't able to attend, but 'twas a mere accident. All +the rest of us were settled right about home. I thought it was +very slack of 'em in Lynn not to fetch her to the old place; but +when I came to hear about it, I learned that they'd recently put up +a very elegant monument, and my sister Dailey was always great for +show. She'd just been out to see the monument the week before she +was taken down, and admired it so much that they felt sure of her +wishes." + +"So she's really gone, and the funeral was up to Lynn!" +repeated Mrs. Todd, as if to impress the sad fact upon her mind. +"She was some years younger than we be, too. I recollect the first +day she ever came to school; 'twas that first year mother +sent me inshore to stay with aunt Topham's folks and get my +schooling. You fetched little Louisa to school one Monday mornin' +in a pink dress an' her long curls, and she set between you an' me, +and got cryin' after a while, so the teacher sent us home with her +at recess." + +"She was scared of seeing so many children about her; there +was only her and me and brother John at home then; the older boys +were to sea with father, an' the rest of us wa'n't born," explained +Mrs. Fosdick. "That next fall we all went to sea together. Mother +was uncertain till the last minute, as one may say. The ship was +waiting orders, but the baby that then was, was born just in time, +and there was a long spell of extra bad weather, so mother got +about again before they had to sail, an' we all went. I remember +my clothes were all left ashore in the east chamber in a basket +where mother'd took them out o' my chist o' drawers an' left 'em +ready to carry aboard. She didn't have nothing aboard, of her own, +that she wanted to cut up for me, so when my dress wore out she +just put me into a spare suit o' John's, jacket and trousers. I +wasn't but eight years old an' he was most seven and large of his +age. Quick as we made a port she went right ashore an' fitted me +out pretty, but we was bound for the East Indies and didn't put in +anywhere for a good while. So I had quite a spell o' freedom. +Mother made my new skirt long because I was growing, and I poked +about the deck after that, real discouraged, feeling the hem at my +heels every minute, and as if youth was past and gone. I liked the +trousers best; I used to climb the riggin' with 'em and frighten +mother till she said an' vowed she'd never take me to sea again." + +I thought by the polite absent-minded smile on Mrs. Todd's +face this was no new story. + +"Little Louisa was a beautiful child; yes, I always thought +Louisa was very pretty," Mrs. Todd said. "She was a dear little +girl in those days. She favored your mother; the rest of you took +after your father's folks." + +"We did certain," agreed Mrs. Fosdick, rocking steadily. +"There, it does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance +that knows what you know. I see so many of these new folks +nowadays, that seem to have neither past nor future. +Conversation's got to have some root in the past, or else you've +got to explain every remark you make, an' it wears a person out." + +Mrs. Todd gave a funny little laugh. "Yes'm, old friends is +always best, 'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an +old one out of," she said, and we gave an affectionate glance at +each other which Mrs. Fosdick could not have understood, being the +latest comer to the house. + + + + +XIII + + +Poor Joanna + +ONE EVENING my ears caught a mysterious allusion which Mrs. Todd +made to Shell-heap Island. It was a chilly night of cold +northeasterly rain, and I made a fire for the first time in the +Franklin stove in my room, and begged my two housemates to come in +and keep me company. The weather had convinced Mrs. Todd that it +was time to make a supply of cough-drops, and she had been bringing +forth herbs from dark and dry hiding-places, until now the pungent +dust and odor of them had resolved themselves into one mighty +flavor of spearmint that came from a simmering caldron of syrup in +the kitchen. She called it done, and well done, and had +ostentatiously left it to cool, and taken her knitting-work because +Mrs. Fosdick was busy with hers. They sat in the two rocking- +chairs, the small woman and the large one, but now and then I could +see that Mrs. Todd's thoughts remained with the cough-drops. The +time of gathering herbs was nearly over, but the time of syrups and +cordials had begun. + +The heat of the open fire made us a little drowsy, but +something in the way Mrs. Todd spoke of Shell-heap Island waked my +interest. I waited to see if she would say any more, and then took +a roundabout way back to the subject by saying what was first in my +mind: that I wished the Green Island family were there to spend the +evening with us,--Mrs. Todd's mother and her brother William. + +Mrs. Todd smiled, and drummed on the arm of the rocking-chair. +"Might scare William to death," she warned me; and Mrs. Fosdick +mentioned her intention of going out to Green Island to stay two or +three days, if the wind didn't make too much sea. + +"Where is Shell-heap Island?" I ventured to ask, seizing the +opportunity. + +"Bears nor-east somewheres about three miles from Green +Island; right off-shore, I should call it about eight miles out," +said Mrs. Todd. "You never was there, dear; 'tis off the +thoroughfares, and a very bad place to land at best." + +"I should think 'twas," agreed Mrs. Fosdick, smoothing down +her black silk apron. "'Tis a place worth visitin' when you once +get there. Some o' the old folks was kind o' fearful about it. +'Twas 'counted a great place in old Indian times; you can +pick up their stone tools 'most any time if you hunt about. +There's a beautiful spring o' water, too. Yes, I remember when +they used to tell queer stories about Shell-heap Island. Some said +'twas a great bangeing-place for the Indians, and an old chief +resided there once that ruled the winds; and others said they'd +always heard that once the Indians come down from up country an' +left a captive there without any bo't, an' 'twas too far to swim +across to Black Island, so called, an' he lived there till he +perished." + +"I've heard say he walked the island after that, and sharp- +sighted folks could see him an' lose him like one o' them citizens +Cap'n Littlepage was acquainted with up to the north pole," +announced Mrs. Todd grimly. "Anyway, there was Indians--you can +see their shell-heap that named the island; and I've heard myself +that 'twas one o' their cannibal places, but I never could believe +it. There never was no cannibals on the coast o' Maine. All the +Indians o' these regions are tame-looking folks." + +"Sakes alive, yes!" exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick. "Ought to see +them painted savages I've seen when I was young out in the South +Sea Islands! That was the time for folks to travel, 'way back in +the old whalin' days!" + +"Whalin' must have been dull for a lady, hardly ever makin' a +lively port, and not takin' in any mixed cargoes," said Mrs. Todd. +"I never desired to go a whalin' v'y'ge myself." + +"I used to return feelin' very slack an' behind the times, +'tis true," explained Mrs. Fosdick, "but 'twas excitin', an' we +always done extra well, and felt rich when we did get ashore. I +liked the variety. There, how times have changed; how few +seafarin' families there are left! What a lot o' queer folks there +used to be about here, anyway, when we was young, Almiry. +Everybody's just like everybody else, now; nobody to laugh about, +and nobody to cry about." + +It seemed to me that there were peculiarities of character in +the region of Dunnet Landing yet, but I did not like to interrupt. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Todd after a moment of meditation, "there was +certain a good many curiosities of human natur' in this +neighborhood years ago. There was more energy then, and in some +the energy took a singular turn. In these days the young folks is +all copy-cats, 'fraid to death they won't be all just alike; as for +the old folks, they pray for the advantage o' bein' a little +different." + +"I ain't heard of a copy-cat this great many years," said Mrs. +Fosdick, laughing; "'twas a favorite term o' my grandfather's. No, +I wa'n't thinking o' those things, but of them strange straying +creatur's that used to rove the country. You don't see them now, +or the ones that used to hive away in their own houses with some +strange notion or other." + +I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but my companions were +not reminded of his name; and there was brother William at Green +Island, whom we all three knew. + +"I was talking o' poor Joanna the other day. I hadn't thought +of her for a great while," said Mrs. Fosdick abruptly. "Mis' +Brayton an' I recalled her as we sat together sewing. She was one +o' your peculiar persons, wa'n't she? Speaking of such persons," +she turned to explain to me, "there was a sort of a nun or hermit +person lived out there for years all alone on Shell-heap Island. +Miss Joanna Todd, her name was,--a cousin o' Almiry's late +husband." + +I expressed my interest, but as I glanced at Mrs. Todd I saw +that she was confused by sudden affectionate feeling and +unmistakable desire for reticence. + +"I never want to hear Joanna laughed about," she said +anxiously. + +"Nor I," answered Mrs. Fosdick reassuringly. "She was crossed +in love,--that was all the matter to begin with; but as I look +back, I can see that Joanna was one doomed from the first to fall +into a melancholy. She retired from the world for good an' all, +though she was a well-off woman. All she wanted was to get away +from folks; she thought she wasn't fit to live with anybody, and +wanted to be free. Shell-heap Island come to her from her father, +and first thing folks knew she'd gone off out there to live, and +left word she didn't want no company. 'Twas a bad place to get to, +unless the wind an' tide were just right; 'twas hard work to make +a landing." + +"What time of year was this?" I asked. + +"Very late in the summer," said Mrs. Fosdick. "No, I never +could laugh at Joanna, as some did. She set everything by the +young man, an' they were going to marry in about a month, when he +got bewitched with a girl 'way up the bay, and married her, and +went off to Massachusetts. He wasn't well thought of,--there were +those who thought Joanna's money was what had tempted him; but +she'd given him her whole heart, an' she wa'n't so young as she had +been. All her hopes were built on marryin', an' havin' a real home +and somebody to look to; she acted just like a bird when its nest +is spoilt. The day after she heard the news she was in dreadful +woe, but the next she came to herself very quiet, and took the +horse and wagon, and drove fourteen miles to the lawyer's, and +signed a paper givin' her half of the farm to her brother. They +never had got along very well together, but he didn't want to sign +it, till she acted so distressed that he gave in. Edward Todd's +wife was a good woman, who felt very bad indeed, and used every +argument with Joanna; but Joanna took a poor old boat that had been +her father's and lo'ded in a few things, and off she put all +alone, with a good land breeze, right out to sea. Edward Todd ran +down to the beach, an' stood there cryin' like a boy to see her go, +but she was out o' hearin'. She never stepped foot on the mainland +again long as she lived." + +"How large an island is it? How did she manage in winter?" I +asked. + +"Perhaps thirty acres, rocks and all," answered Mrs. Todd, +taking up the story gravely. "There can't be much of it that the +salt spray don't fly over in storms. No, 'tis a dreadful small +place to make a world of; it has a different look from any of the +other islands, but there's a sheltered cove on the south side, with +mud-flats across one end of it at low water where there's excellent +clams, and the big shell-heap keeps some o' the wind off a little +house her father took the trouble to build when he was a young man. +They said there was an old house built o' logs there before that, +with a kind of natural cellar in the rock under it. He used to +stay out there days to a time, and anchor a little sloop he had, +and dig clams to fill it, and sail up to Portland. They said the +dealers always gave him an extra price, the clams were so noted. +Joanna used to go out and stay with him. They were always great +companions, so she knew just what 'twas out there. There was a few +sheep that belonged to her brother an' her, but she bargained for +him to come and get them on the edge o' cold weather. Yes, she +desired him to come for the sheep; an' his wife thought perhaps +Joanna'd return, but he said no, an' lo'ded the bo't with warm +things an' what he thought she'd need through the winter. He come +home with the sheep an' left the other things by the house, but she +never so much as looked out o' the window. She done it for a +penance. She must have wanted to see Edward by that time." + +Mrs. Fosdick was fidgeting with eagerness to speak. + +"Some thought the first cold snap would set her ashore, but +she always remained," concluded Mrs. Todd soberly. + +"Talk about the men not having any curiosity!" exclaimed Mrs. +Fosdick scornfully. "Why, the waters round Shell-heap Island were +white with sails all that fall. 'Twas never called no great of a +fishin'-ground before. Many of 'em made excuse to go ashore to get +water at the spring; but at last she spoke to a bo't-load, very +dignified and calm, and said that she'd like it better if they'd +make a practice of getting water to Black Island or somewheres else +and leave her alone, except in case of accident or trouble. But +there was one man who had always set everything by her from a boy. +He'd have married her if the other hadn't come about an' spoilt his +chance, and he used to get close to the island, before light, on +his way out fishin', and throw a little bundle way up the green +slope front o' the house. His sister told me she happened to see, +the first time, what a pretty choice he made o' useful +things that a woman would feel lost without. He stood off fishin', +and could see them in the grass all day, though sometimes she'd +come out and walk right by them. There was other bo'ts near, out +after mackerel. But early next morning his present was gone. He +didn't presume too much, but once he took her a nice firkin o' +things he got up to Portland, and when spring come he landed her a +hen and chickens in a nice little coop. There was a good many old +friends had Joanna on their minds." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Todd, losing her sad reserve in the growing +sympathy of these reminiscences. "How everybody used to notice +whether there was smoke out of the chimney! The Black Island folks +could see her with their spy-glass, and if they'd ever missed +getting some sign o' life they'd have sent notice to her folks. +But after the first year or two Joanna was more and more forgotten +as an every-day charge. Folks lived very simple in those days, you +know," she continued, as Mrs. Fosdick's knitting was taking much +thought at the moment. "I expect there was always plenty of +driftwood thrown up, and a poor failin' patch of spruces covered +all the north side of the island, so she always had something to +burn. She was very fond of workin' in the garden ashore, and that +first summer she began to till the little field out there, and +raised a nice parcel o' potatoes. She could fish, o' course, and +there was all her clams an' lobsters. You can always live well in +any wild place by the sea when you'd starve to death up country, +except 'twas berry time. Joanna had berries out there, +blackberries at least, and there was a few herbs in case she needed +them. Mullein in great quantities and a plant o' wormwood I +remember seeing once when I stayed there, long before she fled out +to Shell-heap. Yes, I recall the wormwood, which is always a +planted herb, so there must have been folks there before the Todds' +day. A growin' bush makes the best gravestone; I expect that +wormwood always stood for somebody's solemn monument. Catnip, too, +is a very endurin' herb about an old place." + +"But what I want to know is what she did for other things," +interrupted Mrs. Fosdick. "Almiry, what did she do for clothin' +when she needed to replenish, or risin' for her bread, or the +piece-bag that no woman can live long without?" + +"Or company," suggested Mrs. Todd. "Joanna was one that loved +her friends. There must have been a terrible sight o' long winter +evenin's that first year." + +"There was her hens," suggested Mrs. Fosdick, after reviewing +the melancholy situation. "She never wanted the sheep after that +first season. There wa'n't no proper pasture for sheep after the +June grass was past, and she ascertained the fact and couldn't bear +to see them suffer; but the chickens done well. I remember +sailin' by one spring afternoon, an' seein' the coops out front o' +the house in the sun. How long was it before you went out with the +minister? You were the first ones that ever really got ashore to +see Joanna." + +I had been reflecting upon a state of society which admitted +such personal freedom and a voluntary hermitage. There was +something mediaeval in the behavior of poor Joanna Todd under a +disappointment of the heart. The two women had drawn closer +together, and were talking on, quite unconscious of a listener. + +"Poor Joanna!" said Mrs. Todd again, and sadly shook her head +as if there were things one could not speak about. + +"I called her a great fool," declared Mrs. Fosdick, with +spirit, "but I pitied her then, and I pity her far more now. Some +other minister would have been a great help to her,--one that +preached self-forgetfulness and doin' for others to cure our own +ills; but Parson Dimmick was a vague person, well meanin', but very +numb in his feelin's. I don't suppose at that troubled time Joanna +could think of any way to mend her troubles except to run off and +hide." + +"Mother used to say she didn't see how Joanna lived without +having nobody to do for, getting her own meals and tending her own +poor self day in an' day out," said Mrs. Todd sorrowfully. + +"There was the hens," repeated Mrs. Fosdick kindly. "I expect +she soon came to makin' folks o' them. No, I never went to work to +blame Joanna, as some did. She was full o' feeling, and her +troubles hurt her more than she could bear. I see it all now as I +couldn't when I was young." + +"I suppose in old times they had their shut-up convents for +just such folks," said Mrs. Todd, as if she and her friend had +disagreed about Joanna once, and were now in happy harmony. She +seemed to speak with new openness and freedom. "Oh yes, I was only +too pleased when the Reverend Mr. Dimmick invited me to go out with +him. He hadn't been very long in the place when Joanna left home +and friends. 'Twas one day that next summer after she went, and I +had been married early in the spring. He felt that he ought to go +out and visit her. She was a member of the church, and might wish +to have him consider her spiritual state. I wa'n't so sure o' +that, but I always liked Joanna, and I'd come to be her cousin by +marriage. Nathan an' I had conversed about goin' out to pay her a +visit, but he got his chance to sail sooner'n he expected. He +always thought everything of her, and last time he come home, +knowing nothing of her change, he brought her a beautiful coral pin +from a port he'd touched at somewheres up the Mediterranean. So I +wrapped the little box in a nice piece of paper and put it +in my pocket, and picked her a bunch of fresh lemon balm, and off +we started." + +Mrs. Fosdick laughed. "I remember hearin' about your trials +on the v'y'ge," she said." + +"Why, yes," continued Mrs. Todd in her company manner. "I +picked her the balm, an' we started. Why, yes, Susan, the minister +liked to have cost me my life that day. He would fasten the sheet, +though I advised against it. He said the rope was rough an' cut +his hand. There was a fresh breeze, an' he went on talking rather +high flown, an' I felt some interested. All of a sudden there come +up a gust, and he gave a screech and stood right up and called for +help, 'way out there to sea. I knocked him right over into the +bottom o' the bo't, getting by to catch hold of the sheet an' untie +it. He wasn't but a little man; I helped him right up after the +squall passed, and made a handsome apology to him, but he did act +kind o' offended." + +"I do think they ought not to settle them landlocked folks in +parishes where they're liable to be on the water," insisted Mrs. +Fosdick. "Think of the families in our parish that was scattered +all about the bay, and what a sight o' sails you used to see, in +Mr. Dimmick's day, standing across to the mainland on a pleasant +Sunday morning, filled with church-going folks, all sure to want +him some time or other! You couldn't find no doctor that would +stand up in the boat and screech if a flaw struck her." + +"Old Dr. Bennett had a beautiful sailboat, didn't he?" +responded Mrs. Todd. "And how well he used to brave the weather! +Mother always said that in time o' trouble that tall white sail +used to look like an angel's wing comin' over the sea to them that +was in pain. Well, there's a difference in gifts. Mr. Dimmick was +not without light." + +"'Twas light o' the moon, then," snapped Mrs. Fosdick; "he was +pompous enough, but I never could remember a single word he said. +There, go on, Mis' Todd; I forget a great deal about that day you +went to see poor Joanna." + +"I felt she saw us coming, and knew us a great way off; yes, +I seemed to feel it within me," said our friend, laying down her +knitting. "I kept my seat, and took the bo't inshore without +saying a word; there was a short channel that I was sure Mr. +Dimmick wasn't acquainted with, and the tide was very low. She +never came out to warn us off nor anything, and I thought, as I +hauled the bo't up on a wave and let the Reverend Mr. Dimmick step +out, that it was somethin' gained to be safe ashore. There was a +little smoke out o' the chimney o' Joanna's house, and it did look +sort of homelike and pleasant with wild mornin'-glory vines trained +up; an' there was a plot o' flowers under the front window, +portulacas and things. I believe she'd made a garden once, +when she was stopping there with her father, and some things must +have seeded in. It looked as if she might have gone over to the +other side of the island. 'Twas neat and pretty all about the +house, and a lovely day in July. We walked up from the beach +together very sedate, and I felt for poor Nathan's little pin to +see if 'twas safe in my dress pocket. All of a sudden Joanna come +right to the fore door and stood there, not sayin' a word." + + + + +XIV + + +The Hermitage + +MY COMPANION and I had been so intent upon the subject of the +conversation that we had not heard any one open the gate, but at +this moment, above the noise of the rain, we heard a loud knocking. +We were all startled as we sat by the fire, and Mrs. Todd rose +hastily and went to answer the call, leaving her rocking-chair in +violent motion. Mrs. Fosdick and I heard an anxious voice at the +door speaking of a sick child, and Mrs. Todd's kind, motherly voice +inviting the messenger in: then we waited in silence. There was a +sound of heavy dropping of rain from the eaves, and the distant +roar and undertone of the sea. My thoughts flew back to the lonely +woman on her outer island; what separation from humankind she must +have felt, what terror and sadness, even in a summer storm like +this! + +"You send right after the doctor if she ain't better in half +an hour," said Mrs. Todd to her worried customer as they parted; +and I felt a warm sense of comfort in the evident resources of even +so small a neighborhood, but for the poor hermit Joanna there was +no neighbor on a winter night. + + +"How did she look?" demanded Mrs. Fosdick, without preface, as +our large hostess returned to the little room with a mist about her +from standing long in the wet doorway, and the sudden draught of +her coming beat out the smoke and flame from the Franklin stove. +"How did poor Joanna look?" + +"She was the same as ever, except I thought she looked +smaller," answered Mrs. Todd after thinking a moment; perhaps it +was only a last considering thought about her patient. +"Yes, she was just the same, and looked very nice, Joanna did. I +had been married since she left home, an' she treated me like her +own folks. I expected she'd look strange, with her hair turned +gray in a night or somethin', but she wore a pretty gingham dress +I'd often seen her wear before she went away; she must have kept it +nice for best in the afternoons. She always had beautiful, quiet +manners. I remember she waited till we were close to her, and then +kissed me real affectionate, and inquired for Nathan before she +shook hands with the minister, and then she invited us both in. +'Twas the same little house her father had built him when he was a +bachelor, with one livin'-room, and a little mite of a bedroom out +of it where she slept, but 'twas neat as a ship's cabin. There was +some old chairs, an' a seat made of a long box that might have held +boat tackle an' things to lock up in his fishin' days, and a good +enough stove so anybody could cook and keep warm in cold weather. +I went over once from home and stayed 'most a week with Joanna when +we was girls, and those young happy days rose up before me. Her +father was busy all day fishin' or clammin'; he was one o' the +pleasantest men in the world, but Joanna's mother had the grim +streak, and never knew what 'twas to be happy. The first minute my +eyes fell upon Joanna's face that day I saw how she had grown to +look like Mis' Todd. 'Twas the mother right over again." + +"Oh dear me!" said Mrs. Fosdick. + +"Joanna had done one thing very pretty. There was a little +piece o' swamp on the island where good rushes grew plenty, and +she'd gathered 'em, and braided some beautiful mats for the floor +and a thick cushion for the long bunk. She'd showed a good deal of +invention; you see there was a nice chance to pick up pieces o' +wood and boards that drove ashore, and she'd made good use o' what +she found. There wasn't no clock, but she had a few dishes on a +shelf, and flowers set about in shells fixed to the walls, so it +did look sort of homelike, though so lonely and poor. I couldn't +keep the tears out o' my eyes, I felt so sad. I said to myself, I +must get mother to come over an' see Joanna; the love in mother's +heart would warm her, an' she might be able to advise." + +"Oh no, Joanna was dreadful stern," said Mrs. Fosdick. + +"We were all settin' down very proper, but Joanna would keep +stealin' glances at me as if she was glad I come. She had but +little to say; she was real polite an' gentle, and yet forbiddin'. +The minister found it hard," confessed Mrs. Todd; "he got +embarrassed, an' when he put on his authority and asked her if she +felt to enjoy religion in her present situation, an' she replied +that she must be excused from answerin', I thought I should fly. +She might have made it easier for him; after all, he was the +minister and had taken some trouble to come out, though 'twas kind +of cold an' unfeelin' the way he inquired. I thought he might have +seen the little old Bible a-layin' on the shelf close by him, an' +I wished he knew enough to just lay his hand on it an' read +somethin' kind an' fatherly 'stead of accusin' her, an' then given +poor Joanna his blessin' with the hope she might be led to comfort. +He did offer prayer, but 'twas all about hearin' the voice o' God +out o' the whirlwind; and I thought while he was goin' on that +anybody that had spent the long cold winter all alone out on Shell- +heap Island knew a good deal more about those things than he did. +I got so provoked I opened my eyes and stared right at him. + +"She didn't take no notice, she kep' a nice respectful manner +towards him, and when there come a pause she asked if he had any +interest about the old Indian remains, and took down some queer +stone gouges and hammers off of one of her shelves and showed them +to him same's if he was a boy. He remarked that he'd like to walk +over an' see the shell-heap; so she went right to the door and +pointed him the way. I see then that she'd made her some kind o' +sandal-shoes out o' the fine rushes to wear on her feet; she +stepped light an' nice in 'em as shoes." + +Mrs. Fosdick leaned back in her rocking-chair and gave a heavy +sigh. + +"I didn't move at first, but I'd held out just as long as I +could," said Mrs. Todd, whose voice trembled a little. "When +Joanna returned from the door, an' I could see that man's stupid +back departin' among the wild rose bushes, I just ran to her an' +caught her in my arms. I wasn't so big as I be now, and she was +older than me, but I hugged her tight, just as if she was a child. +'Oh, Joanna dear,' I says, 'won't you come ashore an' live 'long o' +me at the Landin', or go over to Green Island to mother's when +winter comes? Nobody shall trouble you an' mother finds it hard +bein' alone. I can't bear to leave you here'--and I burst right +out crying. I'd had my own trials, young as I was, an' she knew +it. Oh, I did entreat her; yes, I entreated Joanna." + +"What did she say then?" asked Mrs. Fosdick, much moved. + +"She looked the same way, sad an' remote through it all," said +Mrs. Todd mournfully. "She took hold of my hand, and we sat down +close together; 'twas as if she turned round an' made a child of +me. 'I haven't got no right to live with folks no more,' she said. +'You must never ask me again, Almiry: I've done the only thing I +could do, and I've made my choice. I feel a great comfort in your +kindness, but I don't deserve it. I have committed the +unpardonable sin; you don't understand,' says she humbly. 'I was +in great wrath and trouble, and my thoughts was so wicked towards +God that I can't expect ever to be forgiven. I have come to +know what it is to have patience, but I have lost my hope. You +must tell those that ask how 'tis with me,' she said, 'an' tell +them I want to be alone.' I couldn't speak; no, there wa'n't +anything I could say, she seemed so above everything common. I was +a good deal younger then than I be now, and I got Nathan's little +coral pin out o' my pocket and put it into her hand; and when she +saw it and I told her where it come from, her face did really light +up for a minute, sort of bright an' pleasant. 'Nathan an' I was +always good friends; I'm glad he don't think hard of me,' says she. +'I want you to have it, Almiry, an' wear it for love o' both o' +us,' and she handed it back to me. 'You give my love to Nathan,-- +he's a dear good man,' she said; 'an' tell your mother, if I should +be sick she mustn't wish I could get well, but I want her to be the +one to come.' Then she seemed to have said all she wanted to, as +if she was done with the world, and we sat there a few minutes +longer together. It was real sweet and quiet except for a good +many birds and the sea rollin' up on the beach; but at last she +rose, an' I did too, and she kissed me and held my hand in hers a +minute, as if to say good-by; then she turned and went right away +out o' the door and disappeared. + +"The minister come back pretty soon, and I told him I was all +ready, and we started down to the bo't. He had picked up some +round stones and things and was carrying them in his pocket- +handkerchief; an' he sat down amidships without making any +question, and let me take the rudder an' work the bo't, an' made no +remarks for some time, until we sort of eased it off speaking of +the weather, an' subjects that arose as we skirted Black Island, +where two or three families lived belongin' to the parish. He +preached next Sabbath as usual, somethin' high soundin' about the +creation, and I couldn't help thinkin' he might never get no +further; he seemed to know no remedies, but he had a great use of +words." + +Mrs. Fosdick sighed again. "Hearin' you tell about Joanna +brings the time right back as if 'twas yesterday," she said. "Yes, +she was one o' them poor things that talked about the great sin; we +don't seem to hear nothing about the unpardonable sin now, but you +may say 'twas not uncommon then." + +"I expect that if it had been in these days, such a person +would be plagued to death with idle folks," continued Mrs. Todd, +after a long pause. "As it was, nobody trespassed on her; all the +folks about the bay respected her an' her feelings; but as time +wore on, after you left here, one after another ventured to make +occasion to put somethin' ashore for her if they went that way. I +know mother used to go to see her sometimes, and send William over +now and then with something fresh an' nice from the farm. +There is a point on the sheltered side where you can lay a boat +close to shore an' land anything safe on the turf out o' reach o' +the water. There were one or two others, old folks, that she would +see, and now an' then she'd hail a passin' boat an' ask for +somethin'; and mother got her to promise that she would make some +sign to the Black Island folks if she wanted help. I never saw her +myself to speak to after that day." + +"I expect nowadays, if such a thing happened, she'd have gone +out West to her uncle's folks or up to Massachusetts and had a +change, an' come home good as new. The world's bigger an' freer +than it used to be," urged Mrs. Fosdick. + +"No," said her friend. "'Tis like bad eyesight, the mind of +such a person: if your eyes don't see right there may be a remedy, +but there's no kind of glasses to remedy the mind. No, Joanna was +Joanna, and there she lays on her island where she lived and did +her poor penance. She told mother the day she was dyin' that she +always used to want to be fetched inshore when it come to the last; +but she'd thought it over, and desired to be laid on the island, if +'twas thought right. So the funeral was out there, a Saturday +afternoon in September. 