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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/12066-0.txt b/12066-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7c7304 --- /dev/null +++ b/12066-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8842 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12066 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. IX. FEBRUARY, 1862.--NO. LII + + * * * * * + + +BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. + + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps: + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; + Let this Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, + Since God is marching on." + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: + As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO + + +CHAPTER XX + +FLORENCE AND HER PROPHET + + +It was drawing towards evening, as two travellers, approaching Florence +from the south, checked their course on the summit of one of the circle +of hills which command a view of the city, and seemed to look down upon +it with admiration. One of these was our old friend Father Antonio, and +the other the Cavalier. The former was mounted on an ambling mule, whose +easy pace suited well with his meditative habits; while the other reined +in a high-mettled steed, who, though now somewhat jaded under the +fatigue of a long journey, showed by a series of little lively motions +of his ears and tail, and by pawing the ground impatiently, that he had +the inexhaustible stock of spirits which goes with good blood. + +"There she lies, my Florence," said the monk, stretching his hands out +with enthusiasm. "Is she not indeed a sheltered lily growing fair among +the hollows of the mountains? Little she may be, Sir, compared to old +Rome; but every inch of her is a gem,--every inch!" + +And, in truth, the scene was worthy of the artist's enthusiasm. All +the overhanging hills that encircle the city with their silvery +olive-gardens and their pearl-white villas were now lighted up with +evening glory. The old gray walls of the convents of San Miniato and the +Monte Oliveto were touched with yellow; and even the black obelisks of +the cypresses in their cemeteries had here and there streaks and dots +of gold, fluttering like bright birds among their gloomy branches. The +distant snow-peaks of the Apennines, which even in spring long wear +their icy mantles, were shimmering and changing like an opal ring +with tints of violet, green, blue, and rose, blended in inexpressible +softness by that dreamy haze which forms the peculiar feature of Italian +skies. + +In this loving embrace of mountains lay the city, divided by the Arno as +by a line of rosy crystal barred by the graceful arches of its bridges. +Amid the crowd of palaces and spires and towers rose central and +conspicuous the great Duomo, just crowned with that magnificent dome +which was then considered a novelty and a marvel in architecture, and +which Michel Angelo looked longingly back upon when he was going to Rome +to build that more wondrous orb of Saint Peter's. White and stately by +its side shot up the airy shaft of the Campanile; and the violet vapor +swathing the whole city in a tender indistinctness, these two striking +objects, rising by their magnitude far above it, seemed to stand alone +in a sort of airy grandeur. + +And now the bells of the churches were sounding the Ave Maria, filling +the air with sweet and solemn vibrations, as if angels were passing to +and fro overhead, harping as they went; and ever and anon the great bell +of the Campanile came pulsing in with a throb of sound of a quality so +different that one hushed one's breath to hear. It might be fancied to +be the voice of one of those kingly archangels that one sees drawn by +the old Florentine religious artists,--a voice grave and unearthly, and +with a plaintive undertone of divine mystery. + +The monk and the cavalier bent low in their saddles, and seemed to join +devoutly in the worship of the hour. + +One need not wonder at the enthusiasm of the returning pilgrim of those +days for the city of his love, who feels the charm that lingers around +that beautiful place even in modern times. Never was there a spot +to which the heart could insensibly grow with a more home-like +affection,--never one more thoroughly consecrated in every stone by the +sacred touch of genius. + +A republic, in the midst of contending elements, the history of +Florence, in the Middle Ages, was a history of what shoots and blossoms +the Italian nature might send forth, when rooted in the rich soil +of liberty. It was a city of poets and artists. Its statesmen, its +merchants, its common artisans, and the very monks in its convents, were +all pervaded by one spirit. The men of Florence in its best days were +men of a large, grave, earnest mould. What the Puritans of New England +wrought out with severest earnestness in their reasonings and their +lives these early Puritans of Italy embodied in poetry, sculpture, and +painting. They built their Cathedral and their Campanile, as the Jews +of old built their Temple, with awe and religious fear, that they might +thus express by costly and imperishable monuments their sense of God's +majesty and beauty. The modern traveller who visits the churches and +convents of Florence, or the museums where are preserved the fading +remains of its early religious Art, if he be a person of any +sensibility, cannot fail to be affected with the intense gravity and +earnestness which pervade them. They seem less to be paintings for the +embellishment of life than eloquent picture-writing by which burning +religious souls sought to preach the truths of the invisible world to +the eye of the multitude. Through all the deficiencies of perspective, +coloring, and outline incident to the childhood and early youth of Art, +one feels the passionate purpose of some lofty soul to express ideas of +patience, self-sacrifice, adoration, and aspiration far transcending the +limits of mortal capability. + +The angels and celestial beings of these grave old painters are as +different from the fat little pink Cupids or lovely laughing children of +Titian and Correggio as are the sermons of President Edwards from the +love-songs of Tom Moore. These old seers of the pencil give you grave, +radiant beings, strong as man, fine as woman, sweeping downward in lines +of floating undulation, and seeming by the ease with which they remain +poised in the air to feel none of that earthly attraction which draws +material bodies earthward. Whether they wear the morning star on their +forehead or bear the lily or the sword in their hand, there is still +that suggestion of mystery and power about them, that air of dignity and +repose, that speak the children of a nobler race than ours. One could +well believe such a being might pass in his serene poised majesty of +motion through the walls of a gross material dwelling without deranging +one graceful fold of his swaying robe or unclasping the hands folded +quietly on his bosom. Well has a modern master of art and style said of +these old artists, "Many pictures are ostentatious exhibitions of the +artist's power of speech, the clear and vigorous elocution of useless +and senseless words; while the earlier efforts of Giotto and Ciniabue +are the burning messages of prophecy delivered by the stammering lips of +infants." + +But at the time we write, Florence had passed through her ages of +primitive religions and republican simplicity, and was fast hastening to +her downfall. The genius, energy, and prophetic enthusiasm of Savonarola +had made, it is true, a desperate rally on the verge of the precipice; +but no one man has ever power to turn back the downward slide of a whole +generation. + +When Father Antonio left Sorrento in company with the cavalier, it +was the intention of the latter to go with him only so far as their +respective routes should lie together. The band under the command of +Agostino was posted in a ruined fortress in one of those airily perched +old mountain-towns which form so picturesque and characteristic a +feature of the Italian landscape. But before they reached this spot, the +simple, poetic, guileless monk, with his fresh artistic nature, had so +won upon his travelling companion that a most enthusiastic friendship +had sprung up between them, and Agostino could not find it in his heart +at once to separate from him. Tempest-tossed and homeless, burning with +a sense of wrong, alienated from the faith of his fathers through his +intellect and moral sense, yet clinging to it with his memory and +imagination, he found in the tender devotional fervor of the artist monk +a reconciling and healing power. He shared, too, in no small degree, the +feelings which now possessed the breast of his companion for the +great reformer whose purpose seemed to meditate nothing less than +the restoration of the Church of Italy to the primitive apostolic +simplicity. He longed to see him,--to listen to the eloquence of which +he had heard so much. Then, too, he had thoughts that but vaguely shaped +themselves in his mind. This noble man, so brave and courageous, menaced +by the forces of a cruel tyranny, might he not need the protection of a +good sword? He recollected, too, that he had an uncle high in the favor +of the King of France, to whom he had written a full account of his own +situation. Might he not be of use in urging this uncle to induce the +French King to throw before Savonarola the shield of his protection? At +all events, he entered Florence this evening with the burning zeal of a +young neophyte who hopes to effect something himself for a glorious and +sacred cause embodied in a leader who commands his deepest veneration. + +"My son," said Father Antonio, as they raised their heads after the +evening prayer, "I am at this time like a man who, having long been, +away from his home, fears, on returning, that he shall hear some evil +tidings of those he hath left. I long, yet dread, to go to my dear +Father Girolamo and the beloved brothers in our house. There is a +presage that lies heavy on my heart, so that I cannot shake it off. Look +at our glorious old Duomo;--doth she not sit there among the houses and +palaces as a queen-mother among nations,--worthy, in her greatness and +beauty, to represent the Church of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of the +Lord? Ah, I have seen it thronged and pressed with the multitude who +came to crave the bread of life from our master!" + +"Courage, my friend!" said Agostino; "it cannot be that Florence will +suffer her pride and glory to be trodden down. Let us hasten on, for the +shades of evening are coming fast, and there is a keen wind sweeping +down from your snowy mountains." + +And the two soon found themselves plunging into the shadows of the +streets, threading their devious way to the convent. + +At length they drew up before a dark wall, where the Father Antonio rang +a bell. + +A door was immediately opened, a cowled head appeared, and a cautious +voice asked,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"Ah, is that you, good Brother Angelo?" said Father Antonio, cheerily. + +"And is it you, dear Brother Antonio? Come in! come in!" was the cordial +response, as the two passed into the court; "truly, it will make all our +hearts leap to see you." + +"And, Brother Angelo, how is our dear father? I have been so anxious +about him!" + +"Oh, fear not!--he sustains himself in God, and is full of sweetness to +us all." + +"But do the people stand by him, Angelo, and the Signoria?" + +"He has strong friends as yet, but his enemies are like ravening wolves. +The Pope hath set on the Franciscans, and they hunt him as dogs do a +good stag.--But whom have you here with you?" added the monk, raising +his torch and regarding the knight. + +"Fear him not; he is a brave knight and good Christian, who comes to +offer his sword to our father and seek his counsels." + +"He shall be welcome," said the porter, cheerfully. "We will have you +into the refectory forthwith, for you must be hungry." + +The young cavalier, following the flickering torch of his conductor, had +only a dim notion of long cloistered corridors, out of which now and +then, as the light flared by, came a golden gleam from some quaint old +painting, where the pure angel forms of Angelico stood in the gravity +of an immortal youth, or the Madonna, like a bending lily, awaited the +message of Heaven; but when they entered the refectory, a cheerful voice +addressed them, and Father Antonio was clasped in the embrace of the +father so much beloved. + +"Welcome, welcome, my dear son!" said that rich voice which had thrilled +so many thousand Italian hearts with its music. "So you are come back to +the fold again. How goes the good work of the Lord?" + +"Well, everywhere," said Father Antonio; and then, recollecting his +young friend, he suddenly turned and said,-- + +"Let me present to you one son who comes to seek your instructions,--the +young Signor Agostino, of the noble house of Sarelli." + +The Superior turned to Agostino with a movement full of a generous +frankness, and warmly extended his hand, at the same time fixing upon +him the mesmeric glance of a pair of large, deep blue eyes, which might, +on slight observation, have been mistaken for black, so great was their +depth and brilliancy. + +Agostino surveyed his new acquaintance with that mingling of ingenuous +respect and curiosity with which an ardent young man would regard the +most distinguished leader of his age, and felt drawn to him by a +certain atmosphere of vital cordiality such as one can feel better than +describe. + +"You have ridden far to-day, my son,--you must be weary," said the +Superior, affably,--"but here you must feel yourself at home; command +us in anything we can do for you. The brothers will attend to those +refreshments which are needed after so long a journey; and when you have +rested and supped, we shall hope to see you a little more quietly." + +So saying, he signed to one or two brothers who stood by, and, +commending the travellers to their care, left the apartment. + +In a few moments a table was spread with a plain and wholesome repast, +to which the two travellers sat down with appetites sharpened by their +long journey. + +During the supper, the brothers of the convent, among whom Father +Antonio had always been a favorite, crowded around him in a state of +eager excitement. + +"You should have been here the last week," said one; "such a turmoil as +we have been in!" + +"Yes," said another,--"the Pope hath set on the Franciscans, who, you +know, are always ready enough to take up with anything against our +order, and they have been pursuing our father like so many hounds." + +"There hath been a whirlwind of preaching here and there," said a +third,--"in the Duomo, and Santa Croce, and San Lorenzo; and they have +battled to and fro, and all the city is full of it." + +"Tell him about yesterday, about the ordeal," shouted an eager voice. + +Two or three voices took up the story at once, and began to tell +it,--all the others correcting, contradicting, or adding incidents. From +the confused fragments here and there Agostino gathered that there had +been on the day before a popular spectacle in the grand piazza, in +which, according to an old superstition of the Middle Ages, Frà Girolamo +Savonarola and his opponents were expected to prove the truth of their +words by passing unhurt through the fire; that two immense piles of +combustibles had been constructed with a narrow passage between, and the +whole magistracy of the city convened, with a throng of the populace, +eager for the excitement of the spectacle; that the day had been spent +in discussions, and scruples, and preliminaries; and that, finally, +in the afternoon, a violent storm of rain arising had dispersed the +multitude and put a stop to the whole exhibition. + +"But the people are not satisfied," said Father Angelo; "and there are +enough mischief-makers among them to throw all the blame on our father." + +"Yes," said one, "they say he wanted to burn the Holy Sacrament, because +he was going to take it with him into the fire." + +"As if it could burn!" said another voice. + +"It would to all human appearance, I suppose," said a third. + +"Any way," said a fourth, "there is some mischief brewing; for here is +our friend Prospero Rondinelli just come in, who says, when he came past +the Duomo, he saw people gathering, and heard them threatening us: there +were as many as two hundred, he thought." + +"We ought to tell Father Girolamo," exclaimed several voices. + +"Oh, he will not be disturbed!" said Father Angelo. "Since these +affairs, he hath been in prayer in the chapter-room before the blessed +Angelico's picture of the Cross. When we would talk with him of these +things, he waves us away, and says only, 'I am weary; go and tell +Jesus.'" + +"He bade me come to him after supper," said Father Antonio. "I will talk +with him." + +"Do so,--that is right," said two or three eager voices, as the monk and +Agostino, having finished their repast, arose to be conducted to the +presence of the father. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE ATTACK ON SAN MARCO. + + +They found him in a large and dimly lighted apartment, sitting absorbed +in pensive contemplation before a picture of the Crucifixion by Frà +Angelico, which, whatever might be its _naïve_ faults of drawing and +perspective, had an intense earnestness of feeling, and, though faded +and dimmed by the lapse of centuries, still stirs in some faint wise +even the practised _dilettanti_ of our day. + +The face upon the cross, with its majestic patience, seemed to shed a +blessing down on the company of saints of all ages who were grouped by +their representative men at the foot. Saint Dominic, Saint Ambrose, +Saint Augustin, Saint Jerome, Saint Francis, and Saint Benedict were +depicted as standing before the Great Sacrifice in company with the +Twelve Apostles, the two Maries, and the fainting mother of Jesus,--thus +expressing the unity of the Church Universal in that great victory of +sorrow and glory. The painting was inclosed above by a semicircular +bordering composed of medallion heads of the Prophets, and below was a +similar medallion border of the principal saints and worthies of the +Dominican order. In our day such pictures are visited by tourists with +red guide-books in their hands, who survey them in the intervals of +careless conversation; but they were painted by the simple artist on +his knees, weeping and praying as he worked, and the sight of them was +accepted by like simple-hearted Christians as a perpetual sacrament of +the eye, by which they received Christ into their souls. + +So absorbed was the father in the contemplation of this picture, that he +did not hear the approaching footsteps of the knight and monk. When at +last they came so near as almost to touch him, he suddenly looked up, +and it became apparent that his eyes were full of tears. + +He rose, and, pointing with a mute gesture toward the painting, said,-- + +"There is more in that than in all Michel Angelo Buonarotti hath done +yet, though he be a God-fearing youth,--more than in all the heathen +marbles in Lorenzo's gardens. But sit down with me here. I have to come +here often, where I can refresh my courage." + +The monk and knight seated themselves, the latter with his attention +riveted on the remarkable man before him. The head and face of +Savonarola are familiar to us by many paintings and medallions, which, +however, fail to impart what must have been that effect of his personal +presence which so drew all hearts to him in his day. The knight saw a +man of middle age, of elastic, well-knit figure, and a flexibility +and grace of motion which seemed to make every nerve, even to his +finger-ends, vital with the expression of his soul. The close-shaven +crown and the plain white Dominican robe gave a severe and statuesque +simplicity to the lines of his figure. His head and face, like those +of most of the men of genius whom modern Italy has produced, were so +strongly cast in the antique mould as to leave no doubt of the identity +of modern Italian blood with that of the great men of ancient Italy. His +low, broad forehead, prominent Roman nose, well-cut, yet fully outlined +lips, and strong, finely moulded jaw and chin, all spoke the old Roman +vigor and energy, while the flexible delicacy of all the muscles of his +face and figure gave an inexpressible fascination to his appearance. +Every emotion and changing thought seemed to flutter and tremble over +his countenance as the shadow of leaves over sunny water. His eye had +a wonderful dilating power, and when he was excited seemed to shower +sparks; and his voice possessed a surprising scale of delicate and +melodious inflections, which could take him in a moment through the +whole range of human feeling, whether playful and tender or denunciatory +and terrible. Yet, when in repose among his friends, there was an almost +childlike simplicity and artlessness of manner, which drew the heart by +an irresistible attraction. At this moment it was easy to see by his +pale cheek and the furrowed lines of his face that he had been passing +through severe struggles; but his mind seemed stayed on some invisible +centre, in a solemn and mournful calm. + +"Come, tell me something of the good works of the Lord in our Italy, +brother," he said, with a smile which was almost playful in its +brightness. "You have been through all the lowly places of the land, +carrying our Lord's bread to the poor, and repairing and beautifying +shrines and altars by the noble gift that is in you." + +"Yes, father," said the monk; "and I have found that there are many +sheep of the Lord that feed quietly among the mountains of Italy, and +love nothing so much as to hear of the dear Shepherd who laid down His +life for them." + +"Even so, even so," said the Superior, with animation; "and it is the +thought of these sweet hearts that comforts me when my soul is among +lions. The foundation standeth sure,--the Lord knoweth them that are +His." + +"And it is good and encouraging," said Father Antonio, "to see the zeal +of the poor, who will give their last penny for the altar of the Lord, +and who flock so to hear the word and take the sacraments. I have +had precious seasons of preaching and confessing, and have worked in +blessedness many days restoring and beautifying the holy pictures and +statues whereby these little ones have been comforted. What with the +wranglings of princes and the factions and disturbances in our poor +Italy, there be many who suffer in want and loss of all things, so that +no refuge remains to them but the altars of our Jesus, and none cares +for them but He." + +"Brother," said the Superior, "there be thousands of flowers fairer than +man ever saw that grow up in waste places and in deep dells and shades +of mountains; but God bears each one in His heart, and delighteth +Himself in silence with them: and so doth He with these poor, simple, +unknown souls. The True Church is not a flaunting queen who goes boldly +forth among men displaying her beauties, but a veiled bride, a dove that +is in the cleft of the rocks, whose voice is known only to the Beloved. +Ah! when shall the great marriage-feast come, when all shall behold her +glorified? I had hoped to see the day here in Italy: but now"---- + +The father stopped, and seemed to lapse into unconscious musing,--his +large eye growing fixed and mysterious in its expression. + +"The brothers have been telling me somewhat of the tribulations you have +been through," said Father Antonio, who thought he saw a good opening to +introduce the subject nearest his heart. + +"No more of that!--no more!" said the Superior, turning away his head +with an expression of pain and weariness; "rather let us look up. What +think you, brother, are all _these_ doing now?" he said, pointing to the +saints in the picture. "They are all alive and well, and see clearly +through our darkness." Then, rising up, he added, solemnly, "Whatever +man may say or do, it is enough for me to feel that my dearest Lord and +His blessed Mother and all the holy archangels, the martyrs and prophets +and apostles, are with me. The end is coming." + +"But, dearest father," said Antonio, "think you the Lord will suffer the +wicked to prevail?" + +"It may be for a time," said Savonarola. "As for me, I am in His hands +only as an instrument. He is master of the forge and handles the hammer, +and when He has done using it He casts it from Him. Thus He did with +Jeremiah, whom He permitted to be stoned to death when his preaching +mission was accomplished; and thus He may do with _this_ hammer when He +has done using it." + +At this moment a monk rushed into the room with a face expressive of the +utmost terror, and called out,-- + +"Father, what shall we do? The mob are surrounding the convent! Hark! +hear them at the doors!" + +In truth, a wild, confused roar of mingled shrieks, cries, and blows +came in through the open door of the apartment; and the pattering sound +of approaching footsteps was heard like showering raindrops along the +cloisters. + +"Here come Messer Nicolo de' Lapi, and Francesco Valori!" called out a +voice. + +The room was soon filled with a confused crowd, consisting of +distinguished Florentine citizens, who had gained admittance through a +secret passage, and the excited novices and monks. + +"The streets outside the convent are packed close with men," cried one +of the citizens; "they have stationed guards everywhere to cut off our +friends who might come to help us." + +"I saw them seize a young man who was quietly walking, singing psalms, +and slay him on the steps of the Church of the Innocents," said another; +"they cried and hooted, 'No more psalm-singing!'" + +"And there's Arnolfo Battista," said a third;--"he went out to try +to speak to them, and they have killed him,--cut him down with their +sabres." + +"Hurry! hurry! barricade the door! arm yourselves!" was the cry from +other voices. + +"Shall we fight, father? shall we defend ourselves?" cried others, as +the monks pressed around their Superior. + +When the crowd first burst into the room, the face of the Superior +flushed, and there was a slight movement of surprise; then he seemed to +recollect himself, and murmuring, "I expected this, but not so soon," +appeared lost in mental prayer. To the agitated inquiries of his flock, +he answered,--"No, brothers; the weapons of monks must be spiritual, not +carnal." Then lifting on high a crucifix, he said,--"Come with me, and +let us walk in solemn procession to the altar, singing the praises of +our God." + +The monks, with the instinctive habit of obedience, fell into procession +behind their leader, whose voice, clear and strong, was heard raising +the Psalm, _"Quare fremunt gentes"_:-- + +"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? + +"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel +together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, + +"'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.' + +"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.: the Lord shall have them +in derision." + +As one voice after another took up the chant, the solemn enthusiasm rose +and deepened, and all present, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, fell +into the procession and joined in the anthem. Amid the wild uproar, the +din and clatter of axes, the thunders of heavy battering-implements on +the stone walls and portals, came this long-drawn solemn wave of sound, +rising and falling,--now drowned in the savage clamors of the mob, and +now bursting out clear and full like the voices of God's chosen amid the +confusion and struggles of all the generations of this mortal life. + +White-robed and grand the procession moved on, while the pictured saints +and angels on the walls seemed to smile calmly down upon them from a +golden twilight. They passed thus into the sacristy, where with all +solemnity and composure they arrayed their Father and Superior for the +last time in his sacramental robes, and then, still chanting, followed +him to the high altar,--where all bowed in prayer. And still, whenever +there was a pause in the stormy uproar and fiendish clamor, might be +heard the clear, plaintive uprising of that strange singing,--"O Lord, +save thy people, and bless thine heritage!" + +It needs not to tell in detail what history has told of that tragic +night: how the doors at last were forced, and the mob rushed in; how +citizens and friends, and many of the monks themselves, their instinct +of combativeness overcoming their spiritual beliefs, fought valiantly, +and used torches and crucifixes for purposes little contemplated when +they were made. + +Fiercest among the combatants was Agostino, who three times drove back +the crowd as they were approaching the choir, where Savonarola and his +immediate friends were still praying. Father Antonio, too, seized +a sword from the hand of a fallen man and laid about him with an +impetuosity which would be inexplicable to any who do not know what +force there is in gentle natures when the objects of their affections +are assailed. The artist monk fought for his master with the blind +desperation with which a woman fights over the cradle of her child. + +All in vain! Past midnight, and the news comes that artillery is planted +to blow down the walls of the convent, and the magistracy, who up to +this time have lifted not a finger to repress the tumult, send word to +Savonarola to surrender himself to them, together with the two most +active of his companions, Frà Domenico da Pescia and Frà Silvestro +Maruffi, as the only means of averting the destruction of the whole +order. They offer him assurances of protection and safe return, which he +does not in the least believe: nevertheless, he feels that his hour is +come, and gives himself up. + +His preparations were all made with a solemn method which showed that +he felt he was approaching the last act in the drama of life. He called +together his flock, scattered and forlorn, and gave them his last +words of fatherly advice, encouragement, and comfort,--ending with the +remarkable declaration, "A Christian's life consists in doing good and +suffering evil." "I go with joy to this marriage-supper," he said, as he +left the church for the last sad preparations. He and his doomed friends +then confessed and received the sacrament, and after that he surrendered +himself into the hands of the men who he felt in his prophetic soul had +come to take him to torture and to death. + +As he gave himself into their hands, he said, "I commend to your care +this flock of mine, and these good citizens of Florence who have been +with us"; and then once more turning to his brethren, said,--"Doubt not, +my brethren. God will not fail to perfect His work. Whether I live or +die, He will aid and console you." + +At this moment there was a struggle with the attendants in the outer +circle of the crowd, and the voice of Father Antonio was heard crying +out earnestly,--"Do not hold me! I will go with him! I must go with +him!"--"Son," said Savonarola, "I charge you on your obedience not to +come. It is I and Frà Domenico who are to die for the love of Christ." +And thus, at the ninth hour of the night, he passed the threshold of San +Marco. + +As he was leaving, a plaintive voice of distress was heard from a young +novice who had been peculiarly dear to him, who stretched his hands +after him, crying,--"Father! father! why do you leave us desolate?" +Whereupon he turned back a moment, and said,--"God will be your help. +If we do not see each other again in this world, we surely shall in +heaven." + +When the party had gone forth, the monks and citizens stood looking into +each other's faces, listening with dismay to the howl of wild ferocity +that was rising around the departing prisoner. + +"What shall we do?" was the outcry from many voices. + +"I know what I shall do," said Agostino. "If any man here will find me a +fleet horse, I will start for Milan this very hour; for my uncle is now +there on a visit, and he is a counsellor of weight with the King of +France: we must get the King to interfere." + +"Good! good! good!" rose from a hundred voices. + +"I will go with you," said Father Antonio. "I shall have no rest till I +do something." + +"And I," quoth Jacopo Niccolini, "will saddle for you, without delay, +two horses of part Arabian blood, swift of foot, and easy, and which +will travel day and night without sinking." + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +The rays of the setting sun were imparting even more than their wonted +cheerfulness to the airy and bustling streets of Milan. There was the +usual rush and roar of busy life which mark the great city, and the +display of gay costumes and brilliant trappings proper to a ducal +capital which at that time gave the law to Europe in all matters of +taste and elegance, even as Paris does now. It was, in fact, from the +reputation of this city in matters of external show that our English +term Milliner was probably derived; and one might well have believed +this, who saw the sweep of the ducal cortege at this moment returning +in pomp from the afternoon airing. Such glittering of gold-embroidered +mantles, such bewildering confusion of colors, such flashing of jewelry +from cap and dagger-hilt and finger-ring, and even from bridle and +stirrup, testified that the male sex at this period in Italy were no +whit behind the daughters of Eve in that passion for personal adornment +which our age is wont to consider exclusively feminine. Indeed, all that +was visible to the vulgar eye of this pageant was wholly masculine; +though no one doubted that behind the gold-embroidered curtains of the +litters which contained the female notabilities of the court still more +dazzling wonders might be concealed. Occasionally a white jewelled hand +would draw aside one of these screens, and a pair of eyes brighter than +any gems would peer forth; and then there would be tokens of a visible +commotion among the plumed and gemmed cavaliers around, and one young +head would nod to another with jests and quips, and there would be +bowing and curveting and all the antics and caracolings supposable among +gay young people on whom the sun shone brightly, and who felt the world +going well around them, and deemed themselves the observed of all +observers. + +Meanwhile, the mute, subservient common people looked on all this as +a part of their daily amusement. Meek dwellers in those dank, noisome +caverns, without any opening but a street-door, which are called +dwelling-places in Italy, they lived in uninquiring good-nature, +contentedly bringing up children on coarse bread, dirty cabbage-stumps, +and other garbage, while all that they could earn was sucked upward by +capillary attraction to nourish the extravagance of those upper classes +on which they stared with such blind and ignorant admiration. + +This was the lot they believed themselves born for, and which every +exhortation of their priests taught them to regard as the appointed +ordinance of God. The women, to be sure, as women always will be, were +true to the instinct of their sex, and crawled out of the damp and +vile-smelling recesses of their homes with solid gold ear-rings shaking +in their ears, and their blue-black lustrous hair ornamented with a +glittering circle of steel pins or other quaint coiffure. There was +sense in all this: for had not even Dukes of Milan been found so +condescending and affable as to admire the charms of the fair in the +lower orders, whence had come sons and daughters who took rank among +princes and princesses? What father, or what husband, could be +insensible to prospects of such honor? What priest would not readily +absolve such sin? Therefore one might have observed more than one comely +dark-eyed woman, brilliant as some tropical bird in the colors of her +peasant dress, who cast coquettish glances toward high places, not +unacknowledged by patronizing nods in return, while mothers and fathers +looked on in triumph. These were the days for the upper classes: the +Church bore them all in her bosom as a tender nursing-mother, and +provided for all their little peccadilloes with even grandmotherly +indulgence, and in return the world was immensely deferential towards +the Church; and it was only now and then some rugged John Baptist, +in raiment of camel's hair, like Savonarola, who dared to speak an +indecorous word of God's truth in the ear of power, and Herod and +Herodias had ever at hand the good old recipe for quieting such +disturbances. John Baptist was beheaded in prison, and then all the +world and all the Scribes and Pharisees applauded; and only a few poor +disciples were found to take up the body and go and tell Jesus. + +The whole piazza around the great Cathedral is at this moment full of +the dashing cavalcade of the ducal court, looking as brilliant in the +evening light as a field of poppy, corn-flower, and scarlet clover +at Sorrento; and there, amid the flutter and rush, the amours and +intrigues, the court scandal, the laughing, the gibing, the glitter, +and dazzle, stands that wonderful Cathedral, that silent witness, that +strange, pure, immaculate mountain of airy, unearthly loveliness,--the +most striking emblem of God's mingled vastness and sweetness that ever +it was given to human heart to devise or hands to execute. If there be +among the many mansions of our Father above, among the houses not made +with hands, aught purer and fairer, it must be the work of those grand +spirits who inspired and presided over the erection of this celestial +miracle of beauty. In the great, vain, wicked city, all alive with the +lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, it seemed +to stand as much apart and alone as if it were in the solemn desolation +of the Campagna, or in one of the wide deserts of Africa,--so little +part or lot did it appear to have in anything earthly, so little to +belong to the struggling, bustling crowd who beneath its white dazzling +pinnacles seemed dwarfed into crawling insects. They who could look up +from the dizzy, frivolous life below saw far, far above them, in the +blue Italian air, thousands of glorified saints standing on a thousand +airy points of brilliant whiteness, ever solemnly adoring. The marble +which below was somewhat touched and soiled with the dust of the street +seemed gradually to refine and brighten as it rose into the pure regions +of the air, till at last in those thousand distant pinnacles it had the +ethereal translucence of wintry frost-work, and now began to glow with +the violet and rose hues of evening, in solemn splendor. + +The ducal cortege sweeps by; but we have mounted the dizzy, dark +staircase that leads to the roof, where, amid the bustling life of the +city, there is a promenade of still and wondrous solitude. One seems to +have ascended in those few moments far beyond the tumult and dust of +earthly things, to the silence, the clearness, the tranquillity of +ethereal regions. The noise of the rushing tides of life below rises +only in a soft and distant murmur; while around, in the wide, clear +distance, is spread a prospect which has not on earth its like or its +equal. The beautiful plains of Lombardy lie beneath like a map, and the +northern horizon-line is glittering with the entire sweep of the Alps, +like a solemn senate of archangels with diamond mail and glittering +crowns. Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa with his countenance of light, the +Jungfrau and all the weird brothers of the Oberland, rise one after +another to the delighted gaze, and the range of the Tyrol melts far off +into the blue of the sky. On another side, the Apennines, with their +picturesque outlines and cloud-spotted sides, complete the inclosure. +All around, wherever the eye turns, is the unbroken phalanx of +mountains; and this temple, with its thousand saintly statues standing +in attitudes of ecstasy and prayer, seems like a worthy altar and shrine +for the beautiful plain which the mountains inclose: it seems to give +all Northern Italy to God. + +The effect of the statues in this high, pure air, in this solemn, +glorious scenery, is peculiar. They seem a meet companionship for these +exalted regions. They seem to stand exultant on their spires, poised +lightly as ethereal creatures, the fit inhabitants of the pure blue sky. +One feels that they have done with earth; one can fancy them a band of +white-robed kings and priests forever ministering in that great temple +of which the Alps and the Apennines are the walls and the Cathedral the +heart and centre. Never were Art and Nature so majestically married by +Religion in so worthy a temple. + +One form could be discerned standing in rapt attention, gazing from a +platform on the roof upon the far-distant scene. He was enveloped in +the white coarse woollen gown of the Dominican monks, and seemed wholly +absorbed in meditating on the scene before him, which appeared to move +him deeply; for, raising his hands, he repeated aloud from the Latin +Vulgate the words of an Apostle:-- + +"Accessistis ad Sion montem et civitatem Dei viventis, Ierusalem +caelestem, et multorum millinm angelorum frequentiam, ecclesiam +primitivorum, qui inscripti sunt in caelis."[A] + +[Footnote A: "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the +living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of +angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are +written in heaven."] + +At this moment the evening worship commenced within the Cathedral, and +the whole building seemed to vibrate with the rising swell of the great +organ, while the grave, long-drawn tones of the Ambrosian Liturgy rose +surging in waves and dying away in distant murmurs, like the rolling +of the tide on some ocean-shore. The monk turned and drew near to the +central part of the roof to listen, and as he turned he disclosed the +well-known features of Father Antonio. + +Haggard, weary, and travel-worn, his first impulse, on entering the +city, was to fly to this holy solitude, as the wandering sparrow of +sacred song sought her nest amid the altars of God's temple. Artist no +less than monk, he found in this wondrous shrine of beauty a repose +both for his artistic and his religious nature; and while waiting for +Agostino Sarelli to find his uncle's residence, he had determined to +pass the interval in this holy solitude. Many hours had he paced alone +up and down the long promenades of white marble which run everywhere +between forests of dazzling pinnacles and flying-buttresses of airy +lightness. Now he rested in fixed attention against the wall above the +choir, which he could feel pulsating with throbs of sacred sound, as if +a great warm heart were beating within the fair marble miracle, warming +it into mysterious life and sympathy. + +"I would now that boy were here to worship with me," he said. "No wonder +the child's faith fainteth: it takes such monuments as these of the +Church's former days to strengthen one's hopes. Ah, woe unto those by +whom such offence cometh!" + +At this moment the form of Agostino was seen ascending the marble +staircase. + +The eye of the monk brightened as he came towards him. He put out +one hand eagerly to take his, and raised the other with a gesture of +silence. + +"Look," he said, "and listen! Is it not the sound of many waters and +mighty thunderings?" + +Agostino stood subdued for the moment by the magnificent sights and +sounds; for, as the sun went down, the distant mountains grew every +moment more unearthly in their brilliancy,--and as they lay in a long +line, jewelled brightness mingling with the cloud-wreaths of the far +horizon, one might have imagined that he in truth beheld the foundations +of that celestial city of jasper, pearl, and translucent gold which the +Apostle saw, and that the risings and fallings of choral sound which +seemed to thrill and pulsate through the marble battlements were indeed +that song like many waters sung by the Church Triumphant above. + +For a few moments the monk and the young man stood in silence, till at +length the monk spoke. + +"You have told me, my son, that your heart often troubles you in being +more Roman than Christian; that you sometimes doubt whether the Church +on earth be other than a fiction or a fable. But look around us. Who +are these, this great multitude who praise and pray continually in this +temple of the upper air? These are they who have come out of great +tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood +of the Lamb. These are not the men that have sacked cities, and made +deserts, and written their triumphs in blood and carnage. These be men +that have sheltered the poor, and built houses for orphans, and sold +themselves into slavery to redeem their brothers in Christ. These be +pure women who have lodged saints, brought up children, lived holy and +prayerful lives. These be martyrs who have laid down their lives for the +testimony of Jesus. There were no such churches in old Rome,--no such +saints." + +"Well," said Agostino, "one thing is certain. If such be the True +Church, the Pope and the Cardinals of our day have no part in it; for +they are the men who sack cities and make desolations, who devour +widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. Let us see one of +_them_ selling himself into slavery for the love of anybody, while they +seek to keep all the world in slavery to themselves!" + +"That is the grievous declension our master weeps over," said the monk. +"Ah, if the Bishops of the Church now were like brave old Saint +Ambrose, strong alone by faith and prayer, showing no more favor to an +unrepentant Emperor than to the meanest slave, then would the Church be +a reality and a glory! Such is my master. Never is he afraid of the face +of king or lord, when he has God's truth to speak. You should have heard +how plainly he dealt with our Lorenzo de' Medici on his death-bed,--how +he refused him absolution, unless he would make restitution to the poor +and restore the liberties of Florence." + +"I should have thought," said the young man, sarcastically, "that +Lorenzo the Magnificent might have got absolution cheaper than that. +Where were all the bishops in his dominion, that he must needs send for +Jerome Savonarola?" + +"Son, it is ever so," replied the monk. "If there be a man that cares +neither for Duke nor Emperor, but for God alone, then Dukes and Emperors +would give more for his good word than for a whole dozen of common +priests." + +"I suppose it is something like a rare manuscript or a singular gem: +these _virtuosi_ have no rest till they have clutched it. The thing they +cannot get is always the thing they want." + +"Lorenzo was always seeking our master," said the monk. "Often would he +come walking in our gardens, expecting surely he would hasten down to +meet him; and the brothers would run all out of breath to his cell to +say, 'Father, Lorenzo is in the garden.' 'He is welcome,' would he +answer, with his pleasant smile. 'But, father, will you not descend +to meet him?' 'Hath he asked for me?' 'No.' 'Well, then, let us not +interrupt his meditations,' he would answer, and remain still at his +reading, so jealous was he lest he should seek the favor of princes and +forget God, as does all the world in our day." + +"And because he does not seek the favor of the men of this world he will +be trampled down and slain. Will the God in whom he trusts defend him?" + +The monk pointed expressively upward to the statues that stood glorified +above them, still wearing a rosy radiance, though the shadows of +twilight had fallen on all the city below. + +"My son," he said, "the victories of the True Church are not in time, +but in eternity. How many around us were conquered on earth that they +might triumph in heaven! What saith the Apostle? 'They were +tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better +resurrection.'" + +"But, alas!" said Agostino, "are we never to see the right triumph here? +I fear that this noble name is written in blood, like so many of whom +the world is not worthy. Can one do nothing to help it?" + +"How is that? What have you heard?" said the monk, eagerly. "Have you +seen your uncle?" + +"Not yet; he is gone into the country for a day,--so say his servants. I +saw, when the Duke's court passed, my cousin, who is in his train, and +got a moment's speech with him; and he promised, that, if I would wait +for him here, he would come to me as soon as he could be let off from +his attendance. When he comes, it were best that we confer alone." + +"I will retire to the southern side," said the monk, "and await the end +of your conference": and with that he crossed the platform on which they +were standing, and, going down a flight of white marble steps, was soon +lost to view amid the wilderness of frost-like carved work. + +He had scarcely vanished, before footsteps were heard ascending the +marble staircase on the other side, and the sound of a voice humming a +popular air of the court. + +The stranger was a young man of about five-and-twenty, habited with all +that richness and brilliancy of coloring which the fashion of the day +permitted to a young exquisite. His mantle of purple velvet falling +jauntily off from one shoulder disclosed a doublet of amber satin richly +embroidered with gold and seed-pearl. The long white plume which drooped +from his cap was held in its place by a large diamond which sparkled +like a star in the evening twilight. His finely moulded hands were +loaded with rings, and ruffles of the richest Venetian lace encircled +his wrists. He had worn over all a dark cloak with a peaked hood, the +usual evening disguise in Italy; but as he gained the top-stair of the +platform, he threw it carelessly down and gayly offered his hand. + +"Good even to you, cousin mine! So you see I am as true to my +appointment as if your name were Leonora or Camilla instead of Agostino. +How goes it with you? I wanted to talk with you below, but I saw we must +have a place without listeners. Our friends the saints are too high in +heavenly things to make mischief by eavesdropping." + +"Thank you, Cousin Carlos, for your promptness. And now to the point. +Did your father, my uncle, get the letter I wrote him about a month +since?" + +"He did; and he bade me treat with you about it. It's an abominable +snarl this they have got you into. My father says, your best way is to +come straight to him in France, and abide till things take a better +turn: he is high in favor with the King and can find you a very pretty +place at court, and he takes it upon him in time to reconcile the Pope. +Between you and me, the old Pope has no special spite in the world +against _you_: he merely wants your lands for his son, and as long +as you prowl round and lay claim to them, why, you must stay +excommunicated; but just clear the coast and leave them peaceably and +he will put you back into the True Church, and my father will charge +himself with your success. Popes don't last forever, or there may come +another falling out with the King of France, and either way there will +be a chance of your being one day put back into your rights; meanwhile, +a young fellow might do worse than have a good place in our court." + +During this long monologue, which the young speaker uttered with all the +flippant self-sufficiency of worldly people with whom the world is going +well, the face of the young nobleman who listened presented a picture of +many strong contending emotions. + +"You speak," he said, "as if man had nothing to do in this world but +seek his own ease and pleasure. What lies nearest my heart is not that +I am plundered of my estates, and my house uprooted, but it is that my +beautiful Rome, the city of my fathers, is a prisoner under the heel of +the tyrant. It is that the glorious religion of Christ, the holy faith +in which my mother died, the faith made venerable by all these saints +around us, is made the tool and instrument of such vileness and cruelty +that one is tempted to doubt whether it were not better to have been +born of heathen in the good old times of the Roman Republic,--God +forgive me for saying so! Does the Most Christian King of France know +that the man who pretends to rule in the name of Christ is not a +believer in the Christian religion,--that he does not believe even in a +God,--that he obtained the holy seat by simony,--that he uses all its +power to enrich a brood of children whose lives are so indecent that it +is a shame to modest lips even to _say_ what they do?" + +"Why, of course," said the other, "the King of France is pretty well +informed about all these things. You know old King Charles, when he +marched through Italy, had more than half a mind, they say, to pull the +old Pope out of his place; and he might have done it easily. My father +was in his train at that time, and he says the Pope was frightened +enough. Somehow they made it all up among them, and settled about their +territories, which is the main thing, after all; and now our new King, I +fancy, does not like to meddle with him: between you and me, he has his +eye in another direction here. This gay city would suit him admirably, +and he fancies he can govern it as well as it is governed now. My father +does not visit here with his eyes shut, _I_ can tell you. But as to the +Pope----Well, you see such things are delicate to handle. After all, +my dear Agostino, we are not priests,--our business is with this world; +and, no matter how they came by them, these fellows have the keys of the +kingdom of heaven, and one cannot afford to quarrel with them,--we must +have the ordinances, you know, or what becomes of our souls? Do you +suppose, now, that I should live as gay and easy a life as I do, if I +thought there were any doubt of my salvation? It's a mercy to us sinners +that the ordinances are not vitiated by the sins of the priests; it +would go hard with us, if they were: as it is, if they will live +scandalous lives, it is their affair, not ours." + +"And is it nothing," replied the other, "to a true man who has taken the +holy vows of knighthood on him, whether his Lord's religion be defamed +and dishonored and made a scandal and a scoffing? Did not all Europe go +out to save Christ's holy sepulchre from being dishonored by the feet of +the Infidel? and shall we let infidels have the very house of the Lord, +and reign supreme in His holy dwelling-place? There has risen a holy +prophet in Italy, the greatest since the time of Saint Francis, and his +preaching hath stirred all hearts to live more conformably with our +holy faith; and now for his pure life and good works he is under +excommunication of the Pope, and they have seized and imprisoned him, +and threaten his life." + +"Oh, you mean Savonarola," said the other. "Yes, we have heard of +him,--a most imprudent, impracticable fellow, who will not take advice +nor be guided. My father, I believe, thought well of him once, and +deemed that in the distracted state of Italy he might prove serviceable +in forwarding some of his plans: but he is wholly wrapt up in his own +notions; he heeds no will but his own." + +"Have you heard anything," said Agostino, "of a letter which he wrote to +the King of France lately, stirring him up to call a General Council of +the Christian Church to consider what is to be done about the scandals +at Rome?" + +"Then he has written one, has he?" replied the young man; "then the +story that I have heard whispered about here must be true. A man who +certainly is in a condition to know told me day before yesterday that +the Duke had arrested a courier with some such letter, and sent it on to +the Pope: it is likely, for the Duke hates Savonarola. If that be true, +it will go hard with him yet; for the Pope has a long arm for an enemy." + +"And so," said Agostino, with an expression of deep concern, "that +letter, from which the good man hoped so much, and which was so +powerful, will only go to increase his danger!" + +"The more fool he!