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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:34:36 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:34:36 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10483-0.txt b/10483-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb3939f --- /dev/null +++ b/10483-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10160 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10483 *** + +SHORT STORIES + +OLD AND NEW + + + +SELECTED AND EDITED + +BY + +C. ALPHONSO SMITH + +EDGAR ALLAN POE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE +UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, AUTHOR OF +"THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY," ETC. + + + +1916 + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Every short story has three parts, which may be called Setting or +Background, Plot or Plan, and Characters or Character. If you are going +to write a short story, as I hope you are, you will find it necessary to +think through these three parts so as to relate them interestingly and +naturally one to the other; and if you want to assimilate the best that +is in the following stories, you will do well to approach them by the +same three routes. + +The Setting or Background gives us the time and the place of the story +with such details of custom, scenery, and dialect as time and place +imply. It answers the questions _When? Where?_ The Plot tells us what +happened. It gives us the incidents and events, the haps or mishaps, +that are interwoven to make up the warp and woof of the story. Sometimes +there is hardly any interweaving; just a plain plan or simple outline is +followed, as in "The Christmas Carol" or "The Great Stone Face." We may +still call the core of these two stories the Plot, if we want to, but +Plan would be the more accurate. This part of the story answers the +question _What_? Under the heading Characters or Character we study the +personalities of the men and women who move through the story and give +it unity and coherence. Sometimes, as in "The Christmas Carol" or +"Markheim," one character so dominates the others that they are mere +spokes in his hub or incidents in his career. But in "The Gift of the +Magi," though more space is given to Della, she and Jim act from the +same motive and contribute equally to the development of the story. In +one of our stories the main character is a dog, but he is so human that +we may still say that the chief question to be answered under this +heading is _Who?_ + +Many books have been written about these three parts of a short story, +but the great lesson to be learned is that the excellence of a story, +long or short, consists not in the separate excellence of the Setting or +of the Plot or of the Characters but in the perfect blending of the +three to produce a single effect or to impress a single truth. If the +Setting does not fit the Plot, if the Plot does not rise gracefully from +the Setting, if the Characters do not move naturally and +self-revealingly through both, the story is a failure. Emerson might +well have had our three parts of the short story in mind when he wrote, + + All are needed by each one; + Nothing is fair or good alone. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +I. ESTHER, From the Old Testament + +II. THE HISTORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY ROBBERS, From "The + Arabian Nights" + +III. RIP VAN WINKLE, By Washington Irving + +IV. THE GOLD-BUG, By Edgar Allan Poe + +V. A CHRISTMAS CAROL, By Charles Dickens + +VI. THE GREAT STONE FACE, By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +VII. RAB AND HIS FRIENDS, By Dr. John Brown + +VIII. THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT, By Bret Harte + +IX. MARKHEIM, By Robert Louis Stevenson + +X. THE NECKLACE, By Guy de Maupassant + +XI. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, By Rudyard Kipling + +XII. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, By O. Henry + + + + +SHORT STORIES + + + + +I. ESTHER[*] + +[* From the Old Testament, Authorized Version.] + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN + + +[_Setting_. The events take place in Susa, the capital of Persia, in the +reign of Ahasuerus, or Xerxes (485-465 B.C.). This foreign locale +intensifies the splendid Jewish patriotism that breathes through the +story from beginning to end. If the setting had been in Jerusalem, +Esther could not have preached the noble doctrine, "When in Rome, don't +do as Rome does, but be true to the old ideals of home and race." + +_Plot_. "Esther" seems to me the best-told story in the Bible. Observe +how the note of empty Persian bigness versus simple Jewish faith is +struck at the very beginning and is echoed to the end. Thus, Ahasuerus +ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, the opening banquet +lasted one hundred and eighty-seven days, the king's bulletins were as +unalterable as the tides, the gallows erected was eighty-three feet +high, the beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue +and white and black marble, the money wrested from the Jews was to be +eighteen million dollars, etc. The word "banquet" occurs twenty times in +this short story and only twenty times in all the remaining thirty-eight +books of the Old Testament. In other words, Ahasuerus and his +trencher-mates ate and drank as much in five days as had been eaten and +drunk by all the other Old Testament characters from "Genesis" to +"Malachi." + +Note also the contrast between the two queens, the two prime ministers, +the two edicts, and the two later banquets. The most masterly part of +the plot is the handling of events between these banquets. Read again +from chapter v, beginning at verse 9, through chapter vi, and note how +skillfully the pen is held. In motivation as well as in symmetry and +naturalness the story is without a peer. There is humor, too, in the +solemn deliberations over Vashti's "No" (chapter i, verses 12-22) and in +the strange procession led by pedestrian Haman (chapter vi, verses +6-11). + +The purpose of the story was to encourage the feast of Purim (chapter +ix, verses 20-32) and to promote national solidarity. It may be compared +to "A Christmas Carol," which was written to restore the waning +celebration of Christmas, and to our Declaration of Independence, which +is re-read on every Fourth of July to quicken our sense of national +fellowship. But "Esther" is more than an institution. It is the old +story of two conflicting civilizations, one representing bigness, the +other greatness; one standing for materialism, the other for idealism; +one enthroning the body, the other the spirit. + +_Characters_. These are finely individualized, though each seems to me a +type. Ahasuerus is a tank that runs blood or wine according to the hand +that turns the spigot. He was used for good but deserves and receives no +credit for it. No man ever missed a greater opportunity. He was brought +face to face with the two greatest world-civilizations of history; but, +understanding neither, he remains only a muddy place in the road along +which Greek and Hebrew passed to world-conquest. Haman, a blend of +vanity and cruelty and cowardice but not without some power of +initiative, was a fit minister for his king. He lives in history as one +who, better than in Hamlet's illustration, was "hoist with his own +petard," the petard in his case being a gallows. He typifies also the +just fate of the man who, spurred by the hate of one, includes in his +scheme of extermination a whole people. Collective vengeance never +received a better illustration nor a more exemplary punishment. Mordecai +is altogether admirable in refusing to kowtow to Haman and in his +unselfish devotion to his fair cousin, Esther. The noblest sentiment in +the book--"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a +time as this?"--comes from Mordecai. + +But the leading character is Esther, not because she was "fair and +beautiful" but because she was hospitable to the great thought suggested +by Mordecai. None but a Jew could have asked, "Who knoweth whether thou +art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" and none but a Jew +could have answered as Esther answered. The question implied a sense of +personal responsibility and of divine guidance far beyond the reach of +Persian or Mede or Greek of that time. It calls up many a quiet hour +when Esther and Mordecai talked together of their strange lot in this +heathen land and wondered if the time would ever come when they could +interpret their trials in terms of national service rather than of +meaningless fate. Imagine the blank and bovine expression that Ahasuerus +or Haman would have turned upon you if you had put such a question to +either of them. But in the case of Esther, Mordecai's appeal unlocked an +unused reservoir of power that has made her one of the world's heroines. +She had her faults, or rather her limitations, but since her time men +have gone to the stake, have built up and torn down principalities and +powers, on the dynamic conviction that they had been sent to the kingdom +"for such a time as this."] + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STORY OF VASHTI + + +1. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus +which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven +and twenty provinces,) + +2. That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his +kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, + +3. In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes +and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes +of the provinces, being before him: + +4. When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of +his excellent majesty many days, even a hundred and fourscore days. + +5. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the +people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and +small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. + +6. Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of +fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds +were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, +and black marble. + +7. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being +diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the +state of the king. + +8. And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so +the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they +should do according to every man's pleasure. + +9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house +which belonged to king Ahasuerus. + +10. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, +he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and +Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus +the king, + +11. To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to +shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. + +12. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by +his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger +burned in him. + +13. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so +was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment: + +14. And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, +Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, +which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom,) + +15. What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she +hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the +chamberlains? + +16. And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the +queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, +and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king +Ahasuerus. + +17. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that +they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be +reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in +before him, but she came not. + +18. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all +the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus +shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. + +19. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, +and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that +it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and +let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. + +20. And when the king's decree, which he shall make, shall be published +throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give +to their husbands honour, both to great and small. + +21. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did +according to the word of Memucan: + +22. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every +province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after +their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and +that it should be published according to the language of every people. + + + +CHAPTER II + +ESTHER MADE QUEEN + + +1. After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he +remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against +her. + +2. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be +fair young virgins sought for the king: + +3. And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his +kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto +Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai +the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for +purification be given them: + +4. And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of +Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. + +5. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was +Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a +Benjamite; + +6. Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had +been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the +king of Babylon had carried away. + +7. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: +for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and +beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for +his own daughter. + +8. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was +heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the +palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the +king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. + +9. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he +speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as +belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out +of the king's house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best +place of the house of the women. + +10. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had +charged her that she should not shew it. + +11. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, +to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. + +12. Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, +after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the +women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to +wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and +with other things for the purifying of the women,) + +13. Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired +was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the +king's house. + +14. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the +second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's +chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no +more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by +name. + +15. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of +Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the +king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the +keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight +of all them that looked upon her. + +16. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the +tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his +reign. + +17. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained +grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set +the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. + +18. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his +servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, +and gave gifts, according to the state of the king. + +19. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then +Mordecai sat in the king's gate. + +20. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people, as Mordecai +had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as +when she was brought up with him. + + +MORDECAI SAVES THE KING'S LIFE + + +21. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the +king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, +were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. + +22. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the +queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. + +23. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; +therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the +book of the chronicles before the king. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CONSPIRACY OF HAMAN + + +1. After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of +Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the +princes that were with him. + +2. And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and +reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But +Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. + +3. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto +Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? + +4. Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened +not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters +would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. + +5. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, +then was Haman full of wrath. + +6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had +shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all +the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the +people of Mordecai. + +7. In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of +king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day +to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the +month Adar. + +8. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people +scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of +thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep +they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to +suffer them. + +9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: +and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that +have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. + +10. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the +son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. + +11. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the +people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. + +12. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the +first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had +commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were +over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province +according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their +language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with +the king's ring. + +13. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to +destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, +little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of +the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of +them for a prey. + +14. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every +province was published unto all people, that they should be ready +against that day. + +15. The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and +the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat +down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FASTING AMONG THE JEWS + + +1. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, +and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the +city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; + +2. And came even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the +king's gate clothed with sackcloth. + +3. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his +decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and +weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. + +4. So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was +the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, +and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. + +5. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom +he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to +Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. + +6. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which +was before the king's gate. + +7. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the +sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries +for the Jews, to destroy them. + +8. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given +at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it +unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make +supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. + +9. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. + +10. Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto +Mordecai; + +11. All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do +know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king +into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put +him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden +sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto +the king these thirty days. + +12. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. + + +THE GREAT APPEAL + + +13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. + +14. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall +there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? + +15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, + +16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and +fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I +also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the +king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. + +17. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had +commanded him. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COURAGE OF ESTHER + + +1. Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal +apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against +the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal +house, over against the gate of the house. + +2. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the +court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to +Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and +touched the top of the sceptre. + +3. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what +is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. + +4. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and +Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. + +5. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as +Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther +had prepared. + +6. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy +petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to +the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. + +7. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; + +8. If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the +king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and +Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do +to-morrow as the king hath said. + + +BETWEEN BANQUETS + + +9. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when +Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved +for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. + +10. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent +and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. + +11. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of +his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and +how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. + +12. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in +with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and +to-morrow am I invited unto her also with the king. + +13. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew +sitting at the king's gate. + +14. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a +gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the +king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with +the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused +the gallows to be made. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BETWEEN BANQUETS (CONTINUED) + + +1. On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the +book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. + +2. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and +Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who +sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. + +3. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai +for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, There +is nothing done for him. + +4. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the +outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang +Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. + +5. And the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the +court. And the king said, Let him come in. + +6. So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto +the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his +heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself? + +7. And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to +honour, + +8. Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and +the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set +upon his head: + +9. And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the +king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the +king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street +of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man +whom the king delighteth to honour. + +10. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and +the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that +sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast +spoken. + +11. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and +brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed +before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth +to honour. + +12. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his +house mourning, and having his head covered. + +13. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that +had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, +If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to +fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before +him. + +14. And while they were yet talking with him, came the king's +chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had +prepared. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ESTHER'S BANQUET: HAMAN HANGED + + +1. So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. + +2. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet +of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted +thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the +half of the kingdom. + +3. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in +thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at +my petition, and my people at my request: + +4. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and +to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held +my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. + +5. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who +is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? + +6. And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then +Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. + +7. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into +the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to +Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him +by the king. + +8. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the +banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. +Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? +As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. + +9. And Harbona, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold +also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, +who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then +the king said, Hang him thereon. + +10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for +Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JEWS PERMITTED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES + + +1. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' +enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for +Esther had told what he was unto her. + +2. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and +gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. + +3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his +feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the +Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews, + +4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther +arose, and stood before the king, + +5. And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his +sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in +his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the +son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which +are in all the king's provinces: + +6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? +or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? + +7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai +the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they +have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. + +8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and +seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the +king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. + +9. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, +that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it +was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and +to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which +are from India unto Ethiopia, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto +every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people +after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and +according to their language. + +10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the +king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on +mules, camels, and young dromedaries: + +11. Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather +themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, +and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that +would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of +them for a prey, + +12. Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon +the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. + +13. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every +province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be +ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. + +14. So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being +hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was +given at Shushan the palace. + +15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel +of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of +fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. + +16. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. + +17. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's +commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast +and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the +fear of the Jews fell upon them. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE JEWS DEFEND THEMSELVES + + +1. Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth +day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to +be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to +have power over them; (though it was turned to the contrary, that the +Jews had rule over them that hated them,) + +2. The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all +the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their +hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon +all people. + +3. And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the +deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of +Mordecai fell upon them. + +4. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out +throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and +greater. + +5. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, +and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that +hated them. + +6. And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred +men. + +7. And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, + +8. And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, + +9. And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, + +10. The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, +slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand. + +11. On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the +palace was brought before the king. + +12. And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and +destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of +Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what +is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request +further? and it shall be done. + +13. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the +Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's +decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. + +14. And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at +Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. + +15. For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on +the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at +Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand. + +16. But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered +themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their +enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid +not their hands on the prey, + +17. On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day +of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. + +18. But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the +thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the +fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and +gladness. + +19. Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled +towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and +feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. + + +THE FEAST OF PURIM + + +20. And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews +that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, + +21. To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth +day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, + +22. As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the +month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning +into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, +and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. + +23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had +written unto them; + +24. Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all +the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast +Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; + +25. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that +his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon +his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. + +26. Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. +Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had +seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, + +27. The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon +all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that +they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according +to their appointed time every year; + +28. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every +generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these +days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of +them perish from their seed. + +29. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the +Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. + +30. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and +seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and +truth, + +31. To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according +as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they +had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the +fastings and their cry. + +32. And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it +was written in the book. + + + +CHAPTER X + +MORDECAI PRIME MINISTER + + +1. And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the +isles of the sea. + +2. And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration +of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they +not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and +Persia? + +3. For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among +the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the +wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. + + + + +II. THE HISTORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY ROBBERS[*] + +[* From "The Arabian Nights."] + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN + + +[_Setting_. This story, like "Esther," takes place in Persia. The +stories of "The Arabian Nights" as a whole probably originated in India, +were modified and augmented by the Persians, and had the finishing +touches put upon them by the Arabians. Bagdad on the Tigris is the city +that figures most prominently in the stories, and the good caliph Haroun +Al-Raschid (or Alraschid), who ruled from 786 to 809, A.D., is the +monarch most often mentioned. + +"A goodly place, a goodly time, +For it was in the golden prime + Of good Haroun Alraschid." + +However old the germs of the stories are, the form in which we have them +hardly antedates the year 1450. The absence of all mention of coffee and +tobacco precludes, at least, a date much later. They began to be +translated into the languages of Europe during the reign of Queen Anne +and, with the exception of the Old Testament, have been the chief +orientalizing influence in modern literature. The setting of "Ali Baba" +shows the four characteristics of all these Perso-Arabian tales: it has +to do with town life, not country life; it presupposes one faith, the +Mohammedan; it shows a fondness for magic; and it takes for granted an +audience interested not in moral or ethical distinctions but in +story-telling for story-telling's sake. + +_Plot_. The plot of the short story as a distinct type of literature has +been said to show a steady progress from the impossible through the +improbable and probable to the inevitable. When we say of a story that +the conclusion is inevitable we mean that, with the given background and +characters, it could not have ended in any other way, just as, with a +given multiplier and multiplicand, one product and only one is possible. +This cannot be said of "Ali Baba," because the five parts are not linked +together in a logical sequence as are the events in "The Gold-Bug," or +by any controlling idea of reform such as we find in "A Christmas +Carol," or by any underlying moral purpose like that which gives unity +and dignity to "The Great Stone Face." These Perso-Arabian tales, in +other words, are stories of random incident, loosely but charmingly +told, with always the note of strangeness and unexpectedness. The +incidents, however, reflect accurately the manners and customs of time +and place. We do not believe that a door ever opened to the magic of +mere words, but we do believe and cannot help believing that the author +tells the truth when he writes of leather jars full of oil, of bands of +mounted robbers, of a poor man who could support himself by hauling wood +from the free-for-all forest, of slavery from which one might escape by +notable fidelity, of funeral rites performed by the imaum and other +ministers of the mosque, and of the unwillingness of an assassin to +attempt the life of a man with whom he had just eaten salt. Fancy, it is +true, mingles with fact in "The Arabian Nights," but it does not replace +fact. + +_Characters_. Morgiana is the leading character. She furnishes all the +brains employed in the story. The narrator praises her "courage" twice, +but she had more than courage. Fidelity, initiative, and resourcefulness +must also be put among her assets. We can hardly imagine her as acting +from Esther's high motive, but she lived up to the best standards of +conduct that she knew. Whoever serves as a model for his own time may +serve as a model for ours. Duties change, but duty remains.] + + + +I + +CASSIM, ALI BABA'S BROTHER, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY THE ROBBERS + + +There once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Cassim and +the other Ali Baba. Their father divided his small property equally +between them. Cassim married a very rich wife, and became a wealthy +merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by +cutting wood and bringing it upon three asses into the town to sell. + +One day, when Ali Baba had cut just enough wood in the forest to load +his asses, he noticed far off a great cloud of dust. As it drew nearer, +he saw that it was made by a body of horsemen, whom he suspected to be +robbers. Leaving the asses, he climbed a large tree which grew on a high +rock, and had branches thick enough to hide him completely while he saw +what passed beneath. The troop, forty in number, all well mounted and +armed, came to the foot of the rock on which the tree stood, and there +dismounted. Each man unbridled his horse, tied him to a shrub, and hung +about his neck a bag of corn. Then each of them took off his saddle-bag, +which from its weight seemed to Ali Baba full of gold and silver. One, +whom he took to be their captain, came under the tree in which Ali Baba +was concealed; and, making his way through some shrubs, spoke the words: +"Open, Sesame."[*] As soon as the captain of the robbers said this, a +door opened in the rock, and after he had made all his troop enter +before him, he followed them, when the door shut again of itself. + +[* Sesame (pronounced _séssamy_), a small grain.] + +The robbers stayed some time within, and Ali Baba, fearful of being +caught, remained in the tree. At last the door opened again, and the +captain came out first, and stood to see all the troop pass by him. Then +Ali Baba heard him make the door close by saying: "Shut, Sesame." Every +man at once bridled his horse, fastened his wallet, and mounted again. +When the captain saw them all ready, he put himself at their head, and +they returned the way they had come. + +Ali Baba watched them out of sight, and then waited some time before +coming down. Wishing to see whether the captain's words would have the +same effect if he should speak them, he found the door hidden in the +shrubs, stood before it, and said: "Open, Sesame." Instantly the door +flew wide open. + +Instead of a dark, dismal cavern, Ali Baba was surprised to see a large +chamber, well lighted from the top, and in it all sorts of provisions, +rich bales of silk, brocade and carpeting, gold and silver ingots in +great heaps, and money in bags. + +Ali Baba went boldly into the cave, and collected as much of the gold +coin, which was in bags, as he thought his asses could carry. When he +had loaded them with the bags, he laid wood over them so that they could +not be seen, and, passing out of the door for the last time, stood +before it and said: "Shut, Sesame." The door closed of itself, and he +made the best of his way to town. + +When he reached home, he carefully closed the gate of his little yard, +threw off the wood, and carried the bags into the house. They were +emptied before his wife, and the great heap of gold dazzled her eyes. +Then he told her the whole adventure, and warned her, above all things, +to keep it secret. + +Ali Baba would not let her take the time to count it out as she wished, +but said: "I will dig a hole and bury it." + +"But let us know as nearly as may be," she said, "how much we have. I +will borrow a small measure, and measure it, while you dig a hole." + +Away she ran to the wife of Cassim, who lived near by, and asked for a +measure. The sister-in-law, knowing Ali Baba's poverty, was curious to +learn what sort of grain his wife wished to measure out, and artfully +managed to put some suet in the bottom of the measure before she handed +it over. Ali Baba's wife wanted to show how careful she was in small +matters, and, after she had measured the gold, hurried back, even while +her husband was burying it, with the borrowed measure, never noticing +that a coin had stuck to its bottom. + +"What," said Cassim's wife, as soon as her sister-in-law had left her, +"has Ali Baba gold in such plenty that he measures it? Whence has he all +this wealth?" And envy possessed her breast. + +When Cassim came home, she said to him: "Cassim, you think yourself +rich, but Ali Baba is much richer. He does not count his money; he +measures it." Then she explained to him how she had found it out, and +they looked together at the piece of money, which was so old that they +could not tell in what prince's reign it was coined. + +Cassim, since marrying the rich widow, had never treated Ali Baba as a +brother, but neglected him. Now, instead of being pleased, he was filled +with a base envy. Early in the morning, after a sleepless night, he went +to him and said: "Ali Baba, you pretend to be wretchedly poor, and yet +you measure gold. My wife found this at the bottom of the measure you +borrowed yesterday." + +Ali Baba saw that there was no use of trying to conceal his good +fortune, and told the whole story, offering his brother part of the +treasure to keep the secret. + +"I expect as much," replied Cassim haughtily; "but I must know just +where this treasure is and how to visit it myself when I choose. +Otherwise I will inform against you, and you will lose even what you +have now." + +Ali Baba told him all he wished to know, even to the words he must speak +at the door of the cave. + +Cassim rose before the sun the next morning, and set out for the forest +with ten mules bearing great chests which he meant to fill. With little +trouble he found the rock and the door, and, standing before it, spoke +the words: "Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and when he was +within closed upon him. Here indeed were the riches of which his brother +had told. He quickly brought as many bags of gold as he could carry to +the door of the cavern; but his thoughts were so full of his new wealth, +that he could not think of the word that should let him out. Instead of +"Sesame," he said "Open, Barley," and was much amazed to find that the +door remained fast shut. He named several sorts of grain, but still the +door would not open. + +Cassim had never expected such a disaster, and was so frightened that +the more he tried to recall the word "Sesame," the more confused his +mind became. It was as if he had never heard the word at all. He threw +down the bags in his hands, and walked wildly up and down, without a +thought of the riches lying round about him. + +At noon the robbers visited their cave. From afar they saw Cassim's +mules straggling about the rock, and galloped full speed to the cave. +Driving the mules out of sight, they went at once, with their naked +sabres in their hands, to the door, which opened as soon as the captain +had spoken the proper words before it. + +Cassim had heard the noise of the horses' feet, and guessed that the +robbers had come. He resolved to make one effort for his life. As soon +as the door opened, he rushed out and threw the leader down, but could +not pass the other robbers, who with their scimitars soon put him to +death. + +The first care of the robbers was to examine the cave. They found all +the bags Cassim had brought to the door, but did not miss what Ali Baba +had taken. As for Cassim himself, they guessed rightly that, once +within, he could not get out again; but how he had managed to learn +their secret words that let him in, they could not tell. One thing was +certain,--there he was; and to warn all others who might know their +secret and follow in Cassim's footsteps, they agreed to cut his body +into four quarters--to hang two on one side and two on the other, within +the door of the cave. This they did at once, and leaving the place of +their hoards well closed, mounted their horses and set out to attack the +caravans they might meet. + + + +II + +THE MANNER OF CASSIM'S DEATH CONCEALED + + +When night came, and Cassim did not return, his wife became very uneasy. +She ran to Ali Baba for comfort, and he told her that Cassim would +certainly think it unwise to enter the town till night was well +advanced. By midnight Cassim's wife was still more alarmed, and wept +till morning, cursing her desire to pry into the affairs of her brother +and sister-in-law. In the early day she went again, in tears, to Ali +Baba. + +He did not wait for her to ask him to go and see what had happened to +Cassim, but set out at once for the forest with his three asses. Finding +some blood at the door of the cave, he took it for an ill omen; but when +he had spoken the words, and the door had opened, he was struck with +horror at the dismal sight of his brother's body. He could not leave it +there, and hastened within to find something to wrap around it. Laying +the body on one of his asses, he covered it with wood. The other two +asses he loaded with bags of gold, covering them also with wood as +before. Then bidding the door shut, he came away, but stopped some time +at the edge of the forest, that he might not go into the town before +night. When he reached home he left the two asses, laden with gold, in +his little yard for his wife to unload, and led the other to his +sister-in-law's house. + +Ali Baba knocked at the door, which was opened by Morgiana, a clever +slave, full of devices to conquer difficulties. When he came into the +court and unloaded the ass, he took Morgiana aside, and said to her:-- + +"You must observe a strict secrecy. Your master's body is contained in +these two panniers. We must bury him as if he had died a natural death. +Go now and tell your mistress. I leave the matter to your wit and +skillful devices." + +They placed the body in Cassim's house, and, charging Morgiana to act +well her part, Ali Baba returned home with his ass. + +Early the next morning, Morgiana went to a druggist, and asked for a +sort of lozenge used in the most dangerous illness. When he asked her +for whom she wanted it, she answered with a sigh: "My good master +Cassim. He can neither eat nor speak." In the evening she went to the +same druggist, and with tears in her eyes asked for an essence given to +sick persons for whose life there is little hope. "Alas!" said she, "I +am afraid even this will not save my good master." + +All that day Ali Baba and his wife were seen going sadly between their +house and Cassim's, and in the evening nobody was surprised to hear the +shrieks and cries of Cassim's wife and Morgiana, who told everybody that +her master was dead. + +The next morning at daybreak she went to an old cobbler, who was always +early at work, and, putting a piece of gold in his hand, said:-- + +"Baba Mustapha, you must bring your sewing-tackle and come with me; but +I must tell you, I shall blindfold you when we reach a certain place." + +"Oh! oh!" replied he, "you would have me do something against my +conscience or my honor." + +"God forbid!" said Morgiana, putting another piece of gold in his hand; +"only come along with me, and fear nothing." + +Baba Mustapha went with Morgiana, and at a certain place she bound his +eyes with a handkerchief, which she never unloosed till they had entered +the room of her master's house, where she had put the corpse together. + +"Baba Mustapha," said she, "you must make haste, and sew the parts of +this body together, and when you have done, I will give you another +piece of gold." + +After Baba Mustapha had finished his task, she blindfolded him again, +gave him the third piece of gold she had promised, and, charging him +with secrecy, took him back to the place where she had first bound his +eyes. Taking off the bandage, she watched him till he was out of sight, +lest he should return and dog her; then she went home. + +At Cassim's house she made all things ready for the funeral, which was +duly performed by the imaum[*] and other ministers of the mosque. +Morgiana, as a slave of the dead man, walked in the procession, weeping, +beating her breast, and tearing her hair. Cassim's wife stayed at home, +uttering doleful cries with the women of the neighborhood, who, +according to custom, came to mourn with her. The whole quarter was +filled with sounds of sorrow. + +[* Imaum, a Mohammedan priest.] + +Thus the manner of Cassim's death was hushed up, and, besides his widow, +Ali Baba, and Morgiana, the slave, nobody in the city suspected the +cause of it. Three or four days after the funeral, Ali Baba removed his +few goods openly to his sister-in-law's house, in which he was to live +in the future; but the money he had taken from the robbers was carried +thither by night. As for Cassim's warehouse, Ali Baba put it entirely +under the charge of his eldest son. + + + +III + +THE ROBBERS' PLOT FOILED BY MORGIANA + + +While all this was going on, the forty robbers again visited their cave +in the forest. Great was their surprise to find Cassim's body taken +away, with some of their bags of gold. + +"We are certainly found out," said the captain; "the body and the money +have been taken by some one else who knows our secret. For our own +lives' sake, we must try and find him. What say you, my lads?" + +The robbers all agreed that this must be done. + +"Well," said the captain, "one of you, the boldest and most skillful, +must go to the town, disguised as a stranger, and try if he can hear any +talk of the man we killed, and find out where he lived. This matter is +so important that the man who undertakes it and fails should suffer +death. What say you?" + +One of the robbers, without waiting to know what the rest might think, +started up, and said: "I submit to this condition, and think it an honor +to expose my life to serve the troop." + +This won great praise from the robber's comrades, and he disguised +himself at once so that nobody could take him for what he was. Just at +daybreak he entered the town, and walked up and down till he came by +chance to Baba Mustapha's stall, which was always open before any of the +shops. + +The old cobbler was just going to work when the robber bade him +good-morrow, and said:-- + +"Honest man, you begin to work very early; how can one of your age see +so well? Even if it were lighter, I question whether you could see to +stitch." + +"You do not know me," replied Baba Mustapha; "for old as I am I have +excellent eyes. You will not doubt me when I tell you that I sewed the +body of a dead man together in a place where I had not so much light as +I have now." + +"A dead body!" exclaimed the robber amazed. + +"Yes, yes," answered Baba Mustapha; "I see you want to know more, but +you shall not." + +The robber felt sure that he was on the right track. He put a piece of +gold into Baba Mustapha's hand, and said to him:-- + +"I do not want to learn your secret, though you could safely trust me +with it. The only thing I ask of you is to show me the house where you +stitched up the dead body." + +"I could not do that," replied Baba Mustapha, "if I would. I was taken +to a certain place, whence I was led blindfold to the house, and +afterwards brought back again in the same manner." + +"Well," replied the robber, "you may remember a little of the way that +you were led blindfold. Come, let me blind your eyes at the same place. +We will walk together, and perhaps you may recall the way. Here is +another piece of gold for you." + +This was enough to bring Baba Mustapha to his feet. They soon reached +the place where Morgiana had bandaged his eyes, and here he was +blindfolded again. Baba Mustapha and the robber walked on till they came +to Cassim's house, where Ali Baba now lived. Here the old man stopped, +and when the thief pulled off the band, and found that his guide could +not tell him whose house it was, he let him go. But before he started +back for the forest himself, well pleased with what he had learned, he +marked the door with a piece of chalk which he had ready in his hand. + +Soon after this Morgiana came out upon some errand, and when she +returned she saw the mark the robber had made, and stopped to look at +it. + +"What can this mean?" she said to herself. "Somebody intends my master +harm, and in any case it is best to guard against the worst." Then she +fetched a piece of chalk, and marked two or three doors on each side in +the same manner, saying nothing to her master or mistress. + +When the robber rejoined his troop in the forest, and told of his good +fortune in meeting the one man that could have helped him, they were all +delighted. + +"Comrades," said the captain, "we have no time to lose. Let us set off +at once, well armed and disguised, enter the town by twos, and join at +the great square. Meanwhile our comrade who has brought us the good news +and I will go and find out the house, and decide what had best be done." + +Two by two they entered the town. Last of all went the captain and the +spy. When they came to the first of the houses which Morgiana had +marked, the spy pointed it out. But the captain noticed that the next +door was chalked in the same manner, and asked his guide which house it +was, that or the first. The guide knew not what answer to make, and was +still more puzzled when he and the captain saw five or six houses marked +after this same fashion. He assured the captain, with an oath, that he +had marked but one, and could not tell who had chalked the rest, nor +could he say at which house the cobbler had stopped. + +There was nothing to do but to join the other robbers, and tell them to +go back to the cave. Here they were told why they had all returned, and +the guide was declared by all to be worthy of death. Indeed, he +condemned himself, owning that he ought to have been more careful, and +prepared to receive the stroke which was to cut off his head. + +The safety of the troop still demanded that the second comer to the cave +should be found, and another of the gang offered to try it, with the +same penalty if he should fail. Like the other robber, he found out Baba +Mustapha, and, through him, the house, which he marked, in a place +remote from sight, with red chalk. + +But nothing could escape Morgiana's eyes, and when she went out, not +long after, and saw the red chalk, she argued with herself as before, +and marked the other houses near by in the same place and manner. + +The robber, when he told his comrades what he had done, prided himself +on his carefulness, and the captain and all the troop thought they must +succeed this time. Again they entered the town by twos; but when the +robber and his captain came to the street, they found the same trouble. +The captain was enraged, and the robber as much confused as the former +guide had been. Thus the captain and his troop went back again to the +cave, and the robber who had failed willingly gave himself up to death. + + + +IV + +THE ROBBERS, EXCEPT THE CAPTAIN, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA + + +The captain could not afford to lose any more of his brave fellows, and +decided to take upon himself the task in which two had failed. Like the +others, he went to Baba Mustapha, and was shown the house. Unlike them +he put no mark on it, but studied it carefully and passed it so often +that he could not possibly mistake it. + +When he returned to the troop, who were waiting for him in the cave, he +said:-- + +"Now, comrades, nothing can prevent our full revenge, as I am certain of +the house. As I returned I thought of a way to do our work, but if any +one thinks of a better, let him speak." + +He told them his plan, and, as they thought it good, he ordered them to +go into the villages about, and buy nineteen mules, with thirty-eight +large leather jars, one full of oil, and the others empty. Within two or +three days they returned with the mules and the jars, and as the mouths +of the jars were rather too narrow for the captain's purpose, he caused +them to be widened. Having put one of his men into each jar, with the +weapons which he thought fit, and having a seam wide enough open for +each man to breathe, he rubbed the jars on the outside with oil from the +full vessel. + +Thus prepared they set out for the town, the nineteen mules loaded with +the thirty-seven robbers in jars, and the jar of oil, with the captain +as their driver. When he reached Ali Baba's door, he found Ali Baba +sitting there taking a little fresh air after his supper. The captain +stopped his mules, and said:-- + +"I have brought some oil a great way to sell at to-morrow's market; and +it is now so late that I do not know where to lodge. Will you do me the +favor to let me pass the night with you?" + +Though Ali Baba had seen the captain in the forest, and had heard him +speak, he could not know him in the disguise of an oil-merchant, and +bade him welcome. He opened his gates for the mules to go into the yard, +and ordered a slave to put them in a stable and feed them when they were +unloaded, and then called Morgiana to get a good supper for his guest. +After supper he charged her afresh to take good care of the stranger, +and said to her:-- + +"To-morrow morning I intend to go to the bath before day; take care to +have my bathing linen ready; give it to Abdalla" (which was his slave's +name), "and make me some good broth against my return." After this he +went to bed. + +In the mean time the captain of the robbers went into the yard, and took +off the lid of each jar, and told his people what they must do. To each, +in turn, he said:-- + +"As soon as I throw some stones out of the chamber window where I lie, +do not fail to come out, and I will join you at once." + +Then he went into the house, and Morgiana showed him his chamber, where +he soon put out the light, and laid himself down in his clothes. + +To carry out Ali Baba's orders, Morgiana got his bathing linen ready, +and bade Abdalla to set on the pot for the broth; but soon the lamp went +out, and there was no more oil in the house, nor any candles. She knew +not what to do, till the slave reminded her of the oil-jars in the yard. +She thanked him for the thought, took the oil-pot, and went out. When +she came nigh the first jar, the robber within said softly: "Is it +time?" + +Of course she was surprised to find a man in the jar instead of the oil, +but she saw at once that she must keep silence, as Ali Baba, his family, +and she herself were in great danger. Therefore she answered, without +showing any fear: "Not yet, but presently." In this manner she went to +all the jars and gave the same answers, till she came to the jar of oil. + +By this means Morgiana found that her master had admitted to his house +thirty-eight robbers, of whom the pretended oil-merchant, their captain, +was one. She made what haste she could to fill her oil-pot, and returned +to her kitchen, lighted her lamp, and taking a great kettle went back to +the oil-jar and filled it. Then she set the kettle on a large wood fire, +and as soon as it boiled went and poured enough into every jar to stifle +and destroy the robber within. + +When this deed, worthy of the courage of Morgiana, was done without any +noise, as she had planned, she returned to the kitchen with the empty +kettle, put out the lamp, and left just enough of the fire to make the +broth. Then she sat silent, resolving not to go to rest till she had +seen through the window that opened on the yard whatever might happen +there. + +It was not long before the captain of the robbers got up, and, seeing +that all was dark and quiet, gave the appointed signal by throwing +little stones, some of which hit the jars, as he doubted not by the +sound they gave. As there was no response, he threw stones a second and +a third time, and could not imagine why there was no answer to his +signal. + +Much alarmed, he went softly down into the yard, and, going to the first +jar to ask the robber if he was ready, smelt the hot boiled oil, which +sent forth a steam out of the jar. From this he suspected that his plot +was found out, and, looking into the jars one by one, he found that all +his gang were dead. Enraged to despair, he forced the lock of a door +that led from the yard to the garden, and made his escape. When Morgiana +saw him go, she went to bed, well pleased that she had saved her master. +and his family. + +Ali Baba rose before day, and went to the baths without knowing of what +had happened in the night. When he returned he was very much surprised +to see the oil-jars in the yard and the mules in the stable. + +"God preserve you and all your family," said Morgiana when she was asked +what it meant; "you will know better when you have seen what I have to +show you." + +So saying she led him to the first jar, and asked him to see if there +was any oil. When he saw a man instead, he started back in alarm. + +"Do not be afraid," said Morgiana; "he can do neither you nor anybody +else the least harm. He is dead. Now look into all the other jars." + +Ali Baba was more and more amazed as he went on, and saw all the dead +men and the sunken oil-jar at the end. He stood looking from the jars to +Morgiana, till he found words to ask: "And what is become of the +merchant?" + +"Merchant!" answered she; "he is as much one as I am." + +Then she led him into the house, and told of all that she had done, from +the first noticing of the chalk-mark to the death of the robbers and the +flight of their captain. On hearing of these brave deeds from Morgiana's +own lips, Ali Baba said to her:-- + +"God, by your means, has delivered me from death. For the first token of +what I owe you, I give you your liberty from this moment, till I can +fully reward you as I intend." + +Near the trees at the end of Ali Baba's long garden, he and Abdalla dug +a trench large enough to hold the bodies of the robbers. When they were +buried there, Ali Baba hid the jars and weapons; and as the mules were +of no use to him, he sent them at different times to be sold in the +market by his slave. + + + +V + +THE CAPTAIN DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA + + +The captain of the forty robbers had returned to his cave in the forest, +but found himself so lonely there that the place became frightful to +him. He resolved at the same time to avenge the fate of his comrades, +and to bring about the death of Ali Baba. For this purpose he returned +to the town, disguised as a merchant of silks. By degrees he brought +from his cavern many sorts of fine stuffs, and to dispose of these he +took a warehouse that happened to be opposite Cassim's, which Ali Baba's +son had occupied since the death of his uncle. + +He took the name of Cogia Houssain, and as a newcomer was very civil to +the merchants near him. Ali Baba's son was one of the first to converse +with him, and the new merchant was most friendly. Within two or three +days Ali Baba came to see his son, and the captain of the robbers knew +him at once, and soon learned from his son who he was. From that time +forth he was still more polite to Ali Baba's son, who soon felt bound to +repay the many kindnesses of his new friend. + +As his own house was small, he arranged with his father that on a +certain afternoon, when he and the merchant were passing by Ali Baba's +house, they should stop, and he should ask them both to sup with him. +This plan was carried out, though at first the merchant, with whose own +plans it agreed perfectly, made as if to excuse himself. He even gave it +as a reason for not remaining that he could eat no salt in his victuals. + +"If that is all," said Ali Baba, "it need not deprive me of the honor of +your company"; and he went to the kitchen and told Morgiana to put no +salt into anything she was cooking that evening. + +Thus Cogia Houssain was persuaded to stay, but to Morgiana it seemed +very strange that any one should refuse to eat salt. She wished to see +what manner of man it might be, and to this end, when she had finished +what she had to do in the kitchen, she helped Abdalla carry up the +dishes. Looking at Cogia Houssain, she knew him at first sight, in spite +of his disguise, to be the captain of the robbers, and, scanning him +very closely, saw that he had a dagger under his garment. + +"I see now why this greatest enemy of my master would eat no salt with +him. He intends to kill him; but I will prevent him." + +While they were at supper Morgiana made up her mind to do one of the +boldest deeds ever conceived. She dressed herself like a dancer, girded +her waist with a silver-gilt girdle, from which hung a poniard, and put +a handsome mask on her face. Then, when the supper was ended, she said +to Abdalla:-- + +"Take your tabor, and let us go and divert our master and his son's +friend, as we sometimes do when he is alone." + +They presented themselves at the door with a low bow, and Morgiana was +bidden to enter and show Cogia Houssain how well she danced. This, he +knew, would interrupt him in carrying out his wicked purpose, but he had +to make the best of it, and to seem pleased with Morgiana's dancing. She +was indeed a good dancer, and on this occasion outdid herself in +graceful and surprising motions. At the last, she took the tabor from +Abdalla's hand, and held it out like those who dance for money. + +Ali Baba put a piece of gold into it, and so did his son. When Cogia +Houssain saw that she was coming to him, he pulled out his purse from +his bosom to make her a present; but while he was putting his hand into +it, Morgiana, with courage worthy of herself, plunged the poniard into +his heart. + +"Unhappy woman!" exclaimed Ali Baba, "what have you done to ruin me and +my family?" + +"It was to preserve, not to ruin you," answered Morgiana. Then she +showed the dagger in Cogia Houssain's garment, and said: "Look well at +him, and you will see that he is both the pretended oil-merchant and the +captain of the band of forty robbers. As soon as you told me that he +would eat no salt with you, I suspected who it was, and when I saw him, +I knew." + +Ali Baba embraced her, and said: "Morgiana, I gave you your liberty +before, and promised you more in time; now I would make you my +daughter-in-law. Consider," he said, turning to his son, "that by +marrying Morgiana, you marry the preserver of my family and yours." + +The son was all the more ready to carry out his father's wishes, because +they were the same as his own, and within a few days he and Morgiana +were married, but before this, the captain of the robbers was buried +with his comrades, and so secretly was it done, that their bones were +not found till many years had passed, when no one had any concern in +making this strange story known. + +For a whole year Ali Baba did not visit the robbers' cave. At the end of +that time, as nobody had tried to disturb him, he made another journey +to the forest, and, standing before the entrance to the cave, said: +"Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and from the appearance of +everything within the cavern, he judged that nobody had been there since +the captain had fetched the goods for his shop. From this time forth, he +took as much of the treasure as his needs demanded. Some years later he +carried his son to the cave, and taught him the secret, which he handed +down in his family, who used their good fortune wisely, and lived in +great honor and splendor. + + + + +III. RIP VAN WINKLE[*] (1819) + +[* From "The Sketch Book." The elaborate Knickerbocker notes with which +Irving, following a passing fashion of the time, sought to mystify the +reader, are here omitted. They are hindrances now rather than helps.] + +BY WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) + + +[_Setting_. The Hudson River and the Kaatskill Mountains were first +brought into literature through this story, Irving being the first +American master of local color and local tradition. Since 1870 the +American short story, following the example of Irving, has been the +leading agency by which the South, the West, and New England have made +known and thus perpetuated their local scenery, legends, customs, and +dialect. Irving, however, seemed afraid of dialect. There were, it is +true, many legends about the Hudson before Irving was born, but they had +found no expression in literature. Mrs. Josiah Quincy, who made a voyage +up the Hudson in 1786, wrote: "Our captain had a legend for every scene, +either supernatural or traditional or of actual occurrence during the +war, and not a mountain reared its head unconnected with some marvellous +story." Irving, therefore, did not have to manufacture local traditions; +he only gave them wider currency and fitted them more artistically into +their natural settings. + +Irving chose for his setting the twenty years that embrace the +Revolutionary War because the numerous social and political changes that +took place then enabled him to bring Rip back after his sleep into a +"world not realized." You will appreciate much better the art of this +time-setting if you will try your hand on a somewhat similar story and +place it between 1820 and 1840, when railroads, telegraph lines, and +transatlantic steamers made a new world out of the old; or, if your +story takes place in the South, you might make your background include +the interval between 1855 and 1875, when slavery was abolished, when the +old plantation system was changed, when the names of new heroes emerged, +and when new social and political and industrial problems had to be +grappled with. + +_Plot_. The plot is divided into two almost equal parts, which we may +call "before and after taking." A recent critic has said: "The actual +forward movement of the plot does not begin until the sentence, 'In a +long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously +scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains.'" The +critic has missed, I think, the main structural excellence of the story. +Dame Van Winkle, the children who hung around Rip, his own children, his +dog, the social club at the inn with the portrait of George the Third, +Van Bummel, and Nicholas Vedder, all had to be mentioned before Rip +began the ascent of the mountain. Otherwise, when he returned, we should +have had no means of measuring the swift passage of time during his +sleep. Each is a skillfully set timepiece or milepost which, on Rip's +return, misleads the poor fellow at every turn and thus produces the +exact kind of "totality of effect" that Irving intended. The forward +movement of the plot begins with this careful planning of the route that +Rip is to take on his return trip, when twenty years shall have done +their work. Cut out these _points de repère_ and see how effectively the +forward movement of the plot is retarded. + +_Characters_. Rip was the first character in American fiction to be +known far beyond our own borders, and he remains one of the best known. +In the class with him belong James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking (or +Natty Bumppo), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, Joel Chandler Harris's +Uncle Remus, and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He has +been called un-American, and so he is, and so Irving plainly intended +him to be. If one insists on finding a bit of distinctive Americanism +somewhere in the story, he will find it not in Rip but in the number and +rapidity of the changes that American life underwent during the twenty +years that serve as background to the story. George William Curtis calls +Rip "the constant and unconscious satirist of American life," but surely +Irving would have smiled at finding so purposeful a mission laid upon +the stooping shoulders of his vagabond ne'er-do-well hero. Rip is no +satirist, conscious or unconscious. He is a provincial Dutch type, such +as Irving had seen a hundred times; but he is so lovable and is sketched +so lovingly that we hardly realize the consummate art, the human +sympathy, and the keen powers of observation that have gone into his +making. Every other character in the story, including Wolf, is a +sidelight on Rip. Of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Irving said: "The +story is a mere whimsical band to connect the descriptions of scenery, +customs, manners, etc." The emphasis, in other words, was put on the +setting. Of "Rip Van Winkle" might he not have said, "The descriptions +of scenery, customs, manners, etc. are but so many channels through +which the character of Rip finds outlet and expression"?] + + + +Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill +Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian +family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a +noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change +of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, +produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, +and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect +barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in +blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; +but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is cloudless they will +gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last +rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. + +At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the +light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among +the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the +fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great +antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists in the +early time of the province, just about the beginning of the government +of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were +some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, +built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, having latticed +windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. + +In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell +the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived +many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, +a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a +descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous +days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort +Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of +his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; +he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband. +Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of +spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are +most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the +discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered +pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a +curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the +virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, +in some respects be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van +Winkle was thrice blessed. + +Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of +the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all +family squabbles; and never failed, whenever they talked those matters +over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van +Winkle. The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever +he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, +taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories +of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the +village, he was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts, +clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with +impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. + +The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all +kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or +perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and +heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even +though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a +fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods +and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild +pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor, even in the +roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking +Indian corn, or building stone-fences; the women of the village, too, +used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs +as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip +was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing +family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. + +In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the +most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; everything +about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences +were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray or +get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields +than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as +he had some out-door work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate +had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was +little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it +was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood. + +His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to +nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own likeness, promised to +inherit the habits, with the old clothes of his father. He was generally +seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of +his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up +with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in bad weather. + +Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, +well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or +brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would +rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he +would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept +continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, +and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night her +tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to +produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of +replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had +grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up +his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh +volley from his wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and +take to the outside of the house--the only side which, in truth, belongs +to a henpecked husband. + +Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked +as his master; for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in +idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of +his master's going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit +befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever +scoured the woods--but what courage can withstand the ever-during and +all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment Wolf entered the +house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between +his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong +glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least flourish of a broomstick or +ladle he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation. + +Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony +rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is +the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. For a long +while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting +a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle +personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a +small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the +Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy summer's +day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy +stories about nothing. But it would have been worth any statesman's +money to have heard the profound discussions that sometimes took place, +when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing +traveller. How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled +out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little +man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the +dictionary; and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some +months after they had taken place. + +The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas +Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door +of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving +sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the shade of a large tree; so +that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as +by a sun-dial. It is true he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his +pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his +adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his +opinions. When anything that was read or related displeased him, he was +observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent +and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and +tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds; and sometimes, +taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl +about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect +approbation. + +From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his +termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquillity of the +assemblage and call the members all to naught; nor was that august +personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of +this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her +husband in habits of idleness. + +Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only +alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his +wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he +would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the +contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a +fellow-sufferer in persecution. "Poor Wolf," he would say, "thy mistress +leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live +thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his +tail, look wistfully in his master's face, and if dogs can feel pity, I +verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. + +In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had +unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill +Mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel shooting, and the +still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his gun. +Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a +green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a +precipice. From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the +lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the +lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic +course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging +bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing +itself in the blue highlands. + +On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, +lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending +cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. +For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually +advancing, the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the +valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the +village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the +terrors of Dame Van Winkle. + +As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, +"Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!" He looked round, but could see nothing +but a crow winging its solitary flight across the mountain. He thought +his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when he +heard the same cry ring through the still evening air: "Rip Van Winkle! +Rip Van Winkle!"--at the same time Wolf bristled up his back, and giving +a low growl, skulked to his master's side, looking fearfully down into +the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked +anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly +toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he +carried on his back. He was surprised to see any human being in this +lonely and unfrequented place; but supposing it to be some one of the +neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it. + +On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the singularity of the +stranger's appearance. He was a short, square-built old fellow, with +thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique +Dutch fashion: a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist, several pairs of +breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons +down the sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulder a +stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to +approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful +of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity; and +mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully, +apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended, Rip +every now and then heard long rolling peals like distant thunder, that +seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty +rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for a moment, +but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient +thunder-showers which often take place in mountain heights, he +proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a +small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the +brinks of which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only +caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud. During +the whole time Rip and his companion had labored on in silence; for +though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying +a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange +and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe and checked +familiarity. + +On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder presented +themselves. On a level spot in the center was a company of odd-looking +personages playing at ninepins. They were dressed in a quaint outlandish +fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in +their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches of similar style +with that of the guide's. Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a +large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another +seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white +sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. They all had +beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be the +commander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten +countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, +high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with +roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old +Flemish painting in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick, the village +parson, which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the +settlement. + +What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were +evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the +most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of +pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the +scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, +echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. + +As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from +their play, and stared at him with such, fixed, statue-like gaze, and +such strange, uncouth, lack-lustre countenances, that his heart turned +within him, and his knees smote together. His companion now emptied the +contents of the keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait +upon the company. He obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the +liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. + +By degrees Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even ventured, when +no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage, which he found had +much of the flavor of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty +soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked +another; and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often that at +length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head +gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. + +On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen +the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes--it was a bright, sunny +morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the +eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze. +"Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all night." He recalled +the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of +liquor--the mountain ravine--the wild retreat among the rocks--the +woe-begone party at ninepins--the flagon--"Oh! that flagon! that wicked +flagon!" thought Rip--"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?" + +He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean, well-oiled +fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel +incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. He +now suspected that the grave roisterers of the mountain had put a trick +upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. +Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a +squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him, and shouted his name, but +all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was +to be seen. + +He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and if +he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to +walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual +activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, "and +if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall +have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty he got +down into the glen; he found the gully up which he and his companion has +ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain +stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling +the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up +its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, +sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the +wild grapevines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree, +and spread a kind of network in his path. + +At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs +to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks +presented a high, impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came +tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad, deep basin, +black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip +was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after his dog; he +was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting high +in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure +in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's +perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was passing away, and Rip +felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog +and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve +among the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, +and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps +homeward. + +As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he +knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself +acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was of +a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all +stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their +eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence +of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to his +astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! + +He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange +children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray +beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old +acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered; +it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had +never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had +disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange faces at the +windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to +doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. +Surely this was his native village, which he had left but the day +before. There stood the Kaatskill Mountains--there ran the silver Hudson +at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always +been--Rip was sorely perplexed--"That flagon last night," thought he, +"has addled my poor head sadly!" + +It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, +which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the +shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay--the +roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A +half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking about it. Rip called +him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This +was an unkind cut indeed--"My very dog," sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten +me!" + +He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had +always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently +abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears--he called +loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for a moment +with his voice, and then again all was silence. + +He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village +inn--but it, too, was gone. A large, rickety wooden building stood in +its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended +with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "The Union +Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to +shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall +naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red night-cap, +and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of +stars and stripes--all this was strange and incomprehensible. He +recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King George, under +which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but even this was +singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and +buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was +decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large +characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON. + +There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that Rip +recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. There was +a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed +phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas +Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering +clouds of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the +schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper. In +place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of +hand-bills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens +--elections--members of congress--liberty--Bunker's Hill--heroes +of seventy-six--and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon +to the bewildered Van Winkle. + +The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty +fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at +his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern-politicians. They +crowded round him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. The +orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired "on +which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but +busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, +inquired in his ear, "Whether he was Federal or Democrat?" Rip was +equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, +self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way +through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as +he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, +the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, +as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, "what +brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his +heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?"--"Alas! +gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor quiet man, a +native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!" + +Here a general shout burst from the bystanders--"A tory! a tory! a spy! +a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great difficulty that +the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and, having +assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown +culprit what he came there for, and whom he was seeking? The poor man +humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in +search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. + +"Well--who are they?--name them." + +Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?" + +There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin, piping voice: "Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used +to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." + +"Where's Brom Dutcher?" + +"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he +was killed at the storming of Stony Point--others say he was drowned in +a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know--he never came back +again." + +"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" + +"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now in +Congress." + +Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and +friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer +puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of +matters which he could not understand: war--Congress--Stony Point; he +had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, +"Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?" + +"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. + +"Oh, to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the +tree." + +Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up +the mountain: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor +fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and +whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, +the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name? + +"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself--I'm +somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else got into my +shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and +they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and I +can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" + +The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, +and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There was a whisper, +also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing +mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the +cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment a +fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the +gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened +at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little +fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the +mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in +his mind. "What is your name, my good woman?" asked he. + +"Judith Gardenier." + +"And your father's name?" + +"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years since +he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of +since,--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself or +was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a +little girl." + +Rip had but one question more to ask; and he put it with a faltering +voice:--"Where's your mother?" + +"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel +in a fit of passion at a New England peddler." + +There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The honest +man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her +child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he--"Young Rip Van Winkle +once--old Rip Van Winkle now! Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle?" + +All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the +crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a +moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough it is Rip Van Winkle--it is himself! +Welcome home again, old neighbor--Why, where have you been these twenty +long years?" + +Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him +but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were +seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks; and +the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, +had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and +shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of the head +throughout the assemblage. + +It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, +who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a descendant of the +historian of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the +province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well +versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. +He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most +satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, handed +down from his ancestor the historian, that the Kaatskill Mountains had +always been haunted by strange beings. That it was affirmed that the +great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, +kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the +Half-moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his +enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city +called by his name. That his father had once seen them in their old +Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that +he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls +like distant peals of thunder. + +To make a long story short, the company broke up and returned to the +more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home to +live with her; she had a snug well-furnished house, and a stout cheery +farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the urchins that +used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto +of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on +the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to anything +else but his business. + +Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his +former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of +time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with +whom he soon grew into great favor. + +Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a +man can be idle with impunity, he took his place once more on the bench +at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the +village, and a chronicle of the old times "before the war." It was some +time before he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be +made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his +torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war--that the country +had thrown off the yoke of old England--and that, instead of being a +subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of +the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician; the changes of +states and empires made but little impression on him; but there was one +species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that +was--petticoat government. Happily that was at an end; he had got his +neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he +pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her +name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, +and cast up his eyes, which might pass either for an expression of +resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance. + +He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr. +Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some points +every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having so +recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I have +related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neighborhood but knew it +by heart. Some always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted +that Rip had been out of his head, and that this was one point on which +he always remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost +universally gave it full credit. Even to this day they never hear a +thunder-storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but they say +Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins; and it is a +common wish of all henpecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life +hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught out +of Rip Van Winkle's flagon. + + + + +IV. THE GOLD-BUG (1843) + +BY EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) + + +[_Setting_. Sullivan's Island is at the entrance of Charleston harbor, +just east of Charleston, South Carolina. It is the site of Fort +Moultrie, where Poe served as a private soldier in Battery H of the +First Artillery, United States Army, from November, 1827, to November, +1828. The atmosphere of the place in Poe's time is well preserved, but +no such beetle as the gold-bug has been discovered. Poe may have found a +hint for his story in the wreck of the old brigantine _Cid Campeador_ +off the coast of South Carolina in 1745, the affidavits of the burying +of the treasure being still preserved in the Probate Court Records of +Charleston. + +_Plot_. "The Gold-Bug" is recognized as one of the world's greatest +short stories and marks a distinct advance in short-story structure. The +plot is divided into two parts, which we may call mystery and solution, +or complication and explication, or rise and fall. The second part +begins with the short paragraph on page 91, beginning "When, at length, +we had concluded our examination," etc. Notice how skillfully the +interest is preserved and even heightened as the plot passes from the +romantic action of part one to the subtle exposition of part two. These +two parts may be said to represent the two sides of Poe's genius, the +imaginative or poetical, and the intellectual or scientific. The +treasure-trove is the symbol of the first, the cryptogram of the second. +Stories had been written about buried treasures and about cryptograms +before 1843, but the two interests had never before been combined. Poe's +example, however, has borne abundant fruit. + +_Characters_. Poe's strength did not lie in the creation of character. +He is so intent on the development of the windings and unwindings of his +story that the characters become mere puppets, originated and controlled +by the needs of the plot. Jupiter deserves mention as one of the +earliest attempts made by an American short-story writer to portray +negro character. But Jupiter has been so far surpassed in breadth and +reality by Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, and a score of +others as to be almost negligible in the count. In defense of Jupiter's +barbarous lingo, which has been often criticized, it should be +remembered that Poe intended him as a representative of the Gullah (or +Gulla) dialect. "It is the negro dialect," says Joel Chandler Harris, +"in its most primitive state--the 'Gullah' talk of some of the negroes +on the Sea Islands being merely a confused and untranslatable mixture of +English and African words." + +William Legrand, though not a great or notable character in any way, is +admirably fitted to do what is required of him in the story. Like Poe, +he was solitary, proud, quick-tempered, and "subject to perverse moods +of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy." He had also Poe's passion for +puzzles. Jupiter is hardly more than an awkward tool fashioned to +display Legrand's analytic and directive genius; and the other character +in the story, like Dr. Watson in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, +is introduced merely to ask such questions as must be answered if the +reader is to follow intelligently the unfolding of the plot. They are +agents rather than characters.] + + + +What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad! +He hath been bitten by the Tarantula. + "All in the Wrong" + + +Many years ago, I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He +was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a +series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the +mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the +city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's +Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. + +This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the +sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point +exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a +scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of +reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, as +might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any +magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort +Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted +during summer by the fugitives from Charleston dust and fever, may be +found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with the +exception of this western point, and a line of hard white beach on the +seacoast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle, so +much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub here often +attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost +impenetrable coppice, burdening the air with its fragrance. + +In the utmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern or +more remote end of the island, Legrand had built himself a small hut, +which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made his +acquaintance. This soon ripened into friendship--for there was much in +the recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him well educated, +with unusual powers of mind, but infected with misanthropy, and subject +to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. He had with +him many books, but rarely employed them. His chief amusements were +gunning and fishing, or sauntering along the beach and through the +myrtles in quest of shells or entomological specimens;--his collection +of the latter might have been envied by a Swammerdamm. In these +excursions he was usually accompanied by an old negro, called Jupiter, +who had been manumitted before the reverses of the family, but who +could be induced, neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon what +he considered his right of attendance upon the footsteps of his young +"Massa Will." It is not improbable that the relatives of Legrand, +conceiving him to be somewhat unsettled in intellect, had contrived to +instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the supervision and +guardianship of the wanderer. + +The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very +severe, and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a +fire is considered necessary. About the middle of October, 18--, there +occurred, however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset I +scrambled my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, whom I +had not visited for several weeks--my residence being at that time in +Charleston, a distance of nine miles from the island, while the +facilities of passage and repassage were very far behind those of the +present day. Upon reaching the hut I rapped, as was my custom, and, +getting no reply, sought for the key where I knew it was secreted, +unlocked the door, and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon the +hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I threw +off an overcoat, took an armchair by the crackling logs, and awaited +patiently the arrival of my hosts. + +Soon after dark they arrived, and gave me a most cordial welcome. +Jupiter, grinning from ear to ear, bustled about to prepare some +marsh-hens for supper. Legrand was in one of his fits--how else shall I +term them?--of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve, forming a +new genus, and, more than this, he had hunted down and secured, with +Jupiter's assistance, a _scarabæus_ which he believed to be totally +new, but in respect to which he wished to have my opinion on the +morrow. + +"And why not to-night?" I asked, rubbing my hands over the blaze, and +wishing the whole tribe of _scarabæi_ at the devil. + +"Ah, if I had only known you were here!" said Legrand, "but it's so +long since I saw you; and how could I foresee that you would pay me a +visit this very night of all others? As I was coming home I met +Lieutenant G----, from the fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him the +bug; so it will be impossible for you to see it until the morning. Stay +here to-night, and I will send Jup down for it at sunrise. It is the +loveliest thing in creation!" + +"What?--sunrise?" + +"Nonsense! no!--the bug. It is of a brilliant gold color--about the +size of a large hickory-nut--with two jet-black spots near one +extremity of the back, and another, somewhat longer, at the other. The +_antennæ_ are--" + +"Dey aint _no_ tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a tellin on you," here +interrupted Jupiter; "de bug is a goole-bug, solid, ebery bit of him, +inside and all, sep him wing--neber feel half so hebby a bug in my +life." + +"Well, suppose it is, Jup," replied Legrand, somewhat more earnestly, +it seemed to me, than the case demanded, "is that any reason for your +letting the birds burn? The color"--here he turned to me--"is really +almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea. You never saw a more brilliant +metallic lustre than the scales emit--but of this you cannot judge till +to-morrow. In the meantime I can give you some idea of the shape." +Saying this, he seated himself at a small table, on which were a pen +and ink, but no paper. He looked for some in a drawer, but found none. + +"Never mind," said he at length, "this will answer"; and he drew from +his waistcoat pocket a scrap of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, +and made upon it a rough drawing with the pen. While he did this, I +retained my seat by the fire, for I was still chilly. When the design +was complete, he handed it to me without rising. As I received it, a +low growl was heard, succeeded by a scratching at the door. Jupiter +opened it, and a large Newfoundland, belonging to Legrand, rushed in, +leaped upon my shoulders, and loaded me with caresses; for I had shown +him much attention during previous visits. When his gambols were over, +I looked at the paper, and, to speak the truth, found myself not a +little puzzled at what my friend had depicted. + +"Well!" I said, after contemplating it for some minutes, "this _is_ a +strange _scarabæus_, I must confess; new to me; never saw anything like +it before--unless it was a skull, or a death's-head, which it more +nearly resembles than anything else that has come under _my_ +observation." + +"A death's-head!" echoed Legrand--"oh--yes--well, it has something of +that appearance upon paper, no doubt. The two upper black spots look +like eyes, eh? and the longer one at the bottom like a mouth--and then +the shape of the whole is oval." + +"Perhaps so," said I; "but, Legrand, I fear you are no artist. I must +wait until I see the beetle itself, if I am to form any idea of its +personal appearance." + +"Well, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, "I draw +tolerably--_should_ do it at least--have had good masters, and flatter +myself that I am not quite a blockhead." + +"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I; "this is a very +passable _skull_,--indeed, I may say that it is a very _excellent_ +skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of +physiology--and your _scarabæus_ must be the queerest _scarabæus_ in +the world if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrilling bit +of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will call the bug +_scarabæus caput hominis_[*] or something of that kind--there are many +similar titles in the Natural Histories. But where are the _antennæ_ +you spoke of?" + +[* _Scarabæus caput hominis_, "death's-head beetle."] + +"The _antennæ_!" said Legrand, who seemed to be getting unaccountably +warm upon the subject; "I am sure you must see the _antennæ_. I made +them as distinct as they are in the original insect, and I presume that +is sufficient." + +"Well, well," I said, "perhaps you have--still I don't see them"; and I +handed him the paper without additional remark, not wishing to ruffle +his temper; but I was much surprised at the turn affairs had taken; his +ill humor puzzled me--and as for the drawing of the beetle, there were +positively _no antennæ_, visible, and the whole _did_ bear a very close +resemblance to the ordinary cuts of a death's-head. + +He received the paper very peevishly, and was about to crumple it, +apparently to throw it in the fire, when a casual glance at the design +seemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In an instant his face grew +violently red--in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he +continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely where he sat. At length he +arose, took a candle from the table, and proceeded to seat himself upon +a sea-chest in the farthest corner of the room. Here again he made an +anxious examination of the paper; turning it in all directions. He said +nothing, however, and his conduct greatly astonished me; yet I thought +it prudent not to exacerbate the growing moodiness of his temper by any +comment. Presently he took from his coat pocket a wallet, placed the +paper carefully in it, and deposited both in a writing-desk, which he +locked. He now grew more composed in his demeanor; but his original air +of enthusiasm had quite disappeared. Yet he seemed not so much sulky as +abstracted. As the evening wore away he became more and more absorbed +in revery, from which no sallies of mine could arouse him. It had been +my intention to pass the night at the hut, as I had frequently done +before, but, seeing my host in this mood, I deemed it proper to take +leave. He did not press me to remain, but, as I departed, he shook my +hand with even more than his usual cordiality. + +It was about a month after this (and during the interval I had seen +nothing of Legrand) when I received a visit, at Charleston, from his +man, Jupiter. I had never seen the good old negro look so dispirited, +and I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my friend. + +"Well, Jup," said I, "what is the matter now?--how is your master?" + +"Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry well as mought be." + +"Not well! I am truly sorry to hear it. What does he complain of?" + +"Dar! dat's it!--him neber plain of notin--but him berry sick for all +dat." + +"_Very_ sick, Jupiter!--why didn't you say so at once? Is he confined +to bed?" + +"No, dat he aint!--he aint find nowhar--dat's just whar de shoe +pinch--my mind is got to be berry hebby bout poor Massa Will." + +"Jupiter, I should like to understand what it is you are talking about. +You say your master is sick. Hasn't he told you what ails him?" + +"Why, massa, taint worf while for to git mad bout de matter--Massa Will +say noffin at all aint de matter wid him--but den what make him go bout +looking dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up, and as white +as a gose? And then he keeps a syphon all de time--" + +"Keeps a what, Jupiter?" + +"Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on de slate--de queerest figgurs I ebber +did see. Ise gittin to be skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keep mighty +tight eye pon him noovers. Todder day he gib me slip fore de sun up and +was gone de whole ob de blessed day. I had a big stick ready cut for to +gib him d----d good beating when he did come--but Ise sich a fool dat I +hadn't de heart arter all--he look so berry poorly." + +"Eh?--what?--ah, yes!--upon the whole I think you had better not be too +severe with the poor fellow--don't flog him, Jupiter--he can't very +well stand it--but can you form no idea of what has occasioned this +illness, or rather this change of conduct? Has anything unpleasant +happened since I saw you?" + +"No, massa, dey aint bin noffin onpleasant _since_ den--'t was _fore_ +den I'm feared--'t was de berry day you was dare." + +"How? what do you mean?" + +"Why, massa, I mean de bug--dare now." + +"The what?" + +"De bug--I'm berry sartain dat Massa Will bin bit somewhere bout de +head by dat goole-bug." + +"And what cause have you, Jupiter, for such a supposition?" + +"Claws enuff, massa, and mouff too. I nebber did see sich a d----d +bug--he kick and he bite every ting what cum near him. Massa Will cotch +him fuss, but had for to let him go gin mighty quick, I tell you--den +was de time he must ha got de bite. I didn't like de look ob de bug +mouff, myself, no how, so I wouldn't take hold ob him wid my finger, +but I cotch him wid a piece ob paper dat I found. I rap him up in de +paper and stuff piece ob it in he mouff--dat was de way." + +"And you think, then, that your master was really bitten by the beetle, +and that the bite made him sick?" + +"I don't tink noffin about it--I nose it. What make him dream bout de +goole so much, if taint cause he bit by de goole-bug? Ise heerd bout +dem goole-bugs fore dis." + +"But how do you know he dreams about gold?" + +"How I know? why, cause he talk about it in he sleep--dat's how I +nose." + +"Well, Jup, perhaps you are right; but to what fortunate circumstances +am I to attribute the honor of a visit from you to-day?" + +"What de matter, massa?" + +"Did you bring any message from Mr. Legrand?" + +"No, massa, I bring dis here pissel"; and here Jupiter handed me a note +which ran thus: + + +MY DEAR----: Why have I not seen you for so long a time? +I hope you have not been so foolish as to take offense at any little +_brusquerie_ of mine; but no, that is improbable. + +Since I saw you I have had great cause for anxiety. I have something +to tell you, yet scarcely know how to tell it, or whether I should +tell it at all. + +I have not been quite well for some days past, and poor old Jup +annoys me, almost beyond endurance, by his well-meant attentions. +Would you believe it?--he had prepared a huge stick, the other +day, with which to chastise me for giving him the slip, and spending +the day, _solus_, among the hills on the mainland. I verily believe +that my ill looks alone saved me a flogging. + +I have made no addition to my cabinet since we met. + +If you can, in any way, make it convenient, come over with +Jupiter. _Do_ come. I wish to see you _tonight_, upon business of +importance. I assure you that it is of the _highest_ importance. + +Ever yours, + +WILLIAM LEGRAND + + +There was something in the tone of this note which gave me great +uneasiness. Its whole style differed materially from that of Legrand. +What could he be dreaming of? What new crotchet possessed his excitable +brain? What "business of the highest importance" could _he_ possibly +have to transact? Jupiter's account of him boded no good. I dreaded lest +the continued pressure of misfortune had, at length, fairly unsettled +the reason of my friend. Without a moment's hesitation, therefore, I +prepared to accompany the negro. + +Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades, all +apparently new, lying in the bottom of the boat in which we were to +embark. + +"What is the meaning of all this, Jup?" I inquired. + +"Him syfe, massa, and spade." + +"Very true; but what are they doing here?" + +"Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will sis pon my buying for him in +de town, and de debbil's own lot of money I had to gib for em." + +"But what, in the name of all that is mysterious, is your 'Massa Will' +going to do with scythes and spades?" + +"Dat's more dan _I_ know, and debbil take me if I don't believe 'tis +more dan he know, too. But it's all cum ob de bug." + +Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter, whose whole +intellect seemed to be absorbed by "de bug," I now stepped into the boat +and made sail. With a fair and strong breeze we soon ran into the little +cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walk of some two miles +brought us to the hut. It was about three in the afternoon when we +arrived. Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expectation. He grasped +my hand with a nervous _empressement_, which alarmed me and strengthened +the suspicions already entertained. His countenance was pale even to +ghastliness, and his deep-set eyes glared with unnatural lustre. After +some inquiries respecting his health, I asked him, not knowing what +better to say, if he had yet obtained the _scarabæus_ from Lieutenant +G----. + +"Oh, yes," he replied, coloring violently, "I got it from him the next +morning. Nothing should tempt me to part with that _scarabæus_. Do you +know that Jupiter is quite right about it?" + +"In what way?" I asked, with a sad foreboding at heart. + +"In supposing it to be a bug of _real gold_." He said this with an air +of profound seriousness, and I felt inexpressibly shocked. + +"This bug is to make my fortune," he continued, with a triumphant smile, +"to reinstate me in my family possessions. Is it any wonder, then, that +I prize it? Since Fortune has thought fit to bestow it upon me, I have +only to use it properly and I shall arrive at the gold of which it is +the index. Jupiter, bring me that _scarabæus_!" + +"What! de bug, massa? I'd rudder not go fer trubble dat bug--you mus git +him for your own self." Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and stately +air, and brought me the beetle from a glass case in which it was +enclosed. It was a beautiful _scarabæus_, and, at that time, unknown to +naturalists--of course a great prize in a scientific point of view. +There were two round, black spots near one extremity of the back, and a +long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy, +with all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of the insect was +very remarkable, and, taking all things into consideration, I could +hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it; but what to make of +Legrand's agreement with that opinion, I could not, for the life of me, +tell. + +"I sent for you," said he, in a grandiloquent tone, when I had completed +my examination of the beetle, "I sent for you that I might have your +counsel and assistance in furthering the views of Fate and of the bug--" + +"My dear Legrand," I cried, interrupting him, "you are certainly unwell, +and had better use some little precautions. You shall go to bed, and I +will remain with you a few days, until you get over this. You are +feverish and--" + +"Feel my pulse," said he. + +I felt it, and, to say the truth, found not the slightest indication of +fever. + +"But you may be ill, and yet have no fever. Allow me this once to +prescribe for you. In the first place, go to bed. In the next--" + +"You are mistaken," he interposed, "I am as well as I can expect to be +under the excitement which I suffer. If you really wish me well, you +will relieve this excitement." + +"And how is this to be done?" + +"Very easily. Jupiter and myself are going upon an expedition into the +hills, upon the mainland, and, in this expedition, we shall need the aid +of some person in whom we can confide. You are the only one we can +trust. Whether we succeed or fail, the excitement which you now perceive +in me will be equally allayed." + +"I am anxious to oblige you in any way," I replied; "but do you mean to +say that this infernal beetle has any connection with your expedition +into the hills." + +"It has." + +"Then, Legrand, I can become a party to no such absurd proceeding." + +"I am sorry--very sorry--for we shall have to try it by ourselves." + +"Try it by yourselves! The man is surely mad!--but stay--how long do you +propose to be absent?" + +"Probably all night. We shall start immediately, and be back, at all +events, by sunrise." + +"And will you promise me, upon your honor, that when this freak of yours +is over and the bug business (good God!) settled to your satisfaction, +you will then return home and follow my advice implicitly, as that of +your physician?" + +"Yes; I promise; and now let us be off, for we have no time to lose." + +With a heavy heart I accompanied my friend. We started about four +o'clock--Legrand, Jupiter, the dog, and myself. Jupiter had with him the +scythe and spades--the whole of which he insisted upon carrying, more +through fear, it seemed to me, of trusting either of the implements +within reach of his master, than from any excess of industry or +complaisance. His demeanor was dogged in the extreme, and "dat d----d +bug" were the sole words which escaped his lips during the journey. For +my own part, I had charge of a couple of dark lanterns, while Legrand +contented himself with the _scarabæus_, which he carried attached to the +end of a bit of whip-cord; twirling it to and fro, with the air of a +conjuror, as he went. When I observed this last, plain evidence of my +friend's aberration of mind, I could scarcely refrain from tears. I +thought it best, however, to humor his fancy, at least for the present, +or until I could adopt some more energetic measures with a chance of +success. In the meantime I endeavored, but all in vain, to sound him in +regard to the object of the expedition. Having succeeded in inducing me +to accompany him, he seemed unwilling to hold conversation upon any +topic of minor importance, and to all my questions vouchsafed no other +reply than "We shall see!" + +We crossed the creek at the head of the island by means of a skiff, and, +ascending the high grounds on the shore of the mainland, proceeded in a +northwesterly direction, through a tract of country excessively wild and +desolate, where no trace of a human footstep was to be seen. Legrand led +the way with decision; pausing only for an instant, here and there, to +consult what appeared to be certain landmarks of his own contrivance +upon a former occasion. + +In this manner we journeyed for about two hours, and the sun was just +setting when we entered a region infinitely more dreary than any yet +seen. It was a species of table-land, near the summit of an almost +inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and +interspersed with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the soil, +and in many cases were prevented from precipitating themselves into the +valleys below merely by the support of the trees against which they +reclined. Deep ravines, in various directions, gave an air of still +sterner solemnity to the scene. + +The natural platform to which we had clambered was thickly overgrown +with brambles, through which we soon discovered that it would have been +impossible to force our way but for the scythe; and Jupiter, by +direction of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot of +an immensely large tulip-tree, which stood, with some eight or ten oaks, +upon the level, and far surpassed them all, and all other trees which I +had then ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and form, in the wide +spread of its branches, and in the general majesty of its appearance. +When we reached this tree, Legrand turned to Jupiter, and asked him if +he thought he could climb it. The old man seemed a little staggered by +the question, and for some moments made no reply. At length he +approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it, and examined it with +minute attention. When he had completed his scrutiny, he merely said: + +"Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebber see in he life." + +"Then up with you as soon as possible, for it will soon be too dark to +see what we are about." + +"How far mus go up, massa?" inquired Jupiter. + +"Get up the main trunk first, and then I will tell you which way to +go--and here--stop! take this beetle with you." + +"De bug, Massa Will!--de goole-bug!" cried the negro, drawing back in +dismay--"what for mus tote de bug way up detree?--d----n if I do!" + +"If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold of a +harmless little dead beetle, why, you can carry it up by this +string--but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be +under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel." + +"What de matter now, massa?" said Jup, evidently shamed into compliance; +"always want fur to raise fuss wid old nigger. Was only funnin anyhow. +_Me_ feered de bug! what I keer for de bug?" Here he took cautiously +hold of the extreme end of the string, and, maintaining the insect as +far from his person as circumstances would permit, prepared to ascend +the tree. + +In youth, the tulip-tree, or _Liriodendron Tulipifera_, the most +magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth, and +often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but, in its +riper age the bark becomes gnarled and uneven while many short limbs +make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty of ascension, in +the present case, lay more in semblance than in reality. Embracing the +huge cylinder, as closely as possible, with his arms and knees, seizing +with his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes upon others, +Jupiter, after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at length +wriggled himself into the first great fork, and seemed to consider the +whole business as virtually accomplished. The _risk_ of the achievement +was, in fact, now over, although the climber was some sixty or seventy +feet from the ground. + +"Which way mus go now, Massa Will?" he asked. + +"Keep up the largest branch,--the one on this side," said Legrand. The +negro obeyed him promptly, and apparently with but little trouble, +ascending higher and higher, until no glimpse of his squat figure could +be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped it. Presently his +voice was heard in a sort of halloo. + +"How much fudder is got for go?" + +"How high up are you?" asked Legrand. + +"Ebber so fur," replied the negro; "can see de sky fru de top ob de +tree." + +"Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say. Look down the trunk and +count the limbs below you on this side. How many limbs have you passed?" + +"One, two, tree, four, fibe--I done pass fibe big limb, massa, pon dis +side." + +"Then go one limb higher." + +In a few minutes the voice was heard again, announcing that the seventh +limb was attained. + +"Now, Jup," cried Legrand, evidently much excited, "I want you to work +your way out upon that limb as far as you can. If you see anything +strange, let me know." + +By this time what little doubt I might have entertained of my poor +friend's insanity was put finally at rest. I had no alternative but to +conclude him stricken with lunacy, and I became seriously anxious about +getting him home. While I was pondering upon what was best to be done, +Jupiter's voice was again heard. + +"Mos feerd for to ventur pon dis limb berry far--'t is dead limb putty +much all de way." + +"Did you say it was a _dead_ limb, Jupiter?" cried Legrand in a +quavering voice. + +"Yes, massa, him dead as de door-nail--done up for sartain--done +departed dis here life." + +"What in the name of heaven shall I do?" asked Legrand, seemingly in the +greatest distress. + +"Do!" said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose a word, "why come home +and go to bed. Come now!--that's a fine fellow. It's getting late, and, +besides, you remember your promise." + +"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the least, "do you hear me?" + +"Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain." + +"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and see if you think it +_very_ rotten." + +"Him rotten, massa, sure nuff," replied the negro in a few moments, "but +not so berry rotten as mought be. Mought ventur out leetle way pon de +limb by myself, dat's true." + +"By yourself!--what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean de bug. 'Tis _berry_ hebby bug. Spose I drop him down fuss, +and den de limb won't break wid just de weight ob one nigger." + +"You infernal scoundrel!" cried Legrand, apparently much relieved, "what +do you mean by telling me such nonsense as that? As sure as you let that +beetle fall, I'll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter! do you hear me?" + +"Yes, massa, needn't hollo at poor nigger dat style." + +"Well! now listen!--if you will venture out on the limb as far as you +think safe, and not let go the beetle, I'll make you a present of a +silver dollar as soon as you get down." + +"I'm gwine, Massa Will--deed I is," replied the negro very +promptly--"most out to the eend now." + +"_Out to the end!_" here fairly screamed Legrand, "do you say you are +out to the end of that limb?" + +"Soon be to de eend, massa,--o-o-o-o-oh! Lorgol-a-marcy! what _is_ dis +here pon de tree?" + +"Well!" cried Legrand, highly delighted, "what is it?" + +"Why, taint nuffin but a skull--somebody bin lef him head up de tree, +and de crows done gobble ebery bit ob de meat off." + +"A skull, you say!--very well!--how is it fastened to the limb?--what +holds it on?" + +"Sure nuff, massa; mus look. Why, dis berry curous sarcumstance, pon my +word--dare's a great big nail in de skull, what fastens ob it on to de +tree." + +"Well now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you--do you hear?" + +"Yes, massa." + +"Pay attention, then!--find the left eye of the skull." + +"Hum! hoo! dat's good! why, dar aint no eye lef at all." + +"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?" + +"Yes, I nose dat--nose all bout dat--'tis my lef hand what I chops de +wood wid." + +"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left eye is on the same side +as your left hand. Now, I suppose you can find the left eye of the +skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you found it?" + +Here was a long pause. At length the negro asked, "Is de lef eye of de +skull pon de same side as de lef hand of de skull, too?--cause de skull +aint got not a bit ob a hand at all--nebber mind! I got de lef eye +now--here de lef eye! what must do wid it?" + +"Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string will reach--but be +careful and not let go your hold of the string." + +"All dat done, Massa Will; mighty easy ting for to put de bug fru de +hole--look out for him dar below!" + +During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter's person could be seen; but +the beetle, which he had suffered to descend, was now visible at the end +of the string, and glistened like a globe of burnished gold in the last +rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the +eminence upon which we stood. The _scarabæus_ hung quite clear of any +branches, and, if allowed to fall, would have fallen at our feet. +Legrand immediately took the scythe, and cleared with it a circular +space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the insect, and, +having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come +down from the tree. + +Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground at the precise spot +where the beetle fell, my friend now produced from his pocket a +tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of +the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the +peg, and thence farther unrolled it, in the direction already +established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the distance +of fifty feet--Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the scythe. At +the spot thus attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a +centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter, described. Taking +now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand +begged us to set about digging as quickly as possible. + +To speak the truth, I had no especial relish for such amusement at any +time, and, at that particular moment, would most willingly have declined +it; for the night was coming on, and I felt much fatigued with the +exercise already taken; but I saw no mode of escape, and was fearful of +disturbing my poor friend's equanimity by a refusal. Could I have +depended, indeed, upon Jupiter's aid, I would have had no hesitation in +attempting to get the lunatic home by force; but I was too well assured +of the old negro's disposition to hope that he would assist me, under +any circumstances, in a personal contest with his master. I made no +doubt that the latter had been infected with some of the innumerable +Southern superstitions about money buried, and that his fantasy had +received confirmation by the finding of the _scarabæus_, or, perhaps, by +Jupiter's obstinacy in maintaining it to be "a bug of real gold." A mind +disposed to lunacy would readily be led away by such suggestions, +especially if chiming in with favorite preconceived ideas; and then I +called to mind the poor fellow's speech about the beetle's being the +"index of his fortune." Upon the whole, I was sadly vexed and puzzled, +but at length I concluded to make a virtue of necessity--to dig with a +good will, and thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by ocular +demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinions he entertained. + +The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal worthy a +more rational cause; and, as the glare fell upon our persons and +implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a group we +composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared +to any interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled upon our +whereabouts. + +We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was said; and our chief +embarrassment lay in the yelpings of the dog, who took exceeding +interest in our proceedings. He, at length, became so obstreperous that +we grew fearful of his giving the alarm to some stragglers in the +vicinity; or, rather, this was the apprehension of Legrand; for myself, +I should have rejoiced at any interruption which might have enabled me +to get the wanderer home. The noise was, at length, very effectually +silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with a dogged air of +deliberation, tied the brute's mouth up with one of his suspenders, and +then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task. + +When the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth of five +feet, and yet no signs of any treasure became manifest. A general pause +ensued, and I began to hope that the farce was at an end. Legrand, +however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow +thoughtfully and recommenced. We had excavated the entire circle of four +feet diameter, and now we slightly enlarged the limit, and went to the +farther depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The gold-seeker, whom +I sincerely pitied, at length clambered from the pit, with the bitterest +disappointment imprinted upon every feature, and proceeded slowly and +reluctantly to put on his coat, which he had thrown off at the beginning +of his labor. In the meantime I made no remark. Jupiter, at a signal +from his master, began to gather up his tools. This done, and the dog +having been unmuzzled, we turned in profound silence towards home. + +We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this direction, when, with a +loud oath, Legrand strode up to Jupiter, and seized him by the collar. +The astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth to the fullest extent, +let fall the spades, and fell upon his knees. + +"You scoundrel," said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between +his clenched teeth--"you infernal black villain!--speak, I tell +you!--answer me this instant, without prevarication!--which--which is +your left eye?" + +"Oh, my golly, Massa Will! aint dis here my lef eye for sartain?" roared +the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his _right_ organ of +vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity, as if in +immediate dread of his master's attempt at a gouge. + +"I thought so! I knew it! Hurrah!" vociferated Legrand, letting the +negro go, and executing a series of curvets and caracoles, much to the +astonishment of his valet, who, arising from his knees, looked mutely +from his master to myself, and then from myself to his master. + +"Come! we must go back," said the latter, "the game's not up yet;" and +he again led the way to the tulip-tree. + +"Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, "come here! Was the skull +nailed to the limb with the face outward, or with the face to the limb?" + +"De face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, +widout any trouble." + +"Well, then, was it this eye or that through which you dropped the +beetle?" here Legrand touched each of Jupiter's eyes. + +"'T was dis eye, Massa--de lef eye--jis as you tell me," and here it was +his right eye that the negro indicated. + +"That will do--we must try it again." + +Here, my friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, +certain indications of method, removed the peg which marked the spot +where the beetle fell, to a spot about three inches to the westward of +its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure from the nearest +point of the trunk to the peg, as before, and continuing the extension +in a straight line to the distance of fifty feet, a spot was indicated, +removed, by several yards, from the point at which we had been digging. + +Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger than in the former +instance, was now described, and we again set to work with the spades. I +was dreadfully weary, but, scarcely understanding what had occasioned +the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great aversion from the +labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably interested--nay, even +excited. Perhaps there was something, amid all the extravagant demeanor +of Legrand--some air of forethought, or of deliberation--which impressed +me. I dug eagerly, and now and then caught myself actually looking, with +something that very much resembled expectation, for the fancied +treasure, the vision of which had demented my unfortunate companion. At +a period when such vagaries of thought most fully possessed me, and when +we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, we were again +interrupted by the violent howlings of the dog. His uneasiness, in the +first instance, had been evidently but the result of playfulness or +caprice, but he now assumed a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter's +again attempting to muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and, leaping +into the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his claws. In a few +seconds he had uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two complete +skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal, and what appeared +to be the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of a spade +upturned the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we dug farther, +three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came to light. + +At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained, but +the countenance of his master wore an air of extreme disappointment. He +urged us, however, to continue our exertions, and the words were hardly +uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having caught the toe of my +boot in a large ring of iron that lay half buried in the loose earth. + +We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more +intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an +oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation and wonderful +hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing +process--perhaps that of the bichloride of mercury. This box was three +feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two and a half feet deep. It +was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind +of trellis-work over the whole. On each side of the chest, near the top, +were three rings of iron--six in all--by means of which a firm hold +could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united endeavors served +only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed. We at once saw the +impossibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily, the sole +fastenings of the lid consisted of two sliding bolts. These we drew +back--trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant, a treasure of +incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the lanterns +fell within the pit, there flashed upwards, from a confused heap of gold +and of jewels, a glow and a glare that absolutely dazzled our eyes. + +I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with which I gazed. +Amazement was, of course, predominant. Legrand appeared exhausted with +excitement, and spoke very few words. Jupiter's countenance wore, for +some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible, in the nature of +things, for any negro's visage to assume. He seemed stupefied +--thunder-stricken. Presently he fell upon his knees in the +pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the elbows in gold, let them +there remain, as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At length, with a +deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy: + +"And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de putty goole-bug! de poor little +goole-bug, what I boosed in dat sabage kind ob style! Aint you shamed ob +yourself, nigger?--answer me dat!" + +It became necessary, at last, that I should arouse both master and valet +to the expediency of removing the treasure. It was growing late, and it +behooved us to make exertion, that we might get everything housed before +daylight. It was difficult to say what should be done, and much time was +spent in deliberation--so confused were the ideas of all. We finally +lightened the box by removing two-thirds of its contents, when we were +enabled, with some trouble, to raise it from the hole. The articles +taken out were deposited among the brambles, and the dog left to guard +them, with strict orders from Jupiter neither, upon any pretence, to +stir from the spot, nor to open his mouth until our return. We then +hurriedly made for home with the chest; reaching the hut in safety, but +after excessive toil, at one o'clock in the morning. Worn out as we +were, it was not in human nature to do more just now. We rested until +two, and had supper; starting for the hills immediately afterwards, +armed with three stout sacks, which by good luck were upon the premises. +A little before four we arrived at the pit, divided the remainder of the +booty, as equally as might be, among us, and, leaving the holes +unfilled, again set out for the hut, at which, for the second time, we +deposited our golden burdens, just as the first streaks of the dawn +gleamed from over the tree-tops in the east. + +We were now thoroughly broken down; but the intense excitement of the +time denied us repose. After an unquiet slumber of some three or four +hours' duration, we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination of +our treasure. + +The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent the whole day, and the +greater part of the next night, in a scrutiny of its contents. There had +been nothing like order or arrangement. Everything had been heaped in +promiscuously. Having assorted all with care, we found ourselves +possessed of even vaster wealth than we had at first supposed. In coin +there was rather more than four hundred and fifty thousand +dollars--estimating the value of the pieces, as accurately as we could, +by the tables of the period. There was not a particle of silver. All was +gold of antique date and of great variety: French, Spanish, and German +money, with a few English guineas, and some counters of which we had +never seen specimens before. There were several very large and heavy +coins, so worn that we could make nothing of their inscriptions. There +was no American money. The value of the jewels we found more difficulty +in estimating. There were diamonds--some of them exceedingly large and +fine--a hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small; eighteen +rubies of remarkable brilliancy; three hundred and ten emeralds, all +very beautiful; and twenty-one sapphires, with an opal. These stones had +all been broken from their settings and thrown loose in the chest. The +settings themselves, which we picked out from among the other gold, +appeared to have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent +identification. Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid +gold ornaments: nearly two hundred massive finger and ear-rings; rich +chains--thirty of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and +heavy crucifixes; five gold censers of great value; a prodigious golden +punch-bowl, ornamented with richly chased vine-leaves and Bacchanalian +figures; with two sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many other +smaller articles which I cannot recollect. The weight of these valuables +exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this +estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold +watches; three of the number being worth each five hundred dollars, if +one. Many of them were very old, and as time-keepers valueless, the +works having suffered more or less from corrosion; but all were richly +jewelled and in cases of great worth. We estimated the entire contents +of the chest, that night, at a million and a half of dollars; and, upon +the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels (a few being retained +for our own use), it was found that we had greatly undervalued the +treasure. + +When, at length, we had concluded our examination, and the intense +excitement of the time had in some measure subsided, Legrand, who saw +that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most +extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the +circumstances connected with it. + +"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch I +had made of the _scarabæus_. You recollect, also, that I became quite +vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a death's-head. +When you first made this assertion I thought you were jesting; but +afterwards I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the +insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had some little +foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers irritated +me--for I am considered a good artist--and, therefore, when you handed +me the scrap of parchment, I was about to crumple it up and throw it +angrily into the fire." + +"The scrap of paper, you mean," said I. + +"No: it had much of the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed it +to be such, but when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it, at once, +to be a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you remember. +Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance fell upon +the sketch at which you had been looking, and you may imagine my +astonishment when I perceived, in fact, the figure of a death's-head +just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of the beetle. For a +moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. I knew that my +design was very different in detail from this--although there was a +certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a candle, and, +seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to scrutinize the +parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon +the reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea, now, was mere +surprise at the really remarkable similarity of outline--at the singular +coincidence involved in the fact that, unknown to me, there should have +been a skull upon the other side of the parchment, immediately beneath +my figure of the _scarabæus_, and that this skull, not only in outline, +but in size, should so closely resemble my drawing. I say the +singularity of this coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time. This +is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind struggles to +establish a connection--a sequence of cause and effect--and, being +unable to do so, suffers a species of temporary paralysis. But, when I +recovered from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a conviction +which startled me even far more than the coincidence. I began +distinctly, positively, to remember that there had been _no_ drawing on +the parchment when I made my sketch of the _scarabæus_. I became +perfectly certain of this; for I recollected turning up first one side +and then the other, in search of the cleanest spot. Had the skull been +then there, of course I could not have failed to notice it. Here was +indeed a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain; but, even at +that early moment, there seemed to glimmer, faintly, within the most +remote and secret chambers of my intellect, a glow-worm-like conception +of that truth which last night's adventure brought to so magnificent a +demonstration. I arose at once, and, putting the parchment securely +away, dismissed all farther reflection until I should be alone. + +"When you had gone, and when Jupiter was fast asleep, I betook myself to +a more methodical investigation of the affair. In the first place I +considered the manner in which the parchment had come into my +possession. The spot where we discovered the _scarabæus_ was on the +coast of the mainland, about a mile eastward of the island, and but a +short distance above high-water mark. Upon my taking hold of it, it gave +me a sharp bite, which caused me to let it drop. Jupiter, with his +accustomed caution, before seizing the insect, which had flown towards +him, looked about him for a leaf, or something of that nature, by which +to take hold of it. It was at this moment that his eyes, and mine also, +fell upon the scrap of parchment, which I then supposed to be paper. It +was lying half-buried in the sand, a corner sticking up. Near the spot +where we found it, I observed the remnants of the hull of what appeared +to have been a ship's long boat. The wreck seemed to have been there for +a very great while; for the resemblance to boat timbers could scarcely +be traced. + +"Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment, wrapped the beetle in it, and +gave it to me. Soon afterwards we turned to go home, and on the way met +Lieutenant G----. I showed him the insect, and he begged me to let him +take it to the fort. On my consenting, he thrust it forthwith into his +waistcoat pocket, without the parchment in which it had been wrapped, +and which I had continued to hold in my hand during his inspection. +Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind, and thought it best to make sure +of the prize at once--you know how enthusiastic he is on all subjects +connected with Natural History. At the same time, without being +conscious of it, I must have deposited the parchment in my own pocket. + +"You remember that when I went to the table, for the purpose of making a +sketch of the beetle, I found no paper where it was usually kept. I +looked in the drawer, and found none there. I searched my pockets, +hoping to find an old letter, and then my hand fell upon the parchment. +I thus detail the precise mode in which it came into my possession; for +the circumstances impressed me with peculiar force. + +"No doubt you will think me fanciful--but I had already established a +kind of _connection_. I had put together two links of a great chain. +There was a boat lying on a seacoast, and not far from the boat was a +parchment--_not a paper_--with a skull depicted on it. You will, of +course, ask 'where is the connection?' I reply that the skull, or +death's-head, is the well-known emblem of the pirate. The flag of the +death's-head is hoisted in all engagements. + +"I have said that the scrap was parchment, and not paper. Parchment is +durable--almost imperishable. Matters of little moment are rarely +consigned to parchment; since, for the mere ordinary purposes of drawing +or writing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This reflection +suggested some meaning--some relevancy--in the death's-head. I did not +fail to observe, also, the _form_ of the parchment. Although one of its +corners had been, by some accident, destroyed, it could be seen that the +original form was oblong. It was just such a slip, indeed, as might have +been chosen for a memorandum--for a record of something to be long +remembered and carefully preserved." + +"But," I interposed, "you say that the skull was _not_ upon the +parchment when you made the drawing of the beetle. How then do you trace +any connection between the boat and the skull--since this latter, +according to your own admission, must have been designed (God only knows +how or by whom) at some period subsequent to your sketching the +_scarabæus_?" + +"Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; although the secret, at this +point, I had comparatively little difficulty in solving. My steps were +sure, and could afford but a single result. I reasoned, for example, +thus: When I drew the _scarabæus_, there was no skull apparent on the +parchment. When I had completed the drawing I gave it to you, and +observed you narrowly until you returned it. _You_, therefore, did not +design the skull, and no one else was present to do it. Then it was not +done by human agency. And nevertheless it was done. + +"At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and _did_ +remember, with entire distinctness, every incident which occurred about +the period in question. The weather was chilly (O rare and happy +accident!), and a fire was blazing on the hearth. I was heated with +exercise and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close +to the chimney. Just as I placed the parchment in your hand, and as you +were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland, entered, and +leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him and +kept him off, while your right, holding the parchment, was permitted to +fall listlessly between your knees, and in close proximity to the fire. +At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it, and was about to +caution you, but, before I could speak, you had withdrawn it, and were +engaged in its examination. When I considered all these particulars, I +doubted not for a moment that _heat_ had been the agent in bringing to +light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are +well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out +of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or +vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected +to the action of fire. Zaffre digested in _aqua regia_, and diluted with +four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint +results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a +red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the +material written upon cools, but again become apparent upon the +reapplication of heat. + +"I now scrutinized the death's-head with care. Its outer edges--the +edges of the drawing nearest the edge of the vellum--were far more +_distinct_ than the others. It was clear that the action of the caloric +had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, and +subjected every portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At first, +the only effect was the strengthening of the faint lines in the skull; +but, on persevering in the experiment, there became visible at the +corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the +death's-head was delineated, the figure of what I at first supposed to +be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended +for a kid." + +"Ha! ha!" said I, "to be sure I have no right to laugh at you--a million +and a half of money is too serious a matter for mirth--but you are not +about to establish a third link in your chain: you will not find any +especial connection between your pirates and a goat; pirates, you know, +have nothing to do with goats; they appertain to the farming interest." + +"But I have just said that the figure was _not_ that of a goat." + +"Well, a kid, then--pretty much the same thing." + +"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard of +one _Captain_ Kidd. I at once looked on the figure of the animal as a +kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature, because +its position on the vellum suggested this idea. The death's-head at the +corner diagonally opposite had, in the same manner, the air of a stamp, +or seal. But I was sorely put out by the absence of all else--of the +body to my imagined instrument--of the text for my context." + +"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the +signature." + +"Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed with +a presentiment of some vast good fortune impending. I can scarcely say +why. Perhaps, after all, it was rather a desire than an actual +belief;--but do you know that Jupiter's silly words, about the bug being +of solid gold, had a remarkable effect on my fancy? And then the series +of accidents and coincidences--these were so _very_ extraordinary. Do +you observe how mere an accident it was that these events should have +occurred on the _sole_ day of all the year in which it has been, or may +be, sufficiently cool for fire, and that without the fire, or without +the intervention of the dog at the precise moment in which he appeared, +I should never have become aware of the death's-head, and so never the +possessor of the treasure?" + +"But proceed--I am all impatience." + +"Well; you have heard, of course, the many stories current--the thousand +vague rumors afloat about money buried, somewhere on the Atlantic coast, +by Kidd and his associates. These rumors must have had some foundation +in fact. And that the rumors have existed so long and so continuously, +could have resulted, it appeared to me, only from the circumstance of +the buried treasure still _remaining_ entombed. Had Kidd concealed his +plunder for a time, and afterwards reclaimed it, the rumors would +scarcely have reached us in their present unvarying form. You will +observe that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not about +money-finders. Had the pirate recovered his money, there the affair +would have dropped. It seemed to me that some accident--say the loss of +a memorandum indicating its locality--had deprived him of the means of +recovering it, and that this accident had become known to his followers, +who otherwise might never have heard that treasure had been concealed at +all, and who, busying themselves in vain, because unguided, attempts to +regain it, had given first birth, and then universal currency, to the +reports which are now so common. Have you ever heard of any important +treasure being unearthed along the coast?" + +"Never." + +"But that Kidd's accumulations were immense is well known. I took it for +granted, therefore, that the earth still held them; and you will +scarcely be surprised when I tell you that I felt a hope, nearly +amounting to certainty, that the parchment so strangely found involved a +lost record of the place of deposit." + +"But how did you proceed?" + +"I held the vellum again to the fire, after increasing the heat, but +nothing appeared. I now thought it possible that the coating of dirt +might have something to do with the failure; so I carefully rinsed the +parchment by pouring warm water over it, and, having done this, I placed +it in a tin pan, with the skull downwards, and put the pan upon a +furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes, the pan having become +thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and, to my inexpressible joy, +found it spotted, in several places, with what appeared to be figures +arranged in lines. Again I placed it in the pan, and suffered it to +remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was just as you see +it now." + +Here, Legrand, having reheated the parchment, submitted it to my +inspection. The following characters were rudely traced, in a red tint, +between the death's-head and the goat:-- + + +53$$+305))6*;4826)4$.)4$);806*;48+8¶60))85;;]8*;:$*8+83(88)5*+; +46(;88*96*?;8)*$(:485);5*+2:*$(;4956*2(5*--4)8¶8*;4069285);)6+8)4 +$$;1($9;48081;8:8$1;48+85;4)485+528806*81($9;48;(88;4($?34;48)4$ +;161;:188;$?; + + +"But," said I, returning him the slip, "I am as much in the dark as +ever. Were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me on my solution of this +enigma, I am quite sure that I should be unable to earn them." + +"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as +you might be led to imagine from the first hasty inspection of the +characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a +cipher--that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is +known of Kidd, I could not suppose him capable of constructing any of +the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up my mind, at once, that this +was of a simple species--such, however, as would appear, to the crude +intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key." + +"And you really solved it?" + +"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times +greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to take +interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human +ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may +not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established +connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere +difficulty of developing their import. + +"In the present case--indeed in all cases of secret writing--the first +question regards the _language_ of the cipher; for the principles of +solution, so far, especially, as the more simple ciphers are concerned, +depend on, and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom. In +general, there is no alternative but experiment (directed by +probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution, +until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, all +difficulty is removed by the signature. The pun upon the word 'Kidd' is +appreciable in no other language than the English. But for this +consideration I should have begun my attempts with the Spanish and +French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most +naturally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish Main. As it was, +I assumed the cryptograph to be English. + +"You observe there are no divisions between the words. Had there been +divisions, the task would have been comparatively easy. In such case I +should have commenced with a collation and analysis of the shorter +words, and, had a word of a single letter occurred, as is most likely +(_a_ or _I_, for example), I should have considered the solution as +assured. But, there being no division, my first step was to ascertain +the predominant letters, as well as the least frequent. Counting all, I +constructed a table, thus: + + +Of the character 8 there are 33 + ; " 26 + 4 " 19 + $) " 16 + * " 13 + 5 " 12 + 6 " 11 + +1 " 8 + 0 " 6 + 92 " 5 + :3 " 4 + ? " 3 + ¶ " 2 + ]--. " 1 + + +"Now, in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is _e_. +Afterwards the succession runs thus: _a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m w +b k p q x z. E_ predominates, however, so remarkably that an individual +sentence of any length is rarely seen, in which it is not the prevailing +character. + +"Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for +something more than a mere guess. The general use which may be made of +the table is obvious--but, in this particular cipher, we shall only very +partially require its aid. As our predominant character is 8, we will +commence by assuming it as the _e_ of the natural alphabet. To verify +the supposition, let us observe if the 8 be seen often in couples--for +_e_ is doubled with great frequency in English--in such words, for +example, as 'meet,' 'fleet,' speed,' 'seen,' 'been,' 'agree,' etc. In +the present instance we see it doubled no less than five times, although +the cryptograph is brief. + +"Let us assume 8, then, as _e_. Now of all _words_ in the language, +'the' is most usual; let us see, therefore, whether there are not +repetitions of any three characters, in the same order of collocation, +the last of them being 8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, so +arranged, they will most probably represent the word 'the.' On +inspection, we find no less than seven such arrangements, the characters +being ;48. We may, therefore, assume that the semicolon represents _t_, +that 4 represents _h_, and that 8 represents _e_--the last being now +well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken. + +"But, having established a single word, we are enabled to establish a +vastly important point; that is to say, several commencements and +terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example, to the last +instance but one, in which the combination ;48 occurs--not far from the +end of the cipher. We know that the semicolon immediately ensuing is the +commencement of a word, and, of the six characters succeeding this +'the,' we are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set these +characters down, thus, by the letters we know them to represent, leaving +a space for the unknown-- + +t eeth. + +"Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the '_th_,' as forming no +portion of the word commencing with the first _t_; since, by experiment +of the entire alphabet for a letter adapted to the vacancy, we perceive +that no word can be formed of which this _th_ can be a part. We are thus +narrowed into + +t ee, + +and, going through the alphabet, if necessary, as before, we arrive at +the word 'tree' as the sole possible reading. We thus gain another +letter, _r_, represented by (, with the words 'the tree' in +juxtaposition. + +"Looking beyond these words, for a short distance, we again see the +combination ;48, and employ it by way of _termination_ to what +immediately precedes. We have thus this arrangement: + +the tree;4($?34 the, + +or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus: + +the tree thr$?3h the. + +"Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, or +substitute dots, we read thus: + +the tree thr...h the, + +when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once. But this +discovery gives us three new letters, _o, u_, and _g_, represented by $, +? and 3. + +"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known +characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement: + +83(88, or egree, + +which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us +another letter, _d_, represented by +. + +"Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination, + +;46(;88*. + +"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, +as before, we read thus: + +th.rtee. + +an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again +furnishing us with two new characters, _i_ and_n_, represented by 6 and +*. + +"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the +combination, + +53$$+. + +"Translating as before, we obtain + +good, + +which assures us that the first letter is _A_, and that the first two +words are 'A good.' + +"To avoid confusion, it is now time that we arrange our key, as far as +discovered, in a tabular form. It will stand thus: + + +5 represents a ++ " d +8 " e +3 " g +4 " h +6 " i +* " n +$ " o +( " r +; " t + + +"We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters +represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of +the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this +nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the +rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before +us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only +remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the +parchment, as unriddled. Here it is: + +"'_A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat twenty one +degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh +limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line +from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"But," said I, "the enigma seems still in as bad a condition as ever. +How is it possible to extort a meaning from all this jargon about +'devil's seats,' 'death's-head,' and 'bishop's hostel'?" + +"I confess," replied Legrand, "that the matter still wears a serious +aspect, when regarded with a casual glance. My first endeavor was to +divide the sentence into the natural division intended by the +cryptographist." + +"You mean, to punctuate it?" + +"Something of that kind." + +"But how is it possible to effect this?" + +"I reflected that it had been a _point_ with the writer to run his words +together without division, so as to increase the difficulty of solution. +Now, a not over-acute man, in pursuing such an object, would be nearly +certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of his composition, he +arrived at a break in his subject which would naturally require a pause, +or a point, he would be exceedingly apt to run his characters, at this +place, more than usually close together. If you will observe the MS., in +the present instance, you will easily detect five such cases of unusual +crowding. Acting on this hint, I made the division thus: + +"'_A good glass in the Bishop's hostel in the devil's seat--twenty-one +degrees and thirteen minutes--northeast and by north--main branch +seventh limb east side--shoot from the left eye of the death's-head--a +bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"Even this division," said I, "leaves me still in the dark." + +"It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand, "for a few days; during +which I made diligent inquiry, in the neighborhood of Sullivan's Island, +for any building which went by the name of the 'Bishop's Hotel'; for, of +course, I dropped the obsolete word 'hostel.' Gaining no information on +the subject, I was on the point of extending my sphere of search, and +proceeding in a more systematic manner, when one morning it entered into +my head, quite suddenly, that this 'Bishop's Hostel' might have some +reference to an old family, of the name of Bessop, which, time out of +mind, had held possession of an ancient manor-house, about four miles to +the northward of the island. I accordingly went over to the plantation, +and reinstituted my inquiries among the older negroes of the place. At +length one of the most aged of the women said that she had heard of such +a place as _Bessop's Castle_, and thought that she could guide me to it, +but that it was not a castle, nor a tavern, but a high rock. + +"I offered to pay her well for her trouble, and, after some demur, she +consented to accompany me to the spot. We found it without much +difficulty, when, dismissing her, I proceeded to examine the place. The +'castle' consisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs and rocks--one +of the latter being quite remarkable for its height as well as for its +insulated and artificial appearance. I clambered to its apex, and then +felt much at a loss as to what should be next done. + +"While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell on a narrow ledge in the +eastern face of the rock, perhaps a yard below the summit upon which I +stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches, and was not more than +a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it gave it a rude +resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our ancestors. I +made no doubt that here was the 'devil's seat' alluded to in the MS., +and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle. + +"The 'good glass,' I knew, could have reference to nothing but a +telescope; for the word 'glass' is rarely employed in any other sense by +seamen. Now here, I at once saw, was a telescope to be used, and a +definite point of view, _admitting no variation_, from which to use it. +Nor did I hesitate to believe that the phrases 'twenty-one degrees and +thirteen minutes,' and 'northeast and by north,' were intended as +directions for the levelling of the glass. Greatly excited by these +discoveries, I hurried home, procured a telescope, and returned to the +rock. + +"I let myself down to the ledge, and found that it was impossible to +retain a seat on it unless in one particular position. This fact +confirmed my preconceived idea. I proceeded to use the glass. Of course, +the 'twenty-one degrees and thirteen minutes' could allude to nothing +but elevation above the visible horizon, since the horizontal direction +was clearly indicated by the words, 'northeast and by north.' This +latter direction I at once established by means of a pocket-compass; +then, pointing the glass as nearly at an angle of twenty-one degrees of +elevation as I could do it by guess, I moved it cautiously up or down, +until my attention was arrested by a circular rift or opening in the +foliage of a large tree that overtopped its fellows in the distance. In +the centre of this rift I perceived a white spot, but could not, at +first, distinguish what it was. Adjusting the focus of the telescope, I +again looked, and now made it out to be a human skull. + +"On this discovery I was so sanguine as to consider the enigma solved; +for the phrase 'main branch, seventh limb, east side,' could refer only +to the position of the skull on the tree, while 'shoot from the left eye +of the death's-head' admitted, also, of but one interpretation, in +regard to a search for buried treasure. I perceived that the design was +to drop a bullet from the left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or +in other words, a straight line, drawn from the nearest point of the +trunk through 'the shot' (or the spot where the bullet fell), and thence +extended to a distance of fifty feet, would indicate a definite +point--and beneath this point I thought it at least _possible_ that a +deposit of value lay concealed." + +"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, +still simple and explicit. When you left the Bishop's Hotel, what then?" + +"Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned +homewards. The instant that I left 'the devil's seat,' however, the +circular rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of it afterwards, turn +as I would. What seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole business, +is the fact (for repeated experiment has convinced me it _is_ a fact) +that the circular opening in question is visible from no other +attainable point of view than that afforded by the narrow ledge on the +face of the rock. + +"In this expedition to the 'Bishop's Hotel' I had been attended by +Jupiter, who had no doubt observed, for some weeks past, the abstraction +of my demeanor, and took especial care not to leave me alone. But on the +next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give him the slip, and +went into the hills in search of the tree. After much toil I found it. +When I came home at night my valet proposed to give me a flogging. With +the rest of the adventure I believe you are as well acquainted as +myself." + +"I suppose," said I, "you missed the spot, in the first attempt at +digging, through Jupiter's stupidity in letting the bug fall through the +right instead of through the left eye of the skull." + +"Precisely. This mistake made a difference of about two inches and a +half in the 'shot'--that is to say, in the position of the peg nearest +the tree; and had the treasure been _beneath_ the 'shot' the error would +have been of little moment; but the 'shot,' together with the nearest +point of the tree, were merely two points for the establishment of a +line of direction; of course the error, however trivial in the +beginning, increased as we proceeded with the line, and, by the time we +had gone fifty feet, threw us quite off the scent. But for my +deep-seated convictions that treasure was here somewhere actually +buried, we might have had all our labor in vain." + +"I presume the fancy of _the skull_--of letting fall a bullet through +the skull's eye--was suggested to Kidd by the piratical flag. No doubt +he felt a kind of poetical consistency in recovering his money through +this ominous insignium." + +"Perhaps so; still, I cannot help thinking that common-sense had quite +as much to do with the matter as poetical consistency. To be visible +from the Devil's seat, it was necessary that the object, if small, +should be _white_; and there is nothing like your human skull for +retaining and even increasing its whiteness under exposure to all +vicissitudes of weather." + +"But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in swinging the beetle--how +excessively odd! I was sure you were mad. And why did you insist on +letting fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the skull?" + +"Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions +touching my sanity, and so resolved to punish you quietly, in my own +way, by a little bit of sober mystification. For this reason I swung the +beetle, and for this reason I let it fall from the tree. An observation +of yours about its great weight suggested the latter idea." + +"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles me. What +are we to make of the skeletons found in the hole?" + +"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There +seems, however, only one plausible way of accounting for them--and yet +it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would imply. +It is clear that Kidd--if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, which I +doubt not--it is clear that he must have had assistance in the labor. +But, the worst of this labor concluded, he may have thought it expedient +to remove all participants in his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows with +a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors were busy in the pit; +perhaps it required a dozen--who shall tell?" + + + + +V. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1843) + +BY CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) + + +[_Setting_. In this most famous of Christmas stories Dickens gives us +the very atmosphere of the season with all the contrasts that poverty +and wealth, miserliness and charity, the past and the future can +suggest. Though he had London in mind, any great industrial center would +have served as well, for Dickens was thinking primarily of the relations +between employer and employee. That Christmas is better kept in England +now than when Dickens wrote is a triumph due more to "A Christmas Carol" +than to any other one piece of prose or verse. + +_Plot_. The story was planned rather than plotted. By calling it a carol +and dividing it into staves, Dickens would have us think of it not as a +narrative but as a song, full of the joy and good will that Christmas +ought to diffuse. It is a rill from the fountain of the first great +Christmas chant, "On earth peace, good will toward men." The theme is +not so much the duty of service as the joy of service, the happiness +that we feel in making others happy; and the four carols mark the four +stages in the conversion of Scrooge from solitary selfishness to social +good will. The plan is simple but it is suffused with a love and +sympathy that no one but Dickens or O. Henry could have given it. If +"The Gold-Bug" is a triumph of the analytic intellect, this story is a +triumph of the social impulses that make the world better. "It seems to +me," said Thackeray, "a national benefit, and to every man and woman who +reads it a personal kindness." While writing it Dickens said: "I wept +and laughed and wept again." And yet the psychology of the plot is as +soundly intellectual as the style is emotional. Dickens knew that a +flint-hearted man like Scrooge could not be changed by forces brought to +bear from without. The appeal must come from within. He must himself see +his past, his present, and his probable future, but in a new light and +from a wider angle of vision. The dream is only a means to this end. A +man moves to a higher realm of thought and action not by learning new +truths but by seeing the old truths differently related. + +_Characters_. Scrooge is, of course, the central character. He is also a +perfect example of the changing character as contrasted with the +stationary character. In fact all the other characters remain +essentially the same, while Scrooge, who at the beginning is unfriendly +and friendless, becomes at the end "as good a friend, as good a master, +and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, +town, or borough in the good old world." It is difficult to create any +kind of character, whether stationary or changing, but the latter is the +more difficult. Both demand rare powers of observation and +interpretation, but the ascending or descending character demands a +knowledge of the chemistry of conduct that only the masters have. + +The Cratchits must not be overlooked. Tiny Tim's "God bless us every +one" has at least become the symbol of Christmas benevolence wherever +Christmas is celebrated in English-speaking lands.] + + + +STAVE ONE + +MARLEY'S GHOST + + +Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. +The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the +undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name +was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. + +Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. + +Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? +Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge +was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole +residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner. + +Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however. There it yet +stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door,--Scrooge and Marley. +The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the +business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley. He answered to +both names. It was all the same to him. + +Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge! a +squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old +sinner! External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth +could warm, no cold could chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than +he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain +less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The +heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage +over him in only one respect,--they often "came down" handsomely, and +Scrooge never did. + +Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My +dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars +implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was +o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to +such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to +know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into +doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they +said: "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" + +But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his +way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep +its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. + +Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas +eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, +biting, foggy weather; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but +it was quite dark already. + +The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his +eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, +was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire +was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't +replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so +surely as the clerk came in with the shovel the master predicted that it +would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his +white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which +effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. + +"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was +the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this +was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach. + +"Bah!" said Scrooge; "humbug!" + +"Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don't mean that, I am sure?" + +"I do. Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time +for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year +older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and +having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead +against you? If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry +Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried +with a stake of holly through his heart! He should!" + +"Uncle!" + +"Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." + +"Keep it! But you don't keep it." + +"Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has +ever done you!" + +"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I +have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I +have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round,--apart +from the veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belonging to +it _can_ be apart from that,--as a good time; a kind, forgiving, +charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar +of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their +shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they +really were fellow-travellers to the grave, and not another race of +creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has +never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it +_has_ done me good, and _will_ do me good; and I say, God bless it!" + +The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. + +"Let me hear another sound from _you_" said Scrooge, "and you'll keep +your Christmas by losing your situation!--You're quite a powerful +speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew, "I wonder you don't go +into Parliament." + +"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us, to-morrow." + +Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he did. He went the +whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that +extremity first. + +"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" + +"Why did you get married?" + +"Because I fell in love." + +"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only +one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good +afternoon!" + +"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give +it as a reason for not coming now?" + +"Good afternoon." + +"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be +friends?" + +"Good afternoon." + +"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never +had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial +in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last. +So, A Merry Christmas, uncle!" + +"Good afternoon!" + +"And A Happy New Year!" + +"Good afternoon!" + +His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. The +clerk, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in. +They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with +their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their +hands, and bowed to him. + +"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring +to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. +Marley?" + +"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He died seven years ago, +this very night." + +"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, +taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make +some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at +the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; +hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." + +"Are there no prisons?" + +"Plenty of prisons. But under the impression that they scarcely furnish +Christian cheer of mind or body to the unoffending multitude, a few of +us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, +and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time of all +others when Want is keenly felt and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put +you down for?" + +"Nothing!" + +"You wish to be anonymous?" + +"I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that +is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford +to make idle people merry. I help to support the prisons and the +workhouses,--they cost enough,--and those who are badly off must go +there." + +"Many can't go there; and many would rather die." + +"If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the +surplus population." + +At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an +ill-will Scrooge, dismounting from his stool, tacitly admitted the fact +to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle +out, and put on his hat. + +"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" + +"If quite convenient, sir." + +"It's not convenient, and it's not fair. If I was to stop half a crown +for it, you'd think yourself mightily ill-used, I'll be bound?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And yet you don't think _me_ ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no +work." + +"It's only once a year, sir." + +"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of +December! But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the +earlier _next_ morning." + +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. +The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends +of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no +great-coat), went down a slide, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty +times, in honor of its being Christmas eve, and then ran home as hard as +he could pelt, to play at blind-man's-buff. + +Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and +having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening +with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had +once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of +rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard. The building was old +enough now, and dreary enough; for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the +other rooms being all let out as offices. + +Now it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the +knocker on the door of this house, except that it was very large; also, +that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence +in that place; also, that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy +about him as any man in the city of London. And yet Scrooge, having his +key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing +any intermediate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley's face. + +Marley's face, with a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a +dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but it looked at Scrooge as +Marley used to look,--with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly +forehead. + +As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. He +said, "Pooh, pooh!" and closed the door with a bang. + +The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, +and every cask in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a +separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be +frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, +and up the stairs. Slowly, too, trimming his candle as he went. + +Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for its being very dark. Darkness +is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he +walked through his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough +recollection of the face to desire to do that. + +Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room, all as they should be. Nobody under +the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and +basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his +head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody +in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude +against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two +fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. + +Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; +double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against +surprise, he took off his cravat, put on his dressing-gown and slippers +and his night-cap, and sat down before the very low fire to take his +gruel. + +As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon +a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated, for +some purpose now forgotten, with a chamber in the highest story of the +building. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, +inexplicable dread, that, as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. +Soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. + +This was succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some +person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's +cellar. + +Then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up +the stairs; then coming straight towards his door. + +It came on through the heavy door, and a spectre passed into the room +before his eyes. And upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as +though it cried, "I know him! Marley's ghost!" + +The same face, the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, +tights, and boots. His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing +him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his +coat behind. + +Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had +never believed it until now. + +No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through +and through, and saw it standing before him,--though he felt the +chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, and noticed the very texture +of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin,--he was still +incredulous. + +"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What do you want +with me?" + +"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it. + +"Who are you?" + +"Ask me who I _was_." + +"Who _were_ you, then?" + +"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." + +"Can you--can you sit down?" + +"I can." + +"Do it, then." + +Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether a ghost so +transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair; and felt +that, in the event of its being impossible, it might involve the +necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat down on the +opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. + +"You don't believe in me." + +"I don't." + +"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?" + +"I don't know." + +"Why do you doubt your senses?" + +"Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach +makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of +mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's +more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" + +Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel in +his heart by any means waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be +smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his +horror. + +But how much greater was his horror when, the phantom taking off the +bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear in-doors, its +lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! + +"Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk +the earth, and why do they come to me?" + +"It is required of every man, that the spirit within him should walk +abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit +goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. I cannot +tell you all I would. A very little more is permitted to me. I cannot +rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked +beyond our counting-house,--mark me!--in life my spirit never roved +beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys +lie before me!" + +"Seven years dead. And travelling all the time? You travel fast?" + +"On the wings of the wind." + +"You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years." + +"O blind man, blind man! not to know that ages of incessant labor by +immortal creatures for this earth must pass into eternity before the +good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any +Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may +be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of +usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one +life's opportunities misused! Yet I was like this man; I once was like +this man!" + +"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, +who now began to apply this to himself. + +"Business!" cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my +business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, +forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade +were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business." + +Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this +rate, and began to quake exceedingly. + +"Hear me! My time is nearly gone." + +"I will. But don't be hard upon me! Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!" + +"I am here to-night to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of +escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer." + +"You were always a good friend to me. Thank'ee!" + +"You will be haunted by Three Spirits." + +"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob? I--I think I'd rather +not." + +"Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect +the first to-morrow night, when the bell tolls One. Expect the second on +the next night at the same hour. The third, upon the next night, when +the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; +and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between +us!" + +It walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window +raised itself a little, so that, when the apparition reached it, it was +wide open. + +Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had +entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, +and the bolts were undisturbed. Scrooge tried to say, "Humbug!" but +stopped at the first syllable. And being, from the emotion he had +undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the invisible +world, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the +hour, much in need of repose, he went straight to bed, without +undressing, and fell asleep on the instant. + + + +STAVE TWO + +THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could +scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his +chamber, until suddenly the church clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow, +melancholy ONE. + +Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his +bed were drawn aside by a strange figure,--like a child: yet not so like +a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, +which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being +diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck +and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a +wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. It held a branch +of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that +wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the +strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there +sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and +which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a +great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. + +"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?" + +"I am!" + +"Who and what are you?" + +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." + +"Long past?" + +"No. Your past. The things that you will see with me are shadows of the +things that have been; they will have no consciousness of us." + +Scrooge then made bold to inquire what business brought him there. + +"Your welfare. Rise, and walk with me!" + +It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the +hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that the bed was warm, and +the thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly +in his slippers, dressing-gown, and night-cap; and that he had a cold +upon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was +not to be resisted. He rose; but, finding that the Spirit made towards +the window, clasped its robe in supplication. + +"I am a mortal, and liable to fall." + +"Bear but a touch of my hand _there_," said the Spirit, laying it upon +his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!" + +As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood in the +busy thoroughfares of a city. It was made plain enough by the dressing +of the shops that here, too, it was Christmas time. + +The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he +knew it. + +"Know it! Was I apprenticed here!" + +They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting +behind such a high desk that, if he had been two inches taller, he must +have knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great +excitement: "Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig, +alive again!" + +Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which +pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his +capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his +organ of benevolence; and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, +jovial voice, "Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" + +A living and moving picture of Scrooge's former self, a young man, came +briskly in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. + +"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. "My old +fellow-'prentice, bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached +to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!" + +"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas eve, +Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up, before a man can +say Jack Robinson! Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room +here!" + +Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or +couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in +a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from +public life forevermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were +trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug +and warm and dry and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon +a winter's night. + +In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and +made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs. +Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, +beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they +broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In +came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with +her brother's particular friend the milkman. In they all came one after +another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some +pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they +all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the +other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various +stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the +wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soon as they got +there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them. When +this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop +the dance, cried out, "Well done!" and the fiddler plunged his hot face +into a pot of porter especially provided for that purpose. + +There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and +there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold +Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were +mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came +after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler struck up "Sir Roger de +Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top +couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or +four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled +with; people who _would_ dance, and had no notion of walking. + +But if they had been twice as many,--four times,--old Fezziwig would +have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she +was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. A positive +light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part +of the dance. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would +become of 'em next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all +through the dance,--advance and retire, turn your partner, bow and +courtesy, cockscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your +place,--Fezziwig "cut,"--cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with +his legs. + +When the clock struck eleven this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs. +Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side the door, and, shaking +hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him +or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two +'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died +away, and the lads were left to their beds, which were under a counter +in the back shop. + +"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly folks so full of +gratitude. He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money,--three or +four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?" + +"It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking +unconsciously like his former, not his latter self,--"it isn't that, +Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our +service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power +lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it +is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives +is quite as great as if it cost a fortune." + +He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. + +"What is the matter?" + +"Nothing particular." + +"Something, I think?" + +"No, no. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just +now. That's all." + +"My time grows short," observed the Spirit. "Quick!" + +This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could see, but +it produced an immediate effect. For again he saw himself. He was older +now; a man in the prime of life. + +He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a black +dress, in whose eyes there were tears. + +"It matters little," she said softly to Scrooge's former self. "To you, +very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can comfort you in +time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to +grieve." + +"What Idol has displaced you?" + +"A golden one. You fear the world too much. I have seen your nobler +aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, +engrosses you. Have I not?" + +"What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not +changed towards you. Have I ever sought release from our engagement?" + +"In words, no. Never." + +"In what, then?" + +"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of +life; another Hope as its great end. If you were free to-day, to-morrow, +yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl; +or, choosing her, do I not know that your repentance and regret would +surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love +of him you once were." + +"Spirit! remove me from this place." + +"I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the +Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!" + +"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed. "I cannot bear it! Leave me! Take me +back. Haunt me no longer!" + +As he struggled with the Spirit he was conscious of being exhausted, and +overcome by an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his +own bedroom. He had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a +heavy sleep. + + + +STAVE THREE + +THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +Scrooge awoke in his own bedroom. There was no doubt about that. But it +and his own adjoining sitting-room, into which he shuffled in his +slippers, attracted by a great light there, had undergone a surprising +transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, +that it looked a perfect grove. The leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy +reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been +scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as +that petrifaction of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or +Marley's, or for many and many a winter season gone. Heaped upon the +floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, brawn, great +joints of meat, sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, +plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked +apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and great +bowls of punch. In easy state upon this couch there sat a Giant glorious +to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and +who raised it high to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping +round the door. + +"Come in,--come in! and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas +Present. Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!" + +"Never." + +"Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning +(for I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years?" +pursued the Phantom. + +"I don't think I have, I am afraid I have not. Have you had many +brothers, Spirit?" + +"More than eighteen hundred." + +"A tremendous family to provide for! Spirit, conduct me where you will. +I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is +working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by +it." + +"Touch my robe!" + +Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. + +The room and its contents all vanished instantly, and they stood in the +city streets upon a snowy Christmas morning. + +Scrooge and the Ghost passed on, invisible, straight to Scrooge's +clerk's; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped +to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings of his torch. +Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob"[*] a week himself; he pocketed +on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost +of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed house! + +[* Shillings.] + +Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a +twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a +goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda +Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master +Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and, +getting the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar (Bob's private +property, conferred upon his son and heir in honor of the day) into his +mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to +show his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, +boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they +had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and, basking in +luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about +the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not +proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the +slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let +out and peeled. + +"What has ever got your precious father, then?" said Mrs. Cratchit. "And +your brother Tiny Tim! And Martha warn't as late last Christmas day by +half an hour!" + +"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she spoke. + +"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. "Hurrah! There's +_such_ a goose, Martha!" + +"Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are?" said Mrs. +Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet +for her. + +"We'd a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the girl, "and +had to clear away this morning, mother!" + +"Well! Never mind so long as you are come," said Mrs. Cratchit. "Sit ye +down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!" + +"No, no! There's father coming," cried the two young Cratchits, who were +everywhere at once. "Hide, Martha, hide!" + +So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least +three feet of comforter, exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before +him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look +seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a +little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! + +"Why, where's our Martha?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. + +"Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit. + +"Not coming!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits; +for he had been Tim's blood-horse all the way from church, and had come +home rampant,--"not coming upon Christmas day!" + +Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so +she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his +arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off +into the wash-house that he might hear the pudding singing in the +copper. + +"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had +rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his +heart's content. + +"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the +church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to +remember, upon Christmas day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men +see." + +Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when +he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. + +His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny +Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister +to his stool beside the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs,--as +if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby, +--compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and +stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer, Master Peter +and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with +which they soon returned in high procession.[*] + +[* The goose had been cooked in the baker's oven, for economy.] + +Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) +hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; +Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; +Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two +young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and +mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest +they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At +last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a +breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the +carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, +and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of +delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two +young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and +feebly cried, Hurrah! + +There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was +such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness, were +the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed +potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as +Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a +bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last! Yet every one had +had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular were steeped in +sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by +Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone,--too nervous to bear +witnesses,--to take the pudding up, and bring it in. + +Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning +out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back yard, +and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose,--a supposition at +which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were +supposed. + +Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell +like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and +a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to +that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered,-- +flushed but smiling proudly,--with the pudding, like a speckled +cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half a quartern of +ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. + +O, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly, too, that he +regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since +their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, +she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. +Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it +was at all a small pudding for a large family. Any Cratchit would have +blushed to hint at such a thing. + +At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth +swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted and +considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a +shovelful of chestnuts on the fire. + +Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit +called a circle, and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of +glass,--two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle. + +These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden +goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while +the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily. Then Bob +proposed:-- + +"A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!" + +Which all the family re-echoed. + +"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all. + +He sat very close to his father's side, upon his little stool. Bob held +his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to +keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. + +Scrooge raised his head speedily, on hearing his own name. + +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the +Feast!" + +"The Founder of the Feast, indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. "I +wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and +I hope he'd have a good appetite for it." + +"My dear," said Bob, "the children! Christmas day." + +"It should be Christmas day, I am sure," said she, "on which one drinks +the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. +Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, +poor fellow!" + +"My dear," was Bob's mild answer, "Christmas day." + +"I'll drink his health for your sake and the day's," said Mrs. Cratchit, +"not for his. Long life to him. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! +He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!" + +The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their +proceedings which had no heartiness in it. Tiny Tim drank it last of +all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the +family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which +was not dispelled for full five minutes. + +After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from +the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit +told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which +would bring in, if obtained, full five and sixpence weekly. The two +young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man +of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from +between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular +investments he should favor when he came into the receipt of that +bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, +then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she +worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for +a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how +she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord +"was much about as tall as Peter"; at which Peter pulled up his collars +so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All +this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by and by +they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny +Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. + +There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; +they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; +their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely +did, the inside of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, +pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they +faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's +torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny +Tim, until the last. + +It was a great surprise to Scrooge, as this scene vanished, to hear a +hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognize it +as his own nephew's, and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming +room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that +same nephew. + +It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there +is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so +irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor. When Scrooge's +nephew laughed, Scrooge's niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he. +And their assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, laughed out +lustily. + +"He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live!" cried Scrooge's +nephew. "He believed it too!" + +"More shame for him, Fred!" said Scrooge's niece, indignantly. Bless +those women! they never do anything by halves. They are always in +earnest. + +She was very pretty, exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, +surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth that seemed made to +be kissed,--as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about her +chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest +pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she +was what you would have called provoking, but satisfactory, too. O, +perfectly satisfactory! + +"He's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's nephew, "that's the truth; +and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their +own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him. Who suffers by +his ill whims? Himself, always. Here he takes it into his head to +dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence? +He don't lose much of a dinner." + +"Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner," interrupted Scrooge's +niece. Everybody else said the same, and they must be allowed to have +been competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, with the +dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight. + +"Well, I am very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's nephew, "because I +haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers. What do _you_ say, +Topper?" + +Topper clearly had his eye on one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he +answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to +express an opinion on the subject. Whereat Scrooge's niece's sister--the +plump one with the lace tucker, not the one with the roses--blushed. + +After tea they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew +what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure +you,--especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good +one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the +face over it. + +But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a while they +played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never +better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. +There was first a game at blind-man's-buff, though. And I no more +believe Topper was really blinded than I believe he had eyes in his +boots. Because the way in which he went after that plump sister in the +lace tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. Knocking +down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping up against the +piano, smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went there +went he! He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch +anybody else. If you had fallen up against him, as some of them did, and +stood there, he would have made a feint of endeavoring to seize you, +which would have been an affront to your understanding, and would +instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. + +"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, Spirit, only one!" + +It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of +something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their +questions yes or no, as the case was. The fire of questioning to which +he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a +live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal +that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in +London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show of, and +wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was never +killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, +or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every new +question put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; +and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the +sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister cried out,-- + +"I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know what it is!" + +"What is it?" cried Fred. + +"It's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!" + +Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal sentiment, though +some objected that the reply to "Is it a bear?" ought to have been +"Yes." + +Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that +he would have drunk to the unconscious company in an inaudible speech. +But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by +his nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. + +Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but +always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they +were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by +struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, +and it was rich. In alms-house, hospital, and jail, in misery's every +refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast +the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught +Scrooge his precepts. Suddenly, as they stood together in an open place, +the bell struck twelve. + +Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it no more. As the last +stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob +Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and +hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him. + + + +STAVE FOUR + +THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS + + +The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, +Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the air through which this +Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. + +It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its +face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched +hand. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved. + +"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come? Ghost of +the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know +your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man +from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a +thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?" + +It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them. + +"Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to +me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!" + +They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to +spring up about them. But there they were in the heart of it; on +'Change, amongst the merchants. + +The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. Observing +that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their +talk. + +"No," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin, "I don't know much +about it either way. I only know he he's dead." + +"When did he die?" inquired another. + +"Last night, I believe." + +"Why, what was the matter with him? I thought he'd never die." + +"God knows," said the first, with a yawn. + +"What has he done with his money?" asked a red-faced gentleman. + +"I haven't heard," said the man with the large chin. "Company, perhaps. +He hasn't left it to me. That's all I know. By, by!" + +Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should +attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial; but feeling +assured that it must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to +consider what it was likely to be. It could scarcely be supposed to have +any bearing on the death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was Past, +and this Ghost's province was the Future. + +He looked about in that very place for his own image; but another man +stood in his accustomed corner, and though the clock pointed to his +usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among +the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little +surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of +life, and he thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried +out in this. + +They left this busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, to +a low shop where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were +bought. A gray-haired rascal, of great age, sat smoking his pipe. + +Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a +woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely +entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was +closely followed by a man in faded black. After a short period of blank +astonishment, in which the old man with the pipe had joined them, they +all three burst into a laugh. + +"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered +first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the +undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a +chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" + +"You couldn't have met in better place. You were made free of it long +ago, you know; and the other two ain't strangers. What have you got to +sell? What have you got to sell?" + +"Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall see." + +"What odds then! What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said the woman. "Every person +has a right to take care of themselves. _He_ always did! Who's the worse +for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose." + +Mrs. Dilber, whose manner was remarkable for general propitiation, said, +"No, indeed, ma'am." + +"If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why +wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had +somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of +lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself." + +"It's the truest word that ever was spoke; it's a judgment on him." + +"I wish it was a little heavier judgment, and it should have been, you +may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open +that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of it. Speak out plain. +I'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it." + +Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening the +bundle, and dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff. + +"What do you call this? Bed-curtains!" + +"Ah! Bed-curtains! Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, now." + +"_His_ blankets?" + +"Whose else's, do you think? He isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I +dare say. Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but +you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It is the best he +had, and a fine one too. They'd have wasted it by dressing him up in it, +if it hadn't been for me." + +Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. + +"Spirit! I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My +life tends that way now. Merciful Heaven, what is this?" + +The scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bare, uncurtained +bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed; +and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this +plundered unknown man. + +"Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or this dark +chamber, Spirit, will be forever present to me." + +The Ghost conducted him to poor Bob Cratchit's house,--the dwelling he +had visited before,--and found the mother and the children seated round +the fire. + +Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues +in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. +The mother and her daughters were engaged in needlework. But surely they +were very quiet! + +"'And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'" + +Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy +must have read them out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why +did he not go on? + +The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her +face. + +"The color hurts my eyes," she said. + +The color? Ah, poor Tiny Tim! + +"They're better now again. It makes them weak by candle-light; and I +wouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes home, for the +world. It must be near his time." + +"Past it, rather," Peter answered, shutting up his book. "But I think he +has walked a little slower than he used, these few last evenings, +mother." + +"I have known him walk with--I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon +his shoulder, very fast indeed." + +"And so have I," cried Peter. "Often." + +"And so have I," exclaimed another. So had all. + +"But he was very light to carry, and his father loved him so, that it +was no trouble,--no trouble. And there is your father at the door!" + +She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter--he had +need of it, poor fellow--came in. His tea was ready for him on the hob, +and they all tried who should help him to it most. Then the two young +Cratchits got upon his knees and laid, each child, a little cheek +against his face, as if they said, "Don't mind it, father. Don't be +grieved!" + +Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to all the family. +He looked at the work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed +of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would be done long before Sunday, +he said. + +"Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert?" + +"Yes, my dear," returned Bob. "I wish you could have gone. It would have +done you good to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I +promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little +child! My little child!" + +He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped +it, he and the child would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they +were. + +"Spectre," said Scrooge, "something informs me that our parting moment +is at hand. I know it, but I know not how. Tell me what man that was, +with the covered face, whom we saw lying dead?" + +The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed him to a dismal, wretched, +ruinous churchyard. + +The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. + +"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one +question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they +shadows of the things that May be only?" + +Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood. + +"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, +they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will +change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" + +The Spirit was immovable as ever. + +Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and, following the +finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own +name,--EBENEZER SCROOGE. + +"Am _I_ that man who lay upon the bed? No, Spirit! O no, no! Spirit! +hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been +but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope? +Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an +altered life." + +For the first time the kind hand faltered. + +"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I +will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all +three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they +teach. O, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!" + +Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed, he +saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, +and dwindled down into a bedpost. + +Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his +own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make +amends in! + +He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the +lustiest peals he had ever heard. + +Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no +mist, no night; clear, bright, stirring, golden day! + +"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday +clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. + +"Eh?" + +"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" + +"To-day! Why, CHRISTMAS DAY." + +"It's Christmas day! I haven't missed it. Hallo, my fine fellow!" + +"Hallo!" + +"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the +corner?" + +"I should hope I did." + +"An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold +the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize +Turkey,--the big one?" + +"What, the one as big as me?" + +"What a delightful boy! It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!" + +"It's hanging there now." + +"Is it? Go and buy it." + +"Walk-ER!"[*] exclaimed the boy. + +[* "Walker!" or "Hookey Walker!" means "What a story!"] + +"No, no, I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring it here, +that I may give them the direction where to take it. Come back with the +man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five +minutes, and I'll give you half a crown!" + +The boy was off like a shot. + +"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's! He sha'n't know who sends it. It's +twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending +it to Bob's will be!" + +The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write +it he did, somehow, and went down stairs to open the street door, ready +for the coming of the poulterer's man. + +It _was_ a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. +He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of +sealing-wax. + +Scrooge dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out into the +streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them +with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and, walking with his hands behind +him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so +irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humored +fellows said: "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" and Scrooge +said often afterwards, that, of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, +those were the blithest in his ears. + +In the afternoon, he turned his steps towards his nephew's house. + +He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the courage to go up and +knock. But he made a dash, and did it. + +"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl! +Very. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where is he, my love?" + +"He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress." + +"He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the dining-room +lock. "I'll go in here, my dear." + +"Fred!" + +"Why, bless my soul!" cried Fred, "who's that?" + +"It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, +Fred?" + +Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in +five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. +So did Topper when _he_ came. So did the plump sister when _she_ came. +So did every one when _they_ came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, +wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! + +But he was early at the office next morning. O, he was early there! If +he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That +was the thing he had set his heart upon. + +And he did it. The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. +Bob was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat +with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank. + +Bob's hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was +on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying +to overtake nine o'clock. + +"Hallo!" growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice, as near as he could +feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?" + +"I am very sorry, sir. I _am_ behind my time." + +"You are? Yes. I think you are. Step this way, if you please." + +"It's only once a year, sir. It shall not be repeated. I was making +rather merry yesterday, sir." + +"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand this sort +of thing any longer. And therefore," Scrooge continued, leaping from his +stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back +into the Tank again,--"and therefore I am about to raise your salary!" + +Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. + +"A merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could +not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, +Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise +your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will +discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of +smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy a second coal-scuttle +before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!" + +Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; +and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as +good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city +knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old +world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him; but his own +heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. + +He had no further intercourse with spirits, but lived in that respect +upon the total-abstinence principle ever afterward; and it was always +said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive +possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! +And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one! + + + + +VI. THE GREAT STONE FACE[*] (1850) + +[* From "The Snow Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales." Used by permission +of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, +publishers of Hawthorne's Works.] + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864) + + +[_Setting_. The Profile Mountain, a huge "work of Nature in her mood of +majestic playfulness," seems to have given the suggestion. The Profile +Mountain is a part of Cannon Mountain, which is one of the White +Mountains of New Hampshire. But the larger background is to be sought in +the interplay of the spiritual and physical forces which Hawthorne has +here staged in allegory. The mountain is the symbol of a lofty ideal +that blesses those that follow its beckoning and marks the degree of +failure of those that slight or ignore it. + +_Plot_. The plan of the story is as simple and beautiful as the teaching +is profound and helpful. "Mr. Hawthorne," writes Mrs. Hawthorne, "says +he is rather ashamed of the mechanical structure of the story, the moral +being so plain and manifest." But what is the "plain and manifest" moral +that the structure of the story is designed to bring out? One +interpreter says, "That the last shall be first"; another, "That success +is not to be measured by human standards." The central thought seems to +me to be larger than either of these and to include both. It is rather +the assimilative power of a lofty ideal and is best phrased in 2 +Corinthians iii, 18: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass +the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to +glory." By setting his ideal high and by looking and longing, Ernest +grew daily in spiritual stature and was saved from being the victim of +the popular and passing allurements of war, money, and politics, +allurements to which his neighbors succumbed because they did not live +in vital communion with the Great Stone Face. The poet, it is true, felt +the appeal of the Great Stone Face but only afar off, for his life did +not correspond with his thought. It is one of the finest touches in the +story that, though Ernest meets the double requirement of thought and +act, he still hoped "that some wiser and better man than himself would +by and by appear." If a man once catches up with his ideal, it ceases to +be an ideal. Ernest did not think that he had attained. + +_Characters_. Ernest, like Scrooge, is a developing character. He did +not have as far to go as Scrooge and his development was differently +wrought; but both passed from weakness to strength and from isolation to +service, the one through the ministry of a single profound experience, +the other through the constant challenge of a high ideal. The other +characters fall below Ernest because they did not relate themselves as +whole-heartedly to the influence of the Great Stone Face. Mr. +Gathergold, type of the merely rich man, Old Blood-and-Thunder, type of +the merely military hero, Old Stony Phiz, type of the merely eloquent +statesman, the easily satisfied people, type of the fickle crowd, and at +last the gifted poet, type of the discord between words and works, all +were natives of the same valley of opportunity. But the Great Stone Face +was the measure of their defect rather than the means of their +attainment because, unlike Esther and Scrooge and Ernest, they were +"disobedient unto the heavenly vision."] + + + +One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy +sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. +They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, +though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. + +And what was the Great Stone Face? + +Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley so +spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these good +people dwelt in log huts, with the black forest all around them, on the +steep and difficult hillsides. Others had their homes in comfortable +farm-houses, and cultivated the rich soil on the gentle slopes or level +surfaces of the valley. Others, again, were congregated into populous +villages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its +birthplace in the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by +human cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. +The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of many +modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, had a kind of +familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift +of distinguishing this grand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many +of their neighbors. + +The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic +playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side, of the mountain by some +immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, +when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of +the human countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, +had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. There was the broad +arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long +bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have +rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. +True it is, that if the spectator approached too near, he lost the +outline of the gigantic visage, and could discern only a heap of +ponderous and gigantic rocks, piled in chaotic ruin one upon another. +Retracing his steps, however, the wondrous features would again be seen; +and the farther he withdrew from them, the more like a human face, with +all its original divinity intact, did they appear; until, as it grew dim +in the distance, with the clouds and glorified vapor of the mountains +clustering about it, the Great Stone Face seemed positively to be alive. + +It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with +the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, +and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow +of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections, and +had room for more. It was an education only to look at it. According to +the belief of many people, the valley owed much of its fertility to this +benign aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating the +clouds, and infusing its tenderness into the sunshine. + +As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their +cottage-door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it. The +child's name was Ernest. + +"Mother," said he, while the Titanic visage smiled on him, "I wish that +it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice must needs be +pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a face, I should love him +dearly." + +"If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we may +see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face as that." + +"What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired Ernest. "Pray +tell me all about it!" + +So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her, when +she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, not of things that +were past, but of what was yet to come; a story, nevertheless, so very +old that even the Indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had heard +it from their forefathers, to whom, as they affirmed, it had been +murmured by the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among the +treetops. The purport was, that, at some future day, a child should be +born hereabouts, who was destined to become the greatest and noblest +personage of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear an +exact resemblance to the Great Stone Face. Not a few old-fashioned +people, and young ones likewise, in the ardor of their hopes, still +cherished an enduring faith in this old prophecy. But others, who had +seen more of the world, had watched and waited till they were weary, and +had beheld no man with such a face, nor any man that proved to be much +greater or nobler than his neighbors, concluded it to be nothing but an +idle tale. At all events, the great man of the prophecy had not yet +appeared. + +"O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above his +head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him?" + +His mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it +was wisest not to discourage the generous hopes of her little boy. So +she only said to him, "Perhaps you may." + +And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It was +always in his mind, whenever he looked upon the Great Stone Face. He +spent his childhood in the log-cottage where he was born, and was +dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her +much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this +manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, +quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sunbrowned with labor in the fields, but +with more intelligence brightening his aspect than is seen in many lads +who have been taught at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, +save only that the Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of +the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to +imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of +kindness and encouragement, responsive to his own look of veneration. We +must not take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the +Face may have looked no more kindly at Ernest than at all the world +besides. But the secret was, that the boy's tender and confiding +simplicity discerned what other people could not see; and thus the love, +which was meant for all, became his peculiar portion. + +About this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley, that the +great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to +the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It seems that, many years +before, a young man had migrated from the valley and settled at a +distant seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had +set up as a shopkeeper. His name--but I could never learn whether it was +his real one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success +in life--was Gathergold. Being shrewd and active, and endowed by +Providence with that inscrutable faculty which develops itself in what +the world calls luck, he became an exceedingly rich merchant, and owner +of a whole fleet of bulky-bottomed ships. All the countries of the globe +appeared to join hands for the mere purpose of adding heap after heap to +the mountainous accumulation of this one man's wealth. The cold regions +of the north, almost within the gloom and shadow of the Arctic Circle, +sent him their tribute in the shape of furs; hot Africa sifted for him +the golden sands of her rivers, and gathered up the ivory tusks of her +great elephants out of the forests; the East came bringing him the rich +shawls, and spices, and teas, and the effulgence of diamonds, and the +gleaming purity of large pearls. The ocean, not to be behindhand with +the earth, yielded up her mighty whales, that Mr. Gathergold might sell +their oil, and make a profit on it. Be the original commodity what it +might, it was gold within his grasp. It might be said of him, as of +Midas in the fable, that whatever he touched with his finger immediately +glistened, and grew yellow, and was changed at once into sterling metal, +or, which suited him still better, into piles of coin. And, when Mr. +Gathergold had become so very rich that it would have taken him a +hundred years only to count his wealth, he bethought himself of his +native valley, and resolved to go back thither, and end his days where +he was born. With this purpose in view, he sent a skilful architect to +build him such a palace as should be fit for a man of his vast wealth to +live in. + +As I have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley that Mr. +Gathergold had turned out to be the prophetic personage so long and +vainly looked for, and that his visage was the perfect and undeniable +similitude of the Great Stone Face. People were the more ready to +believe that this must needs be the fact, when they beheld the splendid +edifice that rose, as if by enchantment, on the site of his father's old +weather-beaten farm-house. The exterior was of marble, so dazzlingly +white that it seemed as though the whole structure might melt away in +the sunshine, like those humbler ones which Mr. Gathergold, in his young +play-days, before his fingers were gifted with the touch of +transmutation, had been accustomed to build of snow. It had a richly +ornamented portico, supported by tall pillars, beneath which was a lofty +door, studded with silver knobs, and made of a kind of variegated wood +that had been brought from beyond the sea. The windows, from the floor +to the ceiling of each stately apartment, were composed, respectively, +of but one enormous pane of glass, so transparently pure that it was +said to be a finer medium than even the vacant atmosphere. Hardly +anybody had been permitted to see the interior of this palace; but it +was reported, and with good semblance of truth, to be far more gorgeous +than the outside, insomuch that whatever was iron or brass in other +houses was silver or gold in this; and Mr. Gathergold's bedchamber, +especially, made such a glittering appearance that no ordinary man would +have been able to close his eyes there. But, on the other hand, Mr. +Gathergold was now so inured to wealth, that perhaps he could not have +closed his eyes unless where the gleam of it was certain to find its way +beneath his eyelids. + +In due time, the mansion was finished; next came the upholsterers with +magnificent furniture; then, a whole troop of black and white servants, +the harbingers of Mr. Gathergold, who, in his own majestic person, was +expected to arrive at sunset. Our friend Ernest, meanwhile, had been +deeply stirred by the idea that the great man, the noble man, the man of +prophecy, after so many ages of delay, was at length to be made manifest +to his native valley. He knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand +ways in which Mr. Gathergold, with his vast wealth, might transform +himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a control over human +affairs as wide and benignant as the smile of the Great Stone Face. Full +of faith and hope, Ernest doubted not that what the people said was +true, and that now he was to behold the living likeness of those +wondrous features on the mountain-side. While the boy was still gazing +up the valley, and fancying, as he always did, that the Great Stone Face +returned his gaze and looked kindly at him, the rumbling of wheels was +heard, approaching swiftly along the winding road. + +"Here he comes!" cried a group of people who were assembled to witness +the arrival. "Here comes the great Mr. Gathergold!" + +A carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round the turn of the road. +Within it, thrust partly out of the window, appeared the physiognomy of +a little old man, with a skin as yellow as if his own Midas-hand had +transmuted it. He had a low forehead, small, sharp eyes, puckered about +with innumerable wrinkles, and very thin lips, which he made still +thinner by pressing them forcibly together. + +"The very image of the Great Stone Face!" shouted the people. "Sure +enough, the old prophecy is true; and here we have the great man come, +at last!" + +And, what greatly perplexed Ernest, they seemed actually to believe that +here was the likeness which they spoke of. By the roadside there chanced +to be an old beggar-woman and two little beggar-children, stragglers +from some far-off region, who, as the carriage rolled onward, held out +their hands and lifted up their doleful voices, most piteously +beseeching charity. A yellow claw--the very same that had clawed +together so much wealth--poked itself out of the coach-window, and dropt +some copper coins upon the ground; so that, though the great man's name +seems to have been Gathergold, he might just as suitably have been +nicknamed Scattercopper. Still, nevertheless, with an earnest shout, and +evidently with as much good faith as ever, the people bellowed,-- + +"He is the very image of the Great Stone Face!" + +But Ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled shrewdness of that sordid +visage, and gazed up the valley, where, amid a gathering mist, gilded by +the last sunbeams, he could still distinguish those glorious features +which had impressed themselves into his soul. Their aspect cheered him. +What did the benign lips seem to say? + +"He will come! Fear not, Ernest; the man will come!" + +The years went on, and Ernest ceased to be a boy. He had grown to be a +young man now. He attracted little notice from the other inhabitants of +the valley; for they saw nothing remarkable in his way of life, save +that, when the labor of the day was over, he still loved to go apart and +gaze and meditate upon the Great Stone Face. According to their idea of +the matter, it was a folly, indeed, but pardonable, inasmuch as Ernest +was industrious, kind, and neighborly, and neglected no duty for the +sake of indulging this idle habit. They knew not that the Great Stone +Face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment which was +expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, and fill it with +wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts. They knew not that thence +would come a better wisdom than could be learned from books, and a +better life than could be moulded on the defaced example of other human +lives. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts and affections which +came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, and +wherever he communed with himself, were of a higher tone than those +which all men shared with him. A simple soul,--simple as when his mother +first taught him the old prophecy,--he beheld the marvellous features +beaming adown the valley, and still wondered that their human +counterpart was so long in making his appearance. + +By this time poor Mr. Gathergold was dead and buried; and the oddest +part of the matter was, that his wealth, which was the body and spirit +of his existence, had disappeared before his death, leaving nothing of +him but a living skeleton, covered over with a wrinkled, yellow skin. +Since the melting away of his gold, it had been very generally conceded +that there was no such striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the +ignoble features of the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the +mountain-side. So the people ceased to honor him during his lifetime, +and quietly consigned him to forgetfulness after his decease. Once in a +while, it is true, his memory was brought up in connection with the +magnificent palace which he had built, and which had long ago been +turned into a hotel for the accommodation of strangers, multitudes of +whom came, every summer, to visit that famous natural curiosity, the +Great Stone Face. Thus, Mr. Gathergold being discredited and thrown into +the shade, the man of prophecy was yet to come. + +It so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years before, +had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of hard fighting, had +now become an illustrious commander. Whatever he may be called in +history, he was known in camps and on the battle-field under the +nickname of Old Blood-and-Thunder. This war-worn veteran, being now +infirm with age and wounds, and weary of the turmoil of a military life, +and of the roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet, that had so +long been ringing in his ears, had lately signified a purpose of +returning to his native valley, hoping to find repose where he +remembered to have left it. The inhabitants, his old neighbors and their +grown-up children, were resolved to welcome the renowned warrior with a +salute of cannon and a public dinner; and all the more enthusiastically, +it being affirmed that now, at last, the likeness of the Great Stone +Face had actually appeared. An aid-de-camp of Old Blood-and-Thunder, +travelling through the valley, was said to have been struck with the +resemblance. Moreover the schoolmates and early acquaintances of the +general were ready to testify, on oath, that, to the best of their +recollection, the aforesaid general had been exceedingly like the +majestic image, even when a boy, only that the idea had never occurred +to them at that period. Great, therefore, was the excitement throughout +the valley; and many people, who had never once thought of glancing at +the Great Stone Face for years before, now spent their time in gazing at +it for the sake of knowing exactly how General Blood-and-Thunder looked. + +On the day of the great festival, Ernest, with all the other people of +the valley, left their work, and proceeded to the spot where the sylvan +banquet was prepared. As he approached, the loud voice of the Rev. Dr. +Battleblast was heard, beseeching a blessing on the good things set +before them, and on the distinguished friend of peace in whose honor +they were assembled. The tables were arranged in a cleared space of the +woods, shut in by the surrounding trees, except where a vista opened +eastward, and afforded a distant view of the Great Stone Face. + +Over the general's chair, which was a relic from the home of Washington, +there was an arch of verdant boughs, with the laurel profusely +intermixed, and surmounted by his country's banner, beneath which he had +won his victories. Our friend Ernest raised himself on his tiptoes, in +hopes to get a glimpse of the celebrated guest; but there was a mighty +crowd about the tables anxious to hear the toasts and speeches, and to +catch any word that might fall from the general in reply; and a +volunteer company, doing duty as a guard, pricked ruthlessly with their +bayonets at any particularly quiet person among the throng. So Ernest, +being of an unobtrusive character, was thrust quite into the background, +where he could see no more of Old Blood-and-Thunder's physiognomy than +if it had been still blazing on the battle-field. To console himself, he +turned towards the Great Stone Face, which, like a faithful and +long-remembered friend, looked back and smiled upon him through the +vista of the forest. Meantime, however, he could overhear the remarks of +various individuals, who were comparing the features of the hero with +the face on the distant mountain-side. + +"Tis the same face, to a hair!" cried one man, cutting a caper for joy. + +"Wonderfully like, that's a fact!" responded another. + +"Like! why, I call it Old Blood-and-Thunder himself, in a monstrous +looking-glass!" cried a third. "And why not? He's the greatest man of +this or any other age, beyond a doubt." + +And then all three of the speakers gave a great shout, which +communicated electricity to the crowd, and called forth a roar from a +thousand voices, that went reverberating for miles among the mountains, +until you might have supposed that the Great Stone Face had poured its +thunder-breath into the cry. All these comments, and this vast +enthusiasm served the more to interest our friend; nor did he think of +questioning that now, at length, the mountain-visage had found its human +counterpart. It is true, Ernest had imagined that this long-looked-for +personage would appear in the character of a man of peace, uttering +wisdom, and doing good, and making people happy. But, taking an habitual +breadth of view, with all his simplicity, he contended that Providence +should choose its own method of blessing mankind, and could conceive +that this great end might be effected even by a warrior and a bloody +sword, should inscrutable wisdom see fit to order matters so. + +"The general! the general!" was now the cry. "Hush! silence! Old +Blood-and-Thunder's going to make a speech." + +Even so; for, the cloth being removed, the general's health had been +drunk amid shouts of applause, and he now stood upon his feet to thank +the company. Ernest saw him. There he was, over the shoulders of the +crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and embroidered collar upward, +beneath the arch of green boughs with interwined laurel, and the banner +drooping as if to shade his brow! And there, too, visible in the same +glance, through the vista of the forest, appeared the Great Stone Face! +And was there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified. +Alas, Ernest could not recognize it! He beheld a war-worn and +weather-beaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an iron +will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender sympathies, were +altogether wanting in Old Blood-and-Thunder's visage; and even if the +Great Stone Face had assumed his look of stern command, the milder +traits would still have tempered it. + +"This is not the man of prophecy," sighed Ernest, to himself, as he made +his way out of the throng. "And must the world wait longer yet?" + +The mists had congregated about the distant mountain-side, and there +were seen the grand and awful features of the Great Stone Face, awful +but benignant, as if a mighty angel were sitting among the hills, and +enrobing himself in a cloud-vesture of gold and purple. As he looked, +Ernest could hardly believe but that a smile beamed over the whole +visage, with a radiance still brightening, although without motion of +the lips. It was probably the effect of the western sunshine, melting +through the thinly diffused vapors that had swept between him and the +object that he gazed at. But--as it always did--the aspect of his +marvellous friend made Ernest as hopeful as if he had never hoped in +vain. + +"Fear not, Ernest," said his heart, even as if the Great Face were +whispering him,--"fear not, Ernest; he will come." + +More years sped swiftly and tranquilly away. Ernest still dwelt in his +native valley, and was now a man of middle age. By imperceptible +degrees, he had become known among the people. Now, as heretofore, he +labored for his bread, and was the same simple-hearted man that he had +always been. But he had thought and felt so much, he had given so many +of the best hours of his life to unworldly hopes for some great good to +mankind, that it seemed as though he had been talking with the angels, +and had imbibed a portion of their wisdom unawares. It was visible in +the calm and well-considered beneficence of his daily life, the quiet +stream of which had made a wide green margin all along its course. Not a +day passed by, that the world was not the better because this man, +humble as he was, had lived. He never stepped aside from his own path, +yet would always reach a blessing to his neighbor. Almost involuntarily, +too, he had become a preacher. The pure and high simplicity of his +thought, which, as one of its manifestations, took shape in the good +deeds that dropped silently from his hand, flowed also forth in speech. +He uttered truths that wrought upon and moulded the lives of those who +heard him. His auditors, it may be, never suspected that Ernest, their +own neighbor and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; least +of all did Ernest himself suspect it; but, inevitably as the murmur of a +rivulet, came thoughts out of his mouth that no other human lips had +spoken. + +When the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were ready +enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a similarity between +General Blood-and-Thunder's truculent physiognomy and the benign visage +on the mountain-side. But now, again, there were reports and many +paragraphs in the newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the Great +Stone Face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent +statesman. He, like Mr. Gathergold and Old Blood-and-Thunder, was a +native of the valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up +the trades of law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and the +warrior's sword, he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both +together. So wonderfully eloquent was he, that whatever he might choose +to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like +right, and right like wrong; for when it pleased him, he could make a +kind of illuminated fog with his mere breath, and obscure the natural +daylight with it. His tongue, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes +it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest +music. It was the blast of war,--the song of peace; and it seemed to +have a heart in it, when there was no such matter. In good truth, he was +a wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other +imaginable success,--when it had been heard in halls of state, and in +the courts of princes and potentates,--after it had made him known all +over the world, even as a voice crying from shore to shore,--it finally +persuaded his countrymen to select him for the Presidency. Before this +time,--indeed, as soon as he began to grow celebrated,--his admirers had +found out the resemblance between him and the Great Stone Face; and so +much were they struck by it, that throughout the country this +distinguished gentleman was known by the name of Old Stony Phiz. The +phrase was considered as giving a highly favorable aspect to his +political prospects; for, as is likewise the case with the Popedom, +nobody ever becomes President without taking a name other than his own. + +While his friends were doing their best to make him President, Old Stony +Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was +born. Of course, he had no other object than to shake hands with his +fellow-citizens, and neither thought nor cared about any effect which +his progress through the country might have upon the election. +Magnificent preparations were made to receive the illustrious statesman; +a cavalcade of horsemen set forth to meet him at the boundary line of +the State, and all the people left their business and gathered along the +wayside to see him pass. Among these was Ernest. Though more than once +disappointed, as we have seen, he had such a hopeful and confiding +nature, that he was always ready to believe in whatever seemed beautiful +and good. He kept his heart continually open, and thus was sure to catch +the blessing from on high, when it should come. So now again, as +buoyantly as ever, he went forth to behold the likeness of the Great +Stone Face. + +The cavalcade came prancing along the road, with a great clattering of +hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust, which rose up so dense and high that +the visage of the mountain-side was completely hidden from Ernest's +eyes. All the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback: +militia officers, in uniform; the member of Congress; the sheriff of the +county; the editors of newspapers; and many a farmer, too, had mounted +his patient steed, with his Sunday coat upon his back. It really was a +very brilliant spectacle, especially as there were numerous banners +flaunting over the cavalcade, on some of which were gorgeous portraits +of the illustrious statesman and the Great Stone Face, smiling +familiarly at one another, like two brothers. If the pictures were to be +trusted, the mutual resemblance, it must be confessed, was marvellous. +We must not forget to mention that there was a band of music, which made +the echoes of the mountains ring and reverberate with the loud triumph +of its strains; so that airy and soul-thrilling melodies broke out among +all the heights and hollows, as if every nook of his native valley had +found a voice, to welcome the distinguished guest. But the grandest +effect was when the far-off mountain precipice flung back the music; for +then the Great Stone Face itself seemed to be swelling the triumphant +chorus, in acknowledgment that, at length, the man of prophecy was come. + +All this while the people were throwing up their hats and shouting, with +enthusiasm so contagious that the heart of Ernest kindled up, and he +likewise threw up his hat, and shouted, as loudly as the loudest, "Huzza +for the great man! Huzza, for Old Stony Phiz!" But as yet he had not +seen him. + +"Here he is, now!" cried those who stood near Ernest. "There! There! +Look at Old Stony Phiz and then at the Old Man of the Mountain, and see +if they are not as like as two twin-brothers!" + +In the midst of all this gallant array, came an open barouche, drawn by +four white horses; and in the barouche, with his massive head uncovered, +sat the illustrious statesman, Old Stony Phiz himself. + +"Confess it," said one of Ernest's neighbors to him; "the Great Stone +Face has met its match at last!" + +Now, it must be owned that, at his first glimpse of the countenance +which was bowing and smiling from the barouche, Ernest did fancy that +there was a resemblance between it and the old familiar face upon the +mountain-side. The brow, with its massive depths and loftiness, and all +the other features, indeed, were boldly and strongly hewn, as if in +emulation of a more than heroic, of a Titanic model. But the sublimity +and stateliness, the grand expression of a divine sympathy, that +illuminated the mountain visage, and etherealized its ponderous granite +substance into spirit, might here be sought in vain. Something had been +originally left out, or had departed. And therefore the marvellously +gifted statesman had always a weary gloom in the deep caverns of his +eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings, or a man of mighty +faculties and little aims, whose life, with all its high performances, +was vague and empty, because no high purpose had endowed it with +reality. + +Still, Ernest's neighbor was thrusting his elbow into his side, and +pressing him for an answer. + +"Confess! confess! Is not he the very picture of your Old Man of the +Mountain?" + +"No!" said Ernest, bluntly, "I see little or no likeness." + +"Then so much the worse for the Great Stone Face!" answered his +neighbor; and again he set up a shout for Old Stony Phiz. + +But Ernest turned away, melancholy, and almost despondent; for this was +the saddest of his disappointments, to behold a man who might have +fulfilled the prophecy, and had not willed to do so. Meantime, the +cavalcade, the banners, the music, and the barouches swept past him, +with the vociferous crowd in the rear, leaving the dust to settle down, +and the Great Stone Face to be revealed again, with the grandeur that it +had worn for untold centuries. + +"Lo, here I am, Ernest!" the benign lips seemed to say. "I have waited +longer than thou, and am not yet weary. Fear not; the man will come." + +The years hurried onward, treading in their haste on one another's +heels. And now they began to bring white hairs, and scatter them over +the head of Ernest; they made reverend wrinkles across his forehead, and +furrows in his cheeks. He was an aged man. But not in vain had he grown +old; more than the white hairs on his head were the sage thoughts in his +mind; his wrinkles and furrows were inscriptions that Time had graved, +and in which he had written legends of wisdom that had been tested by +the tenor of a life. And Ernest had ceased to be obscure. Unsought for, +undesired, had come the fame which so many seek, and made him known in +the great world, beyond the limits of the valley in which he had dwelt +so quietly. College professors, and even the active men of cities, came +from far to see and converse with Ernest; for the report had gone abroad +that this simple husbandman had ideas unlike those of other men, not +gained from books, but of a higher tone,--a tranquil and familiar +majesty, as if he had been talking with the angels as his daily friends. +Whether it were sage, statesman, or philanthropist, Ernest received +these visitors with the gentle sincerity that had characterized him from +boyhood, and spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay +deepest in his heart or their own. While they talked together, his face +would kindle, unawares, and shine upon them, as with a mild evening +light. Pensive with the fulness of such discourse, his guests took leave +and went their way; and passing up the valley, paused to look at the +Great Stone Face, imagining that they had seen its likeness in a human +countenance, but could not remember where. + +While Ernest had been growing up and growing old, a bountiful Providence +had granted a new poet to this earth. He, likewise, was a native of the +valley, but had spent the greater part of his life at a distance from +that romantic region, pouring out his sweet music amid the bustle and +din of cities. Often, however, did the mountains which had been familiar +to him in his childhood lift their snowy peaks into the clear atmosphere +of his poetry. Neither was the Great Stone Face forgotten, for the poet +had celebrated it in an ode, which was grand enough to have been uttered +by its own majestic lips. This man of genius, we may say, had come down +from heaven with wonderful endowments. If he sang of a mountain, the +eyes of all mankind beheld a mightier grandeur reposing on its breast, +or soaring to its summit, than had before been seen there. If his theme +were a lovely lake, a celestial smile had now been thrown over it, to +gleam forever on its surface. If it were the vast old sea, even the deep +immensity of its dread bosom seemed to swell the higher, as if moved by +the emotions of the song. Thus the world assumed another and a better +aspect from the hour that the poet blessed it with his happy eyes. The +Creator had bestowed him, as the last best touch to his own handiwork. +Creation was not finished till the poet came to interpret, and so +complete it. + +The effect was no less high and beautiful, when his human brethren were +the subject of his verse. The man or woman, sordid with the common dust +of life, who crossed his daily path, and the little child who played in +it, were glorified if he beheld them in his mood of poetic faith. He +showed the golden links of the great chain that intertwined them with an +angelic kindred; he brought out the hidden traits of a celestial birth +that made them worthy of such kin. Some, indeed, there were, who thought +to show the soundness of their judgment by affirming that all the beauty +and dignity of the natural world existed only in the poet's fancy. Let +such men speak for themselves, who undoubtedly appear to have been +spawned forth by Nature with a contemptuous bitterness; she having +plastered them up out of her refuse stuff, after all the swine were +made. As respects all things else, the poet's ideal was the truest +truth. + +The songs of this poet found their way to Ernest. He read them after his +customary toil, seated on the bench before his cottage-door, where for +such a length of time he had filled his repose with thought, by gazing +at the Great Stone Face. And now as he read stanzas that caused the soul +to thrill within him, he lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming +on him so benignantly. + +"O majestic friend," he murmured, addressing the Great Stone Face, "is +not this man worthy to resemble thee?" + +The Face seemed to smile, but answered not a word. + +Now it happened that the poet, though he dwelt so far away, had not only +heard of Ernest, but had meditated much upon his character, until he +deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this man, whose untaught wisdom +walked hand in hand with the noble simplicity of his life. One summer +morning, therefore, he took passage by the railroad, and, in the decline +of the afternoon, alighted from the cars at no great distance from +Ernest's cottage. The great hotel, which had formerly been the palace of +Mr. Gathergold, was close at hand, but the poet, with his carpet-bag on +his arm, inquired at once where Ernest dwelt, and was resolved to be +accepted as his guest. + +Approaching the door, he there found the good old man, holding a volume +in his hand, which alternately he read, and then, with a finger between +the leaves, looked lovingly at the Great Stone Face. + +"Good evening," said the poet. "Can you give a traveller a night's +lodging?" + +"Willingly," answered Ernest; and then he added, smiling, "Methinks I +never saw the Great Stone Face look so hospitably at a stranger." + +The poet sat down on the bench beside him, and he and Ernest talked +together. Often had the poet held intercourse with the wittiest and the +wisest, but never before with a man like Ernest, whose thoughts and +feelings gushed up with such a natural freedom, and who made great +truths so familiar by his simple utterance of them. Angels, as had been +so often said, seemed to have wrought with him at his labor in the +fields; angels seemed to have sat with him by the fireside; and, +dwelling with angels as friend with friends, he had imbibed the +sublimity of their ideas, and imbued it with the sweet and lowly charm +of household words. So thought the poet. And Ernest, on the other hand, +was moved and agitated by the living images which the poet flung out of +his mind, and which peopled all the air about the cottage-door with +shapes of beauty, both gay and pensive. The sympathies of these two men +instructed them with a profounder sense than either could have attained +alone. Their minds accorded into one strain, and made delightful music +which neither of them could have claimed as all his own, nor +distinguished his own share from the other's. They led one another, as +it were, into a high pavilion of their thoughts, so remote, and hitherto +so dim, that they had never entered it before, and so beautiful that +they desired to be there always. + +As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone Face +was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly into the poet's +glowing eyes. + +"Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said. + +The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been reading. + +"You have read these poems," said he. "You know me, then,--for I wrote +them." + +Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the poet's +features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then back, with an +uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance fell; he shook his +head, and sighed. + +"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet. + +"Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the +fulfilment of a prophecy; and, when I read these poems, I hoped that it +might be fulfilled in you." + +"You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me the +likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed, as formerly +with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and Old Stony Phiz. Yes, +Ernest, it is my doom. You must add my name to the illustrious three, +and record another failure of your hopes. For--in shame and sadness do I +speak it, Ernest--I am not worthy to be typified by yonder benign and +majestic image." + +"And why?" asked Ernest. He pointed to the volume. "Are not those +thoughts divine?" + +"They have a strain of the Divinity," replied the poet. "You can hear in +them the far-off echo of a heavenly song. But my life, dear Ernest, has +not corresponded with my thought. I have had grand dreams, but they have +been only dreams, because I have lived--and that, too, by my own +choice--among poor and mean realities. Sometimes even--shall I dare to +say it?--I lack faith in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness, +which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in +human life. Why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou +hope to find me, in yonder image of the divine?" + +The poet spoke sadly, and his eyes were dim with tears. So, likewise, +were those of Ernest. + +At the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, Ernest was +to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open +air. He and the poet, arm in arm, still talking together as they went +along, proceeded to the spot. It was a small nook among the hills, with +a gray precipice behind, the stern front of which was relieved by the +pleasant foliage of many creeping plants, that made a tapestry for the +naked rock, by hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles. At a +small elevation above the ground, set in a rich framework of verdure, +there appeared a niche, spacious enough to admit a human figure, with +freedom for such gestures as spontaneously accompany earnest thought and +genuine emotion. Into this natural pulpit Ernest ascended, and threw a +look of familiar kindness around upon his audience. They stood, or sat, +or reclined upon the grass, as seemed good to each, with the departing +sunshine falling obliquely over them, and mingling its subdued +cheerfulness with the solemnity of a grove of ancient trees, beneath and +amid the boughs of which the golden rays were constrained to pass. In +another direction was seen the Great Stone Face, with the same cheer, +combined with the same solemnity, in its benignant aspect. + +Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and +mind. His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and +his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the +life which he had always lived. It was not mere breath that this +preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good +deeds and holy love was melted into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had +been dissolved into this precious draught. The poet, as he listened, +felt that the being and character of Ernest were a nobler strain of +poetry than he had ever written. His eyes glistening with tears, he +gazed reverentially at the venerable man, and said within himself that +never was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as that +mild, sweet, thoughtful countenance, with the glory of white hair +diffused about it. At a distance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in +the golden light of the setting sun, appeared the Great Stone Face, with +hoary mists around it, like the white hairs around the brow of Ernest. +Its look of grand beneficence seemed to embrace the world. + +At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, +the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so imbued with +benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms +aloft, and shouted,-- + +"Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone +Face!" + +Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said +was true. The prophecy was fulfilled. But Ernest, having finished what +he had to say, took the poet's arm, and walked slowly homeward, still +hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by +appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE. + + + + +VII. RAB AND HIS FRIENDS (1858)[*] + +[* From "Rab and his Friends and Other Dogs and Men."] + +BY DR. JOHN BROWN (1810-1882) + + +[_Setting_. Dr. Brown was once driving with a friend through a crowded +section of Edinburgh when he stopped in the middle of a sentence, +seeming to be surprised at something behind the carriage. "Is it some +one you know?" the friend asked. "No," was the reply, "it's a dog I +_don't_ know." Needless to say that "Rab and his Friends" is an +Edinburgh story. The time is about 1824-1830. In the Scotch dialect +"weel a weel" means "all right"; "till" means "to"; "I'se" means "I +shall"; "he's" means "he shall"; "ower clean to beil" means "too clean +to suppurate"; "fremyt" means "strange"; "a' the lave" means "all the +rest"; "in the treviss wi' the mear" means "in the stall with the mare." + +_Plot_. From Aesop's Fables to Kipling's Jungle Books literature is full +of animal stories. But there is no dog story better told than this and +none that appeals more to our deeper sympathies. It is more of a +character sketch than a short story, the incidents and characters being +bound together by a common relation to Rab. From his leisurely first +appearance in the story, "a huge mastiff, sauntering down the middle of +the causeway, as if with his hands in his pockets," to the unanswerable +last question--"His teeth and his friends gone, why should he keep the +peace, and be civil?"--we follow Rab's pathetic career with the growing +conviction that "his like was na atween this and Thornhill," however +distant Thornhill may have been. Character sketches are apt to be +uninteresting because there is usually too little action and too much +description. The adjectives tend to smother the verbs. "They have," said +Hawthorne of his "Twice-Told Tales," "the pale tint of flowers that +blossomed in too retired a shade,--the coolness of a meditative habit, +which diffuses itself through the feeling and observation of every +sketch." But no such charge can be laid at the door of "Rab and his +Friends." The very dumbness of Rab, his mute yearning to help, his brave +and loyal ministries in the hospital, doubly affecting because wordless +and impotent, lend an appeal to this sketch that few sketches of men and +women can be said to have. + +_Characters_. In a later sketch called "Our Dogs" Dr. Brown tells how +Rab became the property of James and Ailie. He had been terrifying +everybody at Macbie Hill and his owner ordered him to be hanged. As Rab +was getting the better of the contest, his owner commanded that he be +shot. But Ailie, who happened to be near, noticed that he had a big +splinter in his foreleg. "She gave him water," says Dr. Brown, "and by +her woman's wit got his lame paw under a door, so that he couldn't +suddenly get at her; then with a quick firm hand she plucked out the +splinter, and put in an ample meal. She went in some time after, taking +no notice of him, and he came limping up, and laid his great jaws in her +lap." From that moment they became friends. A little later James was in +a lonely part of the woods when a robber sprang at him and demanded his +money. "Weel a weel, let me get it," said James, and stepping back he +whispered to Rab, "Speak till him, my man." Rab had the robber down in +an instant. + +In "Rab and his Friends" the great mastiff shows just the qualities that +we should expect from this account of his earlier career. But his +sympathy and affection for Ailie, shown so tenderly in the hospital +scenes, find an added pathos in the thought that he was serving his +first and best friend, one who had healed his hurt as he would have +healed hers if he could.] + + + +Four-and-thirty years ago, Bob Ainslie and I were coming up Infirmary +Street from the Edinburgh High School, our heads together, and our arms +intertwisted, as only lovers and boys know how, or why. + +When we got to the top of the street, and turned north, we espied a +crowd at the Tron Church. "A dog-fight!" shouted Bob, and was off; and +so was I, both of us all but praying that it might not be over before we +got up! And is not this boy-nature? and human nature too? and don't we +all wish a house on fire not to be out before we see it? Dogs like +fighting; old Isaac says they "delight" in it, and for the best of all +reasons; and boys are not cruel because they like to see the fight. They +see three of the great cardinal virtues of dog or man--courage, +endurance, and skill--in intense action. This is very different from a +love of making dogs fight, and enjoying, and aggravating, and making +gain by their pluck. A boy,--be he ever so fond himself of fighting,--if +he be a good boy, hates and despises all this, but he would have run off +with Bob and me fast enough: it is a natural, and a not wicked interest, +that all boys and men have in witnessing intense energy in action. + +Does any curious and finely-ignorant woman wish to know how Bob's eye at +a glance announced a dog-fight to his brain? He did not, he could not +see the dogs fighting; it was a flash of an inference, a rapid +induction. The crowd round a couple of dogs fighting is a crowd +masculine mainly, with an occasional active, compassionate woman, +fluttering wildly round the outside, and using her tongue and her hands +freely upon the men, as so many "brutes"; it is a crowd annular, +compact, and mobile; a crowd centripetal, having its eyes and its heads +all bent downwards and inwards, to one common focus. + +Well, Bob and I are up, and find it is not over: a small thoroughbred, +white Bull Terrier, is busy throttling a large shepherd's dog, +unaccustomed to war, but not to be trifled with. They are hard at it; +the scientific little fellow doing his work in great style, his pastoral +enemy fighting wildly, but with the sharpest of teeth and a great +courage. Science and breeding, however, soon had their own; the Game +Chicken, as the premature Bob called him, working his way up, took his +final grip of poor Yarrow's throat,--and he lay gasping and done for. +His master, a brown, handsome, big young shepherd from Tweedsmuir, would +have liked to have knocked down any man, would "drink up Esil,[*] or eat +a crocodile," for that part, if he had a chance: it was no use kicking +the little dog; that would only make him hold the closer. Many were the +means shouted out in mouthfuls, of the best possible ways of ending it. +"Water!" but there was none near, and many cried for it who might have +got it from the well at Blackfriars Wynd. "Bite the tail!" and a large, +vague, benevolent, middle-aged man, more desirous than wise, with some +struggle got the bushy end of _Yarrow's_ tail into his ample mouth, and +bit it with all his might. This was more than enough for the +much-enduring, much-perspiring shepherd, who, with a gleam of joy over +his broad visage, delivered a terrific facer upon our large, vague, +benevolent, middle-aged friend,--who went down like a shot. + +[* Esil, "vinegar" (_Hamlet_, V, I, 299).] + +Still the Chicken holds; death not far off. "Snuff! a pinch of snuff!" +observed a calm, highly-dressed young buck, with an eye-glass in his +eye. "Snuff, indeed!" growled the angry crowd, affronted and glaring. +"Snuff! a pinch of snuff!" again observed the buck, but with more +urgency; whereon were produced several open boxes, and from a mull which +may have been at Culloden, he took a pinch, knelt down, and presented it +to the nose of the Chicken. The laws of physiology and of snuff take +their course; the Chicken sneezes, and Yarrow is free! + +The young pastoral giant stalks off with Yarrow in his arms,--comforting +him. + +But the Bull Terrier's blood is up, and his soul unsatisfied; he grips +the first dog he meets, and discovering she is not a dog, in Homeric +phrase, he makes a brief sort of _amende_, and is off. The boys, with +Bob and me at their head, are after him: down Niddry Street he goes, +bent on mischief; up the Cowgate like an arrow--Bob and I, and our small +men, panting behind. + +There, under the single arch of the South Bridge, is a huge mastiff, +sauntering down the middle of the causeway, as if with his hands in his +pockets: he is old, gray, brindled, as big as a little Highland bull, +and has the Shakesperian dewlaps shaking as he goes. + +The Chicken makes straight at him, and fastens on his throat. To our +astonishment, the great creature does nothing but stand still, hold +himself up, and roar--yes, roar; a long, serious, remonstrative roar. +How is this? Bob and I are up to them. _He is muzzled_! The bailies had +proclaimed a general muzzling, and his master, studying strength and +economy mainly, had encompassed his huge jaws in a home-made apparatus, +constructed out of the leather of some ancient _breechin_. His mouth was +open as far as it could; his lips curled up in rage--a sort of terrible +grin; his teeth gleaming, ready, from out the darkness; the strap across +his mouth tense as a bowstring; his whole frame stiff with indignation +and surprise; his roar asking us all round, "Did you ever see the like +of this?" He looked a statue of anger and astonishment, done in Aberdeen +granite. + +We soon had a crowd: the Chicken held on. "A knife!" cried Bob; and a +cobbler gave him his knife: you know the kind of knife, worn away +obliquely to a point, and always keen. I put its edge to the tense +leather; it ran before it; and then!--one sudden jerk of that enormous +head, a sort of dirty mist about his mouth, no noise,--and the bright +and fierce little fellow is dropped, limp, and dead. A solemn pause: +this was more than any of us had bargained for. I turned the little +fellow over, and saw he was quite dead; the mastiff had taken him by the +small of the back like a rat, and broken it. + +He looked down at his victim appeased, ashamed, and amazed; snuffed him +all over, stared at him, and taking a sudden thought, turned round and +trotted off. Bob took the dead dog up, and said, "John, we'll bury him +after tea." "Yes," said I, and was off after the mastiff. He made up the +Cowgate at a rapid swing; he had forgotten some engagement. He turned up +the Candlemaker Row, and stopped at the Harrow Inn. + +There was a carrier's cart ready to start, and a keen, thin, impatient, +black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse's head, looking +about angrily for something. "Rab, ye thief!" said he, aiming a kick at +my great friend, who drew cringing up, and avoiding the heavy shoe with +more agility than dignity, and watching his master's eye, slunk dismayed +under the cart,--his ears down, and as much as he had of tail down too. + +What a man this must be--thought I--to whom my tremendous hero turns +tail! The carrier saw the muzzle hanging, cut and useless, from his +neck, and I eagerly told him the story, which Bob and I always thought, +and still think, Homer, or King David, or Sir Walter alone were worthy +to rehearse. The severe little man was mitigated, and condescended to +say, "Rab, my man, puir Rabbie,"--whereupon the stump of a tail rose up, +the ears were cocked, the eyes filled, and were comforted; the two +friends were reconciled. "Hupp!" and a stroke of the whip were given to +Jess; and off went the three. + + * * * * * + +Bob and I buried the Game Chicken that night (we had not much of a tea) +in the back-green of his house in Melville Street, No. 17, with +considerable gravity and silence; and being at the time in the Iliad, +and, like all boys, Trojans, we called him Hector of course. + +Six years have passed,--a long time for a boy and a dog: Bob Ainslie is +off to the wars; I am a medical student, and clerk at Minto House +Hospital. + +Rab I saw almost every week, on the Wednesday, and we had much pleasant +intimacy. I found the way to his heart by frequent scratching of his +huge head, and an occasional bone. When I did not notice him he would +plant himself straight before me, and stand wagging that bud of a tail, +and looking up, with his head a little to the one side. His master I +occasionally saw; he used to call me "Maister John," but was laconic as +any Spartan. + +One fine October afternoon, I was leaving the hospital, when I saw the +large gate open, and in walked Rab, with that great and easy saunter of +his. He looked as if taking general possession of the place; like the +Duke of Wellington entering a subdued city, satiated with victory and +peace. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart; and in it +a woman, carefully wrapped up,--the carrier leading the horse anxiously, +and looking back. When he saw me, James (for his name was James Noble) +made a curt and grotesque "boo," and said, "Maister John, this is the +mistress; she's got a trouble in her breest--some kind o' an income +we're thinking." + +By this time I saw the woman's face; she was sitting on a sack filled +with straw, her husband's plaid round her, and his big-coat with its +large white metal buttons, over her feet. + +I never saw a more unforgettable face--pale, serious, _lonely_,[*] +delicate, sweet, without being at all what we call fine. She looked +sixty, and had on a mutch, white as snow, with its black ribbon; her +silvery, smooth hair setting off her dark-gray eyes--eyes such as one +sees only twice or thrice in a lifetime, full of suffering, full also of +the overcoming of it: her eyebrows black and delicate, and her mouth +firm, patient, and contented, which few mouths ever are. + +[* It is not easy giving this look by one word; it was expressive of her +being so much of her life alone.] + +As I have said, I never saw a more beautiful countenance, or one more +subdued to settled quiet. "Ailie," said James, "this is Maister John, +the young doctor; Rab's freend, ye ken. We often speak aboot you, +doctor." She smiled, and made a movement, but said nothing; and prepared +to come down, putting her plaid aside and rising. Had Solomon, in all +his glory, been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace gate he +could not have done it more daintily, more tenderly, more like a +gentleman, than did James the Howgate carrier, when he lifted down Ailie +his wife. The contrast of his small, swarthy, weather-beaten, keen, +worldly face to hers--pale, subdued, and beautiful--was something +wonderful. Rab looked on concerned and puzzled, but ready for anything +that might turn up,--were it to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even +me. Ailie and he seemed great friends. + +"As I was sayin' she's got a kind o' trouble in her breest, doctor; wull +ye tak' a look at it?" We walked into the consulting-room, all four; Rab +grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential if cause could be +shown, willing also to be the reverse, on the same terms. Ailie sat +down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her neck, and +without a word, showed me her right breast. I looked at and examined it +carefully,--she and James watching me, and Rab eying all three. What +could I say? there it was, that had once been so soft, so shapely, so +white, so gracious and bountiful, so "full of all blessed +conditions,"--hard as a stone, a centre of horrid pain, making that pale +face, with its gray, lucid, reasonable eyes, and its sweet resolved +mouth, express the full measure of suffering overcome. Why was that +gentle, modest, sweet woman, clean and lovable, condemned by God to bear +such a burden? + +I got her away to bed. "May Rab and me bide?" said James. "_You_ may; +and Rab, if he will behave himself." "I'se warrant he's do that, +doctor;" and in slank the faithful beast. I wish you could have seen +him. There are no such dogs now. He belonged to a lost tribe. As I have +said, he was brindled and gray like Rubislaw granite; his hair short, +hard, and close, like a lion's; his body thick set, like a little +bull--a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. He must have been ninety +pounds' weight, at the least; he had a large blunt head; his muzzle +black as night, his mouth blacker than any night, a tooth or two--being +all he had--gleaming out of his jaws of darkness. His head was scarred +with the records of old wounds, a sort of series of fields of battle all +over it; one eye out, one ear cropped as close as was Archbishop +Leighton's father's; the remaining eye had the power of two; and above +it, and in constant communication with it, was a tattered rag of an ear, +which was forever unfurling itself, like an old flag; and then that bud +of a tail, about one inch long, if it could in any sense be said to be +long, being as broad as long--the mobility, the instantaneousness of +that bud were very funny and surprising, and its expressive twinklings +and winkings, the intercommunications between the eye, the ear, and it, +were of the oddest and swiftest. + +Rab had the dignity and simplicity of great size; and having fought his +way all along the road to absolute supremacy, he was as mighty in his +own line as Julius Cæsar or the Duke of Wellington, and had the +gravity[*] of all great fighters. + +[* A Highland game-keeper, when asked why a certain terrier, of singular +pluck, was so much more solemn than the other dogs, said, "Oh, Sir, +life's full o' sairiousness to him--he just never can get enuff o' +fechtin'."] + +You must have often observed the likeness of certain men to certain +animals, and of certain dogs to men. Now, I never looked at Rab without +thinking of the great Baptist preacher, Andrew Fuller.[*] The same +large, heavy, menacing, combative, sombre, honest countenance, the same +deep inevitable eye, the same look,--as of thunder asleep, but +ready,--neither a dog nor a man to be trifled with. + +[* Fuller was, in early life, when a farmer lad at Soham, famous as a +boxer; not quarrelsome, but not without "the stern delight" a man of +strength and courage feels in their exercise. Dr. Charles Stewart, of +Dunearn, whose rare gifts and graces as a physician, a divine, a +scholar, and a gentleman, live only in the memory of those few who knew +and survive him, liked to tell how Mr. Fuller used to say, that when he +was in the pulpit, and saw a _buirdly_ man come along the passage, he +would instinctively draw himself up, measure his imaginary antagonist, +and forecast how he would deal with him, his hands meanwhile condensing +into fists, and tending to "square." He must have been a hard hitter if +he boxed as he preached--what "The Fancy" would call "an ugly +customer."] + +Next day, my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. There was no doubt it +must kill her, and soon. It could be removed--it might never return--it +would give her speedy relief--she should have it done. She curtsied, +looked at James, and said, "When?" "To-morrow," said the kind surgeon--a +man of few words. She and James and Rab and I retired. I noticed that he +and she spoke little, but seemed to anticipate everything in each other. +The following day, at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the great +stair. At the first landing-place, on a small well-known blackboard, was +a bit of paper fastened by wafers and many remains of old wafers beside +it. On the paper were the words,--"An operation to-day. J.B. _Clerk_." + +Up ran the youths, eager to secure good places; in they crowded, full of +interest and talk. "What's the case?" "Which side is it?" + +Don't think them heartless; they are neither better nor worse than you +or I; they get over their professional horrors, and into their proper +work--and in them pity--as an _emotion_, ending in itself or at best in +tears and a long-drawn breath--lessens, while pity as a _motive_ is +quickened, and gains power and purpose. It is well for poor human nature +that it is so. + +The operating theatre is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the +cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants +is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager +students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down, +and are dumb, and gaze at her. These rough boys feel the power of her +presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her mutch, +her neckerchief, her white dimity short-gown, her black bombazine +petticoat, showing her white worsted stockings and her carpet-shoes. +Behind her was James with Rab. James sat down in the distance, and took +that huge and noble head between his knees. Rab looked perplexed and +dangerous; forever cocking his ear and dropping it as fast. + +Ailie stepped up on a seat, and laid herself on the table, as her friend +the surgeon told her; arranged herself, gave a rapid look at James, shut +her eyes, rested herself on me, and took my hand. The operation was at +once begun; it was necessarily slow; and chloroform--one of God's best +gifts to his suffering children--was then unknown. The surgeon did his +work. The pale face showed its pain, but was still and silent. Rab's +soul was working within him; he saw that something strange was going +on,--blood flowing from his mistress, and she suffering; his ragged ear +was up, and importunate; he growled and gave now and then a sharp +impatient yelp; he would have liked to have done something to that man. +But James had him firm, and gave him a _glower_ from time to time, and +an intimation of a possible kick;--all the better for James, it kept his +eye and his mind off Ailie. + +It is over: she is dressed, steps gently and decently down from the +table, looks for James; then, turning to the surgeon and the students, +she curtsies,--and in a low, clear voice, begs their pardon if she has +behaved ill. The students--all of us--wept like children; the surgeon +happed her up carefully,--and, resting on James and me, Ailie went to +her room, Rab following. We put her to bed. James took off his heavy +shoes, crammed with tackets, heel-capt, and toe-capt and put them +carefully under the table, saying, "Maister John, I'm for nane o' yer +strynge nurse bodies for Ailie. I'll be her nurse, and I'll gang aboot +on my stockin' soles as canny as pussy." And so he did; and handy and +clever, and swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed, snell, +peremptory little man. Everything she got he gave her: he seldom slept; +and often I saw his small shrewd eyes out of the darkness, fixed on her. +As before, they spoke little. + +Rab behaved well, never moving, showing us how meek and gentle he could +be, and occasionally, in his sleep, letting us know that he was +demolishing some adversary. He took a walk with me every day, generally +to the Candlemaker Row; but he was sombre and mild; declined doing +battle, though some fit cases offered, and indeed submitted to sundry +indignities; and was always very ready to turn, and came faster back, +and trotted up the stair with much lightness, and went straight to that +door. + +Jess, the mare, had been sent, with her weather-worn cart, to Howgate, +and had doubtless her own dim and placid meditations and confusions, on +the absence of her master and Rab, and her unnatural freedom from the +road and her cart. + +For some days Ailie did well. The wound healed "by the first intention;" +for as James said, "Our Ailie's skin's ower clean to beil." The students +came in quiet and anxious, and surrounded her bed. She said she liked to +see their young, honest faces. The surgeon dressed her, and spoke to her +in his own short kind way, pitying her through his eyes, Rab and James +outside the circle,--Rab being now reconciled, and even cordial, and +having made up his mind that as yet nobody required worrying, but, as +you may suppose, _semper paratus_. + +So far well: but, four days after the operation, my patient had a sudden +and long shivering, a "groosin'," as she called it. I saw her soon +after; her eyes were too bright, her cheek colored; she was restless, +and ashamed of being so; the balance was lost; mischief had begun. On +looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret: her pulse was +rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn't herself, as she said, +and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could; James did +everything, was everywhere; never in the way, never out of it; Rab +subsided under the table into a dark place, and was motionless, all but +his eye, which followed every one. Ailie got worse; began to wander in +her mind, gently; was more demonstrative in her ways to James, rapid in +her questions, and sharp at times. He was vexed, and said, "She was +never that way afore; no, never." For a time she knew her head was +wrong, and was always asking our pardon--the dear, gentle old woman: +then delirium set in strong, without pause. Her brain gave way, and then +came that terrible spectacle,-- + + The intellectual power, through words and things, + Went sounding on its dim and perilous way, + +she sang bits of old songs and Psalms, stopping suddenly, mingling the +Psalms of David and the diviner words of his Son and Lord, with homely +odds and ends and scraps of ballads. + +Nothing more touching, or in a sense more strangely beautiful, did I +ever witness. Her tremulous, rapid, affectionate, eager, Scotch +voice,--the swift, aimless, bewildered mind, the baffled utterance, the +bright and perilous eye; some wild words, some household cares, +something for James, the names of the dead, Rab called rapidly and in a +"fremyt" voice, and he starting up surprised, and slinking off as if he +were to blame somehow, or had been dreaming he heard; many eager +questions and beseechings which James and I could make nothing of, and +on which she seemed to set her all, and then sink back ununderstood. It +was very sad, but better than many things that are not called sad. James +hovered about, put out and miserable, but active and exact as ever; read +to her, when there was a lull, short bits from the Psalms, prose and +metre, chanting the latter in his own rude and serious way, showing +great knowledge of the fit words, bearing up like a man, and doating +over her as his "ain Ailie." "Ailie, ma woman!" "Ma ain bonnie wee +dawtie!" + +The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord +was fast being loosed--that _animula blandula, vagula, hospes, +comesque_[*] was about to flee. The body and the soul--companions for +sixty years--were being sundered, and taking leave. She was walking +alone, through the valley of that shadow, into which one day we must all +enter,--and yet she was not alone, for we know whose rod and staff were +comforting her. + +[* "Little, gentle, wandering soul, guest and comrade."--Hadrian's +"Address to his Soul"] + +One night she had fallen quiet, and as we hoped, asleep; her eyes were +shut. We put down the gas, and sat watching her. Suddenly she sat up in +bed, and taking a bed-gown which was lying on it rolled up, she held it +eagerly to her breast,--to the right side. We could see her eyes bright +with a surprising tenderness and joy, bending over this bundle of +clothes. She held it as a woman holds her sucking child; opening out her +night-gown impatiently, and holding it close, and brooding over it, and +murmuring foolish little words, as over one whom his mother comforteth, +and who sucks and is satisfied. It was pitiful and strange to see her +wasted dying look, keen and yet vague--her immense love. + +"Preserve me!" groaned James, giving way. And then she rocked back and +forward, as if to make it sleep, hushing it, and wasting on it her +infinite fondness. "Wae's me, doctor; I declare she's thinkin' it's that +bairn." "What bairn?" "The only bairn we ever had; our wee Mysie, and +she's in the Kingdom, forty years and mair." It was plainly true: the +pain in the breast, telling its urgent story to a bewildered, ruined +brain, was misread and mistaken; it suggested to her the uneasiness of a +breast full of milk, and then the child; and so again once more they +were together, and she had her ain wee Mysie in her bosom. + +This was the close. She sank rapidly: the delirium left her; but, as she +whispered, she was "clean silly;" it was the lightening before the final +darkness. After having for some time lain still--her eyes shut, she said +"James!" He came close to her, and lifting up her calm, clear, beautiful +eyes, she gave him a long look, turned to me kindly but shortly, looked +for Rab but could not see him, then turned to her husband again, as if +she would never leave off looking, shut her eyes, and composed herself. +She lay for some time breathing quick, and passed away so gently that, +when we thought she was gone, James, in his old-fashioned way, held the +mirror to her face. After a long pause, one small spot of dimness was +breathed out; it vanished away, and never returned, leaving the blank +clear darkness of the mirror without a stain. "What is our life? it is +even a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth +away." + +Rab all this time had been full awake and motionless; he came forward +beside us: Ailie's hand, which James had held, was hanging down; it was +soaked with his tears; Rab licked it all over carefully, looked at her, +and returned to his place under the table. + +James and I sat, I don't know how long, but for some time,--saying +nothing: he started up abruptly, and with some noise went to the table, +and putting his right fore and middle fingers each into a shoe, pulled +them out, and put them on, breaking one of the leather latchets, and +muttering in anger, "I never did the like o' that afore!" + +I believe he never did; nor after either. "Rab!" he said roughly, and +pointing with his thumb to the bottom of the bed. Rab leapt up, and +settled himself; his head and eye to the dead face. "Maister John, ye'll +wait for me," said the carrier; and disappeared in the darkness, +thundering down-stairs in his heavy shoes. I ran to a front window; +there he was, already round the house, and out at the gate, fleeing like +a shadow. + +I was afraid about him, and yet not afraid; so I sat down beside Rab, +and being wearied, fell asleep. I awoke from a sudden noise outside. It +was November, and there had been a heavy fall of snow. Rab was _in statu +quo_; he heard the noise too, and plainly knew it, but never moved. I +looked out; and there, at the gate, in the dim morning--for the sun was +not up--was Jess and the cart,--a cloud of steam rising from the old +mare. I did not see James; he was already at the door, and came up the +stairs, and met me. It was less than three hours since he left, and he +must have posted out--who knows how?--to Howgate, full nine miles off; +yoked Jess, and driven her astonished into town. He had an armful of +blankets, and was streaming with perspiration. He nodded to me, spread +out on the floor two pairs of clean old blankets having at their +corners, "A.G., 1794," in large letters in red worsted. These were the +initials of Alison Græme, and James may have looked in at her from +without--himself unseen but not unthought of--when he was "wat, wat, and +weary," and after having walked many a mile over the hills, may have +seen her sitting, while "a' the lave were sleepin':" and by the +firelight working her name on the blankets, for her ain James's bed. + +He motioned Rab down, and taking his wife in his arms, laid her in the +blankets, and happed her carefully and firmly up, leaving the face +uncovered; and then lifting her, he nodded again sharply to me, and with +a resolved but utterly miserable face, strode along the passage, and +down-stairs, followed by Rab. I followed with a light; but he didn't +need it. I went out, holding stupidly the candle in my hand in the calm +frosty air; we were soon at the gate. I could have helped him, but I saw +he was not to be meddled with, and he was strong, and did not need it. +He laid her down as tenderly, as safely, as he had lifted her out ten +days before--as tenderly as when he had her first in his arms when she +was only "A.G.,"--sorted her, leaving that beautiful sealed face open to +the heavens; and then taking Jess by the head, he moved away. He did not +notice me, neither did Rab, who presided behind the cart. + +I stood till they passed through the long shadow of the College, and +turned up Nicolson Street. I heard the solitary cart sound through the +streets, and die away and come again; and I returned, thinking of that +company going up Libberton Brae, then along Roslin Muir, the morning +light touching the Pentlands and making them like on-looking ghosts, +then down the hill through Auchindinny woods, past "haunted +Woodhouselee;" and as daybreak came sweeping up the bleak Lammermuirs, +and fell on his own door, the company would stop, and James would take +the key, and lift Ailie up again, laying her on her own bed, and, having +put Jess up, would return with Rab and shut the door. + +James buried his wife, with his neighbors mourning, Rab inspecting the +solemnity from a distance. It was snow, and that black ragged hole would +look strange in the midst of the swelling spotless cushion of white. +James looked after everything; then rather suddenly fell ill, and took +to bed; was insensible when the doctor came, and soon died. A sort of +low fever was prevailing in the village, and his want of sleep, his +exhaustion, and his misery made him apt to take it. The grave was not +difficult to reopen. A fresh fall of snow had again made all things +white and smooth; Rab once more looked on, and slunk home to the stable. + + * * * * * + +And what of Rab? I asked for him next week of the new carrier who got +the goodwill of James's business, and was now master of Jess and her +cart. "How's Rab?" He put me off, and said rather rudely, "What's _your_ +business wi' the dowg?" I was not to be so put off. "Where's Rab?" He, +getting confused and red, and intermeddling with his hair, said, "Deed, +sir, Rab's deid." "Dead! what did he die of?" "Weel, sir," said he, +getting redder, "he did na exactly dee; he was killed. I had to brain +him wi' a rack-pin; there was nae doin' wi' him. He lay in the treviss +wi' the mear, and wad na come oot. I tempit him wi' kail and meat, but +he wad tak naething, and keepit me frae feedin' the beast, and he was +aye gur gurrin', and grup gruppin' me by the legs. I was laith to make +awa wi' the auld dowg, his like was na atween this and Thornhill,--but, +'deed, sir, I could do naething else." I believed him. Fit end for Rab, +quick and complete. His teeth and his friends gone, why should he keep +the peace, and be civil? + + + + +VIII. THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT[*] (1869) + +[* Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton +Mifflin Company, publishers of Bret Harte's Works.] + +BY BRET HARTE (1836-1902) + + +[_Setting_. The group tragedy enacted in this story took place between +November 23 and December 7, 1850, on the road from Poker Flat to Sandy +Bar, in Sierra County, California. The time and place are those that +Bret Harte has made peculiarly his own. The austerity and wildness of +the scenery seem somehow to favor the intimate revelation of character +that the story displays. There is no intervention of cities, crops, +fashions, or conventions between the different members of the character +group or between the group as a whole and the reader. All is bare like a +white mountain peak. Notice also how the background of a common peril +draws the characters together and brings out at last the best in each. + +_Plot_. The story sets forth and interprets a dramatic situation. The +plot is staged so as to answer the question, "Do not the people whom +society regards as outcasts have yet some redeeming virtue?" Notice +especially how a sense of common fellowship is developed in these +outcasts. First, they are subjected to a common humiliation in being +driven from Poker Flat by persons whom the outcasts consider no whit +better than themselves. Next, they are exposed to a common danger, a +danger that leads the stronger to care instinctively for the weaker, and +the weaker to recognize that it is nobler to give than to receive. At +last, in the unexpected entrance of the innocent Tom Simson and the +guileless Piney Woods, the outcasts find a common challenge to the +native goodness that had long lain dormant within them. Innocence and +guilelessness may be laughed at, as they are here, but their appeal is +often stronger than the appeal of disciplined virtue or of +self-conscious superiority. When Bret Harte was charged with confusing +the boundary lines of vice and virtue he replied that his plots +"conformed to the rules laid down by a Great Poet who created the +parable of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan." + +_Characters_. Oakhurst, who is always called "Mr." Oakhurst, is of +course the dominant character. The story begins with him and ends with +him. He is "the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker +Flat,"--strong while there was anything to be done, weak even to suicide +when he had only to wait for the inevitable end. He was a brave, +desperate, solitary man, whose thought and speech and action, however, +were always those of the professional gambler. Bret Harte, who has put +him into several stories, says of him in another place: "Go where he +would and with whom, he was always a notable man in ten thousand." The +admiration that we yield to such a man, though it is only a qualified +admiration, is doubtless the admiration of power which, we cannot help +thinking, might be used beneficently if it could only be harnessed to a +noble cause. + +But if Oakhurst is the dominant character, Piney Woods is, I think, the +central character. She is central in this story just as little Aglaïa is +central in Tennyson's "Princess," or Eppie in George Eliot's "Silas +Marner," or the baby offspring of Cherokee Sal in "The Luck of Roaring +Camp." Bret Harte had just written the last-named story when he began +the composition of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." The same great theme, +the radiating and redeeming power of innocence and purity, was carried +over from the first story to the second. The ministry of the baby and +the ministry of the fifteen-year-old bride is the same in both. Like the +Great Stone Face in Hawthorne's story or like little Pippa in Browning's +poem, they awaken the better nature of those about them. They restore +hopes that had become but memories and memories that had almost ceased +to be hopes.] + + + +As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker +Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was +conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. +Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he +approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull +in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked +ominous. + +Mr. Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these +indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause, was +another question. "I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected; +"likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which +he had been whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat +boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture. + +In point of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately +suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and +a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, +quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked +it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper +persons. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were then +hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in +the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to +say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, +to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in +such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to +sit in judgment. + +Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this +category. A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible +example, and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of +the sums he had won from them. "It's agin justice," said Jim Wheeler, +"to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp--an entire stranger--carry +away our money." But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts +of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst +overruled this narrower local prejudice. + +Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the +less coolly that he was aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was +too much of a gambler not to accept Fate. With him life was at best an +uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the +dealer. + +A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to +the outskirts of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to +be a coolly desperate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort +was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman +familiarly known as "The Duchess"; another, who had won the title of +"Mother Shipton"; and "Uncle Billy," a suspected sluice-robber and +confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from the +spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch +which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader +spoke briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at +the peril of their lives. + +As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few +hysterical tears from the Duchess, some bad language from Mother +Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy. The +philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother +Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements +of the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths +that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the +easy good-humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchanging +his own riding-horse, "Five Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess +rode. But even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. +The young woman readjusted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, +faded coquetry; Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with +malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping +anathema. + +The road to Sandy Bar--a camp that, not having as yet experienced the +regenerating influences of Poker Flat, consequently seemed to offer some +invitation to the emigrants--lay over a steep mountain range. It was +distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced season, the party soon +passed out of the moist, temperate regions of the foot-hills into the +dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras. The trail was narrow and +difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the +ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party +halted. + +The spot was singularly wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheatre, +surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped +gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley. +It was, undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been +advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy +Bar was accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for +delay. This fact he pointed out to his companions curtly, with a +philosophic commentary on the folly of "throwing up their hand before +the game was played out." But they were furnished with liquor, which in +this emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience. +In spite of his remonstrances, it was not long before they were more or +less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose +state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton +snored. Mr. Oakhurst alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, +calmly surveying them. + +Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with a profession which +required coolness, impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his own +language, he "couldn't afford it." As he gazed at his recumbent +fellow-exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah-trade, his habits +of life, his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. He +bestirred himself in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and +face, and other acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and +for a moment forgot his annoyance. The thought of deserting his weaker +and more pitiable companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could +not help feeling the want of that excitement which, singularly enough, +was most conducive to that calm equanimity for which he was notorious. +He looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the +circling pines around him; at the sky, ominously clouded; at the valley +below, already deepening into shadow. And, doing so, suddenly he heard +his own name called. + +A horseman slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the +new-comer Mr. Oakhurst recognized Tom Simson, otherwise known as "The +Innocent" of Sandy Bar. He had met him some months before over a "little +game," and had, with perfect equanimity, won the entire +fortune--amounting to some forty dollars--of that guileless youth. After +the game was finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew the youthful speculator behind +the door and thus addressed him: "Tommy, you're a good little man, but +you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again." He then handed +him his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a +devoted slave of Tom Simson. + +There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting +of Mr. Oakhurst. He had started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek +his fortune. "Alone?" No, not exactly alone; in fact (a giggle), he had +run away with Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? She that +used to wait on the table at the Temperance House? They had been engaged +a long time, but old Jake Woods had objected, and so they had run away, +and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and here they were. And they +were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp and +company. All this the Innocent delivered rapidly, while Piney, a stout, +comely damsel of fifteen, emerged from behind the pine-tree, where she +had been blushing unseen, and rode to the side of her lover. + +Mr. Oakhurst seldom troubled himself with sentiment, still less with +propriety; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not fortunate. +He retained, however, his presence of mind sufficiently to kick Uncle +Billy, who was about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough +to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear +trifling. He then endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying +further, but in vain. He even pointed out the fact that there was no +provision, nor means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met +this objection by assuring the party that he was provided with an extra +mule loaded with provisions, and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a +log-house near the trail. "Piney can stay with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the +Innocent, pointing to the Duchess, "and I can shift for myself." + +Nothing but Mr. Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved Uncle Billy from +bursting into a roar of laughter. As it was, he felt compelled to retire +up the cañon until he could recover his gravity. There he confided the +joke to the tall pine-trees, with many slaps of his leg, contortions of +his face, and the usual profanity. But when he returned to the party, he +found them seated by a fire--for the air had grown strangely chill and +the sky overcast--in apparently amicable conversation. Piney was +actually talking in an impulsive, girlish fashion to the Duchess, who +was listening with an interest and animation she had not shown for many +days. The Innocent was holding forth, apparently with equal effect, to +Mr. Oakhurst and Mother Shipton, who was actually relaxing into +amiability. "Is this yer a d----d picnic?" said Uncle Billy, with inward +scorn, as he surveyed the sylvan group, the glancing firelight, and the +tethered animals in the foreground. Suddenly an idea mingled with the +alcoholic fumes that disturbed his brain. It was apparently of a jocular +nature, for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and cram his fist +into his mouth. + +As the shadows crept slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the +tops of the pine-trees, and moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. +The ruined cabin, patched and covered with pine-boughs, was set apart +for the ladies. As the lovers parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a +kiss, so honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the +swaying pines. The frail Duchess and the malevolent Mother Shipton were +probably too stunned to remark upon this last evidence of simplicity, +and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was replenished, the +men lay down before the door, and in a few minutes were asleep. + +Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed and +cold. As he stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now blowing +strongly, brought to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave +it,--snow! + +He started to his feet with the intention of awakening the sleepers, for +there was no time to lose. But turning to where Uncle Billy had been +lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to his brain and a curse to +his lips. He ran to the spot where the mules had been tethered; they +were no longer there. The tracks were already rapidly disappearing in +the snow. + +The momentary excitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the fire with his +usual calm. He did not waken the sleepers. The Innocent slumbered +peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face; the virgin +Piney slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by +celestial guardians, and Mr. Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his +shoulders, stroked his mustaches and waited for the dawn. It came slowly +in a whirling mist of snow-flakes, that dazzled and confused the eye. +What could be seen of the landscape appeared magically changed. He +looked over the valley, and summoned up the present and future in two +words,--"snowed in!" + +A careful inventory of the provisions, which, fortunately for the party, +had been stored within the hut, and so escaped the felonious fingers of +Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and prudence they might +last ten days longer. "That is," said Mr. Oakhurst, _sotto voce_ to the +Innocent, "if you're willing to board us. If you ain't--and perhaps +you'd better not--you can wait till Uncle Billy gets back with +provisions." For some occult reason, Mr. Oakhurst could not bring +himself to disclose Uncle Billy's rascality, and so offered the +hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp and had accidentally +stampeded the animals. He dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother +Shipton, who of course knew the facts of their associate's defection. +"They'll find out the truth about us _all_ when they find out anything," +he added, significantly, "and there's no good frightening them now." + +Tom Simson not only put all his worldly store at the disposal of Mr. +Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion. +"We'll have a good camp for a week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll +all go back together." The cheerful gayety of the young man, and Mr. +Oakhurst's calm infected the others. The Innocent, with the aid of +pine-boughs, extemporized a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the +Duchess directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior with a taste +and tact that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their +fullest extent. "I reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," +said Piney. The Duchess turned away sharply to conceal something that +reddened her cheeks through its professional tint, and Mother Shipton +requested Piney not to "chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a +weary search for the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed +from the rocks. He stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first +naturally reverted to the whiskey, which he had prudently _cachéd_. "And +yet it don't somehow sound like whiskey," said the gambler. It was not +until he caught sight of the blazing fire through the still blinding +storm and the group around it that he settled to the conviction that it +was "square fun." + +Whether Mr. Oakhurst had _cachéd_ his cards with the whiskey as +something debarred the free access of the community, I cannot say. It +was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, he "didn't say cards once" +during that evening. Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, +produced somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. +Notwithstanding some difficulties attending the manipulation of his +instrument, Piney Woods managed to pluck several reluctant melodies from +its keys, to an accompaniment by the Innocent on a pair of bone +castanets. But the crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a +rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers, joining hands, sang with great +earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a certain defiant tone and +Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, +caused it speedily to infect the others, who at last joined in the +refrain:-- + +"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, +And I'm bound to die in His army." + +The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled above the miserable +group, and the flames of their altar leaped heavenward, as if in token +of the vow. + +At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted, and the stars +glittered keenly above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose +professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible +amount of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson, somehow managed +to take upon himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself +to the Innocent, by saying that he had "often been a week without +sleep." "Doing what?" asked Tom. "Poker!" replied Oakhurst, +sententiously; "when a man gets a streak of luck,--nigger-luck,--he +don't get tired. The luck gives in first. Luck," continued the gambler, +reflectively, "is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for +certain is that it's bound to change. And it's finding out when it's +going to change that makes you. We've had a streak of bad luck since we +left Poker Flat,--you come along, and slap you get into it, too. If you +can hold your cards right along, you're all right. For," added the +gambler, with cheerful irrelevance,-- + +"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, +And I'm bound to die in His army." + +The third day came, and the sun, looking through the white-curtained +valley, saw the outcasts divide their slowly decreasing store of +provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the peculiarities of that +mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry +landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. But it revealed +drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut,--a hopeless, +uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which +the castaways still clung. Through the marvellously clear air the smoke +of the pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton +saw it, and from a remote pinnacle of her rocky fastness, hurled in that +direction a final malediction. It was her last vituperative attempt, and +perhaps for that reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. +It did her good, she privately informed the Duchess. "Just you go out +there and cuss, and see." She then set herself to the task of amusing +"the child," as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney +was no chicken, but it was a soothing and original theory of the pair +thus to account for the fact that she didn't swear and wasn't improper. + +When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the +accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the +flickering camp-fire. But music failed to fill entirely the aching void +left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by +Piney,--story-telling. Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female companions +caring to relate their personal experiences, this plan would have +failed, too, but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced +upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He +now proposed to narrate the principal incidents of that poem--having +thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words--in the +current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that night the +Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek +wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the cañon seemed to bow to +the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet +satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of +"Ash-heels," as the Innocent persisted in denominating the "swift-footed +Achilles." + +So with small food and much of Homer and the accordion, a week passed +over the heads of the outcasts. The sun again forsook them, and again +from leaden skies the snow-flakes were sifted over the land. Day by day +closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at last they looked from +their prison over drifted walls of dazzling white, that towered twenty +feet above their heads. It became more and more difficult to replenish +their fires, even from the fallen trees beside them, now half hidden in +the drifts. And yet no one complained. The lovers turned from the dreary +prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr. Oakhurst +settled himself coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess, more +cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother +Shipton--once the strongest of the party--seemed to sicken and fade. At +midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I'm going," +she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, "but don't say anything +about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head and +open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for +the last week, untouched. "Give 'em to the child," she said, pointing to +the sleeping Piney. "You've starved yourself," said the gambler. "That's +what they call it," said the woman, querulously, as she lay down again, +and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away. + +The accordion and the bones were put aside that day, and Homer was +forgotten. When the body of Mother Shipton had been committed to the +snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed him a pair of +snow-shoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack-saddle. "There's +one chance in a hundred to save her yet," he said, pointing to Piney; +"but it's there," he added, pointing towards Poker Flat. "If you can +reach there in two days she's safe." "And you?" asked Tom Simson. "I'll +stay here," was the curt reply. + +The lovers parted with a long embrace. "You are not going, too?" said +the Duchess, as she saw Mr. Oakhurst apparently waiting to accompany +him. "As far as the cañon," he replied. He turned suddenly, and kissed +the Duchess, leaving her pallid face aflame, and her trembling lips +rigid with amazement. + +Night came, but not Mr. Oakhurst. It brought the storm again and the +whirling snow. Then the Duchess, feeding the fire, found that some one +had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last a few days longer. +The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney. + +The women slept but little. In the morning, looking into each other's +faces, they read their fate. Neither spoke; but Piney, accepting the +position of the stronger, drew near and placed her arm around the +Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the rest of the day. That +night the storm reached its greatest fury, and, rending asunder the +protecting pines, invaded the very hut. + +Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which +gradually died away. As the embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept +closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours: "Piney, can you +pray?" "No, dear," said Piney, simply. The Duchess, without knowing +exactly why, felt relieved, and, putting her head upon Piney's shoulder, +spoke no more. And so reclining, the younger and purer pillowing the +head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast, they fell asleep. + +The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, +shaken from the long pine-boughs, flew like white-winged birds, and +settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds +looked down upon what had been the camp. But all human stain, all trace +of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully +flung from above. + +They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and +footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when pitying fingers +brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told from +the equal peace that dwelt upon them, which was she that had sinned. +Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving +them still locked in each other's arms. + +But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine-trees, they +found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore +the following, written in pencil, in a firm hand:-- + + +BENEATH THIS TREE +LIES THE BODY +OF +JOHN OAKHURST, +WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK +ON THE 23D OF NOVEMBER, 1850, +AND +HANDED IN HIS CHECKS +ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850. + + +And pulseless and cold, with a derringer by his side and a bullet in his +heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at +once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat. + + + + +IX. MARKHEIM[*] (1884) + +[* From "The Merry Men." Used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, +authorized American publishers of Stevenson's Works.] + +BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894) + + +[_Setting_. There is no finer model for the study of setting than this +story affords. It is three o'clock in the afternoon of a foggy Christmas +Day in London. If Markheim's manner and the dimly lighted interior of +the antique shop suggest murder, the garrulous clocks, the nodding +shadows, and the reflecting mirrors seem almost to compel confession and +surrender. "And still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind +accused him, with a sickening iteration, of the thousand faults of his +design. He should have chosen a more quiet hour." So he should for the +murder; but for the self-confession, which is Stevenson's ultimate +design, no time or place could have been better. + +_Plot_. There is little action in the plot. A man commits a dastardly +murder and then, being alone and undetected, begins to think, think, +think. It is the turning point in his life and he knows it. Instead of +seizing the treasure and escaping, he submits his past career to a rigid +scrutiny and review. This brooding over his past life and present +outlook becomes so absorbing that what bade fair to be a soliloquy +becomes a dialogue, a dialogue between the old self that committed the +murder and the new self that begins to revolt at it. The old self bids +him follow the line of least resistance and go on as he has begun; the +newly awakened self bids him stop at once, check the momentum of other +days, take this last chance, and be a man. His better nature wins. +Markheim finds that though his deeds have been uniformly evil, he can +still "conceive great deeds, renunciations, martyrdoms." Though the +active love of good seems too weak to be reckoned as an asset, he still +has a "hatred of evil"; and on this twin foundation, ability to think +great thoughts and to hate evil deeds, he builds at last his culminating +resolve. + +The story is powerfully and yet subtly told. It sweeps the whole gamut +of the moral law. Many stories develop the same theme but none just like +this. Stevenson himself is drawn again to the same problem a little +later in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Hawthorne tried it in "Howe's +Masquerade," in which the cloaked figure is the phantom or reduplication +of Howe himself. In Poe's "William Wilson," to which Stevenson is +plainly indebted, the evil nature triumphs over the good. But +"Markheim," by touching more chords and by sounding lower depths, makes +the triumph at the end seem like a permanent victory for universal human +nature. + +_Characters_. If the story is the study of a given situation, Markheim, +who is another type of the developing character, is the central factor +in the situation. We see and interpret the situation only through the +personality of Markheim himself. Another murderer might have acted +differently, even with those clamorous clocks and accusing mirrors +around him, but not this murderer. There is nothing abnormal about him, +however, as a criminal. He is thirty-six years old and through sheer +weakness has gone steadily downward, but he has never before done a deed +approaching this in horror or in the power of sudden self-revelation. He +sees himself now as he never saw himself before and begins to take stock +of his moral assets. They are pitifully meager, though his opportunities +for character building have been good. He has even had emotional +revivals, which did not, however, issue in good deeds. But with it all, +Markheim illustrates the nobility of human nature rather than its +essential depravity. I do not doubt his complete and permanent +conversion. When the terrible last question is put to him--or when he +puts it to himself--whether he is better now in any one particular than +he was, and when he is forced to say, "No, in none! I have gone down in +all," the moral resources of human nature itself seem to be exhausted. +But they are not. "I see clearly what remains for me," said Markheim, +"by way of _duty_." This word, not used before, sounds a new challenge +and marks the crisis of the story. Duty can fight without calling in +reserves from the past and without the vision of victory in the future. +I don't wonder that the features of the visitant "softened with a tender +triumph." The visitant was neither "the devil" as Markheim first thought +him nor "the Saviour of men" as a recent editor pronounces him. He is +only Markheim's old self, the self that entered the antique shop, that +with fear and trembling committed the deed, and that now, half-conscious +all the time of inherent falseness, urges the old arguments and tries to +energize the old purposes. It is this visitant that every man meets and +overthrows when he comes to himself, when he breaks sharply with the old +life and enters resolutely upon the new.] + + + +"Yes," said the dealer, "our windfalls are of various kinds. Some +customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior +knowledge. Some are dishonest," and here he held up the candle, so that +the light fell strongly on his visitor, "and in that case," he +continued, "I profit by my virtue." + +Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes +had not yet grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness in the +shop. At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, +he blinked painfully and looked aside. + +The dealer chuckled. "You come to me on Christmas-day," he resumed, +"when you know that I am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make +a point of refusing business. Well, you will have to pay for that; you +will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my +books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark +in you to-day very strongly. I am the essence of discretion, and ask no +awkward questions; but when a customer can not look me in the eye, he +has to pay for it." The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to +his usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, "You can +give, as usual, a clean account of how you came into the possession of +the object?" he continued. "Still your uncle's cabinet? A remarkable +collector, sir!" + +And the little, pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tip-toe, +looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with +every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite +pity, and a touch of horror. + +"This time," said he, "you are in error. I have not come to sell, but to +buy. I have no curios to dispose of; my uncle's cabinet is bare to the +wainscot; even were it still intact, I have done well on the Stock +Exchange, and should more likely add to it than otherwise, and my errand +to-day is simplicity itself. I seek a Christmas-present for a lady," he +continued, waxing more fluent as he struck into the speech he had +prepared; "and certainly I owe you every excuse for thus disturbing you +upon so small a matter. But the thing was neglected yesterday; I must +produce my little compliment at dinner; and, as you very well know, a +rich marriage is not a thing to be neglected." + +There followed a pause, during which the dealer seemed to weigh this +statement incredulously. The ticking of many clocks among the curious +lumber of the shop, and the faint rushing of the cabs in a near +thoroughfare, filled up the interval of silence. + +"Well, sir," said the dealer, "be it so. You are an old customer after +all; and if, as you say, you have the chance of a good marriage, far be +it from me to be an obstacle. Here is a nice thing for a lady now," he +went on, "this hand-glass--fifteenth century, warranted; comes from a +good collection, too; but I reserve the name, in the interests of my +customer, who was just like yourself, my dear sir, the nephew and sole +heir of a remarkable collector." + +The dealer, while he thus ran on in his dry and biting voice, had +stooped to take the object from its place; and, as he had done so, a +shock had passed through Markheim, a start both of hand and foot, a +sudden leap of many tumultuous passions to the face. It passed as +swiftly as it came, and left no trace beyond a certain trembling of the +hand that now received the glass. + +"A glass," he said, hoarsely, and then paused, and repeated it more +clearly. "A glass? For Christmas? Surely not?" + +"And why not?" cried the dealer. "Why not a glass?" + +Markheim was looking upon him with an indefinable expression. "You ask +me why not?" he said. "Why, look here--look in it--look at yourself! Do +you like to see it? No! nor I--nor any man." + +The little man had jumped back when Markheim had so suddenly confronted +him with the mirror; but now, perceiving there was nothing worse on +hand, he chuckled. "Your future lady, sir, must be pretty hard favored," +said he. + +"I ask you," said Markheim, "for a Christmas-present, and you give me +this--this damned reminder of years, and sins and follies--this +hand-conscience! Did you mean it? Had you a thought in your mind? Tell +me. It will be better for you if you do. Come, tell me about yourself. I +hazard a guess now, that you are in secret a very charitable man?" + +The dealer looked closely, at his companion. It was very odd, Markheim +did not appear to be laughing; there was something in his face like an +eager sparkle of hope, but nothing of mirth. + +"What are you driving at?" the dealer asked. + +"Not charitable?" returned the other, gloomily. "Not charitable; not +pious; not scrupulous; unloving, unbeloved; a hand to get money, a safe +to keep it. Is that all? Dear God, man, is that all?" + +"I will tell you what it is," began the dealer, with some sharpness, and +then broke off again into a chuckle. "But I see this is a love match of +yours, and you have been drinking the lady's health." + +"Ah!" cried Markheim, with a strange curiosity. "Ah, have you been in +love? Tell me about that." + +"I," cried the dealer. "I in love! I never had the time, nor have I the +time to-day for all this nonsense. Will you take the glass?" + +"Where is the hurry?" returned Markheim. "It is very pleasant to stand +here talking; and life is so short and insecure that I would not hurry +away from any pleasure--no, not even from so mild a one as this. We +should rather cling, cling to what little we can get, like a man at a +cliff's edge. Every second is a cliff, if you think upon it--a cliff a +mile high--high enough, if we fall, to dash us out of every feature of +humanity. Hence it is best to talk pleasantly. Let us talk of each +other; why should we wear this mask? Let us be confidential. Who knows, +we might become friends?" + +"I have just one word to say to you," said the dealer. "Either make your +purchase, or walk out of my shop." + +"True, true," said Markheim. "Enough fooling. To business. Show me +something else." + +The dealer stooped once more, this time to replace the glass upon the +shelf, his thin blonde hair falling over his eyes as he did so. Markheim +moved a little nearer, with one hand in the pocket of his great-coat; he +drew himself up and filled his lungs; at the same time many different +emotions were depicted together on his face--terror, horror, and +resolve, fascination and a physical repulsion; and through a haggard +lift of his upper lip, his teeth looked out. + +"This, perhaps, may suit," observed the dealer; and then, as he began to +re-arise, Markheim bounded from behind upon his victim. The long, +skewer-like dagger flashed and fell. The dealer struggled like a hen, +striking his temple on the shelf, and then tumbled on the floor in a +heap. + +Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow +as was becoming to their great age; others garrulous and hurried. All +these told out the seconds in an intricate chorus of tickings. Then the +passage of a lad's feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon +these smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his +surroundings. He looked about him awfully. The candle stood on the +counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by that +inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle +and kept heaving like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots +of darkness swelling and dwindling as with respiration, the faces of the +portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in water. +The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with +a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger. + +From these fear-stricken rovings, Markheim's eyes returned to the body +of his victim, where it lay both humped and sprawling, incredibly small +and strangely meaner than in life. In these poor, miserly clothes, in +that ungainly attitude, the dealer lay like so much sawdust. Markheim +had feared to see it, and, lo! it was nothing. And yet, as he gazed, +this bundle of old clothes and pool of blood began to find eloquent +voices. There it must lie; there was none to work the cunning hinges or +direct the miracle of locomotion--there it must lie till it was found. +Found! ay, and then? Then would this dead flesh lift up a cry that would +ring over England, and fill the world with the echoes of pursuit. Ay, +dead or not, this was still the enemy. "Time was that when the brains +were out," he thought; and the first word struck into his mind. Time, +now that the deed was accomplished--time, which had closed for the +victim, had become instant and momentous for the slayer. + +The thought was yet in his mind, when, first one and then another, with +every variety of pace and voice--one deep as the bell from a cathedral +turret, another ringing on its treble notes the prelude of a waltz--the +clocks began to strike the hour of three in the afternoon. + +The sudden outbreak of so many tongues in that dumb chamber staggered +him. He began to bestir himself, going to and fro with the candle, +beleaguered by moving shadows, and startled to the soul by chance +reflections. In many rich mirrors, some of home designs, some from +Venice or Amsterdam, he saw his face repeated and repeated, as it were +an army of spies; his own eyes met and detected him; and the sound of +his own steps, lightly as they fell, vexed the surrounding quiet. And +still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind accused him, with a +sickening iteration, of the thousand faults of his design. He should +have chosen a more quiet hour; he should have prepared an alibi; he +should not have used a knife; he should have been more cautious, and +only bound and gagged the dealer, and not killed him; he should have +been more bold, and killed the servant also; he should have done all +things otherwise; poignant regrets, weary, incessant toiling of the mind +to change what was unchangeable, to plan what was now useless, to be the +architect of the irrevocable past. Meanwhile, and behind all this +activity, brute terrors, like scurrying of rats in a deserted attic, +filled the more remote chambers of his brain with riot; the hand of the +constable would fall heavy on his shoulder, and his nerves would jerk +like a hooked fish; or he beheld, in galloping defile, the dock, the +prison, the gallows, and the black coffin. + +Terror of the people in the street sat down before his mind like a +besieging army. It was impossible, he thought, but that some rumor of +the struggle must have reached their ears and set on edge their +curiosity; and now, in all the neighboring houses, he divined them +sitting motionless and with uplifted ear--solitary people, condemned to +spend Christmas dwelling alone on memories of the past, and now +startlingly recalled from that tender exercise; happy family parties, +struck into silence round the table, the mother still with raised +finger: every degree and age and humor, but all, by their own hearths, +prying and hearkening and weaving the rope that was to hang him. +Sometimes it seemed to him he could not move too softly; the clink of +the tall Bohemian goblets rang out loudly like a bell; and alarmed by +the bigness of the ticking, he was tempted to stop the clocks. And then, +again, with a swift transition of his terrors, the very silence of the +place appeared a source of peril, and a thing to strike and freeze the +passer-by; and he would step more boldly, and bustle aloud among the +contents of the shop, and imitate, with elaborate bravado, the movements +of a busy man at ease in his own house. + +But he was now so pulled about by different alarms that, while one +portion of his mind was still alert and cunning, another trembled on the +brink of lunacy. One hallucination in particular took a strong hold on +his credulity. The neighbor hearkening with white face beside his +window, the passer-by arrested by a horrible surmise on the +pavement--these could at worst suspect, they could not know; through the +brick walls and shuttered windows only sounds could penetrate. But here, +within the house, was he alone? He knew he was; he had watched the +servant set forth sweethearting, in her poor best, "out for the day" +written in every ribbon and smile. Yes, he was alone, of course; and +yet, in the bulk of empty house above him, he could surely hear a stir +of delicate footing--he was surely conscious, inexplicably conscious of +some presence. Ay, surely; to every room and corner of the house his +imagination followed it; and now it was a faceless thing, and yet had +eyes to see with; and again it was a shadow of himself; and yet again +behold the image of the dead dealer, reinspired with cunning and hatred. + +At times, with a strong effort, he would glance at the open door which +still seemed to repel his eyes. The house was tall, the skylight small +and dirty, the day blind with fog; and the light that filtered down to +the ground story was exceedingly faint, and showed dimly on the +threshold of the shop. And yet, in that strip of doubtful brightness, +did there not hang wavering a shadow? + +Suddenly, from the street outside, a very jovial gentleman began to beat +with a staff on the shop-door, accompanying his blows with shouts and +railleries in which the dealer was continually called upon by name. +Markheim, smitten into ice, glanced at the dead man. But no! he lay +quite still; he was fled away far beyond earshot of these blows and +shoutings; he was sunk beneath seas of silence; and his name, which +would once have caught his notice above the howling of a storm, had +become an empty sound. And presently the jovial gentleman desisted from +his knocking and departed. + +Here was a broad hint to hurry what remained to be done, to get forth +from this accusing neighborhood, to plunge into a bath of London +multitudes, and to reach, on the other side of day, that haven of safety +and apparent innocence--his bed. One visitor had come: at any moment +another might follow and be more obstinate. To have done the deed, and +yet not to reap the profit, would be too abhorrent a failure. The money, +that was now Markheim's concern; and as a means to that, the keys. + +He glanced over his shoulder at the open door, where the shadow was +still lingering and shivering; and with no conscious repugnance of the +mind, yet with a tremor of the belly, he drew near the body of his +victim. The human character had quite departed. Like a suit half-stuffed +with bran, the limbs lay scattered, the trunk doubled, on the floor; and +yet the thing repelled him. Although so dingy and inconsiderable to the +eye, he feared it might have more significance to the touch. He took the +body by the shoulders, and turned it on its back. It was strangely light +and supple, and the limbs, as if they had been broken, fell into the +oddest postures. The face was robbed of all expression; but it was as +pale as wax, and shockingly smeared with blood about one temple. That +was, for Markheim, the one displeasing circumstance. It carried him +back, upon the instant, to a certain fair day in a fisher's village: a +gray day, a piping wind, a crowd upon the street, the blare of brasses, +the booming of drums, the nasal voice of a ballad singer; and a boy +going to and fro, buried over head in the crowd and divided between +interest and fear, until, coming out upon the chief place of concourse, +he beheld a booth and a great screen with pictures, dismally designed, +garishly colored: Brownrigg with her apprentice; the Mannings with their +murdered guest; Weare in the death-grip of Thurtell; and a score besides +of famous crimes. The thing was as clear as an illusion; he was once +again that little boy; he was looking once again, and with the same +sense of physical revolt, at these vile pictures; he was still stunned +by the thumping of the drums. A bar of that day's music returned upon +his memory; and at that, for the first time, a qualm came over him, a +breath of nausea, a sudden weakness of the joints, which he must +instantly resist and conquer. + +He judged it more prudent to confront than to flee from these +considerations; looking the more hardily in the dead face, bending his +mind to realize the nature and greatness of his crime. So little awhile +ago that face had moved with every change of sentiment, that pale mouth +had spoken, that body had been all on fire with governable energies; and +now, and by his act, that piece of life had been arrested, as the +horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock. +So he reasoned in vain; he could rise to no more remorseful +consciousness; the same heart which had shuddered before the painted +effigies of crime, looked on its reality unmoved. At best, he felt a +gleam of pity for one who had been endowed in vain with all those +faculties that can make the world a garden of enchantment, one who had +never lived and who was now dead. But of penitence, no, with a tremor. + +With that, shaking himself clear of these considerations, he found the +keys and advanced toward the open door of the shop. Outside, it had +begun to rain smartly; and the sound of the shower upon the roof had +banished silence. Like some dripping cavern, the chambers of the house +were haunted by an incessant echoing, which filled the ear and mingled +with the ticking of the clocks. And, as Markheim approached the door, he +seemed to hear, in answer to his own cautious tread, the steps of +another foot withdrawing up the stair. The shadow still palpitated +loosely on the threshold. He threw a ton's weight of resolve upon his +muscles, and drew back the door. + +The faint, foggy daylight glimmered dimly on the bare floor and stairs; +on the bright suit of armor posted, halbert in hand, upon the landing; +and on the dark wood-carvings, and framed pictures that hung against the +yellow panels of the wainscot. So loud was the beating of the rain +through all the house that, in Markheim's ears, it began to be +distinguished into many different sounds. Footsteps and sighs, the tread +of regiments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the +counting, and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar, appeared to +mingle with the patter of the drops upon the cupola and the gushing of +the water in the pipes. The sense that he was not alone grew upon him to +the verge of madness. On every side he was haunted and begirt by +presences. He heard them moving in the upper chambers; from the shop, he +heard the dead man getting to his legs; and as he began with a great +effort to mount the stairs, feet fled quietly before him and followed +stealthily behind. If he were but deaf, he thought, how tranquilly he +would possess his soul. And then again, and hearkening with every fresh +attention, he blessed himself for that unresisting sense which held the +outposts and stood a trusty sentinel upon his life. His head turned +continually on his neck; his eyes, which seemed starting from their +orbits, scouted on every side, and on every side were half-rewarded as +with the tail of something nameless vanishing. The four-and-twenty steps +to the first floor were four-and-twenty agonies. + +On that first story, the door stood ajar, three of them like three +ambushes, shaking his nerves like the throats of cannon. He could never +again, he felt, be sufficiently immured and fortified from men's +observing eyes; he longed to be home, girt in by walls, buried among +bedclothes, and invisible to all but God. And at that thought he +wondered a little, recollecting tales of other murderers and the fear +they were said to entertain of heavenly avengers. It was not so, at +least, with him. He feared the laws of nature, lest, in their callous +and immutable procedure, they should preserve some damning evidence of +his crime. He feared tenfold more, with a slavish, superstitious terror, +some scission in the continuity of man's experience, some willful +illegality of nature. He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, +calculating consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the defeated +tyrant overthrew the chessboard, should break the mold of their +succession? The like had befallen Napoleon (so writers said) when the +winter changed the time of its appearance. The like might befall +Markheim: the solid walls might become transparent and reveal his doings +like those of bees in a glass hive; the stout planks might yield under +his foot like quicksands and detain him in their clutch; ay, and there +were soberer accidents that might destroy him: if, for instance, the +house should fall and imprison him beside the body of his victim; the +house next door should fly on fire, and the firemen invade him from all +sides. These things he feared; and, in a sense, these things might be +called the hands of God reached forth against sin. But about God himself +he was at ease; his act was doubtless exceptional, but so were his +excuses, which God knew; it was there, and not among men, that he felt +sure of justice. + +When he had got safe into the drawing-room, and shut the door behind +him, he was aware of a respite from alarms. The room was quite +dismantled, uncarpeted besides, and strewn with packing cases and +incongruous furniture; several great pier-glasses, in which he beheld +himself at various angles, like an actor on the stage; many pictures, +framed and unframed, standing with their faces to the wall; a fine +Sheraton sideboard, a cabinet of marquetry, and a great old bed, with +tapestry hangings. The windows opened to the floor; but by great good +fortune the lower part of the shutters had been closed, and this +concealed him from the neighbors. Here, then, Markheim drew in a packing +case before the cabinet, and began to search among the keys. It was a +long business, for there were many; and it was irksome, besides; for, +after all, there might be nothing in the cabinet, and time was on the +wing. But the closeness of the occupation sobered him. With the tail of +his eye he saw the door--even glanced at it from time to time directly, +like a besieged commander pleased to verify the good estate of his +defenses. But in truth he was at peace. The rain falling in the street +sounded natural and pleasant. Presently, on the other side, the notes of +a piano were wakened to the music of a hymn, and the voices of many +children took up the air and words. How stately, how comfortable was the +melody! How fresh the youthful voices! Markheim gave ear to it +smilingly, as he sorted out the keys; and his mind was thronged with +answerable ideas and images; church-going children and the pealing of +the high organ; children afield, bathers by the brook-side, ramblers on +the brambly common, kite-flyers in the windy and cloud-navigated sky; +and then, at another cadence of the hymn, back again to church, and the +somnolence of summer Sundays, and the high genteel voice of the parson +(which he smiled a little to recall) and the painted Jacobean tombs, and +the dim lettering of the Ten Commandments in the chancel. + +And as he sat thus, at once busy and absent, he was startled to his +feet. A flash of ice, a flash of fire, a bursting gush of blood, went +over him, and then he stood transfixed and thrilling. A step mounted the +stair slowly and steadily, and presently a hand was laid upon the knob, +and the lock clicked, and the door opened. + +Fear held Markheim in a vice. What to expect he knew not, whether the +dead man walking, or the official ministers of human justice, or some +chance witness blindly stumbling in to consign him to the gallows. But +when a face was thrust into the aperture, glanced round the room, looked +at him, nodded and smiled as if in friendly recognition, and then +withdrew again, and the door closed behind it, his fear broke loose from +his control in a hoarse cry. At the sound of this the visitant returned. + +"Did you call me?" he asked, pleasantly, and with that he entered the +room and closed the door behind him. + +Markheim stood and gazed at him with all his eyes. Perhaps there was a +film upon his sight, but the outlines of the newcomer seemed to change +and waver like those of the idols in the wavering candle-light of the +shop; and at times he thought he knew him; and at times he thought he +bore a likeness to himself; and always, like a lump of living terror, +there lay in his bosom the conviction that this thing was not of the +earth and not of God. + +And yet the creature had a strange air of the common-place, as he stood +looking on Markheim with a smile; and when he added: "You are looking +for the money, I believe?" it was in the tones of everyday politeness. + +Markheim made no answer. + +"I should warn you," resumed the other, "that the maid has left her +sweetheart earlier than usual and will soon be here. If Mr. Markheim be +found in this house, I need not describe to him the consequences." + +"You know me?" cried the murderer. + +The visitor smiled. "You have long been a favorite of mine," he said; +"and I have long observed and often sought to help you." + +"What are you?" cried Markheim: "the devil?" + +"What I may be," returned the other, "can not affect the service I +propose to render you." + +"It can," cried Markheim; "it does! Be helped by you? No, never; not by +you! You do not know me yet, thank God, you do not know me!" + +"I know you," replied the visitant, with a sort of kind severity or +rather firmness. "I know you to the soul." + +"Know me!" cried Markheim. "Who can do so? My life is but a travesty and +slander on myself. I have lived to belie my nature. All men do; all men +are better than this disguise that grows about and stifles them. You see +each dragged away by life, like one whom bravos have seized and muffled +in a cloak. If they had their own control--if you could see their faces, +they would be altogether different, they would shine out for heroes and +saints! I am worse than most; my self is more overlaid; my excuse is +known to me and God. But, had I the time, I could disclose myself." + +"To me?" inquired the visitant. + +"To you before all," returned the murderer. "I supposed you were +intelligent. I thought--since you exist--you would prove a reader of the +heart. And yet you would propose to judge me by my acts! Think of it; my +acts! I was born and I have lived in a land of giants; giants have +dragged me by the wrists since I was born out of my mother--the giants +of circumstance. And you would judge me by my acts! But can you not look +within? Can you not understand that evil is hateful to me? Can you not +see within me the clear writing of conscience, never blurred by any +willful sophistry, although too often disregarded? Can you not read me +for a thing that surely must be common as humanity--the unwilling +sinner?" + +"All this is very feelingly expressed," was the reply, "but it regards +me not. These points of consistency are beyond my province, and I care +not in the least by what compulsion you may have been dragged away, so +as you are but carried in the right direction. But time flies; the +servant delays, looking in the faces of the crowd and at the pictures on +the hoardings, but still she keeps moving nearer; and remember, it is as +if the gallows itself was striding toward you through the Christmas +streets! Shall I help you; I, who know all? Shall I tell you where to +find the money?" + +"For what price?" asked Markheim. + +"I offer you the service for a Christmas gift," returned the other. + +Markheim could not refrain from smiling with a kind of bitter triumph. +"No," said he, "I will take nothing at your hands; if I were dying of +thirst, and it was your hand that put the pitcher to my lips, I should +find the courage to refuse. It may be credulous, but I will do nothing +to commit myself to evil." + +"I have no objection to a death-bed repentance," observed the visitant. + +"Because you disbelieve their efficacy!" Markheim cried. + +"I do not say so," returned the other; "but I look on these things from +a different side, and when the life is done my interest falls. The man +has lived to serve me, to spread black looks under color of religion, or +to sow tares in the wheat-field, as you do, in a course of weak +compliance with desire. Now that he draws so near to his deliverance, he +can add but one act of service--to repent, to die smiling, and thus to +build up in confidence and hope the more timorous of my surviving +followers. I am not so hard a master. Try me. Accept my help. Please +yourself in life as you have done hitherto; please yourself more amply, +spread your elbows at the board; and when the night begins to fall and +the curtains to be drawn, I tell you, for your greater comfort, that you +will find it even easy to compound your quarrel with your conscience, +and to make a truckling peace with God. I came but now from such a +death-bed, and the room was full of sincere mourners, listening to the +man's last words: and when I looked into that face, which had been set +as a flint against mercy, I found it smiling with hope." + +"And do you, then, suppose me such a creature?" asked Markheim. "Do you +think I have no more generous aspirations than to sin, and sin, and sin, +and, at last, sneak into heaven? My heart rises at the thought. Is this, +then, your experience of mankind? or is it because you find me with red +hands that you presume such baseness? and is this crime of murder indeed +so impious as to dry up the very springs of good?" + +"Murder is to me no special category," replied the other. "All sins are +murder, even as all life is war. I behold your race, like starving +mariners on a raft, plucking crusts out of the hands of famine and +feeding on each other's lives. I follow sins beyond the moment of their +acting; I find in all that the last consequence is death; and to my +eyes, the pretty maid who thwarts her mother with such taking graces on +a question of a ball, drips no less visibly with human gore than such a +murderer as yourself. Do I say that I follow sins? I follow virtues +also; they differ not by the thickness of a nail, they are both scythes +for the reaping angel of Death. Evil, for which I live, consists not in +action but in character. The bad man is dear to me; not the bad act, +whose fruits, if we could follow them far enough down the hurtling +cataract of the ages, might yet be found more blessed than those of the +rarest virtues. And it is not because you have killed a dealer, but +because you are Markheim, that I offered to forward your escape." + +"I will lay my heart open to you," answered Markheim. "This crime on +which you find me is my last. On my way to it I have learned many +lessons; itself is a lesson, a momentous lesson. Hitherto I have been +driven with revolt to what I would not; I was a bond-slave to poverty, +driven and scourged. There are robust virtues that can stand in these +temptations; mine was not so: I had a thirst of pleasure. But to-day, +and out of this deed, I pluck both warning and riches--both the power +and a fresh resolve to be myself. I become in all things a free actor in +the world; I begin to see myself all changed, these hands the agents of +good, this heart at peace. Something comes over me out of the past; +something of what I have dreamed on Sabbath evenings to the sound of the +church organ, of what I forecast when I shed tears over noble books, or +talked, an innocent child, with my mother. There lies my life; I have +wandered a few years, but now I see once more my city of destination." + +"You are to use this money on the Stock Exchange, I think?" remarked the +visitor; "and there, if I mistake not, you have already lost some +thousands?" + +"Ah," said Markheim, "but this time I have a sure thing." + +"This time, again, you will lose," replied the visitor, quietly. + +"Ah, but I keep back the half!" cried Markheim. + +"That also you will lose," said the other. + +The sweat started upon Markheim's brow. "Well, then, what matter?" he +exclaimed. "Say it be lost, say I am plunged again in poverty, shall one +part of me, and that the worse, continue until the end to override the +better? Evil and good run strong in me, haling me both ways. I do not +love the one thing, I love all. I can conceive great deeds, +renunciations, martyrdoms; and though I be fallen to such a crime as +murder, pity is no stranger to my thoughts. I pity the poor; who knows +their trials better than myself? I pity and help them; I prize love, I +love honest laughter; there is no good thing nor true thing on earth but +I love it from my heart. And are my vices only to direct my life, and my +virtues to lie without effect, like some passive lumber of the mind? Not +so; good, also, is a spring of acts." + +But the visitant raised his finger. "For six-and-thirty years that you +have been in this world," said he, "through many changes of fortune and +varieties of humor, I have watched you steadily fall. Fifteen years ago +you would have started at a theft. Three years back you would have +blenched at the name of murder. Is there any crime, is there any cruelty +or meanness, from which you still recoil?