'Twas a pretty day, and there wa'n't +hardly a boat on the coast within twenty miles that didn't head for +Shell-heap cram-full o' folks an' all real respectful, same's if +she'd always stayed ashore and held her friends. Some went out o' +mere curiosity, I don't doubt,--there's always such to every +funeral; but most had real feelin', and went purpose to show it. +She'd got most o' the wild sparrows as tame as could be, livin' out +there so long among 'em, and one flew right in and lit on the +coffin an' begun to sing while Mr. Dimmick was speakin'. He was +put out by it, an' acted as if he didn't know whether to stop or go +on. I may have been prejudiced, but I wa'n't the only one thought +the poor little bird done the best of the two." + +"What became o' the man that treated her so, did you ever +hear?" asked Mrs. Fosdick. "I know he lived up to Massachusetts +for a while. Somebody who came from the same place told me that he +was in trade there an' doin' very well, but that was years ago." + +"I never heard anything more than that; he went to the war in +one o' the early regiments. No, I never heard any more of him," +answered Mrs. Todd. "Joanna was another sort of person, and +perhaps he showed good judgment in marryin' somebody else, if only +he'd behaved straight-forward and manly. He was a shifty-eyed, +coaxin' sort of man, that got what he wanted out o' folks, an' only +gave when he wanted to buy, made friends easy and lost 'em without +knowin' the difference. She'd had a piece o' work tryin' to make +him walk accordin' to her right ideas, but she'd have had +too much variety ever to fall into a melancholy. Some is meant to +be the Joannas in this world, an' 'twas her poor lot." + + + + +XV + + +On Shell-heap Island + +SOME TIME AFTER Mrs. Fosdick's visit was over and we had returned +to our former quietness, I was out sailing alone with Captain +Bowden in his large boat. We were taking the crooked northeasterly +channel seaward, and were well out from shore while it was still +early in the afternoon. I found myself presently among some +unfamiliar islands, and suddenly remembered the story of poor +Joanna. There is something in the fact of a hermitage that cannot +fail to touch the imagination; the recluses are a sad kindred, but +they are never commonplace. Mrs. Todd had truly said that Joanna +was like one of the saints in the desert; the loneliness of sorrow +will forever keep alive their sad succession. + +"Where is Shell-heap Island?" I asked eagerly. + +"You see Shell-heap now, layin' 'way out beyond Black Island +there," answered the captain, pointing with outstretched arm as he +stood, and holding the rudder with his knee. + +"I should like very much to go there," said I, and the +captain, without comment, changed his course a little more to the +eastward and let the reef out of his mainsail. + +"I don't know's we can make an easy landin' for ye," he +remarked doubtfully. "May get your feet wet; bad place to land. +Trouble is I ought to have brought a tag-boat; but they clutch on +to the water so, an' I do love to sail free. This gre't boat gets +easy bothered with anything trailin'. 'Tain't breakin' much on the +meetin'-house ledges; guess I can fetch in to Shell-heap." + +"How long is it since Miss Joanna Todd died?" I asked, partly +by way of explanation. + +"Twenty-two years come September," answered the captain, after +reflection. "She died the same year as my oldest boy was born, an' +the town house was burnt over to the Port. I didn't know but you +merely wanted to hunt for some o' them Indian relics. Long's you +want to see where Joanna lived--No, 'tain't breakin' over +the ledges; we'll manage to fetch across the shoals somehow, 'tis +such a distance to go 'way round, and tide's a-risin'," he ended +hopefully, and we sailed steadily on, the captain speechless with +intent watching of a difficult course, until the small island with +its low whitish promontory lay in full view before us under the +bright afternoon sun. + +The month was August, and I had seen the color of the islands +change from the fresh green of June to a sunburnt brown that made +them look like stone, except where the dark green of the spruces +and fir balsam kept the tint that even winter storms might deepen, +but not fade. The few wind-bent trees on Shell-heap Island were +mostly dead and gray, but there were some low-growing bushes, and +a stripe of light green ran along just above the shore, which I +knew to be wild morning-glories. As we came close I could see the +high stone walls of a small square field, though there were no +sheep left to assail it; and below, there was a little harbor-like +cove where Captain Bowden was boldly running the great boat in to +seek a landing-place. There was a crooked channel of deep water +which led close up against the shore. + +"There, you hold fast for'ard there, an' wait for her to lift +on the wave. You'll make a good landin' if you're smart; right on +the port-hand side!" the captain called excitedly; and I, standing +ready with high ambition, seized my chance and leaped over to the +grassy bank. + +"I'm beat if I ain't aground after all!" mourned the captain +despondently. + +But I could reach the bowsprit, and he pushed with the boat- +hook, while the wind veered round a little as if on purpose and +helped with the sail; so presently the boat was free and began to +drift out from shore. + +"Used to call this p'int Joanna's wharf privilege, but 't has +worn away in the weather since her time. I thought one or two +bumps wouldn't hurt us none,--paint's got to be renewed, anyway,-- +but I never thought she'd tetch. I figured on shyin' by," the +captain apologized. "She's too gre't a boat to handle well in +here; but I used to sort of shy by in Joanna's day, an' cast a +little somethin' ashore--some apples or a couple o' pears if I had +'em--on the grass, where she'd be sure to see." + +I stood watching while Captain Bowden cleverly found his way +back to deeper water. "You needn't make no haste," he called to +me; "I'll keep within call. Joanna lays right up there in the far +corner o' the field. There used to be a path led to the place. I +always knew her well. I was out here to the funeral." + +I found the path; it was touching to discover that this lonely +spot was not without its pilgrims. Later generations will know +less and less of Joanna herself, but there are paths trodden to the +shrines of solitude the world over,--the world cannot forget +them, try as it may; the feet of the young find them out because of +curiosity and dim foreboding; while the old bring hearts full of +remembrance. This plain anchorite had been one of those whom +sorrow made too lonely to brave the sight of men, too timid to +front the simple world she knew, yet valiant enough to live alone +with her poor insistent human nature and the calms and passions of +the sea and sky. + +The birds were flying all about the field; they fluttered up +out of the grass at my feet as I walked along, so tame that I liked +to think they kept some happy tradition from summer to summer of +the safety of nests and good fellowship of mankind. Poor Joanna's +house was gone except the stones of its foundations, and there was +little trace of her flower garden except a single faded sprig of +much-enduring French pinks, which a great bee and a yellow +butterfly were befriending together. I drank at the spring, and +thought that now and then some one would follow me from the busy, +hard-worked, and simple-thoughted countryside of the mainland, +which lay dim and dreamlike in the August haze, as Joanna must have +watched it many a day. There was the world, and here was she with +eternity well begun. In the life of each of us, I said to myself, +there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret +or secret happiness; we are each the uncompanioned hermit and +recluse of an hour or a day; we understand our fellows of the cell +to whatever age of history they may belong. + +But as I stood alone on the island, in the sea-breeze, +suddenly there came a sound of distant voices; gay voices and +laughter from a pleasure-boat that was going seaward full of boys +and girls. I knew, as if she had told me, that poor Joanna must +have heard the like on many and many a summer afternoon, and must +have welcomed the good cheer in spite of hopelessness and winter +weather, and all the sorrow and disappointment in the world. + + + + +XVI + + +The Great Expedition + +MRS. TODD never by any chance gave warning over night of her great +projects and adventures by sea and land. She first came to an +understanding with the primal forces of nature, and never trusted +to any preliminary promise of good weather, but examined the +day for herself in its infancy. Then, if the stars were +propitious, and the wind blew from a quarter of good inheritance +whence no surprises of sea-turns or southwest sultriness might be +feared, long before I was fairly awake I used to hear a rustle and +knocking like a great mouse in the walls, and an impatient tread on +the steep garret stairs that led to Mrs. Todd's chief place of +storage. She went and came as if she had already started on her +expedition with utmost haste and kept returning for something that +was forgotten. When I appeared in quest of my breakfast, she would +be absent-minded and sparing of speech, as if I had displeased her, +and she was now, by main force of principle, holding herself back +from altercation and strife of tongues. + +These signs of a change became familiar to me in the course of +time, and Mrs. Todd hardly noticed some plain proofs of divination +one August morning when I said, without preface, that I had just +seen the Beggs' best chaise go by, and that we should have to take +the grocery. Mrs. Todd was alert in a moment. + +"There! I might have known!" she exclaimed. "It's the 15th +of August, when he goes and gets his money. He heired an annuity +from an uncle o' his on his mother's side. I understood the uncle +said none o' Sam Begg's wife's folks should make free with it, so +after Sam's gone it'll all be past an' spent, like last summer. +That's what Sam prospers on now, if you can call it prosperin'. +Yes, I might have known. 'Tis the 15th o' August with him, an' he +gener'ly stops to dinner with a cousin's widow on the way home. +Feb'uary n' August is the times. Takes him 'bout all day to go an' +come." + +I heard this explanation with interest. The tone of Mrs. +Todd's voice was complaining at the last. + +"I like the grocery just as well as the chaise," I hastened to +say, referring to a long-bodied high wagon with a canopy-top, like +an attenuated four-posted bedstead on wheels, in which we sometimes +journeyed. "We can put things in behind--roots and flowers and +raspberries, or anything you are going after--much better than if +we had the chaise." + +Mrs. Todd looked stony and unwilling. "I counted upon the +chaise," she said, turning her back to me, and roughly pushing back +all the quiet tumblers on the cupboard shelf as if they had been +impertinent. "Yes, I desired the chaise for once. I ain't goin' +berryin' nor to fetch home no more wilted vegetation this year. +Season's about past, except for a poor few o' late things," she +added in a milder tone. "I'm goin' up country. No, I ain't +intendin' to go berryin'. I've been plottin' for it the past +fortnight and hopin' for a good day." + +"Would you like to have me go too?" I asked frankly, but not +without a humble fear that I might have mistaken the purpose of +this latest plan. + +"Oh certain, dear!" answered my friend affectionately. "Oh +no, I never thought o' any one else for comp'ny, if it's convenient +for you, long's poor mother ain't come. I ain't nothin' like so +handy with a conveyance as I be with a good bo't. Comes o' my +early bringing-up. I expect we've got to make that great high +wagon do. The tires want settin' and 'tis all loose-jointed, so I +can hear it shackle the other side o' the ridge. We'll put the +basket in front. I ain't goin' to have it bouncin' an' twirlin' +all the way. Why, I've been makin' some nice hearts and rounds to +carry." + +These were signs of high festivity, and my interest deepened +moment by moment. + +"I'll go down to the Beggs' and get the horse just as soon as +I finish my breakfast," said I. "Then we can start whenever you +are ready." + +Mrs. Todd looked cloudy again. "I don't know but you look +nice enough to go just as you be," she suggested doubtfully. "No, +you wouldn't want to wear that pretty blue dress o' yourn 'way up +country. 