--he might have known that it was of no use. Who was +going to take his part against the Pope?" + +"The city of Florence has stood by him until lately," said +Agostino,--"and would again, with a little help." + +"Oh, no! never think it, my dear Agostino! Depend upon it, it will end +as such things always do, and the man is only a madman that undertakes +it. Hark ye, cousin, what have _you_ to do with this man? Why do you +attach yourself to the side that is _sure_ to lose? I cannot conceive +what you would be at. This is no way to mend your fortunes. Come +to-night to my father's palace: the Duke has appointed us princely +lodgings, and treats us with great hospitality, and my father has plans +for your advantage. Between us, there is a fair young ward of his, of +large estates and noble blood, whom he designs for you. So you see, if +you turn your attention in this channel, there may come a reinforcement +of the family property, which will enable you to hold out until the Pope +dies, or some prince or other gets into a quarrel with him, which is +always happening, and then a move may be made for you. My father, I'll +promise you, is shrewd enough, and always keeps his eye open to see +where there is a joint in the harness, and have a trusty dagger-blade +all whetted to stick under. Of course, he means to see you righted; he +has the family interest at heart, and feels as indignant as you could at +the rascality which has been perpetrated; but I am quite sure he will +tell you that the way is not to come out openly against the Pope and +join this fanatical party." + +Agostino stood silent, with the melancholy air of a man who has much to +say, and is deeply moved by considerations which he perceives it would +be utterly idle and useless to attempt to explain. If the easy theology +of his friend were indeed true,--if the treasures of the heavenly +kingdom, glory, honor, and immortality, could indeed be placed in unholy +hands to be bought and sold and traded in,--if holiness of heart +and life, and all those nobler modes of living and being which were +witnessed in the histories of the thousand saints around him, were +indeed but a secondary thing in the strife for worldly place and +territory,--what, then, remained for the man of ideas, of aspirations? +In such a state of society, his track must be like that of the dove in +sacred history who found no rest for the sole of her foot. + +Agostino folded his arms and sighed deeply, and then made answer +mechanically, as one whose thoughts are afar off. + +"Present my duty," he said, "to my uncle, your father, and say to him +that I will wait on him to-night." + +"Even so," said the young man, picking up his cloak and folding it about +him. "And now, you know, I must go. Don't be discouraged; keep up a good +heart; you shall see what it is to have powerful friends to stand by +you; all will be right yet. Come, will you go with me now?" + +"Thank you," said Agostino, "I think I would be alone a little while. My +head is confused, and I would fain think over matters a little quietly." + +"Well, _au revoir_, then. I must leave you to the company of the saints. +But be sure and come early." + +So saying, he threw his cloak over his shoulder and sauntered carelessly +down the marble steps, humming again the gay air with which he had +ascended. + +Left alone, Agostino once more cast a glance on the strangely solemn +and impressive scene around him. He was standing on a platform of the +central tower which overlooked the whole building. The round, full moon +had now risen in the horizon, displacing by her solemn brightness +the glow of twilight; and her beams were reflected by the delicate +frost-work of the myriad pinnacles which rose in a bewildering maze +at his feet. It might seem to be some strange enchanted garden of +fairy-land, where a luxuriant and freakish growth of Nature had been +suddenly arrested and frozen into eternal stillness. Around in the +shadows at the foot of the Cathedral the lights of the great gay city +twinkled and danced and veered and fluttered like fire-flies in the +damp, dewy shadows of some moist meadow in summer. The sound of +clattering hoofs and rumbling wheels, of tinkling guitars and gay +roundelays, rose out of that obscure distance, seeming far off and +plaintive like the dream of a life that is past. The great church seemed +a vast world; the long aisles of statued pinnacles with their pure +floorings of white marble appeared as if they might be the corridors of +heaven; and it seemed as if the crowned and sceptred saints in their +white marriage-garments might come down and walk there, without ever a +spot of earth on their unsullied whiteness. + +In a few moments Father Antonio had glided back to the side of the young +man, whom he found so lost in reverie that not till he laid his hand +upon his arm did he awaken from his meditations. + +"Ah!" he said, with a start, "my father, is it you?" + +"Yes, my son. What of your conference? Have you learned anything?" + +"Father, I have learned far more than I wished to know." + +"What is it, my son? Speak it at once." + +"Well, then, I fear that the letter of our holy father to the King of +France has been intercepted here in Milan, and sent to the Pope." + +"What makes you think so?" said the monk, with an eagerness that showed +how much he felt the intelligence. + +"My cousin tells me that a person of consideration in the Duke's +household, who is supposed to be in a position to know, told him that it +was so." + +Agostino felt the light grasp which the monk had laid upon his arm +gradually closing with a convulsive pressure, and that he was trembling +with intense feeling. + +"Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight!" he said, after a +few moments of silence. + +"It is discouraging," said Agostino, "to see how little these princes +care for the true interests of religion and the service of God,--how +little real fealty there is to our Lord Jesus." + +"Yes," said the monk, "all seek their own, and not the things that are +Christ's. It is well written, 'Put not your trust in princes.'" + +"And what prospect, what hope do you see for him?" said Agostino. "Will +Florence stand firm?" + +"I could have thought so once," said the monk,--"in those days when I +have seen counsellors and nobles and women of the highest degree all +humbly craving to hear the word of God from his lips, and seeming to +seek nothing so much as to purify their houses, their hands, and their +hearts, that they might be worthy citizens of that commonwealth which +has chosen the Lord Jesus for its gonfalonier. I have seen the very +children thronging to kiss the hem of his robe, as he walked through the +streets; but, oh, my friend, did not Jerusalem bring palms and spread +its garments in the way of Christ only four days before he was +crucified?" + +The monk's voice here faltered. He turned away and seemed to wrestle +with a tempest of suppressed sobbing. A moment more, he looked +heavenward and pointed up with a smile. + +"Son," he said, "you ask _what hope there is_. I answer, There is hope +of such crowns as these wear who came out of great tribulation and now +reign with Christ in glory." + + + + +OUR ARTISTS IN ITALY. + + +LANDSCAPE ART. + + +A representation of Nature, in order to be a true landscape, must be +organic. It must not present itself as an aggregation, but as a growth. +It must manifest obedience to laws which are peculiarly its own, and +through the operation of which it has developed from the moment of +inception to that of maturity. And, moreover, that inception must have +been near a human heart, that development must have been nourished by +vitality derived from human life, and that maturity must be that of the +divine unity to which tend all the mysterious operations of organizing +energies. + +We hold this to be the first essential condition of Landscape Art, the +condition without which no rendering of Nature can be Art. Other +points of excellence may be unattained. Let this be evident, that the +production is an offspring of humanity, and it shall be perceived also +that it partakes of whatever immortality the human heart inherits. +Herein is concealed the whole secret of the value of pre-Raphaelite Art, +and not, as we have been assured, in the faithfulness of its followers +to the exact representation of the individual details of Nature. Each +wrought from the love of Nature, consciously giving what truth he +possessed, unconsciously giving of his own interior life. Each picture +was the child of the painter. Yet, however much the ancient artist may +have failed in rendering the specific truths of the external world, +we can never attribute his failure to any disregard for the true. +His picture never gives the impression of falsehood; and in the most +erroneous record of the external there is ever the promise of more +truth, and this promise is not that of the man, but of the principle +governing the character of his picture. + +We think that all works of Art may be divided into two distinct classes: +those which are the result of a man's whole nature, involving the +affectional, religious, and intellectual, and those which are the +productions of the intellect, and from the will. The first class +comprises those results of Art which are vital,--which come to +us through processes of growth, and impress us with a sense +of organization. The second includes those works which are +constructed,--which present an accumulation of objects mechanically +combined, parts skilfully joined through scientific means. + +Earnestness and the definite purpose which is its sign, love which drew +the soul into sweetest communion with our mother Nature, giving to him +who thus came revelations of the harmonies possible between her and her +children, and devotion to his art mightier than ever inspired the Hindoo +devotee in self-sacrifice, characterized those who have given all that +pure Art which has been alluded to as the true: and such were the +majority of those artists who preceded Raphael. + +True, all of those who were devoted to Landscape Art, or who made it a +part of their practice to introduce this element into their pictures, +often failed in attaining truth; but, by some strange power with +which they have invested their landscapes, an impulse is given to the +perception, and the essential truth, feebly hinted at, perhaps, is +recognized. But as the record comes down through the years, each +new picture approximates more nearly to the character of the scene +attempted, with, occasionally, (as in the works of Masaccio,) touches of +truth absolutely perfect, until at last appeared that man altogether at +one with Nature, who reproduced Nature in all its glory, pomp, freedom, +and life, as might an archangel. Titian brought to perfection the first +great class of Landscape Art, and, of course, in doing so, perfected +that department which was the only one as yet developed, and which +remains a distinct branch, subject to its own peculiar laws. We refer to +the rendering of natural scenery, beginning in the merely and completely +subordinate accessory, and ending, with Titian, in the perfectly +dignified and noble companionship of the visible universe with man. + +We speak of this Art perfected far back, because we feel assured that +landscape, as accessory to the historical, has an ideal altogether +distinct from that of pure landscape. + +It would not be just, perhaps, to regard the law which necessitates this +ideal as a law of subordination, although that condition prevails up to +the time of Titian. Nature, to the true man, never presents itself as +subordinate, but as correspondently ever equal with man, ever ready with +possibilities to match his own. So true is this, that a man's universe, +that of which his vision takes possession, is a part of himself, subject +to his sorrows and joys, his hope and his despair: to him, the violets, +the mountains, and the far-away worlds, throbbing in unison with his own +heart-beat, are in some wise the signs or the manifestations of his own +soul's possibilities. And he is right. That of the flower which is its +beauty, that of the mountains which is their magnificent grandeur, that +of the stars which is their ineffable glory and sublimity, is his, is +within him, is a part of his soul's life, waxing or waning so in unison +with its richness or poverty that wise men mark the soul's stature by +the part of it which is akin to the violets, the hills, or the infinite +sky. + +"The world is as large as a man's head." In that there is a fine hint +of a great truth, but beyond that is _the_ truth. It is not the mere +knowledge of Alcyone that necessitates the sublime. After that comes the +wonder. The world is as large as is a man, and its relation to him +is marked by a sympathy which acts and reacts with the certainty and +precision of law. + +The ideal of Landscape Art, used in alliance with representations of +the human figure, must, then, be founded upon this immutable sympathy +between the landscape world and the human. Thus, in the painting alluded +to in the article on Mr. Page, "The Entombment" of the Louvre, the +landscape is charged with the solemnity of the hour. No blade of grass +or shadow of leaf but seems conscious of the great event, and the sky +reveals, by its heavenly tenderness, that there all is known. + +How different in expression, yet how similar in strength, is the +landscape of that seeming miracle, "The Presentation in the Temple"! +It is clear, confident day,--so pure and perfect a day abroad over the +happy earth, that all things lure forth into an atmosphere so unsullied +that to breathe it is life and joy,--over an earth youthful with spring, +fresh with morning; and hither have come the people to see confirmed the +future mother of Christ, now the child Mary. As the maiden ascends the +steps of the Temple, a halo surrounds her,--not her head alone, but all +the form,--and far away a fainter halo rests upon the hills. Her youth, +its purity and half-recognized promise, seem sweetly imaged in the +morning freshness and spring-life of the landscape. + +We can remember no landscape by Titian which is not in full sympathy +with the motives which actuate his groups. It is the unison of scene and +act that gives his pictures a unity and completeness never or rarely +found elsewhere. + +After Titian came painters--among them, mighty ones--who, like +Tintoretto, wrought from the external. The elements of the landscape +were treated with knowledge and power, but not often with feeling, and +very seldom with a recognition of its central significance. One example +is so marvellous, however, that we cannot forbear referring to it. Its +truthfulness is the more remarkable from the fact that the painter's +conceptions rarely were such that any true landscape could be found +capable of harmony with their character. In this picture, "The +Temptation of Saint Anthony," one of the Pitti Palace Gallery, Salvator +has wrought marvellously like a demon. The horizon and the sky near it +are charged with a sense of demoniacal conflict for human souls, and +forebodings of defeat and woe. + +Yet within this, mantling the remotest depths, there is a sheen of +light, a gleam of hope and faith. + +In our own times there is little to refer to illustrative of excellence +in this branch of Art. Overbeck makes frequent use of natural scenery, +and his delicate yet firm outlines repeat, hill and valley and clouds, +the sentiment of peace and purity which pervades his noble productions. + +Not that there are not produced frequently, and especially in France, +works remarkable for truth and power. But, too often, the truths are +redundant, and the power vanquishes the sentiments of the group. + +One artist in France, Rosa Bonheur, has, however, embodied conceptions +so noble, so in unison with the finest Nature, that its most glorious +and most significant scenery, rendered with a handling akin to the old +mastership, is alone adequate to sympathize with and sustain them. I +need but refer to the wonderful view of the Pyrenees in the picture of +"The Muleteers," the tender morning spirit of that heathery scene in the +Highlands, and that miracle of representation, the near ground, crisp +and frosty, of Mr. Belmont's "Hunters in Early Morning." + +American Art, as represented in Italy, has few examples of excellence in +this branch of painting. Its followers have wrought more persistently +in other directions, toward the expression of a class of ideals rarely +involving the one which we have attempted to analyze. Yet, occasionally, +an artist has appeared, making Rome or Florence his home long enough to +win a place, which, when he has departed, is not quickly filled, who has +ideas of history and events calling for the record of the palette; +or there has been wrought in the studio of some resident painter a +composition in which landscape has been employed as accessory. + +In many instances there have been produced works which reflect the +highest honor upon our country. As it is foreign to the purpose of +the present paper to deal with other than the different phases of +landscape-painting, we forbear to speak as their merits suggest of the +figure portions of the works of Mr. Rothermel, the result of his brief +sojourn in Italy. In any passage of scenery, and particularly in sky +forms and tones, the expression and character are always such as +support vigorously the action of his group. We say vigorously; for Mr. +Rothermel, in his Italian pictures, revealed an artistic nature related +to humanity in its most agitated moods, as in the "Lear," and in the +"Saint Agnese,"--this beautiful picture being, however, a higher +conception, inasmuch as in it the spirit might find some rest in the +stillness of the maiden Agnese, already saint and about to be martyr, +and in the deep blue sky, on whose field linger white clouds, like lambs +"shepherded by the slow unwilling winds." + +Brief mention was made, in our allusion to Mr. Page's picture of the +"Flight into Egypt," to its landscape. This work was executed in Rome, +and its peculiar tone excited much interest among the friends of Mr. +Field, its fortunate possessor. A beautiful, yet not altogether original +idea, finds expression in the foreground group, where Mary, poised upon +the back of the ass, folds the child in her arms, the animal snatches at +a wayside weed, Joseph, drawing tightly the long rope by which he +leads, bends away into the desert with weird energy. In all other +representations of this subject the accessory landscape has usually been +living with full-foliaged trees, abundant herbage, and copious streams. +To indicate the Egyptian phase of its character, palms have been +introduced, as in the beautiful picture by Claude in the Doria Gallery, +and almost invariably the scene has been one of luxury and peace. +But with the event itself all this conflicts. In it were sorrow and +apprehension and death. The fugitives saw not then the safety, nor +anticipated the victory. In this picture, beyond and before the hurrying +group, stretches the immeasurable, hungry sand. A sad golden-brown +haze--such as sometimes comes in our Indian summer, when the hectic +autumn rests silent, mournful and hopeless, in the arms of Nature-- +pervades the plain; while on the horizon far away,--an infinite distance +it seems, so strangely spectral are they,--rise the Pyramids, just those +awful ghosts against the ominous sky! + +As different as are the subjects he chooses are the bits of scenery +Hamilton Wild introduces in his pictures of life as it now is. His are +more truly historical paintings, although aspiring to no record of the +greatly bad and sorrowful transactions of our age. They represent the +joy and hope of youth, the cheerfulness and vivacity of the lowly, their +pleasantest pursuits, their most primitive customs, their characteristic +and often superb costumes; and wherever a passage of scenery occurs, it +is always that which has aided in developing the human life with which +it is associated. + +There is never a discrepancy, nor is unison of sentiment ever achieved +by any bending of the truth. His keen sense of harmony never fails to +perceive, in the infinite range of tones and expressions of Nature, just +that which better than all others supports the character and action of +his group. With motives so healthful, it may be less difficult to find +that sympathy which Nature cheerfully gives; yet there is a tendency +with artists to be enticed away from Nature's joyousness, and especially +from her simplicity. + +To this temptation Mr. Wild can never have been subjected. The freedom +which he manifests is not that which has been won, but into which he +must have been born, and with that grew the ability which transfigures +labor into play. Unto such a Nature the out-world presents unasked her +phases of joy and brightness, her light and life. + +Does he seek Nature? No. Nature goes with him; and whether he tarry +among the Lagoons, where all seems Art or Death, or in the shadow and +desolation of the Campagna, in the unclean villages of the Alban Hills, +or where the shadows of deserted palaces fall black, broken, and jagged +on the red earth of Granada, there she companions him. She shows him, +that, after all, Venice is hers, and gives him the white marble enriched +with subtilest films of gold, alabaster which the processes of her +incessant years have changed to Oriental amber, a city made opalescent +by the magic of her sunsets. At Rome she opens vistas away from the +sepulchral, out into the wine-colored light of the Campagna, into +the peace gladdened by larks and the bleating of lambs; above are +pines,--Italian pines,--and across the path falls the still shadow of +blooming oleanders. She leads away from squalid towns, and gathers a +group of her children,--peasants, costumed in scarlet and gold, under +the grape-laden festoons of vines, while the now distant village glows +like cliffs of Carrara. How lavish she must have been of her old ideal +Spain, the while he dwelt in Granada!--the dance of the gypsies; +pomegranates heavy with ripeness hanging among the quivering glossy +leaves; olives gleaming with soft ashy whiteness, as the south-wind +wanders across their grove up to where the towers of the Alhambra lift +golden and pale lilac against the clear sky. + +We have dwelt thus lengthily upon this primitive and apparently less +important branch of Landscape Art for several reasons: from a conviction +that its importance is, and is only apparently less; from the fact that +from it have been derived all other classes of landscape; and because a +comprehension of its scope and purpose aids more than any other agency +in understanding those of the pure and simple Landscape Art. + +We have seen Nature ever ready with moods so related to the soul that +no ideal worthy of Art might be conceived beyond the range of her +sympathies. Even to that event involving all the intensity of human +thought and feeling, the last refinement of all spiritual emotion, and +a sense of mysteries more sublime than the creation of worlds,--even to +the Crucifixion,--Nature gathered herself, as the only possible +sign, the only expression for men, then and forever, of the awful +significance. The joyfulness of festivals, the pomp of processions, +the sublimity of great martyrdoms, the sorrow of defeats, the peace of +holiness, the innocence and sweetness of childhood, the hope of manhood, +and the retrospection of old age, when represented upon the canvas, find +in her forms and colors endless refrain of response. + +This truth, that Nature is capable of such cooperation with the human, +that she confines herself to no country or continent, and that her +expressions are not relative, depending upon the suggestiveness of the +human action to which they correspond, but are positive and under the +rule of the immutable, enables the artist to evolve the first great +class of simple landscape-painting. + +Had Art always been real and artists ever true, this consideration must +have called forth this class. It being true that natural scenery readily +allies itself with representations of the human figure in order to +express more perfectly than otherwise possible the ideal, it must be +through affinity with that which evolves the ideal, and only by indirect +relation to its sign or visible manifestation in form-language. Then why +not found a school of landscape by discarding the human figure as an +element of expression? A man comes who is born to the easel, yet who +feels no impulse to represent the practical effect upon human faces and +limbs of the various emotions, passions, and sentiments which demand +utterance. His thought is to hold himself to his kindred by more subtile +and far more delicate bonds. He knows that any one can look upon the +"Huguenot Lovers," by Millais, and feel responsive; for it occupies a +great plane, a part of which may be mistaken for passion. But he feels +that the love of Thekla and Max Piccolomini will permit no effigy but +that sacred bank beyond the cliffs of Libussa's Castle, whither come no +footsteps nor jarring of wheels, but only the sound of the deep Moldau +and of remote bells. It is the essence of the ideal which compels his +imagination, not the limited and restless circumstance which chanced +to occur as its revelator. Then the day uprises as if conscious of his +inner life and purpose. Then she gives him breadth after breadth of +color, within which is traced her no longer mystic alphabet. How +significant are the forms she gives him for the foreground, sweet +monosyllables! There are pansies, and rue, and violets, and rosemary. +Among these and their companions children walk and learn, and to the +child-man, the artist to be, she proffers these emblems. Should he +accept her gifts, then all this wonderful world of Art-Nature is open to +him. He inherits, possesses beyond all deeds, above all statutes,--as +does Mr. Gay, who painted that great, though unassuming, picture of "The +Marshes of Cohasset." + +Because Art was not held to the highest, few men have known the +elevation of this department of landscape-painting. Too deep or too +devoted a life seems to have been required, too constant communion with +Nature, or too broad a study of her phenomena. Unfortunately, we have +few representatives of this class, in Italy,--Mr. Wild producing +only rarely works which to the principles hinted at are precious +illustrations. After the remarks we have made, we fear that allusion to +the existing facts of painting may be deemed disparaging. Not so; we +deprecate such a conclusion. One great and living picture marks the man. +To be true to himself and Nature is the first duty, even should he be +compelled to stand lifelong with his face towards the west, in order to +possess his soul in Art. + +One of the pleasantest styles of landscape painting is that where the +artist, in a mood of deep peace, sits down in the midst of scenes +endeared by long and sweet association, and records in all tenderness +their spirit and beauty. Such scenery Italy affords, and the Alban +Hills seem to be the centre whence radiate all phases of the lovely and +beautiful in Nature. There her forms have conspired with all the highest +and rarest phenomena of light to render her state unapproachably +glorious. + +There has also been given such an artist,--a woman altogether truthful, +strong, and nobly delicate; and although several years have passed since +she left Italy, her representations of scenery peculiarly Italian are +too remarkable to be passed unnoticed. Indeed, this lady, Miss Sarah +Jane Clark, is the only artist whose works are illustrative of a +style of simple Landscape Art which unites in itself the love and +conscientiousness of early Art and the precision and science of the +modern. Her picture of Albano is wonderful,--not from the rendering of +unusual or brilliant effects, but from a sense of genuineness. We feel +that it grew. The flower and leaf forms which enrich the near ground are +such as spring up on days like the one she has chosen. Another month, +and new combinations would have given another key to her work and +rendered the present impossible. In that real landscape had wrought +the secret vitality clothing the earth in leafage and bloom. In its +representation we see that a still more refined, a diviner vitality, has +evolved leaf, flower, and golden grain. Another fact associated with +this painting, as well as with some of its companions, is its character +of restraint. + +Temperance in Landscape Art is very difficult in the vicinity of +Rome. In this picture the scene sweeps downward, with most gentle +and undulating inclination, over vast groves of olive and luxuriant +vineyards, to the Campagna with its convex waves of green and gold, on +which float the wrecks of cities, out to the sea itself, not so far away +as to conceal the flashing of waves upon the beach. Daily, over this +groundwork, so deftly wrought for their reception, are cast fields and +mighty bands of violet and rose, of amber and pale topaz, of blue, +orange, and garnet, upon the sea. It is as if an aurora had fallen from +Arctic skies, living, changeful, evanescent, athwart sea, plain, and +mountain. Here is sore temptation for the colorist; more, perhaps, +than by the wealth and combination of tints, he is affected by their +celestial quality. All is prismatic, or like those hues produced by the +interference of rays of light as seen in the colors of stars. Gorgeous +as are these phenomena, they are also as transitory; and although the +scene is repeated, it is with such subtile and such great changes as to +remove it from the grasp of the painter who wishes to study his work +wholly from Nature. The eye must be quick and the brush obedient, to +catch the fleeting glories of those Alban sunsets. Even the imperial +hand of Turner could give us only reminiscences. + +The allurements to adopt a style of coloring involving these effects +must have been great to one whose love of color amounted to a passion. +Only a still greater love could have drawn her of whom we speak to the +more subdued, but higher plane upon which she stands,--and that must +have been a love of truth, and of that which has appealed to her nature +through repetition's sweet influences. This is the scene lying in deep +repose in open, permanent day. Trees, hills, plain, and sea forget the +flying hours. Yesterday they did not remember, serene and changeless as +ivy on the wall. So gradual has been the transition, so slowly has the +surface of the grain lifted from the rippling blade to the billowy +stalk, so continually have the scarlet poppies bloomed since May came, +that, to her, this is ever the same beneficent and dear spot, sacred to +her soul, as well as fitting type and sign of her pure Art. + +The class of landscape-painting which deals with morning and evening +phenomena, and is based upon the fleeting and transitory, is the only +one that finds representation at present in Italy. Mr. Brown has +developed new and peculiar strength since his return to America, and +must require place from his new stand-point. Abel Nichols, whose copies +of Claude were so truthful, and whose original pictures ever strove to +be so, who through surpassing sacrifice became great, who lived, if ever +man has, the wonderful Christ-life, now sleeps the sleep of peace, the +last peace, under the sod of the landscape of his nativity. + +There remains to be considered a series of undeniably remarkable +pictures, executed in Rome by John Rollin Tilton. + +This artist's landscapes are remarkable for the conflicting effects +which they have produced on the public. They have excited, as they have +been exhibited in his studio in Rome, great enthusiasm, and admiration +which would listen to no criticism. Until perhaps the present year, +which is one of prostration in Rome, his works could not be purchased, +each one being the fulfilment of a commission given long before. These +commissions were given not by men merely wealthy, but by men widely +known for cultivation, discrimination, and for refinement of that taste +which requires the influences of Art. On the other hand, men equally as +remarkable for their accomplishments in matters of taste have expressed +their condemnation of all the paintings of Mr. Tilton, or rather for +those executed prior to 1859, and there were those who heaped them with +ridicule. In admiration and condemnation we have often shared;--in the +sentiment of ridicule never; for in all attempts there have been the +hintings of worthy purpose and a desire to excel. + +Those who most despise Mr. Tilton's style and productions are men whose +tendencies are to the theories of English pre-Raphaelism. Viewed in +relation to those principles, his pictures have little value. The +purchasers of them are the men who regard with enthusiastic admiration +the evanescent splendors of Nature. + +Mr. Tilton's early ambition was to be the painter to fulfil the demands +of this latter class. He not only sympathized with it in its greater +admiration for "effects" in Nature, but he found associated therewith an +enthusiasm which inspired him with unbounded hope and energy. + +When he came to Rome, the Campagnian sunsets were found to be +representative of the peculiar class of effects which he regarded as the +manifestation of his feeling; and so he forthwith took possession of +that part of the day which was passing while the sun performed the last +twelve degrees of his daily journey. Other portions of the twenty-four +hours did not appear to excite even ordinary interest; and whenever +conversation involved consideration of scenery under other than the +favorite character, he was prone to silence, or to attempts to change +the subject. Yet he has been known to speak in terms of commendation +of certain sunrises, and once was actually caught by a friend making a +sketch of Pilatus at sunrise across the Lake of Lucerne. + +The objects in the immediate foreground shared in the neglect which +attached to certain seasons. They were ignored as organized members of +what should be a living foreground, and their places were concealed by +unintelligible pigment. As to life there, he wanted none: light,--light +that gleams, and color to reflect it, were his aim. As an inevitable +attending result of these principles, or practices, the structure of the +whole landscape was ambiguous. The essential line and point were evaded, +and one perceived that the artist had _watched_ far more attentively +than he had studied Nature. + +At the same time the pictures produced in this studio were marked by +qualities of great beauty. The peculiarly ethereal character of the vast +bands of thin vapors made visible by the slant rays of the sun, and +illuminated with tints which are exquisitely pure and prismatic, was +rendered with surprising success. On examination, the tints which were +used to represent the prismatic character of those of Nature were found +to present surfaces of such excessive delicacy, that the evanescence of +the natural phenomena was suggested, and apprehensions were indulged as +to the permanency of the effects. That noble north light of a cloudless +Roman sky did not extend far, hardly to Civita Vecchia, certainly not +to England, Old or New; and with a less friendly hand than his own to +expose his work, under sight still less kind, there might be presented a +picture bereft of all but its faults. Such has been the case. + +We here dismiss willingly further recollection of the works to which we +have called attention. They are marked by error in theory, inasmuch as +they show neglect of the specific and essential, and by feebleness of +system, inasmuch as under no other light than that in which they were +painted could their finer qualities be perceived. Yet it is but just +to add that these were produced during a state of transition from one +method of applying pigments to another of totally different character. + +This period of the painter's experience was brought to a close by the +better one of a summer residence at Pieve di Cadore, a village among the +Friulian Alps. Thither he might have gone merely to make a pilgrimage +to the birthplace of Titian; for other reason than _that_ he stayed in +Cadore. He stayed for life, truth, and correction, and he found all. No +other place on the continent could have afforded Mr. Tilton the benefit +that this mountain village did. Here was no ambiguity, no optical +illusion, but frank; ingenuous Nature. The peaks which guarded the +valley were clear and immutable. They suffered no conflicting opinions; +accident had done little to disguise, their true character, but Nature +held them as specimens of the essential in mountain structure. That the +lesson of these peaks might not be forgotten, the student finds them +copied accurately in nearly every landscape painted by Titian. The +magnificent one in "The Presentation in the Temple" was his favorite. +The sketches of this period show that the artist's attention was divided +between the study of these hill forms and of the luxuriant vegetation +of the sloping fields and pastures so characteristic of Swiss scenery. +Cadore is most richly endowed in this respect. The hill-sides are +burdened with flowers, many of which are large and of tropical splendor. +The green of the broad fields is modified by the burden of blossoms. We +have seen against the background of one of these steepest fields what +seemed to be a column of delicate blue smoke wreathing up the hill-side. +In reality it was a bed of wild forget-me-nots, which marked the course +of a minute rill. Under such influences as these, a man born to be a +painter, to whom Art is all, whose hand never fails to execute, and +whose mind has risen above any erroneous combination of principles which +may have checked his progress toward the greatly excellent, must +find himself with new strength, a chastened imagination, and broader +conceptions of his art. + +The results of Mr. Tilton's labors since the summer in the Alps prove +that such was the effect upon him. His pictures have of late occupied +nearly every class of Landscape Art. The works now wrought in his Roman +studio are indicative of great changes in feeling, and are marked by +surprising improvements in execution. Yet the individuality of the +artist is impressed upon every canvas. The changes to which we refer are +these,--foregrounds suggested by or painted from living forms. In one +view of Nemi we saw a superb black, gold, and crimson butterfly resting +on a flower. Yet these foregrounds require more strength, more "body," +more of that which artists achieve who achieve nothing else. We notice +far more individualism in tree forms. The ideal tree, that is, the tree +as it should be, and the conventional one coming against the sky on one +side of the composition, the one bequeathed by Claude, have given place +to Nature's homelier types. The question as to the meaning of passages +no longer arises. The lines are drawn with a decision, with a sense of +certainty, raising them above all doubt. In the rendering of distant +mountains, Mr. Dillon evinces new knowledge of what such forms +necessarily imply,--their tendency to monotone and to flatness, yet +preserving all their essential surface markings, and their inevitable +cutting outline against the sky,--which sharpness Mr. Tilton as yet has +only hinted at, not represented. Positive edges are the true.--But we +have no further space to devote to these particulars of landscape form. +In these Mr. Tilton has many rivals and not a few superiors. + +There is left us the pleasant privilege of alluding to an ability which +we believe he shares with none, and which enables him to give his +present pictures their great value. This is the power to discriminate +accurately between the several classes of color,--the local, the +reflected, and the prismatic. It will be found on reference to most +landscapes, especially those of the English schools, that it is the +understanding, already informed on the subject, which accepts as +reflected the continual attempts to render this kind of color: they are +regarded as indicative. But the eye, which should have been satisfied +first, recognizes nothing more than local coloring. Near objects, under +broad, open daylight, yield us their local coloring,--as the surfaces +of stones, the trunks of trees, and the many tints of soil and +vegetation,--yet even here all is modified by reflections. We remember +a cliff at L'Ariccia, which, gray in morning light, became, as evening +approached, a marvellous beryl green, upon which some large poppies cast +wafts of purest scarlet. Farther away, both local and reflected color +lose their power. The rays no longer convey information of surfaces as +separate existences. Nature gathers up into masses, and these masses +tide back to the foreground colors far removed in character from the +near. Vast combinations of rays and atmospheric influences have wrought +this change. As we have said, noon gives us the earth clean and itself; +but, as the sun declines, flushes of color pass along the ground. Their +character we have already described. The particles which fill the +atmosphere just above the surface of the earth become illuminated and +visible in radiant masses. Farther away there is floated over the +mountains a miraculous bloom, a bloom like that upon virgin fruit; and +still more remote, upon the far sea, there is a dream of amber mantling +the sleeping blue. To render these effects, to give us the illuminated +air, the soft green which the mossy sod casts upon the shaded cliff, the +precious bloom upon the hills, and the tints diffused along the sea,--to +achieve this so completely that there never shall be any doubt, to give +us upon the canvas what shall be all this to the beholder, is great, and +this Mr. Tilton has performed. + + + + +THE EXPERIENCES OF THE A. C. + + +"Bridgeport! Change cars for the Naugatuck Railroad!" shouted the +conductor of the New York and Boston Express Train, on the evening of +May 27th, 1858. Indeed, he does it every night, (Sundays excepted,) +for that matter; but as this story refers especially to Mr. J. Edward +Johnson, who was a passenger on that train, on the aforesaid evening, +I make special mention of the fact. Mr. Johnson, carpet-bag in hand, +jumped upon the platform, entered the office, purchased a ticket for +Waterbury, and was soon whirling in the Naugatuck train towards his +destination. + +On reaching Waterbury, in the soft spring twilight, Mr. Johnson walked +up and down in front of the station, curiously scanning the faces of the +assembled crowd. Presently he noticed a gentleman who was performing +the same operation upon the faces of the alighting passengers. Throwing +himself directly in the way of the latter, the two exchanged a steady +gaze. + +"Is your name Billings?" "Is your name Johnson?" were simultaneous +questions, followed by the simultaneous exclamations,--"Ned!" "Enos!" + +Then there was a crushing grasp of hands, repeated after a pause, +in testimony of ancient friendship, and Mr. Billings, returning to +practical life, asked,-- + +"Is that all your baggage? Come, I have a buggy here: Eunice has heard +the whistle, and she'll be impatient to welcome you." + +The impatience of Eunice (Mrs. Billings, of course) was not of long +duration; for in five minutes thereafter she stood at the door of her +husband's chocolate-colored villa, receiving his friend. + +While these three persons are comfortably seated at the tea-table, +enjoying their waffles, cold tongue, and canned peaches, and asking +and answering questions helter-skelter in the delightful confusion of +reunion after long separation, let us briefly inform the reader who and +what they are. + +Mr. Enos Billings, then, was part owner of a manufactory of metal +buttons, forty years old, of middling height, ordinarily quiet and +rather shy, but with a large share of latent warmth and enthusiasm in +his nature. His hair was brown, slightly streaked with gray, his eyes a +soft, dark hazel, forehead square, eye-brows straight, nose of no very +marked character, and mouth moderately full, with a tendency to twitch +a little at the corners. His voice was undertoned, but mellow and +agreeable. + +Mrs. Eunice Billings, of nearly equal age, was a good specimen of the +wide-awake New-England woman. Her face had a piquant smartness of +expression, which might have been refined into a sharp edge, but for her +natural hearty good-humor. Her head was smoothly formed, her face a full +oval, her hair and eyes blond and blue in a strong light, but brown and +steel-gray at other times, and her complexion of that ripe fairness into +which a ruddier color will sometimes fade. Her form, neither plump nor +spare, had yet a firm, elastic compactness, and her slightest movement +conveyed a certain impression of decision and self-reliance. + +As for J. Edward Johnson, it is enough to say that he was a tall, +thin gentleman of forty-five, with an aquiline nose, narrow face, and +military whiskers, which swooped upwards and met under his nose in a +glossy black moustache. His complexion was dark, from the bronzing of +fifteen summers in New Orleans. He was a member of a wholesale hardware +firm in that city, and had now revisited his native North for the first +time since his departure. A year before, some letters relating to +invoices of metal buttons, signed "Foster, Kirkup, & Co., per Enos +Billings," had accidentally revealed to him the whereabouts of the old +friend of his youth, with whom we now find him domiciled. The first +thing he did, after attending to some necessary business matters in New +York, was to take the train for Waterbury. + +"Enos," said he, as he stretched out his hand for the third cup of tea, +(which he had taken only for the purpose of prolonging the pleasant +table-chat,) "I wonder which of us is most changed." + +"You, of course," said Mr. Billings, "with your brown face and big +moustache. Your own brother wouldn't have known you, if he had seen you +last, as I did, with smooth cheeks and hair of unmerciful length. Why, +not even your voice is the same!" + +"That is easily accounted for," replied Mr. Johnson. "But in your case, +Enos, I am puzzled to find where the difference lies. Your features seem +to be but little changed, now that I can examine them at leisure; yet it +is not the same face. But, really, I never looked at you for so long +a time, in those days. I beg pardon: you used to be so--so remarkably +shy." + +Mr. Billings blushed slightly, and seemed at a loss what to answer. His +wife, however, burst into a merry laugh, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, that was before the days of the A.C.!" + +He, catching the infection, laughed also: in fact, Mr. Johnson laughed, +but without knowing why. + +"The 'A.C.'!" said Mr. Billings. "Bless me, Eunice! how long it is since +we have talked of that summer! I had almost forgotten that there ever +was an A.C." + +"Enos, _could_ you ever forget Abel Mallory and the beer?--or that scene +between Hollins and Shelldrake?