--five years from now I shall +detect you in the fact! Downward, downward, lies your way; nor can +anything but death avail to stop you." + +"It is true," Markheim said, huskily, "I have in some degree complied +with evil. But it is so with all: the very saints, in the mere exercise +of living, grow less dainty, and take on the tone of their +surroundings." + +"I will propound to you one simple question," said the other; "and as +you answer, I shall read to you your moral horoscope. You have grown in +many things more lax; possibly you do right to be so; and at any +account, it is the same with all men. But granting that, are you in any +one particular, however trifling, more difficult to please with your own +conduct, or do you go in all things with a looser rein?" + +"In any one?" repeated Markheim, with an anguish of consideration. "No," +he added, with despair, "in none! I have gone down in all." + +"Then," said the visitor, "content yourself with what you are, for you +will never change; and the words of your part on this stage are +irrevocably written down." + +Markheim stood for a long while silent, and indeed it was the visitor +who first broke the silence. "That being so," he said, "shall I show you +the money?" + +"And grace?" cried Markheim. + +"Have you not tried it?" returned the other. "Two or three years ago, +did I not see you on the platform of revival meetings, and was not your +voice the loudest in the hymn?" + +"It is true," said Markheim; "and I see clearly what remains for me by +way of duty. I thank you for these lessons from my soul: my eyes are +opened, and I behold myself at last for what I am." + +At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rung through the house; +and the visitant, as though this were some concerted signal for which he +had been waiting, changed at once in his demeanor. + +"The maid!" he cried. "She has returned, as I forewarned you, and there +is now before you one more difficult passage. Her master, you must say, +is ill; you must let her in, with an assured but rather serious +countenance--no smiles, no overacting, and I promise you success! Once +the girl within, and the door closed, the same dexterity that has +already rid you of the dealer will relieve you of this last danger in +your path. Thenceforward you have the whole evening--the whole night, if +needful--to ransack the treasures of the house and to make good your +safety. This is help that comes to you with the mask of danger. Up!" he +cried: "up, friend; your life hangs trembling in the scales; up, and +act!" + +Markheim steadily regarded his counsellor. "If I be condemned to evil +acts," he said, "there is still one door of freedom open--I can cease +from action. If my life be an ill thing, I can lay it down. Though I be, +as you say truly, at the beck of every small temptation, I can yet, by +one decisive gesture, place myself beyond the reach of all. My love of +good is damned to barrenness; it may, and let it be! But I have still my +hatred of evil; and from that, to your galling disappointment, you shall +see that I can draw both energy and courage." + +The features of the visitor began to undergo a wonderful and lovely +change; they brightened and softened with a tender triumph; and, even as +they brightened, faded and dislimned. But Markheim did not pause to +watch or understand the transformation. He opened the door and went +down-stairs very slowly, thinking to himself. His past went soberly +before him; he beheld it as it was, ugly and strenuous like a dream, +random as chance-medley--a scene of defeat. Life, as he thus reviewed +it, tempted him no longer; but on the further side he perceived a quiet +haven for his bark. He paused in the passage, and looked into the shop, +where the candle still burned by the dead body. It was strangely silent. +Thoughts of the dealer swarmed into his mind, as he stood gazing. And +then the bell once more broke out into impatient clamor. + +He confronted the maid upon the threshold with something like a smile. + +"You had better go for the police," said he: "I have killed your +master." + + + + +X. THE NECKLACE[*] (1885) + +[* "La parure" from "Contes et nouvelles."] + +BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-1893) + + +[_Setting_. The story is set in a Paris atmosphere of social aspiration +and discontent. The background is one of studied contrasts, contrasts +between the stolid contentment of a husband and the would-be +luxuriousness of a wife, between what Madame Loisel had and what she +wanted, between what she was and what she thought she could be, between +her brief moment of triumph and the long years of her undoing, between +the trivialness of what she did and the heaviness of her punishment. +These contrasts are developed not by reasoning but by action, each +action plunging Madame Loisel deeper and deeper into misery. The +author's attitude toward his work forms also a part of the real +background. Maupassant shows neither sympathy nor indignation. He writes +as if he were the stenographer of impersonal and pitiless fate. + +_Plot_. Madame Loisel, a poor but beautiful and ambitious woman, borrows +and loses a diamond necklace valued at $7200. That, at least, is what +Madame Loisel thought for ten terrible years, and that is what the +reader thinks till he comes to the last words of the story. The plot +belongs, therefore, to that large group known as hoax plots. In most of +these stories one person plays a joke on another. In this story a grim +fate is made to play the joke. In fact, the current phrase, "the irony +of fate," finds here perfect illustration. We use the expression not so +much of a great misfortune as of a misfortune that seems brought about +by a peculiarly malignant train of circumstances. The injury in this +case not only was irremediable but turned on an accident. Notice also +how Maupassant has sharpened the poignancy and bitterness of Madame +Loisel's misfortune by making it depend not only on an accident that +might so easily not have happened but on a misunderstanding that might +so easily have been explained. When Madame Loisel, just on the threshold +of her life of drudgery, took the necklace bought on credit to Madame +Forestier, the latter "did not open the case, to the relief of her +friend." The irony of fate could hardly go further; but it does go +further a little later, when Madame Forestier, still young and +beautiful, fails to recognize Madame Loisel because the latter had lost +youth, beauty, daintiness, her very self, in toiling to pay to Madame +Forestier a debt that was not a debt. Just before the final revelation +Madame Loisel is made to say, "I am very glad." There is a unique pathos +in her use of this word: it lifted her a little from the ground that her +fall might be all the harder. + +There is no denying the art of this story, but it is art without heart. +The author is a craftsman rather than a creator, a master of the loom +rather than of the forge. Maupassant did perfectly what he wanted to do, +but his greatness and his limitation are both revealed. "What would have +happened," he says, "if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows, who +knows? How strange life is, how changeful! How little a thing is needed +for us to be lost or to be saved!" The greatest art may begin but not +end this way. + +_Characters_. The man is only a foil to his wife. He is introduced to +bring into sharper relief her unhappiness and her powerlessness to +better her condition. He is not a bad man, nor is she a bad woman. To +say that the story turns entirely on his honor and on her false pride is +to miss, I think, the author's purpose. There is nothing distinctive in +these characters; he is better than she, but both are puppets in the +grip of brute circumstance rather than everyday characters shaped by the +ordinary pressures of life. They are not types as Rip is a type, or +Scrooge, or Oakhurst. Maupassant shows in his stories that he is +interested not so much in the free play or the full reaction of +personality as in the enslavement of personality through passion or +chance. He saw life without order because without center, without reward +because without desert; and his characters are made to see it through +the same lens and to experience it on the same level. They either do not +react or do not react nobly. Had Madame Loisel and her husband been +shaped to fit into a less mechanical scheme of things, they would have +recognized in their ten years' trial the call to something higher. They +could have used their testing as a means of understanding with keener +sympathy the lifelong testing of others. They could have attained a +self-development that would have brought a happiness undreamed of before +the fateful January 18. But this is Browning's way, not Maupassant's. +The latter prefers to make Madame Loisel and her husband chiefly of +putty so that they may illustrate the blind thrusts of accident rather +than the power of personality to turn stumbling-blocks into +stepping-stones.] + + + +She was one of those pretty and charming girls who, as if by a mistake +of destiny, are born in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no +expectations, no means of becoming known, understood, loved, wedded by +any rich and distinguished man; and so she let herself be married to a +petty clerk in the Bureau of Public Instruction. + +She was simple in her dress because she could not be elaborate, but she +was as unhappy as if she had fallen from a higher rank, for with women +there is no inherited distinction of higher and lower. Their beauty, +their grace, and their natural charm fill the place of birth and family. +Natural delicacy, instinctive elegance, a lively wit, are the ruling +forces in the social realm, and these make the daughters of the common +people the equals of the finest ladies. + +She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for all the refinements and +luxuries of life. She suffered from the poverty of her home as she +looked at the dirty walls, the worn-out chairs, the ugly curtains. All +those things of which another woman of her station would have been quite +unconscious tortured her and made her indignant. The sight of the +country girl who was maid-of-all-work in her humble household filled her +almost with desperation. She dreamed of echoing halls hung with Oriental +draperies and lighted by tall bronze candelabra, while two tall footmen +in knee-breeches drowsed in great armchairs by reason of the heating +stove's oppressive warmth. She dreamed of splendid parlors furnished in +rare old silks, of carved cabinets loaded with priceless bric-a-brac, +and of entrancing little boudoirs just right for afternoon chats with +bosom friends--men famous and sought after, the envy and the desire of +all the other women. + +When she sat down to dinner at a little table covered with a cloth three +days old, and looked across at her husband as he uncovered the soup and +exclaimed with an air of rapture, "Oh, the delicious stew! I know +nothing better than that," she dreamed of dainty dinners, of shining +silverware, of tapestries which peopled the walls with antique figures +and strange birds in fairy forests; she dreamed of delicious viands +served in wonderful dishes, of whispered gallantries heard with a +sphinx-like smile as you eat the pink flesh of a trout or the wing of a +quail. + +She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing; and she loved nothing else. She +felt made for that alone. She was filled with a desire to please, to be +envied, to be bewitching and sought after. She had a rich friend, a +former schoolmate at the convent, whom she no longer wished to visit +because she suffered so much when she came home. For whole days at a +time she wept without ceasing in bitterness and hopeless misery. + +Now, one evening her husband came home with a triumphant air, holding in +his hand a large envelope. + +"There," said he, "there is something for you." + +She quickly tore open the paper and drew out a printed card, bearing +these words:-- + +"The Minister of Public Instruction and Mme. Georges Rampouneau request +the honor of M. and Mme. Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry, +Monday evening, January 18th." + +Instead of being overcome with delight, as her husband expected, she +threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring: + +"What do you wish me to do with that?" + +"Why, my dear, I thought you would be pleased. You never go out, and +this is such a fine opportunity! I had awful trouble in getting it. +Every one wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many +invitations to clerks. You will see all the official world." + +She looked at him with irritation, and said, impatiently: + +"What do you expect me to put on my back if I go?" + +He had not thought of that. He stammered: + +"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It seems all right to me." + +He stopped, stupefied, distracted, on seeing that his wife was crying. +Two great tears descended slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the +corners of her mouth. He stuttered: + +"What's the matter? What's the matter?" + +By a violent effort she subdued her feelings and replied in a calm +voice, as she wiped her wet cheeks: + +"Nothing. Only I have no dress and consequently I cannot go to this +ball. Give your invitation to some friend whose wife has better clothes +than I." + +He was in despair, but began again: + +"Let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable dress, which +you could wear again on future occasions, something very simple?" + +She reflected for some seconds, computing the cost, and also wondering +what sum she could ask without bringing down upon herself an immediate +refusal and an astonished exclamation from the economical clerk. + +At last she answered hesitatingly: + +"I don't know exactly, but it seems to me that with four hundred francs +I could manage." + +He turned a trifle pale, for he had been saving just that sum to buy a +gun and treat himself to a little hunting trip the following summer, in +the country near Nanterre, with a few friends who went there to shoot +larks on Sundays. + +However, he said: + +"Well, I think I can give you four hundred francs. But see that you have +a pretty dress." + + * * * * * + +The day of the ball drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, restless, +anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to her one +evening: + +"What is the matter? Come, now, you've been looking queer these last +three days." + +And she replied: + +"It worries me that I have no jewels, not a single stone, nothing to put +on. I shall look wretched enough. I would almost rather not go to this +party." + +He answered: + +"You might wear natural flowers. They are very fashionable this season. +For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses." + +She was not convinced. + +"No; there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of +rich women." + +But her husband cried: + +"How stupid you are! Go and find your friend Madame Forestier and ask +her to lend you some jewels. You are intimate enough with her for that." + +She uttered a cry of joy. + +"Of course. I had not thought of that." + +The next day she went to her friend's house and told her distress. + +Madame Forestier went to her handsome wardrobe, took out a large casket, +brought it back, opened it, and said to Madame Loisel: + +"Choose, my dear." + +She saw first of all some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a +Venetian cross of gold set with precious stones of wonderful +workmanship. She tried on the ornaments before the glass, hesitated, +could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back. She +kept asking: + +"You have nothing else?" + +"Why, yes. But I do not know what will please you." + +All at once she discovered, in a black satin box, a splendid diamond +necklace, and her heart began to beat with boundless desire. Her hands +trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, over her +high-necked dress, and stood lost in ecstasy as she looked at herself. + +Then she asked, hesitating, full of anxiety: + +"Would you lend me that,--only that?" + +"Why, yes, certainly." + +She sprang upon the neck of her friend, embraced her rapturously, then +fled with her treasure. + + * * * * * + +The day of the ball arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was +prettier than all the others, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with +joy. All the men stared at her, asked her name, tried to be introduced. +All the cabinet officials wished to waltz with her. The minister noticed +her. + +She danced with delight, with passion, intoxicated with pleasure, +forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her +success, in a sort of mist of happiness, the result of all this homage, +all this admiration, all these awakened desires, this victory so +complete and so sweet to the heart of woman. + +She left about four o'clock in the morning. Her husband had been dozing +since midnight in a little deserted anteroom with three other gentlemen, +whose wives were having a good time. + +He threw about her shoulders the wraps which he had brought for her to +go out in, the modest wraps of common life, whose poverty contrasted +sharply with the elegance of the ball dress. She felt this and wished to +escape, that she might not be noticed by the other women who were +wrapping themselves in costly furs. + +Loisel held her back. + +"Wait here, you will catch cold outside. I will go and find a cab." + +But she would not listen to him, and rapidly descended the stairs. When +they were at last in the street, they could find no carriage, and began +to look for one, hailing the cabmen they saw passing at a distance. + +They walked down toward the Seine in despair, shivering with the cold. +At last they found on the quay one of those ancient nocturnal cabs that +one sees in Paris only after dark, as if they were ashamed to display +their wretchedness during the day. + +They were put down at their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly +mounted the steps to their apartments. It was all over, for her. And as +for him, he reflected that he must be at his office at ten o'clock. + +She took off the wraps which covered her shoulders, before the mirror, +so as to take a final look at herself in all her glory. But suddenly she +uttered a cry. She no longer had the necklace about her neck! + +Her husband, already half undressed, inquired: + +"What is the matter?" + +She turned madly toward him. + +"I have--I have--I no longer have Madame Forestier's necklace." + +He stood up, distracted. + +"What!--how!--it is impossible!" + +They looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in the +pockets, everywhere. They could not find a trace of it. + +He asked: + +"You are sure you still had it when you left the ball?" + +"Yes. I felt it on me in the vestibule at the palace." + +"But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It +must be in the cab." + +"Yes. That's probable. Did you take the number?" + +"No. And you, you did not notice it?" + +"No." + +They looked at each other thunderstruck. At last Loisel put on his +clothes again. + +"I am going back," said he, "over every foot of the way we came, to see +if I cannot find it." + +So he started. She remained in her ball dress without strength to go to +bed, sitting on a chair, with no fire, her mind a blank. + +Her husband returned about seven o'clock. He had found nothing. + +He went to police headquarters, to the newspapers to offer a reward, to +the cab companies, everywhere, in short, where a trace of hope led him. + +She watched all day, in the same state of blank despair before this +frightful disaster. + +Loisel returned in the evening with cheeks hollow and pale; he had found +nothing. + +"You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the +clasp of her necklace and that you are having it repaired. It will give +us time to turn around." + +She wrote as he dictated. + + * * * * * + +At the end of a week they had lost all hope. + +And Loisel, looking five years older, declared: + +"We must consider how to replace the necklace." + +The next day they took the box which had contained it, and went to the +place of the jeweller whose name they found inside. He consulted his +books. + +"It was not I, madame, who sold the necklace; I must simply have +furnished the casket." + +Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, looking for an ornament like +the other, consulting their memories, both sick with grief and anguish. + +They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds which +seemed to them exactly what they were looking for. It was worth forty +thousand francs.[*] They could have it for thirty-six thousand. + +[* A franc is equal to twenty cents of our money.] + +So they begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days. And they made +an arrangement that he should take it back for thirty-four thousand +francs if the other were found before the end of February. + +Loisel had eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He +would borrow the rest. + +He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, +five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, made ruinous +engagements, dealt with usurers, with all the tribe of money-lenders. He +compromised the rest of his life, risked his signature without knowing +if he might not be involving his honor, and, terrified by the anguish +yet to come, by the black misery about to fall upon him, by the prospect +of every physical privation and every mental torture, he went to get the +new necklace, and laid down on the dealer's counter thirty-six thousand +francs. + +When Madame Loisel took the necklace back to Madame Forestier, the +latter said coldly: + +"You should have returned it sooner, for I might have needed it." + +She did not open the case, to the relief of her friend. If she had +detected the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she +have said? Would she have taken her friend for a thief? + + * * * * * + +Madame Loisel now knew the horrible life of the needy. But she took her +part heroically. They must pay this frightful debt. She would pay it. +They dismissed their maid; they gave up their room; they rented another, +under the roof. + +She came to know the drudgery of housework, the odious labors of the +kitchen. She washed the dishes, staining her rosy nails on the greasy +pots and the bottoms of the saucepans. She washed the dirty linen, the +shirts and the dishcloths, which she hung to dry on a line; she carried +the garbage down to the street every morning, and carried up the water, +stopping at each landing to rest. And, dressed like a woman of the +people, she went to the fruiterer's, the grocer's, the butcher's, her +basket on her arm, bargaining, abusing, defending sou[*] by sou her +miserable money. + +[* A sou, or five-centime piece, is equal to one cent of our money.] + +Each month they had to pay some notes, renew others, obtain more time. + +The husband worked every evening, neatly footing up the account books of +some tradesman, and often far into the night he sat copying manuscript +at five sous a page. + +And this life lasted ten years. + +At the end of ten years they had paid everything,--everything, with the +exactions of usury and the accumulations of compound interest. + +Madame Loisel seemed aged now. She had become the woman of impoverished +households,--strong and hard and rough. With hair half combed, with +skirts awry, and reddened hands, she talked loud as she washed the floor +with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the +office, she sat down near the window and thought of that evening at the +ball so long ago, when she had been so beautiful and so admired. + +What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows, +who knows? How strange life is, how changeful! How little a thing is +needed for us to be lost or to be saved! + + * * * * * + +But one Sunday, as she was going for a walk in the Champs Élysées to +refresh herself after the labors of the week, all at once she saw a +woman walking with a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still +beautiful, still charming. + +Madame Loisel was agitated. Should she speak to her? Why, of course. And +now that she had paid, she would tell her all. Why not? + +She drew near. + +"Good morning, Jeanne." + +The other, astonished to be addressed so familiarly by this woman of the +people, did not recognize her. She stammered: + +"But--madame--I do not know you. You must have made a mistake." + +"No, I am Mathilde Loisel." + +Her friend uttered a cry. + +"Oh! my poor Mathilde, how changed you are!" + +"Yes, I have had days hard enough since I saw you, days wretched +enough--and all because of you!" + +"Me? How so?" + +"You remember that necklace of diamonds that you lent me to wear to the +ministerial ball?" + +"Yes. Well?" + +"Well, I lost it." + +"How can that be? You returned it to me." + +"I returned to you another exactly like it. These ten years we've been +paying for it. You know it was not easy for us, who had nothing. At last +it is over, and I am very glad." + +Madame Forestier was stunned. + +"You say that you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?" + +"Yes; you did not notice it, then? They were just alike." + +And she smiled with a proud and naïve pleasure. + +Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took both her hands. + +"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth five +hundred francs at most." + + + + +XI. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING[*] (1888) + +[* From "The Phantom 'Rickshaw."] + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING (1865- ) + + +[_Setting_. "They call it Kafiristan," said Dravot, the unfortunate hero +of the story. "By my reckoning it's the top right-hand corner of +Afghanistan, not more than three hundred miles from Peshawar." +Determined to be Kings of Kafiristan, Carnehan and Dravot started +probably from the capital of the Punjab, Lahore, where the newspaper +office seems to have been. Ten miles west of Peshawar they entered the +famous Khaiber (or Khyber) Pass, a region which Kipling describes more +at length in "The Man Who Was," "The Drums of the Fore and Aft," "The +Lost Legion," "Love o' Women," "Wee Willie Winkie," and "With the Main +Guard." No country in Asia is less known to civilization than +Kafiristan. The Mohammedan traders say that it is the most attractive +part of Afghanistan. The name means "country of unbelievers," the Kafirs +having resisted all attempts to convert them to the Mohammedan faith. +They are pure Aryans, being thus brothers to the Greeks, Romans, +Germans, English, and ourselves. They are noted for their beauty and +strength. India or rather Anglo-India has been almost re-discovered by +Kipling, but this is his only story of Kafiristan. It too, as Carnehan +and Dravot learn to their sorrow, is a land of impenetrable mystery. + +_Plot_. The real plot does not begin to unfold itself until Carnehan, +wrecked in body and mind, returns to the newspaper office and tries to +report his experiences. Thus nearly one half of the story may be called +introductory or preliminary. This is unusual with Kipling and with all +other modern story writers. The introduction justifies itself, however, +in this case because, since a half-crazed man with weakening memory is +to tell the real tale, his narrative would have to be supplemented by +explanations on nearly every page unless the introductory part could be +taken for granted. Notice how often in reading Carnehan's broken story +you supply what he omits and interpret what he only fragmentarily says +by reference to what has gone before. + +Kipling has done more in this story than to present a character of +limitless audacity. He has impressed again one of his favorite +teachings. There is, he holds, a barrier between East and West that can +never be crossed. The West can go so far with the East but no farther. +Brave men of the West may conquer the East and rule it, but to take +liberties with it is to uncover a vast realm of the unknown and to +invite disaster. In "The Return of Imray," a good-natured Englishman +pats the head of Bahadur Khan's child and is killed for it. Another +Englishman, in "Beyond the Pale," thought that he understood the heart +of India, and here is his epitaph: "He took too deep an interest in +native life, but he will never do so again." Dravot could play king and +even god in Kafiristan, but when he exposed himself ignorantly to an old +racial superstition he met instant and inevitable destruction. + +_Characters_. Carnehan tells the story, but Dravot is the energizing +character. Captain James Cook, the discoverer of the Sandwich Islands, +is plainly the original of Dravot. Read the thirtieth chapter of the +second volume of Mark Twain's "Roughing It" (1872) and you will find +Kipling's story clearly outlined. One cannot withhold a measure of +admiration for this type of uncontrolled audacity. Dravot was not bad at +heart, he was only boundless, a type of the adventurer that has given +many a fascinating chapter to history as well as to literature. In "The +Research Magnificent," by Mr. H.G. Wells, the hero, Benham, says: "I +think what I want is to be king of the world.... It is the very core of +me.... I mean to be a king in this earth. _King_. I'm not mad." His +motive, however, is very different from Dravot's. "I see the world," he +continues, "staggering from misery to misery, and there is little +wisdom, less rule, folly, prejudice, limitation ... and it is my world +and I am responsible.... As soon as your kingship is plain to you, there +is no more rest, no peace, no delight, except in work, in service, in +utmost effort." The three weaknesses to be overcome are Fear, +Indulgence, and Jealousy. Both Dravot and Benham fail and the comment of +each on his own failure is an autobiography. Benham: "I can feel that +greater world I shall never see as one feels the dawn coming through the +last darkness." Dravot: "We've had a dashed fine run for our money. +What's coming next?"] + + + +Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy. + + +The Law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy +to follow. I have been fellow to a beggar again and again under +circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other +was worthy. I have still to be brother to a Prince, though I once came +near to kinship with what might have been a veritable King and was +promised the reversion of a Kingdom--army, law-courts, revenue and +policy all complete. But, to-day, I greatly fear that my King is dead, +and if I want a crown I must go hunt it for myself. + +The beginning of everything was in a railway train upon the road to Mhow +from Ajmir. There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated +travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-class, +but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions +in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, +which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, +or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated. Intermediates do not buy +from refreshment-rooms. They carry their food in bundles and pots, and +buy sweets from the native sweetmeat-sellers, and drink the roadside +water. That is why in hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the +carriages dead, and in all weathers are most properly looked down upon. + +My particular Intermediate happened to be empty till I reached +Nasirabad, when a big black-browed gentleman in shirt-sleeves entered, +and, following the custom of Intermediates, passed the time of day. He +was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste +for whiskey. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of +out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and +of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days' food. + +"If India was filled with men like you and me, not knowing more than the +crows where they'd get their next day's rations, it isn't seventy +millions of revenue the land would be paying--it's seven hundred +millions," said he; and as I looked at his mouth and chin I was disposed +to agree with him. + +We talked politics--the politics of Loaferdom that sees things from the +underside where the lath and plaster is not smoothed off--and we talked +postal arrangements because my friend wanted to send a telegram back +from the next station to Ajmir, the turning-off place from the Bombay to +the Mhow line as you travel westward. My friend had no money beyond +eight annas which he wanted for dinner, and I had no money at all, owing +to the hitch in the Budget before mentioned. Further, I was going into a +wilderness where, though I should resume touch with the Treasury, there +were no telegraph offices. I was, therefore, unable to help him in any +way. + +"We might threaten a Station-master, and make him send a wire on tick," +said my friend, "but that'd mean enquiries for you and for me, and +_I_'ve got my hands full these days. Did you say you were travelling +back along this line within any days?" + +"Within ten," I said. + +"Can't you make it eight?" said he. "Mine is rather urgent business." + +"I can send your telegram within ten days if that will serve you," I +said. + +"I couldn't trust the wire to fetch him now I think of it. It's this +way. He leaves Delhi on the 23rd for Bombay. That means he'll be running +through Ajmir about the night of the 23rd." + +"But I'm going into the Indian Desert," I explained. + +"Well _and_ good," said he. "You'll be changing at Marwar Junction to +get into Jodhpore territory--you must do that--and he'll be coming +through Marwar Junction in the early morning of the 24th by the Bombay +Mail. Can you be at Marwar Junction on that time? 'T won't be +inconveniencing you because I know that there's precious few pickings to +be got out of these Central India States--even though you pretend to be +correspondent or the _Backwoodsman_." + +"Have you ever tried that trick?" I asked. + +"Again and again, but the Residents find you out, and then you get +escorted to the Border before you've time to get your knife into them. +But about my friend here. I _must_ give him a word o' mouth to tell him +what's come to me or else he won't know where to go. I would take it +more than kind of you if you was to come out of Central India in time to +catch him at Marwar Junction, and say to him: 'He has gone South for the +week.' He'll know what that means. He's a big man with a red beard, and +a great swell he is. You'll find him sleeping like a gentleman with all +his luggage round him in a Second-class apartment. But don't you be +afraid. Slip down the window and say: 'He has gone South for the week,' +and he'll tumble. It's only cutting your time of stay in those parts by +two days. I ask you as a stranger--going to the West," he said with +emphasis. + +"Where have _you_ come from?" said I. + +"From the East," said he, "and I am hoping that you will give him the +message on the Square--for the sake of my Mother as well as your own." + +Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their +mothers; but for certain reasons, which will be fully apparent, I saw +fit to agree. + +"It's more than a little matter," said he, "and that's why I asked you +to do it--and now I know that I can depend on you doing it. A +Second-class carriage at Marwar Junction, and a red-haired man asleep in +it. You'll be sure to remember. I get out at the next station, and I +must hold on there till he comes or sends me what I want." + +"I'll give the message if I catch him," I said, "and for the sake of +your Mother as well as mine I'll give you a word of advice. Don't try to +run the Central India States just now as the correspondent of the +_Backwoodsman_. There's a real one knocking about here, and it might +lead to trouble." + +"Thank you," said he, simply, "and when will the swine be gone? I can't +starve because he's ruining my work. I wanted to get hold of the +Degumber Rajah down here about his father's widow, and give him a jump." + +"What did he do to his father's widow, then?" + +"Filled her up with red pepper and slippered her to death as she hung +from a beam. I found that out myself and I'm the only man that would +dare going into the State to get hush-money for it. They'll try to +poison me, same as they did in Chortumna when I went on the loot there. +But you'll give the man at Marwar Junction my message?" + +He got out at a little roadside station, and I reflected. I had heard, +more than once, of men personating correspondents of newspapers and +bleeding small Native States with threats of exposure, but I had never +met any of the caste before. They lead a hard life, and generally die +with great suddenness. The Native States have a wholesome horror of +English newspapers, which may throw light on their peculiar methods of +government, and do their best to choke correspondents with champagne, or +drive them out of their mind with four-in-hand barouches. They do not +understand that nobody cares a straw for the internal administration of +Native States so long as oppression and crime are kept within decent +limits, and the ruler is not drugged, drunk, or diseased from one end of +the year to the other. They are the dark places of the earth, full of +unimaginable cruelty, touching the Railway and the Telegraph on one +side, and, on the other, the days of Harun-al-Raschid. When I left the +train I did business with divers Kings, and in eight days passed through +many changes of life. Sometimes I wore dress-clothes and consorted with +Princes and Politicals, drinking from crystal and eating from silver. +Sometimes I lay out upon the ground and devoured what I could get, from +a plate made of leaves, and drank the running water, and slept under the +same rug as my servant. It was all in the day's work. + +Then I headed for the Great Indian Desert upon the proper date, as I had +promised, and the night Mail set me down at Marwar Junction, where a +funny little, happy-go-lucky, native-managed railway runs to Jodhpore. +The Bombay Mail from Delhi makes a short halt at Marwar. She arrived as +I got in, and I had just time to hurry to her platform and go down the +carriages. There was only one Second-class on the train. I slipped the +window and looked down upon a flaming red beard, half covered by a +railway rug. That was my man, fast asleep, and I dug him gently in the +ribs. He woke with a grunt and I saw his face in the light of the lamps. +It was a great and shining face. + +"Tickets again?" said he. + +"No," said I. "I am to tell you that he is gone South for the week. He +has gone South for the week!" + +The train had begun to move out. The red man rubbed his eyes. "He has +gone South for the week," he repeated. "Now that's just like his +impidence. Did he say that I was to give you anything? 'Cause I won't." + +"He didn't," I said and dropped away, and watched the red lights die out +in the dark. It was horribly cold because the wind was blowing off the +sands. I climbed into my own train--not an Intermediate carriage this +time--and went to sleep. + +If the man with the beard had given me a rupee I should have kept it as +a memento of a rather curious affair. But the consciousness of having +done my duty was my only reward. + +Later on I reflected that two gentlemen like my friends could not do any +good if they forgathered and personated correspondents of newspapers, +and might, if they blackmailed one of the little rat-trap states of +Central India or Southern Rajputana, get themselves into serious +difficulties. I therefore took some trouble to describe them as +accurately as I could remember to people who would be interested in +deporting them: and succeeded, so I was later informed, in having them +headed back from the Degumber borders. + +Then I became respectable, and returned to an Office where there were no +Kings and no incidents outside the daily manufacture of a newspaper. A +newspaper office seems to attract every conceivable sort of person, to +the prejudice of discipline. Zenana-mission ladies arrive, and beg that +the Editor will instantly abandon all his duties to describe a Christian +prize-giving in a back-slum of a perfectly inaccessible village; +Colonels who have been overpassed for command sit down and sketch the +outline of a series of ten, twelve, or twenty-four leading articles on +Seniority _versus_ Selection; missionaries wish to know why they have +not been permitted to escape from their regular vehicles of abuse and +swear at a brother-missionary under special patronage of the editorial +We; stranded theatrical companies troop up to explain that they cannot +pay for their advertisements, but on their return from New Zealand or +Tahiti will do so with interest; inventors of patent punkah-pulling +machines, carriage couplings and unbreakable swords and axle-trees call +with specifications in their pockets and hours at their disposal; +tea-companies enter and elaborate their prospectuses with the office +pens; secretaries of ball-committees clamor to have the glories of their +last dance more fully described; strange ladies rustle in and say: "I +want a hundred lady's cards printed _at once_, please," which is +manifestly part of an Editor's duty; and every dissolute ruffian that +ever tramped the Grand Trunk Road makes it his business to ask for +employment as a proof-reader. And, all the time, the telephone-bell is +ringing madly, and Kings are being killed on the Continent, and Empires +are saying--"You're another," and Mister Gladstone is calling down +brimstone upon the British Dominions, and the little black copy-boys are +whining "_kaa-pi chay-ha-yeh_" (copy wanted) like tired bees, and most +of the paper is as blank as Modred's shield. + +But that is the amusing part of the year. There are six other months +when none ever come to call, and the thermometer walks inch by inch up +to the top of the glass, and the office is darkened to just above +reading-light, and the press-machines are red-hot of touch, and nobody +writes anything but accounts of amusements in the Hill-stations or +obituary notices. Then the telephone becomes a tinkling terror, because +it tells you of the sudden deaths of men and women that you knew +intimately, and the prickly-heat covers you with a garment, and you sit +down and write: "A slight increase of sickness is reported from the +Khuda Janta Khan District. The outbreak is purely sporadic in its +nature, and, thanks to the energetic efforts of the District +authorities, is now almost at an end. It is, however, with deep regret +we record the death," etc. + +Then the sickness really breaks out, and the less recording and +reporting the better for the peace of the subscribers. But the Empires +and the Kings continue to divert themselves as selfishly as before, and +the Foreman thinks that a daily paper really ought to come out once in +twenty-four hours, and all the people at the Hill-stations in the middle +of their amusements say: "Good gracious! Why can't the paper be +sparkling? I'm sure there's plenty going on up here." + +That is the dark half of the moon, and, as the advertisements say, "must +be experienced to be appreciated." + +It was in that season, and a remarkably evil season, that the paper +began running the last issue of the week on Saturday night, which is to +say Sunday morning, after the custom of a London paper. This was a great +convenience, for immediately after the paper was put to bed, the dawn +would lower the thermometer from 96° to almost 84° for half an hour, and +in that chill--you have no idea how cold is 84° on the grass until you +begin to pray for it--a very tired man could get off to sleep ere the +heat roused him. + +One Saturday night it was my pleasant duty to put the paper to bed +alone. A King or courtier or a courtesan or a Community was going to die +or get a new Constitution, or do something that was important on the +other side of the world, and the paper was to be held open till the +latest possible minute in order to catch the telegram. + +It was a pitchy black night, as stifling as a June night can be, and the +_loo_, the red-hot wind from the westward, was booming among the +tinder-dry trees and pretending that the rain was on its heels. Now and +again a spot of almost boiling water would fall on the dust with the +flop of a frog, but all our weary world knew that was only pretence. It +was a shade cooler in the press-room than the office, so I sat there, +while the type ticked and clicked, and the night-jars hooted at the +windows, and the all but naked compositors wiped the sweat from their +foreheads, and called for water. The thing that was keeping us back, +whatever it was, would not come off, though the _loo_ dropped and the +last type was set, and the whole round earth stood still in the choking +heat, with its finger on its lip, to wait the event. I drowsed, and +wondered whether the telegraph was a blessing, and whether this dying +man, or struggling people, might be aware of the inconvenience the delay +was causing. There was no special reason beyond the heat and worry to +make tension, but, as the clock-hands crept up to three o'clock and the +machines spun their fly-wheels two and three times to see that all was +in order, before I said the word that would set them off, I could have +shrieked aloud. + +Then the roar and rattle of the wheels shivered the quiet into little +bits. I rose to go away, but two men in white clothes stood in front of +me. The first one said: "It's him!" The second said: "So it is!" And +they both laughed almost as loudly as the machinery roared, and mopped +their foreheads. "We seed there was a light burning across the road and +we were sleeping in that ditch there for coolness, and I said to my +friend here, 'The office is open. Let's come along and speak to him as +turned us back from the Degumber State,'" said the smaller of the two. +He was the man I had met in the Mhow train, and his fellow was the +red-bearded man of Marwar Junction. There was no mistaking the eyebrows +of the one or the beard of the other. + +I was not pleased, because I wished to go to sleep, not to squabble with +loafers. "What do you want?" I asked. + +"Half an hour's talk with you, cool and comfortable, in the office," +said the red-bearded man. "We'd _like_ some drink--the Contrack doesn't +begin yet, Peachey, so you needn't look--but what we really want is +advice. We don't want money. We ask you as a favor, because we found out +you did us a bad turn about Degumber State." + +I led from the press-room to the stifling office with the maps on the +walls, and the red-haired man rubbed his hands. "That's something like," +said he. "This was the proper shop to come to. Now, Sir, let me +introduce to you Brother Peachey Carnehan, that's him, and Brother +Daniel Dravot, that is _me_, and the less said about our professions the +better, for we have been most things in our time. Soldier, sailor, +compositor, photographer, proof-reader, street-preacher, and +correspondents of the _Backwoodsman_ when we thought the paper wanted +one. Carnehan is sober, and so am I. Look at us first, and see that's +sure. It will save you cutting into my talk. We'll take one of your +cigars apiece, and you shall see us light up." + +I watched the test. The men were absolutely sober, so I gave them each a +tepid whiskey and soda. + +"Well _and_ good," said Carnehan of the eyebrows, wiping the froth from +his moustache. "Let me talk now, Dan. We have been all over India, +mostly on foot. We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty +contractors, and all that, and we have decided that India isn't big +enough for such as us." + +They certainly were too big for the office. Dravot's beard seemed to +fill half the room and Carnehan's shoulders the other half, as they sat +on the big table. Carnehan continued: "The country isn't half worked out +because they that governs it won't let you touch it. They spend all +their blessed time in governing it, and you can't lift a spade, nor chip +a rock, nor look for oil, nor anything like that without all the +Government saying--'Leave it alone, and let us govern.' Therefore, such +_as_ it is, we will let it alone, and go away to some other place where +a man isn't crowded and can come to his own. We are not little men, and +there is nothing that we are afraid of except Drink, and we have signed +a Contrack on that. _Therefore_, we are going away to be Kings." + +"Kings in our own right," muttered Dravot. + +"Yes, of course," I said. "You've been tramping in the sun, and it's a +very warm night, and hadn't you better sleep over the notion? Come +to-morrow." + +"Neither drunk nor sunstruck," said Dravot. "We have slept over the +notion half a year, and require to see Books and Atlases, and we have +decided that there is only one place now in the world that two strong +men can sar-a-_whack_. They call it Kafiristan. By my reckoning it's the +top right-hand corner of Afghanistan, not more than three hundred miles +from Peshawar. They have two-and-thirty heathen idols there, and we'll +be the thirty-third and fourth. It's a mountaineous country, and the +women of those parts are very beautiful." + +"But that is provided against in the Contrack," said Carnehan. "Neither +Woman nor Liqu-or, Daniel." + +"And that's all we know, except that no one has gone there, and they +fight, and in any place where they fight a man who knows how to drill +men can always be a King. We shall go to those parts and say to any King +we find--'D' you want to vanquish your foes?' and we will show him how +to drill men; for that we know better than anything else. Then we will +subvert that King and seize his Throne and establish a Dy-nasty." + +"You'll be cut to pieces before you're fifty miles across the Border," I +said. "You have to travel through Afghanistan to get to that country. +It's one mass of mountains and peaks and glaciers, and no Englishman has +been through it. The people are utter brutes, and even if you reached +them you couldn't do anything." + +"That's more like," said Carnehan. "If you could think us a little more +mad we would be more pleased. We have come to you to know about this +country, to read a book about it, and to be shown maps. We want you to +tell us that we are fools and to show us your books." He turned to the +book-cases. + +"Are you at all in earnest?" I said. + +"A little," said Dravot, sweetly. "As big a map as you have got, even if +it's all blank where Kafiristan is, and any books you've got. We can +read, though we aren't very educated." + +I uncased the big thirty-two-miles-to-the-inch map of India, and two +smaller Frontier maps, hauled down volume INF-KAN of the _Encyclopædia +Britannica_, and the men consulted them. + +"See here!" said Dravot, his thumb on the map. "Up to Jagdallak, Peachey +and me know the road. We was there with Roberts's Army. We'll have to +turn off to the right at Jagdallak through Laghmann territory. Then we +get among the hills--fourteen thousand feet--fifteen thousand--it will +be cold work there, but it don't look very far on the map." + +I handed him Wood on the _Sources of the Oxus_. Carnehan was deep in the +_Encyclopædia_. + +"They're a mixed lot," said Dravot, reflectively; "and it won't help us +to know the names of their tribes. The more tribes the more they'll +fight, and the better for us. From Jagdallak to Ashang. H'mm!" + +"But all the information about the country is as sketchy and inaccurate +as can be," I protested. "No one knows anything about it really. Here's +the file of the _United Services' Institute_. Read what Bellew says." + +"Blow Bellew!" said Carnehan. "Dan, they're a stinkin' lot of heathens, +but this book here says they think they're related to us English." + +I smoked while the men pored over _Raverty, Wood_, the maps, and the +_Encyclopædia_. + +"There is no use your waiting," said Dravot, politely. "It's about four +o'clock now. We'll go before six o'clock if you want to sleep, and we +won't steal any of the papers. Don't you sit up. We're two harmless +lunatics, and if you come to-morrow evening down to the Serai we'll say +good-bye to you." + +"You _are_ two fools," I answered. "You'll be turned back at the +Frontier or cut up the minute you set foot in Afghanistan. Do you want +any money or a recommendation down-country? I can help you to the chance +of work next week." + +"Next week we shall be hard at work ourselves, thank you," said Dravot. +"It isn't so easy being a King as it looks. When we've got our Kingdom +in going order we'll let you know, and you can come up and help us to +govern it." + +"Would two lunatics make a Contrack like that?" said Carnehan, with +subdued pride, showing me a greasy half-sheet of notepaper on which was +written the following. I copied it, then and there, as a curiosity-- + + +_This Contract between me and you persuing witnesseth in the name of +God--Amen and so forth. + +(One) That me and you will settle this matter together; i.e., to be +Kings of Kafiristan. + +(Two) That you and me will not, while this matter is being settled, look +at any Liquor, nor any Woman black, white, or brown, so as to get mixed +up with one or the other harmful. + +(Three) That we conduct ourselves with Dignity and Discretion, and if +one of us gets into trouble the other will stay by him. + +Signed by you and me this day. +Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan. +Daniel Dravot. +Both Gentlemen at Large_. + + +"There was no need for the last article," said Carnehan, blushing +modestly; "but it looks regular. Now you know the sort of men that +loafers are--we _are_ loafers, Dan, until we get out of India--and _do_ +you think that we would sign a Contrack like that unless we was in +earnest? We have kept away from the two things that make life worth +having." + +"You won't enjoy your lives much longer if you are going to try this +idiotic adventure. Don't set the office on fire," I said, "and go away +before nine o'clock." + +I left them still poring over the maps and making notes on the back of +the "Contrack." "Be sure to come down to the Serai to-morrow," were +their parting words. + +The Kumharsen Serai is the great four-square sink of humanity where the +strings of camels and horses from the North load and unload. All the +nationalities of Central Asia may be found there, and most of the folk +of India proper. Balkh and Bokhara there meet Bengal and Bombay, and try +to draw eye-teeth. You can buy ponies, turquoises, Persian pussy-cats, +saddle-bags, fat-tailed sheep, and musk in the Kumharsen Serai, and get +many strange things for nothing. In the afternoon I went down to see +whether my friends intended to keep their word or were lying there +drunk. + +A priest attired in fragments of ribbons and rags stalked up to me, +gravely twisting a child's paper whirligig. Behind him was his servant +bending under the load of a crate of mud toys. The two were loading up +two camels, and the inhabitants of the Serai watched them with shrieks +of laughter. + +"The priest is mad," said a horse-dealer to me. "He is going up to Kabul +to sell toys to the Amir. He will either be raised to honor or have his +head cut off. He came in here this morning and has been behaving madly +ever since." + +"The witless are under the protection of God," stammered a flat-cheeked +Usbeg in broken Hindi. "They foretell future events." + +"Would they could have foretold that my caravan would have been cut up +by the Shinwaris almost within shadow of the Pass!" grunted the Eusufzai +agent of a Rajputana trading-house whose goods had been diverted into +the hands of other robbers just across the Border, and whose misfortunes +were the laughing-stock of the bazar. "Ohé, priest, whence come you and +whither do you go?" + +"From Roum have I come," shouted the priest, waving his whirligig; "from +Roum, blown by the breath of a hundred devils across the sea! O thieves, +robbers, liars, the blessing of Pir Khan on pigs, dogs, and perjurers! +Who will take the Protected of God to the North to sell charms that are +never still to the Amir? The camels shall not gall, the sons shall not +fall sick, and the wives shall remain faithful while they are away, of +the men who give me place in their caravan. Who will assist me to +slipper the King of the Roos with a golden slipper with a silver heel? +The protection of Pir Khan be upon his labors!" He spread out the skirts +of his gaberdine and pirouetted between the lines of tethered horses. + +"There starts a caravan from Peshawar to Kabul in twenty days, _Huzrut_" +said the Eusufzai trader. "My camels go therewith. Do thou also go and +bring us good-luck." + +"I will go even now!" shouted the priest. "I will depart upon my winged +camels, and be at Peshawar in a day! Ho! Hazar Mir Khan," he yelled to +his servant, "drive out the camels, but let me first mount my own." + +He leaped on the back of his beast as it knelt, and, turning round to +me, cried: "Come thou also, Sahib, a little along the road, and I will +sell thee a charm--an amulet that shall make thee King of Kafiristan." + +Then the light broke upon me, and I followed the two camels out of the +Serai till we reached open road and the priest halted. + +"What d'you think o' that?" said he in English. "Carnehan can't talk +their patter, so I've made him my servant. He makes a handsome servant. +'T isn't for nothing that I've been knocking about the country for +fourteen years. Didn't I do that talk neat? We'll hitch on to a caravan +at Peshawar till we get to Jagdallak, and then we'll see if we can get +donkeys for our camels, and strike into Kafiristan. Whirligigs for the +Amir, O Lor! Put your hand under the camel-bags and tell me what you +feel." + +I felt the butt of a Martini, and another and another. + +"Twenty of 'em," said Dravot, placidly. "Twenty of 'em and ammunition to +correspond, under the whirligigs and the mud dolls." + +"Heaven help you if you are caught with those things!" I said. "A +Martini is worth her weight in silver among the Pathans." + +"Fifteen hundred rupees of capital--every rupee we could beg, borrow, or +steal--are invested on these two camels," said Dravot. "We won't get +caught. We're going through the Khaiber with a regular caravan. Who'd +touch a poor mad priest?" + +"Have you got everything you want?" I asked, overcome with astonishment. + +"Not yet, but we shall soon. Give us a memento of your kindness, +_Brother_. You did me a service, yesterday, and that time in Marwar. +Half my Kingdom shall you have, as the saying is." I slipped a small +charm compass from my watch chain and handed it up to the priest. + +"Good-bye," said Dravot, giving me hand cautiously. "It's the last time +we'll shake hands with an Englishman these many days. Shake hands with +him, Carnehan," he cried, as the second camel passed me. + +Carnehan leaned down and shook hands. Then the camels passed away along +the dusty road, and I was left alone to wonder. My eye could detect no +failure in the disguises. The scene in the Serai proved that they were +complete to the native mind. There was just the chance, therefore, that +Carnehan and Dravot would be able to wander through Afghanistan without +detection. But, beyond, they would find death--certain and awful death. + +Ten days later a native correspondent giving me the news of the day from +Peshawar, wound up his letter with: "There has been much laughter here +on account of a certain mad priest who is going in his estimation to +sell petty gauds and insignificant trinkets which he ascribes as great +charms to H.H. the Amir of Bokhara. He passed through Peshawar and +associated himself to the Second Summer caravan that goes to Kabul. The +merchants are pleased because through superstition they imagine that +such mad fellows bring good-fortune." + +The two, then, were beyond the Border. I would have prayed for them, +but, that night, a real King died in Europe, and demanded an obituary +notice. + + * * * * * + +The wheel of the world swings through the same phases again and again. +Summer passed and winter thereafter, and came and passed again. The +daily paper continued and I with it, and upon the third summer there +fell a hot night, a night-issue, and a strained waiting for something to +be telegraphed from the other side of the world, exactly as had happened +before. A few great men had died in the past two years, the machines +worked with more clatter, and some of the trees in the Office garden +were a few feet taller. But that was all the difference. + +I passed over to the press-room, and went through just such a scene as I +have already described. The nervous tension was stronger than it had +been two years before, and I felt the heat more acutely. At three +o'clock I cried, "Print off," and turned to go, when there crept to my +chair what was left of a man. He was bent into a circle, his head was +sunk between his shoulders, and he moved his feet one over the other +like a bear. I could hardly see whether he walked or crawled--this +rag-wrapped, whining cripple who addressed me by name, crying that he +was come back. "Can you give me a drink?" he whimpered. "For the Lord's +sake, give me a drink!" + +I went back to the office, the man following with groans of pain, and I +turned up the lamp. + +"Don't you know me?" he gasped, dropping into a chair, and he turned his +drawn face, surmounted by a shock of gray hair, to the light. + +I looked at him intently. Once before had I seen eyebrows that met over +the nose in an inch-broad black band, but for the life of me I could not +tell where. + +"I don't know you," I said, handing him the whiskey. "What can I do for +you?" + +He took a gulp of the spirit raw, and shivered in spite of the +suffocating heat. + +"I've come back," he repeated; "and I was the King of Kafiristan--me and +Dravot--crowned Kings we was! In this office we settled it--you setting +there and giving us the books. I am Peachey--Peachey Taliaferro +Carnehan, and you've been setting here ever since--O Lord!" + +I was more than a little astonished, and expressed my feelings +accordingly. + +"It's true," said Carnehan, with a dry cackle, nursing his feet, which +were wrapped in rags. "True as gospel. Kings we were, with crowns upon +our heads--me and Dravot--poor Dan--oh, poor, poor Dan, that would never +take advice, not though I begged of him!" + +"Take the whiskey," I said, "and take your own time. Tell me all you can +recollect of everything from beginning to end. You got across the border +on your camels, Dravot dressed as a mad priest and you his servant. Do +you remember that?" + +"I ain't mad--yet, but I shall be that way soon. Of course I remember. +Keep looking at me, or maybe my words will go all to pieces. Keep +looking at me in my eyes and don't say anything." + +I leaned forward and looked into his face as steadily as I could. He +dropped one hand upon the table and I grasped it by the wrist. It was +twisted like a bird's claw, and upon the back was a ragged, red, +diamond-shaped scar. + +"No, don't look there. Look at _me_" said Carnehan. "That comes +afterwards, but for the Lord's sake don't distrack me. We left with that +caravan, me and Dravot playing all sorts of antics to amuse the people +we were with. Dravot used to make us laugh in the evenings when all the +people was cooking their dinners--cooking their dinners, and--what did +they do then? They lit little fires with sparks that went into Dravot's +beard, and we all laughed--fit to die. Little red fires they was, going +into Dravot's big red beard--so funny." His eyes left mine and he smiled +foolishly. + +"You went as far as Jagdallak with that caravan," I said at a venture, +"after you had lit those fires. To Jagdallak, where you turned off to +try to get into Kafiristan." + +"No, we didn't neither. What are you talking about? We turned off before +Jagdallak, because we heard the roads was good. But they wasn't good +enough for our two camels--mine and Dravot's. When we left the caravan, +Dravot took off all his clothes and mine too, and said we would be +heathen, because the Kafirs didn't allow Mohammedans to talk to them. So +we dressed betwixt and between, and such a sight as Daniel Dravot I +never saw yet nor expect to see again. He burned half his beard, and +slung a sheep-skin over his shoulder, and shaved his head into patterns. +He shaved mine, too, and made me wear outrageous things to look like a +heathen. That was in a most mountaineous country, and our camels +couldn't go along any more because of the mountains. They were tall and +black, and coming home I saw them fight like wild goats--there are lots +of goats in Kafiristan. And these mountains, they never keep still, no +more than the goats. Always fighting they are, and don't let you sleep +at night." + +"Take some more whiskey," I said, very slowly. "What did you and Daniel +Dravot do when the camels could go no further because of the rough roads +that led into Kafiristan?" + +"What did which do? There was a party called Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan +that was with Dravot. Shall I tell you about him? He died out there in +the cold. Slap from the bridge fell old Peachey, turning and twisting in +the air like a penny whirligig that you can sell to the Amir.--No; they +was two for three ha'pence, those whirligigs, or I am much mistaken and +woeful sore.--And then these camels were no use, and Peachey said to +Dravot--'For the Lord's sake let's get out of this before our heads are +chopped off,' and with that they killed the camels all among the +mountains, not having anything in particular to eat, but first they took +off the boxes with the guns and the ammunition, till two men came along +driving four mules. Dravot up and dances in front of them, +singing--'Sell me four mules.' Says the first man--'If you are rich +enough to buy, you are rich enough to rob;' but before ever he could put +his hand to his knife, Dravot breaks his neck over his knee, and the +other party runs away. So Carnehan loaded the mules with the rifles that +was taken off the camels, and together we starts forward into those +bitter cold mountaineous parts, and never a road broader than the back +of your hand." + +He paused for a moment, while I asked him if he could remember the +nature of the country through which he had journeyed. + +"I am telling you as straight as I can, but my head isn't as good as it +might be. They drove nails through it to make me hear better how Dravot +died. The country was mountaineous and the mules were most contrary, and +the inhabitants was dispersed and solitary. They went up and up, and +down and down, and that other party, Carnehan, was imploring of Dravot +not to sing and whistle so loud, for fear of bringing down the tremenjus +avalanches. But Dravot says that if a King couldn't sing it wasn't worth +being King, and whacked the mules over the rump, and never took no heed +for ten cold days. We came to a big level valley all among the +mountains, and the mules were near dead, so we killed them, not having +anything in special for them or us to eat. We sat upon the boxes, and +played odd and even with the cartridges that was jolted out. + +"Then ten men with bows and arrows ran down that valley, chasing twenty +men with bows and arrows, and the row was tremenjus. They was fair +men--fairer than you or me--with yellow hair and remarkable well built. +Says Dravot, unpacking the guns--'This is the beginning of the business. +We'll fight for the ten men,' and with that he fires two rifles at the +twenty men, and drops one of them at two hundred yards from the rock +where he was sitting. The other men began to run, but Carnehan and +Dravot sits on the boxes picking them off at all ranges, up and down the +valley. Then we goes up to the ten men that had run across the snow too, +and they fires a footy little arrow at us. Dravot he shoots above their +heads and they all falls down flat. Then he walks over them and kicks +them, and then he lifts them up and shakes hands all round to make them +friendly like. He calls them and gives them the boxes to carry, and +waves his hand for all the world as though he was King already. They +takes the boxes and him across the valley and up the hill into a pine +wood on the top, where there was half a dozen big stone idols. Dravot he +goes to the biggest--a fellow they call Imbra--and lays a rifle and a +cartridge at his feet, rubbing his nose respectful with his own nose, +patting him on the head, and saluting in front of it. He turns round to +the men and nods his head, and says--'That's all right. I'm in the know +too, and all these old jim-jams are my friends.' Then he opens his mouth +and points down it, and when the first man brings him food, he +says--'No;' and when the second man brings him food, he says--'No;' but +when one of the old priests and the boss of the village brings him food, +he says--'Yes,' very haughty, and eats it slow. That was how we came to +our first village, without any trouble, just as though we had tumbled +from the skies. But we tumbled from one of those damned rope-bridges, +you see, and--you couldn't expect a man to laugh much after that?" + +"Take some more whiskey and go on," I said. "That was the first village +you came into. How did you get to be King?" + +"I wasn't King," said Carnehan. "Dravot, he was the King, and a handsome +man he looked with the gold crown on his head and all. Him and the other +party stayed in that village, and every morning Dravot sat by the side +of old Imbra, and the people came and worshipped. That was Dravot's +order. Then a lot of men came into the valley, and Carnehan and Dravot +picks them off with the rifles before they knew where they was, and runs +down into the valley and up again the other side and finds another +village, same as the first one, and the people all falls down flat on +their faces, and Dravot says--'Now what is the trouble between you two +villages?' and the people points to a woman, as fair as you or me, that +was carried off, and Dravot takes her back to the first village and +counts up the dead--eight there was. For each dead man Dravot pours a +little milk on the ground and waves his arms like a whirligig and +'That's all right,' says he. Then he and Carnehan takes the big boss of +each village by the arm and walks them down into the valley, and shows +them how to scratch a line with a spear right down the valley, and gives +each a sod of turf from both sides of the line. Then all the people +comes down and shouts like the devil and all, and Dravot says--'Go and +dig the land, and be fruitful and multiply,' which they did, though they +didn't understand. Then we asks the names of things in their +lingo--bread and water and fire and idols and such, and Dravot leads the +priest of each village up to the idol, and says he must sit there and +judge the people, and if anything goes wrong he is to be shot. + +"Next week they was all turning up the land in the valley as quiet as +bees and much prettier, and the priests heard all the complaints and +told Dravot in dumb show what it was about. 'That's just the beginning,' +says Dravot. 'They think we're Gods.' He and Carnehan picks out twenty +good men and shows them how to click off a rifle, and form fours, and +advance in line, and they was very pleased to do so, and clever to see +the hang of it. Then he takes out his pipe and his baccy-pouch and +leaves one at one village, and one at the other, and off we two goes to +see what was to be done in the next valley. That was all rock, and there +was a little village there, and Carnehan says--'Send 'em to the old +valley to plant,' and takes 'em there and gives 'em some land that +wasn't took before. They were a poor lot, and we blooded 'em with a kid +before letting 'em into the new Kingdom. That was to impress the people, +and then they settled down quiet, and Carnehan went back to Dravot who +had got into another valley, all snow and ice and most mountaineous. +There was no people there and the Army got afraid, so Dravot shoots one +of them, and goes on till he finds some people in a village, and the +Army explains that unless the people wants to be killed they had better +not shoot their little matchlocks; for they had matchlocks. We makes +friends with the priest and I stays there alone with two of the Army, +teaching the men how to drill, and a thundering big Chief comes across +the snow with kettle-drums and horns twanging, because he heard there +was a new God kicking about. Carnehan sights for the brown of the men +half a mile across the snow and wings one of them. Then he sends a +message to the Chief that, unless he wished to be killed, he must come +and shake hands with me and leave his arms behind. The Chief comes alone +first, and Carnehan shakes hands with him and whirls his arms about, +same as Dravot used, and very much surprised that Chief was, and strokes +my eyebrows. Then Carnehan goes alone to the Chief, and asks him in dumb +show if he had an enemy he hated. 'I have,' says the Chief. So Carnehan +weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them +drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as +Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top +of a mountain, and the Chief's men rushes into a village and takes it; +we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy. So we took that +village too, and I gives the Chief a rag from my coat and says, 'Occupy +till I come;' which was scriptural. By way of a reminder, when me and +the Army was eighteen hundred yards away, I drops a bullet near him +standing on the snow, and all the people falls flat on their faces. Then +I sends a letter to Dravot wherever he be by land or by sea." + +At the risk of throwing the creature out of train I interrupted--"How +could you write a letter up yonder?" + +"The letter?--Oh!--The letter! Keep looking at me between the eyes, +please. It was a string-talk letter, that we'd learned the way of it +from a blind beggar in the Punjab." + +I remember that there had once come to the office a blind man with a +knotted twig and a piece of string which he wound round the twig +according to some cipher of his own. He could, after the lapse of days +or hours, repeat the sentence which he had reeled up. He had reduced the +alphabet to eleven primitive sounds; and tried to teach me his method, +but I could not understand. + +"I sent that letter to Dravot," said Carnehan; "and told him to come +back because this Kingdom was growing too big for me to handle, and then +I struck for the first valley, to see how the priests were working. They +called the village we took along with the Chief, Bashkai, and the first +village we took, Er-Heb. The priests at Er-Heb was doing all right, but +they had a lot of pending cases about land to show me, and some men from +another village had been firing arrows at night. I went out and looked +for that village, and fired four rounds at it from a thousand yards. +That used all the cartridges I cared to spend, and I waited for Dravot, +who had been away two or three months, and I kept my people quiet. + +"One morning I heard the devil's own noise of drums and horns, and Dan +Dravot marches down the hill with his Army and a tail of hundreds of +men, and, which was the most amazing, a great gold crown on his head. +'My Gord, Carnehan,' says Daniel, 'this is a tremenjus business, and +we've got the whole country as far as it's worth having. I am the son of +Alexander by Queen Semiramis, and you're my younger brother and a God +too! It's the biggest thing we've ever seen. I've been marching and +fighting for six weeks with the Army, and every footy little village for +fifty miles has come in rejoiceful; and more than that, I've got the key +of the whole show, as you'll see, and I've got a crown for you! I told +'em to make two of 'em at a place called Shu, where the gold lies in the +rock like suet in mutton. Gold I've seen, and turquoise I've kicked out +of the cliffs, and there's garnets in the sands of the river, and here's +a chunk of amber that a man brought me. Call up all the priests and, +here, take your crown.' + +"One of the men opens a black hair bag, and I slips the crown on. It was +too small and too heavy, but I wore it for the glory. Hammered gold it +was--five pound weight, like a hoop of a barrel. + +"'Peachey,' says Dravot, 'we don't want to fight no more. The Craft's +the trick, so help me!' and he brings forward that same Chief that I +left at Bashkai--Billy Fish we called him afterwards, because he was so +like Billy Fish that drove the big tank-engine at Mach on the Bolan in +the old days. 'Shake hands with him,' says Dravot, and I shook hands and +nearly dropped, for Billy Fish gave me the Grip. I said nothing, but +tried him with the Fellow Craft Grip. He answers, all right, and I tried +the Master's Grip, but that was a slip. 'A Fellow Craft he is!' I says +to Dan. 'Does he know the word?'--'He does,' says Dan, 'and all the +priests know. It's a miracle! The Chiefs and the priests can work a +Fellow Craft Lodge in a way that's very like ours, and they've cut the +marks on the rocks, but they don't know the Third Degree, and they've +come to find out. It's Gord's Truth. I've known these long years that +the Afghans knew up to the Fellow Craft Degree, but this is a miracle. A +God and a Grand-Master of the Craft am I, and a Lodge in the Third +Degree I will open, and we'll raise the head priests and the Chiefs of +the villages.' + +"'It's against all the law,' I says, 'holding a Lodge without warrant +from any one; and you know we never held office in any Lodge.' + +"'It's a master-stroke o' policy,' says Dravot. 'It means running the +country as easy as a four-wheeled bogie on a down grade. We can't stop +to inquire now, or they'll turn against us. I've forty Chiefs at my +heel, and passed and raised according to their merit they shall be. +Billet these men on the villages, and see that we run up a Lodge of some +kind. The temple of Imbra will do for the Lodge-room. The women must +make aprons as you show them. I'll hold a levee of Chiefs to-night and +Lodge to-morrow.' + +"I was fair run off my legs, but I wasn't such a fool as not to see what +a pull this Craft business gave us. I showed the priests' families how +to make aprons of the degrees, but for Dravot's apron the blue border +and marks was made of turquoise lumps on white hide, not cloth. We took +a great square stone in the temple for the Master's chair, and little +stones for the officers' chairs, and painted the black pavement with +white squares, and did what we could to make things regular. + +"At the levee which was held that night on the hillside with big +bonfires, Dravot gives out that him and me were Gods and sons of +Alexander, and Past Grand-Masters in the Craft, and was come to make +Kafiristan a country where every man should eat in peace and drink in +quiet, and specially obey us. Then the Chiefs come round to shake hands, +and they were so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with +old friends. We gave them names according as they was like men we had +known in India--Billy Fish, Holly Dilworth, Pikky Kergan, that was +Bazar-master when I was at Mhow, and so on, and so on. + +"_The_ most amazing miracles was at Lodge next night. One of the old +priests was watching us continuous, and I felt uneasy, for I knew we'd +have to fudge the Ritual, and I didn't know what the men knew. The old +priest was a stranger come in from beyond the village of Bashkai. The +minute Dravot puts on the Master's apron that the girls had made for +him, the priest fetches a whoop and a howl, and tries to overturn the +stone that Dravot was sitting on. 'It's all up now,' I says. 'That comes +of meddling with the Craft without warrant!' Dravot never winked an eye, +not when ten priests took and tilted over the Grand-Master's +chair--which was to say the stone of Imbra. The priest begins rubbing +the bottom end of it to clear away the black dirt, and presently he +shows all the other priests the Master's Mark, same as was on Dravot's +apron, cut into the stone. Not even the priests of the temple of Imbra +knew it was there. The old chap falls flat on his face at Dravot's feet +and kisses 'em. 'Luck again,' says Dravot, across the Lodge to me, 'they +say it's the missing Mark that no one could understand the why of. We're +more than safe now.' Then he bangs the butt of his gun for a gavel and +says: 'By virtue of the authority vested in me by my own right hand and +the help of Peachey, I declare myself Grand-Master of all Freemasonry in +Kafiristan in this the Mother Lodge o' the country, and King of +Kafiristan equally with Peachey!' At that he puts on his crown and I +puts on mine--I was doing Senior Warden--and we opens the Lodge in most +ample form. It was a amazing miracle! The priests moved in Lodge through +the first two degrees almost without telling, as if the memory was +coming back to them. After that, Peachey and Dravot raised such as was +worthy--high priests and Chiefs of far-off villages. Billy Fish was the +first, and I can tell you we scared the soul out of him. It was not in +any way according to Ritual, but it served our turn. We didn't raise +more than ten of the biggest men, because we didn't want to make the +Degree common. And they was clamoring to be raised. + +"'In another six months,' says Dravot, 'we'll hold another +Communication, and see how you are working.' Then he asks them about +their villages, and learns that they was fighting one against the other, +and were sick and tired of it. And when they wasn't doing that they was +fighting with the Mohammedans. 'You can fight those when they come into +our country,' says Dravot. 'Tell off every tenth man of your tribes for +a Frontier guard, and send two hundred at a time to this valley to be +drilled. Nobody is going to be shot or speared any more so long as he +does well, and I know that you won't cheat me, because you're white +people--sons of Alexander--and not like common, black Mohammedans. You +are _my_ people, and by God,' says he, running off into English at the +end--'I'll make a damned fine Nation of you, or I'll die in the making!' + +"I can't tell all we did for the next six months, because Dravot did a +lot I couldn't see the hang of, and he learned their lingo in a way I +never could. My work was to help the people plough, and now and again go +out with some of the Army and see what the other villages were doing, +and make 'em throw rope-bridges across the ravines which cut up the +country horrid. Dravot was very kind to me, but when he walked up and +down in the pine wood pulling that bloody red beard of his with both +fists I knew he was thinking plans I could not advise about, and I just +waited for orders. + +"But Dravot never showed me disrespect before the people. They were +afraid of me and the Army, but they loved Dan. He was the best of +friends with the priests and the Chiefs; but any one could come across +the hills with a complaint, and Dravot would hear him out fair, and call +four priests together and say what was to be done. He used to call in +Billy Fish from Bashkai, and Pikky Kergan from Shu, and an old Chief we +call Kafuzelum--it was like enough to his real name--and hold councils +with 'em when there was any fighting to be done in small villages. That +was his Council of War, and the four priests of Bashkai, Shu, Khawak, +and Madora was his Privy Council. Between the lot of 'em they sent me, +with forty men and twenty rifles, and sixty men carrying turquoises, +into the Ghorband country to buy those hand-made Martini rifles, that +come out of the Amir's workshops at Kabul, from one of the Amir's Herati +regiments that would have sold the very teeth out of their mouths for +turquoises. + +"I stayed in Ghorband a month, and gave the Governor there the pick of +my baskets for hush-money, and bribed the Colonel of the regiment some +more, and, between the two and the tribes-people, we got more than a +hundred hand-made Martinis, a hundred good Kohat Jezails that'll throw +to six hundred yards, and forty man-loads of very bad ammunition for the +rifles. I came back with what I had, and distributed 'em among the men +that the Chiefs sent in to me to drill. Dravot was too busy to attend to +those things, but the old Army that we first made helped me, and we +turned out five hundred men that could drill, and two hundred that knew +how to hold arms pretty straight. Even those cork-screwed, hand-made +guns was a miracle to them. Dravot talked big about powder-shops and +factories, walking up and down in the pine wood when the winter was +coming on. + +"'I won't make a Nation,' says he. 'I'll make an Empire! These men +aren't niggers; they're English! Look at their eyes--look at their +mouths. Look at the way they stand up. They sit on chairs in their own +houses. They're the Lost Tribes, or something like it, and they've grown +to be English. I'll take a census in the spring if the priests don't get +frightened. There must be a fair two million of 'em in these hills. The +villages are full o' little children. Two million people--two hundred +and fifty thousand fighting men--and all English! They only want the +rifles and a little drilling. Two hundred and fifty thousand men, ready +to cut in on Russia's right flank when she tries for India! Peachey, +man,' he says, chewing his beard in great hunks, 'we shall be +Emperors--Emperors of the Earth! Rajah Brooke will be a suckling to us. +I'll treat with the Viceroy on equal terms. I'll ask him to send me +twelve picked English--twelve that I know of--to help us govern a bit. +There's Mackray, Sergeant-pensioner at Segowli--many's the good dinner +he's given me, and his wife a pair of trousers. There's Donkin, the +Warder of Tounghoo Jail; there's hundreds that I could lay my hand on if +I was in India. The Viceroy shall do it for me, I'll send a man through +in the spring for those men, and I'll write for a dispensation from the +Grand Lodge for what I've done as Grand-Master. That--and all the +Sniders that'll be thrown out when the native troops in India take up +the Martini. They'll be worn smooth, but they'll do for fighting in +these hills. Twelve English, a hundred thousand Sniders run through the +Amir's country in dribblets--I'd be content with twenty thousand in one +year--and we'd be an Empire. When everything was shipshape, I'd hand +over the crown--this crown I'm wearing now--to Queen Victoria on my +knees, and she'd say: "Rise up, Sir Daniel Dravot." Oh, it's big! It's +big, I tell you! But there's so much to be done in every place--Bashkai, +Khawak, Shu, and everywhere else.' + +"'What is it?' I says. 'There are no more men coming in to be drilled +this autumn. Look at those fat black clouds. They're bringing the snow.' + +"'It isn't that,' says Daniel, putting his hand very hard on my +shoulder; 'and I don't wish to say anything that's against you, for no +other living man would have followed me and made me what I am as you +have done. You're a first-class Commander-in-Chief, and the people know +you; but--it's a big country, and somehow you can't help me, Peachey, in +the way I want to be helped.' + +"'Go to your blasted priests, then!' I said, and I was sorry when I made +that remark, but it did hurt me sore to find Daniel talking so superior +when I'd drilled all the men, and done all he told me. + +"'Don't let's quarrel, Peachey,' says Daniel, without cursing. 'You're a +King too, and the half of this Kingdom is yours; but can't you see, +Peachey, we want cleverer men than us now--three or four of 'em, that we +can scatter about for our Deputies. It's a hugeous great State, and I +can't always tell the right thing to do, and I haven't time for all I +want to do, and here's the winter coming on and all.' He put half his +beard into his mouth, all red like the gold of his crown. + +"'I'm sorry, Daniel,' says I. 'I've done all I could. I've drilled the +men and shown the people how to stack their oats better; and I've +brought in those tinware rifles from Ghorband--but I know what you're +driving at. I take it Kings always feel oppressed that way.' + +"'There's another thing too,' says Dravot, walking up and down. 'The +winter's coming and these people won't be giving much trouble, and if +they do we can't move about. I want a wife.' + +"'For Gord's sake leave the women alone!' I says. 'We've both got all +the work we can, though I _am_ a fool. Remember the Contrack, and keep +clear o' women.' + +"The Contrack only lasted till such time as we was Kings; and Kings we +have been these months past,' says Dravot, weighing his crown in his +hand. 'You go get a wife too, Peachey--a nice, strappin', plump girl +that'll keep you warm in the winter. They're prettier than English +girls, and we can take the pick of 'em. Boil 'em once or twice in hot +water, and they'll come out like chicken and ham.' + +"'Don't tempt me!' I says. 'I will not have any dealings with a woman +not till we are a dam' side more settled than we are now. I've been +doing the work o' two men, and you've been doing the work o' three. +Let's lie off a bit, and see if we can get some better tobacco from +Afghan country and run in some good liquor; but no women.' + +"'Who's talking o' _women_?' says Dravot. 'I said _wife_--a Queen to +breed a King's son for the King. A Queen out of the strongest tribe, +that'll make them your blood-brothers, and that'll lie by your side and +tell you all the people thinks about you and their own affairs. That's +what I want.' + +"'Do you remember that Bengali woman I kept at Mogul Serai when I was a +plate-layer?' says I. 'A fat lot o' good she was to me. She taught me +the lingo and one or two other things; but what happened? She ran away +with the Station Master's servant and half my month's pay. Then she +turned up at Dadur Junction in tow of a half-caste, and had the +impidence to say I was her husband--all among the drivers in the +running-shed too!' + +"'We've done with that,' says Dravot, 'these women are whiter than you +or me, and a Queen I will have for the winter months.' + +"'For the last time o' asking, Dan, do _not_,' I says. 'It'll only bring +us harm. The Bible says that Kings ain't to waste their strength on +women, 'specially when they've got a new raw Kingdom to work over.' + +"'For the last time of answering I will,' said Dravot, and he went away +through the pine-trees looking like a big red devil, the sun being on +his crown and beard and all. + +"But getting a wife was not as easy as Dan thought. He put it before the +Council, and there was no answer till Billy Fish said that he'd better +ask the girls. Dravot damned them all round. 'What's wrong with me?' he +shouts, standing by the idol Imbra. 'Am I a dog or am I not enough of a +man for your wenches? Haven't I put the shadow of my hand over this +country? Who stopped the last Afghan raid?' It was me really, but Dravot +was too angry to remember. 'Who bought your guns? Who repaired the +bridges? Who's the Grand-Master of the sign cut in the stone?' says he, +and he thumped his hand on the block that he used to sit on in Lodge, +and at Council, which opened like Lodge always. Billy Fish said nothing +and no more did the others. 'Keep your hair on, Dan,' said I; 'and ask +the girls. That's how it's done at Home, and these people are quite +English.' + +"'The marriage of the King is a matter of State,' says Dan, in a +white-hot rage, for he could feel, I hope, that he was going against his +better mind. He walked out of the Council-room, and the others sat +still, looking at the ground. + +"'Billy Fish,' says I to the Chief of Bashkai, 'what's the difficulty +here? A straight answer to a true friend.' + +"'You know,' says Billy Fish. 'How should a man tell you who knows +everything? How can daughters of men marry Gods or Devils? It's not +proper.' + +"I remembered something like that in the Bible; but if, after seeing us +as long as they had, they still believed we were Gods, it wasn't for me +to undeceive them. + +"'A God can do anything,' says I. 'If the King is fond of a girl he'll +not let her die.'--'She'll have to,' said Billy Fish. 'There are all +sorts of Gods and Devils in these mountains, and now and again a girl +marries one of them and isn't seen any more. Besides, you two know the +Mark cut in the stone. Only the Gods know that. We thought you were men +till you showed the sign of the Master.' + +"I wished then that we had explained about the loss of the genuine +secrets of a Master-Mason at the first go-off; but I said nothing. All +that night there was a blowing of horns in a little dark temple half-way +down the hill, and I heard a girl crying fit to die. One of the priests +told us that she was being prepared to marry the King. + +"'I'll have no nonsense of that kind,' says Dan. 'I don't want to +interfere with your customs, but I'll take my own wife.'--'The girl's a +little bit afraid,' says the priest. 'She thinks she's going to die, and +they are a-heartening of her up down in the temple.' + +"'Hearten her very tender, then,' says Dravot, 'or I'll hearten you with +the butt of a gun so you'll never want to be heartened again.' He licked +his lips, did Dan, and stayed up walking about more than half the night, +thinking of the wife that he was going to get in the morning. I wasn't +by any means comfortable, for I knew that dealings with a woman in +foreign parts, though you was a crowned King twenty times over, could +not but be risky. I got up very early in the morning while Dravot was +asleep, and I saw the priests talking together in whispers, and the +Chiefs talking together too, and they looked at me out of the corners of +their eyes. + +"'What is up, Fish?' I say to the Bashkai man, who was wrapped up in his +furs and looking splendid to behold. + +"'I can't rightly say,' says he; 'but if you can make the King drop all +this nonsense about marriage, you'll be doing him and me and yourself a +great service.' + +"'That I do believe,' says I. 'But sure, you know, Billy, as well as me, +having fought against and for us, that the King and me are nothing more +than two of the finest men that God Almighty ever made. Nothing more, I +do assure you.' + +"'That may be,' says Billy Fish, 'and yet I should be sorry if it was.' +He sinks his head upon his great fur cloak for a minute and thinks. +'King,' says he, 'be you man or God or Devil, I'll stick by you to-day. +I have twenty of my men with me, and they will follow me. We'll go to +Bashkai until the storm blows over.' + +"A little snow had fallen in the night, and everything was white except +the greasy fat clouds that blew down and down from the north. Dravot +came out with his crown on his head, swinging his arms and stamping his +feet, and looking more pleased than Punch. + +"'For the last time, drop it, Dan,' says I in a whisper, 'Billy Fish here +says that there will be a row.' + +"'A row among my people!' says Dravot. 'Not much. Peachey, you're a fool +not to get a wife too. Where's the girl?' says he with a voice as loud +as the braying of a jackass. 'Call up all the Chiefs and priests, and +let the Emperor see if his wife suits him.' + +"There was no need to call any one. They were all there leaning on their +guns and spears round the clearing in the centre of the pine wood. A lot +of priests went down to the little temple to bring up the girl, and the +horns blew fit to wake the dead. Billy Fish saunters round and gets as +close to Daniel as he could, and behind him stood his twenty men with +matchlocks. Not a man of them under six feet. I was next to Dravot, and +behind me was twenty men of the regular Army. Up comes the girl, and a +strapping wench she was, covered with silver and turquoises but white as +death, and looking back every minute at the priests. + +"'She'll do,' said Dan, looking her over. 'What's to be afraid of, lass? +Come and kiss me.' He puts his arm round her. She shuts her eyes, gives +a bit of a squeak, and down goes her face in the side of Dan's flaming +red beard. + +"'The slut's bitten me!' says he, clapping his hand to his neck, and, +sure enough, his hand was red with blood. Billy Fish and two of his +matchlock-men catches hold of Dan by the shoulders and drags him into +the Bashkai lot, while the priests howls in their lingo,--'Neither God +nor Devil but a man!' I was all taken aback, for a priest cut at me in +front, and the Army behind began firing into the Bashkai men. + +"'God A'mighty!' says Dan. 'What is the meaning o' this?' + +"'Come back! Come away!' says Billy Fish. 'Ruin and Mutiny is the +matter. We'll break for Bashkai if we can.' + +"I tried to give some sort of orders to my men--the men o' the regular +Army--but it was no use, so I fired into the brown of 'em with an +English Martini and drilled three beggars in a line. The valley was full +of shouting, howling creatures, and every soul was shrieking, 'Not a God +nor a Devil but only a man!' The Bashkai troops stuck to Billy Fish all +they were worth, but their matchlocks wasn't half as good as the Kabul +breech-loaders, and four of them dropped. Dan was bellowing like a bull, +for he was very wrathy; and Billy Fish had a hard job to prevent him +running out at the crowd. + +"'We can't stand,' says Billy Fish. 'Make a run for it down the valley! +The whole place is against us.' The matchlock-men ran, and we went down +the valley in spite of Dravot. He was swearing horrible and crying out +he was a King. The priests rolled great stones on us, and the regular +Army fired hard, and there wasn't more than six men, not counting Dan, +Billy Fish, and Me, that came down to the bottom of the valley alive. + +"Then they stopped firing and the horns in the temple blew again. 'Come +away--for Gord's sake come away!' says Billy Fish. 'They'll send runners +out to all the villages before ever we get to Bashkai. I can protect you +there, but I can't do anything now.' + +"My own notion is that Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour. +He stared up and down like a stuck pig. Then he was all for walking back +alone and killing the priests with his bare hands; which he could have +done. 'An Emperor am I,' says Daniel, 'and next year I shall be a Knight +of the Queen.' + +"'All right, Dan,' says I; 'but come along now while there's time.' + +"'It's your fault,' says he, 'for not looking after your Army better. +There was mutiny in the midst, and you didn't know--you damned +engine-driving, plate-laying, missionary's-pass-hunting hound!' He sat +upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to. I was +too heart-sick to care, though it was all his foolishness that brought +the smash. + +"'I'm sorry, Dan,' says I, 'but there's no accounting for natives. This +business is our Fifty-Seven. Maybe we'll make something out of it yet, +when we've got to Bashkai.' + +"'Let's get to Bashkai, then,' says Dan, 'and, by God, when I come back +here again I'll sweep the valley so there isn't a bug in a blanket +left!' + +"We walked all that day, and all that night Dan was stumping up and down +on the snow, chewing his beard and muttering to himself. + +"'There's no hope o' getting clear,' said Billy Fish. 'The priests will +have sent runners to the villages to say that you are only men. Why +didn't you stick on as Gods till things was more settled? I'm a dead +man,' says Billy Fish, and he throws himself down on the snow and begins +to pray to his Gods. + +"Next morning we was in a cruel bad country--all up and down, no level +ground at all, and no food either. The six Bashkai men looked at Billy +Fish hungryway as if they wanted to ask something, but they said never a +word. At noon we came to the top of a flat mountain all covered with +snow, and when we climbed up into it, behold, there was an Army in +position waiting in the middle! + +"'The runners have been very quick,' says Billy Fish, with a little bit +of a laugh. 'They are waiting for us.' + +"Three or four men began to fire from the enemy's side, and a chance +shot took Daniel in the calf of the leg. That brought him to his senses. +He looks across the snow at the Army, and sees the rifles that we had +brought into the country. + +"'We're done for,' says he. 'They are Englishmen, these people,--and +it's my blasted nonsense that has brought you to this. Get back, Billy +Fish, and take your men away; you've done what you could, and now cut +for it. Carnehan,' says he, 'shake hands with me and go along with +Billy. Maybe they won't kill you. I'll go and meet 'em alone. It's me +that did it. Me, the King!' + +"'Go!' says I. 'Go to Hell, Dan. I am with you here. Billy Fish, you +clear out, and we two will meet those folk.' + +"'I'm a Chief,' says Billy Fish, quite quiet. 'I stay with you. My men +can go.' + +"The Bashkai fellows didn't wait for a second word but ran off, and Dan +and Me and Billy Fish walked across to where the drums were drumming and +the horns were horning. It was cold--awful cold. I've got that cold in +the back of my head now. There's a lump of it there." + +The punkah-coolies had gone to sleep. Two kerosene lamps were blazing in +the office, and the perspiration poured down my face and splashed on the +blotter as I leaned forward. Carnehan was shivering, and I feared that +his mind might go. I wiped my face, took a fresh grip of the piteously +mangled hands, and said: "What happened after that?" + +The momentary shift of my eyes had broken the clear current. + +"What was you pleased to say?" whined Carnehan. "They took them without +any sound. Not a little whisper all along the snow, not though the King +knocked down the first man that set hand on him--not though old Peachey +fired his last cartridge into the brown of 'em. Not a single solitary +sound did those swines make. They just closed up tight, and I tell you +their furs stunk. There was a man called Billy Fish, a good friend of us +all, and they cut his throat, Sir, then and there, like a pig; and the +King kicks up the bloody snow and says: 'We've had a dashed fine run for +our money. What's coming next?' But Peachey, Peachey Taliaferro, I tell +you, Sir, in confidence as betwixt two friends, he lost his head, Sir. +No, he didn't neither. The King lost his head, so he did, all along o' +one of those cunning rope-bridges. Kindly let me have the paper-cutter, +Sir. It tilted this way. They marched him a mile across that snow to a +rope-bridge over a ravine with a river at the bottom. You may have seen +such. They prodded him behind like an ox. 'Damn your eyes!' says the +King. 'D' you suppose I can't die like a gentleman?' He turns to +Peachey--Peachey that was crying like a child. 'I've brought you to +this, Peachey,' says he. 'Brought you out of your happy life to be +killed in Kafiristan, where you was late Commander-in-Chief of the +Emperor's forces. Say you forgive me, Peachey.'--'I do,' says Peachey. +'Fully and freely do I forgive you, Dan.'--'Shake hands, Peachey,' says +he. 'I'm going now.' Out he goes, looking neither right nor left, and +when he was plumb in the middle of those dizzy dancing ropes,--'Cut, you +beggars,' he shouts; and they cut, and old Dan fell, turning round and +round and round, twenty thousand miles, for he took half an hour to fall +till he struck the water, and I could see his body caught on a rock with +the gold crown close beside. + +"But do you know what they did to Peachey between two pine-trees? They +crucified him, Sir, as Peachey's hand will show. They used wooden pegs +for his hands and his feet; and he didn't die. He hung there and +screamed, and they took him down next day, and said it was a miracle +that he wasn't dead. They took him down--poor old Peachey that hadn't +done them any harm--that hadn't done them any--" + +He rocked to and fro and wept bitterly, wiping his eyes with the back of +his scarred hands and moaning like a child for some ten minutes. + +"They was cruel enough to feed him up in the temple, because they said +he was more of a God than old Daniel that was a man. Then they turned +him out on the snow, and told him to go home, and Peachey came home in +about a year, begging along the roads quite safe; for Daniel Dravot he +walked before and said: 'Come along, Peachey. It's a big thing we're +doing.' The mountains they danced at night, and the mountains they tried +to fall on Peachey's head, but Dan he held up his hand, and Peachey came +along bent double. He never let go of Dan's hand, and he never let go of +Dan's head. They gave it to him as a present in the temple, to remind +him not to come again, and though the crown was pure gold, and Peachey +was starving, never would Peachey sell the same. You knew Dravot, Sir! +You knew Right Worshipful Brother Dravot! Look at him now!" + +He fumbled in the mass of rags round his bent waist; brought out a black +horsehair bag embroidered with silver thread; and shook therefrom on to +my table--the dried, withered head of Daniel Dravot! The morning sun +that had long been paling the lamps struck the red beard and blind +sunken eyes; struck, too, a heavy circlet of gold studded with raw +turquoises, that Carnehan placed tenderly on the battered temples. + +"You be'old now," said Carnehan, "the Emperor in his 'abit as he +lived--the King of Kafiristan with his crown upon his head. Poor old +Daniel that was a monarch once!" + +I shuddered, for, in spite of defacements manifold, I recognized the +head of the man of Marwar Junction. Carnehan rose to go. I attempted to +stop him. He was not fit to walk abroad. "Let me take away the whiskey, +and give me a little money," he gasped. "I was a King once. I'll go to +the Deputy Commissioner and ask to set in the Poorhouse till I get my +health. No, thank you, I can't wait till you get a carriage for me. I've +urgent private affairs--in the south--at Marwar." + +He shambled out of the office and departed in the direction of the +Deputy Commissioner's house. That day at noon I had occasion to go down +the blinding hot Mall, and I saw a crooked man crawling along the white +dust of the roadside, his hat in his hand, quavering dolorously after +the fashion of street singers at Home. There was not a soul in sight, +and he was out of all possible earshot of the houses. And he sang +through his nose, turning his head from right to left: + +The Son of Man goes forth to war, + A golden crown to gain; +His blood-red banner streams afar-- + Who follows in his train? + +I waited to hear no more, but put the poor wretch into my carriage and +drove him off to the nearest missionary for eventual transfer to the +Asylum. He repeated the hymn twice while he was with me whom he did not +in the least recognize, and I left him singing it to the missionary. + +Two days later I inquired after his welfare of the Superintendent of the +Asylum. + +"He was admitted suffering from sun-stroke. He died early yesterday +morning," said the Superintendent. "Is it true that he was half an hour +bare-headed in the sun at midday?" + +"Yes," said I, "but do you happen to know if he had anything upon him by +any chance when he died?" + +"Not to my knowledge," said the Superintendent. + +And there the matter rests. + + + + +XII. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI[*] (1905) + +[* From "The Four Million." Used by special arrangement with Doubleday, +Page & Company, publishers of O. Henry's Works.] + +BY O. HENRY[*] (1862-1910) + +[*: The pen-name of William Sidney Porter.] + + +[_Setting_. Christmas Eve in New York and a furnished flat at $8 per +week make the setting of this perfect little story. Della has only $1.87 +with which to buy a present for Jim and outside is "a grey cat walking a +grey fence in a grey backyard." But there is a spirit within that is to +make the modest flat a place of glory and this Christmas Eve memorable +in short-story annals. The flat is the stable with the manger, and New +York widens into Bethlehem. + +_Plot_. "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young +child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when +they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, +and frankincense, and myrrh." These were the gifts of the magi, but +their gift was love. The infant Christ could make no use of gold or +frankincense or myrrh, nor could Della and Jim make use of the combs and +the chain; but the love that prompted the giving shines all the more +resplendent because the gifts, humanly speaking, were egregious misfits. +"That the gold at least," says a recent commentator, "would be highly +serviceable to the parents in their unexpected journey to Egypt and +during their stay there--thus much at least admits of no dispute." +Perhaps so. But read the famous passage once more and turn again to O. +Henry's story. Which interpretation goes deeper into the heart of the +incident? Which leaves you more in love with love? + +_Characters_. Della and Jim have been said to illustrate the "story of +cross-purposes." But the phrase is not well used. Their purposes were +one; only their methods crossed. O. Henry rarely comments on his +characters, but he has here picked out one quality of these "two foolish +children in a flat" for unreserved praise: "Of all who give gifts these +two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are +wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi." If the magi, as +O. Henry says, "invented the art of giving Christmas presents," Della +and Jim re-discovered it. We have had no two characters in whose company +it is better to leave our study of the short story.] + + + +One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it +was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the +grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned +with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. +Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the +next day would be Christmas. + +There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch +and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that +life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles +predominating. + +While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first +stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per +week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that +word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad. + +In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, +and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. +Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James +Dillingham Young." + +The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of +prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the +income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as +though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and +unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and +reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. +James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all +very good. + +Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. +She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a +grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she +had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving +every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a +week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. +They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a +happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something +fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being +worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim. + +There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have +seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, +by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, +obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Delia, being slender, +had mastered the art. + +Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her +eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within +twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its +full length. + +Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which +they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been +his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the +Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have +let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate her +Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all +his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his +watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from +envy. + +So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like +a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself +almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and +quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or +two splashed on the worn red carpet. + +On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of +skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered +out the door and down the stairs to the street. + +Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of all +Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, +large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie." + +"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. + +"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at +the looks of it." + +Down rippled the brown cascade. + +"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand. + +"Give it to me quick," said Della. + +Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed +metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. + +She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. +There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all +of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in +design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by +meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even +worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be +Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to +both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home +with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly +anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he +sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap +that he used in place of a chain. + +When Delia reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence +and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went +to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is +always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task. + +Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls +that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at +her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically. + +"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second +look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what +could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?" + +At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of +the stove hot and ready to cook the chops. + +Jim was never late. Delia doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on +the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she +heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she +turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent +prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: +"Please God, make him think I am still pretty." + +The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and +very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened +with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves. + +Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of +quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in +them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, +nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments +that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with +that peculiar expression on his face. + +Della wriggled off the table and went for him. + +"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut +off and sold it because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without +giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I +just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say 'Merry Christmas!' +Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice--what a beautiful, +nice gift I've got for you." + +"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not +arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labour. + +"Cut it off and sold it," said Delia. "Don't you like me just as well, +anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?" + +Jim looked about the room curiously. + +"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy. + +"You needn't look for it," said Delia. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and +gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. +Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with a sudden +serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I +put the chops on, Jim?" + +Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For +ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential +object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a +year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you +the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not +among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on. + +Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table. + +"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think +there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that +could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package +you may see why you had me going a while at first." + +White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an +ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to +hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of +all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat. + +For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had +worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise +shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful +vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had +simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of +possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have +adorned the coveted adornments were gone. + +But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up +with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!" + +And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!" + +Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him +eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with +a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit. + +"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have +to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I +want to see how it looks on it." + +Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands +under the back of his head and smiled. "Dell," said he, "let's put our +Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use +just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. +And now suppose you put the chops on." + +The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought +gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving +Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, +possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And +here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two +foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other +the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of +these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the +wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. +Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Stories Old and New +Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10483 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f6350f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10483 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10483) diff --git a/old/10483-8.txt b/old/10483-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f748c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10483-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10583 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Stories Old and New +Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Short Stories Old and New + +Author: Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith + +Release Date: December 17, 2003 [EBook #10483] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORIES OLD AND NEW *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Shon McCarley and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +SHORT STORIES + +OLD AND NEW + + + +SELECTED AND EDITED + +BY + +C. ALPHONSO SMITH + +EDGAR ALLAN POE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE +UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, AUTHOR OF +"THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY," ETC. + + + +1916 + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Every short story has three parts, which may be called Setting or +Background, Plot or Plan, and Characters or Character. If you are going +to write a short story, as I hope you are, you will find it necessary to +think through these three parts so as to relate them interestingly and +naturally one to the other; and if you want to assimilate the best that +is in the following stories, you will do well to approach them by the +same three routes. + +The Setting or Background gives us the time and the place of the story +with such details of custom, scenery, and dialect as time and place +imply. It answers the questions _When? Where?_ The Plot tells us what +happened. It gives us the incidents and events, the haps or mishaps, +that are interwoven to make up the warp and woof of the story. Sometimes +there is hardly any interweaving; just a plain plan or simple outline is +followed, as in "The Christmas Carol" or "The Great Stone Face." We may +still call the core of these two stories the Plot, if we want to, but +Plan would be the more accurate. This part of the story answers the +question _What_? Under the heading Characters or Character we study the +personalities of the men and women who move through the story and give +it unity and coherence. Sometimes, as in "The Christmas Carol" or +"Markheim," one character so dominates the others that they are mere +spokes in his hub or incidents in his career. But in "The Gift of the +Magi," though more space is given to Della, she and Jim act from the +same motive and contribute equally to the development of the story. In +one of our stories the main character is a dog, but he is so human that +we may still say that the chief question to be answered under this +heading is _Who?_ + +Many books have been written about these three parts of a short story, +but the great lesson to be learned is that the excellence of a story, +long or short, consists not in the separate excellence of the Setting or +of the Plot or of the Characters but in the perfect blending of the +three to produce a single effect or to impress a single truth. If the +Setting does not fit the Plot, if the Plot does not rise gracefully from +the Setting, if the Characters do not move naturally and +self-revealingly through both, the story is a failure. Emerson might +well have had our three parts of the short story in mind when he wrote, + + All are needed by each one; + Nothing is fair or good alone. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +I. ESTHER, From the Old Testament + +II. THE HISTORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY ROBBERS, From "The + Arabian Nights" + +III. RIP VAN WINKLE, By Washington Irving + +IV. THE GOLD-BUG, By Edgar Allan Poe + +V. A CHRISTMAS CAROL, By Charles Dickens + +VI. THE GREAT STONE FACE, By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +VII. RAB AND HIS FRIENDS, By Dr. John Brown + +VIII. THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT, By Bret Harte + +IX. MARKHEIM, By Robert Louis Stevenson + +X. THE NECKLACE, By Guy de Maupassant + +XI. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, By Rudyard Kipling + +XII. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, By O. Henry + + + + +SHORT STORIES + + + + +I. ESTHER[*] + +[* From the Old Testament, Authorized Version.] + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN + + +[_Setting_. The events take place in Susa, the capital of Persia, in the +reign of Ahasuerus, or Xerxes (485-465 B.C.). This foreign locale +intensifies the splendid Jewish patriotism that breathes through the +story from beginning to end. If the setting had been in Jerusalem, +Esther could not have preached the noble doctrine, "When in Rome, don't +do as Rome does, but be true to the old ideals of home and race." + +_Plot_. "Esther" seems to me the best-told story in the Bible. Observe +how the note of empty Persian bigness versus simple Jewish faith is +struck at the very beginning and is echoed to the end. Thus, Ahasuerus +ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, the opening banquet +lasted one hundred and eighty-seven days, the king's bulletins were as +unalterable as the tides, the gallows erected was eighty-three feet +high, the beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue +and white and black marble, the money wrested from the Jews was to be +eighteen million dollars, etc. The word "banquet" occurs twenty times in +this short story and only twenty times in all the remaining thirty-eight +books of the Old Testament. In other words, Ahasuerus and his +trencher-mates ate and drank as much in five days as had been eaten and +drunk by all the other Old Testament characters from "Genesis" to +"Malachi." + +Note also the contrast between the two queens, the two prime ministers, +the two edicts, and the two later banquets. The most masterly part of +the plot is the handling of events between these banquets. Read again +from chapter v, beginning at verse 9, through chapter vi, and note how +skillfully the pen is held. In motivation as well as in symmetry and +naturalness the story is without a peer. There is humor, too, in the +solemn deliberations over Vashti's "No" (chapter i, verses 12-22) and in +the strange procession led by pedestrian Haman (chapter vi, verses +6-11). + +The purpose of the story was to encourage the feast of Purim (chapter +ix, verses 20-32) and to promote national solidarity. It may be compared +to "A Christmas Carol," which was written to restore the waning +celebration of Christmas, and to our Declaration of Independence, which +is re-read on every Fourth of July to quicken our sense of national +fellowship. But "Esther" is more than an institution. It is the old +story of two conflicting civilizations, one representing bigness, the +other greatness; one standing for materialism, the other for idealism; +one enthroning the body, the other the spirit. + +_Characters_. These are finely individualized, though each seems to me a +type. Ahasuerus is a tank that runs blood or wine according to the hand +that turns the spigot. He was used for good but deserves and receives no +credit for it. No man ever missed a greater opportunity. He was brought +face to face with the two greatest world-civilizations of history; but, +understanding neither, he remains only a muddy place in the road along +which Greek and Hebrew passed to world-conquest. Haman, a blend of +vanity and cruelty and cowardice but not without some power of +initiative, was a fit minister for his king. He lives in history as one +who, better than in Hamlet's illustration, was "hoist with his own +petard," the petard in his case being a gallows. He typifies also the +just fate of the man who, spurred by the hate of one, includes in his +scheme of extermination a whole people. Collective vengeance never +received a better illustration nor a more exemplary punishment. Mordecai +is altogether admirable in refusing to kowtow to Haman and in his +unselfish devotion to his fair cousin, Esther. The noblest sentiment in +the book--"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a +time as this?"--comes from Mordecai. + +But the leading character is Esther, not because she was "fair and +beautiful" but because she was hospitable to the great thought suggested +by Mordecai. None but a Jew could have asked, "Who knoweth whether thou +art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" and none but a Jew +could have answered as Esther answered. The question implied a sense of +personal responsibility and of divine guidance far beyond the reach of +Persian or Mede or Greek of that time. It calls up many a quiet hour +when Esther and Mordecai talked together of their strange lot in this +heathen land and wondered if the time would ever come when they could +interpret their trials in terms of national service rather than of +meaningless fate. Imagine the blank and bovine expression that Ahasuerus +or Haman would have turned upon you if you had put such a question to +either of them. But in the case of Esther, Mordecai's appeal unlocked an +unused reservoir of power that has made her one of the world's heroines. +She had her faults, or rather her limitations, but since her time men +have gone to the stake, have built up and torn down principalities and +powers, on the dynamic conviction that they had been sent to the kingdom +"for such a time as this."] + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STORY OF VASHTI + + +1. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus +which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven +and twenty provinces,) + +2. That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his +kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, + +3. In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes +and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes +of the provinces, being before him: + +4. When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of +his excellent majesty many days, even a hundred and fourscore days. + +5. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the +people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and +small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. + +6. Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of +fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds +were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, +and black marble. + +7. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being +diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the +state of the king. + +8. And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so +the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they +should do according to every man's pleasure. + +9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house +which belonged to king Ahasuerus. + +10. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, +he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and +Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus +the king, + +11. To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to +shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. + +12. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by +his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger +burned in him. + +13. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so +was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment: + +14. And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, +Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, +which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom,) + +15. What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she +hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the +chamberlains? + +16. And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the +queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, +and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king +Ahasuerus. + +17. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that +they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be +reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in +before him, but she came not. + +18. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all +the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus +shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. + +19. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, +and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that +it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and +let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. + +20. And when the king's decree, which he shall make, shall be published +throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give +to their husbands honour, both to great and small. + +21. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did +according to the word of Memucan: + +22. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every +province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after +their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and +that it should be published according to the language of every people. + + + +CHAPTER II + +ESTHER MADE QUEEN + + +1. After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he +remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against +her. + +2. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be +fair young virgins sought for the king: + +3. And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his +kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto +Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai +the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for +purification be given them: + +4. And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of +Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. + +5. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was +Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a +Benjamite; + +6. Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had +been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the +king of Babylon had carried away. + +7. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: +for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and +beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for +his own daughter. + +8. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was +heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the +palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the +king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. + +9. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he +speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as +belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out +of the king's house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best +place of the house of the women. + +10. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had +charged her that she should not shew it. + +11. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, +to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. + +12. Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, +after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the +women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to +wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and +with other things for the purifying of the women,) + +13. Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired +was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the +king's house. + +14. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the +second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's +chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no +more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by +name. + +15. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of +Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the +king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the +keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight +of all them that looked upon her. + +16. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the +tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his +reign. + +17. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained +grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set +the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. + +18. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his +servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, +and gave gifts, according to the state of the king. + +19. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then +Mordecai sat in the king's gate. + +20. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people, as Mordecai +had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as +when she was brought up with him. + + +MORDECAI SAVES THE KING'S LIFE + + +21. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the +king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, +were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. + +22. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the +queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. + +23. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; +therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the +book of the chronicles before the king. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CONSPIRACY OF HAMAN + + +1. After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of +Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the +princes that were with him. + +2. And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and +reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But +Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. + +3. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto +Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? + +4. Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened +not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters +would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. + +5. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, +then was Haman full of wrath. + +6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had +shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all +the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the +people of Mordecai. + +7. In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of +king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day +to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the +month Adar. + +8. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people +scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of +thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep +they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to +suffer them. + +9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: +and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that +have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. + +10. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the +son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. + +11. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the +people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. + +12. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the +first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had +commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were +over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province +according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their +language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with +the king's ring. + +13. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to +destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, +little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of +the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of +them for a prey. + +14. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every +province was published unto all people, that they should be ready +against that day. + +15. The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and +the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat +down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FASTING AMONG THE JEWS + + +1. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, +and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the +city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; + +2. And came even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the +king's gate clothed with sackcloth. + +3. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his +decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and +weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. + +4. So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was +the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, +and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. + +5. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom +he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to +Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. + +6. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which +was before the king's gate. + +7. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the +sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries +for the Jews, to destroy them. + +8. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given +at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it +unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make +supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. + +9. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. + +10. Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto +Mordecai; + +11. All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do +know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king +into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put +him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden +sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto +the king these thirty days. + +12. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. + + +THE GREAT APPEAL + + +13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. + +14. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall +there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? + +15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, + +16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and +fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I +also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the +king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. + +17. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had +commanded him. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COURAGE OF ESTHER + + +1. Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal +apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against +the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal +house, over against the gate of the house. + +2. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the +court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to +Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and +touched the top of the sceptre. + +3. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what +is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. + +4. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and +Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. + +5. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as +Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther +had prepared. + +6. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy +petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to +the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. + +7. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; + +8. If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the +king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and +Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do +to-morrow as the king hath said. + + +BETWEEN BANQUETS + + +9. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when +Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved +for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. + +10. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent +and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. + +11. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of +his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and +how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. + +12. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in +with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and +to-morrow am I invited unto her also with the king. + +13. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew +sitting at the king's gate. + +14. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a +gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the +king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with +the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused +the gallows to be made. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BETWEEN BANQUETS (CONTINUED) + + +1. On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the +book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. + +2. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and +Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who +sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. + +3. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai +for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, There +is nothing done for him. + +4. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the +outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang +Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. + +5. And the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the +court. And the king said, Let him come in. + +6. So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto +the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his +heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself? + +7. And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to +honour, + +8. Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and +the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set +upon his head: + +9. And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the +king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the +king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street +of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man +whom the king delighteth to honour. + +10. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and +the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that +sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast +spoken. + +11. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and +brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed +before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth +to honour. + +12. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his +house mourning, and having his head covered. + +13. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that +had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, +If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to +fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before +him. + +14. And while they were yet talking with him, came the king's +chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had +prepared. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ESTHER'S BANQUET: HAMAN HANGED + + +1. So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. + +2. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet +of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted +thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the +half of the kingdom. + +3. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in +thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at +my petition, and my people at my request: + +4. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and +to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held +my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. + +5. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who +is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? + +6. And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then +Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. + +7. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into +the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to +Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him +by the king. + +8. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the +banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. +Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? +As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. + +9. And Harbona, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold +also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, +who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then +the king said, Hang him thereon. + +10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for +Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JEWS PERMITTED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES + + +1. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' +enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for +Esther had told what he was unto her. + +2. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and +gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. + +3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his +feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the +Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews, + +4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther +arose, and stood before the king, + +5. And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his +sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in +his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the +son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which +are in all the king's provinces: + +6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? +or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? + +7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai +the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they +have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. + +8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and +seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the +king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. + +9. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, +that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it +was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and +to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which +are from India unto Ethiopia, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto +every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people +after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and +according to their language. + +10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the +king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on +mules, camels, and young dromedaries: + +11. Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather +themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, +and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that +would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of +them for a prey, + +12. Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon +the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. + +13. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every +province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be +ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. + +14. So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being +hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was +given at Shushan the palace. + +15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel +of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of +fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. + +16. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. + +17. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's +commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast +and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the +fear of the Jews fell upon them. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE JEWS DEFEND THEMSELVES + + +1. Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth +day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to +be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to +have power over them; (though it was turned to the contrary, that the +Jews had rule over them that hated them,) + +2. The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all +the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their +hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon +all people. + +3. And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the +deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of +Mordecai fell upon them. + +4. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out +throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and +greater. + +5. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, +and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that +hated them. + +6. And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred +men. + +7. And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, + +8. And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, + +9. And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, + +10. The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, +slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand. + +11. On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the +palace was brought before the king. + +12. And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and +destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of +Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what +is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request +further? and it shall be done. + +13. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the +Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's +decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. + +14. And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at +Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. + +15. For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on +the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at +Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand. + +16. But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered +themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their +enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid +not their hands on the prey, + +17. On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day +of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. + +18. But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the +thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the +fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and +gladness. + +19. Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled +towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and +feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. + + +THE FEAST OF PURIM + + +20. And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews +that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, + +21. To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth +day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, + +22. As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the +month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning +into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, +and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. + +23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had +written unto them; + +24. Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all +the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast +Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; + +25. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that +his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon +his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. + +26. Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. +Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had +seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, + +27. The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon +all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that +they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according +to their appointed time every year; + +28. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every +generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these +days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of +them perish from their seed. + +29. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the +Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. + +30. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and +seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and +truth, + +31. To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according +as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they +had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the +fastings and their cry. + +32. And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it +was written in the book. + + + +CHAPTER X + +MORDECAI PRIME MINISTER + + +1. And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the +isles of the sea. + +2. And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration +of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they +not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and +Persia? + +3. For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among +the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the +wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. + + + + +II. THE HISTORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY ROBBERS[*] + +[* From "The Arabian Nights."] + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN + + +[_Setting_. This story, like "Esther," takes place in Persia. The +stories of "The Arabian Nights" as a whole probably originated in India, +were modified and augmented by the Persians, and had the finishing +touches put upon them by the Arabians. Bagdad on the Tigris is the city +that figures most prominently in the stories, and the good caliph Haroun +Al-Raschid (or Alraschid), who ruled from 786 to 809, A.D., is the +monarch most often mentioned. + +"A goodly place, a goodly time, +For it was in the golden prime + Of good Haroun Alraschid." + +However old the germs of the stories are, the form in which we have them +hardly antedates the year 1450. The absence of all mention of coffee and +tobacco precludes, at least, a date much later. They began to be +translated into the languages of Europe during the reign of Queen Anne +and, with the exception of the Old Testament, have been the chief +orientalizing influence in modern literature. The setting of "Ali Baba" +shows the four characteristics of all these Perso-Arabian tales: it has +to do with town life, not country life; it presupposes one faith, the +Mohammedan; it shows a fondness for magic; and it takes for granted an +audience interested not in moral or ethical distinctions but in +story-telling for story-telling's sake. + +_Plot_. The plot of the short story as a distinct type of literature has +been said to show a steady progress from the impossible through the +improbable and probable to the inevitable. When we say of a story that +the conclusion is inevitable we mean that, with the given background and +characters, it could not have ended in any other way, just as, with a +given multiplier and multiplicand, one product and only one is possible. +This cannot be said of "Ali Baba," because the five parts are not linked +together in a logical sequence as are the events in "The Gold-Bug," or +by any controlling idea of reform such as we find in "A Christmas +Carol," or by any underlying moral purpose like that which gives unity +and dignity to "The Great Stone Face." These Perso-Arabian tales, in +other words, are stories of random incident, loosely but charmingly +told, with always the note of strangeness and unexpectedness. The +incidents, however, reflect accurately the manners and customs of time +and place. We do not believe that a door ever opened to the magic of +mere words, but we do believe and cannot help believing that the author +tells the truth when he writes of leather jars full of oil, of bands of +mounted robbers, of a poor man who could support himself by hauling wood +from the free-for-all forest, of slavery from which one might escape by +notable fidelity, of funeral rites performed by the imaum and other +ministers of the mosque, and of the unwillingness of an assassin to +attempt the life of a man with whom he had just eaten salt. Fancy, it is +true, mingles with fact in "The Arabian Nights," but it does not replace +fact. + +_Characters_. Morgiana is the leading character. She furnishes all the +brains employed in the story. The narrator praises her "courage" twice, +but she had more than courage. Fidelity, initiative, and resourcefulness +must also be put among her assets. We can hardly imagine her as acting +from Esther's high motive, but she lived up to the best standards of +conduct that she knew. Whoever serves as a model for his own time may +serve as a model for ours. Duties change, but duty remains.] + + + +I + +CASSIM, ALI BABA'S BROTHER, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY THE ROBBERS + + +There once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Cassim and +the other Ali Baba. Their father divided his small property equally +between them. Cassim married a very rich wife, and became a wealthy +merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by +cutting wood and bringing it upon three asses into the town to sell. + +One day, when Ali Baba had cut just enough wood in the forest to load +his asses, he noticed far off a great cloud of dust. As it drew nearer, +he saw that it was made by a body of horsemen, whom he suspected to be +robbers. Leaving the asses, he climbed a large tree which grew on a high +rock, and had branches thick enough to hide him completely while he saw +what passed beneath. The troop, forty in number, all well mounted and +armed, came to the foot of the rock on which the tree stood, and there +dismounted. Each man unbridled his horse, tied him to a shrub, and hung +about his neck a bag of corn. Then each of them took off his saddle-bag, +which from its weight seemed to Ali Baba full of gold and silver. One, +whom he took to be their captain, came under the tree in which Ali Baba +was concealed; and, making his way through some shrubs, spoke the words: +"Open, Sesame."