'Taint dusty now, but it may be comin' home. No, I +expect you'd rather not wear that and the other hat." + +"Oh yes. I shouldn't think of wearing these clothes," said I, +with sudden illumination. "Why, if we're going up country and are +likely to see some of your friends, I'll put on my blue dress, and +you must wear your watch; I am not going at all if you mean to wear +the big hat." + +"Now you're behavin' pretty," responded Mrs. Todd, with a gay +toss of her head and a cheerful smile, as she came across the room, +bringing a saucerful of wild raspberries, a pretty piece of salvage +from supper-time. "I was cast down when I see you come to +breakfast. I didn't think 'twas just what you'd select to wear to +the reunion, where you're goin' to meet everybody." + +"What reunion do you mean?" I asked, not without amazement. +"Not the Bowden Family's? I thought that was going to take place +in September." + +"To-day's the day. They sent word the middle o' the week. I +thought you might have heard of it. Yes, they changed the day. I +been thinkin' we'd talk it over, but you never can tell beforehand +how it's goin' to be, and 'taint worth while to wear a day all out +before it comes." Mrs. Todd gave no place to the pleasures of +anticipation, but she spoke like the oracle that she was. "I wish +mother was here to go," she continued sadly. "I did look for her +last night, and I couldn't keep back the tears when the dark really +fell and she wa'n't here, she does so enjoy a great occasion. If +William had a mite o' snap an' ambition, he'd take the lead +at such a time. Mother likes variety, and there ain't but a few +nice opportunities 'round here, an' them she has to miss 'less she +contrives to get ashore to me. I do re'lly hate to go to the +reunion without mother, an' 'tis a beautiful day; everybody'll be +asking where she is. Once she'd have got here anyway. Poor +mother's beginnin' to feel her age." + +"Why, there's your mother now!" I exclaimed with joy, I was so +glad to see the dear old soul again. "I hear her voice at the +gate." But Mrs. Todd was out of the door before me. + +There, sure enough, stood Mrs. Blackett, who must have left +Green Island before daylight. She had climbed the steep road from +the waterside so eagerly that she was out of breath, and was +standing by the garden fence to rest. She held an old-fashioned +brown wicker cap-basket in her hand, as if visiting were a thing of +every day, and looked up at us as pleased and triumphant as a +child. + +"Oh, what a poor, plain garden! Hardly a flower in it except +your bush o' balm!" she said. "But you do keep your garden neat, +Almiry. Are you both well, an' goin' up country with me?" She +came a step or two closer to meet us, with quaint politeness and +quite as delightful as if she were at home. She dropped a quick +little curtsey before Mrs. Todd. + +"There, mother, what a girl you be! I am so pleased! I was +just bewailin' you," said the daughter, with unwonted feeling. "I +was just bewailin' you, I was so disappointed, an' I kep' myself +awake a good piece o' the night scoldin' poor William. I watched +for the boat till I was ready to shed tears yisterday, and when +'twas comin' dark I kep' making errands out to the gate an' down +the road to see if you wa'n't in the doldrums somewhere down the +bay." + +"There was a head-wind, as you know," said Mrs. Blackett, +giving me the cap-basket, and holding my hand affectionately as we +walked up the clean-swept path to the door. "I was partly ready to +come, but dear William said I should be all tired out and might get +cold, havin' to beat all the way in. So we give it up, and set +down and spent the evenin' together. It was a little rough and +windy outside, and I guess 'twas better judgment; we went to bed +very early and made a good start just at daylight. It's been a +lovely mornin' on the water. William thought he'd better fetch +across beyond Bird Rocks, rowin' the greater part o' the way; then +we sailed from there right over to the landin', makin' only one +tack. William'll be in again for me to-morrow, so I can come back +here an' rest me over night, an' go to meetin' to-morrow, and have +a nice, good visit." + +"She was just havin' her breakfast," said Mrs. Todd, who had +listened eagerly to the long explanation without a word of +disapproval, while her face shone more and more with joy. "You +just sit right down an' have a cup of tea and rest you while we +make our preparations. Oh, I am so gratified to think you've come! +Yes, she was just havin' her breakfast, and we were speakin' of +you. Where's William?" + +"He went right back; said he expected some schooners in about +noon after bait, but he'll come an' have his dinner with us +tomorrow, unless it rains; then next day. I laid his best things +out all ready," explained Mrs. Blackett, a little anxiously. "This +wind will serve him nice all the way home. Yes, I will take a cup +of tea, dear,--a cup of tea is always good; and then I'll rest a +minute and be all ready to start." + +"I do feel condemned for havin' such hard thoughts o' +William," openly confessed Mrs. Todd. She stood before us so large +and serious that we both laughed and could not find it in our +hearts to convict so rueful a culprit. "He shall have a good +dinner to-morrow, if it can be got, and I shall be real glad to see +William," the confession ended handsomely, while Mrs. Blackett +smiled approval and made haste to praise the tea. Then I hurried +away to make sure of the grocery wagon. Whatever might be the good +of the reunion, I was going to have the pleasure and delight of a +day in Mrs. Blackett's company, not to speak of Mrs. Todd's. + +The early morning breeze was still blowing, and the warm, +sunshiny air was of some ethereal northern sort, with a cool +freshness as it came over new-fallen snow. The world was filled +with a fragrance of fir-balsam and the faintest flavor of seaweed +from the ledges, bare and brown at low tide in the little harbor. +It was so still and so early that the village was but half awake. +I could hear no voices but those of the birds, small and great,-- +the constant song sparrows, the clink of a yellow-hammer over in +the woods, and the far conversation of some deliberate crows. I +saw William Blackett's escaping sail already far from land, and +Captain Littlepage was sitting behind his closed window as I passed +by, watching for some one who never came. I tried to speak to him, +but he did not see me. There was a patient look on the old man's +face, as if the world were a great mistake and he had nobody with +whom to speak his own language or find companionship. + + + + +XVII + + +A Country Road + +WHATEVER DOUBTS and anxieties I may have had about the +inconvenience of the Begg's high wagon for a person of Mrs. +Blackett's age and shortness, they were happily overcome by the aid +of a chair and her own valiant spirit. Mrs. Todd bestowed great +care upon seating us as if we were taking passage by boat, but she +finally pronounced that we were properly trimmed. When we had gone +only a little way up the hill she remembered that she had left the +house door wide open, though the large key was safe in her pocket. +I offered to run back, but my offer was met with lofty scorn, and +we lightly dismissed the matter from our minds, until two or three +miles further on we met the doctor, and Mrs. Todd asked him to stop +and ask her nearest neighbor to step over and close the door if the +dust seemed to blow in the afternoon. + +"She'll be there in her kitchen; she'll hear you the minute +you call; 'twont give you no delay," said Mrs. Todd to the doctor. +"Yes, Mis' Dennett's right there, with the windows all open. It +isn't as if my fore door opened right on the road, anyway." At +which proof of composure Mrs. Blackett smiled wisely at me. + +The doctor seemed delighted to see our guest; they were +evidently the warmest friends, and I saw a look of affectionate +confidence in their eyes. The good man left his carriage to speak +to us, but as he took Mrs. Blackett's hand he held it a moment, +and, as if merely from force of habit, felt her pulse as they +talked; then to my delight he gave the firm old wrist a commending +pat. + +"You're wearing well; good for another ten years at this +rate," he assured her cheerfully, and she smiled back. "I like to +keep a strict account of my old stand-bys," and he turned to me. +"Don't you let Mrs. Todd overdo to-day,--old folks like her are apt +to be thoughtless;" and then we all laughed, and, parting, went our +ways gayly. + +"I suppose he puts up with your rivalry the same as ever?" +asked Mrs. Blackett. "You and he are as friendly as ever, I see, +Almiry," and Almira sagely nodded. + +"He's got too many long routes now to stop to 'tend to all his +door patients," she said, "especially them that takes pleasure in +talkin' themselves over. The doctor and me have got to be kind of +partners; he's gone a good deal, far an' wide. Looked +tired, didn't he? I shall have to advise with him an' get him off +for a good rest. He'll take the big boat from Rockland an' go off +up to Boston an' mouse round among the other doctors, one in two or +three years, and come home fresh as a boy. I guess they think +consider'ble of him up there." Mrs. Todd shook the reins and +reached determinedly for the whip, as if she were compelling public +opinion. + +Whatever energy and spirit the white horse had to begin with +were soon exhausted by the steep hills and his discernment of a +long expedition ahead. We toiled slowly along. Mrs. Blackett and +I sat together, and Mrs. Todd sat alone in front with much majesty +and the large basket of provisions. Part of the way the road was +shaded by thick woods, but we also passed one farmhouse after +another on the high uplands, which we all three regarded with deep +interest, the house itself and the barns and garden-spots and +poultry all having to suffer an inspection of the shrewdest sort. +This was a highway quite new to me; in fact, most of my journeys +with Mrs. Todd had been made afoot and between the roads, in open +pasturelands. My friends stopped several times for brief dooryard +visits, and made so many promises of stopping again on the way home +that I began to wonder how long the expedition would last. I had +often noticed how warmly Mrs. Todd was greeted by her friends, but +it was hardly to be compared with the feeling now shown toward Mrs. +Blackett. A look of delight came to the faces of those who +recognized the plain, dear old figure beside me; one revelation +after another was made of the constant interest and intercourse +that had linked the far island and these scattered farms into a +golden chain of love and dependence. + +"Now, we mustn't stop again if we can help it," insisted Mrs. +Todd at last. "You'll get tired, mother, and you'll think the less +o' reunions. We can visit along here any day. There, if they +ain't frying doughnuts in this next house, too! These are new +folks, you know, from over St. George way; they took this old +Talcot farm last year. 'Tis the best water on the road, and the +check-rein's come undone--yes, we'd best delay a little and water +the horse." + +We stopped, and seeing a party of pleasure-seekers in holiday +attire, the thin, anxious mistress of the farmhouse came out with +wistful sympathy to hear what news we might have to give. Mrs. +Blackett first spied her at the half-closed door, and asked with +such cheerful directness if we were trespassing that, after a few +words, she went back to her kitchen and reappeared with a plateful +of doughnuts. + +"Entertainment for man and beast," announced Mrs. Todd with +satisfaction. "Why, we've perceived there was new doughnuts +all along the road, but you're the first that has treated us." + +Our new acquaintance flushed with pleasure, but said nothing. + +"They're very nice; you've had good luck with 'em," pronounced +Mrs. Todd. "Yes, we've observed there was doughnuts all the way +along; if one house is frying all the rest is; 'tis so with a great +many things." + +"I don't suppose likely you're goin' up to the Bowden +reunion?" asked the hostess as the white horse lifted his head and +we were saying good-by. + +"Why, yes," said Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. Todd and I, all +together. + +"I am connected with the family. Yes, I expect to be there +this afternoon. I've been lookin' forward to it," she told us +eagerly. + +"We shall see you there. Come and sit with us if it's +convenient," said dear Mrs. Blackett, and we drove away. + +"I wonder who she was before she was married?" said Mrs. Todd, +who was usually unerring in matters of genealogy. "She must have +been one of that remote branch that lived down beyond Thomaston. +We can find out this afternoon. I expect that the families'll +march together, or be sorted out some way. I'm willing to own a +relation that has such proper ideas of doughnuts." + +"I seem to see the family looks," said Mrs. Blackett. "I wish +we'd asked her name. She's a stranger, and I want to help make it +pleasant for all such." + +"She resembles Cousin Pa'lina Bowden about the forehead," said +Mrs. Todd with decision. + +We had just passed a piece of woodland that shaded the road, +and come out to some open fields beyond, when Mrs. Todd suddenly +reined in the horse as if somebody had stood on the roadside and +stopped her. She even gave that quick reassuring nod of her head +which was usually made to answer for a bow, but I discovered that +she was looking eagerly at a tall ash-tree that grew just inside +the field fence. + +"I thought 'twas goin' to do well," she said complacently as +we went on again. "Last time I was up this way that tree was kind +of drooping and discouraged. Grown trees act that way sometimes, +same's folks; then they'll put right to it and strike their roots +off into new ground and start all over again with real good +courage. Ash-trees is very likely to have poor spells; they ain't +got the resolution of other trees." + +I listened hopefully for more; it was this peculiar wisdom +that made one value Mrs. Todd's pleasant company. + +"There's sometimes a good hearty tree growin' right out of the +bare rock, out o' some crack that just holds the roots;" she went +on to say, "right on the pitch o' one o' them bare stony hills +where you can't seem to see a wheel-barrowful o' good earth +in a place, but that tree'll keep a green top in the driest summer. +You lay your ear down to the ground an' you'll hear a little stream +runnin'. Every such tree has got its own livin' spring; there's +folk made to match 'em." + +I could not help turning to look at Mrs. Blackett, close +beside me. Her hands were clasped placidly in their thin black +woolen gloves, and she was looking at the flowery wayside as we +went slowly along, with a pleased, expectant smile. I do not think +she had heard a word about the trees. + +"I just saw a nice plant o' elecampane growin' back there," +she said presently to her daughter. + +"I haven't got my mind on herbs to-day," responded Mrs. Todd, +in the most matter-of-fact way. "I'm bent on seeing folks," and +she shook the reins again. + +I for one had no wish to hurry, it was so pleasant in the +shady roads. The woods stood close to the road on the right; on +the left were narrow fields and pastures where there were as many +acres of spruces and pines as there were acres of bay and juniper +and huckleberry, with a little turf between. When I thought we +were in the heart of the inland country, we reached the top of a +hill, and suddenly there lay spread out before us a wonderful great +view of well-cleared fields that swept down to the wide water of a +bay. Beyond this were distant shores like another country in the +midday haze which half hid the hills beyond, and the faraway pale +blue mountains on the northern horizon. There was a schooner with +all sails set coming down the bay from a white village that was +sprinkled on the shore, and there were many sailboats flitting +about it. It was a noble landscape, and my eyes, which had grown +used to the narrow inspection of a shaded roadside, could hardly +take it in. + +"Why, it's the upper bay," said Mrs. Todd. "You can see 'way +over into the town of Fessenden. Those farms 'way over there are +all in Fessenden. Mother used to have a sister that lived up that +shore. If we started as early's we could on a summer mornin', we +couldn't get to her place from Green Island till late afternoon, +even with a fair, steady breeze, and you had to strike the time +just right so as to fetch up 'long o' the tide and land near the +flood. 