--or" (here _she_ blushed the least bit) +"your own fit of candor?" And she laughed again, more heartily than +ever. + +"What a precious lot of fools, to be sure!" exclaimed her husband. + +Mr. Johnson, meanwhile, though enjoying the cheerful humor of his hosts, +was not a little puzzled with regard to its cause. + +"What is the A.C.?" he ventured to ask. + +Mr. and Mrs. Billings looked at each other, and smiled, without +replying. + +"Really, Ned," said the former, finally, "the answer to your question +involves the whole story." + +"Then why not tell him the whole story, Enos?" remarked his wife. + +"You know I've never told it yet, and it's rather a hard thing to do, +seeing that I'm one of the heroes of the farce,--for it wasn't even +genteel comedy, Ned," said Mr. Billings. "However," he continued, +"absurd as the story may seem, it's the only key to the change in my +life, and I must run the risk of being laughed at." + +"I'll help you through, Enos," said his wife, encouragingly; "and +besides, my _rôle_ in the farce was no better than yours. Let us +resuscitate, for to-night only, the constitution of the A.C." + +"Upon my word, a capital idea! But we shall have to initiate Ned." + +Mr. Johnson merrily agreeing, he was blindfolded and conducted into +another room. A heavy arm-chair, rolling on casters, struck his legs in +the rear, and he sank into it with lamb-like resignation. + +"Open your mouth!" was the command, given with mock solemnity. + +He obeyed. + +"Now shut it!" + +And his lips closed upon a cigar, while at the same time the +handkerchief was whisked away from his eyes. He found himself in Mr. +Billings's library. + +"Your nose betrays your taste, Mr. Johnson," said the lady, "and I am +not hard-hearted enough to deprive you of the indulgence. Here are +matches." + +"Well," said he, acting upon the hint, "if the remainder of the +ceremonies are equally agreeable, I should like to be a permanent member +of your order." + +By this time Mr. and Mrs. Billings, having between them lighted the +lamp, stirred up the coal in the grate, closed the doors, and taken +possession of comfortable chairs, the latter proclaimed,-- + +"The Chapter (isn't that what you call it?) will now be held!" + +"Was it in '43 when you left home, Ned?" asked Mr. B. + +"Yes." + +"Well, the A.C. culminated in '45. You remember something of the society +of Norridgeport, the last winter you were there? Abel Mallory, for +instance?" + +"Let me think a moment," said Mr. Johnson, reflectively. "Really, it +seems like looking back a hundred years. Mallory,--wasn't that the +sentimental young man, with wispy hair, a tallowy skin, and big, sweaty +hands, who used to be spouting Carlyle on the 'reading evenings' at +Shelldrake's? Yes, to be sure; and there was Hollins, with his clerical +face and infidel talk,--and Pauline Ringtop, who used to say, 'The +Beautiful is the Good.' I can still hear her shrill voice singing, +'Would that _I_ were beautiful, would that _I_ were fair!'" + +There was a hearty chorus of laughter at poor Miss Ringtop's expense. +It harmed no one, however; for the tar-weed was already thick over her +Californian grave. + +"Oh, I see," said Mr. Billings, "you still remember the absurdities of +those days. In fact, I think you partially saw through them then. But I +was younger, and far from being so clear-headed, and I looked upon those +evenings at Shelldrake's as being equal, at least, to the _symposia_ of +Plato. Something in Mallory always repelled me. I detested the sight of +his thick nose, with the flaring nostrils, and his coarse, half-formed +lips, of the bluish color of raw corned-beef. But I looked upon these +feelings as unreasonable prejudices, and strove to conquer them, seeing +the admiration which he received from others. He was an oracle on the +subject of 'Nature.' Having eaten nothing for two years, except +Graham bread, vegetables without salt, and fruits, fresh or dried, +he considered himself to have attained an antediluvian purity of +health,--or that he would attain it, so soon as two pimples on his left +temple should have healed. These pimples he looked upon as the last +feeble stand made by the pernicious juices left from the meat he had +formerly eaten and the coffee he had drunk. His theory was, that through +a body so purged and purified none but true and natural impulses could +find access to the soul. Such, indeed, was the theory we all held. A +Return to Nature was the near Millennium, the dawn of which we already +beheld in the sky. To be sure, there was a difference in our individual +views as to how this should be achieved, but we were all agreed as to +what the result should be. + +"I can laugh over those days now, Ned; but they were really happy while +they lasted. We were the salt of the earth; we were lifted above those +grovelling instincts which we saw manifested in the lives of others. +Each contributed his share of gas to inflate the painted balloon to +which we all clung, in the expectation that it would presently soar +with us to the stars. But it only went up over the out-houses, dodged +backwards and forwards two or three times, and finally flopped down with +us into a swamp." + +"And that balloon was the A. C.?" suggested Mr. Johnson. + +"As President of this Chapter, I prohibit questions," said Eunice. "And, +Enos, don't send up your balloon until the proper time. Don't anticipate +the programme, or the performance will be spoiled." + +"I had almost forgotten that Ned is so much in the dark," her obedient +husband answered. "You can have but a slight notion," he continued, +turning to his friend, "of the extent to which this sentimental, or +transcendental, element in the little circle at Shelldrake's increased +after you left Norridgeport. We read the 'Dial,' and Emerson; we +believed in Alcott as the 'purple Plato' of modern times; we took +psychological works out of the library, and would listen for hours to +Hollins while he read Schelling or Fichte, and then go home with a +misty impression of having imbibed infinite wisdom. It was, perhaps, +a natural, though very eccentric rebound from the hard, practical, +unimaginative New-England mind which surrounded us; yet I look back upon +it with a kind of wonder. I was then, as you know, unformed mentally, +and might have been so still, but for the experiences of the A. C." + +Mr. Johnson shifted his position, a little impatiently. Eunice looked at +him with laughing eyes, and shook her finger with a mock threat. + +"Shelldrake," continued Mr. Billings, without noticing this by-play, +"was a man of more pretence than real cultivation, as I afterwards +discovered. He was in good circumstances, and always glad to receive us +at his house, as this made him, virtually, the chief of our tribe, +and the outlay for refreshments involved only the apples from his +own orchard and water from his well. There was an entire absence of +conventionality at our meetings, and this, compared with the somewhat +stiff society of the village, was really an attraction. There was a +mystic bond of union in our ideas: we discussed life, love, religion, +and the future state, not only with the utmost candor, but with a warmth +of feeling which, in many of us, was genuine. Even I (and you know how +painfully shy and bashful I was) felt myself more at home there than in +my father's house; and if I didn't talk much, I had a pleasant feeling +of being in harmony with those who did. + +"Well, 'twas in the early part of '45,--I think in April,--when we were +all gathered together, discussing, as usual, the possibility of leading +a life in accordance with Nature. Abel Mallory was there, and Hollins, +and Miss Ringtop, and Faith Levis, with her knitting,--and also Eunice +Hazleton, a lady whom you have never seen, but you may take my wife as +her representative"---- + +"Stick to the programme, Enos," interrupted Mrs. Billings. + +"Eunice Hazleton, then. I wish I could recollect some of the speeches +made on that occasion. Abel had but one pimple on his temple, (there was +a purple spot where the other had been,) and was estimating that in two +or three months more he would be a true, unspoiled man. His complexion, +nevertheless, was more clammy and whey-like than ever. + +"'Yes,' said he, 'I also am an Arcadian! This false dual existence which +I have been leading will soon be merged in the unity of Nature. Our +lives must conform to her sacred law. Why can't we strip off these +hollow Shams,' (he made great use of that word,) 'and be our true +selves, pure, perfect, and divine?' + +"Miss Ringtop heaved a sigh, and repeated a stanza from her favorite +poet:-- + + "'Ah, when wrecked are my desires + On the everlasting Never, + And my heart with all its fires + Out forever, + In the cradle of Creation + Finds the soul resuscitation!' + +"Shelldrake, however, turning to his wife, said,-- + +"'Elviry, how many up-stairs rooms is there in that house down on the +Sound?' + +"'Four,--besides three small ones under the roof. Why, what made you +think of that, Jesse?' said she. + +"'I've got an idea, while Abel's been talking,' he answered. 'We've +taken a house for the summer, down the other side of Bridgeport, right +on the water, where there's good fishing and a fine view of the Sound. +Now, there's room enough for all of us,--at least, all that can make it +suit to go. Abel, you and Enos, and Pauline and Eunice might fix matters +so that we could all take the place in partnership, and pass the summer +together, living a true and beautiful life in the bosom of Nature. There +we shall be perfectly free and untrammelled by the chains which still +hang around us in Norridgeport. You know how often we have wanted to be +set on some island in the Pacific Ocean, where we could build up a +true society, right from the start. Now, here's a chance to try the +experiment for a few months, anyhow.' + +"Eunice clapped her hands (yes, you did!) and cried out,-- + +"'Splendid! Arcadian! I'll give up my school for the summer.' + +"Miss Ringtop gave her opinion in another quotation:-- + + "'The rainbow hues of the Ideal + Condense to gems, and form the Real!' + +"Abel Mallory, of course, did not need to have the proposal repeated. He +was ready for anything which promised indolence, and the indulgence of +his sentimental tastes. I will do the fellow the justice to say that +he was not a hypocrite. He firmly believed both in himself and his +ideas,--especially the former. He pushed both hands through the long +wisps of his drab-colored hair, and threw his head back until his wide +nostrils resembled a double door to his brain. + +"'O Nature!' he said, 'you have found your lost children! We shall obey +your neglected laws! we shall hearken to your divine whispers! we shall +bring you back from your ignominious exile, and place you on your +ancestral throne!' + +"'Let us do it!' was the general cry. + +"A sudden enthusiasm fired us, and we grasped each other's hands in the +hearty impulse of the moment. My own private intention to make a summer +trip to the White Mountains had been relinquished the moment I heard +Eunice give in her adhesion. I may as well confess, at once, that I was +desperately in love, and afraid to speak to her. + +"By the time Mrs. Shelldrake brought in the apples and water we were +discussing the plan as a settled thing. Hollins had an engagement to +deliver Temperance lectures in Ohio during the summer, but decided to +postpone his departure until August, so that he might, at least, spend +two months with us. Faith Levis couldn't go,--at which, I think, we were +all secretly glad. Some three or four others were in the same case, and +the company was finally arranged to consist of the Shelldrakes, Hollins, +Mallory, Eunice, Miss Ringtop, and myself. We did not give much thought, +either to the preparations in advance, or to our mode of life when +settled there. We were to live near to Nature: that was the main thing. + +"'What shall we call the place?' asked Eunice. + +"'Arcadia!' said Abel Mallory, rolling up his large green eyes. + +"'Then,' said Hollins, 'let us constitute ourselves the Arcadian Club!'" + +----"Aha!" interrupted Mr. Johnson, "I see! The A.C.!" + +"Yes, you see the A.C. now," said Mrs. Billings; "but to understand it +fully, you should have had a share in those Arcadian experiences." + +"I am all the more interested in hearing them described. Go on, Enos." + +"The proposition was adopted. We called ourselves The Arcadian Club; but +in order to avoid gossip, and the usual ridicule, to which we were all +more or less sensitive, in case our plan should become generally known, +it was agreed that the initials only should be used. Besides, there was +an agreeable air of mystery about it: we thought of Delphi, and Eleusis, +and Samothrace: we should discover that Truth which the dim eyes of +worldly men and women were unable to see, and the day of disclosure +would be the day of Triumph. In one sense we were truly Arcadians: no +suspicion of impropriety, I verily believe, entered any of our minds. In +our aspirations after what we called a truer life there was no material +taint. We were fools, if you choose, but as far as possible from being +sinners. Besides, the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Shelldrake, who +naturally became the heads of our proposed community, were sufficient +to preserve us from slander or suspicion, if even our designs had been +publicly announced. + +"I won't bore you with an account of our preparations. In fact, there +was very little to be done. Mr. Shelldrake succeeded in hiring the +house, with most of its furniture, so that but a few articles had to be +supplied. My trunk contained more books than boots, more blank paper +than linen. + +"'Two shirts will be enough,' said Abel: 'you can wash one of them any +day, and dry it in the sun.' + +"The supplies consisted mostly of flour, potatoes, and sugar. There was +a vegetable-garden in good condition, Mr. Shelldrake said, which would +be our principal dependence. + +"'Besides, the clams!' I exclaimed, unthinkingly. + +"'Oh, yes!' said Eunice, 'we can have chowder-parties: that will be +delightful!' + +"'Clams! chowder! oh, worse than flesh!' groaned Abel. 'Will you +reverence Nature by outraging her first laws?' + +"I had made a great mistake, and felt very foolish. Eunice and I looked +at each other, for the first time." + +"Speak for yourself only, Enos," gently interpolated his wife. + +"It was a lovely afternoon in the beginning of June when we first +approached Arcadia. We had taken two double teams at Bridgeport, and +drove slowly forward to our destination, followed by a cart containing +our trunks and a few household articles. It was a sweet, bright, balmy +day: the wheat-fields were rich and green, the clover showed faint +streaks of ruby mist along slopes leaning southward, and the meadows +were yellow with buttercups. Now and then we caught glimpses of the +Sound, and, far beyond it, the dim Long-Island shore. Every old +white farm-house, with its gray-walled garden, its clumps of lilacs, +viburnums, and early roses, offered us a picture of pastoral simplicity +and repose. We passed them, one by one, in the happiest mood, enjoying +the earth around us, the sky above, and ourselves most of all. + +"The scenery, however, gradually became more rough and broken. Knobs +of gray gneiss, crowned by mournful cedars, intrenched upon the arable +land, and the dark-blue gleam of water appeared through the trees. Our +road, which had been approaching the Sound, now skirted the head of a +deep, irregular inlet, beyond which extended a beautiful promontory, +thickly studded with cedars, and with scattering groups of elm, oak, and +maple trees. Towards the end of the promontory stood a house, with white +walls shining against the blue line of the Sound. + +"'There is Arcadia, at last!' exclaimed Mr. Shelldrake. + +"A general outcry of delight greeted the announcement. And, indeed, the +loveliness of the picture surpassed our most poetic anticipations. The +low sun was throwing exquisite lights across the point, painting the +slopes of grass a golden green, and giving a pearly softness to the gray +rocks. In the background was drawn the far-off water-line, over which a +few specks of sail glimmered against the sky. Miss Ringtop, who, with +Eunice, Mallory, and myself, occupied one carriage, expressed her +'gushing' feelings in the usual manner:-- + + "'Where the turf is softest, greenest, + Doth an angel thrust me on,-- + Where the landscape lies serenest, + In the journey of the sun!' + +"'Don't, Pauline!' said Eunice; 'I never like to hear poetry flourished +in the face of Nature. This landscape surpasses any poem in the world. +Let us enjoy the best thing we have, rather than the next best.' + +"'Ah, yes!' sighed Miss Ringtop, 'tis true! + + "They sing to the ear; this sings to the eye."' + +"Thenceforward, to the house, all was childish joy and jubilee. All +minor personal repugnances were smoothed over in the general exultation. +Even Abel Mallory became agreeable; and Hollins, sitting beside Mrs. +Shelldrake on the back seat of the foremost carriage, shouted to us, in +boyish lightness of heart. + +"Passing the head of the inlet, we left the country-road, and entered, +through a gate in the tottering stone wall, on our summer domain. A +track, open to the field on one side, led us past a clump of deciduous +trees, between pastures broken by cedared knolls of rock, down +the centre of the peninsula, to the house. It was quite an old +frame-building, two stories high, with a gambrel roof and tall chimneys. +Two slim Lombardy poplars and a broad-leaved catalpa shaded the southern +side, and a kitchen-garden, divided in the centre by a double row of +untrimmed currant-bushes, flanked it on the east. For flowers, there +were masses of blue flags and coarse tawny-red lilies, besides a huge +trumpet-vine which swung its pendent arms from one of the gables. In +front of the house a natural lawn of mingled turf and rock sloped +steeply down to the water, which was not more than two hundred yards +distant. To the west was another and broader inlet of the Sound, out of +which our Arcadian promontory rose bluff and bold, crowned with a thick +fringe of pines. It was really a lovely spot which Shelldrake had +chosen,--so secluded, while almost surrounded, by the winged and moving +life of the Sound, so simple, so pastoral and home-like. No one doubted +the success of our experiment, for that evening, at least. + +"Perkins Brown, Shelldrake's boy-of-all-work, awaited us at the door. +He had been sent on two or three days in advance, to take charge of the +house, and seemed to have had enough of hermit-life, for he hailed +us with a wild whoop, throwing his straw hat half-way up one of the +poplars. Perkins was a boy of fifteen, the child of poor parents, +who were satisfied to get him off their hands, regardless as to what +humanitarian theories might be tested upon him. As the Arcadian Club +recognized no such thing as caste, he was always admitted to our +meetings, and understood just enough of our conversation to excite a +silly ambition in his slow mind. His animal nature was predominant, and +this led him to be deceitful. At that time, however, we all looked upon +him as a proper young Arcadian, and hoped that he would develop into a +second Abel Mallory. + +"After our effects had been deposited on the stoop, and the carriages +had driven away, we proceeded to apportion the rooms, and take +possession. On the first floor there were three rooms, two of which +would serve us as dining-and drawing-rooms, leaving the third for the +Shelldrakes. As neither Eunice and Miss Ringtop, nor Hollins and Abel +showed any disposition to room together, I quietly gave up to them the +four rooms in the second story, and installed myself in one of the attic +chambers. Here I could hear the music of the rain close above my head, +and through the little gable window, as I lay in bed, watch the colors +of the morning gradually steal over the distant shores. The end was, we +were all satisfied. + +"'Now for our first meal in Arcadia!' was the next cry. Mrs. Shelldrake, +like a prudent housekeeper, marched off to the kitchen, where Perkins +had already kindled a fire. We looked in at the door, but thought it +best to allow her undisputed sway in such a narrow realm. Eunice was +unpacking some loaves of bread and paper bags of crackers; and Miss +Ringtop, smiling through her ropy curls, as much as to say, 'You see, +_I_ also can perform the coarser tasks of life!' occupied herself with +plates and cups. We men, therefore, walked out to the garden, which we +found in a promising condition. The usual vegetables had been planted +and were growing finely, for the season was yet scarcely warm enough +for the weeds to make much headway. Radishes, young onions, and lettuce +formed our contribution to the table. The Shelldrakes, I should explain, +had not yet advanced to the antediluvian point, in diet: nor, indeed, +had either Eunice or myself. We acknowledged the fascination of tea, we +saw a very mitigated evil in milk and butter, and we were conscious of +stifled longings after the abomination of meat. Only Mallory, Rollins, +and Miss Ringtop had reached that loftiest round on the ladder of +progress where the material nature loosens the last fetter of the +spiritual. They looked down upon us, and we meekly admitted their right +to do so. + +"Our board, that evening, was really tempting. The absence of meat was +compensated to us by the crisp and racy onions, and I craved only a +little salt, which had been interdicted, as a most pernicious substance. +I sat at one corner of the table, beside Perkins Brown, who took an +opportunity, while the others were engaged in conversation, to jog my +elbow gently. As I turned towards him, he said nothing, but dropped his +eyes significantly. The little rascal had the lid of a blacking-box, +filled with salt, upon his knee, and was privately seasoning his onions +and radishes. I blushed at the thought of my hypocrisy, but the onions +were so much better that I couldn't help dipping into the lid with him. + +"'Oh,' said Eunice, 'we must send for some oil and vinegar! This lettuce +is very nice." + +"'Oil and vinegar?' exclaimed Abel. + +"'Why, yes,' said she, innocently: 'they are both vegetable substances.' + +"Abel at first looked rather foolish, but quickly recovering himself, +said,-- + +"'All vegetable substances are not proper for food: you would not taste +the poison-oak, or sit under the upas-tree of Java.' + +"'Well, Abel,' Eunice rejoined, 'how are we to distinguish what is best +for us? How are we to know _what_ vegetables to choose, or what animal +and mineral substances to avoid?' + +"'I will tell you,' he answered, with a lofty air. 'See here!' pointing +to his temple, where the second pimple--either from the change of air, +or because, in the excitement of the last few days, he had forgotten +it--was actually healed. 'My blood is at last pure. The struggle between +the natural and the unnatural is over, and I am beyond the depraved, +influences of my former taste. My instincts are now, therefore, entirely +pure also. What is good for man to eat, that I shall have a natural +desire to eat: what is bad will be naturally repelled. How does the cow +distinguish between the wholesome and the poisonous herbs of the meadow? +And is man less than a cow, that he cannot cultivate his instincts to +an equal point? Let me walk through, the woods and I can tell you every +berry and root which God designed for food, though I know not its name, +and have never seen it before. I shall make use of my time, during our +sojourn here, to test, by my purified instinct, every substance, animal, +mineral, and vegetable, upon which the human race subsists, and to +create a catalogue of the True Food of Man!' + +"Abel was eloquent on this theme, and he silenced not only Eunice, but +the rest of us. Indeed, as we were all half-infected with the same +delusions, it was not easy to answer his sophistries. + +"After supper was over, the prospect of cleaning the dishes and putting +things in order was not so agreeable; but Mrs. Shelldrake and Perkins +undertook the work, and we did not think it necessary to interfere with +them. Half an hour afterwards, when the full moon had risen, we took +our chairs upon the stoop, to enjoy the calm, silver night, the soft +sea-air, and our summer's residence in anticipatory talk. + +"'My friends,' said Hollins, (and _his_ hobby, as you may remember, Ned, +was the organization of Society, rather than those reforms which apply +directly to the Individual,)--'my friends, I think we are sufficiently +advanced in progressive ideas to establish our little Arcadian community +upon what I consider the true basis: not Law, nor Custom, but the +uncorrupted impulses of our nature. What Abel said in regard to dietetic +reform is true; but that alone will not regenerate the race. We must +rise superior to those conventional ideas of Duty whereby Life is warped +and crippled. Life must not be a prison, where each one must come and +go, work, eat, and sleep, as the jailer commands. Labor must not be +a necessity, but a spontaneous joy. 'T is true, but little labor is +required of us here: let us, therefore, have no set tasks, no fixed +rules, but each one work, rest, eat, sleep, talk or be silent, as his +own nature prompts.' + +"Perkins, sitting on the steps, gave a suppressed chuckle, which I think +no one heard but myself. I was vexed with his levity, but, nevertheless, +gave him a warning nudge with my toe, in payment for the surreptitious +salt. + +"'That's just the notion I had, when I first talked of our coming here,' +said Shelldrake. 'Here we're alone and unhindered; and if the plan +shouldn't happen to work well, (I don't see why it shouldn't, though,) +no harm will be done. I've had a deal of hard work in my life, and I've +been badgered and bullied so much by your strait-laced professors, +that I'm glad to get away from the world for a spell, and talk and do +rationally, without being laughed at.' + +"'Yes,' answered Hollins, 'and if we succeed, as I feel we shall, for I +think I know the hearts of all of us here, this may be the commencement +of a new _ee_poch for the world. We may become the turning-point between +two dispensations: behind us everything false and unnatural,--before us +everything true, beautiful, and good.' + +"'Ah,' sighed Miss Ringtop, 'it reminds me of Gamaliel J. Gawthrop's +beautiful lines:-- + + "Unrobed man is lying hoary + In the distance, gray and dead; + There no wreaths of godless glory + To his mist-like tresses wed, + And the foot-fall of the Ages + Reigns supreme, with noiseless tread."' + +"'I am willing to try the experiment,' said I, on being appealed to by +Hollins; 'but don't you think we had better observe some kind of order, +even in yielding everything to impulse? Shouldn't there be, at least, a +platform, as the politicians call it,--an agreement by which we shall +all be bound, and which we can afterwards exhibit as the basis of our +success?' + +"He meditated a few moments, and then answered,-- + +"'I think not. It resembles too much the thing we are trying to +overthrow. Can you bind a man's belief by making him sign certain +articles of Faith? No: his thought will be free, in spite of it; and I +would have Action--Life--as free as Thought. Our platform--to adopt your +image--has but one plank: Truth. Let each only be true to himself: _be_ +himself, _act_ himself, or herself, with the uttermost candor. We can +all agree upon that.' + +"The agreement was accordingly made. And certainly no happier or more +hopeful human beings went to bed in all New England that night. + +"I arose with the sun, went into the garden, and commenced weeding, +intending to do my quota of work before breakfast, and then devote the +day to reading and conversation. I was presently joined by Shelldrake +and Mallory, and between us we finished the onions and radishes, stuck +the peas, and cleaned the alleys. Perkins, after milking the cow and +turning her out to pasture, assisted Mrs. Shelldrake in the kitchen. At +breakfast we were joined by Hollins, who made no excuse for his easy +morning habits; nor was one expected. I may as well tell you now, +though, that his natural instincts never led him to work. After a week, +when a second crop of weeds was coming on, Mallory fell off also, and +thenceforth Shelldrake and myself had the entire charge of the garden. +Perkins did the rougher work, and was always on hand when he was wanted. +Very soon, however, I noticed that he was in the habit of disappearing +for two or three hours in the afternoon. + +"Our meals preserved the same Spartan simplicity. Eunice, however, +carried her point in regard to the salad; for Abel, after tasting and +finding it very palatable, decided that oil and vinegar might be classed +in the catalogue of True Food. Indeed, his long abstinence from piquant +flavors gave him such an appetite for it, that our supply of lettuce was +soon exhausted. An embarrassing accident also favored us with the use of +salt. Perkins happening to move his knee at the moment I was dipping an +onion into the blacking-box lid, our supply was knocked upon the floor. +He picked it up, and we both hoped the accident might pass unnoticed. +But Abel, stretching his long neck across the corner of the table, +caught a glimpse of what was going on. + +"'What's that?' he asked. + +"'Oh, it's--it's only,' said I, seeking for a synonyme, 'only _chloride +of sodium_!' + +"'Chloride of sodium! what do you do with it?' + +"'Eat it with onions,' said I, boldly: 'it's a chemical substance, but I +believe it is found in some plants.' + +"Eunice, who knew something of chemistry, (she taught a class, though +you wouldn't think it,) grew red with suppressed fun, but the others +were as ignorant as Abel Mallory himself. + +"'Let me taste it,' said he, stretching out an onion. + +"I handed him the box-lid, which still contained a portion of its +contents. He dipped the onion, bit off a piece, and chewed it gravely. + +"'Why,' said he, turning to me, 'it's very much like salt.' + +"Perkins burst into a spluttering yell, which discharged an onion-top he +had just put between his teeth across the table; Eunice and I gave way +at the same moment; and the others, catching the joke, joined us. But +while we were laughing, Abel was finishing his onion, and the result was +that Salt was added to the True Food, and thereafter appeared regularly +on the table. + +"The forenoons we usually spent in reading and writing, each in his or +her chamber. (Oh, the journals, Ned!--but you shall not see mine.) +After a mid-day meal,--I cannot call it dinner,--we sat upon the stoop, +listening while one of us read aloud, or strolled down the shores on +either side, or, when the sun was not too warm, got into a boat, and +rowed or floated lazily around the promontory. + +"One afternoon, as I was sauntering off, past the garden, towards the +eastern inlet, I noticed Perkins slipping along behind the cedar knobs, +towards the little woodland at the end of our domain. Curious to find +out the cause of his mysterious disappearances, I followed cautiously. +From the edge of the wood I saw him enter a little gap between the +rocks, which led down to the water. Presently a thread of blue smoke +stole up. Quietly creeping along, I got upon the nearer bluff and looked +down. There was a sort of hearth built up at the base of the rock, with +a brisk little lire burning upon it, but Perkins had disappeared. I +stretched myself out upon the moss, in the shade, and waited. In about +half an hour up came Perkins, with a large fish in one hand and a +lump of clay in the other. I now understood the mystery. He carefully +imbedded the fish in a thin layer of clay, placed it on the coals, and +then went down to the shore to wash his hands. On his return he found me +watching the fire. + +"'Ho, ho, Mr. Enos!' said he, 'you've found me out! But _you_ won't say +nothin'. Gosh! _you_ like it as well I do. Look 'ee there!'--breaking +open the clay, from which arose 'a steam of rich-distilled +perfumes,'--'and, I say, I've got the box-lid with that 'ere stuff in +it,--ho! ho!' and the scamp roared again. + +"Out of a hole in the rock he brought salt and the end of a loaf, and +between us we finished the fish. Before long, I got into a habit of +disappearing in the afternoon. + +"Now and then, we took walks, alone or collectively, to the nearest +village, or even to Bridgeport, for the papers or a late book. The few +purchases we required were made at such times, and sent down in a cart, +or, if not too heavy, carried by Perkins in a basket. I noticed that +Abel, whenever we had occasion to visit a grocery, would go sniffing +around, alternately attracted or repelled by the various articles: now +turning away with a shudder from a ham,--now inhaling, with a fearful +delight and uncertainty, the odor of smoked herrings. 'I think herrings +must feed on sea-weed,' said he, 'there is such a vegetable attraction +about them.' After his violent vegetarian harangues, however, he +hesitated about adding them to his catalogue. + +"But, one day, as we were passing through the village, he was reminded +by the sign of 'WARTER CRACKERS' in the window of an obscure grocery, +that he required a supply of those articles, and we therefore entered. +There was a splendid Rhode-Island cheese on the counter, from which the +shop-mistress was just cutting a slice for a customer. Abel leaned over +it, inhaling the rich, pungent fragrance. + +"'Enos,' said he to me, between his sniffs, 'this impresses me like +flowers,--like marigolds. It must be,--really,--yes, the vegetable +element is predominant. My instinct towards it is so strong that I +cannot be mistaken. May I taste it, Ma'am?' + +"The woman sliced off a thin corner, and presented it to him on the +knife. + +"'Delicious!' he exclaimed; 'I am right,--this is the True Food. Give me +two pounds,--and the crackers, Ma'am.' + +"I turned away, quite as much disgusted as amused with +this charlatanism. And yet I verily believe the fellow was +sincere,--self-deluded only. I had by this time lost my faith in him, +though not in the great Arcadian principles. On reaching home, after +an hour's walk, I found our household in unusual commotion. Abel was +writhing in intense pain: he had eaten the whole two pounds of cheese, +on his way home! His stomach, so weakened by years of unhealthy +abstinence from true nourishment, was now terribly tortured by this +sudden stimulus. Mrs. Shelldrake, fortunately, had some mustard among +her stores, and could therefore administer a timely emetic. His life was +saved, but he was very ill for two or three days. Hollins did not fail +to take advantage of this circumstance to overthrow the authority which +Abel had gradually acquired on the subject of food. He was so arrogant +in his nature that he could not tolerate the same quality in another, +even where their views coincided. + +"By this time several weeks had passed away. It was the beginning of +July, and the long summer heats had come. I was driven out of my attic +during the middle hours of the day, and the others found it pleasanter +on the doubly shaded stoop than in their chambers. We were thus thrown +more together than usual,--a circumstance which made our life more +monotonous to the others, as I could see; but to myself, who could at +last talk to Eunice, and who was happy at the very sight of her, this +'heated term' seemed borrowed from Elysium. I read aloud, and the sound +of my own voice gave me confidence; many passages suggested discussions, +in which I took a part; and you may judge, Ned, how fast I got on, from +the fact that I ventured to tell Eunice of my fish-bakes with Perkins, +and invite her to join them. After that, she, also, often disappeared +from sight for an hour or two in the afternoon." + +----"Oh, Mr. Johnson," interrupted Mrs. Billings, "it wasn't for the +fish!" + +"Of course not," said her husband; "it was for my sake." + +"No, you need not think it was for you. Enos," she added, perceiving the +feminine dilemma into which she had been led, "all this is not necessary +to the story." + +"Stop!" he answered. "The A.C. has been revived for this night only. +Do you remember our platform, or rather no-platform? I must follow my +impulses, and say whatever comes uppermost." + +"Right, Enos," said Mr. Johnson; "I, as temporary Arcadian, take the +same ground. My instinct tells me that you, Mrs. Billings, must permit +the confession." + +She submitted with a good grace, and her husband continued. + +"I said that our lazy life during the hot weather had become a little +monotonous. The Arcadian plan had worked tolerably well, on the whole, +for there was very little for any one to do,--Mrs. Shelldrake and +Perkins Brown excepted. Our conversation, however, lacked spirit and +variety. We were, perhaps unconsciously, a little tired of hearing and +assenting to the same sentiments. But, one evening, about this time, +Hollins struck upon a variation, the consequences of which he little +foresaw. We had been reading one of Bulwer's works, (the weather was too +hot for Psychology,) and came upon this paragraph, or something like +it:-- + +"'Ah, Behind the Veil! We see the summer smile of the Earth,--enamelled +meadow and limpid stream,--but what hides she in her sunless heart? +Caverns of serpents, or grottoes of priceless gems? Youth, whose soul +sits on thy countenance, thyself wearing no mask, strive not to lift the +masks of others! Be content with what thou seest; and wait until Time +and Experience shall teach thee to find jealousy behind the sweet smile, +and hatred under the honeyed word!' + +"This seemed to us a dark and bitter reflection; but one or another of +us recalled some illustration of human hypocrisy, and the evidences, +by the simple fact of repetition, gradually led to a division of +opinion,--Hollins, Shelldrake, and Miss Ringtop on the dark side, and +the rest of us on the bright. The last, however, contented herself with +quoting from her favorite poet, Gamaliel J. Gawthrop:-- + + "'I look beyond thy brow's concealment! + I see thy spirit's dark revealment! + Thy inner self betrayed I see: + Thy coward, craven, shivering ME!' + +"'We think we know one another,' exclaimed Hollins; 'but do we? We see +the faults of others, their weaknesses, their disagreeable qualities, +and we keep silent. How much we should gain, were candor as universal +as concealment! Then each one, seeing himself as others see him, would +truly know himself. How much misunderstanding might be avoided, how +much hidden shame be removed, hopeless because unspoken love made +glad, honest admiration cheer its object, uttered sympathy mitigate +misfortune,--in short, how much brighter and happier the world would +become, if each one expressed, everywhere and at all times, his true and +entire feeling! Why, even Evil would lose half its power!' + +"There seemed to be so much practical wisdom in these views that we were +all dazzled and half-convinced at the start. So, when Hollins, turning +towards me, as he continued, exclaimed,--'Come, why should not this +candor be adopted in our Arcadia? Will any one--will you, Enos--commence +at once by telling me now--to my face--my principal faults?' I answered, +after a moment's reflection,--'You have a great deal of intellectual +arrogance, and you are, physically, very indolent.' + +"He did not flinch from the self-invited test, though he looked a little +surprised. + +"'Well put,' said he, 'though I do not say that you are entirely +correct. Now, what are my merits?' + +"'You are clear-sighted,' I answered, 'an earnest seeker after truth, +and courageous in the avowal of your thoughts.' + +"This restored the balance, and we soon began to confess our own private +faults and weaknesses. Though the confessions did not go very deep,--no +one betraying anything we did not all know already,--yet they were +sufficient to strengthen Hollins in his new idea, and it was unanimously +resolved that Candor should thenceforth be the main charm of our +Arcadian life. It was the very thing _I_ wanted, in order to make a +certain communication to Eunice; but I should probably never have +reached the point, had not the same candor been exercised towards me, +from a quarter where I least expected it. + +"The next day, Abel, who had resumed his researches after the True Food, +came home to supper with a healthier color than I had before seen on his +face. + +"'Do you know,' said he, looking shyly at Hollins, 'that I begin to +think Beer must be a natural beverage? There was an auction in the +village to-day, as I passed through, and I stopped at a cake-stand to +get a glass of water, as it was very hot. There was no water,--only +beer: so I thought I would try a glass, simply as an experiment. Really, +the flavor was very agreeable. And it occurred to me, on the way +home, that all the elements contained in beer are vegetable. Besides, +fermentation is a natural process. I think the question has never been +properly tested before.' + +"'But the alcohol!' exclaimed Hollins. + +"'I could not distinguish any, either by taste or smell. I know that +chemical analysis is said to show it; but may not the alcohol be +created, somehow, during the analysis?' + +"'Abel,' said Hollins, in a fresh burst of candor, 'you will never be +a Reformer, until you possess some of the commonest elements of +knowledge.' + +"The rest of us were much diverted: it was a pleasant relief to our +monotonous amiability. + +"Abel, however, had a stubborn streak in his character. The next day he +sent Perkins Brown to Bridgeport for a dozen bottles of 'Beer.' Perkins, +either intentionally or by mistake, (I always suspected the former,) +brought pint-bottles of Scotch ale, which he placed in the coolest part +of the cellar. The evening happened to be exceedingly hot and sultry, +and, as we were all fanning ourselves and talking languidly, Abel +bethought him of his beer. In his thirst, he drank the contents of the +first bottle, almost at a single draught. + +"'The effect of beer,' said he, 'depends, I think, on the commixture of +the nourishing principle of the grain with the cooling properties of the +water. Perhaps, hereafter, a liquid food of the same character may be +invented, which shall save us from mastication and all the diseases of +the teeth.' + +"Hollins and Shelldrake, at his invitation, divided a bottle between +them, and he took a second. The potent beverage was not long in acting +on a brain so unaccustomed to its influence. He grew unusually talkative +and sentimental, in a few minutes. + +"'Oh, sing, somebody!' he sighed in hoarse rapture: 'the night was made +for Song.' + +"Miss Ringtop, nothing loath, immediately commenced, 'When stars are in +the quiet skies'; but scarcely had she finished the first verse before +Abel interrupted her. + +"'Candor's the order of the day, isn't it?' he asked. + +"'Yes!' 'Yes!' two or three answered. + +"'Well, then,' said he, 'candidly, Pauline, you've got the darn'dest +squeaky voice'---- + +"Miss Ringtop gave a faint little scream of horror. + +"'Oh, never mind!' he continued. 'We act according to impulse, don't we? +And I've the impulse to swear; and it's right. Let Nature have her +way. Listen! Damn, damn, damn, damn! I never knew it was so easy. Why, +there's a pleasure in it! Try it, Pauline! try it on me!' + +"'Oh-ooh!' was all Miss Ringtop could utter. + +"'Abel! Abel!' exclaimed Hollins, 'the beer has got into your head.' + +"'No, it isn't Beer,--it's Candor!' said Abel. 'It's your own proposal, +Hollins. Suppose it's evil to swear: isn't it better I should express +it, and be done with it, than keep it bottled up, to ferment in my mind? +Oh, you're a precious, consistent old humbug, _you_ are!' + +"And therewith he jumped off the stoop, and went dancing awkwardly down +towards the water, singing in a most unmelodious voice, ''T is home +where'er the heart is.' + +"'Oh, he may fall into the water!' exclaimed Eunice, in alarm. + +"'He's not fool enough to do that,' said Shelldrake. 'His head is a +little light, that's all. The air will cool him down presently.' + +"But she arose and followed him, not satisfied with this assurance. Miss +Ringtop sat rigidly still. She would have received with composure the +news of his drowning. + +"As Eunice's white dress disappeared among the cedars crowning the +shore, I sprang up and ran after her. I knew that Abel was not +intoxicated, but simply excited, and I had no fear on his account: I +obeyed an involuntary impulse. On approaching the water, I heard their +voices,--hers in friendly persuasion, his in sentimental entreaty,--then +the sound of oars in the rowlocks. Looking out from the last clump of +cedars, I saw them seated in the boat, Eunice at the stern, while Abel, +facing her, just dipped an oar now and then to keep from drifting with +the tide. She had found him already in the boat, which was loosely +chained to a stone. Stepping on one of the forward thwarts, in her +eagerness to persuade him to return, he sprang past her, jerked away the +chain, and pushed off before she could escape. She would have fallen, +but he caught her and placed her in, the stern, and then seated himself +at the oars. She must have been somewhat alarmed, but there was only +indignation in her voice. All this had transpired before my arrival, and +the first words I heard bound me to the spot and kept me silent. + +"'Abel, what does this mean?' she asked. + +"'It means Fate,--Destiny!' he exclaimed, rather wildly. 'Ah, Eunice, +ask the night, and the moon,--ask the impulse which told you to follow +me! Let us be candid, like the old Arcadians we imitate. Eunice, we know +that we love each other: why should we conceal it any longer? The Angel +of Love comes down from the stars on his azure wings, and whispers to +our hearts. Let us confess to each other! The female heart should not be +timid, in this pure and beautiful atmosphere of Love which we breathe. +Come, Eunice! we are alone: let your heart speak to me!' + +"Ned, if you've ever been in love, (we'll talk of that, after a while,) +you will easily understand what tortures I endured, in thus hearing him +speak. That _he_ should love Eunice! It was a profanation to her, an +outrage to me. Yet the assurance with which he spoke! _Could_ she love +this conceited, ridiculous, repulsive fellow, after all? I almost gasped +for breath, as I clinched the prickly boughs of the cedars in my hands, +and set my teeth, waiting to hear her answer. + +"'I will not hear such language! Take me back to the shore!' she said, +in very short, decided tones. + +"'Oh, Eunice,' he groaned, (and now, I think, he was perfectly sober,) +'don't you love me, indeed? _I_ love _you_,--from my heart I do: yes, I +love you. Tell me how you feel towards me.' + +"'Abel,' said she, earnestly, 'I feel towards you only as a friend; and +if you wish me to retain a friendly interest in you, you must never +again talk in this manner. I do not love you, and I never shall. Let me +go back to the house. + +"His head dropped upon his breast, but he rowed back to the shore, drew +the bow upon the rocks, and assisted her to land. Then, sitting down, he +groaned forth,-- + +"'Oh, Eunice, you have broken my heart!' and putting his big hands to +his face, began to cry. + +"She turned, placed one hand on his shoulder, and said, in a calm, but +kind tone,-- + +"'I am very sorry, Abel, but I cannot help it.' + +"I slipped aside, that she might not see me, and we returned by separate +paths. + +"I slept very little that night. The conviction, which I had chased away +from my mind as often as it returned, that our Arcadian experiment was +taking a ridiculous and at the same time impracticable development, +became clearer and stronger. I felt sure that our little community could +not hold together much longer without an explosion. I had a presentiment +that Eunice shared my impressions. My feelings towards her had reached +that crisis where a declaration was imperative: but how to make it? It +was a terrible struggle between my shyness and my affection. There was +another circumstance, in connection with this subject, which troubled me +not a little. Miss Ringtop evidently sought my company, and made me, as +much as possible, the recipient of her sentimental outpourings. I was +not bold enough to repel her,--indeed, I had none of that tact which +is so useful in such emergencies,--and she seemed to misinterpret my +submission. Not only was her conversation pointedly directed to me, but +she looked at me, when singing, (especially, 'Thou, thou, reign'st in +this bosom!') in a way that made me feel very uncomfortable. What if +Eunice should suspect an attachment towards her, on my part? What +if--oh, horror!--I had unconsciously said or done something to impress +Miss Ringtop herself with the same conviction? I shuddered as the +thought crossed my mind. One thing was very certain: this suspense was +not to be endured much longer. + +"We had an unusually silent breakfast the next morning. Abel scarcely +spoke, which the others attributed to a natural feeling of shame, after +his display of the previous evening. Hollins and Shelldrake discussed +Temperance, with a special view to his edification, and Miss Ringtop +favored us with several quotations about 'the maddening bowl,'--but he +paid no attention to them. Eunice was pale and thoughtful. I had no +doubt, in my mind, that she was already contemplating a removal from +Arcadia. Perkins, whose perceptive faculties were by no means dull, +whispered to me, 'Sha'n't I bring up some porgies for supper?' but I +shook my head. I was busy with other thoughts, and did not join him in +the wood, that day. + +"The forenoon was overcast, with frequent showers. Each one occupied his +or her room until dinner-time, when we met again with something of the +old geniality. There was an evident effort to restore our former flow of +good feeling. Abel's experience with the beer was freely discussed. He +insisted strongly that he had not been laboring under its effects, and +proposed a mutual test. He, Shelldrake, and Hollins were to drink it +in equal measures, and compare observations as to their physical +sensations. The others agreed,--quite willingly, I thought,--but I +refused. I had determined to make a desperate attempt at candor, and +Abel's fate was fresh before my eyes. + +"My nervous agitation increased during the day, and, after sunset, +fearing lest I should betray my excitement in some way, I walked down +to the end of the promontory, and took a seat on the rocks. The sky +had cleared, and the air was deliciously cool and sweet. The Sound was +spread out before me like a sea, for the Long-Island shore was veiled in +a silvery mist. My mind was soothed and calmed by the influences of the +scene, until the moon arose. Moonlight, you know, disturbs,--at least, +when one is in love. (Ah, Ned, I see you understand it!) I felt +blissfully miserable, ready to cry with joy at the knowledge that I +loved, and with fear and vexation at my cowardice, at the same time. + +"Suddenly I heard a rustling beside me. Every nerve in my body tingled, +and I turned my head, with a beating and expectant heart. Pshaw! It was +Miss Ringtop, who spread her blue dress on the rock beside me, and shook +back her long curls, and sighed, as she gazed at the silver path of the +moon on the water. + +"'Oh, how delicious!' she cried. 'How it seems to set the spirit free, +and we wander off on the wings of Fancy to other spheres!' + +"'Yes,' said I, 'it is very beautiful, but sad, when one is alone.' + +"I was thinking of Eunice. + +"'How inadequate,' she continued, 'is language to express the emotions +which Such a scene calls up in the bosom! Poetry alone is the voice of +the spiritual world, and we, who are not poets, must borrow the language +of the gifted sons of Song. Oh, Enos, I _wish_ you were a poet! But you +_feel_ poetry, I know you do. I have seen it in your eyes, when I quoted +the burning lines of Adeliza Kelley, or the soul-breathings of Gamaliel +J. Gawthrop. In _him_, particularly, I find the voice of my own nature. +Do you know his "Night-Whispers"? How it embodies the feelings of such a +scene as this! + + "Star-drooping bowers bending down the + spaces, + And moonlit glories sweep star-footed on; + And pale, sweet rivers, in their shining + races, + Are ever gliding through the moonlit places, + With silver ripples on their trancèd faces, + And forests clasp their dusky hands, with low + and sullen moan!" + +"'Ah!' she continued, as I made no reply, 'this is an hour for the soul +to unveil its most secret chambers! Do you not think, Enos, that love +rises superior to all conventionalities? that those whose souls are in +unison should be allowed to reveal themselves to each other, regardless +of the world's opinions?' + +"'Yes!' said I, earnestly. + +"'Enos, do you understand me?' she asked, in a tender voice,--almost a +whisper. + +"'Yes,' said I, with a blushing confidence of my own passion. + +"'Then,' she whispered, 'our hearts are wholly in unison. I know you are +true, Enos. I know your noble nature, and I will never doubt you. This +is indeed happiness!' + +"And therewith she laid her head on my shoulder, and sighed,-- + + "'Life remits his tortures cruel, + Love illumes his fairest fuel, + When the hearts that once were dual + Meet as one, in sweet renewal!' + +"'Miss Ringtop!' I cried, starting away from her, in alarm, 'you don't +mean that--that'---- + +"I could not finish the sentence. + +"'Yes, Enos, _dear_ Enos! henceforth we belong to each other.' + +"The painful embarrassment I felt, as her true meaning shot through my +mind, surpassed anything I had imagined, or experienced in anticipation, +when planning how I should declare myself to Eunice. Miss Ringtop was at +least ten years older than I, far from handsome, (but you remember her +face,) and so affectedly sentimental, that I, sentimental as I was then, +was sick of hearing her talk. Her hallucination was so monstrous, and +gave me such a shock of desperate alarm, that I spoke, on the impulse of +the moment, with great energy, without regarding how her feelings might +be wounded. + +"'You mistake!' I exclaimed. 