[*] As soon as the captain of the robbers said this, a +door opened in the rock, and after he had made all his troop enter +before him, he followed them, when the door shut again of itself. + +[* Sesame (pronounced _séssamy_), a small grain.] + +The robbers stayed some time within, and Ali Baba, fearful of being +caught, remained in the tree. At last the door opened again, and the +captain came out first, and stood to see all the troop pass by him. Then +Ali Baba heard him make the door close by saying: "Shut, Sesame." Every +man at once bridled his horse, fastened his wallet, and mounted again. +When the captain saw them all ready, he put himself at their head, and +they returned the way they had come. + +Ali Baba watched them out of sight, and then waited some time before +coming down. Wishing to see whether the captain's words would have the +same effect if he should speak them, he found the door hidden in the +shrubs, stood before it, and said: "Open, Sesame." Instantly the door +flew wide open. + +Instead of a dark, dismal cavern, Ali Baba was surprised to see a large +chamber, well lighted from the top, and in it all sorts of provisions, +rich bales of silk, brocade and carpeting, gold and silver ingots in +great heaps, and money in bags. + +Ali Baba went boldly into the cave, and collected as much of the gold +coin, which was in bags, as he thought his asses could carry. When he +had loaded them with the bags, he laid wood over them so that they could +not be seen, and, passing out of the door for the last time, stood +before it and said: "Shut, Sesame." The door closed of itself, and he +made the best of his way to town. + +When he reached home, he carefully closed the gate of his little yard, +threw off the wood, and carried the bags into the house. They were +emptied before his wife, and the great heap of gold dazzled her eyes. +Then he told her the whole adventure, and warned her, above all things, +to keep it secret. + +Ali Baba would not let her take the time to count it out as she wished, +but said: "I will dig a hole and bury it." + +"But let us know as nearly as may be," she said, "how much we have. I +will borrow a small measure, and measure it, while you dig a hole." + +Away she ran to the wife of Cassim, who lived near by, and asked for a +measure. The sister-in-law, knowing Ali Baba's poverty, was curious to +learn what sort of grain his wife wished to measure out, and artfully +managed to put some suet in the bottom of the measure before she handed +it over. Ali Baba's wife wanted to show how careful she was in small +matters, and, after she had measured the gold, hurried back, even while +her husband was burying it, with the borrowed measure, never noticing +that a coin had stuck to its bottom. + +"What," said Cassim's wife, as soon as her sister-in-law had left her, +"has Ali Baba gold in such plenty that he measures it? Whence has he all +this wealth?" And envy possessed her breast. + +When Cassim came home, she said to him: "Cassim, you think yourself +rich, but Ali Baba is much richer. He does not count his money; he +measures it." Then she explained to him how she had found it out, and +they looked together at the piece of money, which was so old that they +could not tell in what prince's reign it was coined. + +Cassim, since marrying the rich widow, had never treated Ali Baba as a +brother, but neglected him. Now, instead of being pleased, he was filled +with a base envy. Early in the morning, after a sleepless night, he went +to him and said: "Ali Baba, you pretend to be wretchedly poor, and yet +you measure gold. My wife found this at the bottom of the measure you +borrowed yesterday." + +Ali Baba saw that there was no use of trying to conceal his good +fortune, and told the whole story, offering his brother part of the +treasure to keep the secret. + +"I expect as much," replied Cassim haughtily; "but I must know just +where this treasure is and how to visit it myself when I choose. +Otherwise I will inform against you, and you will lose even what you +have now." + +Ali Baba told him all he wished to know, even to the words he must speak +at the door of the cave. + +Cassim rose before the sun the next morning, and set out for the forest +with ten mules bearing great chests which he meant to fill. With little +trouble he found the rock and the door, and, standing before it, spoke +the words: "Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and when he was +within closed upon him. Here indeed were the riches of which his brother +had told. He quickly brought as many bags of gold as he could carry to +the door of the cavern; but his thoughts were so full of his new wealth, +that he could not think of the word that should let him out. Instead of +"Sesame," he said "Open, Barley," and was much amazed to find that the +door remained fast shut. He named several sorts of grain, but still the +door would not open. + +Cassim had never expected such a disaster, and was so frightened that +the more he tried to recall the word "Sesame," the more confused his +mind became. It was as if he had never heard the word at all. He threw +down the bags in his hands, and walked wildly up and down, without a +thought of the riches lying round about him. + +At noon the robbers visited their cave. From afar they saw Cassim's +mules straggling about the rock, and galloped full speed to the cave. +Driving the mules out of sight, they went at once, with their naked +sabres in their hands, to the door, which opened as soon as the captain +had spoken the proper words before it. + +Cassim had heard the noise of the horses' feet, and guessed that the +robbers had come. He resolved to make one effort for his life. As soon +as the door opened, he rushed out and threw the leader down, but could +not pass the other robbers, who with their scimitars soon put him to +death. + +The first care of the robbers was to examine the cave. They found all +the bags Cassim had brought to the door, but did not miss what Ali Baba +had taken. As for Cassim himself, they guessed rightly that, once +within, he could not get out again; but how he had managed to learn +their secret words that let him in, they could not tell. One thing was +certain,--there he was; and to warn all others who might know their +secret and follow in Cassim's footsteps, they agreed to cut his body +into four quarters--to hang two on one side and two on the other, within +the door of the cave. This they did at once, and leaving the place of +their hoards well closed, mounted their horses and set out to attack the +caravans they might meet. + + + +II + +THE MANNER OF CASSIM'S DEATH CONCEALED + + +When night came, and Cassim did not return, his wife became very uneasy. +She ran to Ali Baba for comfort, and he told her that Cassim would +certainly think it unwise to enter the town till night was well +advanced. By midnight Cassim's wife was still more alarmed, and wept +till morning, cursing her desire to pry into the affairs of her brother +and sister-in-law. In the early day she went again, in tears, to Ali +Baba. + +He did not wait for her to ask him to go and see what had happened to +Cassim, but set out at once for the forest with his three asses. Finding +some blood at the door of the cave, he took it for an ill omen; but when +he had spoken the words, and the door had opened, he was struck with +horror at the dismal sight of his brother's body. He could not leave it +there, and hastened within to find something to wrap around it. Laying +the body on one of his asses, he covered it with wood. The other two +asses he loaded with bags of gold, covering them also with wood as +before. Then bidding the door shut, he came away, but stopped some time +at the edge of the forest, that he might not go into the town before +night. When he reached home he left the two asses, laden with gold, in +his little yard for his wife to unload, and led the other to his +sister-in-law's house. + +Ali Baba knocked at the door, which was opened by Morgiana, a clever +slave, full of devices to conquer difficulties. When he came into the +court and unloaded the ass, he took Morgiana aside, and said to her:-- + +"You must observe a strict secrecy. Your master's body is contained in +these two panniers. We must bury him as if he had died a natural death. +Go now and tell your mistress. I leave the matter to your wit and +skillful devices." + +They placed the body in Cassim's house, and, charging Morgiana to act +well her part, Ali Baba returned home with his ass. + +Early the next morning, Morgiana went to a druggist, and asked for a +sort of lozenge used in the most dangerous illness. When he asked her +for whom she wanted it, she answered with a sigh: "My good master +Cassim. He can neither eat nor speak." In the evening she went to the +same druggist, and with tears in her eyes asked for an essence given to +sick persons for whose life there is little hope. "Alas!" said she, "I +am afraid even this will not save my good master." + +All that day Ali Baba and his wife were seen going sadly between their +house and Cassim's, and in the evening nobody was surprised to hear the +shrieks and cries of Cassim's wife and Morgiana, who told everybody that +her master was dead. + +The next morning at daybreak she went to an old cobbler, who was always +early at work, and, putting a piece of gold in his hand, said:-- + +"Baba Mustapha, you must bring your sewing-tackle and come with me; but +I must tell you, I shall blindfold you when we reach a certain place." + +"Oh! oh!" replied he, "you would have me do something against my +conscience or my honor." + +"God forbid!" said Morgiana, putting another piece of gold in his hand; +"only come along with me, and fear nothing." + +Baba Mustapha went with Morgiana, and at a certain place she bound his +eyes with a handkerchief, which she never unloosed till they had entered +the room of her master's house, where she had put the corpse together. + +"Baba Mustapha," said she, "you must make haste, and sew the parts of +this body together, and when you have done, I will give you another +piece of gold." + +After Baba Mustapha had finished his task, she blindfolded him again, +gave him the third piece of gold she had promised, and, charging him +with secrecy, took him back to the place where she had first bound his +eyes. Taking off the bandage, she watched him till he was out of sight, +lest he should return and dog her; then she went home. + +At Cassim's house she made all things ready for the funeral, which was +duly performed by the imaum[*] and other ministers of the mosque. +Morgiana, as a slave of the dead man, walked in the procession, weeping, +beating her breast, and tearing her hair. Cassim's wife stayed at home, +uttering doleful cries with the women of the neighborhood, who, +according to custom, came to mourn with her. The whole quarter was +filled with sounds of sorrow. + +[* Imaum, a Mohammedan priest.] + +Thus the manner of Cassim's death was hushed up, and, besides his widow, +Ali Baba, and Morgiana, the slave, nobody in the city suspected the +cause of it. Three or four days after the funeral, Ali Baba removed his +few goods openly to his sister-in-law's house, in which he was to live +in the future; but the money he had taken from the robbers was carried +thither by night. As for Cassim's warehouse, Ali Baba put it entirely +under the charge of his eldest son. + + + +III + +THE ROBBERS' PLOT FOILED BY MORGIANA + + +While all this was going on, the forty robbers again visited their cave +in the forest. Great was their surprise to find Cassim's body taken +away, with some of their bags of gold. + +"We are certainly found out," said the captain; "the body and the money +have been taken by some one else who knows our secret. For our own +lives' sake, we must try and find him. What say you, my lads?" + +The robbers all agreed that this must be done. + +"Well," said the captain, "one of you, the boldest and most skillful, +must go to the town, disguised as a stranger, and try if he can hear any +talk of the man we killed, and find out where he lived. This matter is +so important that the man who undertakes it and fails should suffer +death. What say you?" + +One of the robbers, without waiting to know what the rest might think, +started up, and said: "I submit to this condition, and think it an honor +to expose my life to serve the troop." + +This won great praise from the robber's comrades, and he disguised +himself at once so that nobody could take him for what he was. Just at +daybreak he entered the town, and walked up and down till he came by +chance to Baba Mustapha's stall, which was always open before any of the +shops. + +The old cobbler was just going to work when the robber bade him +good-morrow, and said:-- + +"Honest man, you begin to work very early; how can one of your age see +so well? Even if it were lighter, I question whether you could see to +stitch." + +"You do not know me," replied Baba Mustapha; "for old as I am I have +excellent eyes. You will not doubt me when I tell you that I sewed the +body of a dead man together in a place where I had not so much light as +I have now." + +"A dead body!" exclaimed the robber amazed. + +"Yes, yes," answered Baba Mustapha; "I see you want to know more, but +you shall not." + +The robber felt sure that he was on the right track. He put a piece of +gold into Baba Mustapha's hand, and said to him:-- + +"I do not want to learn your secret, though you could safely trust me +with it. The only thing I ask of you is to show me the house where you +stitched up the dead body." + +"I could not do that," replied Baba Mustapha, "if I would. I was taken +to a certain place, whence I was led blindfold to the house, and +afterwards brought back again in the same manner." + +"Well," replied the robber, "you may remember a little of the way that +you were led blindfold. Come, let me blind your eyes at the same place. +We will walk together, and perhaps you may recall the way. Here is +another piece of gold for you." + +This was enough to bring Baba Mustapha to his feet. They soon reached +the place where Morgiana had bandaged his eyes, and here he was +blindfolded again. Baba Mustapha and the robber walked on till they came +to Cassim's house, where Ali Baba now lived. Here the old man stopped, +and when the thief pulled off the band, and found that his guide could +not tell him whose house it was, he let him go. But before he started +back for the forest himself, well pleased with what he had learned, he +marked the door with a piece of chalk which he had ready in his hand. + +Soon after this Morgiana came out upon some errand, and when she +returned she saw the mark the robber had made, and stopped to look at +it. + +"What can this mean?" she said to herself. "Somebody intends my master +harm, and in any case it is best to guard against the worst." Then she +fetched a piece of chalk, and marked two or three doors on each side in +the same manner, saying nothing to her master or mistress. + +When the robber rejoined his troop in the forest, and told of his good +fortune in meeting the one man that could have helped him, they were all +delighted. + +"Comrades," said the captain, "we have no time to lose. Let us set off +at once, well armed and disguised, enter the town by twos, and join at +the great square. Meanwhile our comrade who has brought us the good news +and I will go and find out the house, and decide what had best be done." + +Two by two they entered the town. Last of all went the captain and the +spy. When they came to the first of the houses which Morgiana had +marked, the spy pointed it out. But the captain noticed that the next +door was chalked in the same manner, and asked his guide which house it +was, that or the first. The guide knew not what answer to make, and was +still more puzzled when he and the captain saw five or six houses marked +after this same fashion. He assured the captain, with an oath, that he +had marked but one, and could not tell who had chalked the rest, nor +could he say at which house the cobbler had stopped. + +There was nothing to do but to join the other robbers, and tell them to +go back to the cave. Here they were told why they had all returned, and +the guide was declared by all to be worthy of death. Indeed, he +condemned himself, owning that he ought to have been more careful, and +prepared to receive the stroke which was to cut off his head. + +The safety of the troop still demanded that the second comer to the cave +should be found, and another of the gang offered to try it, with the +same penalty if he should fail. Like the other robber, he found out Baba +Mustapha, and, through him, the house, which he marked, in a place +remote from sight, with red chalk. + +But nothing could escape Morgiana's eyes, and when she went out, not +long after, and saw the red chalk, she argued with herself as before, +and marked the other houses near by in the same place and manner. + +The robber, when he told his comrades what he had done, prided himself +on his carefulness, and the captain and all the troop thought they must +succeed this time. Again they entered the town by twos; but when the +robber and his captain came to the street, they found the same trouble. +The captain was enraged, and the robber as much confused as the former +guide had been. Thus the captain and his troop went back again to the +cave, and the robber who had failed willingly gave himself up to death. + + + +IV + +THE ROBBERS, EXCEPT THE CAPTAIN, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA + + +The captain could not afford to lose any more of his brave fellows, and +decided to take upon himself the task in which two had failed. Like the +others, he went to Baba Mustapha, and was shown the house. Unlike them +he put no mark on it, but studied it carefully and passed it so often +that he could not possibly mistake it. + +When he returned to the troop, who were waiting for him in the cave, he +said:-- + +"Now, comrades, nothing can prevent our full revenge, as I am certain of +the house. As I returned I thought of a way to do our work, but if any +one thinks of a better, let him speak." + +He told them his plan, and, as they thought it good, he ordered them to +go into the villages about, and buy nineteen mules, with thirty-eight +large leather jars, one full of oil, and the others empty. Within two or +three days they returned with the mules and the jars, and as the mouths +of the jars were rather too narrow for the captain's purpose, he caused +them to be widened. Having put one of his men into each jar, with the +weapons which he thought fit, and having a seam wide enough open for +each man to breathe, he rubbed the jars on the outside with oil from the +full vessel. + +Thus prepared they set out for the town, the nineteen mules loaded with +the thirty-seven robbers in jars, and the jar of oil, with the captain +as their driver. When he reached Ali Baba's door, he found Ali Baba +sitting there taking a little fresh air after his supper. The captain +stopped his mules, and said:-- + +"I have brought some oil a great way to sell at to-morrow's market; and +it is now so late that I do not know where to lodge. Will you do me the +favor to let me pass the night with you?" + +Though Ali Baba had seen the captain in the forest, and had heard him +speak, he could not know him in the disguise of an oil-merchant, and +bade him welcome. He opened his gates for the mules to go into the yard, +and ordered a slave to put them in a stable and feed them when they were +unloaded, and then called Morgiana to get a good supper for his guest. +After supper he charged her afresh to take good care of the stranger, +and said to her:-- + +"To-morrow morning I intend to go to the bath before day; take care to +have my bathing linen ready; give it to Abdalla" (which was his slave's +name), "and make me some good broth against my return." After this he +went to bed. + +In the mean time the captain of the robbers went into the yard, and took +off the lid of each jar, and told his people what they must do. To each, +in turn, he said:-- + +"As soon as I throw some stones out of the chamber window where I lie, +do not fail to come out, and I will join you at once." + +Then he went into the house, and Morgiana showed him his chamber, where +he soon put out the light, and laid himself down in his clothes. + +To carry out Ali Baba's orders, Morgiana got his bathing linen ready, +and bade Abdalla to set on the pot for the broth; but soon the lamp went +out, and there was no more oil in the house, nor any candles. She knew +not what to do, till the slave reminded her of the oil-jars in the yard. +She thanked him for the thought, took the oil-pot, and went out. When +she came nigh the first jar, the robber within said softly: "Is it +time?" + +Of course she was surprised to find a man in the jar instead of the oil, +but she saw at once that she must keep silence, as Ali Baba, his family, +and she herself were in great danger. Therefore she answered, without +showing any fear: "Not yet, but presently." In this manner she went to +all the jars and gave the same answers, till she came to the jar of oil. + +By this means Morgiana found that her master had admitted to his house +thirty-eight robbers, of whom the pretended oil-merchant, their captain, +was one. She made what haste she could to fill her oil-pot, and returned +to her kitchen, lighted her lamp, and taking a great kettle went back to +the oil-jar and filled it. Then she set the kettle on a large wood fire, +and as soon as it boiled went and poured enough into every jar to stifle +and destroy the robber within. + +When this deed, worthy of the courage of Morgiana, was done without any +noise, as she had planned, she returned to the kitchen with the empty +kettle, put out the lamp, and left just enough of the fire to make the +broth. Then she sat silent, resolving not to go to rest till she had +seen through the window that opened on the yard whatever might happen +there. + +It was not long before the captain of the robbers got up, and, seeing +that all was dark and quiet, gave the appointed signal by throwing +little stones, some of which hit the jars, as he doubted not by the +sound they gave. As there was no response, he threw stones a second and +a third time, and could not imagine why there was no answer to his +signal. + +Much alarmed, he went softly down into the yard, and, going to the first +jar to ask the robber if he was ready, smelt the hot boiled oil, which +sent forth a steam out of the jar. From this he suspected that his plot +was found out, and, looking into the jars one by one, he found that all +his gang were dead. Enraged to despair, he forced the lock of a door +that led from the yard to the garden, and made his escape. When Morgiana +saw him go, she went to bed, well pleased that she had saved her master. +and his family. + +Ali Baba rose before day, and went to the baths without knowing of what +had happened in the night. When he returned he was very much surprised +to see the oil-jars in the yard and the mules in the stable. + +"God preserve you and all your family," said Morgiana when she was asked +what it meant; "you will know better when you have seen what I have to +show you." + +So saying she led him to the first jar, and asked him to see if there +was any oil. When he saw a man instead, he started back in alarm. + +"Do not be afraid," said Morgiana; "he can do neither you nor anybody +else the least harm. He is dead. Now look into all the other jars." + +Ali Baba was more and more amazed as he went on, and saw all the dead +men and the sunken oil-jar at the end. He stood looking from the jars to +Morgiana, till he found words to ask: "And what is become of the +merchant?" + +"Merchant!" answered she; "he is as much one as I am." + +Then she led him into the house, and told of all that she had done, from +the first noticing of the chalk-mark to the death of the robbers and the +flight of their captain. On hearing of these brave deeds from Morgiana's +own lips, Ali Baba said to her:-- + +"God, by your means, has delivered me from death. For the first token of +what I owe you, I give you your liberty from this moment, till I can +fully reward you as I intend." + +Near the trees at the end of Ali Baba's long garden, he and Abdalla dug +a trench large enough to hold the bodies of the robbers. When they were +buried there, Ali Baba hid the jars and weapons; and as the mules were +of no use to him, he sent them at different times to be sold in the +market by his slave. + + + +V + +THE CAPTAIN DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA + + +The captain of the forty robbers had returned to his cave in the forest, +but found himself so lonely there that the place became frightful to +him. He resolved at the same time to avenge the fate of his comrades, +and to bring about the death of Ali Baba. For this purpose he returned +to the town, disguised as a merchant of silks. By degrees he brought +from his cavern many sorts of fine stuffs, and to dispose of these he +took a warehouse that happened to be opposite Cassim's, which Ali Baba's +son had occupied since the death of his uncle. + +He took the name of Cogia Houssain, and as a newcomer was very civil to +the merchants near him. Ali Baba's son was one of the first to converse +with him, and the new merchant was most friendly. Within two or three +days Ali Baba came to see his son, and the captain of the robbers knew +him at once, and soon learned from his son who he was. From that time +forth he was still more polite to Ali Baba's son, who soon felt bound to +repay the many kindnesses of his new friend. + +As his own house was small, he arranged with his father that on a +certain afternoon, when he and the merchant were passing by Ali Baba's +house, they should stop, and he should ask them both to sup with him. +This plan was carried out, though at first the merchant, with whose own +plans it agreed perfectly, made as if to excuse himself. He even gave it +as a reason for not remaining that he could eat no salt in his victuals. + +"If that is all," said Ali Baba, "it need not deprive me of the honor of +your company"; and he went to the kitchen and told Morgiana to put no +salt into anything she was cooking that evening. + +Thus Cogia Houssain was persuaded to stay, but to Morgiana it seemed +very strange that any one should refuse to eat salt. She wished to see +what manner of man it might be, and to this end, when she had finished +what she had to do in the kitchen, she helped Abdalla carry up the +dishes. Looking at Cogia Houssain, she knew him at first sight, in spite +of his disguise, to be the captain of the robbers, and, scanning him +very closely, saw that he had a dagger under his garment. + +"I see now why this greatest enemy of my master would eat no salt with +him. He intends to kill him; but I will prevent him." + +While they were at supper Morgiana made up her mind to do one of the +boldest deeds ever conceived. She dressed herself like a dancer, girded +her waist with a silver-gilt girdle, from which hung a poniard, and put +a handsome mask on her face. Then, when the supper was ended, she said +to Abdalla:-- + +"Take your tabor, and let us go and divert our master and his son's +friend, as we sometimes do when he is alone." + +They presented themselves at the door with a low bow, and Morgiana was +bidden to enter and show Cogia Houssain how well she danced. This, he +knew, would interrupt him in carrying out his wicked purpose, but he had +to make the best of it, and to seem pleased with Morgiana's dancing. She +was indeed a good dancer, and on this occasion outdid herself in +graceful and surprising motions. At the last, she took the tabor from +Abdalla's hand, and held it out like those who dance for money. + +Ali Baba put a piece of gold into it, and so did his son. When Cogia +Houssain saw that she was coming to him, he pulled out his purse from +his bosom to make her a present; but while he was putting his hand into +it, Morgiana, with courage worthy of herself, plunged the poniard into +his heart. + +"Unhappy woman!" exclaimed Ali Baba, "what have you done to ruin me and +my family?" + +"It was to preserve, not to ruin you," answered Morgiana. Then she +showed the dagger in Cogia Houssain's garment, and said: "Look well at +him, and you will see that he is both the pretended oil-merchant and the +captain of the band of forty robbers. As soon as you told me that he +would eat no salt with you, I suspected who it was, and when I saw him, +I knew." + +Ali Baba embraced her, and said: "Morgiana, I gave you your liberty +before, and promised you more in time; now I would make you my +daughter-in-law. Consider," he said, turning to his son, "that by +marrying Morgiana, you marry the preserver of my family and yours." + +The son was all the more ready to carry out his father's wishes, because +they were the same as his own, and within a few days he and Morgiana +were married, but before this, the captain of the robbers was buried +with his comrades, and so secretly was it done, that their bones were +not found till many years had passed, when no one had any concern in +making this strange story known. + +For a whole year Ali Baba did not visit the robbers' cave. At the end of +that time, as nobody had tried to disturb him, he made another journey +to the forest, and, standing before the entrance to the cave, said: +"Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and from the appearance of +everything within the cavern, he judged that nobody had been there since +the captain had fetched the goods for his shop. From this time forth, he +took as much of the treasure as his needs demanded. Some years later he +carried his son to the cave, and taught him the secret, which he handed +down in his family, who used their good fortune wisely, and lived in +great honor and splendor. + + + + +III. RIP VAN WINKLE[*] (1819) + +[* From "The Sketch Book." The elaborate Knickerbocker notes with which +Irving, following a passing fashion of the time, sought to mystify the +reader, are here omitted. They are hindrances now rather than helps.] + +BY WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) + + +[_Setting_. The Hudson River and the Kaatskill Mountains were first +brought into literature through this story, Irving being the first +American master of local color and local tradition. Since 1870 the +American short story, following the example of Irving, has been the +leading agency by which the South, the West, and New England have made +known and thus perpetuated their local scenery, legends, customs, and +dialect. Irving, however, seemed afraid of dialect. There were, it is +true, many legends about the Hudson before Irving was born, but they had +found no expression in literature. Mrs. Josiah Quincy, who made a voyage +up the Hudson in 1786, wrote: "Our captain had a legend for every scene, +either supernatural or traditional or of actual occurrence during the +war, and not a mountain reared its head unconnected with some marvellous +story." Irving, therefore, did not have to manufacture local traditions; +he only gave them wider currency and fitted them more artistically into +their natural settings. + +Irving chose for his setting the twenty years that embrace the +Revolutionary War because the numerous social and political changes that +took place then enabled him to bring Rip back after his sleep into a +"world not realized." You will appreciate much better the art of this +time-setting if you will try your hand on a somewhat similar story and +place it between 1820 and 1840, when railroads, telegraph lines, and +transatlantic steamers made a new world out of the old; or, if your +story takes place in the South, you might make your background include +the interval between 1855 and 1875, when slavery was abolished, when the +old plantation system was changed, when the names of new heroes emerged, +and when new social and political and industrial problems had to be +grappled with. + +_Plot_. The plot is divided into two almost equal parts, which we may +call "before and after taking." A recent critic has said: "The actual +forward movement of the plot does not begin until the sentence, 'In a +long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously +scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains.'" The +critic has missed, I think, the main structural excellence of the story. +Dame Van Winkle, the children who hung around Rip, his own children, his +dog, the social club at the inn with the portrait of George the Third, +Van Bummel, and Nicholas Vedder, all had to be mentioned before Rip +began the ascent of the mountain. Otherwise, when he returned, we should +have had no means of measuring the swift passage of time during his +sleep. Each is a skillfully set timepiece or milepost which, on Rip's +return, misleads the poor fellow at every turn and thus produces the +exact kind of "totality of effect" that Irving intended. The forward +movement of the plot begins with this careful planning of the route that +Rip is to take on his return trip, when twenty years shall have done +their work. Cut out these _points de repère_ and see how effectively the +forward movement of the plot is retarded. + +_Characters_. Rip was the first character in American fiction to be +known far beyond our own borders, and he remains one of the best known. +In the class with him belong James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking (or +Natty Bumppo), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, Joel Chandler Harris's +Uncle Remus, and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He has +been called un-American, and so he is, and so Irving plainly intended +him to be. If one insists on finding a bit of distinctive Americanism +somewhere in the story, he will find it not in Rip but in the number and +rapidity of the changes that American life underwent during the twenty +years that serve as background to the story. George William Curtis calls +Rip "the constant and unconscious satirist of American life," but surely +Irving would have smiled at finding so purposeful a mission laid upon +the stooping shoulders of his vagabond ne'er-do-well hero. Rip is no +satirist, conscious or unconscious. He is a provincial Dutch type, such +as Irving had seen a hundred times; but he is so lovable and is sketched +so lovingly that we hardly realize the consummate art, the human +sympathy, and the keen powers of observation that have gone into his +making. Every other character in the story, including Wolf, is a +sidelight on Rip. Of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Irving said: "The +story is a mere whimsical band to connect the descriptions of scenery, +customs, manners, etc." The emphasis, in other words, was put on the +setting. Of "Rip Van Winkle" might he not have said, "The descriptions +of scenery, customs, manners, etc. are but so many channels through +which the character of Rip finds outlet and expression"?] + + + +Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill +Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian +family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a +noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change +of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, +produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, +and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect +barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in +blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; +but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is cloudless they will +gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last +rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. + +At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the +light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among +the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the +fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great +antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists in the +early time of the province, just about the beginning of the government +of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were +some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, +built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, having latticed +windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. + +In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell +the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived +many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, +a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a +descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous +days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort +Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of +his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; +he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband. +Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of +spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are +most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the +discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered +pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a +curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the +virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, +in some respects be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van +Winkle was thrice blessed. + +Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of +the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all +family squabbles; and never failed, whenever they talked those matters +over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van +Winkle. The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever +he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, +taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories +of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the +village, he was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts, +clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with +impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. + +The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all +kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or +perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and +heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even +though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a +fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods +and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild +pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor, even in the +roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking +Indian corn, or building stone-fences; the women of the village, too, +used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs +as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip +was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing +family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. + +In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the +most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; everything +about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences +were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray or +get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields +than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as +he had some out-door work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate +had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was +little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it +was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood. + +His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to +nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own likeness, promised to +inherit the habits, with the old clothes of his father. He was generally +seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of +his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up +with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in bad weather. + +Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, +well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or +brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would +rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he +would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept +continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, +and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night her +tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to +produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of +replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had +grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up +his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh +volley from his wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and +take to the outside of the house--the only side which, in truth, belongs +to a henpecked husband. + +Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked +as his master; for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in +idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of +his master's going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit +befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever +scoured the woods--but what courage can withstand the ever-during and +all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment Wolf entered the +house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between +his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong +glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least flourish of a broomstick or +ladle he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation. + +Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony +rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is +the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. For a long +while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting +a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle +personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a +small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the +Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy summer's +day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy +stories about nothing. But it would have been worth any statesman's +money to have heard the profound discussions that sometimes took place, +when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing +traveller. How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled +out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little +man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the +dictionary; and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some +months after they had taken place. + +The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas +Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door +of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving +sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the shade of a large tree; so +that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as +by a sun-dial. It is true he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his +pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his +adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his +opinions. When anything that was read or related displeased him, he was +observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent +and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and +tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds; and sometimes, +taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl +about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect +approbation. + +From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his +termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquillity of the +assemblage and call the members all to naught; nor was that august +personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of +this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her +husband in habits of idleness. + +Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only +alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his +wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he +would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the +contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a +fellow-sufferer in persecution. "Poor Wolf," he would say, "thy mistress +leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live +thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his +tail, look wistfully in his master's face, and if dogs can feel pity, I +verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. + +In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had +unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill +Mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel shooting, and the +still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his gun. +Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a +green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a +precipice. From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the +lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the +lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic +course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging +bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing +itself in the blue highlands. + +On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, +lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending +cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. +For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually +advancing, the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the +valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the +village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the +terrors of Dame Van Winkle. + +As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, +"Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!" He looked round, but could see nothing +but a crow winging its solitary flight across the mountain. He thought +his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when he +heard the same cry ring through the still evening air: "Rip Van Winkle! +Rip Van Winkle!"--at the same time Wolf bristled up his back, and giving +a low growl, skulked to his master's side, looking fearfully down into +the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked +anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly +toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he +carried on his back. He was surprised to see any human being in this +lonely and unfrequented place; but supposing it to be some one of the +neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it. + +On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the singularity of the +stranger's appearance. He was a short, square-built old fellow, with +thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique +Dutch fashion: a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist, several pairs of +breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons +down the sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulder a +stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to +approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful +of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity; and +mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully, +apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended, Rip +every now and then heard long rolling peals like distant thunder, that +seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty +rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for a moment, +but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient +thunder-showers which often take place in mountain heights, he +proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a +small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the +brinks of which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only +caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud. During +the whole time Rip and his companion had labored on in silence; for +though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying +a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange +and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe and checked +familiarity. + +On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder presented +themselves. On a level spot in the center was a company of odd-looking +personages playing at ninepins. They were dressed in a quaint outlandish +fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in +their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches of similar style +with that of the guide's. Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a +large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another +seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white +sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. They all had +beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be the +commander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten +countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, +high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with +roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old +Flemish painting in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick, the village +parson, which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the +settlement. + +What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were +evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the +most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of +pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the +scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, +echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. + +As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from +their play, and stared at him with such, fixed, statue-like gaze, and +such strange, uncouth, lack-lustre countenances, that his heart turned +within him, and his knees smote together. His companion now emptied the +contents of the keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait +upon the company. He obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the +liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. + +By degrees Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even ventured, when +no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage, which he found had +much of the flavor of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty +soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked +another; and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often that at +length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head +gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. + +On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen +the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes--it was a bright, sunny +morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the +eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze. +"Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all night." He recalled +the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of +liquor--the mountain ravine--the wild retreat among the rocks--the +woe-begone party at ninepins--the flagon--"Oh! that flagon! that wicked +flagon!" thought Rip--"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?" + +He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean, well-oiled +fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel +incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. He +now suspected that the grave roisterers of the mountain had put a trick +upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. +Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a +squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him, and shouted his name, but +all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was +to be seen. + +He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and if +he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to +walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual +activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, "and +if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall +have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty he got +down into the glen; he found the gully up which he and his companion has +ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain +stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling +the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up +its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, +sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the +wild grapevines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree, +and spread a kind of network in his path. + +At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs +to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks +presented a high, impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came +tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad, deep basin, +black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip +was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after his dog; he +was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting high +in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure +in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's +perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was passing away, and Rip +felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog +and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve +among the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, +and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps +homeward. + +As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he +knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself +acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was of +a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all +stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their +eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence +of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to his +astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! + +He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange +children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray +beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old +acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered; +it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had +never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had +disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange faces at the +windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to +doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. +Surely this was his native village, which he had left but the day +before. There stood the Kaatskill Mountains--there ran the silver Hudson +at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always +been--Rip was sorely perplexed--"That flagon last night," thought he, +"has addled my poor head sadly!" + +It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, +which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the +shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay--the +roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A +half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking about it. Rip called +him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This +was an unkind cut indeed--"My very dog," sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten +me!" + +He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had +always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently +abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears--he called +loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for a moment +with his voice, and then again all was silence. + +He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village +inn--but it, too, was gone. A large, rickety wooden building stood in +its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended +with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "The Union +Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to +shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall +naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red night-cap, +and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of +stars and stripes--all this was strange and incomprehensible. He +recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King George, under +which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but even this was +singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and +buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was +decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large +characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON. + +There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that Rip +recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. There was +a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed +phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas +Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering +clouds of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the +schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper. In +place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of +hand-bills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens +--elections--members of congress--liberty--Bunker's Hill--heroes +of seventy-six--and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon +to the bewildered Van Winkle. + +The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty +fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at +his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern-politicians. They +crowded round him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. The +orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired "on +which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but +busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, +inquired in his ear, "Whether he was Federal or Democrat?" Rip was +equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, +self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way +through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as +he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, +the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, +as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, "what +brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his +heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?"--"Alas! +gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor quiet man, a +native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!" + +Here a general shout burst from the bystanders--"A tory! a tory! a spy! +a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great difficulty that +the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and, having +assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown +culprit what he came there for, and whom he was seeking? The poor man +humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in +search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. + +"Well--who are they?--name them." + +Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?" + +There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin, piping voice: "Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used +to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." + +"Where's Brom Dutcher?" + +"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he +was killed at the storming of Stony Point--others say he was drowned in +a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know--he never came back +again." + +"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" + +"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now in +Congress." + +Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and +friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer +puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of +matters which he could not understand: war--Congress--Stony Point; he +had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, +"Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?" + +"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. + +"Oh, to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the +tree." + +Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up +the mountain: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor +fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and +whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, +the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name? + +"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself--I'm +somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else got into my +shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and +they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and I +can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" + +The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, +and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There was a whisper, +also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing +mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the +cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment a +fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the +gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened +at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little +fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the +mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in +his mind. "What is your name, my good woman?" asked he. + +"Judith Gardenier." + +"And your father's name?" + +"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years since +he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of +since,--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself or +was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a +little girl." + +Rip had but one question more to ask; and he put it with a faltering +voice:--"Where's your mother?" + +"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel +in a fit of passion at a New England peddler." + +There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The honest +man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her +child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he--"Young Rip Van Winkle +once--old Rip Van Winkle now! Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle?" + +All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the +crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a +moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough it is Rip Van Winkle--it is himself! +Welcome home again, old neighbor--Why, where have you been these twenty +long years?" + +Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him +but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were +seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks; and +the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, +had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and +shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of the head +throughout the assemblage. + +It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, +who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a descendant of the +historian of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the +province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well +versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. +He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most +satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, handed +down from his ancestor the historian, that the Kaatskill Mountains had +always been haunted by strange beings. That it was affirmed that the +great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, +kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the +Half-moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his +enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city +called by his name. That his father had once seen them in their old +Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that +he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls +like distant peals of thunder. + +To make a long story short, the company broke up and returned to the +more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home to +live with her; she had a snug well-furnished house, and a stout cheery +farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the urchins that +used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto +of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on +the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to anything +else but his business. + +Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his +former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of +time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with +whom he soon grew into great favor. + +Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a +man can be idle with impunity, he took his place once more on the bench +at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the +village, and a chronicle of the old times "before the war." It was some +time before he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be +made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his +torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war--that the country +had thrown off the yoke of old England--and that, instead of being a +subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of +the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician; the changes of +states and empires made but little impression on him; but there was one +species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that +was--petticoat government. Happily that was at an end; he had got his +neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he +pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her +name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, +and cast up his eyes, which might pass either for an expression of +resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance. + +He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr. +Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some points +every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having so +recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I have +related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neighborhood but knew it +by heart. Some always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted +that Rip had been out of his head, and that this was one point on which +he always remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost +universally gave it full credit. Even to this day they never hear a +thunder-storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but they say +Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins; and it is a +common wish of all henpecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life +hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught out +of Rip Van Winkle's flagon. + + + + +IV. THE GOLD-BUG (1843) + +BY EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) + + +[_Setting_. Sullivan's Island is at the entrance of Charleston harbor, +just east of Charleston, South Carolina. It is the site of Fort +Moultrie, where Poe served as a private soldier in Battery H of the +First Artillery, United States Army, from November, 1827, to November, +1828. The atmosphere of the place in Poe's time is well preserved, but +no such beetle as the gold-bug has been discovered. Poe may have found a +hint for his story in the wreck of the old brigantine _Cid Campeador_ +off the coast of South Carolina in 1745, the affidavits of the burying +of the treasure being still preserved in the Probate Court Records of +Charleston. + +_Plot_. "The Gold-Bug" is recognized as one of the world's greatest +short stories and marks a distinct advance in short-story structure. The +plot is divided into two parts, which we may call mystery and solution, +or complication and explication, or rise and fall. The second part +begins with the short paragraph on page 91, beginning "When, at length, +we had concluded our examination," etc. Notice how skillfully the +interest is preserved and even heightened as the plot passes from the +romantic action of part one to the subtle exposition of part two. These +two parts may be said to represent the two sides of Poe's genius, the +imaginative or poetical, and the intellectual or scientific. The +treasure-trove is the symbol of the first, the cryptogram of the second. +Stories had been written about buried treasures and about cryptograms +before 1843, but the two interests had never before been combined. Poe's +example, however, has borne abundant fruit. + +_Characters_. Poe's strength did not lie in the creation of character. +He is so intent on the development of the windings and unwindings of his +story that the characters become mere puppets, originated and controlled +by the needs of the plot. Jupiter deserves mention as one of the +earliest attempts made by an American short-story writer to portray +negro character. But Jupiter has been so far surpassed in breadth and +reality by Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, and a score of +others as to be almost negligible in the count. In defense of Jupiter's +barbarous lingo, which has been often criticized, it should be +remembered that Poe intended him as a representative of the Gullah (or +Gulla) dialect. "It is the negro dialect," says Joel Chandler Harris, +"in its most primitive state--the 'Gullah' talk of some of the negroes +on the Sea Islands being merely a confused and untranslatable mixture of +English and African words." + +William Legrand, though not a great or notable character in any way, is +admirably fitted to do what is required of him in the story. Like Poe, +he was solitary, proud, quick-tempered, and "subject to perverse moods +of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy." He had also Poe's passion for +puzzles. Jupiter is hardly more than an awkward tool fashioned to +display Legrand's analytic and directive genius; and the other character +in the story, like Dr. Watson in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, +is introduced merely to ask such questions as must be answered if the +reader is to follow intelligently the unfolding of the plot. They are +agents rather than characters.] + + + +What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad! +He hath been bitten by the Tarantula. + "All in the Wrong" + + +Many years ago, I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He +was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a +series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the +mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the +city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's +Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. + +This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the +sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point +exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a +scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of +reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, as +might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any +magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort +Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted +during summer by the fugitives from Charleston dust and fever, may be +found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with the +exception of this western point, and a line of hard white beach on the +seacoast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle, so +much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub here often +attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost +impenetrable coppice, burdening the air with its fragrance. + +In the utmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern or +more remote end of the island, Legrand had built himself a small hut, +which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made his +acquaintance. This soon ripened into friendship--for there was much in +the recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him well educated, +with unusual powers of mind, but infected with misanthropy, and subject +to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. He had with +him many books, but rarely employed them. His chief amusements were +gunning and fishing, or sauntering along the beach and through the +myrtles in quest of shells or entomological specimens;--his collection +of the latter might have been envied by a Swammerdamm. In these +excursions he was usually accompanied by an old negro, called Jupiter, +who had been manumitted before the reverses of the family, but who +could be induced, neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon what +he considered his right of attendance upon the footsteps of his young +"Massa Will." It is not improbable that the relatives of Legrand, +conceiving him to be somewhat unsettled in intellect, had contrived to +instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the supervision and +guardianship of the wanderer. + +The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very +severe, and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a +fire is considered necessary. About the middle of October, 18--, there +occurred, however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset I +scrambled my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, whom I +had not visited for several weeks--my residence being at that time in +Charleston, a distance of nine miles from the island, while the +facilities of passage and repassage were very far behind those of the +present day. Upon reaching the hut I rapped, as was my custom, and, +getting no reply, sought for the key where I knew it was secreted, +unlocked the door, and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon the +hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I threw +off an overcoat, took an armchair by the crackling logs, and awaited +patiently the arrival of my hosts. + +Soon after dark they arrived, and gave me a most cordial welcome. +Jupiter, grinning from ear to ear, bustled about to prepare some +marsh-hens for supper. Legrand was in one of his fits--how else shall I +term them?--of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve, forming a +new genus, and, more than this, he had hunted down and secured, with +Jupiter's assistance, a _scarabæus_ which he believed to be totally +new, but in respect to which he wished to have my opinion on the +morrow. + +"And why not to-night?" I asked, rubbing my hands over the blaze, and +wishing the whole tribe of _scarabæi_ at the devil. + +"Ah, if I had only known you were here!" said Legrand, "but it's so +long since I saw you; and how could I foresee that you would pay me a +visit this very night of all others? As I was coming home I met +Lieutenant G----, from the fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him the +bug; so it will be impossible for you to see it until the morning. Stay +here to-night, and I will send Jup down for it at sunrise. It is the +loveliest thing in creation!" + +"What?--sunrise?" + +"Nonsense! no!--the bug. It is of a brilliant gold color--about the +size of a large hickory-nut--with two jet-black spots near one +extremity of the back, and another, somewhat longer, at the other. The +_antennæ_ are--" + +"Dey aint _no_ tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a tellin on you," here +interrupted Jupiter; "de bug is a goole-bug, solid, ebery bit of him, +inside and all, sep him wing--neber feel half so hebby a bug in my +life." + +"Well, suppose it is, Jup," replied Legrand, somewhat more earnestly, +it seemed to me, than the case demanded, "is that any reason for your +letting the birds burn? The color"--here he turned to me--"is really +almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea. You never saw a more brilliant +metallic lustre than the scales emit--but of this you cannot judge till +to-morrow. In the meantime I can give you some idea of the shape." +Saying this, he seated himself at a small table, on which were a pen +and ink, but no paper. He looked for some in a drawer, but found none. + +"Never mind," said he at length, "this will answer"; and he drew from +his waistcoat pocket a scrap of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, +and made upon it a rough drawing with the pen. While he did this, I +retained my seat by the fire, for I was still chilly. When the design +was complete, he handed it to me without rising. As I received it, a +low growl was heard, succeeded by a scratching at the door. Jupiter +opened it, and a large Newfoundland, belonging to Legrand, rushed in, +leaped upon my shoulders, and loaded me with caresses; for I had shown +him much attention during previous visits. When his gambols were over, +I looked at the paper, and, to speak the truth, found myself not a +little puzzled at what my friend had depicted. + +"Well!" I said, after contemplating it for some minutes, "this _is_ a +strange _scarabæus_, I must confess; new to me; never saw anything like +it before--unless it was a skull, or a death's-head, which it more +nearly resembles than anything else that has come under _my_ +observation." + +"A death's-head!" echoed Legrand--"oh--yes--well, it has something of +that appearance upon paper, no doubt. The two upper black spots look +like eyes, eh? and the longer one at the bottom like a mouth--and then +the shape of the whole is oval." + +"Perhaps so," said I; "but, Legrand, I fear you are no artist. I must +wait until I see the beetle itself, if I am to form any idea of its +personal appearance." + +"Well, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, "I draw +tolerably--_should_ do it at least--have had good masters, and flatter +myself that I am not quite a blockhead." + +"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I; "this is a very +passable _skull_,--indeed, I may say that it is a very _excellent_ +skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of +physiology--and your _scarabæus_ must be the queerest _scarabæus_ in +the world if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrilling bit +of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will call the bug +_scarabæus caput hominis_[*] or something of that kind--there are many +similar titles in the Natural Histories. But where are the _antennæ_ +you spoke of?" + +[* _Scarabæus caput hominis_, "death's-head beetle."] + +"The _antennæ_!" said Legrand, who seemed to be getting unaccountably +warm upon the subject; "I am sure you must see the _antennæ_. I made +them as distinct as they are in the original insect, and I presume that +is sufficient." + +"Well, well," I said, "perhaps you have--still I don't see them"; and I +handed him the paper without additional remark, not wishing to ruffle +his temper; but I was much surprised at the turn affairs had taken; his +ill humor puzzled me--and as for the drawing of the beetle, there were +positively _no antennæ_, visible, and the whole _did_ bear a very close +resemblance to the ordinary cuts of a death's-head. + +He received the paper very peevishly, and was about to crumple it, +apparently to throw it in the fire, when a casual glance at the design +seemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In an instant his face grew +violently red--in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he +continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely where he sat. At length he +arose, took a candle from the table, and proceeded to seat himself upon +a sea-chest in the farthest corner of the room. Here again he made an +anxious examination of the paper; turning it in all directions. He said +nothing, however, and his conduct greatly astonished me; yet I thought +it prudent not to exacerbate the growing moodiness of his temper by any +comment. Presently he took from his coat pocket a wallet, placed the +paper carefully in it, and deposited both in a writing-desk, which he +locked. He now grew more composed in his demeanor; but his original air +of enthusiasm had quite disappeared. Yet he seemed not so much sulky as +abstracted. As the evening wore away he became more and more absorbed +in revery, from which no sallies of mine could arouse him. It had been +my intention to pass the night at the hut, as I had frequently done +before, but, seeing my host in this mood, I deemed it proper to take +leave. He did not press me to remain, but, as I departed, he shook my +hand with even more than his usual cordiality. + +It was about a month after this (and during the interval I had seen +nothing of Legrand) when I received a visit, at Charleston, from his +man, Jupiter. I had never seen the good old negro look so dispirited, +and I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my friend. + +"Well, Jup," said I, "what is the matter now?--how is your master?" + +"Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry well as mought be." + +"Not well! I am truly sorry to hear it. What does he complain of?" + +"Dar! dat's it!--him neber plain of notin--but him berry sick for all +dat." + +"_Very_ sick, Jupiter!--why didn't you say so at once? Is he confined +to bed?" + +"No, dat he aint!--he aint find nowhar--dat's just whar de shoe +pinch--my mind is got to be berry hebby bout poor Massa Will." + +"Jupiter, I should like to understand what it is you are talking about. +You say your master is sick. Hasn't he told you what ails him?" + +"Why, massa, taint worf while for to git mad bout de matter--Massa Will +say noffin at all aint de matter wid him--but den what make him go bout +looking dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up, and as white +as a gose? And then he keeps a syphon all de time--" + +"Keeps a what, Jupiter?" + +"Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on de slate--de queerest figgurs I ebber +did see. Ise gittin to be skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keep mighty +tight eye pon him noovers. Todder day he gib me slip fore de sun up and +was gone de whole ob de blessed day. I had a big stick ready cut for to +gib him d----d good beating when he did come--but Ise sich a fool dat I +hadn't de heart arter all--he look so berry poorly." + +"Eh?--what?--ah, yes!--upon the whole I think you had better not be too +severe with the poor fellow--don't flog him, Jupiter--he can't very +well stand it--but can you form no idea of what has occasioned this +illness, or rather this change of conduct? Has anything unpleasant +happened since I saw you?" + +"No, massa, dey aint bin noffin onpleasant _since_ den--'t was _fore_ +den I'm feared--'t was de berry day you was dare." + +"How? what do you mean?" + +"Why, massa, I mean de bug--dare now." + +"The what?" + +"De bug--I'm berry sartain dat Massa Will bin bit somewhere bout de +head by dat goole-bug." + +"And what cause have you, Jupiter, for such a supposition?" + +"Claws enuff, massa, and mouff too. I nebber did see sich a d----d +bug--he kick and he bite every ting what cum near him. Massa Will cotch +him fuss, but had for to let him go gin mighty quick, I tell you--den +was de time he must ha got de bite. I didn't like de look ob de bug +mouff, myself, no how, so I wouldn't take hold ob him wid my finger, +but I cotch him wid a piece ob paper dat I found. I rap him up in de +paper and stuff piece ob it in he mouff--dat was de way." + +"And you think, then, that your master was really bitten by the beetle, +and that the bite made him sick?" + +"I don't tink noffin about it--I nose it. What make him dream bout de +goole so much, if taint cause he bit by de goole-bug? Ise heerd bout +dem goole-bugs fore dis." + +"But how do you know he dreams about gold?" + +"How I know? why, cause he talk about it in he sleep--dat's how I +nose." + +"Well, Jup, perhaps you are right; but to what fortunate circumstances +am I to attribute the honor of a visit from you to-day?" + +"What de matter, massa?" + +"Did you bring any message from Mr. Legrand?" + +"No, massa, I bring dis here pissel"; and here Jupiter handed me a note +which ran thus: + + +MY DEAR----: Why have I not seen you for so long a time? +I hope you have not been so foolish as to take offense at any little +_brusquerie_ of mine; but no, that is improbable. + +Since I saw you I have had great cause for anxiety. I have something +to tell you, yet scarcely know how to tell it, or whether I should +tell it at all. + +I have not been quite well for some days past, and poor old Jup +annoys me, almost beyond endurance, by his well-meant attentions. +Would you believe it?--he had prepared a huge stick, the other +day, with which to chastise me for giving him the slip, and spending +the day, _solus_, among the hills on the mainland. I verily believe +that my ill looks alone saved me a flogging. + +I have made no addition to my cabinet since we met. + +If you can, in any way, make it convenient, come over with +Jupiter. _Do_ come. I wish to see you _tonight_, upon business of +importance. I assure you that it is of the _highest_ importance. + +Ever yours, + +WILLIAM LEGRAND + + +There was something in the tone of this note which gave me great +uneasiness. Its whole style differed materially from that of Legrand. +What could he be dreaming of? What new crotchet possessed his excitable +brain? What "business of the highest importance" could _he_ possibly +have to transact? Jupiter's account of him boded no good. I dreaded lest +the continued pressure of misfortune had, at length, fairly unsettled +the reason of my friend. Without a moment's hesitation, therefore, I +prepared to accompany the negro. + +Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades, all +apparently new, lying in the bottom of the boat in which we were to +embark. + +"What is the meaning of all this, Jup?" I inquired. + +"Him syfe, massa, and spade." + +"Very true; but what are they doing here?" + +"Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will sis pon my buying for him in +de town, and de debbil's own lot of money I had to gib for em." + +"But what, in the name of all that is mysterious, is your 'Massa Will' +going to do with scythes and spades?" + +"Dat's more dan _I_ know, and debbil take me if I don't believe 'tis +more dan he know, too. But it's all cum ob de bug." + +Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter, whose whole +intellect seemed to be absorbed by "de bug," I now stepped into the boat +and made sail. With a fair and strong breeze we soon ran into the little +cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walk of some two miles +brought us to the hut. It was about three in the afternoon when we +arrived. Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expectation. He grasped +my hand with a nervous _empressement_, which alarmed me and strengthened +the suspicions already entertained. His countenance was pale even to +ghastliness, and his deep-set eyes glared with unnatural lustre. After +some inquiries respecting his health, I asked him, not knowing what +better to say, if he had yet obtained the _scarabæus_ from Lieutenant +G----. + +"Oh, yes," he replied, coloring violently, "I got it from him the next +morning. Nothing should tempt me to part with that _scarabæus_. Do you +know that Jupiter is quite right about it?" + +"In what way?" I asked, with a sad foreboding at heart. + +"In supposing it to be a bug of _real gold_." He said this with an air +of profound seriousness, and I felt inexpressibly shocked. + +"This bug is to make my fortune," he continued, with a triumphant smile, +"to reinstate me in my family possessions. Is it any wonder, then, that +I prize it? Since Fortune has thought fit to bestow it upon me, I have +only to use it properly and I shall arrive at the gold of which it is +the index. Jupiter, bring me that _scarabæus_!" + +"What! de bug, massa? I'd rudder not go fer trubble dat bug--you mus git +him for your own self." Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and stately +air, and brought me the beetle from a glass case in which it was +enclosed. It was a beautiful _scarabæus_, and, at that time, unknown to +naturalists--of course a great prize in a scientific point of view. +There were two round, black spots near one extremity of the back, and a +long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy, +with all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of the insect was +very remarkable, and, taking all things into consideration, I could +hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it; but what to make of +Legrand's agreement with that opinion, I could not, for the life of me, +tell. + +"I sent for you," said he, in a grandiloquent tone, when I had completed +my examination of the beetle, "I sent for you that I might have your +counsel and assistance in furthering the views of Fate and of the bug--" + +"My dear Legrand," I cried, interrupting him, "you are certainly unwell, +and had better use some little precautions. You shall go to bed, and I +will remain with you a few days, until you get over this. You are +feverish and--" + +"Feel my pulse," said he. + +I felt it, and, to say the truth, found not the slightest indication of +fever. + +"But you may be ill, and yet have no fever. Allow me this once to +prescribe for you. In the first place, go to bed. In the next--" + +"You are mistaken," he interposed, "I am as well as I can expect to be +under the excitement which I suffer. If you really wish me well, you +will relieve this excitement." + +"And how is this to be done?" + +"Very easily. Jupiter and myself are going upon an expedition into the +hills, upon the mainland, and, in this expedition, we shall need the aid +of some person in whom we can confide. You are the only one we can +trust. Whether we succeed or fail, the excitement which you now perceive +in me will be equally allayed." + +"I am anxious to oblige you in any way," I replied; "but do you mean to +say that this infernal beetle has any connection with your expedition +into the hills." + +"It has." + +"Then, Legrand, I can become a party to no such absurd proceeding." + +"I am sorry--very sorry--for we shall have to try it by ourselves." + +"Try it by yourselves! The man is surely mad!--but stay--how long do you +propose to be absent?" + +"Probably all night. We shall start immediately, and be back, at all +events, by sunrise." + +"And will you promise me, upon your honor, that when this freak of yours +is over and the bug business (good God!) settled to your satisfaction, +you will then return home and follow my advice implicitly, as that of +your physician?" + +"Yes; I promise; and now let us be off, for we have no time to lose." + +With a heavy heart I accompanied my friend. We started about four +o'clock--Legrand, Jupiter, the dog, and myself. Jupiter had with him the +scythe and spades--the whole of which he insisted upon carrying, more +through fear, it seemed to me, of trusting either of the implements +within reach of his master, than from any excess of industry or +complaisance. His demeanor was dogged in the extreme, and "dat d----d +bug" were the sole words which escaped his lips during the journey. For +my own part, I had charge of a couple of dark lanterns, while Legrand +contented himself with the _scarabæus_, which he carried attached to the +end of a bit of whip-cord; twirling it to and fro, with the air of a +conjuror, as he went. When I observed this last, plain evidence of my +friend's aberration of mind, I could scarcely refrain from tears. I +thought it best, however, to humor his fancy, at least for the present, +or until I could adopt some more energetic measures with a chance of +success. In the meantime I endeavored, but all in vain, to sound him in +regard to the object of the expedition. Having succeeded in inducing me +to accompany him, he seemed unwilling to hold conversation upon any +topic of minor importance, and to all my questions vouchsafed no other +reply than "We shall see!" + +We crossed the creek at the head of the island by means of a skiff, and, +ascending the high grounds on the shore of the mainland, proceeded in a +northwesterly direction, through a tract of country excessively wild and +desolate, where no trace of a human footstep was to be seen. Legrand led +the way with decision; pausing only for an instant, here and there, to +consult what appeared to be certain landmarks of his own contrivance +upon a former occasion. + +In this manner we journeyed for about two hours, and the sun was just +setting when we entered a region infinitely more dreary than any yet +seen. It was a species of table-land, near the summit of an almost +inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and +interspersed with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the soil, +and in many cases were prevented from precipitating themselves into the +valleys below merely by the support of the trees against which they +reclined. Deep ravines, in various directions, gave an air of still +sterner solemnity to the scene. + +The natural platform to which we had clambered was thickly overgrown +with brambles, through which we soon discovered that it would have been +impossible to force our way but for the scythe; and Jupiter, by +direction of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot of +an immensely large tulip-tree, which stood, with some eight or ten oaks, +upon the level, and far surpassed them all, and all other trees which I +had then ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and form, in the wide +spread of its branches, and in the general majesty of its appearance. +When we reached this tree, Legrand turned to Jupiter, and asked him if +he thought he could climb it. The old man seemed a little staggered by +the question, and for some moments made no reply. At length he +approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it, and examined it with +minute attention. When he had completed his scrutiny, he merely said: + +"Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebber see in he life." + +"Then up with you as soon as possible, for it will soon be too dark to +see what we are about." + +"How far mus go up, massa?" inquired Jupiter. + +"Get up the main trunk first, and then I will tell you which way to +go--and here--stop! take this beetle with you." + +"De bug, Massa Will!--de goole-bug!" cried the negro, drawing back in +dismay--"what for mus tote de bug way up detree?--d----n if I do!" + +"If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold of a +harmless little dead beetle, why, you can carry it up by this +string--but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be +under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel." + +"What de matter now, massa?" said Jup, evidently shamed into compliance; +"always want fur to raise fuss wid old nigger. Was only funnin anyhow. +_Me_ feered de bug! what I keer for de bug?" Here he took cautiously +hold of the extreme end of the string, and, maintaining the insect as +far from his person as circumstances would permit, prepared to ascend +the tree. + +In youth, the tulip-tree, or _Liriodendron Tulipifera_, the most +magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth, and +often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but, in its +riper age the bark becomes gnarled and uneven while many short limbs +make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty of ascension, in +the present case, lay more in semblance than in reality. Embracing the +huge cylinder, as closely as possible, with his arms and knees, seizing +with his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes upon others, +Jupiter, after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at length +wriggled himself into the first great fork, and seemed to consider the +whole business as virtually accomplished. The _risk_ of the achievement +was, in fact, now over, although the climber was some sixty or seventy +feet from the ground. + +"Which way mus go now, Massa Will?" he asked. + +"Keep up the largest branch,--the one on this side," said Legrand. The +negro obeyed him promptly, and apparently with but little trouble, +ascending higher and higher, until no glimpse of his squat figure could +be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped it. Presently his +voice was heard in a sort of halloo. + +"How much fudder is got for go?" + +"How high up are you?" asked Legrand. + +"Ebber so fur," replied the negro; "can see de sky fru de top ob de +tree." + +"Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say. Look down the trunk and +count the limbs below you on this side. How many limbs have you passed?" + +"One, two, tree, four, fibe--I done pass fibe big limb, massa, pon dis +side." + +"Then go one limb higher." + +In a few minutes the voice was heard again, announcing that the seventh +limb was attained. + +"Now, Jup," cried Legrand, evidently much excited, "I want you to work +your way out upon that limb as far as you can. If you see anything +strange, let me know." + +By this time what little doubt I might have entertained of my poor +friend's insanity was put finally at rest. I had no alternative but to +conclude him stricken with lunacy, and I became seriously anxious about +getting him home. While I was pondering upon what was best to be done, +Jupiter's voice was again heard. + +"Mos feerd for to ventur pon dis limb berry far--'t is dead limb putty +much all de way." + +"Did you say it was a _dead_ limb, Jupiter?" cried Legrand in a +quavering voice. + +"Yes, massa, him dead as de door-nail--done up for sartain--done +departed dis here life." + +"What in the name of heaven shall I do?" asked Legrand, seemingly in the +greatest distress. + +"Do!" said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose a word, "why come home +and go to bed. Come now!--that's a fine fellow. It's getting late, and, +besides, you remember your promise." + +"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the least, "do you hear me?" + +"Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain." + +"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and see if you think it +_very_ rotten." + +"Him rotten, massa, sure nuff," replied the negro in a few moments, "but +not so berry rotten as mought be. Mought ventur out leetle way pon de +limb by myself, dat's true." + +"By yourself!--what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean de bug. 'Tis _berry_ hebby bug. Spose I drop him down fuss, +and den de limb won't break wid just de weight ob one nigger." + +"You infernal scoundrel!" cried Legrand, apparently much relieved, "what +do you mean by telling me such nonsense as that? As sure as you let that +beetle fall, I'll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter! do you hear me?" + +"Yes, massa, needn't hollo at poor nigger dat style." + +"Well! now listen!--if you will venture out on the limb as far as you +think safe, and not let go the beetle, I'll make you a present of a +silver dollar as soon as you get down." + +"I'm gwine, Massa Will--deed I is," replied the negro very +promptly--"most out to the eend now." + +"_Out to the end!_" here fairly screamed Legrand, "do you say you are +out to the end of that limb?" + +"Soon be to de eend, massa,--o-o-o-o-oh! Lorgol-a-marcy! what _is_ dis +here pon de tree?" + +"Well!" cried Legrand, highly delighted, "what is it?" + +"Why, taint nuffin but a skull--somebody bin lef him head up de tree, +and de crows done gobble ebery bit ob de meat off." + +"A skull, you say!--very well!--how is it fastened to the limb?--what +holds it on?" + +"Sure nuff, massa; mus look. Why, dis berry curous sarcumstance, pon my +word--dare's a great big nail in de skull, what fastens ob it on to de +tree." + +"Well now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you--do you hear?" + +"Yes, massa." + +"Pay attention, then!--find the left eye of the skull." + +"Hum! hoo! dat's good! why, dar aint no eye lef at all." + +"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?" + +"Yes, I nose dat--nose all bout dat--'tis my lef hand what I chops de +wood wid." + +"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left eye is on the same side +as your left hand. Now, I suppose you can find the left eye of the +skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you found it?" + +Here was a long pause. At length the negro asked, "Is de lef eye of de +skull pon de same side as de lef hand of de skull, too?--cause de skull +aint got not a bit ob a hand at all--nebber mind! I got de lef eye +now--here de lef eye! what must do wid it?" + +"Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string will reach--but be +careful and not let go your hold of the string." + +"All dat done, Massa Will; mighty easy ting for to put de bug fru de +hole--look out for him dar below!" + +During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter's person could be seen; but +the beetle, which he had suffered to descend, was now visible at the end +of the string, and glistened like a globe of burnished gold in the last +rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the +eminence upon which we stood. The _scarabæus_ hung quite clear of any +branches, and, if allowed to fall, would have fallen at our feet. +Legrand immediately took the scythe, and cleared with it a circular +space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the insect, and, +having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come +down from the tree. + +Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground at the precise spot +where the beetle fell, my friend now produced from his pocket a +tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of +the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the +peg, and thence farther unrolled it, in the direction already +established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the distance +of fifty feet--Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the scythe. At +the spot thus attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a +centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter, described. Taking +now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand +begged us to set about digging as quickly as possible. + +To speak the truth, I had no especial relish for such amusement at any +time, and, at that particular moment, would most willingly have declined +it; for the night was coming on, and I felt much fatigued with the +exercise already taken; but I saw no mode of escape, and was fearful of +disturbing my poor friend's equanimity by a refusal. Could I have +depended, indeed, upon Jupiter's aid, I would have had no hesitation in +attempting to get the lunatic home by force; but I was too well assured +of the old negro's disposition to hope that he would assist me, under +any circumstances, in a personal contest with his master. I made no +doubt that the latter had been infected with some of the innumerable +Southern superstitions about money buried, and that his fantasy had +received confirmation by the finding of the _scarabæus_, or, perhaps, by +Jupiter's obstinacy in maintaining it to be "a bug of real gold." A mind +disposed to lunacy would readily be led away by such suggestions, +especially if chiming in with favorite preconceived ideas; and then I +called to mind the poor fellow's speech about the beetle's being the +"index of his fortune." Upon the whole, I was sadly vexed and puzzled, +but at length I concluded to make a virtue of necessity--to dig with a +good will, and thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by ocular +demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinions he entertained. + +The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal worthy a +more rational cause; and, as the glare fell upon our persons and +implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a group we +composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared +to any interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled upon our +whereabouts. + +We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was said; and our chief +embarrassment lay in the yelpings of the dog, who took exceeding +interest in our proceedings. He, at length, became so obstreperous that +we grew fearful of his giving the alarm to some stragglers in the +vicinity; or, rather, this was the apprehension of Legrand; for myself, +I should have rejoiced at any interruption which might have enabled me +to get the wanderer home. The noise was, at length, very effectually +silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with a dogged air of +deliberation, tied the brute's mouth up with one of his suspenders, and +then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task. + +When the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth of five +feet, and yet no signs of any treasure became manifest. A general pause +ensued, and I began to hope that the farce was at an end. Legrand, +however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow +thoughtfully and recommenced. We had excavated the entire circle of four +feet diameter, and now we slightly enlarged the limit, and went to the +farther depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The gold-seeker, whom +I sincerely pitied, at length clambered from the pit, with the bitterest +disappointment imprinted upon every feature, and proceeded slowly and +reluctantly to put on his coat, which he had thrown off at the beginning +of his labor. In the meantime I made no remark. Jupiter, at a signal +from his master, began to gather up his tools. This done, and the dog +having been unmuzzled, we turned in profound silence towards home. + +We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this direction, when, with a +loud oath, Legrand strode up to Jupiter, and seized him by the collar. +The astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth to the fullest extent, +let fall the spades, and fell upon his knees. + +"You scoundrel," said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between +his clenched teeth--"you infernal black villain!--speak, I tell +you!--answer me this instant, without prevarication!--which--which is +your left eye?" + +"Oh, my golly, Massa Will! aint dis here my lef eye for sartain?" roared +the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his _right_ organ of +vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity, as if in +immediate dread of his master's attempt at a gouge. + +"I thought so! I knew it! Hurrah!" vociferated Legrand, letting the +negro go, and executing a series of curvets and caracoles, much to the +astonishment of his valet, who, arising from his knees, looked mutely +from his master to myself, and then from myself to his master. + +"Come! we must go back," said the latter, "the game's not up yet;" and +he again led the way to the tulip-tree. + +"Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, "come here! Was the skull +nailed to the limb with the face outward, or with the face to the limb?" + +"De face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, +widout any trouble." + +"Well, then, was it this eye or that through which you dropped the +beetle?" here Legrand touched each of Jupiter's eyes. + +"'T was dis eye, Massa--de lef eye--jis as you tell me," and here it was +his right eye that the negro indicated. + +"That will do--we must try it again." + +Here, my friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, +certain indications of method, removed the peg which marked the spot +where the beetle fell, to a spot about three inches to the westward of +its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure from the nearest +point of the trunk to the peg, as before, and continuing the extension +in a straight line to the distance of fifty feet, a spot was indicated, +removed, by several yards, from the point at which we had been digging. + +Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger than in the former +instance, was now described, and we again set to work with the spades. I +was dreadfully weary, but, scarcely understanding what had occasioned +the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great aversion from the +labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably interested--nay, even +excited. Perhaps there was something, amid all the extravagant demeanor +of Legrand--some air of forethought, or of deliberation--which impressed +me. I dug eagerly, and now and then caught myself actually looking, with +something that very much resembled expectation, for the fancied +treasure, the vision of which had demented my unfortunate companion. At +a period when such vagaries of thought most fully possessed me, and when +we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, we were again +interrupted by the violent howlings of the dog. His uneasiness, in the +first instance, had been evidently but the result of playfulness or +caprice, but he now assumed a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter's +again attempting to muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and, leaping +into the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his claws. In a few +seconds he had uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two complete +skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal, and what appeared +to be the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of a spade +upturned the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we dug farther, +three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came to light. + +At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained, but +the countenance of his master wore an air of extreme disappointment. He +urged us, however, to continue our exertions, and the words were hardly +uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having caught the toe of my +boot in a large ring of iron that lay half buried in the loose earth. + +We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more +intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an +oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation and wonderful +hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing +process--perhaps that of the bichloride of mercury. This box was three +feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two and a half feet deep. It +was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind +of trellis-work over the whole. On each side of the chest, near the top, +were three rings of iron--six in all--by means of which a firm hold +could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united endeavors served +only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed. We at once saw the +impossibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily, the sole +fastenings of the lid consisted of two sliding bolts. These we drew +back--trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant, a treasure of +incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the lanterns +fell within the pit, there flashed upwards, from a confused heap of gold +and of jewels, a glow and a glare that absolutely dazzled our eyes. + +I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with which I gazed. +Amazement was, of course, predominant. Legrand appeared exhausted with +excitement, and spoke very few words. Jupiter's countenance wore, for +some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible, in the nature of +things, for any negro's visage to assume. He seemed stupefied +--thunder-stricken. Presently he fell upon his knees in the +pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the elbows in gold, let them +there remain, as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At length, with a +deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy: + +"And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de putty goole-bug! de poor little +goole-bug, what I boosed in dat sabage kind ob style! Aint you shamed ob +yourself, nigger?--answer me dat!" + +It became necessary, at last, that I should arouse both master and valet +to the expediency of removing the treasure. It was growing late, and it +behooved us to make exertion, that we might get everything housed before +daylight. It was difficult to say what should be done, and much time was +spent in deliberation--so confused were the ideas of all. We finally +lightened the box by removing two-thirds of its contents, when we were +enabled, with some trouble, to raise it from the hole. The articles +taken out were deposited among the brambles, and the dog left to guard +them, with strict orders from Jupiter neither, upon any pretence, to +stir from the spot, nor to open his mouth until our return. We then +hurriedly made for home with the chest; reaching the hut in safety, but +after excessive toil, at one o'clock in the morning. Worn out as we +were, it was not in human nature to do more just now. We rested until +two, and had supper; starting for the hills immediately afterwards, +armed with three stout sacks, which by good luck were upon the premises. +A little before four we arrived at the pit, divided the remainder of the +booty, as equally as might be, among us, and, leaving the holes +unfilled, again set out for the hut, at which, for the second time, we +deposited our golden burdens, just as the first streaks of the dawn +gleamed from over the tree-tops in the east. + +We were now thoroughly broken down; but the intense excitement of the +time denied us repose. After an unquiet slumber of some three or four +hours' duration, we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination of +our treasure. + +The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent the whole day, and the +greater part of the next night, in a scrutiny of its contents. There had +been nothing like order or arrangement. Everything had been heaped in +promiscuously. Having assorted all with care, we found ourselves +possessed of even vaster wealth than we had at first supposed. In coin +there was rather more than four hundred and fifty thousand +dollars--estimating the value of the pieces, as accurately as we could, +by the tables of the period. There was not a particle of silver. All was +gold of antique date and of great variety: French, Spanish, and German +money, with a few English guineas, and some counters of which we had +never seen specimens before. There were several very large and heavy +coins, so worn that we could make nothing of their inscriptions. There +was no American money. The value of the jewels we found more difficulty +in estimating. There were diamonds--some of them exceedingly large and +fine--a hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small; eighteen +rubies of remarkable brilliancy; three hundred and ten emeralds, all +very beautiful; and twenty-one sapphires, with an opal. These stones had +all been broken from their settings and thrown loose in the chest. The +settings themselves, which we picked out from among the other gold, +appeared to have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent +identification. Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid +gold ornaments: nearly two hundred massive finger and ear-rings; rich +chains--thirty of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and +heavy crucifixes; five gold censers of great value; a prodigious golden +punch-bowl, ornamented with richly chased vine-leaves and Bacchanalian +figures; with two sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many other +smaller articles which I cannot recollect. The weight of these valuables +exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this +estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold +watches; three of the number being worth each five hundred dollars, if +one. Many of them were very old, and as time-keepers valueless, the +works having suffered more or less from corrosion; but all were richly +jewelled and in cases of great worth. We estimated the entire contents +of the chest, that night, at a million and a half of dollars; and, upon +the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels (a few being retained +for our own use), it was found that we had greatly undervalued the +treasure. + +When, at length, we had concluded our examination, and the intense +excitement of the time had in some measure subsided, Legrand, who saw +that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most +extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the +circumstances connected with it. + +"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch I +had made of the _scarabæus_. You recollect, also, that I became quite +vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a death's-head. +When you first made this assertion I thought you were jesting; but +afterwards I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the +insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had some little +foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers irritated +me--for I am considered a good artist--and, therefore, when you handed +me the scrap of parchment, I was about to crumple it up and throw it +angrily into the fire." + +"The scrap of paper, you mean," said I. + +"No: it had much of the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed it +to be such, but when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it, at once, +to be a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you remember. +Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance fell upon +the sketch at which you had been looking, and you may imagine my +astonishment when I perceived, in fact, the figure of a death's-head +just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of the beetle. For a +moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. I knew that my +design was very different in detail from this--although there was a +certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a candle, and, +seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to scrutinize the +parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon +the reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea, now, was mere +surprise at the really remarkable similarity of outline--at the singular +coincidence involved in the fact that, unknown to me, there should have +been a skull upon the other side of the parchment, immediately beneath +my figure of the _scarabæus_, and that this skull, not only in outline, +but in size, should so closely resemble my drawing. I say the +singularity of this coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time. This +is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind struggles to +establish a connection--a sequence of cause and effect--and, being +unable to do so, suffers a species of temporary paralysis. But, when I +recovered from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a conviction +which startled me even far more than the coincidence. I began +distinctly, positively, to remember that there had been _no_ drawing on +the parchment when I made my sketch of the _scarabæus_. I became +perfectly certain of this; for I recollected turning up first one side +and then the other, in search of the cleanest spot. Had the skull been +then there, of course I could not have failed to notice it. Here was +indeed a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain; but, even at +that early moment, there seemed to glimmer, faintly, within the most +remote and secret chambers of my intellect, a glow-worm-like conception +of that truth which last night's adventure brought to so magnificent a +demonstration. I arose at once, and, putting the parchment securely +away, dismissed all farther reflection until I should be alone. + +"When you had gone, and when Jupiter was fast asleep, I betook myself to +a more methodical investigation of the affair. In the first place I +considered the manner in which the parchment had come into my +possession. The spot where we discovered the _scarabæus_ was on the +coast of the mainland, about a mile eastward of the island, and but a +short distance above high-water mark. Upon my taking hold of it, it gave +me a sharp bite, which caused me to let it drop. Jupiter, with his +accustomed caution, before seizing the insect, which had flown towards +him, looked about him for a leaf, or something of that nature, by which +to take hold of it. It was at this moment that his eyes, and mine also, +fell upon the scrap of parchment, which I then supposed to be paper. It +was lying half-buried in the sand, a corner sticking up. Near the spot +where we found it, I observed the remnants of the hull of what appeared +to have been a ship's long boat. The wreck seemed to have been there for +a very great while; for the resemblance to boat timbers could scarcely +be traced. + +"Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment, wrapped the beetle in it, and +gave it to me. Soon afterwards we turned to go home, and on the way met +Lieutenant G----. I showed him the insect, and he begged me to let him +take it to the fort. On my consenting, he thrust it forthwith into his +waistcoat pocket, without the parchment in which it had been wrapped, +and which I had continued to hold in my hand during his inspection. +Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind, and thought it best to make sure +of the prize at once--you know how enthusiastic he is on all subjects +connected with Natural History. At the same time, without being +conscious of it, I must have deposited the parchment in my own pocket. + +"You remember that when I went to the table, for the purpose of making a +sketch of the beetle, I found no paper where it was usually kept. I +looked in the drawer, and found none there. I searched my pockets, +hoping to find an old letter, and then my hand fell upon the parchment. +I thus detail the precise mode in which it came into my possession; for +the circumstances impressed me with peculiar force. + +"No doubt you will think me fanciful--but I had already established a +kind of _connection_. I had put together two links of a great chain. +There was a boat lying on a seacoast, and not far from the boat was a +parchment--_not a paper_--with a skull depicted on it. You will, of +course, ask 'where is the connection?' I reply that the skull, or +death's-head, is the well-known emblem of the pirate. The flag of the +death's-head is hoisted in all engagements. + +"I have said that the scrap was parchment, and not paper. Parchment is +durable--almost imperishable. Matters of little moment are rarely +consigned to parchment; since, for the mere ordinary purposes of drawing +or writing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This reflection +suggested some meaning--some relevancy--in the death's-head. I did not +fail to observe, also, the _form_ of the parchment. Although one of its +corners had been, by some accident, destroyed, it could be seen that the +original form was oblong. It was just such a slip, indeed, as might have +been chosen for a memorandum--for a record of something to be long +remembered and carefully preserved." + +"But," I interposed, "you say that the skull was _not_ upon the +parchment when you made the drawing of the beetle. How then do you trace +any connection between the boat and the skull--since this latter, +according to your own admission, must have been designed (God only knows +how or by whom) at some period subsequent to your sketching the +_scarabæus_?" + +"Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; although the secret, at this +point, I had comparatively little difficulty in solving. My steps were +sure, and could afford but a single result. I reasoned, for example, +thus: When I drew the _scarabæus_, there was no skull apparent on the +parchment. When I had completed the drawing I gave it to you, and +observed you narrowly until you returned it. _You_, therefore, did not +design the skull, and no one else was present to do it. Then it was not +done by human agency. And nevertheless it was done. + +"At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and _did_ +remember, with entire distinctness, every incident which occurred about +the period in question. The weather was chilly (O rare and happy +accident!), and a fire was blazing on the hearth. I was heated with +exercise and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close +to the chimney. Just as I placed the parchment in your hand, and as you +were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland, entered, and +leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him and +kept him off, while your right, holding the parchment, was permitted to +fall listlessly between your knees, and in close proximity to the fire. +At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it, and was about to +caution you, but, before I could speak, you had withdrawn it, and were +engaged in its examination. When I considered all these particulars, I +doubted not for a moment that _heat_ had been the agent in bringing to +light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are +well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out +of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or +vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected +to the action of fire. Zaffre digested in _aqua regia_, and diluted with +four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint +results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a +red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the +material written upon cools, but again become apparent upon the +reapplication of heat. + +"I now scrutinized the death's-head with care. Its outer edges--the +edges of the drawing nearest the edge of the vellum--were far more +_distinct_ than the others. It was clear that the action of the caloric +had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, and +subjected every portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At first, +the only effect was the strengthening of the faint lines in the skull; +but, on persevering in the experiment, there became visible at the +corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the +death's-head was delineated, the figure of what I at first supposed to +be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended +for a kid." + +"Ha! ha!" said I, "to be sure I have no right to laugh at you--a million +and a half of money is too serious a matter for mirth--but you are not +about to establish a third link in your chain: you will not find any +especial connection between your pirates and a goat; pirates, you know, +have nothing to do with goats; they appertain to the farming interest." + +"But I have just said that the figure was _not_ that of a goat." + +"Well, a kid, then--pretty much the same thing." + +"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard of +one _Captain_ Kidd. I at once looked on the figure of the animal as a +kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature, because +its position on the vellum suggested this idea. The death's-head at the +corner diagonally opposite had, in the same manner, the air of a stamp, +or seal. But I was sorely put out by the absence of all else--of the +body to my imagined instrument--of the text for my context." + +"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the +signature." + +"Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed with +a presentiment of some vast good fortune impending. I can scarcely say +why. Perhaps, after all, it was rather a desire than an actual +belief;--but do you know that Jupiter's silly words, about the bug being +of solid gold, had a remarkable effect on my fancy? And then the series +of accidents and coincidences--these were so _very_ extraordinary. Do +you observe how mere an accident it was that these events should have +occurred on the _sole_ day of all the year in which it has been, or may +be, sufficiently cool for fire, and that without the fire, or without +the intervention of the dog at the precise moment in which he appeared, +I should never have become aware of the death's-head, and so never the +possessor of the treasure?" + +"But proceed--I am all impatience." + +"Well; you have heard, of course, the many stories current--the thousand +vague rumors afloat about money buried, somewhere on the Atlantic coast, +by Kidd and his associates. These rumors must have had some foundation +in fact. And that the rumors have existed so long and so continuously, +could have resulted, it appeared to me, only from the circumstance of +the buried treasure still _remaining_ entombed. Had Kidd concealed his +plunder for a time, and afterwards reclaimed it, the rumors would +scarcely have reached us in their present unvarying form. You will +observe that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not about +money-finders. Had the pirate recovered his money, there the affair +would have dropped. It seemed to me that some accident--say the loss of +a memorandum indicating its locality--had deprived him of the means of +recovering it, and that this accident had become known to his followers, +who otherwise might never have heard that treasure had been concealed at +all, and who, busying themselves in vain, because unguided, attempts to +regain it, had given first birth, and then universal currency, to the +reports which are now so common. Have you ever heard of any important +treasure being unearthed along the coast?" + +"Never." + +"But that Kidd's accumulations were immense is well known. I took it for +granted, therefore, that the earth still held them; and you will +scarcely be surprised when I tell you that I felt a hope, nearly +amounting to certainty, that the parchment so strangely found involved a +lost record of the place of deposit." + +"But how did you proceed?" + +"I held the vellum again to the fire, after increasing the heat, but +nothing appeared. I now thought it possible that the coating of dirt +might have something to do with the failure; so I carefully rinsed the +parchment by pouring warm water over it, and, having done this, I placed +it in a tin pan, with the skull downwards, and put the pan upon a +furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes, the pan having become +thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and, to my inexpressible joy, +found it spotted, in several places, with what appeared to be figures +arranged in lines. Again I placed it in the pan, and suffered it to +remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was just as you see +it now." + +Here, Legrand, having reheated the parchment, submitted it to my +inspection. The following characters were rudely traced, in a red tint, +between the death's-head and the goat:-- + + +53$$+305))6*;4826)4$.)4$);806*;48+8¶60))85;;]8*;:$*8+83(88)5*+; +46(;88*96*?;8)*$(:485);5*+2:*$(;4956*2(5*--4)8¶8*;4069285);)6+8)4 +$$;1($9;48081;8:8$1;48+85;4)485+528806*81($9;48;(88;4($?34;48)4$ +;161;:188;$?; + + +"But," said I, returning him the slip, "I am as much in the dark as +ever. Were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me on my solution of this +enigma, I am quite sure that I should be unable to earn them." + +"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as +you might be led to imagine from the first hasty inspection of the +characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a +cipher--that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is +known of Kidd, I could not suppose him capable of constructing any of +the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up my mind, at once, that this +was of a simple species--such, however, as would appear, to the crude +intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key." + +"And you really solved it?" + +"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times +greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to take +interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human +ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may +not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established +connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere +difficulty of developing their import. + +"In the present case--indeed in all cases of secret writing--the first +question regards the _language_ of the cipher; for the principles of +solution, so far, especially, as the more simple ciphers are concerned, +depend on, and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom. In +general, there is no alternative but experiment (directed by +probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution, +until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, all +difficulty is removed by the signature. The pun upon the word 'Kidd' is +appreciable in no other language than the English. But for this +consideration I should have begun my attempts with the Spanish and +French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most +naturally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish Main. As it was, +I assumed the cryptograph to be English. + +"You observe there are no divisions between the words. Had there been +divisions, the task would have been comparatively easy. In such case I +should have commenced with a collation and analysis of the shorter +words, and, had a word of a single letter occurred, as is most likely +(_a_ or _I_, for example), I should have considered the solution as +assured. But, there being no division, my first step was to ascertain +the predominant letters, as well as the least frequent. Counting all, I +constructed a table, thus: + + +Of the character 8 there are 33 + ; " 26 + 4 " 19 + $) " 16 + * " 13 + 5 " 12 + 6 " 11 + +1 " 8 + 0 " 6 + 92 " 5 + :3 " 4 + ? " 3 + ¶ " 2 + ]--. " 1 + + +"Now, in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is _e_. +Afterwards the succession runs thus: _a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m w +b k p q x z. E_ predominates, however, so remarkably that an individual +sentence of any length is rarely seen, in which it is not the prevailing +character. + +"Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for +something more than a mere guess. The general use which may be made of +the table is obvious--but, in this particular cipher, we shall only very +partially require its aid. As our predominant character is 8, we will +commence by assuming it as the _e_ of the natural alphabet. To verify +the supposition, let us observe if the 8 be seen often in couples--for +_e_ is doubled with great frequency in English--in such words, for +example, as 'meet,' 'fleet,' speed,' 'seen,' 'been,' 'agree,' etc. In +the present instance we see it doubled no less than five times, although +the cryptograph is brief. + +"Let us assume 8, then, as _e_. Now of all _words_ in the language, +'the' is most usual; let us see, therefore, whether there are not +repetitions of any three characters, in the same order of collocation, +the last of them being 8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, so +arranged, they will most probably represent the word 'the.' On +inspection, we find no less than seven such arrangements, the characters +being ;48. We may, therefore, assume that the semicolon represents _t_, +that 4 represents _h_, and that 8 represents _e_--the last being now +well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken. + +"But, having established a single word, we are enabled to establish a +vastly important point; that is to say, several commencements and +terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example, to the last +instance but one, in which the combination ;48 occurs--not far from the +end of the cipher. We know that the semicolon immediately ensuing is the +commencement of a word, and, of the six characters succeeding this +'the,' we are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set these +characters down, thus, by the letters we know them to represent, leaving +a space for the unknown-- + +t eeth. + +"Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the '_th_,' as forming no +portion of the word commencing with the first _t_; since, by experiment +of the entire alphabet for a letter adapted to the vacancy, we perceive +that no word can be formed of which this _th_ can be a part. We are thus +narrowed into + +t ee, + +and, going through the alphabet, if necessary, as before, we arrive at +the word 'tree' as the sole possible reading. We thus gain another +letter, _r_, represented by (, with the words 'the tree' in +juxtaposition. + +"Looking beyond these words, for a short distance, we again see the +combination ;48, and employ it by way of _termination_ to what +immediately precedes. We have thus this arrangement: + +the tree;4($?34 the, + +or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus: + +the tree thr$?3h the. + +"Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, or +substitute dots, we read thus: + +the tree thr...h the, + +when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once. But this +discovery gives us three new letters, _o, u_, and _g_, represented by $, +? and 3. + +"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known +characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement: + +83(88, or egree, + +which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us +another letter, _d_, represented by +. + +"Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination, + +;46(;88*. + +"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, +as before, we read thus: + +th.rtee. + +an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again +furnishing us with two new characters, _i_ and_n_, represented by 6 and +*. + +"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the +combination, + +53$$+. + +"Translating as before, we obtain + +good, + +which assures us that the first letter is _A_, and that the first two +words are 'A good.' + +"To avoid confusion, it is now time that we arrange our key, as far as +discovered, in a tabular form. It will stand thus: + + +5 represents a ++ " d +8 " e +3 " g +4 " h +6 " i +* " n +$ " o +( " r +; " t + + +"We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters +represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of +the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this +nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the +rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before +us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only +remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the +parchment, as unriddled. Here it is: + +"'_A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat twenty one +degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh +limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line +from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"But," said I, "the enigma seems still in as bad a condition as ever. +How is it possible to extort a meaning from all this jargon about +'devil's seats,' 'death's-head,' and 'bishop's hostel'?" + +"I confess," replied Legrand, "that the matter still wears a serious +aspect, when regarded with a casual glance. My first endeavor was to +divide the sentence into the natural division intended by the +cryptographist." + +"You mean, to punctuate it?" + +"Something of that kind." + +"But how is it possible to effect this?" + +"I reflected that it had been a _point_ with the writer to run his words +together without division, so as to increase the difficulty of solution. +Now, a not over-acute man, in pursuing such an object, would be nearly +certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of his composition, he +arrived at a break in his subject which would naturally require a pause, +or a point, he would be exceedingly apt to run his characters, at this +place, more than usually close together. If you will observe the MS., in +the present instance, you will easily detect five such cases of unusual +crowding. Acting on this hint, I made the division thus: + +"'_A good glass in the Bishop's hostel in the devil's seat--twenty-one +degrees and thirteen minutes--northeast and by north--main branch +seventh limb east side--shoot from the left eye of the death's-head--a +bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"Even this division," said I, "leaves me still in the dark." + +"It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand, "for a few days; during +which I made diligent inquiry, in the neighborhood of Sullivan's Island, +for any building which went by the name of the 'Bishop's Hotel'; for, of +course, I dropped the obsolete word 'hostel.' Gaining no information on +the subject, I was on the point of extending my sphere of search, and +proceeding in a more systematic manner, when one morning it entered into +my head, quite suddenly, that this 'Bishop's Hostel' might have some +reference to an old family, of the name of Bessop, which, time out of +mind, had held possession of an ancient manor-house, about four miles to +the northward of the island. I accordingly went over to the plantation, +and reinstituted my inquiries among the older negroes of the place. At +length one of the most aged of the women said that she had heard of such +a place as _Bessop's Castle_, and thought that she could guide me to it, +but that it was not a castle, nor a tavern, but a high rock. + +"I offered to pay her well for her trouble, and, after some demur, she +consented to accompany me to the spot. We found it without much +difficulty, when, dismissing her, I proceeded to examine the place. The +'castle' consisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs and rocks--one +of the latter being quite remarkable for its height as well as for its +insulated and artificial appearance. I clambered to its apex, and then +felt much at a loss as to what should be next done. + +"While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell on a narrow ledge in the +eastern face of the rock, perhaps a yard below the summit upon which I +stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches, and was not more than +a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it gave it a rude +resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our ancestors. I +made no doubt that here was the 'devil's seat' alluded to in the MS., +and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle. + +"The 'good glass,' I knew, could have reference to nothing but a +telescope; for the word 'glass' is rarely employed in any other sense by +seamen. Now here, I at once saw, was a telescope to be used, and a +definite point of view, _admitting no variation_, from which to use it. +Nor did I hesitate to believe that the phrases 'twenty-one degrees and +thirteen minutes,' and 'northeast and by north,' were intended as +directions for the levelling of the glass. Greatly excited by these +discoveries, I hurried home, procured a telescope, and returned to the +rock. + +"I let myself down to the ledge, and found that it was impossible to +retain a seat on it unless in one particular position. This fact +confirmed my preconceived idea. I proceeded to use the glass. Of course, +the 'twenty-one degrees and thirteen minutes' could allude to nothing +but elevation above the visible horizon, since the horizontal direction +was clearly indicated by the words, 'northeast and by north.' This +latter direction I at once established by means of a pocket-compass; +then, pointing the glass as nearly at an angle of twenty-one degrees of +elevation as I could do it by guess, I moved it cautiously up or down, +until my attention was arrested by a circular rift or opening in the +foliage of a large tree that overtopped its fellows in the distance. In +the centre of this rift I perceived a white spot, but could not, at +first, distinguish what it was. Adjusting the focus of the telescope, I +again looked, and now made it out to be a human skull. + +"On this discovery I was so sanguine as to consider the enigma solved; +for the phrase 'main branch, seventh limb, east side,' could refer only +to the position of the skull on the tree, while 'shoot from the left eye +of the death's-head' admitted, also, of but one interpretation, in +regard to a search for buried treasure. I perceived that the design was +to drop a bullet from the left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or +in other words, a straight line, drawn from the nearest point of the +trunk through 'the shot' (or the spot where the bullet fell), and thence +extended to a distance of fifty feet, would indicate a definite +point--and beneath this point I thought it at least _possible_ that a +deposit of value lay concealed." + +"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, +still simple and explicit. When you left the Bishop's Hotel, what then?" + +"Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned +homewards. The instant that I left 'the devil's seat,' however, the +circular rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of it afterwards, turn +as I would. What seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole business, +is the fact (for repeated experiment has convinced me it _is_ a fact) +that the circular opening in question is visible from no other +attainable point of view than that afforded by the narrow ledge on the +face of the rock. + +"In this expedition to the 'Bishop's Hotel' I had been attended by +Jupiter, who had no doubt observed, for some weeks past, the abstraction +of my demeanor, and took especial care not to leave me alone. But on the +next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give him the slip, and +went into the hills in search of the tree. After much toil I found it. +When I came home at night my valet proposed to give me a flogging. With +the rest of the adventure I believe you are as well acquainted as +myself." + +"I suppose," said I, "you missed the spot, in the first attempt at +digging, through Jupiter's stupidity in letting the bug fall through the +right instead of through the left eye of the skull." + +"Precisely. This mistake made a difference of about two inches and a +half in the 'shot'--that is to say, in the position of the peg nearest +the tree; and had the treasure been _beneath_ the 'shot' the error would +have been of little moment; but the 'shot,' together with the nearest +point of the tree, were merely two points for the establishment of a +line of direction; of course the error, however trivial in the +beginning, increased as we proceeded with the line, and, by the time we +had gone fifty feet, threw us quite off the scent. But for my +deep-seated convictions that treasure was here somewhere actually +buried, we might have had all our labor in vain." + +"I presume the fancy of _the skull_--of letting fall a bullet through +the skull's eye--was suggested to Kidd by the piratical flag. No doubt +he felt a kind of poetical consistency in recovering his money through +this ominous insignium." + +"Perhaps so; still, I cannot help thinking that common-sense had quite +as much to do with the matter as poetical consistency. To be visible +from the Devil's seat, it was necessary that the object, if small, +should be _white_; and there is nothing like your human skull for +retaining and even increasing its whiteness under exposure to all +vicissitudes of weather." + +"But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in swinging the beetle--how +excessively odd! I was sure you were mad. And why did you insist on +letting fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the skull?" + +"Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions +touching my sanity, and so resolved to punish you quietly, in my own +way, by a little bit of sober mystification. For this reason I swung the +beetle, and for this reason I let it fall from the tree. An observation +of yours about its great weight suggested the latter idea." + +"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles me. What +are we to make of the skeletons found in the hole?" + +"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There +seems, however, only one plausible way of accounting for them--and yet +it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would imply. +It is clear that Kidd--if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, which I +doubt not--it is clear that he must have had assistance in the labor. +But, the worst of this labor concluded, he may have thought it expedient +to remove all participants in his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows with +a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors were busy in the pit; +perhaps it required a dozen--who shall tell?" + + + + +V. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1843) + +BY CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) + + +[_Setting_. In this most famous of Christmas stories Dickens gives us +the very atmosphere of the season with all the contrasts that poverty +and wealth, miserliness and charity, the past and the future can +suggest. Though he had London in mind, any great industrial center would +have served as well, for Dickens was thinking primarily of the relations +between employer and employee. That Christmas is better kept in England +now than when Dickens wrote is a triumph due more to "A Christmas Carol" +than to any other one piece of prose or verse. + +_Plot_. The story was planned rather than plotted. By calling it a carol +and dividing it into staves, Dickens would have us think of it not as a +narrative but as a song, full of the joy and good will that Christmas +ought to diffuse. It is a rill from the fountain of the first great +Christmas chant, "On earth peace, good will toward men." The theme is +not so much the duty of service as the joy of service, the happiness +that we feel in making others happy; and the four carols mark the four +stages in the conversion of Scrooge from solitary selfishness to social +good will. The plan is simple but it is suffused with a love and +sympathy that no one but Dickens or O. Henry could have given it. If +"The Gold-Bug" is a triumph of the analytic intellect, this story is a +triumph of the social impulses that make the world better. "It seems to +me," said Thackeray, "a national benefit, and to every man and woman who +reads it a personal kindness." While writing it Dickens said: "I wept +and laughed and wept again." And yet the psychology of the plot is as +soundly intellectual as the style is emotional. Dickens knew that a +flint-hearted man like Scrooge could not be changed by forces brought to +bear from without. The appeal must come from within. He must himself see +his past, his present, and his probable future, but in a new light and +from a wider angle of vision. The dream is only a means to this end. A +man moves to a higher realm of thought and action not by learning new +truths but by seeing the old truths differently related. + +_Characters_. Scrooge is, of course, the central character. He is also a +perfect example of the changing character as contrasted with the +stationary character. In fact all the other characters remain +essentially the same, while Scrooge, who at the beginning is unfriendly +and friendless, becomes at the end "as good a friend, as good a master, +and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, +town, or borough in the good old world." It is difficult to create any +kind of character, whether stationary or changing, but the latter is the +more difficult. Both demand rare powers of observation and +interpretation, but the ascending or descending character demands a +knowledge of the chemistry of conduct that only the masters have. + +The Cratchits must not be overlooked. Tiny Tim's "God bless us every +one" has at least become the symbol of Christmas benevolence wherever +Christmas is celebrated in English-speaking lands.] + + + +STAVE ONE + +MARLEY'S GHOST + + +Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. +The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the +undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name +was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. + +Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. + +Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? +Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge +was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole +residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner. + +Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however. There it yet +stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door,--Scrooge and Marley. +The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the +business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley. He answered to +both names. It was all the same to him. + +Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge! a +squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old +sinner! External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth +could warm, no cold could chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than +he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain +less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The +heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage +over him in only one respect,--they often "came down" handsomely, and +Scrooge never did. + +Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My +dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars +implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was +o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to +such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to +know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into +doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they +said: "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" + +But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his +way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep +its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. + +Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas +eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, +biting, foggy weather; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but +it was quite dark already. + +The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his +eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, +was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire +was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't +replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so +surely as the clerk came in with the shovel the master predicted that it +would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his +white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which +effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. + +"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was +the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this +was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach. + +"Bah!" said Scrooge; "humbug!" + +"Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don't mean that, I am sure?" + +"I do. Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time +for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year +older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and +having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead +against you? If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry +Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried +with a stake of holly through his heart! He should!" + +"Uncle!" + +"Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." + +"Keep it! But you don't keep it." + +"Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has +ever done you!" + +"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I +have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I +have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round,--apart +from the veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belonging to +it _can_ be apart from that,--as a good time; a kind, forgiving, +charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar +of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their +shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they +really were fellow-travellers to the grave, and not another race of +creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has +never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it +_has_ done me good, and _will_ do me good; and I say, God bless it!" + +The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. + +"Let me hear another sound from _you_" said Scrooge, "and you'll keep +your Christmas by losing your situation!--You're quite a powerful +speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew, "I wonder you don't go +into Parliament." + +"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us, to-morrow." + +Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he did. He went the +whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that +extremity first. + +"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" + +"Why did you get married?" + +"Because I fell in love." + +"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only +one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good +afternoon!" + +"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give +it as a reason for not coming now?" + +"Good afternoon." + +"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be +friends?" + +"Good afternoon." + +"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never +had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial +in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last. +So, A Merry Christmas, uncle!" + +"Good afternoon!" + +"And A Happy New Year!" + +"Good afternoon!" + +His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. The +clerk, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in. +They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with +their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their +hands, and bowed to him. + +"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring +to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. +Marley?" + +"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He died seven years ago, +this very night." + +"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, +taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make +some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at +the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; +hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." + +"Are there no prisons?" + +"Plenty of prisons. But under the impression that they scarcely furnish +Christian cheer of mind or body to the unoffending multitude, a few of +us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, +and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time of all +others when Want is keenly felt and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put +you down for?" + +"Nothing!" + +"You wish to be anonymous?" + +"I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that +is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford +to make idle people merry. I help to support the prisons and the +workhouses,--they cost enough,--and those who are badly off must go +there." + +"Many can't go there; and many would rather die." + +"If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the +surplus population." + +At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an +ill-will Scrooge, dismounting from his stool, tacitly admitted the fact +to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle +out, and put on his hat. + +"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" + +"If quite convenient, sir." + +"It's not convenient, and it's not fair. If I was to stop half a crown +for it, you'd think yourself mightily ill-used, I'll be bound?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And yet you don't think _me_ ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no +work." + +"It's only once a year, sir." + +"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of +December! But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the +earlier _next_ morning." + +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. +The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends +of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no +great-coat), went down a slide, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty +times, in honor of its being Christmas eve, and then ran home as hard as +he could pelt, to play at blind-man's-buff. + +Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and +having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening +with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had +once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of +rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard. The building was old +enough now, and dreary enough; for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the +other rooms being all let out as offices. + +Now it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the +knocker on the door of this house, except that it was very large; also, +that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence +in that place; also, that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy +about him as any man in the city of London. And yet Scrooge, having his +key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing +any intermediate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley's face. + +Marley's face, with a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a +dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but it looked at Scrooge as +Marley used to look,--with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly +forehead. + +As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. He +said, "Pooh, pooh!" and closed the door with a bang. + +The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, +and every cask in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a +separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be +frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, +and up the stairs. Slowly, too, trimming his candle as he went. + +Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for its being very dark. Darkness +is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he +walked through his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough +recollection of the face to desire to do that. + +Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room, all as they should be. Nobody under +the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and +basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his +head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody +in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude +against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two +fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. + +Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; +double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against +surprise, he took off his cravat, put on his dressing-gown and slippers +and his night-cap, and sat down before the very low fire to take his +gruel. + +As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon +a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated, for +some purpose now forgotten, with a chamber in the highest story of the +building. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, +inexplicable dread, that, as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. +Soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. + +This was succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some +person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's +cellar. + +Then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up +the stairs; then coming straight towards his door. + +It came on through the heavy door, and a spectre passed into the room +before his eyes. And upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as +though it cried, "I know him! Marley's ghost!" + +The same face, the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, +tights, and boots. His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing +him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his +coat behind. + +Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had +never believed it until now. + +No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through +and through, and saw it standing before him,--though he felt the +chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, and noticed the very texture +of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin,--he was still +incredulous. + +"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What do you want +with me?" + +"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it. + +"Who are you?" + +"Ask me who I _was_." + +"Who _were_ you, then?" + +"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." + +"Can you--can you sit down?" + +"I can." + +"Do it, then." + +Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether a ghost so +transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair; and felt +that, in the event of its being impossible, it might involve the +necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat down on the +opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. + +"You don't believe in me." + +"I don't." + +"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?" + +"I don't know." + +"Why do you doubt your senses?" + +"Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach +makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of +mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's +more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" + +Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel in +his heart by any means waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be +smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his +horror. + +But how much greater was his horror when, the phantom taking off the +bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear in-doors, its +lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! + +"Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk +the earth, and why do they come to me?" + +"It is required of every man, that the spirit within him should walk +abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit +goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. I cannot +tell you all I would. A very little more is permitted to me. I cannot +rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked +beyond our counting-house,--mark me!--in life my spirit never roved +beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys +lie before me!" + +"Seven years dead. And travelling all the time? You travel fast?" + +"On the wings of the wind." + +"You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years." + +"O blind man, blind man! not to know that ages of incessant labor by +immortal creatures for this earth must pass into eternity before the +good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any +Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may +be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of +usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one +life's opportunities misused! Yet I was like this man; I once was like +this man!" + +"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, +who now began to apply this to himself. + +"Business!" cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my +business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, +forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade +were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business." + +Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this +rate, and began to quake exceedingly. + +"Hear me! My time is nearly gone." + +"I will. But don't be hard upon me! Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!" + +"I am here to-night to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of +escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer." + +"You were always a good friend to me. Thank'ee!" + +"You will be haunted by Three Spirits." + +"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob? I--I think I'd rather +not." + +"Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect +the first to-morrow night, when the bell tolls One. Expect the second on +the next night at the same hour. The third, upon the next night, when +the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; +and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between +us!" + +It walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window +raised itself a little, so that, when the apparition reached it, it was +wide open. + +Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had +entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, +and the bolts were undisturbed. Scrooge tried to say, "Humbug!" but +stopped at the first syllable. And being, from the emotion he had +undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the invisible +world, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the +hour, much in need of repose, he went straight to bed, without +undressing, and fell asleep on the instant. + + + +STAVE TWO + +THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could +scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his +chamber, until suddenly the church clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow, +melancholy ONE. + +Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his +bed were drawn aside by a strange figure,--like a child: yet not so like +a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, +which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being +diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck +and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a +wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. It held a branch +of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that +wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the +strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there +sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and +which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a +great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. + +"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?" + +"I am!" + +"Who and what are you?" + +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." + +"Long past?" + +"No. Your past. The things that you will see with me are shadows of the +things that have been; they will have no consciousness of us." + +Scrooge then made bold to inquire what business brought him there. + +"Your welfare. Rise, and walk with me!" + +It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the +hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that the bed was warm, and +the thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly +in his slippers, dressing-gown, and night-cap; and that he had a cold +upon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was +not to be resisted. He rose; but, finding that the Spirit made towards +the window, clasped its robe in supplication. + +"I am a mortal, and liable to fall." + +"Bear but a touch of my hand _there_," said the Spirit, laying it upon +his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!" + +As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood in the +busy thoroughfares of a city. It was made plain enough by the dressing +of the shops that here, too, it was Christmas time. + +The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he +knew it. + +"Know it! Was I apprenticed here!" + +They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting +behind such a high desk that, if he had been two inches taller, he must +have knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great +excitement: "Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig, +alive again!" + +Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which +pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his +capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his +organ of benevolence; and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, +jovial voice, "Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" + +A living and moving picture of Scrooge's former self, a young man, came +briskly in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. + +"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. "My old +fellow-'prentice, bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached +to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!" + +"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas eve, +Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up, before a man can +say Jack Robinson! Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room +here!" + +Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or +couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in +a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from +public life forevermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were +trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug +and warm and dry and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon +a winter's night. + +In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and +made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs. +Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, +beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they +broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In +came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with +her brother's particular friend the milkman. In they all came one after +another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some +pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they +all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the +other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various +stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the +wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soon as they got +there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them. When +this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop +the dance, cried out, "Well done!" and the fiddler plunged his hot face +into a pot of porter especially provided for that purpose. + +There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and +there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold +Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were +mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came +after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler struck up "Sir Roger de +Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top +couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or +four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled +with; people who _would_ dance, and had no notion of walking. + +But if they had been twice as many,--four times,--old Fezziwig would +have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she +was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. A positive +light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part +of the dance. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would +become of 'em next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all +through the dance,--advance and retire, turn your partner, bow and +courtesy, cockscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your +place,--Fezziwig "cut,"--cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with +his legs. + +When the clock struck eleven this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs. +Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side the door, and, shaking +hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him +or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two +'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died +away, and the lads were left to their beds, which were under a counter +in the back shop. + +"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly folks so full of +gratitude. He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money,--three or +four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?" + +"It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking +unconsciously like his former, not his latter self,--"it isn't that, +Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our +service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power +lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it +is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives +is quite as great as if it cost a fortune." + +He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. + +"What is the matter?" + +"Nothing particular." + +"Something, I think?" + +"No, no. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just +now. That's all." + +"My time grows short," observed the Spirit. "Quick!" + +This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could see, but +it produced an immediate effect. For again he saw himself. He was older +now; a man in the prime of life. + +He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a black +dress, in whose eyes there were tears. + +"It matters little," she said softly to Scrooge's former self. "To you, +very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can comfort you in +time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to +grieve." + +"What Idol has displaced you?" + +"A golden one. You fear the world too much. I have seen your nobler +aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, +engrosses you. Have I not?" + +"What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not +changed towards you. Have I ever sought release from our engagement?" + +"In words, no. Never." + +"In what, then?" + +"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of +life; another Hope as its great end. If you were free to-day, to-morrow, +yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl; +or, choosing her, do I not know that your repentance and regret would +surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love +of him you once were." + +"Spirit! remove me from this place." + +"I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the +Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!" + +"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed. "I cannot bear it! Leave me! Take me +back. Haunt me no longer!" + +As he struggled with the Spirit he was conscious of being exhausted, and +overcome by an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his +own bedroom. He had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a +heavy sleep. + + + +STAVE THREE + +THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +Scrooge awoke in his own bedroom. There was no doubt about that. But it +and his own adjoining sitting-room, into which he shuffled in his +slippers, attracted by a great light there, had undergone a surprising +transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, +that it looked a perfect grove. The leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy +reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been +scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as +that petrifaction of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or +Marley's, or for many and many a winter season gone. Heaped upon the +floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, brawn, great +joints of meat, sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, +plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked +apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and great +bowls of punch. In easy state upon this couch there sat a Giant glorious +to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and +who raised it high to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping +round the door. + +"Come in,--come in! and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas +Present. Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!" + +"Never." + +"Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning +(for I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years?" +pursued the Phantom. + +"I don't think I have, I am afraid I have not. Have you had many +brothers, Spirit?" + +"More than eighteen hundred." + +"A tremendous family to provide for! Spirit, conduct me where you will. +I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is +working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by +it." + +"Touch my robe!" + +Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. + +The room and its contents all vanished instantly, and they stood in the +city streets upon a snowy Christmas morning. + +Scrooge and the Ghost passed on, invisible, straight to Scrooge's +clerk's; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped +to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings of his torch. +Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob"[*] a week himself; he pocketed +on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost +of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed house! + +[* Shillings.] + +Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a +twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a +goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda +Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master +Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and, +getting the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar (Bob's private +property, conferred upon his son and heir in honor of the day) into his +mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to +show his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, +boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they +had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and, basking in +luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about +the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not +proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the +slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let +out and peeled. + +"What has ever got your precious father, then?" said Mrs. Cratchit. "And +your brother Tiny Tim! And Martha warn't as late last Christmas day by +half an hour!" + +"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she spoke. + +"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. "Hurrah! There's +_such_ a goose, Martha!" + +"Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are?" said Mrs. +Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet +for her. + +"We'd a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the girl, "and +had to clear away this morning, mother!" + +"Well! Never mind so long as you are come," said Mrs. Cratchit. "Sit ye +down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!" + +"No, no! There's father coming," cried the two young Cratchits, who were +everywhere at once. "Hide, Martha, hide!" + +So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least +three feet of comforter, exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before +him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look +seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a +little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! + +"Why, where's our Martha?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. + +"Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit. + +"Not coming!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits; +for he had been Tim's blood-horse all the way from church, and had come +home rampant,--"not coming upon Christmas day!" + +Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so +she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his +arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off +into the wash-house that he might hear the pudding singing in the +copper. + +"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had +rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his +heart's content. + +"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the +church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to +remember, upon Christmas day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men +see." + +Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when +he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. + +His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny +Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister +to his stool beside the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs,--as +if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby, +--compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and +stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer, Master Peter +and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with +which they soon returned in high procession.[*] + +[* The goose had been cooked in the baker's oven, for economy.] + +Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) +hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; +Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; +Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two +young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and +mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest +they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At +last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a +breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the +carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, +and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of +delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two +young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and +feebly cried, Hurrah! + +There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was +such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness, were +the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed +potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as +Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a +bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last! Yet every one had +had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular were steeped in +sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by +Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone,--too nervous to bear +witnesses,--to take the pudding up, and bring it in. + +Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning +out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back yard, +and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose,--a supposition at +which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were +supposed. + +Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell +like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and +a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to +that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered,-- +flushed but smiling proudly,--with the pudding, like a speckled +cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half a quartern of +ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. + +O, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly, too, that he +regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since +their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, +she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. +Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it +was at all a small pudding for a large family. Any Cratchit would have +blushed to hint at such a thing. + +At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth +swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted and +considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a +shovelful of chestnuts on the fire. + +Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit +called a circle, and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of +glass,--two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle. + +These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden +goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while +the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily. Then Bob +proposed:-- + +"A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!" + +Which all the family re-echoed. + +"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all. + +He sat very close to his father's side, upon his little stool. Bob held +his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to +keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. + +Scrooge raised his head speedily, on hearing his own name. + +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the +Feast!" + +"The Founder of the Feast, indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. "I +wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and +I hope he'd have a good appetite for it." + +"My dear," said Bob, "the children! Christmas day." + +"It should be Christmas day, I am sure," said she, "on which one drinks +the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. +Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, +poor fellow!" + +"My dear," was Bob's mild answer, "Christmas day." + +"I'll drink his health for your sake and the day's," said Mrs. Cratchit, +"not for his. Long life to him. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! +He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!" + +The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their +proceedings which had no heartiness in it. Tiny Tim drank it last of +all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the +family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which +was not dispelled for full five minutes. + +After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from +the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit +told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which +would bring in, if obtained, full five and sixpence weekly. The two +young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man +of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from +between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular +investments he should favor when he came into the receipt of that +bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, +then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she +worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for +a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how +she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord +"was much about as tall as Peter"; at which Peter pulled up his collars +so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All +this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by and by +they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny +Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. + +There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; +they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; +their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely +did, the inside of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, +pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they +faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's +torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny +Tim, until the last. + +It was a great surprise to Scrooge, as this scene vanished, to hear a +hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognize it +as his own nephew's, and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming +room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that +same nephew. + +It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there +is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so +irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor. When Scrooge's +nephew laughed, Scrooge's niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he. +And their assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, laughed out +lustily. + +"He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live!" cried Scrooge's +nephew. "He believed it too!" + +"More shame for him, Fred!" said Scrooge's niece, indignantly. Bless +those women! they never do anything by halves. They are always in +earnest. + +She was very pretty, exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, +surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth that seemed made to +be kissed,--as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about her +chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest +pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she +was what you would have called provoking, but satisfactory, too. O, +perfectly satisfactory! + +"He's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's nephew, "that's the truth; +and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their +own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him. Who suffers by +his ill whims? Himself, always. Here he takes it into his head to +dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence? +He don't lose much of a dinner." + +"Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner," interrupted Scrooge's +niece. Everybody else said the same, and they must be allowed to have +been competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, with the +dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight. + +"Well, I am very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's nephew, "because I +haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers. What do _you_ say, +Topper?" + +Topper clearly had his eye on one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he +answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to +express an opinion on the subject. Whereat Scrooge's niece's sister--the +plump one with the lace tucker, not the one with the roses--blushed. + +After tea they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew +what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure +you,--especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good +one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the +face over it. + +But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a while they +played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never +better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. +There was first a game at blind-man's-buff, though. And I no more +believe Topper was really blinded than I believe he had eyes in his +boots. Because the way in which he went after that plump sister in the +lace tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. Knocking +down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping up against the +piano, smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went there +went he! He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch +anybody else. If you had fallen up against him, as some of them did, and +stood there, he would have made a feint of endeavoring to seize you, +which would have been an affront to your understanding, and would +instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. + +"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, Spirit, only one!" + +It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of +something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their +questions yes or no, as the case was. The fire of questioning to which +he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a +live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal +that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in +London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show of, and +wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was never +killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, +or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every new +question put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; +and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the +sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister cried out,-- + +"I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know what it is!" + +"What is it?" cried Fred. + +"It's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!" + +Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal sentiment, though +some objected that the reply to "Is it a bear?" ought to have been +"Yes." + +Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that +he would have drunk to the unconscious company in an inaudible speech. +But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by +his nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. + +Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but +always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they +were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by +struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, +and it was rich. In alms-house, hospital, and jail, in misery's every +refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast +the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught +Scrooge his precepts. Suddenly, as they stood together in an open place, +the bell struck twelve. + +Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it no more. As the last +stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob +Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and +hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him. + + + +STAVE FOUR + +THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS + + +The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, +Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the air through which this +Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. + +It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its +face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched +hand. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved. + +"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come? Ghost of +the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know +your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man +from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a +thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?" + +It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them. + +"Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to +me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!" + +They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to +spring up about them. But there they were in the heart of it; on +'Change, amongst the merchants. + +The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. Observing +that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their +talk. + +"No," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin, "I don't know much +about it either way. I only know he he's dead." + +"When did he die?" inquired another. + +"Last night, I believe." + +"Why, what was the matter with him? I thought he'd never die." + +"God knows," said the first, with a yawn. + +"What has he done with his money?" asked a red-faced gentleman. + +"I haven't heard," said the man with the large chin. "Company, perhaps. +He hasn't left it to me. That's all I know. By, by!" + +Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should +attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial; but feeling +assured that it must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to +consider what it was likely to be. It could scarcely be supposed to have +any bearing on the death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was Past, +and this Ghost's province was the Future. + +He looked about in that very place for his own image; but another man +stood in his accustomed corner, and though the clock pointed to his +usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among +the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little +surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of +life, and he thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried +out in this. + +They left this busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, to +a low shop where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were +bought. A gray-haired rascal, of great age, sat smoking his pipe. + +Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a +woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely +entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was +closely followed by a man in faded black. After a short period of blank +astonishment, in which the old man with the pipe had joined them, they +all three burst into a laugh. + +"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered +first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the +undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a +chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" + +"You couldn't have met in better place. You were made free of it long +ago, you know; and the other two ain't strangers. What have you got to +sell? What have you got to sell?" + +"Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall see." + +"What odds then! What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said the woman. "Every person +has a right to take care of themselves. _He_ always did! Who's the worse +for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose." + +Mrs. Dilber, whose manner was remarkable for general propitiation, said, +"No, indeed, ma'am." + +"If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why +wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had +somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of +lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself." + +"It's the truest word that ever was spoke; it's a judgment on him." + +"I wish it was a little heavier judgment, and it should have been, you +may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open +that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of it. Speak out plain. +I'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it." + +Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening the +bundle, and dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff. + +"What do you call this? Bed-curtains!" + +"Ah! Bed-curtains! Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, now." + +"_His_ blankets?" + +"Whose else's, do you think? He isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I +dare say. Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but +you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It is the best he +had, and a fine one too. They'd have wasted it by dressing him up in it, +if it hadn't been for me." + +Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. + +"Spirit! I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My +life tends that way now. Merciful Heaven, what is this?" + +The scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bare, uncurtained +bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed; +and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this +plundered unknown man. + +"Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or this dark +chamber, Spirit, will be forever present to me." + +The Ghost conducted him to poor Bob Cratchit's house,--the dwelling he +had visited before,--and found the mother and the children seated round +the fire. + +Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues +in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. +The mother and her daughters were engaged in needlework. But surely they +were very quiet! + +"'And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'" + +Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy +must have read them out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why +did he not go on? + +The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her +face. + +"The color hurts my eyes," she said. + +The color? Ah, poor Tiny Tim! + +"They're better now again. It makes them weak by candle-light; and I +wouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes home, for the +world. It must be near his time." + +"Past it, rather," Peter answered, shutting up his book. "But I think he +has walked a little slower than he used, these few last evenings, +mother." + +"I have known him walk with--I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon +his shoulder, very fast indeed." + +"And so have I," cried Peter. "Often." + +"And so have I," exclaimed another. So had all. + +"But he was very light to carry, and his father loved him so, that it +was no trouble,--no trouble. And there is your father at the door!" + +She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter--he had +need of it, poor fellow--came in. His tea was ready for him on the hob, +and they all tried who should help him to it most. Then the two young +Cratchits got upon his knees and laid, each child, a little cheek +against his face, as if they said, "Don't mind it, father. Don't be +grieved!" + +Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to all the family. +He looked at the work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed +of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would be done long before Sunday, +he said. + +"Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert?" + +"Yes, my dear," returned Bob. "I wish you could have gone. It would have +done you good to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I +promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little +child! My little child!" + +He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped +it, he and the child would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they +were. + +"Spectre," said Scrooge, "something informs me that our parting moment +is at hand. I know it, but I know not how. Tell me what man that was, +with the covered face, whom we saw lying dead?" + +The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed him to a dismal, wretched, +ruinous churchyard. + +The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. + +"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one +question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they +shadows of the things that May be only?" + +Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood. + +"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, +they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will +change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" + +The Spirit was immovable as ever. + +Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and, following the +finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own +name,--EBENEZER SCROOGE. + +"Am _I_ that man who lay upon the bed? No, Spirit! O no, no! Spirit! +hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been +but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope? +Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an +altered life." + +For the first time the kind hand faltered. + +"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I +will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all +three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they +teach. O, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!" + +Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed, he +saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, +and dwindled down into a bedpost. + +Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his +own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make +amends in! + +He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the +lustiest peals he had ever heard. + +Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no +mist, no night; clear, bright, stirring, golden day! + +"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday +clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. + +"Eh?" + +"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" + +"To-day! Why, CHRISTMAS DAY." + +"It's Christmas day! I haven't missed it. Hallo, my fine fellow!" + +"Hallo!" + +"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the +corner?" + +"I should hope I did." + +"An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold +the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize +Turkey,--the big one?" + +"What, the one as big as me?" + +"What a delightful boy! It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!" + +"It's hanging there now." + +"Is it? Go and buy it." + +"Walk-ER!"[*] exclaimed the boy. + +[* "Walker!" or "Hookey Walker!" means "What a story!"] + +"No, no, I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring it here, +that I may give them the direction where to take it. Come back with the +man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five +minutes, and I'll give you half a crown!" + +The boy was off like a shot. + +"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's! He sha'n't know who sends it. It's +twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending +it to Bob's will be!" + +The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write +it he did, somehow, and went down stairs to open the street door, ready +for the coming of the poulterer's man. + +It _was_ a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. +He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of +sealing-wax. + +Scrooge dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out into the +streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them +with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and, walking with his hands behind +him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so +irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humored +fellows said: "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" and Scrooge +said often afterwards, that, of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, +those were the blithest in his ears. + +In the afternoon, he turned his steps towards his nephew's house. + +He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the courage to go up and +knock. But he made a dash, and did it. + +"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl! +Very. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where is he, my love?" + +"He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress." + +"He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the dining-room +lock. "I'll go in here, my dear." + +"Fred!" + +"Why, bless my soul!" cried Fred, "who's that?" + +"It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, +Fred?" + +Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in +five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. +So did Topper when _he_ came. So did the plump sister when _she_ came. +So did every one when _they_ came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, +wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! + +But he was early at the office next morning. O, he was early there! If +he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That +was the thing he had set his heart upon. + +And he did it. The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. +Bob was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat +with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank. + +Bob's hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was +on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying +to overtake nine o'clock. + +"Hallo!" growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice, as near as he could +feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?" + +"I am very sorry, sir. I _am_ behind my time." + +"You are? Yes. I think you are. Step this way, if you please." + +"It's only once a year, sir. It shall not be repeated. I was making +rather merry yesterday, sir." + +"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand this sort +of thing any longer. And therefore," Scrooge continued, leaping from his +stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back +into the Tank again,--"and therefore I am about to raise your salary!" + +Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. + +"A merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could +not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, +Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise +your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will +discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of +smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy a second coal-scuttle +before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!" + +Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; +and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as +good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city +knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old +world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him; but his own +heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. + +He had no further intercourse with spirits, but lived in that respect +upon the total-abstinence principle ever afterward; and it was always +said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive +possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! +And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one! + + + + +VI. THE GREAT STONE FACE[*] (1850) + +[* From "The Snow Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales." Used by permission +of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, +publishers of Hawthorne's Works.] + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864) + + +[_Setting_. The Profile Mountain, a huge "work of Nature in her mood of +majestic playfulness," seems to have given the suggestion. The Profile +Mountain is a part of Cannon Mountain, which is one of the White +Mountains of New Hampshire. But the larger background is to be sought in +the interplay of the spiritual and physical forces which Hawthorne has +here staged in allegory. The mountain is the symbol of a lofty ideal +that blesses those that follow its beckoning and marks the degree of +failure of those that slight or ignore it. + +_Plot_. The plan of the story is as simple and beautiful as the teaching +is profound and helpful. "Mr. Hawthorne," writes Mrs. Hawthorne, "says +he is rather ashamed of the mechanical structure of the story, the moral +being so plain and manifest." But what is the "plain and manifest" moral +that the structure of the story is designed to bring out? One +interpreter says, "That the last shall be first"; another, "That success +is not to be measured by human standards." The central thought seems to +me to be larger than either of these and to include both. It is rather +the assimilative power of a lofty ideal and is best phrased in 2 +Corinthians iii, 18: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass +the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to +glory." By setting his ideal high and by looking and longing, Ernest +grew daily in spiritual stature and was saved from being the victim of +the popular and passing allurements of war, money, and politics, +allurements to which his neighbors succumbed because they did not live +in vital communion with the Great Stone Face. The poet, it is true, felt +the appeal of the Great Stone Face but only afar off, for his life did +not correspond with his thought. It is one of the finest touches in the +story that, though Ernest meets the double requirement of thought and +act, he still hoped "that some wiser and better man than himself would +by and by appear." If a man once catches up with his ideal, it ceases to +be an ideal. Ernest did not think that he had attained. + +_Characters_. Ernest, like Scrooge, is a developing character. He did +not have as far to go as Scrooge and his development was differently +wrought; but both passed from weakness to strength and from isolation to +service, the one through the ministry of a single profound experience, +the other through the constant challenge of a high ideal. The other +characters fall below Ernest because they did not relate themselves as +whole-heartedly to the influence of the Great Stone Face. Mr. +Gathergold, type of the merely rich man, Old Blood-and-Thunder, type of +the merely military hero, Old Stony Phiz, type of the merely eloquent +statesman, the easily satisfied people, type of the fickle crowd, and at +last the gifted poet, type of the discord between words and works, all +were natives of the same valley of opportunity. But the Great Stone Face +was the measure of their defect rather than the means of their +attainment because, unlike Esther and Scrooge and Ernest, they were +"disobedient unto the heavenly vision."] + + + +One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy +sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. +They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, +though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. + +And what was the Great Stone Face? + +Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley so +spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these good +people dwelt in log huts, with the black forest all around them, on the +steep and difficult hillsides. Others had their homes in comfortable +farm-houses, and cultivated the rich soil on the gentle slopes or level +surfaces of the valley. Others, again, were congregated into populous +villages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its +birthplace in the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by +human cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. +The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of many +modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, had a kind of +familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift +of distinguishing this grand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many +of their neighbors. + +The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic +playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side, of the mountain by some +immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, +when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of +the human countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, +had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. There was the broad +arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long +bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have +rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. +True it is, that if the spectator approached too near, he lost the +outline of the gigantic visage, and could discern only a heap of +ponderous and gigantic rocks, piled in chaotic ruin one upon another. +Retracing his steps, however, the wondrous features would again be seen; +and the farther he withdrew from them, the more like a human face, with +all its original divinity intact, did they appear; until, as it grew dim +in the distance, with the clouds and glorified vapor of the mountains +clustering about it, the Great Stone Face seemed positively to be alive. + +It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with +the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, +and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow +of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections, and +had room for more. It was an education only to look at it. According to +the belief of many people, the valley owed much of its fertility to this +benign aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating the +clouds, and infusing its tenderness into the sunshine. + +As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their +cottage-door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it. The +child's name was Ernest. + +"Mother," said he, while the Titanic visage smiled on him, "I wish that +it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice must needs be +pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a face, I should love him +dearly." + +"If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we may +see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face as that." + +"What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired Ernest. "Pray +tell me all about it!" + +So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her, when +she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, not of things that +were past, but of what was yet to come; a story, nevertheless, so very +old that even the Indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had heard +it from their forefathers, to whom, as they affirmed, it had been +murmured by the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among the +treetops. The purport was, that, at some future day, a child should be +born hereabouts, who was destined to become the greatest and noblest +personage of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear an +exact resemblance to the Great Stone Face. Not a few old-fashioned +people, and young ones likewise, in the ardor of their hopes, still +cherished an enduring faith in this old prophecy. But others, who had +seen more of the world, had watched and waited till they were weary, and +had beheld no man with such a face, nor any man that proved to be much +greater or nobler than his neighbors, concluded it to be nothing but an +idle tale. At all events, the great man of the prophecy had not yet +appeared. + +"O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above his +head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him?" + +His mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it +was wisest not to discourage the generous hopes of her little boy. So +she only said to him, "Perhaps you may." + +And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It was +always in his mind, whenever he looked upon the Great Stone Face. He +spent his childhood in the log-cottage where he was born, and was +dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her +much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this +manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, +quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sunbrowned with labor in the fields, but +with more intelligence brightening his aspect than is seen in many lads +who have been taught at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, +save only that the Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of +the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to +imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of +kindness and encouragement, responsive to his own look of veneration. We +must not take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the +Face may have looked no more kindly at Ernest than at all the world +besides. But the secret was, that the boy's tender and confiding +simplicity discerned what other people could not see; and thus the love, +which was meant for all, became his peculiar portion. + +About this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley, that the +great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to +the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It seems that, many years +before, a young man had migrated from the valley and settled at a +distant seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had +set up as a shopkeeper. His name--but I could never learn whether it was +his real one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success +in life--was Gathergold. Being shrewd and active, and endowed by +Providence with that inscrutable faculty which develops itself in what +the world calls luck, he became an exceedingly rich merchant, and owner +of a whole fleet of bulky-bottomed ships. All the countries of the globe +appeared to join hands for the mere purpose of adding heap after heap to +the mountainous accumulation of this one man's wealth. The cold regions +of the north, almost within the gloom and shadow of the Arctic Circle, +sent him their tribute in the shape of furs; hot Africa sifted for him +the golden sands of her rivers, and gathered up the ivory tusks of her +great elephants out of the forests; the East came bringing him the rich +shawls, and spices, and teas, and the effulgence of diamonds, and the +gleaming purity of large pearls. The ocean, not to be behindhand with +the earth, yielded up her mighty whales, that Mr. Gathergold might sell +their oil, and make a profit on it. Be the original commodity what it +might, it was gold within his grasp. It might be said of him, as of +Midas in the fable, that whatever he touched with his finger immediately +glistened, and grew yellow, and was changed at once into sterling metal, +or, which suited him still better, into piles of coin. And, when Mr. +Gathergold had become so very rich that it would have taken him a +hundred years only to count his wealth, he bethought himself of his +native valley, and resolved to go back thither, and end his days where +he was born. With this purpose in view, he sent a skilful architect to +build him such a palace as should be fit for a man of his vast wealth to +live in. + +As I have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley that Mr. +Gathergold had turned out to be the prophetic personage so long and +vainly looked for, and that his visage was the perfect and undeniable +similitude of the Great Stone Face. People were the more ready to +believe that this must needs be the fact, when they beheld the splendid +edifice that rose, as if by enchantment, on the site of his father's old +weather-beaten farm-house. The exterior was of marble, so dazzlingly +white that it seemed as though the whole structure might melt away in +the sunshine, like those humbler ones which Mr. Gathergold, in his young +play-days, before his fingers were gifted with the touch of +transmutation, had been accustomed to build of snow. It had a richly +ornamented portico, supported by tall pillars, beneath which was a lofty +door, studded with silver knobs, and made of a kind of variegated wood +that had been brought from beyond the sea. The windows, from the floor +to the ceiling of each stately apartment, were composed, respectively, +of but one enormous pane of glass, so transparently pure that it was +said to be a finer medium than even the vacant atmosphere. Hardly +anybody had been permitted to see the interior of this palace; but it +was reported, and with good semblance of truth, to be far more gorgeous +than the outside, insomuch that whatever was iron or brass in other +houses was silver or gold in this; and Mr. Gathergold's bedchamber, +especially, made such a glittering appearance that no ordinary man would +have been able to close his eyes there. But, on the other hand, Mr. +Gathergold was now so inured to wealth, that perhaps he could not have +closed his eyes unless where the gleam of it was certain to find its way +beneath his eyelids. + +In due time, the mansion was finished; next came the upholsterers with +magnificent furniture; then, a whole troop of black and white servants, +the harbingers of Mr. Gathergold, who, in his own majestic person, was +expected to arrive at sunset. Our friend Ernest, meanwhile, had been +deeply stirred by the idea that the great man, the noble man, the man of +prophecy, after so many ages of delay, was at length to be made manifest +to his native valley. He knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand +ways in which Mr. Gathergold, with his vast wealth, might transform +himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a control over human +affairs as wide and benignant as the smile of the Great Stone Face. Full +of faith and hope, Ernest doubted not that what the people said was +true, and that now he was to behold the living likeness of those +wondrous features on the mountain-side. While the boy was still gazing +up the valley, and fancying, as he always did, that the Great Stone Face +returned his gaze and looked kindly at him, the rumbling of wheels was +heard, approaching swiftly along the winding road. + +"Here he comes!" cried a group of people who were assembled to witness +the arrival. "Here comes the great Mr. Gathergold!" + +A carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round the turn of the road. +Within it, thrust partly out of the window, appeared the physiognomy of +a little old man, with a skin as yellow as if his own Midas-hand had +transmuted it. He had a low forehead, small, sharp eyes, puckered about +with innumerable wrinkles, and very thin lips, which he made still +thinner by pressing them forcibly together. + +"The very image of the Great Stone Face!" shouted the people. "Sure +enough, the old prophecy is true; and here we have the great man come, +at last!" + +And, what greatly perplexed Ernest, they seemed actually to believe that +here was the likeness which they spoke of. By the roadside there chanced +to be an old beggar-woman and two little beggar-children, stragglers +from some far-off region, who, as the carriage rolled onward, held out +their hands and lifted up their doleful voices, most piteously +beseeching charity. A yellow claw--the very same that had clawed +together so much wealth--poked itself out of the coach-window, and dropt +some copper coins upon the ground; so that, though the great man's name +seems to have been Gathergold, he might just as suitably have been +nicknamed Scattercopper. Still, nevertheless, with an earnest shout, and +evidently with as much good faith as ever, the people bellowed,-- + +"He is the very image of the Great Stone Face!" + +But Ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled shrewdness of that sordid +visage, and gazed up the valley, where, amid a gathering mist, gilded by +the last sunbeams, he could still distinguish those glorious features +which had impressed themselves into his soul. Their aspect cheered him. +What did the benign lips seem to say? + +"He will come! Fear not, Ernest; the man will come!" + +The years went on, and Ernest ceased to be a boy. He had grown to be a +young man now. He attracted little notice from the other inhabitants of +the valley; for they saw nothing remarkable in his way of life, save +that, when the labor of the day was over, he still loved to go apart and +gaze and meditate upon the Great Stone Face. According to their idea of +the matter, it was a folly, indeed, but pardonable, inasmuch as Ernest +was industrious, kind, and neighborly, and neglected no duty for the +sake of indulging this idle habit. They knew not that the Great Stone +Face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment which was +expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, and fill it with +wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts. They knew not that thence +would come a better wisdom than could be learned from books, and a +better life than could be moulded on the defaced example of other human +lives. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts and affections which +came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, and +wherever he communed with himself, were of a higher tone than those +which all men shared with him. A simple soul,--simple as when his mother +first taught him the old prophecy,--he beheld the marvellous features +beaming adown the valley, and still wondered that their human +counterpart was so long in making his appearance. + +By this time poor Mr. Gathergold was dead and buried; and the oddest +part of the matter was, that his wealth, which was the body and spirit +of his existence, had disappeared before his death, leaving nothing of +him but a living skeleton, covered over with a wrinkled, yellow skin. +Since the melting away of his gold, it had been very generally conceded +that there was no such striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the +ignoble features of the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the +mountain-side. So the people ceased to honor him during his lifetime, +and quietly consigned him to forgetfulness after his decease. Once in a +while, it is true, his memory was brought up in connection with the +magnificent palace which he had built, and which had long ago been +turned into a hotel for the accommodation of strangers, multitudes of +whom came, every summer, to visit that famous natural curiosity, the +Great Stone Face. Thus, Mr. Gathergold being discredited and thrown into +the shade, the man of prophecy was yet to come. + +It so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years before, +had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of hard fighting, had +now become an illustrious commander. Whatever he may be called in +history, he was known in camps and on the battle-field under the +nickname of Old Blood-and-Thunder. This war-worn veteran, being now +infirm with age and wounds, and weary of the turmoil of a military life, +and of the roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet, that had so +long been ringing in his ears, had lately signified a purpose of +returning to his native valley, hoping to find repose where he +remembered to have left it. The inhabitants, his old neighbors and their +grown-up children, were resolved to welcome the renowned warrior with a +salute of cannon and a public dinner; and all the more enthusiastically, +it being affirmed that now, at last, the likeness of the Great Stone +Face had actually appeared. An aid-de-camp of Old Blood-and-Thunder, +travelling through the valley, was said to have been struck with the +resemblance. Moreover the schoolmates and early acquaintances of the +general were ready to testify, on oath, that, to the best of their +recollection, the aforesaid general had been exceedingly like the +majestic image, even when a boy, only that the idea had never occurred +to them at that period. Great, therefore, was the excitement throughout +the valley; and many people, who had never once thought of glancing at +the Great Stone Face for years before, now spent their time in gazing at +it for the sake of knowing exactly how General Blood-and-Thunder looked. + +On the day of the great festival, Ernest, with all the other people of +the valley, left their work, and proceeded to the spot where the sylvan +banquet was prepared. As he approached, the loud voice of the Rev. Dr. +Battleblast was heard, beseeching a blessing on the good things set +before them, and on the distinguished friend of peace in whose honor +they were assembled. The tables were arranged in a cleared space of the +woods, shut in by the surrounding trees, except where a vista opened +eastward, and afforded a distant view of the Great Stone Face. + +Over the general's chair, which was a relic from the home of Washington, +there was an arch of verdant boughs, with the laurel profusely +intermixed, and surmounted by his country's banner, beneath which he had +won his victories. Our friend Ernest raised himself on his tiptoes, in +hopes to get a glimpse of the celebrated guest; but there was a mighty +crowd about the tables anxious to hear the toasts and speeches, and to +catch any word that might fall from the general in reply; and a +volunteer company, doing duty as a guard, pricked ruthlessly with their +bayonets at any particularly quiet person among the throng. So Ernest, +being of an unobtrusive character, was thrust quite into the background, +where he could see no more of Old Blood-and-Thunder's physiognomy than +if it had been still blazing on the battle-field. To console himself, he +turned towards the Great Stone Face, which, like a faithful and +long-remembered friend, looked back and smiled upon him through the +vista of the forest. Meantime, however, he could overhear the remarks of +various individuals, who were comparing the features of the hero with +the face on the distant mountain-side. + +"Tis the same face, to a hair!" cried one man, cutting a caper for joy. + +"Wonderfully like, that's a fact!" responded another. + +"Like! why, I call it Old Blood-and-Thunder himself, in a monstrous +looking-glass!" cried a third. "And why not? He's the greatest man of +this or any other age, beyond a doubt." + +And then all three of the speakers gave a great shout, which +communicated electricity to the crowd, and called forth a roar from a +thousand voices, that went reverberating for miles among the mountains, +until you might have supposed that the Great Stone Face had poured its +thunder-breath into the cry. All these comments, and this vast +enthusiasm served the more to interest our friend; nor did he think of +questioning that now, at length, the mountain-visage had found its human +counterpart. It is true, Ernest had imagined that this long-looked-for +personage would appear in the character of a man of peace, uttering +wisdom, and doing good, and making people happy. But, taking an habitual +breadth of view, with all his simplicity, he contended that Providence +should choose its own method of blessing mankind, and could conceive +that this great end might be effected even by a warrior and a bloody +sword, should inscrutable wisdom see fit to order matters so. + +"The general! the general!" was now the cry. "Hush! silence! Old +Blood-and-Thunder's going to make a speech." + +Even so; for, the cloth being removed, the general's health had been +drunk amid shouts of applause, and he now stood upon his feet to thank +the company. Ernest saw him. There he was, over the shoulders of the +crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and embroidered collar upward, +beneath the arch of green boughs with interwined laurel, and the banner +drooping as if to shade his brow! And there, too, visible in the same +glance, through the vista of the forest, appeared the Great Stone Face! +And was there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified. +Alas, Ernest could not recognize it! He beheld a war-worn and +weather-beaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an iron +will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender sympathies, were +altogether wanting in Old Blood-and-Thunder's visage; and even if the +Great Stone Face had assumed his look of stern command, the milder +traits would still have tempered it. + +"This is not the man of prophecy," sighed Ernest, to himself, as he made +his way out of the throng. "And must the world wait longer yet?" + +The mists had congregated about the distant mountain-side, and there +were seen the grand and awful features of the Great Stone Face, awful +but benignant, as if a mighty angel were sitting among the hills, and +enrobing himself in a cloud-vesture of gold and purple. As he looked, +Ernest could hardly believe but that a smile beamed over the whole +visage, with a radiance still brightening, although without motion of +the lips. It was probably the effect of the western sunshine, melting +through the thinly diffused vapors that had swept between him and the +object that he gazed at. But--as it always did--the aspect of his +marvellous friend made Ernest as hopeful as if he had never hoped in +vain. + +"Fear not, Ernest," said his heart, even as if the Great Face were +whispering him,--"fear not, Ernest; he will come." + +More years sped swiftly and tranquilly away. Ernest still dwelt in his +native valley, and was now a man of middle age. By imperceptible +degrees, he had become known among the people. Now, as heretofore, he +labored for his bread, and was the same simple-hearted man that he had +always been. But he had thought and felt so much, he had given so many +of the best hours of his life to unworldly hopes for some great good to +mankind, that it seemed as though he had been talking with the angels, +and had imbibed a portion of their wisdom unawares. It was visible in +the calm and well-considered beneficence of his daily life, the quiet +stream of which had made a wide green margin all along its course. Not a +day passed by, that the world was not the better because this man, +humble as he was, had lived. He never stepped aside from his own path, +yet would always reach a blessing to his neighbor. Almost involuntarily, +too, he had become a preacher. The pure and high simplicity of his +thought, which, as one of its manifestations, took shape in the good +deeds that dropped silently from his hand, flowed also forth in speech. +He uttered truths that wrought upon and moulded the lives of those who +heard him. His auditors, it may be, never suspected that Ernest, their +own neighbor and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; least +of all did Ernest himself suspect it; but, inevitably as the murmur of a +rivulet, came thoughts out of his mouth that no other human lips had +spoken. + +When the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were ready +enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a similarity between +General Blood-and-Thunder's truculent physiognomy and the benign visage +on the mountain-side. But now, again, there were reports and many +paragraphs in the newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the Great +Stone Face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent +statesman. He, like Mr. Gathergold and Old Blood-and-Thunder, was a +native of the valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up +the trades of law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and the +warrior's sword, he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both +together. So wonderfully eloquent was he, that whatever he might choose +to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like +right, and right like wrong; for when it pleased him, he could make a +kind of illuminated fog with his mere breath, and obscure the natural +daylight with it. His tongue, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes +it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest +music. It was the blast of war,--the song of peace; and it seemed to +have a heart in it, when there was no such matter. In good truth, he was +a wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other +imaginable success,--when it had been heard in halls of state, and in +the courts of princes and potentates,--after it had made him known all +over the world, even as a voice crying from shore to shore,--it finally +persuaded his countrymen to select him for the Presidency. Before this +time,--indeed, as soon as he began to grow celebrated,--his admirers had +found out the resemblance between him and the Great Stone Face; and so +much were they struck by it, that throughout the country this +distinguished gentleman was known by the name of Old Stony Phiz. The +phrase was considered as giving a highly favorable aspect to his +political prospects; for, as is likewise the case with the Popedom, +nobody ever becomes President without taking a name other than his own. + +While his friends were doing their best to make him President, Old Stony +Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was +born. Of course, he had no other object than to shake hands with his +fellow-citizens, and neither thought nor cared about any effect which +his progress through the country might have upon the election. +Magnificent preparations were made to receive the illustrious statesman; +a cavalcade of horsemen set forth to meet him at the boundary line of +the State, and all the people left their business and gathered along the +wayside to see him pass. Among these was Ernest. Though more than once +disappointed, as we have seen, he had such a hopeful and confiding +nature, that he was always ready to believe in whatever seemed beautiful +and good. He kept his heart continually open, and thus was sure to catch +the blessing from on high, when it should come. So now again, as +buoyantly as ever, he went forth to behold the likeness of the Great +Stone Face. + +The cavalcade came prancing along the road, with a great clattering of +hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust, which rose up so dense and high that +the visage of the mountain-side was completely hidden from Ernest's +eyes. All the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback: +militia officers, in uniform; the member of Congress; the sheriff of the +county; the editors of newspapers; and many a farmer, too, had mounted +his patient steed, with his Sunday coat upon his back. It really was a +very brilliant spectacle, especially as there were numerous banners +flaunting over the cavalcade, on some of which were gorgeous portraits +of the illustrious statesman and the Great Stone Face, smiling +familiarly at one another, like two brothers. If the pictures were to be +trusted, the mutual resemblance, it must be confessed, was marvellous. +We must not forget to mention that there was a band of music, which made +the echoes of the mountains ring and reverberate with the loud triumph +of its strains; so that airy and soul-thrilling melodies broke out among +all the heights and hollows, as if every nook of his native valley had +found a voice, to welcome the distinguished guest. But the grandest +effect was when the far-off mountain precipice flung back the music; for +then the Great Stone Face itself seemed to be swelling the triumphant +chorus, in acknowledgment that, at length, the man of prophecy was come. + +All this while the people were throwing up their hats and shouting, with +enthusiasm so contagious that the heart of Ernest kindled up, and he +likewise threw up his hat, and shouted, as loudly as the loudest, "Huzza +for the great man! Huzza, for Old Stony Phiz!" But as yet he had not +seen him. + +"Here he is, now!" cried those who stood near Ernest. "There! There! +Look at Old Stony Phiz and then at the Old Man of the Mountain, and see +if they are not as like as two twin-brothers!" + +In the midst of all this gallant array, came an open barouche, drawn by +four white horses; and in the barouche, with his massive head uncovered, +sat the illustrious statesman, Old Stony Phiz himself. + +"Confess it," said one of Ernest's neighbors to him; "the Great Stone +Face has met its match at last!" + +Now, it must be owned that, at his first glimpse of the countenance +which was bowing and smiling from the barouche, Ernest did fancy that +there was a resemblance between it and the old familiar face upon the +mountain-side. The brow, with its massive depths and loftiness, and all +the other features, indeed, were boldly and strongly hewn, as if in +emulation of a more than heroic, of a Titanic model. But the sublimity +and stateliness, the grand expression of a divine sympathy, that +illuminated the mountain visage, and etherealized its ponderous granite +substance into spirit, might here be sought in vain. Something had been +originally left out, or had departed. And therefore the marvellously +gifted statesman had always a weary gloom in the deep caverns of his +eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings, or a man of mighty +faculties and little aims, whose life, with all its high performances, +was vague and empty, because no high purpose had endowed it with +reality. + +Still, Ernest's neighbor was thrusting his elbow into his side, and +pressing him for an answer. + +"Confess! confess! Is not he the very picture of your Old Man of the +Mountain?" + +"No!" said Ernest, bluntly, "I see little or no likeness." + +"Then so much the worse for the Great Stone Face!" answered his +neighbor; and again he set up a shout for Old Stony Phiz. + +But Ernest turned away, melancholy, and almost despondent; for this was +the saddest of his disappointments, to behold a man who might have +fulfilled the prophecy, and had not willed to do so. Meantime, the +cavalcade, the banners, the music, and the barouches swept past him, +with the vociferous crowd in the rear, leaving the dust to settle down, +and the Great Stone Face to be revealed again, with the grandeur that it +had worn for untold centuries. + +"Lo, here I am, Ernest!" the benign lips seemed to say. "I have waited +longer than thou, and am not yet weary. Fear not; the man will come." + +The years hurried onward, treading in their haste on one another's +heels. And now they began to bring white hairs, and scatter them over +the head of Ernest; they made reverend wrinkles across his forehead, and +furrows in his cheeks. He was an aged man. But not in vain had he grown +old; more than the white hairs on his head were the sage thoughts in his +mind; his wrinkles and furrows were inscriptions that Time had graved, +and in which he had written legends of wisdom that had been tested by +the tenor of a life. And Ernest had ceased to be obscure. Unsought for, +undesired, had come the fame which so many seek, and made him known in +the great world, beyond the limits of the valley in which he had dwelt +so quietly. College professors, and even the active men of cities, came +from far to see and converse with Ernest; for the report had gone abroad +that this simple husbandman had ideas unlike those of other men, not +gained from books, but of a higher tone,--a tranquil and familiar +majesty, as if he had been talking with the angels as his daily friends. +Whether it were sage, statesman, or philanthropist, Ernest received +these visitors with the gentle sincerity that had characterized him from +boyhood, and spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay +deepest in his heart or their own. While they talked together, his face +would kindle, unawares, and shine upon them, as with a mild evening +light. Pensive with the fulness of such discourse, his guests took leave +and went their way; and passing up the valley, paused to look at the +Great Stone Face, imagining that they had seen its likeness in a human +countenance, but could not remember where. + +While Ernest had been growing up and growing old, a bountiful Providence +had granted a new poet to this earth. He, likewise, was a native of the +valley, but had spent the greater part of his life at a distance from +that romantic region, pouring out his sweet music amid the bustle and +din of cities. Often, however, did the mountains which had been familiar +to him in his childhood lift their snowy peaks into the clear atmosphere +of his poetry. Neither was the Great Stone Face forgotten, for the poet +had celebrated it in an ode, which was grand enough to have been uttered +by its own majestic lips. This man of genius, we may say, had come down +from heaven with wonderful endowments. If he sang of a mountain, the +eyes of all mankind beheld a mightier grandeur reposing on its breast, +or soaring to its summit, than had before been seen there. If his theme +were a lovely lake, a celestial smile had now been thrown over it, to +gleam forever on its surface. If it were the vast old sea, even the deep +immensity of its dread bosom seemed to swell the higher, as if moved by +the emotions of the song. Thus the world assumed another and a better +aspect from the hour that the poet blessed it with his happy eyes. The +Creator had bestowed him, as the last best touch to his own handiwork. +Creation was not finished till the poet came to interpret, and so +complete it. + +The effect was no less high and beautiful, when his human brethren were +the subject of his verse. The man or woman, sordid with the common dust +of life, who crossed his daily path, and the little child who played in +it, were glorified if he beheld them in his mood of poetic faith. He +showed the golden links of the great chain that intertwined them with an +angelic kindred; he brought out the hidden traits of a celestial birth +that made them worthy of such kin. Some, indeed, there were, who thought +to show the soundness of their judgment by affirming that all the beauty +and dignity of the natural world existed only in the poet's fancy. Let +such men speak for themselves, who undoubtedly appear to have been +spawned forth by Nature with a contemptuous bitterness; she having +plastered them up out of her refuse stuff, after all the swine were +made. As respects all things else, the poet's ideal was the truest +truth. + +The songs of this poet found their way to Ernest. He read them after his +customary toil, seated on the bench before his cottage-door, where for +such a length of time he had filled his repose with thought, by gazing +at the Great Stone Face. And now as he read stanzas that caused the soul +to thrill within him, he lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming +on him so benignantly. + +"O majestic friend," he murmured, addressing the Great Stone Face, "is +not this man worthy to resemble thee?" + +The Face seemed to smile, but answered not a word. + +Now it happened that the poet, though he dwelt so far away, had not only +heard of Ernest, but had meditated much upon his character, until he +deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this man, whose untaught wisdom +walked hand in hand with the noble simplicity of his life. One summer +morning, therefore, he took passage by the railroad, and, in the decline +of the afternoon, alighted from the cars at no great distance from +Ernest's cottage. The great hotel, which had formerly been the palace of +Mr. Gathergold, was close at hand, but the poet, with his carpet-bag on +his arm, inquired at once where Ernest dwelt, and was resolved to be +accepted as his guest. + +Approaching the door, he there found the good old man, holding a volume +in his hand, which alternately he read, and then, with a finger between +the leaves, looked lovingly at the Great Stone Face. + +"Good evening," said the poet. "Can you give a traveller a night's +lodging?" + +"Willingly," answered Ernest; and then he added, smiling, "Methinks I +never saw the Great Stone Face look so hospitably at a stranger." + +The poet sat down on the bench beside him, and he and Ernest talked +together. Often had the poet held intercourse with the wittiest and the +wisest, but never before with a man like Ernest, whose thoughts and +feelings gushed up with such a natural freedom, and who made great +truths so familiar by his simple utterance of them. Angels, as had been +so often said, seemed to have wrought with him at his labor in the +fields; angels seemed to have sat with him by the fireside; and, +dwelling with angels as friend with friends, he had imbibed the +sublimity of their ideas, and imbued it with the sweet and lowly charm +of household words. So thought the poet. And Ernest, on the other hand, +was moved and agitated by the living images which the poet flung out of +his mind, and which peopled all the air about the cottage-door with +shapes of beauty, both gay and pensive. The sympathies of these two men +instructed them with a profounder sense than either could have attained +alone. Their minds accorded into one strain, and made delightful music +which neither of them could have claimed as all his own, nor +distinguished his own share from the other's. They led one another, as +it were, into a high pavilion of their thoughts, so remote, and hitherto +so dim, that they had never entered it before, and so beautiful that +they desired to be there always. + +As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone Face +was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly into the poet's +glowing eyes. + +"Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said. + +The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been reading. + +"You have read these poems," said he. "You know me, then,--for I wrote +them." + +Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the poet's +features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then back, with an +uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance fell; he shook his +head, and sighed. + +"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet. + +"Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the +fulfilment of a prophecy; and, when I read these poems, I hoped that it +might be fulfilled in you." + +"You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me the +likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed, as formerly +with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and Old Stony Phiz. Yes, +Ernest, it is my doom. You must add my name to the illustrious three, +and record another failure of your hopes. For--in shame and sadness do I +speak it, Ernest--I am not worthy to be typified by yonder benign and +majestic image." + +"And why?" asked Ernest. He pointed to the volume. "Are not those +thoughts divine?" + +"They have a strain of the Divinity," replied the poet. "You can hear in +them the far-off echo of a heavenly song. But my life, dear Ernest, has +not corresponded with my thought. I have had grand dreams, but they have +been only dreams, because I have lived--and that, too, by my own +choice--among poor and mean realities. Sometimes even--shall I dare to +say it?--I lack faith in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness, +which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in +human life. Why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou +hope to find me, in yonder image of the divine?" + +The poet spoke sadly, and his eyes were dim with tears. So, likewise, +were those of Ernest. + +At the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, Ernest was +to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open +air. He and the poet, arm in arm, still talking together as they went +along, proceeded to the spot. It was a small nook among the hills, with +a gray precipice behind, the stern front of which was relieved by the +pleasant foliage of many creeping plants, that made a tapestry for the +naked rock, by hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles. At a +small elevation above the ground, set in a rich framework of verdure, +there appeared a niche, spacious enough to admit a human figure, with +freedom for such gestures as spontaneously accompany earnest thought and +genuine emotion. Into this natural pulpit Ernest ascended, and threw a +look of familiar kindness around upon his audience. They stood, or sat, +or reclined upon the grass, as seemed good to each, with the departing +sunshine falling obliquely over them, and mingling its subdued +cheerfulness with the solemnity of a grove of ancient trees, beneath and +amid the boughs of which the golden rays were constrained to pass. In +another direction was seen the Great Stone Face, with the same cheer, +combined with the same solemnity, in its benignant aspect. + +Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and +mind. His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and +his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the +life which he had always lived. It was not mere breath that this +preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good +deeds and holy love was melted into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had +been dissolved into this precious draught. The poet, as he listened, +felt that the being and character of Ernest were a nobler strain of +poetry than he had ever written. His eyes glistening with tears, he +gazed reverentially at the venerable man, and said within himself that +never was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as that +mild, sweet, thoughtful countenance, with the glory of white hair +diffused about it. At a distance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in +the golden light of the setting sun, appeared the Great Stone Face, with +hoary mists around it, like the white hairs around the brow of Ernest. +Its look of grand beneficence seemed to embrace the world. + +At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, +the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so imbued with +benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms +aloft, and shouted,-- + +"Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone +Face!" + +Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said +was true. The prophecy was fulfilled. But Ernest, having finished what +he had to say, took the poet's arm, and walked slowly homeward, still +hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by +appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE. + + + + +VII. RAB AND HIS FRIENDS (1858)[*] + +[* From "Rab and his Friends and Other Dogs and Men."] + +BY DR. JOHN BROWN (1810-1882) + + +[_Setting_. Dr. Brown was once driving with a friend through a crowded +section of Edinburgh when he stopped in the middle of a sentence, +seeming to be surprised at something behind the carriage. "Is it some +one you know?" the friend asked. "No," was the reply, "it's a dog I +_don't_ know." Needless to say that "Rab and his Friends" is an +Edinburgh story. The time is about 1824-1830. In the Scotch dialect +"weel a weel" means "all right"; "till" means "to"; "I'se" means "I +shall"; "he's" means "he shall"; "ower clean to beil" means "too clean +to suppurate"; "fremyt" means "strange"; "a' the lave" means "all the +rest"; "in the treviss wi' the mear" means "in the stall with the mare." + +_Plot_. From Aesop's Fables to Kipling's Jungle Books literature is full +of animal stories. But there is no dog story better told than this and +none that appeals more to our deeper sympathies. It is more of a +character sketch than a short story, the incidents and characters being +bound together by a common relation to Rab. From his leisurely first +appearance in the story, "a huge mastiff, sauntering down the middle of +the causeway, as if with his hands in his pockets," to the unanswerable +last question--"His teeth and his friends gone, why should he keep the +peace, and be civil?"--we follow Rab's pathetic career with the growing +conviction that "his like was na atween this and Thornhill," however +distant Thornhill may have been. Character sketches are apt to be +uninteresting because there is usually too little action and too much +description. The adjectives tend to smother the verbs. "They have," said +Hawthorne of his "Twice-Told Tales," "the pale tint of flowers that +blossomed in too retired a shade,--the coolness of a meditative habit, +which diffuses itself through the feeling and observation of every +sketch." But no such charge can be laid at the door of "Rab and his +Friends." The very dumbness of Rab, his mute yearning to help, his brave +and loyal ministries in the hospital, doubly affecting because wordless +and impotent, lend an appeal to this sketch that few sketches of men and +women can be said to have. + +_Characters_. In a later sketch called "Our Dogs" Dr. Brown tells how +Rab became the property of James and Ailie. He had been terrifying +everybody at Macbie Hill and his owner ordered him to be hanged. As Rab +was getting the better of the contest, his owner commanded that he be +shot. But Ailie, who happened to be near, noticed that he had a big +splinter in his foreleg. "She gave him water," says Dr. Brown, "and by +her woman's wit got his lame paw under a door, so that he couldn't +suddenly get at her; then with a quick firm hand she plucked out the +splinter, and put in an ample meal. She went in some time after, taking +no notice of him, and he came limping up, and laid his great jaws in her +lap." From that moment they became friends. A little later James was in +a lonely part of the woods when a robber sprang at him and demanded his +money. "Weel a weel, let me get it," said James, and stepping back he +whispered to Rab, "Speak till him, my man." Rab had the robber down in +an instant. + +In "Rab and his Friends" the great mastiff shows just the qualities that +we should expect from this account of his earlier career. But his +sympathy and affection for Ailie, shown so tenderly in the hospital +scenes, find an added pathos in the thought that he was serving his +first and best friend, one who had healed his hurt as he would have +healed hers if he could.] + + + +Four-and-thirty years ago, Bob Ainslie and I were coming up Infirmary +Street from the Edinburgh High School, our heads together, and our arms +intertwisted, as only lovers and boys know how, or why. + +When we got to the top of the street, and turned north, we espied a +crowd at the Tron Church. "A dog-fight!" shouted Bob, and was off; and +so was I, both of us all but praying that it might not be over before we +got up! And is not this boy-nature? and human nature too? and don't we +all wish a house on fire not to be out before we see it? Dogs like +fighting; old Isaac says they "delight" in it, and for the best of all +reasons; and boys are not cruel because they like to see the fight. They +see three of the great cardinal virtues of dog or man--courage, +endurance, and skill--in intense action. This is very different from a +love of making dogs fight, and enjoying, and aggravating, and making +gain by their pluck. A boy,--be he ever so fond himself of fighting,--if +he be a good boy, hates and despises all this, but he would have run off +with Bob and me fast enough: it is a natural, and a not wicked interest, +that all boys and men have in witnessing intense energy in action. + +Does any curious and finely-ignorant woman wish to know how Bob's eye at +a glance announced a dog-fight to his brain? He did not, he could not +see the dogs fighting; it was a flash of an inference, a rapid +induction. The crowd round a couple of dogs fighting is a crowd +masculine mainly, with an occasional active, compassionate woman, +fluttering wildly round the outside, and using her tongue and her hands +freely upon the men, as so many "brutes"; it is a crowd annular, +compact, and mobile; a crowd centripetal, having its eyes and its heads +all bent downwards and inwards, to one common focus. + +Well, Bob and I are up, and find it is not over: a small thoroughbred, +white Bull Terrier, is busy throttling a large shepherd's dog, +unaccustomed to war, but not to be trifled with. They are hard at it; +the scientific little fellow doing his work in great style, his pastoral +enemy fighting wildly, but with the sharpest of teeth and a great +courage. Science and breeding, however, soon had their own; the Game +Chicken, as the premature Bob called him, working his way up, took his +final grip of poor Yarrow's throat,--and he lay gasping and done for. +His master, a brown, handsome, big young shepherd from Tweedsmuir, would +have liked to have knocked down any man, would "drink up Esil,[*] or eat +a crocodile," for that part, if he had a chance: it was no use kicking +the little dog; that would only make him hold the closer. Many were the +means shouted out in mouthfuls, of the best possible ways of ending it. +"Water!" but there was none near, and many cried for it who might have +got it from the well at Blackfriars Wynd. "Bite the tail!" and a large, +vague, benevolent, middle-aged man, more desirous than wise, with some +struggle got the bushy end of _Yarrow's_ tail into his ample mouth, and +bit it with all his might. This was more than enough for the +much-enduring, much-perspiring shepherd, who, with a gleam of joy over +his broad visage, delivered a terrific facer upon our large, vague, +benevolent, middle-aged friend,--who went down like a shot. + +[* Esil, "vinegar" (_Hamlet_, V, I, 299).] + +Still the Chicken holds; death not far off. "Snuff! a pinch of snuff!" +observed a calm, highly-dressed young buck, with an eye-glass in his +eye. "Snuff, indeed!" growled the angry crowd, affronted and glaring. +"Snuff! a pinch of snuff!" again observed the buck, but with more +urgency; whereon were produced several open boxes, and from a mull which +may have been at Culloden, he took a pinch, knelt down, and presented it +to the nose of the Chicken. The laws of physiology and of snuff take +their course; the Chicken sneezes, and Yarrow is free! + +The young pastoral giant stalks off with Yarrow in his arms,--comforting +him. + +But the Bull Terrier's blood is up, and his soul unsatisfied; he grips +the first dog he meets, and discovering she is not a dog, in Homeric +phrase, he makes a brief sort of _amende_, and is off. The boys, with +Bob and me at their head, are after him: down Niddry Street he goes, +bent on mischief; up the Cowgate like an arrow--Bob and I, and our small +men, panting behind. + +There, under the single arch of the South Bridge, is a huge mastiff, +sauntering down the middle of the causeway, as if with his hands in his +pockets: he is old, gray, brindled, as big as a little Highland bull, +and has the Shakesperian dewlaps shaking as he goes. + +The Chicken makes straight at him, and fastens on his throat. To our +astonishment, the great creature does nothing but stand still, hold +himself up, and roar--yes, roar; a long, serious, remonstrative roar. +How is this? Bob and I are up to them. _He is muzzled_! The bailies had +proclaimed a general muzzling, and his master, studying strength and +economy mainly, had encompassed his huge jaws in a home-made apparatus, +constructed out of the leather of some ancient _breechin_. His mouth was +open as far as it could; his lips curled up in rage--a sort of terrible +grin; his teeth gleaming, ready, from out the darkness; the strap across +his mouth tense as a bowstring; his whole frame stiff with indignation +and surprise; his roar asking us all round, "Did you ever see the like +of this?" He looked a statue of anger and astonishment, done in Aberdeen +granite. + +We soon had a crowd: the Chicken held on. "A knife!" cried Bob; and a +cobbler gave him his knife: you know the kind of knife, worn away +obliquely to a point, and always keen. I put its edge to the tense +leather; it ran before it; and then!--one sudden jerk of that enormous +head, a sort of dirty mist about his mouth, no noise,--and the bright +and fierce little fellow is dropped, limp, and dead. A solemn pause: +this was more than any of us had bargained for. I turned the little +fellow over, and saw he was quite dead; the mastiff had taken him by the +small of the back like a rat, and broken it. + +He looked down at his victim appeased, ashamed, and amazed; snuffed him +all over, stared at him, and taking a sudden thought, turned round and +trotted off. Bob took the dead dog up, and said, "John, we'll bury him +after tea." "Yes," said I, and was off after the mastiff. He made up the +Cowgate at a rapid swing; he had forgotten some engagement. He turned up +the Candlemaker Row, and stopped at the Harrow Inn. + +There was a carrier's cart ready to start, and a keen, thin, impatient, +black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse's head, looking +about angrily for something. "Rab, ye thief!" said he, aiming a kick at +my great friend, who drew cringing up, and avoiding the heavy shoe with +more agility than dignity, and watching his master's eye, slunk dismayed +under the cart,--his ears down, and as much as he had of tail down too. + +What a man this must be--thought I--to whom my tremendous hero turns +tail! The carrier saw the muzzle hanging, cut and useless, from his +neck, and I eagerly told him the story, which Bob and I always thought, +and still think, Homer, or King David, or Sir Walter alone were worthy +to rehearse. The severe little man was mitigated, and condescended to +say, "Rab, my man, puir Rabbie,"--whereupon the stump of a tail rose up, +the ears were cocked, the eyes filled, and were comforted; the two +friends were reconciled. "Hupp!" and a stroke of the whip were given to +Jess; and off went the three. + + * * * * * + +Bob and I buried the Game Chicken that night (we had not much of a tea) +in the back-green of his house in Melville Street, No. 17, with +considerable gravity and silence; and being at the time in the Iliad, +and, like all boys, Trojans, we called him Hector of course. + +Six years have passed,--a long time for a boy and a dog: Bob Ainslie is +off to the wars; I am a medical student, and clerk at Minto House +Hospital. + +Rab I saw almost every week, on the Wednesday, and we had much pleasant +intimacy. I found the way to his heart by frequent scratching of his +huge head, and an occasional bone. When I did not notice him he would +plant himself straight before me, and stand wagging that bud of a tail, +and looking up, with his head a little to the one side. His master I +occasionally saw; he used to call me "Maister John," but was laconic as +any Spartan. + +One fine October afternoon, I was leaving the hospital, when I saw the +large gate open, and in walked Rab, with that great and easy saunter of +his. He looked as if taking general possession of the place; like the +Duke of Wellington entering a subdued city, satiated with victory and +peace. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart; and in it +a woman, carefully wrapped up,--the carrier leading the horse anxiously, +and looking back. When he saw me, James (for his name was James Noble) +made a curt and grotesque "boo," and said, "Maister John, this is the +mistress; she's got a trouble in her breest--some kind o' an income +we're thinking." + +By this time I saw the woman's face; she was sitting on a sack filled +with straw, her husband's plaid round her, and his big-coat with its +large white metal buttons, over her feet. + +I never saw a more unforgettable face--pale, serious, _lonely_,[*] +delicate, sweet, without being at all what we call fine. She looked +sixty, and had on a mutch, white as snow, with its black ribbon; her +silvery, smooth hair setting off her dark-gray eyes--eyes such as one +sees only twice or thrice in a lifetime, full of suffering, full also of +the overcoming of it: her eyebrows black and delicate, and her mouth +firm, patient, and contented, which few mouths ever are. + +[* It is not easy giving this look by one word; it was expressive of her +being so much of her life alone.] + +As I have said, I never saw a more beautiful countenance, or one more +subdued to settled quiet. "Ailie," said James, "this is Maister John, +the young doctor; Rab's freend, ye ken. We often speak aboot you, +doctor." She smiled, and made a movement, but said nothing; and prepared +to come down, putting her plaid aside and rising. Had Solomon, in all +his glory, been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace gate he +could not have done it more daintily, more tenderly, more like a +gentleman, than did James the Howgate carrier, when he lifted down Ailie +his wife. The contrast of his small, swarthy, weather-beaten, keen, +worldly face to hers--pale, subdued, and beautiful--was something +wonderful. Rab looked on concerned and puzzled, but ready for anything +that might turn up,--were it to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even +me. Ailie and he seemed great friends. + +"As I was sayin' she's got a kind o' trouble in her breest, doctor; wull +ye tak' a look at it?" We walked into the consulting-room, all four; Rab +grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential if cause could be +shown, willing also to be the reverse, on the same terms. Ailie sat +down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her neck, and +without a word, showed me her right breast. I looked at and examined it +carefully,--she and James watching me, and Rab eying all three. What +could I say? there it was, that had once been so soft, so shapely, so +white, so gracious and bountiful, so "full of all blessed +conditions,"--hard as a stone, a centre of horrid pain, making that pale +face, with its gray, lucid, reasonable eyes, and its sweet resolved +mouth, express the full measure of suffering overcome. Why was that +gentle, modest, sweet woman, clean and lovable, condemned by God to bear +such a burden? + +I got her away to bed. "May Rab and me bide?" said James. "_You_ may; +and Rab, if he will behave himself." "I'se warrant he's do that, +doctor;" and in slank the faithful beast. I wish you could have seen +him. There are no such dogs now. He belonged to a lost tribe. As I have +said, he was brindled and gray like Rubislaw granite; his hair short, +hard, and close, like a lion's; his body thick set, like a little +bull--a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. He must have been ninety +pounds' weight, at the least; he had a large blunt head; his muzzle +black as night, his mouth blacker than any night, a tooth or two--being +all he had--gleaming out of his jaws of darkness. His head was scarred +with the records of old wounds, a sort of series of fields of battle all +over it; one eye out, one ear cropped as close as was Archbishop +Leighton's father's; the remaining eye had the power of two; and above +it, and in constant communication with it, was a tattered rag of an ear, +which was forever unfurling itself, like an old flag; and then that bud +of a tail, about one inch long, if it could in any sense be said to be +long, being as broad as long--the mobility, the instantaneousness of +that bud were very funny and surprising, and its expressive twinklings +and winkings, the intercommunications between the eye, the ear, and it, +were of the oddest and swiftest. + +Rab had the dignity and simplicity of great size; and having fought his +way all along the road to absolute supremacy, he was as mighty in his +own line as Julius Cæsar or the Duke of Wellington, and had the +gravity[*] of all great fighters. + +[* A Highland game-keeper, when asked why a certain terrier, of singular +pluck, was so much more solemn than the other dogs, said, "Oh, Sir, +life's full o' sairiousness to him--he just never can get enuff o' +fechtin'."] + +You must have often observed the likeness of certain men to certain +animals, and of certain dogs to men. Now, I never looked at Rab without +thinking of the great Baptist preacher, Andrew Fuller.[*] The same +large, heavy, menacing, combative, sombre, honest countenance, the same +deep inevitable eye, the same look,--as of thunder asleep, but +ready,--neither a dog nor a man to be trifled with. + +[* Fuller was, in early life, when a farmer lad at Soham, famous as a +boxer; not quarrelsome, but not without "the stern delight" a man of +strength and courage feels in their exercise. Dr. Charles Stewart, of +Dunearn, whose rare gifts and graces as a physician, a divine, a +scholar, and a gentleman, live only in the memory of those few who knew +and survive him, liked to tell how Mr. Fuller used to say, that when he +was in the pulpit, and saw a _buirdly_ man come along the passage, he +would instinctively draw himself up, measure his imaginary antagonist, +and forecast how he would deal with him, his hands meanwhile condensing +into fists, and tending to "square." He must have been a hard hitter if +he boxed as he preached--what "The Fancy" would call "an ugly +customer."] + +Next day, my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. There was no doubt it +must kill her, and soon. It could be removed--it might never return--it +would give her speedy relief--she should have it done. She curtsied, +looked at James, and said, "When?" "To-morrow," said the kind surgeon--a +man of few words. She and James and Rab and I retired. I noticed that he +and she spoke little, but seemed to anticipate everything in each other. +The following day, at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the great +stair. At the first landing-place, on a small well-known blackboard, was +a bit of paper fastened by wafers and many remains of old wafers beside +it. On the paper were the words,--"An operation to-day. J.B. _Clerk_." + +Up ran the youths, eager to secure good places; in they crowded, full of +interest and talk. "What's the case?" "Which side is it?" + +Don't think them heartless; they are neither better nor worse than you +or I; they get over their professional horrors, and into their proper +work--and in them pity--as an _emotion_, ending in itself or at best in +tears and a long-drawn breath--lessens, while pity as a _motive_ is +quickened, and gains power and purpose. It is well for poor human nature +that it is so. + +The operating theatre is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the +cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants +is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager +students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down, +and are dumb, and gaze at her. These rough boys feel the power of her +presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her mutch, +her neckerchief, her white dimity short-gown, her black bombazine +petticoat, showing her white worsted stockings and her carpet-shoes. +Behind her was James with Rab. James sat down in the distance, and took +that huge and noble head between his knees. Rab looked perplexed and +dangerous; forever cocking his ear and dropping it as fast. + +Ailie stepped up on a seat, and laid herself on the table, as her friend +the surgeon told her; arranged herself, gave a rapid look at James, shut +her eyes, rested herself on me, and took my hand. The operation was at +once begun; it was necessarily slow; and chloroform--one of God's best +gifts to his suffering children--was then unknown. The surgeon did his +work. The pale face showed its pain, but was still and silent. Rab's +soul was working within him; he saw that something strange was going +on,--blood flowing from his mistress, and she suffering; his ragged ear +was up, and importunate; he growled and gave now and then a sharp +impatient yelp; he would have liked to have done something to that man. +But James had him firm, and gave him a _glower_ from time to time, and +an intimation of a possible kick;--all the better for James, it kept his +eye and his mind off Ailie. + +It is over: she is dressed, steps gently and decently down from the +table, looks for James; then, turning to the surgeon and the students, +she curtsies,--and in a low, clear voice, begs their pardon if she has +behaved ill. The students--all of us--wept like children; the surgeon +happed her up carefully,--and, resting on James and me, Ailie went to +her room, Rab following. We put her to bed. James took off his heavy +shoes, crammed with tackets, heel-capt, and toe-capt and put them +carefully under the table, saying, "Maister John, I'm for nane o' yer +strynge nurse bodies for Ailie. I'll be her nurse, and I'll gang aboot +on my stockin' soles as canny as pussy." And so he did; and handy and +clever, and swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed, snell, +peremptory little man. Everything she got he gave her: he seldom slept; +and often I saw his small shrewd eyes out of the darkness, fixed on her. +As before, they spoke little. + +Rab behaved well, never moving, showing us how meek and gentle he could +be, and occasionally, in his sleep, letting us know that he was +demolishing some adversary. He took a walk with me every day, generally +to the Candlemaker Row; but he was sombre and mild; declined doing +battle, though some fit cases offered, and indeed submitted to sundry +indignities; and was always very ready to turn, and came faster back, +and trotted up the stair with much lightness, and went straight to that +door. + +Jess, the mare, had been sent, with her weather-worn cart, to Howgate, +and had doubtless her own dim and placid meditations and confusions, on +the absence of her master and Rab, and her unnatural freedom from the +road and her cart. + +For some days Ailie did well. The wound healed "by the first intention;" +for as James said, "Our Ailie's skin's ower clean to beil." The students +came in quiet and anxious, and surrounded her bed. She said she liked to +see their young, honest faces. The surgeon dressed her, and spoke to her +in his own short kind way, pitying her through his eyes, Rab and James +outside the circle,--Rab being now reconciled, and even cordial, and +having made up his mind that as yet nobody required worrying, but, as +you may suppose, _semper paratus_. + +So far well: but, four days after the operation, my patient had a sudden +and long shivering, a "groosin'," as she called it. I saw her soon +after; her eyes were too bright, her cheek colored; she was restless, +and ashamed of being so; the balance was lost; mischief had begun. On +looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret: her pulse was +rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn't herself, as she said, +and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could; James did +everything, was everywhere; never in the way, never out of it; Rab +subsided under the table into a dark place, and was motionless, all but +his eye, which followed every one. Ailie got worse; began to wander in +her mind, gently; was more demonstrative in her ways to James, rapid in +her questions, and sharp at times. He was vexed, and said, "She was +never that way afore; no, never." For a time she knew her head was +wrong, and was always asking our pardon--the dear, gentle old woman: +then delirium set in strong, without pause. Her brain gave way, and then +came that terrible spectacle,-- + + The intellectual power, through words and things, + Went sounding on its dim and perilous way, + +she sang bits of old songs and Psalms, stopping suddenly, mingling the +Psalms of David and the diviner words of his Son and Lord, with homely +odds and ends and scraps of ballads. + +Nothing more touching, or in a sense more strangely beautiful, did I +ever witness. Her tremulous, rapid, affectionate, eager, Scotch +voice,--the swift, aimless, bewildered mind, the baffled utterance, the +bright and perilous eye; some wild words, some household cares, +something for James, the names of the dead, Rab called rapidly and in a +"fremyt" voice, and he starting up surprised, and slinking off as if he +were to blame somehow, or had been dreaming he heard; many eager +questions and beseechings which James and I could make nothing of, and +on which she seemed to set her all, and then sink back ununderstood. It +was very sad, but better than many things that are not called sad. James +hovered about, put out and miserable, but active and exact as ever; read +to her, when there was a lull, short bits from the Psalms, prose and +metre, chanting the latter in his own rude and serious way, showing +great knowledge of the fit words, bearing up like a man, and doating +over her as his "ain Ailie." "Ailie, ma woman!" "Ma ain bonnie wee +dawtie!" + +The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord +was fast being loosed--that _animula blandula, vagula, hospes, +comesque_[*] was about to flee. The body and the soul--companions for +sixty years--were being sundered, and taking leave. She was walking +alone, through the valley of that shadow, into which one day we must all +enter,--and yet she was not alone, for we know whose rod and staff were +comforting her. + +[* "Little, gentle, wandering soul, guest and comrade."--Hadrian's +"Address to his Soul"] + +One night she had fallen quiet, and as we hoped, asleep; her eyes were +shut. We put down the gas, and sat watching her. Suddenly she sat up in +bed, and taking a bed-gown which was lying on it rolled up, she held it +eagerly to her breast,--to the right side. We could see her eyes bright +with a surprising tenderness and joy, bending over this bundle of +clothes. She held it as a woman holds her sucking child; opening out her +night-gown impatiently, and holding it close, and brooding over it, and +murmuring foolish little words, as over one whom his mother comforteth, +and who sucks and is satisfied. It was pitiful and strange to see her +wasted dying look, keen and yet vague--her immense love. + +"Preserve me!" groaned James, giving way. And then she rocked back and +forward, as if to make it sleep, hushing it, and wasting on it her +infinite fondness. "Wae's me, doctor; I declare she's thinkin' it's that +bairn." "What bairn?" "The only bairn we ever had; our wee Mysie, and +she's in the Kingdom, forty years and mair." It was plainly true: the +pain in the breast, telling its urgent story to a bewildered, ruined +brain, was misread and mistaken; it suggested to her the uneasiness of a +breast full of milk, and then the child; and so again once more they +were together, and she had her ain wee Mysie in her bosom. + +This was the close. She sank rapidly: the delirium left her; but, as she +whispered, she was "clean silly;" it was the lightening before the final +darkness. After having for some time lain still--her eyes shut, she said +"James!" He came close to her, and lifting up her calm, clear, beautiful +eyes, she gave him a long look, turned to me kindly but shortly, looked +for Rab but could not see him, then turned to her husband again, as if +she would never leave off looking, shut her eyes, and composed herself. +She lay for some time breathing quick, and passed away so gently that, +when we thought she was gone, James, in his old-fashioned way, held the +mirror to her face. After a long pause, one small spot of dimness was +breathed out; it vanished away, and never returned, leaving the blank +clear darkness of the mirror without a stain. "What is our life? it is +even a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth +away." + +Rab all this time had been full awake and motionless; he came forward +beside us: Ailie's hand, which James had held, was hanging down; it was +soaked with his tears; Rab licked it all over carefully, looked at her, +and returned to his place under the table. + +James and I sat, I don't know how long, but for some time,--saying +nothing: he started up abruptly, and with some noise went to the table, +and putting his right fore and middle fingers each into a shoe, pulled +them out, and put them on, breaking one of the leather latchets, and +muttering in anger, "I never did the like o' that afore!" + +I believe he never did; nor after either. "Rab!" he said roughly, and +pointing with his thumb to the bottom of the bed. Rab leapt up, and +settled himself; his head and eye to the dead face. "Maister John, ye'll +wait for me," said the carrier; and disappeared in the darkness, +thundering down-stairs in his heavy shoes. I ran to a front window; +there he was, already round the house, and out at the gate, fleeing like +a shadow. + +I was afraid about him, and yet not afraid; so I sat down beside Rab, +and being wearied, fell asleep. I awoke from a sudden noise outside. It +was November, and there had been a heavy fall of snow. Rab was _in statu +quo_; he heard the noise too, and plainly knew it, but never moved. I +looked out; and there, at the gate, in the dim morning--for the sun was +not up--was Jess and the cart,--a cloud of steam rising from the old +mare. I did not see James; he was already at the door, and came up the +stairs, and met me. It was less than three hours since he left, and he +must have posted out--who knows how?--to Howgate, full nine miles off; +yoked Jess, and driven her astonished into town. He had an armful of +blankets, and was streaming with perspiration. He nodded to me, spread +out on the floor two pairs of clean old blankets having at their +corners, "A.G., 1794," in large letters in red worsted. These were the +initials of Alison Græme, and James may have looked in at her from +without--himself unseen but not unthought of--when he was "wat, wat, and +weary," and after having walked many a mile over the hills, may have +seen her sitting, while "a' the lave were sleepin':" and by the +firelight working her name on the blankets, for her ain James's bed. + +He motioned Rab down, and taking his wife in his arms, laid her in the +blankets, and happed her carefully and firmly up, leaving the face +uncovered; and then lifting her, he nodded again sharply to me, and with +a resolved but utterly miserable face, strode along the passage, and +down-stairs, followed by Rab. I followed with a light; but he didn't +need it. I went out, holding stupidly the candle in my hand in the calm +frosty air; we were soon at the gate. I could have helped him, but I saw +he was not to be meddled with, and he was strong, and did not need it. +He laid her down as tenderly, as safely, as he had lifted her out ten +days before--as tenderly as when he had her first in his arms when she +was only "A.G.,"--sorted her, leaving that beautiful sealed face open to +the heavens; and then taking Jess by the head, he moved away. He did not +notice me, neither did Rab, who presided behind the cart. + +I stood till they passed through the long shadow of the College, and +turned up Nicolson Street. I heard the solitary cart sound through the +streets, and die away and come again; and I returned, thinking of that +company going up Libberton Brae, then along Roslin Muir, the morning +light touching the Pentlands and making them like on-looking ghosts, +then down the hill through Auchindinny woods, past "haunted +Woodhouselee;" and as daybreak came sweeping up the bleak Lammermuirs, +and fell on his own door, the company would stop, and James would take +the key, and lift Ailie up again, laying her on her own bed, and, having +put Jess up, would return with Rab and shut the door. + +James buried his wife, with his neighbors mourning, Rab inspecting the +solemnity from a distance. It was snow, and that black ragged hole would +look strange in the midst of the swelling spotless cushion of white. +James looked after everything; then rather suddenly fell ill, and took +to bed; was insensible when the doctor came, and soon died. A sort of +low fever was prevailing in the village, and his want of sleep, his +exhaustion, and his misery made him apt to take it. The grave was not +difficult to reopen. A fresh fall of snow had again made all things +white and smooth; Rab once more looked on, and slunk home to the stable. + + * * * * * + +And what of Rab? I asked for him next week of the new carrier who got +the goodwill of James's business, and was now master of Jess and her +cart. "How's Rab?" He put me off, and said rather rudely, "What's _your_ +business wi' the dowg?" I was not to be so put off. "Where's Rab?" He, +getting confused and red, and intermeddling with his hair, said, "Deed, +sir, Rab's deid." "Dead! what did he die of?" "Weel, sir," said he, +getting redder, "he did na exactly dee; he was killed. I had to brain +him wi' a rack-pin; there was nae doin' wi' him. He lay in the treviss +wi' the mear, and wad na come oot. I tempit him wi' kail and meat, but +he wad tak naething, and keepit me frae feedin' the beast, and he was +aye gur gurrin', and grup gruppin' me by the legs. I was laith to make +awa wi' the auld dowg, his like was na atween this and Thornhill,--but, +'deed, sir, I could do naething else." I believed him. Fit end for Rab, +quick and complete. His teeth and his friends gone, why should he keep +the peace, and be civil? + + + + +VIII. THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT[*] (1869) + +[* Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton +Mifflin Company, publishers of Bret Harte's Works.] + +BY BRET HARTE (1836-1902) + + +[_Setting_. The group tragedy enacted in this story took place between +November 23 and December 7, 1850, on the road from Poker Flat to Sandy +Bar, in Sierra County, California. The time and place are those that +Bret Harte has made peculiarly his own. The austerity and wildness of +the scenery seem somehow to favor the intimate revelation of character +that the story displays. There is no intervention of cities, crops, +fashions, or conventions between the different members of the character +group or between the group as a whole and the reader. All is bare like a +white mountain peak. Notice also how the background of a common peril +draws the characters together and brings out at last the best in each. + +_Plot_. The story sets forth and interprets a dramatic situation. The +plot is staged so as to answer the question, "Do not the people whom +society regards as outcasts have yet some redeeming virtue?" Notice +especially how a sense of common fellowship is developed in these +outcasts. First, they are subjected to a common humiliation in being +driven from Poker Flat by persons whom the outcasts consider no whit +better than themselves. Next, they are exposed to a common danger, a +danger that leads the stronger to care instinctively for the weaker, and +the weaker to recognize that it is nobler to give than to receive. At +last, in the unexpected entrance of the innocent Tom Simson and the +guileless Piney Woods, the outcasts find a common challenge to the +native goodness that had long lain dormant within them. Innocence and +guilelessness may be laughed at, as they are here, but their appeal is +often stronger than the appeal of disciplined virtue or of +self-conscious superiority. When Bret Harte was charged with confusing +the boundary lines of vice and virtue he replied that his plots +"conformed to the rules laid down by a Great Poet who created the +parable of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan." + +_Characters_. Oakhurst, who is always called "Mr." Oakhurst, is of +course the dominant character. The story begins with him and ends with +him. He is "the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker +Flat,"--strong while there was anything to be done, weak even to suicide +when he had only to wait for the inevitable end. He was a brave, +desperate, solitary man, whose thought and speech and action, however, +were always those of the professional gambler. Bret Harte, who has put +him into several stories, says of him in another place: "Go where he +would and with whom, he was always a notable man in ten thousand." The +admiration that we yield to such a man, though it is only a qualified +admiration, is doubtless the admiration of power which, we cannot help +thinking, might be used beneficently if it could only be harnessed to a +noble cause. + +But if Oakhurst is the dominant character, Piney Woods is, I think, the +central character. She is central in this story just as little Aglaïa is +central in Tennyson's "Princess," or Eppie in George Eliot's "Silas +Marner," or the baby offspring of Cherokee Sal in "The Luck of Roaring +Camp." Bret Harte had just written the last-named story when he began +the composition of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." The same great theme, +the radiating and redeeming power of innocence and purity, was carried +over from the first story to the second. The ministry of the baby and +the ministry of the fifteen-year-old bride is the same in both. Like the +Great Stone Face in Hawthorne's story or like little Pippa in Browning's +poem, they awaken the better nature of those about them. They restore +hopes that had become but memories and memories that had almost ceased +to be hopes.] + + + +As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker +Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was +conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. +Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he +approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull +in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked +ominous. + +Mr. Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these +indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause, was +another question. "I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected; +"likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which +he had been whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat +boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture. + +In point of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately +suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and +a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, +quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked +it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper +persons. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were then +hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in +the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to +say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, +to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in +such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to +sit in judgment. + +Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this +category. A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible +example, and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of +the sums he had won from them. "It's agin justice," said Jim Wheeler, +"to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp--an entire stranger--carry +away our money." But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts +of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst +overruled this narrower local prejudice. + +Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the +less coolly that he was aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was +too much of a gambler not to accept Fate. With him life was at best an +uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the +dealer. + +A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to +the outskirts of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to +be a coolly desperate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort +was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman +familiarly known as "The Duchess"; another, who had won the title of +"Mother Shipton"; and "Uncle Billy," a suspected sluice-robber and +confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from the +spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch +which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader +spoke briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at +the peril of their lives. + +As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few +hysterical tears from the Duchess, some bad language from Mother +Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy. The +philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother +Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements +of the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths +that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the +easy good-humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchanging +his own riding-horse, "Five Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess +rode. But even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. +The young woman readjusted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, +faded coquetry; Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with +malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping +anathema. + +The road to Sandy Bar--a camp that, not having as yet experienced the +regenerating influences of Poker Flat, consequently seemed to offer some +invitation to the emigrants--lay over a steep mountain range. It was +distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced season, the party soon +passed out of the moist, temperate regions of the foot-hills into the +dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras. The trail was narrow and +difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the +ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party +halted. + +The spot was singularly wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheatre, +surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped +gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley. +It was, undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been +advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy +Bar was accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for +delay. This fact he pointed out to his companions curtly, with a +philosophic commentary on the folly of "throwing up their hand before +the game was played out." But they were furnished with liquor, which in +this emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience. +In spite of his remonstrances, it was not long before they were more or +less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose +state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton +snored. Mr. Oakhurst alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, +calmly surveying them. + +Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with a profession which +required coolness, impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his own +language, he "couldn't afford it." As he gazed at his recumbent +fellow-exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah-trade, his habits +of life, his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. He +bestirred himself in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and +face, and other acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and +for a moment forgot his annoyance. The thought of deserting his weaker +and more pitiable companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could +not help feeling the want of that excitement which, singularly enough, +was most conducive to that calm equanimity for which he was notorious. +He looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the +circling pines around him; at the sky, ominously clouded; at the valley +below, already deepening into shadow. And, doing so, suddenly he heard +his own name called. + +A horseman slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the +new-comer Mr. Oakhurst recognized Tom Simson, otherwise known as "The +Innocent" of Sandy Bar. He had met him some months before over a "little +game," and had, with perfect equanimity, won the entire +fortune--amounting to some forty dollars--of that guileless youth. After +the game was finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew the youthful speculator behind +the door and thus addressed him: "Tommy, you're a good little man, but +you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again." He then handed +him his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a +devoted slave of Tom Simson. + +There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting +of Mr. Oakhurst. He had started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek +his fortune. "Alone?" No, not exactly alone; in fact (a giggle), he had +run away with Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? She that +used to wait on the table at the Temperance House? They had been engaged +a long time, but old Jake Woods had objected, and so they had run away, +and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and here they were. And they +were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp and +company. All this the Innocent delivered rapidly, while Piney, a stout, +comely damsel of fifteen, emerged from behind the pine-tree, where she +had been blushing unseen, and rode to the side of her lover. + +Mr. Oakhurst seldom troubled himself with sentiment, still less with +propriety; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not fortunate. +He retained, however, his presence of mind sufficiently to kick Uncle +Billy, who was about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough +to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear +trifling. He then endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying +further, but in vain. He even pointed out the fact that there was no +provision, nor means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met +this objection by assuring the party that he was provided with an extra +mule loaded with provisions, and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a +log-house near the trail. "Piney can stay with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the +Innocent, pointing to the Duchess, "and I can shift for myself." + +Nothing but Mr. Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved Uncle Billy from +bursting into a roar of laughter. As it was, he felt compelled to retire +up the cañon until he could recover his gravity. There he confided the +joke to the tall pine-trees, with many slaps of his leg, contortions of +his face, and the usual profanity. But when he returned to the party, he +found them seated by a fire--for the air had grown strangely chill and +the sky overcast--in apparently amicable conversation. Piney was +actually talking in an impulsive, girlish fashion to the Duchess, who +was listening with an interest and animation she had not shown for many +days. The Innocent was holding forth, apparently with equal effect, to +Mr. Oakhurst and Mother Shipton, who was actually relaxing into +amiability. "Is this yer a d----d picnic?" said Uncle Billy, with inward +scorn, as he surveyed the sylvan group, the glancing firelight, and the +tethered animals in the foreground. Suddenly an idea mingled with the +alcoholic fumes that disturbed his brain. It was apparently of a jocular +nature, for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and cram his fist +into his mouth. + +As the shadows crept slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the +tops of the pine-trees, and moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. +The ruined cabin, patched and covered with pine-boughs, was set apart +for the ladies. As the lovers parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a +kiss, so honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the +swaying pines. The frail Duchess and the malevolent Mother Shipton were +probably too stunned to remark upon this last evidence of simplicity, +and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was replenished, the +men lay down before the door, and in a few minutes were asleep. + +Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed and +cold. As he stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now blowing +strongly, brought to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave +it,--snow! + +He started to his feet with the intention of awakening the sleepers, for +there was no time to lose. But turning to where Uncle Billy had been +lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to his brain and a curse to +his lips. He ran to the spot where the mules had been tethered; they +were no longer there. The tracks were already rapidly disappearing in +the snow. + +The momentary excitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the fire with his +usual calm. He did not waken the sleepers. The Innocent slumbered +peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face; the virgin +Piney slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by +celestial guardians, and Mr. Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his +shoulders, stroked his mustaches and waited for the dawn. It came slowly +in a whirling mist of snow-flakes, that dazzled and confused the eye. +What could be seen of the landscape appeared magically changed. He +looked over the valley, and summoned up the present and future in two +words,--"snowed in!" + +A careful inventory of the provisions, which, fortunately for the party, +had been stored within the hut, and so escaped the felonious fingers of +Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and prudence they might +last ten days longer. "That is," said Mr. Oakhurst, _sotto voce_ to the +Innocent, "if you're willing to board us. If you ain't--and perhaps +you'd better not--you can wait till Uncle Billy gets back with +provisions." For some occult reason, Mr. Oakhurst could not bring +himself to disclose Uncle Billy's rascality, and so offered the +hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp and had accidentally +stampeded the animals. He dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother +Shipton, who of course knew the facts of their associate's defection. +"They'll find out the truth about us _all_ when they find out anything," +he added, significantly, "and there's no good frightening them now." + +Tom Simson not only put all his worldly store at the disposal of Mr. +Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion. +"We'll have a good camp for a week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll +all go back together." The cheerful gayety of the young man, and Mr. +Oakhurst's calm infected the others. The Innocent, with the aid of +pine-boughs, extemporized a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the +Duchess directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior with a taste +and tact that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their +fullest extent. "I reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," +said Piney. The Duchess turned away sharply to conceal something that +reddened her cheeks through its professional tint, and Mother Shipton +requested Piney not to "chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a +weary search for the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed +from the rocks. He stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first +naturally reverted to the whiskey, which he had prudently _cachéd_. "And +yet it don't somehow sound like whiskey," said the gambler. It was not +until he caught sight of the blazing fire through the still blinding +storm and the group around it that he settled to the conviction that it +was "square fun." + +Whether Mr. Oakhurst had _cachéd_ his cards with the whiskey as +something debarred the free access of the community, I cannot say. It +was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, he "didn't say cards once" +during that evening. Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, +produced somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. +Notwithstanding some difficulties attending the manipulation of his +instrument, Piney Woods managed to pluck several reluctant melodies from +its keys, to an accompaniment by the Innocent on a pair of bone +castanets. But the crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a +rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers, joining hands, sang with great +earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a certain defiant tone and +Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, +caused it speedily to infect the others, who at last joined in the +refrain:-- + +"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, +And I'm bound to die in His army." + +The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled above the miserable +group, and the flames of their altar leaped heavenward, as if in token +of the vow. + +At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted, and the stars +glittered keenly above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose +professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible +amount of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson, somehow managed +to take upon himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself +to the Innocent, by saying that he had "often been a week without +sleep." "Doing what?" asked Tom. "Poker!" replied Oakhurst, +sententiously; "when a man gets a streak of luck,--nigger-luck,--he +don't get tired. The luck gives in first. Luck," continued the gambler, +reflectively, "is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for +certain is that it's bound to change. And it's finding out when it's +going to change that makes you. We've had a streak of bad luck since we +left Poker Flat,--you come along, and slap you get into it, too. If you +can hold your cards right along, you're all right. For," added the +gambler, with cheerful irrelevance,-- + +"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, +And I'm bound to die in His army." + +The third day came, and the sun, looking through the white-curtained +valley, saw the outcasts divide their slowly decreasing store of +provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the peculiarities of that +mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry +landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. But it revealed +drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut,--a hopeless, +uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which +the castaways still clung. Through the marvellously clear air the smoke +of the pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton +saw it, and from a remote pinnacle of her rocky fastness, hurled in that +direction a final malediction. It was her last vituperative attempt, and +perhaps for that reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. +It did her good, she privately informed the Duchess. "Just you go out +there and cuss, and see." She then set herself to the task of amusing +"the child," as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney +was no chicken, but it was a soothing and original theory of the pair +thus to account for the fact that she didn't swear and wasn't improper. + +When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the +accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the +flickering camp-fire. But music failed to fill entirely the aching void +left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by +Piney,--story-telling. Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female companions +caring to relate their personal experiences, this plan would have +failed, too, but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced +upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He +now proposed to narrate the principal incidents of that poem--having +thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words--in the +current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that night the +Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek +wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the cañon seemed to bow to +the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet +satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of +"Ash-heels," as the Innocent persisted in denominating the "swift-footed +Achilles." + +So with small food and much of Homer and the accordion, a week passed +over the heads of the outcasts. The sun again forsook them, and again +from leaden skies the snow-flakes were sifted over the land. Day by day +closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at last they looked from +their prison over drifted walls of dazzling white, that towered twenty +feet above their heads. It became more and more difficult to replenish +their fires, even from the fallen trees beside them, now half hidden in +the drifts. And yet no one complained. The lovers turned from the dreary +prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr. Oakhurst +settled himself coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess, more +cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother +Shipton--once the strongest of the party--seemed to sicken and fade. At +midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I'm going," +she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, "but don't say anything +about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head and +open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for +the last week, untouched. "Give 'em to the child," she said, pointing to +the sleeping Piney. "You've starved yourself," said the gambler. "That's +what they call it," said the woman, querulously, as she lay down again, +and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away. + +The accordion and the bones were put aside that day, and Homer was +forgotten. When the body of Mother Shipton had been committed to the +snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed him a pair of +snow-shoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack-saddle. "There's +one chance in a hundred to save her yet," he said, pointing to Piney; +"but it's there," he added, pointing towards Poker Flat. "If you can +reach there in two days she's safe." "And you?" asked Tom Simson. "I'll +stay here," was the curt reply. + +The lovers parted with a long embrace. "You are not going, too?" said +the Duchess, as she saw Mr. Oakhurst apparently waiting to accompany +him. "As far as the cañon," he replied. He turned suddenly, and kissed +the Duchess, leaving her pallid face aflame, and her trembling lips +rigid with amazement. + +Night came, but not Mr. Oakhurst. It brought the storm again and the +whirling snow. Then the Duchess, feeding the fire, found that some one +had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last a few days longer. +The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney. + +The women slept but little. In the morning, looking into each other's +faces, they read their fate. Neither spoke; but Piney, accepting the +position of the stronger, drew near and placed her arm around the +Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the rest of the day. That +night the storm reached its greatest fury, and, rending asunder the +protecting pines, invaded the very hut. + +Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which +gradually died away. As the embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept +closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours: "Piney, can you +pray?" "No, dear," said Piney, simply. The Duchess, without knowing +exactly why, felt relieved, and, putting her head upon Piney's shoulder, +spoke no more. And so reclining, the younger and purer pillowing the +head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast, they fell asleep. + +The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, +shaken from the long pine-boughs, flew like white-winged birds, and +settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds +looked down upon what had been the camp. But all human stain, all trace +of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully +flung from above. + +They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and +footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when pitying fingers +brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told from +the equal peace that dwelt upon them, which was she that had sinned. +Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving +them still locked in each other's arms. + +But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine-trees, they +found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore +the following, written in pencil, in a firm hand:-- + + +BENEATH THIS TREE +LIES THE BODY +OF +JOHN OAKHURST, +WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK +ON THE 23D OF NOVEMBER, 1850, +AND +HANDED IN HIS CHECKS +ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850. + + +And pulseless and cold, with a derringer by his side and a bullet in his +heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at +once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat. + + + + +IX. MARKHEIM[*] (1884) + +[* From "The Merry Men." Used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, +authorized American publishers of Stevenson's Works.] + +BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894) + + +[_Setting_. There is no finer model for the study of setting than this +story affords. It is three o'clock in the afternoon of a foggy Christmas +Day in London. If Markheim's manner and the dimly lighted interior of +the antique shop suggest murder, the garrulous clocks, the nodding +shadows, and the reflecting mirrors seem almost to compel confession and +surrender. "And still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind +accused him, with a sickening iteration, of the thousand faults of his +design. He should have chosen a more quiet hour." So he should for the +murder; but for the self-confession, which is Stevenson's ultimate +design, no time or place could have been better. + +_Plot_. There is little action in the plot. A man commits a dastardly +murder and then, being alone and undetected, begins to think, think, +think. It is the turning point in his life and he knows it. Instead of +seizing the treasure and escaping, he submits his past career to a rigid +scrutiny and review. This brooding over his past life and present +outlook becomes so absorbing that what bade fair to be a soliloquy +becomes a dialogue, a dialogue between the old self that committed the +murder and the new self that begins to revolt at it. The old self bids +him follow the line of least resistance and go on as he has begun; the +newly awakened self bids him stop at once, check the momentum of other +days, take this last chance, and be a man. His better nature wins. +Markheim finds that though his deeds have been uniformly evil, he can +still "conceive great deeds, renunciations, martyrdoms." Though the +active love of good seems too weak to be reckoned as an asset, he still +has a "hatred of evil"; and on this twin foundation, ability to think +great thoughts and to hate evil deeds, he builds at last his culminating +resolve. + +The story is powerfully and yet subtly told. It sweeps the whole gamut +of the moral law. Many stories develop the same theme but none just like +this. Stevenson himself is drawn again to the same problem a little +later in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Hawthorne tried it in "Howe's +Masquerade," in which the cloaked figure is the phantom or reduplication +of Howe himself. In Poe's "William Wilson," to which Stevenson is +plainly indebted, the evil nature triumphs over the good. But +"Markheim," by touching more chords and by sounding lower depths, makes +the triumph at the end seem like a permanent victory for universal human +nature. + +_Characters_. If the story is the study of a given situation, Markheim, +who is another type of the developing character, is the central factor +in the situation. We see and interpret the situation only through the +personality of Markheim himself. Another murderer might have acted +differently, even with those clamorous clocks and accusing mirrors +around him, but not this murderer. There is nothing abnormal about him, +however, as a criminal. He is thirty-six years old and through sheer +weakness has gone steadily downward, but he has never before done a deed +approaching this in horror or in the power of sudden self-revelation. He +sees himself now as he never saw himself before and begins to take stock +of his moral assets. They are pitifully meager, though his opportunities +for character building have been good. He has even had emotional +revivals, which did not, however, issue in good deeds. But with it all, +Markheim illustrates the nobility of human nature rather than its +essential depravity. I do not doubt his complete and permanent +conversion. When the terrible last question is put to him--or when he +puts it to himself--whether he is better now in any one particular than +he was, and when he is forced to say, "No, in none! I have gone down in +all," the moral resources of human nature itself seem to be exhausted. +But they are not. "I see clearly what remains for me," said Markheim, +"by way of _duty_." This word, not used before, sounds a new challenge +and marks the crisis of the story. Duty can fight without calling in +reserves from the past and without the vision of victory in the future. +I don't wonder that the features of the visitant "softened with a tender +triumph." The visitant was neither "the devil" as Markheim first thought +him nor "the Saviour of men" as a recent editor pronounces him. He is +only Markheim's old self, the self that entered the antique shop, that +with fear and trembling committed the deed, and that now, half-conscious +all the time of inherent falseness, urges the old arguments and tries to +energize the old purposes. It is this visitant that every man meets and +overthrows when he comes to himself, when he breaks sharply with the old +life and enters resolutely upon the new.] + + + +"Yes," said the dealer, "our windfalls are of various kinds. Some +customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior +knowledge. Some are dishonest," and here he held up the candle, so that +the light fell strongly on his visitor, "and in that case," he +continued, "I profit by my virtue." + +Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes +had not yet grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness in the +shop. At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, +he blinked painfully and looked aside. + +The dealer chuckled. "You come to me on Christmas-day," he resumed, +"when you know that I am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make +a point of refusing business. Well, you will have to pay for that; you +will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my +books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark +in you to-day very strongly. I am the essence of discretion, and ask no +awkward questions; but when a customer can not look me in the eye, he +has to pay for it." The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to +his usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, "You can +give, as usual, a clean account of how you came into the possession of +the object?" he continued. "Still your uncle's cabinet? A remarkable +collector, sir!" + +And the little, pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tip-toe, +looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with +every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite +pity, and a touch of horror. + +"This time," said he, "you are in error. I have not come to sell, but to +buy. I have no curios to dispose of; my uncle's cabinet is bare to the +wainscot; even were it still intact, I have done well on the Stock +Exchange, and should more likely add to it than otherwise, and my errand +to-day is simplicity itself. I seek a Christmas-present for a lady," he +continued, waxing more fluent as he struck into the speech he had +prepared; "and certainly I owe you every excuse for thus disturbing you +upon so small a matter. But the thing was neglected yesterday; I must +produce my little compliment at dinner; and, as you very well know, a +rich marriage is not a thing to be neglected." + +There followed a pause, during which the dealer seemed to weigh this +statement incredulously. The ticking of many clocks among the curious +lumber of the shop, and the faint rushing of the cabs in a near +thoroughfare, filled up the interval of silence. + +"Well, sir," said the dealer, "be it so. You are an old customer after +all; and if, as you say, you have the chance of a good marriage, far be +it from me to be an obstacle. Here is a nice thing for a lady now," he +went on, "this hand-glass--fifteenth century, warranted; comes from a +good collection, too; but I reserve the name, in the interests of my +customer, who was just like yourself, my dear sir, the nephew and sole +heir of a remarkable collector." + +The dealer, while he thus ran on in his dry and biting voice, had +stooped to take the object from its place; and, as he had done so, a +shock had passed through Markheim, a start both of hand and foot, a +sudden leap of many tumultuous passions to the face. It passed as +swiftly as it came, and left no trace beyond a certain trembling of the +hand that now received the glass. + +"A glass," he said, hoarsely, and then paused, and repeated it more +clearly. "A glass? For Christmas? Surely not?" + +"And why not?" cried the dealer. "Why not a glass?" + +Markheim was looking upon him with an indefinable expression. "You ask +me why not?" he said. "Why, look here--look in it--look at yourself! Do +you like to see it? No! nor I--nor any man." + +The little man had jumped back when Markheim had so suddenly confronted +him with the mirror; but now, perceiving there was nothing worse on +hand, he chuckled. "Your future lady, sir, must be pretty hard favored," +said he. + +"I ask you," said Markheim, "for a Christmas-present, and you give me +this--this damned reminder of years, and sins and follies--this +hand-conscience! Did you mean it? Had you a thought in your mind? Tell +me. It will be better for you if you do. Come, tell me about yourself. I +hazard a guess now, that you are in secret a very charitable man?" + +The dealer looked closely, at his companion. It was very odd, Markheim +did not appear to be laughing; there was something in his face like an +eager sparkle of hope, but nothing of mirth. + +"What are you driving at?" the dealer asked. + +"Not charitable?" returned the other, gloomily. "Not charitable; not +pious; not scrupulous; unloving, unbeloved; a hand to get money, a safe +to keep it. Is that all? Dear God, man, is that all?" + +"I will tell you what it is," began the dealer, with some sharpness, and +then broke off again into a chuckle. "But I see this is a love match of +yours, and you have been drinking the lady's health." + +"Ah!" cried Markheim, with a strange curiosity. "Ah, have you been in +love? Tell me about that." + +"I," cried the dealer. "I in love! I never had the time, nor have I the +time to-day for all this nonsense. Will you take the glass?" + +"Where is the hurry?" returned Markheim. "It is very pleasant to stand +here talking; and life is so short and insecure that I would not hurry +away from any pleasure--no, not even from so mild a one as this. We +should rather cling, cling to what little we can get, like a man at a +cliff's edge. Every second is a cliff, if you think upon it--a cliff a +mile high--high enough, if we fall, to dash us out of every feature of +humanity. Hence it is best to talk pleasantly. Let us talk of each +other; why should we wear this mask? Let us be confidential. Who knows, +we might become friends?" + +"I have just one word to say to you," said the dealer. "Either make your +purchase, or walk out of my shop." + +"True, true," said Markheim. "Enough fooling. To business. Show me +something else." + +The dealer stooped once more, this time to replace the glass upon the +shelf, his thin blonde hair falling over his eyes as he did so. Markheim +moved a little nearer, with one hand in the pocket of his great-coat; he +drew himself up and filled his lungs; at the same time many different +emotions were depicted together on his face--terror, horror, and +resolve, fascination and a physical repulsion; and through a haggard +lift of his upper lip, his teeth looked out. + +"This, perhaps, may suit," observed the dealer; and then, as he began to +re-arise, Markheim bounded from behind upon his victim. The long, +skewer-like dagger flashed and fell. The dealer struggled like a hen, +striking his temple on the shelf, and then tumbled on the floor in a +heap. + +Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow +as was becoming to their great age; others garrulous and hurried. All +these told out the seconds in an intricate chorus of tickings. Then the +passage of a lad's feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon +these smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his +surroundings. He looked about him awfully. The candle stood on the +counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by that +inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle +and kept heaving like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots +of darkness swelling and dwindling as with respiration, the faces of the +portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in water. +The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with +a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger. + +From these fear-stricken rovings, Markheim's eyes returned to the body +of his victim, where it lay both humped and sprawling, incredibly small +and strangely meaner than in life. In these poor, miserly clothes, in +that ungainly attitude, the dealer lay like so much sawdust. Markheim +had feared to see it, and, lo! it was nothing. And yet, as he gazed, +this bundle of old clothes and pool of blood began to find eloquent +voices. There it must lie; there was none to work the cunning hinges or +direct the miracle of locomotion--there it must lie till it was found. +Found! ay, and then? Then would this dead flesh lift up a cry that would +ring over England, and fill the world with the echoes of pursuit. Ay, +dead or not, this was still the enemy. "Time was that when the brains +were out," he thought; and the first word struck into his mind. Time, +now that the deed was accomplished--time, which had closed for the +victim, had become instant and momentous for the slayer. + +The thought was yet in his mind, when, first one and then another, with +every variety of pace and voice--one deep as the bell from a cathedral +turret, another ringing on its treble notes the prelude of a waltz--the +clocks began to strike the hour of three in the afternoon. + +The sudden outbreak of so many tongues in that dumb chamber staggered +him. He began to bestir himself, going to and fro with the candle, +beleaguered by moving shadows, and startled to the soul by chance +reflections. In many rich mirrors, some of home designs, some from +Venice or Amsterdam, he saw his face repeated and repeated, as it were +an army of spies; his own eyes met and detected him; and the sound of +his own steps, lightly as they fell, vexed the surrounding quiet. And +still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind accused him, with a +sickening iteration, of the thousand faults of his design. He should +have chosen a more quiet hour; he should have prepared an alibi; he +should not have used a knife; he should have been more cautious, and +only bound and gagged the dealer, and not killed him; he should have +been more bold, and killed the servant also; he should have done all +things otherwise; poignant regrets, weary, incessant toiling of the mind +to change what was unchangeable, to plan what was now useless, to be the +architect of the irrevocable past. Meanwhile, and behind all this +activity, brute terrors, like scurrying of rats in a deserted attic, +filled the more remote chambers of his brain with riot; the hand of the +constable would fall heavy on his shoulder, and his nerves would jerk +like a hooked fish; or he beheld, in galloping defile, the dock, the +prison, the gallows, and the black coffin. + +Terror of the people in the street sat down before his mind like a +besieging army. It was impossible, he thought, but that some rumor of +the struggle must have reached their ears and set on edge their +curiosity; and now, in all the neighboring houses, he divined them +sitting motionless and with uplifted ear--solitary people, condemned to +spend Christmas dwelling alone on memories of the past, and now +startlingly recalled from that tender exercise; happy family parties, +struck into silence round the table, the mother still with raised +finger: every degree and age and humor, but all, by their own hearths, +prying and hearkening and weaving the rope that was to hang him. +Sometimes it seemed to him he could not move too softly; the clink of +the tall Bohemian goblets rang out loudly like a bell; and alarmed by +the bigness of the ticking, he was tempted to stop the clocks. And then, +again, with a swift transition of his terrors, the very silence of the +place appeared a source of peril, and a thing to strike and freeze the +passer-by; and he would step more boldly, and bustle aloud among the +contents of the shop, and imitate, with elaborate bravado, the movements +of a busy man at ease in his own house. + +But he was now so pulled about by different alarms that, while one +portion of his mind was still alert and cunning, another trembled on the +brink of lunacy. One hallucination in particular took a strong hold on +his credulity. The neighbor hearkening with white face beside his +window, the passer-by arrested by a horrible surmise on the +pavement--these could at worst suspect, they could not know; through the +brick walls and shuttered windows only sounds could penetrate. But here, +within the house, was he alone? He knew he was; he had watched the +servant set forth sweethearting, in her poor best, "out for the day" +written in every ribbon and smile. Yes, he was alone, of course; and +yet, in the bulk of empty house above him, he could surely hear a stir +of delicate footing--he was surely conscious, inexplicably conscious of +some presence. Ay, surely; to every room and corner of the house his +imagination followed it; and now it was a faceless thing, and yet had +eyes to see with; and again it was a shadow of himself; and yet again +behold the image of the dead dealer, reinspired with cunning and hatred. + +At times, with a strong effort, he would glance at the open door which +still seemed to repel his eyes. The house was tall, the skylight small +and dirty, the day blind with fog; and the light that filtered down to +the ground story was exceedingly faint, and showed dimly on the +threshold of the shop. And yet, in that strip of doubtful brightness, +did there not hang wavering a shadow? + +Suddenly, from the street outside, a very jovial gentleman began to beat +with a staff on the shop-door, accompanying his blows with shouts and +railleries in which the dealer was continually called upon by name. +Markheim, smitten into ice, glanced at the dead man. But no! he lay +quite still; he was fled away far beyond earshot of these blows and +shoutings; he was sunk beneath seas of silence; and his name, which +would once have caught his notice above the howling of a storm, had +become an empty sound. And presently the jovial gentleman desisted from +his knocking and departed. + +Here was a broad hint to hurry what remained to be done, to get forth +from this accusing neighborhood, to plunge into a bath of London +multitudes, and to reach, on the other side of day, that haven of safety +and apparent innocence--his bed. One visitor had come: at any moment +another might follow and be more obstinate. To have done the deed, and +yet not to reap the profit, would be too abhorrent a failure. The money, +that was now Markheim's concern; and as a means to that, the keys. + +He glanced over his shoulder at the open door, where the shadow was +still lingering and shivering; and with no conscious repugnance of the +mind, yet with a tremor of the belly, he drew near the body of his +victim. The human character had quite departed. Like a suit half-stuffed +with bran, the limbs lay scattered, the trunk doubled, on the floor; and +yet the thing repelled him. Although so dingy and inconsiderable to the +eye, he feared it might have more significance to the touch. He took the +body by the shoulders, and turned it on its back. It was strangely light +and supple, and the limbs, as if they had been broken, fell into the +oddest postures. The face was robbed of all expression; but it was as +pale as wax, and shockingly smeared with blood about one temple. That +was, for Markheim, the one displeasing circumstance. It carried him +back, upon the instant, to a certain fair day in a fisher's village: a +gray day, a piping wind, a crowd upon the street, the blare of brasses, +the booming of drums, the nasal voice of a ballad singer; and a boy +going to and fro, buried over head in the crowd and divided between +interest and fear, until, coming out upon the chief place of concourse, +he beheld a booth and a great screen with pictures, dismally designed, +garishly colored: Brownrigg with her apprentice; the Mannings with their +murdered guest; Weare in the death-grip of Thurtell; and a score besides +of famous crimes. The thing was as clear as an illusion; he was once +again that little boy; he was looking once again, and with the same +sense of physical revolt, at these vile pictures; he was still stunned +by the thumping of the drums. A bar of that day's music returned upon +his memory; and at that, for the first time, a qualm came over him, a +breath of nausea, a sudden weakness of the joints, which he must +instantly resist and conquer. + +He judged it more prudent to confront than to flee from these +considerations; looking the more hardily in the dead face, bending his +mind to realize the nature and greatness of his crime. So little awhile +ago that face had moved with every change of sentiment, that pale mouth +had spoken, that body had been all on fire with governable energies; and +now, and by his act, that piece of life had been arrested, as the +horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock. +So he reasoned in vain; he could rise to no more remorseful +consciousness; the same heart which had shuddered before the painted +effigies of crime, looked on its reality unmoved. At best, he felt a +gleam of pity for one who had been endowed in vain with all those +faculties that can make the world a garden of enchantment, one who had +never lived and who was now dead. But of penitence, no, with a tremor. + +With that, shaking himself clear of these considerations, he found the +keys and advanced toward the open door of the shop. Outside, it had +begun to rain smartly; and the sound of the shower upon the roof had +banished silence. Like some dripping cavern, the chambers of the house +were haunted by an incessant echoing, which filled the ear and mingled +with the ticking of the clocks. And, as Markheim approached the door, he +seemed to hear, in answer to his own cautious tread, the steps of +another foot withdrawing up the stair. The shadow still palpitated +loosely on the threshold. He threw a ton's weight of resolve upon his +muscles, and drew back the door. + +The faint, foggy daylight glimmered dimly on the bare floor and stairs; +on the bright suit of armor posted, halbert in hand, upon the landing; +and on the dark wood-carvings, and framed pictures that hung against the +yellow panels of the wainscot. So loud was the beating of the rain +through all the house that, in Markheim's ears, it began to be +distinguished into many different sounds. Footsteps and sighs, the tread +of regiments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the +counting, and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar, appeared to +mingle with the patter of the drops upon the cupola and the gushing of +the water in the pipes. The sense that he was not alone grew upon him to +the verge of madness. On every side he was haunted and begirt by +presences. He heard them moving in the upper chambers; from the shop, he +heard the dead man getting to his legs; and as he began with a great +effort to mount the stairs, feet fled quietly before him and followed +stealthily behind. If he were but deaf, he thought, how tranquilly he +would possess his soul. And then again, and hearkening with every fresh +attention, he blessed himself for that unresisting sense which held the +outposts and stood a trusty sentinel upon his life. His head turned +continually on his neck; his eyes, which seemed starting from their +orbits, scouted on every side, and on every side were half-rewarded as +with the tail of something nameless vanishing. The four-and-twenty steps +to the first floor were four-and-twenty agonies. + +On that first story, the door stood ajar, three of them like three +ambushes, shaking his nerves like the throats of cannon. He could never +again, he felt, be sufficiently immured and fortified from men's +observing eyes; he longed to be home, girt in by walls, buried among +bedclothes, and invisible to all but God. And at that thought he +wondered a little, recollecting tales of other murderers and the fear +they were said to entertain of heavenly avengers. It was not so, at +least, with him. He feared the laws of nature, lest, in their callous +and immutable procedure, they should preserve some damning evidence of +his crime. He feared tenfold more, with a slavish, superstitious terror, +some scission in the continuity of man's experience, some willful +illegality of nature. He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, +calculating consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the defeated +tyrant overthrew the chessboard, should break the mold of their +succession? The like had befallen Napoleon (so writers said) when the +winter changed the time of its appearance. The like might befall +Markheim: the solid walls might become transparent and reveal his doings +like those of bees in a glass hive; the stout planks might yield under +his foot like quicksands and detain him in their clutch; ay, and there +were soberer accidents that might destroy him: if, for instance, the +house should fall and imprison him beside the body of his victim; the +house next door should fly on fire, and the firemen invade him from all +sides. These things he feared; and, in a sense, these things might be +called the hands of God reached forth against sin. But about God himself +he was at ease; his act was doubtless exceptional, but so were his +excuses, which God knew; it was there, and not among men, that he felt +sure of justice. + +When he had got safe into the drawing-room, and shut the door behind +him, he was aware of a respite from alarms. The room was quite +dismantled, uncarpeted besides, and strewn with packing cases and +incongruous furniture; several great pier-glasses, in which he beheld +himself at various angles, like an actor on the stage; many pictures, +framed and unframed, standing with their faces to the wall; a fine +Sheraton sideboard, a cabinet of marquetry, and a great old bed, with +tapestry hangings. The windows opened to the floor; but by great good +fortune the lower part of the shutters had been closed, and this +concealed him from the neighbors. Here, then, Markheim drew in a packing +case before the cabinet, and began to search among the keys. It was a +long business, for there were many; and it was irksome, besides; for, +after all, there might be nothing in the cabinet, and time was on the +wing. But the closeness of the occupation sobered him. With the tail of +his eye he saw the door--even glanced at it from time to time directly, +like a besieged commander pleased to verify the good estate of his +defenses. But in truth he was at peace. The rain falling in the street +sounded natural and pleasant. Presently, on the other side, the notes of +a piano were wakened to the music of a hymn, and the voices of many +children took up the air and words. How stately, how comfortable was the +melody! How fresh the youthful voices! Markheim gave ear to it +smilingly, as he sorted out the keys; and his mind was thronged with +answerable ideas and images; church-going children and the pealing of +the high organ; children afield, bathers by the brook-side, ramblers on +the brambly common, kite-flyers in the windy and cloud-navigated sky; +and then, at another cadence of the hymn, back again to church, and the +somnolence of summer Sundays, and the high genteel voice of the parson +(which he smiled a little to recall) and the painted Jacobean tombs, and +the dim lettering of the Ten Commandments in the chancel. + +And as he sat thus, at once busy and absent, he was startled to his +feet. A flash of ice, a flash of fire, a bursting gush of blood, went +over him, and then he stood transfixed and thrilling. A step mounted the +stair slowly and steadily, and presently a hand was laid upon the knob, +and the lock clicked, and the door opened. + +Fear held Markheim in a vice. What to expect he knew not, whether the +dead man walking, or the official ministers of human justice, or some +chance witness blindly stumbling in to consign him to the gallows. But +when a face was thrust into the aperture, glanced round the room, looked +at him, nodded and smiled as if in friendly recognition, and then +withdrew again, and the door closed behind it, his fear broke loose from +his control in a hoarse cry. At the sound of this the visitant returned. + +"Did you call me?" he asked, pleasantly, and with that he entered the +room and closed the door behind him. + +Markheim stood and gazed at him with all his eyes. Perhaps there was a +film upon his sight, but the outlines of the newcomer seemed to change +and waver like those of the idols in the wavering candle-light of the +shop; and at times he thought he knew him; and at times he thought he +bore a likeness to himself; and always, like a lump of living terror, +there lay in his bosom the conviction that this thing was not of the +earth and not of God. + +And yet the creature had a strange air of the common-place, as he stood +looking on Markheim with a smile; and when he added: "You are looking +for the money, I believe?" it was in the tones of everyday politeness. + +Markheim made no answer. + +"I should warn you," resumed the other, "that the maid has left her +sweetheart earlier than usual and will soon be here. If Mr. Markheim be +found in this house, I need not describe to him the consequences." + +"You know me?" cried the murderer. + +The visitor smiled. "You have long been a favorite of mine," he said; +"and I have long observed and often sought to help you." + +"What are you?" cried Markheim: "the devil?" + +"What I may be," returned the other, "can not affect the service I +propose to render you." + +"It can," cried Markheim; "it does! Be helped by you? No, never; not by +you! You do not know me yet, thank God, you do not know me!" + +"I know you," replied the visitant, with a sort of kind severity or +rather firmness. "I know you to the soul." + +"Know me!" cried Markheim. "Who can do so? My life is but a travesty and +slander on myself. I have lived to belie my nature. All men do; all men +are better than this disguise that grows about and stifles them. You see +each dragged away by life, like one whom bravos have seized and muffled +in a cloak. If they had their own control--if you could see their faces, +they would be altogether different, they would shine out for heroes and +saints! I am worse than most; my self is more overlaid; my excuse is +known to me and God. But, had I the time, I could disclose myself." + +"To me?" inquired the visitant. + +"To you before all," returned the murderer. "I supposed you were +intelligent. I thought--since you exist--you would prove a reader of the +heart. And yet you would propose to judge me by my acts! Think of it; my +acts! I was born and I have lived in a land of giants; giants have +dragged me by the wrists since I was born out of my mother--the giants +of circumstance. And you would judge me by my acts! But can you not look +within? Can you not understand that evil is hateful to me? Can you not +see within me the clear writing of conscience, never blurred by any +willful sophistry, although too often disregarded? Can you not read me +for a thing that surely must be common as humanity--the unwilling +sinner?" + +"All this is very feelingly expressed," was the reply, "but it regards +me not. These points of consistency are beyond my province, and I care +not in the least by what compulsion you may have been dragged away, so +as you are but carried in the right direction. But time flies; the +servant delays, looking in the faces of the crowd and at the pictures on +the hoardings, but still she keeps moving nearer; and remember, it is as +if the gallows itself was striding toward you through the Christmas +streets! Shall I help you; I, who know all? Shall I tell you where to +find the money?" + +"For what price?" asked Markheim. + +"I offer you the service for a Christmas gift," returned the other. + +Markheim could not refrain from smiling with a kind of bitter triumph. +"No," said he, "I will take nothing at your hands; if I were dying of +thirst, and it was your hand that put the pitcher to my lips, I should +find the courage to refuse. It may be credulous, but I will do nothing +to commit myself to evil." + +"I have no objection to a death-bed repentance," observed the visitant. + +"Because you disbelieve their efficacy!" Markheim cried. + +"I do not say so," returned the other; "but I look on these things from +a different side, and when the life is done my interest falls. The man +has lived to serve me, to spread black looks under color of religion, or +to sow tares in the wheat-field, as you do, in a course of weak +compliance with desire. Now that he draws so near to his deliverance, he +can add but one act of service--to repent, to die smiling, and thus to +build up in confidence and hope the more timorous of my surviving +followers. I am not so hard a master. Try me. Accept my help. Please +yourself in life as you have done hitherto; please yourself more amply, +spread your elbows at the board; and when the night begins to fall and +the curtains to be drawn, I tell you, for your greater comfort, that you +will find it even easy to compound your quarrel with your conscience, +and to make a truckling peace with God. I came but now from such a +death-bed, and the room was full of sincere mourners, listening to the +man's last words: and when I looked into that face, which had been set +as a flint against mercy, I found it smiling with hope." + +"And do you, then, suppose me such a creature?" asked Markheim. "Do you +think I have no more generous aspirations than to sin, and sin, and sin, +and, at last, sneak into heaven? My heart rises at the thought. Is this, +then, your experience of mankind? or is it because you find me with red +hands that you presume such baseness? and is this crime of murder indeed +so impious as to dry up the very springs of good?" + +"Murder is to me no special category," replied the other. "All sins are +murder, even as all life is war. I behold your race, like starving +mariners on a raft, plucking crusts out of the hands of famine and +feeding on each other's lives. I follow sins beyond the moment of their +acting; I find in all that the last consequence is death; and to my +eyes, the pretty maid who thwarts her mother with such taking graces on +a question of a ball, drips no less visibly with human gore than such a +murderer as yourself. Do I say that I follow sins? I follow virtues +also; they differ not by the thickness of a nail, they are both scythes +for the reaping angel of Death. Evil, for which I live, consists not in +action but in character. The bad man is dear to me; not the bad act, +whose fruits, if we could follow them far enough down the hurtling +cataract of the ages, might yet be found more blessed than those of the +rarest virtues. And it is not because you have killed a dealer, but +because you are Markheim, that I offered to forward your escape." + +"I will lay my heart open to you," answered Markheim. "This crime on +which you find me is my last. On my way to it I have learned many +lessons; itself is a lesson, a momentous lesson. Hitherto I have been +driven with revolt to what I would not; I was a bond-slave to poverty, +driven and scourged. There are robust virtues that can stand in these +temptations; mine was not so: I had a thirst of pleasure. But to-day, +and out of this deed, I pluck both warning and riches--both the power +and a fresh resolve to be myself. I become in all things a free actor in +the world; I begin to see myself all changed, these hands the agents of +good, this heart at peace. Something comes over me out of the past; +something of what I have dreamed on Sabbath evenings to the sound of the +church organ, of what I forecast when I shed tears over noble books, or +talked, an innocent child, with my mother. There lies my life; I have +wandered a few years, but now I see once more my city of destination." + +"You are to use this money on the Stock Exchange, I think?" remarked the +visitor; "and there, if I mistake not, you have already lost some +thousands?" + +"Ah," said Markheim, "but this time I have a sure thing." + +"This time, again, you will lose," replied the visitor, quietly. + +"Ah, but I keep back the half!" cried Markheim. + +"That also you will lose," said the other. + +The sweat started upon Markheim's brow. "Well, then, what matter?" he +exclaimed. "Say it be lost, say I am plunged again in poverty, shall one +part of me, and that the worse, continue until the end to override the +better? Evil and good run strong in me, haling me both ways. I do not +love the one thing, I love all. I can conceive great deeds, +renunciations, martyrdoms; and though I be fallen to such a crime as +murder, pity is no stranger to my thoughts. I pity the poor; who knows +their trials better than myself? I pity and help them; I prize love, I +love honest laughter; there is no good thing nor true thing on earth but +I love it from my heart. And are my vices only to direct my life, and my +virtues to lie without effect, like some passive lumber of the mind? Not +so; good, also, is a spring of acts." + +But the visitant raised his finger. "For six-and-thirty years that you +have been in this world," said he, "through many changes of fortune and +varieties of humor, I have watched you steadily fall. Fifteen years ago +you would have started at a theft. Three years back you would have +blenched at the name of murder. Is there any crime, is there any cruelty +or meanness, from which you still recoil?--five years from now I shall +detect you in the fact! Downward, downward, lies your way; nor can +anything but death avail to stop you." + +"It is true," Markheim said, huskily, "I have in some degree complied +with evil. But it is so with all: the very saints, in the mere exercise +of living, grow less dainty, and take on the tone of their +surroundings." + +"I will propound to you one simple question," said the other; "and as +you answer, I shall read to you your moral horoscope. You have grown in +many things more lax; possibly you do right to be so; and at any +account, it is the same with all men. But granting that, are you in any +one particular, however trifling, more difficult to please with your own +conduct, or do you go in all things with a looser rein?" + +"In any one?" repeated Markheim, with an anguish of consideration. "No," +he added, with despair, "in none! I have gone down in all." + +"Then," said the visitor, "content yourself with what you are, for you +will never change; and the words of your part on this stage are +irrevocably written down." + +Markheim stood for a long while silent, and indeed it was the visitor +who first broke the silence. "That being so," he said, "shall I show you +the money?" + +"And grace?" cried Markheim. + +"Have you not tried it?" returned the other. "Two or three years ago, +did I not see you on the platform of revival meetings, and was not your +voice the loudest in the hymn?" + +"It is true," said Markheim; "and I see clearly what remains for me by +way of duty. I thank you for these lessons from my soul: my eyes are +opened, and I behold myself at last for what I am." + +At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rung through the house; +and the visitant, as though this were some concerted signal for which he +had been waiting, changed at once in his demeanor. + +"The maid!" he cried. "She has returned, as I forewarned you, and there +is now before you one more difficult passage. Her master, you must say, +is ill; you must let her in, with an assured but rather serious +countenance--no smiles, no overacting, and I promise you success! Once +the girl within, and the door closed, the same dexterity that has +already rid you of the dealer will relieve you of this last danger in +your path. Thenceforward you have the whole evening--the whole night, if +needful--to ransack the treasures of the house and to make good your +safety. This is help that comes to you with the mask of danger. Up!" he +cried: "up, friend; your life hangs trembling in the scales; up, and +act!" + +Markheim steadily regarded his counsellor. "If I be condemned to evil +acts," he said, "there is still one door of freedom open--I can cease +from action. If my life be an ill thing, I can lay it down. Though I be, +as you say truly, at the beck of every small temptation, I can yet, by +one decisive gesture, place myself beyond the reach of all. My love of +good is damned to barrenness; it may, and let it be! But I have still my +hatred of evil; and from that, to your galling disappointment, you shall +see that I can draw both energy and courage." + +The features of the visitor began to undergo a wonderful and lovely +change; they brightened and softened with a tender triumph; and, even as +they brightened, faded and dislimned. But Markheim did not pause to +watch or understand the transformation. He opened the door and went +down-stairs very slowly, thinking to himself. His past went soberly +before him; he beheld it as it was, ugly and strenuous like a dream, +random as chance-medley--a scene of defeat. Life, as he thus reviewed +it, tempted him no longer; but on the further side he perceived a quiet +haven for his bark. He paused in the passage, and looked into the shop, +where the candle still burned by the dead body. It was strangely silent. +Thoughts of the dealer swarmed into his mind, as he stood gazing. And +then the bell once more broke out into impatient clamor. + +He confronted the maid upon the threshold with something like a smile. + +"You had better go for the police," said he: "I have killed your +master." + + + + +X. THE NECKLACE[*] (1885) + +[* "La parure" from "Contes et nouvelles."] + +BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-1893) + + +[_Setting_. The story is set in a Paris atmosphere of social aspiration +and discontent. The background is one of studied contrasts, contrasts +between the stolid contentment of a husband and the would-be +luxuriousness of a wife, between what Madame Loisel had and what she +wanted, between what she was and what she thought she could be, between +her brief moment of triumph and the long years of her undoing, between +the trivialness of what she did and the heaviness of her punishment. +These contrasts are developed not by reasoning but by action, each +action plunging Madame Loisel deeper and deeper into misery. The +author's attitude toward his work forms also a part of the real +background. Maupassant shows neither sympathy nor indignation. He writes +as if he were the stenographer of impersonal and pitiless fate. + +_Plot_. Madame Loisel, a poor but beautiful and ambitious woman, borrows +and loses a diamond necklace valued at $7200. That, at least, is what +Madame Loisel thought for ten terrible years, and that is what the +reader thinks till he comes to the last words of the story. The plot +belongs, therefore, to that large group known as hoax plots. In most of +these stories one person plays a joke on another. In this story a grim +fate is made to play the joke. In fact, the current phrase, "the irony +of fate," finds here perfect illustration. We use the expression not so +much of a great misfortune as of a misfortune that seems brought about +by a peculiarly malignant train of circumstances. The injury in this +case not only was irremediable but turned on an accident. Notice also +how Maupassant has sharpened the poignancy and bitterness of Madame +Loisel's misfortune by making it depend not only on an accident that +might so easily not have happened but on a misunderstanding that might +so easily have been explained. When Madame Loisel, just on the threshold +of her life of drudgery, took the necklace bought on credit to Madame +Forestier, the latter "did not open the case, to the relief of her +friend." The irony of fate could hardly go further; but it does go +further a little later, when Madame Forestier, still young and +beautiful, fails to recognize Madame Loisel because the latter had lost +youth, beauty, daintiness, her very self, in toiling to pay to Madame +Forestier a debt that was not a debt. Just before the final revelation +Madame Loisel is made to say, "I am very glad." There is a unique pathos +in her use of this word: it lifted her a little from the ground that her +fall might be all the harder. + +There is no denying the art of this story, but it is art without heart. +The author is a craftsman rather than a creator, a master of the loom +rather than of the forge. Maupassant did perfectly what he wanted to do, +but his greatness and his limitation are both revealed. "What would have +happened," he says, "if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows, who +knows? How strange life is, how changeful! How little a thing is needed +for us to be lost or to be saved!" The greatest art may begin but not +end this way. + +_Characters_. The man is only a foil to his wife. He is introduced to +bring into sharper relief her unhappiness and her powerlessness to +better her condition. He is not a bad man, nor is she a bad woman. To +say that the story turns entirely on his honor and on her false pride is +to miss, I think, the author's purpose. There is nothing distinctive in +these characters; he is better than she, but both are puppets in the +grip of brute circumstance rather than everyday characters shaped by the +ordinary pressures of life. They are not types as Rip is a type, or +Scrooge, or Oakhurst. Maupassant shows in his stories that he is +interested not so much in the free play or the full reaction of +personality as in the enslavement of personality through passion or +chance. He saw life without order because without center, without reward +because without desert; and his characters are made to see it through +the same lens and to experience it on the same level. They either do not +react or do not react nobly. Had Madame Loisel and her husband been +shaped to fit into a less mechanical scheme of things, they would have +recognized in their ten years' trial the call to something higher. They +could have used their testing as a means of understanding with keener +sympathy the lifelong testing of others. They could have attained a +self-development that would have brought a happiness undreamed of before +the fateful January 18. But this is Browning's way, not Maupassant's. +The latter prefers to make Madame Loisel and her husband chiefly of +putty so that they may illustrate the blind thrusts of accident rather +than the power of personality to turn stumbling-blocks into +stepping-stones.] + + + +She was one of those pretty and charming girls who, as if by a mistake +of destiny, are born in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no +expectations, no means of becoming known, understood, loved, wedded by +any rich and distinguished man; and so she let herself be married to a +petty clerk in the Bureau of Public Instruction. + +She was simple in her dress because she could not be elaborate, but she +was as unhappy as if she had fallen from a higher rank, for with women +there is no inherited distinction of higher and lower. Their beauty, +their grace, and their natural charm fill the place of birth and family. +Natural delicacy, instinctive elegance, a lively wit, are the ruling +forces in the social realm, and these make the daughters of the common +people the equals of the finest ladies. + +She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for all the refinements and +luxuries of life. She suffered from the poverty of her home as she +looked at the dirty walls, the worn-out chairs, the ugly curtains. All +those things of which another woman of her station would have been quite +unconscious tortured her and made her indignant. The sight of the +country girl who was maid-of-all-work in her humble household filled her +almost with desperation. She dreamed of echoing halls hung with Oriental +draperies and lighted by tall bronze candelabra, while two tall footmen +in knee-breeches drowsed in great armchairs by reason of the heating +stove's oppressive warmth. She dreamed of splendid parlors furnished in +rare old silks, of carved cabinets loaded with priceless bric-a-brac, +and of entrancing little boudoirs just right for afternoon chats with +bosom friends--men famous and sought after, the envy and the desire of +all the other women. + +When she sat down to dinner at a little table covered with a cloth three +days old, and looked across at her husband as he uncovered the soup and +exclaimed with an air of rapture, "Oh, the delicious stew! I know +nothing better than that," she dreamed of dainty dinners, of shining +silverware, of tapestries which peopled the walls with antique figures +and strange birds in fairy forests; she dreamed of delicious viands +served in wonderful dishes, of whispered gallantries heard with a +sphinx-like smile as you eat the pink flesh of a trout or the wing of a +quail. + +She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing; and she loved nothing else. She +felt made for that alone. She was filled with a desire to please, to be +envied, to be bewitching and sought after. She had a rich friend, a +former schoolmate at the convent, whom she no longer wished to visit +because she suffered so much when she came home. For whole days at a +time she wept without ceasing in bitterness and hopeless misery. + +Now, one evening her husband came home with a triumphant air, holding in +his hand a large envelope. + +"There," said he, "there is something for you." + +She quickly tore open the paper and drew out a printed card, bearing +these words:-- + +"The Minister of Public Instruction and Mme. Georges Rampouneau request +the honor of M. and Mme. Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry, +Monday evening, January 18th." + +Instead of being overcome with delight, as her husband expected, she +threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring: + +"What do you wish me to do with that?" + +"Why, my dear, I thought you would be pleased. You never go out, and +this is such a fine opportunity! I had awful trouble in getting it. +Every one wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many +invitations to clerks. You will see all the official world." + +She looked at him with irritation, and said, impatiently: + +"What do you expect me to put on my back if I go?" + +He had not thought of that. He stammered: + +"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It seems all right to me." + +He stopped, stupefied, distracted, on seeing that his wife was crying. +Two great tears descended slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the +corners of her mouth. He stuttered: + +"What's the matter? What's the matter?" + +By a violent effort she subdued her feelings and replied in a calm +voice, as she wiped her wet cheeks: + +"Nothing. Only I have no dress and consequently I cannot go to this +ball. Give your invitation to some friend whose wife has better clothes +than I." + +He was in despair, but began again: + +"Let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable dress, which +you could wear again on future occasions, something very simple?" + +She reflected for some seconds, computing the cost, and also wondering +what sum she could ask without bringing down upon herself an immediate +refusal and an astonished exclamation from the economical clerk. + +At last she answered hesitatingly: + +"I don't know exactly, but it seems to me that with four hundred francs +I could manage." + +He turned a trifle pale, for he had been saving just that sum to buy a +gun and treat himself to a little hunting trip the following summer, in +the country near Nanterre, with a few friends who went there to shoot +larks on Sundays. + +However, he said: + +"Well, I think I can give you four hundred francs. But see that you have +a pretty dress." + + * * * * * + +The day of the ball drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, restless, +anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to her one +evening: + +"What is the matter? Come, now, you've been looking queer these last +three days." + +And she replied: + +"It worries me that I have no jewels, not a single stone, nothing to put +on. I shall look wretched enough. I would almost rather not go to this +party." + +He answered: + +"You might wear natural flowers. They are very fashionable this season. +For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses." + +She was not convinced. + +"No; there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of +rich women." + +But her husband cried: + +"How stupid you are! Go and find your friend Madame Forestier and ask +her to lend you some jewels. You are intimate enough with her for that." + +She uttered a cry of joy. + +"Of course. I had not thought of that." + +The next day she went to her friend's house and told her distress. + +Madame Forestier went to her handsome wardrobe, took out a large casket, +brought it back, opened it, and said to Madame Loisel: + +"Choose, my dear." + +She saw first of all some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a +Venetian cross of gold set with precious stones of wonderful +workmanship. She tried on the ornaments before the glass, hesitated, +could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back. She +kept asking: + +"You have nothing else?" + +"Why, yes. But I do not know what will please you." + +All at once she discovered, in a black satin box, a splendid diamond +necklace, and her heart began to beat with boundless desire. Her hands +trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, over her +high-necked dress, and stood lost in ecstasy as she looked at herself. + +Then she asked, hesitating, full of anxiety: + +"Would you lend me that,--only that?" + +"Why, yes, certainly." + +She sprang upon the neck of her friend, embraced her rapturously, then +fled with her treasure. + + * * * * * + +The day of the ball arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was +prettier than all the others, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with +joy. All the men stared at her, asked her name, tried to be introduced. +All the cabinet officials wished to waltz with her. The minister noticed +her. + +She danced with delight, with passion, intoxicated with pleasure, +forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her +success, in a sort of mist of happiness, the result of all this homage, +all this admiration, all these awakened desires, this victory so +complete and so sweet to the heart of woman. + +She left about four o'clock in the morning. Her husband had been dozing +since midnight in a little deserted anteroom with three other gentlemen, +whose wives were having a good time. + +He threw about her shoulders the wraps which he had brought for her to +go out in, the modest wraps of common life, whose poverty contrasted +sharply with the elegance of the ball dress. She felt this and wished to +escape, that she might not be noticed by the other women who were +wrapping themselves in costly furs. + +Loisel held her back. + +"Wait here, you will catch cold outside. I will go and find a cab." + +But she would not listen to him, and rapidly descended the stairs. When +they were at last in the street, they could find no carriage, and began +to look for one, hailing the cabmen they saw passing at a distance. + +They walked down toward the Seine in despair, shivering with the cold. +At last they found on the quay one of those ancient nocturnal cabs that +one sees in Paris only after dark, as if they were ashamed to display +their wretchedness during the day. + +They were put down at their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly +mounted the steps to their apartments. It was all over, for her. And as +for him, he reflected that he must be at his office at ten o'clock. + +She took off the wraps which covered her shoulders, before the mirror, +so as to take a final look at herself in all her glory. But suddenly she +uttered a cry. She no longer had the necklace about her neck! + +Her husband, already half undressed, inquired: + +"What is the matter?" + +She turned madly toward him. + +"I have--I have--I no longer have Madame Forestier's necklace." + +He stood up, distracted. + +"What!--how!--it is impossible!" + +They looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in the +pockets, everywhere. They could not find a trace of it. + +He asked: + +"You are sure you still had it when you left the ball?" + +"Yes. I felt it on me in the vestibule at the palace." + +"But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It +must be in the cab." + +"Yes. That's probable. Did you take the number?" + +"No. And you, you did not notice it?" + +"No." + +They looked at each other thunderstruck. At last Loisel put on his +clothes again. + +"I am going back," said he, "over every foot of the way we came, to see +if I cannot find it." + +So he started. She remained in her ball dress without strength to go to +bed, sitting on a chair, with no fire, her mind a blank. + +Her husband returned about seven o'clock. He had found nothing. + +He went to police headquarters, to the newspapers to offer a reward, to +the cab companies, everywhere, in short, where a trace of hope led him. + +She watched all day, in the same state of blank despair before this +frightful disaster. + +Loisel returned in the evening with cheeks hollow and pale; he had found +nothing. + +"You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the +clasp of her necklace and that you are having it repaired. It will give +us time to turn around." + +She wrote as he dictated. + + * * * * * + +At the end of a week they had lost all hope. + +And Loisel, looking five years older, declared: + +"We must consider how to replace the necklace." + +The next day they took the box which had contained it, and went to the +place of the jeweller whose name they found inside. He consulted his +books. + +"It was not I, madame, who sold the necklace; I must simply have +furnished the casket." + +Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, looking for an ornament like +the other, consulting their memories, both sick with grief and anguish. + +They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds which +seemed to them exactly what they were looking for. It was worth forty +thousand francs.[*] They could have it for thirty-six thousand. + +[* A franc is equal to twenty cents of our money.] + +So they begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days. And they made +an arrangement that he should take it back for thirty-four thousand +francs if the other were found before the end of February. + +Loisel had eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He +would borrow the rest. + +He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, +five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, made ruinous +engagements, dealt with usurers, with all the tribe of money-lenders. He +compromised the rest of his life, risked his signature without knowing +if he might not be involving his honor, and, terrified by the anguish +yet to come, by the black misery about to fall upon him, by the prospect +of every physical privation and every mental torture, he went to get the +new necklace, and laid down on the dealer's counter thirty-six thousand +francs. + +When Madame Loisel took the necklace back to Madame Forestier, the +latter said coldly: + +"You should have returned it sooner, for I might have needed it." + +She did not open the case, to the relief of her friend. If she had +detected the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she +have said? Would she have taken her friend for a thief? + + * * * * * + +Madame Loisel now knew the horrible life of the needy. But she took her +part heroically. They must pay this frightful debt. She would pay it. +They dismissed their maid; they gave up their room; they rented another, +under the roof. + +She came to know the drudgery of housework, the odious labors of the +kitchen. She washed the dishes, staining her rosy nails on the greasy +pots and the bottoms of the saucepans. She washed the dirty linen, the +shirts and the dishcloths, which she hung to dry on a line; she carried +the garbage down to the street every morning, and carried up the water, +stopping at each landing to rest. And, dressed like a woman of the +people, she went to the fruiterer's, the grocer's, the butcher's, her +basket on her arm, bargaining, abusing, defending sou[*] by sou her +miserable money. + +[* A sou, or five-centime piece, is equal to one cent of our money.] + +Each month they had to pay some notes, renew others, obtain more time. + +The husband worked every evening, neatly footing up the account books of +some tradesman, and often far into the night he sat copying manuscript +at five sous a page. + +And this life lasted ten years. + +At the end of ten years they had paid everything,--everything, with the +exactions of usury and the accumulations of compound interest. + +Madame Loisel seemed aged now. She had become the woman of impoverished +households,--strong and hard and rough. With hair half combed, with +skirts awry, and reddened hands, she talked loud as she washed the floor +with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the +office, she sat down near the window and thought of that evening at the +ball so long ago, when she had been so beautiful and so admired. + +What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows, +who knows? How strange life is, how changeful! How little a thing is +needed for us to be lost or to be saved! + + * * * * * + +But one Sunday, as she was going for a walk in the Champs Élysées to +refresh herself after the labors of the week, all at once she saw a +woman walking with a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still +beautiful, still charming. + +Madame Loisel was agitated. Should she speak to her? Why, of course. And +now that she had paid, she would tell her all. Why not? + +She drew near. + +"Good morning, Jeanne." + +The other, astonished to be addressed so familiarly by this woman of the +people, did not recognize her. She stammered: + +"But--madame--I do not know you. You must have made a mistake." + +"No, I am Mathilde Loisel." + +Her friend uttered a cry. + +"Oh! my poor Mathilde, how changed you are!" + +"Yes, I have had days hard enough since I saw you, days wretched +enough--and all because of you!" + +"Me? How so?" + +"You remember that necklace of diamonds that you lent me to wear to the +ministerial ball?" + +"Yes. Well?" + +"Well, I lost it." + +"How can that be? You returned it to me." + +"I returned to you another exactly like it. These ten years we've been +paying for it. You know it was not easy for us, who had nothing. At last +it is over, and I am very glad." + +Madame Forestier was stunned. + +"You say that you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?" + +"Yes; you did not notice it, then? They were just alike." + +And she smiled with a proud and naïve pleasure. + +Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took both her hands. + +"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth five +hundred francs at most." + + + + +XI. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING[*] (1888) + +[* From "The Phantom 'Rickshaw."] + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING (1865- ) + + +[_Setting_. "They call it Kafiristan," said Dravot, the unfortunate hero +of the story. "By my reckoning it's the top right-hand corner of +Afghanistan, not more than three hundred miles from Peshawar." +Determined to be Kings of Kafiristan, Carnehan and Dravot started +probably from the capital of the Punjab, Lahore, where the newspaper +office seems to have been. Ten miles west of Peshawar they entered the +famous Khaiber (or Khyber) Pass, a region which Kipling describes more +at length in "The Man Who Was," "The Drums of the Fore and Aft," "The +Lost Legion," "Love o' Women," "Wee Willie Winkie," and "With the Main +Guard." No country in Asia is less known to civilization than +Kafiristan. The Mohammedan traders say that it is the most attractive +part of Afghanistan. The name means "country of unbelievers," the Kafirs +having resisted all attempts to convert them to the Mohammedan faith. +They are pure Aryans, being thus brothers to the Greeks, Romans, +Germans, English, and ourselves. They are noted for their beauty and +strength. India or rather Anglo-India has been almost re-discovered by +Kipling, but this is his only story of Kafiristan. It too, as Carnehan +and Dravot learn to their sorrow, is a land of impenetrable mystery. + +_Plot_. The real plot does not begin to unfold itself until Carnehan, +wrecked in body and mind, returns to the newspaper office and tries to +report his experiences. Thus nearly one half of the story may be called +introductory or preliminary. This is unusual with Kipling and with all +other modern story writers. The introduction justifies itself, however, +in this case because, since a half-crazed man with weakening memory is +to tell the real tale, his narrative would have to be supplemented by +explanations on nearly every page unless the introductory part could be +taken for granted. Notice how often in reading Carnehan's broken story +you supply what he omits and interpret what he only fragmentarily says +by reference to what has gone before. + +Kipling has done more in this story than to present a character of +limitless audacity. He has impressed again one of his favorite +teachings. There is, he holds, a barrier between East and West that can +never be crossed. The West can go so far with the East but no farther. +Brave men of the West may conquer the East and rule it, but to take +liberties with it is to uncover a vast realm of the unknown and to +invite disaster. In "The Return of Imray," a good-natured Englishman +pats the head of Bahadur Khan's child and is killed for it. Another +Englishman, in "Beyond the Pale," thought that he understood the heart +of India, and here is his epitaph: "He took too deep an interest in +native life, but he will never do so again." Dravot could play king and +even god in Kafiristan, but when he exposed himself ignorantly to an old +racial superstition he met instant and inevitable destruction. + +_Characters_. Carnehan tells the story, but Dravot is the energizing +character. Captain James Cook, the discoverer of the Sandwich Islands, +is plainly the original of Dravot. Read the thirtieth chapter of the +second volume of Mark Twain's "Roughing It" (1872) and you will find +Kipling's story clearly outlined. One cannot withhold a measure of +admiration for this type of uncontrolled audacity. Dravot was not bad at +heart, he was only boundless, a type of the adventurer that has given +many a fascinating chapter to history as well as to literature. In "The +Research Magnificent," by Mr. H.G. Wells, the hero, Benham, says: "I +think what I want is to be king of the world.... It is the very core of +me.... I mean to be a king in this earth. _King_. I'm not mad." His +motive, however, is very different from Dravot's. "I see the world," he +continues, "staggering from misery to misery, and there is little +wisdom, less rule, folly, prejudice, limitation ... and it is my world +and I am responsible.... As soon as your kingship is plain to you, there +is no more rest, no peace, no delight, except in work, in service, in +utmost effort." The three weaknesses to be overcome are Fear, +Indulgence, and Jealousy. Both Dravot and Benham fail and the comment of +each on his own failure is an autobiography. Benham: "I can feel that +greater world I shall never see as one feels the dawn coming through the +last darkness." Dravot: "We've had a dashed fine run for our money. +What's coming next?"] + + + +Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy. + + +The Law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy +to follow. I have been fellow to a beggar again and again under +circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other +was worthy. I have still to be brother to a Prince, though I once came +near to kinship with what might have been a veritable King and was +promised the reversion of a Kingdom--army, law-courts, revenue and +policy all complete. But, to-day, I greatly fear that my King is dead, +and if I want a crown I must go hunt it for myself. + +The beginning of everything was in a railway train upon the road to Mhow +from Ajmir. There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated +travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-class, +but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions +in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, +which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, +or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated. Intermediates do not buy +from refreshment-rooms. They carry their food in bundles and pots, and +buy sweets from the native sweetmeat-sellers, and drink the roadside +water. That is why in hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the +carriages dead, and in all weathers are most properly looked down upon. + +My particular Intermediate happened to be empty till I reached +Nasirabad, when a big black-browed gentleman in shirt-sleeves entered, +and, following the custom of Intermediates, passed the time of day. He +was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste +for whiskey. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of +out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and +of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days' food. + +"If India was filled with men like you and me, not knowing more than the +crows where they'd get their next day's rations, it isn't seventy +millions of revenue the land would be paying--it's seven hundred +millions," said he; and as I looked at his mouth and chin I was disposed +to agree with him. + +We talked politics--the politics of Loaferdom that sees things from the +underside where the lath and plaster is not smoothed off--and we talked +postal arrangements because my friend wanted to send a telegram back +from the next station to Ajmir, the turning-off place from the Bombay to +the Mhow line as you travel westward. My friend had no money beyond +eight annas which he wanted for dinner, and I had no money at all, owing +to the hitch in the Budget before mentioned. Further, I was going into a +wilderness where, though I should resume touch with the Treasury, there +were no telegraph offices. I was, therefore, unable to help him in any +way. + +"We might threaten a Station-master, and make him send a wire on tick," +said my friend, "but that'd mean enquiries for you and for me, and +_I_'ve got my hands full these days. Did you say you were travelling +back along this line within any days?" + +"Within ten," I said. + +"Can't you make it eight?" said he. "Mine is rather urgent business." + +"I can send your telegram within ten days if that will serve you," I +said. + +"I couldn't trust the wire to fetch him now I think of it. It's this +way. He leaves Delhi on the 23rd for Bombay. That means he'll be running +through Ajmir about the night of the 23rd." + +"But I'm going into the Indian Desert," I explained. + +"Well _and_ good," said he. "You'll be changing at Marwar Junction to +get into Jodhpore territory--you must do that--and he'll be coming +through Marwar Junction in the early morning of the 24th by the Bombay +Mail. Can you be at Marwar Junction on that time? 'T won't be +inconveniencing you because I know that there's precious few pickings to +be got out of these Central India States--even though you pretend to be +correspondent or the _Backwoodsman_." + +"Have you ever tried that trick?" I asked. + +"Again and again, but the Residents find you out, and then you get +escorted to the Border before you've time to get your knife into them. +But about my friend here. I _must_ give him a word o' mouth to tell him +what's come to me or else he won't know where to go. I would take it +more than kind of you if you was to come out of Central India in time to +catch him at Marwar Junction, and say to him: 'He has gone South for the +week.' He'll know what that means. He's a big man with a red beard, and +a great swell he is. You'll find him sleeping like a gentleman with all +his luggage round him in a Second-class apartment. But don't you be +afraid. Slip down the window and say: 'He has gone South for the week,' +and he'll tumble. It's only cutting your time of stay in those parts by +two days. I ask you as a stranger--going to the West," he said with +emphasis. + +"Where have _you_ come from?" said I. + +"From the East," said he, "and I am hoping that you will give him the +message on the Square--for the sake of my Mother as well as your own." + +Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their +mothers; but for certain reasons, which will be fully apparent, I saw +fit to agree. + +"It's more than a little matter," said he, "and that's why I asked you +to do it--and now I know that I can depend on you doing it. A +Second-class carriage at Marwar Junction, and a red-haired man asleep in +it. You'll be sure to remember. I get out at the next station, and I +must hold on there till he comes or sends me what I want." + +"I'll give the message if I catch him," I said, "and for the sake of +your Mother as well as mine I'll give you a word of advice. Don't try to +run the Central India States just now as the correspondent of the +_Backwoodsman_. There's a real one knocking about here, and it might +lead to trouble." + +"Thank you," said he, simply, "and when will the swine be gone? I can't +starve because he's ruining my work. I wanted to get hold of the +Degumber Rajah down here about his father's widow, and give him a jump." + +"What did he do to his father's widow, then?" + +"Filled her up with red pepper and slippered her to death as she hung +from a beam. I found that out myself and I'm the only man that would +dare going into the State to get hush-money for it. They'll try to +poison me, same as they did in Chortumna when I went on the loot there. +But you'll give the man at Marwar Junction my message?" + +He got out at a little roadside station, and I reflected. I had heard, +more than once, of men personating correspondents of newspapers and +bleeding small Native States with threats of exposure, but I had never +met any of the caste before. They lead a hard life, and generally die +with great suddenness. The Native States have a wholesome horror of +English newspapers, which may throw light on their peculiar methods of +government, and do their best to choke correspondents with champagne, or +drive them out of their mind with four-in-hand barouches. They do not +understand that nobody cares a straw for the internal administration of +Native States so long as oppression and crime are kept within decent +limits, and the ruler is not drugged, drunk, or diseased from one end of +the year to the other. They are the dark places of the earth, full of +unimaginable cruelty, touching the Railway and the Telegraph on one +side, and, on the other, the days of Harun-al-Raschid. When I left the +train I did business with divers Kings, and in eight days passed through +many changes of life. Sometimes I wore dress-clothes and consorted with +Princes and Politicals, drinking from crystal and eating from silver. +Sometimes I lay out upon the ground and devoured what I could get, from +a plate made of leaves, and drank the running water, and slept under the +same rug as my servant. It was all in the day's work. + +Then I headed for the Great Indian Desert upon the proper date, as I had +promised, and the night Mail set me down at Marwar Junction, where a +funny little, happy-go-lucky, native-managed railway runs to Jodhpore. +The Bombay Mail from Delhi makes a short halt at Marwar. She arrived as +I got in, and I had just time to hurry to her platform and go down the +carriages. There was only one Second-class on the train. I slipped the +window and looked down upon a flaming red beard, half covered by a +railway rug. That was my man, fast asleep, and I dug him gently in the +ribs. He woke with a grunt and I saw his face in the light of the lamps. +It was a great and shining face. + +"Tickets again?" said he. + +"No," said I. "I am to tell you that he is gone South for the week. He +has gone South for the week!" + +The train had begun to move out. The red man rubbed his eyes. "He has +gone South for the week," he repeated. "Now that's just like his +impidence. Did he say that I was to give you anything? 'Cause I won't." + +"He didn't," I said and dropped away, and watched the red lights die out +in the dark. It was horribly cold because the wind was blowing off the +sands. I climbed into my own train--not an Intermediate carriage this +time--and went to sleep. + +If the man with the beard had given me a rupee I should have kept it as +a memento of a rather curious affair. But the consciousness of having +done my duty was my only reward. + +Later on I reflected that two gentlemen like my friends could not do any +good if they forgathered and personated correspondents of newspapers, +and might, if they blackmailed one of the little rat-trap states of +Central India or Southern Rajputana, get themselves into serious +difficulties. I therefore took some trouble to describe them as +accurately as I could remember to people who would be interested in +deporting them: and succeeded, so I was later informed, in having them +headed back from the Degumber borders. + +Then I became respectable, and returned to an Office where there were no +Kings and no incidents outside the daily manufacture of a newspaper. A +newspaper office seems to attract every conceivable sort of person, to +the prejudice of discipline. Zenana-mission ladies arrive, and beg that +the Editor will instantly abandon all his duties to describe a Christian +prize-giving in a back-slum of a perfectly inaccessible village; +Colonels who have been overpassed for command sit down and sketch the +outline of a series of ten, twelve, or twenty-four leading articles on +Seniority _versus_ Selection; missionaries wish to know why they have +not been permitted to escape from their regular vehicles of abuse and +swear at a brother-missionary under special patronage of the editorial +We; stranded theatrical companies troop up to explain that they cannot +pay for their advertisements, but on their return from New Zealand or +Tahiti will do so with interest; inventors of patent punkah-pulling +machines, carriage couplings and unbreakable swords and axle-trees call +with specifications in their pockets and hours at their disposal; +tea-companies enter and elaborate their prospectuses with the office +pens; secretaries of ball-committees clamor to have the glories of their +last dance more fully described; strange ladies rustle in and say: "I +want a hundred lady's cards printed _at once_, please," which is +manifestly part of an Editor's duty; and every dissolute ruffian that +ever tramped the Grand Trunk Road makes it his business to ask for +employment as a proof-reader. And, all the time, the telephone-bell is +ringing madly, and Kings are being killed on the Continent, and Empires +are saying--"You're another," and Mister Gladstone is calling down +brimstone upon the British Dominions, and the little black copy-boys are +whining "_kaa-pi chay-ha-yeh_" (copy wanted) like tired bees, and most +of the paper is as blank as Modred's shield. + +But that is the amusing part of the year. There are six other months +when none ever come to call, and the thermometer walks inch by inch up +to the top of the glass, and the office is darkened to just above +reading-light, and the press-machines are red-hot of touch, and nobody +writes anything but accounts of amusements in the Hill-stations or +obituary notices. Then the telephone becomes a tinkling terror, because +it tells you of the sudden deaths of men and women that you knew +intimately, and the prickly-heat covers you with a garment, and you sit +down and write: "A slight increase of sickness is reported from the +Khuda Janta Khan District. The outbreak is purely sporadic in its +nature, and, thanks to the energetic efforts of the District +authorities, is now almost at an end. It is, however, with deep regret +we record the death," etc. + +Then the sickness really breaks out, and the less recording and +reporting the better for the peace of the subscribers. But the Empires +and the Kings continue to divert themselves as selfishly as before, and +the Foreman thinks that a daily paper really ought to come out once in +twenty-four hours, and all the people at the Hill-stations in the middle +of their amusements say: "Good gracious! Why can't the paper be +sparkling? I'm sure there's plenty going on up here." + +That is the dark half of the moon, and, as the advertisements say, "must +be experienced to be appreciated." + +It was in that season, and a remarkably evil season, that the paper +began running the last issue of the week on Saturday night, which is to +say Sunday morning, after the custom of a London paper. This was a great +convenience, for immediately after the paper was put to bed, the dawn +would lower the thermometer from 96° to almost 84° for half an hour, and +in that chill--you have no idea how cold is 84° on the grass until you +begin to pray for it--a very tired man could get off to sleep ere the +heat roused him. + +One Saturday night it was my pleasant duty to put the paper to bed +alone. A King or courtier or a courtesan or a Community was going to die +or get a new Constitution, or do something that was important on the +other side of the world, and the paper was to be held open till the +latest possible minute in order to catch the telegram. + +It was a pitchy black night, as stifling as a June night can be, and the +_loo_, the red-hot wind from the westward, was booming among the +tinder-dry trees and pretending that the rain was on its heels. Now and +again a spot of almost boiling water would fall on the dust with the +flop of a frog, but all our weary world knew that was only pretence. It +was a shade cooler in the press-room than the office, so I sat there, +while the type ticked and clicked, and the night-jars hooted at the +windows, and the all but naked compositors wiped the sweat from their +foreheads, and called for water. The thing that was keeping us back, +whatever it was, would not come off, though the _loo_ dropped and the +last type was set, and the whole round earth stood still in the choking +heat, with its finger on its lip, to wait the event. I drowsed, and +wondered whether the telegraph was a blessing, and whether this dying +man, or struggling people, might be aware of the inconvenience the delay +was causing. There was no special reason beyond the heat and worry to +make tension, but, as the clock-hands crept up to three o'clock and the +machines spun their fly-wheels two and three times to see that all was +in order, before I said the word that would set them off, I could have +shrieked aloud. + +Then the roar and rattle of the wheels shivered the quiet into little +bits. I rose to go away, but two men in white clothes stood in front of +me. The first one said: "It's him!" The second said: "So it is!" And +they both laughed almost as loudly as the machinery roared, and mopped +their foreheads. "We seed there was a light burning across the road and +we were sleeping in that ditch there for coolness, and I said to my +friend here, 'The office is open. Let's come along and speak to him as +turned us back from the Degumber State,'" said the smaller of the two. +He was the man I had met in the Mhow train, and his fellow was the +red-bearded man of Marwar Junction. There was no mistaking the eyebrows +of the one or the beard of the other. + +I was not pleased, because I wished to go to sleep, not to squabble with +loafers. "What do you want?" I asked. + +"Half an hour's talk with you, cool and comfortable, in the office," +said the red-bearded man. "We'd _like_ some drink--the Contrack doesn't +begin yet, Peachey, so you needn't look--but what we really want is +advice. We don't want money. We ask you as a favor, because we found out +you did us a bad turn about Degumber State." + +I led from the press-room to the stifling office with the maps on the +walls, and the red-haired man rubbed his hands. "That's something like," +said he. "This was the proper shop to come to. Now, Sir, let me +introduce to you Brother Peachey Carnehan, that's him, and Brother +Daniel Dravot, that is _me_, and the less said about our professions the +better, for we have been most things in our time. Soldier, sailor, +compositor, photographer, proof-reader, street-preacher, and +correspondents of the _Backwoodsman_ when we thought the paper wanted +one. Carnehan is sober, and so am I. Look at us first, and see that's +sure. It will save you cutting into my talk. We'll take one of your +cigars apiece, and you shall see us light up." + +I watched the test. The men were absolutely sober, so I gave them each a +tepid whiskey and soda. + +"Well _and_ good," said Carnehan of the eyebrows, wiping the froth from +his moustache. "Let me talk now, Dan. We have been all over India, +mostly on foot. We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty +contractors, and all that, and we have decided that India isn't big +enough for such as us." + +They certainly were too big for the office. Dravot's beard seemed to +fill half the room and Carnehan's shoulders the other half, as they sat +on the big table. Carnehan continued: "The country isn't half worked out +because they that governs it won't let you touch it. They spend all +their blessed time in governing it, and you can't lift a spade, nor chip +a rock, nor look for oil, nor anything like that without all the +Government saying--'Leave it alone, and let us govern.' Therefore, such +_as_ it is, we will let it alone, and go away to some other place where +a man isn't crowded and can come to his own. We are not little men, and +there is nothing that we are afraid of except Drink, and we have signed +a Contrack on that. _Therefore_, we are going away to be Kings." + +"Kings in our own right," muttered Dravot. + +"Yes, of course," I said. "You've been tramping in the sun, and it's a +very warm night, and hadn't you better sleep over the notion? Come +to-morrow." + +"Neither drunk nor sunstruck," said Dravot. "We have slept over the +notion half a year, and require to see Books and Atlases, and we have +decided that there is only one place now in the world that two strong +men can sar-a-_whack_. They call it Kafiristan. By my reckoning it's the +top right-hand corner of Afghanistan, not more than three hundred miles +from Peshawar. They have two-and-thirty heathen idols there, and we'll +be the thirty-third and fourth. It's a mountaineous country, and the +women of those parts are very beautiful." + +"But that is provided against in the Contrack," said Carnehan. "Neither +Woman nor Liqu-or, Daniel." + +"And that's all we know, except that no one has gone there, and they +fight, and in any place where they fight a man who knows how to drill +men can always be a King. We shall go to those parts and say to any King +we find--'D' you want to vanquish your foes?' and we will show him how +to drill men; for that we know better than anything else. Then we will +subvert that King and seize his Throne and establish a Dy-nasty." + +"You'll be cut to pieces before you're fifty miles across the Border," I +said. "You have to travel through Afghanistan to get to that country. +It's one mass of mountains and peaks and glaciers, and no Englishman has +been through it. The people are utter brutes, and even if you reached +them you couldn't do anything." + +"That's more like," said Carnehan. "If you could think us a little more +mad we would be more pleased. We have come to you to know about this +country, to read a book about it, and to be shown maps. We want you to +tell us that we are fools and to show us your books." He turned to the +book-cases. + +"Are you at all in earnest?" I said. + +"A little," said Dravot, sweetly. "As big a map as you have got, even if +it's all blank where Kafiristan is, and any books you've got. We can +read, though we aren't very educated." + +I uncased the big thirty-two-miles-to-the-inch map of India, and two +smaller Frontier maps, hauled down volume INF-KAN of the _Encyclopædia +Britannica_, and the men consulted them. + +"See here!" said Dravot, his thumb on the map. "Up to Jagdallak, Peachey +and me know the road. We was there with Roberts's Army. We'll have to +turn off to the right at Jagdallak through Laghmann territory. Then we +get among the hills--fourteen thousand feet--fifteen thousand--it will +be cold work there, but it don't look very far on the map." + +I handed him Wood on the _Sources of the Oxus_. Carnehan was deep in the +_Encyclopædia_. + +"They're a mixed lot," said Dravot, reflectively; "and it won't help us +to know the names of their tribes. The more tribes the more they'll +fight, and the better for us. From Jagdallak to Ashang. H'mm!" + +"But all the information about the country is as sketchy and inaccurate +as can be," I protested. "No one knows anything about it really. Here's +the file of the _United Services' Institute_. Read what Bellew says." + +"Blow Bellew!" said Carnehan. "Dan, they're a stinkin' lot of heathens, +but this book here says they think they're related to us English." + +I smoked while the men pored over _Raverty, Wood_, the maps, and the +_Encyclopædia_. + +"There is no use your waiting," said Dravot, politely. "It's about four +o'clock now. We'll go before six o'clock if you want to sleep, and we +won't steal any of the papers. Don't you sit up. We're two harmless +lunatics, and if you come to-morrow evening down to the Serai we'll say +good-bye to you." + +"You _are_ two fools," I answered. "You'll be turned back at the +Frontier or cut up the minute you set foot in Afghanistan. Do you want +any money or a recommendation down-country? I can help you to the chance +of work next week." + +"Next week we shall be hard at work ourselves, thank you," said Dravot. +"It isn't so easy being a King as it looks. When we've got our Kingdom +in going order we'll let you know, and you can come up and help us to +govern it." + +"Would two lunatics make a Contrack like that?" said Carnehan, with +subdued pride, showing me a greasy half-sheet of notepaper on which was +written the following. I copied it, then and there, as a curiosity-- + + +_This Contract between me and you persuing witnesseth in the name of +God--Amen and so forth. + +(One) That me and you will settle this matter together; i.e., to be +Kings of Kafiristan. + +(Two) That you and me will not, while this matter is being settled, look +at any Liquor, nor any Woman black, white, or brown, so as to get mixed +up with one or the other harmful. + +(Three) That we conduct ourselves with Dignity and Discretion, and if +one of us gets into trouble the other will stay by him. + +Signed by you and me this day. +Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan. +Daniel Dravot. +Both Gentlemen at Large_. + + +"There was no need for the last article," said Carnehan, blushing +modestly; "but it looks regular. Now you know the sort of men that +loafers are--we _are_ loafers, Dan, until we get out of India--and _do_ +you think that we would sign a Contrack like that unless we was in +earnest? We have kept away from the two things that make life worth +having." + +"You won't enjoy your lives much longer if you are going to try this +idiotic adventure. Don't set the office on fire," I said, "and go away +before nine o'clock." + +I left them still poring over the maps and making notes on the back of +the "Contrack." "Be sure to come down to the Serai to-morrow," were +their parting words. + +The Kumharsen Serai is the great four-square sink of humanity where the +strings of camels and horses from the North load and unload. All the +nationalities of Central Asia may be found there, and most of the folk +of India proper. Balkh and Bokhara there meet Bengal and Bombay, and try +to draw eye-teeth. You can buy ponies, turquoises, Persian pussy-cats, +saddle-bags, fat-tailed sheep, and musk in the Kumharsen Serai, and get +many strange things for nothing. In the afternoon I went down to see +whether my friends intended to keep their word or were lying there +drunk. + +A priest attired in fragments of ribbons and rags stalked up to me, +gravely twisting a child's paper whirligig. Behind him was his servant +bending under the load of a crate of mud toys. The two were loading up +two camels, and the inhabitants of the Serai watched them with shrieks +of laughter. + +"The priest is mad," said a horse-dealer to me. "He is going up to Kabul +to sell toys to the Amir. He will either be raised to honor or have his +head cut off. He came in here this morning and has been behaving madly +ever since." + +"The witless are under the protection of God," stammered a flat-cheeked +Usbeg in broken Hindi. "They foretell future events." + +"Would they could have foretold that my caravan would have been cut up +by the Shinwaris almost within shadow of the Pass!" grunted the Eusufzai +agent of a Rajputana trading-house whose goods had been diverted into +the hands of other robbers just across the Border, and whose misfortunes +were the laughing-stock of the bazar. "Ohé, priest, whence come you and +whither do you go?" + +"From Roum have I come," shouted the priest, waving his whirligig; "from +Roum, blown by the breath of a hundred devils across the sea! O thieves, +robbers, liars, the blessing of Pir Khan on pigs, dogs, and perjurers! +Who will take the Protected of God to the North to sell charms that are +never still to the Amir? The camels shall not gall, the sons shall not +fall sick, and the wives shall remain faithful while they are away, of +the men who give me place in their caravan. Who will assist me to +slipper the King of the Roos with a golden slipper with a silver heel? +The protection of Pir Khan be upon his labors!" He spread out the skirts +of his gaberdine and pirouetted between the lines of tethered horses. + +"There starts a caravan from Peshawar to Kabul in twenty days, _Huzrut_" +said the Eusufzai trader. "My camels go therewith. Do thou also go and +bring us good-luck." + +"I will go even now!" shouted the priest. "I will depart upon my winged +camels, and be at Peshawar in a day! Ho! Hazar Mir Khan," he yelled to +his servant, "drive out the camels, but let me first mount my own." + +He leaped on the back of his beast as it knelt, and, turning round to +me, cried: "Come thou also, Sahib, a little along the road, and I will +sell thee a charm--an amulet that shall make thee King of Kafiristan." + +Then the light broke upon me, and I followed the two camels out of the +Serai till we reached open road and the priest halted. + +"What d'you think o' that?" said he in English. "Carnehan can't talk +their patter, so I've made him my servant. He makes a handsome servant. +'T isn't for nothing that I've been knocking about the country for +fourteen years. Didn't I do that talk neat? We'll hitch on to a caravan +at Peshawar till we get to Jagdallak, and then we'll see if we can get +donkeys for our camels, and strike into Kafiristan. Whirligigs for the +Amir, O Lor! Put your hand under the camel-bags and tell me what you +feel." + +I felt the butt of a Martini, and another and another. + +"Twenty of 'em," said Dravot, placidly. "Twenty of 'em and ammunition to +correspond, under the whirligigs and the mud dolls." + +"Heaven help you if you are caught with those things!" I said. "A +Martini is worth her weight in silver among the Pathans." + +"Fifteen hundred rupees of capital--every rupee we could beg, borrow, or +steal--are invested on these two camels," said Dravot. "We won't get +caught. We're going through the Khaiber with a regular caravan. Who'd +touch a poor mad priest?" + +"Have you got everything you want?" I asked, overcome with astonishment. + +"Not yet, but we shall soon. Give us a memento of your kindness, +_Brother_. You did me a service, yesterday, and that time in Marwar. +Half my Kingdom shall you have, as the saying is." I slipped a small +charm compass from my watch chain and handed it up to the priest. + +"Good-bye," said Dravot, giving me hand cautiously. "It's the last time +we'll shake hands with an Englishman these many days. Shake hands with +him, Carnehan," he cried, as the second camel passed me. + +Carnehan leaned down and shook hands. Then the camels passed away along +the dusty road, and I was left alone to wonder. My eye could detect no +failure in the disguises. The scene in the Serai proved that they were +complete to the native mind. There was just the chance, therefore, that +Carnehan and Dravot would be able to wander through Afghanistan without +detection. But, beyond, they would find death--certain and awful death. + +Ten days later a native correspondent giving me the news of the day from +Peshawar, wound up his letter with: "There has been much laughter here +on account of a certain mad priest who is going in his estimation to +sell petty gauds and insignificant trinkets which he ascribes as great +charms to H.H. the Amir of Bokhara. He passed through Peshawar and +associated himself to the Second Summer caravan that goes to Kabul. The +merchants are pleased because through superstition they imagine that +such mad fellows bring good-fortune." + +The two, then, were beyond the Border. I would have prayed for them, +but, that night, a real King died in Europe, and demanded an obituary +notice. + + * * * * * + +The wheel of the world swings through the same phases again and again. +Summer passed and winter thereafter, and came and passed again. The +daily paper continued and I with it, and upon the third summer there +fell a hot night, a night-issue, and a strained waiting for something to +be telegraphed from the other side of the world, exactly as had happened +before. A few great men had died in the past two years, the machines +worked with more clatter, and some of the trees in the Office garden +were a few feet taller. But that was all the difference. + +I passed over to the press-room, and went through just such a scene as I +have already described. The nervous tension was stronger than it had +been two years before, and I felt the heat more acutely. At three +o'clock I cried, "Print off," and turned to go, when there crept to my +chair what was left of a man. He was bent into a circle, his head was +sunk between his shoulders, and he moved his feet one over the other +like a bear. I could hardly see whether he walked or crawled--this +rag-wrapped, whining cripple who addressed me by name, crying that he +was come back. "Can you give me a drink?" he whimpered. "For the Lord's +sake, give me a drink!" + +I went back to the office, the man following with groans of pain, and I +turned up the lamp. + +"Don't you know me?" he gasped, dropping into a chair, and he turned his +drawn face, surmounted by a shock of gray hair, to the light. + +I looked at him intently. Once before had I seen eyebrows that met over +the nose in an inch-broad black band, but for the life of me I could not +tell where. + +"I don't know you," I said, handing him the whiskey. "What can I do for +you?" + +He took a gulp of the spirit raw, and shivered in spite of the +suffocating heat. + +"I've come back," he repeated; "and I was the King of Kafiristan--me and +Dravot--crowned Kings we was! In this office we settled it--you setting +there and giving us the books. I am Peachey--Peachey Taliaferro +Carnehan, and you've been setting here ever since--O Lord!" + +I was more than a little astonished, and expressed my feelings +accordingly. + +"It's true," said Carnehan, with a dry cackle, nursing his feet, which +were wrapped in rags. "True as gospel. Kings we were, with crowns upon +our heads--me and Dravot--poor Dan--oh, poor, poor Dan, that would never +take advice, not though I begged of him!" + +"Take the whiskey," I said, "and take your own time. Tell me all you can +recollect of everything from beginning to end. You got across the border +on your camels, Dravot dressed as a mad priest and you his servant. Do +you remember that?" + +"I ain't mad--yet, but I shall be that way soon. Of course I remember. +Keep looking at me, or maybe my words will go all to pieces. Keep +looking at me in my eyes and don't say anything." + +I leaned forward and looked into his face as steadily as I could. He +dropped one hand upon the table and I grasped it by the wrist. It was +twisted like a bird's claw, and upon the back was a ragged, red, +diamond-shaped scar. + +"No, don't look there. Look at _me_" said Carnehan. "That comes +afterwards, but for the Lord's sake don't distrack me. We left with that +caravan, me and Dravot playing all sorts of antics to amuse the people +we were with. Dravot used to make us laugh in the evenings when all the +people was cooking their dinners--cooking their dinners, and--what did +they do then? They lit little fires with sparks that went into Dravot's +beard, and we all laughed--fit to die. Little red fires they was, going +into Dravot's big red beard--so funny." His eyes left mine and he smiled +foolishly. + +"You went as far as Jagdallak with that caravan," I said at a venture, +"after you had lit those fires. To Jagdallak, where you turned off to +try to get into Kafiristan." + +"No, we didn't neither. What are you talking about? We turned off before +Jagdallak, because we heard the roads was good. But they wasn't good +enough for our two camels--mine and Dravot's. When we left the caravan, +Dravot took off all his clothes and mine too, and said we would be +heathen, because the Kafirs didn't allow Mohammedans to talk to them. So +we dressed betwixt and between, and such a sight as Daniel Dravot I +never saw yet nor expect to see again. He burned half his beard, and +slung a sheep-skin over his shoulder, and shaved his head into patterns. +He shaved mine, too, and made me wear outrageous things to look like a +heathen. That was in a most mountaineous country, and our camels +couldn't go along any more because of the mountains. They were tall and +black, and coming home I saw them fight like wild goats--there are lots +of goats in Kafiristan. And these mountains, they never keep still, no +more than the goats. Always fighting they are, and don't let you sleep +at night." + +"Take some more whiskey," I said, very slowly. "What did you and Daniel +Dravot do when the camels could go no further because of the rough roads +that led into Kafiristan?" + +"What did which do? There was a party called Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan +that was with Dravot. Shall I tell you about him? He died out there in +the cold. Slap from the bridge fell old Peachey, turning and twisting in +the air like a penny whirligig that you can sell to the Amir.