'Twas ticklish business, an' we didn't visit back an' forth +as much as mother desired. You have to go 'way down the co'st to +Cold Spring Light an' round that long point,--up here's what they +call the Back Shore." + +"No, we were 'most always separated, my dear sister and me, +after the first year she was married," said Mrs. Blackett. "We had +our little families an' plenty o' cares. We were always lookin' +forward to the time we could see each other more. Now and then +she'd get out to the island for a few days while her husband'd go +fishin'; and once he stopped with her an' two children, and +made him some flakes right there and cured all his fish for winter. +We did have a beautiful time together, sister an' me; she used to +look back to it long's she lived. + +"I do love to look over there where she used to live," Mrs. +Blackett went on as we began to go down the hill. "It seems as if +she must still be there, though she's long been gone. She loved +their farm,--she didn't see how I got so used to our island; but +somehow I was always happy from the first." + +"Yes, it's very dull to me up among those slow farms," +declared Mrs. Todd. "The snow troubles 'em in winter. They're all +besieged by winter, as you may say; 'tis far better by the shore +than up among such places. I never thought I should like to live +up country." + +"Why, just see the carriages ahead of us on the next rise!" +exclaimed Mrs. Blackett. "There's going to be a great gathering, +don't you believe there is, Almiry? It hasn't seemed up to now as +if anybody was going but us. An' 'tis such a beautiful day, with +yesterday cool and pleasant to work an' get ready, I shouldn't +wonder if everybody was there, even the slow ones like Phebe Ann +Brock." + +Mrs. Blackett's eyes were bright with excitement, and even +Mrs. Todd showed remarkable enthusiasm. She hurried the horse and +caught up with the holiday-makers ahead. "There's all the +Dep'fords goin', six in the wagon," she told us joyfully; "an' Mis' +Alva Tilley's folks are now risin' the hill in their new carry- +all." + +Mrs. Blackett pulled at the neat bow of her black bonnet- +strings, and tied them again with careful precision. I believe +your bonnet's on a little bit sideways, dear," she advised Mrs. +Todd as if she were a child; but Mrs. Todd was too much occupied to +pay proper heed. We began to feel a new sense of gayety and of +taking part in the great occasion as we joined the little train. + + + + +XVIII + + +The Bowden Reunion + +IT IS VERY RARE in country life, where high days and holidays are +few, that any occasion of general interest proves to be less than +great. Such is the hidden fire of enthusiasm in the New England +nature that, once given an outlet, it shines forth with +almost volcanic light and heat. In quiet neighborhoods such inward +force does not waste itself upon those petty excitements of every +day that belong to cities, but when, at long intervals, the altars +to patriotism, to friendship, to the ties of kindred, are reared in +our familiar fields, then the fires glow, the flames come up as if +from the inexhaustible burning heart of the earth; the primal fires +break through the granite dust in which our souls are set. Each +heart is warm and every face shines with the ancient light. Such +a day as this has transfiguring powers, and easily makes friends of +those who have been cold-hearted, and gives to those who are dumb +their chance to speak, and lends some beauty to the plainest face. + +"Oh, I expect I shall meet friends today that I haven't seen +in a long while," said Mrs. Blackett with deep satisfaction. +"'Twill bring out a good many of the old folks, 'tis such a lovely +day. I'm always glad not to have them disappointed." + +"I guess likely the best of 'em'll be there," answered Mrs. +Todd with gentle humor, stealing a glance at me. "There's one +thing certain: there's nothing takes in this whole neighborhood +like anything related to the Bowdens. Yes, I do feel that when you +call upon the Bowdens you may expect most families to rise up +between the Landing and the far end of the Back Cove. Those that +aren't kin by blood are kin by marriage." + +"There used to be an old story goin' about when I was a girl," +said Mrs. Blackett, with much amusement. "There was a great many +more Bowdens then than there are now, and the folks was all setting +in meeting a dreadful hot Sunday afternoon, and a scatter-witted +little bound girl came running to the meetin'-house door all out o' +breath from somewheres in the neighborhood. 'Mis' Bowden, Mis' +Bowden!' says she. 'Your baby's in a fit!' They used to tell that +the whole congregation was up on its feet in a minute and right out +into the aisles. All the Mis' Bowdens was setting right out for +home; the minister stood there in the pulpit tryin' to keep sober, +an' all at once he burst right out laughin'. He was a very nice +man, they said, and he said he'd better give 'em the benediction, +and they could hear the sermon next Sunday, so he kept it over. My +mother was there, and she thought certain 'twas me." + +"None of our family was ever subject to fits," interrupted +Mrs. Todd severely. "No, we never had fits, none of us; and 'twas +lucky we didn't 'way out there to Green Island. Now these folks +right in front; dear sakes knows the bunches o' soothing catnip an' +yarrow I've had to favor old Mis' Evins with dryin'! You can see +it right in their expressions, all them Evins folks. There, just +you look up to the crossroads, mother," she suddenly exclaimed. +"See all the teams ahead of us. And, oh, look down on the +bay; yes, look down on the bay! See what a sight o' boats, all +headin' for the Bowden place cove!" + +"Oh, ain't it beautiful!" said Mrs. Blackett, with all the +delight of a girl. She stood up in the high wagon to see +everything, and when she sat down again she took fast hold of my +hand. + +"Hadn't you better urge the horse a little, Almiry?" she +asked. "He's had it easy as we came along, and he can rest when we +get there. The others are some little ways ahead, and I don't want +to lose a minute." + +We watched the boats drop their sails one by one in the cove +as we drove along the high land. The old Bowden house stood, low- +storied and broad-roofed, in its green fields as if it were a +motherly brown hen waiting for the flock that came straying toward +it from every direction. The first Bowden settler had made his +home there, and it was still the Bowden farm; five generations of +sailors and farmers and soldiers had been its children. And +presently Mrs. Blackett showed me the stone-walled burying-ground +that stood like a little fort on a knoll overlooking the bay, but, +as she said, there were plenty of scattered Bowdens who were not +laid there,--some lost at sea, and some out West, and some who died +in the war; most of the home graves were those of women. + +We could see now that there were different footpaths from +along shore and across country. In all these there were straggling +processions walking in single file, like old illustrations of the +Pilgrim's Progress. There was a crowd about the house as if huge +bees were swarming in the lilac bushes. Beyond the fields and cove +a higher point of land ran out into the bay, covered with woods +which must have kept away much of the northwest wind in winter. +Now there was a pleasant look of shade and shelter there for the +great family meeting. + +We hurried on our way, beginning to feel as if we were very +late, and it was a great satisfaction at last to turn out of the +stony highroad into a green lane shaded with old apple-trees. Mrs. +Todd encouraged the horse until he fairly pranced with gayety as we +drove round to the front of the house on the soft turf. There was +an instant cry of rejoicing, and two or three persons ran toward us +from the busy group. + +"Why, dear Mis' Blackett!--here's Mis' Blackett!" I heard them +say, as if it were pleasure enough for one day to have a sight of +her. Mrs. Todd turned to me with a lovely look of triumph and +self-forgetfulness. An elderly man who wore the look of a +prosperous sea-captain put up both arms and lifted Mrs. Blackett +down from the high wagon like a child, and kissed her with hearty +affection. "I was master afraid she wouldn't be here," he said, +looking at Mrs. Todd with a face like a happy sunburnt schoolboy, +while everybody crowded round to give their welcome. + +"Mother's always the queen," said Mrs. Todd. "Yes, they'll +all make everything of mother; she'll have a lovely time to-day. +I wouldn't have had her miss it, and there won't be a thing she'll +ever regret, except to mourn because William wa'n't here." + +Mrs. Blackett having been properly escorted to the house, Mrs. +Todd received her own full share of honor, and some of the men, +with a simple kindness that was the soul of chivalry, waited upon +us and our baskets and led away the white horse. I already knew +some of Mrs. Todd's friends and kindred, and felt like an adopted +Bowden in this happy moment. It seemed to be enough for anyone to +have arrived by the same conveyance as Mrs. Blackett, who presently +had her court inside the house, while Mrs. Todd, large, hospitable, +and preeminent, was the centre of a rapidly increasing crowd about +the lilac bushes. Small companies were continually coming up the +long green slope from the water, and nearly all the boats had come +to shore. I counted three or four that were baffled by the light +breeze, but before long all the Bowdens, small and great, seemed to +have assembled, and we started to go up to the grove across the +field. + +Out of the chattering crowd of noisy children, and large- +waisted women whose best black dresses fell straight to the ground +in generous folds, and sunburnt men who looked as serious as if it +were town-meeting day, there suddenly came silence and order. I +saw the straight, soldierly little figure of a man who bore a fine +resemblance to Mrs. Blackett, and who appeared to marshal us with +perfect ease. He was imperative enough, but with a grand military +sort of courtesy, and bore himself with solemn dignity of +importance. We were sorted out according to some clear design of +his own, and stood as speechless as a troop to await his orders. +Even the children were ready to march together, a pretty flock, and +at the last moment Mrs. Blackett and a few distinguished +companions, the ministers and those who were very old, came out of +the house together and took their places. We ranked by fours, and +even then we made a long procession. + +There was a wide path mowed for us across the field, and, as +we moved along, the birds flew up out of the thick second crop of +clover, and the bees hummed as if it still were June. There was a +flashing of white gulls over the water where the fleet of boats +rode the low waves together in the cove, swaying their small masts +as if they kept time to our steps. The plash of the water could be +heard faintly, yet still be heard; we might have been a company of +ancient Greeks going to celebrate a victory, or to worship the god +of harvests, in the grove above. It was strangely moving to see +this and to make part of it. The sky, the sea, have watched +poor humanity at its rites so long; we were no more a New England +family celebrating its own existence and simple progress; we +carried the tokens and inheritance of all such households from +which this had descended, and were only the latest of our line. We +possessed the instincts of a far, forgotten childhood; I found +myself thinking that we ought to be carrying green branches and +singing as we went. So we came to the thick shaded grove still +silent, and were set in our places by the straight trees that +swayed together and let sunshine through here and there like a +single golden leaf that flickered down, vanishing in the cool +shade. + +The grove was so large that the great family looked far +smaller than it had in the open field; there was a thick growth of +dark pines and firs with an occasional maple or oak that gave a +gleam of color like a bright window in the great roof. On three +sides we could see the water, shining behind the tree-trunks, and +feel the cool salt breeze that began to come up with the tide just +as the day reached its highest point of heat. We could see the +green sunlit field we had just crossed as if we looked out at it +from a dark room, and the old house and its lilacs standing +placidly in the sun, and the great barn with a stockade of +carriages from which two or three care-taking men who had lingered +were coming across the field together. Mrs. Todd had taken off her +warm gloves and looked the picture of content. + +"There!" she exclaimed. "I've always meant to have you see +this place, but I never looked for such a beautiful opportunity-- +weather an' occasion both made to match. Yes, it suits me: I don't +ask no more. I want to know if you saw mother walkin' at the head! +It choked me right up to see mother at the head, walkin' with the +ministers," and Mrs. Todd turned away to hide the feelings she +could not instantly control. + +"Who was the marshal?" I hastened to ask. "Was he an old +soldier?" + +"Don't he do well?" answered Mrs. Todd with satisfaction. + +"He don't often have such a chance to show off his gifts," +said Mrs. Caplin, a friend from the Landing who had joined us. +"That's Sant Bowden; he always takes the lead, such days. Good for +nothing else most o' his time; trouble is, he"-- + +I turned with interest to hear the worst. Mrs. Caplin's tone +was both zealous and impressive. + +"Stim'lates," she explained scornfully. + +"No, Santin never was in the war," said Mrs. Todd with lofty +indifference. "It was a cause of real distress to him. He kep' +enlistin', and traveled far an' wide about here, an' even took the +bo't and went to Boston to volunteer; but he ain't a sound man, an' +they wouldn't have him. They say he knows all their +tactics, an' can tell all about the battle o' Waterloo well's he +can Bunker Hill. I told him once the country'd lost a great +general, an' I meant it, too." + +"I expect you're near right," said Mrs. Caplin, a little +crestfallen and apologetic. + +"I be right," insisted Mrs. Todd with much amiability. "'Twas +most too bad to cramp him down to his peaceful trade, but he's a +most excellent shoemaker at his best, an' he always says it's a +trade that gives him time to think an' plan his maneuvers. Over to +the Port they always invite him to march Decoration Day, same as +the rest, an' he does look noble; he comes of soldier stock." + +I had been noticing with great interest the curiously French +type of face which prevailed in this rustic company. I had said to +myself before that Mrs. Blackett was plainly of French descent, in +both her appearance and her charming gifts, but this is not +surprising when one has learned how large a proportion of the early +settlers on this northern coast of New England were of Huguenot +blood, and that it is the Norman Englishman, not the Saxon, who +goes adventuring to a new world. + +"They used to say in old times," said Mrs. Todd modestly, +"that our family came of very high folks in France, and one of 'em +was a great general in some o' the old wars. I sometimes think +that Santin's ability has come 'way down from then. 'Tain't +nothin' he's ever acquired; 'twas born in him. I don't know's he +ever saw a fine parade, or met with those that studied up such +things. He's figured it all out an' got his papers so he knows how +to aim a cannon right for William's fish-house five miles out on +Green Island, or up there on Burnt Island where the signal is. He +had it all over to me one day, an' I tried hard to appear +interested. His life's all in it, but he will have those poor +gloomy spells come over him now an' then, an' then he has to +drink." + +Mrs. Caplin gave a heavy sigh. + +"There's a great many such strayaway folks, just as there is +plants," continued Mrs. Todd, who was nothing if not botanical. "I +know of just one sprig of laurel that grows over back here in a +wild spot, an' I never could hear of no other on this coast. I had +a large bunch brought me once from Massachusetts way, so I know it. +This piece grows in an open spot where you'd think 'twould do well, +but it's sort o' poor-lookin'. I've visited it time an' again, +just to notice its poor blooms. 'Tis a real Sant Bowden, out of +its own place." + +Mrs. Caplin looked bewildered and blank. "Well, all I know +is, last year he worked out some kind of plan so's to parade the +county conference in platoons, and got 'em all flustered up tryin' +to sense his ideas of a holler square," she burst forth. +"They was holler enough anyway after ridin' 'way down from up +country into the salt air, and they'd been treated to a sermon on +faith an' works from old Fayther Harlow that never knows when to +cease. 'Twa'n't no time for tactics then,--they wa'n't a'thinkin' +of the church military. Sant, he couldn't do nothin' with 'em. +All he thinks of, when he sees a crowd, is how to march 'em. 'Tis +all very well when he don't 'tempt too much. He never did act like +other folks." + +"Ain't I just been maintainin' that he ain't like 'em?" urged +Mrs. Todd decidedly. "Strange folks has got to have strange ways, +for what I see." + +"Somebody observed once that you could pick out the likeness +of 'most every sort of a foreigner when you looked about you in our +parish," said Sister Caplin, her face brightening with sudden +illumination. "I didn't see the bearin' of it then quite so plain. +I always did think Mari' Harris resembled a Chinee." + +"Mari' Harris was pretty as a child, I remember," said the +pleasant voice of Mrs. Blackett, who, after receiving the +affectionate greetings of nearly the whole company, came to join +us,--to see, as she insisted, that we were out of mischief. + +"Yes, Mari' was one o' them pretty little lambs that make +dreadful homely old sheep," replied Mrs. Todd with energy. "Cap'n +Littlepage never'd look so disconsolate if she was any sort of a +proper person to direct things. She might divert him; yes, she +might divert the old gentleman, an' let him think he had his own +way, 'stead o' arguing everything down to the bare bone. +'Twouldn't hurt her to sit down an' hear his great stories once in +a while." + +"The stories are very interesting," I ventured to say. + +"Yes, you always catch yourself a-thinkin' what if they all +was true, and he had the right of it," answered Mrs. Todd. "He's +a good sight better company, though dreamy, than such sordid +creatur's as Mari' Harris." + +"Live and let live," said dear old Mrs. Blackett gently. "I +haven't seen the captain for a good while, now that I ain't so +constant to meetin'," she added wistfully. "We always have known +each other." + +"Why, if it is a good pleasant day tomorrow, I'll get William +to call an' invite the capt'in to dinner. William'll be in early +so's to pass up the street without meetin' anybody." + +"There, they're callin' out it's time to set the tables," said +Mrs. Caplin, with great excitement. + +"Here's Cousin Sarah Jane Blackett! Well, I am pleased, +certain!