'I didn't mean that,--I didn't understand +you. Don't talk to me that way,--don't look at me in that way, Miss +Ringtop! We were never meant for each other,--I wasn't----You're so +much older,--I mean different. It can't be,--no, it can never be! Let +us go back to the house: the night is cold.' + +"I rose hastily to my feet. She murmured something,--what, I did not +stay to hear,--but, plunging through the cedars, was hurrying with all +speed to the house, when, half-way up the lawn, beside one of the rocky +knobs, I met Eunice, who was apparently on her way to join us. In +my excited mood, after the ordeal through which I had just passed, +everything seemed easy. My usual timidity was blown to the four winds. I +went directly to her, took her hand, and said,-- + +"'Eunice, the others are driving me mad with their candor; will you let +me be candid, too?' + +"'I think you are always candid, Enos,' she answered. + +"Even then, if I had hesitated, I should have been lost. But I went on, +without pausing,-- + +"'Eunice, I love you,--I have loved you since we first met. I came here +that I might be near you; but I must leave you forever, and to-night, +unless you can trust your life in my keeping. God help me, since we have +been together I have lost my faith in almost everything but you. Pardon +me, if I am impetuous,--different from what I have seemed. I have +struggled so hard to speak! I have been a coward, Eunice, because of my +love. But now I have spoken, from my heart of hearts. Look at me: I can +bear it now. Read the truth in my eyes, before you answer.' + +"I felt her hand tremble while I spoke. As she turned towards me her +face, which had been averted, the moon shone full upon it, and I saw +that tears were upon her cheeks. What was said--whether anything was +said--I cannot tell. I felt the blessed fact, and that was enough. That +was the dawning of the true Arcadia." + +----Mrs. Billings, who had been silent during this recital, took her +husband's hand and smiled. Mr. Johnson felt a dull pang about the region +of his heart. If he had a secret, however, I do not feel justified in +betraying it. + +"It was late," Mr. Billings continued, "before we returned to the house. +I had a special dread of again encountering Miss Ringtop, but she was +wandering up and down the bluff, under the pines, singing, 'The dream +is past.' There was a sound of loud voices, as we approached the stoop. +Hollins, Shelldrake and his wife, and Abel Mallory were sitting together +near the door. Perkins Brown, as usual, was crouched on the lowest step, +with one leg over the other, and rubbing the top of his boot with a +vigor which betrayed to me some secret mirth. He looked up at me from +under his straw hat with the grin of a malicious Puck, glanced towards +the group, and made a curious gesture with his thumb. There were several +empty pint-bottles on the stoop. + +"'Now, are you sure you can bear the test?' we heard Hollins ask, as we +approached. + +"'Bear it? Why, to be sure!' replied Shelldrake; 'if I couldn't bear it, +or if _you_ couldn't, your theory's done for. Try! I can stand it as +long as you can.' + +"'Well, then,' said Hollins, 'I think you are a very ordinary man. I +derive no intellectual benefit from my intercourse with you, but +your house is convenient to me. I'm under no obligations for your +hospitality, however, because my company is an advantage to you. Indeed, +if I were treated according to my deserts, you couldn't do enough for +me.' + +"Mrs. Shelldrake was up in arms. + +"'Indeed,' she exclaimed, 'I think you get as good as you deserve, and +more too.' + +"'Elvira,' said he, with a benevolent condescension, 'I have no doubt +you think so, for your mind belongs to the lowest and most material +sphere. You have your place in Nature, and you fill it; but it is not +for you to judge of intelligences which move only on the upper planes.' + +"'Hollins,' said Shelldrake, 'Elviry's a good wife and a sensible woman, +and I won't allow you to turn up your nose at her.' + +"'I am not surprised,' he answered, 'that you should fail to stand the +test. I didn't expect it.' + +"'Let me try it on _you_!' cried Shelldrake. 'You, now, have some +intellect,--I don't deny that,--but not so much, by a long shot, as you +think you have. Besides that, you're awfully selfish, in your opinions. +You won't admit that anybody can be right who differs from you. You've +sponged on me for a long time; but I suppose I've learned something from +you, so we'll call it even. I think, however, that what you call acting +according to impulse is simply an excuse to cover your own laziness.' + +"'Gosh! that's it!' interrupted Perkins, jumping up; then, recollecting +himself, he sank down on the steps again, and shook with a suppressed +'Ho! ho! ho!' + +"Hollins, however, drew himself up with an exasperated air. + +"'Shelldrake,' said he, 'I pity you. I always knew your ignorance, but +I thought you honest in your human character. I never suspected you +of envy and malice. However, the true Reformer must expect to be +misunderstood and misrepresented by meaner minds. That love which I bear +to all creatures teaches me to forgive you. Without such love, all plans +of progress must fail. Is it not so, Abel?' + +"Shelldrake could only ejaculate the words, 'Pity!' 'Forgive!' in his +most contemptuous tone; while Mrs. Shelldrake, rocking violently in her +chair, gave utterance to that peculiar clucking '_ts, ts, ts, ts_,' +whereby certain women express emotions too deep for words. + +"Abel, roused by Hollins's question, answered, with a sudden energy,-- + +"'Love! there is no love in the world. Where will you find it? Tell me, +and I'll go there. Love! I'd like to see it! If all human hearts were +like mine, we might have an Arcadia; but most men have no hearts. The +world is a miserable, hollow, deceitful shell of vanity and hypocrisy. +No: let us give up. We were born before our time: this age is not worthy +of us.' + +"Hollins stared at the speaker in utter amazement. Shelldrake gave a +long whistle, and finally gasped out,-- + +"'Well, what next?' + +"None of us were prepared for such a sudden and complete wreck of our +Arcadian scheme. The foundations had been sapped before, it is true; but +we had not perceived it; and now, in two short days, the whole edifice +tumbled about our ears. Though it was inevitable, we felt a shock of +sorrow, and a silence fell upon us. Only that scamp of a Perkins Brown, +chuckling and rubbing his boot, really rejoiced. I could have kicked +him. + +"We all went to bed, feeling that the charm of our Arcadian life was +over. I was so full of the new happiness of love that I was scarcely +conscious of regret. I seemed to have leaped at once into responsible +manhood, and a glad rush of courage filled me at the knowledge that my +own heart was a better oracle than those--now so shamefully overthrown-- +on whom I had so long implicitly relied. In the first revulsion of +feeling, I was perhaps unjust to my associates. I see now, more clearly, +the causes of those vagaries, which originated in a genuine aspiration, +and failed from an ignorance of the true nature of Man, quite as much +as from the egotism of the individuals. Other attempts at reorganizing +Society were made about the same time by men of culture and experience, +but in the A.C. we had neither. Our leaders had caught a few +half-truths, which, in their minds, were speedily warped into errors. +I can laugh over the absurdities I helped to perpetrate, but I must +confess that the experiences of those few weeks went far towards making +a man of me." + +"Did the A.C. break up at once?" asked Mr. Johnson. + +"Not precisely; though Eunice and I left the house within two days, as +we had agreed. We were not married immediately, however. Three long +years--years of hope and mutual encouragement--passed away before that +happy consummation. Before our departure, Hollins had fallen into his +old manner, convinced, apparently, that Candor must be postponed to a +better age of the world. But the quarrel rankled in Shelldrake's mind, +and especially in that of his wife. I could see by her looks and little +fidgety ways that his further stay would be very uncomfortable. Abel +Mallory, finding himself gaining in weight and improving in color, had +no thought of returning. The day previous, as I afterwards learned, he +had discovered Perkins Brown's secret kitchen in the woods. + +"'Golly!' said that youth, in describing the circumstance to me, 'I had +to ketch _two_ porgies that day.' + +"Miss Ringtop, who must have suspected the new relation between Eunice +and myself, was for the most part rigidly silent. If she quoted, it was +from the darkest and dreariest utterances of her favorite Gamaliel. + +"What happened after our departure I learned from Perkins, on the return +of the Shelldrakes to Norridgeport, in September. Mrs. Shelldrake +stoutly persisted in refusing to make Hollins's bed, or to wash his +shirts. Her brain was dull, to be sure; but she was therefore all the +more stubborn in her resentment. He bore this state of things for about +a week, when his engagements to lecture in Ohio suddenly called him +away. Abel and Miss Ringtop were left to wander about the promontory in +company, and to exchange lamentations on the hollowness of human hopes +or the pleasures of despair. Whether it was owing to that attraction of +sex which would make any man and any woman, thrown together on a desert +island, finally become mates, or whether she skilfully ministered to +Abel's sentimental vanity, I will not undertake to decide: but the fact +is, they were actually betrothed, on leaving Arcadia. I think he would +willingly have retreated, after his return to the world; but that was +not so easy. Miss Ringtop held him with an inexorable clutch. They were +not married, however, until just before his departure for California, +whither she afterwards followed him. She died in less than a year, and +left him free." + +"And what became of the other Arcadians?" asked Mr. Johnson. + +"The Shelldrakes are still living in Norridgeport. They have become +Spiritualists, I understand, and cultivate Mediums. Hollins, when I +last heard of him, was a Deputy Surveyor in the New York Custom-House. +Perkins Brown is our butcher, here in Waterbury, and he often asks +me,--'Do you take chloride of soda on your beefsteaks? 'He is as fat as +a prize ox, and the father of five children." + +"Enos!" exclaimed Mrs. Billings, looking at the clock, "it's nearly +midnight! Mr. Johnson must be very tired, after such a long story. The +Chapter of the A.C. is hereby closed!" + + * * * * * + + +SNOW. + + +All through the long hours of yesterday the low clouds hung close above +our heads, to pour with more unswerving aim their constant storm of +sleet and snow,--sometimes working in soft silence, sometimes with +impatient gusty breaths, but always busily at work. Darkness brought no +rest to these laborious warriors of the air, but only fiercer strife: +the wild winds rose; noisy recruits, they howled beneath the eaves, +or swept around the walls, like hungry wolves, now here, now there, +howling; at opposite doors. Thus, through the anxious and wakeful night, +the storm went on. The household lay vexed by broken dreams, with +changing fancies of lost children on solitary moors, of sleighs +hopelessly overturned in drifted and pathless gorges, or of icy cordage +upon disabled vessels in Arctic seas; until a softer warmth, as of +sheltering snow-wreaths, lulled all into deeper rest till morning. + +And what a morning! The sun, a young conqueror, sends in his glorious +rays, like heralds, to rouse us for the inspection of his trophies. The +baffled foe, retiring, has left far and near the high-heaped spoils +behind. The glittering plains own the new victor. Over all these level +and wide-swept meadows, over all these drifted, spotless slopes, he is +proclaimed undisputed monarch. On the wooded hill-sides the startled +shadows are in motion; they flee like young fawns, bounding upward and +downward over rock and dell, as through the long gleaming arches the +king comes marching to his throne. But shade yet lingers undisturbed in +the valleys, mingled with timid smoke from household chimneys; blue as +the smoke, a gauzy haze is twined around the brow of every distant hill; +and the same soft azure confuses the outlines of the nearer trees, to +whose branches snowy wreaths are clinging, far up among the boughs, like +strange new flowers. Everywhere the unstained surface glistens in the +sunbeams. In the curves and wreaths and turrets of the drifts a blue +tinge nestles. The fresh pure sky answers to it; every cloud has +vanished, save one or two which linger near the horizon, pardoned +offenders, seeming far too innocent for mischief, although their dark +and sullen brothers, banished ignominiously below the horizon's verge, +may be plotting nameless treachery there. The brook still flows visibly +through the valley, and the myriad rocks that check its course are all +rounded with fleecy surfaces, till they seem like flocks of tranquil +sheep that drink the shallow flood. + +The day is one of moderate cold, but clear and bracing; the air sparkles +like the snow; everything seems dry and resonant, like the wood of a +violin. All sounds are musical,--the voices of children, the cooing +of doves, the crowing of cocks, the chopping of wood, the creaking of +country sleds, the sweet jangle of sleighbells. The snow has fallen +under a cold temperature, and the flakes are perfectly crystallized; +every shrub we pass bears wreaths which glitter as gorgeously as the +nebula in the constellation Perseus; but in another hour of sunshine +every one of those fragile outlines will disappear, and the white +surface glitter no longer with stars, but with star-dust. On such a +day, the universe seems to held but three pure tints,--blue, white, +and green. The loveliness of the universe seems simplified to its last +extreme of refined delicacy. That sensation we poor mortals often +have, of being just on the edge of infinite beauty, yet with always a +lingering film between, never presses down more closely than on days +like this. Everything seems perfectly prepared to satiate the soul with +inexpressible felicity if we could only, by one infinitesimal step +farther, reach the mood to dwell in it. + +Leaving behind us the sleighs and snow-shovels of the street, we turn +noiselessly toward the radiant margin of the sunlit woods. The yellow +willows on the causeway burn like flame against the darker background, +and will burn on until they burst into April. Yonder pines and hemlocks +stand motionless and dark against the sky. The statelier trees have +already shaken all the snow from their summits, but it still clothes the +lower ones with a white covering that looks solid as marble. Yet see how +lightly it escapes!--a slight gust shakes a single tree, there is a +_Staub-bach_ for a moment, and the branches stand free as in summer, a +pyramid of green amid the whiteness of the yet imprisoned forest. Each +branch raises itself when emancipated, thus changing the whole outline +of the growth; and the snow beneath is punctured with a thousand little +depressions, where the petty avalanches have just buried themselves and +disappeared. + +In crossing this white level, we have been tracking our way across an +invisible pond, which was alive last week with five hundred skaters. +Now there is a foot of snow upon it, through which there is a boyish +excitement in making the first path. Looking back upon our track, it +proves to be like all other human paths, straight in intention, but +slightly devious in deed. We have gay companions on our way; for a +breeze overtakes us, and a hundred little simooms of drift whirl along +beside us, and whelm in miniature burial whole caravans of dry leaves. +Here, too, our track intersects with that of some previous passer; he +has but just gone on, judging by the freshness of the trail, and we can +study his character and purposes. The large boots betoken a wood-man or +ice-man: yet such a one would hardly have stepped so irresolutely where +a little film of water has spread between the ice and snow and given a +look of insecurity; and here again he has stopped to observe the wreaths +on this pendent bough, and this snow-filled bird's-nest. And there the +footsteps of the lover of beauty turn abruptly to the road again, and he +vanishes from us forever. + +As we wander on through the wood, all the labyrinths of summer are +buried beneath one white inviting pathway, and the pledge of perfect +loneliness is given by the unbroken surface of the all-revealing snow. +There appears nothing living except a downy woodpecker, whirling round +and round upon a young beech-stem, and a few sparrows, plump with +grass-seed and hurrying with jerking flight down the sunny glade. But +the trees furnish society enough. What a congress of ermined kings is +this circle of hemlocks, which stand, white in their soft raiment, +around the daïs of this woodland pond! Are they held here, like the +sovereigns in the palace of the Sleeping Beauty, till some mortal breaks +their spell? What sage counsels must be theirs, as they nod their weary +heads and whisper ghostly memories and old men's tales to each other, +while the red leaves dance on the snowy sward below, or a fox or +squirrel steals hurriedly through the wild and wintry night! Here and +there is some discrowned Lear, who has thrown off his regal mantle, and +stands in faded russet, misplaced among the monarchs. + +What a simple and stately hospitality is that of Nature in winter! The +season which the residents of cities think an obstruction is in the +country an extension of intercourse: it opens every forest from here +to Labrador, free of entrance; the most tangled thicket, the most +treacherous marsh becomes passable; and the lumberer or moose-hunter, +mounted on his snow-shoes, has the world before him. He says "good +snow-shoeing," as we say "good sleighing"; and it gives a sensation like +a first visit to the sea-side and the shipping, when one first sees +exhibited, in the streets of Bangor or Montreal, these delicate Indian +conveyances. It seems as if a new element were suddenly opened for +travel, and all due facilities provided. One expects to go a little +farther, and see in the shop-windows, "Wings for sale,--gentlemen's and +ladies' sizes." The snow-shoe and the birch-canoe,--what other dying +race ever left behind it two memorials so perfect and so graceful? + +The shadows thrown by the trees upon the snow are blue and soft, sharply +defined, and so contrasted with the gleaming white as to appear narrower +than the boughs which cast them. There is something subtle and fantastic +about these shadows. Here is a leafless larch-sapling, eight feet high. +The image of the lower boughs is traced upon the snow, distinct and firm +as cordage, while the higher ones grow dimmer by fine gradations, until +the slender topmost twig is blurred and almost effaced. But the denser +upper spire of the young spruce by its side throws almost as distinct a +shadow as its base, and the whole figure looks of a more solid texture, +as if you could feel it with your hand. More beautiful than either is +the fine image of this baby hemlock: each delicate leaf droops above as +delicate a copy, and here and there the shadow and the substance kiss +and frolic with each other in the downy snow. + +The larger larches have a different plaything: on the bare branches, +thickly studded with buds, cling airily the small, light cones of last +year's growth, each crowned, with a little ball of soft snow, four times +taller than itself,--save where some have drooped sideways, so that +each carries, poor weary Atlas, a sphere upon its back. Thus the coy +creatures play cup and ball, and one has lost its plaything yonder, as +the branch slightly stirs, and the whole vanishes in a whirl of snow. +Meanwhile a fragment of low arbor-vitae hedge, poor outpost of a +neighboring plantation, is so covered and packed with solid drift, +inside and out, that it seems as if no power of sunshine could ever +steal in among its twigs and disentangle it. + +In winter each separate object interests us; in summer, the mass. +Natural beauty in winter is a poor man's luxury, infinitely enhanced in +quality by the diminution in quantity. Winter, with fewer and simpler +methods, yet seems to give all her works a finish even more delicate +than that of summer, working, as Emerson says of English agriculture, +with a pencil, instead of a plough. Or rather, the ploughshare is but +concealed; since a pithy old English preacher has said that, "the frost +is God's plough, which He drives through every inch of ground in the +world, opening each clod, and pulverizing the whole." + +Coming out upon a high hill-side, more exposed to the direct fury of the +sleet, we find Nature wearing a wilder look. Every white-birch clump +around us is bent divergingly to the ground, each white form prostrated +in mute despair upon the whiter bank. The bare, writhing branches of +yonder sombre oak-grove are steeped in snow, and in the misty air they +look so remote and foreign that there is not a wild creature of the +Norse mythology who might not stalk from beneath their haunted branches. +Buried races, Teutons and Cimbri, might tramp solemnly forth from those +weird arcades. The soft pines on this nearer knoll seem separated from +them by ages and generations. On the farther hills spread woods of +smaller growth, like forests of spun glass, jewelry by the acre provided +for this coronation of winter. + +We descend a steep bank, little pellets of snow rolling hastily beside +us, and leaving enamelled furrows behind. Entering the sheltered and +sunny glade, we are assailed by a sudden warmth whose languor is almost +oppressive. Wherever the sun strikes upon the pines and hemlocks, +there is a household gleam which gives a more vivid sensation than +the diffused brilliancy of summer. The sunbeams maintain a thousand +secondary fires in the reflection of light from every tree and stalk, +for the preservation of animal life and the ultimate melting of these +accumulated drifts. Around each trunk or stone the snow has melted and +fallen back. It is a singular fact, established beyond doubt by science, +that the snow is absolutely less influenced by the direct rays of the +sun than by these reflections. "If a blackened card is placed upon the +snow or ice in the sunshine, the frozen mass underneath it will be +gradually thawed, while that by which it is surrounded, though exposed +to the full power of solar heat, is but little disturbed. If, however, +we reflect the sun's rays from a metal surface, an exactly contrary +result takes place: the uncovered parts are the first to melt, and the +blackened card stands high above the surrounding portion." Look round +upon this buried meadow, and you will see emerging through the white +surface a thousand stalks of grass, sedge, osmunda, golden-rod, mullein, +Saint-John's-wort, plaintain, and eupatorium,--an allied army of the +sun, keeping up a perpetual volley of innumerable rays upon the yielding +snow. + +It is their last dying service. We misplace our tenderness in winter, +and look with pity upon the leafless trees. But there is no tragedy +in the trees: each is not dead, but sleepeth; and each bears a future +summer of buds safe nestled on its bosom, as a mother reposes with her +baby at her breast. The same security of life pervades every woody +shrub: the alder and the birch have their catkins all ready for the +first day of spring, and the sweet-fern has even now filled with +fragrance its folded blossom. Winter is no such solid bar between season +and season as we fancy, but only a slight check and interruption: one +may at any time produce these March blossoms by bringing the buds into +the warm house; and the petals of the May-flower sometimes show their +pink and white edges in autumn. But every grass-blade and flower-stalk +is a mausoleum of vanished summer, itself crumbling to dust, never to +rise again. Each child of June, scarce distinguishable in November +against the background of moss and rocks and bushes, is brought into +final prominence in December by the white snow which imbeds it. The +delicate flakes collapse and fall back around it, but they retain their +inexorable hold. Thus delicate is the action of Nature,--a finger of +air, and a grasp of iron. + +We pass the old red foundry, banked in with snow and its low eaves +draped with icicles, and come to the brook which turns its resounding +wheel. The musical motion of the water seems almost unnatural amidst +the general stillness: brooks, like men, must keep themselves warm by +exercise. The overhanging rushes and alder-sprays, weary of winter's +sameness, have made for themselves playthings,--each dangling a crystal +knob of ice, which sways gently in the water and gleams ruddy in the +sunlight. As we approach the foaming cascade, the toys become larger and +more glittering, movable stalactites, which the water tosses merrily +upon their flexible stems. The torrent pours down beneath an enamelled +mask of ice, wreathed and convoluted like a brain, and sparkling +with gorgeous glow. Tremulous motions and glimmerings go through the +translucent veil, as if it throbbed with the throbbing wave beneath. +It holds in its mazes stray bits of color,--scarlet berries, evergreen +sprigs, blue raspberry-stems, and sprays of yellow willow; glittering +necklaces and wreaths and tiaras of brilliant ice-work cling and trail +around its edges, and no regal palace shines with such carcanets of +jewels as this winter ball-room of the dancing drops. + +Above, the brook becomes a smooth black canal between two steep white +banks; and the glassy water seems momentarily stiffening into the +solider blackness of ice. Here and there thin films are already formed +over it, and are being constantly broken apart by the treacherous +current; a flake a foot square is jerked away and goes sliding beneath +the slight transparent surface till it reappears below. The same thing, +on a larger scale, helps to form the mighty ice-pack of the Northern +seas. Nothing except ice is capable of combining, on the largest scale, +bulk with mobility, and this imparts a dignity to its motions even on +the smallest scale. I do not believe that anything in Behring's Straits +could impress me with a grander sense of desolation or of power than +when in boyhood I watched the ice break up in the winding channel of +Charles River. + +Amidst so much that seems like death, let us turn and study the life. +There is much more to be seen in winter than most of us have ever +noticed. Far in the North the "moose-yards" are crowded and trampled, at +this season, and the wolf and the deer run noiselessly a deadly race, +as I have heard the hunters describe, upon the white surface of the +gleaming lake. But the pond beneath our feet keeps its stores of life +chiefly below its level platform, as the bright fishes in the basket of +yon heavy-booted fisherman can tell. Yet the scattered tracks of mink +and musk-rat beside the banks, of meadow-mice around the hay-stacks, of +squirrels under the trees, of rabbits and partridges in the wood, show +the warm life that is beating unseen, beneath fur or feathers, close +beside us. The chicadees are chattering merrily in the upland grove, the +blue-jays scream in the hemlock glade, the snow-bird mates the snow with +its whiteness, and the robin contrasts with it his still ruddy breast. +The weird and impenetrable crows, most talkative of birds and most +uncommunicative, their very food at this season a mystery, are almost as +numerous now as in summer. They always seem like some race of banished +goblins, doing penance for some primeval and inscrutable transgression, +and if any bird have a history, it is they. In the Spanish version of +the tradition of King Arthur it is said that he fled from the weeping +queens and the island valley of Avilion in the form of a crow; and hence +it is said in "Don Quixote" that no Englishman will ever kill one. + +The traces of the insects in the winter are prophetic,--from the +delicate cocoon of some infinitesimal feathery thing which hangs upon +the dry, starry calyx of the aster, to the large brown-paper parcel +which hides in peasant garb the costly beauty of some gorgeous moth. But +the hints of birds are retrospective. In each tree of this pasture, the +very pasture where last spring we looked for nests and found them not +among the deceitful foliage, the fragile domiciles now stand revealed. +But where are the birds that filled them? Could the airy creatures +nurtured in those nests have left permanently traced upon the air behind +them their own bright summer flight, the whole atmosphere would be +filled with interlacing lines and curves of gorgeous coloring, the +centre of all being this forsaken bird's-nest filled with snow. + +Among the many birds which winter here, and the many insects which are +called forth by a few days of thaw, not a few must die of cold or of +fatigue amid the storms. Yet how few traces one sees of this mortality! +Provision is made for it. Yonder a dead wasp has fallen on the snow, and +the warmth of its body, or its power of reflecting a few small rays +of light, is melting its little grave beneath it. With what a cleanly +purity does Nature strive to withdraw all unsightly objects into her +cemetery! Their own weight and lingering warmth take them through air +or water, snow or ice, to the level of the earth, and there with spring +comes an army of burying-insects, _Necrophagi_, in a livery of red and +black, to dig a grave beneath every one, and not a sparrow falleth to +the ground without knowledge. The tiny remains thus disappear from the +surface, and the dry leaves are soon spread above these Children in the +Wood. + +Thus varied and benignant are the aspects of winter on these sunny days. +But it is impossible to claim this weather as the only type of our +winter climate. There occasionally come days which, though perfectly +still and serene, suggest more terror than any tempest,--terrible, +clear, glaring days of pitiless cold,--when the sun seems powerless +or only a brighter moon, when the windows remain ground-glass at high +noontide, and when, on going out of doors, one is dazzled by the +brightness and fancies for a moment that it cannot be so cold as has +been reported, but presently discovers that the severity is only more +deadly for being so still. Exercise on such days seems to produce no +warmth; one's limbs appear ready to break on any sudden motion, like +icy boughs. Stage-drivers and dray-men are transformed to mere human +buffaloes by their fur coats; the patient oxen are frost-covered; the +horse that goes racing by waves a wreath of steam from his tossing head. +On such days life becomes a battle to all householders, the ordinary +apparatus for defence is insufficient, and the price of caloric is +continual vigilance. In innumerable armies the frost besieges the +portal, creeps in beneath it and above it, and on every latch and +key-handle lodges an advanced guard of white rime. Leave the door ajar +never so slightly and a chill creeps in cat-like; we are conscious by +the warmest fireside of the near vicinity of cold, its fingers are +feeling after us, and even if they do not clutch us, we know that they +are there. The sensations of such days almost make us associate their +clearness and whiteness with something malignant and evil. Charles Lamb +asserts of snow, "It glares too much for an innocent color, methinks." +Why does popular mythology associate the infernal regions with a high +temperature instead of a low one? El Aishi, the Arab writer, says of the +bleak wind of the Desert, (so writes Richardson, the African traveller,) +"The north wind blows with an intensity equalling _the cold of hell_; +language fails me to describe its rigorous temperature." Some have +thought that there is a similar allusion in the phrase, "weeping and +gnashing of teeth,"--the teeth chattering from frost. Milton also +enumerates cold as one of the torments of the lost:-- + + "O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp"; + +and one may sup full of horrors on the exceedingly cold collation +provided for the next world by the Norse Edda. + +But, after all, there are few such terrific periods in our Massachusetts +winters, and the appointed exit from their frigidity is usually through +a snow-storm. After a day of this severe sunshine there comes commonly +a darker day of cloud, still hard and forbidding, though milder in +promise, with a sky of lead, deepening near the horizon into darker +films of iron. Then, while all the nerves of the universe seem rigid and +tense, the first reluctant flake steals slowly down, like a tear. In a +few hours the whole atmosphere begins to relax once more, and in +our astonishing climate very possibly the snow changes to rain in +twenty-four hours, and a thaw sets in. It is not strange, therefore, +that snow, which to Southern races is typical of cold and terror, brings +associations of warmth and shelter to the children of the North. + +Snow, indeed, actually nourishes animal life. It holds in its bosom +numerous animalcules: you may have a glass of water, perfectly free from +_infusoria_, which yet, after your dissolving in it a handful of snow, +will show itself full of microscopic creatures, shrimp-like and swift; +and the famous red snow of the Arctic regions is only an exhibition of +the same property. It has sometimes been fancied that persons buried +under the snow have received sustenance through the pores of the skin, +like reptiles imbedded in rock. Elizabeth Woodcock lived eight days +beneath a snow-drift, in 1799, without eating a morsel; and a Swiss +family were buried beneath an avalanche, in a manger, for five months, +in 1755, with no food but a trifling store of chestnuts and a small +daily supply of milk from a goat which was buried with them. In neither +case was there extreme suffering from cold, and it is unquestionable +that the interior of a drift is far warmer than the surface. On the 23d +of December, 1860, at 9 P.M., I was surprised to observe drops falling +from the under side of a heavy bank of snow at the eaves, at a distance +from any chimney, while the mercury on the same side was only fifteen +degrees above zero, not having indeed risen above the point of freezing +during the whole day. + +Dr. Kane pays ample tribute to these kindly properties. "Few of us at +home can recognize the protecting value of this warm coverlet of snow. +No eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than +the sleeping-dress of winter about this feeble flower-life. The first +warm snows of August and September, falling on a thickly pleached carpet +of grasses, heaths, and willows, enshrine the flowery growths which +nestle round them in a non-conducting air-chamber; and as each +successive snow increases the thickness of the cover, we have, before +the intense cold of winter sets in, a light cellular bed covered by +drift, six, eight, or ten feet deep, in which the plant retains its +vitality. ... I have found in midwinter, in this high latitude of 78° +50', the surface so nearly moist as to be friable to the touch; and upon +the ice-floes, commencing with a surface-temperature of-30°, I found +at two feet deep a temperature of-8°, at four feet + 2°, and at eight +feet + 26°. ... The glacier which we became so familiar with afterwards +at Etah yields an uninterrupted stream throughout the year." And he +afterwards shows that even the varying texture and quality of the snow +deposited during the earlier and later portions of the Arctic winter +have their special adaptations to the welfare of the vegetation they +protect. + +The process of crystallization seems a microcosm of the universe. +Radiata, mollusca, feathers, flowers, ferns, mosses, palms, pines, +grain-fields, leaves of cedar, chestnut, elm, acanthus: these and +multitudes of other objects are figured on your frosty window; on +sixteen different panes I have counted sixteen patterns strikingly +distinct, and it appeared like a show-case for the globe. What can seem +remoter relatives than the star, the starfish, the star-flower, and the +starry snow-flake which clings this moment to your sleeve?--yet some +philosophers hold that one day their law of existence will be found +precisely the same. The connection with the primeval star, especially, +seems far and fanciful enough, but there are yet unexplored affinities +between light and crystallization: some crystals have a tendency to grow +toward the light, and others develop electricity and give out flashes of +light during their formation. Slight foundations for scientific fancies, +indeed, but slight is all our knowledge. + +More than a hundred different figures of snow-flakes, all regular and +kaleidoscopic, have been drawn by Scoresby, Lowe, and Glaisher, and may +be found pictured in the encyclopaedias and elsewhere, ranging from the +simplest stellar shapes to the most complicated ramifications. Professor +Tyndall, in his delightful book on "The Glaciers of the Alps," gives +drawings of a few of these snow-blossoms, which he watched falling for +hours, the whole air being filled with them, and drifts of several +inches being accumulated while he watched. "Let us imagine the eye +gifted with microscopic power sufficient to enable it to see the +molecules which composed these starry crystals; to observe the solid +nucleus formed and floating in the air; to see it drawing towards it its +allied atoms, and these arranging themselves as if they moved to music, +and ended with rendering that music concrete." Thus do the Alpine winds, +like Orpheus, build their walls by harmony. + +In some of these frost-flowers the rare and delicate blossom of our wild +_Mitella diphylla_ is beautifully figured. Snow-flakes have been also +found in the form of regular hexagons and other plane figures, as well +as in cylinders and spheres. As a general rule, the intenser the cold +the more perfect the formation, and the most perfect specimens are +Arctic or Alpine in their locality. In this climate the snow seldom +falls when the mercury is much below zero; but the slightest atmospheric +changes may alter the whole condition of the deposit, and decide whether +it shall sparkle like Italian marble, or be dead-white like the statuary +marble of Vermont,--whether it shall be a fine powder which can sift +through wherever dust can, or descend in large woolly masses, tossed +like mouthfuls to the hungry South. + +The most remarkable display of crystallization which I have ever seen +was on the 13th of January, 1859. There had been three days of unusual +cold, but during the night the weather had moderated, and the mercury in +the morning stood at + 14°. About two inches of snow had fallen, and the +trees appeared densely coated with it. It proved, on examination, that +every twig had on the leeward side a dense row of miniature fronds or +fern-leaves executed in snow, with a sharply defined central nerve, or +midrib, and perfect ramification, tapering to a point, and varying in +length from half an inch to three inches. On every post, every rail, and +the corners of every building, the same spectacle was seen; and where +the snow had accumulated in deep drifts, it was still made up of the +ruins of these fairy structures. The white, enamelled landscape was +beautiful, but a close view of the details was far more so. The +crystallizations were somewhat uniform in structure, yet suggested a +variety of natural objects, as feather-mosses, birds' feathers, and the +most delicate lace-corals, but the predominant analogy was with ferns. +Yet they seemed to assume a sort of fantastic kindred with the objects +to which they adhered: thus, on the leaves of spruce-trees and on +delicate lichens they seemed like reduplications of the original growth, +and they made the broad, fiat leaves of the arbor-vitae fully twice as +wide as before. But this fringe was always on one side only, except +when gathered upon dangling fragments of spider's web, or bits of stray +thread: these they entirely encircled, probably because these objects +had twirled in the light wind while the crystals were forming. Singular +disguises were produced: a bit of ragged rope appeared a piece of +twisted lace-work; a knot-hole in a board was adorned with a deep +antechamber of snowy wreaths; and the frozen body of a hairy caterpillar +became its own well-plumed hearse. The most peculiar circumstance was +the fact that single flakes never showed any regular crystallization: +the magic was in the combination; the under sides of rails and boards +exhibited it as unequivocally as the upper sides, indicating that the +phenomenon was created in the lower atmosphere, and was more akin to +frost than snow; and yet the largest snow-banks were composed of nothing +else, and seemed like heaps of blanched iron-filings. + +Interesting observations have been made on the relations between ice and +snow. The difference seems to lie only in the more or less compacted +arrangement of the frozen particles. Water and air, each being +transparent when separate, become opaque when intimately mingled; the +reason being that the inequalities of refraction break up and scatter +every ray of light. Thus, clouds cast a shadow; so does steam; so does +foam: and the same elements take a still denser texture when combined +as snow. Every snow-flake is permeated with minute airy chambers, among +which the light is bewildered and lost; while from perfectly hard and +transparent ice every trace of air disappears, and the transmission +of light is unbroken. Yet that same ice becomes white and opaque when +pulverized, its fragments being then intermingled with air again,--just +as colorless glass may be crushed into white powder. On the other +hand, Professor Tyndall has converted slabs of snow to ice by regular +pressure, and has shown that every Alpine glacier begins as a snow-drift +at its summit, and ends in a transparent ice-cavern below. "The blue +blocks which span the sources of the Arveiron were once powdery snow +upon the slopes of the Col du Géant." + +The varied and wonderful shapes assumed by snow and ice have been best +portrayed, perhaps, by Dr. Kane in his two works; but their resources of +color have been so explored by no one as by this same favored Professor +Tyndall, among his Alps. It appears that the tints which in temperate +regions are seen feebly and occasionally, in hollows or angles of fresh +drifts, become brilliant and constant above the line of perpetual snow, +and the higher the altitude the more lustrous the display. When a staff +was struck into the new-fallen drift, the hollow seemed instantly to +fill with a soft blue liquid, while the snow adhering to the staff took +a complementary color of pinkish yellow, and on moving it up and down +it was hard to resist the impression that a pink flame was rising and +sinking in the hole. The little natural furrows in the drifts appeared +faintly blue, the ridges were gray, while the parts most exposed to +view seemed least illuminated, and as if a light brown dust had been +sprinkled over them. The fresher the snow, the more marked the colors, +and it made no difference whether the sky were cloudless or foggy. Thus +was every white peak decked upon its brow with this tiara of ineffable +beauty. + +The impression is very general that the average quantity of snow has +greatly diminished in America; but it must be remembered that very +severe storms occur only at considerable intervals, and the Puritans did +not always, as boys fancy, step out of the upper windows upon the snow. +In 1717, the ground was covered from ten to twenty feet, indeed; but +during January, 1861, the snow was six feet on a level in many parts of +Maine and New Hampshire, and was probably drifted three times that depth +in particular spots. The greatest storm recorded in England, I believe, +is that of 1814, in which for forty-eight hours the snow fell so +furiously that drifts of sixteen, twenty, and even twenty-four feet were +recorded in various places. An inch an hour is thought to be the average +rate of deposit, though four inches are said to have fallen during the +severe storm of January 3d, 1859. When thus intensified, the "beautiful +meteor of the snow" begins to give a sensation of something formidable; +and when the mercury suddenly falls meanwhile, and the wind rises, there +are sometimes suggestions of such terror in a snowstorm as no summer +thunders can rival. The brief and singular tempest of February 7th, +1861, was a thing to be forever remembered by those who saw it, as I +did, over a wide plain. The sky suddenly appeared to open and let down +whole solid snow-banks at once, which were caught and torn to pieces by +the ravenous winds, and the traveller was instantaneously enveloped in +a whirling mass far denser than any fog; it was a tornado with snow +stirred into it. Standing in the middle of the road, with houses close +on every side, one could see absolutely nothing in any direction, one +could hear no sound but the storm. Every landmark vanished, and it was +no more possible to guess the points of the compass than in mid-ocean. +It was easy to conceive of being bewildered and overwhelmed within a rod +of one's own door. The tempest lasted only an hour; but if it had lasted +a week, we should have had such a storm as occurred on the steppes of +Kirgheez in Siberia, in 1827, destroying two hundred and eighty thousand +five hundred horses, thirty thousand four hundred cattle, a million +sheep, and ten thousand camels,--or as "the thirteen drifty days," +in 1620, which killed nine-tenths of all the sheep in the South of +Scotland. On Eskdale Moor, out of twenty thousand only forty-five were +left alive, and the shepherds everywhere built up huge semicircular +walls of the dead creatures, to afford shelter to the living, till the +gale should end. But the most remarkable narrative of a snowstorm which +I have ever seen was that written by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, +in record of one which took place January 24th, 1790. + +James Hogg at this time belonged to a sort of literary society of young +shepherds, and had set out, the day previous, to walk twenty miles over +the hills to the place of meeting; but so formidable was the look of the +sky that he felt anxious for his sheep, and finally turned back again. +There was at that time only a slight fall of snow, in thin flakes which +seemed uncertain whether to go up or down; the hills were covered with +deep folds of frost-fog, and in the valleys the same fog seemed dark, +dense, and as it were crushed together. An old shepherd, predicting a +storm, bade him watch for a sudden opening through this fog, and expect +a wind from that quarter; yet when he saw such an opening suddenly form +at midnight, (having then reached his own home,) he thought it all a +delusion, as the weather had grown milder and a thaw seemed setting in. +He therefore went to bed, and felt no more anxiety for his sheep; yet +he lay awake in spite of himself, and at two o'clock he heard the +storm begin. It smote the house suddenly, like a great peal of +thunder,--something utterly unlike any storm he had ever before heard. +On his rising and thrusting his bare arm through a hole in the roof, it +seemed precisely as if he had thrust it into a snow-bank, so densely was +the air filled with falling and driving particles. He lay still for an +hour, while the house rocked with the tempest, hoping it might prove +only a hurricane; but as there was no abatement, he wakened his +companion-shepherd, telling him "it was come on such a night or morning +as never blew from the heavens." The other at once arose, and, opening +the door of the shed where they slept, found a drift as high as the +farm-house already heaped between them and its walls, a distance of only +fourteen yards. He floundered through, Hogg soon following, and, finding +all the family up, they agreed that they must reach the sheep as soon as +possible, especially eight hundred ewes that were in one lot together, +at the farthest end of the farm. So, after family-prayers and breakfast, +four of them stuffed their pockets with bread and cheese, sewed their +plaids about them, tied down their hats, and, taking each his staff, set +out on their tremendous undertaking, two hours before day. + +Day dawned before they got three hundred yards from the house. +They could not see each other, and kept together with the greatest +difficulty. They had to make paths with their staves, rolled themselves +over drifts otherwise impassable, and every three or four minutes had to +hold their heads down between their knees to recover breath. They went +in single file, taking the lead by turns. The master soon gave out and +was speechless and semi-conscious for more than an hour, though he +afterwards recovered and held out with the rest. Two of them lost their +head-gear, and Hogg himself fell over a high precipice, but they reached +the flock at half-past ten. They found the ewes huddled together in a +dense body, under ten feet of snow,--packed so closely, that, to the +amazement of the shepherds, when they had extricated the first, the +whole flock walked out one after another, in a body, through the hole. + +How they got them home it is almost impossible, to tell. It was now +noon, and they sometimes could see through the storm for twenty yards, +but they had only one momentary glimpse of the hills through all that +terrible day. Yet Hogg persisted in going by himself afterwards to +rescue some flocks of his own, barely escaping with life from the +expedition; his eyes were sealed up with the storm, and he crossed a +formidable torrent, without knowing it, on a wreath of snow. Two of the +others lost themselves in a deep valley, and would have perished but +for being accidentally heard by a neighboring shepherd, who guided them +home, where the female portion of the family had abandoned all hope of +ever seeing them again. + +The next day was clear, with a cold wind, and they set forth again at +daybreak to seek the remainder of the flock. The face of the country +was perfectly transformed: not a hill was the same, not a brook or lake +could be recognized. Deep glens were filled in with snow, covering the +very tops of the trees; and over a hundred acres of ground, under an +average depth of six or eight feet, they were to look for four or five +hundred sheep. The attempt would have been hopeless but for a dog that +accompanied them: seeing their perplexity, he began snuffing about, and +presently scratching in the snow at a certain point, and then looking +round at his master: digging at this spot, they found a sheep beneath. +And so the dog led them all day, bounding eagerly from one place to +another, much faster than they could dig the creatures out, so that he +sometimes had twenty or thirty holes marked beforehand. In this way, +within a week, they got out every sheep on the farm except four, these +last being buried under a mountain of snow fifty feet deep, on the top +of which the dog had marked their places again and again. In every case +the sheep proved to be alive and warm, though half-suffocated; on being +taken out, they usually bounded away swiftly, and then fell helplessly +in a few moments, overcome by the change of atmosphere; some then died +almost instantly, and others were carried home and with difficulty +preserved, only about sixty being lost in all. Marvellous to tell, the +country-people unanimously agreed afterwards to refer the whole terrific +storm to some secret incantations of poor Hogg's literary society +aforesaid; it was generally maintained that a club of young dare-devils +had raised the Fiend himself among them in the likeness of a black dog, +the night preceding the storm, and the young students actually did not +dare to show themselves at fairs or at markets for a year afterwards. + +Snow-scenes less exciting, but more wild and dreary, may be found in +Alexander Henry's Travels with the Indians, in the last century. In the +winter of 1776, for instance, they wandered for many hundred miles over +the