--No; they +was two for three ha'pence, those whirligigs, or I am much mistaken and +woeful sore.--And then these camels were no use, and Peachey said to +Dravot--'For the Lord's sake let's get out of this before our heads are +chopped off,' and with that they killed the camels all among the +mountains, not having anything in particular to eat, but first they took +off the boxes with the guns and the ammunition, till two men came along +driving four mules. Dravot up and dances in front of them, +singing--'Sell me four mules.' Says the first man--'If you are rich +enough to buy, you are rich enough to rob;' but before ever he could put +his hand to his knife, Dravot breaks his neck over his knee, and the +other party runs away. So Carnehan loaded the mules with the rifles that +was taken off the camels, and together we starts forward into those +bitter cold mountaineous parts, and never a road broader than the back +of your hand." + +He paused for a moment, while I asked him if he could remember the +nature of the country through which he had journeyed. + +"I am telling you as straight as I can, but my head isn't as good as it +might be. They drove nails through it to make me hear better how Dravot +died. The country was mountaineous and the mules were most contrary, and +the inhabitants was dispersed and solitary. They went up and up, and +down and down, and that other party, Carnehan, was imploring of Dravot +not to sing and whistle so loud, for fear of bringing down the tremenjus +avalanches. But Dravot says that if a King couldn't sing it wasn't worth +being King, and whacked the mules over the rump, and never took no heed +for ten cold days. We came to a big level valley all among the +mountains, and the mules were near dead, so we killed them, not having +anything in special for them or us to eat. We sat upon the boxes, and +played odd and even with the cartridges that was jolted out. + +"Then ten men with bows and arrows ran down that valley, chasing twenty +men with bows and arrows, and the row was tremenjus. They was fair +men--fairer than you or me--with yellow hair and remarkable well built. +Says Dravot, unpacking the guns--'This is the beginning of the business. +We'll fight for the ten men,' and with that he fires two rifles at the +twenty men, and drops one of them at two hundred yards from the rock +where he was sitting. The other men began to run, but Carnehan and +Dravot sits on the boxes picking them off at all ranges, up and down the +valley. Then we goes up to the ten men that had run across the snow too, +and they fires a footy little arrow at us. Dravot he shoots above their +heads and they all falls down flat. Then he walks over them and kicks +them, and then he lifts them up and shakes hands all round to make them +friendly like. He calls them and gives them the boxes to carry, and +waves his hand for all the world as though he was King already. They +takes the boxes and him across the valley and up the hill into a pine +wood on the top, where there was half a dozen big stone idols. Dravot he +goes to the biggest--a fellow they call Imbra--and lays a rifle and a +cartridge at his feet, rubbing his nose respectful with his own nose, +patting him on the head, and saluting in front of it. He turns round to +the men and nods his head, and says--'That's all right. I'm in the know +too, and all these old jim-jams are my friends.' Then he opens his mouth +and points down it, and when the first man brings him food, he +says--'No;' and when the second man brings him food, he says--'No;' but +when one of the old priests and the boss of the village brings him food, +he says--'Yes,' very haughty, and eats it slow. That was how we came to +our first village, without any trouble, just as though we had tumbled +from the skies. But we tumbled from one of those damned rope-bridges, +you see, and--you couldn't expect a man to laugh much after that?" + +"Take some more whiskey and go on," I said. "That was the first village +you came into. How did you get to be King?" + +"I wasn't King," said Carnehan. "Dravot, he was the King, and a handsome +man he looked with the gold crown on his head and all. Him and the other +party stayed in that village, and every morning Dravot sat by the side +of old Imbra, and the people came and worshipped. That was Dravot's +order. Then a lot of men came into the valley, and Carnehan and Dravot +picks them off with the rifles before they knew where they was, and runs +down into the valley and up again the other side and finds another +village, same as the first one, and the people all falls down flat on +their faces, and Dravot says--'Now what is the trouble between you two +villages?' and the people points to a woman, as fair as you or me, that +was carried off, and Dravot takes her back to the first village and +counts up the dead--eight there was. For each dead man Dravot pours a +little milk on the ground and waves his arms like a whirligig and +'That's all right,' says he. Then he and Carnehan takes the big boss of +each village by the arm and walks them down into the valley, and shows +them how to scratch a line with a spear right down the valley, and gives +each a sod of turf from both sides of the line. Then all the people +comes down and shouts like the devil and all, and Dravot says--'Go and +dig the land, and be fruitful and multiply,' which they did, though they +didn't understand. Then we asks the names of things in their +lingo--bread and water and fire and idols and such, and Dravot leads the +priest of each village up to the idol, and says he must sit there and +judge the people, and if anything goes wrong he is to be shot. + +"Next week they was all turning up the land in the valley as quiet as +bees and much prettier, and the priests heard all the complaints and +told Dravot in dumb show what it was about. 'That's just the beginning,' +says Dravot. 'They think we're Gods.' He and Carnehan picks out twenty +good men and shows them how to click off a rifle, and form fours, and +advance in line, and they was very pleased to do so, and clever to see +the hang of it. Then he takes out his pipe and his baccy-pouch and +leaves one at one village, and one at the other, and off we two goes to +see what was to be done in the next valley. That was all rock, and there +was a little village there, and Carnehan says--'Send 'em to the old +valley to plant,' and takes 'em there and gives 'em some land that +wasn't took before. They were a poor lot, and we blooded 'em with a kid +before letting 'em into the new Kingdom. That was to impress the people, +and then they settled down quiet, and Carnehan went back to Dravot who +had got into another valley, all snow and ice and most mountaineous. +There was no people there and the Army got afraid, so Dravot shoots one +of them, and goes on till he finds some people in a village, and the +Army explains that unless the people wants to be killed they had better +not shoot their little matchlocks; for they had matchlocks. We makes +friends with the priest and I stays there alone with two of the Army, +teaching the men how to drill, and a thundering big Chief comes across +the snow with kettle-drums and horns twanging, because he heard there +was a new God kicking about. Carnehan sights for the brown of the men +half a mile across the snow and wings one of them. Then he sends a +message to the Chief that, unless he wished to be killed, he must come +and shake hands with me and leave his arms behind. The Chief comes alone +first, and Carnehan shakes hands with him and whirls his arms about, +same as Dravot used, and very much surprised that Chief was, and strokes +my eyebrows. Then Carnehan goes alone to the Chief, and asks him in dumb +show if he had an enemy he hated. 'I have,' says the Chief. So Carnehan +weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them +drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as +Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top +of a mountain, and the Chief's men rushes into a village and takes it; +we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy. So we took that +village too, and I gives the Chief a rag from my coat and says, 'Occupy +till I come;' which was scriptural. By way of a reminder, when me and +the Army was eighteen hundred yards away, I drops a bullet near him +standing on the snow, and all the people falls flat on their faces. Then +I sends a letter to Dravot wherever he be by land or by sea." + +At the risk of throwing the creature out of train I interrupted--"How +could you write a letter up yonder?" + +"The letter?--Oh!--The letter! Keep looking at me between the eyes, +please. It was a string-talk letter, that we'd learned the way of it +from a blind beggar in the Punjab." + +I remember that there had once come to the office a blind man with a +knotted twig and a piece of string which he wound round the twig +according to some cipher of his own. He could, after the lapse of days +or hours, repeat the sentence which he had reeled up. He had reduced the +alphabet to eleven primitive sounds; and tried to teach me his method, +but I could not understand. + +"I sent that letter to Dravot," said Carnehan; "and told him to come +back because this Kingdom was growing too big for me to handle, and then +I struck for the first valley, to see how the priests were working. They +called the village we took along with the Chief, Bashkai, and the first +village we took, Er-Heb. The priests at Er-Heb was doing all right, but +they had a lot of pending cases about land to show me, and some men from +another village had been firing arrows at night. I went out and looked +for that village, and fired four rounds at it from a thousand yards. +That used all the cartridges I cared to spend, and I waited for Dravot, +who had been away two or three months, and I kept my people quiet. + +"One morning I heard the devil's own noise of drums and horns, and Dan +Dravot marches down the hill with his Army and a tail of hundreds of +men, and, which was the most amazing, a great gold crown on his head. +'My Gord, Carnehan,' says Daniel, 'this is a tremenjus business, and +we've got the whole country as far as it's worth having. I am the son of +Alexander by Queen Semiramis, and you're my younger brother and a God +too! It's the biggest thing we've ever seen. I've been marching and +fighting for six weeks with the Army, and every footy little village for +fifty miles has come in rejoiceful; and more than that, I've got the key +of the whole show, as you'll see, and I've got a crown for you! I told +'em to make two of 'em at a place called Shu, where the gold lies in the +rock like suet in mutton. Gold I've seen, and turquoise I've kicked out +of the cliffs, and there's garnets in the sands of the river, and here's +a chunk of amber that a man brought me. Call up all the priests and, +here, take your crown.' + +"One of the men opens a black hair bag, and I slips the crown on. It was +too small and too heavy, but I wore it for the glory. Hammered gold it +was--five pound weight, like a hoop of a barrel. + +"'Peachey,' says Dravot, 'we don't want to fight no more. The Craft's +the trick, so help me!' and he brings forward that same Chief that I +left at Bashkai--Billy Fish we called him afterwards, because he was so +like Billy Fish that drove the big tank-engine at Mach on the Bolan in +the old days. 'Shake hands with him,' says Dravot, and I shook hands and +nearly dropped, for Billy Fish gave me the Grip. I said nothing, but +tried him with the Fellow Craft Grip. He answers, all right, and I tried +the Master's Grip, but that was a slip. 'A Fellow Craft he is!' I says +to Dan. 'Does he know the word?'--'He does,' says Dan, 'and all the +priests know. It's a miracle! The Chiefs and the priests can work a +Fellow Craft Lodge in a way that's very like ours, and they've cut the +marks on the rocks, but they don't know the Third Degree, and they've +come to find out. It's Gord's Truth. I've known these long years that +the Afghans knew up to the Fellow Craft Degree, but this is a miracle. A +God and a Grand-Master of the Craft am I, and a Lodge in the Third +Degree I will open, and we'll raise the head priests and the Chiefs of +the villages.' + +"'It's against all the law,' I says, 'holding a Lodge without warrant +from any one; and you know we never held office in any Lodge.' + +"'It's a master-stroke o' policy,' says Dravot. 'It means running the +country as easy as a four-wheeled bogie on a down grade. We can't stop +to inquire now, or they'll turn against us. I've forty Chiefs at my +heel, and passed and raised according to their merit they shall be. +Billet these men on the villages, and see that we run up a Lodge of some +kind. The temple of Imbra will do for the Lodge-room. The women must +make aprons as you show them. I'll hold a levee of Chiefs to-night and +Lodge to-morrow.' + +"I was fair run off my legs, but I wasn't such a fool as not to see what +a pull this Craft business gave us. I showed the priests' families how +to make aprons of the degrees, but for Dravot's apron the blue border +and marks was made of turquoise lumps on white hide, not cloth. We took +a great square stone in the temple for the Master's chair, and little +stones for the officers' chairs, and painted the black pavement with +white squares, and did what we could to make things regular. + +"At the levee which was held that night on the hillside with big +bonfires, Dravot gives out that him and me were Gods and sons of +Alexander, and Past Grand-Masters in the Craft, and was come to make +Kafiristan a country where every man should eat in peace and drink in +quiet, and specially obey us. Then the Chiefs come round to shake hands, +and they were so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with +old friends. We gave them names according as they was like men we had +known in India--Billy Fish, Holly Dilworth, Pikky Kergan, that was +Bazar-master when I was at Mhow, and so on, and so on. + +"_The_ most amazing miracles was at Lodge next night. One of the old +priests was watching us continuous, and I felt uneasy, for I knew we'd +have to fudge the Ritual, and I didn't know what the men knew. The old +priest was a stranger come in from beyond the village of Bashkai. The +minute Dravot puts on the Master's apron that the girls had made for +him, the priest fetches a whoop and a howl, and tries to overturn the +stone that Dravot was sitting on. 'It's all up now,' I says. 'That comes +of meddling with the Craft without warrant!' Dravot never winked an eye, +not when ten priests took and tilted over the Grand-Master's +chair--which was to say the stone of Imbra. The priest begins rubbing +the bottom end of it to clear away the black dirt, and presently he +shows all the other priests the Master's Mark, same as was on Dravot's +apron, cut into the stone. Not even the priests of the temple of Imbra +knew it was there. The old chap falls flat on his face at Dravot's feet +and kisses 'em. 'Luck again,' says Dravot, across the Lodge to me, 'they +say it's the missing Mark that no one could understand the why of. We're +more than safe now.' Then he bangs the butt of his gun for a gavel and +says: 'By virtue of the authority vested in me by my own right hand and +the help of Peachey, I declare myself Grand-Master of all Freemasonry in +Kafiristan in this the Mother Lodge o' the country, and King of +Kafiristan equally with Peachey!' At that he puts on his crown and I +puts on mine--I was doing Senior Warden--and we opens the Lodge in most +ample form. It was a amazing miracle! The priests moved in Lodge through +the first two degrees almost without telling, as if the memory was +coming back to them. After that, Peachey and Dravot raised such as was +worthy--high priests and Chiefs of far-off villages. Billy Fish was the +first, and I can tell you we scared the soul out of him. It was not in +any way according to Ritual, but it served our turn. We didn't raise +more than ten of the biggest men, because we didn't want to make the +Degree common. And they was clamoring to be raised. + +"'In another six months,' says Dravot, 'we'll hold another +Communication, and see how you are working.' Then he asks them about +their villages, and learns that they was fighting one against the other, +and were sick and tired of it. And when they wasn't doing that they was +fighting with the Mohammedans. 'You can fight those when they come into +our country,' says Dravot. 'Tell off every tenth man of your tribes for +a Frontier guard, and send two hundred at a time to this valley to be +drilled. Nobody is going to be shot or speared any more so long as he +does well, and I know that you won't cheat me, because you're white +people--sons of Alexander--and not like common, black Mohammedans. You +are _my_ people, and by God,' says he, running off into English at the +end--'I'll make a damned fine Nation of you, or I'll die in the making!' + +"I can't tell all we did for the next six months, because Dravot did a +lot I couldn't see the hang of, and he learned their lingo in a way I +never could. My work was to help the people plough, and now and again go +out with some of the Army and see what the other villages were doing, +and make 'em throw rope-bridges across the ravines which cut up the +country horrid. Dravot was very kind to me, but when he walked up and +down in the pine wood pulling that bloody red beard of his with both +fists I knew he was thinking plans I could not advise about, and I just +waited for orders. + +"But Dravot never showed me disrespect before the people. They were +afraid of me and the Army, but they loved Dan. He was the best of +friends with the priests and the Chiefs; but any one could come across +the hills with a complaint, and Dravot would hear him out fair, and call +four priests together and say what was to be done. He used to call in +Billy Fish from Bashkai, and Pikky Kergan from Shu, and an old Chief we +call Kafuzelum--it was like enough to his real name--and hold councils +with 'em when there was any fighting to be done in small villages. That +was his Council of War, and the four priests of Bashkai, Shu, Khawak, +and Madora was his Privy Council. Between the lot of 'em they sent me, +with forty men and twenty rifles, and sixty men carrying turquoises, +into the Ghorband country to buy those hand-made Martini rifles, that +come out of the Amir's workshops at Kabul, from one of the Amir's Herati +regiments that would have sold the very teeth out of their mouths for +turquoises. + +"I stayed in Ghorband a month, and gave the Governor there the pick of +my baskets for hush-money, and bribed the Colonel of the regiment some +more, and, between the two and the tribes-people, we got more than a +hundred hand-made Martinis, a hundred good Kohat Jezails that'll throw +to six hundred yards, and forty man-loads of very bad ammunition for the +rifles. I came back with what I had, and distributed 'em among the men +that the Chiefs sent in to me to drill. Dravot was too busy to attend to +those things, but the old Army that we first made helped me, and we +turned out five hundred men that could drill, and two hundred that knew +how to hold arms pretty straight. Even those cork-screwed, hand-made +guns was a miracle to them. Dravot talked big about powder-shops and +factories, walking up and down in the pine wood when the winter was +coming on. + +"'I won't make a Nation,' says he. 'I'll make an Empire! These men +aren't niggers; they're English! Look at their eyes--look at their +mouths. Look at the way they stand up. They sit on chairs in their own +houses. They're the Lost Tribes, or something like it, and they've grown +to be English. I'll take a census in the spring if the priests don't get +frightened. There must be a fair two million of 'em in these hills. The +villages are full o' little children. Two million people--two hundred +and fifty thousand fighting men--and all English! They only want the +rifles and a little drilling. Two hundred and fifty thousand men, ready +to cut in on Russia's right flank when she tries for India! Peachey, +man,' he says, chewing his beard in great hunks, 'we shall be +Emperors--Emperors of the Earth! Rajah Brooke will be a suckling to us. +I'll treat with the Viceroy on equal terms. I'll ask him to send me +twelve picked English--twelve that I know of--to help us govern a bit. +There's Mackray, Sergeant-pensioner at Segowli--many's the good dinner +he's given me, and his wife a pair of trousers. There's Donkin, the +Warder of Tounghoo Jail; there's hundreds that I could lay my hand on if +I was in India. The Viceroy shall do it for me, I'll send a man through +in the spring for those men, and I'll write for a dispensation from the +Grand Lodge for what I've done as Grand-Master. That--and all the +Sniders that'll be thrown out when the native troops in India take up +the Martini. They'll be worn smooth, but they'll do for fighting in +these hills. Twelve English, a hundred thousand Sniders run through the +Amir's country in dribblets--I'd be content with twenty thousand in one +year--and we'd be an Empire. When everything was shipshape, I'd hand +over the crown--this crown I'm wearing now--to Queen Victoria on my +knees, and she'd say: "Rise up, Sir Daniel Dravot." Oh, it's big! It's +big, I tell you! But there's so much to be done in every place--Bashkai, +Khawak, Shu, and everywhere else.' + +"'What is it?' I says. 'There are no more men coming in to be drilled +this autumn. Look at those fat black clouds. They're bringing the snow.' + +"'It isn't that,' says Daniel, putting his hand very hard on my +shoulder; 'and I don't wish to say anything that's against you, for no +other living man would have followed me and made me what I am as you +have done. You're a first-class Commander-in-Chief, and the people know +you; but--it's a big country, and somehow you can't help me, Peachey, in +the way I want to be helped.' + +"'Go to your blasted priests, then!' I said, and I was sorry when I made +that remark, but it did hurt me sore to find Daniel talking so superior +when I'd drilled all the men, and done all he told me. + +"'Don't let's quarrel, Peachey,' says Daniel, without cursing. 'You're a +King too, and the half of this Kingdom is yours; but can't you see, +Peachey, we want cleverer men than us now--three or four of 'em, that we +can scatter about for our Deputies. It's a hugeous great State, and I +can't always tell the right thing to do, and I haven't time for all I +want to do, and here's the winter coming on and all.' He put half his +beard into his mouth, all red like the gold of his crown. + +"'I'm sorry, Daniel,' says I. 'I've done all I could. I've drilled the +men and shown the people how to stack their oats better; and I've +brought in those tinware rifles from Ghorband--but I know what you're +driving at. I take it Kings always feel oppressed that way.' + +"'There's another thing too,' says Dravot, walking up and down. 'The +winter's coming and these people won't be giving much trouble, and if +they do we can't move about. I want a wife.' + +"'For Gord's sake leave the women alone!' I says. 'We've both got all +the work we can, though I _am_ a fool. Remember the Contrack, and keep +clear o' women.' + +"The Contrack only lasted till such time as we was Kings; and Kings we +have been these months past,' says Dravot, weighing his crown in his +hand. 'You go get a wife too, Peachey--a nice, strappin', plump girl +that'll keep you warm in the winter. They're prettier than English +girls, and we can take the pick of 'em. Boil 'em once or twice in hot +water, and they'll come out like chicken and ham.' + +"'Don't tempt me!' I says. 'I will not have any dealings with a woman +not till we are a dam' side more settled than we are now. I've been +doing the work o' two men, and you've been doing the work o' three. +Let's lie off a bit, and see if we can get some better tobacco from +Afghan country and run in some good liquor; but no women.' + +"'Who's talking o' _women_?' says Dravot. 'I said _wife_--a Queen to +breed a King's son for the King. A Queen out of the strongest tribe, +that'll make them your blood-brothers, and that'll lie by your side and +tell you all the people thinks about you and their own affairs. That's +what I want.' + +"'Do you remember that Bengali woman I kept at Mogul Serai when I was a +plate-layer?' says I. 'A fat lot o' good she was to me. She taught me +the lingo and one or two other things; but what happened? She ran away +with the Station Master's servant and half my month's pay. Then she +turned up at Dadur Junction in tow of a half-caste, and had the +impidence to say I was her husband--all among the drivers in the +running-shed too!' + +"'We've done with that,' says Dravot, 'these women are whiter than you +or me, and a Queen I will have for the winter months.' + +"'For the last time o' asking, Dan, do _not_,' I says. 'It'll only bring +us harm. The Bible says that Kings ain't to waste their strength on +women, 'specially when they've got a new raw Kingdom to work over.' + +"'For the last time of answering I will,' said Dravot, and he went away +through the pine-trees looking like a big red devil, the sun being on +his crown and beard and all. + +"But getting a wife was not as easy as Dan thought. He put it before the +Council, and there was no answer till Billy Fish said that he'd better +ask the girls. Dravot damned them all round. 'What's wrong with me?' he +shouts, standing by the idol Imbra. 'Am I a dog or am I not enough of a +man for your wenches? Haven't I put the shadow of my hand over this +country? Who stopped the last Afghan raid?' It was me really, but Dravot +was too angry to remember. 'Who bought your guns? Who repaired the +bridges? Who's the Grand-Master of the sign cut in the stone?' says he, +and he thumped his hand on the block that he used to sit on in Lodge, +and at Council, which opened like Lodge always. Billy Fish said nothing +and no more did the others. 'Keep your hair on, Dan,' said I; 'and ask +the girls. That's how it's done at Home, and these people are quite +English.' + +"'The marriage of the King is a matter of State,' says Dan, in a +white-hot rage, for he could feel, I hope, that he was going against his +better mind. He walked out of the Council-room, and the others sat +still, looking at the ground. + +"'Billy Fish,' says I to the Chief of Bashkai, 'what's the difficulty +here? A straight answer to a true friend.' + +"'You know,' says Billy Fish. 'How should a man tell you who knows +everything? How can daughters of men marry Gods or Devils? It's not +proper.' + +"I remembered something like that in the Bible; but if, after seeing us +as long as they had, they still believed we were Gods, it wasn't for me +to undeceive them. + +"'A God can do anything,' says I. 'If the King is fond of a girl he'll +not let her die.'--'She'll have to,' said Billy Fish. 'There are all +sorts of Gods and Devils in these mountains, and now and again a girl +marries one of them and isn't seen any more. Besides, you two know the +Mark cut in the stone. Only the Gods know that. We thought you were men +till you showed the sign of the Master.' + +"I wished then that we had explained about the loss of the genuine +secrets of a Master-Mason at the first go-off; but I said nothing. All +that night there was a blowing of horns in a little dark temple half-way +down the hill, and I heard a girl crying fit to die. One of the priests +told us that she was being prepared to marry the King. + +"'I'll have no nonsense of that kind,' says Dan. 'I don't want to +interfere with your customs, but I'll take my own wife.'--'The girl's a +little bit afraid,' says the priest. 'She thinks she's going to die, and +they are a-heartening of her up down in the temple.' + +"'Hearten her very tender, then,' says Dravot, 'or I'll hearten you with +the butt of a gun so you'll never want to be heartened again.' He licked +his lips, did Dan, and stayed up walking about more than half the night, +thinking of the wife that he was going to get in the morning. I wasn't +by any means comfortable, for I knew that dealings with a woman in +foreign parts, though you was a crowned King twenty times over, could +not but be risky. I got up very early in the morning while Dravot was +asleep, and I saw the priests talking together in whispers, and the +Chiefs talking together too, and they looked at me out of the corners of +their eyes. + +"'What is up, Fish?' I say to the Bashkai man, who was wrapped up in his +furs and looking splendid to behold. + +"'I can't rightly say,' says he; 'but if you can make the King drop all +this nonsense about marriage, you'll be doing him and me and yourself a +great service.' + +"'That I do believe,' says I. 'But sure, you know, Billy, as well as me, +having fought against and for us, that the King and me are nothing more +than two of the finest men that God Almighty ever made. Nothing more, I +do assure you.' + +"'That may be,' says Billy Fish, 'and yet I should be sorry if it was.' +He sinks his head upon his great fur cloak for a minute and thinks. +'King,' says he, 'be you man or God or Devil, I'll stick by you to-day. +I have twenty of my men with me, and they will follow me. We'll go to +Bashkai until the storm blows over.' + +"A little snow had fallen in the night, and everything was white except +the greasy fat clouds that blew down and down from the north. Dravot +came out with his crown on his head, swinging his arms and stamping his +feet, and looking more pleased than Punch. + +"'For the last time, drop it, Dan,' says I in a whisper, 'Billy Fish here +says that there will be a row.' + +"'A row among my people!' says Dravot. 'Not much. Peachey, you're a fool +not to get a wife too. Where's the girl?' says he with a voice as loud +as the braying of a jackass. 'Call up all the Chiefs and priests, and +let the Emperor see if his wife suits him.' + +"There was no need to call any one. They were all there leaning on their +guns and spears round the clearing in the centre of the pine wood. A lot +of priests went down to the little temple to bring up the girl, and the +horns blew fit to wake the dead. Billy Fish saunters round and gets as +close to Daniel as he could, and behind him stood his twenty men with +matchlocks. Not a man of them under six feet. I was next to Dravot, and +behind me was twenty men of the regular Army. Up comes the girl, and a +strapping wench she was, covered with silver and turquoises but white as +death, and looking back every minute at the priests. + +"'She'll do,' said Dan, looking her over. 'What's to be afraid of, lass? +Come and kiss me.' He puts his arm round her. She shuts her eyes, gives +a bit of a squeak, and down goes her face in the side of Dan's flaming +red beard. + +"'The slut's bitten me!' says he, clapping his hand to his neck, and, +sure enough, his hand was red with blood. Billy Fish and two of his +matchlock-men catches hold of Dan by the shoulders and drags him into +the Bashkai lot, while the priests howls in their lingo,--'Neither God +nor Devil but a man!' I was all taken aback, for a priest cut at me in +front, and the Army behind began firing into the Bashkai men. + +"'God A'mighty!' says Dan. 'What is the meaning o' this?' + +"'Come back! Come away!' says Billy Fish. 'Ruin and Mutiny is the +matter. We'll break for Bashkai if we can.' + +"I tried to give some sort of orders to my men--the men o' the regular +Army--but it was no use, so I fired into the brown of 'em with an +English Martini and drilled three beggars in a line. The valley was full +of shouting, howling creatures, and every soul was shrieking, 'Not a God +nor a Devil but only a man!' The Bashkai troops stuck to Billy Fish all +they were worth, but their matchlocks wasn't half as good as the Kabul +breech-loaders, and four of them dropped. Dan was bellowing like a bull, +for he was very wrathy; and Billy Fish had a hard job to prevent him +running out at the crowd. + +"'We can't stand,' says Billy Fish. 'Make a run for it down the valley! +The whole place is against us.' The matchlock-men ran, and we went down +the valley in spite of Dravot. He was swearing horrible and crying out +he was a King. The priests rolled great stones on us, and the regular +Army fired hard, and there wasn't more than six men, not counting Dan, +Billy Fish, and Me, that came down to the bottom of the valley alive. + +"Then they stopped firing and the horns in the temple blew again. 'Come +away--for Gord's sake come away!' says Billy Fish. 'They'll send runners +out to all the villages before ever we get to Bashkai. I can protect you +there, but I can't do anything now.' + +"My own notion is that Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour. +He stared up and down like a stuck pig. Then he was all for walking back +alone and killing the priests with his bare hands; which he could have +done. 'An Emperor am I,' says Daniel, 'and next year I shall be a Knight +of the Queen.' + +"'All right, Dan,' says I; 'but come along now while there's time.' + +"'It's your fault,' says he, 'for not looking after your Army better. +There was mutiny in the midst, and you didn't know--you damned +engine-driving, plate-laying, missionary's-pass-hunting hound!' He sat +upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to. I was +too heart-sick to care, though it was all his foolishness that brought +the smash. + +"'I'm sorry, Dan,' says I, 'but there's no accounting for natives. This +business is our Fifty-Seven. Maybe we'll make something out of it yet, +when we've got to Bashkai.' + +"'Let's get to Bashkai, then,' says Dan, 'and, by God, when I come back +here again I'll sweep the valley so there isn't a bug in a blanket +left!' + +"We walked all that day, and all that night Dan was stumping up and down +on the snow, chewing his beard and muttering to himself. + +"'There's no hope o' getting clear,' said Billy Fish. 'The priests will +have sent runners to the villages to say that you are only men. Why +didn't you stick on as Gods till things was more settled? I'm a dead +man,' says Billy Fish, and he throws himself down on the snow and begins +to pray to his Gods. + +"Next morning we was in a cruel bad country--all up and down, no level +ground at all, and no food either. The six Bashkai men looked at Billy +Fish hungryway as if they wanted to ask something, but they said never a +word. At noon we came to the top of a flat mountain all covered with +snow, and when we climbed up into it, behold, there was an Army in +position waiting in the middle! + +"'The runners have been very quick,' says Billy Fish, with a little bit +of a laugh. 'They are waiting for us.' + +"Three or four men began to fire from the enemy's side, and a chance +shot took Daniel in the calf of the leg. That brought him to his senses. +He looks across the snow at the Army, and sees the rifles that we had +brought into the country. + +"'We're done for,' says he. 'They are Englishmen, these people,--and +it's my blasted nonsense that has brought you to this. Get back, Billy +Fish, and take your men away; you've done what you could, and now cut +for it. Carnehan,' says he, 'shake hands with me and go along with +Billy. Maybe they won't kill you. I'll go and meet 'em alone. It's me +that did it. Me, the King!' + +"'Go!' says I. 'Go to Hell, Dan. I am with you here. Billy Fish, you +clear out, and we two will meet those folk.' + +"'I'm a Chief,' says Billy Fish, quite quiet. 'I stay with you. My men +can go.' + +"The Bashkai fellows didn't wait for a second word but ran off, and Dan +and Me and Billy Fish walked across to where the drums were drumming and +the horns were horning. It was cold--awful cold. I've got that cold in +the back of my head now. There's a lump of it there." + +The punkah-coolies had gone to sleep. Two kerosene lamps were blazing in +the office, and the perspiration poured down my face and splashed on the +blotter as I leaned forward. Carnehan was shivering, and I feared that +his mind might go. I wiped my face, took a fresh grip of the piteously +mangled hands, and said: "What happened after that?" + +The momentary shift of my eyes had broken the clear current. + +"What was you pleased to say?" whined Carnehan. "They took them without +any sound. Not a little whisper all along the snow, not though the King +knocked down the first man that set hand on him--not though old Peachey +fired his last cartridge into the brown of 'em. Not a single solitary +sound did those swines make. They just closed up tight, and I tell you +their furs stunk. There was a man called Billy Fish, a good friend of us +all, and they cut his throat, Sir, then and there, like a pig; and the +King kicks up the bloody snow and says: 'We've had a dashed fine run for +our money. What's coming next?' But Peachey, Peachey Taliaferro, I tell +you, Sir, in confidence as betwixt two friends, he lost his head, Sir. +No, he didn't neither. The King lost his head, so he did, all along o' +one of those cunning rope-bridges. Kindly let me have the paper-cutter, +Sir. It tilted this way. They marched him a mile across that snow to a +rope-bridge over a ravine with a river at the bottom. You may have seen +such. They prodded him behind like an ox. 'Damn your eyes!' says the +King. 'D' you suppose I can't die like a gentleman?' He turns to +Peachey--Peachey that was crying like a child. 'I've brought you to +this, Peachey,' says he. 'Brought you out of your happy life to be +killed in Kafiristan, where you was late Commander-in-Chief of the +Emperor's forces. Say you forgive me, Peachey.'--'I do,' says Peachey. +'Fully and freely do I forgive you, Dan.'--'Shake hands, Peachey,' says +he. 'I'm going now.' Out he goes, looking neither right nor left, and +when he was plumb in the middle of those dizzy dancing ropes,--'Cut, you +beggars,' he shouts; and they cut, and old Dan fell, turning round and +round and round, twenty thousand miles, for he took half an hour to fall +till he struck the water, and I could see his body caught on a rock with +the gold crown close beside. + +"But do you know what they did to Peachey between two pine-trees? They +crucified him, Sir, as Peachey's hand will show. They used wooden pegs +for his hands and his feet; and he didn't die. He hung there and +screamed, and they took him down next day, and said it was a miracle +that he wasn't dead. They took him down--poor old Peachey that hadn't +done them any harm--that hadn't done them any--" + +He rocked to and fro and wept bitterly, wiping his eyes with the back of +his scarred hands and moaning like a child for some ten minutes. + +"They was cruel enough to feed him up in the temple, because they said +he was more of a God than old Daniel that was a man. Then they turned +him out on the snow, and told him to go home, and Peachey came home in +about a year, begging along the roads quite safe; for Daniel Dravot he +walked before and said: 'Come along, Peachey. It's a big thing we're +doing.' The mountains they danced at night, and the mountains they tried +to fall on Peachey's head, but Dan he held up his hand, and Peachey came +along bent double. He never let go of Dan's hand, and he never let go of +Dan's head. They gave it to him as a present in the temple, to remind +him not to come again, and though the crown was pure gold, and Peachey +was starving, never would Peachey sell the same. You knew Dravot, Sir! +You knew Right Worshipful Brother Dravot! Look at him now!" + +He fumbled in the mass of rags round his bent waist; brought out a black +horsehair bag embroidered with silver thread; and shook therefrom on to +my table--the dried, withered head of Daniel Dravot! The morning sun +that had long been paling the lamps struck the red beard and blind +sunken eyes; struck, too, a heavy circlet of gold studded with raw +turquoises, that Carnehan placed tenderly on the battered temples. + +"You be'old now," said Carnehan, "the Emperor in his 'abit as he +lived--the King of Kafiristan with his crown upon his head. Poor old +Daniel that was a monarch once!" + +I shuddered, for, in spite of defacements manifold, I recognized the +head of the man of Marwar Junction. Carnehan rose to go. I attempted to +stop him. He was not fit to walk abroad. "Let me take away the whiskey, +and give me a little money," he gasped. "I was a King once. I'll go to +the Deputy Commissioner and ask to set in the Poorhouse till I get my +health. No, thank you, I can't wait till you get a carriage for me. I've +urgent private affairs--in the south--at Marwar." + +He shambled out of the office and departed in the direction of the +Deputy Commissioner's house. That day at noon I had occasion to go down +the blinding hot Mall, and I saw a crooked man crawling along the white +dust of the roadside, his hat in his hand, quavering dolorously after +the fashion of street singers at Home. There was not a soul in sight, +and he was out of all possible earshot of the houses. And he sang +through his nose, turning his head from right to left: + +The Son of Man goes forth to war, + A golden crown to gain; +His blood-red banner streams afar-- + Who follows in his train? + +I waited to hear no more, but put the poor wretch into my carriage and +drove him off to the nearest missionary for eventual transfer to the +Asylum. He repeated the hymn twice while he was with me whom he did not +in the least recognize, and I left him singing it to the missionary. + +Two days later I inquired after his welfare of the Superintendent of the +Asylum. + +"He was admitted suffering from sun-stroke. He died early yesterday +morning," said the Superintendent. "Is it true that he was half an hour +bare-headed in the sun at midday?" + +"Yes," said I, "but do you happen to know if he had anything upon him by +any chance when he died?" + +"Not to my knowledge," said the Superintendent. + +And there the matter rests. + + + + +XII. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI[*] (1905) + +[* From "The Four Million." Used by special arrangement with Doubleday, +Page & Company, publishers of O. Henry's Works.] + +BY O. HENRY[*] (1862-1910) + +[*: The pen-name of William Sidney Porter.] + + +[_Setting_. Christmas Eve in New York and a furnished flat at $8 per +week make the setting of this perfect little story. Della has only $1.87 +with which to buy a present for Jim and outside is "a grey cat walking a +grey fence in a grey backyard." But there is a spirit within that is to +make the modest flat a place of glory and this Christmas Eve memorable +in short-story annals. The flat is the stable with the manger, and New +York widens into Bethlehem. + +_Plot_. "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young +child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when +they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, +and frankincense, and myrrh." These were the gifts of the magi, but +their gift was love. The infant Christ could make no use of gold or +frankincense or myrrh, nor could Della and Jim make use of the combs and +the chain; but the love that prompted the giving shines all the more +resplendent because the gifts, humanly speaking, were egregious misfits. +"That the gold at least," says a recent commentator, "would be highly +serviceable to the parents in their unexpected journey to Egypt and +during their stay there--thus much at least admits of no dispute." +Perhaps so. But read the famous passage once more and turn again to O. +Henry's story. Which interpretation goes deeper into the heart of the +incident? Which leaves you more in love with love? + +_Characters_. Della and Jim have been said to illustrate the "story of +cross-purposes." But the phrase is not well used. Their purposes were +one; only their methods crossed. O. Henry rarely comments on his +characters, but he has here picked out one quality of these "two foolish +children in a flat" for unreserved praise: "Of all who give gifts these +two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are +wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi." If the magi, as +O. Henry says, "invented the art of giving Christmas presents," Della +and Jim re-discovered it. We have had no two characters in whose company +it is better to leave our study of the short story.] + + + +One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it +was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the +grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned +with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. +Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the +next day would be Christmas. + +There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch +and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that +life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles +predominating. + +While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first +stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per +week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that +word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad. + +In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, +and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. +Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James +Dillingham Young." + +The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of +prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the +income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as +though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and +unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and +reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. +James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all +very good. + +Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. +She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a +grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she +had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving +every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a +week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. +They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a +happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something +fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being +worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim. + +There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have +seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, +by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, +obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Delia, being slender, +had mastered the art. + +Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her +eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within +twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its +full length. + +Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which +they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been +his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the +Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have +let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate her +Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all +his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his +watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from +envy. + +So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like +a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself +almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and +quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or +two splashed on the worn red carpet. + +On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of +skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered +out the door and down the stairs to the street. + +Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of all +Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, +large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie." + +"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. + +"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at +the looks of it." + +Down rippled the brown cascade. + +"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand. + +"Give it to me quick," said Della. + +Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed +metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. + +She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. +There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all +of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in +design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by +meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even +worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be +Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to +both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home +with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly +anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he +sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap +that he used in place of a chain. + +When Delia reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence +and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went +to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is +always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task. + +Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls +that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at +her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically. + +"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second +look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what +could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?" + +At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of +the stove hot and ready to cook the chops. + +Jim was never late. Delia doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on +the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she +heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she +turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent +prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: +"Please God, make him think I am still pretty." + +The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and +very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened +with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves. + +Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of +quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in +them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, +nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments +that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with +that peculiar expression on his face. + +Della wriggled off the table and went for him. + +"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut +off and sold it because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without +giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I +just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say 'Merry Christmas!' +Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice--what a beautiful, +nice gift I've got for you." + +"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not +arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labour. + +"Cut it off and sold it," said Delia. "Don't you like me just as well, +anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?" + +Jim looked about the room curiously. + +"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy. + +"You needn't look for it," said Delia. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and +gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. +Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with a sudden +serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I +put the chops on, Jim?" + +Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For +ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential +object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a +year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you +the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not +among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on. + +Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table. + +"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think +there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that +could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package +you may see why you had me going a while at first." + +White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an +ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to +hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of +all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat. + +For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had +worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise +shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful +vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had +simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of +possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have +adorned the coveted adornments were gone. + +But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up +with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!" + +And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!" + +Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him +eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with +a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit. + +"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have +to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I +want to see how it looks on it." + +Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands +under the back of his head and smiled. "Dell," said he, "let's put our +Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use +just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. +And now suppose you put the chops on." + +The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought +gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving +Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, +possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And +here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two +foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other +the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of +these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the +wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. +Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Stories Old and New +Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORIES OLD AND NEW *** + +***** This file should be named 10483-8.txt or 10483-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/8/10483/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Shon McCarley and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10483-8.zip b/old/10483-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dceaef --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10483-8.zip diff --git a/old/10483.txt b/old/10483.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5122b6b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10483.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10583 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Stories Old and New +Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Short Stories Old and New + +Author: Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith + +Release Date: December 17, 2003 [EBook #10483] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORIES OLD AND NEW *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Shon McCarley and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +SHORT STORIES + +OLD AND NEW + + + +SELECTED AND EDITED + +BY + +C. ALPHONSO SMITH + +EDGAR ALLAN POE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE +UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, AUTHOR OF +"THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY," ETC. + + + +1916 + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Every short story has three parts, which may be called Setting or +Background, Plot or Plan, and Characters or Character. If you are going +to write a short story, as I hope you are, you will find it necessary to +think through these three parts so as to relate them interestingly and +naturally one to the other; and if you want to assimilate the best that +is in the following stories, you will do well to approach them by the +same three routes. + +The Setting or Background gives us the time and the place of the story +with such details of custom, scenery, and dialect as time and place +imply. It answers the questions _When? Where?_ The Plot tells us what +happened. It gives us the incidents and events, the haps or mishaps, +that are interwoven to make up the warp and woof of the story. Sometimes +there is hardly any interweaving; just a plain plan or simple outline is +followed, as in "The Christmas Carol" or "The Great Stone Face." We may +still call the core of these two stories the Plot, if we want to, but +Plan would be the more accurate. This part of the story answers the +question _What_? Under the heading Characters or Character we study the +personalities of the men and women who move through the story and give +it unity and coherence. Sometimes, as in "The Christmas Carol" or +"Markheim," one character so dominates the others that they are mere +spokes in his hub or incidents in his career. But in "The Gift of the +Magi," though more space is given to Della, she and Jim act from the +same motive and contribute equally to the development of the story. In +one of our stories the main character is a dog, but he is so human that +we may still say that the chief question to be answered under this +heading is _Who?_ + +Many books have been written about these three parts of a short story, +but the great lesson to be learned is that the excellence of a story, +long or short, consists not in the separate excellence of the Setting or +of the Plot or of the Characters but in the perfect blending of the +three to produce a single effect or to impress a single truth. If the +Setting does not fit the Plot, if the Plot does not rise gracefully from +the Setting, if the Characters do not move naturally and +self-revealingly through both, the story is a failure. Emerson might +well have had our three parts of the short story in mind when he wrote, + + All are needed by each one; + Nothing is fair or good alone. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +I. ESTHER, From the Old Testament + +II. THE HISTORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY ROBBERS, From "The + Arabian Nights" + +III. RIP VAN WINKLE, By Washington Irving + +IV. THE GOLD-BUG, By Edgar Allan Poe + +V. A CHRISTMAS CAROL, By Charles Dickens + +VI. THE GREAT STONE FACE, By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +VII. RAB AND HIS FRIENDS, By Dr. John Brown + +VIII. THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT, By Bret Harte + +IX. MARKHEIM, By Robert Louis Stevenson + +X. THE NECKLACE, By Guy de Maupassant + +XI. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, By Rudyard Kipling + +XII. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, By O. Henry + + + + +SHORT STORIES + + + + +I. ESTHER[*] + +[* From the Old Testament, Authorized Version.] + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN + + +[_Setting_. The events take place in Susa, the capital of Persia, in the +reign of Ahasuerus, or Xerxes (485-465 B.C.). This foreign locale +intensifies the splendid Jewish patriotism that breathes through the +story from beginning to end. If the setting had been in Jerusalem, +Esther could not have preached the noble doctrine, "When in Rome, don't +do as Rome does, but be true to the old ideals of home and race." + +_Plot_. "Esther" seems to me the best-told story in the Bible. Observe +how the note of empty Persian bigness versus simple Jewish faith is +struck at the very beginning and is echoed to the end. Thus, Ahasuerus +ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, the opening banquet +lasted one hundred and eighty-seven days, the king's bulletins were as +unalterable as the tides, the gallows erected was eighty-three feet +high, the beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue +and white and black marble, the money wrested from the Jews was to be +eighteen million dollars, etc. The word "banquet" occurs twenty times in +this short story and only twenty times in all the remaining thirty-eight +books of the Old Testament. In other words, Ahasuerus and his +trencher-mates ate and drank as much in five days as had been eaten and +drunk by all the other Old Testament characters from "Genesis" to +"Malachi." + +Note also the contrast between the two queens, the two prime ministers, +the two edicts, and the two later banquets. The most masterly part of +the plot is the handling of events between these banquets. Read again +from chapter v, beginning at verse 9, through chapter vi, and note how +skillfully the pen is held. In motivation as well as in symmetry and +naturalness the story is without a peer. There is humor, too, in the +solemn deliberations over Vashti's "No" (chapter i, verses 12-22) and in +the strange procession led by pedestrian Haman (chapter vi, verses +6-11). + +The purpose of the story was to encourage the feast of Purim (chapter +ix, verses 20-32) and to promote national solidarity. It may be compared +to "A Christmas Carol," which was written to restore the waning +celebration of Christmas, and to our Declaration of Independence, which +is re-read on every Fourth of July to quicken our sense of national +fellowship. But "Esther" is more than an institution. It is the old +story of two conflicting civilizations, one representing bigness, the +other greatness; one standing for materialism, the other for idealism; +one enthroning the body, the other the spirit. + +_Characters_. These are finely individualized, though each seems to me a +type. Ahasuerus is a tank that runs blood or wine according to the hand +that turns the spigot. He was used for good but deserves and receives no +credit for it. No man ever missed a greater opportunity. He was brought +face to face with the two greatest world-civilizations of history; but, +understanding neither, he remains only a muddy place in the road along +which Greek and Hebrew passed to world-conquest. Haman, a blend of +vanity and cruelty and cowardice but not without some power of +initiative, was a fit minister for his king. He lives in history as one +who, better than in Hamlet's illustration, was "hoist with his own +petard," the petard in his case being a gallows. He typifies also the +just fate of the man who, spurred by the hate of one, includes in his +scheme of extermination a whole people. Collective vengeance never +received a better illustration nor a more exemplary punishment. Mordecai +is altogether admirable in refusing to kowtow to Haman and in his +unselfish devotion to his fair cousin, Esther. The noblest sentiment in +the book--"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a +time as this?"--comes from Mordecai. + +But the leading character is Esther, not because she was "fair and +beautiful" but because she was hospitable to the great thought suggested +by Mordecai. None but a Jew could have asked, "Who knoweth whether thou +art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" and none but a Jew +could have answered as Esther answered. The question implied a sense of +personal responsibility and of divine guidance far beyond the reach of +Persian or Mede or Greek of that time. It calls up many a quiet hour +when Esther and Mordecai talked together of their strange lot in this +heathen land and wondered if the time would ever come when they could +interpret their trials in terms of national service rather than of +meaningless fate. Imagine the blank and bovine expression that Ahasuerus +or Haman would have turned upon you if you had put such a question to +either of them. But in the case of Esther, Mordecai's appeal unlocked an +unused reservoir of power that has made her one of the world's heroines. +She had her faults, or rather her limitations, but since her time men +have gone to the stake, have built up and torn down principalities and +powers, on the dynamic conviction that they had been sent to the kingdom +"for such a time as this."] + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STORY OF VASHTI + + +1. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus +which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven +and twenty provinces,) + +2. That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his +kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, + +3. In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes +and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes +of the provinces, being before him: + +4. When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of +his excellent majesty many days, even a hundred and fourscore days. + +5. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the +people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and +small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. + +6. Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of +fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds +were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, +and black marble. + +7. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being +diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the +state of the king. + +8. And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so +the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they +should do according to every man's pleasure. + +9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house +which belonged to king Ahasuerus. + +10. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, +he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and +Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus +the king, + +11. To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to +shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. + +12. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by +his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger +burned in him. + +13. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so +was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment: + +14. And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, +Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, +which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom,) + +15. What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she +hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the +chamberlains? + +16. And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the +queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, +and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king +Ahasuerus. + +17. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that +they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be +reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in +before him, but she came not. + +18. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all +the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus +shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. + +19. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, +and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that +it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and +let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. + +20. And when the king's decree, which he shall make, shall be published +throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give +to their husbands honour, both to great and small. + +21. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did +according to the word of Memucan: + +22. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every +province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after +their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and +that it should be published according to the language of every people. + + + +CHAPTER II + +ESTHER MADE QUEEN + + +1. After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he +remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against +her. + +2. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be +fair young virgins sought for the king: + +3. And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his +kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto +Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai +the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for +purification be given them: + +4. And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of +Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. + +5. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was +Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a +Benjamite; + +6. Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had +been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the +king of Babylon had carried away. + +7. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: +for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and +beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for +his own daughter. + +8. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was +heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the +palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the +king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. + +9. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he +speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as +belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out +of the king's house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best +place of the house of the women. + +10. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had +charged her that she should not shew it. + +11. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, +to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. + +12. Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, +after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the +women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to +wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and +with other things for the purifying of the women,) + +13. Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired +was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the +king's house. + +14. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the +second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's +chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no +more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by +name. + +15. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of +Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the +king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the +keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight +of all them that looked upon her. + +16. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the +tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his +reign. + +17. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained +grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set +the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. + +18. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his +servants, even Esther's feast; and he made a release to the provinces, +and gave gifts, according to the state of the king. + +19. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then +Mordecai sat in the king's gate. + +20. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people, as Mordecai +had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as +when she was brought up with him. + + +MORDECAI SAVES THE KING'S LIFE + + +21. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the +king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, +were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. + +22. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the +queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. + +23. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; +therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the +book of the chronicles before the king. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CONSPIRACY OF HAMAN + + +1. After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of +Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the +princes that were with him. + +2. And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and +reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But +Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. + +3. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto +Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? + +4. Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened +not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters +would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. + +5. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, +then was Haman full of wrath. + +6. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had +shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all +the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the +people of Mordecai. + +7. In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of +king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day +to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the +month Adar. + +8. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people +scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of +thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep +they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to +suffer them. + +9. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: +and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that +have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. + +10. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the +son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. + +11. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the +people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. + +12. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the +first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had +commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were +over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province +according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their +language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with +the king's ring. + +13. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to +destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, +little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of +the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of +them for a prey. + +14. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every +province was published unto all people, that they should be ready +against that day. + +15. The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and +the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat +down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FASTING AMONG THE JEWS + + +1. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, +and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the +city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; + +2. And came even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the +king's gate clothed with sackcloth. + +3. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his +decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and +weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. + +4. So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was +the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, +and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. + +5. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom +he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to +Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. + +6. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which +was before the king's gate. + +7. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the +sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries +for the Jews, to destroy them. + +8. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given +at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it +unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make +supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. + +9. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. + +10. Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto +Mordecai; + +11. All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do +know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king +into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put +him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden +sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto +the king these thirty days. + +12. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. + + +THE GREAT APPEAL + + +13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself +that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. + +14. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall +there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; +but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth +whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? + +15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, + +16. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and +fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I +also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the +king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. + +17. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had +commanded him. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COURAGE OF ESTHER + + +1. Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal +apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against +the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal +house, over against the gate of the house. + +2. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the +court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to +Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and +touched the top of the sceptre. + +3. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what +is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. + +4. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and +Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. + +5. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as +Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther +had prepared. + +6. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy +petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to +the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. + +7. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; + +8. If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the +king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and +Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do +to-morrow as the king hath said. + + +BETWEEN BANQUETS + + +9. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when +Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved +for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. + +10. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent +and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. + +11. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of +his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and +how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. + +12. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in +with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and +to-morrow am I invited unto her also with the king. + +13. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew +sitting at the king's gate. + +14. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a +gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the +king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with +the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused +the gallows to be made. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BETWEEN BANQUETS (CONTINUED) + + +1. On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the +book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. + +2. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and +Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who +sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. + +3. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai +for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, There +is nothing done for him. + +4. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the +outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to hang +Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. + +5. And the king's servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the +court. And the king said, Let him come in. + +6. So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto +the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his +heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself? + +7. And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to +honour, + +8. Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and +the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set +upon his head: + +9. And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the +king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the +king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street +of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man +whom the king delighteth to honour. + +10. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and +the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that +sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast +spoken. + +11. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and +brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed +before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth +to honour. + +12. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his +house mourning, and having his head covered. + +13. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that +had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, +If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to +fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before +him. + +14. And while they were yet talking with him, came the king's +chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had +prepared. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ESTHER'S BANQUET: HAMAN HANGED + + +1. So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. + +2. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet +of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted +thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the +half of the kingdom. + +3. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in +thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at +my petition, and my people at my request: + +4. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and +to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held +my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. + +5. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who +is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? + +6. And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then +Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. + +7. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into +the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to +Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him +by the king. + +8. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the +banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. +Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? +As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. + +9. And Harbona, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold +also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, +who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then +the king said, Hang him thereon. + +10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for +Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JEWS PERMITTED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES + + +1. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' +enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for +Esther had told what he was unto her. + +2. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and +gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. + +3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his +feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the +Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews, + +4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther +arose, and stood before the king, + +5. And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his +sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in +his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the +son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which +are in all the king's provinces: + +6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? +or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? + +7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai +the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they +have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. + +8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and +seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the +king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. + +9. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, +that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it +was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and +to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which +are from India unto Ethiopia, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto +every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people +after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and +according to their language. + +10. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the +king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on +mules, camels, and young dromedaries: + +11. Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather +themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, +and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that +would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of +them for a prey, + +12. Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon +the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. + +13. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every +province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be +ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. + +14. So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being +hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was +given at Shushan the palace. + +15. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel +of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of +fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. + +16. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. + +17. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's +commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast +and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the +fear of the Jews fell upon them. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE JEWS DEFEND THEMSELVES + + +1. Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth +day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to +be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to +have power over them; (though it was turned to the contrary, that the +Jews had rule over them that hated them,) + +2. The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all +the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their +hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon +all people. + +3. And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the +deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of +Mordecai fell upon them. + +4. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out +throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and +greater. + +5. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, +and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that +hated them. + +6. And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred +men. + +7. And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, + +8. And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, + +9. And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, + +10. The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, +slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand. + +11. On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the +palace was brought before the king. + +12. And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and +destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of +Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what +is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request +further? and it shall be done. + +13. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the +Jews which are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's +decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. + +14. And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at +Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. + +15. For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on +the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at +Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand. + +16. But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered +themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their +enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid +not their hands on the prey, + +17. On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day +of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. + +18. But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the +thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the +fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and +gladness. + +19. Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled +towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and +feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. + + +THE FEAST OF PURIM + + +20. And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews +that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, + +21. To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth +day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, + +22. As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the +month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning +into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, +and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. + +23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had +written unto them; + +24. Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all +the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast +Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; + +25. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that +his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon +his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. + +26. Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. +Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had +seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, + +27. The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon +all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that +they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according +to their appointed time every year; + +28. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every +generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these +days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of +them perish from their seed. + +29. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the +Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. + +30. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and +seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and +truth, + +31. To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according +as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they +had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the +fastings and their cry. + +32. And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it +was written in the book. + + + +CHAPTER X + +MORDECAI PRIME MINISTER + + +1. And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the +isles of the sea. + +2. And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration +of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they +not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and +Persia? + +3. For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among +the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the +wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed. + + + + +II. THE HISTORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY ROBBERS[*] + +[* From "The Arabian Nights."] + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN + + +[_Setting_. This story, like "Esther," takes place in Persia. The +stories of "The Arabian Nights" as a whole probably originated in India, +were modified and augmented by the Persians, and had the finishing +touches put upon them by the Arabians. Bagdad on the Tigris is the city +that figures most prominently in the stories, and the good caliph Haroun +Al-Raschid (or Alraschid), who ruled from 786 to 809, A.D., is the +monarch most often mentioned. + +"A goodly place, a goodly time, +For it was in the golden prime + Of good Haroun Alraschid." + +However old the germs of the stories are, the form in which we have them +hardly antedates the year 1450. The absence of all mention of coffee and +tobacco precludes, at least, a date much later. They began to be +translated into the languages of Europe during the reign of Queen Anne +and, with the exception of the Old Testament, have been the chief +orientalizing influence in modern literature. The setting of "Ali Baba" +shows the four characteristics of all these Perso-Arabian tales: it has +to do with town life, not country life; it presupposes one faith, the +Mohammedan; it shows a fondness for magic; and it takes for granted an +audience interested not in moral or ethical distinctions but in +story-telling for story-telling's sake. + +_Plot_. The plot of the short story as a distinct type of literature has +been said to show a steady progress from the impossible through the +improbable and probable to the inevitable. When we say of a story that +the conclusion is inevitable we mean that, with the given background and +characters, it could not have ended in any other way, just as, with a +given multiplier and multiplicand, one product and only one is possible. +This cannot be said of "Ali Baba," because the five parts are not linked +together in a logical sequence as are the events in "The Gold-Bug," or +by any controlling idea of reform such as we find in "A Christmas +Carol," or by any underlying moral purpose like that which gives unity +and dignity to "The Great Stone Face." These Perso-Arabian tales, in +other words, are stories of random incident, loosely but charmingly +told, with always the note of strangeness and unexpectedness. The +incidents, however, reflect accurately the manners and customs of time +and place. We do not believe that a door ever opened to the magic of +mere words, but we do believe and cannot help believing that the author +tells the truth when he writes of leather jars full of oil, of bands of +mounted robbers, of a poor man who could support himself by hauling wood +from the free-for-all forest, of slavery from which one might escape by +notable fidelity, of funeral rites performed by the imaum and other +ministers of the mosque, and of the unwillingness of an assassin to +attempt the life of a man with whom he had just eaten salt. Fancy, it is +true, mingles with fact in "The Arabian Nights," but it does not replace +fact. + +_Characters_. Morgiana is the leading character. She furnishes all the +brains employed in the story. The narrator praises her "courage" twice, +but she had more than courage. Fidelity, initiative, and resourcefulness +must also be put among her assets. We can hardly imagine her as acting +from Esther's high motive, but she lived up to the best standards of +conduct that she knew. Whoever serves as a model for his own time may +serve as a model for ours. Duties change, but duty remains.] + + + +I + +CASSIM, ALI BABA'S BROTHER, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY THE ROBBERS + + +There once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Cassim and +the other Ali Baba. Their father divided his small property equally +between them. Cassim married a very rich wife, and became a wealthy +merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by +cutting wood and bringing it upon three asses into the town to sell. + +One day, when Ali Baba had cut just enough wood in the forest to load +his asses, he noticed far off a great cloud of dust. As it drew nearer, +he saw that it was made by a body of horsemen, whom he suspected to be +robbers. Leaving the asses, he climbed a large tree which grew on a high +rock, and had branches thick enough to hide him completely while he saw +what passed beneath. The troop, forty in number, all well mounted and +armed, came to the foot of the rock on which the tree stood, and there +dismounted. Each man unbridled his horse, tied him to a shrub, and hung +about his neck a bag of corn. Then each of them took off his saddle-bag, +which from its weight seemed to Ali Baba full of gold and silver. One, +whom he took to be their captain, came under the tree in which Ali Baba +was concealed; and, making his way through some shrubs, spoke the words: +"Open, Sesame."[*] As soon as the captain of the robbers said this, a +door opened in the rock, and after he had made all his troop enter +before him, he followed them, when the door shut again of itself. + +[* Sesame (pronounced _sessamy_), a small grain.] + +The robbers stayed some time within, and Ali Baba, fearful of being +caught, remained in the tree. At last the door opened again, and the +captain came out first, and stood to see all the troop pass by him. Then +Ali Baba heard him make the door close by saying: "Shut, Sesame." Every +man at once bridled his horse, fastened his wallet, and mounted again. +When the captain saw them all ready, he put himself at their head, and +they returned the way they had come. + +Ali Baba watched them out of sight, and then waited some time before +coming down. Wishing to see whether the captain's words would have the +same effect if he should speak them, he found the door hidden in the +shrubs, stood before it, and said: "Open, Sesame." Instantly the door +flew wide open. + +Instead of a dark, dismal cavern, Ali Baba was surprised to see a large +chamber, well lighted from the top, and in it all sorts of provisions, +rich bales of silk, brocade and carpeting, gold and silver ingots in +great heaps, and money in bags. + +Ali Baba went boldly into the cave, and collected as much of the gold +coin, which was in bags, as he thought his asses could carry. When he +had loaded them with the bags, he laid wood over them so that they could +not be seen, and, passing out of the door for the last time, stood +before it and said: "Shut, Sesame." The door closed of itself, and he +made the best of his way to town. + +When he reached home, he carefully closed the gate of his little yard, +threw off the wood, and carried the bags into the house. They were +emptied before his wife, and the great heap of gold dazzled her eyes. +Then he told her the whole adventure, and warned her, above all things, +to keep it secret. + +Ali Baba would not let her take the time to count it out as she wished, +but said: "I will dig a hole and bury it." + +"But let us know as nearly as may be," she said, "how much we have. I +will borrow a small measure, and measure it, while you dig a hole." + +Away she ran to the wife of Cassim, who lived near by, and asked for a +measure. The sister-in-law, knowing Ali Baba's poverty, was curious to +learn what sort of grain his wife wished to measure out, and artfully +managed to put some suet in the bottom of the measure before she handed +it over. Ali Baba's wife wanted to show how careful she was in small +matters, and, after she had measured the gold, hurried back, even while +her husband was burying it, with the borrowed measure, never noticing +that a coin had stuck to its bottom. + +"What," said Cassim's wife, as soon as her sister-in-law had left her, +"has Ali Baba gold in such plenty that he measures it? Whence has he all +this wealth?" And envy possessed her breast. + +When Cassim came home, she said to him: "Cassim, you think yourself +rich, but Ali Baba is much richer. He does not count his money; he +measures it." Then she explained to him how she had found it out, and +they looked together at the piece of money, which was so old that they +could not tell in what prince's reign it was coined. + +Cassim, since marrying the rich widow, had never treated Ali Baba as a +brother, but neglected him. Now, instead of being pleased, he was filled +with a base envy. Early in the morning, after a sleepless night, he went +to him and said: "Ali Baba, you pretend to be wretchedly poor, and yet +you measure gold. My wife found this at the bottom of the measure you +borrowed yesterday." + +Ali Baba saw that there was no use of trying to conceal his good +fortune, and told the whole story, offering his brother part of the +treasure to keep the secret. + +"I expect as much," replied Cassim haughtily; "but I must know just +where this treasure is and how to visit it myself when I choose. +Otherwise I will inform against you, and you will lose even what you +have now." + +Ali Baba told him all he wished to know, even to the words he must speak +at the door of the cave. + +Cassim rose before the sun the next morning, and set out for the forest +with ten mules bearing great chests which he meant to fill. With little +trouble he found the rock and the door, and, standing before it, spoke +the words: "Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and when he was +within closed upon him. Here indeed were the riches of which his brother +had told. He quickly brought as many bags of gold as he could carry to +the door of the cavern; but his thoughts were so full of his new wealth, +that he could not think of the word that should let him out. Instead of +"Sesame," he said "Open, Barley," and was much amazed to find that the +door remained fast shut. He named several sorts of grain, but still the +door would not open. + +Cassim had never expected such a disaster, and was so frightened that +the more he tried to recall the word "Sesame," the more confused his +mind became. It was as if he had never heard the word at all. He threw +down the bags in his hands, and walked wildly up and down, without a +thought of the riches lying round about him. + +At noon the robbers visited their cave. From afar they saw Cassim's +mules straggling about the rock, and galloped full speed to the cave. +Driving the mules out of sight, they went at once, with their naked +sabres in their hands, to the door, which opened as soon as the captain +had spoken the proper words before it. + +Cassim had heard the noise of the horses' feet, and guessed that the +robbers had come. He resolved to make one effort for his life. As soon +as the door opened, he rushed out and threw the leader down, but could +not pass the other robbers, who with their scimitars soon put him to +death. + +The first care of the robbers was to examine the cave. They found all +the bags Cassim had brought to the door, but did not miss what Ali Baba +had taken. As for Cassim himself, they guessed rightly that, once +within, he could not get out again; but how he had managed to learn +their secret words that let him in, they could not tell. One thing was +certain,--there he was; and to warn all others who might know their +secret and follow in Cassim's footsteps, they agreed to cut his body +into four quarters--to hang two on one side and two on the other, within +the door of the cave. This they did at once, and leaving the place of +their hoards well closed, mounted their horses and set out to attack the +caravans they might meet. + + + +II + +THE MANNER OF CASSIM'S DEATH CONCEALED + + +When night came, and Cassim did not return, his wife became very uneasy. +She ran to Ali Baba for comfort, and he told her that Cassim would +certainly think it unwise to enter the town till night was well +advanced. By midnight Cassim's wife was still more alarmed, and wept +till morning, cursing her desire to pry into the affairs of her brother +and sister-in-law. In the early day she went again, in tears, to Ali +Baba. + +He did not wait for her to ask him to go and see what had happened to +Cassim, but set out at once for the forest with his three asses. Finding +some blood at the door of the cave, he took it for an ill omen; but when +he had spoken the words, and the door had opened, he was struck with +horror at the dismal sight of his brother's body. He could not leave it +there, and hastened within to find something to wrap around it. Laying +the body on one of his asses, he covered it with wood. The other two +asses he loaded with bags of gold, covering them also with wood as +before. Then bidding the door shut, he came away, but stopped some time +at the edge of the forest, that he might not go into the town before +night. When he reached home he left the two asses, laden with gold, in +his little yard for his wife to unload, and led the other to his +sister-in-law's house. + +Ali Baba knocked at the door, which was opened by Morgiana, a clever +slave, full of devices to conquer difficulties. When he came into the +court and unloaded the ass, he took Morgiana aside, and said to her:-- + +"You must observe a strict secrecy. Your master's body is contained in +these two panniers. We must bury him as if he had died a natural death. +Go now and tell your mistress. I leave the matter to your wit and +skillful devices." + +They placed the body in Cassim's house, and, charging Morgiana to act +well her part, Ali Baba returned home with his ass. + +Early the next morning, Morgiana went to a druggist, and asked for a +sort of lozenge used in the most dangerous illness. When he asked her +for whom she wanted it, she answered with a sigh: "My good master +Cassim. He can neither eat nor speak." In the evening she went to the +same druggist, and with tears in her eyes asked for an essence given to +sick persons for whose life there is little hope. "Alas!" said she, "I +am afraid even this will not save my good master." + +All that day Ali Baba and his wife were seen going sadly between their +house and Cassim's, and in the evening nobody was surprised to hear the +shrieks and cries of Cassim's wife and Morgiana, who told everybody that +her master was dead. + +The next morning at daybreak she went to an old cobbler, who was always +early at work, and, putting a piece of gold in his hand, said:-- + +"Baba Mustapha, you must bring your sewing-tackle and come with me; but +I must tell you, I shall blindfold you when we reach a certain place." + +"Oh! oh!" replied he, "you would have me do something against my +conscience or my honor." + +"God forbid!" said Morgiana, putting another piece of gold in his hand; +"only come along with me, and fear nothing." + +Baba Mustapha went with Morgiana, and at a certain place she bound his +eyes with a handkerchief, which she never unloosed till they had entered +the room of her master's house, where she had put the corpse together. + +"Baba Mustapha," said she, "you must make haste, and sew the parts of +this body together, and when you have done, I will give you another +piece of gold." + +After Baba Mustapha had finished his task, she blindfolded him again, +gave him the third piece of gold she had promised, and, charging him +with secrecy, took him back to the place where she had first bound his +eyes. Taking off the bandage, she watched him till he was out of sight, +lest he should return and dog her; then she went home. + +At Cassim's house she made all things ready for the funeral, which was +duly performed by the imaum[*] and other ministers of the mosque. +Morgiana, as a slave of the dead man, walked in the procession, weeping, +beating her breast, and tearing her hair. Cassim's wife stayed at home, +uttering doleful cries with the women of the neighborhood, who, +according to custom, came to mourn with her. The whole quarter was +filled with sounds of sorrow. + +[* Imaum, a Mohammedan priest.] + +Thus the manner of Cassim's death was hushed up, and, besides his widow, +Ali Baba, and Morgiana, the slave, nobody in the city suspected the +cause of it. Three or four days after the funeral, Ali Baba removed his +few goods openly to his sister-in-law's house, in which he was to live +in the future; but the money he had taken from the robbers was carried +thither by night. As for Cassim's warehouse, Ali Baba put it entirely +under the charge of his eldest son. + + + +III + +THE ROBBERS' PLOT FOILED BY MORGIANA + + +While all this was going on, the forty robbers again visited their cave +in the forest. Great was their surprise to find Cassim's body taken +away, with some of their bags of gold. + +"We are certainly found out," said the captain; "the body and the money +have been taken by some one else who knows our secret. For our own +lives' sake, we must try and find him. What say you, my lads?" + +The robbers all agreed that this must be done. + +"Well," said the captain, "one of you, the boldest and most skillful, +must go to the town, disguised as a stranger, and try if he can hear any +talk of the man we killed, and find out where he lived. This matter is +so important that the man who undertakes it and fails should suffer +death. What say you?" + +One of the robbers, without waiting to know what the rest might think, +started up, and said: "I submit to this condition, and think it an honor +to expose my life to serve the troop." + +This won great praise from the robber's comrades, and he disguised +himself at once so that nobody could take him for what he was. Just at +daybreak he entered the town, and walked up and down till he came by +chance to Baba Mustapha's stall, which was always open before any of the +shops. + +The old cobbler was just going to work when the robber bade him +good-morrow, and said:-- + +"Honest man, you begin to work very early; how can one of your age see +so well? Even if it were lighter, I question whether you could see to +stitch." + +"You do not know me," replied Baba Mustapha; "for old as I am I have +excellent eyes. You will not doubt me when I tell you that I sewed the +body of a dead man together in a place where I had not so much light as +I have now." + +"A dead body!" exclaimed the robber amazed. + +"Yes, yes," answered Baba Mustapha; "I see you want to know more, but +you shall not." + +The robber felt sure that he was on the right track. He put a piece of +gold into Baba Mustapha's hand, and said to him:-- + +"I do not want to learn your secret, though you could safely trust me +with it. The only thing I ask of you is to show me the house where you +stitched up the dead body." + +"I could not do that," replied Baba Mustapha, "if I would. I was taken +to a certain place, whence I was led blindfold to the house, and +afterwards brought back again in the same manner." + +"Well," replied the robber, "you may remember a little of the way that +you were led blindfold. Come, let me blind your eyes at the same place. +We will walk together, and perhaps you may recall the way. Here is +another piece of gold for you." + +This was enough to bring Baba Mustapha to his feet. They soon reached +the place where Morgiana had bandaged his eyes, and here he was +blindfolded again. Baba Mustapha and the robber walked on till they came +to Cassim's house, where Ali Baba now lived. Here the old man stopped, +and when the thief pulled off the band, and found that his guide could +not tell him whose house it was, he let him go. But before he started +back for the forest himself, well pleased with what he had learned, he +marked the door with a piece of chalk which he had ready in his hand. + +Soon after this Morgiana came out upon some errand, and when she +returned she saw the mark the robber had made, and stopped to look at +it. + +"What can this mean?" she said to herself. "Somebody intends my master +harm, and in any case it is best to guard against the worst." Then she +fetched a piece of chalk, and marked two or three doors on each side in +the same manner, saying nothing to her master or mistress. + +When the robber rejoined his troop in the forest, and told of his good +fortune in meeting the one man that could have helped him, they were all +delighted. + +"Comrades," said the captain, "we have no time to lose. Let us set off +at once, well armed and disguised, enter the town by twos, and join at +the great square. Meanwhile our comrade who has brought us the good news +and I will go and find out the house, and decide what had best be done." + +Two by two they entered the town. Last of all went the captain and the +spy. When they came to the first of the houses which Morgiana had +marked, the spy pointed it out. But the captain noticed that the next +door was chalked in the same manner, and asked his guide which house it +was, that or the first. The guide knew not what answer to make, and was +still more puzzled when he and the captain saw five or six houses marked +after this same fashion. He assured the captain, with an oath, that he +had marked but one, and could not tell who had chalked the rest, nor +could he say at which house the cobbler had stopped. + +There was nothing to do but to join the other robbers, and tell them to +go back to the cave. Here they were told why they had all returned, and +the guide was declared by all to be worthy of death. Indeed, he +condemned himself, owning that he ought to have been more careful, and +prepared to receive the stroke which was to cut off his head. + +The safety of the troop still demanded that the second comer to the cave +should be found, and another of the gang offered to try it, with the +same penalty if he should fail. Like the other robber, he found out Baba +Mustapha, and, through him, the house, which he marked, in a place +remote from sight, with red chalk. + +But nothing could escape Morgiana's eyes, and when she went out, not +long after, and saw the red chalk, she argued with herself as before, +and marked the other houses near by in the same place and manner. + +The robber, when he told his comrades what he had done, prided himself +on his carefulness, and the captain and all the troop thought they must +succeed this time. Again they entered the town by twos; but when the +robber and his captain came to the street, they found the same trouble. +The captain was enraged, and the robber as much confused as the former +guide had been. Thus the captain and his troop went back again to the +cave, and the robber who had failed willingly gave himself up to death. + + + +IV + +THE ROBBERS, EXCEPT THE CAPTAIN, DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA + + +The captain could not afford to lose any more of his brave fellows, and +decided to take upon himself the task in which two had failed. Like the +others, he went to Baba Mustapha, and was shown the house. Unlike them +he put no mark on it, but studied it carefully and passed it so often +that he could not possibly mistake it. + +When he returned to the troop, who were waiting for him in the cave, he +said:-- + +"Now, comrades, nothing can prevent our full revenge, as I am certain of +the house. As I returned I thought of a way to do our work, but if any +one thinks of a better, let him speak." + +He told them his plan, and, as they thought it good, he ordered them to +go into the villages about, and buy nineteen mules, with thirty-eight +large leather jars, one full of oil, and the others empty. Within two or +three days they returned with the mules and the jars, and as the mouths +of the jars were rather too narrow for the captain's purpose, he caused +them to be widened. Having put one of his men into each jar, with the +weapons which he thought fit, and having a seam wide enough open for +each man to breathe, he rubbed the jars on the outside with oil from the +full vessel. + +Thus prepared they set out for the town, the nineteen mules loaded with +the thirty-seven robbers in jars, and the jar of oil, with the captain +as their driver. When he reached Ali Baba's door, he found Ali Baba +sitting there taking a little fresh air after his supper. The captain +stopped his mules, and said:-- + +"I have brought some oil a great way to sell at to-morrow's market; and +it is now so late that I do not know where to lodge. Will you do me the +favor to let me pass the night with you?" + +Though Ali Baba had seen the captain in the forest, and had heard him +speak, he could not know him in the disguise of an oil-merchant, and +bade him welcome. He opened his gates for the mules to go into the yard, +and ordered a slave to put them in a stable and feed them when they were +unloaded, and then called Morgiana to get a good supper for his guest. +After supper he charged her afresh to take good care of the stranger, +and said to her:-- + +"To-morrow morning I intend to go to the bath before day; take care to +have my bathing linen ready; give it to Abdalla" (which was his slave's +name), "and make me some good broth against my return." After this he +went to bed. + +In the mean time the captain of the robbers went into the yard, and took +off the lid of each jar, and told his people what they must do. To each, +in turn, he said:-- + +"As soon as I throw some stones out of the chamber window where I lie, +do not fail to come out, and I will join you at once." + +Then he went into the house, and Morgiana showed him his chamber, where +he soon put out the light, and laid himself down in his clothes. + +To carry out Ali Baba's orders, Morgiana got his bathing linen ready, +and bade Abdalla to set on the pot for the broth; but soon the lamp went +out, and there was no more oil in the house, nor any candles. She knew +not what to do, till the slave reminded her of the oil-jars in the yard. +She thanked him for the thought, took the oil-pot, and went out. When +she came nigh the first jar, the robber within said softly: "Is it +time?" + +Of course she was surprised to find a man in the jar instead of the oil, +but she saw at once that she must keep silence, as Ali Baba, his family, +and she herself were in great danger. Therefore she answered, without +showing any fear: "Not yet, but presently." In this manner she went to +all the jars and gave the same answers, till she came to the jar of oil. + +By this means Morgiana found that her master had admitted to his house +thirty-eight robbers, of whom the pretended oil-merchant, their captain, +was one. She made what haste she could to fill her oil-pot, and returned +to her kitchen, lighted her lamp, and taking a great kettle went back to +the oil-jar and filled it. Then she set the kettle on a large wood fire, +and as soon as it boiled went and poured enough into every jar to stifle +and destroy the robber within. + +When this deed, worthy of the courage of Morgiana, was done without any +noise, as she had planned, she returned to the kitchen with the empty +kettle, put out the lamp, and left just enough of the fire to make the +broth. Then she sat silent, resolving not to go to rest till she had +seen through the window that opened on the yard whatever might happen +there. + +It was not long before the captain of the robbers got up, and, seeing +that all was dark and quiet, gave the appointed signal by throwing +little stones, some of which hit the jars, as he doubted not by the +sound they gave. As there was no response, he threw stones a second and +a third time, and could not imagine why there was no answer to his +signal. + +Much alarmed, he went softly down into the yard, and, going to the first +jar to ask the robber if he was ready, smelt the hot boiled oil, which +sent forth a steam out of the jar. From this he suspected that his plot +was found out, and, looking into the jars one by one, he found that all +his gang were dead. Enraged to despair, he forced the lock of a door +that led from the yard to the garden, and made his escape. When Morgiana +saw him go, she went to bed, well pleased that she had saved her master. +and his family. + +Ali Baba rose before day, and went to the baths without knowing of what +had happened in the night. When he returned he was very much surprised +to see the oil-jars in the yard and the mules in the stable. + +"God preserve you and all your family," said Morgiana when she was asked +what it meant; "you will know better when you have seen what I have to +show you." + +So saying she led him to the first jar, and asked him to see if there +was any oil. When he saw a man instead, he started back in alarm. + +"Do not be afraid," said Morgiana; "he can do neither you nor anybody +else the least harm. He is dead. Now look into all the other jars." + +Ali Baba was more and more amazed as he went on, and saw all the dead +men and the sunken oil-jar at the end. He stood looking from the jars to +Morgiana, till he found words to ask: "And what is become of the +merchant?" + +"Merchant!" answered she; "he is as much one as I am." + +Then she led him into the house, and told of all that she had done, from +the first noticing of the chalk-mark to the death of the robbers and the +flight of their captain. On hearing of these brave deeds from Morgiana's +own lips, Ali Baba said to her:-- + +"God, by your means, has delivered me from death. For the first token of +what I owe you, I give you your liberty from this moment, till I can +fully reward you as I intend." + +Near the trees at the end of Ali Baba's long garden, he and Abdalla dug +a trench large enough to hold the bodies of the robbers. When they were +buried there, Ali Baba hid the jars and weapons; and as the mules were +of no use to him, he sent them at different times to be sold in the +market by his slave. + + + +V + +THE CAPTAIN DISCOVERED AND KILLED BY MORGIANA + + +The captain of the forty robbers had returned to his cave in the forest, +but found himself so lonely there that the place became frightful to +him. He resolved at the same time to avenge the fate of his comrades, +and to bring about the death of Ali Baba. For this purpose he returned +to the town, disguised as a merchant of silks. By degrees he brought +from his cavern many sorts of fine stuffs, and to dispose of these he +took a warehouse that happened to be opposite Cassim's, which Ali Baba's +son had occupied since the death of his uncle. + +He took the name of Cogia Houssain, and as a newcomer was very civil to +the merchants near him. Ali Baba's son was one of the first to converse +with him, and the new merchant was most friendly. Within two or three +days Ali Baba came to see his son, and the captain of the robbers knew +him at once, and soon learned from his son who he was. From that time +forth he was still more polite to Ali Baba's son, who soon felt bound to +repay the many kindnesses of his new friend. + +As his own house was small, he arranged with his father that on a +certain afternoon, when he and the merchant were passing by Ali Baba's +house, they should stop, and he should ask them both to sup with him. +This plan was carried out, though at first the merchant, with whose own +plans it agreed perfectly, made as if to excuse himself. He even gave it +as a reason for not remaining that he could eat no salt in his victuals. + +"If that is all," said Ali Baba, "it need not deprive me of the honor of +your company"; and he went to the kitchen and told Morgiana to put no +salt into anything she was cooking that evening. + +Thus Cogia Houssain was persuaded to stay, but to Morgiana it seemed +very strange that any one should refuse to eat salt. She wished to see +what manner of man it might be, and to this end, when she had finished +what she had to do in the kitchen, she helped Abdalla carry up the +dishes. Looking at Cogia Houssain, she knew him at first sight, in spite +of his disguise, to be the captain of the robbers, and, scanning him +very closely, saw that he had a dagger under his garment. + +"I see now why this greatest enemy of my master would eat no salt with +him. He intends to kill him; but I will prevent him." + +While they were at supper Morgiana made up her mind to do one of the +boldest deeds ever conceived. She dressed herself like a dancer, girded +her waist with a silver-gilt girdle, from which hung a poniard, and put +a handsome mask on her face. Then, when the supper was ended, she said +to Abdalla:-- + +"Take your tabor, and let us go and divert our master and his son's +friend, as we sometimes do when he is alone." + +They presented themselves at the door with a low bow, and Morgiana was +bidden to enter and show Cogia Houssain how well she danced. This, he +knew, would interrupt him in carrying out his wicked purpose, but he had +to make the best of it, and to seem pleased with Morgiana's dancing. She +was indeed a good dancer, and on this occasion outdid herself in +graceful and surprising motions. At the last, she took the tabor from +Abdalla's hand, and held it out like those who dance for money. + +Ali Baba put a piece of gold into it, and so did his son. When Cogia +Houssain saw that she was coming to him, he pulled out his purse from +his bosom to make her a present; but while he was putting his hand into +it, Morgiana, with courage worthy of herself, plunged the poniard into +his heart. + +"Unhappy woman!" exclaimed Ali Baba, "what have you done to ruin me and +my family?" + +"It was to preserve, not to ruin you," answered Morgiana. Then she +showed the dagger in Cogia Houssain's garment, and said: "Look well at +him, and you will see that he is both the pretended oil-merchant and the +captain of the band of forty robbers. As soon as you told me that he +would eat no salt with you, I suspected who it was, and when I saw him, +I knew." + +Ali Baba embraced her, and said: "Morgiana, I gave you your liberty +before, and promised you more in time; now I would make you my +daughter-in-law. Consider," he said, turning to his son, "that by +marrying Morgiana, you marry the preserver of my family and yours." + +The son was all the more ready to carry out his father's wishes, because +they were the same as his own, and within a few days he and Morgiana +were married, but before this, the captain of the robbers was buried +with his comrades, and so secretly was it done, that their bones were +not found till many years had passed, when no one had any concern in +making this strange story known. + +For a whole year Ali Baba did not visit the robbers' cave. At the end of +that time, as nobody had tried to disturb him, he made another journey +to the forest, and, standing before the entrance to the cave, said: +"Open, Sesame." The door opened at once, and from the appearance of +everything within the cavern, he judged that nobody had been there since +the captain had fetched the goods for his shop. From this time forth, he +took as much of the treasure as his needs demanded. Some years later he +carried his son to the cave, and taught him the secret, which he handed +down in his family, who used their good fortune wisely, and lived in +great honor and splendor. + + + + +III. RIP VAN WINKLE[*] (1819) + +[* From "The Sketch Book." The elaborate Knickerbocker notes with which +Irving, following a passing fashion of the time, sought to mystify the +reader, are here omitted. They are hindrances now rather than helps.] + +BY WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) + + +[_Setting_. The Hudson River and the Kaatskill Mountains were first +brought into literature through this story, Irving being the first +American master of local color and local tradition. Since 1870 the +American short story, following the example of Irving, has been the +leading agency by which the South, the West, and New England have made +known and thus perpetuated their local scenery, legends, customs, and +dialect. Irving, however, seemed afraid of dialect. There were, it is +true, many legends about the Hudson before Irving was born, but they had +found no expression in literature. Mrs. Josiah Quincy, who made a voyage +up the Hudson in 1786, wrote: "Our captain had a legend for every scene, +either supernatural or traditional or of actual occurrence during the +war, and not a mountain reared its head unconnected with some marvellous +story." Irving, therefore, did not have to manufacture local traditions; +he only gave them wider currency and fitted them more artistically into +their natural settings. + +Irving chose for his setting the twenty years that embrace the +Revolutionary War because the numerous social and political changes that +took place then enabled him to bring Rip back after his sleep into a +"world not realized." You will appreciate much better the art of this +time-setting if you will try your hand on a somewhat similar story and +place it between 1820 and 1840, when railroads, telegraph lines, and +transatlantic steamers made a new world out of the old; or, if your +story takes place in the South, you might make your background include +the interval between 1855 and 1875, when slavery was abolished, when the +old plantation system was changed, when the names of new heroes emerged, +and when new social and political and industrial problems had to be +grappled with. + +_Plot_. The plot is divided into two almost equal parts, which we may +call "before and after taking." A recent critic has said: "The actual +forward movement of the plot does not begin until the sentence, 'In a +long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously +scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains.'" The +critic has missed, I think, the main structural excellence of the story. +Dame Van Winkle, the children who hung around Rip, his own children, his +dog, the social club at the inn with the portrait of George the Third, +Van Bummel, and Nicholas Vedder, all had to be mentioned before Rip +began the ascent of the mountain. Otherwise, when he returned, we should +have had no means of measuring the swift passage of time during his +sleep. Each is a skillfully set timepiece or milepost which, on Rip's +return, misleads the poor fellow at every turn and thus produces the +exact kind of "totality of effect" that Irving intended. The forward +movement of the plot begins with this careful planning of the route that +Rip is to take on his return trip, when twenty years shall have done +their work. Cut out these _points de repere_ and see how effectively the +forward movement of the plot is retarded. + +_Characters_. Rip was the first character in American fiction to be +known far beyond our own borders, and he remains one of the best known. +In the class with him belong James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking (or +Natty Bumppo), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, Joel Chandler Harris's +Uncle Remus, and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He has +been called un-American, and so he is, and so Irving plainly intended +him to be. If one insists on finding a bit of distinctive Americanism +somewhere in the story, he will find it not in Rip but in the number and +rapidity of the changes that American life underwent during the twenty +years that serve as background to the story. George William Curtis calls +Rip "the constant and unconscious satirist of American life," but surely +Irving would have smiled at finding so purposeful a mission laid upon +the stooping shoulders of his vagabond ne'er-do-well hero. Rip is no +satirist, conscious or unconscious. He is a provincial Dutch type, such +as Irving had seen a hundred times; but he is so lovable and is sketched +so lovingly that we hardly realize the consummate art, the human +sympathy, and the keen powers of observation that have gone into his +making. Every other character in the story, including Wolf, is a +sidelight on Rip. Of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Irving said: "The +story is a mere whimsical band to connect the descriptions of scenery, +customs, manners, etc." The emphasis, in other words, was put on the +setting. Of "Rip Van Winkle" might he not have said, "The descriptions +of scenery, customs, manners, etc. are but so many channels through +which the character of Rip finds outlet and expression"?] + + + +Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill +Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian +family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a +noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change +of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, +produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, +and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect +barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in +blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; +but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is cloudless they will +gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last +rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. + +At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the +light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among +the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the +fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great +antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists in the +early time of the province, just about the beginning of the government +of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were +some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, +built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, having latticed +windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. + +In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell +the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived +many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, +a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a +descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous +days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort +Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of +his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; +he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband. +Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of +spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are +most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the +discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered +pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a +curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the +virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, +in some respects be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van +Winkle was thrice blessed. + +Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of +the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex, took his part in all +family squabbles; and never failed, whenever they talked those matters +over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van +Winkle. The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever +he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, +taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories +of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the +village, he was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his skirts, +clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with +impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. + +The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all +kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or +perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and +heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even +though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a +fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods +and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild +pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor, even in the +roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking +Indian corn, or building stone-fences; the women of the village, too, +used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs +as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip +was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing +family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. + +In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the +most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; everything +about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences +were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray or +get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields +than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as +he had some out-door work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate +had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was +little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it +was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood. + +His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to +nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own likeness, promised to +inherit the habits, with the old clothes of his father. He was generally +seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of +his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up +with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in bad weather. + +Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, +well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or +brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would +rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he +would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept +continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, +and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night her +tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to +produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of +replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had +grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up +his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh +volley from his wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and +take to the outside of the house--the only side which, in truth, belongs +to a henpecked husband. + +Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked +as his master; for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in +idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of +his master's going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit +befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever +scoured the woods--but what courage can withstand the ever-during and +all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment Wolf entered the +house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between +his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong +glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least flourish of a broomstick or +ladle he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation. + +Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony +rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is +the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. For a long +while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting +a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle +personages of the village, which held its sessions on a bench before a +small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the +Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy summer's +day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy +stories about nothing. But it would have been worth any statesman's +money to have heard the profound discussions that sometimes took place, +when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing +traveller. How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled +out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little +man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the +dictionary; and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some +months after they had taken place. + +The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas +Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door +of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving +sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the shade of a large tree; so +that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as +by a sun-dial. It is true he was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his +pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his +adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his +opinions. When anything that was read or related displeased him, he was +observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, frequent +and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and +tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds; and sometimes, +taking the pipe from his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl +about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect +approbation. + +From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his +termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquillity of the +assemblage and call the members all to naught; nor was that august +personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of +this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her +husband in habits of idleness. + +Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only +alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his +wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he +would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the +contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a +fellow-sufferer in persecution. "Poor Wolf," he would say, "thy mistress +leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live +thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his +tail, look wistfully in his master's face, and if dogs can feel pity, I +verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. + +In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had +unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill +Mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel shooting, and the +still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his gun. +Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a +green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a +precipice. From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the +lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the +lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but majestic +course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging +bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing +itself in the blue highlands. + +On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, +lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending +cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. +For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually +advancing, the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the +valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the +village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the +terrors of Dame Van Winkle. + +As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, +"Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!" He looked round, but could see nothing +but a crow winging its solitary flight across the mountain. He thought +his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when he +heard the same cry ring through the still evening air: "Rip Van Winkle! +Rip Van Winkle!"--at the same time Wolf bristled up his back, and giving +a low growl, skulked to his master's side, looking fearfully down into +the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked +anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly +toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he +carried on his back. He was surprised to see any human being in this +lonely and unfrequented place; but supposing it to be some one of the +neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it. + +On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the singularity of the +stranger's appearance. He was a short, square-built old fellow, with +thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique +Dutch fashion: a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist, several pairs of +breeches, the outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons +down the sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulder a +stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to +approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful +of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity; and +mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully, +apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended, Rip +every now and then heard long rolling peals like distant thunder, that +seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty +rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for a moment, +but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient +thunder-showers which often take place in mountain heights, he +proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a +small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the +brinks of which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only +caught glimpses of the azure sky and the bright evening cloud. During +the whole time Rip and his companion had labored on in silence; for +though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying +a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange +and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe and checked +familiarity. + +On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder presented +themselves. On a level spot in the center was a company of odd-looking +personages playing at ninepins. They were dressed in a quaint outlandish +fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in +their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches of similar style +with that of the guide's. Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a +large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another +seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white +sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. They all had +beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who seemed to be the +commander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten +countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, +high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with +roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old +Flemish painting in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick, the village +parson, which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the +settlement. + +What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were +evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the +most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of +pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the +scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, +echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. + +As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from +their play, and stared at him with such, fixed, statue-like gaze, and +such strange, uncouth, lack-lustre countenances, that his heart turned +within him, and his knees smote together. His companion now emptied the +contents of the keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait +upon the company. He obeyed with fear and trembling; they quaffed the +liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. + +By degrees Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even ventured, when +no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage, which he found had +much of the flavor of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty +soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked +another; and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often that at +length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head +gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. + +On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen +the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes--it was a bright, sunny +morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the +eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze. +"Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all night." He recalled +the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of +liquor--the mountain ravine--the wild retreat among the rocks--the +woe-begone party at ninepins--the flagon--"Oh! that flagon! that wicked +flagon!" thought Rip--"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?" + +He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean, well-oiled +fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel +incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. He +now suspected that the grave roisterers of the mountain had put a trick +upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. +Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a +squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him, and shouted his name, but +all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was +to be seen. + +He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and if +he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to +walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his usual +activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, "and +if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall +have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty he got +down into the glen; he found the gully up which he and his companion has +ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain +stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling +the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up +its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, +sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the +wild grapevines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree, +and spread a kind of network in his path. + +At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs +to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks +presented a high, impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came +tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad, deep basin, +black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip +was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after his dog; he +was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting high +in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure +in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's +perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was passing away, and Rip +felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog +and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve +among the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, +and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps +homeward. + +As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he +knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself +acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was of +a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all +stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their +eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence +of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to his +astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! + +He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange +children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray +beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old +acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered; +it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had +never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had +disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange faces at the +windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to +doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. +Surely this was his native village, which he had left but the day +before. There stood the Kaatskill Mountains--there ran the silver Hudson +at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always +been--Rip was sorely perplexed--"That flagon last night," thought he, +"has addled my poor head sadly!" + +It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, +which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the +shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay--the +roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A +half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking about it. Rip called +him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This +was an unkind cut indeed--"My very dog," sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten +me!" + +He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had +always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently +abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears--he called +loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for a moment +with his voice, and then again all was silence. + +He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village +inn--but it, too, was gone. A large, rickety wooden building stood in +its place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended +with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "The Union +Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to +shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall +naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red night-cap, +and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of +stars and stripes--all this was strange and incomprehensible. He +recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King George, under +which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but even this was +singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and +buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was +decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large +characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON. + +There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that Rip +recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. There was +a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed +phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas +Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering +clouds of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the +schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient newspaper. In +place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of +hand-bills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens +--elections--members of congress--liberty--Bunker's Hill--heroes +of seventy-six--and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon +to the bewildered Van Winkle. + +The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty +fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at +his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern-politicians. They +crowded round him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. The +orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired "on +which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but +busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, +inquired in his ear, "Whether he was Federal or Democrat?" Rip was +equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, +self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way +through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as +he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, +the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, +as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, "what +brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his +heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?"--"Alas! +gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor quiet man, a +native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!" + +Here a general shout burst from the bystanders--"A tory! a tory! a spy! +a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great difficulty that +the self-important man in the cocked hat restored order; and, having +assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown +culprit what he came there for, and whom he was seeking? The poor man +humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in +search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the tavern. + +"Well--who are they?--name them." + +Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?" + +There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin, piping voice: "Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that used +to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." + +"Where's Brom Dutcher?" + +"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he +was killed at the storming of Stony Point--others say he was drowned in +a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know--he never came back +again." + +"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" + +"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now in +Congress." + +Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and +friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer +puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of +matters which he could not understand: war--Congress--Stony Point; he +had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, +"Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?" + +"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. + +"Oh, to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the +tree." + +Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up +the mountain: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor +fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and +whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, +the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name? + +"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself--I'm +somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else got into my +shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and +they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and I +can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" + +The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, +and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There was a whisper, +also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing +mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the +cocked hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment a +fresh, comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the +gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened +at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little +fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the +mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in +his mind. "What is your name, my good woman?" asked he. + +"Judith Gardenier." + +"And your father's name?" + +"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years since +he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of +since,--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself or +was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a +little girl." + +Rip had but one question more to ask; and he put it with a faltering +voice:--"Where's your mother?" + +"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel +in a fit of passion at a New England peddler." + +There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The honest +man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her +child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he--"Young Rip Van Winkle +once--old Rip Van Winkle now! Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle?" + +All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the +crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a +moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough it is Rip Van Winkle--it is himself! +Welcome home again, old neighbor--Why, where have you been these twenty +long years?" + +Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him +but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were +seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks; and +the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, +had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and +shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of the head +throughout the assemblage. + +It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, +who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a descendant of the +historian of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the +province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well +versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. +He recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most +satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a fact, handed +down from his ancestor the historian, that the Kaatskill Mountains had +always been haunted by strange beings. That it was affirmed that the +great Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, +kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the +Half-moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his +enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city +called by his name. That his father had once seen them in their old +Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain; and that +he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls +like distant peals of thunder. + +To make a long story short, the company broke up and returned to the +more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home to +live with her; she had a snug well-furnished house, and a stout cheery +farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the urchins that +used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto +of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on +the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to anything +else but his business. + +Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his +former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of +time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with +whom he soon grew into great favor. + +Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a +man can be idle with impunity, he took his place once more on the bench +at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the +village, and a chronicle of the old times "before the war." It was some +time before he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be +made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his +torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war--that the country +had thrown off the yoke of old England--and that, instead of being a +subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of +the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician; the changes of +states and empires made but little impression on him; but there was one +species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that +was--petticoat government. Happily that was at an end; he had got his +neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he +pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her +name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, +and cast up his eyes, which might pass either for an expression of +resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance. + +He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr. +Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some points +every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having so +recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I have +related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neighborhood but knew it +by heart. Some always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted +that Rip had been out of his head, and that this was one point on which +he always remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost +universally gave it full credit. Even to this day they never hear a +thunder-storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but they say +Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins; and it is a +common wish of all henpecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life +hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught out +of Rip Van Winkle's flagon. + + + + +IV. THE GOLD-BUG (1843) + +BY EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) + + +[_Setting_. Sullivan's Island is at the entrance of Charleston harbor, +just east of Charleston, South Carolina. It is the site of Fort +Moultrie, where Poe served as a private soldier in Battery H of the +First Artillery, United States Army, from November, 1827, to November, +1828. The atmosphere of the place in Poe's time is well preserved, but +no such beetle as the gold-bug has been discovered. Poe may have found a +hint for his story in the wreck of the old brigantine _Cid Campeador_ +off the coast of South Carolina in 1745, the affidavits of the burying +of the treasure being still preserved in the Probate Court Records of +Charleston. + +_Plot_. "The Gold-Bug" is recognized as one of the world's greatest +short stories and marks a distinct advance in short-story structure. The +plot is divided into two parts, which we may call mystery and solution, +or complication and explication, or rise and fall. The second part +begins with the short paragraph on page 91, beginning "When, at length, +we had concluded our examination," etc. Notice how skillfully the +interest is preserved and even heightened as the plot passes from the +romantic action of part one to the subtle exposition of part two. These +two parts may be said to represent the two sides of Poe's genius, the +imaginative or poetical, and the intellectual or scientific. The +treasure-trove is the symbol of the first, the cryptogram of the second. +Stories had been written about buried treasures and about cryptograms +before 1843, but the two interests had never before been combined. Poe's +example, however, has borne abundant fruit. + +_Characters_. Poe's strength did not lie in the creation of character. +He is so intent on the development of the windings and unwindings of his +story that the characters become mere puppets, originated and controlled +by the needs of the plot. Jupiter deserves mention as one of the +earliest attempts made by an American short-story writer to portray +negro character. But Jupiter has been so far surpassed in breadth and +reality by Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, and a score of +others as to be almost negligible in the count. In defense of Jupiter's +barbarous lingo, which has been often criticized, it should be +remembered that Poe intended him as a representative of the Gullah (or +Gulla) dialect. "It is the negro dialect," says Joel Chandler Harris, +"in its most primitive state--the 'Gullah' talk of some of the negroes +on the Sea Islands being merely a confused and untranslatable mixture of +English and African words." + +William Legrand, though not a great or notable character in any way, is +admirably fitted to do what is required of him in the story. Like Poe, +he was solitary, proud, quick-tempered, and "subject to perverse moods +of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy." He had also Poe's passion for +puzzles. Jupiter is hardly more than an awkward tool fashioned to +display Legrand's analytic and directive genius; and the other character +in the story, like Dr. Watson in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, +is introduced merely to ask such questions as must be answered if the +reader is to follow intelligently the unfolding of the plot. They are +agents rather than characters.] + + + +What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad! +He hath been bitten by the Tarantula. + "All in the Wrong" + + +Many years ago, I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He +was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a +series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the +mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the +city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's +Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. + +This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the +sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point +exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a +scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of +reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, as +might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any +magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort +Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted +during summer by the fugitives from Charleston dust and fever, may be +found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with the +exception of this western point, and a line of hard white beach on the +seacoast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle, so +much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub here often +attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost +impenetrable coppice, burdening the air with its fragrance. + +In the utmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern or +more remote end of the island, Legrand had built himself a small hut, +which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made his +acquaintance. This soon ripened into friendship--for there was much in +the recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him well educated, +with unusual powers of mind, but infected with misanthropy, and subject +to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. He had with +him many books, but rarely employed them. His chief amusements were +gunning and fishing, or sauntering along the beach and through the +myrtles in quest of shells or entomological specimens;--his collection +of the latter might have been envied by a Swammerdamm. In these +excursions he was usually accompanied by an old negro, called Jupiter, +who had been manumitted before the reverses of the family, but who +could be induced, neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon what +he considered his right of attendance upon the footsteps of his young +"Massa Will." It is not improbable that the relatives of Legrand, +conceiving him to be somewhat unsettled in intellect, had contrived to +instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the supervision and +guardianship of the wanderer. + +The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very +severe, and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a +fire is considered necessary. About the middle of October, 18--, there +occurred, however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset I +scrambled my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, whom I +had not visited for several weeks--my residence being at that time in +Charleston, a distance of nine miles from the island, while the +facilities of passage and repassage were very far behind those of the +present day. Upon reaching the hut I rapped, as was my custom, and, +getting no reply, sought for the key where I knew it was secreted, +unlocked the door, and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon the +hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I threw +off an overcoat, took an armchair by the crackling logs, and awaited +patiently the arrival of my hosts. + +Soon after dark they arrived, and gave me a most cordial welcome. +Jupiter, grinning from ear to ear, bustled about to prepare some +marsh-hens for supper. Legrand was in one of his fits--how else shall I +term them?--of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve, forming a +new genus, and, more than this, he had hunted down and secured, with +Jupiter's assistance, a _scarabaeus_ which he believed to be totally +new, but in respect to which he wished to have my opinion on the +morrow. + +"And why not to-night?" I asked, rubbing my hands over the blaze, and +wishing the whole tribe of _scarabaei_ at the devil. + +"Ah, if I had only known you were here!" said Legrand, "but it's so +long since I saw you; and how could I foresee that you would pay me a +visit this very night of all others? As I was coming home I met +Lieutenant G----, from the fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him the +bug; so it will be impossible for you to see it until the morning. Stay +here to-night, and I will send Jup down for it at sunrise. It is the +loveliest thing in creation!" + +"What?--sunrise?" + +"Nonsense! no!--the bug. It is of a brilliant gold color--about the +size of a large hickory-nut--with two jet-black spots near one +extremity of the back, and another, somewhat longer, at the other. The +_antennae_ are--" + +"Dey aint _no_ tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a tellin on you," here +interrupted Jupiter; "de bug is a goole-bug, solid, ebery bit of him, +inside and all, sep him wing--neber feel half so hebby a bug in my +life." + +"Well, suppose it is, Jup," replied Legrand, somewhat more earnestly, +it seemed to me, than the case demanded, "is that any reason for your +letting the birds burn? The color"--here he turned to me--"is really +almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea. You never saw a more brilliant +metallic lustre than the scales emit--but of this you cannot judge till +to-morrow. In the meantime I can give you some idea of the shape." +Saying this, he seated himself at a small table, on which were a pen +and ink, but no paper. He looked for some in a drawer, but found none. + +"Never mind," said he at length, "this will answer"; and he drew from +his waistcoat pocket a scrap of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, +and made upon it a rough drawing with the pen. While he did this, I +retained my seat by the fire, for I was still chilly. When the design +was complete, he handed it to me without rising. As I received it, a +low growl was heard, succeeded by a scratching at the door. Jupiter +opened it, and a large Newfoundland, belonging to Legrand, rushed in, +leaped upon my shoulders, and loaded me with caresses; for I had shown +him much attention during previous visits. When his gambols were over, +I looked at the paper, and, to speak the truth, found myself not a +little puzzled at what my friend had depicted. + +"Well!" I said, after contemplating it for some minutes, "this _is_ a +strange _scarabaeus_, I must confess; new to me; never saw anything like +it before--unless it was a skull, or a death's-head, which it more +nearly resembles than anything else that has come under _my_ +observation." + +"A death's-head!" echoed Legrand--"oh--yes--well, it has something of +that appearance upon paper, no doubt. The two upper black spots look +like eyes, eh? and the longer one at the bottom like a mouth--and then +the shape of the whole is oval." + +"Perhaps so," said I; "but, Legrand, I fear you are no artist. I must +wait until I see the beetle itself, if I am to form any idea of its +personal appearance." + +"Well, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, "I draw +tolerably--_should_ do it at least--have had good masters, and flatter +myself that I am not quite a blockhead." + +"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I; "this is a very +passable _skull_,--indeed, I may say that it is a very _excellent_ +skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of +physiology--and your _scarabaeus_ must be the queerest _scarabaeus_ in +the world if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrilling bit +of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will call the bug +_scarabaeus caput hominis_[*] or something of that kind--there are many +similar titles in the Natural Histories. But where are the _antennae_ +you spoke of?" + +[* _Scarabaeus caput hominis_, "death's-head beetle."] + +"The _antennae_!" said Legrand, who seemed to be getting unaccountably +warm upon the subject; "I am sure you must see the _antennae_. I made +them as distinct as they are in the original insect, and I presume that +is sufficient." + +"Well, well," I said, "perhaps you have--still I don't see them"; and I +handed him the paper without additional remark, not wishing to ruffle +his temper; but I was much surprised at the turn affairs had taken; his +ill humor puzzled me--and as for the drawing of the beetle, there were +positively _no antennae_, visible, and the whole _did_ bear a very close +resemblance to the ordinary cuts of a death's-head. + +He received the paper very peevishly, and was about to crumple it, +apparently to throw it in the fire, when a casual glance at the design +seemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In an instant his face grew +violently red--in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he +continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely where he sat. At length he +arose, took a candle from the table, and proceeded to seat himself upon +a sea-chest in the farthest corner of the room. Here again he made an +anxious examination of the paper; turning it in all directions. He said +nothing, however, and his conduct greatly astonished me; yet I thought +it prudent not to exacerbate the growing moodiness of his temper by any +comment. Presently he took from his coat pocket a wallet, placed the +paper carefully in it, and deposited both in a writing-desk, which he +locked. He now grew more composed in his demeanor; but his original air +of enthusiasm had quite disappeared. Yet he seemed not so much sulky as +abstracted. As the evening wore away he became more and more absorbed +in revery, from which no sallies of mine could arouse him. It had been +my intention to pass the night at the hut, as I had frequently done +before, but, seeing my host in this mood, I deemed it proper to take +leave. He did not press me to remain, but, as I departed, he shook my +hand with even more than his usual cordiality. + +It was about a month after this (and during the interval I had seen +nothing of Legrand) when I received a visit, at Charleston, from his +man, Jupiter. I had never seen the good old negro look so dispirited, +and I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my friend. + +"Well, Jup," said I, "what is the matter now?--how is your master?" + +"Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry well as mought be." + +"Not well! I am truly sorry to hear it. What does he complain of?" + +"Dar! dat's it!--him neber plain of notin--but him berry sick for all +dat." + +"_Very_ sick, Jupiter!--why didn't you say so at once? Is he confined +to bed?" + +"No, dat he aint!--he aint find nowhar--dat's just whar de shoe +pinch--my mind is got to be berry hebby bout poor Massa Will." + +"Jupiter, I should like to understand what it is you are talking about. +You say your master is sick. Hasn't he told you what ails him?" + +"Why, massa, taint worf while for to git mad bout de matter--Massa Will +say noffin at all aint de matter wid him--but den what make him go bout +looking dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up, and as white +as a gose? And then he keeps a syphon all de time--" + +"Keeps a what, Jupiter?" + +"Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on de slate--de queerest figgurs I ebber +did see. Ise gittin to be skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keep mighty +tight eye pon him noovers. Todder day he gib me slip fore de sun up and +was gone de whole ob de blessed day. I had a big stick ready cut for to +gib him d----d good beating when he did come--but Ise sich a fool dat I +hadn't de heart arter all--he look so berry poorly." + +"Eh?--what?--ah, yes!--upon the whole I think you had better not be too +severe with the poor fellow--don't flog him, Jupiter--he can't very +well stand it--but can you form no idea of what has occasioned this +illness, or rather this change of conduct? Has anything unpleasant +happened since I saw you?" + +"No, massa, dey aint bin noffin onpleasant _since_ den--'t was _fore_ +den I'm feared--'t was de berry day you was dare." + +"How? what do you mean?" + +"Why, massa, I mean de bug--dare now." + +"The what?" + +"De bug--I'm berry sartain dat Massa Will bin bit somewhere bout de +head by dat goole-bug." + +"And what cause have you, Jupiter, for such a supposition?" + +"Claws enuff, massa, and mouff too. I nebber did see sich a d----d +bug--he kick and he bite every ting what cum near him. Massa Will cotch +him fuss, but had for to let him go gin mighty quick, I tell you--den +was de time he must ha got de bite. I didn't like de look ob de bug +mouff, myself, no how, so I wouldn't take hold ob him wid my finger, +but I cotch him wid a piece ob paper dat I found. I rap him up in de +paper and stuff piece ob it in he mouff--dat was de way." + +"And you think, then, that your master was really bitten by the beetle, +and that the bite made him sick?" + +"I don't tink noffin about it--I nose it. What make him dream bout de +goole so much, if taint cause he bit by de goole-bug? Ise heerd bout +dem goole-bugs fore dis." + +"But how do you know he dreams about gold?" + +"How I know? why, cause he talk about it in he sleep--dat's how I +nose." + +"Well, Jup, perhaps you are right; but to what fortunate circumstances +am I to attribute the honor of a visit from you to-day?" + +"What de matter, massa?" + +"Did you bring any message from Mr. Legrand?" + +"No, massa, I bring dis here pissel"; and here Jupiter handed me a note +which ran thus: + + +MY DEAR----: Why have I not seen you for so long a time? +I hope you have not been so foolish as to take offense at any little +_brusquerie_ of mine; but no, that is improbable. + +Since I saw you I have had great cause for anxiety. I have something +to tell you, yet scarcely know how to tell it, or whether I should +tell it at all. + +I have not been quite well for some days past, and poor old Jup +annoys me, almost beyond endurance, by his well-meant attentions. +Would you believe it?--he had prepared a huge stick, the other +day, with which to chastise me for giving him the slip, and spending +the day, _solus_, among the hills on the mainland. I verily believe +that my ill looks alone saved me a flogging. + +I have made no addition to my cabinet since we met. + +If you can, in any way, make it convenient, come over with +Jupiter. _Do_ come. I wish to see you _tonight_, upon business of +importance. I assure you that it is of the _highest_ importance. + +Ever yours, + +WILLIAM LEGRAND + + +There was something in the tone of this note which gave me great +uneasiness. Its whole style differed materially from that of Legrand. +What could he be dreaming of? What new crotchet possessed his excitable +brain? What "business of the highest importance" could _he_ possibly +have to transact? Jupiter's account of him boded no good. I dreaded lest +the continued pressure of misfortune had, at length, fairly unsettled +the reason of my friend. Without a moment's hesitation, therefore, I +prepared to accompany the negro. + +Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades, all +apparently new, lying in the bottom of the boat in which we were to +embark. + +"What is the meaning of all this, Jup?" I inquired. + +"Him syfe, massa, and spade." + +"Very true; but what are they doing here?" + +"Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will sis pon my buying for him in +de town, and de debbil's own lot of money I had to gib for em." + +"But what, in the name of all that is mysterious, is your 'Massa Will' +going to do with scythes and spades?" + +"Dat's more dan _I_ know, and debbil take me if I don't believe 'tis +more dan he know, too. But it's all cum ob de bug." + +Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter, whose whole +intellect seemed to be absorbed by "de bug," I now stepped into the boat +and made sail. With a fair and strong breeze we soon ran into the little +cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walk of some two miles +brought us to the hut. It was about three in the afternoon when we +arrived. Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expectation. He grasped +my hand with a nervous _empressement_, which alarmed me and strengthened +the suspicions already entertained. His countenance was pale even to +ghastliness, and his deep-set eyes glared with unnatural lustre. After +some inquiries respecting his health, I asked him, not knowing what +better to say, if he had yet obtained the _scarabaeus_ from Lieutenant +G----. + +"Oh, yes," he replied, coloring violently, "I got it from him the next +morning. Nothing should tempt me to part with that _scarabaeus_. Do you +know that Jupiter is quite right about it?" + +"In what way?" I asked, with a sad foreboding at heart. + +"In supposing it to be a bug of _real gold_." He said this with an air +of profound seriousness, and I felt inexpressibly shocked. + +"This bug is to make my fortune," he continued, with a triumphant smile, +"to reinstate me in my family possessions. Is it any wonder, then, that +I prize it? Since Fortune has thought fit to bestow it upon me, I have +only to use it properly and I shall arrive at the gold of which it is +the index. Jupiter, bring me that _scarabaeus_!" + +"What! de bug, massa? I'd rudder not go fer trubble dat bug--you mus git +him for your own self." Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and stately +air, and brought me the beetle from a glass case in which it was +enclosed. It was a beautiful _scarabaeus_, and, at that time, unknown to +naturalists--of course a great prize in a scientific point of view. +There were two round, black spots near one extremity of the back, and a +long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy, +with all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of the insect was +very remarkable, and, taking all things into consideration, I could +hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it; but what to make of +Legrand's agreement with that opinion, I could not, for the life of me, +tell. + +"I sent for you," said he, in a grandiloquent tone, when I had completed +my examination of the beetle, "I sent for you that I might have your +counsel and assistance in furthering the views of Fate and of the bug--" + +"My dear Legrand," I cried, interrupting him, "you are certainly unwell, +and had better use some little precautions. You shall go to bed, and I +will remain with you a few days, until you get over this. You are +feverish and--" + +"Feel my pulse," said he. + +I felt it, and, to say the truth, found not the slightest indication of +fever. + +"But you may be ill, and yet have no fever. Allow me this once to +prescribe for you. In the first place, go to bed. In the next--" + +"You are mistaken," he interposed, "I am as well as I can expect to be +under the excitement which I suffer. If you really wish me well, you +will relieve this excitement." + +"And how is this to be done?" + +"Very easily. Jupiter and myself are going upon an expedition into the +hills, upon the mainland, and, in this expedition, we shall need the aid +of some person in whom we can confide. You are the only one we can +trust. Whether we succeed or fail, the excitement which you now perceive +in me will be equally allayed." + +"I am anxious to oblige you in any way," I replied; "but do you mean to +say that this infernal beetle has any connection with your expedition +into the hills." + +"It has." + +"Then, Legrand, I can become a party to no such absurd proceeding." + +"I am sorry--very sorry--for we shall have to try it by ourselves." + +"Try it by yourselves! The man is surely mad!--but stay--how long do you +propose to be absent?" + +"Probably all night. We shall start immediately, and be back, at all +events, by sunrise." + +"And will you promise me, upon your honor, that when this freak of yours +is over and the bug business (good God!) settled to your satisfaction, +you will then return home and follow my advice implicitly, as that of +your physician?" + +"Yes; I promise; and now let us be off, for we have no time to lose." + +With a heavy heart I accompanied my friend. We started about four +o'clock--Legrand, Jupiter, the dog, and myself. Jupiter had with him the +scythe and spades--the whole of which he insisted upon carrying, more +through fear, it seemed to me, of trusting either of the implements +within reach of his master, than from any excess of industry or +complaisance. His demeanor was dogged in the extreme, and "dat d----d +bug" were the sole words which escaped his lips during the journey. For +my own part, I had charge of a couple of dark lanterns, while Legrand +contented himself with the _scarabaeus_, which he carried attached to the +end of a bit of whip-cord; twirling it to and fro, with the air of a +conjuror, as he went. When I observed this last, plain evidence of my +friend's aberration of mind, I could scarcely refrain from tears. I +thought it best, however, to humor his fancy, at least for the present, +or until I could adopt some more energetic measures with a chance of +success. In the meantime I endeavored, but all in vain, to sound him in +regard to the object of the expedition. Having succeeded in inducing me +to accompany him, he seemed unwilling to hold conversation upon any +topic of minor importance, and to all my questions vouchsafed no other +reply than "We shall see!" + +We crossed the creek at the head of the island by means of a skiff, and, +ascending the high grounds on the shore of the mainland, proceeded in a +northwesterly direction, through a tract of country excessively wild and +desolate, where no trace of a human footstep was to be seen. Legrand led +the way with decision; pausing only for an instant, here and there, to +consult what appeared to be certain landmarks of his own contrivance +upon a former occasion. + +In this manner we journeyed for about two hours, and the sun was just +setting when we entered a region infinitely more dreary than any yet +seen. It was a species of table-land, near the summit of an almost +inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and +interspersed with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the soil, +and in many cases were prevented from precipitating themselves into the +valleys below merely by the support of the trees against which they +reclined. Deep ravines, in various directions, gave an air of still +sterner solemnity to the scene. + +The natural platform to which we had clambered was thickly overgrown +with brambles, through which we soon discovered that it would have been +impossible to force our way but for the scythe; and Jupiter, by +direction of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot of +an immensely large tulip-tree, which stood, with some eight or ten oaks, +upon the level, and far surpassed them all, and all other trees which I +had then ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and form, in the wide +spread of its branches, and in the general majesty of its appearance. +When we reached this tree, Legrand turned to Jupiter, and asked him if +he thought he could climb it. The old man seemed a little staggered by +the question, and for some moments made no reply. At length he +approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it, and examined it with +minute attention. When he had completed his scrutiny, he merely said: + +"Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebber see in he life." + +"Then up with you as soon as possible, for it will soon be too dark to +see what we are about." + +"How far mus go up, massa?" inquired Jupiter. + +"Get up the main trunk first, and then I will tell you which way to +go--and here--stop! take this beetle with you." + +"De bug, Massa Will!--de goole-bug!" cried the negro, drawing back in +dismay--"what for mus tote de bug way up detree?--d----n if I do!" + +"If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold of a +harmless little dead beetle, why, you can carry it up by this +string--but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be +under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel." + +"What de matter now, massa?" said Jup, evidently shamed into compliance; +"always want fur to raise fuss wid old nigger. Was only funnin anyhow. +_Me_ feered de bug! what I keer for de bug?" Here he took cautiously +hold of the extreme end of the string, and, maintaining the insect as +far from his person as circumstances would permit, prepared to ascend +the tree. + +In youth, the tulip-tree, or _Liriodendron Tulipifera_, the most +magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth, and +often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but, in its +riper age the bark becomes gnarled and uneven while many short limbs +make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty of ascension, in +the present case, lay more in semblance than in reality. Embracing the +huge cylinder, as closely as possible, with his arms and knees, seizing +with his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes upon others, +Jupiter, after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at length +wriggled himself into the first great fork, and seemed to consider the +whole business as virtually accomplished. The _risk_ of the achievement +was, in fact, now over, although the climber was some sixty or seventy +feet from the ground. + +"Which way mus go now, Massa Will?" he asked. + +"Keep up the largest branch,--the one on this side," said Legrand. The +negro obeyed him promptly, and apparently with but little trouble, +ascending higher and higher, until no glimpse of his squat figure could +be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped it. Presently his +voice was heard in a sort of halloo. + +"How much fudder is got for go?" + +"How high up are you?" asked Legrand. + +"Ebber so fur," replied the negro; "can see de sky fru de top ob de +tree." + +"Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say. Look down the trunk and +count the limbs below you on this side. How many limbs have you passed?" + +"One, two, tree, four, fibe--I done pass fibe big limb, massa, pon dis +side." + +"Then go one limb higher." + +In a few minutes the voice was heard again, announcing that the seventh +limb was attained. + +"Now, Jup," cried Legrand, evidently much excited, "I want you to work +your way out upon that limb as far as you can. If you see anything +strange, let me know." + +By this time what little doubt I might have entertained of my poor +friend's insanity was put finally at rest. I had no alternative but to +conclude him stricken with lunacy, and I became seriously anxious about +getting him home. While I was pondering upon what was best to be done, +Jupiter's voice was again heard. + +"Mos feerd for to ventur pon dis limb berry far--'t is dead limb putty +much all de way." + +"Did you say it was a _dead_ limb, Jupiter?" cried Legrand in a +quavering voice. + +"Yes, massa, him dead as de door-nail--done up for sartain--done +departed dis here life." + +"What in the name of heaven shall I do?" asked Legrand, seemingly in the +greatest distress. + +"Do!" said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose a word, "why come home +and go to bed. Come now!--that's a fine fellow. It's getting late, and, +besides, you remember your promise." + +"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the least, "do you hear me?" + +"Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain." + +"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and see if you think it +_very_ rotten." + +"Him rotten, massa, sure nuff," replied the negro in a few moments, "but +not so berry rotten as mought be. Mought ventur out leetle way pon de +limb by myself, dat's true." + +"By yourself!--what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean de bug. 'Tis _berry_ hebby bug. Spose I drop him down fuss, +and den de limb won't break wid just de weight ob one nigger." + +"You infernal scoundrel!" cried Legrand, apparently much relieved, "what +do you mean by telling me such nonsense as that? As sure as you let that +beetle fall, I'll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter! do you hear me?" + +"Yes, massa, needn't hollo at poor nigger dat style." + +"Well! now listen!--if you will venture out on the limb as far as you +think safe, and not let go the beetle, I'll make you a present of a +silver dollar as soon as you get down." + +"I'm gwine, Massa Will--deed I is," replied the negro very +promptly--"most out to the eend now." + +"_Out to the end!_" here fairly screamed Legrand, "do you say you are +out to the end of that limb?" + +"Soon be to de eend, massa,--o-o-o-o-oh! Lorgol-a-marcy! what _is_ dis +here pon de tree?" + +"Well!" cried Legrand, highly delighted, "what is it?" + +"Why, taint nuffin but a skull--somebody bin lef him head up de tree, +and de crows done gobble ebery bit ob de meat off." + +"A skull, you say!--very well!--how is it fastened to the limb?--what +holds it on?" + +"Sure nuff, massa; mus look. Why, dis berry curous sarcumstance, pon my +word--dare's a great big nail in de skull, what fastens ob it on to de +tree." + +"Well now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you--do you hear?" + +"Yes, massa." + +"Pay attention, then!--find the left eye of the skull." + +"Hum! hoo! dat's good! why, dar aint no eye lef at all." + +"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?" + +"Yes, I nose dat--nose all bout dat--'tis my lef hand what I chops de +wood wid." + +"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left eye is on the same side +as your left hand. Now, I suppose you can find the left eye of the +skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you found it?" + +Here was a long pause. At length the negro asked, "Is de lef eye of de +skull pon de same side as de lef hand of de skull, too?--cause de skull +aint got not a bit ob a hand at all--nebber mind! I got de lef eye +now--here de lef eye! what must do wid it?" + +"Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string will reach--but be +careful and not let go your hold of the string." + +"All dat done, Massa Will; mighty easy ting for to put de bug fru de +hole--look out for him dar below!" + +During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter's person could be seen; but +the beetle, which he had suffered to descend, was now visible at the end +of the string, and glistened like a globe of burnished gold in the last +rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the +eminence upon which we stood. The _scarabaeus_ hung quite clear of any +branches, and, if allowed to fall, would have fallen at our feet. +Legrand immediately took the scythe, and cleared with it a circular +space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the insect, and, +having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come +down from the tree. + +Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground at the precise spot +where the beetle fell, my friend now produced from his pocket a +tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of +the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the +peg, and thence farther unrolled it, in the direction already +established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the distance +of fifty feet--Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the scythe. At +the spot thus attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a +centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter, described. Taking +now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand +begged us to set about digging as quickly as possible. + +To speak the truth, I had no especial relish for such amusement at any +time, and, at that particular moment, would most willingly have declined +it; for the night was coming on, and I felt much fatigued with the +exercise already taken; but I saw no mode of escape, and was fearful of +disturbing my poor friend's equanimity by a refusal. Could I have +depended, indeed, upon Jupiter's aid, I would have had no hesitation in +attempting to get the lunatic home by force; but I was too well assured +of the old negro's disposition to hope that he would assist me, under +any circumstances, in a personal contest with his master. I made no +doubt that the latter had been infected with some of the innumerable +Southern superstitions about money buried, and that his fantasy had +received confirmation by the finding of the _scarabaeus_, or, perhaps, by +Jupiter's obstinacy in maintaining it to be "a bug of real gold." A mind +disposed to lunacy would readily be led away by such suggestions, +especially if chiming in with favorite preconceived ideas; and then I +called to mind the poor fellow's speech about the beetle's being the +"index of his fortune." Upon the whole, I was sadly vexed and puzzled, +but at length I concluded to make a virtue of necessity--to dig with a +good will, and thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by ocular +demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinions he entertained. + +The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal worthy a +more rational cause; and, as the glare fell upon our persons and +implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a group we +composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared +to any interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled upon our +whereabouts. + +We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was said; and our chief +embarrassment lay in the yelpings of the dog, who took exceeding +interest in our proceedings. He, at length, became so obstreperous that +we grew fearful of his giving the alarm to some stragglers in the +vicinity; or, rather, this was the apprehension of Legrand; for myself, +I should have rejoiced at any interruption which might have enabled me +to get the wanderer home. The noise was, at length, very effectually +silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with a dogged air of +deliberation, tied the brute's mouth up with one of his suspenders, and +then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task. + +When the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth of five +feet, and yet no signs of any treasure became manifest. A general pause +ensued, and I began to hope that the farce was at an end. Legrand, +however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow +thoughtfully and recommenced. We had excavated the entire circle of four +feet diameter, and now we slightly enlarged the limit, and went to the +farther depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The gold-seeker, whom +I sincerely pitied, at length clambered from the pit, with the bitterest +disappointment imprinted upon every feature, and proceeded slowly and +reluctantly to put on his coat, which he had thrown off at the beginning +of his labor. In the meantime I made no remark. Jupiter, at a signal +from his master, began to gather up his tools. This done, and the dog +having been unmuzzled, we turned in profound silence towards home. + +We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this direction, when, with a +loud oath, Legrand strode up to Jupiter, and seized him by the collar. +The astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth to the fullest extent, +let fall the spades, and fell upon his knees. + +"You scoundrel," said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between +his clenched teeth--"you infernal black villain!--speak, I tell +you!--answer me this instant, without prevarication!--which--which is +your left eye?" + +"Oh, my golly, Massa Will! aint dis here my lef eye for sartain?" roared +the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his _right_ organ of +vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity, as if in +immediate dread of his master's attempt at a gouge. + +"I thought so! I knew it! Hurrah!" vociferated Legrand, letting the +negro go, and executing a series of curvets and caracoles, much to the +astonishment of his valet, who, arising from his knees, looked mutely +from his master to myself, and then from myself to his master. + +"Come! we must go back," said the latter, "the game's not up yet;" and +he again led the way to the tulip-tree. + +"Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, "come here! Was the skull +nailed to the limb with the face outward, or with the face to the limb?" + +"De face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, +widout any trouble." + +"Well, then, was it this eye or that through which you dropped the +beetle?" here Legrand touched each of Jupiter's eyes. + +"'T was dis eye, Massa--de lef eye--jis as you tell me," and here it was +his right eye that the negro indicated. + +"That will do--we must try it again." + +Here, my friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, +certain indications of method, removed the peg which marked the spot +where the beetle fell, to a spot about three inches to the westward of +its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure from the nearest +point of the trunk to the peg, as before, and continuing the extension +in a straight line to the distance of fifty feet, a spot was indicated, +removed, by several yards, from the point at which we had been digging. + +Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger than in the former +instance, was now described, and we again set to work with the spades. I +was dreadfully weary, but, scarcely understanding what had occasioned +the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great aversion from the +labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably interested--nay, even +excited. Perhaps there was something, amid all the extravagant demeanor +of Legrand--some air of forethought, or of deliberation--which impressed +me. I dug eagerly, and now and then caught myself actually looking, with +something that very much resembled expectation, for the fancied +treasure, the vision of which had demented my unfortunate companion. At +a period when such vagaries of thought most fully possessed me, and when +we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, we were again +interrupted by the violent howlings of the dog. His uneasiness, in the +first instance, had been evidently but the result of playfulness or +caprice, but he now assumed a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter's +again attempting to muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and, leaping +into the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his claws. In a few +seconds he had uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two complete +skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal, and what appeared +to be the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of a spade +upturned the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we dug farther, +three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came to light. + +At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained, but +the countenance of his master wore an air of extreme disappointment. He +urged us, however, to continue our exertions, and the words were hardly +uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having caught the toe of my +boot in a large ring of iron that lay half buried in the loose earth. + +We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more +intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an +oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation and wonderful +hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing +process--perhaps that of the bichloride of mercury. This box was three +feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two and a half feet deep. It +was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind +of trellis-work over the whole. On each side of the chest, near the top, +were three rings of iron--six in all--by means of which a firm hold +could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united endeavors served +only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed. We at once saw the +impossibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily, the sole +fastenings of the lid consisted of two sliding bolts. These we drew +back--trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant, a treasure of +incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the lanterns +fell within the pit, there flashed upwards, from a confused heap of gold +and of jewels, a glow and a glare that absolutely dazzled our eyes. + +I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with which I gazed. +Amazement was, of course, predominant. Legrand appeared exhausted with +excitement, and spoke very few words. Jupiter's countenance wore, for +some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible, in the nature of +things, for any negro's visage to assume. He seemed stupefied +--thunder-stricken. Presently he fell upon his knees in the +pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the elbows in gold, let them +there remain, as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At length, with a +deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy: + +"And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de putty goole-bug! de poor little +goole-bug, what I boosed in dat sabage kind ob style! Aint you shamed ob +yourself, nigger?--answer me dat!" + +It became necessary, at last, that I should arouse both master and valet +to the expediency of removing the treasure. It was growing late, and it +behooved us to make exertion, that we might get everything housed before +daylight. It was difficult to say what should be done, and much time was +spent in deliberation--so confused were the ideas of all. We finally +lightened the box by removing two-thirds of its contents, when we were +enabled, with some trouble, to raise it from the hole. The articles +taken out were deposited among the brambles, and the dog left to guard +them, with strict orders from Jupiter neither, upon any pretence, to +stir from the spot, nor to open his mouth until our return. We then +hurriedly made for home with the chest; reaching the hut in safety, but +after excessive toil, at one o'clock in the morning. Worn out as we +were, it was not in human nature to do more just now. We rested until +two, and had supper; starting for the hills immediately afterwards, +armed with three stout sacks, which by good luck were upon the premises. +A little before four we arrived at the pit, divided the remainder of the +booty, as equally as might be, among us, and, leaving the holes +unfilled, again set out for the hut, at which, for the second time, we +deposited our golden burdens, just as the first streaks of the dawn +gleamed from over the tree-tops in the east. + +We were now thoroughly broken down; but the intense excitement of the +time denied us repose. After an unquiet slumber of some three or four +hours' duration, we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination of +our treasure. + +The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent the whole day, and the +greater part of the next night, in a scrutiny of its contents. There had +been nothing like order or arrangement. Everything had been heaped in +promiscuously. Having assorted all with care, we found ourselves +possessed of even vaster wealth than we had at first supposed. In coin +there was rather more than four hundred and fifty thousand +dollars--estimating the value of the pieces, as accurately as we could, +by the tables of the period. There was not a particle of silver. All was +gold of antique date and of great variety: French, Spanish, and German +money, with a few English guineas, and some counters of which we had +never seen specimens before. There were several very large and heavy +coins, so worn that we could make nothing of their inscriptions. There +was no American money. The value of the jewels we found more difficulty +in estimating. There were diamonds--some of them exceedingly large and +fine--a hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small; eighteen +rubies of remarkable brilliancy; three hundred and ten emeralds, all +very beautiful; and twenty-one sapphires, with an opal. These stones had +all been broken from their settings and thrown loose in the chest. The +settings themselves, which we picked out from among the other gold, +appeared to have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent +identification. Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid +gold ornaments: nearly two hundred massive finger and ear-rings; rich +chains--thirty of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and +heavy crucifixes; five gold censers of great value; a prodigious golden +punch-bowl, ornamented with richly chased vine-leaves and Bacchanalian +figures; with two sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many other +smaller articles which I cannot recollect. The weight of these valuables +exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this +estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold +watches; three of the number being worth each five hundred dollars, if +one. Many of them were very old, and as time-keepers valueless, the +works having suffered more or less from corrosion; but all were richly +jewelled and in cases of great worth. We estimated the entire contents +of the chest, that night, at a million and a half of dollars; and, upon +the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels (a few being retained +for our own use), it was found that we had greatly undervalued the +treasure. + +When, at length, we had concluded our examination, and the intense +excitement of the time had in some measure subsided, Legrand, who saw +that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most +extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the +circumstances connected with it. + +"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch I +had made of the _scarabaeus_. You recollect, also, that I became quite +vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a death's-head. +When you first made this assertion I thought you were jesting; but +afterwards I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the +insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had some little +foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers irritated +me--for I am considered a good artist--and, therefore, when you handed +me the scrap of parchment, I was about to crumple it up and throw it +angrily into the fire." + +"The scrap of paper, you mean," said I. + +"No: it had much of the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed it +to be such, but when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it, at once, +to be a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you remember. +Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance fell upon +the sketch at which you had been looking, and you may imagine my +astonishment when I perceived, in fact, the figure of a death's-head +just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of the beetle. For a +moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. I knew that my +design was very different in detail from this--although there was a +certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a candle, and, +seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to scrutinize the +parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon +the reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea, now, was mere +surprise at the really remarkable similarity of outline--at the singular +coincidence involved in the fact that, unknown to me, there should have +been a skull upon the other side of the parchment, immediately beneath +my figure of the _scarabaeus_, and that this skull, not only in outline, +but in size, should so closely resemble my drawing. I say the +singularity of this coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time. This +is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind struggles to +establish a connection--a sequence of cause and effect--and, being +unable to do so, suffers a species of temporary paralysis. But, when I +recovered from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a conviction +which startled me even far more than the coincidence. I began +distinctly, positively, to remember that there had been _no_ drawing on +the parchment when I made my sketch of the _scarabaeus_. I became +perfectly certain of this; for I recollected turning up first one side +and then the other, in search of the cleanest spot. Had the skull been +then there, of course I could not have failed to notice it. Here was +indeed a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain; but, even at +that early moment, there seemed to glimmer, faintly, within the most +remote and secret chambers of my intellect, a glow-worm-like conception +of that truth which last night's adventure brought to so magnificent a +demonstration. I arose at once, and, putting the parchment securely +away, dismissed all farther reflection until I should be alone. + +"When you had gone, and when Jupiter was fast asleep, I betook myself to +a more methodical investigation of the affair. In the first place I +considered the manner in which the parchment had come into my +possession. The spot where we discovered the _scarabaeus_ was on the +coast of the mainland, about a mile eastward of the island, and but a +short distance above high-water mark. Upon my taking hold of it, it gave +me a sharp bite, which caused me to let it drop. Jupiter, with his +accustomed caution, before seizing the insect, which had flown towards +him, looked about him for a leaf, or something of that nature, by which +to take hold of it. It was at this moment that his eyes, and mine also, +fell upon the scrap of parchment, which I then supposed to be paper. It +was lying half-buried in the sand, a corner sticking up. Near the spot +where we found it, I observed the remnants of the hull of what appeared +to have been a ship's long boat. The wreck seemed to have been there for +a very great while; for the resemblance to boat timbers could scarcely +be traced. + +"Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment, wrapped the beetle in it, and +gave it to me. Soon afterwards we turned to go home, and on the way met +Lieutenant G----. I showed him the insect, and he begged me to let him +take it to the fort. On my consenting, he thrust it forthwith into his +waistcoat pocket, without the parchment in which it had been wrapped, +and which I had continued to hold in my hand during his inspection. +Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind, and thought it best to make sure +of the prize at once--you know how enthusiastic he is on all subjects +connected with Natural History. At the same time, without being +conscious of it, I must have deposited the parchment in my own pocket. + +"You remember that when I went to the table, for the purpose of making a +sketch of the beetle, I found no paper where it was usually kept. I +looked in the drawer, and found none there. I searched my pockets, +hoping to find an old letter, and then my hand fell upon the parchment. +I thus detail the precise mode in which it came into my possession; for +the circumstances impressed me with peculiar force. + +"No doubt you will think me fanciful--but I had already established a +kind of _connection_. I had put together two links of a great chain. +There was a boat lying on a seacoast, and not far from the boat was a +parchment--_not a paper_--with a skull depicted on it. You will, of +course, ask 'where is the connection?' I reply that the skull, or +death's-head, is the well-known emblem of the pirate. The flag of the +death's-head is hoisted in all engagements. + +"I have said that the scrap was parchment, and not paper. Parchment is +durable--almost imperishable. Matters of little moment are rarely +consigned to parchment; since, for the mere ordinary purposes of drawing +or writing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This reflection +suggested some meaning--some relevancy--in the death's-head. I did not +fail to observe, also, the _form_ of the parchment. Although one of its +corners had been, by some accident, destroyed, it could be seen that the +original form was oblong. It was just such a slip, indeed, as might have +been chosen for a memorandum--for a record of something to be long +remembered and carefully preserved." + +"But," I interposed, "you say that the skull was _not_ upon the +parchment when you made the drawing of the beetle. How then do you trace +any connection between the boat and the skull--since this latter, +according to your own admission, must have been designed (God only knows +how or by whom) at some period subsequent to your sketching the +_scarabaeus_?" + +"Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; although the secret, at this +point, I had comparatively little difficulty in solving. My steps were +sure, and could afford but a single result. I reasoned, for example, +thus: When I drew the _scarabaeus_, there was no skull apparent on the +parchment. When I had completed the drawing I gave it to you, and +observed you narrowly until you returned it. _You_, therefore, did not +design the skull, and no one else was present to do it. Then it was not +done by human agency. And nevertheless it was done. + +"At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and _did_ +remember, with entire distinctness, every incident which occurred about +the period in question. The weather was chilly (O rare and happy +accident!), and a fire was blazing on the hearth. I was heated with +exercise and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close +to the chimney. Just as I placed the parchment in your hand, and as you +were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland, entered, and +leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him and +kept him off, while your right, holding the parchment, was permitted to +fall listlessly between your knees, and in close proximity to the fire. +At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it, and was about to +caution you, but, before I could speak, you had withdrawn it, and were +engaged in its examination. When I considered all these particulars, I +doubted not for a moment that _heat_ had been the agent in bringing to +light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are +well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out +of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or +vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected +to the action of fire. Zaffre digested in _aqua regia_, and diluted with +four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint +results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a +red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the +material written upon cools, but again become apparent upon the +reapplication of heat. + +"I now scrutinized the death's-head with care. Its outer edges--the +edges of the drawing nearest the edge of the vellum--were far more +_distinct_ than the others. It was clear that the action of the caloric +had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, and +subjected every portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At first, +the only effect was the strengthening of the faint lines in the skull; +but, on persevering in the experiment, there became visible at the +corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the +death's-head was delineated, the figure of what I at first supposed to +be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended +for a kid." + +"Ha! ha!" said I, "to be sure I have no right to laugh at you--a million +and a half of money is too serious a matter for mirth--but you are not +about to establish a third link in your chain: you will not find any +especial connection between your pirates and a goat; pirates, you know, +have nothing to do with goats; they appertain to the farming interest." + +"But I have just said that the figure was _not_ that of a goat." + +"Well, a kid, then--pretty much the same thing." + +"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard of +one _Captain_ Kidd. I at once looked on the figure of the animal as a +kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature, because +its position on the vellum suggested this idea. The death's-head at the +corner diagonally opposite had, in the same manner, the air of a stamp, +or seal. But I was sorely put out by the absence of all else--of the +body to my imagined instrument--of the text for my context." + +"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the +signature." + +"Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed with +a presentiment of some vast good fortune impending. I can scarcely say +why. Perhaps, after all, it was rather a desire than an actual +belief;--but do you know that Jupiter's silly words, about the bug being +of solid gold, had a remarkable effect on my fancy? And then the series +of accidents and coincidences--these were so _very_ extraordinary. Do +you observe how mere an accident it was that these events should have +occurred on the _sole_ day of all the year in which it has been, or may +be, sufficiently cool for fire, and that without the fire, or without +the intervention of the dog at the precise moment in which he appeared, +I should never have become aware of the death's-head, and so never the +possessor of the treasure?" + +"But proceed--I am all impatience." + +"Well; you have heard, of course, the many stories current--the thousand +vague rumors afloat about money buried, somewhere on the Atlantic coast, +by Kidd and his associates. These rumors must have had some foundation +in fact. And that the rumors have existed so long and so continuously, +could have resulted, it appeared to me, only from the circumstance of +the buried treasure still _remaining_ entombed. Had Kidd concealed his +plunder for a time, and afterwards reclaimed it, the rumors would +scarcely have reached us in their present unvarying form. You will +observe that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not about +money-finders. Had the pirate recovered his money, there the affair +would have dropped. It seemed to me that some accident--say the loss of +a memorandum indicating its locality--had deprived him of the means of +recovering it, and that this accident had become known to his followers, +who otherwise might never have heard that treasure had been concealed at +all, and who, busying themselves in vain, because unguided, attempts to +regain it, had given first birth, and then universal currency, to the +reports which are now so common. Have you ever heard of any important +treasure being unearthed along the coast?" + +"Never." + +"But that Kidd's accumulations were immense is well known. I took it for +granted, therefore, that the earth still held them; and you will +scarcely be surprised when I tell you that I felt a hope, nearly +amounting to certainty, that the parchment so strangely found involved a +lost record of the place of deposit." + +"But how did you proceed?" + +"I held the vellum again to the fire, after increasing the heat, but +nothing appeared. I now thought it possible that the coating of dirt +might have something to do with the failure; so I carefully rinsed the +parchment by pouring warm water over it, and, having done this, I placed +it in a tin pan, with the skull downwards, and put the pan upon a +furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes, the pan having become +thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and, to my inexpressible joy, +found it spotted, in several places, with what appeared to be figures +arranged in lines. Again I placed it in the pan, and suffered it to +remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was just as you see +it now." + +Here, Legrand, having reheated the parchment, submitted it to my +inspection. The following characters were rudely traced, in a red tint, +between the death's-head and the goat:-- + + +53$$+305))6*;4826)4$.)4$);806*;48+860))85;;]8*;:$*8+83(88)5*+; +46(;88*96*?;8)*$(:485);5*+2:*$(;4956*2(5*--4)88*;4069285);)6+8)4 +$$;1($9;48081;8:8$1;48+85;4)485+528806*81($9;48;(88;4($?34;48)4$ +;161;:188;$?; + + +"But," said I, returning him the slip, "I am as much in the dark as +ever. Were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me on my solution of this +enigma, I am quite sure that I should be unable to earn them." + +"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as +you might be led to imagine from the first hasty inspection of the +characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a +cipher--that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is +known of Kidd, I could not suppose him capable of constructing any of +the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up my mind, at once, that this +was of a simple species--such, however, as would appear, to the crude +intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key." + +"And you really solved it?" + +"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times +greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to take +interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human +ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may +not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established +connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere +difficulty of developing their import. + +"In the present case--indeed in all cases of secret writing--the first +question regards the _language_ of the cipher; for the principles of +solution, so far, especially, as the more simple ciphers are concerned, +depend on, and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom. In +general, there is no alternative but experiment (directed by +probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution, +until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, all +difficulty is removed by the signature. The pun upon the word 'Kidd' is +appreciable in no other language than the English. But for this +consideration I should have begun my attempts with the Spanish and +French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most +naturally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish Main. As it was, +I assumed the cryptograph to be English. + +"You observe there are no divisions between the words. Had there been +divisions, the task would have been comparatively easy. In such case I +should have commenced with a collation and analysis of the shorter +words, and, had a word of a single letter occurred, as is most likely +(_a_ or _I_, for example), I should have considered the solution as +assured. But, there being no division, my first step was to ascertain +the predominant letters, as well as the least frequent. Counting all, I +constructed a table, thus: + + +Of the character 8 there are 33 + ; " 26 + 4 " 19 + $) " 16 + * " 13 + 5 " 12 + 6 " 11 + +1 " 8 + 0 " 6 + 92 " 5 + :3 " 4 + ? " 3 + " 2 + ]--. " 1 + + +"Now, in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is _e_. +Afterwards the succession runs thus: _a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m w +b k p q x z. E_ predominates, however, so remarkably that an individual +sentence of any length is rarely seen, in which it is not the prevailing +character. + +"Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for +something more than a mere guess. The general use which may be made of +the table is obvious--but, in this particular cipher, we shall only very +partially require its aid. As our predominant character is 8, we will +commence by assuming it as the _e_ of the natural alphabet. To verify +the supposition, let us observe if the 8 be seen often in couples--for +_e_ is doubled with great frequency in English--in such words, for +example, as 'meet,' 'fleet,' speed,' 'seen,' 'been,' 'agree,' etc. In +the present instance we see it doubled no less than five times, although +the cryptograph is brief. + +"Let us assume 8, then, as _e_. Now of all _words_ in the language, +'the' is most usual; let us see, therefore, whether there are not +repetitions of any three characters, in the same order of collocation, +the last of them being 8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, so +arranged, they will most probably represent the word 'the.' On +inspection, we find no less than seven such arrangements, the characters +being ;48. We may, therefore, assume that the semicolon represents _t_, +that 4 represents _h_, and that 8 represents _e_--the last being now +well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken. + +"But, having established a single word, we are enabled to establish a +vastly important point; that is to say, several commencements and +terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example, to the last +instance but one, in which the combination ;48 occurs--not far from the +end of the cipher. We know that the semicolon immediately ensuing is the +commencement of a word, and, of the six characters succeeding this +'the,' we are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set these +characters down, thus, by the letters we know them to represent, leaving +a space for the unknown-- + +t eeth. + +"Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the '_th_,' as forming no +portion of the word commencing with the first _t_; since, by experiment +of the entire alphabet for a letter adapted to the vacancy, we perceive +that no word can be formed of which this _th_ can be a part. We are thus +narrowed into + +t ee, + +and, going through the alphabet, if necessary, as before, we arrive at +the word 'tree' as the sole possible reading. We thus gain another +letter, _r_, represented by (, with the words 'the tree' in +juxtaposition. + +"Looking beyond these words, for a short distance, we again see the +combination ;48, and employ it by way of _termination_ to what +immediately precedes. We have thus this arrangement: + +the tree;4($?34 the, + +or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus: + +the tree thr$?3h the. + +"Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, or +substitute dots, we read thus: + +the tree thr...h the, + +when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once. But this +discovery gives us three new letters, _o, u_, and _g_, represented by $, +? and 3. + +"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known +characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement: + +83(88, or egree, + +which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us +another letter, _d_, represented by +. + +"Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination, + +;46(;88*. + +"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, +as before, we read thus: + +th.rtee. + +an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again +furnishing us with two new characters, _i_ and_n_, represented by 6 and +*. + +"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the +combination, + +53$$+. + +"Translating as before, we obtain + +good, + +which assures us that the first letter is _A_, and that the first two +words are 'A good.' + +"To avoid confusion, it is now time that we arrange our key, as far as +discovered, in a tabular form. It will stand thus: + + +5 represents a ++ " d +8 " e +3 " g +4 " h +6 " i +* " n +$ " o +( " r +; " t + + +"We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters +represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of +the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this +nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the +rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before +us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only +remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the +parchment, as unriddled. Here it is: + +"'_A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat twenty one +degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh +limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line +from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"But," said I, "the enigma seems still in as bad a condition as ever. +How is it possible to extort a meaning from all this jargon about +'devil's seats,' 'death's-head,' and 'bishop's hostel'?" + +"I confess," replied Legrand, "that the matter still wears a serious +aspect, when regarded with a casual glance. My first endeavor was to +divide the sentence into the natural division intended by the +cryptographist." + +"You mean, to punctuate it?" + +"Something of that kind." + +"But how is it possible to effect this?" + +"I reflected that it had been a _point_ with the writer to run his words +together without division, so as to increase the difficulty of solution. +Now, a not over-acute man, in pursuing such an object, would be nearly +certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of his composition, he +arrived at a break in his subject which would naturally require a pause, +or a point, he would be exceedingly apt to run his characters, at this +place, more than usually close together. If you will observe the MS., in +the present instance, you will easily detect five such cases of unusual +crowding. Acting on this hint, I made the division thus: + +"'_A good glass in the Bishop's hostel in the devil's seat--twenty-one +degrees and thirteen minutes--northeast and by north--main branch +seventh limb east side--shoot from the left eye of the death's-head--a +bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"Even this division," said I, "leaves me still in the dark." + +"It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand, "for a few days; during +which I made diligent inquiry, in the neighborhood of Sullivan's Island, +for any building which went by the name of the 'Bishop's Hotel'; for, of +course, I dropped the obsolete word 'hostel.' Gaining no information on +the subject, I was on the point of extending my sphere of search, and +proceeding in a more systematic manner, when one morning it entered into +my head, quite suddenly, that this 'Bishop's Hostel' might have some +reference to an old family, of the name of Bessop, which, time out of +mind, had held possession of an ancient manor-house, about four miles to +the northward of the island. I accordingly went over to the plantation, +and reinstituted my inquiries among the older negroes of the place. At +length one of the most aged of the women said that she had heard of such +a place as _Bessop's Castle_, and thought that she could guide me to it, +but that it was not a castle, nor a tavern, but a high rock. + +"I offered to pay her well for her trouble, and, after some demur, she +consented to accompany me to the spot. We found it without much +difficulty, when, dismissing her, I proceeded to examine the place. The +'castle' consisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs and rocks--one +of the latter being quite remarkable for its height as well as for its +insulated and artificial appearance. I clambered to its apex, and then +felt much at a loss as to what should be next done. + +"While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell on a narrow ledge in the +eastern face of the rock, perhaps a yard below the summit upon which I +stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches, and was not more than +a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it gave it a rude +resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our ancestors. I +made no doubt that here was the 'devil's seat' alluded to in the MS., +and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle. + +"The 'good glass,' I knew, could have reference to nothing but a +telescope; for the word 'glass' is rarely employed in any other sense by +seamen. Now here, I at once saw, was a telescope to be used, and a +definite point of view, _admitting no variation_, from which to use it. +Nor did I hesitate to believe that the phrases 'twenty-one degrees and +thirteen minutes,' and 'northeast and by north,' were intended as +directions for the levelling of the glass. Greatly excited by these +discoveries, I hurried home, procured a telescope, and returned to the +rock. + +"I let myself down to the ledge, and found that it was impossible to +retain a seat on it unless in one particular position. This fact +confirmed my preconceived idea. I proceeded to use the glass. Of course, +the 'twenty-one degrees and thirteen minutes' could allude to nothing +but elevation above the visible horizon, since the horizontal direction +was clearly indicated by the words, 'northeast and by north.' This +latter direction I at once established by means of a pocket-compass; +then, pointing the glass as nearly at an angle of twenty-one degrees of +elevation as I could do it by guess, I moved it cautiously up or down, +until my attention was arrested by a circular rift or opening in the +foliage of a large tree that overtopped its fellows in the distance. In +the centre of this rift I perceived a white spot, but could not, at +first, distinguish what it was. Adjusting the focus of the telescope, I +again looked, and now made it out to be a human skull. + +"On this discovery I was so sanguine as to consider the enigma solved; +for the phrase 'main branch, seventh limb, east side,' could refer only +to the position of the skull on the tree, while 'shoot from the left eye +of the death's-head' admitted, also, of but one interpretation, in +regard to a search for buried treasure. I perceived that the design was +to drop a bullet from the left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or +in other words, a straight line, drawn from the nearest point of the +trunk through 'the shot' (or the spot where the bullet fell), and thence +extended to a distance of fifty feet, would indicate a definite +point--and beneath this point I thought it at least _possible_ that a +deposit of value lay concealed." + +"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, +still simple and explicit. When you left the Bishop's Hotel, what then?" + +"Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned +homewards. The instant that I left 'the devil's seat,' however, the +circular rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of it afterwards, turn +as I would. What seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole business, +is the fact (for repeated experiment has convinced me it _is_ a fact) +that the circular opening in question is visible from no other +attainable point of view than that afforded by the narrow ledge on the +face of the rock. + +"In this expedition to the 'Bishop's Hotel' I had been attended by +Jupiter, who had no doubt observed, for some weeks past, the abstraction +of my demeanor, and took especial care not to leave me alone. But on the +next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give him the slip, and +went into the hills in search of the tree. After much toil I found it. +When I came home at night my valet proposed to give me a flogging. With +the rest of the adventure I believe you are as well acquainted as +myself." + +"I suppose," said I, "you missed the spot, in the first attempt at +digging, through Jupiter's stupidity in letting the bug fall through the +right instead of through the left eye of the skull." + +"Precisely. This mistake made a difference of about two inches and a +half in the 'shot'--that is to say, in the position of the peg nearest +the tree; and had the treasure been _beneath_ the 'shot' the error would +have been of little moment; but the 'shot,' together with the nearest +point of the tree, were merely two points for the establishment of a +line of direction; of course the error, however trivial in the +beginning, increased as we proceeded with the line, and, by the time we +had gone fifty feet, threw us quite off the scent. But for my +deep-seated convictions that treasure was here somewhere actually +buried, we might have had all our labor in vain." + +"I presume the fancy of _the skull_--of letting fall a bullet through +the skull's eye--was suggested to Kidd by the piratical flag. No doubt +he felt a kind of poetical consistency in recovering his money through +this ominous insignium." + +"Perhaps so; still, I cannot help thinking that common-sense had quite +as much to do with the matter as poetical consistency. To be visible +from the Devil's seat, it was necessary that the object, if small, +should be _white_; and there is nothing like your human skull for +retaining and even increasing its whiteness under exposure to all +vicissitudes of weather." + +"But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in swinging the beetle--how +excessively odd! I was sure you were mad. And why did you insist on +letting fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the skull?" + +"Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions +touching my sanity, and so resolved to punish you quietly, in my own +way, by a little bit of sober mystification. For this reason I swung the +beetle, and for this reason I let it fall from the tree. An observation +of yours about its great weight suggested the latter idea." + +"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles me. What +are we to make of the skeletons found in the hole?" + +"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There +seems, however, only one plausible way of accounting for them--and yet +it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would imply. +It is clear that Kidd--if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, which I +doubt not--it is clear that he must have had assistance in the labor. +But, the worst of this labor concluded, he may have thought it expedient +to remove all participants in his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows with +a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors were busy in the pit; +perhaps it required a dozen--who shall tell?" + + + + +V. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1843) + +BY CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) + + +[_Setting_. In this most famous of Christmas stories Dickens gives us +the very atmosphere of the season with all the contrasts that poverty +and wealth, miserliness and charity, the past and the future can +suggest. Though he had London in mind, any great industrial center would +have served as well, for Dickens was thinking primarily of the relations +between employer and employee. That Christmas is better kept in England +now than when Dickens wrote is a triumph due more to "A Christmas Carol" +than to any other one piece of prose or verse. + +_Plot_. The story was planned rather than plotted. By calling it a carol +and dividing it into staves, Dickens would have us think of it not as a +narrative but as a song, full of the joy and good will that Christmas +ought to diffuse. It is a rill from the fountain of the first great +Christmas chant, "On earth peace, good will toward men." The theme is +not so much the duty of service as the joy of service, the happiness +that we feel in making others happy; and the four carols mark the four +stages in the conversion of Scrooge from solitary selfishness to social +good will. The plan is simple but it is suffused with a love and +sympathy that no one but Dickens or O. Henry could have given it. If +"The Gold-Bug" is a triumph of the analytic intellect, this story is a +triumph of the social impulses that make the world better. "It seems to +me," said Thackeray, "a national benefit, and to every man and woman who +reads it a personal kindness." While writing it Dickens said: "I wept +and laughed and wept again." And yet the psychology of the plot is as +soundly intellectual as the style is emotional. Dickens knew that a +flint-hearted man like Scrooge could not be changed by forces brought to +bear from without. The appeal must come from within. He must himself see +his past, his present, and his probable future, but in a new light and +from a wider angle of vision. The dream is only a means to this end. A +man moves to a higher realm of thought and action not by learning new +truths but by seeing the old truths differently related. + +_Characters_. Scrooge is, of course, the central character. He is also a +perfect example of the changing character as contrasted with the +stationary character. In fact all the other characters remain +essentially the same, while Scrooge, who at the beginning is unfriendly +and friendless, becomes at the end "as good a friend, as good a master, +and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, +town, or borough in the good old world." It is difficult to create any +kind of character, whether stationary or changing, but the latter is the +more difficult. Both demand rare powers of observation and +interpretation, but the ascending or descending character demands a +knowledge of the chemistry of conduct that only the masters have. + +The Cratchits must not be overlooked. Tiny Tim's "God bless us every +one" has at least become the symbol of Christmas benevolence wherever +Christmas is celebrated in English-speaking lands.] + + + +STAVE ONE + +MARLEY'S GHOST + + +Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. +The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the +undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name +was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. + +Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. + +Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? +Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge +was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole +residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner. + +Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however. There it yet +stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door,--Scrooge and Marley. +The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the +business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley. He answered to +both names. It was all the same to him. + +Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge! a +squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old +sinner! External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth +could warm, no cold could chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than +he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain +less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The +heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage +over him in only one respect,--they often "came down" handsomely, and +Scrooge never did. + +Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My +dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars +implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was +o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to +such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to +know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into +doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they +said: "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" + +But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his +way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep +its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. + +Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas +eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, +biting, foggy weather; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but +it was quite dark already. + +The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his +eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, +was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire +was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't +replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so +surely as the clerk came in with the shovel the master predicted that it +would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his +white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which +effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. + +"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was +the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this +was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach. + +"Bah!" said Scrooge; "humbug!" + +"Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don't mean that, I am sure?" + +"I do. Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time +for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year +older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and +having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead +against you? If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry +Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried +with a stake of holly through his heart! He should!" + +"Uncle!" + +"Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." + +"Keep it! But you don't keep it." + +"Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has +ever done you!" + +"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I +have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I +have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round,--apart +from the veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belonging to +it _can_ be apart from that,--as a good time; a kind, forgiving, +charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar +of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their +shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they +really were fellow-travellers to the grave, and not another race of +creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has +never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it +_has_ done me good, and _will_ do me good; and I say, God bless it!" + +The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. + +"Let me hear another sound from _you_" said Scrooge, "and you'll keep +your Christmas by losing your situation!--You're quite a powerful +speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew, "I wonder you don't go +into Parliament." + +"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us, to-morrow." + +Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he did. He went the +whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that +extremity first. + +"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" + +"Why did you get married?" + +"Because I fell in love." + +"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only +one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good +afternoon!" + +"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give +it as a reason for not coming now?" + +"Good afternoon." + +"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be +friends?" + +"Good afternoon." + +"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never +had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial +in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last. +So, A Merry Christmas, uncle!" + +"Good afternoon!" + +"And A Happy New Year!" + +"Good afternoon!" + +His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. The +clerk, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in. +They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with +their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their +hands, and bowed to him. + +"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring +to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. +Marley?" + +"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He died seven years ago, +this very night." + +"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, +taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make +some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at +the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; +hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." + +"Are there no prisons?" + +"Plenty of prisons. But under the impression that they scarcely furnish +Christian cheer of mind or body to the unoffending multitude, a few of +us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, +and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time of all +others when Want is keenly felt and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put +you down for?" + +"Nothing!" + +"You wish to be anonymous?" + +"I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that +is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford +to make idle people merry. I help to support the prisons and the +workhouses,--they cost enough,--and those who are badly off must go +there." + +"Many can't go there; and many would rather die." + +"If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the +surplus population." + +At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an +ill-will Scrooge, dismounting from his stool, tacitly admitted the fact +to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle +out, and put on his hat. + +"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" + +"If quite convenient, sir." + +"It's not convenient, and it's not fair. If I was to stop half a crown +for it, you'd think yourself mightily ill-used, I'll be bound?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And yet you don't think _me_ ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no +work." + +"It's only once a year, sir." + +"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of +December! But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the +earlier _next_ morning." + +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. +The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends +of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no +great-coat), went down a slide, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty +times, in honor of its being Christmas eve, and then ran home as hard as +he could pelt, to play at blind-man's-buff. + +Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and +having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening +with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had +once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of +rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard. The building was old +enough now, and dreary enough; for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the +other rooms being all let out as offices. + +Now it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the +knocker on the door of this house, except that it was very large; also, +that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence +in that place; also, that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy +about him as any man in the city of London. And yet Scrooge, having his +key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing +any intermediate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley's face. + +Marley's face, with a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a +dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but it looked at Scrooge as +Marley used to look,--with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly +forehead. + +As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. He +said, "Pooh, pooh!" and closed the door with a bang. + +The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, +and every cask in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a +separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be +frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, +and up the stairs. Slowly, too, trimming his candle as he went. + +Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for its being very dark. Darkness +is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he +walked through his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough +recollection of the face to desire to do that. + +Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room, all as they should be. Nobody under +the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and +basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his +head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody +in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude +against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two +fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. + +Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; +double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against +surprise, he took off his cravat, put on his dressing-gown and slippers +and his night-cap, and sat down before the very low fire to take his +gruel. + +As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon +a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated, for +some purpose now forgotten, with a chamber in the highest story of the +building. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, +inexplicable dread, that, as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. +Soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. + +This was succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some +person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's +cellar. + +Then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up +the stairs; then coming straight towards his door. + +It came on through the heavy door, and a spectre passed into the room +before his eyes. And upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as +though it cried, "I know him! Marley's ghost!" + +The same face, the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, +tights, and boots. His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing +him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his +coat behind. + +Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had +never believed it until now. + +No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through +and through, and saw it standing before him,--though he felt the +chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, and noticed the very texture +of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin,--he was still +incredulous. + +"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What do you want +with me?" + +"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it. + +"Who are you?" + +"Ask me who I _was_." + +"Who _were_ you, then?" + +"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." + +"Can you--can you sit down?" + +"I can." + +"Do it, then." + +Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether a ghost so +transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair; and felt +that, in the event of its being impossible, it might involve the +necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat down on the +opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. + +"You don't believe in me." + +"I don't." + +"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?" + +"I don't know." + +"Why do you doubt your senses?" + +"Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach +makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of +mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's +more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" + +Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel in +his heart by any means waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be +smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his +horror. + +But how much greater was his horror when, the phantom taking off the +bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear in-doors, its +lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! + +"Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk +the earth, and why do they come to me?" + +"It is required of every man, that the spirit within him should walk +abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit +goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. I cannot +tell you all I would. A very little more is permitted to me. I cannot +rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked +beyond our counting-house,--mark me!--in life my spirit never roved +beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys +lie before me!" + +"Seven years dead. And travelling all the time? You travel fast?" + +"On the wings of the wind." + +"You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years." + +"O blind man, blind man! not to know that ages of incessant labor by +immortal creatures for this earth must pass into eternity before the +good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any +Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may +be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of +usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one +life's opportunities misused! Yet I was like this man; I once was like +this man!" + +"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, +who now began to apply this to himself. + +"Business!" cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my +business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, +forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade +were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business." + +Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this +rate, and began to quake exceedingly. + +"Hear me! My time is nearly gone." + +"I will. But don't be hard upon me! Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!" + +"I am here to-night to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of +escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer." + +"You were always a good friend to me. Thank'ee!" + +"You will be haunted by Three Spirits." + +"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob? I--I think I'd rather +not." + +"Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect +the first to-morrow night, when the bell tolls One. Expect the second on +the next night at the same hour. The third, upon the next night, when +the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; +and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between +us!" + +It walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window +raised itself a little, so that, when the apparition reached it, it was +wide open. + +Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had +entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, +and the bolts were undisturbed. Scrooge tried to say, "Humbug!" but +stopped at the first syllable. And being, from the emotion he had +undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the invisible +world, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the +hour, much in need of repose, he went straight to bed, without +undressing, and fell asleep on the instant. + + + +STAVE TWO + +THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could +scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his +chamber, until suddenly the church clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow, +melancholy ONE. + +Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his +bed were drawn aside by a strange figure,--like a child: yet not so like +a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, +which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being +diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck +and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a +wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. It held a branch +of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that +wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the +strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there +sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and +which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a +great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. + +"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?" + +"I am!" + +"Who and what are you?" + +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." + +"Long past?" + +"No. Your past. The things that you will see with me are shadows of the +things that have been; they will have no consciousness of us." + +Scrooge then made bold to inquire what business brought him there. + +"Your welfare. Rise, and walk with me!" + +It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the +hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that the bed was warm, and +the thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly +in his slippers, dressing-gown, and night-cap; and that he had a cold +upon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was +not to be resisted. He rose; but, finding that the Spirit made towards +the window, clasped its robe in supplication. + +"I am a mortal, and liable to fall." + +"Bear but a touch of my hand _there_," said the Spirit, laying it upon +his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!" + +As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood in the +busy thoroughfares of a city. It was made plain enough by the dressing +of the shops that here, too, it was Christmas time. + +The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he +knew it. + +"Know it! Was I apprenticed here!" + +They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting +behind such a high desk that, if he had been two inches taller, he must +have knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great +excitement: "Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig, +alive again!" + +Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which +pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his +capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his +organ of benevolence; and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, +jovial voice, "Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" + +A living and moving picture of Scrooge's former self, a young man, came +briskly in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. + +"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. "My old +fellow-'prentice, bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached +to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!" + +"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas eve, +Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up, before a man can +say Jack Robinson! Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room +here!" + +Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or +couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in +a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from +public life forevermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were +trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug +and warm and dry and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon +a winter's night. + +In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and +made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs. +Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, +beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they +broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In +came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with +her brother's particular friend the milkman. In they all came one after +another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some +pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they +all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the +other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various +stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the +wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soon as they got +there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them. When +this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop +the dance, cried out, "Well done!" and the fiddler plunged his hot face +into a pot of porter especially provided for that purpose. + +There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and +there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold +Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were +mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came +after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler struck up "Sir Roger de +Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top +couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or +four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled +with; people who _would_ dance, and had no notion of walking. + +But if they had been twice as many,--four times,--old Fezziwig would +have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she +was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. A positive +light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part +of the dance. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would +become of 'em next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all +through the dance,--advance and retire, turn your partner, bow and +courtesy, cockscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your +place,--Fezziwig "cut,"--cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with +his legs. + +When the clock struck eleven this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs. +Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side the door, and, shaking +hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him +or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two +'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died +away, and the lads were left to their beds, which were under a counter +in the back shop. + +"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly folks so full of +gratitude. He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money,--three or +four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?" + +"It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking +unconsciously like his former, not his latter self,--"it isn't that, +Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our +service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power +lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it +is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives +is quite as great as if it cost a fortune." + +He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. + +"What is the matter?" + +"Nothing particular." + +"Something, I think?" + +"No, no. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just +now. That's all." + +"My time grows short," observed the Spirit. "Quick!" + +This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could see, but +it produced an immediate effect. For again he saw himself. He was older +now; a man in the prime of life. + +He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a black +dress, in whose eyes there were tears. + +"It matters little," she said softly to Scrooge's former self. "To you, +very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can comfort you in +time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to +grieve." + +"What Idol has displaced you?" + +"A golden one. You fear the world too much. I have seen your nobler +aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, +engrosses you. Have I not?" + +"What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not +changed towards you. Have I ever sought release from our engagement?" + +"In words, no. Never." + +"In what, then?" + +"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of +life; another Hope as its great end. If you were free to-day, to-morrow, +yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl; +or, choosing her, do I not know that your repentance and regret would +surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love +of him you once were." + +"Spirit! remove me from this place." + +"I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the +Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!" + +"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed. "I cannot bear it! Leave me! Take me +back. Haunt me no longer!" + +As he struggled with the Spirit he was conscious of being exhausted, and +overcome by an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his +own bedroom. He had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a +heavy sleep. + + + +STAVE THREE + +THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +Scrooge awoke in his own bedroom. There was no doubt about that. But it +and his own adjoining sitting-room, into which he shuffled in his +slippers, attracted by a great light there, had undergone a surprising +transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, +that it looked a perfect grove. The leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy +reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been +scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as +that petrifaction of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or +Marley's, or for many and many a winter season gone. Heaped upon the +floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, brawn, great +joints of meat, sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, +plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked +apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and great +bowls of punch. In easy state upon this couch there sat a Giant glorious +to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and +who raised it high to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping +round the door. + +"Come in,--come in! and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas +Present. Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!" + +"Never." + +"Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning +(for I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years?" +pursued the Phantom. + +"I don't think I have, I am afraid I have not. Have you had many +brothers, Spirit?" + +"More than eighteen hundred." + +"A tremendous family to provide for! Spirit, conduct me where you will. +I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is +working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by +it." + +"Touch my robe!" + +Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. + +The room and its contents all vanished instantly, and they stood in the +city streets upon a snowy Christmas morning. + +Scrooge and the Ghost passed on, invisible, straight to Scrooge's +clerk's; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped +to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings of his torch. +Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob"[*] a week himself; he pocketed +on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost +of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed house! + +[* Shillings.] + +Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a +twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a +goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda +Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master +Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and, +getting the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar (Bob's private +property, conferred upon his son and heir in honor of the day) into his +mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to +show his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, +boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they +had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and, basking in +luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about +the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not +proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the +slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let +out and peeled. + +"What has ever got your precious father, then?" said Mrs. Cratchit. "And +your brother Tiny Tim! And Martha warn't as late last Christmas day by +half an hour!" + +"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she spoke. + +"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. "Hurrah! There's +_such_ a goose, Martha!" + +"Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are?" said Mrs. +Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet +for her. + +"We'd a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the girl, "and +had to clear away this morning, mother!" + +"Well! Never mind so long as you are come," said Mrs. Cratchit. "Sit ye +down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!" + +"No, no! There's father coming," cried the two young Cratchits, who were +everywhere at once. "Hide, Martha, hide!" + +So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least +three feet of comforter, exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before +him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look +seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a +little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! + +"Why, where's our Martha?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. + +"Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit. + +"Not coming!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits; +for he had been Tim's blood-horse all the way from church, and had come +home rampant,--"not coming upon Christmas day!" + +Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so +she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his +arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off +into the wash-house that he might hear the pudding singing in the +copper. + +"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had +rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his +heart's content. + +"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the +church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to +remember, upon Christmas day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men +see." + +Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when +he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. + +His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny +Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister +to his stool beside the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs,--as +if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby, +--compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and +stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer, Master Peter +and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with +which they soon returned in high procession.[*] + +[* The goose had been cooked in the baker's oven, for economy.] + +Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) +hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; +Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; +Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two +young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and +mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest +they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At +last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a +breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the +carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, +and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of +delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two +young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and +feebly cried, Hurrah! + +There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was +such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness, were +the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed +potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as +Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a +bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last! Yet every one had +had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular were steeped in +sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by +Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone,--too nervous to bear +witnesses,--to take the pudding up, and bring it in. + +Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning +out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back yard, +and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose,--a supposition at +which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were +supposed. + +Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell +like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and +a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to +that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered,-- +flushed but smiling proudly,--with the pudding, like a speckled +cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half a quartern of +ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. + +O, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly, too, that he +regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since +their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, +she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. +Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it +was at all a small pudding for a large family. Any Cratchit would have +blushed to hint at such a thing. + +At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth +swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted and +considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a +shovelful of chestnuts on the fire. + +Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit +called a circle, and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of +glass,--two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle. + +These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden +goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while +the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily. Then Bob +proposed:-- + +"A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!" + +Which all the family re-echoed. + +"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all. + +He sat very close to his father's side, upon his little stool. Bob held +his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to +keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. + +Scrooge raised his head speedily, on hearing his own name. + +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the +Feast!" + +"The Founder of the Feast, indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. "I +wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and +I hope he'd have a good appetite for it." + +"My dear," said Bob, "the children! Christmas day." + +"It should be Christmas day, I am sure," said she, "on which one drinks +the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. +Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, +poor fellow!" + +"My dear," was Bob's mild answer, "Christmas day." + +"I'll drink his health for your sake and the day's," said Mrs. Cratchit, +"not for his. Long life to him. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! +He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!" + +The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their +proceedings which had no heartiness in it. Tiny Tim drank it last of +all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the +family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which +was not dispelled for full five minutes. + +After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from +the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit +told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which +would bring in, if obtained, full five and sixpence weekly. The two +young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man +of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from +between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular +investments he should favor when he came into the receipt of that +bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, +then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she +worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for +a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how +she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord +"was much about as tall as Peter"; at which Peter pulled up his collars +so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All +this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by and by +they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny +Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. + +There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; +they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; +their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely +did, the inside of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, +pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they +faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's +torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny +Tim, until the last. + +It was a great surprise to Scrooge, as this scene vanished, to hear a +hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognize it +as his own nephew's, and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming +room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that +same nephew. + +It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there +is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so +irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor. When Scrooge's +nephew laughed, Scrooge's niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he. +And their assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, laughed out +lustily. + +"He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live!" cried Scrooge's +nephew. "He believed it too!" + +"More shame for him, Fred!" said Scrooge's niece, indignantly. Bless +those women! they never do anything by halves. They are always in +earnest. + +She was very pretty, exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, +surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth that seemed made to +be kissed,--as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about her +chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest +pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she +was what you would have called provoking, but satisfactory, too. O, +perfectly satisfactory! + +"He's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's nephew, "that's the truth; +and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their +own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him. Who suffers by +his ill whims? Himself, always. Here he takes it into his head to +dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence? +He don't lose much of a dinner." + +"Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner," interrupted Scrooge's +niece. Everybody else said the same, and they must be allowed to have +been competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, with the +dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight. + +"Well, I am very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's nephew, "because I +haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers. What do _you_ say, +Topper?" + +Topper clearly had his eye on one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he +answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to +express an opinion on the subject. Whereat Scrooge's niece's sister--the +plump one with the lace tucker, not the one with the roses--blushed. + +After tea they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew +what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure +you,--especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good +one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the +face over it. + +But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a while they +played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never +better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. +There was first a game at blind-man's-buff, though. And I no more +believe Topper was really blinded than I believe he had eyes in his +boots. Because the way in which he went after that plump sister in the +lace tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. Knocking +down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping up against the +piano, smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went there +went he! He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch +anybody else. If you had fallen up against him, as some of them did, and +stood there, he would have made a feint of endeavoring to seize you, +which would have been an affront to your understanding, and would +instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. + +"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, Spirit, only one!" + +It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of +something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their +questions yes or no, as the case was. The fire of questioning to which +he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a +live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal +that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in +London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show of, and +wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was never +killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, +or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every new +question put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; +and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the +sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister cried out,-- + +"I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know what it is!" + +"What is it?" cried Fred. + +"It's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!" + +Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal sentiment, though +some objected that the reply to "Is it a bear?" ought to have been +"Yes." + +Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that +he would have drunk to the unconscious company in an inaudible speech. +But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by +his nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. + +Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but +always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they +were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by +struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, +and it was rich. In alms-house, hospital, and jail, in misery's every +refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast +the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught +Scrooge his precepts. Suddenly, as they stood together in an open place, +the bell struck twelve. + +Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it no more. As the last +stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob +Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and +hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him. + + + +STAVE FOUR + +THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS + + +The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, +Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the air through which this +Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. + +It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its +face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched +hand. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved. + +"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come? Ghost of +the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know +your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man +from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a +thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?" + +It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them. + +"Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to +me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!" + +They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to +spring up about them. But there they were in the heart of it; on +'Change, amongst the merchants. + +The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. Observing +that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their +talk. + +"No," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin, "I don't know much +about it either way. I only know he he's dead." + +"When did he die?" inquired another. + +"Last night, I believe." + +"Why, what was the matter with him? I thought he'd never die." + +"God knows," said the first, with a yawn. + +"What has he done with his money?" asked a red-faced gentleman. + +"I haven't heard," said the man with the large chin. "Company, perhaps. +He hasn't left it to me. That's all I know. By, by!" + +Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should +attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial; but feeling +assured that it must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to +consider what it was likely to be. It could scarcely be supposed to have +any bearing on the death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was Past, +and this Ghost's province was the Future. + +He looked about in that very place for his own image; but another man +stood in his accustomed corner, and though the clock pointed to his +usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among +the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little +surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of +life, and he thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried +out in this. + +They left this busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, to +a low shop where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were +bought. A gray-haired rascal, of great age, sat smoking his pipe. + +Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a +woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely +entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was +closely followed by a man in faded black. After a short period of blank +astonishment, in which the old man with the pipe had joined them, they +all three burst into a laugh. + +"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered +first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the +undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a +chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" + +"You couldn't have met in better place. You were made free of it long +ago, you know; and the other two ain't strangers. What have you got to +sell? What have you got to sell?" + +"Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall see." + +"What odds then! What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said the woman. "Every person +has a right to take care of themselves. _He_ always did! Who's the worse +for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose." + +Mrs. Dilber, whose manner was remarkable for general propitiation, said, +"No, indeed, ma'am." + +"If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why +wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had +somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of +lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself." + +"It's the truest word that ever was spoke; it's a judgment on him." + +"I wish it was a little heavier judgment, and it should have been, you +may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open +that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of it. Speak out plain. +I'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it." + +Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening the +bundle, and dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff. + +"What do you call this? Bed-curtains!" + +"Ah! Bed-curtains! Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, now." + +"_His_ blankets?" + +"Whose else's, do you think? He isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I +dare say. Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but +you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It is the best he +had, and a fine one too. They'd have wasted it by dressing him up in it, +if it hadn't been for me." + +Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. + +"Spirit! I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My +life tends that way now. Merciful Heaven, what is this?" + +The scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bare, uncurtained +bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed; +and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this +plundered unknown man. + +"Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or this dark +chamber, Spirit, will be forever present to me." + +The Ghost conducted him to poor Bob Cratchit's house,--the dwelling he +had visited before,--and found the mother and the children seated round +the fire. + +Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues +in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. +The mother and her daughters were engaged in needlework. But surely they +were very quiet! + +"'And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'" + +Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy +must have read them out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why +did he not go on? + +The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her +face. + +"The color hurts my eyes," she said. + +The color? Ah, poor Tiny Tim! + +"They're better now again. It makes them weak by candle-light; and I +wouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes home, for the +world. It must be near his time." + +"Past it, rather," Peter answered, shutting up his book. "But I think he +has walked a little slower than he used, these few last evenings, +mother." + +"I have known him walk with--I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon +his shoulder, very fast indeed." + +"And so have I," cried Peter. "Often." + +"And so have I," exclaimed another. So had all. + +"But he was very light to carry, and his father loved him so, that it +was no trouble,--no trouble. And there is your father at the door!" + +She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter--he had +need of it, poor fellow--came in. His tea was ready for him on the hob, +and they all tried who should help him to it most. Then the two young +Cratchits got upon his knees and laid, each child, a little cheek +against his face, as if they said, "Don't mind it, father. Don't be +grieved!" + +Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to all the family. +He looked at the work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed +of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would be done long before Sunday, +he said. + +"Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert?" + +"Yes, my dear," returned Bob. "I wish you could have gone. It would have +done you good to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I +promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little +child! My little child!" + +He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped +it, he and the child would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they +were. + +"Spectre," said Scrooge, "something informs me that our parting moment +is at hand. I know it, but I know not how. Tell me what man that was, +with the covered face, whom we saw lying dead?" + +The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed him to a dismal, wretched, +ruinous churchyard. + +The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. + +"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one +question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they +shadows of the things that May be only?" + +Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood. + +"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, +they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will +change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" + +The Spirit was immovable as ever. + +Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and, following the +finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own +name,--EBENEZER SCROOGE. + +"Am _I_ that man who lay upon the bed? No, Spirit! O no, no! Spirit! +hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been +but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope? +Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an +altered life." + +For the first time the kind hand faltered. + +"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I +will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all +three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they +teach. O, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!" + +Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed, he +saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, +and dwindled down into a bedpost. + +Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his +own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make +amends in! + +He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the +lustiest peals he had ever heard. + +Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no +mist, no night; clear, bright, stirring, golden day! + +"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday +clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. + +"Eh?" + +"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" + +"To-day! Why, CHRISTMAS DAY." + +"It's Christmas day! I haven't missed it. Hallo, my fine fellow!" + +"Hallo!" + +"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the +corner?" + +"I should hope I did." + +"An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold +the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize +Turkey,--the big one?" + +"What, the one as big as me?" + +"What a delightful boy! It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!" + +"It's hanging there now." + +"Is it? Go and buy it." + +"Walk-ER!"[*] exclaimed the boy. + +[* "Walker!" or "Hookey Walker!" means "What a story!"] + +"No, no, I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring it here, +that I may give them the direction where to take it. Come back with the +man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five +minutes, and I'll give you half a crown!" + +The boy was off like a shot. + +"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's! He sha'n't know who sends it. It's +twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending +it to Bob's will be!" + +The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write +it he did, somehow, and went down stairs to open the street door, ready +for the coming of the poulterer's man. + +It _was_ a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. +He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of +sealing-wax. + +Scrooge dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out into the +streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them +with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and, walking with his hands behind +him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so +irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humored +fellows said: "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" and Scrooge +said often afterwards, that, of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, +those were the blithest in his ears. + +In the afternoon, he turned his steps towards his nephew's house. + +He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the courage to go up and +knock. But he made a dash, and did it. + +"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl! +Very. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where is he, my love?" + +"He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress." + +"He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the dining-room +lock. "I'll go in here, my dear." + +"Fred!" + +"Why, bless my soul!" cried Fred, "who's that?" + +"It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, +Fred?" + +Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in +five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. +So did Topper when _he_ came. So did the plump sister when _she_ came. +So did every one when _they_ came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, +wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! + +But he was early at the office next morning. O, he was early there! If +he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That +was the thing he had set his heart upon. + +And he did it. The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. +Bob was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat +with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank. + +Bob's hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was +on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying +to overtake nine o'clock. + +"Hallo!" growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice, as near as he could +feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?" + +"I am very sorry, sir. I _am_ behind my time." + +"You are? Yes. I think you are. Step this way, if you please." + +"It's only once a year, sir. It shall not be repeated. I was making +rather merry yesterday, sir." + +"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand this sort +of thing any longer. And therefore," Scrooge continued, leaping from his +stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back +into the Tank again,--"and therefore I am about to raise your salary!" + +Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. + +"A merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could +not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, +Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise +your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will +discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of +smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy a second coal-scuttle +before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!" + +Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; +and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as +good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city +knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old +world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him; but his own +heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. + +He had no further intercourse with spirits, but lived in that respect +upon the total-abstinence principle ever afterward; and it was always +said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive +possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! +And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one! + + + + +VI. THE GREAT STONE FACE[*] (1850) + +[* From "The Snow Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales." Used by permission +of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, +publishers of Hawthorne's Works.] + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864) + + +[_Setting_. The Profile Mountain, a huge "work of Nature in her mood of +majestic playfulness," seems to have given the suggestion. The Profile +Mountain is a part of Cannon Mountain, which is one of the White +Mountains of New Hampshire. But the larger background is to be sought in +the interplay of the spiritual and physical forces which Hawthorne has +here staged in allegory. The mountain is the symbol of a lofty ideal +that blesses those that follow its beckoning and marks the degree of +failure of those that slight or ignore it. + +_Plot_. The plan of the story is as simple and beautiful as the teaching +is profound and helpful. "Mr. Hawthorne," writes Mrs. Hawthorne, "says +he is rather ashamed of the mechanical structure of the story, the moral +being so plain and manifest." But what is the "plain and manifest" moral +that the structure of the story is designed to bring out? One +interpreter says, "That the last shall be first"; another, "That success +is not to be measured by human standards." The central thought seems to +me to be larger than either of these and to include both. It is rather +the assimilative power of a lofty ideal and is best phrased in 2 +Corinthians iii, 18: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass +the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to +glory." By setting his ideal high and by looking and longing, Ernest +grew daily in spiritual stature and was saved from being the victim of +the popular and passing allurements of war, money, and politics, +allurements to which his neighbors succumbed because they did not live +in vital communion with the Great Stone Face. The poet, it is true, felt +the appeal of the Great Stone Face but only afar off, for his life did +not correspond with his thought. It is one of the finest touches in the +story that, though Ernest meets the double requirement of thought and +act, he still hoped "that some wiser and better man than himself would +by and by appear." If a man once catches up with his ideal, it ceases to +be an ideal. Ernest did not think that he had attained. + +_Characters_. Ernest, like Scrooge, is a developing character. He did +not have as far to go as Scrooge and his development was differently +wrought; but both passed from weakness to strength and from isolation to +service, the one through the ministry of a single profound experience, +the other through the constant challenge of a high ideal. The other +characters fall below Ernest because they did not relate themselves as +whole-heartedly to the influence of the Great Stone Face. Mr. +Gathergold, type of the merely rich man, Old Blood-and-Thunder, type of +the merely military hero, Old Stony Phiz, type of the merely eloquent +statesman, the easily satisfied people, type of the fickle crowd, and at +last the gifted poet, type of the discord between words and works, all +were natives of the same valley of opportunity. But the Great Stone Face +was the measure of their defect rather than the means of their +attainment because, unlike Esther and Scrooge and Ernest, they were +"disobedient unto the heavenly vision."] + + + +One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy +sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face. +They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, +though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. + +And what was the Great Stone Face? + +Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley so +spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these good +people dwelt in log huts, with the black forest all around them, on the +steep and difficult hillsides. Others had their homes in comfortable +farm-houses, and cultivated the rich soil on the gentle slopes or level +surfaces of the valley. Others, again, were congregated into populous +villages, where some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its +birthplace in the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by +human cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. +The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of many +modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, had a kind of +familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although some possessed the gift +of distinguishing this grand natural phenomenon more perfectly than many +of their neighbors. + +The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic +playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side, of the mountain by some +immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, +when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of +the human countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, +had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. There was the broad +arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long +bridge; and the vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have +rolled their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. +True it is, that if the spectator approached too near, he lost the +outline of the gigantic visage, and could discern only a heap of +ponderous and gigantic rocks, piled in chaotic ruin one upon another. +Retracing his steps, however, the wondrous features would again be seen; +and the farther he withdrew from them, the more like a human face, with +all its original divinity intact, did they appear; until, as it grew dim +in the distance, with the clouds and glorified vapor of the mountains +clustering about it, the Great Stone Face seemed positively to be alive. + +It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood with +the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were noble, +and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow +of a vast, warm heart, that embraced all mankind in its affections, and +had room for more. It was an education only to look at it. According to +the belief of many people, the valley owed much of its fertility to this +benign aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating the +clouds, and infusing its tenderness into the sunshine. + +As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their +cottage-door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it. The +child's name was Ernest. + +"Mother," said he, while the Titanic visage smiled on him, "I wish that +it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice must needs be +pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a face, I should love him +dearly." + +"If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we may +see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face as that." + +"What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired Ernest. "Pray +tell me all about it!" + +So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her, when +she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, not of things that +were past, but of what was yet to come; a story, nevertheless, so very +old that even the Indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had heard +it from their forefathers, to whom, as they affirmed, it had been +murmured by the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among the +treetops. The purport was, that, at some future day, a child should be +born hereabouts, who was destined to become the greatest and noblest +personage of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear an +exact resemblance to the Great Stone Face. Not a few old-fashioned +people, and young ones likewise, in the ardor of their hopes, still +cherished an enduring faith in this old prophecy. But others, who had +seen more of the world, had watched and waited till they were weary, and +had beheld no man with such a face, nor any man that proved to be much +greater or nobler than his neighbors, concluded it to be nothing but an +idle tale. At all events, the great man of the prophecy had not yet +appeared. + +"O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above his +head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him?" + +His mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it +was wisest not to discourage the generous hopes of her little boy. So +she only said to him, "Perhaps you may." + +And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It was +always in his mind, whenever he looked upon the Great Stone Face. He +spent his childhood in the log-cottage where he was born, and was +dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her +much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this +manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, +quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sunbrowned with labor in the fields, but +with more intelligence brightening his aspect than is seen in many lads +who have been taught at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, +save only that the Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of +the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to +imagine that those vast features recognized him, and gave him a smile of +kindness and encouragement, responsive to his own look of veneration. We +must not take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the +Face may have looked no more kindly at Ernest than at all the world +besides. But the secret was, that the boy's tender and confiding +simplicity discerned what other people could not see; and thus the love, +which was meant for all, became his peculiar portion. + +About this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley, that the +great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to +the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It seems that, many years +before, a young man had migrated from the valley and settled at a +distant seaport, where, after getting together a little money, he had +set up as a shopkeeper. His name--but I could never learn whether it was +his real one, or a nickname that had grown out of his habits and success +in life--was Gathergold. Being shrewd and active, and endowed by +Providence with that inscrutable faculty which develops itself in what +the world calls luck, he became an exceedingly rich merchant, and owner +of a whole fleet of bulky-bottomed ships. All the countries of the globe +appeared to join hands for the mere purpose of adding heap after heap to +the mountainous accumulation of this one man's wealth. The cold regions +of the north, almost within the gloom and shadow of the Arctic Circle, +sent him their tribute in the shape of furs; hot Africa sifted for him +the golden sands of her rivers, and gathered up the ivory tusks of her +great elephants out of the forests; the East came bringing him the rich +shawls, and spices, and teas, and the effulgence of diamonds, and the +gleaming purity of large pearls. The ocean, not to be behindhand with +the earth, yielded up her mighty whales, that Mr. Gathergold might sell +their oil, and make a profit on it. Be the original commodity what it +might, it was gold within his grasp. It might be said of him, as of +Midas in the fable, that whatever he touched with his finger immediately +glistened, and grew yellow, and was changed at once into sterling metal, +or, which suited him still better, into piles of coin. And, when Mr. +Gathergold had become so very rich that it would have taken him a +hundred years only to count his wealth, he bethought himself of his +native valley, and resolved to go back thither, and end his days where +he was born. With this purpose in view, he sent a skilful architect to +build him such a palace as should be fit for a man of his vast wealth to +live in. + +As I have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley that Mr. +Gathergold had turned out to be the prophetic personage so long and +vainly looked for, and that his visage was the perfect and undeniable +similitude of the Great Stone Face. People were the more ready to +believe that this must needs be the fact, when they beheld the splendid +edifice that rose, as if by enchantment, on the site of his father's old +weather-beaten farm-house. The exterior was of marble, so dazzlingly +white that it seemed as though the whole structure might melt away in +the sunshine, like those humbler ones which Mr. Gathergold, in his young +play-days, before his fingers were gifted with the touch of +transmutation, had been accustomed to build of snow. It had a richly +ornamented portico, supported by tall pillars, beneath which was a lofty +door, studded with silver knobs, and made of a kind of variegated wood +that had been brought from beyond the sea. The windows, from the floor +to the ceiling of each stately apartment, were composed, respectively, +of but one enormous pane of glass, so transparently pure that it was +said to be a finer medium than even the vacant atmosphere. Hardly +anybody had been permitted to see the interior of this palace; but it +was reported, and with good semblance of truth, to be far more gorgeous +than the outside, insomuch that whatever was iron or brass in other +houses was silver or gold in this; and Mr. Gathergold's bedchamber, +especially, made such a glittering appearance that no ordinary man would +have been able to close his eyes there. But, on the other hand, Mr. +Gathergold was now so inured to wealth, that perhaps he could not have +closed his eyes unless where the gleam of it was certain to find its way +beneath his eyelids. + +In due time, the mansion was finished; next came the upholsterers with +magnificent furniture; then, a whole troop of black and white servants, +the harbingers of Mr. Gathergold, who, in his own majestic person, was +expected to arrive at sunset. Our friend Ernest, meanwhile, had been +deeply stirred by the idea that the great man, the noble man, the man of +prophecy, after so many ages of delay, was at length to be made manifest +to his native valley. He knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand +ways in which Mr. Gathergold, with his vast wealth, might transform +himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a control over human +affairs as wide and benignant as the smile of the Great Stone Face. Full +of faith and hope, Ernest doubted not that what the people said was +true, and that now he was to behold the living likeness of those +wondrous features on the mountain-side. While the boy was still gazing +up the valley, and fancying, as he always did, that the Great Stone Face +returned his gaze and looked kindly at him, the rumbling of wheels was +heard, approaching swiftly along the winding road. + +"Here he comes!" cried a group of people who were assembled to witness +the arrival. "Here comes the great Mr. Gathergold!" + +A carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round the turn of the road. +Within it, thrust partly out of the window, appeared the physiognomy of +a little old man, with a skin as yellow as if his own Midas-hand had +transmuted it. He had a low forehead, small, sharp eyes, puckered about +with innumerable wrinkles, and very thin lips, which he made still +thinner by pressing them forcibly together. + +"The very image of the Great Stone Face!" shouted the people. "Sure +enough, the old prophecy is true; and here we have the great man come, +at last!" + +And, what greatly perplexed Ernest, they seemed actually to believe that +here was the likeness which they spoke of. By the roadside there chanced +to be an old beggar-woman and two little beggar-children, stragglers +from some far-off region, who, as the carriage rolled onward, held out +their hands and lifted up their doleful voices, most piteously +beseeching charity. A yellow claw--the very same that had clawed +together so much wealth--poked itself out of the coach-window, and dropt +some copper coins upon the ground; so that, though the great man's name +seems to have been Gathergold, he might just as suitably have been +nicknamed Scattercopper. Still, nevertheless, with an earnest shout, and +evidently with as much good faith as ever, the people bellowed,-- + +"He is the very image of the Great Stone Face!" + +But Ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled shrewdness of that sordid +visage, and gazed up the valley, where, amid a gathering mist, gilded by +the last sunbeams, he could still distinguish those glorious features +which had impressed themselves into his soul. Their aspect cheered him. +What did the benign lips seem to say? + +"He will come! Fear not, Ernest; the man will come!" + +The years went on, and Ernest ceased to be a boy. He had grown to be a +young man now. He attracted little notice from the other inhabitants of +the valley; for they saw nothing remarkable in his way of life, save +that, when the labor of the day was over, he still loved to go apart and +gaze and meditate upon the Great Stone Face. According to their idea of +the matter, it was a folly, indeed, but pardonable, inasmuch as Ernest +was industrious, kind, and neighborly, and neglected no duty for the +sake of indulging this idle habit. They knew not that the Great Stone +Face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment which was +expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, and fill it with +wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts. They knew not that thence +would come a better wisdom than could be learned from books, and a +better life than could be moulded on the defaced example of other human +lives. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts and affections which +came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, and +wherever he communed with himself, were of a higher tone than those +which all men shared with him. A simple soul,--simple as when his mother +first taught him the old prophecy,--he beheld the marvellous features +beaming adown the valley, and still wondered that their human +counterpart was so long in making his appearance. + +By this time poor Mr. Gathergold was dead and buried; and the oddest +part of the matter was, that his wealth, which was the body and spirit +of his existence, had disappeared before his death, leaving nothing of +him but a living skeleton, covered over with a wrinkled, yellow skin. +Since the melting away of his gold, it had been very generally conceded +that there was no such striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the +ignoble features of the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the +mountain-side. So the people ceased to honor him during his lifetime, +and quietly consigned him to forgetfulness after his decease. Once in a +while, it is true, his memory was brought up in connection with the +magnificent palace which he had built, and which had long ago been +turned into a hotel for the accommodation of strangers, multitudes of +whom came, every summer, to visit that famous natural curiosity, the +Great Stone Face. Thus, Mr. Gathergold being discredited and thrown into +the shade, the man of prophecy was yet to come. + +It so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years before, +had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of hard fighting, had +now become an illustrious commander. Whatever he may be called in +history, he was known in camps and on the battle-field under the +nickname of Old Blood-and-Thunder. This war-worn veteran, being now +infirm with age and wounds, and weary of the turmoil of a military life, +and of the roll of the drum and the clangor of the trumpet, that had so +long been ringing in his ears, had lately signified a purpose of +returning to his native valley, hoping to find repose where he +remembered to have left it. The inhabitants, his old neighbors and their +grown-up children, were resolved to welcome the renowned warrior with a +salute of cannon and a public dinner; and all the more enthusiastically, +it being affirmed that now, at last, the likeness of the Great Stone +Face had actually appeared. An aid-de-camp of Old Blood-and-Thunder, +travelling through the valley, was said to have been struck with the +resemblance. Moreover the schoolmates and early acquaintances of the +general were ready to testify, on oath, that, to the best of their +recollection, the aforesaid general had been exceedingly like the +majestic image, even when a boy, only that the idea had never occurred +to them at that period. Great, therefore, was the excitement throughout +the valley; and many people, who had never once thought of glancing at +the Great Stone Face for years before, now spent their time in gazing at +it for the sake of knowing exactly how General Blood-and-Thunder looked. + +On the day of the great festival, Ernest, with all the other people of +the valley, left their work, and proceeded to the spot where the sylvan +banquet was prepared. As he approached, the loud voice of the Rev. Dr. +Battleblast was heard, beseeching a blessing on the good things set +before them, and on the distinguished friend of peace in whose honor +they were assembled. The tables were arranged in a cleared space of the +woods, shut in by the surrounding trees, except where a vista opened +eastward, and afforded a distant view of the Great Stone Face. + +Over the general's chair, which was a relic from the home of Washington, +there was an arch of verdant boughs, with the laurel profusely +intermixed, and surmounted by his country's banner, beneath which he had +won his victories. Our friend Ernest raised himself on his tiptoes, in +hopes to get a glimpse of the celebrated guest; but there was a mighty +crowd about the tables anxious to hear the toasts and speeches, and to +catch any word that might fall from the general in reply; and a +volunteer company, doing duty as a guard, pricked ruthlessly with their +bayonets at any particularly quiet person among the throng. So Ernest, +being of an unobtrusive character, was thrust quite into the background, +where he could see no more of Old Blood-and-Thunder's physiognomy than +if it had been still blazing on the battle-field. To console himself, he +turned towards the Great Stone Face, which, like a faithful and +long-remembered friend, looked back and smiled upon him through the +vista of the forest. Meantime, however, he could overhear the remarks of +various individuals, who were comparing the features of the hero with +the face on the distant mountain-side. + +"Tis the same face, to a hair!" cried one man, cutting a caper for joy. + +"Wonderfully like, that's a fact!" responded another. + +"Like! why, I call it Old Blood-and-Thunder himself, in a monstrous +looking-glass!" cried a third. "And why not? He's the greatest man of +this or any other age, beyond a doubt." + +And then all three of the speakers gave a great shout, which +communicated electricity to the crowd, and called forth a roar from a +thousand voices, that went reverberating for miles among the mountains, +until you might have supposed that the Great Stone Face had poured its +thunder-breath into the cry. All these comments, and this vast +enthusiasm served the more to interest our friend; nor did he think of +questioning that now, at length, the mountain-visage had found its human +counterpart. It is true, Ernest had imagined that this long-looked-for +personage would appear in the character of a man of peace, uttering +wisdom, and doing good, and making people happy. But, taking an habitual +breadth of view, with all his simplicity, he contended that Providence +should choose its own method of blessing mankind, and could conceive +that this great end might be effected even by a warrior and a bloody +sword, should inscrutable wisdom see fit to order matters so. + +"The general! the general!" was now the cry. "Hush! silence! Old +Blood-and-Thunder's going to make a speech." + +Even so; for, the cloth being removed, the general's health had been +drunk amid shouts of applause, and he now stood upon his feet to thank +the company. Ernest saw him. There he was, over the shoulders of the +crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and embroidered collar upward, +beneath the arch of green boughs with interwined laurel, and the banner +drooping as if to shade his brow! And there, too, visible in the same +glance, through the vista of the forest, appeared the Great Stone Face! +And was there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified. +Alas, Ernest could not recognize it! He beheld a war-worn and +weather-beaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an iron +will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender sympathies, were +altogether wanting in Old Blood-and-Thunder's visage; and even if the +Great Stone Face had assumed his look of stern command, the milder +traits would still have tempered it. + +"This is not the man of prophecy," sighed Ernest, to himself, as he made +his way out of the throng. "And must the world wait longer yet?" + +The mists had congregated about the distant mountain-side, and there +were seen the grand and awful features of the Great Stone Face, awful +but benignant, as if a mighty angel were sitting among the hills, and +enrobing himself in a cloud-vesture of gold and purple. As he looked, +Ernest could hardly believe but that a smile beamed over the whole +visage, with a radiance still brightening, although without motion of +the lips. It was probably the effect of the western sunshine, melting +through the thinly diffused vapors that had swept between him and the +object that he gazed at. But--as it always did--the aspect of his +marvellous friend made Ernest as hopeful as if he had never hoped in +vain. + +"Fear not, Ernest," said his heart, even as if the Great Face were +whispering him,--"fear not, Ernest; he will come." + +More years sped swiftly and tranquilly away. Ernest still dwelt in his +native valley, and was now a man of middle age. By imperceptible +degrees, he had become known among the people. Now, as heretofore, he +labored for his bread, and was the same simple-hearted man that he had +always been. But he had thought and felt so much, he had given so many +of the best hours of his life to unworldly hopes for some great good to +mankind, that it seemed as though he had been talking with the angels, +and had imbibed a portion of their wisdom unawares. It was visible in +the calm and well-considered beneficence of his daily life, the quiet +stream of which had made a wide green margin all along its course. Not a +day passed by, that the world was not the better because this man, +humble as he was, had lived. He never stepped aside from his own path, +yet would always reach a blessing to his neighbor. Almost involuntarily, +too, he had become a preacher. The pure and high simplicity of his +thought, which, as one of its manifestations, took shape in the good +deeds that dropped silently from his hand, flowed also forth in speech. +He uttered truths that wrought upon and moulded the lives of those who +heard him. His auditors, it may be, never suspected that Ernest, their +own neighbor and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; least +of all did Ernest himself suspect it; but, inevitably as the murmur of a +rivulet, came thoughts out of his mouth that no other human lips had +spoken. + +When the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were ready +enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a similarity between +General Blood-and-Thunder's truculent physiognomy and the benign visage +on the mountain-side. But now, again, there were reports and many +paragraphs in the newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the Great +Stone Face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent +statesman. He, like Mr. Gathergold and Old Blood-and-Thunder, was a +native of the valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up +the trades of law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and the +warrior's sword, he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both +together. So wonderfully eloquent was he, that whatever he might choose +to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like +right, and right like wrong; for when it pleased him, he could make a +kind of illuminated fog with his mere breath, and obscure the natural +daylight with it. His tongue, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes +it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest +music. It was the blast of war,--the song of peace; and it seemed to +have a heart in it, when there was no such matter. In good truth, he was +a wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other +imaginable success,--when it had been heard in halls of state, and in +the courts of princes and potentates,--after it had made him known all +over the world, even as a voice crying from shore to shore,--it finally +persuaded his countrymen to select him for the Presidency. Before this +time,--indeed, as soon as he began to grow celebrated,--his admirers had +found out the resemblance between him and the Great Stone Face; and so +much were they struck by it, that throughout the country this +distinguished gentleman was known by the name of Old Stony Phiz. The +phrase was considered as giving a highly favorable aspect to his +political prospects; for, as is likewise the case with the Popedom, +nobody ever becomes President without taking a name other than his own. + +While his friends were doing their best to make him President, Old Stony +Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was +born. Of course, he had no other object than to shake hands with his +fellow-citizens, and neither thought nor cared about any effect which +his progress through the country might have upon the election. +Magnificent preparations were made to receive the illustrious statesman; +a cavalcade of horsemen set forth to meet him at the boundary line of +the State, and all the people left their business and gathered along the +wayside to see him pass. Among these was Ernest. Though more than once +disappointed, as we have seen, he had such a hopeful and confiding +nature, that he was always ready to believe in whatever seemed beautiful +and good. He kept his heart continually open, and thus was sure to catch +the blessing from on high, when it should come. So now again, as +buoyantly as ever, he went forth to behold the likeness of the Great +Stone Face. + +The cavalcade came prancing along the road, with a great clattering of +hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust, which rose up so dense and high that +the visage of the mountain-side was completely hidden from Ernest's +eyes. All the great men of the neighborhood were there on horseback: +militia officers, in uniform; the member of Congress; the sheriff of the +county; the editors of newspapers; and many a farmer, too, had mounted +his patient steed, with his Sunday coat upon his back. It really was a +very brilliant spectacle, especially as there were numerous banners +flaunting over the cavalcade, on some of which were gorgeous portraits +of the illustrious statesman and the Great Stone Face, smiling +familiarly at one another, like two brothers. If the pictures were to be +trusted, the mutual resemblance, it must be confessed, was marvellous. +We must not forget to mention that there was a band of music, which made +the echoes of the mountains ring and reverberate with the loud triumph +of its strains; so that airy and soul-thrilling melodies broke out among +all the heights and hollows, as if every nook of his native valley had +found a voice, to welcome the distinguished guest. But the grandest +effect was when the far-off mountain precipice flung back the music; for +then the Great Stone Face itself seemed to be swelling the triumphant +chorus, in acknowledgment that, at length, the man of prophecy was come. + +All this while the people were throwing up their hats and shouting, with +enthusiasm so contagious that the heart of Ernest kindled up, and he +likewise threw up his hat, and shouted, as loudly as the loudest, "Huzza +for the great man! Huzza, for Old Stony Phiz!" But as yet he had not +seen him. + +"Here he is, now!" cried those who stood near Ernest. "There! There! +Look at Old Stony Phiz and then at the Old Man of the Mountain, and see +if they are not as like as two twin-brothers!" + +In the midst of all this gallant array, came an open barouche, drawn by +four white horses; and in the barouche, with his massive head uncovered, +sat the illustrious statesman, Old Stony Phiz himself. + +"Confess it," said one of Ernest's neighbors to him; "the Great Stone +Face has met its match at last!" + +Now, it must be owned that, at his first glimpse of the countenance +which was bowing and smiling from the barouche, Ernest did fancy that +there was a resemblance between it and the old familiar face upon the +mountain-side. The brow, with its massive depths and loftiness, and all +the other features, indeed, were boldly and strongly hewn, as if in +emulation of a more than heroic, of a Titanic model. But the sublimity +and stateliness, the grand expression of a divine sympathy, that +illuminated the mountain visage, and etherealized its ponderous granite +substance into spirit, might here be sought in vain. Something had been +originally left out, or had departed. And therefore the marvellously +gifted statesman had always a weary gloom in the deep caverns of his +eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings, or a man of mighty +faculties and little aims, whose life, with all its high performances, +was vague and empty, because no high purpose had endowed it with +reality. + +Still, Ernest's neighbor was thrusting his elbow into his side, and +pressing him for an answer. + +"Confess! confess! Is not he the very picture of your Old Man of the +Mountain?" + +"No!" said Ernest, bluntly, "I see little or no likeness." + +"Then so much the worse for the Great Stone Face!" answered his +neighbor; and again he set up a shout for Old Stony Phiz. + +But Ernest turned away, melancholy, and almost despondent; for this was +the saddest of his disappointments, to behold a man who might have +fulfilled the prophecy, and had not willed to do so. Meantime, the +cavalcade, the banners, the music, and the barouches swept past him, +with the vociferous crowd in the rear, leaving the dust to settle down, +and the Great Stone Face to be revealed again, with the grandeur that it +had worn for untold centuries. + +"Lo, here I am, Ernest!" the benign lips seemed to say. "I have waited +longer than thou, and am not yet weary. Fear not; the man will come." + +The years hurried onward, treading in their haste on one another's +heels. And now they began to bring white hairs, and scatter them over +the head of Ernest; they made reverend wrinkles across his forehead, and +furrows in his cheeks. He was an aged man. But not in vain had he grown +old; more than the white hairs on his head were the sage thoughts in his +mind; his wrinkles and furrows were inscriptions that Time had graved, +and in which he had written legends of wisdom that had been tested by +the tenor of a life. And Ernest had ceased to be obscure. Unsought for, +undesired, had come the fame which so many seek, and made him known in +the great world, beyond the limits of the valley in which he had dwelt +so quietly. College professors, and even the active men of cities, came +from far to see and converse with Ernest; for the report had gone abroad +that this simple husbandman had ideas unlike those of other men, not +gained from books, but of a higher tone,--a tranquil and familiar +majesty, as if he had been talking with the angels as his daily friends. +Whether it were sage, statesman, or philanthropist, Ernest received +these visitors with the gentle sincerity that had characterized him from +boyhood, and spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay +deepest in his heart or their own. While they talked together, his face +would kindle, unawares, and shine upon them, as with a mild evening +light. Pensive with the fulness of such discourse, his guests took leave +and went their way; and passing up the valley, paused to look at the +Great Stone Face, imagining that they had seen its likeness in a human +countenance, but could not remember where. + +While Ernest had been growing up and growing old, a bountiful Providence +had granted a new poet to this earth. He, likewise, was a native of the +valley, but had spent the greater part of his life at a distance from +that romantic region, pouring out his sweet music amid the bustle and +din of cities. Often, however, did the mountains which had been familiar +to him in his childhood lift their snowy peaks into the clear atmosphere +of his poetry. Neither was the Great Stone Face forgotten, for the poet +had celebrated it in an ode, which was grand enough to have been uttered +by its own majestic lips. This man of genius, we may say, had come down +from heaven with wonderful endowments. If he sang of a mountain, the +eyes of all mankind beheld a mightier grandeur reposing on its breast, +or soaring to its summit, than had before been seen there. If his theme +were a lovely lake, a celestial smile had now been thrown over it, to +gleam forever on its surface. If it were the vast old sea, even the deep +immensity of its dread bosom seemed to swell the higher, as if moved by +the emotions of the song. Thus the world assumed another and a better +aspect from the hour that the poet blessed it with his happy eyes. The +Creator had bestowed him, as the last best touch to his own handiwork. +Creation was not finished till the poet came to interpret, and so +complete it. + +The effect was no less high and beautiful, when his human brethren were +the subject of his verse. The man or woman, sordid with the common dust +of life, who crossed his daily path, and the little child who played in +it, were glorified if he beheld them in his mood of poetic faith. He +showed the golden links of the great chain that intertwined them with an +angelic kindred; he brought out the hidden traits of a celestial birth +that made them worthy of such kin. Some, indeed, there were, who thought +to show the soundness of their judgment by affirming that all the beauty +and dignity of the natural world existed only in the poet's fancy. Let +such men speak for themselves, who undoubtedly appear to have been +spawned forth by Nature with a contemptuous bitterness; she having +plastered them up out of her refuse stuff, after all the swine were +made. As respects all things else, the poet's ideal was the truest +truth. + +The songs of this poet found their way to Ernest. He read them after his +customary toil, seated on the bench before his cottage-door, where for +such a length of time he had filled his repose with thought, by gazing +at the Great Stone Face. And now as he read stanzas that caused the soul +to thrill within him, he lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming +on him so benignantly. + +"O majestic friend," he murmured, addressing the Great Stone Face, "is +not this man worthy to resemble thee?" + +The Face seemed to smile, but answered not a word. + +Now it happened that the poet, though he dwelt so far away, had not only +heard of Ernest, but had meditated much upon his character, until he +deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this man, whose untaught wisdom +walked hand in hand with the noble simplicity of his life. One summer +morning, therefore, he took passage by the railroad, and, in the decline +of the afternoon, alighted from the cars at no great distance from +Ernest's cottage. The great hotel, which had formerly been the palace of +Mr. Gathergold, was close at hand, but the poet, with his carpet-bag on +his arm, inquired at once where Ernest dwelt, and was resolved to be +accepted as his guest. + +Approaching the door, he there found the good old man, holding a volume +in his hand, which alternately he read, and then, with a finger between +the leaves, looked lovingly at the Great Stone Face. + +"Good evening," said the poet. "Can you give a traveller a night's +lodging?" + +"Willingly," answered Ernest; and then he added, smiling, "Methinks I +never saw the Great Stone Face look so hospitably at a stranger." + +The poet sat down on the bench beside him, and he and Ernest talked +together. Often had the poet held intercourse with the wittiest and the +wisest, but never before with a man like Ernest, whose thoughts and +feelings gushed up with such a natural freedom, and who made great +truths so familiar by his simple utterance of them. Angels, as had been +so often said, seemed to have wrought with him at his labor in the +fields; angels seemed to have sat with him by the fireside; and, +dwelling with angels as friend with friends, he had imbibed the +sublimity of their ideas, and imbued it with the sweet and lowly charm +of household words. So thought the poet. And Ernest, on the other hand, +was moved and agitated by the living images which the poet flung out of +his mind, and which peopled all the air about the cottage-door with +shapes of beauty, both gay and pensive. The sympathies of these two men +instructed them with a profounder sense than either could have attained +alone. Their minds accorded into one strain, and made delightful music +which neither of them could have claimed as all his own, nor +distinguished his own share from the other's. They led one another, as +it were, into a high pavilion of their thoughts, so remote, and hitherto +so dim, that they had never entered it before, and so beautiful that +they desired to be there always. + +As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone Face +was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly into the poet's +glowing eyes. + +"Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said. + +The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been reading. + +"You have read these poems," said he. "You know me, then,--for I wrote +them." + +Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the poet's +features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then back, with an +uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance fell; he shook his +head, and sighed. + +"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet. + +"Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the +fulfilment of a prophecy; and, when I read these poems, I hoped that it +might be fulfilled in you." + +"You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me the +likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed, as formerly +with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and Old Stony Phiz. Yes, +Ernest, it is my doom. You must add my name to the illustrious three, +and record another failure of your hopes. For--in shame and sadness do I +speak it, Ernest--I am not worthy to be typified by yonder benign and +majestic image." + +"And why?" asked Ernest. He pointed to the volume. "Are not those +thoughts divine?" + +"They have a strain of the Divinity," replied the poet. "You can hear in +them the far-off echo of a heavenly song. But my life, dear Ernest, has +not corresponded with my thought. I have had grand dreams, but they have +been only dreams, because I have lived--and that, too, by my own +choice--among poor and mean realities. Sometimes even--shall I dare to +say it?--I lack faith in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness, +which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in +human life. Why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou +hope to find me, in yonder image of the divine?" + +The poet spoke sadly, and his eyes were dim with tears. So, likewise, +were those of Ernest. + +At the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, Ernest was +to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open +air. He and the poet, arm in arm, still talking together as they went +along, proceeded to the spot. It was a small nook among the hills, with +a gray precipice behind, the stern front of which was relieved by the +pleasant foliage of many creeping plants, that made a tapestry for the +naked rock, by hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles. At a +small elevation above the ground, set in a rich framework of verdure, +there appeared a niche, spacious enough to admit a human figure, with +freedom for such gestures as spontaneously accompany earnest thought and +genuine emotion. Into this natural pulpit Ernest ascended, and threw a +look of familiar kindness around upon his audience. They stood, or sat, +or reclined upon the grass, as seemed good to each, with the departing +sunshine falling obliquely over them, and mingling its subdued +cheerfulness with the solemnity of a grove of ancient trees, beneath and +amid the boughs of which the golden rays were constrained to pass. In +another direction was seen the Great Stone Face, with the same cheer, +combined with the same solemnity, in its benignant aspect. + +Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and +mind. His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and +his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the +life which he had always lived. It was not mere breath that this +preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good +deeds and holy love was melted into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had +been dissolved into this precious draught. The poet, as he listened, +felt that the being and character of Ernest were a nobler strain of +poetry than he had ever written. His eyes glistening with tears, he +gazed reverentially at the venerable man, and said within himself that +never was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as that +mild, sweet, thoughtful countenance, with the glory of white hair +diffused about it. At a distance, but distinctly to be seen, high up in +the golden light of the setting sun, appeared the Great Stone Face, with +hoary mists around it, like the white hairs around the brow of Ernest. +Its look of grand beneficence seemed to embrace the world. + +At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, +the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so imbued with +benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms +aloft, and shouted,-- + +"Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone +Face!" + +Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said +was true. The prophecy was fulfilled. But Ernest, having finished what +he had to say, took the poet's arm, and walked slowly homeward, still +hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by +appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE. + + + + +VII. RAB AND HIS FRIENDS (1858)[*] + +[* From "Rab and his Friends and Other Dogs and Men."] + +BY DR. JOHN BROWN (1810-1882) + + +[_Setting_. Dr. Brown was once driving with a friend through a crowded +section of Edinburgh when he stopped in the middle of a sentence, +seeming to be surprised at something behind the carriage. "Is it some +one you know?" the friend asked. "No," was the reply, "it's a dog I +_don't_ know." Needless to say that "Rab and his Friends" is an +Edinburgh story. The time is about 1824-1830. In the Scotch dialect +"weel a weel" means "all right"; "till" means "to"; "I'se" means "I +shall"; "he's" means "he shall"; "ower clean to beil" means "too clean +to suppurate"; "fremyt" means "strange"; "a' the lave" means "all the +rest"; "in the treviss wi' the mear" means "in the stall with the mare." + +_Plot_. From Aesop's Fables to Kipling's Jungle Books literature is full +of animal stories. But there is no dog story better told than this and +none that appeals more to our deeper sympathies. It is more of a +character sketch than a short story, the incidents and characters being +bound together by a common relation to Rab. From his leisurely first +appearance in the story, "a huge mastiff, sauntering down the middle of +the causeway, as if with his hands in his pockets," to the unanswerable +last question--"His teeth and his friends gone, why should he keep the +peace, and be civil?"--we follow Rab's pathetic career with the growing +conviction that "his like was na atween this and Thornhill," however +distant Thornhill may have been. Character sketches are apt to be +uninteresting because there is usually too little action and too much +description. The adjectives tend to smother the verbs. "They have," said +Hawthorne of his "Twice-Told Tales," "the pale tint of flowers that +blossomed in too retired a shade,--the coolness of a meditative habit, +which diffuses itself through the feeling and observation of every +sketch." But no such charge can be laid at the door of "Rab and his +Friends." The very dumbness of Rab, his mute yearning to help, his brave +and loyal ministries in the hospital, doubly affecting because wordless +and impotent, lend an appeal to this sketch that few sketches of men and +women can be said to have. + +_Characters_. In a later sketch called "Our Dogs" Dr. Brown tells how +Rab became the property of James and Ailie. He had been terrifying +everybody at Macbie Hill and his owner ordered him to be hanged. As Rab +was getting the better of the contest, his owner commanded that he be +shot. But Ailie, who happened to be near, noticed that he had a big +splinter in his foreleg. "She gave him water," says Dr. Brown, "and by +her woman's wit got his lame paw under a door, so that he couldn't +suddenly get at her; then with a quick firm hand she plucked out the +splinter, and put in an ample meal. She went in some time after, taking +no notice of him, and he came limping up, and laid his great jaws in her +lap." From that moment they became friends. A little later James was in +a lonely part of the woods when a robber sprang at him and demanded his +money. "Weel a weel, let me get it," said James, and stepping back he +whispered to Rab, "Speak till him, my man." Rab had the robber down in +an instant. + +In "Rab and his Friends" the great mastiff shows just the qualities that +we should expect from this account of his earlier career. But his +sympathy and affection for Ailie, shown so tenderly in the hospital +scenes, find an added pathos in the thought that he was serving his +first and best friend, one who had healed his hurt as he would have +healed hers if he could.] + + + +Four-and-thirty years ago, Bob Ainslie and I were coming up Infirmary +Street from the Edinburgh High School, our heads together, and our arms +intertwisted, as only lovers and boys know how, or why. + +When we got to the top of the street, and turned north, we espied a +crowd at the Tron Church. "A dog-fight!" shouted Bob, and was off; and +so was I, both of us all but praying that it might not be over before we +got up! And is not this boy-nature? and human nature too? and don't we +all wish a house on fire not to be out before we see it? Dogs like +fighting; old Isaac says they "delight" in it, and for the best of all +reasons; and boys are not cruel because they like to see the fight. They +see three of the great cardinal virtues of dog or man--courage, +endurance, and skill--in intense action. This is very different from a +love of making dogs fight, and enjoying, and aggravating, and making +gain by their pluck. A boy,--be he ever so fond himself of fighting,--if +he be a good boy, hates and despises all this, but he would have run off +with Bob and me fast enough: it is a natural, and a not wicked interest, +that all boys and men have in witnessing intense energy in action. + +Does any curious and finely-ignorant woman wish to know how Bob's eye at +a glance announced a dog-fight to his brain? He did not, he could not +see the dogs fighting; it was a flash of an inference, a rapid +induction. The crowd round a couple of dogs fighting is a crowd +masculine mainly, with an occasional active, compassionate woman, +fluttering wildly round the outside, and using her tongue and her hands +freely upon the men, as so many "brutes"; it is a crowd annular, +compact, and mobile; a crowd centripetal, having its eyes and its heads +all bent downwards and inwards, to one common focus. + +Well, Bob and I are up, and find it is not over: a small thoroughbred, +white Bull Terrier, is busy throttling a large shepherd's dog, +unaccustomed to war, but not to be trifled with. They are hard at it; +the scientific little fellow doing his work in great style, his pastoral +enemy fighting wildly, but with the sharpest of teeth and a great +courage. Science and breeding, however, soon had their own; the Game +Chicken, as the premature Bob called him, working his way up, took his +final grip of poor Yarrow's throat,--and he lay gasping and done for. +His master, a brown, handsome, big young shepherd from Tweedsmuir, would +have liked to have knocked down any man, would "drink up Esil,[*] or eat +a crocodile," for that part, if he had a chance: it was no use kicking +the little dog; that would only make him hold the closer. Many were the +means shouted out in mouthfuls, of the best possible ways of ending it. +"Water!" but there was none near, and many cried for it who might have +got it from the well at Blackfriars Wynd. "Bite the tail!" and a large, +vague, benevolent, middle-aged man, more desirous than wise, with some +struggle got the bushy end of _Yarrow's_ tail into his ample mouth, and +bit it with all his might. This was more than enough for the +much-enduring, much-perspiring shepherd, who, with a gleam of joy over +his broad visage, delivered a terrific facer upon our large, vague, +benevolent, middle-aged friend,--who went down like a shot. + +[* Esil, "vinegar" (_Hamlet_, V, I, 299).] + +Still the Chicken holds; death not far off. "Snuff! a pinch of snuff!" +observed a calm, highly-dressed young buck, with an eye-glass in his +eye. "Snuff, indeed!" growled the angry crowd, affronted and glaring. +"Snuff! a pinch of snuff!" again observed the buck, but with more +urgency; whereon were produced several open boxes, and from a mull which +may have been at Culloden, he took a pinch, knelt down, and presented it +to the nose of the Chicken. The laws of physiology and of snuff take +their course; the Chicken sneezes, and Yarrow is free! + +The young pastoral giant stalks off with Yarrow in his arms,--comforting +him. + +But the Bull Terrier's blood is up, and his soul unsatisfied; he grips +the first dog he meets, and discovering she is not a dog, in Homeric +phrase, he makes a brief sort of _amende_, and is off. The boys, with +Bob and me at their head, are after him: down Niddry Street he goes, +bent on mischief; up the Cowgate like an arrow--Bob and I, and our small +men, panting behind. + +There, under the single arch of the South Bridge, is a huge mastiff, +sauntering down the middle of the causeway, as if with his hands in his +pockets: he is old, gray, brindled, as big as a little Highland bull, +and has the Shakesperian dewlaps shaking as he goes. + +The Chicken makes straight at him, and fastens on his throat. To our +astonishment, the great creature does nothing but stand still, hold +himself up, and roar--yes, roar; a long, serious, remonstrative roar. +How is this? Bob and I are up to them. _He is muzzled_! The bailies had +proclaimed a general muzzling, and his master, studying strength and +economy mainly, had encompassed his huge jaws in a home-made apparatus, +constructed out of the leather of some ancient _breechin_. His mouth was +open as far as it could; his lips curled up in rage--a sort of terrible +grin; his teeth gleaming, ready, from out the darkness; the strap across +his mouth tense as a bowstring; his whole frame stiff with indignation +and surprise; his roar asking us all round, "Did you ever see the like +of this?" He looked a statue of anger and astonishment, done in Aberdeen +granite. + +We soon had a crowd: the Chicken held on. "A knife!" cried Bob; and a +cobbler gave him his knife: you know the kind of knife, worn away +obliquely to a point, and always keen. I put its edge to the tense +leather; it ran before it; and then!--one sudden jerk of that enormous +head, a sort of dirty mist about his mouth, no noise,--and the bright +and fierce little fellow is dropped, limp, and dead. A solemn pause: +this was more than any of us had bargained for. I turned the little +fellow over, and saw he was quite dead; the mastiff had taken him by the +small of the back like a rat, and broken it. + +He looked down at his victim appeased, ashamed, and amazed; snuffed him +all over, stared at him, and taking a sudden thought, turned round and +trotted off. Bob took the dead dog up, and said, "John, we'll bury him +after tea." "Yes," said I, and was off after the mastiff. He made up the +Cowgate at a rapid swing; he had forgotten some engagement. He turned up +the Candlemaker Row, and stopped at the Harrow Inn. + +There was a carrier's cart ready to start, and a keen, thin, impatient, +black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse's head, looking +about angrily for something. "Rab, ye thief!" said he, aiming a kick at +my great friend, who drew cringing up, and avoiding the heavy shoe with +more agility than dignity, and watching his master's eye, slunk dismayed +under the cart,--his ears down, and as much as he had of tail down too. + +What a man this must be--thought I--to whom my tremendous hero turns +tail! The carrier saw the muzzle hanging, cut and useless, from his +neck, and I eagerly told him the story, which Bob and I always thought, +and still think, Homer, or King David, or Sir Walter alone were worthy +to rehearse. The severe little man was mitigated, and condescended to +say, "Rab, my man, puir Rabbie,"--whereupon the stump of a tail rose up, +the ears were cocked, the eyes filled, and were comforted; the two +friends were reconciled. "Hupp!" and a stroke of the whip were given to +Jess; and off went the three. + + * * * * * + +Bob and I buried the Game Chicken that night (we had not much of a tea) +in the back-green of his house in Melville Street, No. 17, with +considerable gravity and silence; and being at the time in the Iliad, +and, like all boys, Trojans, we called him Hector of course. + +Six years have passed,--a long time for a boy and a dog: Bob Ainslie is +off to the wars; I am a medical student, and clerk at Minto House +Hospital. + +Rab I saw almost every week, on the Wednesday, and we had much pleasant +intimacy. I found the way to his heart by frequent scratching of his +huge head, and an occasional bone. When I did not notice him he would +plant himself straight before me, and stand wagging that bud of a tail, +and looking up, with his head a little to the one side. His master I +occasionally saw; he used to call me "Maister John," but was laconic as +any Spartan. + +One fine October afternoon, I was leaving the hospital, when I saw the +large gate open, and in walked Rab, with that great and easy saunter of +his. He looked as if taking general possession of the place; like the +Duke of Wellington entering a subdued city, satiated with victory and +peace. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart; and in it +a woman, carefully wrapped up,--the carrier leading the horse anxiously, +and looking back. When he saw me, James (for his name was James Noble) +made a curt and grotesque "boo," and said, "Maister John, this is the +mistress; she's got a trouble in her breest--some kind o' an income +we're thinking." + +By this time I saw the woman's face; she was sitting on a sack filled +with straw, her husband's plaid round her, and his big-coat with its +large white metal buttons, over her feet. + +I never saw a more unforgettable face--pale, serious, _lonely_,[*] +delicate, sweet, without being at all what we call fine. She looked +sixty, and had on a mutch, white as snow, with its black ribbon; her +silvery, smooth hair setting off her dark-gray eyes--eyes such as one +sees only twice or thrice in a lifetime, full of suffering, full also of +the overcoming of it: her eyebrows black and delicate, and her mouth +firm, patient, and contented, which few mouths ever are. + +[* It is not easy giving this look by one word; it was expressive of her +being so much of her life alone.] + +As I have said, I never saw a more beautiful countenance, or one more +subdued to settled quiet. "Ailie," said James, "this is Maister John, +the young doctor; Rab's freend, ye ken. We often speak aboot you, +doctor." She smiled, and made a movement, but said nothing; and prepared +to come down, putting her plaid aside and rising. Had Solomon, in all +his glory, been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace gate he +could not have done it more daintily, more tenderly, more like a +gentleman, than did James the Howgate carrier, when he lifted down Ailie +his wife. The contrast of his small, swarthy, weather-beaten, keen, +worldly face to hers--pale, subdued, and beautiful--was something +wonderful. Rab looked on concerned and puzzled, but ready for anything +that might turn up,--were it to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even +me. Ailie and he seemed great friends. + +"As I was sayin' she's got a kind o' trouble in her breest, doctor; wull +ye tak' a look at it?" We walked into the consulting-room, all four; Rab +grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential if cause could be +shown, willing also to be the reverse, on the same terms. Ailie sat +down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her neck, and +without a word, showed me her right breast. I looked at and examined it +carefully,--she and James watching me, and Rab eying all three. What +could I say? there it was, that had once been so soft, so shapely, so +white, so gracious and bountiful, so "full of all blessed +conditions,"--hard as a stone, a centre of horrid pain, making that pale +face, with its gray, lucid, reasonable eyes, and its sweet resolved +mouth, express the full measure of suffering overcome. Why was that +gentle, modest, sweet woman, clean and lovable, condemned by God to bear +such a burden? + +I got her away to bed. "May Rab and me bide?" said James. "_You_ may; +and Rab, if he will behave himself." "I'se warrant he's do that, +doctor;" and in slank the faithful beast. I wish you could have seen +him. There are no such dogs now. He belonged to a lost tribe. As I have +said, he was brindled and gray like Rubislaw granite; his hair short, +hard, and close, like a lion's; his body thick set, like a little +bull--a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. He must have been ninety +pounds' weight, at the least; he had a large blunt head; his muzzle +black as night, his mouth blacker than any night, a tooth or two--being +all he had--gleaming out of his jaws of darkness. His head was scarred +with the records of old wounds, a sort of series of fields of battle all +over it; one eye out, one ear cropped as close as was Archbishop +Leighton's father's; the remaining eye had the power of two; and above +it, and in constant communication with it, was a tattered rag of an ear, +which was forever unfurling itself, like an old flag; and then that bud +of a tail, about one inch long, if it could in any sense be said to be +long, being as broad as long--the mobility, the instantaneousness of +that bud were very funny and surprising, and its expressive twinklings +and winkings, the intercommunications between the eye, the ear, and it, +were of the oddest and swiftest. + +Rab had the dignity and simplicity of great size; and having fought his +way all along the road to absolute supremacy, he was as mighty in his +own line as Julius Caesar or the Duke of Wellington, and had the +gravity[*] of all great fighters. + +[* A Highland game-keeper, when asked why a certain terrier, of singular +pluck, was so much more solemn than the other dogs, said, "Oh, Sir, +life's full o' sairiousness to him--he just never can get enuff o' +fechtin'."] + +You must have often observed the likeness of certain men to certain +animals, and of certain dogs to men. Now, I never looked at Rab without +thinking of the great Baptist preacher, Andrew Fuller.[*] The same +large, heavy, menacing, combative, sombre, honest countenance, the same +deep inevitable eye, the same look,--as of thunder asleep, but +ready,--neither a dog nor a man to be trifled with. + +[* Fuller was, in early life, when a farmer lad at Soham, famous as a +boxer; not quarrelsome, but not without "the stern delight" a man of +strength and courage feels in their exercise. Dr. Charles Stewart, of +Dunearn, whose rare gifts and graces as a physician, a divine, a +scholar, and a gentleman, live only in the memory of those few who knew +and survive him, liked to tell how Mr. Fuller used to say, that when he +was in the pulpit, and saw a _buirdly_ man come along the passage, he +would instinctively draw himself up, measure his imaginary antagonist, +and forecast how he would deal with him, his hands meanwhile condensing +into fists, and tending to "square." He must have been a hard hitter if +he boxed as he preached--what "The Fancy" would call "an ugly +customer."] + +Next day, my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. There was no doubt it +must kill her, and soon. It could be removed--it might never return--it +would give her speedy relief--she should have it done. She curtsied, +looked at James, and said, "When?" "To-morrow," said the kind surgeon--a +man of few words. She and James and Rab and I retired. I noticed that he +and she spoke little, but seemed to anticipate everything in each other. +The following day, at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the great +stair. At the first landing-place, on a small well-known blackboard, was +a bit of paper fastened by wafers and many remains of old wafers beside +it. On the paper were the words,--"An operation to-day. J.B. _Clerk_." + +Up ran the youths, eager to secure good places; in they crowded, full of +interest and talk. "What's the case?" "Which side is it?" + +Don't think them heartless; they are neither better nor worse than you +or I; they get over their professional horrors, and into their proper +work--and in them pity--as an _emotion_, ending in itself or at best in +tears and a long-drawn breath--lessens, while pity as a _motive_ is +quickened, and gains power and purpose. It is well for poor human nature +that it is so. + +The operating theatre is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the +cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants +is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager +students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down, +and are dumb, and gaze at her. These rough boys feel the power of her +presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her mutch, +her neckerchief, her white dimity short-gown, her black bombazine +petticoat, showing her white worsted stockings and her carpet-shoes. +Behind her was James with Rab. James sat down in the distance, and took +that huge and noble head between his knees. Rab looked perplexed and +dangerous; forever cocking his ear and dropping it as fast. + +Ailie stepped up on a seat, and laid herself on the table, as her friend +the surgeon told her; arranged herself, gave a rapid look at James, shut +her eyes, rested herself on me, and took my hand. The operation was at +once begun; it was necessarily slow; and chloroform--one of God's best +gifts to his suffering children--was then unknown. The surgeon did his +work. The pale face showed its pain, but was still and silent. Rab's +soul was working within him; he saw that something strange was going +on,--blood flowing from his mistress, and she suffering; his ragged ear +was up, and importunate; he growled and gave now and then a sharp +impatient yelp; he would have liked to have done something to that man. +But James had him firm, and gave him a _glower_ from time to time, and +an intimation of a possible kick;--all the better for James, it kept his +eye and his mind off Ailie. + +It is over: she is dressed, steps gently and decently down from the +table, looks for James; then, turning to the surgeon and the students, +she curtsies,--and in a low, clear voice, begs their pardon if she has +behaved ill. The students--all of us--wept like children; the surgeon +happed her up carefully,--and, resting on James and me, Ailie went to +her room, Rab following. We put her to bed. James took off his heavy +shoes, crammed with tackets, heel-capt, and toe-capt and put them +carefully under the table, saying, "Maister John, I'm for nane o' yer +strynge nurse bodies for Ailie. I'll be her nurse, and I'll gang aboot +on my stockin' soles as canny as pussy." And so he did; and handy and +clever, and swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed, snell, +peremptory little man. Everything she got he gave her: he seldom slept; +and often I saw his small shrewd eyes out of the darkness, fixed on her. +As before, they spoke little. + +Rab behaved well, never moving, showing us how meek and gentle he could +be, and occasionally, in his sleep, letting us know that he was +demolishing some adversary. He took a walk with me every day, generally +to the Candlemaker Row; but he was sombre and mild; declined doing +battle, though some fit cases offered, and indeed submitted to sundry +indignities; and was always very ready to turn, and came faster back, +and trotted up the stair with much lightness, and went straight to that +door. + +Jess, the mare, had been sent, with her weather-worn cart, to Howgate, +and had doubtless her own dim and placid meditations and confusions, on +the absence of her master and Rab, and her unnatural freedom from the +road and her cart. + +For some days Ailie did well. The wound healed "by the first intention;" +for as James said, "Our Ailie's skin's ower clean to beil." The students +came in quiet and anxious, and surrounded her bed. She said she liked to +see their young, honest faces. The surgeon dressed her, and spoke to her +in his own short kind way, pitying her through his eyes, Rab and James +outside the circle,--Rab being now reconciled, and even cordial, and +having made up his mind that as yet nobody required worrying, but, as +you may suppose, _semper paratus_. + +So far well: but, four days after the operation, my patient had a sudden +and long shivering, a "groosin'," as she called it. I saw her soon +after; her eyes were too bright, her cheek colored; she was restless, +and ashamed of being so; the balance was lost; mischief had begun. On +looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret: her pulse was +rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn't herself, as she said, +and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could; James did +everything, was everywhere; never in the way, never out of it; Rab +subsided under the table into a dark place, and was motionless, all but +his eye, which followed every one. Ailie got worse; began to wander in +her mind, gently; was more demonstrative in her ways to James, rapid in +her questions, and sharp at times. He was vexed, and said, "She was +never that way afore; no, never." For a time she knew her head was +wrong, and was always asking our pardon--the dear, gentle old woman: +then delirium set in strong, without pause. Her brain gave way, and then +came that terrible spectacle,-- + + The intellectual power, through words and things, + Went sounding on its dim and perilous way, + +she sang bits of old songs and Psalms, stopping suddenly, mingling the +Psalms of David and the diviner words of his Son and Lord, with homely +odds and ends and scraps of ballads. + +Nothing more touching, or in a sense more strangely beautiful, did I +ever witness. Her tremulous, rapid, affectionate, eager, Scotch +voice,--the swift, aimless, bewildered mind, the baffled utterance, the +bright and perilous eye; some wild words, some household cares, +something for James, the names of the dead, Rab called rapidly and in a +"fremyt" voice, and he starting up surprised, and slinking off as if he +were to blame somehow, or had been dreaming he heard; many eager +questions and beseechings which James and I could make nothing of, and +on which she seemed to set her all, and then sink back ununderstood. It +was very sad, but better than many things that are not called sad. James +hovered about, put out and miserable, but active and exact as ever; read +to her, when there was a lull, short bits from the Psalms, prose and +metre, chanting the latter in his own rude and serious way, showing +great knowledge of the fit words, bearing up like a man, and doating +over her as his "ain Ailie." "Ailie, ma woman!" "Ma ain bonnie wee +dawtie!" + +The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord +was fast being loosed--that _animula blandula, vagula, hospes, +comesque_[*] was about to flee. The body and the soul--companions for +sixty years--were being sundered, and taking leave. She was walking +alone, through the valley of that shadow, into which one day we must all +enter,--and yet she was not alone, for we know whose rod and staff were +comforting her. + +[* "Little, gentle, wandering soul, guest and comrade."