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd, with unaffected delight; and these +kindred spirits met and parted with the promise of a good talk +later on. After this there was no more time for +conversation until we were seated in order at the long tables. + +"I'm one that always dreads seeing some o' the folks that I +don't like, at such a time as this," announced Mrs. Todd privately +to me after a season of reflection. We were just waiting for the +feast to begin. "You wouldn't think such a great creatur' 's I be +could feel all over pins an' needles. I remember, the day I +promised to Nathan, how it come over me, just's I was feelin' +happy's I could, that I'd got to have an own cousin o' his for my +near relation all the rest o' my life, an' it seemed as if die I +should. Poor Nathan saw somethin' had crossed me,--he had very +nice feelings,--and when he asked what 'twas, I told him. 'I never +could like her myself,' said he. 'You sha'n't be bothered, dear,' +he says; an' 'twas one o' the things that made me set a good deal +by Nathan, he did not make a habit of always opposin', like some +men. 'Yes,' says I, 'but think o' Thanksgivin' times an' funerals; +she's our relation, an' we've got to own her.' Young folks don't +think o' those things. There she goes now, do let's pray her by!" +said Mrs. Todd, with an alarming transition from general opinions +to particular animosities. "I hate her just the same as I always +did; but she's got on a real pretty dress. I do try to remember +that she's Nathan's cousin. Oh dear, well; she's gone by after +all, an' ain't seen me. I expected she'd come pleasantin' round +just to show off an' say afterwards she was acquainted." + +This was so different from Mrs. Todd's usual largeness of mind +that I had a moment's uneasiness; but the cloud passed quickly over +her spirit, and was gone with the offender. + +There never was a more generous out-of-door feast along the +coast then the Bowden family set forth that day. To call it a +picnic would make it seem trivial. The great tables were edged +with pretty oak-leaf trimming, which the boys and girls made. We +brought flowers from the fence-thickets of the great field; and out +of the disorder of flowers and provisions suddenly appeared as +orderly a scheme for the feast as the marshal had shaped for the +procession. I began to respect the Bowdens for their inheritance +of good taste and skill and a certain pleasing gift of formality. +Something made them do all these things in a finer way than most +country people would have done them. As I looked up and down the +tables there was a good cheer, a grave soberness that shone with +pleasure, a humble dignity of bearing. There were some who should +have sat below the salt for lack of this good breeding; but they +were not many. So, I said to myself, their ancestors may have sat +in the great hall of some old French house in the Middle Ages, when +battles and sieges and processions and feasts were familiar things. +The ministers and Mrs. Blackett, with a few of their rank +and age, were put in places of honor, and for once that I looked +any other way I looked twice at Mrs. Blackett's face, serene and +mindful of privilege and responsibility, the mistress by simple +fitness of this great day. + +Mrs. Todd looked up at the roof of green trees, and then +carefully surveyed the company. "I see 'em better now they're all +settin' down," she said with satisfaction. "There's old Mr. +Gilbraith and his sister. I wish they were sittin' with us; +they're not among folks they can parley with, an' they look +disappointed." + +As the feast went on, the spirits of my companion steadily +rose. The excitement of an unexpectedly great occasion was a +subtle stimulant to her disposition, and I could see that sometimes +when Mrs. Todd had seemed limited and heavily domestic, she had +simply grown sluggish for lack of proper surroundings. She was not +so much reminiscent now as expectant, and as alert and gay as a +girl. We who were her neighbors were full of gayety, which was but +the reflected light from her beaming countenance. It was not the +first time that I was full of wonder at the waste of human ability +in this world, as a botanist wonders at the wastefulness of nature, +the thousand seeds that die, the unused provision of every sort. +The reserve force of society grows more and more amazing to one's +thought. More than one face among the Bowdens showed that only +opportunity and stimulus were lacking,--a narrow set of +circumstances had caged a fine able character and held it captive. +One sees exactly the same types in a country gathering as in the +most brilliant city company. You are safe to be understood if the +spirit of your speech is the same for one neighbor as for the +other. + + + + +XIX + + +The Feast's End + +THE FEAST was a noble feast, as has already been said. There was +an elegant ingenuity displayed in the form of pies which delighted +my heart. Once acknowledge that an American pie is far to be +preferred to its humble ancestor, the English tart, and it is +joyful to be reassured at a Bowden reunion that invention has not +yet failed. Beside a delightful variety of material, the +decorations went beyond all my former experience; dates and +names were wrought in lines of pastry and frosting on the tops. +There was even more elaborate reading matter on an excellent early- +apple pie which we began to share and eat, precept upon precept. +Mrs. Todd helped me generously to the whole word BOWDEN, and +consumed REUNION herself, save an undecipherable fragment; +but the most renowned essay in cookery on the tables was a model of +the old Bowden house made of durable gingerbread, with all the +windows and doors in the right places, and sprigs of genuine lilac +set at the front. It must have been baked in sections, in one of +the last of the great brick ovens, and fastened together on the +morning of the day. There was a general sigh when this fell into +ruin at the feast's end, and it was shared by a great part of the +assembly, not without seriousness, and as if it were a pledge and +token of loyalty. I met the maker of the gingerbread house, which +had called up lively remembrances of a childish story. She had the +gleaming eye of an enthusiast and a look of high ideals. + +"I could just as well have made it all of frosted cake," she +said, "but 'twouldn't have been the right shade; the old house, as +you observe, was never painted, and I concluded that plain +gingerbread would represent it best. It wasn't all I expected it +would be," she said sadly, as many an artist had said before her of +his work. + +There were speeches by the ministers; and there proved to be +a historian among the Bowdens, who gave some fine anecdotes of the +family history; and then appeared a poetess, whom Mrs. Todd +regarded with wistful compassion and indulgence, and when the long +faded garland of verses came to an appealing end, she turned to me +with words of praise. + +"Sounded pretty," said the generous listener. "Yes, I thought +she did very well. We went to school together, an' Mary Anna had +a very hard time; trouble was, her mother thought she'd given birth +to a genius, an' Mary Anna's come to believe it herself. There, I +don't know what we should have done without her; there ain't nobody +else that can write poetry between here and 'way up towards +Rockland; it adds a great deal at such a time. When she speaks o' +those that are gone, she feels it all, and so does everybody else, +but she harps too much. I'd laid half of that away for next time, +if I was Mary Anna. There comes mother to speak to her, an' old +Mr. Gilbreath's sister; now she'll be heartened right up. +Mother'll say just the right thing." + +The leave-takings were as affecting as the meetings of these +old friends had been. There were enough young persons at the +reunion, but it is the old who really value such opportunities; as +for the young, it is the habit of every day to meet their +comrades,--the time of separation has not come. To see the +joy with which these elder kinsfolk and acquaintances had looked in +one another's faces, and the lingering touch of their friendly +hands; to see these affectionate meetings and then the reluctant +partings, gave one a new idea of the isolation in which it was +possible to live in that after all thinly settled region. They did +not expect to see one another again very soon; the steady, hard +work on the farms, the difficulty of getting from place to place, +especially in winter when boats were laid up, gave double value to +any occasion which could bring a large number of families together. +Even funerals in this country of the pointed firs were not without +their social advantages and satisfactions. I heard the words "next +summer" repeated many times, though summer was still ours and all +the leaves were green. + +The boats began to put out from shore, and the wagons to drive +away. Mrs. Blackett took me into the old house when we came back +from the grove: it was her father's birthplace and early home, and +she had spent much of her own childhood there with her grandmother. +She spoke of those days as if they had but lately passed; in fact, +I could imagine that the house looked almost exactly the same to +her. I could see the brown rafters of the unfinished roof as I +looked up the steep staircase, though the best room was as handsome +with its good wainscoting and touch of ornament on the cornice as +any old room of its day in a town. + +Some of the guests who came from a distance were still sitting +in the best room when we went in to take leave of the master and +mistress of the house. We all said eagerly what a pleasant day it +had been, and how swiftly the time had passed. Perhaps it is the +great national anniversaries which our country has lately kept, and +the soldiers' meetings that take place everywhere, which have made +reunions of every sort the fashion. This one, at least, had been +very interesting. I fancied that old feuds had been overlooked, +and the old saying that blood is thicker than water had again +proved itself true, though from the variety of names one argued a +certain adulteration of the Bowden traits and belongings. +Clannishness is an instinct of the heart,--it is more than a +birthright, or a custom; and lesser rights were forgotten in the +claim to a common inheritance. + +We were among the very last to return to our proper lives and +lodgings. I came near to feeling like a true Bowden, and parted +from certain new friends as if they were old friends; we were rich +with the treasure of a new remembrance. + +At last we were in the high wagon again; the old white horse +had been well fed in the Bowden barn, and we drove away and soon +began to climb the long hill toward the wooded ridge. The road was +new to me, as roads always are, going back. Most of our companions +had been full of anxious thoughts of home,--of the cows, or +of young children likely to fall into disaster,--but we had no +reasons for haste, and drove slowly along, talking and resting by +the way. Mrs. Todd said once that she really hoped her front door +had been shut on account of the dust blowing in, but added that +nothing made any weight on her mind except not to forget to turn a +few late mullein leaves that were drying on a newspaper in the +little loft. Mrs. Blackett and I gave our word of honor that we +would remind her of this heavy responsibility. The way seemed +short, we had so much to talk about. We climbed hills where we +could see the great bay and the islands, and then went down into +shady valleys where the air began to feel like evening, cool and +camp with a fragrance of wet ferns. Mrs. Todd alighted once or +twice, refusing all assistance in securing some boughs of a rare +shrub which she valued for its bark, though she proved +incommunicative as to her reasons. We passed the house where we +had been so kindly entertained with doughnuts earlier in the day, +and found it closed and deserted, which was a disappointment. + +"They must have stopped to tea somewheres and thought they'd +finish up the day," said Mrs. Todd. "Those that enjoyed it best'll +want to get right home so's to think it over." + +"I didn't see the woman there after all, did you?" asked Mrs. +Blackett as the horse stopped to drink at the trough. + +"Oh yes, I spoke with her," answered Mrs. Todd, with but scant +interest or approval. "She ain't a member o' our family." + +"I thought you said she resembled Cousin Pa'lina Bowden about +the forehead," suggested Mrs. Blackett. + +"Well, she don't," answered Mrs. Todd impatiently. "I ain't +one that's ord'narily mistaken about family likenesses, and she +didn't seem to meet with friends, so I went square up to her. 'I +expect you're a Bowden by your looks,' says I. 'Yes, I can take it +you're one o' the Bowdens.' 'Lor', no,' says she. 'Dennett was my +maiden name, but I married a Bowden for my first husband. I +thought I'd come an' just see what was a-goin' on!" + +Mrs. Blackett laughed heartily. "I'm goin' to remember to +tell William o' that," she said. "There, Almiry, the only thing +that's troubled me all this day is to think how William would have +enjoyed it. I do so wish William had been there." + +"I sort of wish he had, myself," said Mrs. Todd frankly. + +"There wa'n't many old folks there, somehow," said Mrs. +Blackett, with a touch of sadness in her voice. "There ain't so +many to come as there used to be, I'm aware, but I expected to see +more." + +"I thought they turned out pretty well, when you come to think +of it; why, everybody was sayin' so an' feelin' gratified," +answered Mrs. Todd hastily with pleasing unconsciousness; then I +saw the quick color flash into her cheek, and presently she made +some excuse to turn and steal an anxious look at her mother. Mrs. +Blackett was smiling and thinking about her happy day, though she +began to look a little tired. Neither of my companions was +troubled by her burden of years. I hoped in my heart that I might +be like them as I lived on into age, and then smiled to think that +I too was no longer very young. So we always keep the same hearts, +though our outer framework fails and shows the touch of time. + +"'Twas pretty when they sang the hymn, wasn't it?" asked Mrs. +Blackett at suppertime, with real enthusiasm. "There was such a +plenty o' men's voices; where I sat it did sound beautiful. I had +to stop and listen when they came to the last verse." + +I saw that Mrs. Todd's broad shoulders began to shake. "There +was good singers there; yes, there was excellent singers," she +agreed heartily, putting down her teacup, "but I chanced to drift +alongside Mis' Peter Bowden o' Great Bay, an' I couldn't help +thinkin' if she was as far out o' town as she was out o' tune, she +wouldn't get back in a day." + + + + +XX + + +Along Shore + +ONE DAY as I went along the shore beyond the old wharves and the +newer, high-stepped fabric of the steamer landing, I saw that all +the boats were beached, and the slack water period of the early +afternoon prevailed. Nothing was going on, not even the most +leisurely of occupations, like baiting trawls or mending nets, or +repairing lobster pots; the very boats seemed to be taking an +afternoon nap in the sun. I could hardly discover a distant sail +as I looked seaward, except a weather-beaten lobster smack, which +seemed to have been taken for a plaything by the light airs that +blew about the bay. It drifted and turned about so aimlessly in +the wide reach off Burnt Island, that I suspected there was nobody +at the wheel, or that she might have parted her