farthest northwestern prairies, where scarcely a white man had +before trodden. The snow lay from four to six feet deep. They went on +snow-shoes, drawing their stores on sleds. The mercury was sometimes +-32°; no fire could keep them warm at night, and often they had no fire, +being scarcely able to find wood enough to melt the snow for drink. They +lay beneath buffalo-skins and the stripped bark of trees: a foot of snow +sometimes fell on them before morning. The sun rose at half past nine +and set at half past two. "The country was one uninterrupted plain, in +many parts of which no wood nor even the smallest shrub was to be seen: +a frozen, sea, of which the little coppices were the islands. That +behind which we had encamped the night before soon sank in the horizon, +and the eye had nothing left save only the sky and snow." Fancy them +encamped by night, seeking shelter in a scanty grove from a wild tempest +of snow; then suddenly charged upon by a herd of buffaloes, thronging in +from all sides of the wood to take shelter likewise,--the dogs barking, +the Indians firing, and still the bewildered beasts rushing madly +in, blinded by the storm, fearing the guns within less than the fury +without, crashing through the trees, trampling over the tents, and +falling about in the deep and dreary snow! No other writer has ever +given us the full desolation of Indian winter-life. Whole families, +Henry said, frequently perished together in such storms. No wonder that +the Aboriginal legends are full of "mighty Peboan, the Winter," and of +Kabibonokka a his lodge of snow-drifts. + +The interest inspired by these simple narratives suggests the +reflection, that literature, which has thus far portrayed so few aspects +of external Nature, has described almost nothing of winter beauty. +In English books, especially, this season is simply forlorn and +disagreeable, dark and dismal. + + "And foul and fierce + All winter drives along the darkened air." + + "When dark December shrouds the transient + day, + And stormy winds are howling in their + ire, + Why com'st not thou?. ... Oh, haste to pay + The cordial visit sullen hours require!" + + "Winter will oft at eve resume the breeze, + Chill the pale morn, and bid his driving + blasts + Deform the day delightless." + + "Now that the fields are dank and ways are + mire, + With whom you might converse, and by the + fire + Help waste the sullen day." + +But our prevalent association with winter, in the Northern United +States, is with something white and dazzling and brilliant; and it is +time to paint our own pictures, and cease to borrow these gloomy alien +tints. One must turn eagerly every season to the few glimpses of +American winter aspects: to Emerson's "Snow-Storm," every word a +sculpture,--to the admirable storm in "Margaret,"--to Thoreau's "Winter +Walk," in the "Dial,"--and to Lowell's "First Snow-Flake." These are +fresh and real pictures, which carry us back to the Greek Anthology, +where the herds come wandering down from the wooded mountains, covered +with snow, and to Homer's aged Ulysses, his wise words falling like the +snows of winter. + +Let me add to this scanty gallery of snow-pictures the quaint lore +contained in one of the multitudinous sermons of Increase Mather, +printed in 1704, entitled "A Brief Discourse concerning the Prayse +due to God for His Mercy in giving Snow like Wool." One can fancy +the delight of the oppressed Puritan boys, in the days of the +nineteenthlies, driven to the place of worship by the tithing-men, +and cooped up on the pulpit-and gallery-stairs under charge of +the constables, at hearing for once a discourse which they could +understand,--snow-balling spiritualized. This was not one of Emerson's +terrible examples,--"the storm real, and the preacher only phenomenal"; +but this setting of snow-drifts, which in our winters lends such grace +to every stern rock and rugged tree, throws a charm even around the grim +theology of the Mathers. Three main propositions, seven subdivisions, +four applications, and four uses, but the wreaths and the gracefulness +are cast about them all,--while the wonderful commonplace-books of those +days, which held everything, had accumulated scraps of winter learning +which cannot be spared from these less abstruse pages. + +Beginning first at the foundation, the preacher must prove, "Prop. I. +_That the Snow is fitly resembled to Wool_. Snow like Wool, sayes the +Psalmist. And not only the Sacred Writers, but others make use of this +Comparison. The Grecians of old were wont to call the Snow, ERIODES +HUDOR _Wooly Water_, or wet Wool. The Latin word _Floccus_ signifies +both a Lock of Wool and a Flake of Snow, in that they resemble one +another. The aptness of the similitude appears in three things." "1. In +respect of the Whiteness thereof." "2. In respect of Softness." "3. In +respect of that Warming Vertue that does attend the Snow." [Here the +reasoning must not be omitted.] "Wool is warm. We say, _As warm as +Wool_. Woolen-cloth has a greater warmth than other Cloathing has. The +wool on Sheep keeps them warm in the Winter season. So when the back of +the Ground is covered with Snow, it keeps it warm. Some mention it as +one of the wonders of the Snow, that tho' it is itself cold, yet it +makes the Earth warm. But Naturalists observe that there is a saline +spirit in it, which is hot, by means whereof Plants under the Snow are +kept from freezing. Ice under the Snow is sooner melted and broken than +other Ice. In some Northern Climates, the wild barbarous People use to +cover themselves over with it to keep them warm. When the sharp Air has +begun to freeze a man's Limbs, Snow will bring heat into them again. If +persons Eat much Snow, or drink immoderately of Snow-water, it will burn +their Bowels and make them black. So that it has a warming vertue in it, +and is therefore fitly compared to Wool." + +Snow has many merits. "In _Lapland_, where there is little or no light +of the sun in the depth of Winter, there are great Snows continually on +the ground, and by the Light of that they are able to Travel from one +place to another... At this day in some hot Countreys, they have their +Snow-cellars, where it is kept in Summer, and if moderately used, is +known to be both refreshing and healthful. There are also Medicinal +Vertues in the snow. A late Learned Physician has found that a Salt +extracted out of snow is a sovereign Remedy against both putrid and +pestilential Feavors. Therefore Men should Praise God, who giveth Snow +like Wool." But there is an account against the snow, also. "Not only +the disease called _Bulimia_, but others more fatal have come out of the +Snow. _Geographers_ give us to understand that in some Countries Vapours +from the Snow have killed multitudes in less than a Quarter of an Hour. +Sometimes both Men and Beasts have been destroyed thereby. Writers speak +of no less than Forty Thousand men killed by a great Snow in one Day." + +It gives a touching sense of human sympathy, to find that we may look at +Orion and the Pleiades through the grave eyes of a Puritan divine. "The +_Seven Stars_ are the Summer Constellation: they bring on the spring +and summer; and _Orion_ is a Winter Constellation, which is attended +with snow and cold, as at this Day.... Moreover, Late _Philosophers_ by +the help of the _Microscope_ have observed the wonderful Wisdom of God +in the Figure of the Snow; each flake is usually of a _Stellate_ Form, +and of six Angles of exact equal length from the Center. It is _like a +little Star_. A great man speaks of it with admiration, that in a Body +so familiar as the Snow is, no Philosopher should for many Ages take +notice of a thing so obvious as the Figure of it. The learned _Kepler_, +who lived in this last Age, is acknowledged to be the first that +acquainted the world with the Sexangular Figure of the Snow." + +Then come the devout applications. "There is not a Flake of Snow that +falls on the Ground without the hand of God, Mat. 10. 29. 30. Not a +Sparrow falls to the Ground, without the Will of your Heavenly Father, +all the Hairs of your head are numbred. So the Great God has numbred all +the Flakes of Snow that covers the Earth. Altho' no man can number them, +that God that tells the number of the Stars has numbred them all.... We +often see it, when the Ground is bare, if God speaks the word, the Earth +is covered with snow in a few Minutes' time. Here is the power of the +Great God. If all the Princes and Great Ones of the Earth should send +their Commands to the Clouds, not a Flake of snow would come from +thence." + +Then follow the "uses," at last,--the little boys in the congregation +having grown uneasy long since, at hearing so much theorizing about +snow-drifts, with so little opportunity of personal practice. "Use I. If +we should Praise God for His giving Snow, surely then we ought to Praise +Him for Spiritual Blessings much more." "Use II. We should Humble our +selves under the Hand of God, when Snow in the season of it is +witheld from us." "Use III. Hence all Atheists will be left Eternally +Inexcusable." "Use IV. We should hence Learn to make a Spiritual +Improvement of the Snow." And then with a closing volley of every text +winch figures under the head of "Snow" in the Concordance, the discourse +comes to an end; and every liberated urchin goes home with his head full +of devout fancies of building a snow-fort, after sunset, from which to +propel consecrated missiles against imaginary or traditional Pequots. + +And the patient reader, too long snow-bound, must be liberated also. +After the winters of deepest drifts the spring often comes most +suddenly; there is little frost in the ground, and the liberated waters, +free without the expected freshet, are filtered into the earth, or climb +on ladders of sunbeams to the sky. The beautiful crystals all melt away, +and the places where they lay are silently made ready to be submerged +in new drifts of summer verdure. These also will be transmuted in their +turn, and so the eternal cycle of the seasons glides along. + +Near my house there is a garden, beneath whose stately sycamores a +fountain plays. Three sculptured girls lift forever upward a chalice +which distils unceasingly a fine and plashing rain; in summer the spray +holds the maidens in a glittering veil, but winter takes the radiant +drops and slowly builds them up into a shroud of ice which creeps +gradually about the three slight figures: the feet vanish, the waist is +encircled, the head is covered, the piteous uplifted arms disappear, as +if each were a Vestal Virgin entombed alive for her transgression. They +vanishing entirely, the fountain yet plays on unseen; all winter the +pile of ice grows larger, glittering organ-pipes of congelation add +themselves outside, and by February a great glacier is formed, at whose +buried centre stand immovably the patient girls. Spring comes at +last, the fated prince, to free with glittering spear these enchanted +beauties; the waning glacier, slowly receding, lies conquered before +their liberated feet; and still the fountain plays. Who can despair +before the iciest human life, when its unconscious symbols are so +beautiful? + + + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +PART V. + + +There was a dull smell of camphor; a further sense of coolness and +prickling wet on Holmes's hot, cracking face and hands; then silence and +sleep again. Sometime--when, he never knew--a gray light stinging his +eyes like pain, and again a slow sinking into warm, unsounded darkness +and unconsciousness. It might be years, it might be ages. Even in +after-life, looking back, he never broke that time into weeks or days: +people might so divide it for him, but he was uncertain, always: it was +a vague vacuum in his memory: he had drifted out of coarse, measured +life into some out-coast of eternity, and slept in its calm. When, by +long degrees, the shock of outer life jarred and woke him, it was feebly +done: he came back reluctant, weak: the quiet clinging to him, as if he +had been drowned in Lethe, and had brought its calming mist with him, +out of the shades. + +The low chatter of voices, the occasional lifting of his head on the +pillow, the very soothing draught, came to him, unreal at first: parts +only of the dull, lifeless pleasure. There was a sharper memory pierced +it sometimes, making him moan and try to sleep,--a remembrance of great, +cleaving pain, of falling giddily, of owing life to some one, and being +angry that he owed it, in the pain. Was it he that had borne it? He did +not know,--nor care: it made him tired to think. Even when he heard the +name Stephen Holmes, it had but a far-off meaning: he never woke enough +to know if it were his or not. He learned, long after, to watch the red +light curling among the shavings in the grate when they made a fire in +the evenings, to listen to the voices of the women by the bed, to know +that the pleasantest belonged to the one with the low, shapeless figure, +and to call her Lois when he wanted a drink, long before he knew +himself. + +They were very long, pleasant days in early December. The sunshine +was pale, but it suited his hurt eyes better: it crept slowly in the +mornings over the snuff-colored carpet on the floor, up the brown +foot-board of the bed, and, when the wind shook the window-curtains, +made little crimson pools of mottled light over the ceiling,--curdling +pools, that he liked to watch: going off, from the clean gray walls and +rustling curtain and transparent crimson, into sleeps that lasted all +day. + +He was not conscious how he knew he was in a hospital: but he did know +it, vaguely; thought sometimes of the long halls outside of the door +with ranges of rooms opening into them, like this, and of very barns of +rooms on the other side of the building with rows of white cots where +the poor patients lay: a stretch of travel from which his brain came +back to his snug fireplace, quite tired, and to Lois sitting knitting by +it. He called the little Welsh-woman, "Sister," too, who used to come in +a stuff dress, and white bands about her face, to give his medicine and +gossip with Lois in the evening: she had a comical voice, like a cricket +chirping. There was another with a real Scotch brogue, who came and +listened sometimes, bringing a basket of undarned stockings: the doctor +told him one day how fearless and skilful she was, every summer going to +New Orleans when the yellow fever came. She died there the next June: +but Holmes never, somehow, could realize a martyr in the cheery, +freckled-faced woman whom he always remembered darning stockings in the +quiet fire-light. It was very quiet; the voices about him were pleasant +and low. If he had drifted from any shock of pain into a sleep like +death, some of the stillness hung about him yet; but the outer life was +homely and fresh and natural. + +The doctor used to talk to him a little; and sometimes one or two of +the patients from the eye-ward would grow tired of sitting about in the +garden-alleys, and would loiter in, if Lois would give them leave; but +their talk wearied him, jarred him as strangely as if one had begun on +politics and price-currents to the silent souls in Hades. It was enough +thought for him to listen to the whispered stories of the sisters in the +long evenings, and, half-heard, try and make an end to them; to look +drowsily down into the garden, where the afternoon sunshine was still so +summer-like that a few hollyhocks persisted in showing their honest red +faces along the walls, and the very leaves that filled the paths would +not wither, but kept up a wholesome ruddy brown. One of the sisters had +a poultry-yard in it, which he could see: the wall around it was of +stone covered with a brown feathery lichen, which every rooster in that +yard was determined to stand on, or perish in the attempt; and Holmes +would watch, through the quiet, bright mornings, the frantic ambition +and the uproarious exultation of the successful aspirant with an amused +smile. + +"One'd thenk," said Lois, sagely, "a chicken never stood on a wall +before, to hear 'em, or a hen laid an egg." + +Nor did Holmes smile once because the chicken burlesqued man: his +thought was too single for that yet. It was long before he thought of +the people who came in quietly to see him as anything but shadows, or +wished for them to come again. Lois, perhaps, was the most real thing in +life then to him: growing conscious, day by day, as he watched her, of +his old life over the gulf. Very slowly conscious: with a weak groping +to comprehend the sudden, awful change that had come on him, and then +forgetting his old life, and the change, and the pity he felt for +himself, in the vague content of the fire-lit room, and his nurse with +her interminable knitting through the long afternoons, while the sky +without would thicken and gray and a few still flakes of snow would come +drifting down to whiten the brown fields,--with no chilly thought of +winter, but only to make the quiet autumn more quiet. Whatever honest, +commonplace affection was in the man came out in a simple way to this +Lois, who ruled his sick whims and crotchets in such a quiet, sturdy +way. Not because she had risked her life to save his; even when he +understood that, he recalled it with an uneasy, heavy gratitude; but the +drinks she made him, and the plot they laid to smuggle in some oysters +in defiance of all rules, and the cheerful pock-marked face he never +forgot. + +Doctor Knowles came sometimes, but seldom: never talked, when he did +come: late in the evening generally: and then would punch his skin, and +look at his tongue, and shake the bottles on the mantel-shelf with a +grunt that terrified Lois into the belief that the other doctor was a +quack, and her patient was totally undone. He would sit, grim enough, +with his feet higher than his head, chewing an unlighted cigar, and +leave them both thankful when he saw proper to go. + +The truth is, Knowles was thoroughly out of place in these little +mending-shops called sick-chambers, where bodies are taken to pieces, +and souls set right. He had no faith in your slow, impalpable cures: +all reforms were to be accomplished by a wrench, from the abolition of +slavery to the pulling of a tooth. + +He had no especial sympathy with Holmes, either: the men were started +in life from opposite poles: and with all the real tenderness under +his surly, rugged habit, it would have been hard to touch him with the +sudden doom fallen on this man, thrown crippled and penniless upon the +world, helpless, it might be, for life. He would have been apt to tell +you, savagely, that "he wrought for it." + +Besides, it made him out of temper to meet the sisters. Knowles could +have sketched for you with a fine decision of touch the _rôle_ played +by the Papal power in the progress of humanity,--how jar it served as a +stepping-stone, and the exact period when it became a wearisome clog. +The world was done with it now, utterly. Its breath was only poisoned, +with coming death. So the homely live charity of these women, their +work, which, no other hands were ready to take, jarred against his +abstract theory, and irritated him, as an obstinate fact always does run +into the hand of a man who is determined to clutch the very heart of a +matter. Truth will not underlie all facts, in this muddle of a world, in +spite of the positive philosophers, you know. + +Don't sneer at Knowles. Your own clear, tolerant brain, that reflects +all men and creeds alike, like colorless water, drawing the truth from +all, is very different, doubtless, from this narrow, solitary soul, who +thought the world waited for him to fight down his one evil before it +went on its slow way. An intolerant fanatic, of course. But the truth he +did know was so terribly real to him, he had suffered from the evil, and +there was such sick, throbbing pity in his heart for men who suffered as +he had done! And then, fanatics must make history for conservative men +to learn from, I suppose. + +If Knowles shunned the hospital, there was another place he shunned +more,--the place where his communist buildings were to have stood. He +went out there once, as one might go alone to bury his dead out of his +sight, the day after the mill was burnt,--looking first at the smoking +mass of hot bricks and charred shingles, so as clearly to understand how +utterly dead his life-long scheme was. He stalked gravely around it, +his hands in his pockets; the hodmen who were raking out their winter's +firewood from the ashes remarking, that "old Knowles didn't seem a bit +cut up about it." Then he went out to the farm he had meant to buy, as I +told you, and looked at it in the same stolid way. It was a dull day in +October. The Wabash crawled moodily past his feet, the dingy prairie +stretched drearily away on the other side, while the heavy-browed +Indiana hills stood solemnly looking down the plateau where the +buildings were to have risen. + +Well, most men have some plan for life, into which all the strength and +the keen, fine feeling of their nature enter; but generally they try to +make it real in early youth, and, balked then, laugh ever afterwards at +their own folly. This poor old Knowles had begun to block out his dream +when he was a gaunt, gray-haired man of sixty. I have known men so build +their heart's blood and brains into their work, that, when it tumbled +down, their lives went with it. His fell that dull day in October; but +if it hurt him, no man knew it. He sat there, looking at the broad +plateau, whistling softly to himself, a long time. He had meant that +a great many hearts should be made better and happier there; he had +dreamed----God knows what he had dreamed, of which this reality was the +foundation,--of how much freedom, or beauty, or kindly life this was the +heart or seed. It was all over now. All the afternoon the muddy sky hung +low over the hills and dull prairie, while he sat there looking at the +dingy gloom: just as you and I have done, perhaps, some time, thwarted +in some true hope,--sore and bitter against God, because He did not see +how much His universe needed our pet reform. + +He got up at last, and without a sigh went slowly away, leaving the +courage and self-reliance of his life behind him, buried with that one +beautiful, fair dream of life. He never came back again. People said +Knowles was quieter since his loss; but I think only God saw the depth +of the difference. When he was leaving the plateau, that day, he looked +back at it, as if to say good-bye,--not to the dingy fields and river, +but to the Something he had nursed so long in his rugged heart, and +given up now forever. As he looked, the warm, red sun came out, lighting +up with a heartsome warmth the whole gray day. Some blessing power +seemed to look at him from the gloomy hills, the prairie, and the river, +which he was to see again. His hope accomplished could not have looked +at him with surer content and fulfilment. He turned away, ungrateful and +moody. Long afterwards he remembered the calm and brightness which his +hand had not been raised to make, and understood the meaning of its +promise. + +He went to work now in earnest: he had to work for his bread-and-butter, +you understand? Restless, impatient at first; but we will forgive him +that: you yourself were not altogether submissive, perhaps, when the +slow-built hope of life was destroyed by some chance, as you called it, +no more controllable than this paltry burning of a mill. Yet, now that +the great hope was gone on which his brain had worked with rigid, fierce +intentness, now that his hands were powerless to redeem a perishing +class, he had time to fall into careless, kindly habit: he thought it +wasted time, remorsefully, of course. He was seized with a curiosity to +know what plan in living these people had who crossed his way on the +streets; if they were disappointed, like him. He went sometimes to read +the papers to old Tim Poole, who was bed-ridden, and did not pish or +pshaw once at his maundering about secession or the misery in his back. +Went to church sometimes: the sermons were bigotry, always, to his +notion, sitting on a back seat, squirting tobacco-juice about him; but +the simple, old-fashioned hymns brought the tears to his eyes:--"They +sounded to him like his mother's voice, singing in paradise: he hoped +she could not see how things had gone on here,--how all that was honest +and strong in his life had fallen in that infernal mill." Once or twice +he went down Crane Alley, and lumbered up three pair of stairs to the +garret where Kitts had his studio,--got him orders, in fact, for two +portraits; and when that pale-eyed young man, in a fit of confidence, +one night, with a very red face drew back the curtain from his grand +"Fall of Chapultepec," and watched him with a lean and hungry look, +Knowles, who knew no more about painting than a gorilla, walked about, +looking through his fist at it, saying, "how fine the _chiaroscuro_ was, +and that it was a devilish good thing altogether." "Well, well," he +soothed his conscience, going down-stairs, "maybe that bit of canvas is +as much to that poor chap as the phalanstery was once to another fool." +And so went on through the gas-lit streets into his parishes in cellars +and alleys, with a sorer heart, but cheerfuller words, now that he had +nothing but words to give. + +The only place where he hardened his heart was in the hospital with +Holmes. After he had wakened to full consciousness, Knowles thought the +man a beast to sit there uncomplaining day after day, cold and grave, +as if the lifeful warmth of the late autumn were enough for him. Did +he understand the iron fate laid on him? Where was the strength of the +self-existent soul now? Did he know that it was a balked, defeated +life, that waited for him, vacant of the triumphs he had planned? "The +self-existent soul! stopped in its growth by chance, this omnipotent +deity,--the chance burning of a mill!" Knowles muttered to himself, +looking at Holmes. With a dim flash of doubt, as he said it, whether +there might not, after all, be a Something,--some deep of calm, of +eternal order, where these coarse chances, these wrestling souls, these +creeds, Catholic or Humanitarian, even that namby-pamby Kitts and his +picture, might be unconsciously working out their part. Looking out +of the hospital-window, he saw the deep of the stainless blue, +impenetrable, with the stars unconscious in their silence of the maddest +raging of the petty world. There was such calm! such infinite love and +justice! it was around, above him; it held him, it held the world,--all +Wrong, all Right! For an instant the turbid heart of the man cowered, +awe-struck, as yours or mine has done when some swift touch of music or +human love gave us a cleaving glimpse of the great I AM. The next, he +opened the newspaper in his hand. What part in the eternal order could +_that_ hold? or slavery, or secession, or civil war? No harmony could +be infinite enough to hold such discords, he thought, pushing the whole +matter from him in despair. Why, the experiment of self-government, the +problem of the ages, was crumbling in ruin! So he despaired just as Tige +did the night the mill fell about his ears, in full confidence that the +world had come to an end now, without hope of salvation,--crawling out +of his cellar in dumb amazement, when the sun rose as usual the next +morning. + +Knowles sat, peering at Holmes over his paper, watching the languid +breath that showed how deep the hurt had been, the maimed body, the face +outwardly cool, watchful, reticent as before. He fancied the slough of +disappointment into which God had crushed the soul of this man: would +he struggle out? Would he take Miss Herne as the first step in his +stairway, or be content to be flung down in vigorous manhood to the +depth of impotent poverty? He could not tell if the quiet on Holmes's +face were stolid defiance or submission: the dumb kings might have +looked thus beneath the feet of Pharaoh. When he walked over the floor, +too, weak as he was, it was with the old iron tread. He asked Knowles +presently what business he had gone into. + +"My old hobby in an humble way,--the House of Refuge." + +They both laughed. + +"Yes, it is true. The janitor points me out to visitors as +'under-superintendent, a philanthropist in decayed circumstances.' +Perhaps it is my life-work,"--growing sad and earnest. + +"If you can inoculate these infant beggars and thieves with your theory, +it will be practice when you are dead." + +"I think that," said Knowles, gravely, his eye kindling,--"I think +that." + +"As thankless a task as that of Moses," said the other, watching him +curiously. "For _you_ will not see the pleasant land,--_you_ will not go +over." + +The old man's flabby face darkened. + +"I know," he said. + +He glanced involuntarily out at the blue, and the clear-shining, eternal +stars. If he could but believe in the To-Morrow! + +"I suppose," he said, after a while, cheerfully, "I must content myself +with Lois's creed, here,--'It'll come right some time.'" + +Lois looked up from the saucepan she was stirring, her face growing +quite red, nodding emphatically some half-dozen times. + +"Do you find your fallow field easily worked?" + +Knowles fidgeted uneasily. + +"No. Fact is, I'm beginning to think there's a good deal of an obstacle +in blood. I find difficulty, much difficulty, Sir, in giving the +youngest child true ideas of absolute freedom and unselfish heroism." + +"You teach them by reason alone?" said Holmes, gravely. + +"Well,--of course,--that is the true theory; but I--I find it necessary +to have them whipped, Mr. Holmes." + +Holmes stooped suddenly to pat Tiger, hiding a furtive smile. The old +man went on, anxiously,-- + +"Old Mr. Howth says that is the end of all self-governments: from +anarchy to despotism, he says. Old people are apt to be set in their +ways, you know. Honestly, we do not find unlimited freedom answer in the +House. I hope much from a woman's assistance: I have destined her for +this work always: she has great latent power of sympathy and endurance, +such as can bring the Christian teaching home to these wretches." + +"The Christian?" said Holmes. + +"Well, yes. I am not a believer myself, you know; but I find that it +takes hold of these people more vitally than more abstract faiths: I +suppose because of the humanity of Jesus. In Utopia, of course, we shall +live from scientific principles; but they do not answer in the House." + +"Who is the woman?" asked Holmes, carelessly. + +The other watched him keenly. + +"She is coming for five years. Margaret Howth." + +He patted the dog with the same hard, unmoved touch. + +"It is a religious duty with her. Besides, she must do something. They +have been almost starving since the mill was burnt." + +Holmes's face was bent; he could not see it. When he looked up, Knowles +thought it more rigid, immovable than before. + +When Knowles was going away, Holmes said to him,-- + +"When does Margaret Howth go into that devils' den?" + +"The House? On New-Year's." The scorn in him was too savage to be +silent. "You will have fulfilled your design by that time,--of +marriage?" + +Holmes was leaning on the mantel-shelf; his very lips were pale. + +"Yes, I shall, I shall,"--in his low, hard tone. + +Some sudden dream of warmth and beauty flashed before his gray eyes, +lighting them as Knowles never had seen before. + +"Miss Herne is beautiful,--let me congratulate you in Western fashion." + +The old man did not hide his sneer. + +Holmes bowed. + +"I thank you, for her." + +Lois held the candle to light the Doctor out of the long passages. + +"Yoh hevn't seen Barney out 't Mr. Howth's, Doctor? He's ther' now." + +"No. When shall you have done waiting on this--man, Lois? God help you, +child!" + +Lois's quick instinct answered,-- + +"He's very kind. He's like a woman fur kindness to such as me. When I +come to die, I'd like eyes such as his to look at, tender, pitiful." + +"Women are fools alike," grumbled the Doctor. "Never mind. 'When you +come to die?' What put that into your head? Look up." + +The child sheltered the flaring candle with her hand. + +"I've no tho't o' dyin'," she said, laughing. + +There was a gray shadow about her eyes, a peaked look to the face, he +never saw before, looking at her now with a physician's eyes. + +"Does anything hurt you here?" touching her chest. + +"It's better now. It was that night o' th' fire. Th' breath o' th' mill, +I thenk,--but it's nothin'." + +"Burning copperas? Of course it's better. Oh, that's nothing!" he said, +cheerfully. + +When they reached the door, he held out his hand, the first time he ever +had done it to her, and then waited, patting her on the head. + +"I think it'll come right, Lois," he said, dreamily, looking out into +the night. "You're a good girl. I think it'll all come right. For you +and me. Some time. Good night, child." + +After he was a long way down the street, he turned to nod good-night +again to the comical little figure in the doorway. + +If Knowles hated anybody that night, he hated the man he had left +standing there with pale, heavy jaws, and heart of iron; he could have +cursed him, standing there. He did not see how, after he was left alone, +the man lay with his face to the wall, holding his bony hand to his +forehead, with a look in his eyes that if you had seen, you would have +thought his soul had entered on that path whose steps take hold on hell. + +There was no struggle in his face; whatever was the resolve he had +reached in the solitary hours when he had stood so close upon the +borders of death, it was unshaken now; but the heart, crushed and +stifled before, was taking its dire revenge. If ever it had hungered, +through the cold, selfish days, for God's help, or a woman's love, it +hungered now with a craving like death. If ever he had thought how bare +and vacant the years would be, going down to the grave with lips that +never had known a true kiss of real affection, he remembered it now, +when it was too late, with bitterness such as wrings a man's heart but +once in a lifetime. If ever he had denied to his own soul this Margaret, +called her alien or foreign, he called her now, when it was too late, to +her rightful place; there was not a thought nor a hope in the darkest +depths of his nature that did not cry out for her help that night,--for +her, a part of himself,--now, when it was too late. He went over all the +years gone, and pictured the years to come; he remembered the money +that was to help his divine soul upward; he thought of it with a curse, +pacing the floor of the narrow room, slowly and quietly. Looking out +into the still starlight and the quaint garden, he tried to fancy this +woman as he knew her, after the restless power of her soul should have +been chilled and starved into a narrow, lifeless duty. He fancied her +old, and stern, and sick of life, she that might have been----what +might they not have been, together? And he had driven her to this for +money,--money! + +It was of no use to repent of it now. He had frozen the love out of her +heart, long ago. He remembered (all that he did remember of the blank +night after he was hurt) that he had seen her white, worn-out face +looking down at him; that she did not touch him; and that, when, one of +the sisters told her she might take her place, and sponge his forehead, +she said, bitterly, she had no right to do it, that he was no friend +of hers. He saw and heard that, unconscious to all else; he would have +known it, if he had been dead, lying there. It was too late now: why +need he think of what might have been? Yet he did think of it through +the long winter's night,--each moment his thought of the life to come, +or of her, growing more tender and more bitter. Do you wonder at the +remorse of this man? Wait, then, until you lie alone, as he had done, +through days as slow, revealing as ages, face to face with God and +death. Wait until you go down so close to eternity that the life you +have lived stands out before you in the dreadful bareness in which God +sees it,--as you shall see it some day from heaven or hell: money, and +hate, and love will stand in their true light then. Yet, coming back to +life again, he held whatever resolve he had reached down there with his +old iron will: all the pain he bore in looking back to the false life +before, or the ceaseless remembrance that it was too late now to atone +for that false life, made him the stronger to abide by that resolve, to +go on the path self-chosen, let the end be what it might. Whatever the +resolve was, it did not still the gnawing hunger in his heart that +night, which every trifle made more fresh and strong. + +There was a wicker-basket that Lois had left by the fire, piled up with +bits of cloth and leather out of which she was manufacturing Christmas +gifts; a pair of great woollen socks, which one of the sisters had told +him privately Lois meant for him, lying on top. As with all of her +people, Christmas was the great day of the year to her. Holmes could not +but smile, looking at them. Poor Lois!--Christmas would be here soon, +then? And sitting by the covered fire, he went back to Christmases gone, +the thought of all others that brought her nearest and warmest to him: +since he was a boy they had been together on that day. With his hand +over his eyes he sat quiet by the fire until morning. He heard some boy +going by in the gray dawn call to another that they would have holiday +on Christmas. It was coming, he thought, rousing himself,--but never +as it had been: that could never be again. Yet it was strange how this +thought of Christmas took hold of him,--famished his heart. As it +approached in the slow-coming winter, the days growing shorter, and +the nights longer and more solitary, so Margaret became more real to +him,--not rejected and lost, but as the wife she might have been, +with the simple passionate love she gave him once. The thought grew +intolerable to him; yet there was not a homely pleasure of those years +gone, when the old school-master kept high holiday on Christmas, that he +did not recall and linger over with a boyish yearning, now that these +things were over forever. He chafed under his weakness. If the day would +but come when he could go out and conquer his fate, as a man ought to +do! On Christmas eve he would put an end to these torturing taunts, his +soul should not be balked longer of its rightful food. For I fear that +even now Stephen Holmes thought of his own need and his own hunger. + +He watched Lois knitting and patching her poor little gifts, with a +vague feeling that every stitch made the time a moment shorter until he +should be free, with his life in his hand again. She left him at last, +sorrowfully enough, but he made her go: he fancied the close air of the +hospital was hurting her, seeing at night the strange shadow growing on +her face. I do not think he ever said to her that he knew all she had +done for him; but no dog or woman that Stephen Holmes loved could look +into his eyes and doubt that love. Sad, masterful eyes, such as are seen +but once or twice in a lifetime: no woman but would wish, like Lois, for +such eyes to be near her when she came to die, for her to remember the +world's love in. She came hobbling back every day to see him after she +had gone, and would stay to make his soup, telling him, child-like, how +many days it was until Christmas. He knew that, as well as she, waiting +through the cold, slow hours, in his solitary room. He thought sometimes +she had some eager petition to offer him, when she stood watching him +wistfully, twisting her hands together; but she always smothered it +with a sigh, and, tying her little woollen cap, went away, walking more +slowly, he thought, every day. + +Do you remember how Christmas came last year? how there was a waiting +pause, when the great States stood still, and from the peoples came the +first awful murmurs of the storm that was to shake the earth? how men's +hearts failed them for fear, how women turned pale and held their +children closer to their breasts, while they heard a far cry of +lamentation for their country that had fallen? Do you remember how, +through the fury of men's anger, the storehouses of God were opened for +that land? how the very sunshine gathered new splendors, the rains more +fruitful moisture, until the earth poured forth an unknown fulness +of life and beauty? Was there no promise there, no prophecy? Do you +remember, while the very life of the people hung in doubt before them, +while the angel of death came again to pass over the land, and there was +no blood on any door-post to keep him from that house, how slowly +the old earth folded in her harvest, dead, till it should waken to a +stronger life? how quietly, as the time came near for the birth of +Christ, this old earth made ready for his coming, heedless of the clamor +of men? how the air grew fresher, day by day, and the gray deep silently +opened for the snow to go down and screen and whiten and make holy that +fouled earth? I think the slow-falling snow did not fail in its quiet +warning; for I remember that men, too, in a feeble way tried to make +ready for the birth of Christ. There was a healthier glow than terror +stirred in their hearts; because of the vague, great dread without, it +may be, they drew closer together round household fires, were kindlier +in the good old-fashioned way; old friendships were wakened, old times +talked over, fathers and mothers and children planned homely ways to +show the love in their hearts and to welcome in Christmas. Who knew but +it might be the last? Let us be thankful for that happy Christmas-day. +What if it were the last? What if, when another comes, and another, +some voice, the kindest and cheerfullest then, shall never say +"Happy Christmas" to us again? Let us be thankful for that day the +more,--accept it the more as a sign of that which will surely come. + +Holmes, even, in his dreary room and drearier thought, felt the warmth +and expectant stir creeping through the land as the day drew near. Even +in the hospital, the sisters were in a busy flutter, decking their +little chapel with flowers, and preparing a Christmas _fête_ for their +patients. The doctor, as he bandaged his broken arm, hinted at faint +rumors in the city of masquerades and concerts. Even Knowles, who had +not visited the hospital for weeks, relented and came back, moody and +grim. He brought Kitts with him, and started him on talking of how +they kept Christmas in Ohio on his mother's farm; and the poor soul, +encouraged by the silence of two of his auditors, and the intense +interest of Lois in the background, mazed on about Santa-Claus trees +and Virginia reels until the clock struck twelve and Knowles began to +snore. + +Christmas was coming. As he stood, day after day, looking out of +the gray window, he could see the signs of its coming even in the +shop-windows glittering with miraculous toys, in the market-carts +with their red-faced drivers and heaps of ducks and turkeys, in every +stage-coach or omnibus that went by crowded with boys home for the +holidays, hallooing for Bell or Lincoln, forgetful that the election was +over and Carolina out. + +Pike came to see him one day, his arms full of a bundle, which turned +out to be an accordion for Sophy. + +"Christmas, you know," he said, taking off the brown paper, while he was +cursing the Cotton States the hardest, and gravely kneading at the keys, +and stretching it until he made as much discord as five Congressmen. "I +think Sophy will like that," he said, tying it up carefully. + +"I am sure she will," said Holmes,--and did not think the man a fool for +one moment. + +Always going back, this Holmes, when he was alone, to the certainty that +homecomings or children's kisses or Christmas feasts were not for such +as he,--never could be, though he sought for the old time in bitterness +of heart; and so, dully remembering his resolve, and waiting for +Christmas eve, when, he might end it all. Not one of the myriads of +happy children listened more intently to the clock clanging off hour +after hour than the silent, stern man who had no hope in that day that +was coming. + +He learned to watch even for poor Lois coming up the corridor every +day,--being the only tie that bound the solitary man to the inner world +of love and warmth. The deformed little body was quite alive with +Christmas now, and brought its glow with her, in her weak way. Different +from the others, he saw with a curious interest. The day was more real +to her than to them. Not because, only, the care she had of everybody +and everybody had of her seemed to reach its culmination of kindly +thought for the Christmas time; not because, as she sat talking slowly, +stopping for breath, her great fear seemed to be that she would not have +gifts enough to go round; but deeper than that,--the day was real to +her. As if it were actually true that the Master in whom she believed +was freshly born into the world once a year, to waken all that was +genial and noble and pure in the turbid, worn-out hearts; as if new +honor and pride and love did come with the breaking of Christmas morn. +It was a beautiful faith; he almost wished it were his. (Perhaps in that +day when the under-currents of life shall be bared, this man with his +self-reliant soul will know the subtile instincts that drew him to true +manhood and feeling by the homely practice of poor Lois. He did not see +them now.) A beautiful faith! it gave a meaning to the old custom of +gifts and kind words. _Love_ coming into the world!--the idea pleased +his artistic taste, being simple and sublime. Lois used to tell him, +while she feebly tried to set his room in order, of all her plans,--of +how Sam Polston was to be married on New-Year's,--but most of all of the +Christmas coming out at the old schoolmaster's: how the old house had +been scrubbed from top to bottom, was fairly glowing with shining paint +and hot fires,--how Margaret and her mother worked, in terror lest the +old man should find out how poor and bare it was,--how he and Joel had +some secret enterprise on foot at the far end of the plantation out in +the swamp, and were gone nearly all day. + +She ceased coming at last. One of the sisters went out to see her, and +told him she was too weak to walk, but meant to be better soon,--quite +well by the holidays. He wished the poor thing had told him what she +wanted of him,--wished it anxiously, with a dull presentiment of evil. + +The days went by, cold and slow. He watched grimly the preparations +the hospital physician was silently making in his case, for fever, +inflammation. + +"I must be strong enough to go out cured on Christmas eve," he said to +him one day, coolly. + +The old doctor glanced up shrewdly. He was an old Alsatian, very +plain-spoken. + +"You say so?" he mumbled. "Chut! Then you will go. There are +some--bull-dog men. They do what they please,--they never die unless +they choose, begar! We know them in our practice, Herr Holmes!" + +Holmes laughed. Some acumen there, he thought, in medicine or mind: as +for himself, it was true enough; whatever success he had gained in life +had been by no flush of enthusiasm or hope; a dogged persistence of +"holding on," rather. + +Christmas eve came at last; bright, still, frosty. "Whatever he had to +do, let it be done quickly "; but not till the set hour came. So he laid +his watch on the table beside him, waiting until it should mark the time +he had chosen: the ruling passion of self-control as strong in this turn +of life's tide as it would be in its ebb, at the last. The old doctor +found him alone in the dreary room, coming in with the frosty breath of +the eager street about him. A grim, chilling sight enough, as solitary +and impenetrable as the Sphinx. He did not like such faces in this +genial and gracious time, so hurried over his examination. The eye was +cool, the pulse steady, the man's body, battered though it was, strong +in its steely composure. "_Ja wohl!--ja wohl_!" he went on chuffily, +summing up: latent fever,--the very lips were blue, dry as husks; "he +would go,--_oui_?--then go!"--with a chuckle. "All right, _glück zu_!" +And so shuffled out latent fever? Doubtless, yet hardly from broken +bones, the doctor thought,--with no suspicion of the subtile, +intolerable passion smouldering in every drop of this man's phlegmatic +blood. + +Evening came at last. He stopped until the cracked bell of the chapel +had done striking the Angelus, and then put on his overcoat, and went +out. The air was cold and pungent. The crowded city seemed wakening to +some keen enjoyment; even his own weak, deliberate step rang on the +icy pavement as if it wished to rejoice with the rest. I said it was a +trading city: so it was, but the very trade to-day had a jolly Christmas +face on; the surly old banks and pawnbrokers' shops had grown ashamed +of their doings, and shut their doors, and covered their windows with +frosty trees, and cathedrals, and castles; the shops opened their +hearts; some child's angel had touched them, and they flushed out into +a magic splendor of Christmas trees, and lights, and toys; Santa Claus +might have made his head-quarters in any one of them. As for children, +you stumbled over them at every step, quite weighed down with the +heaviness of their joy, and the money burning their pockets; the acrid +old brokers and pettifoggers, that you met with a chill on other days, +had turned into jolly fathers of families, and lounged laughing along +with half a dozen little hands pulling them into candy-stores or +toy-shops: all the churches whose rules permitted them to show their +deep rejoicing in a simple way had covered their cold stone walls with +evergreens and wreaths of glowing fire-berries: the child's angel had +touched them too, perhaps,--not unwisely. + +He passed crowds of thin-clad women looking in through open doors, with +red cheeks and hungry eyes, at red-hot stoves within, and a placard, +"Christmas dinners for the poor, gratis"; out of every window on the +streets came a ruddy light, and a spicy smell; the very sunset sky had +caught the reflection of the countless Christmas fires, and flamed up to +the zenith, blood-red as cinnabar. + +Holmes turned down one of the back streets: he was going to see Lois, +first of all. I hardly know why: the child's angel may have touched him, +too; or his heart, full of a yearning pity for the poor cripple, who, +he believed now, had given her own life for his, may have plead for +indulgence, as men remember their childish prayers, before going into +battle. He came at last, in the quiet lane where she lived, to her +little brown frame-shanty, to which you mounted by a flight of wooden +steps: there were two narrow windows at the top, hung with red curtains; +he could hear her feeble voice singing within. As he turned to go up +the steps, he caught sight of something crouched underneath them in the +dark, hiding from him: whether a man--or a dog he could not see. He +touched it. + +"What d' ye want, Mas'r?" said a stifled voice. + +He touched it again with his stick. + +The man stood upright, back in the shadow: it was old Yare. + +"Had ye any word wi' me, Mas'r?" + +He saw the negro's face grow gray with fear. + +"Come out, Yare," he said, quietly. "Any word? What word is arson, eh?" + +The man did not move. Holmes touched him with the stick. + +"Come out," he said. + +He came out, looking gaunt, as with famine. + +"I'll not flurr myself," he said, crunching his ragged hat in his +hands,--"I'll not." + +He drove the hat down upon his head, and looked up with a sullen +fierceness. + +"Yoh've got me, an' I'm glad of 't. I'm tired, fearin'. I was born for +hangin', they say," with a laugh. "But I'll see my girl. I've waited +hyur, runnin' the resk,--not darin' to see her, on 'count o' yoh. I +thort I was safe on Christmas-day,--but what's Christmas to yoh or me?" + +Holmes's quiet motion drove him up the steps before him. He stopped at +the top, his cowardly nature getting the better of him, and sat down +whining on the upper step. + +"Be marciful, Mas'r! I wanted to see my girl,--that's all. She's all I +hev." + +Holmes passed him and went in. Was Christmas nothing to him? How did +this foul wretch know that they stood alone, apart from the world? + +It was a low, cheerful little room that he came into, stooping his tall +head: a tea-kettle humming and singing on the wood-fire, that lighted up +the coarse carpet and the gray walls, but spent its warmest heat on +the low settee where Lois lay sewing, and singing to herself. She was +wrapped up in a shawl, but the hands, he saw, were worn to skin and +bone; the gray shadow was heavier on her face, and the brooding brown +eyes were like a tired child's. She tried to jump up when she saw him, +and not being able, leaned on one elbow, half-crying as she laughed. + +"It's the best Christmas gift of all I I can hardly b'lieve +it!"