--Hadrian's +"Address to his Soul"] + +One night she had fallen quiet, and as we hoped, asleep; her eyes were +shut. We put down the gas, and sat watching her. Suddenly she sat up in +bed, and taking a bed-gown which was lying on it rolled up, she held it +eagerly to her breast,--to the right side. We could see her eyes bright +with a surprising tenderness and joy, bending over this bundle of +clothes. She held it as a woman holds her sucking child; opening out her +night-gown impatiently, and holding it close, and brooding over it, and +murmuring foolish little words, as over one whom his mother comforteth, +and who sucks and is satisfied. It was pitiful and strange to see her +wasted dying look, keen and yet vague--her immense love. + +"Preserve me!" groaned James, giving way. And then she rocked back and +forward, as if to make it sleep, hushing it, and wasting on it her +infinite fondness. "Wae's me, doctor; I declare she's thinkin' it's that +bairn." "What bairn?" "The only bairn we ever had; our wee Mysie, and +she's in the Kingdom, forty years and mair." It was plainly true: the +pain in the breast, telling its urgent story to a bewildered, ruined +brain, was misread and mistaken; it suggested to her the uneasiness of a +breast full of milk, and then the child; and so again once more they +were together, and she had her ain wee Mysie in her bosom. + +This was the close. She sank rapidly: the delirium left her; but, as she +whispered, she was "clean silly;" it was the lightening before the final +darkness. After having for some time lain still--her eyes shut, she said +"James!" He came close to her, and lifting up her calm, clear, beautiful +eyes, she gave him a long look, turned to me kindly but shortly, looked +for Rab but could not see him, then turned to her husband again, as if +she would never leave off looking, shut her eyes, and composed herself. +She lay for some time breathing quick, and passed away so gently that, +when we thought she was gone, James, in his old-fashioned way, held the +mirror to her face. After a long pause, one small spot of dimness was +breathed out; it vanished away, and never returned, leaving the blank +clear darkness of the mirror without a stain. "What is our life? it is +even a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth +away." + +Rab all this time had been full awake and motionless; he came forward +beside us: Ailie's hand, which James had held, was hanging down; it was +soaked with his tears; Rab licked it all over carefully, looked at her, +and returned to his place under the table. + +James and I sat, I don't know how long, but for some time,--saying +nothing: he started up abruptly, and with some noise went to the table, +and putting his right fore and middle fingers each into a shoe, pulled +them out, and put them on, breaking one of the leather latchets, and +muttering in anger, "I never did the like o' that afore!" + +I believe he never did; nor after either. "Rab!" he said roughly, and +pointing with his thumb to the bottom of the bed. Rab leapt up, and +settled himself; his head and eye to the dead face. "Maister John, ye'll +wait for me," said the carrier; and disappeared in the darkness, +thundering down-stairs in his heavy shoes. I ran to a front window; +there he was, already round the house, and out at the gate, fleeing like +a shadow. + +I was afraid about him, and yet not afraid; so I sat down beside Rab, +and being wearied, fell asleep. I awoke from a sudden noise outside. It +was November, and there had been a heavy fall of snow. Rab was _in statu +quo_; he heard the noise too, and plainly knew it, but never moved. I +looked out; and there, at the gate, in the dim morning--for the sun was +not up--was Jess and the cart,--a cloud of steam rising from the old +mare. I did not see James; he was already at the door, and came up the +stairs, and met me. It was less than three hours since he left, and he +must have posted out--who knows how?--to Howgate, full nine miles off; +yoked Jess, and driven her astonished into town. He had an armful of +blankets, and was streaming with perspiration. He nodded to me, spread +out on the floor two pairs of clean old blankets having at their +corners, "A.G., 1794," in large letters in red worsted. These were the +initials of Alison Graeme, and James may have looked in at her from +without--himself unseen but not unthought of--when he was "wat, wat, and +weary," and after having walked many a mile over the hills, may have +seen her sitting, while "a' the lave were sleepin':" and by the +firelight working her name on the blankets, for her ain James's bed. + +He motioned Rab down, and taking his wife in his arms, laid her in the +blankets, and happed her carefully and firmly up, leaving the face +uncovered; and then lifting her, he nodded again sharply to me, and with +a resolved but utterly miserable face, strode along the passage, and +down-stairs, followed by Rab. I followed with a light; but he didn't +need it. I went out, holding stupidly the candle in my hand in the calm +frosty air; we were soon at the gate. I could have helped him, but I saw +he was not to be meddled with, and he was strong, and did not need it. +He laid her down as tenderly, as safely, as he had lifted her out ten +days before--as tenderly as when he had her first in his arms when she +was only "A.G.,"--sorted her, leaving that beautiful sealed face open to +the heavens; and then taking Jess by the head, he moved away. He did not +notice me, neither did Rab, who presided behind the cart. + +I stood till they passed through the long shadow of the College, and +turned up Nicolson Street. I heard the solitary cart sound through the +streets, and die away and come again; and I returned, thinking of that +company going up Libberton Brae, then along Roslin Muir, the morning +light touching the Pentlands and making them like on-looking ghosts, +then down the hill through Auchindinny woods, past "haunted +Woodhouselee;" and as daybreak came sweeping up the bleak Lammermuirs, +and fell on his own door, the company would stop, and James would take +the key, and lift Ailie up again, laying her on her own bed, and, having +put Jess up, would return with Rab and shut the door. + +James buried his wife, with his neighbors mourning, Rab inspecting the +solemnity from a distance. It was snow, and that black ragged hole would +look strange in the midst of the swelling spotless cushion of white. +James looked after everything; then rather suddenly fell ill, and took +to bed; was insensible when the doctor came, and soon died. A sort of +low fever was prevailing in the village, and his want of sleep, his +exhaustion, and his misery made him apt to take it. The grave was not +difficult to reopen. A fresh fall of snow had again made all things +white and smooth; Rab once more looked on, and slunk home to the stable. + + * * * * * + +And what of Rab? I asked for him next week of the new carrier who got +the goodwill of James's business, and was now master of Jess and her +cart. "How's Rab?" He put me off, and said rather rudely, "What's _your_ +business wi' the dowg?" I was not to be so put off. "Where's Rab?" He, +getting confused and red, and intermeddling with his hair, said, "Deed, +sir, Rab's deid." "Dead! what did he die of?" "Weel, sir," said he, +getting redder, "he did na exactly dee; he was killed. I had to brain +him wi' a rack-pin; there was nae doin' wi' him. He lay in the treviss +wi' the mear, and wad na come oot. I tempit him wi' kail and meat, but +he wad tak naething, and keepit me frae feedin' the beast, and he was +aye gur gurrin', and grup gruppin' me by the legs. I was laith to make +awa wi' the auld dowg, his like was na atween this and Thornhill,--but, +'deed, sir, I could do naething else." I believed him. Fit end for Rab, +quick and complete. His teeth and his friends gone, why should he keep +the peace, and be civil? + + + + +VIII. THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT[*] (1869) + +[* Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton +Mifflin Company, publishers of Bret Harte's Works.] + +BY BRET HARTE (1836-1902) + + +[_Setting_. The group tragedy enacted in this story took place between +November 23 and December 7, 1850, on the road from Poker Flat to Sandy +Bar, in Sierra County, California. The time and place are those that +Bret Harte has made peculiarly his own. The austerity and wildness of +the scenery seem somehow to favor the intimate revelation of character +that the story displays. There is no intervention of cities, crops, +fashions, or conventions between the different members of the character +group or between the group as a whole and the reader. All is bare like a +white mountain peak. Notice also how the background of a common peril +draws the characters together and brings out at last the best in each. + +_Plot_. The story sets forth and interprets a dramatic situation. The +plot is staged so as to answer the question, "Do not the people whom +society regards as outcasts have yet some redeeming virtue?" Notice +especially how a sense of common fellowship is developed in these +outcasts. First, they are subjected to a common humiliation in being +driven from Poker Flat by persons whom the outcasts consider no whit +better than themselves. Next, they are exposed to a common danger, a +danger that leads the stronger to care instinctively for the weaker, and +the weaker to recognize that it is nobler to give than to receive. At +last, in the unexpected entrance of the innocent Tom Simson and the +guileless Piney Woods, the outcasts find a common challenge to the +native goodness that had long lain dormant within them. Innocence and +guilelessness may be laughed at, as they are here, but their appeal is +often stronger than the appeal of disciplined virtue or of +self-conscious superiority. When Bret Harte was charged with confusing +the boundary lines of vice and virtue he replied that his plots +"conformed to the rules laid down by a Great Poet who created the +parable of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan." + +_Characters_. Oakhurst, who is always called "Mr." Oakhurst, is of +course the dominant character. The story begins with him and ends with +him. He is "the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker +Flat,"--strong while there was anything to be done, weak even to suicide +when he had only to wait for the inevitable end. He was a brave, +desperate, solitary man, whose thought and speech and action, however, +were always those of the professional gambler. Bret Harte, who has put +him into several stories, says of him in another place: "Go where he +would and with whom, he was always a notable man in ten thousand." The +admiration that we yield to such a man, though it is only a qualified +admiration, is doubtless the admiration of power which, we cannot help +thinking, might be used beneficently if it could only be harnessed to a +noble cause. + +But if Oakhurst is the dominant character, Piney Woods is, I think, the +central character. She is central in this story just as little Aglaia is +central in Tennyson's "Princess," or Eppie in George Eliot's "Silas +Marner," or the baby offspring of Cherokee Sal in "The Luck of Roaring +Camp." Bret Harte had just written the last-named story when he began +the composition of "The Outcasts of Poker Flat." The same great theme, +the radiating and redeeming power of innocence and purity, was carried +over from the first story to the second. The ministry of the baby and +the ministry of the fifteen-year-old bride is the same in both. Like the +Great Stone Face in Hawthorne's story or like little Pippa in Browning's +poem, they awaken the better nature of those about them. They restore +hopes that had become but memories and memories that had almost ceased +to be hopes.] + + + +As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker +Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was +conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. +Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he +approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull +in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked +ominous. + +Mr. Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these +indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause, was +another question. "I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected; +"likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which +he had been whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat +boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture. + +In point of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately +suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and +a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, +quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked +it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper +persons. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were then +hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in +the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to +say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, +to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in +such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to +sit in judgment. + +Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this +category. A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible +example, and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of +the sums he had won from them. "It's agin justice," said Jim Wheeler, +"to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp--an entire stranger--carry +away our money." But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts +of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst +overruled this narrower local prejudice. + +Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the +less coolly that he was aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was +too much of a gambler not to accept Fate. With him life was at best an +uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the +dealer. + +A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to +the outskirts of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to +be a coolly desperate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort +was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman +familiarly known as "The Duchess"; another, who had won the title of +"Mother Shipton"; and "Uncle Billy," a suspected sluice-robber and +confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from the +spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch +which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader +spoke briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at +the peril of their lives. + +As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few +hysterical tears from the Duchess, some bad language from Mother +Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy. The +philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother +Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements +of the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths +that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the +easy good-humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchanging +his own riding-horse, "Five Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess +rode. But even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. +The young woman readjusted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, +faded coquetry; Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with +malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping +anathema. + +The road to Sandy Bar--a camp that, not having as yet experienced the +regenerating influences of Poker Flat, consequently seemed to offer some +invitation to the emigrants--lay over a steep mountain range. It was +distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced season, the party soon +passed out of the moist, temperate regions of the foot-hills into the +dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras. The trail was narrow and +difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the +ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party +halted. + +The spot was singularly wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheatre, +surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped +gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley. +It was, undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been +advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy +Bar was accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for +delay. This fact he pointed out to his companions curtly, with a +philosophic commentary on the folly of "throwing up their hand before +the game was played out." But they were furnished with liquor, which in +this emergency stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience. +In spite of his remonstrances, it was not long before they were more or +less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose +state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton +snored. Mr. Oakhurst alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, +calmly surveying them. + +Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with a profession which +required coolness, impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his own +language, he "couldn't afford it." As he gazed at his recumbent +fellow-exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah-trade, his habits +of life, his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. He +bestirred himself in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and +face, and other acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and +for a moment forgot his annoyance. The thought of deserting his weaker +and more pitiable companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could +not help feeling the want of that excitement which, singularly enough, +was most conducive to that calm equanimity for which he was notorious. +He looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the +circling pines around him; at the sky, ominously clouded; at the valley +below, already deepening into shadow. And, doing so, suddenly he heard +his own name called. + +A horseman slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the +new-comer Mr. Oakhurst recognized Tom Simson, otherwise known as "The +Innocent" of Sandy Bar. He had met him some months before over a "little +game," and had, with perfect equanimity, won the entire +fortune--amounting to some forty dollars--of that guileless youth. After +the game was finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew the youthful speculator behind +the door and thus addressed him: "Tommy, you're a good little man, but +you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again." He then handed +him his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a +devoted slave of Tom Simson. + +There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting +of Mr. Oakhurst. He had started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek +his fortune. "Alone?" No, not exactly alone; in fact (a giggle), he had +run away with Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? She that +used to wait on the table at the Temperance House? They had been engaged +a long time, but old Jake Woods had objected, and so they had run away, +and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and here they were. And they +were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp and +company. All this the Innocent delivered rapidly, while Piney, a stout, +comely damsel of fifteen, emerged from behind the pine-tree, where she +had been blushing unseen, and rode to the side of her lover. + +Mr. Oakhurst seldom troubled himself with sentiment, still less with +propriety; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not fortunate. +He retained, however, his presence of mind sufficiently to kick Uncle +Billy, who was about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough +to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear +trifling. He then endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying +further, but in vain. He even pointed out the fact that there was no +provision, nor means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met +this objection by assuring the party that he was provided with an extra +mule loaded with provisions, and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a +log-house near the trail. "Piney can stay with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the +Innocent, pointing to the Duchess, "and I can shift for myself." + +Nothing but Mr. Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved Uncle Billy from +bursting into a roar of laughter. As it was, he felt compelled to retire +up the canon until he could recover his gravity. There he confided the +joke to the tall pine-trees, with many slaps of his leg, contortions of +his face, and the usual profanity. But when he returned to the party, he +found them seated by a fire--for the air had grown strangely chill and +the sky overcast--in apparently amicable conversation. Piney was +actually talking in an impulsive, girlish fashion to the Duchess, who +was listening with an interest and animation she had not shown for many +days. The Innocent was holding forth, apparently with equal effect, to +Mr. Oakhurst and Mother Shipton, who was actually relaxing into +amiability. "Is this yer a d----d picnic?" said Uncle Billy, with inward +scorn, as he surveyed the sylvan group, the glancing firelight, and the +tethered animals in the foreground. Suddenly an idea mingled with the +alcoholic fumes that disturbed his brain. It was apparently of a jocular +nature, for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and cram his fist +into his mouth. + +As the shadows crept slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the +tops of the pine-trees, and moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. +The ruined cabin, patched and covered with pine-boughs, was set apart +for the ladies. As the lovers parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a +kiss, so honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the +swaying pines. The frail Duchess and the malevolent Mother Shipton were +probably too stunned to remark upon this last evidence of simplicity, +and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was replenished, the +men lay down before the door, and in a few minutes were asleep. + +Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed and +cold. As he stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now blowing +strongly, brought to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave +it,--snow! + +He started to his feet with the intention of awakening the sleepers, for +there was no time to lose. But turning to where Uncle Billy had been +lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to his brain and a curse to +his lips. He ran to the spot where the mules had been tethered; they +were no longer there. The tracks were already rapidly disappearing in +the snow. + +The momentary excitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the fire with his +usual calm. He did not waken the sleepers. The Innocent slumbered +peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face; the virgin +Piney slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by +celestial guardians, and Mr. Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his +shoulders, stroked his mustaches and waited for the dawn. It came slowly +in a whirling mist of snow-flakes, that dazzled and confused the eye. +What could be seen of the landscape appeared magically changed. He +looked over the valley, and summoned up the present and future in two +words,--"snowed in!" + +A careful inventory of the provisions, which, fortunately for the party, +had been stored within the hut, and so escaped the felonious fingers of +Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and prudence they might +last ten days longer. "That is," said Mr. Oakhurst, _sotto voce_ to the +Innocent, "if you're willing to board us. If you ain't--and perhaps +you'd better not--you can wait till Uncle Billy gets back with +provisions." For some occult reason, Mr. Oakhurst could not bring +himself to disclose Uncle Billy's rascality, and so offered the +hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp and had accidentally +stampeded the animals. He dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother +Shipton, who of course knew the facts of their associate's defection. +"They'll find out the truth about us _all_ when they find out anything," +he added, significantly, "and there's no good frightening them now." + +Tom Simson not only put all his worldly store at the disposal of Mr. +Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion. +"We'll have a good camp for a week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll +all go back together." The cheerful gayety of the young man, and Mr. +Oakhurst's calm infected the others. The Innocent, with the aid of +pine-boughs, extemporized a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the +Duchess directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior with a taste +and tact that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their +fullest extent. "I reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," +said Piney. The Duchess turned away sharply to conceal something that +reddened her cheeks through its professional tint, and Mother Shipton +requested Piney not to "chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a +weary search for the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed +from the rocks. He stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first +naturally reverted to the whiskey, which he had prudently _cached_. "And +yet it don't somehow sound like whiskey," said the gambler. It was not +until he caught sight of the blazing fire through the still blinding +storm and the group around it that he settled to the conviction that it +was "square fun." + +Whether Mr. Oakhurst had _cached_ his cards with the whiskey as +something debarred the free access of the community, I cannot say. It +was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, he "didn't say cards once" +during that evening. Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, +produced somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. +Notwithstanding some difficulties attending the manipulation of his +instrument, Piney Woods managed to pluck several reluctant melodies from +its keys, to an accompaniment by the Innocent on a pair of bone +castanets. But the crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a +rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers, joining hands, sang with great +earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a certain defiant tone and +Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, +caused it speedily to infect the others, who at last joined in the +refrain:-- + +"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, +And I'm bound to die in His army." + +The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled above the miserable +group, and the flames of their altar leaped heavenward, as if in token +of the vow. + +At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted, and the stars +glittered keenly above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose +professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible +amount of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson, somehow managed +to take upon himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself +to the Innocent, by saying that he had "often been a week without +sleep." "Doing what?" asked Tom. "Poker!" replied Oakhurst, +sententiously; "when a man gets a streak of luck,--nigger-luck,--he +don't get tired. The luck gives in first. Luck," continued the gambler, +reflectively, "is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for +certain is that it's bound to change. And it's finding out when it's +going to change that makes you. We've had a streak of bad luck since we +left Poker Flat,--you come along, and slap you get into it, too. If you +can hold your cards right along, you're all right. For," added the +gambler, with cheerful irrelevance,-- + +"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, +And I'm bound to die in His army." + +The third day came, and the sun, looking through the white-curtained +valley, saw the outcasts divide their slowly decreasing store of +provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the peculiarities of that +mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry +landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. But it revealed +drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut,--a hopeless, +uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which +the castaways still clung. Through the marvellously clear air the smoke +of the pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton +saw it, and from a remote pinnacle of her rocky fastness, hurled in that +direction a final malediction. It was her last vituperative attempt, and +perhaps for that reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. +It did her good, she privately informed the Duchess. "Just you go out +there and cuss, and see." She then set herself to the task of amusing +"the child," as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney +was no chicken, but it was a soothing and original theory of the pair +thus to account for the fact that she didn't swear and wasn't improper. + +When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the +accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the +flickering camp-fire. But music failed to fill entirely the aching void +left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by +Piney,--story-telling. Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female companions +caring to relate their personal experiences, this plan would have +failed, too, but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced +upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He +now proposed to narrate the principal incidents of that poem--having +thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words--in the +current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that night the +Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek +wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the canon seemed to bow to +the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet +satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of +"Ash-heels," as the Innocent persisted in denominating the "swift-footed +Achilles." + +So with small food and much of Homer and the accordion, a week passed +over the heads of the outcasts. The sun again forsook them, and again +from leaden skies the snow-flakes were sifted over the land. Day by day +closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at last they looked from +their prison over drifted walls of dazzling white, that towered twenty +feet above their heads. It became more and more difficult to replenish +their fires, even from the fallen trees beside them, now half hidden in +the drifts. And yet no one complained. The lovers turned from the dreary +prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr. Oakhurst +settled himself coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess, more +cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother +Shipton--once the strongest of the party--seemed to sicken and fade. At +midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I'm going," +she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, "but don't say anything +about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head and +open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for +the last week, untouched. "Give 'em to the child," she said, pointing to +the sleeping Piney. "You've starved yourself," said the gambler. "That's +what they call it," said the woman, querulously, as she lay down again, +and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away. + +The accordion and the bones were put aside that day, and Homer was +forgotten. When the body of Mother Shipton had been committed to the +snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed him a pair of +snow-shoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack-saddle. "There's +one chance in a hundred to save her yet," he said, pointing to Piney; +"but it's there," he added, pointing towards Poker Flat. "If you can +reach there in two days she's safe." "And you?" asked Tom Simson. "I'll +stay here," was the curt reply. + +The lovers parted with a long embrace. "You are not going, too?" said +the Duchess, as she saw Mr. Oakhurst apparently waiting to accompany +him. "As far as the canon," he replied. He turned suddenly, and kissed +the Duchess, leaving her pallid face aflame, and her trembling lips +rigid with amazement. + +Night came, but not Mr. Oakhurst. It brought the storm again and the +whirling snow. Then the Duchess, feeding the fire, found that some one +had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last a few days longer. +The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney. + +The women slept but little. In the morning, looking into each other's +faces, they read their fate. Neither spoke; but Piney, accepting the +position of the stronger, drew near and placed her arm around the +Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the rest of the day. That +night the storm reached its greatest fury, and, rending asunder the +protecting pines, invaded the very hut. + +Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which +gradually died away. As the embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept +closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours: "Piney, can you +pray?" "No, dear," said Piney, simply. The Duchess, without knowing +exactly why, felt relieved, and, putting her head upon Piney's shoulder, +spoke no more. And so reclining, the younger and purer pillowing the +head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast, they fell asleep. + +The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, +shaken from the long pine-boughs, flew like white-winged birds, and +settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds +looked down upon what had been the camp. But all human stain, all trace +of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully +flung from above. + +They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and +footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when pitying fingers +brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told from +the equal peace that dwelt upon them, which was she that had sinned. +Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving +them still locked in each other's arms. + +But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine-trees, they +found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore +the following, written in pencil, in a firm hand:-- + + +BENEATH THIS TREE +LIES THE BODY +OF +JOHN OAKHURST, +WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK +ON THE 23D OF NOVEMBER, 1850, +AND +HANDED IN HIS CHECKS +ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850. + + +And pulseless and cold, with a derringer by his side and a bullet in his +heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at +once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat. + + + + +IX. MARKHEIM[*] (1884) + +[* From "The Merry Men." Used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, +authorized American publishers of Stevenson's Works.] + +BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894) + + +[_Setting_. There is no finer model for the study of setting than this +story affords. It is three o'clock in the afternoon of a foggy Christmas +Day in London. If Markheim's manner and the dimly lighted interior of +the antique shop suggest murder, the garrulous clocks, the nodding +shadows, and the reflecting mirrors seem almost to compel confession and +surrender. "And still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind +accused him, with a sickening iteration, of the thousand faults of his +design. He should have chosen a more quiet hour." So he should for the +murder; but for the self-confession, which is Stevenson's ultimate +design, no time or place could have been better. + +_Plot_. There is little action in the plot. A man commits a dastardly +murder and then, being alone and undetected, begins to think, think, +think. It is the turning point in his life and he knows it. Instead of +seizing the treasure and escaping, he submits his past career to a rigid +scrutiny and review. This brooding over his past life and present +outlook becomes so absorbing that what bade fair to be a soliloquy +becomes a dialogue, a dialogue between the old self that committed the +murder and the new self that begins to revolt at it. The old self bids +him follow the line of least resistance and go on as he has begun; the +newly awakened self bids him stop at once, check the momentum of other +days, take this last chance, and be a man. His better nature wins. +Markheim finds that though his deeds have been uniformly evil, he can +still "conceive great deeds, renunciations, martyrdoms." Though the +active love of good seems too weak to be reckoned as an asset, he still +has a "hatred of evil"; and on this twin foundation, ability to think +great thoughts and to hate evil deeds, he builds at last his culminating +resolve. + +The story is powerfully and yet subtly told. It sweeps the whole gamut +of the moral law. Many stories develop the same theme but none just like +this. Stevenson himself is drawn again to the same problem a little +later in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Hawthorne tried it in "Howe's +Masquerade," in which the cloaked figure is the phantom or reduplication +of Howe himself. In Poe's "William Wilson," to which Stevenson is +plainly indebted, the evil nature triumphs over the good. But +"Markheim," by touching more chords and by sounding lower depths, makes +the triumph at the end seem like a permanent victory for universal human +nature. + +_Characters_. If the story is the study of a given situation, Markheim, +who is another type of the developing character, is the central factor +in the situation. We see and interpret the situation only through the +personality of Markheim himself. Another murderer might have acted +differently, even with those clamorous clocks and accusing mirrors +around him, but not this murderer. There is nothing abnormal about him, +however, as a criminal. He is thirty-six years old and through sheer +weakness has gone steadily downward, but he has never before done a deed +approaching this in horror or in the power of sudden self-revelation. He +sees himself now as he never saw himself before and begins to take stock +of his moral assets. They are pitifully meager, though his opportunities +for character building have been good. He has even had emotional +revivals, which did not, however, issue in good deeds. But with it all, +Markheim illustrates the nobility of human nature rather than its +essential depravity. I do not doubt his complete and permanent +conversion. When the terrible last question is put to him--or when he +puts it to himself--whether he is better now in any one particular than +he was, and when he is forced to say, "No, in none! I have gone down in +all," the moral resources of human nature itself seem to be exhausted. +But they are not. "I see clearly what remains for me," said Markheim, +"by way of _duty_." This word, not used before, sounds a new challenge +and marks the crisis of the story. Duty can fight without calling in +reserves from the past and without the vision of victory in the future. +I don't wonder that the features of the visitant "softened with a tender +triumph." The visitant was neither "the devil" as Markheim first thought +him nor "the Saviour of men" as a recent editor pronounces him. He is +only Markheim's old self, the self that entered the antique shop, that +with fear and trembling committed the deed, and that now, half-conscious +all the time of inherent falseness, urges the old arguments and tries to +energize the old purposes. It is this visitant that every man meets and +overthrows when he comes to himself, when he breaks sharply with the old +life and enters resolutely upon the new.] + + + +"Yes," said the dealer, "our windfalls are of various kinds. Some +customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior +knowledge. Some are dishonest," and here he held up the candle, so that +the light fell strongly on his visitor, "and in that case," he +continued, "I profit by my virtue." + +Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes +had not yet grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness in the +shop. At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, +he blinked painfully and looked aside. + +The dealer chuckled. "You come to me on Christmas-day," he resumed, +"when you know that I am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make +a point of refusing business. Well, you will have to pay for that; you +will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my +books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark +in you to-day very strongly. I am the essence of discretion, and ask no +awkward questions; but when a customer can not look me in the eye, he +has to pay for it." The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to +his usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, "You can +give, as usual, a clean account of how you came into the possession of +the object?" he continued. "Still your uncle's cabinet? A remarkable +collector, sir!" + +And the little, pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tip-toe, +looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with +every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite +pity, and a touch of horror. + +"This time," said he, "you are in error. I have not come to sell, but to +buy. I have no curios to dispose of; my uncle's cabinet is bare to the +wainscot; even were it still intact, I have done well on the Stock +Exchange, and should more likely add to it than otherwise, and my errand +to-day is simplicity itself. I seek a Christmas-present for a lady," he +continued, waxing more fluent as he struck into the speech he had +prepared; "and certainly I owe you every excuse for thus disturbing you +upon so small a matter. But the thing was neglected yesterday; I must +produce my little compliment at dinner; and, as you very well know, a +rich marriage is not a thing to be neglected." + +There followed a pause, during which the dealer seemed to weigh this +statement incredulously. The ticking of many clocks among the curious +lumber of the shop, and the faint rushing of the cabs in a near +thoroughfare, filled up the interval of silence. + +"Well, sir," said the dealer, "be it so. You are an old customer after +all; and if, as you say, you have the chance of a good marriage, far be +it from me to be an obstacle. Here is a nice thing for a lady now," he +went on, "this hand-glass--fifteenth century, warranted; comes from a +good collection, too; but I reserve the name, in the interests of my +customer, who was just like yourself, my dear sir, the nephew and sole +heir of a remarkable collector." + +The dealer, while he thus ran on in his dry and biting voice, had +stooped to take the object from its place; and, as he had done so, a +shock had passed through Markheim, a start both of hand and foot, a +sudden leap of many tumultuous passions to the face. It passed as +swiftly as it came, and left no trace beyond a certain trembling of the +hand that now received the glass. + +"A glass," he said, hoarsely, and then paused, and repeated it more +clearly. "A glass? For Christmas? Surely not?" + +"And why not?" cried the dealer. "Why not a glass?" + +Markheim was looking upon him with an indefinable expression. "You ask +me why not?" he said. "Why, look here--look in it--look at yourself! Do +you like to see it? No! nor I--nor any man." + +The little man had jumped back when Markheim had so suddenly confronted +him with the mirror; but now, perceiving there was nothing worse on +hand, he chuckled. "Your future lady, sir, must be pretty hard favored," +said he. + +"I ask you," said Markheim, "for a Christmas-present, and you give me +this--this damned reminder of years, and sins and follies--this +hand-conscience! Did you mean it? Had you a thought in your mind? Tell +me. It will be better for you if you do. Come, tell me about yourself. I +hazard a guess now, that you are in secret a very charitable man?" + +The dealer looked closely, at his companion. It was very odd, Markheim +did not appear to be laughing; there was something in his face like an +eager sparkle of hope, but nothing of mirth. + +"What are you driving at?" the dealer asked. + +"Not charitable?" returned the other, gloomily. "Not charitable; not +pious; not scrupulous; unloving, unbeloved; a hand to get money, a safe +to keep it. Is that all? Dear God, man, is that all?" + +"I will tell you what it is," began the dealer, with some sharpness, and +then broke off again into a chuckle. "But I see this is a love match of +yours, and you have been drinking the lady's health." + +"Ah!" cried Markheim, with a strange curiosity. "Ah, have you been in +love? Tell me about that." + +"I," cried the dealer. "I in love! I never had the time, nor have I the +time to-day for all this nonsense. Will you take the glass?" + +"Where is the hurry?" returned Markheim. "It is very pleasant to stand +here talking; and life is so short and insecure that I would not hurry +away from any pleasure--no, not even from so mild a one as this. We +should rather cling, cling to what little we can get, like a man at a +cliff's edge. Every second is a cliff, if you think upon it--a cliff a +mile high--high enough, if we fall, to dash us out of every feature of +humanity. Hence it is best to talk pleasantly. Let us talk of each +other; why should we wear this mask? Let us be confidential. Who knows, +we might become friends?" + +"I have just one word to say to you," said the dealer. "Either make your +purchase, or walk out of my shop." + +"True, true," said Markheim. "Enough fooling. To business. Show me +something else." + +The dealer stooped once more, this time to replace the glass upon the +shelf, his thin blonde hair falling over his eyes as he did so. Markheim +moved a little nearer, with one hand in the pocket of his great-coat; he +drew himself up and filled his lungs; at the same time many different +emotions were depicted together on his face--terror, horror, and +resolve, fascination and a physical repulsion; and through a haggard +lift of his upper lip, his teeth looked out. + +"This, perhaps, may suit," observed the dealer; and then, as he began to +re-arise, Markheim bounded from behind upon his victim. The long, +skewer-like dagger flashed and fell. The dealer struggled like a hen, +striking his temple on the shelf, and then tumbled on the floor in a +heap. + +Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow +as was becoming to their great age; others garrulous and hurried. All +these told out the seconds in an intricate chorus of tickings. Then the +passage of a lad's feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon +these smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his +surroundings. He looked about him awfully. The candle stood on the +counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by that +inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle +and kept heaving like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots +of darkness swelling and dwindling as with respiration, the faces of the +portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in water. +The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with +a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger. + +From these fear-stricken rovings, Markheim's eyes returned to the body +of his victim, where it lay both humped and sprawling, incredibly small +and strangely meaner than in life. In these poor, miserly clothes, in +that ungainly attitude, the dealer lay like so much sawdust. Markheim +had feared to see it, and, lo! it was nothing. And yet, as he gazed, +this bundle of old clothes and pool of blood began to find eloquent +voices. There it must lie; there was none to work the cunning hinges or +direct the miracle of locomotion--there it must lie till it was found. +Found! ay, and then? Then would this dead flesh lift up a cry that would +ring over England, and fill the world with the echoes of pursuit. Ay, +dead or not, this was still the enemy. "Time was that when the brains +were out," he thought; and the first word struck into his mind. Time, +now that the deed was accomplished--time, which had closed for the +victim, had become instant and momentous for the slayer. + +The thought was yet in his mind, when, first one and then another, with +every variety of pace and voice--one deep as the bell from a cathedral +turret, another ringing on its treble notes the prelude of a waltz--the +clocks began to strike the hour of three in the afternoon. + +The sudden outbreak of so many tongues in that dumb chamber staggered +him. He began to bestir himself, going to and fro with the candle, +beleaguered by moving shadows, and startled to the soul by chance +reflections. In many rich mirrors, some of home designs, some from +Venice or Amsterdam, he saw his face repeated and repeated, as it were +an army of spies; his own eyes met and detected him; and the sound of +his own steps, lightly as they fell, vexed the surrounding quiet. And +still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind accused him, with a +sickening iteration, of the thousand faults of his design. He should +have chosen a more quiet hour; he should have prepared an alibi; he +should not have used a knife; he should have been more cautious, and +only bound and gagged the dealer, and not killed him; he should have +been more bold, and killed the servant also; he should have done all +things otherwise; poignant regrets, weary, incessant toiling of the mind +to change what was unchangeable, to plan what was now useless, to be the +architect of the irrevocable past. Meanwhile, and behind all this +activity, brute terrors, like scurrying of rats in a deserted attic, +filled the more remote chambers of his brain with riot; the hand of the +constable would fall heavy on his shoulder, and his nerves would jerk +like a hooked fish; or he beheld, in galloping defile, the dock, the +prison, the gallows, and the black coffin. + +Terror of the people in the street sat down before his mind like a +besieging army. It was impossible, he thought, but that some rumor of +the struggle must have reached their ears and set on edge their +curiosity; and now, in all the neighboring houses, he divined them +sitting motionless and with uplifted ear--solitary people, condemned to +spend Christmas dwelling alone on memories of the past, and now +startlingly recalled from that tender exercise; happy family parties, +struck into silence round the table, the mother still with raised +finger: every degree and age and humor, but all, by their own hearths, +prying and hearkening and weaving the rope that was to hang him. +Sometimes it seemed to him he could not move too softly; the clink of +the tall Bohemian goblets rang out loudly like a bell; and alarmed by +the bigness of the ticking, he was tempted to stop the clocks. And then, +again, with a swift transition of his terrors, the very silence of the +place appeared a source of peril, and a thing to strike and freeze the +passer-by; and he would step more boldly, and bustle aloud among the +contents of the shop, and imitate, with elaborate bravado, the movements +of a busy man at ease in his own house. + +But he was now so pulled about by different alarms that, while one +portion of his mind was still alert and cunning, another trembled on the +brink of lunacy. One hallucination in particular took a strong hold on +his credulity. The neighbor hearkening with white face beside his +window, the passer-by arrested by a horrible surmise on the +pavement--these could at worst suspect, they could not know; through the +brick walls and shuttered windows only sounds could penetrate. But here, +within the house, was he alone? He knew he was; he had watched the +servant set forth sweethearting, in her poor best, "out for the day" +written in every ribbon and smile. Yes, he was alone, of course; and +yet, in the bulk of empty house above him, he could surely hear a stir +of delicate footing--he was surely conscious, inexplicably conscious of +some presence. Ay, surely; to every room and corner of the house his +imagination followed it; and now it was a faceless thing, and yet had +eyes to see with; and again it was a shadow of himself; and yet again +behold the image of the dead dealer, reinspired with cunning and hatred. + +At times, with a strong effort, he would glance at the open door which +still seemed to repel his eyes. The house was tall, the skylight small +and dirty, the day blind with fog; and the light that filtered down to +the ground story was exceedingly faint, and showed dimly on the +threshold of the shop. And yet, in that strip of doubtful brightness, +did there not hang wavering a shadow? + +Suddenly, from the street outside, a very jovial gentleman began to beat +with a staff on the shop-door, accompanying his blows with shouts and +railleries in which the dealer was continually called upon by name. +Markheim, smitten into ice, glanced at the dead man. But no! he lay +quite still; he was fled away far beyond earshot of these blows and +shoutings; he was sunk beneath seas of silence; and his name, which +would once have caught his notice above the howling of a storm, had +become an empty sound. And presently the jovial gentleman desisted from +his knocking and departed. + +Here was a broad hint to hurry what remained to be done, to get forth +from this accusing neighborhood, to plunge into a bath of London +multitudes, and to reach, on the other side of day, that haven of safety +and apparent innocence--his bed. One visitor had come: at any moment +another might follow and be more obstinate. To have done the deed, and +yet not to reap the profit, would be too abhorrent a failure. The money, +that was now Markheim's concern; and as a means to that, the keys. + +He glanced over his shoulder at the open door, where the shadow was +still lingering and shivering; and with no conscious repugnance of the +mind, yet with a tremor of the belly, he drew near the body of his +victim. The human character had quite departed. Like a suit half-stuffed +with bran, the limbs lay scattered, the trunk doubled, on the floor; and +yet the thing repelled him. Although so dingy and inconsiderable to the +eye, he feared it might have more significance to the touch. He took the +body by the shoulders, and turned it on its back. It was strangely light +and supple, and the limbs, as if they had been broken, fell into the +oddest postures. The face was robbed of all expression; but it was as +pale as wax, and shockingly smeared with blood about one temple. That +was, for Markheim, the one displeasing circumstance. It carried him +back, upon the instant, to a certain fair day in a fisher's village: a +gray day, a piping wind, a crowd upon the street, the blare of brasses, +the booming of drums, the nasal voice of a ballad singer; and a boy +going to and fro, buried over head in the crowd and divided between +interest and fear, until, coming out upon the chief place of concourse, +he beheld a booth and a great screen with pictures, dismally designed, +garishly colored: Brownrigg with her apprentice; the Mannings with their +murdered guest; Weare in the death-grip of Thurtell; and a score besides +of famous crimes. The thing was as clear as an illusion; he was once +again that little boy; he was looking once again, and with the same +sense of physical revolt, at these vile pictures; he was still stunned +by the thumping of the drums. A bar of that day's music returned upon +his memory; and at that, for the first time, a qualm came over him, a +breath of nausea, a sudden weakness of the joints, which he must +instantly resist and conquer. + +He judged it more prudent to confront than to flee from these +considerations; looking the more hardily in the dead face, bending his +mind to realize the nature and greatness of his crime. So little awhile +ago that face had moved with every change of sentiment, that pale mouth +had spoken, that body had been all on fire with governable energies; and +now, and by his act, that piece of life had been arrested, as the +horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock. +So he reasoned in vain; he could rise to no more remorseful +consciousness; the same heart which had shuddered before the painted +effigies of crime, looked on its reality unmoved. At best, he felt a +gleam of pity for one who had been endowed in vain with all those +faculties that can make the world a garden of enchantment, one who had +never lived and who was now dead. But of penitence, no, with a tremor. + +With that, shaking himself clear of these considerations, he found the +keys and advanced toward the open door of the shop. Outside, it had +begun to rain smartly; and the sound of the shower upon the roof had +banished silence. Like some dripping cavern, the chambers of the house +were haunted by an incessant echoing, which filled the ear and mingled +with the ticking of the clocks. And, as Markheim approached the door, he +seemed to hear, in answer to his own cautious tread, the steps of +another foot withdrawing up the stair. The shadow still palpitated +loosely on the threshold. He threw a ton's weight of resolve upon his +muscles, and drew back the door. + +The faint, foggy daylight glimmered dimly on the bare floor and stairs; +on the bright suit of armor posted, halbert in hand, upon the landing; +and on the dark wood-carvings, and framed pictures that hung against the +yellow panels of the wainscot. So loud was the beating of the rain +through all the house that, in Markheim's ears, it began to be +distinguished into many different sounds. Footsteps and sighs, the tread +of regiments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the +counting, and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar, appeared to +mingle with the patter of the drops upon the cupola and the gushing of +the water in the pipes. The sense that he was not alone grew upon him to +the verge of madness. On every side he was haunted and begirt by +presences. He heard them moving in the upper chambers; from the shop, he +heard the dead man getting to his legs; and as he began with a great +effort to mount the stairs, feet fled quietly before him and followed +stealthily behind. If he were but deaf, he thought, how tranquilly he +would possess his soul. And then again, and hearkening with every fresh +attention, he blessed himself for that unresisting sense which held the +outposts and stood a trusty sentinel upon his life. His head turned +continually on his neck; his eyes, which seemed starting from their +orbits, scouted on every side, and on every side were half-rewarded as +with the tail of something nameless vanishing. The four-and-twenty steps +to the first floor were four-and-twenty agonies. + +On that first story, the door stood ajar, three of them like three +ambushes, shaking his nerves like the throats of cannon. He could never +again, he felt, be sufficiently immured and fortified from men's +observing eyes; he longed to be home, girt in by walls, buried among +bedclothes, and invisible to all but God. And at that thought he +wondered a little, recollecting tales of other murderers and the fear +they were said to entertain of heavenly avengers. It was not so, at +least, with him. He feared the laws of nature, lest, in their callous +and immutable procedure, they should preserve some damning evidence of +his crime. He feared tenfold more, with a slavish, superstitious terror, +some scission in the continuity of man's experience, some willful +illegality of nature. He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, +calculating consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the defeated +tyrant overthrew the chessboard, should break the mold of their +succession? The like had befallen Napoleon (so writers said) when the +winter changed the time of its appearance. The like might befall +Markheim: the solid walls might become transparent and reveal his doings +like those of bees in a glass hive; the stout planks might yield under +his foot like quicksands and detain him in their clutch; ay, and there +were soberer accidents that might destroy him: if, for instance, the +house should fall and imprison him beside the body of his victim; the +house next door should fly on fire, and the firemen invade him from all +sides. These things he feared; and, in a sense, these things might be +called the hands of God reached forth against sin. But about God himself +he was at ease; his act was doubtless exceptional, but so were his +excuses, which God knew; it was there, and not among men, that he felt +sure of justice. + +When he had got safe into the drawing-room, and shut the door behind +him, he was aware of a respite from alarms. The room was quite +dismantled, uncarpeted besides, and strewn with packing cases and +incongruous furniture; several great pier-glasses, in which he beheld +himself at various angles, like an actor on the stage; many pictures, +framed and unframed, standing with their faces to the wall; a fine +Sheraton sideboard, a cabinet of marquetry, and a great old bed, with +tapestry hangings. The windows opened to the floor; but by great good +fortune the lower part of the shutters had been closed, and this +concealed him from the neighbors. Here, then, Markheim drew in a packing +case before the cabinet, and began to search among the keys. It was a +long business, for there were many; and it was irksome, besides; for, +after all, there might be nothing in the cabinet, and time was on the +wing. But the closeness of the occupation sobered him. With the tail of +his eye he saw the door--even glanced at it from time to time directly, +like a besieged commander pleased to verify the good estate of his +defenses. But in truth he was at peace. The rain falling in the street +sounded natural and pleasant. Presently, on the other side, the notes of +a piano were wakened to the music of a hymn, and the voices of many +children took up the air and words. How stately, how comfortable was the +melody! How fresh the youthful voices! Markheim gave ear to it +smilingly, as he sorted out the keys; and his mind was thronged with +answerable ideas and images; church-going children and the pealing of +the high organ; children afield, bathers by the brook-side, ramblers on +the brambly common, kite-flyers in the windy and cloud-navigated sky; +and then, at another cadence of the hymn, back again to church, and the +somnolence of summer Sundays, and the high genteel voice of the parson +(which he smiled a little to recall) and the painted Jacobean tombs, and +the dim lettering of the Ten Commandments in the chancel. + +And as he sat thus, at once busy and absent, he was startled to his +feet. A flash of ice, a flash of fire, a bursting gush of blood, went +over him, and then he stood transfixed and thrilling. A step mounted the +stair slowly and steadily, and presently a hand was laid upon the knob, +and the lock clicked, and the door opened. + +Fear held Markheim in a vice. What to expect he knew not, whether the +dead man walking, or the official ministers of human justice, or some +chance witness blindly stumbling in to consign him to the gallows. But +when a face was thrust into the aperture, glanced round the room, looked +at him, nodded and smiled as if in friendly recognition, and then +withdrew again, and the door closed behind it, his fear broke loose from +his control in a hoarse cry. At the sound of this the visitant returned. + +"Did you call me?" he asked, pleasantly, and with that he entered the +room and closed the door behind him. + +Markheim stood and gazed at him with all his eyes. Perhaps there was a +film upon his sight, but the outlines of the newcomer seemed to change +and waver like those of the idols in the wavering candle-light of the +shop; and at times he thought he knew him; and at times he thought he +bore a likeness to himself; and always, like a lump of living terror, +there lay in his bosom the conviction that this thing was not of the +earth and not of God. + +And yet the creature had a strange air of the common-place, as he stood +looking on Markheim with a smile; and when he added: "You are looking +for the money, I believe?" it was in the tones of everyday politeness. + +Markheim made no answer. + +"I should warn you," resumed the other, "that the maid has left her +sweetheart earlier than usual and will soon be here. If Mr. Markheim be +found in this house, I need not describe to him the consequences." + +"You know me?" cried the murderer. + +The visitor smiled. "You have long been a favorite of mine," he said; +"and I have long observed and often sought to help you." + +"What are you?" cried Markheim: "the devil?" + +"What I may be," returned the other, "can not affect the service I +propose to render you." + +"It can," cried Markheim; "it does! Be helped by you? No, never; not by +you! You do not know me yet, thank God, you do not know me!" + +"I know you," replied the visitant, with a sort of kind severity or +rather firmness. "I know you to the soul." + +"Know me!" cried Markheim. "Who can do so? My life is but a travesty and +slander on myself. I have lived to belie my nature. All men do; all men +are better than this disguise that grows about and stifles them. You see +each dragged away by life, like one whom bravos have seized and muffled +in a cloak. If they had their own control--if you could see their faces, +they would be altogether different, they would shine out for heroes and +saints! I am worse than most; my self is more overlaid; my excuse is +known to me and God. But, had I the time, I could disclose myself." + +"To me?" inquired the visitant. + +"To you before all," returned the murderer. "I supposed you were +intelligent. I thought--since you exist--you would prove a reader of the +heart. And yet you would propose to judge me by my acts! Think of it; my +acts! I was born and I have lived in a land of giants; giants have +dragged me by the wrists since I was born out of my mother--the giants +of circumstance. And you would judge me by my acts! But can you not look +within? Can you not understand that evil is hateful to me? Can you not +see within me the clear writing of conscience, never blurred by any +willful sophistry, although too often disregarded? Can you not read me +for a thing that surely must be common as humanity--the unwilling +sinner?" + +"All this is very feelingly expressed," was the reply, "but it regards +me not. These points of consistency are beyond my province, and I care +not in the least by what compulsion you may have been dragged away, so +as you are but carried in the right direction. But time flies; the +servant delays, looking in the faces of the crowd and at the pictures on +the hoardings, but still she keeps moving nearer; and remember, it is as +if the gallows itself was striding toward you through the Christmas +streets! Shall I help you; I, who know all? Shall I tell you where to +find the money?" + +"For what price?" asked Markheim. + +"I offer you the service for a Christmas gift," returned the other. + +Markheim could not refrain from smiling with a kind of bitter triumph. +"No," said he, "I will take nothing at your hands; if I were dying of +thirst, and it was your hand that put the pitcher to my lips, I should +find the courage to refuse. It may be credulous, but I will do nothing +to commit myself to evil." + +"I have no objection to a death-bed repentance," observed the visitant. + +"Because you disbelieve their efficacy!" Markheim cried. + +"I do not say so," returned the other; "but I look on these things from +a different side, and when the life is done my interest falls. The man +has lived to serve me, to spread black looks under color of religion, or +to sow tares in the wheat-field, as you do, in a course of weak +compliance with desire. Now that he draws so near to his deliverance, he +can add but one act of service--to repent, to die smiling, and thus to +build up in confidence and hope the more timorous of my surviving +followers. I am not so hard a master. Try me. Accept my help. Please +yourself in life as you have done hitherto; please yourself more amply, +spread your elbows at the board; and when the night begins to fall and +the curtains to be drawn, I tell you, for your greater comfort, that you +will find it even easy to compound your quarrel with your conscience, +and to make a truckling peace with God. I came but now from such a +death-bed, and the room was full of sincere mourners, listening to the +man's last words: and when I looked into that face, which had been set +as a flint against mercy, I found it smiling with hope." + +"And do you, then, suppose me such a creature?" asked Markheim. "Do you +think I have no more generous aspirations than to sin, and sin, and sin, +and, at last, sneak into heaven? My heart rises at the thought. Is this, +then, your experience of mankind? or is it because you find me with red +hands that you presume such baseness? and is this crime of murder indeed +so impious as to dry up the very springs of good?" + +"Murder is to me no special category," replied the other. "All sins are +murder, even as all life is war. I behold your race, like starving +mariners on a raft, plucking crusts out of the hands of famine and +feeding on each other's lives. I follow sins beyond the moment of their +acting; I find in all that the last consequence is death; and to my +eyes, the pretty maid who thwarts her mother with such taking graces on +a question of a ball, drips no less visibly with human gore than such a +murderer as yourself. Do I say that I follow sins? I follow virtues +also; they differ not by the thickness of a nail, they are both scythes +for the reaping angel of Death. Evil, for which I live, consists not in +action but in character. The bad man is dear to me; not the bad act, +whose fruits, if we could follow them far enough down the hurtling +cataract of the ages, might yet be found more blessed than those of the +rarest virtues. And it is not because you have killed a dealer, but +because you are Markheim, that I offered to forward your escape." + +"I will lay my heart open to you," answered Markheim. "This crime on +which you find me is my last. On my way to it I have learned many +lessons; itself is a lesson, a momentous lesson. Hitherto I have been +driven with revolt to what I would not; I was a bond-slave to poverty, +driven and scourged. There are robust virtues that can stand in these +temptations; mine was not so: I had a thirst of pleasure. But to-day, +and out of this deed, I pluck both warning and riches--both the power +and a fresh resolve to be myself. I become in all things a free actor in +the world; I begin to see myself all changed, these hands the agents of +good, this heart at peace. Something comes over me out of the past; +something of what I have dreamed on Sabbath evenings to the sound of the +church organ, of what I forecast when I shed tears over noble books, or +talked, an innocent child, with my mother. There lies my life; I have +wandered a few years, but now I see once more my city of destination." + +"You are to use this money on the Stock Exchange, I think?" remarked the +visitor; "and there, if I mistake not, you have already lost some +thousands?" + +"Ah," said Markheim, "but this time I have a sure thing." + +"This time, again, you will lose," replied the visitor, quietly. + +"Ah, but I keep back the half!" cried Markheim. + +"That also you will lose," said the other. + +The sweat started upon Markheim's brow. "Well, then, what matter?" he +exclaimed. "Say it be lost, say I am plunged again in poverty, shall one +part of me, and that the worse, continue until the end to override the +better? Evil and good run strong in me, haling me both ways. I do not +love the one thing, I love all. I can conceive great deeds, +renunciations, martyrdoms; and though I be fallen to such a crime as +murder, pity is no stranger to my thoughts. I pity the poor; who knows +their trials better than myself? I pity and help them; I prize love, I +love honest laughter; there is no good thing nor true thing on earth but +I love it from my heart. And are my vices only to direct my life, and my +virtues to lie without effect, like some passive lumber of the mind? Not +so; good, also, is a spring of acts." + +But the visitant raised his finger. "For six-and-thirty years that you +have been in this world," said he, "through many changes of fortune and +varieties of humor, I have watched you steadily fall. Fifteen years ago +you would have started at a theft. Three years back you would have +blenched at the name of murder. Is there any crime, is there any cruelty +or meanness, from which you still recoil?--five years from now I shall +detect you in the fact! Downward, downward, lies your way; nor can +anything but death avail to stop you." + +"It is true," Markheim said, huskily, "I have in some degree complied +with evil. But it is so with all: the very saints, in the mere exercise +of living, grow less dainty, and take on the tone of their +surroundings." + +"I will propound to you one simple question," said the other; "and as +you answer, I shall read to you your moral horoscope. You have grown in +many things more lax; possibly you do right to be so; and at any +account, it is the same with all men. But granting that, are you in any +one particular, however trifling, more difficult to please with your own +conduct, or do you go in all things with a looser rein?" + +"In any one?" repeated Markheim, with an anguish of consideration. "No," +he added, with despair, "in none! I have gone down in all." + +"Then," said the visitor, "content yourself with what you are, for you +will never change; and the words of your part on this stage are +irrevocably written down." + +Markheim stood for a long while silent, and indeed it was the visitor +who first broke the silence. "That being so," he said, "shall I show you +the money?" + +"And grace?" cried Markheim. + +"Have you not tried it?" returned the other. "Two or three years ago, +did I not see you on the platform of revival meetings, and was not your +voice the loudest in the hymn?" + +"It is true," said Markheim; "and I see clearly what remains for me by +way of duty. I thank you for these lessons from my soul: my eyes are +opened, and I behold myself at last for what I am." + +At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rung through the house; +and the visitant, as though this were some concerted signal for which he +had been waiting, changed at once in his demeanor. + +"The maid!" he cried. "She has returned, as I forewarned you, and there +is now before you one more difficult passage. Her master, you must say, +is ill; you must let her in, with an assured but rather serious +countenance--no smiles, no overacting, and I promise you success! Once +the girl within, and the door closed, the same dexterity that has +already rid you of the dealer will relieve you of this last danger in +your path. Thenceforward you have the whole evening--the whole night, if +needful--to ransack the treasures of the house and to make good your +safety. This is help that comes to you with the mask of danger. Up!" he +cried: "up, friend; your life hangs trembling in the scales; up, and +act!" + +Markheim steadily regarded his counsellor. "If I be condemned to evil +acts," he said, "there is still one door of freedom open--I can cease +from action. If my life be an ill thing, I can lay it down. Though I be, +as you say truly, at the beck of every small temptation, I can yet, by +one decisive gesture, place myself beyond the reach of all. My love of +good is damned to barrenness; it may, and let it be! But I have still my +hatred of evil; and from that, to your galling disappointment, you shall +see that I can draw both energy and courage." + +The features of the visitor began to undergo a wonderful and lovely +change; they brightened and softened with a tender triumph; and, even as +they brightened, faded and dislimned. But Markheim did not pause to +watch or understand the transformation. He opened the door and went +down-stairs very slowly, thinking to himself. His past went soberly +before him; he beheld it as it was, ugly and strenuous like a dream, +random as chance-medley--a scene of defeat. Life, as he thus reviewed +it, tempted him no longer; but on the further side he perceived a quiet +haven for his bark. He paused in the passage, and looked into the shop, +where the candle still burned by the dead body. It was strangely silent. +Thoughts of the dealer swarmed into his mind, as he stood gazing. And +then the bell once more broke out into impatient clamor. + +He confronted the maid upon the threshold with something like a smile. + +"You had better go for the police," said he: "I have killed your +master." + + + + +X. THE NECKLACE[*] (1885) + +[* "La parure" from "Contes et nouvelles."] + +BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-1893) + + +[_Setting_. The story is set in a Paris atmosphere of social aspiration +and discontent. The background is one of studied contrasts, contrasts +between the stolid contentment of a husband and the would-be +luxuriousness of a wife, between what Madame Loisel had and what she +wanted, between what she was and what she thought she could be, between +her brief moment of triumph and the long years of her undoing, between +the trivialness of what she did and the heaviness of her punishment. +These contrasts are developed not by reasoning but by action, each +action plunging Madame Loisel deeper and deeper into misery. The +author's attitude toward his work forms also a part of the real +background. Maupassant shows neither sympathy nor indignation. He writes +as if he were the stenographer of impersonal and pitiless fate. + +_Plot_. Madame Loisel, a poor but beautiful and ambitious woman, borrows +and loses a diamond necklace valued at $7200. That, at least, is what +Madame Loisel thought for ten terrible years, and that is what the +reader thinks till he comes to the last words of the story. The plot +belongs, therefore, to that large group known as hoax plots. In most of +these stories one person plays a joke on another. In this story a grim +fate is made to play the joke. In fact, the current phrase, "the irony +of fate," finds here perfect illustration. We use the expression not so +much of a great misfortune as of a misfortune that seems brought about +by a peculiarly malignant train of circumstances. The injury in this +case not only was irremediable but turned on an accident. Notice also +how Maupassant has sharpened the poignancy and bitterness of Madame +Loisel's misfortune by making it depend not only on an accident that +might so easily not have happened but on a misunderstanding that might +so easily have been explained. When Madame Loisel, just on the threshold +of her life of drudgery, took the necklace bought on credit to Madame +Forestier, the latter "did not open the case, to the relief of her +friend." The irony of fate could hardly go further; but it does go +further a little later, when Madame Forestier, still young and +beautiful, fails to recognize Madame Loisel because the latter had lost +youth, beauty, daintiness, her very self, in toiling to pay to Madame +Forestier a debt that was not a debt. Just before the final revelation +Madame Loisel is made to say, "I am very glad." There is a unique pathos +in her use of this word: it lifted her a little from the ground that her +fall might be all the harder. + +There is no denying the art of this story, but it is art without heart. +The author is a craftsman rather than a creator, a master of the loom +rather than of the forge. Maupassant did perfectly what he wanted to do, +but his greatness and his limitation are both revealed. "What would have +happened," he says, "if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows, who +knows? How strange life is, how changeful! How little a thing is needed +for us to be lost or to be saved!" The greatest art may begin but not +end this way. + +_Characters_. The man is only a foil to his wife. He is introduced to +bring into sharper relief her unhappiness and her powerlessness to +better her condition. He is not a bad man, nor is she a bad woman. To +say that the story turns entirely on his honor and on her false pride is +to miss, I think, the author's purpose. There is nothing distinctive in +these characters; he is better than she, but both are puppets in the +grip of brute circumstance rather than everyday characters shaped by the +ordinary pressures of life. They are not types as Rip is a type, or +Scrooge, or Oakhurst. Maupassant shows in his stories that he is +interested not so much in the free play or the full reaction of +personality as in the enslavement of personality through passion or +chance. He saw life without order because without center, without reward +because without desert; and his characters are made to see it through +the same lens and to experience it on the same level. They either do not +react or do not react nobly. Had Madame Loisel and her husband been +shaped to fit into a less mechanical scheme of things, they would have +recognized in their ten years' trial the call to something higher. They +could have used their testing as a means of understanding with keener +sympathy the lifelong testing of others. They could have attained a +self-development that would have brought a happiness undreamed of before +the fateful January 18. But this is Browning's way, not Maupassant's. +The latter prefers to make Madame Loisel and her husband chiefly of +putty so that they may illustrate the blind thrusts of accident rather +than the power of personality to turn stumbling-blocks into +stepping-stones.] + + + +She was one of those pretty and charming girls who, as if by a mistake +of destiny, are born in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no +expectations, no means of becoming known, understood, loved, wedded by +any rich and distinguished man; and so she let herself be married to a +petty clerk in the Bureau of Public Instruction. + +She was simple in her dress because she could not be elaborate, but she +was as unhappy as if she had fallen from a higher rank, for with women +there is no inherited distinction of higher and lower. Their beauty, +their grace, and their natural charm fill the place of birth and family. +Natural delicacy, instinctive elegance, a lively wit, are the ruling +forces in the social realm, and these make the daughters of the common +people the equals of the finest ladies. + +She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for all the refinements and +luxuries of life. She suffered from the poverty of her home as she +looked at the dirty walls, the worn-out chairs, the ugly curtains. All +those things of which another woman of her station would have been quite +unconscious tortured her and made her indignant. The sight of the +country girl who was maid-of-all-work in her humble household filled her +almost with desperation. She dreamed of echoing halls hung with Oriental +draperies and lighted by tall bronze candelabra, while two tall footmen +in knee-breeches drowsed in great armchairs by reason of the heating +stove's oppressive warmth. She dreamed of splendid parlors furnished in +rare old silks, of carved cabinets loaded with priceless bric-a-brac, +and of entrancing little boudoirs just right for afternoon chats with +bosom friends--men famous and sought after, the envy and the desire of +all the other women. + +When she sat down to dinner at a little table covered with a cloth three +days old, and looked across at her husband as he uncovered the soup and +exclaimed with an air of rapture, "Oh, the delicious stew! I know +nothing better than that," she dreamed of dainty dinners, of shining +silverware, of tapestries which peopled the walls with antique figures +and strange birds in fairy forests; she dreamed of delicious viands +served in wonderful dishes, of whispered gallantries heard with a +sphinx-like smile as you eat the pink flesh of a trout or the wing of a +quail. + +She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing; and she loved nothing else. She +felt made for that alone. She was filled with a desire to please, to be +envied, to be bewitching and sought after. She had a rich friend, a +former schoolmate at the convent, whom she no longer wished to visit +because she suffered so much when she came home. For whole days at a +time she wept without ceasing in bitterness and hopeless misery. + +Now, one evening her husband came home with a triumphant air, holding in +his hand a large envelope. + +"There," said he, "there is something for you." + +She quickly tore open the paper and drew out a printed card, bearing +these words:-- + +"The Minister of Public Instruction and Mme. Georges Rampouneau request +the honor of M. and Mme. Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry, +Monday evening, January 18th." + +Instead of being overcome with delight, as her husband expected, she +threw the invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring: + +"What do you wish me to do with that?" + +"Why, my dear, I thought you would be pleased. You never go out, and +this is such a fine opportunity! I had awful trouble in getting it. +Every one wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many +invitations to clerks. You will see all the official world." + +She looked at him with irritation, and said, impatiently: + +"What do you expect me to put on my back if I go?" + +He had not thought of that. He stammered: + +"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It seems all right to me." + +He stopped, stupefied, distracted, on seeing that his wife was crying. +Two great tears descended slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the +corners of her mouth. He stuttered: + +"What's the matter? What's the matter?" + +By a violent effort she subdued her feelings and replied in a calm +voice, as she wiped her wet cheeks: + +"Nothing. Only I have no dress and consequently I cannot go to this +ball. Give your invitation to some friend whose wife has better clothes +than I." + +He was in despair, but began again: + +"Let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable dress, which +you could wear again on future occasions, something very simple?" + +She reflected for some seconds, computing the cost, and also wondering +what sum she could ask without bringing down upon herself an immediate +refusal and an astonished exclamation from the economical clerk. + +At last she answered hesitatingly: + +"I don't know exactly, but it seems to me that with four hundred francs +I could manage." + +He turned a trifle pale, for he had been saving just that sum to buy a +gun and treat himself to a little hunting trip the following summer, in +the country near Nanterre, with a few friends who went there to shoot +larks on Sundays. + +However, he said: + +"Well, I think I can give you four hundred francs. But see that you have +a pretty dress." + + * * * * * + +The day of the ball drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, restless, +anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to her one +evening: + +"What is the matter? Come, now, you've been looking queer these last +three days." + +And she replied: + +"It worries me that I have no jewels, not a single stone, nothing to put +on. I shall look wretched enough. I would almost rather not go to this +party." + +He answered: + +"You might wear natural flowers. They are very fashionable this season. +For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses." + +She was not convinced. + +"No; there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among a lot of +rich women." + +But her husband cried: + +"How stupid you are! Go and find your friend Madame Forestier and ask +her to lend you some jewels. You are intimate enough with her for that." + +She uttered a cry of joy. + +"Of course. I had not thought of that." + +The next day she went to her friend's house and told her distress. + +Madame Forestier went to her handsome wardrobe, took out a large casket, +brought it back, opened it, and said to Madame Loisel: + +"Choose, my dear." + +She saw first of all some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a +Venetian cross of gold set with precious stones of wonderful +workmanship. She tried on the ornaments before the glass, hesitated, +could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back. She +kept asking: + +"You have nothing else?" + +"Why, yes. But I do not know what will please you." + +All at once she discovered, in a black satin box, a splendid diamond +necklace, and her heart began to beat with boundless desire. Her hands +trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, over her +high-necked dress, and stood lost in ecstasy as she looked at herself. + +Then she asked, hesitating, full of anxiety: + +"Would you lend me that,--only that?" + +"Why, yes, certainly." + +She sprang upon the neck of her friend, embraced her rapturously, then +fled with her treasure. + + * * * * * + +The day of the ball arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was +prettier than all the others, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with +joy. All the men stared at her, asked her name, tried to be introduced. +All the cabinet officials wished to waltz with her. The minister noticed +her. + +She danced with delight, with passion, intoxicated with pleasure, +forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her +success, in a sort of mist of happiness, the result of all this homage, +all this admiration, all these awakened desires, this victory so +complete and so sweet to the heart of woman. + +She left about four o'clock in the morning. Her husband had been dozing +since midnight in a little deserted anteroom with three other gentlemen, +whose wives were having a good time. + +He threw about her shoulders the wraps which he had brought for her to +go out in, the modest wraps of common life, whose poverty contrasted +sharply with the elegance of the ball dress. She felt this and wished to +escape, that she might not be noticed by the other women who were +wrapping themselves in costly furs. + +Loisel held her back. + +"Wait here, you will catch cold outside. I will go and find a cab." + +But she would not listen to him, and rapidly descended the stairs. When +they were at last in the street, they could find no carriage, and began +to look for one, hailing the cabmen they saw passing at a distance. + +They walked down toward the Seine in despair, shivering with the cold. +At last they found on the quay one of those ancient nocturnal cabs that +one sees in Paris only after dark, as if they were ashamed to display +their wretchedness during the day. + +They were put down at their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly +mounted the steps to their apartments. It was all over, for her. And as +for him, he reflected that he must be at his office at ten o'clock. + +She took off the wraps which covered her shoulders, before the mirror, +so as to take a final look at herself in all her glory. But suddenly she +uttered a cry. She no longer had the necklace about her neck! + +Her husband, already half undressed, inquired: + +"What is the matter?" + +She turned madly toward him. + +"I have--I have--I no longer have Madame Forestier's necklace." + +He stood up, distracted. + +"What!--how!--it is impossible!" + +They looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in the +pockets, everywhere. They could not find a trace of it. + +He asked: + +"You are sure you still had it when you left the ball?" + +"Yes. I felt it on me in the vestibule at the palace." + +"But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It +must be in the cab." + +"Yes. That's probable. Did you take the number?" + +"No. And you, you did not notice it?" + +"No." + +They looked at each other thunderstruck. At last Loisel put on his +clothes again. + +"I am going back," said he, "over every foot of the way we came, to see +if I cannot find it." + +So he started. She remained in her ball dress without strength to go to +bed, sitting on a chair, with no fire, her mind a blank. + +Her husband returned about seven o'clock. He had found nothing. + +He went to police headquarters, to the newspapers to offer a reward, to +the cab companies, everywhere, in short, where a trace of hope led him. + +She watched all day, in the same state of blank despair before this +frightful disaster. + +Loisel returned in the evening with cheeks hollow and pale; he had found +nothing. + +"You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the +clasp of her necklace and that you are having it repaired. It will give +us time to turn around." + +She wrote as he dictated. + + * * * * * + +At the end of a week they had lost all hope. + +And Loisel, looking five years older, declared: + +"We must consider how to replace the necklace." + +The next day they took the box which had contained it, and went to the +place of the jeweller whose name they found inside. He consulted his +books. + +"It was not I, madame, who sold the necklace; I must simply have +furnished the casket." + +Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, looking for an ornament like +the other, consulting their memories, both sick with grief and anguish. + +They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds which +seemed to them exactly what they were looking for. It was worth forty +thousand francs.[*] They could have it for thirty-six thousand. + +[* A franc is equal to twenty cents of our money.] + +So they begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days. And they made +an arrangement that he should take it back for thirty-four thousand +francs if the other were found before the end of February. + +Loisel had eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He +would borrow the rest. + +He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, +five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, made ruinous +engagements, dealt with usurers, with all the tribe of money-lenders. He +compromised the rest of his life, risked his signature without knowing +if he might not be involving his honor, and, terrified by the anguish +yet to come, by the black misery about to fall upon him, by the prospect +of every physical privation and every mental torture, he went to get the +new necklace, and laid down on the dealer's counter thirty-six thousand +francs. + +When Madame Loisel took the necklace back to Madame Forestier, the +latter said coldly: + +"You should have returned it sooner, for I might have needed it." + +She did not open the case, to the relief of her friend. If she had +detected the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she +have said? Would she have taken her friend for a thief? + + * * * * * + +Madame Loisel now knew the horrible life of the needy. But she took her +part heroically. They must pay this frightful debt. She would pay it. +They dismissed their maid; they gave up their room; they rented another, +under the roof. + +She came to know the drudgery of housework, the odious labors of the +kitchen. She washed the dishes, staining her rosy nails on the greasy +pots and the bottoms of the saucepans. She washed the dirty linen, the +shirts and the dishcloths, which she hung to dry on a line; she carried +the garbage down to the street every morning, and carried up the water, +stopping at each landing to rest. And, dressed like a woman of the +people, she went to the fruiterer's, the grocer's, the butcher's, her +basket on her arm, bargaining, abusing, defending sou[*] by sou her +miserable money. + +[* A sou, or five-centime piece, is equal to one cent of our money.] + +Each month they had to pay some notes, renew others, obtain more time. + +The husband worked every evening, neatly footing up the account books of +some tradesman, and often far into the night he sat copying manuscript +at five sous a page. + +And this life lasted ten years. + +At the end of ten years they had paid everything,--everything, with the +exactions of usury and the accumulations of compound interest. + +Madame Loisel seemed aged now. She had become the woman of impoverished +households,--strong and hard and rough. With hair half combed, with +skirts awry, and reddened hands, she talked loud as she washed the floor +with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the +office, she sat down near the window and thought of that evening at the +ball so long ago, when she had been so beautiful and so admired. + +What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows, +who knows? How strange life is, how changeful! How little a thing is +needed for us to be lost or to be saved! + + * * * * * + +But one Sunday, as she was going for a walk in the Champs Elysees to +refresh herself after the labors of the week, all at once she saw a +woman walking with a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still +beautiful, still charming. + +Madame Loisel was agitated. Should she speak to her? Why, of course. And +now that she had paid, she would tell her all. Why not? + +She drew near. + +"Good morning, Jeanne." + +The other, astonished to be addressed so familiarly by this woman of the +people, did not recognize her. She stammered: + +"But--madame--I do not know you. You must have made a mistake." + +"No, I am Mathilde Loisel." + +Her friend uttered a cry. + +"Oh! my poor Mathilde, how changed you are!" + +"Yes, I have had days hard enough since I saw you, days wretched +enough--and all because of you!" + +"Me? How so?" + +"You remember that necklace of diamonds that you lent me to wear to the +ministerial ball?" + +"Yes. Well?" + +"Well, I lost it." + +"How can that be? You returned it to me." + +"I returned to you another exactly like it. These ten years we've been +paying for it. You know it was not easy for us, who had nothing. At last +it is over, and I am very glad." + +Madame Forestier was stunned. + +"You say that you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?" + +"Yes; you did not notice it, then? They were just alike." + +And she smiled with a proud and naive pleasure. + +Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took both her hands. + +"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth five +hundred francs at most." + + + + +XI. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING[*] (1888) + +[* From "The Phantom 'Rickshaw."] + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING (1865- ) + + +[_Setting_. "They call it Kafiristan," said Dravot, the unfortunate hero +of the story. "By my reckoning it's the top right-hand corner of +Afghanistan, not more than three hundred miles from Peshawar." +Determined to be Kings of Kafiristan, Carnehan and Dravot started +probably from the capital of the Punjab, Lahore, where the newspaper +office seems to have been. Ten miles west of Peshawar they entered the +famous Khaiber (or Khyber) Pass, a region which Kipling describes more +at length in "The Man Who Was," "The Drums of the Fore and Aft," "The +Lost Legion," "Love o' Women," "Wee Willie Winkie," and "With the Main +Guard." No country in Asia is less known to civilization than +Kafiristan. The Mohammedan traders say that it is the most attractive +part of Afghanistan. The name means "country of unbelievers," the Kafirs +having resisted all attempts to convert them to the Mohammedan faith. +They are pure Aryans, being thus brothers to the Greeks, Romans, +Germans, English, and ourselves. They are noted for their beauty and +strength. India or rather Anglo-India has been almost re-discovered by +Kipling, but this is his only story of Kafiristan. It too, as Carnehan +and Dravot learn to their sorrow, is a land of impenetrable mystery. + +_Plot_. The real plot does not begin to unfold itself until Carnehan, +wrecked in body and mind, returns to the newspaper office and tries to +report his experiences. Thus nearly one half of the story may be called +introductory or preliminary. This is unusual with Kipling and with all +other modern story writers. The introduction justifies itself, however, +in this case because, since a half-crazed man with weakening memory is +to tell the real tale, his narrative would have to be supplemented by +explanations on nearly every page unless the introductory part could be +taken for granted. Notice how often in reading Carnehan's broken story +you supply what he omits and interpret what he only fragmentarily says +by reference to what has gone before. + +Kipling has done more in this story than to present a character of +limitless audacity. He has impressed again one of his favorite +teachings. There is, he holds, a barrier between East and West that can +never be crossed. The West can go so far with the East but no farther. +Brave men of the West may conquer the East and rule it, but to take +liberties with it is to uncover a vast realm of the unknown and to +invite disaster. In "The Return of Imray," a good-natured Englishman +pats the head of Bahadur Khan's child and is killed for it. Another +Englishman, in "Beyond the Pale," thought that he understood the heart +of India, and here is his epitaph: "He took too deep an interest in +native life, but he will never do so again." Dravot could play king and +even god in Kafiristan, but when he exposed himself ignorantly to an old +racial superstition he met instant and inevitable destruction. + +_Characters_. Carnehan tells the story, but Dravot is the energizing +character. Captain James Cook, the discoverer of the Sandwich Islands, +is plainly the original of Dravot. Read the thirtieth chapter of the +second volume of Mark Twain's "Roughing It" (1872) and you will find +Kipling's story clearly outlined. One cannot withhold a measure of +admiration for this type of uncontrolled audacity. Dravot was not bad at +heart, he was only boundless, a type of the adventurer that has given +many a fascinating chapter to history as well as to literature. In "The +Research Magnificent," by Mr. H.G. Wells, the hero, Benham, says: "I +think what I want is to be king of the world.... It is the very core of +me.... I mean to be a king in this earth. _King_. I'm not mad." His +motive, however, is very different from Dravot's. "I see the world," he +continues, "staggering from misery to misery, and there is little +wisdom, less rule, folly, prejudice, limitation ... and it is my world +and I am responsible.... As soon as your kingship is plain to you, there +is no more rest, no peace, no delight, except in work, in service, in +utmost effort." The three weaknesses to be overcome are Fear, +Indulgence, and Jealousy. Both Dravot and Benham fail and the comment of +each on his own failure is an autobiography. Benham: "I can feel that +greater world I shall never see as one feels the dawn coming through the +last darkness." Dravot: "We've had a dashed fine run for our money. +What's coming next?"] + + + +Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy. + + +The Law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy +to follow. I have been fellow to a beggar again and again under +circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other +was worthy. I have still to be brother to a Prince, though I once came +near to kinship with what might have been a veritable King and was +promised the reversion of a Kingdom--army, law-courts, revenue and +policy all complete. But, to-day, I greatly fear that my King is dead, +and if I want a crown I must go hunt it for myself. + +The beginning of everything was in a railway train upon the road to Mhow +from Ajmir. There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated +travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-class, +but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions +in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, +which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, +or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated. Intermediates do not buy +from refreshment-rooms. They carry their food in bundles and pots, and +buy sweets from the native sweetmeat-sellers, and drink the roadside +water. That is why in hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the +carriages dead, and in all weathers are most properly looked down upon. + +My particular Intermediate happened to be empty till I reached +Nasirabad, when a big black-browed gentleman in shirt-sleeves entered, +and, following the custom of Intermediates, passed the time of day. He +was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste +for whiskey. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of +out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and +of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days' food. + +"If India was filled with men like you and me, not knowing more than the +crows where they'd get their next day's rations, it isn't seventy +millions of revenue the land would be paying--it's seven hundred +millions," said he; and as I looked at his mouth and chin I was disposed +to agree with him. + +We talked politics--the politics of Loaferdom that sees things from the +underside where the lath and plaster is not smoothed off--and we talked +postal arrangements because my friend wanted to send a telegram back +from the next station to Ajmir, the turning-off place from the Bombay to +the Mhow line as you travel westward. My friend had no money beyond +eight annas which he wanted for dinner, and I had no money at all, owing +to the hitch in the Budget before mentioned. Further, I was going into a +wilderness where, though I should resume touch with the Treasury, there +were no telegraph offices. I was, therefore, unable to help him in any +way. + +"We might threaten a Station-master, and make him send a wire on tick," +said my friend, "but that'd mean enquiries for you and for me, and +_I_'ve got my hands full these days. Did you say you were travelling +back along this line within any days?" + +"Within ten," I said. + +"Can't you make it eight?" said he. "Mine is rather urgent business." + +"I can send your telegram within ten days if that will serve you," I +said. + +"I couldn't trust the wire to fetch him now I think of it. It's this +way. He leaves Delhi on the 23rd for Bombay. That means he'll be running +through Ajmir about the night of the 23rd." + +"But I'm going into the Indian Desert," I explained. + +"Well _and_ good," said he. "You'll be changing at Marwar Junction to +get into Jodhpore territory--you must do that--and he'll be coming +through Marwar Junction in the early morning of the 24th by the Bombay +Mail. Can you be at Marwar Junction on that time? 'T won't be +inconveniencing you because I know that there's precious few pickings to +be got out of these Central India States--even though you pretend to be +correspondent or the _Backwoodsman_." + +"Have you ever tried that trick?" I asked. + +"Again and again, but the Residents find you out, and then you get +escorted to the Border before you've time to get your knife into them. +But about my friend here. I _must_ give him a word o' mouth to tell him +what's come to me or else he won't know where to go. I would take it +more than kind of you if you was to come out of Central India in time to +catch him at Marwar Junction, and say to him: 'He has gone South for the +week.' He'll know what that means. He's a big man with a red beard, and +a great swell he is. You'll find him sleeping like a gentleman with all +his luggage round him in a Second-class apartment. But don't you be +afraid. Slip down the window and say: 'He has gone South for the week,' +and he'll tumble. It's only cutting your time of stay in those parts by +two days. I ask you as a stranger--going to the West," he said with +emphasis. + +"Where have _you_ come from?" said I. + +"From the East," said he, "and I am hoping that you will give him the +message on the Square--for the sake of my Mother as well as your own." + +Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their +mothers; but for certain reasons, which will be fully apparent, I saw +fit to agree. + +"It's more than a little matter," said he, "and that's why I asked you +to do it--and now I know that I can depend on you doing it. A +Second-class carriage at Marwar Junction, and a red-haired man asleep in +it. You'll be sure to remember. I get out at the next station, and I +must hold on there till he comes or sends me what I want." + +"I'll give the message if I catch him," I said, "and for the sake of +your Mother as well as mine I'll give you a word of advice. Don't try to +run the Central India States just now as the correspondent of the +_Backwoodsman_. There's a real one knocking about here, and it might +lead to trouble." + +"Thank you," said he, simply, "and when will the swine be gone? I can't +starve because he's ruining my work. I wanted to get hold of the +Degumber Rajah down here about his father's widow, and give him a jump." + +"What did he do to his father's widow, then?" + +"Filled her up with red pepper and slippered her to death as she hung +from a beam. I found that out myself and I'm the only man that would +dare going into the State to get hush-money for it. They'll try to +poison me, same as they did in Chortumna when I went on the loot there. +But you'll give the man at Marwar Junction my message?" + +He got out at a little roadside station, and I reflected. I had heard, +more than once, of men personating correspondents of newspapers and +bleeding small Native States with threats of exposure, but I had never +met any of the caste before. They lead a hard life, and generally die +with great suddenness. The Native States have a wholesome horror of +English newspapers, which may throw light on their peculiar methods of +government, and do their best to choke correspondents with champagne, or +drive them out of their mind with four-in-hand barouches. They do not +understand that nobody cares a straw for the internal administration of +Native States so long as oppression and crime are kept within decent +limits, and the ruler is not drugged, drunk, or diseased from one end of +the year to the other. They are the dark places of the earth, full of +unimaginable cruelty, touching the Railway and the Telegraph on one +side, and, on the other, the days of Harun-al-Raschid. When I left the +train I did business with divers Kings, and in eight days passed through +many changes of life. Sometimes I wore dress-clothes and consorted with +Princes and Politicals, drinking from crystal and eating from silver. +Sometimes I lay out upon the ground and devoured what I could get, from +a plate made of leaves, and drank the running water, and slept under the +same rug as my servant. It was all in the day's work. + +Then I headed for the Great Indian Desert upon the proper date, as I had +promised, and the night Mail set me down at Marwar Junction, where a +funny little, happy-go-lucky, native-managed railway runs to Jodhpore. +The Bombay Mail from Delhi makes a short halt at Marwar. She arrived as +I got in, and I had just time to hurry to her platform and go down the +carriages. There was only one Second-class on the train. I slipped the +window and looked down upon a flaming red beard, half covered by a +railway rug. That was my man, fast asleep, and I dug him gently in the +ribs. He woke with a grunt and I saw his face in the light of the lamps. +It was a great and shining face. + +"Tickets again?" said he. + +"No," said I. "I am to tell you that he is gone South for the week. He +has gone South for the week!" + +The train had begun to move out. The red man rubbed his eyes. "He has +gone South for the week," he repeated. "Now that's just like his +impidence. Did he say that I was to give you anything? 'Cause I won't." + +"He didn't," I said and dropped away, and watched the red lights die out +in the dark. It was horribly cold because the wind was blowing off the +sands. I climbed into my own train--not an Intermediate carriage this +time--and went to sleep. + +If the man with the beard had given me a rupee I should have kept it as +a memento of a rather curious affair. But the consciousness of having +done my duty was my only reward. + +Later on I reflected that two gentlemen like my friends could not do any +good if they forgathered and personated correspondents of newspapers, +and might, if they blackmailed one of the little rat-trap states of +Central India or Southern Rajputana, get themselves into serious +difficulties. I therefore took some trouble to describe them as +accurately as I could remember to people who would be interested in +deporting them: and succeeded, so I was later informed, in having them +headed back from the Degumber borders. + +Then I became respectable, and returned to an Office where there were no +Kings and no incidents outside the daily manufacture of a newspaper. A +newspaper office seems to attract every conceivable sort of person, to +the prejudice of discipline. Zenana-mission ladies arrive, and beg that +the Editor will instantly abandon all his duties to describe a Christian +prize-giving in a back-slum of a perfectly inaccessible village; +Colonels who have been overpassed for command sit down and sketch the +outline of a series of ten, twelve, or twenty-four leading articles on +Seniority _versus_ Selection; missionaries wish to know why they have +not been permitted to escape from their regular vehicles of abuse and +swear at a brother-missionary under special patronage of the editorial +We; stranded theatrical companies troop up to explain that they cannot +pay for their advertisements, but on their return from New Zealand or +Tahiti will do so with interest; inventors of patent punkah-pulling +machines, carriage couplings and unbreakable swords and axle-trees call +with specifications in their pockets and hours at their disposal; +tea-companies enter and elaborate their prospectuses with the office +pens; secretaries of ball-committees clamor to have the glories of their +last dance more fully described; strange ladies rustle in and say: "I +want a hundred lady's cards printed _at once_, please," which is +manifestly part of an Editor's duty; and every dissolute ruffian that +ever tramped the Grand Trunk Road makes it his business to ask for +employment as a proof-reader. And, all the time, the telephone-bell is +ringing madly, and Kings are being killed on the Continent, and Empires +are saying--"You're another," and Mister Gladstone is calling down +brimstone upon the British Dominions, and the little black copy-boys are +whining "_kaa-pi chay-ha-yeh_" (copy wanted) like tired bees, and most +of the paper is as blank as Modred's shield. + +But that is the amusing part of the year. There are six other months +when none ever come to call, and the thermometer walks inch by inch up +to the top of the glass, and the office is darkened to just above +reading-light, and the press-machines are red-hot of touch, and nobody +writes anything but accounts of amusements in the Hill-stations or +obituary notices. Then the telephone becomes a tinkling terror, because +it tells you of the sudden deaths of men and women that you knew +intimately, and the prickly-heat covers you with a garment, and you sit +down and write: "A slight increase of sickness is reported from the +Khuda Janta Khan District. The outbreak is purely sporadic in its +nature, and, thanks to the energetic efforts of the District +authorities, is now almost at an end. It is, however, with deep regret +we record the death," etc. + +Then the sickness really breaks out, and the less recording and +reporting the better for the peace of the subscribers. But the Empires +and the Kings continue to divert themselves as selfishly as before, and +the Foreman thinks that a daily paper really ought to come out once in +twenty-four hours, and all the people at the Hill-stations in the middle +of their amusements say: "Good gracious! Why can't the paper be +sparkling? I'm sure there's plenty going on up here." + +That is the dark half of the moon, and, as the advertisements say, "must +be experienced to be appreciated." + +It was in that season, and a remarkably evil season, that the paper +began running the last issue of the week on Saturday night, which is to +say Sunday morning, after the custom of a London paper. This was a great +convenience, for immediately after the paper was put to bed, the dawn +would lower the thermometer from 96 deg. to almost 84 deg. for half an hour, and +in that chill--you have no idea how cold is 84 deg. on the grass until you +begin to pray for it--a very tired man could get off to sleep ere the +heat roused him. + +One Saturday night it was my pleasant duty to put the paper to bed +alone. A King or courtier or a courtesan or a Community was going to die +or get a new Constitution, or do something that was important on the +other side of the world, and the paper was to be held open till the +latest possible minute in order to catch the telegram. + +It was a pitchy black night, as stifling as a June night can be, and the +_loo_, the red-hot wind from the westward, was booming among the +tinder-dry trees and pretending that the rain was on its heels. Now and +again a spot of almost boiling water would fall on the dust with the +flop of a frog, but all our weary world knew that was only pretence. It +was a shade cooler in the press-room than the office, so I sat there, +while the type ticked and clicked, and the night-jars hooted at the +windows, and the all but naked compositors wiped the sweat from their +foreheads, and called for water. The thing that was keeping us back, +whatever it was, would not come off, though the _loo_ dropped and the +last type was set, and the whole round earth stood still in the choking +heat, with its finger on its lip, to wait the event. I drowsed, and +wondered whether the telegraph was a blessing, and whether this dying +man, or struggling people, might be aware of the inconvenience the delay +was causing. There was no special reason beyond the heat and worry to +make tension, but, as the clock-hands crept up to three o'clock and the +machines spun their fly-wheels two and three times to see that all was +in order, before I said the word that would set them off, I could have +shrieked aloud. + +Then the roar and rattle of the wheels shivered the quiet into little +bits. I rose to go away, but two men in white clothes stood in front of +me. The first one said: "It's him!" The second said: "So it is!" And +they both laughed almost as loudly as the machinery roared, and mopped +their foreheads. "We seed there was a light burning across the road and +we were sleeping in that ditch there for coolness, and I said to my +friend here, 'The office is open. Let's come along and speak to him as +turned us back from the Degumber State,'" said the smaller of the two. +He was the man I had met in the Mhow train, and his fellow was the +red-bearded man of Marwar Junction. There was no mistaking the eyebrows +of the one or the beard of the other. + +I was not pleased, because I wished to go to sleep, not to squabble with +loafers. "What do you want?" I asked. + +"Half an hour's talk with you, cool and comfortable, in the office," +said the red-bearded man. "We'd _like_ some drink--the Contrack doesn't +begin yet, Peachey, so you needn't look--but what we really want is +advice. We don't want money. We ask you as a favor, because we found out +you did us a bad turn about Degumber State." + +I led from the press-room to the stifling office with the maps on the +walls, and the red-haired man rubbed his hands. "That's something like," +said he. "This was the proper shop to come to. Now, Sir, let me +introduce to you Brother Peachey Carnehan, that's him, and Brother +Daniel Dravot, that is _me_, and the less said about our professions the +better, for we have been most things in our time. Soldier, sailor, +compositor, photographer, proof-reader, street-preacher, and +correspondents of the _Backwoodsman_ when we thought the paper wanted +one. Carnehan is sober, and so am I. Look at us first, and see that's +sure. It will save you cutting into my talk. We'll take one of your +cigars apiece, and you shall see us light up." + +I watched the test. The men were absolutely sober, so I gave them each a +tepid whiskey and soda. + +"Well _and_ good," said Carnehan of the eyebrows, wiping the froth from +his moustache. "Let me talk now, Dan. We have been all over India, +mostly on foot. We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty +contractors, and all that, and we have decided that India isn't big +enough for such as us." + +They certainly were too big for the office. Dravot's beard seemed to +fill half the room and Carnehan's shoulders the other half, as they sat +on the big table. Carnehan continued: "The country isn't half worked out +because they that governs it won't let you touch it. They spend all +their blessed time in governing it, and you can't lift a spade, nor chip +a rock, nor look for oil, nor anything like that without all the +Government saying--'Leave it alone, and let us govern.' Therefore, such +_as_ it is, we will let it alone, and go away to some other place where +a man isn't crowded and can come to his own. We are not little men, and +there is nothing that we are afraid of except Drink, and we have signed +a Contrack on that. _Therefore_, we are going away to be Kings." + +"Kings in our own right," muttered Dravot. + +"Yes, of course," I said. "You've been tramping in the sun, and it's a +very warm night, and hadn't you better sleep over the notion? Come +to-morrow." + +"Neither drunk nor sunstruck," said Dravot. "We have slept over the +notion half a year, and require to see Books and Atlases, and we have +decided that there is only one place now in the world that two strong +men can sar-a-_whack_. They call it Kafiristan. By my reckoning it's the +top right-hand corner of Afghanistan, not more than three hundred miles +from Peshawar. They have two-and-thirty heathen idols there, and we'll +be the thirty-third and fourth. It's a mountaineous country, and the +women of those parts are very beautiful." + +"But that is provided against in the Contrack," said Carnehan. "Neither +Woman nor Liqu-or, Daniel." + +"And that's all we know, except that no one has gone there, and they +fight, and in any place where they fight a man who knows how to drill +men can always be a King. We shall go to those parts and say to any King +we find--'D' you want to vanquish your foes?' and we will show him how +to drill men; for that we know better than anything else. Then we will +subvert that King and seize his Throne and establish a Dy-nasty." + +"You'll be cut to pieces before you're fifty miles across the Border," I +said. "You have to travel through Afghanistan to get to that country. +It's one mass of mountains and peaks and glaciers, and no Englishman has +been through it. The people are utter brutes, and even if you reached +them you couldn't do anything." + +"That's more like," said Carnehan. "If you could think us a little more +mad we would be more pleased. We have come to you to know about this +country, to read a book about it, and to be shown maps. We want you to +tell us that we are fools and to show us your books." He turned to the +book-cases. + +"Are you at all in earnest?" I said. + +"A little," said Dravot, sweetly. "As big a map as you have got, even if +it's all blank where Kafiristan is, and any books you've got. We can +read, though we aren't very educated." + +I uncased the big thirty-two-miles-to-the-inch map of India, and two +smaller Frontier maps, hauled down volume INF-KAN of the _Encyclopaedia +Britannica_, and the men consulted them. + +"See here!" said Dravot, his thumb on the map. "Up to Jagdallak, Peachey +and me know the road. We was there with Roberts's Army. We'll have to +turn off to the right at Jagdallak through Laghmann territory. Then we +get among the hills--fourteen thousand feet--fifteen thousand--it will +be cold work there, but it don't look very far on the map." + +I handed him Wood on the _Sources of the Oxus_. Carnehan was deep in the +_Encyclopaedia_. + +"They're a mixed lot," said Dravot, reflectively; "and it won't help us +to know the names of their tribes. The more tribes the more they'll +fight, and the better for us. From Jagdallak to Ashang. H'mm!" + +"But all the information about the country is as sketchy and inaccurate +as can be," I protested. "No one knows anything about it really. Here's +the file of the _United Services' Institute_. Read what Bellew says." + +"Blow Bellew!" said Carnehan. "Dan, they're a stinkin' lot of heathens, +but this book here says they think they're related to us English." + +I smoked while the men pored over _Raverty, Wood_, the maps, and the +_Encyclopaedia_. + +"There is no use your waiting," said Dravot, politely. "It's about four +o'clock now. We'll go before six o'clock if you want to sleep, and we +won't steal any of the papers. Don't you sit up. We're two harmless +lunatics, and if you come to-morrow evening down to the Serai we'll say +good-bye to you." + +"You _are_ two fools," I answered. "You'll be turned back at the +Frontier or cut up the minute you set foot in Afghanistan. Do you want +any money or a recommendation down-country? I can help you to the chance +of work next week." + +"Next week we shall be hard at work ourselves, thank you," said Dravot. +"It isn't so easy being a King as it looks. When we've got our Kingdom +in going order we'll let you know, and you can come up and help us to +govern it." + +"Would two lunatics make a Contrack like that?" said Carnehan, with +subdued pride, showing me a greasy half-sheet of notepaper on which was +written the following. I copied it, then and there, as a curiosity-- + + +_This Contract between me and you persuing witnesseth in the name of +God--Amen and so forth. + +(One) That me and you will settle this matter together; i.e., to be +Kings of Kafiristan. + +(Two) That you and me will not, while this matter is being settled, look +at any Liquor, nor any Woman black, white, or brown, so as to get mixed +up with one or the other harmful. + +(Three) That we conduct ourselves with Dignity and Discretion, and if +one of us gets into trouble the other will stay by him. + +Signed by you and me this day. +Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan. +Daniel Dravot. +Both Gentlemen at Large_. + + +"There was no need for the last article," said Carnehan, blushing +modestly; "but it looks regular. Now you know the sort of men that +loafers are--we _are_ loafers, Dan, until we get out of India--and _do_ +you think that we would sign a Contrack like that unless we was in +earnest? We have kept away from the two things that make life worth +having." + +"You won't enjoy your lives much longer if you are going to try this +idiotic adventure. Don't set the office on fire," I said, "and go away +before nine o'clock." + +I left them still poring over the maps and making notes on the back of +the "Contrack." "Be sure to come down to the Serai to-morrow," were +their parting words. + +The Kumharsen Serai is the great four-square sink of humanity where the +strings of camels and horses from the North load and unload. All the +nationalities of Central Asia may be found there, and most of the folk +of India proper. Balkh and Bokhara there meet Bengal and Bombay, and try +to draw eye-teeth. You can buy ponies, turquoises, Persian pussy-cats, +saddle-bags, fat-tailed sheep, and musk in the Kumharsen Serai, and get +many strange things for nothing. In the afternoon I went down to see +whether my friends intended to keep their word or were lying there +drunk. + +A priest attired in fragments of ribbons and rags stalked up to me, +gravely twisting a child's paper whirligig. Behind him was his servant +bending under the load of a crate of mud toys. The two were loading up +two camels, and the inhabitants of the Serai watched them with shrieks +of laughter. + +"The priest is mad," said a horse-dealer to me. "He is going up to Kabul +to sell toys to the Amir. He will either be raised to honor or have his +head cut off. He came in here this morning and has been behaving madly +ever since." + +"The witless are under the protection of God," stammered a flat-cheeked +Usbeg in broken Hindi. "They foretell future events." + +"Would they could have foretold that my caravan would have been cut up +by the Shinwaris almost within shadow of the Pass!" grunted the Eusufzai +agent of a Rajputana trading-house whose goods had been diverted into +the hands of other robbers just across the Border, and whose misfortunes +were the laughing-stock of the bazar. "Ohe, priest, whence come you and +whither do you go?" + +"From Roum have I come," shouted the priest, waving his whirligig; "from +Roum, blown by the breath of a hundred devils across the sea! O thieves, +robbers, liars, the blessing of Pir Khan on pigs, dogs, and perjurers! +Who will take the Protected of God to the North to sell charms that are +never still to the Amir? The camels shall not gall, the sons shall not +fall sick, and the wives shall remain faithful while they are away, of +the men who give me place in their caravan. Who will assist me to +slipper the King of the Roos with a golden slipper with a silver heel? +The protection of Pir Khan be upon his labors!" He spread out the skirts +of his gaberdine and pirouetted between the lines of tethered horses. + +"There starts a caravan from Peshawar to Kabul in twenty days, _Huzrut_" +said the Eusufzai trader. "My camels go therewith. Do thou also go and +bring us good-luck." + +"I will go even now!" shouted the priest. "I will depart upon my winged +camels, and be at Peshawar in a day! Ho! Hazar Mir Khan," he yelled to +his servant, "drive out the camels, but let me first mount my own." + +He leaped on the back of his beast as it knelt, and, turning round to +me, cried: "Come thou also, Sahib, a little along the road, and I will +sell thee a charm--an amulet that shall make thee King of Kafiristan." + +Then the light broke upon me, and I followed the two camels out of the +Serai till we reached open road and the priest halted. + +"What d'you think o' that?" said he in English. "Carnehan can't talk +their patter, so I've made him my servant. He makes a handsome servant. +'T isn't for nothing that I've been knocking about the country for +fourteen years. Didn't I do that talk neat? We'll hitch on to a caravan +at Peshawar till we get to Jagdallak, and then we'll see if we can get +donkeys for our camels, and strike into Kafiristan. Whirligigs for the +Amir, O Lor! Put your hand under the camel-bags and tell me what you +feel." + +I felt the butt of a Martini, and another and another. + +"Twenty of 'em," said Dravot, placidly. "Twenty of 'em and ammunition to +correspond, under the whirligigs and the mud dolls." + +"Heaven help you if you are caught with those things!" I said. "A +Martini is worth her weight in silver among the Pathans." + +"Fifteen hundred rupees of capital--every rupee we could beg, borrow, or +steal--are invested on these two camels," said Dravot. "We won't get +caught. We're going through the Khaiber with a regular caravan. Who'd +touch a poor mad priest?" + +"Have you got everything you want?" I asked, overcome with astonishment. + +"Not yet, but we shall soon. Give us a memento of your kindness, +_Brother_. You did me a service, yesterday, and that time in Marwar. +Half my Kingdom shall you have, as the saying is." I slipped a small +charm compass from my watch chain and handed it up to the priest. + +"Good-bye," said Dravot, giving me hand cautiously. "It's the last time +we'll shake hands with an Englishman these many days. Shake hands with +him, Carnehan," he cried, as the second camel passed me. + +Carnehan leaned down and shook hands. Then the camels passed away along +the dusty road, and I was left alone to wonder. My eye could detect no +failure in the disguises. The scene in the Serai proved that they were +complete to the native mind. There was just the chance, therefore, that +Carnehan and Dravot would be able to wander through Afghanistan without +detection. But, beyond, they would find death--certain and awful death. + +Ten days later a native correspondent giving me the news of the day from +Peshawar, wound up his letter with: "There has been much laughter here +on account of a certain mad priest who is going in his estimation to +sell petty gauds and insignificant trinkets which he ascribes as great +charms to H.H. the Amir of Bokhara. He passed through Peshawar and +associated himself to the Second Summer caravan that goes to Kabul. The +merchants are pleased because through superstition they imagine that +such mad fellows bring good-fortune." + +The two, then, were beyond the Border. I would have prayed for them, +but, that night, a real King died in Europe, and demanded an obituary +notice. + + * * * * * + +The wheel of the world swings through the same phases again and again. +Summer passed and winter thereafter, and came and passed again. The +daily paper continued and I with it, and upon the third summer there +fell a hot night, a night-issue, and a strained waiting for something to +be telegraphed from the other side of the world, exactly as had happened +before. A few great men had died in the past two years, the machines +worked with more clatter, and some of the trees in the Office garden +were a few feet taller. But that was all the difference. + +I passed over to the press-room, and went through just such a scene as I +have already described. The nervous tension was stronger than it had +been two years before, and I felt the heat more acutely. At three +o'clock I cried, "Print off," and turned to go, when there crept to my +chair what was left of a man. He was bent into a circle, his head was +sunk between his shoulders, and he moved his feet one over the other +like a bear. I could hardly see whether he walked or crawled--this +rag-wrapped, whining cripple who addressed me by name, crying that he +was come back. "Can you give me a drink?" he whimpered. "For the Lord's +sake, give me a drink!" + +I went back to the office, the man following with groans of pain, and I +turned up the lamp. + +"Don't you know me?" he gasped, dropping into a chair, and he turned his +drawn face, surmounted by a shock of gray hair, to the light. + +I looked at him intently. Once before had I seen eyebrows that met over +the nose in an inch-broad black band, but for the life of me I could not +tell where. + +"I don't know you," I said, handing him the whiskey. "What can I do for +you?" + +He took a gulp of the spirit raw, and shivered in spite of the +suffocating heat. + +"I've come back," he repeated; "and I was the King of Kafiristan--me and +Dravot--crowned Kings we was! In this office we settled it--you setting +there and giving us the books. I am Peachey--Peachey Taliaferro +Carnehan, and you've been setting here ever since--O Lord!" + +I was more than a little astonished, and expressed my feelings +accordingly. + +"It's true," said Carnehan, with a dry cackle, nursing his feet, which +were wrapped in rags. "True as gospel. Kings we were, with crowns upon +our heads--me and Dravot--poor Dan--oh, poor, poor Dan, that would never +take advice, not though I begged of him!" + +"Take the whiskey," I said, "and take your own time. Tell me all you can +recollect of everything from beginning to end. You got across the border +on your camels, Dravot dressed as a mad priest and you his servant. Do +you remember that?" + +"I ain't mad--yet, but I shall be that way soon. Of course I remember. +Keep looking at me, or maybe my words will go all to pieces. Keep +looking at me in my eyes and don't say anything." + +I leaned forward and looked into his face as steadily as I could. He +dropped one hand upon the table and I grasped it by the wrist. It was +twisted like a bird's claw, and upon the back was a ragged, red, +diamond-shaped scar. + +"No, don't look there. Look at _me_" said Carnehan. "That comes +afterwards, but for the Lord's sake don't distrack me. We left with that +caravan, me and Dravot playing all sorts of antics to amuse the people +we were with. Dravot used to make us laugh in the evenings when all the +people was cooking their dinners--cooking their dinners, and--what did +they do then? They lit little fires with sparks that went into Dravot's +beard, and we all laughed--fit to die. Little red fires they was, going +into Dravot's big red beard--so funny." His eyes left mine and he smiled +foolishly. + +"You went as far as Jagdallak with that caravan," I said at a venture, +"after you had lit those fires. To Jagdallak, where you turned off to +try to get into Kafiristan." + +"No, we didn't neither. What are you talking about? We turned off before +Jagdallak, because we heard the roads was good. But they wasn't good +enough for our two camels--mine and Dravot's. When we left the caravan, +Dravot took off all his clothes and mine too, and said we would be +heathen, because the Kafirs didn't allow Mohammedans to talk to them. So +we dressed betwixt and between, and such a sight as Daniel Dravot I +never saw yet nor expect to see again. He burned half his beard, and +slung a sheep-skin over his shoulder, and shaved his head into patterns. +He shaved mine, too, and made me wear outrageous things to look like a +heathen. That was in a most mountaineous country, and our camels +couldn't go along any more because of the mountains. They were tall and +black, and coming home I saw them fight like wild goats--there are lots +of goats in Kafiristan. And these mountains, they never keep still, no +more than the goats. Always fighting they are, and don't let you sleep +at night." + +"Take some more whiskey," I said, very slowly. "What did you and Daniel +Dravot do when the camels could go no further because of the rough roads +that led into Kafiristan?" + +"What did which do? There was a party called Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan +that was with Dravot. Shall I tell you about him? He died out there in +the cold. Slap from the bridge fell old Peachey, turning and twisting in +the air like a penny whirligig that you can sell to the Amir.--No; they +was two for three ha'pence, those whirligigs, or I am much mistaken and +woeful sore.--And then these camels were no use, and Peachey said to +Dravot--'For the Lord's sake let's get out of this before our heads are +chopped off,' and with that they killed the camels all among the +mountains, not having anything in particular to eat, but first they took +off the boxes with the guns and the ammunition, till two men came along +driving four mules. Dravot up and dances in front of them, +singing--'Sell me four mules.' Says the first man--'If you are rich +enough to buy, you are rich enough to rob;' but before ever he could put +his hand to his knife, Dravot breaks his neck over his knee, and the +other party runs away. So Carnehan loaded the mules with the rifles that +was taken off the camels, and together we starts forward into those +bitter cold mountaineous parts, and never a road broader than the back +of your hand." + +He paused for a moment, while I asked him if he could remember the +nature of the country through which he had journeyed. + +"I am telling you as straight as I can, but my head isn't as good as it +might be. They drove nails through it to make me hear better how Dravot +died. The country was mountaineous and the mules were most contrary, and +the inhabitants was dispersed and solitary. They went up and up, and +down and down, and that other party, Carnehan, was imploring of Dravot +not to sing and whistle so loud, for fear of bringing down the tremenjus +avalanches. But Dravot says that if a King couldn't sing it wasn't worth +being King, and whacked the mules over the rump, and never took no heed +for ten cold days. We came to a big level valley all among the +mountains, and the mules were near dead, so we killed them, not having +anything in special for them or us to eat. We sat upon the boxes, and +played odd and even with the cartridges that was jolted out. + +"Then ten men with bows and arrows ran down that valley, chasing twenty +men with bows and arrows, and the row was tremenjus. They was fair +men--fairer than you or me--with yellow hair and remarkable well built. +Says Dravot, unpacking the guns--'This is the beginning of the business. +We'll fight for the ten men,' and with that he fires two rifles at the +twenty men, and drops one of them at two hundred yards from the rock +where he was sitting. The other men began to run, but Carnehan and +Dravot sits on the boxes picking them off at all ranges, up and down the +valley. Then we goes up to the ten men that had run across the snow too, +and they fires a footy little arrow at us. Dravot he shoots above their +heads and they all falls down flat. Then he walks over them and kicks +them, and then he lifts them up and shakes hands all round to make them +friendly like. He calls them and gives them the boxes to carry, and +waves his hand for all the world as though he was King already. They +takes the boxes and him across the valley and up the hill into a pine +wood on the top, where there was half a dozen big stone idols. Dravot he +goes to the biggest--a fellow they call Imbra--and lays a rifle and a +cartridge at his feet, rubbing his nose respectful with his own nose, +patting him on the head, and saluting in front of it. He turns round to +the men and nods his head, and says--'That's all right. I'm in the know +too, and all these old jim-jams are my friends.' Then he opens his mouth +and points down it, and when the first man brings him food, he +says--'No;' and when the second man brings him food, he says--'No;' but +when one of the old priests and the boss of the village brings him food, +he says--'Yes,' very haughty, and eats it slow. That was how we came to +our first village, without any trouble, just as though we had tumbled +from the skies. But we tumbled from one of those damned rope-bridges, +you see, and--you couldn't expect a man to laugh much after that?" + +"Take some more whiskey and go on," I said. "That was the first village +you came into. How did you get to be King?" + +"I wasn't King," said Carnehan. "Dravot, he was the King, and a handsome +man he looked with the gold crown on his head and all. Him and the other +party stayed in that village, and every morning Dravot sat by the side +of old Imbra, and the people came and worshipped. That was Dravot's +order. Then a lot of men came into the valley, and Carnehan and Dravot +picks them off with the rifles before they knew where they was, and runs +down into the valley and up again the other side and finds another +village, same as the first one, and the people all falls down flat on +their faces, and Dravot says--'Now what is the trouble between you two +villages?' and the people points to a woman, as fair as you or me, that +was carried off, and Dravot takes her back to the first village and +counts up the dead--eight there was. For each dead man Dravot pours a +little milk on the ground and waves his arms like a whirligig and +'That's all right,' says he. Then he and Carnehan takes the big boss of +each village by the arm and walks them down into the valley, and shows +them how to scratch a line with a spear right down the valley, and gives +each a sod of turf from both sides of the line. Then all the people +comes down and shouts like the devil and all, and Dravot says--'Go and +dig the land, and be fruitful and multiply,' which they did, though they +didn't understand. Then we asks the names of things in their +lingo--bread and water and fire and idols and such, and Dravot leads the +priest of each village up to the idol, and says he must sit there and +judge the people, and if anything goes wrong he is to be shot. + +"Next week they was all turning up the land in the valley as quiet as +bees and much prettier, and the priests heard all the complaints and +told Dravot in dumb show what it was about. 'That's just the beginning,' +says Dravot. 'They think we're Gods.' He and Carnehan picks out twenty +good men and shows them how to click off a rifle, and form fours, and +advance in line, and they was very pleased to do so, and clever to see +the hang of it. Then he takes out his pipe and his baccy-pouch and +leaves one at one village, and one at the other, and off we two goes to +see what was to be done in the next valley. That was all rock, and there +was a little village there, and Carnehan says--'Send 'em to the old +valley to plant,' and takes 'em there and gives 'em some land that +wasn't took before. They were a poor lot, and we blooded 'em with a kid +before letting 'em into the new Kingdom. That was to impress the people, +and then they settled down quiet, and Carnehan went back to Dravot who +had got into another valley, all snow and ice and most mountaineous. +There was no people there and the Army got afraid, so Dravot shoots one +of them, and goes on till he finds some people in a village, and the +Army explains that unless the people wants to be killed they had better +not shoot their little matchlocks; for they had matchlocks. We makes +friends with the priest and I stays there alone with two of the Army, +teaching the men how to drill, and a thundering big Chief comes across +the snow with kettle-drums and horns twanging, because he heard there +was a new God kicking about. Carnehan sights for the brown of the men +half a mile across the snow and wings one of them. Then he sends a +message to the Chief that, unless he wished to be killed, he must come +and shake hands with me and leave his arms behind. The Chief comes alone +first, and Carnehan shakes hands with him and whirls his arms about, +same as Dravot used, and very much surprised that Chief was, and strokes +my eyebrows. Then Carnehan goes alone to the Chief, and asks him in dumb +show if he had an enemy he hated. 'I have,' says the Chief. So Carnehan +weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them +drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as +Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top +of a mountain, and the Chief's men rushes into a village and takes it; +we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy. So we took that +village too, and I gives the Chief a rag from my coat and says, 'Occupy +till I come;' which was scriptural. By way of a reminder, when me and +the Army was eighteen hundred yards away, I drops a bullet near him +standing on the snow, and all the people falls flat on their faces. Then +I sends a letter to Dravot wherever he be by land or by sea." + +At the risk of throwing the creature out of train I interrupted--"How +could you write a letter up yonder?" + +"The letter?--Oh!--The letter! Keep looking at me between the eyes, +please. It was a string-talk letter, that we'd learned the way of it +from a blind beggar in the Punjab." + +I remember that there had once come to the office a blind man with a +knotted twig and a piece of string which he wound round the twig +according to some cipher of his own. He could, after the lapse of days +or hours, repeat the sentence which he had reeled up. He had reduced the +alphabet to eleven primitive sounds; and tried to teach me his method, +but I could not understand. + +"I sent that letter to Dravot," said Carnehan; "and told him to come +back because this Kingdom was growing too big for me to handle, and then +I struck for the first valley, to see how the priests were working. They +called the village we took along with the Chief, Bashkai, and the first +village we took, Er-Heb. The priests at Er-Heb was doing all right, but +they had a lot of pending cases about land to show me, and some men from +another village had been firing arrows at night. I went out and looked +for that village, and fired four rounds at it from a thousand yards. +That used all the cartridges I cared to spend, and I waited for Dravot, +who had been away two or three months, and I kept my people quiet. + +"One morning I heard the devil's own noise of drums and horns, and Dan +Dravot marches down the hill with his Army and a tail of hundreds of +men, and, which was the most amazing, a great gold crown on his head. +'My Gord, Carnehan,' says Daniel, 'this is a tremenjus business, and +we've got the whole country as far as it's worth having. I am the son of +Alexander by Queen Semiramis, and you're my younger brother and a God +too! It's the biggest thing we've ever seen. I've been marching and +fighting for six weeks with the Army, and every footy little village for +fifty miles has come in rejoiceful; and more than that, I've got the key +of the whole show, as you'll see, and I've got a crown for you! I told +'em to make two of 'em at a place called Shu, where the gold lies in the +rock like suet in mutton. Gold I've seen, and turquoise I've kicked out +of the cliffs, and there's garnets in the sands of the river, and here's +a chunk of amber that a man brought me. Call up all the priests and, +here, take your crown.' + +"One of the men opens a black hair bag, and I slips the crown on. It was +too small and too heavy, but I wore it for the glory. Hammered gold it +was--five pound weight, like a hoop of a barrel. + +"'Peachey,' says Dravot, 'we don't want to fight no more. The Craft's +the trick, so help me!' and he brings forward that same Chief that I +left at Bashkai--Billy Fish we called him afterwards, because he was so +like Billy Fish that drove the big tank-engine at Mach on the Bolan in +the old days. 'Shake hands with him,' says Dravot, and I shook hands and +nearly dropped, for Billy Fish gave me the Grip. I said nothing, but +tried him with the Fellow Craft Grip. He answers, all right, and I tried +the Master's Grip, but that was a slip. 'A Fellow Craft he is!' I says +to Dan. 'Does he know the word?'--'He does,' says Dan, 'and all the +priests know. It's a miracle! The Chiefs and the priests can work a +Fellow Craft Lodge in a way that's very like ours, and they've cut the +marks on the rocks, but they don't know the Third Degree, and they've +come to find out. It's Gord's Truth. I've known these long years that +the Afghans knew up to the Fellow Craft Degree, but this is a miracle. A +God and a Grand-Master of the Craft am I, and a Lodge in the Third +Degree I will open, and we'll raise the head priests and the Chiefs of +the villages.' + +"'It's against all the law,' I says, 'holding a Lodge without warrant +from any one; and you know we never held office in any Lodge.' + +"'It's a master-stroke o' policy,' says Dravot. 'It means running the +country as easy as a four-wheeled bogie on a down grade. We can't stop +to inquire now, or they'll turn against us. I've forty Chiefs at my +heel, and passed and raised according to their merit they shall be. +Billet these men on the villages, and see that we run up a Lodge of some +kind. The temple of Imbra will do for the Lodge-room. The women must +make aprons as you show them. I'll hold a levee of Chiefs to-night and +Lodge to-morrow.' + +"I was fair run off my legs, but I wasn't such a fool as not to see what +a pull this Craft business gave us. I showed the priests' families how +to make aprons of the degrees, but for Dravot's apron the blue border +and marks was made of turquoise lumps on white hide, not cloth. We took +a great square stone in the temple for the Master's chair, and little +stones for the officers' chairs, and painted the black pavement with +white squares, and did what we could to make things regular. + +"At the levee which was held that night on the hillside with big +bonfires, Dravot gives out that him and me were Gods and sons of +Alexander, and Past Grand-Masters in the Craft, and was come to make +Kafiristan a country where every man should eat in peace and drink in +quiet, and specially obey us. Then the Chiefs come round to shake hands, +and they were so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with +old friends. We gave them names according as they was like men we had +known in India--Billy Fish, Holly Dilworth, Pikky Kergan, that was +Bazar-master when I was at Mhow, and so on, and so on. + +"_The_ most amazing miracles was at Lodge next night. One of the old +priests was watching us continuous, and I felt uneasy, for I knew we'd +have to fudge the Ritual, and I didn't know what the men knew. The old +priest was a stranger come in from beyond the village of Bashkai. The +minute Dravot puts on the Master's apron that the girls had made for +him, the priest fetches a whoop and a howl, and tries to overturn the +stone that Dravot was sitting on. 'It's all up now,' I says. 'That comes +of meddling with the Craft without warrant!' Dravot never winked an eye, +not when ten priests took and tilted over the Grand-Master's +chair--which was to say the stone of Imbra. The priest begins rubbing +the bottom end of it to clear away the black dirt, and presently he +shows all the other priests the Master's Mark, same as was on Dravot's +apron, cut into the stone. Not even the priests of the temple of Imbra +knew it was there. The old chap falls flat on his face at Dravot's feet +and kisses 'em. 'Luck again,' says Dravot, across the Lodge to me, 'they +say it's the missing Mark that no one could understand the why of. We're +more than safe now.' Then he bangs the butt of his gun for a gavel and +says: 'By virtue of the authority vested in me by my own right hand and +the help of Peachey, I declare myself Grand-Master of all Freemasonry in +Kafiristan in this the Mother Lodge o' the country, and King of +Kafiristan equally with Peachey!' At that he puts on his crown and I +puts on mine--I was doing Senior Warden--and we opens the Lodge in most +ample form. It was a amazing miracle! The priests moved in Lodge through +the first two degrees almost without telling, as if the memory was +coming back to them. After that, Peachey and Dravot raised such as was +worthy--high priests and Chiefs of far-off villages. Billy Fish was the +first, and I can tell you we scared the soul out of him. It was not in +any way according to Ritual, but it served our turn. We didn't raise +more than ten of the biggest men, because we didn't want to make the +Degree common. And they was clamoring to be raised. + +"'In another six months,' says Dravot, 'we'll hold another +Communication, and see how you are working.' Then he asks them about +their villages, and learns that they was fighting one against the other, +and were sick and tired of it. And when they wasn't doing that they was +fighting with the Mohammedans. 'You can fight those when they come into +our country,' says Dravot. 'Tell off every tenth man of your tribes for +a Frontier guard, and send two hundred at a time to this valley to be +drilled. Nobody is going to be shot or speared any more so long as he +does well, and I know that you won't cheat me, because you're white +people--sons of Alexander--and not like common, black Mohammedans. You +are _my_ people, and by God,' says he, running off into English at the +end--'I'll make a damned fine Nation of you, or I'll die in the making!' + +"I can't tell all we did for the next six months, because Dravot did a +lot I couldn't see the hang of, and he learned their lingo in a way I +never could. My work was to help the people plough, and now and again go +out with some of the Army and see what the other villages were doing, +and make 'em throw rope-bridges across the ravines which cut up the +country horrid. Dravot was very kind to me, but when he walked up and +down in the pine wood pulling that bloody red beard of his with both +fists I knew he was thinking plans I could not advise about, and I just +waited for orders. + +"But Dravot never showed me disrespect before the people. They were +afraid of me and the Army, but they loved Dan. He was the best of +friends with the priests and the Chiefs; but any one could come across +the hills with a complaint, and Dravot would hear him out fair, and call +four priests together and say what was to be done. He used to call in +Billy Fish from Bashkai, and Pikky Kergan from Shu, and an old Chief we +call Kafuzelum--it was like enough to his real name--and hold councils +with 'em when there was any fighting to be done in small villages. That +was his Council of War, and the four priests of Bashkai, Shu, Khawak, +and Madora was his Privy Council. Between the lot of 'em they sent me, +with forty men and twenty rifles, and sixty men carrying turquoises, +into the Ghorband country to buy those hand-made Martini rifles, that +come out of the Amir's workshops at Kabul, from one of the Amir's Herati +regiments that would have sold the very teeth out of their mouths for +turquoises. + +"I stayed in Ghorband a month, and gave the Governor there the pick of +my baskets for hush-money, and bribed the Colonel of the regiment some +more, and, between the two and the tribes-people, we got more than a +hundred hand-made Martinis, a hundred good Kohat Jezails that'll throw +to six hundred yards, and forty man-loads of very bad ammunition for the +rifles. I came back with what I had, and distributed 'em among the men +that the Chiefs sent in to me to drill. Dravot was too busy to attend to +those things, but the old Army that we first made helped me, and we +turned out five hundred men that could drill, and two hundred that knew +how to hold arms pretty straight. Even those cork-screwed, hand-made +guns was a miracle to them. Dravot talked big about powder-shops and +factories, walking up and down in the pine wood when the winter was +coming on. + +"'I won't make a Nation,' says he. 'I'll make an Empire! These men +aren't niggers; they're English! Look at their eyes--look at their +mouths. Look at the way they stand up. They sit on chairs in their own +houses. They're the Lost Tribes, or something like it, and they've grown +to be English. I'll take a census in the spring if the priests don't get +frightened. There must be a fair two million of 'em in these hills. The +villages are full o' little children. Two million people--two hundred +and fifty thousand fighting men--and all English! They only want the +rifles and a little drilling. Two hundred and fifty thousand men, ready +to cut in on Russia's right flank when she tries for India! Peachey, +man,' he says, chewing his beard in great hunks, 'we shall be +Emperors--Emperors of the Earth! Rajah Brooke will be a suckling to us. +I'll treat with the Viceroy on equal terms. I'll ask him to send me +twelve picked English--twelve that I know of--to help us govern a bit. +There's Mackray, Sergeant-pensioner at Segowli--many's the good dinner +he's given me, and his wife a pair of trousers. There's Donkin, the +Warder of Tounghoo Jail; there's hundreds that I could lay my hand on if +I was in India. The Viceroy shall do it for me, I'll send a man through +in the spring for those men, and I'll write for a dispensation from the +Grand Lodge for what I've done as Grand-Master. That--and all the +Sniders that'll be thrown out when the native troops in India take up +the Martini. They'll be worn smooth, but they'll do for fighting in +these hills. Twelve English, a hundred thousand Sniders run through the +Amir's country in dribblets--I'd be content with twenty thousand in one +year--and we'd be an Empire. When everything was shipshape, I'd hand +over the crown--this crown I'm wearing now--to Queen Victoria on my +knees, and she'd say: "Rise up, Sir Daniel Dravot." Oh, it's big! It's +big, I tell you! But there's so much to be done in every place--Bashkai, +Khawak, Shu, and everywhere else.' + +"'What is it?' I says. 'There are no more men coming in to be drilled +this autumn. Look at those fat black clouds. They're bringing the snow.' + +"'It isn't that,' says Daniel, putting his hand very hard on my +shoulder; 'and I don't wish to say anything that's against you, for no +other living man would have followed me and made me what I am as you +have done. You're a first-class Commander-in-Chief, and the people know +you; but--it's a big country, and somehow you can't help me, Peachey, in +the way I want to be helped.' + +"'Go to your blasted priests, then!' I said, and I was sorry when I made +that remark, but it did hurt me sore to find Daniel talking so superior +when I'd drilled all the men, and done all he told me. + +"'Don't let's quarrel, Peachey,' says Daniel, without cursing. 'You're a +King too, and the half of this Kingdom is yours; but can't you see, +Peachey, we want cleverer men than us now--three or four of 'em, that we +can scatter about for our Deputies. It's a hugeous great State, and I +can't always tell the right thing to do, and I haven't time for all I +want to do, and here's the winter coming on and all.' He put half his +beard into his mouth, all red like the gold of his crown. + +"'I'm sorry, Daniel,' says I. 'I've done all I could. I've drilled the +men and shown the people how to stack their oats better; and I've +brought in those tinware rifles from Ghorband--but I know what you're +driving at. I take it Kings always feel oppressed that way.' + +"'There's another thing too,' says Dravot, walking up and down. 'The +winter's coming and these people won't be giving much trouble, and if +they do we can't move about. I want a wife.' + +"'For Gord's sake leave the women alone!' I says. 'We've both got all +the work we can, though I _am_ a fool. Remember the Contrack, and keep +clear o' women.' + +"The Contrack only lasted till such time as we was Kings; and Kings we +have been these months past,' says Dravot, weighing his crown in his +hand. 'You go get a wife too, Peachey--a nice, strappin', plump girl +that'll keep you warm in the winter. They're prettier than English +girls, and we can take the pick of 'em. Boil 'em once or twice in hot +water, and they'll come out like chicken and ham.' + +"'Don't tempt me!' I says. 'I will not have any dealings with a woman +not till we are a dam' side more settled than we are now. I've been +doing the work o' two men, and you've been doing the work o' three. +Let's lie off a bit, and see if we can get some better tobacco from +Afghan country and run in some good liquor; but no women.' + +"'Who's talking o' _women_?' says Dravot. 'I said _wife_--a Queen to +breed a King's son for the King. A Queen out of the strongest tribe, +that'll make them your blood-brothers, and that'll lie by your side and +tell you all the people thinks about you and their own affairs. That's +what I want.' + +"'Do you remember that Bengali woman I kept at Mogul Serai when I was a +plate-layer?' says I. 'A fat lot o' good she was to me. She taught me +the lingo and one or two other things; but what happened? She ran away +with the Station Master's servant and half my month's pay. Then she +turned up at Dadur Junction in tow of a half-caste, and had the +impidence to say I was her husband--all among the drivers in the +running-shed too!' + +"'We've done with that,' says Dravot, 'these women are whiter than you +or me, and a Queen I will have for the winter months.' + +"'For the last time o' asking, Dan, do _not_,' I says. 'It'll only bring +us harm. The Bible says that Kings ain't to waste their strength on +women, 'specially when they've got a new raw Kingdom to work over.' + +"'For the last time of answering I will,' said Dravot, and he went away +through the pine-trees looking like a big red devil, the sun being on +his crown and beard and all. + +"But getting a wife was not as easy as Dan thought. He put it before the +Council, and there was no answer till Billy Fish said that he'd better +ask the girls. Dravot damned them all round. 'What's wrong with me?' he +shouts, standing by the idol Imbra. 'Am I a dog or am I not enough of a +man for your wenches? Haven't I put the shadow of my hand over this +country? Who stopped the last Afghan raid?' It was me really, but Dravot +was too angry to remember. 'Who bought your guns? Who repaired the +bridges? Who's the Grand-Master of the sign cut in the stone?' says he, +and he thumped his hand on the block that he used to sit on in Lodge, +and at Council, which opened like Lodge always. Billy Fish said nothing +and no more did the others. 'Keep your hair on, Dan,' said I; 'and ask +the girls. That's how it's done at Home, and these people are quite +English.' + +"'The marriage of the King is a matter of State,' says Dan, in a +white-hot rage, for he could feel, I hope, that he was going against his +better mind. He walked out of the Council-room, and the others sat +still, looking at the ground. + +"'Billy Fish,' says I to the Chief of Bashkai, 'what's the difficulty +here? A straight answer to a true friend.' + +"'You know,' says Billy Fish. 'How should a man tell you who knows +everything? How can daughters of men marry Gods or Devils? It's not +proper.' + +"I remembered something like that in the Bible; but if, after seeing us +as long as they had, they still believed we were Gods, it wasn't for me +to undeceive them. + +"'A God can do anything,' says I. 'If the King is fond of a girl he'll +not let her die.'--'She'll have to,' said Billy Fish. 'There are all +sorts of Gods and Devils in these mountains, and now and again a girl +marries one of them and isn't seen any more. Besides, you two know the +Mark cut in the stone. Only the Gods know that. We thought you were men +till you showed the sign of the Master.' + +"I wished then that we had explained about the loss of the genuine +secrets of a Master-Mason at the first go-off; but I said nothing. All +that night there was a blowing of horns in a little dark temple half-way +down the hill, and I heard a girl crying fit to die. One of the priests +told us that she was being prepared to marry the King. + +"'I'll have no nonsense of that kind,' says Dan. 'I don't want to +interfere with your customs, but I'll take my own wife.'--'The girl's a +little bit afraid,' says the priest. 'She thinks she's going to die, and +they are a-heartening of her up down in the temple.' + +"'Hearten her very tender, then,' says Dravot, 'or I'll hearten you with +the butt of a gun so you'll never want to be heartened again.' He licked +his lips, did Dan, and stayed up walking about more than half the night, +thinking of the wife that he was going to get in the morning. I wasn't +by any means comfortable, for I knew that dealings with a woman in +foreign parts, though you was a crowned King twenty times over, could +not but be risky. I got up very early in the morning while Dravot was +asleep, and I saw the priests talking together in whispers, and the +Chiefs talking together too, and they looked at me out of the corners of +their eyes. + +"'What is up, Fish?' I say to the Bashkai man, who was wrapped up in his +furs and looking splendid to behold. + +"'I can't rightly say,' says he; 'but if you can make the King drop all +this nonsense about marriage, you'll be doing him and me and yourself a +great service.' + +"'That I do believe,' says I. 'But sure, you know, Billy, as well as me, +having fought against and for us, that the King and me are nothing more +than two of the finest men that God Almighty ever made. Nothing more, I +do assure you.' + +"'That may be,' says Billy Fish, 'and yet I should be sorry if it was.' +He sinks his head upon his great fur cloak for a minute and thinks. +'King,' says he, 'be you man or God or Devil, I'll stick by you to-day. +I have twenty of my men with me, and they will follow me. We'll go to +Bashkai until the storm blows over.' + +"A little snow had fallen in the night, and everything was white except +the greasy fat clouds that blew down and down from the north. Dravot +came out with his crown on his head, swinging his arms and stamping his +feet, and looking more pleased than Punch. + +"'For the last time, drop it, Dan,' says I in a whisper, 'Billy Fish here +says that there will be a row.' + +"'A row among my people!' says Dravot. 'Not much. Peachey, you're a fool +not to get a wife too. Where's the girl?' says he with a voice as loud +as the braying of a jackass. 'Call up all the Chiefs and priests, and +let the Emperor see if his wife suits him.' + +"There was no need to call any one. They were all there leaning on their +guns and spears round the clearing in the centre of the pine wood. A lot +of priests went down to the little temple to bring up the girl, and the +horns blew fit to wake the dead. Billy Fish saunters round and gets as +close to Daniel as he could, and behind him stood his twenty men with +matchlocks. Not a man of them under six feet. I was next to Dravot, and +behind me was twenty men of the regular Army. Up comes the girl, and a +strapping wench she was, covered with silver and turquoises but white as +death, and looking back every minute at the priests. + +"'She'll do,' said Dan, looking her over. 'What's to be afraid of, lass? +Come and kiss me.' He puts his arm round her. She shuts her eyes, gives +a bit of a squeak, and down goes her face in the side of Dan's flaming +red beard. + +"'The slut's bitten me!' says he, clapping his hand to his neck, and, +sure enough, his hand was red with blood. Billy Fish and two of his +matchlock-men catches hold of Dan by the shoulders and drags him into +the Bashkai lot, while the priests howls in their lingo,--'Neither God +nor Devil but a man!' I was all taken aback, for a priest cut at me in +front, and the Army behind began firing into the Bashkai men. + +"'God A'mighty!' says Dan. 'What is the meaning o' this?' + +"'Come back! Come away!' says Billy Fish. 'Ruin and Mutiny is the +matter. We'll break for Bashkai if we can.' + +"I tried to give some sort of orders to my men--the men o' the regular +Army--but it was no use, so I fired into the brown of 'em with an +English Martini and drilled three beggars in a line. The valley was full +of shouting, howling creatures, and every soul was shrieking, 'Not a God +nor a Devil but only a man!' The Bashkai troops stuck to Billy Fish all +they were worth, but their matchlocks wasn't half as good as the Kabul +breech-loaders, and four of them dropped. Dan was bellowing like a bull, +for he was very wrathy; and Billy Fish had a hard job to prevent him +running out at the crowd. + +"'We can't stand,' says Billy Fish. 'Make a run for it down the valley! +The whole place is against us.' The matchlock-men ran, and we went down +the valley in spite of Dravot. He was swearing horrible and crying out +he was a King. The priests rolled great stones on us, and the regular +Army fired hard, and there wasn't more than six men, not counting Dan, +Billy Fish, and Me, that came down to the bottom of the valley alive. + +"Then they stopped firing and the horns in the temple blew again. 'Come +away--for Gord's sake come away!' says Billy Fish. 'They'll send runners +out to all the villages before ever we get to Bashkai. I can protect you +there, but I can't do anything now.' + +"My own notion is that Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour. +He stared up and down like a stuck pig. Then he was all for walking back +alone and killing the priests with his bare hands; which he could have +done. 'An Emperor am I,' says Daniel, 'and next year I shall be a Knight +of the Queen.' + +"'All right, Dan,' says I; 'but come along now while there's time.' + +"'It's your fault,' says he, 'for not looking after your Army better. +There was mutiny in the midst, and you didn't know--you damned +engine-driving, plate-laying, missionary's-pass-hunting hound!' He sat +upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to. I was +too heart-sick to care, though it was all his foolishness that brought +the smash. + +"'I'm sorry, Dan,' says I, 'but there's no accounting for natives. This +business is our Fifty-Seven. Maybe we'll make something out of it yet, +when we've got to Bashkai.' + +"'Let's get to Bashkai, then,' says Dan, 'and, by God, when I come back +here again I'll sweep the valley so there isn't a bug in a blanket +left!' + +"We walked all that day, and all that night Dan was stumping up and down +on the snow, chewing his beard and muttering to himself. + +"'There's no hope o' getting clear,' said Billy Fish. 'The priests will +have sent runners to the villages to say that you are only men. Why +didn't you stick on as Gods till things was more settled? I'm a dead +man,' says Billy Fish, and he throws himself down on the snow and begins +to pray to his Gods. + +"Next morning we was in a cruel bad country--all up and down, no level +ground at all, and no food either. The six Bashkai men looked at Billy +Fish hungryway as if they wanted to ask something, but they said never a +word. At noon we came to the top of a flat mountain all covered with +snow, and when we climbed up into it, behold, there was an Army in +position waiting in the middle! + +"'The runners have been very quick,' says Billy Fish, with a little bit +of a laugh. 'They are waiting for us.' + +"Three or four men began to fire from the enemy's side, and a chance +shot took Daniel in the calf of the leg. That brought him to his senses. +He looks across the snow at the Army, and sees the rifles that we had +brought into the country. + +"'We're done for,' says he. 'They are Englishmen, these people,--and +it's my blasted nonsense that has brought you to this. Get back, Billy +Fish, and take your men away; you've done what you could, and now cut +for it. Carnehan,' says he, 'shake hands with me and go along with +Billy. Maybe they won't kill you. I'll go and meet 'em alone. It's me +that did it. Me, the King!' + +"'Go!' says I. 'Go to Hell, Dan. I am with you here. Billy Fish, you +clear out, and we two will meet those folk.' + +"'I'm a Chief,' says Billy Fish, quite quiet. 'I stay with you. My men +can go.' + +"The Bashkai fellows didn't wait for a second word but ran off, and Dan +and Me and Billy Fish walked across to where the drums were drumming and +the horns were horning. It was cold--awful cold. I've got that cold in +the back of my head now. There's a lump of it there." + +The punkah-coolies had gone to sleep. Two kerosene lamps were blazing in +the office, and the perspiration poured down my face and splashed on the +blotter as I leaned forward. Carnehan was shivering, and I feared that +his mind might go. I wiped my face, took a fresh grip of the piteously +mangled hands, and said: "What happened after that?" + +The momentary shift of my eyes had broken the clear current. + +"What was you pleased to say?" whined Carnehan. "They took them without +any sound. Not a little whisper all along the snow, not though the King +knocked down the first man that set hand on him--not though old Peachey +fired his last cartridge into the brown of 'em. Not a single solitary +sound did those swines make. They just closed up tight, and I tell you +their furs stunk. There was a man called Billy Fish, a good friend of us +all, and they cut his throat, Sir, then and there, like a pig; and the +King kicks up the bloody snow and says: 'We've had a dashed fine run for +our money. What's coming next?' But Peachey, Peachey Taliaferro, I tell +you, Sir, in confidence as betwixt two friends, he lost his head, Sir. +No, he didn't neither. The King lost his head, so he did, all along o' +one of those cunning rope-bridges. Kindly let me have the paper-cutter, +Sir. It tilted this way. They marched him a mile across that snow to a +rope-bridge over a ravine with a river at the bottom. You may have seen +such. They prodded him behind like an ox. 'Damn your eyes!' says the +King. 'D' you suppose I can't die like a gentleman?' He turns to +Peachey--Peachey that was crying like a child. 'I've brought you to +this, Peachey,' says he. 'Brought you out of your happy life to be +killed in Kafiristan, where you was late Commander-in-Chief of the +Emperor's forces. Say you forgive me, Peachey.'--'I do,' says Peachey. +'Fully and freely do I forgive you, Dan.'--'Shake hands, Peachey,' says +he. 'I'm going now.' Out he goes, looking neither right nor left, and +when he was plumb in the middle of those dizzy dancing ropes,--'Cut, you +beggars,' he shouts; and they cut, and old Dan fell, turning round and +round and round, twenty thousand miles, for he took half an hour to fall +till he struck the water, and I could see his body caught on a rock with +the gold crown close beside. + +"But do you know what they did to Peachey between two pine-trees? They +crucified him, Sir, as Peachey's hand will show. They used wooden pegs +for his hands and his feet; and he didn't die. He hung there and +screamed, and they took him down next day, and said it was a miracle +that he wasn't dead. They took him down--poor old Peachey that hadn't +done them any harm--that hadn't done them any--" + +He rocked to and fro and wept bitterly, wiping his eyes with the back of +his scarred hands and moaning like a child for some ten minutes. + +"They was cruel enough to feed him up in the temple, because they said +he was more of a God than old Daniel that was a man. Then they turned +him out on the snow, and told him to go home, and Peachey came home in +about a year, begging along the roads quite safe; for Daniel Dravot he +walked before and said: 'Come along, Peachey. It's a big thing we're +doing.' The mountains they danced at night, and the mountains they tried +to fall on Peachey's head, but Dan he held up his hand, and Peachey came +along bent double. He never let go of Dan's hand, and he never let go of +Dan's head. They gave it to him as a present in the temple, to remind +him not to come again, and though the crown was pure gold, and Peachey +was starving, never would Peachey sell the same. You knew Dravot, Sir! +You knew Right Worshipful Brother Dravot! Look at him now!" + +He fumbled in the mass of rags round his bent waist; brought out a black +horsehair bag embroidered with silver thread; and shook therefrom on to +my table--the dried, withered head of Daniel Dravot! The morning sun +that had long been paling the lamps struck the red beard and blind +sunken eyes; struck, too, a heavy circlet of gold studded with raw +turquoises, that Carnehan placed tenderly on the battered temples. + +"You be'old now," said Carnehan, "the Emperor in his 'abit as he +lived--the King of Kafiristan with his crown upon his head. Poor old +Daniel that was a monarch once!" + +I shuddered, for, in spite of defacements manifold, I recognized the +head of the man of Marwar Junction. Carnehan rose to go. I attempted to +stop him. He was not fit to walk abroad. "Let me take away the whiskey, +and give me a little money," he gasped. "I was a King once. I'll go to +the Deputy Commissioner and ask to set in the Poorhouse till I get my +health. No, thank you, I can't wait till you get a carriage for me. I've +urgent private affairs--in the south--at Marwar." + +He shambled out of the office and departed in the direction of the +Deputy Commissioner's house. That day at noon I had occasion to go down +the blinding hot Mall, and I saw a crooked man crawling along the white +dust of the roadside, his hat in his hand, quavering dolorously after +the fashion of street singers at Home. There was not a soul in sight, +and he was out of all possible earshot of the houses. And he sang +through his nose, turning his head from right to left: + +The Son of Man goes forth to war, + A golden crown to gain; +His blood-red banner streams afar-- + Who follows in his train? + +I waited to hear no more, but put the poor wretch into my carriage and +drove him off to the nearest missionary for eventual transfer to the +Asylum. He repeated the hymn twice while he was with me whom he did not +in the least recognize, and I left him singing it to the missionary. + +Two days later I inquired after his welfare of the Superintendent of the +Asylum. + +"He was admitted suffering from sun-stroke. He died early yesterday +morning," said the Superintendent. "Is it true that he was half an hour +bare-headed in the sun at midday?" + +"Yes," said I, "but do you happen to know if he had anything upon him by +any chance when he died?" + +"Not to my knowledge," said the Superintendent. + +And there the matter rests. + + + + +XII. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI[*] (1905) + +[* From "The Four Million." Used by special arrangement with Doubleday, +Page & Company, publishers of O. Henry's Works.] + +BY O. HENRY[*] (1862-1910) + +[*: The pen-name of William Sidney Porter.] + + +[_Setting_. Christmas Eve in New York and a furnished flat at $8 per +week make the setting of this perfect little story. Della has only $1.87 +with which to buy a present for Jim and outside is "a grey cat walking a +grey fence in a grey backyard." But there is a spirit within that is to +make the modest flat a place of glory and this Christmas Eve memorable +in short-story annals. The flat is the stable with the manger, and New +York widens into Bethlehem. + +_Plot_. "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young +child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when +they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, +and frankincense, and myrrh." These were the gifts of the magi, but +their gift was love. The infant Christ could make no use of gold or +frankincense or myrrh, nor could Della and Jim make use of the combs and +the chain; but the love that prompted the giving shines all the more +resplendent because the gifts, humanly speaking, were egregious misfits. +"That the gold at least," says a recent commentator, "would be highly +serviceable to the parents in their unexpected journey to Egypt and +during their stay there--thus much at least admits of no dispute." +Perhaps so. But read the famous passage once more and turn again to O. +Henry's story. Which interpretation goes deeper into the heart of the +incident? Which leaves you more in love with love? + +_Characters_. Della and Jim have been said to illustrate the "story of +cross-purposes." But the phrase is not well used. Their purposes were +one; only their methods crossed. O. Henry rarely comments on his +characters, but he has here picked out one quality of these "two foolish +children in a flat" for unreserved praise: "Of all who give gifts these +two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are +wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi." If the magi, as +O. Henry says, "invented the art of giving Christmas presents," Della +and Jim re-discovered it. We have had no two characters in whose company +it is better to leave our study of the short story.] + + + +One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it +was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the +grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned +with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. +Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the +next day would be Christmas. + +There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch +and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that +life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles +predominating. + +While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first +stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per +week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that +word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad. + +In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, +and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. +Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James +Dillingham Young." + +The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of +prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the +income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as +though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and +unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and +reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. +James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all +very good. + +Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. +She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a +grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she +had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving +every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a +week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. +They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a +happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something +fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being +worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim. + +There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have +seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, +by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, +obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Delia, being slender, +had mastered the art. + +Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her +eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within +twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its +full length. + +Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which +they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been +his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the +Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have +let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate her +Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all +his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his +watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from +envy. + +So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like +a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself +almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and +quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or +two splashed on the worn red carpet. + +On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of +skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered +out the door and down the stairs to the street. + +Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of all +Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, +large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie." + +"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. + +"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at +the looks of it." + +Down rippled the brown cascade. + +"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand. + +"Give it to me quick," said Della. + +Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed +metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. + +She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. +There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all +of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in +design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by +meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even +worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be +Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to +both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home +with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly +anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he +sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap +that he used in place of a chain. + +When Delia reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence +and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went +to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is +always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task. + +Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls +that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at +her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically. + +"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second +look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what +could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?" + +At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of +the stove hot and ready to cook the chops. + +Jim was never late. Delia doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on +the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she +heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she +turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent +prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: +"Please God, make him think I am still pretty." + +The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and +very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened +with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves. + +Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of +quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in +them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, +nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments +that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with +that peculiar expression on his face. + +Della wriggled off the table and went for him. + +"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut +off and sold it because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without +giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I +just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say 'Merry Christmas!' +Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice--what a beautiful, +nice gift I've got for you." + +"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not +arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labour. + +"Cut it off and sold it," said Delia. "Don't you like me just as well, +anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?" + +Jim looked about the room curiously. + +"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy. + +"You needn't look for it," said Delia. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and +gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. +Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with a sudden +serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I +put the chops on, Jim?" + +Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For +ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential +object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a +year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you +the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not +among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on. + +Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table. + +"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think +there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that +could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package +you may see why you had me going a while at first." + +White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an +ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to +hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of +all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat. + +For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had +worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise +shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful +vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had +simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of +possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have +adorned the coveted adornments were gone. + +But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up +with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!" + +And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!" + +Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him +eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with +a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit. + +"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have +to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I +want to see how it looks on it." + +Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands +under the back of his head and smiled. "Dell," said he, "let's put our +Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use +just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. +And now suppose you put the chops on." + +The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought +gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving +Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, +possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And +here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two +foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other +the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of +these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the +wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. +Everywhere they are wisest. 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