rusty anchor chain +while all the crew were asleep. + +I watched her for a minute or two; she was the old Miranda, +owned by some of the Caplins, and I knew her by an odd +shaped patch of newish duck that was set into the peak of her dingy +mainsail. Her vagaries offered such an exciting subject for +conversation that my heart rejoiced at the sound of a hoarse voice +behind me. At that moment, before I had time to answer, I saw +something large and shapeless flung from the Miranda's deck that +splashed the water high against her black side, and my companion +gave a satisfied chuckle. The old lobster smack's sail caught the +breeze again at this moment, and she moved off down the bay. +Turning, I found old Elijah Tilley, who had come softly out of his +dark fish-house, as if it were a burrow. + +"Boy got kind o' drowsy steerin' of her; Monroe he hove him +right overboard; 'wake now fast enough," explained Mr. Tilley, and +we laughed together. + +I was delighted, for my part, that the vicissitudes and +dangers of the Miranda, in a rocky channel, should have given me +this opportunity to make acquaintance with an old fisherman to whom +I had never spoken. At first he had seemed to be one of those +evasive and uncomfortable persons who are so suspicious of you that +they make you almost suspicious of yourself. Mr. Elijah Tilley +appeared to regard a stranger with scornful indifference. You +might see him standing on the pebble beach or in a fish-house +doorway, but when you came nearer he was gone. He was one of the +small company of elderly, gaunt-shaped great fisherman whom I used +to like to see leading up a deep-laden boat by the head, as if it +were a horse, from the water's edge to the steep slope of the +pebble beach. There were four of these large old men at the +Landing, who were the survivors of an earlier and more vigorous +generation. There was an alliance and understanding between them, +so close that it was apparently speechless. They gave much time to +watching one another's boats go out or come in; they lent a ready +hand at tending one another's lobster traps in rough weather; they +helped to clean the fish or to sliver porgies for the trawls, as if +they were in close partnership; and when a boat came in from deep- +sea fishing they were never too far out of the way, and hastened to +help carry it ashore, two by two, splashing alongside, or holding +its steady head, as if it were a willful sea colt. As a matter of +fact no boat could help being steady and way-wise under their +instant direction and companionship. Abel's boat and Jonathan +Bowden's boat were as distinct and experienced personalities as the +men themselves, and as inexpressive. Arguments and opinions were +unknown to the conversation of these ancient friends; you would as +soon have expected to hear small talk in a company of elephants as +to hear old Mr. Bowden or Elijah Tilley and their two mates waste +breath upon any form of trivial gossip. They made brief +statements to one another from time to time. As you came to know +them you wondered more and more that they should talk at all. +Speech seemed to be a light and elegant accomplishment, and their +unexpected acquaintance with its arts made them of new value to the +listener. You felt almost as if a landmark pine should suddenly +address you in regard to the weather, or a lofty-minded old camel +make a remark as you stood respectfully near him under the circus +tent. + +I often wondered a great deal about the inner life and thought +of these self-contained old fishermen; their minds seemed to be +fixed upon nature and the elements rather than upon any +contrivances of man, like politics or theology. My friend, Captain +Bowden, who was the nephew of the eldest of this group, regarded +them with deference; but he did not belong to their secret +companionship, though he was neither young nor talkative. + +"They've gone together ever since they were boys, they know +most everything about the sea amon'st them," he told me once. +"They was always just as you see 'em now since the memory of man." + +These ancient seafarers had houses and lands not outwardly +different from other Dunnet Landing dwellings, and two of them were +fathers of families, but their true dwelling places were the sea, +and the stony beach that edged its familiar shore, and the fish- +houses, where much salt brine from the mackerel kits had soaked the +very timbers into a state of brown permanence and petrifaction. It +had also affected the old fishermen's hard complexions, until one +fancied that when Death claimed them it could only be with the aid, +not of any slender modern dart, but the good serviceable harpoon of +a seventeenth century woodcut. + +Elijah Tilley was such an evasive, discouraged-looking person, +heavy-headed, and stooping so that one could never look him in the +face, that even after his friendly exclamation about Monroe +Pennell, the lobster smack's skipper, and the sleepy boy, I did not +venture at once to speak again. Mr. Tilley was carrying a small +haddock in one hand, and presently shifted it to the other hand +lest it might touch my skirt. I knew that my company was accepted, +and we walked together a little way. + +"You mean to have a good supper," I ventured to say, by way of +friendliness. + +"Goin' to have this 'ere haddock an' some o' my good baked +potatoes; must eat to live," responded my companion with great +pleasantness and open approval. I found that I had suddenly left +the forbidding coast and come into the smooth little harbor of +friendship. + +"You ain't never been up to my place," said the old man. +"Folks don't come now as they used to; no, 'tain't no use to +ask folks now. My poor dear she was a great hand to draw young +company." + +I remembered that Mrs. Todd had once said that this old +fisherman had been sore stricken and unconsoled at the death of his +wife. + +"I should like very much to come," said I. "Perhaps you are +going to be at home later on?" + +Mr. Tilley agreed, by a sober nod, and went his way bent- +shouldered and with a rolling gait. There was a new patch high on +the shoulder of his old waistcoat, which corresponded to the +renewing of the Miranda's mainsail down the bay, and I wondered if +his own fingers, clumsy with much deep-sea fishing, had set it in. + +"Was there a good catch to-day?" I asked, stopping a moment. +"I didn't happen to be on the shore when the boats came in." + +"No; all come in pretty light," answered Mr. Tilley. "Addicks +an' Bowden they done the best; Abel an' me we had but a slim fare. +We went out 'arly, but not so 'arly as sometimes; looked like a +poor mornin'. I got nine haddick, all small, and seven fish; the +rest on 'em got more fish than haddick. Well, I don't expect they +feel like bitin' every day; we l'arn to humor 'em a little, an' let +'em have their way 'bout it. These plaguey dog-fish kind of worry +'em." Mr. Tilley pronounced the last sentence with much sympathy, +as if he looked upon himself as a true friend of all the haddock +and codfish that lived on the fishing grounds, and so we parted. + + +Later in the afternoon I went along the beach again until I +came to the foot of Mr. Tilley's land, and found his rough track +across the cobblestones and rocks to the field edge, where there +was a heavy piece of old wreck timber, like a ship's bone, full of +tree-nails. From this a little footpath, narrow with one man's +treading, led up across the small green field that made Mr. +Tilley's whole estate, except a straggling pasture that tilted on +edge up the steep hillside beyond the house and road. I could hear +the tinkle-tankle of a cow-bell somewhere among the spruces by +which the pasture was being walked over and forested from every +side; it was likely to be called the wood lot before long, but the +field was unmolested. I could not see a bush or a brier anywhere +within its walls, and hardly a stray pebble showed itself. This +was most surprising in that country of firm ledges, and scattered +stones which all the walls that industry could devise had hardly +begun to clear away off the land. In the narrow field I noticed +some stout stakes, apparently planted at random in the grass and +among the hills of potatoes, but carefully painted yellow and white +to match the house, a neat sharp-edged little dwelling, which +looked strangely modern for its owner. I should have much +sooner believed that the smart young wholesale egg merchant of the +Landing was its occupant than Mr. Tilley, since a man's house is +really but his larger body, and expresses in a way his nature and +character. + +I went up the field, following the smooth little path to the +side door. As for using the front door, that was a matter of great +ceremony; the long grass grew close against the high stone step, +and a snowberry bush leaned over it, top-heavy with the weight of +a morning-glory vine that had managed to take what the fishermen +might call a half hitch about the door-knob. Elijah Tilley came to +the side door to receive me; he was knitting a blue yarn stocking +without looking on, and was warmly dressed for the season in a +thick blue flannel shirt with white crockery buttons, a faded +waistcoat and trousers heavily patched at the knees. These were +not his fishing clothes. There was something delightful in the +grasp of his hand, warm and clean, as if it never touched anything +but the comfortable woolen yarn, instead of cold sea water and +slippery fish. + +"What are the painted stakes for, down in the field?" I +hastened to ask, and he came out a step or two along the path to +see; and looked at the stakes as if his attention were called to +them for the first time. + +"Folks laughed at me when I first bought this place an' come +here to live," he explained. "They said 'twa'n't no kind of a +field privilege at all; no place to raise anything, all full o' +stones. I was aware 'twas good land, an' I worked some on it--odd +times when I didn't have nothin' else on hand--till I cleared them +loose stones all out. You never see a prettier piece than 'tis +now; now did ye? Well, as for them painted marks, them's my buoys. +I struck on to some heavy rocks that didn't show none, but a plow'd +be liable to ground on 'em, an' so I ketched holt an' buoyed 'em +same's you see. They don't trouble me no more'n if they wa'n't +there." + +"You haven't been to sea for nothing," I said laughing. + +"One trade helps another," said Elijah with an amiable smile. +"Come right in an' set down. Come in an' rest ye," he exclaimed, +and led the way into his comfortable kitchen. The sunshine poured +in at the two further windows, and a cat was curled up sound asleep +on the table that stood between them. There was a new-looking +light oilcloth of a tiled pattern on the floor, and a crockery +teapot, large for a household of only one person, stood on the +bright stove. I ventured to say that somebody must be a very good +housekeeper. + +"That's me," acknowledged the old fisherman with frankness. +"There ain't nobody here but me. I try to keep things looking +right, same's poor dear left 'em. You set down here in this chair, +then you can look off an' see the water. None on 'em +thought I was goin' to get along alone, no way, but I wa'n't goin' +to have my house turned upsi' down an' all changed about; no, not +to please nobody. I was the only one knew just how she liked to +have things set, poor dear, an' I said I was goin' to make shift, +and I have made shift. I'd rather tough it out alone." And he +sighed heavily, as if to sigh were his familiar consolation. + +We were both silent for a minute; the old man looked out the +window, as if he had forgotten I was there. + +"You must miss her very much?" I said at last. + +"I do miss her," he answered, and sighed again. "Folks all +kep' repeatin' that time would ease me, but I can't find it does. +No, I miss her just the same every day." + +"How long is it since she died?" I asked. + +"Eight year now, come the first of October. It don't seem +near so long. I've got a sister that comes and stops 'long o' me +a little spell, spring an' fall, an' odd times if I send after her. +I ain't near so good a hand to sew as I be to knit, and she's very +quick to set everything to rights. She's a married woman with a +family; her son's folks lives at home, an' I can't make no great +claim on her time. But it makes me a kind o' good excuse, when I +do send, to help her a little; she ain't none too well off. Poor +dear always liked her, and we used to contrive our ways together. +'Tis full as easy to be alone. I set here an' think it all over, +an' think considerable when the weather's bad to go outside. I get +so some days it feels as if poor dear might step right back into +this kitchen. I keep a-watchin' them doors as if she might step in +to ary one. Yes, ma'am, I keep a-lookin' off an' droppin' o' my +stitches; that's just how it seems. I can't git over losin' of her +no way nor no how. Yes, ma'am, that's just how it seems to me." + +I did not say anything, and he did not look up. + +"I git feelin' so sometimes I have to lay everything by an' go +out door. She was a sweet pretty creatur' long's she lived," the +old man added mournfully. "There's that little rockin' chair o' +her'n, I set an' notice it an' think how strange 'tis a creatur' +like her should be gone an' that chair be here right in its old +place." + + +"I wish I had known her; Mrs. Todd told me about your wife one +day," I said. + +"You'd have liked to come and see her; all the folks did," +said poor Elijah. "She'd been so pleased to hear everything and +see somebody new that took such an int'rest. She had a kind o' +gift to make it pleasant for folks. I guess likely Almiry Todd +told you she was a pretty woman, especially in her young days; late +years, too, she kep' her looks and come to be so pleasant +lookin'. There, 'tain't so much matter, I shall be done afore a +great while. No; I sha'n't trouble the fish a great sight more." + +The old widower sat with his head bowed over his knitting, as +if he were hastily shortening the very thread of time. The minutes +went slowly by. He stopped his work and clasped his hands firmly +together. I saw he had forgotten his guest, and I kept the +afternoon watch with him. At last he looked up as if but a moment +had passed of his continual loneliness. + +"Yes, ma'am, I'm one that has seen trouble," he said, and +began to knit again. + +The visible tribute of his careful housekeeping, and the clean +bright room which had once enshrined his wife, and now enshrined +her memory, was very moving to me; he had no thought for any one +else or for any other place. I began to see her myself in her +home,--a delicate-looking, faded little woman, who leaned upon his +rough strength and affectionate heart, who was always watching for +his boat out of this very window, and who always opened the door +and welcomed him when he came home. + +"I used to laugh at her, poor dear," said Elijah, as if he +read my thought. "I used to make light of her timid notions. She +used to be fearful when I was out in bad weather or baffled about +gittin' ashore. She used to say the time seemed long to her, but +I've found out all about it now. I used to be dreadful thoughtless +when I was a young man and the fish was bitin' well. I'd stay out +late some o' them days, an' I expect she'd watch an' watch an' lose +heart a-waitin'. My heart alive! what a supper she'd git, an' be +right there watchin' from the door, with somethin' over her head if +'twas cold, waitin' to hear all about it as I come up the field. +Lord, how I think o' all them little things!" + +"This was what she called the best room; in this way," he said +presently, laying his knitting on the table, and leading the way +across the front entry and unlocking a door, which he threw open +with an air of pride. The best room seemed to me a much sadder and +more empty place than the kitchen; its conventionalities lacked the +simple perfection of the humbler room and failed on the side of +poor ambition; it was only when one remembered what patient saving, +and what high respect for society in the abstract go to such +furnishing that the little parlor was interesting at all. I could +imagine the great day of certain purchases, the bewildering shops +of the next large town, the aspiring anxious woman, the clumsy sea- +tanned