--touching the strong hand humbly that was held out to her. + +Holmes had a gentle touch, I told you, for dogs and children and women: +so, sitting quietly by her, he listened with untiring patience to her +long story; looked at the heap of worthless trifles she had patched up +for gifts, wondering secretly at the delicate sense of color and grace +betrayed in the bits of flannel and leather; and took, with a grave look +of wonder, his own package, out of which a bit of woollen thread peeped +forth. + +"Don't look till to-morrow mornin'," she said, anxiously, as she lay +back trembling and exhausted. + +The breath of the mill! The fires of want and crime had finished their +work on her life,--so! She caught the meaning of his face quickly. + +"It's nothin'," she said, eagerly. "I'll be strong by New-Year's; it's +only a day or two rest I need. I've no tho't o' givin' up." + +And to show how strong she was, she got up and hobbled about to make the +tea. He had not the heart to stop her; she did not want to die,--why +should she? the world was a great, warm, beautiful nest for the little +cripple,--why need he show her the cold without? He saw her at last go +near the door where old Yare sat outside, then heard her breathless cry, +and a sob. A moment after the old man came into the room, carrying her, +and, laying her down on the settee, chafed her hands and misshapen head. + +"What ails her?" he said, looking up, bewildered, to Holmes. "We've +killed her among us." + +She laughed, though the great eyes were growing dim, and drew his coarse +gray hair into her hand. + +"Yoh wur long comin'," she said, weakly. "I hunted fur yoh every +day,--every day." + +The old man had pushed her hair back, and was reading the sunken face +with a wild fear. + +"What ails her?" he cried. "Ther' 's somethin' gone wi' my girl. Was it +my fault? Lo, was it my fault?" + +"Be quiet!" said Holmes, sternly. + +"Is it _that_?" he gasped, shrilly. "My God! not that! I can't bear it!" + +Lois soothed him, patting his face childishly. + +"Am I dyin'?" she asked, with a frightened look at Holmes. + +He told her no, cheerfully. + +"I've no tho't o' dyin'. I dunnot thenk o' dyin'. Don't mind, dear! +Yoh'll stay with me, fur good?" + +The man's paroxysm of fear for her over, his spite and cowardice came +uppermost. + +"It's him," he yelped, looking fiercely at Holmes. "He's got my life in +his hands. He kin take it. What does he keer fur me or my girl? I'll not +stay wi' yoh no longer, Lo. Mornin' he'll send me t' th' lock-up, an' +after"---- + +"I care for _you_, child," said Holmes, stooping suddenly close to the +girl's livid face. + +"To-morrow?" she muttered. "My Christmas-day?" + +He wet her face while he looked over at the wretch whose life he held +in his hands. It was the iron rule of Holmes's nature to be just; but +to-night dim perceptions of a deeper justice than law opened before +him,--problems he had no time to solve: the sternest fortress is liable +to be taken by assault,--and the dew of the coming morn was on his +heart. + +"So as I've hunted fur him!" she whispered, weakly. "I didn't think it +wud come to this. So as I loved him! Oh, Mr. Holmes, he's hed a pore +chance in livin',--forgive him this! Him that'll come to-morrow'd say to +forgive him this." + +She caught the old man's head in her arms with an agony of tears, and +held it tight. + +"I hev hed a pore chance," he said, looking up,--"that's God's truth, +Lo! I dunnot keer fur that: it's too late goin' back.--Mas'r," he +mumbled, servilely, "it's on'y a little time t' th' end: let me stay +with Lo. She loves me,--Lo does." + +A look of disgust crept over Holmes's face. + +"Stay, then," he muttered,--"I wash my hands of you, you old scoundrel!" + +He bent over Lois with his rare, pitiful smile. + +"Have I his life in my hands? I put it into yours,--so, child! Now put +it all out of your head, and look up here to wish me good-bye." + +She looked up cheerfully, hardly conscious how deep the danger had been; +but the flush had gone from her face, leaving it sad and still. + +"I must go to keep Christmas, Lois," he said, playfully. + +"Yoh're keepin' it here, Sir." She held her weak gripe on his hand +still, with the vague outlook in her eyes that came there sometimes. +"Was it fur me yoh done it?" + +"Yes, for you." + +She turned her eyes slowly around, bewildered. The clear evening light +fell on Holmes, as he stood there looking down at the dying little +lamiter: a powerful figure, with a face supreme, masterful, but tender: +you will find no higher type of manhood. Did God make him of the same +blood as the vicious, cringing wretch crouching to hide his black face +at the other side of the bed? Some such thought came into Lois's brain, +and vexed her, bringing the tears to her eyes: he was her father, you +know. + +"It's all wrong," she muttered,--"oh, it's far wrong! Ther' 's One could +make them 'like. Not me." + +She stroked her father's head once, and then let it go. Holmes glanced +out, and saw the sun was down. + +"Lois," he said, "I want you to wish me a happy Christmas, as people +do." + +Holmes had a curious vein of superstition: he knew no lips so pure as +this girl's, and he wanted them to wish him good-luck that night. She +did it, laughing and growing red: riddles of life did not trouble her +childish fancy long. And so he left her, with a dull feeling, as I said +before, that it was good to say a prayer before the battle came on. For +men who believed in prayers: for him, it was the same thing to make one +day for Lois happier. + + + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY. + + +IV. + + +In presenting Classification as the subject of a series of papers in +the "Atlantic Monthly," I am aware that I am drawing largely upon the +patience of its readers; since the technical nature of the topic renders +many details necessary which cannot be otherwise than dry to any but +professional naturalists. Yet believing, as I do, that classification, +rightly understood, means simply the creative plan of God as expressed +in organic forms, I feel the importance of attempting at least to +present it in a popular guise, divested, as far as possible, of +technicalities, while I would ask the indulgence of my readers for such +scientific terms and details as cannot well be dispensed with, begging +them to remember that a long and tedious road may bring us suddenly upon +a glorious prospect, and that a clearer mental atmosphere and a new +intellectual sensation may well reward us for a little weariness in the +outset. Besides, the time has come when scientific truth must cease to +be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common life +of the world; for we have reached the point where the results of science +touch the very problem of existence, and all men listen for the solving +of that mystery. When it will come, and how, none can say; but this much +at least is certain, that all our researches are leading up to that +question, and mankind will never rest till it is answered. If, then, the +results of science are of such general interest for the human race, if +they are gradually interpreting the purposes of the Deity in creation, +and the relation of man to all the past, then it is well that all +should share in its teachings, and that it should not be kept, like the +learning of the Egyptians, for an exclusive priesthood who may expound +the oracle according to their own theories, but should make a part of +all our intellectual culture and of our common educational systems. With +this view, I will endeavor to simplify as far as may be my illustrations +of the different groups of the Animal Kingdom, beginning with a more +careful analysis of those structural features on which classes are +founded. + +I have said that the Radiates are the lowest type among animals, +embodying, under an infinite variety of forms, that plan in which all +parts bear definite relations to a vertical central axis. The three +classes of Radiates are distinguished from each other by three distinct +ways of executing that plan. I dwell upon this point; for we shall never +arrive at a clear understanding of the different significance and value +of the various divisions of the Animal Kingdom, till we appreciate the +distinction between the structural conception and the material means by +which it is expressed. A comparison will, perhaps, better explain my +meaning. There are certain architectonic types, including edifices of +different materials, with an infinite variety of architectural details +and external ornaments; but the flat roof and the colonnade are typical +of all Grecian temples, whether built of marble or granite or wood, +whether Doric or Ionic or Corinthian, whether simple and massive or +light and ornamented; and, in like manner, the steep roof and pointed +arch are the typical characters of all Gothic cathedrals, whatever be +the material or the details. The architectural conception remains +the same in all its essential elements, however the more superficial +features vary. Such relations as these edifices bear to the +architectural idea that includes them all, do classes bear to the +primary divisions or branches of the Animal Kingdom. + +The three classes of Radiates, beginning with the lowest, and naming +them in their relative order, are Polyps, Acalephs or Jelly-Fishes, and +Echinoderms or Star-Fishes and Sea-Urchins. In the Polyps the plan is +executed in the simplest manner by a sac, the sides of which are folded +inward, at regular intervals from top to bottom, so as to divide it by +vertical radiating partitions, converging from the periphery toward the +centre. These folds or partitions do not meet in the centre, but leave +an open space, which is the main cavity of the body. This open space, +however, occupies only the lower part of the body; for in the upper +there is a second sac hanging to a certain distance within the first. +This inner sac has an aperture in the bottom, through which whatever +enters it passes into the main cavity of the body. A central opening +in the top forms a kind of mouth, around which are radiating tentacles +connecting with the open chambers formed by the partitions within. +Cutting such an animal across in a transverse section, we shall see +the radiation of the partitions from the centre to the circumference, +showing still more distinctly the typical structure of the division to +which it belongs. + +[Illustration: Vertical section of a Sea-Anemone of Actinia: _o_, mouth; +_t_, tentacles; _s_, inner sac or stomach; _b_, main cavity; _ff_, +reproductive organs; _g_, radiating partition; _eee_, radiating +chambers; _cc_, circular openings in the partitions; _aa_, lower floor.] + +[Illustration: Transverse section of a Sea-Anemone or Actinia.] + +[Illustration: Staurophera seen in profile.] + +[Illustration: Hippocrene seen in profile.] + +[Illustration: Melicertum seen from above, with the tentacles spreading: +_oo_, radiating tubes with ovaries; _m_, mouth; _tttt_, tentacles.] + +The second class is that of Jelly-Fishes or Acalephs; and here the same +plan is carried out in the form of a hemispherical gelatinous disk, the +digestive cavity being hollowed, or, as it were, scooped, out of the +substance of the body, which is traversed by tubes that radiate from +the centre to the periphery. Cutting it across transversely, or looking +through its transparent mass, the same radiation of the internal +structure is seen again; only that in this instance the radiating lines +are not produced by vertical partition-walls, with open spaces between, +as in the Polyps, but by radiating tubes passing through the gelatinous +mass of the body. At the periphery is a circular tube connecting them +all, and the tentacles, which hang down when the animal is in its +natural position, connect at their base with the radiating tubes, while +numerous smaller tentacles may form a kind of fringe all round the +margin. + +The third and highest class includes the Star-Fishes, Sea-Urchins, and +Holothurians or Beches-de-Mer. The radiation is equally distinct in each +of these; but here again the mode of execution differs from that of the +two other classes. The internal cavity and the radiating tubes, instead +of being connected with the outer wall of the body as in Polyps, or +hollowed out of the substance of the body as in Jelly-Fishes, are here +inclosed within independent walls of their own, quite distinct from the +wall of the body. But notwithstanding this difference, a transverse +section shows in these animals, as distinctly as in all the rest, the +radiating structure typical of the whole branch. In these three classes +we have no difference of plan, nor even any modification of the same +plan,--for either one of them expresses it as clearly as any other,--but +simply three different ways of executing one structural idea. + +[Illustration: Common Sea-Urchin, Echinus, seen from above] + +[Illustration: Echinarachnius, opened by a transverse or horizontal +section, and showing the internal arrangement: c, mouth; eeeee, +ambulacra, with their ramifications cmcmcm; wwww, interambulacra.] + +I have mentioned only three classes of Radiates. Cuvier had five in his +classification; for he placed among them the Intestinal Worms and the +Infusoria or Animalcules. The Intestinal Worms are much better known +now than they were in his day. Their anatomy and embryology have been +traced, and it has been shown that the essential features of these +parasites are the same as those of all Articulates, their whole body +being divided into successive, movable joints or rings. Cuvier was +misled by the circular arrangement of certain parts around the mouth, +and by the presence of a wreath of feelers around the head of some +of these Worms, resembling the tentacles of many Radiates. This is, +however, no indication of radiate structure, but a superficial feature +in no way related to the internal organization. + +We must carefully distinguish between affinity and analogy among +animals. The former is founded on identity of plan; the latter only upon +external resemblance, produced by similar features, which, when they are +intimately connected with the whole internal organization, as in some +groups, may be considered as typical characters, but when only grafted, +as it were, in a superficial manner on animals of another type, have +no relation to the essential elements of structure, and become at +once subordinate and unimportant. Such is the difference between the +tentacles in a Radiate and the wreath of feelers in a Worm;--the +external effect may be much the same; but in the former every tentacle +opens into one of the chambers as in a Polyp, or connects with one of +the radiating tubes as in Acalephs, or with the locomotive suckers as +in Star-Fishes, and is therefore closely linked with the whole internal +organization; whereas the feelers in the latter are only external +appendages, in no way connected with the essential structural elements. +We have a striking illustration of this superficial resemblance in the +wings of Birds and Insects. In Birds, wings are a typical feature, +corresponding to the front limbs in all Vertebrates, which are +constructed in the same way, whether they are arms as in Man, or +forelegs as in Quadrupeds, or pectoral fins as in Fishes, or wings as in +Birds. The wing in an Insect, on the contrary, is a flattened, dried-up +gill, having no structural relation whatever to the wing of a Bird. They +are analogous only because they resemble each other in function, being +in the same way subservient to flight; but as organs they are entirely +different. + +In adding Infusoria to the Radiates, Cuvier was false to his own +principle of founding all classification on plan. He was influenced by +their seeming simplicity of structure, and placed them in the lowest +division of the Animal Kingdom on that account. But even this simplicity +was only apparent in many of them. At certain seasons of the year +myriads of these little Animalcules may be seen in every brook and +road-side pool. They are like transparent little globules, without any +special organization, apparently; and were it not that they are in +constant rotation, exhibiting thus a motion of their own, one would +hardly suspect that they were endowed with life. To the superficial +observer they all look alike, and it is not strange, that, before they +had been more carefully investigated, they should have been associated +together as the lowest division of the Animal Kingdom, representing, as +it were, a border-land between animal and vegetable life. But since the +modern improvements in the microscope, Ehrenberg, the great master in +microscopic investigation, has shown that many of these little +globules have an extraordinary complication of structure. Subsequent +investigations have proved that they include a great variety of beings: +some of them belonging to the type of Mollusks; others to the type of +Articulates, being in fact little Shrimps; while many others are +the locomotive germs of plants, and so far from forming a class by +themselves, as a distinct group in the Animal Kingdom, they seem to +comprise representatives of all types except Vertebrates, and to belong +in part to the Vegetable Kingdom, Siebold, Leuckart, and other modern +zoölogists, have considered them as a primary type, and called them +Protozoa; but this is as great a mistake as the other. The rotatory +motion in them all is produced by an apparatus that exists not only +in all animals, but in plants also, and is a most important agent in +sustaining the freshness and vitality of their circulating fluids and of +the surrounding medium in which they live. It consists of soft fringes, +called Vibratile Cilia. Such fringes cover the whole surface of these +little living beings, and by their unceasing play they maintain the +rotating motion that carries them along in the water. + +The Mollusks, the next great division of the Animal Kingdom, also +include three classes. With them is introduced that character +of bilateral symmetry, or division of parts on either side of a +longitudinal axis, that prevails throughout the Animal Kingdom, with the +exception of the Radiates. The lowest class of Mollusks has been named +Acephala, to signify the absence of any distinct head; for though their +whole organization is based upon the principle of bilateral symmetry, it +is nevertheless very difficult to determine which is the right side and +which the left in these animals, because there is so little prominence +in the two ends of the body that the anterior and posterior extremities +are hardly to be distinguished. Take the Oyster as an example. It has, +like most Acephala, a shell with two valves united by a hinge on the +back, one of these valves being thick and swollen, while the other is +nearly flat. If we lift the shell, we find beneath a soft lining-skin +covering the whole animal and called by naturalists the mantle, from the +inner surface of which arise a double row of gills, forming two pendent +folds on the sides of the body; but at one end of the body these folds +do not meet, but leave an open space, where is the aperture we call the +mouth. This is the only indication of an anterior extremity; but it is +enough to establish a difference between the front and hind ends of +the body, and to serve as a guide in distinguishing the right and +left sides. If now we lift the mantle and gills, we find beneath the +principal organs: the stomach, with a winding alimentary canal; the +heart and liver; the blood-vessels, branching from either side of the +heart to join the gills; and a fleshy muscle passing from one valve +of the shell to the other, enabling the animal by its dilatation or +contraction to open and close its shell at will. A cut across an animal +of this class will show us better the bilateral arrangement of the +parts. In such a section we see the edge of the two shells on either +side; within these the edge of the mantle; then the double rows of +gills; and in the middle the alimentary canal, the heart, and the +blood-vessels branching right and left. Some of these animals have +eye-specks on the edge of the mantle; but this is not a constant +feature. This class of Acephala includes all the Oysters, Clams, +Mussels, and the like. When named with reference to their double shells, +they are called Bivalves; and with them are associated a host of less +conspicuous animals, known as Ascidians, Brachiopods, and Bryozoa. + +[Illustration: Common Mussel, Unio, cut transversely: _a_, foot; _bb_, +gills; _c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main cavity, with +intestines.] + +The second class in this type is that of Gasteropoda, so named from the +fleshy muscular expansion on which they move, and which is therefore +called a foot: a very inappropriate name; since it has no relation or +resemblance to a foot, though it is used as a locomotive organ. This +class includes all the Snails, Slugs, Cockles, Conchs, Periwinkles, +Whelks, Limpets, and the like. Some of them have no solid covering; but +the greater part are protected by a single shell, and on this account +they are called Univalves, in contradistinction to the Acephala or +Bivalves. These shells, though always single, differ from each other by +an endless variety of form and color,--from the flat simple shell of +the Limpet to the elaborate spiral and brilliant hues of the Cones and +Cowries. Different as is their external covering, however, if we examine +the internal structure of a Gasteropod, we find the same general +arrangement of parts that prevails in the Acephala, showing that both +belong to the same great division of the Animal Kingdom. The mantle +envelops the animal, and lines its single shell as it lined the double +shell of the Oyster; the gills are placed on either side of it; the +stomach, with the winding alimentary canal, is in the centre of the +body; the heart and liver are placed in the same relation to it as in +the Acephala; and though the so-called foot would seem to be a new +feature, it is but a muscular expansion of the ventral side of the body. +There is an evident superiority in this class over the preceding one, in +the greater prominence of the anterior extremity, where there are two or +more feelers, with which eyes more or less developed are connected; and +though there is nothing that can be properly called a head, yet there +can be no hesitation as to the distinction between the front and hind +ends of the body. + +[Illustration: Limpet, Patella, cut transversely: _a_, foot; _b_, gills; +_c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main cavity, with intestines.] + +The third and highest class of Mollusks has been called Cephalopoda, in +reference again to a special feature of their structure. They have long +arms or feelers around the head, serving as organs of locomotion, by +which they propel themselves through the water with a velocity that is +quite extraordinary, when compared with the sluggishness of the other +Mollusks. In these animals the head is distinctly marked,--being +separated, by a contraction or depression behind it, from the rest of +the body. The feelers, so prominent on the anterior extremity of +the Gasteropoda, are suppressed in Cephalopoda, and the eyes are +consequently brought immediately on the side of the head, and are very +large in proportion to the size of the animal. A skin corresponding +to the mantle envelops the body, and the gills are on either side of +it;--the stomach with its winding canal, the liver, and heart occupy the +centre of the body, as in the two other classes. This class includes all +the Cuttle-Fishes, Squids, and Nautili, and has a vast number of fossil +representatives. Many of these animals are destitute of any shell; and +where they have a shell, it is not coiled from right to left or from +left to right as in the spiral of the Gasteropoda, but from behind +forwards as in the Nautilus. These shells are usually divided into a +number of chambers,--the animal, as it grows, building a wall behind +it at regular intervals, and always occupying the external chamber, +retaining, however, a connection with his past home by a siphon that +runs through the whole succession of chambers. The readers of the +"Atlantic Monthly" cannot fail to remember the exquisite poem suggested +to the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by this singular feature in the +structure of the so-called Chambered Shells. + +[Illustration: Common Squid, Loligo, cut transversely: _a_, foot or +siphon; _b_, gills; _c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main +cavity, with intestines.] + +Cuvier divided the Mollusks also into a larger number of classes than +are now admitted. He placed the Barnacles with them on account of their +shells; and it is only since an investigation of the germs born from +these animals has shown them to be Articulates that their true position +is understood. They give birth to little Shrimps that afterwards become +attached to the rocks and assume the shelly covering that has misled +naturalists about them. Brachiopods formed another of his classes; +but these differ from the other Bivalves only in having a net-work of +blood-vessels in the place of the free gills, and this is merely a +complication of structure, not a difference in the general mode +of execution, for their position and relation to the rest of the +organization are exactly the same in both. Pteropods constituted another +class in his division of the type of Mollusks; but these animals, again, +form only an order in the class of Gasteropoda, as Brachiopods form an +order in the class of Acephala. + +In the third division of the Animal Kingdom, the Articulates, we have +again three classes: Worms, Crustacea, and Insects. The lowest of these +three classes, the Worms, presents the typical structure of that branch +in the most uniform manner, with little individualization of parts. The +body is a long cylinder divided through its whole length by movable +joints, while the head is indicated only by a difference in the +front-joint. There is here no concentration of vitality in special parts +of the structure, as in the higher animals, but the nervous force is +scattered through the whole body,--every ring having, on its lower side, +either two nervous swellings, one on the right, the other on the left +side, connected by nervous threads with those that precede and those +that follow them, or these swellings being united in the median line. +It is this equal distribution of nervous force through the whole system +that gives to these animals such an extraordinary power of repairing +any injured part, so that, if cut in two, the front part may even +reconstruct a tail for itself, while the hind part produces a new +head, and both continue to live as distinct animals. This facility of +self-repair, after a separation of the parts, which is even a normal +mode of multiplication in some of them, does not indicate, as may at +first appear, a greater intensity of vital energy, but, on the contrary, +arises from an absence of any one nervous centre such as exists in +all the higher animals, and is the key to their whole organization. A +serious injury to the brain of a Vertebrate destroys vitality at once, +for it holds the very essence of its life; whereas in many of the lower +animals any part of the body may be destroyed without injury to the +rest. The digestive cavity in the Worms runs the whole length of the +body; and the respiratory organs, wherever they are specialized, appear +as little vesicles or gill-like appendages either along the back or +below the sides, connected with the locomotive appendages. + +This class includes animals of various degrees of complication of +structure, from those with highly developed organizations to the lowest +Worms that float like long threads in the water and hardly seem to be +animals. Yet even these creatures, so low in the scale of life, are +not devoid of some instincts, however dim, of feeling and affection. I +remember a case in point that excited my own wonder at the time, and may +not be uninteresting to my readers. A gentleman from Detroit had had +the kindness to send me one of those long thread-like Worms (_Gordius_) +found often in brooks and called Horse-Hairs by the common people. When +I first received it, it was coiled up in a close roll at the bottom of +the bottle, filled with fresh water, that contained it, and looked more +like a little tangle of black sewing-silk than anything else. Wishing +to unwind it, that I might examine its entire length, I placed it in +a large china basin filled with water, and proceeded very gently to +disentangle its coils, when I perceived that the animal had twisted +itself around a bundle of its eggs, holding them fast in a close +embrace. In the process of unwinding, the eggs dropped away and floated +to a little distance. Having finally stretched it out to its full +length, perhaps half a yard, I sat watching to see if this singular +being that looked like a long black thread in the water would give any +signs of life. Almost immediately it moved towards the bundle of eggs, +and, having reached it, began to sew itself through and through the +little white mass, passing one end of its body through it, and then +returning to make another stitch, as it were, till the eggs were at last +completely entangled again in an intricate net-work of coils. It seemed +to me almost impossible that this care of copying could be the result of +any instinct of affection in a creature of so low an organization, and I +again separated it from the eggs, and placed them at a greater distance, +when the same action was repeated. On trying the experiment a third +time, the bundle of eggs had become loosened, and a few of them dropped +off singly into the water. The efforts which the animal then made to +recover the missing ones, winding itself round and round them, but +failing to bring them into the fold with the rest, because they were too +small, and evaded all efforts to secure them, when once parted from +the first little compact mass, convinced me that there was a definite +purpose in its attempts, and that even a being so low in the scale +of animal existence has some dim consciousness of a relation to its +offspring. I afterwards unwound also the mass of eggs, which, when +coiled up as I first saw it, made a roll of white substance about the +size of a coffee-bean, and found that it consisted of a string of eggs, +measuring more than twelve feet in length, the eggs being held together +by some gelatinous substance that cemented them and prevented them from +falling apart. Cutting this string across, and placing a small section +under the microscope, I counted on one surface of such a cut from +seventy to seventy-five eggs; and estimating the entire number of eggs +according to the number contained on such a surface, I found that there +were not less than eight millions of eggs in the whole string. The +fertility of these lower animals is truly amazing, and is no doubt a +provision of Nature against the many chances of destruction to which +these germs, so delicate and often microscopically small, must be +exposed. The higher we rise in the Animal Kingdom, the more limited do +we find the number of progeny, and the care bestowed upon them by the +parents is in proportion to this diminution. + +The next class in the type of Articulates is that of Crustacea, +including Lobsters, Crabs, and Shrimps. It may seem at first that +nothing can be more unlike a Worm than a Lobster; but a comparison of +the class-characters shows that the same general plan controls the +organization in both. The body of the Lobster is divided into a +succession of joints or rings, like that of the Worm; and the fact that +the front rings in the Lobster are soldered together, so as to make a +stiff front region of the body, inclosing the head and chest, while only +the hind rings remain movable, thus forming a flexible tail, does not +alter in the least the general structure, which consists in both of +a body built of articulated rings. The nervous swellings, which were +evenly distributed through the whole body in the Worm, are more +concentrated here, in accordance with the prevalent combination of the +rings in two distinct regions of the body, the larger ones corresponding +to the more important organs; but their relation to the rest of the +organization, and their connection by nervous threads with each other, +remain the same. The respiratory organs, which in most of the Worms were +mere vesicles on the lower part of the sides of the body, are here more +highly organized gills; but their general character and relation to +other parts of the structure are unchanged, and in this respect +the connection of the gills of Crustacea with their legs is quite +significant. The alimentary canal consists of a single digestive cavity +passing through the whole body, as in Worms, the anterior part of which +is surrounded by a large liver. What is true of the Lobsters is true +also, so far as class-characters are concerned, of all the Crustacea. + +Highest in this type are the Insects, and among these I include Spiders +and Centipedes as well as Winged Insects. It is true that the Centipedes +have a long uniform body like Worms, and the Spiders have the body +divided into two regions like the Crustacea, while the body in true +Insects has three distinct regions, head, chest, and hind body; but +notwithstanding this difference, both the former share in the peculiar +class-character that places them with the Winged Insects in a separate +group, distinct from all the other Articulates. We have seen that in the +Worms the respiratory organs are mere vesicles, while in the Crustacea +they are more highly organized gills; but in Centipedes, Spiders, +and Winged Insects, the breathing-apparatus is aerial, consisting of +air-holes on the sides of the body, connected with a system of tubes and +vessels extending into the body and admitting air to all parts of it. In +the Winged Insects this system is very elaborate, filling the body with +air to such a degree as to render it exceedingly light and adapted to +easy and rapid flight. The general arrangement of parts is the same in +this class as in the two others, the typical character being alike in +all. + +We come now to the highest branch of the Animal Kingdom, that to which +we ourselves belong,--the Vertebrates. This type is usually divided into +four classes, Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammalia; and though many +naturalists believe that it includes more, and I am myself of that +opinion, I shall allude here only to the four generally admitted +classes, as they are sufficient for my present purpose, and will serve +to show the characters upon which classes are based. In a former paper I +have explained in general terms the plan of structure of this type,--a +backbone, with a bony arch above and a bony arch below, forming two +cavities that contain all the systems of organs, the whole being +surrounded by the flesh and skin. Now whether a body so constructed lie +prone in the water, like a Fish,--or be lifted on imperfect legs, like +a Reptile,--or be balanced on two legs, while the front limbs become +wings, as in Birds,--or be raised upon four strong limbs terminating in +paws or feet, as in Quadrupeds,--or stand upright with head erect, while +the limbs consist of a pair of arms and a pair of legs, as in Man,--does +not in the least affect that structural conception under which they are +all included. Every Vertebrate has a backbone; every Vertebrate has a +bony arch above that backbone and a bony arch below it, forming two +cavities,--no matter whether these arches be of hard bone, or of +cartilage, or even of a softer substance; every Vertebrate has the +brain, the spinal marrow or spinal cord, and the organs of the senses in +the upper cavity, and the organs of digestion, respiration, circulation, +and reproduction in the lower one; every Vertebrate has four locomotive +appendages built of the same bones and bearing the same relation to the +rest of the organization, whether they be called pectoral and ventral +fins, or legs, or wings and legs, or arms and legs. Notwithstanding +the rudimentary condition of these limbs in some Vertebrates and their +difference of external appearance in the different groups, they are all +built of the same structural elements. These are the typical characters +of the whole branch, and exist in all its representatives. + +What now are the different modes of expressing this structural plan that +lead us to associate certain Vertebrates together in distinct classes? +Beginning with the lowest class,--the Fishes are cold-blooded, they +breathe through gills, and they are egg-laying; in other words, though +they have the same general structure as the other Vertebrates, they +have a special mode of circulation, respiration, and reproduction. The +Reptiles are also cold-blooded, though their system of circulation is +somewhat more complicated than that of the Fishes; they breathe through +lungs, though part of them retain their gills through life; and they lay +eggs, but larger and fewer ones than the Fishes, diminishing in number +in proportion to their own higher or lower position in their class. They +also bestow greater care upon their offspring than most of the +Fishes. The Birds are warm-blooded and air-breathing, having a double +circulation; they are egg-laying like the two other classes, but their +eggs are comparatively few in number, and the young are hatched by the +mother and fed by the parent birds till they can provide for themselves. + +The Mammalia are also warm-blooded and breathe through lungs; but +they differ from all other Vertebrates in their mode of reproduction, +bringing forth living young which they nurse with milk. Even in the +lowest members of this highest group of the Vertebrates, at the head +of which stands Man himself, looking heavenward it is true, but +nevertheless rooted deeply in the Animal Kingdom, we have the dawning +of those family relations, those intimate ties between parents and +children, on which the whole social organization of the human race is +based. Man is the crowning work of God on earth; but though so nobly +endowed, we must not forget that we are the lofty children of a race +whose lowest forms lie prostrate within the water, having no higher +aspiration than the desire for food; and we cannot understand the +possible degradation and moral wretchedness of Man, without knowing that +his physical nature is rooted in all the material characteristics that +belong to his type and link him even with the Fish. The moral and +intellectual gifts that distinguish him from them are his to use or to +abuse; he may, if he will, abjure his better nature and be _Vertebrate_ +more than Man. He may sink as low as the lowest of his type, or he may +rise to a spiritual height that will make that which distinguishes him +from the rest far more the controlling element of his being than that +which unites him with them. + + + + +LOVE AND SKATES. + +IN TWO PARTS. + + +PART II. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WADE DOWN! + + +The hugging of Wade by the happy pair had to be done metaphorically, +since it was done in the sight of all Dunderbunk. + +He had divined a happy result, when he missed Bill Tarbox from the +arena, and saw him a furlong away, hand in hand with his reconciled +sweetheart. + +"I envy you, Bill," said he, "almost too much to put proper fervor into +my congratulations." + +"Your time will come," the foreman rejoined. + +And says Belle, "I am sure there is a lady skating somewhere, and only +waiting for you to follow her." + +"I don't see her," Wade replied, looking with a mock-grave face up +and down and athwart the river. "When you've all gone to dinner, I'll +prospect ten miles up and down and try to find a good matrimonial claim +that's not taken." + +"You will not come up to dinner?" Belle asked. + +"I can hardly afford to make two bites of a holiday," said Wade. "I've +sent Perry up for a luncheon. Here he comes with it. So I cede my +quarter of your pie, Miss Belle, to a better fellow." + +"Oh!" cries Perry, coming up and bowing elaborately. "Mr. and Mrs. +Tarbox, I believe. Ah, yes! Well, I will mention it up at Albany. I am +going to take my Guards up to call on the Governor." + +Perry dashed off, followed by a score of Dunderbunk boys, organized by +him as the Purtett Guards, and taught to salute him as Generalissimo +with military honors. + +So many hundreds of turkeys, done to a turn, now began to have an effect +upon the atmosphere. Few odors are more subtile and pervading than this, +and few more appetizing. Indeed, there is said to be an odd fellow, a +strictly American gourmand, in New York, who sits, from noon to dusk +on Christmas-Day, up in a tall steeple, merely to catch the aroma of +roast-turkey floating over the city,--and much good, it is said, it does +him. + +Hard skating is nearly as effective to whet hunger as this gentleman's +expedient. When the spicy breezes began to blow soft as those of +Ceylon's isle over the river and every whiff talked Turkey, the +population of Dunderbunk listened to the wooing and began to follow its +several noses--snubs, beaks, blunts, sharps, piquants, dominants, fines, +bulgies, and bifids--on the way to the several households which those +noses adorned or defaced. Prosperous Dunderbunk had a Dinner, yes, a +DINNER, that day, and Richard Wade was gratefully remembered by many +over-fed foundry-men and their over-fed families. + +Wade had not had half skating enough. + +"I'll time myself down to Skerrett's Point," he thought, "and take my +luncheon there among the hemlocks." + +The Point was on the property of Peter Skerrett, Wade's friend and +college comrade of ten years gone. Peter had been an absentee in Europe, +and smokes from his chimneys this morning had confirmed to Wade's eyes +the rumor of his return. + +Skerrett's Point was a mile below the Foundry. Our hero did his mile +under three minutes. How many seconds under, I will not say. I do not +wish to make other fellows unhappy. + +The Point was a favorite spot of Wade's. Many a twilight of last summer, +tired with his fagging at the Works to make good the evil of Whiffler's +rule, he had lain there on the rocks under the hemlocks, breathing the +spicy methyl they poured into the air. After his day's hard fight, in +the dust and heat of the Foundry, with anarchy and unthrift, he used to +take the quiet restoratives of Nature, until the murmur and fragrance of +the woods, the cool wind, and the soothing loiter of the shining stream +had purged him from the fevers of his task. + +To this old haunt he skated, and kindling a little fire, as an old +campaigner loves to do, he sat down and lunched heartily on Mrs. +Purtett's cold leg,--cannibal thought!--on the cold leg of Mrs. +Purtett's yesterday's turkey. Then lighting his weed,--dear ally of the +lonely,--the Superintendent began to think of his foreman's bliss, and +to long for something similar on his own plane. + +"I hope the wish is father to its fulfilment," he said. "But I must not +stop here and be spooney. Such a halcyon day I may not have again in all +my life, and I ought to make the best of it, with my New Skates." + +So he dashed off, and filled the little cove above the Point with a +labyrinth of curves and flourishes. + +When that bit of crystal tablet was well covered, the podographer sighed +for a new sheet to inscribe his intricate rubricas upon. Why not write +more stanzas of the poetry of motion on the ice below the Point? Why +not? + +Braced by his lunch on the brown fibre of good Mrs. Purtett's cold +drumstick and thigh, Wade was now in fine trim. The air was more +glittering and electric than ever. It was triumph and victory and paean +in action to go flashing along over this footing, smoother than polished +marble and sheenier than first-water gems. + +Wade felt the high exhilaration of pure blood galloping through a body +alive from top to toe. The rhythm of his movement was like music to him. + +The Point ended in a sharp promontory. Just before he came abreast of +it, Wade under mighty headway flung into his favorite corkscrew spiral +on one foot, and went whirling dizzily along, round and round, in a +straight line. + +At the dizziest moment, he was suddenly aware of a figure, also turning +the Point at full speed, and rushing to a collision. + +He jerked aside to avoid it. He could not look to his footing. His skate +struck a broken oar, imbedded in the ice. He fell violently, and lay +like a dead man. + +His New Skates, Testimonial of Merit, seem to have served him a shabby +trick. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +TÊTE-À-TÊTE. + + +Seeing Wade lie there motionless, the lady---- + +Took off her spectacles, blew her great red nose, and stiffly drew near. + +Spectacles! Nose! No,--the latter feature of hers had never become +acquainted with the former; and there was as little stiffness as nasal +redness about her. + +A fresh start, then,--and this time accuracy! + +Appalled by the loud thump of the stranger's skull upon the chief river +of the State of New York, the lady--it was a young lady whom Wade had +tumbled to avoid--turned, saw a human being lying motionless, and swept +gracefully toward him, like a Good Samaritan, on the outer edge. It was +not her fault, but her destiny, that she had to be graceful even under +these tragic circumstances. + +"Dead!" she thought. "Is he dead?" + +The appalling thump had cracked the ice, and she could not know how well +the skull was cushioned inside with brains to resist a blow. + +She shuddered, as she swooped about toward this possible corpse. It +might be that he was killed, and half the fault hers. No wonder her +fine color, shining in the right parts of an admirably drawn face, all +disappeared instantly. + +But she evidently was not frightened. + +She halted, kneeled, looked curiously at the stranger, and then +proceeded, in a perfectly cool and self-possessed way, to pick him up. + +A solid fellow, heavy to lift in his present lumpish condition of +dead-weight! She had to tug mightily to get him up into a sitting +position. When he was raised, all the backbone seemed gone from his +spine, and it took the whole force of her vigorous arms to sustain him. + +The effort was enough to account for the return of her color. It came +rushing back splendidly. Cheeks, forehead, everything but nose, blushed. +The hard work of lifting so much avoirdupois, and possibly, also, the +novelty of supporting so much handsome fellow, intensified all her hues. +Her eyes--blue, or that shade even more faithful than blue--deepened; +and her pale golden hair grew several carats--not carrots--brighter. + +She was repaid for her active sympathy at once by discovering that this +big, awkward thing was not a dead, but only a stunned, body. It had an +ugly bump and a bleeding cut on its manly skull, but otherwise was quite +an agreeable object to contemplate, and plainly on its "unembarrassed +brow Nature had written 'Gentleman.'" + +As this young lady had never had a fair, steady stare at a stunned hero +before, she seized her advantage. She had hitherto been distant with +the other sex. She had no brother. Not one of her male cousins had ever +ventured near enough to get those cousinly privileges that timid cousins +sigh for and plucky cousins take, if they are worth taking. + +Wade's impressive face, though for the moment blind as a statue's, also +seized its advantage and stared at her intently, with a pained and +pleading look, new to those resolute features. + +Wade was entirely unconscious of the great hit he had made by his +tumble; plump into the arms of this heroine! There were fellows extant +who would have suffered any imaginable amputation, any conceivable +mauling, any fling from the apex of anything into the lowest deeps of +anywhere, for the honor he was now enjoying. + +But all he knew was that his skull was a beehive in an uproar, and that +one lobe of his brain was struggling to swarm off. His legs and arms +felt as if they belonged to another man, and a very limp one at that. A +ton of cast-iron seemed to be pressing his eyelids down, and a trickle +of red-hot metal flowed from his cut forehead. + +"I shall have to scream," thought the lady, after an instant of anxious +waiting, "if he does not revive. I cannot leave him to go for help." + +Not a prude, you see. A prude would have had cheap scruples about +compromising herself by taking a man in her arms. Not a vulgar person, +who would have required the stranger to be properly recommended by +somebody who came over in the Mayflower, before she helped him. Not a +feeble-minded damsel, who, if she had not fainted, would have fled away, +gasping and in tears. No timidity or prudery or underbred doubts about +this thorough creature. She knew she was in her right womanly place, and +she meant to stay there. + +But she began to need help, possibly a lancet, possibly a pocket-pistol, +possibly hot blankets, possibly somebody to knead these lifeless lungs +and pommel this flaccid body, until circulation was restored. + +Just as she was making up her mind to scream, Wade stirred. He began to +tingle as if a familiar of the Inquisition were slapping him all over +with fine-toothed curry-combs. He became half-conscious of a woman +supporting him. In a stammering and intoxicated voice he murmured,-- + + "Who ran to catch me when I fell, + And kissed the place to make it well? + My"------ + +He opened his eyes. It was not his mother; for she was long since +deceased. Nor was this non-mother kissing the place. + +In fact, abashed at the blind eyes suddenly unclosing so near her, she +was on the point of letting her burden drop. When dead men come to life +in such a position, and begin to talk about "kissing the place," young +ladies, however independent of conventions, may well grow uneasy. + +But the stranger, though alive, was evidently in a molluscous, +invertebrate condition. He could not sustain himself. She still held him +up, a little more at arm's-length, and all at once the reaction from +extreme anxiety brought a gush of tears to her eyes. + +"Don't cry," says Wade, vaguely, and still only half-conscious. "I +promise never to do so again." + +At this, said with a childlike earnestness, the lady smiled. + +"Don't scalp me," Wade continued, in the same tone. "Squaws never +scalp." + +He raised his hand to his bleeding forehead. + +She laughed outright at his queer plaintive tone and the new class he +had placed her in. + +Her laugh and his own movement brought Wade fully to himself. She +perceived that his look was transferring her from the order of scalping +squaws to her proper place as a beautiful young woman of the highest +civilization, not smeared with vermilion, but blushing celestial rosy. + +"Thank you," said Wade. "I can sit up now without assistance." And he +regretted profoundly that good breeding obliged him to say so. + +She withdrew her arms. He rested on the ice,--posture of the Dying +Gladiator. She made an effort to be cool and distant as usual; but it +would not do. This weak mighty man still interested her. It was still +her business to be strength to him. + +He made a feeble attempt to wipe away the drops of blood from his +forehead with his handkerchief. + +"Let me be your surgeon!" said she. + +She produced her own folded handkerchief,--M. D. were the initials in +the corner,--and neatly and tenderly turbaned him. + +Wade submitted with delight to this treatment. A tumble with such +trimmings was luxury indeed. + +"Who would not break his head," he thought, "to have these delicate +fingers plying about him, and this pure, noble face so close to his? +What a queenly indifferent manner she has! What a calm brow! What honest +eyes! What a firm nose! What equable cheeks! What a grand indignant +mouth! Not a bit afraid of me! She feels that I am a gentleman and will +not presume." + +"There!" said she, drawing back. "Is that comfortable?" + +"Luxury!" he ejaculated with fervor. + +"I am afraid I am to blame for your terrible fall." + +"No,--my own clumsiness and that oar-blade are in fault." + +"If you feel well enough to be left alone, I will skate off and call my +friends." + +"Please do not leave me quite yet!" says Wade, entirely satisfied with +the _tête-à -tête_. + +"Ah! here comes Mr. Skerrett round the Point!" she said,--and sprang up, +looking a little guilty. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LOVE IN THE FIRST DEGREE. + + +Peter Skerrett came sailing round the purple rocks of his Point, skating +like a man who has been in the South of Europe for two winters. + +He was decidedly Anglicized in his whiskers, coat, and shoes. Otherwise +he in all respects repeated his well-known ancestor, Skerrett of the +Revolution; whose two portraits--1. A ruddy hero in regimentals, in +Gilbert Stuart's early brandy-and-water manner; 2. A rosy sage in +senatorials, in Stuart's later claret-and-water manner--hang in his +descendant's dining-room. + +Peter's first look was a provokingly significant one at the confused and +blushing young lady. Secondly he inspected the Dying Gladiator on the +ice. + +"Have you been tilting at this gentleman, Mary?" he asked, in the voice +of a cheerful, friendly fellow. "Why! Hullo. Hooray! It's Wade, Richard +Wade, Dick Wade! Don't look, Miss Mary, while I give him the grips of +all the secret societies we belonged to in College." + +Mary, however, did look on, pleased and amused, while Peter plumped down +on the ice, shook his friend's hand, and examined him as if he were fine +crockery, spilt and perhaps shattered. + +"It's not a case of trepanning, Dick, my boy?" said he. + +"No," said the other. "I tumbled in trying to dodge this lady. The ice +thought my face ought to be scratched, because I had been scratching its +face without mercy. My wits were knocked out of me; but they are tired +of secession, and pleading to be let in again." + +"Keep some of them out for our sake! We must have you at our commonplace +level. Well, Miss Mary, I suppose this is the first time you have had +the sensation of breaking a man's head. You generally hit lower." Peter +tapped his heart. + +"I'm all right now, thanks to my surgeon," says Wade. "Give me a lift, +Peter." He pulled up and clung to his friend. + +"You're the vine and I'm the lamppost," Skerrett said. "Mary, do you +know what a pocket-pistol is?" + +"I have seen such weapons concealed about the persons of modern +warriors." + +"There's one in my overcoat-pocket, with a cup at the butt and a cork at +the muzzle. Skate off now, like an angel, and get it. Bring Fanny, too. +She is restorative." + +"Are you alive enough to admire that, Dick?" he continued, as she +skimmed away. + +"It would pat a soul under the ribs of Death." + +"I venerate that young woman," says Peter. "You see what a beauty she +is, and just as unspoiled as this ice. Unspoiled beauties are rarer than +rocs' eggs. + +"She has a singularly true face," Wade replied, "and that is the main +thing,--the most excellent thing in man or woman." + +"Yes, truth makes that nuisance, beauty, tolerable." + +"You did not do me the honor to present me." + +"I saw you had gone a great way beyond that, my boy. Have you not her +initials in cambric on your brow? Not M. T., which wouldn't apply; but +M. D." + +"Mary----?" + +"Damer." + +"I like the name," says Wade, repeating it. "It sounds simple and +thoroughbred." + +"Just what she is. One of the nine simple-hearted and thorough-bred +girls on this continent." + +"Nine?" + +"Is that too many? Three, then. That's one in ten millions. The exact +proportion of Poets, Painters, Oratory, Statesmen, and all other Great +Artists. Well,--three or nine,--Mary Damer is one of them. She never saw +fear or jealousy, or knowingly allowed an ignoble thought or an ungentle +word or an ungraceful act in herself. Her atmosphere does not tolerate +flirtation. You must find out for yourself how much genius she has and +has not. But I will say this,--that I think of puns two a minute faster +when I'm with her. Therefore she must be magnetic, and that is the first +charm in a woman." + +Wade laughed. + +"You have not lost your powers of analysis, Peter. But talking of this +heroine, you have not told me anything about yourself, except _apropos_ +of punning." + +"Come up and dine, and we'll fire away personal histories, broadside +for broadside! I've been looking in vain for a worthy hero to set +_vis-à -vis_ to my fair kinswoman. But stop! perhaps you have a Christmas +turkey at home, with a wife opposite, and a brace of boys waiting for +drumsticks." + +"No,--my boys, like cherubs, await their own drumsticks. They're not +born, and I'm not married." + +"I thought you looked incomplete and abnormal. Well, I will show you a +model wife,--and here she comes!" + +Here they came, the two ladies, gliding round the Point, with draperies +floating as artlessly artful as the robes of Raphael's Hours, or a +Pompeian Bacchante. For want of classic vase or _patera_, Miss Damer +brandished Peter Skerrett's pocket-pistol. + +Fanny Skerrett gave her hand cordially to Wade, and looked a little +anxiously at his pale face. + +"Now, M.D.," says Peter, "you have been surgeon, you shall be doctor and +dose our patient. Now, then,-- + + "'Hebe, pour free! + Quicken his eyes with mountain-dew, + That Styx, the detested, + No more he may view.'" + + "Thanks, Hebe!" + +Wade said, continuing the quotation,-- + + "I quaff it! + Io Paean, I cry! + The whiskey of the Immortals + Forbids me to die." + +"We effeminate women of the nineteenth century are afraid of broken +heads," said Fanny. "But Mary Damer seems quite to enjoy your accident, +Mr. Wade, as an adventure." + +Miss Damer certainly did seem gay and exhilarated. + +"I enjoy it," said Wade. "I perceive that I fell on my feet, when I fell +on my crown. I tumbled among old friends, and I hope among new ones." + +"I have been waiting to claim my place among your old friends," Mrs. +Skerrett said, "ever since Peter told me you were one of his models." + +She delivered this little speech with a caressing manner which totally +fascinated Wade. + +Nothing was ever so absolutely pretty as Mrs. Peter Skerrett. Her +complete prettiness left nothing to be desired. + +"Never," thought Wade, "did I see such a compact little casket of +perfections. Every feature is thoroughly well done and none intrusively +superior. Her little nose is a combination of all the amiabilities. Her +black eyes sparkle with fun and mischief and wit, all playing over deep +tenderness below. Her hair ripples itself full of gleams and shadows. +The same coquetry of Nature that rippled her hair has dinted her cheeks +with shifting dimples. Every time she smiles--and she smiles as if sixty +an hour were not half allowance--a dimple slides into view and vanishes +like a dot in a flow of sunny water. And, O Peter Skerrett! if you were +not the best fellow in the world, I should envy you that latent kiss of +a mouth." + +"You need not say it, Wade,--your broken head exempts you from the +business of compliments," said Peter; "but I see you think my wife +perfection. You'll think so the more, the more you know her." + +"Stop, Peter," said she, "or I shall have to hide behind the superior +charms of Mary Damer." + +Miss Damer certainly was a woman of a grander order. You might pull at +the bells or knock at the knockers and be introduced into the boudoirs +of all the houses, villas, seats, chateaus, and palaces in Christendom +without seeing such another. She belonged distinctly to the Northern +races,--the "brave and true and tender" women. There was, indeed, a +trace of hauteur and imperiousness in her look and manner; but it +did not ill become her distinguished figure and face. Wade, however, +remembered her sweet earnestness when she was playing leech to his +wound, and chose to take that mood as her dominant one. + +"She must have been desperately annoyed with bores and boobies," he +thought. "I do not wonder she protects herself by distance. I am afraid +I shall never get within her lines again,--not even if I should try +slow and regular approaches, and bombard her with bouquets for a +twelvemonth." + +"But, Wade," says Peter, "all this time you have not told us what good +luck sends you here to be wrecked on the hospitable shores of my Point." + +"I live here. I am chief cook and confectioner where you see the smoking +top of that tall chimney up-stream." + +"Why, of course! What a dolt I was, not to think of you, when Churm told +us an Athlete, a Brave, a Sage, and a Gentleman was the Superintendent +of Dunderbunk; but said we must find his name out for ourselves. You +remember, Mary. Miss Damer is Mr. Churm's ward." + +She acknowledged with a cool bow that she did remember her guardian's +character of Wade. + +"You do not say, Peter," says Mrs. Skerrett, with a bright little look +at the other lady, "why Mr. Churm was so mysterious about Mr. Wade." + +"Miss Damer shall tell us," Peter rejoined, repeating his wife's look of +merry significance. + +She looked somewhat teased. Wade could divine easily the meaning of +this little mischievous talk. His friend Churm had no doubt puffed him +furiously. + +"All this time," said Miss Darner, evading a reply, "we are neglecting +our skating privileges." + +"Peter and I have a few grains of humanity in our souls," Fanny said. +"We should blush to sail away from Mr. Wade, while he carries the +quarantine flag at his pale cheeks." + +"I am almost ruddy again," says Wade. "Your potion, Miss Damer, +has completed the work of your surgery. I can afford to dismiss my +lamp-post." + +"Whereupon the post changes to a tee-totum," Peter said, and spun off in +an eccentric, ending in a tumble. + +"I must have a share in your restoration, Mr. Wade," Fanny claimed. "I +see you need a second dose of medicine. Hand me the flask, Mary. What +shall I pour from this magic bottle? juice of Rhine, blood of Burgundy, +fire of Spain, bubble of Rheims, beeswing of Oporto, honey of Cyprus, +nectar, or whiskey? Whiskey is vulgar, but the proper thing, on the +whole, for these occasions. I prescribe it." And she gave him another +little draught to imbibe. + +He took it kindly, for her sake,--and not alone for that, but for its +own respectable sake. His recovery was complete. His head, to be sure, +sang a little still, and ached not a little. Some fellows would have +gone on the sick list with such a wound. Perhaps he would, if he had had +a trouble to dodge. But here instead was a pleasure to follow. So he +began to move about slowly, watching the ladies. + +Fanny was a novice in the Art, and this was her first day this winter. +She skated timidly, holding Peter very tightly. She went into the +dearest little panics for fear of tumbles, and uttered the most musical +screams and laughs. And if she succeeded in taking a few brave strokes +and finished with a neat slide, she pleaded for a verdict of "Well +done!" with such an appealing smile and such a fine show of dimples that +every one was fascinated and applauded heartily. + +Miss Damer skated as became her free and vigorous character. She had +passed her Little Go as a scholar, and was now steadily winning her way +through the list of achievements, before given, toward the Great Go. +To-day she was at work at small circles backward. Presently she wound +off a series of perfectly neat ones, and, looking up, pleased with her +prowess, caught Wade's admiring eye. At this she smiled and gave an +arch little womanly nod of self-approval, which also demanded masculine +sympathy before it was quite a perfect emotion. + +With this charming gesture, the alert feather in her Amazonian hat +nodded, too, as if it admired its lovely mistress. + +Wade was thrilled. "Brava!" he cried, in answer to the part of her look +which asked sympathy; and then, in reply to the implied challenge, he +forgot his hurt and his shock, and struck into the same figure. + +He tried not to surpass his fair exemplar too cruelly. But he did his +peripheries well enough to get a repetition of the captivating nod and a +Bravo! from the lady. + +"Bravo!" said she. "But do not tax your strength too soon." + +She began to feel that she was expressing too much interest in the +stranger. It was a new sensation for her to care whether men fell or got +up. A new sensation. She rather liked it. She was a trifle ashamed of +it. In either case, she did not wish to show that it was in her heart. +The consciousness of concealment flushed her damask check. + +It was a damask cheek. All her hues were cool and pearly; while Wade, +Saxon too, had hot golden tints in his hair and moustache, and his +color, now returning, was good strong red with plenty of bronze in it. + +"Thank you," he replied. "My force has all come back. You have +electrified me." + +A civil nothing; but meaning managed to get into his tone and look, +whether he would or not. + +Which he perceiving, on his part began to feel guilty. + +Of what crime? + +Of the very same crime as hers,--the most ancient and most pardonable +crime of youth and maiden,--that sweet and guiltless crime of love in +the first degree. + +So, without troubling themselves to analyze their feelings, they found +a piquant pleasure in skating together,--she in admiring his _tours de +force_, and he in instructing her. + +"Look, Peter!" said Mrs. Skerrett, pointing to the other pair skating, +he on the backward roll, she on the forward, with hands crossed and +locked;--such contacts are permitted in skating, as in dancing. "Your +hero and my heroine have dropped into an intimacy." + +"None but the Plucky deserve the Pretty," says Peter. + +"But he seems to be such a fine fellow,--suppose she shouldn't"---- + +The pretty face looked anxious. + +"Suppose _he_ shouldn't," Peter on the masculine behalf returned. + +"He cannot help it: Mary is so noble,--and so charming, when she does +not disdain to be." + +"I do not believe _she_ can help it. She cannot disdain Wade. He carries +too many guns for that. He is just as fine as she is. He was a hero when +I first knew him. His face does not show an atom of change; and you know +what Mr. Churm told us of his chivalric deeds elsewhere, and how he +tamed and reformed Dunderbunk. He is crystal grit, as crystalline and +gritty as he can be." + +"Grit seems to be your symbol of the highest qualities. It certainly is +a better thing in man than in ice-cream. But, Peter, suppose this should +be a true love and should not run smooth?" + +"What consequence is the smooth running, so long as there is strong +running and a final getting in neck and neck at the winning-post?" + +"But," still pleaded the anxious soul,--having no anxieties of her +own, she was always suffering for others,--"he seems to be such a fine +fellow! and she is so hard to win!" + +"Am I a fine fellow?" + +"No,--horrid!" + +"The truth,--or I let you tumble." + +"Well, upon compulsion, I admit that you are." + +"Then being a fine fellow does not diminish the said fellow's chances of +being blessed with a wife quite superfine." + +"If I thought you were personal, Peter, I should object to the +mercantile adjective. 'Superfine,' indeed!" + +"I am personal. I withdraw the obnoxious phrase, and substitute +transcendent. No, Fanny dear, I read Wade's experience in my own. I do +not feel very much concerned about him. He is big enough to take care of +himself. A man who is sincere, self-possessed, and steady does not get +into miseries with beautiful Amazons like our friend. He knows too much +to try to make his love run up hill; but let it once get started, rough +running gives it _vim_. Wade will love like a deluge, when he sees that +he may, and I'd advise obstacles to stand off." + +"It was pretty, Peter, to see cold Mary Damer so gentle and almost +tender." + +"I always have loved to see the first beginnings of what looks like +love, since I saw ours." + +"Ours," she said,--"it seems like yesterday." + +And then together they recalled that fair picture against its dark +ground of sorrow, and so went on refreshing the emotions of that time +until Fanny smiling said,-- + +"There must be something magical in skates, for here we are talking +sentimentally like a pair of young lovers." + +"Health and love are cause and effect," says Peter, sententiously. + +Meanwhile Wade had been fast skating into the good graces of his +companion. Perhaps the rap on his head had deranged him. He certainly +tossed himself about in a reckless and insane way. Still he justified +his conduct by never tumbling again, and by inventing new devices with +bewildering rapidity. + +This pair were not at all sentimental. Indeed, their talk was quite +technical: all about rings and edges, and heel and toe,--what skates are +best, and who best use them. There is an immense amount of sympathy to +be exchanged on such topics, and it was somewhat significant that they +avoided other themes where they might not sympathize so thoroughly. The +negative part of a conversation is often as important as its positive. + +So the four entertained themselves finely, sometimes as a quartette, +sometimes as two duos with proper changes of partners, until the clear +west began to grow golden and the clear east pink with sunset. + +"It is a pity to go," said Peter Skerrett. "Everything here is +perfection and Fine Art; but we must not be unfaithful to dinner. Dinner +would have a right to punish us, if we did not encourage its efforts to +be Fine Art also." + +"Now, Mr. Wade," Fanny commanded, "your most heroic series of exploits, +to close this heroic day." + +He nimbly dashed through his list. The ice was traced with a labyrinth +of involuted convolutions. + +Wade's last turn brought him to the very spot of his tumble. + +"Ah!" said he. "Here is the oar that tripped me, with 'Wade, his +mark,' gashed into it. If I had not this"--he touched Miss Damer's +handkerchief--"for a souvenir, I think I would dig up the oar and carry +it home." + +"Let it melt out and float away in the spring," Mary said. "It may be a +perch for a sea-gull or a buoy for a drowning man." + +Here, if this were a long story instead of a short one, might be given a +description of Peter Skerrett's house and the _menu_ of Mrs. Skerrett's +dinner. Peter and his wife had both been to great pillory dinners, _ad +nauseam_, and learnt what to avoid. How not to be bored is the object of +all civilization, and the Skerretts had discovered the methods. I must +dismiss the dinner and the evening, stamped with the general epithet, +Perfection. + +"You will join us again to-morrow on the river," said Mrs. Skerrett, as +Wade rose to go. + +"To-morrow I go to town to report to my Directors." + +"Then next day." + +"Next day, with pleasure." + +Wade departed and marked this halcyon day with white chalk, as the +whitest, brightest, sweetest of his life. + + +CHAPTER X. + +FOREBODINGS. + + +Jubilation! Jubilation now, instead of Consternation, in the office of +Mr. Benjamin Brummage in Wall Street. + +President Brummage had convoked his Directors to hear the First +Semi-Annual Report of the new Superintendent and Dictator of Dunderbunk. + +And there they sat around the green table, no longer forlorn and +dreading a, failure, but all chuckling with satisfaction over their +prosperity. + +They were a happy and hilarious family now,--so hilarious that +the President was obliged to be always rapping to Order with his +paper-knife. + +Every one of these gentlemen was proud of himself as a Director of so +successful a Company. The Dunderbunk advertisement might now consider +itself as permanent in the newspapers, and the Treasurer had very +unnecessarily inserted the notice of a dividend, which everybody knew of +already. + +When Mr. Churm was not by, they all claimed the honor of having +discovered Wade, or at least of having been the first to appreciate him. + +They all invited him to dinner,--the others at their houses, Sam Gwelp +at his club. + +They had not yet begun to wax fat and kick. They still remembered +the panic of last summer. They passed a unanimous vote of the most +complimentary confidence in Wade, approved of his system, forced upon +him an increase of salary, and began to talk of "launching out" and +doubling their capital. In short, they behaved as Directors do when all +is serene. + +Churm and Wade had a hearty laugh over the absurdities of the Board and +all their vague propositions. + +"Dunderbunk," said Churm, "was a company started on a sentimental basis, +as many others are." + +"Mr. Brummage fell in love with pig-iron?" + +"Precisely. He had been a dry-goods jobber, risen from a retailer +somewhere in the country. He felt a certain lack of dignity in his work. +He wanted to deal in something more masculine than lace and ribbons. He +read a sentimental article on Iron in the 'Journal of Commerce': how +Iron held the world together; how it was nerve and sinew; how it was +ductile and malleable and other things that sounded big; how without +Iron civilization would stop, and New Zealanders hunt rats among the +ruins of London; how anybody who would make two tons of Iron grow +where one grew before was a benefactor to the human race greater than +Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon; and so on,--you know the eloquent style. +Brummage's soul was fired. He determined to be greater than the three +heroes named. He was oozing with unoccupied capital. He went about among +the other rich jobbers, with the newspaper article in his hand, and +fired their souls. They determined to be great Iron-Kings,--magnificent +thought! They wanted to read in the newspapers, 'If all the iron rails +made at the Dunderbunk Works in the last six months were put together in +a straight line, they would reach twice round our terraqueous globe and +seventy-three miles two rails over.' So on that poetic foundation they +started the concern." + +Wade laughed. "But how did you happen to be with them?" + +"Oh! my friend Damer sold them the land for the shop and took stock in +payment. I came into the Board as his executor. Did I never tell you so +before?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, be informed that it was in Miss Damer's behalf that you +knocked down Friend Tarbox, and so got your skates for saving her +property. It's quite a romance already, Richard, my boy! and I suppose +you feel immensely bored that you had to come down and meet us old +chaps, instead of tumbling at her feet on the ice again to-day." + +"A tumble in this wet day would be a cold bath to romance." + +The Gulf Stream had sent up a warm spoil-sport rain that morning. It did +not stop, but poured furiously the whole day. + +From Cohoes to Spuyten Duyvil, on both sides of the river, all the +skaters swore at the weather, as profane persons no doubt did when the +windows of heaven were opened in Noah's time. The skateresses did not +swear, but savagely said, "It is too bad,"--and so it was. + +Wade, loaded with the blessings of his Directors, took the train next +morning for Dunderbunk. + +The weather was still mild and drizzly, but promised to clear. As the +train rattled along by the river, Wade could see that the thin ice +was breaking up everywhere. In mid-stream a procession of blocks was +steadily drifting along. Unless Zero came sliding down again pretty soon +from Boreal regions, the sheets that filled the coves and clung to the +shores would also sail away southward, and the whole Hudson be left +clear as in midsummer. + +At Yonkers a down train ranged by the side of Wade's train, and, looking +out, he saw Mr. and Mrs. Skerrett alighting. + +He jumped down, rather surprised, to speak to them. + +"We have just been telegraphed here," said Peter, gravely. "The son of a +widow, a friend of ours, was drowned this morning in the soft ice of the +river. He was a pet of mine, poor fellow! and the mother depends upon me +for advice. We have come down to say a kind word. Why won't you report +us to the ladies at my house, and say we shall not be at home until the +evening train? They do not know the cause of our journey, except that it +is a sad one." + +"Perhaps Mr. Wade will carve their turkey for them at dinner, Peter," +Fanny suggested. + +"Do, Wade! and keep their spirits up. Dinner's at six." + +Here the engine whistled. Wade promised to "shine substitute" at his +friend's board, and took his place again. The train galloped away. + +Peter and his wife exchanged a bright look over the fortunate incident +of this meeting, and went on their kind way to carry sympathy and such +consolation as might be to the widow. + +The train galloped northward. Until now, the beat of its wheels, like +the click of an enormous metronome, had kept time to jubilant measures +singing in Wade's brain. He was hurrying back, exhilarated with success, +to the presence of a woman whose smile was finer exhilaration than any +number of votes of confidence, passed unanimously by any number of +conclaves of overjoyed Directors, and signed by Brummage after Brummage, +with the signature of a capitalist in a flurry of delight at a ten per +cent dividend. + +But into this joyous mood of Wade's the thought of death suddenly +intruded. He could not keep a picture of death and drowning out of his +mind. As the train sprang along and opened gloomy breadth after breadth +of the leaden river, clogged with slow-drifting files of ice-blocks, he +found himself staring across the dreary waste and forever fancying some +one sinking there, helpless and alone. + +He seemed to see a brave, bright-eyed, ruddy boy, venturing out +carelessly along the edges of the weakened ice. Suddenly the ice gives +way, the little figure sinks, rises, clutches desperately at a fragment, +struggles a moment, is borne along in the relentless flow of the chilly +water, stares in vain shoreward, and so sinks again with a look of +agony, and is gone. + +But whenever this inevitable picture grew before Wade's eyes, as the +drowning figure of his fancy vanished, it suddenly changed features, and +presented the face of Mary Damer, perishing beyond succor. + +Of course he knew that this was but a morbid vision. Yet that it came at +all, and that it so agonized him, proved the force of his new feeling. + +He had not analyzed it before. This thought of death became its +touchstone. + +Men like Wade, strong, healthy, earnest, concentrated, straightforward, +isolated, judge men and women as friends or foes at once and once for +all. He had recognized in Mary Damer from the first a heart as true, +whole, noble, and healthy as his own. A fine instinct had told him that +she was waiting for her hero, as he was for his heroine. + +So he suddenly loved her. And yet not suddenly; for all his life, and +all his lesser forgotten or discarded passions, had been training him +for this master one. + +He suddenly and strongly loved her; and yet it had only been a beautiful +bewilderment of uncomprehended delight, until this haunting vision of +her fair face sinking amid the hungry ice beset him. Then he perceived +what would be lost to him, if she were lost. + +The thought of Death placed itself between him and Love. If the love +had been merely a pretty remembrance of a charming woman, he might have +dismissed his fancied drowning scene with a little emotion of regret. +Now, the fancy was an agony. + +He had too much power over himself to entertain it long. But the grisly +thought came uninvited, returned undesired, and no resolute Avaunt, even +backed by that magic wand, a cigar, availed to banish it wholly. + +The sky cleared cold at eleven o'clock. A sharp wind drew through the +Highlands. As the train rattled round the curve below the tunnel through +Skerrett's Point, Wade could see his skating course of Christmas-Day +with the ladies. Firm ice, glazed smooth by the sudden chill after the +rain, filled the Cove and stretched beyond the Point into the river. + +It was treacherous stuff, beautiful to the eyes of a skater, but sure +to be weak, and likely to break up any moment and join the deliberate +headlong drift of the masses in mid-current. + +Wade almost dreaded lest his vision should suddenly realize itself, +and he should see his enthusiastic companion of the other day sailing +gracefully along to certain death. + +Nothing living, however, was in sight, except here and there a crow, +skipping about in the floating ice. + +The lover was greatly relieved. He could now forewarn the lady against +the peril he had imagined. The train in a moment dropped him at +Dunderbunk. He hurried to the Foundry and wrote a note to Mrs. Damer. + +"Mr. Wade presents his compliments to Mrs. Damer, and has the honor to +inform her that Mr. Skerrett has nominated him carver to the ladies +to-day in their host's place. + +"Mr. Wade hopes that Miss Damer will excuse him from his engagement to +skate with her this afternoon. The ice is dangerous, and Miss Damer +should on no account venture upon it." + +Perry Purtett was the bearer of this billet. He swaggered into Peter +Skerrett's hall, and dreadfully alarmed the fresh-imported Englishman +who answered the bell, by ordering him in a severe tone,-- + +"Hurry up now, White Cravat, with that answer! I'm wanted down to the +Works. Steam don't bile when I'm off; and the fly-wheel will never buzz +another turn, unless I'm there to motion it to move on." + +Mrs. Damer's gracious reply informed Wade "that she should be charmed to +see him at dinner, etc., and would not fail to transmit his kind warning +to Miss Damer, when she returned from her drive to make calls." + +But when Miss Damer returned in the afternoon, her mother was taking a +gentle nap over the violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red +stripes of a gorgeous Afghan she was knitting. The daughter heard +nothing of the billet. The house was lonely without Fanny Skerrett. Mr. +Wade did not come at the appointed hour. Mary was not--willing to say to +herself how much she regretted his absence. + +Had he forgotten the appointment? + +No,--that was a thought not to be tolerated. + +"A gentleman does not forget," she thought. And she had a thorough +confidence, besides, that this gentleman was very willing to remember. + +She read a little, fitfully, sang fitfully, moved about the house +uneasily; and at last, when it grew late, and she was bored and Wade did +not arrive, she pronounced to herself that he had been detained in town. + +This point settled, she took her skates, put on her pretty Amazonian hat +with its alert feather, and went down to waste her beauty and grace on +the ice, unattended and alone. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CAP'S AMBUSTER'S SKIFF. + + +It was a busy afternoon at the Dunderbunk Foundry. + +The Superintendent had come back with his pocket full of orders. +Everybody, from the Czar of Russia to the President of the Guano +Republic, was in the market for machinery. Crisis was gone by. +Prosperity was come. The world was all ready to move, and only waited +for a fresh supply of wheels, cranks, side-levers, walking-beams, and +other such muscular creatures of iron, to push and tug and swing and +revolve and set Progress a-going. + +Dunderbunk was to have its full share in supplying the demand. It was +well understood by this time that the iron Wade made was as stanch +as the man who made it. Dunderbunk, therefore, Head and Hands, must +despatch. + +So it was a busy afternoon at the industrious Foundry. The men bestirred +themselves. The furnaces rumbled. The engine thumped. The drums in the +finishing-shop hummed merrily their lively song of labor. The four +trip-hammers--two bull-headed, two calf-headed--champed, like +carnivorous maws, upon red bars of iron, and over their banquet they +roared the big-toned music of the trip-hammer chorus,-- + + "Now, then! hit hard! + Strike while Iron's hot. Life's short. Art's long." + +By this massive refrain, ringing in at intervals above the ceaseless +buzz, murmur, and clang throughout the buildings, every man's work was +mightily nerved and inspired. Everybody liked to hear the sturdy song of +these grim vocalists; and whenever they struck in, each solo or duo or +quatuor of men, playing Anvil Chorus, quickened time, and all the action +and rumor of the busy opera went on more cheerily and lustily. So work +kept astir like play. + +An hour before sunset, Bill Tarbox stepped into Wade's office. Even oily +and begrimed, Bill could be recognized as a favored lover. He looked +more a man than ever before. + +"I forgot to mention," says the foreman, "that Cap'n Ambuster was in, +this morning, to see you. He says, that, if the river's clear enough for +him to get away from our dock, he'll go down to the City to-morrow, and +offers to take freight cheap. We might put that new walking-beam, we've +just rough-finished for the 'Union,' aboard of him." + +"Yes,--if he is sure to go to-morrow. It will not do to delay. The +owners complained to me yesterday that the 'Union' was in a bad way for +want of its new machinery. Tell your brother-in-law to come here, Bill." + +Tarbox looked sheepishly pleased, and summoned Perry Purtett. + +"Run down, Perry," said Wade, "to the 'Ambuster,' and ask Captain Isaac +to step up here a moment. Tell him I have some freight to send by him." + +Perry moved through the Foundry with his usual jaunty step, left his +dignity at the door, and ran off to the dock. + +The weather had grown fitful. Heavy clouds whirled over, trailing +snow-flurries. Rarely the sun found a cleft in the black canopy to shoot +a ray through and remind the world that he was still in his place and +ready to shine when he was wanted. + +Master Perry had a furlong to go before he reached the dock. He crossed +the stream, kept unfrozen by the warm influences of the Foundry. He ran +through a little dell hedged on each side by dull green cedars. It was +severely cold now, and our young friend condescended to prance and jump +over the ice-skimmed puddles to keep his blood in motion. + +The little rusty, pudgy steamboat lay at the down-stream side of the +Foundry wharf. Her name was so long and her paddle-box so short, that +the painter, beginning with ambitious large letters, had been compelled +to abbreviate the last syllable. Her title read thus:-- + +I. AMBUSTER. + +Certainly a formidable inscription for a steamboat! + +When she hove in sight, Perry halted, resumed his stately demeanor, and +em-barked as if he were a Doge entering a Bucentaur to wed a Sea. + +There was nobody on deck to witness the arrival and salute the +_magnifico_. + +Perry looked in at the Cap'n's office. He beheld a three-legged stool, +a hacked desk, an inky steel-pen, an inkless inkstand; but no Cap'n +Ambuster. + +Perry inspected the Cap'n's state-room. There was a cracked +looking-glass, into which he looked; a hair-brush suspended by the +glass, which he used; a lair of blankets in a berth, which he had no +present use for; and a smell of musty boots, which nobody with a nose +could help smelling. Still no Captain Ambuster, nor any of his crew. + +Search in the unsavory kitchen revealed no cook, coiled up in a corner, +suffering nightmares for the last greasy dinner he had brewed in his +frying-pan. There were no deck hands bundled into their bunks. Perry +rapped on the chain-box and inquired if anybody was within, and nobody +answering, he had to ventriloquize a negative. + +The engine-room, too, was vacant, and quite as unsavory as the other +dens on board. Perry patronized the engine by a pull or two at the +valves, and continued his tour of inspection. + +The Ambuster's skiff, lying on her forward deck, seemed to entertain him +vastly. + +"Jolly!" says Perry. And so it was a jolly boat in the literal, not the +technical sense. + +"The three wise men of Gotham went to sea in a bowl; and here's the +identical craft," says Perry. + +He gave the chubby little machine a push with his foot. It rolled and +wallowed about grotesquely. When it was still again, it looked so comic, +lying contentedly on its fat side like a pudgy baby, that Perry had a +roar of laughter, which, like other laughter to one's self, did not +sound very merry, particularly as the north-wind was howling ominously, +and the broken ice on its downward way was whispering and moaning and +talking on in a most mysterious and inarticulate manner. + +"Those sheets of ice would crunch up this skiff, as pigs do a punkin," +thinks Perry. + +And with this thought in his head he looked out on the river, and +fancied the foolish little vessel cast loose and buffeting helplessly +about in the ice. + +He had been so busy until now, in prying about the steamboat and making +up his mind that Captain and men had all gone off for a comfortable +supper on shore, that his eyes had not wandered toward the stream. + +Now his glance began to follow the course of the icy current. He +wondered where all this supply of cakes came from, and how many of them +would escape the stems of ferry-boats below and get safe to sea. + +All at once, as he looked lazily along the lazy files of ice, his eyes +caught a black object drifting on a fragment in a wide way of open water +opposite Skerrett's Point, a mile distant. + +Perry's heart stopped beating. He uttered a little gasping cry. He +sprang ashore, not at all like a Doge quitting a Bucentaur. He tore back +to the Foundry, dashing through the puddles, and, never stopping to pick +up his cap, burst in upon Wade and Bill Tarbos in the office. + +The boy was splashed from head to foot with red mud. His light hair, +blown wildly about, made his ashy face seem paler. He stood panting. + +His dumb terror brought back to Wade's mind all the bad omens of the +morning. + +"Speak!" said he, seizing Perry fiercely by the shoulder. + +The uproar of the Works seemed to hush for an instant, while the lad +stammered faintly,-- + +"There's somebody carried off in the ice by Skerrett's Point. It looks +like a woman. And there's nobody to help." + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IN THE ICE. + + +"Help! help!" shouted the four triphammers, bursting in like a magnified +echo of the boy's last word. + +"Help! help!" all the humming wheels and drums repeated more +plaintively. + +Wade made for the river. + +This was the moment all his manhood had been training and saving for. +For this he had kept sound and brave from his youth up. + +As he ran, he felt that the only chance of instant help was in that +queer little bowl-shaped skiff of the "Ambuster." + +He had never been conscious that he had observed it; but the image +had lain latent in his mind, biding its time. It might be ten, twenty +precious moments before another boat could be found. This one was on the +spot to do its duty at once. + +"Somebody carried off,--perhaps a woman," Wade thought. "Not--No, she +would not neglect my warning! Whoever it is, we must save her from this +dreadful death!" + +He sprang on board the little steamboat. She was swaying uneasily at her +moorings, as the ice crowded along and hammered against her stem. Wade +stared from her deck down the river, with all his life at his eyes. + +More than a mile away, below the hemlock-crested point, was the dark +object Perry had seen, still stirring along the edges of the floating +ice. A broad avenue of leaden-green water wrinkled by the cold wind +separated the field where this figure was moving from the shore. Dark +object and its footing of gray ice were drifting deliberately farther +and farther away. + +For one instant Wade thought that the terrible dread in his heart would +paralyze him. But in that one moment, while his blood stopped flowing +and his nerves failed, Bill Tarbos overtook him and was there by his +side. + +"I brought your cap," says Bill, "and our two coats." + +Wade put on his cap mechanically. This little action calmed him. + +"Bill," said he, "I'm afraid it is a woman,--a dear friend of mine,--a +very dear friend." + +Bill, a lover, understood the tone. + +"We'll take care of her between us," he said. + +The two turned at once to the little tub of a boat. + +Oars? Yes,--slung under the thwarts,--a pair of short sculls, worn and +split, but with work in them still. There they hung ready,--and a rusty +boat-hook, besides. + +"Find the thole-pins, Bill, while I cut a plug for her bottom out of +this broomstick," Wade said. + +This was done in a moment. Bill threw in the coats. + +"Now, together!" + +They lifted the skiff to the gangway. Wade jumped down on the ice and +received her carefully. They ran her along, as far as they could go, and +launched her in the sludge. + +"Take the sculls, Bill. I'll work the boat-hook in the bow." + +Nothing more was said. They thrust out with their crazy little craft +into the thick of the ice-flood. Bill, amidships, dug with his sculls +in among the huddled cakes. It was clumsy pulling. Now this oar and now +that would be thrown out. He could never get a full stroke. + +Wade in the bow could do better. He jammed the blocks aside with his +boat-hook. He dragged the skiff forward. He steered through the little +open ways of water. + +Sometimes they came to a broad sheet of solid ice. Then it was "Out with +her, Bill!" and they were both out and sliding their bowl so quick +over, that they had not time to go through the rotten surface. This was +drowning business; but neither could be spared to drown yet. + +In the leads of clear water, the oarsman got brave pulls and sent the +boat on mightily. Then again in the thick porridge of brash ice they +lost headway, or were baffled and stopped among the cakes. Slow work, +slow and painful; and for many minutes they seemed to gain nothing upon +the steady flow of the merciless current. + +A frail craft for such a voyage, this queer little half-pumpkin! A frail +and leaky shell. She bent and cracked from stem to stern among the +nipping masses. Water oozed in through her dry seams. Any moment a +rougher touch or a sharper edge might cut her through. But that was a +risk they had accepted. They did not take time to think of it, nor to +listen to the crunching and crackling of the hungry ice around. They +urged straight on, steadily, eagerly, coolly, spending and saving +strength. + +Not one moment to lose! The shattering of broad sheets of ice around +them was a warning of what might happen to the frail support of their +chase. One thrust of the boat-hook sometimes cleft a cake that to the +eye seemed stout enough to bear a heavier weight than a woman's. + +Not one moment to spare! The dark figure, now drifted far below the +hemlocks of the Point, no longer stirred. It seemed to have sunk upon +the ice and to be resting there weary and helpless, on one side a wide +way of lurid water, on the other half a mile of moving desolation. + +Far to go, and no time to waste! + +"Give way, Bill! Give way!" + +"Ay, ay!" + +Both spoke in low tones, hardly louder than the whisper of the ice +around them. + +By this time hundreds from the Foundry and the village were swarming +upon the wharf and the steamboat. + +"A hunderd tar-barrels wouldn't git up my steam in time to do any good," +says Cap'n Ambuster. "If them two in my skiff don't overhaul the man, +he's gone." + +"You're sure it's a man?" says Smith Wheelwright. + +"Take a squint through my glass. I'm dreffully afeard it's a gal; but +suthin's got into my eye, so I can't see." + +Suthin' had got into the old fellow's eye,--suthin' saline and +acrid,--namely, a tear. + +"It's a woman," says Wheelwright,--and suthin' of the same kind blinded +him also. + +Almost sunset now. But the air was suddenly filled with perplexing +snow-dust from a heavy squall. A white curtain dropped between the +anxious watchers on the wharf and the boatmen. + +The same white curtain hid the dark floating object from its pursuers. +There was nothing in sight to steer by, now. + +Wade steered by his last glimpse,--by the current,--by the rush of the +roaring wind,--by instinct. + +How merciful that in such a moment a man is spared the agony of thought! +His agony goes into action, intense as life. + +It was bitterly cold. A swash of ice-water filled the bottom of the +skiff. She was low enough down without that. They could not stop to +bail, and the miniature icebergs they passed began to look significantly +over the gunwale. Which would come to the point of foundering first, the +boat or the little floe it aimed for? + +Bitterly cold! The snow hardly melted upon Tarbox's bare hands. His +fingers stiffened to the oars; but there was life in them still, and +still he did his work, and never turned to see how the steersman was +doing his. + +A flight of crows came sailing with the snow-squall. They alighted all +about on the hummocks, and curiously watched the two men battling to +save life. One black impish bird, more malignant or more sympathetic +than his fellows, ventured to poise on the skiff's stern! + +Bill hissed off this third passenger. The crow rose on its toes, let +the boat slide away from under him, and followed croaking dismal good +wishes. + +The last sunbeams were now cutting in everywhere. The thick snow-flurry +was like a luminous cloud. Suddenly it drew aside. + +The industrious skiff had steered so well and made such headway, that +there, a hundred yards away, safe still, not gone, thank God! was the +woman they sought. + +A dusky mass flung together on a waning rood of ice,--Wade could see +nothing more. + +Weary or benumbed, or sick with pure forlornness and despair, she had +drooped down and showed no sign of life. + +The great wind shook the river. Her waning rood of ice narrowed, foot +by foot, like an unthrifty man's heritage. Inch by inch its edges wore +away, until the little space that half-sustained the dark heap was no +bigger than a coffin-lid. + +Help, now!--now, men, if you are to save! Thrust, Richard Wade, with +your boat-hook! Pull, Bill, till your oars snap! Out with your last +frenzies of vigor! For the little raft of ice, even that has crumbled +beneath its burden, and she sinks,--sinks, with succor close at hand! + +Sinks! No,--she rises and floats again. + +She clasps something that holds her head just above water. But the +unmannerly ice has buffeted her hat off. The fragments toss it +about,--that pretty Amazonian hat, with its alert feather, all drooping +and draggled. Her fair hair and pure forehead are uncovered for an +astonished sunbeam to alight upon. + +"It is my love, my life, Bill! Give way, once more!" + +"Way enough! Steady! Sit where you are, Bill, and trim boat, while I +lift her out. We cannot risk capsizing." + +He raised her carefully, tenderly, with his strong arms. + +A bit of wood had buoyed her up for that last moment. It was a broken +oar with a deep fresh gash in it. + +Wade knew his mark,--the cut of his own skate-iron. This busy oar was +still resolved to play its part in the drama. + +The round little skiff just bore the third person without sinking. + +Wade laid Mary Damer against the thwart. She would not let go her buoy. +He unclasped her stiffened hands. This friendly touch found its way to +her heart. She opened her eyes and knew him. + +"The ice shall not carry off her hat to frighten some mother, down +stream," says Bill Tarbox, catching it. + +All these proceedings Cap'n Ambuster's spy-glass announced to +Dunderbunk. + +"They're h'istin' her up. They've slumped her into the skiff. They're +puttin' for shore. Hooray!" + +Pity a spy-glass cannot shoot cheers a mile and a half! + +Perry Purtett instantly led a stampede of half Dunderbunk along the +railroad-track to learn who it was and all about it. + +All about it was, that Miss Damer was safe and not dangerously +frozen,--and that Wade and Tarbox had carried her up the hill to her +mother at Peter Skerrett's. + +Missing the heroes in chief, Dunderbunk made a hero of Cap'n Ambuster's +skiff. It was transported back on the shoulders of the crowd in +triumphal procession. Perry Purtett carried round the hat for a +contribution to new paint it, new rib it, new gunwale it, give it new +sculls and a new boat-hook,--indeed, to make a new vessel of the brave +little bowl. + +"I'm afeard," says Cap'n Ambuster, "that, when I git a harnsome new +skiff, I shall want a harnsome new steamboat, and then the boat will go +to cruisin' round for a harnsome new Cap'n." + +And now for the end of this story. + +Healthy love-stories always end in happy marriages. + +So ends this story, begun as to its love portion by the little romance +of a tumble, and continued by the bigger romance of a rescue. + +Of course there were incidents enough to fill a volume, obstacles enough +to fill a volume, and development of character enough to fill a tome +thick as "Webster's Unabridged," before the happy end of the beginning +of the Wade-Damer joint history. + +But we can safely take for granted that the lover being true and manly, +and the lady true and womanly, and both possessed of the high moral +qualities necessary to artistic skating, they will go on understanding +each other better, until they are as one as two can be. + +Masculine reader, attend to the moral of this tale:-- + +Skate well, be a hero, bravely deserve the fair, prove your deserts by +your deeds, find your "perfect woman nobly planned to warm, to comfort, +and command," catch her when found, and you are Blest. + +Reader of the gentler sex, likewise attend:-- + +All the essential blessings of life accompany a true heart and a good +complexion. Skate vigorously; then your heart will beat true, your +cheeks will bloom, your appointed lover will see your beautiful soul +shining through your beautiful face, he will tell you so, and after +sufficient circumlocution he will Pop, you will accept, and your lives +will glide sweetly as skating on virgin ice to silver music. + + * * * * * + + +MIDWINTER. + + + The speckled sky is dim with snow, + The light flakes falter and fall slow; + Athwart the hill-top, rapt and pale, + Silently drops a silvery veil; + The far-off mountain's misty form + Is entering now a tent of storm; + And all the valley is shut in + By flickering curtains gray and thin. + + But cheerily the chickadee + Singeth to me on fence and tree; + The snow sails round him, as he sings, + White as the down of angels' wings. + + I watch the slow flakes, as they fall + On bank and brier and broken wall; + Over the orchard, waste and brown, + All noiselessly they settle down, + Tipping the apple-boughs, and each + Light quivering twig of plum and peach. + + On turf and curb and bower-roof + The snow-storm spreads its ivory woof; + It paves with pearl the garden-walk; + And lovingly round tattered stalk + And shivering stem its magic weaves + A mantle fair as lily-leaves. + + The hooded beehive, small and low, + Stands like a maiden in the snow; + And the old door-slab is half hid + Under an alabaster lid. + + All day it snows: the sheeted post + Gleams in the dimness like a ghost; + All day the blasted oak has stood + A muffled wizard of the wood; + Garland and airy cap adorn + The sumach and the way-side thorn, + And clustering spangles lodge and shine + In the dark tresses of the pine. + + The ragged bramble, dwarfed and old, + Shrinks like a beggar in the cold; + In surplice white the cedar stands, + And blesses him with priestly hands. + + Still cheerily the chickadee + Singeth to me on fence and tree: + But in my inmost ear is heard + The music of a holier bird; + And heavenly thoughts, as soft and white + As snow-flakes, on my soul alight, + Clothing with love my lonely heart, + Healing with peace each bruisèd part, + Till all my being seems to be + Transfigured by their purity. + + * * * * * + + +EASE IN WORK. + + +To thoughts and expressions of peculiar force and beauty we give the +epithets "happy" and "felicitous," as if we esteemed them a product +rather of the writer's fortune than of his toil. Thus, Dryden says of +Shakspeare, "All the images of Nature were still present to him, and he +drew from them, not laboriously, but luckily." And, indeed, when one +contemplates a noble creation in art or literature, one seems to receive +from the work itself a certain testimony that it was never wrought out +with wrestling struggle, but was genially and joyfully produced, as the +sun sends forth his beams and the earth her herbage. This appearance +of play and ease is sometimes so notable as to cause a curious +misapprehension. For example, De Quincey permits himself, if my memory +serve me, to say that Plato probably wrote his works not in any +seriousness of spirit, but only as a pastime! A pastime for the +immortals that were. + +The reason of this ease may be that perfect performance is ever more the +effluence of a man's nature than the conscious labor of his hands. That +the hands are faithfully busy therein, that every faculty contributes +its purest industry, no one could for a moment doubt; since there could +not be a total action of one's nature without this loyalty of his +special powers. Nevertheless, there are times when the presiding +intelligence descends into expression by a law and necessity of its own, +as clouds descend into rain; and perhaps it is only then that consummate +work is done. He who by his particular powers and gifts serves as a +conduit for this flowing significance may indeed toil as no drudge ever +did or can, yet with such geniality and success, that he shall feel of +his toil only the joy, and that we shall see of it only the prosperity. +A swan labors in swimming, a pigeon in his flight; yet as no part +of this industry is defeated, as it issues momentarily in perfect +achievement, it makes upon us the impression, not of the limitation of +labor, but of the freedom and liberation of an animal genius. + +"Long deliberations," says Goethe, "commonly indicate that we have not +the point to be determined clearly in view." So an extreme sense +of striving effort, or, in other words, an extreme sense of inward +hindrance, in the performance of a high task, usually denotes the +presence in us of an element irrelevant to our work, and perhaps +unfriendly to it. If a stream flow roughly, you infer obstructions in +the channel. Often the explanation may be that one is attempting to-day +a task proper to some future time,--to another year, or another +century. It is the green fruit that clings tenaciously to the bough; the +ripe falls of itself. + +But as blighted and worm-eaten apples likewise fall of themselves, so in +this ease of execution the falsest work may agree with the best. That +the similarity is purely specious needs not be urged; yet in practically +distinguishing between the two there are not a few that fail. The most +precious work is performed with a noble, though not idle ease, because +it is the sincere, seasonable, and, as it were, inevitable flowering +into expression of one's inward life; and work utterly, glibly insincere +and imitative is often done with ease, because it is so successfully +separated from the inward life as not even to recognize its claim. +Accordingly, pure art and pure artifice, sincere creation and sheer +fabrication, flow; from the mixture of these, or from any mixture of +natural and necessary with factitious expression, comes embarrassment. +In the mastery of life, or of death, there is peace; the intermediate +state, that of sickness, is full of pain and struggle. In Homer and +in Tupper, in Cicero and the leaders of the London "Times," in Jeremy +Taylor and the latest Reverend Mr. Orotund, you find a liberal and +privileged utterance; but honest John Foster, made of powerful, but +ill-composed elements, and replete with an intelligence now gleaming and +now murky, could wring statements from his mind only as testimony in +cruel ages was obtained from unwilling witnesses, namely, by putting +himself to the torture. + +But it is of prime importance to observe that the aforementioned mature +fruit, which so falls at the tenderest touch into the hand, is no +sudden, no idle product. It comes, on the contrary, of a depth of +operation more profound, and testifies to a genius and sincerity in +Nature more subtile and religious, than we can understand or imagine. +This apple that in fancy we now pluck, and hardly need to pluck, from +the burdened bough,--think what a pedigree it has, what aeons of +world-making and world-maturing must elapse, all the genius of God +divinely assiduous, ere this could hang in ruddy and golden ripeness +here! Think, too, what a concurrence and consent of elements, of sun and +soil, of ocean-vapors and laden winds, of misty heats in the torrid zone +and condensing blasts from the North, were required before a single +apple could grow, before a single blossom could put forth its promise, +tender and beautiful amidst the gladness of spring!