man in his best clothes, so eager to be pleased, but at ease +only when they were safe back in the sailboat again, going down the +bay with their precious freight, the hoarded money all spent and +nothing to think of but tiller and sail. I looked at the unworn +carpet, the glass vases on the mantelpiece with their prim +bunches of bleached swamp grass and dusty marsh rosemary, and I +could read the history of Mrs. Tilley's best room from its very +beginning. + +"You see for yourself what beautiful rugs she could make; now +I'm going to show you her best tea things she thought so much of," +said the master of the house, opening the door of a shallow +cupboard. "That's real chiny, all of it on those two shelves," he +told me proudly. "I bought it all myself, when we was first +married, in the port of Bordeaux. There never was one single piece +of it broke until-- Well, I used to say, long as she lived, there +never was a piece broke, but long at the last I noticed she'd look +kind o' distressed, an' I thought 'twas 'count o' me boastin'. +When they asked if they should use it when the folks was here to +supper, time o' her funeral, I knew she'd want to have everything +nice, and I said 'certain.' Some o' the women they come runnin' to +me an' called me, while they was takin' of the chiny down, an' +showed me there was one o' the cups broke an' the pieces wropped in +paper and pushed way back here, corner o' the shelf. They didn't +want me to go an' think they done it. Poor dear! I had to put +right out o' the house when I see that. I knowed in one minute how +'twas. We'd got so used to sayin' 'twas all there just's I fetched +it home, an' so when she broke that cup somehow or 'nother she +couldn't frame no words to come an' tell me. She couldn't think +'twould vex me, 'twas her own hurt pride. I guess there wa'n't no +other secret ever lay between us." + +The French cups with their gay sprigs of pink and blue, the +best tumblers, an old flowered bowl and tea caddy, and a japanned +waiter or two adorned the shelves. These, with a few +daguerreotypes in a little square pile, had the closet to +themselves, and I was conscious of much pleasure in seeing them. +One is shown over many a house in these days where the interest may +be more complex, but not more definite. + +"Those were her best things, poor dear," said Elijah as he +locked the door again. "She told me that last summer before she +was taken away that she couldn't think o' anything more she wanted, +there was everything in the house, an' all her rooms was furnished +pretty. I was goin' over to the Port, an' inquired for errands. +I used to ask her to say what she wanted, cost or no cost--she was +a very reasonable woman, an' 'twas the place where she done all but +her extra shopping. It kind o' chilled me up when she spoke so +satisfied." + +"You don't go out fishing after Christmas?" I asked, as we +came back to the bright kitchen. + +"No; I take stiddy to my knitting after January sets in," said +the old seafarer. "'Tain't worth while, fish make off into deeper +water an' you can't stand no such perishin' for the sake o' +what you get. I leave out a few traps in sheltered coves an' do a +little lobsterin' on fair days. The young fellows braves it out, +some on 'em; but, for me, I lay in my winter's yarn an' set here +where 'tis warm, an' knit an' take my comfort. Mother learnt me +once when I was a lad; she was a beautiful knitter herself. I was +laid up with a bad knee, an' she said 'twould take up my time an' +help her; we was a large family. They'll buy all the folks can do +down here to Addicks' store. They say our Dunnet stockin's is +gettin' to be celebrated up to Boston,--good quality o' wool an' +even knittin' or somethin'. I've always been called a pretty hand +to do nettin', but seines is master cheap to what they used to be +when they was all hand worked. I change off to nettin' long +towards spring, and I piece up my trawls and lines and get my +fishin' stuff to rights. Lobster pots they require attention, but +I make 'em up in spring weather when it's warm there in the barn. +No; I ain't one o' them that likes to set an' do nothin'." + +"You see the rugs, poor dear did them; she wa'n't very partial +to knittin'," old Elijah went on, after he had counted his +stitches. "Our rugs is beginnin' to show wear, but I can't master +none o' them womanish tricks. My sister, she tinkers 'em up. She +said last time she was here that she guessed they'd last my time." + +"The old ones are always the prettiest," I said. + +"You ain't referrin' to the braided ones now?" answered Mr. +Tilley. "You see ours is braided for the most part, an' their good +looks is all in the beginnin'. Poor dear used to say they made an +easier floor. I go shufflin' round the house same's if 'twas a +bo't, and I always used to be stubbin' up the corners o' the hooked +kind. Her an' me was always havin' our jokes together same's a boy +an' girl. Outsiders never'd know nothin' about it to see us. She +had nice manners with all, but to me there was nobody so +entertainin'. She'd take off anybody's natural talk winter +evenin's when we set here alone, so you'd think 'twas them a- +speakin'. There, there!" + +I saw that he had dropped a stitch again, and was snarling the +blue yarn round his clumsy fingers. He handled it and threw it off +at arm's length as if it were a cod line; and frowned impatiently, +but I saw a tear shining on his cheek. + +I said that I must be going, it was growing late, and asked if +I might come again, and if he would take me out to the fishing +grounds someday. + +"Yes, come any time you want to," said my host, "'tain't so +pleasant as when poor dear was here. Oh, I didn't want to lose her +an' she didn't want to go, but it had to be. Such things ain't for +us to say; there's no yes an' no to it." + +"You find Almiry Todd one o' the best o' women?" said Mr. +Tilley as we parted. He was standing in the doorway and I had +started off down the narrow green field. "No, there ain't a better +hearted woman in the State o' Maine. I've known her from a girl. +She's had the best o' mothers. You tell her I'm liable to fetch +her up a couple or three nice good mackerel early tomorrow," he +said. "Now don't let it slip your mind. Poor dear, she always +thought a sight o' Almiry, and she used to remind me there was +nobody to fish for her; but I don't rec'lect it as I ought to. I +see you drop a line yourself very handy now an' then." + +We laughed together like the best of friends, and I spoke +again about the fishing grounds, and confessed that I had no fancy +for a southerly breeze and a ground swell. + +"Nor me neither," said the old fisherman. "Nobody likes 'em, +say what they may. Poor dear was disobliged by the mere sight of +a bo't. Almiry's got the best o' mothers, I expect you know; Mis' +Blackett out to Green Island; and we was always plannin' to go out +when summer come; but there, I couldn't pick no day's weather that +seemed to suit her just right. I never set out to worry her +neither, 'twa'n't no kind o' use; she was so pleasant we couldn't +have no fret nor trouble. 'Twas never 'you dear an' you darlin'' +afore folks, an' 'you divil' behind the door!" + +As I looked back from the lower end of the field I saw him +still standing, a lonely figure in the doorway. "Poor dear," I +repeated to myself half aloud; "I wonder where she is and what she +knows of the little world she left. I wonder what she has been +doing these eight years!" + +I gave the message about the mackerel to Mrs. Todd. + +"Been visitin' with 'Lijah?" she asked with interest. "I +expect you had kind of a dull session; he ain't the talkin' kind; +dwellin' so much long o' fish seems to make 'em lose the gift o' +speech." But when I told her that Mr. Tilley had been talking to +me that day, she interrupted me quickly. + +"Then 'twas all about his wife, an' he can't say nothin' too +pleasant neither. She was modest with strangers, but there ain't +one o' her old friends can ever make up her loss. For me, I don't +want to go there no more. There's some folks you miss and some +folks you don't, when they're gone, but there ain't hardly a day I +don't think o' dear Sarah Tilley. She was always right there; yes, +you knew just where to find her like a plain flower. 'Lijah's +worthy enough; I do esteem 'Lijah, but he's a ploddin' man." + + + + +XXI + + +The Backward View + +AT LAST IT WAS the time of late summer, when the house was cool and +damp in the morning, and all the light seemed to come through green +leaves; but at the first step out of doors the sunshine always laid +a warm hand on my shoulder, and the clear, high sky seemed to lift +quickly as I looked at it. There was no autumnal mist on the +coast, nor any August fog; instead of these, the sea, the sky, all +the long shore line and the inland hills, with every bush of bay +and every fir-top, gained a deeper color and a sharper clearness. +There was something shining in the air, and a kind of lustre on the +water and the pasture grass,--a northern look that, except at this +moment of the year, one must go far to seek. The sunshine of a +northern summer was coming to its lovely end. + +The days were few then at Dunnet Landing, and I let each of +them slip away unwillingly as a miser spends his coins. I wished +to have one of my first weeks back again, with those long hours +when nothing happened except the growth of herbs and the course of +the sun. Once I had not even known where to go for a walk; now +there were many delightful things to be done and done again, as if +I were in London. I felt hurried and full of pleasant engagements, +and the days flew by like a handful of flowers flung to the sea +wind. + +At last I had to say good-by to all my Dunnet Landing friends, +and my homelike place in the little house, and return to the world +in which I feared to find myself a foreigner. There may be +restrictions to such a summer's happiness, but the ease that +belongs to simplicity is charming enough to make up for whatever a +simple life may lack, and the gifts of peace are not for those who +live in the thick of battle. + +I was to take the small unpunctual steamer that went down the +bay in the afternoon, and I sat for a while by my window looking +out on the green herb garden, with regret for company. Mrs. Todd +had hardly spoken all day except in the briefest and most +disapproving way; it was as if we were on the edge of a quarrel. +It seemed impossible to take my departure with anything like +composure. At last I heard a footstep, and looked up to find that +Mrs. Todd was standing at the door. + +"I've seen to everything now," she told me in an unusually +loud and business-like voice. "Your trunks are on the w'arf by +this time. Cap'n Bowden he come and took 'em down himself, +an' is going to see that they're safe aboard. Yes, I've seen to +all your 'rangements," she repeated in a gentler tone. "These +things I've left on the kitchen table you'll want to carry by hand; +the basket needn't be returned. I guess I shall walk over towards +the Port now an' inquire how old Mis' Edward Caplin is." + +I glanced at my friend's face, and saw a look that touched me +to the heart. I had been sorry enough before to go away. + +"I guess you'll excuse me if I ain't down there to stand +around on the w'arf and see you go," she said, still trying to be +gruff. "Yes, I ought to go over and inquire for Mis' Edward +Caplin; it's her third shock, and if mother gets in on Sunday +she'll want to know just how the old lady is." With this last word +Mrs. Todd turned and left me as if with sudden thought of something +she had forgotten, so that I felt sure she was coming back, but +presently I heard her go out of the kitchen door and walk down the +path toward the gate. I could not part so; I ran after her to say +good-by, but she shook her head and waved her hand without looking +back when she heard my hurrying steps, and so went away down the +street. + +When I went in again the little house had suddenly grown +lonely, and my room looked empty as it had the day I came. I and +all my belongings had died out of it, and I knew how it would seem +when Mrs. Todd came back and found her lodger gone. So we die +before our own eyes; so we see some chapters of our lives come to +their natural end. + +I found the little packages on the kitchen table. There was +a quaint West Indian basket which I knew its owner had valued, and +which I had once admired; there was an affecting provision laid +beside it for my seafaring supper, with a neatly tied bunch of +southernwood and a twig of bay, and a little old leather box which +held the coral pin that Nathan Todd brought home to give to poor +Joanna. + + +There was still an hour to wait, and I went up the hill just +above the schoolhouse and sat there thinking of things, and looking +off to sea, and watching for the boat to come in sight. I could +see Green Island, small and darkly wooded at that distance; below +me were the houses of the village with their apple-trees and bits +of garden ground. Presently, as I looked at the pastures beyond, +I caught a last glimpse of Mrs. Todd herself, walking slowly in the +footpath that led along, following the shore toward the Port. At +such a distance one can feel the large, positive qualities that +control a character. Close at hand, Mrs. Todd seemed able and +warm-hearted and quite absorbed in her bustling industries, but her +distant figure looked mateless and appealing, with something about +it that was strangely self-possessed and mysterious. Now +and then she stooped to pick something,--it might have been her +favorite pennyroyal,--and at last I lost sight of her as she slowly +crossed an open space on one of the higher points of land, and +disappeared again behind a dark clump of juniper and the pointed +firs. + +As I came away on the little coastwise steamer, there was an +old sea running which made the surf leap high on all the rocky +shores. I stood on deck, looking back, and watched the busy gulls +agree and turn, and sway together down the long slopes of air, then +separate hastily and plunge into the waves. The tide was setting +in, and plenty of small fish were coming with it, unconscious of +the silver flashing of the great birds overhead and the quickness +of their fierce beaks. The sea was full of life and spirit, the +tops of the waves flew back as if they were winged like the gulls +themselves, and like them had the freedom of the wind. Out in the +main channel we passed a bent-shouldered old fisherman bound for +the evening round among his lobster traps. He was toiling along +with short oars, and the dory tossed and sank and tossed again with +the steamer's waves. I saw that it was old Elijah Tilley, and +though we had so long been strangers we had come to be warm +friends, and I wished that he had waited for one of his mates, it +was such hard work to row along shore through rough seas and tend +the traps alone. As we passed I waved my hand and tried to call to +him, and he looked up and answered my farewells by a solemn nod. +The little town, with the tall masts of its disabled schooners in +the inner bay, stood high above the flat sea for a few minutes then +it sank back into the uniformity of the coast, and became +indistinguishable from the other towns that looked as if they were +crumbled on the furzy-green stoniness of the shore. + +The small outer islands of the bay were covered among the +ledges with turf that looked as fresh as the early grass; there had +been some days of rain the week before, and the darker green of the +sweet-fern was scattered on all the pasture heights. It looked +like the beginning of summer ashore, though the sheep, round and +warm in their winter wool, betrayed the season of the year as they +went feeding along the slopes in the low afternoon sunshine. Presently +the wind began to blow and we struck out seaward to double the long +sheltering headland of the cape, and when I looked back again, the +islands and the headland had run together and Dunnet Landing and +all its coasts were lost to sight. + + + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of "The Country of the Pointed Firs" + diff --git a/old/pfirs11.zip b/old/pfirs11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c351af6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pfirs11.zip |