--and besides these +consenting ministries of Nature, how the special genius of the tree must +have wrought, making sacrifice of woody growth, and, by marvellous and +ineffable alchemies, co-working with the earth beneath, and the heaven +above! Ah, not from any indifference, not from any haste or indolence, +in Nature, come the fruits of her seasons and her centuries! + +Now he who has any faculty of thinking must see that thoughts are before +things in the order of existence. True it is, that here as elsewhere, as +everywhere, last is first and first is last. That which is innermost, +and consequently primary, is last to appear on the surface; and +accordingly thoughts _per se_ follow things in the order of +manifestation. But how could the thing exist, but for a thought that +preceded and begot it? And now that the thought has passed _through_ +the material symbol, has passed forward to a new and more consummate +expression, first in the soul, and afterwards by the voice, we should +be unwise indeed to deny or forget its antiquity. Thoughts are no +_parvenus_ or _novi homines_ in Nature, but came in with that Duke +William who first struck across the unnamed seas into this island of +time and material existence which we inhabit. Accordingly, it is using +extreme understatement, to say that every pure original thought has a +genesis equally ancient, earnest, vital with any product in Nature,--has +present relationships no less broad and cosmical, and an evolution +implying the like industries, veritable and precious beyond all scope of +affirmation. Even if we quite overlook its pre-personal ancestry, still +the roots it has in its immediate author will be of unmeasured depth, +and it will still proceed toward its consummate form by energies and +assiduities that beggar the estimation of all ordinary toil. With the +birth of the man himself was it first born, and to the time of its +perfect growth and birth into speech the burden of it was borne by every +ruddy drop of his heart's blood, by every vigor of his body,--nerve +and artery, eye and ear, and all the admirable servitors of the soul, +steadily bringing to that invisible matrix where it houses their +costly nutriments, their sacred offices; while every part and act of +experience, every gush of jubilance, every stifle of woe, all sweet +pangs of love and pity, all high breathings of faith and resolve, +contribute to the form and bloom it finally wears. Yet the more profound +and necessary product of one's spirit it is, the more likely at last +to fall softly from him,--so softly, perhaps, that he himself shall be +half-unaware when the separation occurs. + +And such only are men of genius as accomplish this divine utterance. +The voice itself may be strong or tiny,--that of a seraph, or that of a +song-sparrow; the range and power of combination may be Beethoven's, or +only such as are found in the hum of bees; but in this genuineness, this +depth of ancestry and purity of growth, this unmistakable issue under +the patronage of Nature, there is a test of genius that cannot vary. He +is not inimitable who imitates. He that speaks only what he has learned +speaks what the world will not long or greatly desire to learn from him. +"Shakspeare," said Dryden, not having the fear of Locke before his eyes, +"was naturally learned"; but whoever is quite destitute of natural +learning will never achieve winged words by dint and travail of other +erudition. If his soul have not been to school before coming to his +body, it is late in life for him to qualify himself for a teacher of +mankind. Words that are cups to contain the last essences of a sincere +life bear elixirs of life for as many lips as shall touch their brim; +they refresh all generations, nor by any quaffing of generations are +they to be drained. + +To this ease it may be owing that poets and artists are often so ill +judges of their own success. Their happiest performance is too nearly of +the same color with their permanent consciousness to be seen in relief: +work less sincere--that is, more related and bound to some partial state +or particular mood--would stand out more to the eye of the doer. To this +error he will be less exposed who learns--as most assuredly every artist +should--to estimate his work, not as it seems to him _striking_, but as +it echoes to his ear the earliest murmurs of his childhood, and reclaims +for the heart its wandered memories. Perhaps it is common for one's +happiest thoughts, in the moment of their apparition in words, to affect +him with a gentle surprise and sense of newness; but soon afterwards +they may probably come to touch him, on the contrary, with a vague +sense of reminiscence, as if his mother had sung them by his cradle, or +somewhere under the rosy east of life he had heard them from others. +A statement of our own which seems to us _very_ new and striking is +probably partial, is in some degree foreign to our hearts; that which +one, being the soul he is, could not do otherwise than say is probably +what he was created for the purpose of saying, and will be found his +most significant and living word. Yet just in proportion as one's speech +is a pure and simple efflux of his spirit, just in proportion as its +utterance lies in the order and inevitable procedure of his life, he +will be _liable_ to undervalue it. Who feels that the universe is +greatly enriched by his heart-beats?--that it is much that he breathes, +sleeps, walks? But the breaths of supreme genius are thoughts, and the +imaginations that people its day-world are more familiar to it than the +common dreams of sleepers to them, and the travel of its meditations is +daily and customary; insomuch that the very thought of all others which +one was born to utter he may _forget_ to mention, as presuming it to be +no news. Indeed, if a man of fertile soul be misled into the luckless +search after peculiar and surprising thoughts, there are many chances +that be will be betrayed into this oversight of his proper errand. As +Sir Martin Frobisher, according to Fuller, brought home from America a +cargo of precious stones which after examination were thrown out to mend +roads with, so he leaves untouched his divine knowledges, and comes +sailing into port full-freighted with conceits. + +May not the above considerations go far to explain that indifference, +otherwise so astonishing, with which Shakspeare cast his work from him? +It was his heart that wrote; but does the heart look with wonder and +admiration on the crimson of its own currents? + + * * * * * + + +AT PORT ROYAL. 1861. + + + The tent-lights glimmer on the land, + The ship-lights on the sea; + The night-wind smooths with drifting sand + Our track on lone Tybee. + + At last our grating keels outslide, + Our good boats forward swing; + And while we ride the land-locked tide, + Our negroes row and sing. + + For dear the bondman holds his gifts + Of music and of song: + The gold that kindly Nature sifts + Among his sands of wrong; + + The power to make his toiling days + And poor home-comforts please; + The quaint relief of mirth that plays + With sorrow's minor keys. + + Another glow than sunset's fire + Has filled the West with light, + Where field and garner, barn and byre + Are blazing through the night. + + The land is wild with fear and hate, + The rout runs mad and fast; + From hand to hand, from gate to gate, + The flaming brand is passed. + + The lurid glow falls strong across + Dark faces broad with smiles: + Not theirs the terror, hate, and loss + That fire yon blazing piles. + + With oar-strokes timing to their song, + They weave in simple lays + The pathos of remembered wrong, + The hope of better days,-- + + The triumph-note that Miriam sung, + The joy of uncaged birds: + Softening with Afric's mellow tongue + Their broken Saxon words. + + + + +SONG OF THE NEGRO BOATMEN. + + + Oh, praise an' tanks! De Lord he come + To set de people free; + An' massa tink it day ob doom, + An' we ob jubilee. + De Lord dat heap de Red Sea waves + He jus' as 'trong as den; + He say de word: we las' night slaves; + To-day, de Lord's freemen. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + Ole massa on he trabbels gone; + He leab de land behind: + De Lord's breff blow him furder on, + Like corn-shuck in de wind. + We own de hoe, we own de plough, + We own de hands dat hold; + We sell de pig, we sell de cow, + But nebber chile be sold. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + We pray de Lord: he gib us signs + Dat some day we be free; + + De Norf-wind tell it to de pines, + De wild-duck to de sea; + We tink it when de church-bell ring, + We dream it in de dream; + De rice-bird mean it when he sing, + De eagle when he scream. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + We know de promise nebber fail, + An' nebber lie de word; + So, like de 'postles in de jail, + We waited for de Lord: + An' now he open ebery door, + An' trow away de key; + He tink we lub him so before, + We lub him better free. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + He'll gib de rice an' corn: + So nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + So sing our dusky gondoliers; + And with a secret pain, + And smiles that seem akin to tears, + We hear the wild refrain. + + We dare not share the negro's trust, + Nor yet his hope deny; + We only know that God is just, + And every wrong shall die. + + Rude seems the song; each swarthy face, + Flame-lighted, ruder still; + We start to think that hapless race + Must shape our good or ill; + + That laws of changeless justice bind + Oppressor with oppressed; + And, close as sin and suffering joined, + We march to Fate abreast. + + Sing on, poor hearts! your chant shall be + Our sign of blight or bloom,-- + The Vala-song of Liberty, + Or death-rune of our doom! + + + + +FREMONT'S HUNDRED DAYS IN MISSOURI. + + +II. + + +_Camp Haskell, October 24th._ We have marched twelve miles to-day, and +are encamped near the house of a friendly German farmer. Our cortege has +been greatly diminished in number. Some of the staff have returned to +St. Louis; to others have been assigned duties which remove them from +head-quarters; and General Asboth's division being now in the rear, that +soldierly-looking officer no longer rides beside the General, and the +gentlemen of his staff no longer swell our ranks. + +As we approach the enemy there is a marked change in the General's +demeanor. Usually reserved, and even retiring,--now that his plans +begin to work out results, that the Osage is behind us, that the +difficulties of deficient transportation have been conquered, there is +an unwonted eagerness in his face, his voice is louder, and there is +more self-assertion in his attitude. He has hitherto proceeded on a +walk, but now he presses on at a trot. His horsemanship is perfect. +Asboth is a daring rider, loving to drive his animal at the top of his +speed. Zagonyi rides with surpassing grace, and selects fiery chargers +which no one else cares to mount. Colonel E. has an easy, business-like +gait. But in lightness and security in the saddle the General excels +them all. He never worries his beast, is sure to get from him all +the work of which he is capable, is himself quite incapable of being +fatigued in this way. + +Just after sundown the camp was startled by heavy infantry firing. Going +around the spur of the forest which screens head-quarters from the +prairie, we found the Guard dismounted, drawn up in line, firing their +carbines and revolvers. The circumstance excites curiosity, and we learn +that Zagonyi has been ordered to make a descent upon Springfield, and +capture or disperse the Rebel garrison, three or four hundred strong, +which is said to be there. Major White has already gone forward with his +squadron of "Prairie Scouts" to make a reconnoissance in the direction +of Springfield. Zagonyi will overtake White, assume command of the +whole force, which will number about three hundred men, and turn the +reconnoissance into an attack. The Guard set out at eight o'clock +this evening. A few are left behind to do duty around head-quarters. +Lieutenant Kennedy, of the Kentucky company, was ordered to remain in +command of our Home-Guard. He was greatly grieved, and went to the Major +and with tears in his eyes besought him to permit him to go. Zagonyi +could not refuse the gallant fellow, and all the officers of the Guard +have gone. There is a feeling of sadness in camp to-night. We wonder +which of our gay and generous comrades will come back to us again. + +_October 25th_. We moved only seven miles to-day. It is understood that +the General will gather the whole army upon a large prairie a few miles +north of Bolivar, and devote a few days to reviewing the troops, and to +field-manoeuvres. This will have an excellent effect. The men will be +encouraged when they see how large the column is, for the army has never +been concentrated. + +This morning we received news of the brilliant affair at Fredericktown. + +Just before the General left camp to-day, I received orders to report +myself to General Asboth, for duty as Judge-Advocate of a Court-Martial +to be held in his division. General Asboth was several miles behind us, +and I set out to ride back and join him. After a gallop of half an hour +across the prairie, I discovered that I had lost my way. I vainly tried +to find some landmark of yesterday's march, but was at last compelled to +trust to the sagacity of my horse,--the redoubtable Spitfire, so named +by reason of his utter contempt for gunpowder, whether sputtered out of +muskets or belched forth by cannon. I gave him his head. He snuffed the +air for a moment, deliberately swept the horizon with his eyes, and then +turned short around and carried me back to the farm-house from which I +had started. I arrived just in time for dinner. Two officers of Lane's +brigade, which had marched from Kansas, came in while we were at the +table. They seasoned our food with spicy incidents of Kansas life. + +After dinner I started with Captain R., of Springfield, to find Asboth. +As we left the house, we were joined by the most extraordinary character +I have seen. He was a man of medium height. His chest was enormous in +length and breadth; his arms long, muscular, and very large; his legs +short. He had the body of a giant upon the legs of a dwarf. This curious +figure was surmounted by a huge head, covered with coarse brown hair, +which grew very nearly down to his eyes, while his beard grew almost up +to his eyes. It seemed as if the hair and beard had had a struggle for +the possession of his face, and were kept apart by the deep chasm +in which his small gray eyes were set. He was armed with a huge +bowie-knife, which he carried slung like a sword. It was at least two +feet long, heavy as a butcher's cleaver, and was thrust into a sheath +of undressed hide. He called this pleasant instrument an Arkansas +toothpick. He bestrode, as well as his diminutive legs would let him, an +Indian pony as shaggy as himself. This person proved to be a bearer of +despatches, and offered to guide us to the main road, along which Asboth +was marching. + +The pony started off at a brisk trot, and in an hour we were upon the +road, which we found crowded with troops and wagons. Pressing through +the underbrush along-side the road, we kept on at a rapid pace. We soon +heard shouts and cheers ahead of us, and in a few moments came in sight +of a farm-house, in front of which was an excited crowd. Men were +swarming in at every door and window. The yard was filled with furniture +which the troops were angrily breaking, and a considerable party was +busy tearing up the roof. I could not learn the cause of the uproar, +except that a Secessionist lived there who had killed some one. I passed +on, and in a little while arrived at Asboth's quarters. + +He had established himself in an unpretending, but comfortable +farm-house, formerly owned by a German, named Brown. This house has +lately been the scene of one of those bloody outrages, instigated by +neighborhood hatred, which have been so frequent in Missouri. Old Brown +had lived here more than thirty years. He was industrious, thrifty, +and withal a skilful workman. Under his intelligent husbandry his farm +became the marvel of all that region. He had long outlived his strength, +and when the war broke out he could give to the Union nothing but +his voice and influence: these he gave freely and at all times. The +plain-spoken patriot excited the enmity of the Secessionists, and the +special hatred of one man, his nearest neighbor. All through the summer, +his barns were plundered, his cattle driven away, his fences torn down; +but no one offered violence to the white-headed old man, or to the three +women who composed his family. The approach of our army compelled the +Rebels of the neighborhood to fly, and among the fugitives was the foe I +have mentioned. He was not willing to depart and leave the old German +to welcome the Union troops. Just one week ago, at a late hour in the +evening, he rode up to Brown's door and knocked loudly. The old man +cautiously asked who it was. The wretch replied, "A friend who wants +lodging." As a matter of course,--for in this region every house is a +tavern,--the farmer opened the door, and at the instant was pierced +through the heart by a bullet from the pistol of his cowardly foe. The +blood-stains are upon the threshold still. It was the murderer's house +the soldiers sacked to-day. A German artillery company heard the +story, and began to plunder the premises under the influence of a not +unjustifiable desire for revenge. General Asboth, however, compelled the +men to desist, and to replace the furniture they had taken out. + +I found General Sturgis, and Captain Parrot, his Adjutant, at General +Asboth's, on their way to report to General Fremont. Sturgis has brought +his command one hundred and fifty miles in ten days. He says that large +numbers of deserters have come into his lines. Price's followers are +becoming discouraged by his continued retreat. + +The business which detained me in the rear was finished at an early +hour, but I waited in order to accompany General Asboth, who, with some +of his staff, was intending to go to head-quarters, five miles farther +south. We set out at nine o'clock. General Asboth likes to ride at the +top of his horse's speed, and at once put his gray into a trot so rapid +that we were compelled to gallop in order to keep up. We dashed over +a rough road, down a steep decline, and suddenly found ourselves +floundering through a stream nearly up to our saddle-girths. My horse +had had a hard day's work. He began to be unsteady on his pins. So I +drew up, preferring the hazards of a night-ride across the prairie to +a fall upon the stony road. The impetuous old soldier, followed by his +companions, rushed into the darkness, and the clatter of their hoofs and +the rattling of their sabres faded from my hearing. + +I was once more alone on the prairie. The sky was cloudless, but the +starlight struggling through a thin haze suggested rather than revealed +surrounding objects. I bent over my horse's shoulder to trace the course +of the road; but I could see nothing. There were no trees, no fences. +I listened for the rustling of the wind over the prairie-grass; but as +soon as Spitfire stopped, I found that not a breath of air was stirring: +his motion had created the breeze. I turned a little to the left, and at +once felt the Mexican stirrup strike against the long, rank grass. Quite +exultant with the thought that I had found a certain test that I was in +the road, I turned back and regained the beaten track. But now a new +difficulty arose. At once the thought suggested itself,--"Perhaps I +turned the wrong way when I came back into the road, and am now going +away from my destination." I drew up and looked around me. There was +nothing to be seen except the veiled stars above, and upon either hand +a vast dark expanse, which might be a lake, the sea, or a desert, for +anything I could discern. I listened: there was no sound except the +deep breathing of my faithful horse, who stood with ears erect, eagerly +snuffing the night-air. I had heard that horses can see better than men. +"Let me try the experiment." I gave Spitfire his head. He moved across +the road, went out upon the prairie a little distance, waded into a +brook which I had not seen, and began to drink. When he had finished, he +returned to the road without the least hesitation. + +"The horse can certainly see better than I. Perhaps I am the only one +of this company who is in trouble, and the good beast is all this while +perfectly composed and at ease, and knows quite well where to go." + +I loosened the reins. Spitfire went forward slowly, apparently quite +confident, and yet cautious about the stones in his path. + +I now began to speculate upon the distance I had come. I thought,--"It +is some time since we started. Head-quarters were only five miles off. I +rode fast at first. It is strange there are no campfires in sight." + +Time is measured by sensation, and with me minutes were drawn out into +hours. "Surely, it is midnight. I have been here three hours at the +least. The road must have forked, and I have gone the wrong way. The +most sagacious of horses could not be expected to know which of two +roads to take. There is nothing to be done. I am in for the night, and +had better stay here than go farther in the wrong direction." + +I dismount, fill my pipe, and strike a light. I laugh at my +thoughtlessness, and another match is lighted to look at my watch, which +tells me I have been on the road precisely twenty minutes. I mount. +Spitfire seems quite composed, perhaps a little astonished at the +unusual conduct of his rider, but he walks on composedly, carefully +avoiding the rolling stones. + +It is not a pleasant situation,--on a prairie alone and at night, not +knowing where you are going or where you ought to go. Zimmermann himself +never imagined a solitude more complete, albeit such a situation is not +so favorable to philosophic meditation as the rapt Zimmermann might +suppose. I employ my thoughts as well as I am able, and pin my faith to +the sagacity of Spitfire. Presently a light gleams in front of me. It +is only a flickering, uncertain ray; perhaps some belated teamster +is urging his reluctant mules to camp and has lighted his lantern. +No,--there are sparks; it is a camp-fire. I hearken for the challenge, +not without solicitude; for it is about as dangerous to approach a +nervous sentinel as to charge a battery. I do not hear the stern +inquiry, "Who comes there?" At last I am abreast of the fire, and myself +call out,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"We are travellers," is the reply. + +What this meant I did not know. What travellers are there through this +distracted, war-worn region? Are they fugitives from Price, or traitors +flying before us? I am not in sufficient force to capture half a dozen +men, and if they are foes, it is not worth while to be too inquisitive; +so I continue on my way, and they and their fire are soon enveloped by +the night. Presently I see another light in the far distance. This must +be a picket, for there are soldiers. I look around for the sentry, +not quite sure whether I am to be challenged or shot; but again I am +permitted to approach unquestioned. I call out,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"Men of Colonel Carr's regiment." + +"What are you doing here?" + +"We are guarding some of our wagons which were left here. Our regiment +has gone forward at a half-hour's notice to reinforce Zagonyi," said a +sergeant, rising and saluting me. + +"But is there no sentry here?" I asked. + +"There was one, but he has been withdrawn," replied the sergeant. + +"Where are head-quarters?" + +"At the first house on your right, about a hundred yards farther up the +road," he said, pointing in the direction I was going. + +It was strange that I could ride up to within pistol-shot of +head-quarters without being challenged, I soon reached the house. A +sentry stood at the gate. I tied my horse to the fence, and walked into +the Adjutant's tent. I had passed by night from one division of the army +to another, along the public road, and entered head-quarters without +being questioned. Twenty-five bold men might have carried off the +General. I at once reported these facts to Colonel E.; inquiry was made, +and it was found that some one had blundered. + +There is no report from Springfield. Zagonyi sent back for +reinforcements before he reached the town, and Carr's cavalry, with two +light field-pieces, have been sent forward. Captain R., my companion +this afternoon, has also gone to learn what he may. While I am writing +up my journal, a group of officers is around the fire in front of the +tent. They are talking about Zagonyi and the Guard. We are all feverish +with anxiety. + +_October 26th_. This morning I was awakened by loud cheers from the camp +of the Benton Cadets. My servant came at my call. + +"What are those cheers for, Dan?" + +"The Body-Guard has won a great victory, Sir! They have beaten the +Rebels, driven them out of Springfield, and killed over a hundred of +them. The news came late last night, and the General has issued an order +which has just been read to the Cadets." + +The joyful words had hardly reached my eager ears when shouts were heard +from the sharp-shooters. They have got the news. In an instant the camp +is astir. Half-dressed, the officers rush from their tents,--servants +leave their work, cooks forget breakfast,--they gather together, and +breathless drink in the delicious story. We hear how the brave Guard, +finding the foe three times as strong as had been reported, resolved +to go on, in spite of odds, for their own honor and the honor of our +General,--how Zagonyi led the onset,--how with cheers and shouts of +"Union and Fremont," the noble fellows rushed upon the foe as gayly as +boys at play,--what deeds of daring were done,--that Zagonyi, Foley, +Maythenyi, Newhall, Treikel, Goff, and Kennedy shone heroes in the +fray,--how gallantly the Guards had fought, and how gloriously they had +died. These things we heard, feasting upon every word, and interrupting +the fervid recital with involuntary exclamations of sympathy and joy. + +It did not fall to the fortune of the writer to take part with the +Body-Guard in their memorable attack, but, as the Judge-Advocate of +a Court of Inquiry into that affair, which was held at Springfield +immediately after our arrival there, I became familiar with the field +and the incidents of the battle. I trust it will not be regarded as +an inexcusable digression, if I recite the facts connected with the +engagement, which, as respects the odds encountered, the heroism +displayed, and the importance of its results, is still the most +remarkable encounter of the war. + + +THE BODY-GUARD AT SPRINGFIELD. + + +It may not be out of place to say a few words as to the character and +organization of the Guard. + +Among the foreign officers whom the fame of General Fremont drew around +him was Charles Zagonyi,--an Hungarian refugee, but long a resident of +this country. In his boyhood, Zagonyi had plunged into the passionate, +but unavailing, struggle which Hungary made for her liberty. He at once +attracted the attention of General Bem, and was by him placed in command +of a picked company of cavalry. In one of the desperate engagements of +the war, Zagonyi led a charge upon a large artillery force. More than +half of his men were slain. He was wounded and taken prisoner. Two years +passed before he could exchange an Austrian dungeon for American exile. + +General Fremont welcomed Zagonyi cordially, and authorized him to +recruit a company of horse, to act as his bodyguard. Zagonyi was most +scrupulous in his selection; but so ardent was the desire to serve under +the eye and near the person of the General, that in five days after the +lists were opened two full companies were enlisted. Soon after a whole +company, composed of the very flower of the youth of Kentucky, tendered +its services, and requested to be added to the Guard. Zagonyi was still +overwhelmed with applications, and he obtained permission to recruit a +fourth company. The fourth company, however, did not go with us into the +field. The men were clad in blue jackets, trousers, and caps. They were +armed with light German sabres, the best that at that time could be +procured, and revolvers; besides which, the first company carried +carbines. They were mounted upon bay horses, carefully chosen from +the Government stables. Zagonyi had but little time to instruct his +recruits, but in less than a month from the commencement of the +enlistments the Body-Guard was a well-disciplined and most efficient +corps of cavalry. The officers were all Americans except three,--one +Hollander, and two Hungarians, Zagonyi and Lieutenant Maythenyi, who +came to the United States during his boyhood. + +Zagonyi left our camp at eight o'clock on the evening of the +twenty-fourth, with about a hundred and sixty men, the remainder of the +Guard being left at headquarters under the command of a non-commissioned +officer. + +Major White was already on his way to Springfield with his squadron. +This young officer, hardly twenty-one years old, had won great +reputation for energy and zeal while a captain of infantry in a +New-York regiment stationed at Fort Monroe. He there saw much hazardous +scouting-service, and had been in a number of small engagements. In the +West he held a position upon General Fremont's staff, with the rank of +Major. While at Jefferson City, by permission of the General, he had +organized a battalion to act as scouts and rangers, composed of two +companies of the Third Illinois Cavalry, under Captains Fairbanks and +Kehoe, and a company of Irish dragoons, Captain Naughton, which had been +recruited for Mulligan's brigade, but had not joined Mulligan in time to +be at Lexington. + +Major White went to Georgetown in advance of the whole army, from there +marched sixty-five miles in one night to Lexington, surprised the +garrison, liberated a number of Federal officers who were there wounded +and prisoners, and captured the steamers which Price had taken from +Mulligan. From Lexington White came by way of Warrensburg to Warsaw. +During this long and hazardous expedition, the Prairie Scouts had been +without tents, and dependent for food upon the supplies they could take +from the enemy. + +Major White did not remain at Warsaw to recruit his health, seriously +impaired by hardship and exposure. He asked for further service, and was +directed to report himself to General Sigel, by whom he was ordered to +make a reconnoissance in the direction of Springfield. + +After a rapid night-march, Zagonyi overtook White, and assumed command +of the whole force. White was quite ill, and, unable to stay in the +saddle, was obliged to follow in a carriage. In the morning, yielding to +the request of Zagonyi, he remained at a farm-house where the troop had +halted for refreshment,--it being arranged that he should rest an +hour or two, come on in his carriage with a small escort, and overtake +Zagonyi before he reached Springfield. The Prairie Scouts numbered one +hundred and thirty, so that the troop was nearly three hundred strong. + +The day was fine, the road good, and the little column pushed on +merrily, hoping to surprise the enemy. When within two hours' march of +the town, they met a Union farmer of the neighborhood, who told Zagonyi +that a large body of Rebels had arrived at Springfield the day before, +on their way to reinforce Price, and that the enemy were now two +thousand strong. Zagonyi would have been justified, if he had turned +back. But the Guard had been made the subject of much malicious remark, +and had brought ridicule upon the General. Should they retire now, a +storm of abuse would burst upon them. Zagonyi therefore took no counsel +of prudence. He could not hope to defeat and capture the foe, but he +might surprise them, dash into their camp, destroy their train, and, as +he expressed it, "disturb their sleep,"--obtaining a victory which, for +its moral effects, would be worth the sacrifices it cost. His daring +resolve found unanimous and ardent assent with his zealous followers. + +The Union farmer offered to guide Zagonyi by a circuitous route to the +rear of the Rebel position, and under his guidance he left the main road +about five miles from Springfield. + +After an hour of repose, White set out in pursuit of his men, driving +his horses at a gallop. He knew nothing of the change in Zagonyi's +plans, and supposed the attack was to be made upon the front of the +town. He therefore continued upon the main road, expecting every minute +to overtake the column. As he drew near the village, and heard and saw +nothing of Zagonyi, he supposed the enemy had left the place and the +Federals had taken it without opposition. The approach to Springfield +from the north is through a forest, and the village cannot be seen until +its outskirts are reached. A sudden turn in the road brought White into +the very midst of a strong Rebel guard. They surrounded him, seized his +horses, and in an instant he and his companions were prisoners. When +they learned his rank, they danced around him like a pack of savages, +shouting and holding their cocked pieces at his heart. The leader of the +party had a few days before lost a brother in a skirmish with Wyman's +force, and with loud oaths he swore that the Federal Major should die +in expiation of his brother's death. He was about to carry his inhuman +threat into execution, Major White boldly facing him and saying, "If my +men were here, I'd give you all the revenge you want." At this +moment a young officer, Captain Wroton by name,--of whom more +hereafter,--pressed through the throng, and, placing himself in front of +White, declared that he would protect the prisoner with his own life. +The firm bearing of Wroton saved the Major's life, but his captors +robbed him and hurried him to their camp, where he remained during the +fight, exposed to the hottest of the fire, an excited, but helpless +spectator of the stirring events which followed. He promised his +generous protector that he would not attempt to escape, unless his men +should try to rescue him; but Captain Wroton remained by his side, +guarding him. + +Making a _détour_ of twelve miles, Zagonyi approached the position of +the enemy. They were encamped half a mile west of Springfield, upon a +hill which sloped to the east. Along the northern side of their camp was +a broad and well-travelled road; along the southern side a narrow lane +ran down to a brook at the foot of the hill: the space between, about +three hundred yards broad, was the field of battle. Along the west side +of the field, separating it from the county fair-ground, was another +lane, connecting the main road and the first-mentioned lane. The side +of the hill was clear, but its summit, which was broad and flat, was +covered with a rank growth of small timber, so dense as to be impervious +to horse. + +The following diagram, drawn from memory, will illustrate sufficiently +well the shape of the ground, and the position of the respective forces. + +[Illustration: A, Road leading into the village. B, Lane down which +Zagonyi came. C, Lane where Fairbanks led his men. D, Dense woods +covering the summit of the hill. E, Crest of the hill and clear land. F, +Hill-side up which the Guard charged. G, Brook at the foot of the hill. +H, Place where the Guard entered. I, Small patch of woods in front of +which the enemy's horse were stationed. J, Gate through which the Rebels +fled, Zagonyi pursuing. K, Fair-ground into which some of the enemy +fled. L, Place where Foley took down the fence.] + +The foe were advised of the intended attack. When Major White was +brought into their camp, they were preparing to defend their position. +As appears from the confessions of prisoners, they had twenty-two +hundred men, of whom four hundred were cavalry, the rest being infantry, +armed with shot-guns, American rifles, and revolvers. Twelve hundred of +their foot were posted along the edge of the wood upon the crest of the +hill. The cavalry was stationed upon the extreme left, on top of a spur +of the hill and in front of a patch of timber. Sharp-shooters were +concealed behind the trees close to the fence along-side the lane, and +a small number in some underbrush near the foot of the hill. Another +detachment guarded their train, holding possession of the county +fair-ground, which was surrounded by a high board-fence. + +This position was unassailable by cavalry from the road, the only point +of attack being down the lane on the right; and the enemy were so +disposed as to command this approach perfectly. The lane was a blind +one, being closed, after passing the brook, by fences and ploughed land: +it was in fact a _cul-de-sac_. If the infantry should stand, nothing +could save the rash assailants. There are horsemen sufficient to sweep +the little band before them, as helplessly as the withered forest-leaves +in the grasp of the autumn winds; there are deadly marksmen lying behind +the trees upon the heights and lurking in the long grass upon the +lowlands; while a long line of foot stand upon the summit of the slope, +who, only stepping a few paces back into the forest, may defy the +boldest riders. Yet, down this narrow lane, leading into the very jaws +of death, came the three hundred. + +On the prairie, at the edge of the woodland in which he knew his wily +foe lay hidden, Zagonyi halted his command. He spurred along the line. +With eager glance he scanned each horse and rider. To his officers he +gave the simple order, "Follow me! do as I do!" and then, drawing up in +front of his men, with a voice tremulous and shrill with emotion, he +spoke:-- + +"Fellow-soldiers, comrades, brothers! This is your first battle. For our +three hundred, the enemy are two thousand. If any of you are sick, or +tired by the long march, or if any think the number is too great, now is +the time to turn back." He paused; no one was sick or tired. "We must +not retreat. Our honor, the honor of our General and our country, tell +us to go on. I will lead you. We have been called holiday soldiers for +the pavements of St. Louis; to-day we will show that we are soldiers for +the battle. Your watchword shall be, '_The Union and Fremont_!' Draw +sabre! By the right flank,--quick trot,--march!" + +Bright swords flashed in the sunshine, a passionate shout burst from +every lip, and with one accord, the trot passing into a gallop, the +compact column swept on to its deadly purpose. Most of them were boys. A +few weeks before they had left their homes. Those who were cool enough +to note it say that ruddy cheeks grew pale, and fiery eyes were dimmed +with tears. Who shall tell what thoughts,--what visions of peaceful +cottages nestling among the groves of Kentucky or shining upon the +banks of the Ohio and the Illinois,--what sad recollections of tearful +farewells, of tender, loving faces, filled their minds during those +fearful moments of suspense? No word was spoken. With lips compressed, +firmly clenching their sword-hilts, with quick tramp of hoofs and clang +of steel, honor leading and glory awaiting them, the young soldiers flew +forward, each brave rider and each straining steed members of one huge +creature, enormous, terrible, irresistible. + + "'T were worth ten years of peaceful life, + One glance at their array." + +They pass the fair-ground. They are at the corner of the lane where the +wood begins. It runs close to the fence on their left for a hundred +yards, and beyond it they see white tents gleaming. They are half-way +past the forest, when, sharp and loud, a volley of musketry bursts upon +the head of the column; horses stagger, riders reel and fall, but the +troop presses forward undismayed. The farther corner of the wood +is reached, and Zagonyi beholds the terrible array. Amazed, he +involuntarily cheeks his horse. The Rebels are not surprised. There to +his left they stand crowning the height, foot and horse ready to ingulf +him, if he shall be rash enough to go on. The road he is following +declines rapidly. There is but one thing to do,--run the gantlet, gain +the cover of the hill, and charge up the steep. These thoughts pass +quicker than they can be told. He waves his sabre over his head, and +shouting, "Forward! follow me! quick trot! gallop!" he dashes headlong +down the stony road. The first company and most of the second follow. +From the left a thousand muzzles belch forth a hissing flood of bullets; +the poor fellows clutch wildly at the air and fall from their saddles, +and maddened horses throw themselves against the fences. Their speed is +not for an instant checked; farther down the hill they fly, like wasps +driven by the leaden storm. Sharp volleys pour out of the underbrush at +the left, clearing wide gaps through their ranks. They leap the brook, +take down the fence, and draw up under the shelter of the hill. Zagonyi +looks around him, and to his horror sees that only a fourth of his +men are with him. He cries, "They do not come,--we are lost!" and +frantically waves his sabre. + +He has not long to wait. The delay of the rest of the Guard was not from +hesitation. When Captain Foley reached the lower corner of the wood and +saw the enemy's line, he thought a flank attack might be advantageously +made. He ordered some of his men to dismount and take down the fence. +This was done under a severe fire. Several men fell, and he found the +wood so dense that it could not be penetrated. Looking down the hill, he +saw the flash of Zagonyi's sabre, and at once gave the order, "Forward!" +At the same time, Lieutenant Kennedy, a stalwart Kentuckian, shouted, +"Come on, boys! remember Old Kentucky!" and the third company of the +Guard, fire on every side of them,--from behind trees, from under the +fences,--with thundering strides and loud cheers, poured down the slope +and rushed to the side of Zagonyi. They have lost seventy dead and +wounded men, and the carcasses of horses are strewn along the lane. +Kennedy is wounded in the arm and lies upon the stones, his faithful +charger standing motionless beside him. Lieutenant Goff received a wound +in the thigh; he kept his seat, and cried out, "The devils have hit me, +but I will give it to them yet!" + +The remnant of the Guard are now in the field under the hill, and +from the shape of the ground the Rebel fire sweeps with the roar of a +whirlwind over their heads. Here we will leave them for a moment, and +trace the fortunes of the Prairie Scouts. + +When Foley brought his troop to a halt, Captain Fairbanks, at the head +of the first company of Scouts, was at the point where the first volley +of musketry had been received. The narrow lane was crowded by a dense +mass of struggling horses, and filled with the tumult of battle. Captain +Fairbanks says, and he is corroborated by several of his men who were +near, that at this moment an officer of the Guard rode up to him and +said, "They are flying; take your men down that lane and cut off their +retreat,"--pointing to the lane at the left. Captain Fairbanks was not +able to identify the person who gave this order. It certainly did not +come from Zagonyi, who was several hundred yards farther on. Captain +Fairbanks executed the order, followed by the second company of Prairie +Scouts, under Captain Kehoe. When this movement was made, Captain +Naughton, with the Third Irish Dragoons, had not reached the corner of +the lane. He came up at a gallop, and was about to follow Fairbanks, +when he saw a Guardsman who pointed in the direction in which Zagonyi +had gone. He took this for an order, and obeyed it. When he reached the +gap in the fence, made by Foley, not seeing anything of the Guard, he +supposed they had passed through at that place, and gallantly attempted +to follow. Thirteen men fell in a few minutes. He was shot in the arm +and dismounted. Lieutenant Connolly spurred into the underbrush and +received two balls through the lungs and one in the left shoulder. The +Dragoons, at the outset not more than fifty strong, were broken, and, +dispirited by the loss of their officers, retired. A sergeant rallied +a few and brought them up to the gap again, and they were again driven +back. Five of the boldest passed down the hill, joined Zagonyi, and were +conspicuous by their valor during the rest of the day.--Fairbanks and +Kehoe, having gained the rear and left of the enemy's position, made two +or three assaults upon detached parties of the foe, but did not join in +the main attack. + +I now return to the Guard. It is forming under the shelter of the hill. +In front with a gentle inclination rises a grassy slope broken by +occasional tree-stumps. A line of fire upon the summit marks the +position of the Rebel infantry, and nearer and on the top of a lower +eminence to the right stand their horse. Up to this time no Guardsman +has struck a blow, but blue coats and bay horses lie thick along the +bloody lane. Their time has come. Lieutenant Maythenyi with thirty men +is ordered to attack the cavalry. With sabres flashing over their heads, +the little band of heroes spring towards their tremendous foe. Right +upon the centre they charge. The dense mass opens, the blue coats force +their way in, and the whole Rebel squadron scatter in disgraceful flight +through the cornfields in the rear. The bays follow them, sabring the +fugitives. Days after, the enemy's horses lay thick among the uncut +corn. + +Zagonyi holds his main body until Maythenyi disappears in the cloud +of Rebel cavalry; then his voice rises through the air,--"In open +order,--charge!" The line opens out to give play to their sword-arm. +Steeds respond to the ardor of their riders, and quick as thought, with +thrilling cheers, the noble hearts rush into the leaden torrent which +pours down the incline. With unabated fire the gallant fellows press +through. Their fierce onset is not even checked. The foe do not wait for +them,--they waver, break, and fly. The Guardsmen spur into the midst of +the rout, and their fast-falling swords work a terrible revenge. Some +of the boldest of the Southrons retreat into the woods, and continue a +murderous fire from behind trees and thickets. Seven Guard horses fall +upon a space not more that twenty feet square. As his steed sinks under +him, one of the officers is caught around the shoulders by a grape-vine, +and hangs dangling in the air until he is cut down by his friends. + +The Rebel foot are flying in furious haste from the field. Some take +refuge in the fair-ground, some hurry into the cornfield, but the +greater part run along the edge of the wood, swarm over the fence into +the road, and hasten to the village. The Guardsmen follow. Zagonyi leads +them. Over the loudest roar of battle rings his clarion voice,--"Come +on, Old Kentuck! I'm with you!" And the flash of his sword-blade tells +his men where to go. As he approaches a barn, a man steps from behind +the door and lowers his rifle; but before it has reached the level, +Zagonyi's sabre-point descends upon his head, and his life-blood leaps +to the very top of the huge barn-door. + +The conflict now rages through the village,--in the public square, and +along the streets. Up and down the Guards ride in squads of three or +four, and wherever they see a group of the enemy charge upon and scatter +them. It is hand to hand. No one but has a share in the fray. + +There was at least one soldier in the Southern ranks. A young officer, +superbly mounted, charges alone upon a large body of the Guard. He +passes through the line unscathed, killing one man. He wheels, charges +back, and again breaks through, killing another man. A third time he +rushes upon the Federal line, a score of sabre-points confront him, +a cloud of bullets fly around him, but he pushes on until he reaches +Zagonyi,--he presses his pistol so close to the Major's side that he +feels it and draws convulsively back, the bullet passes through the +front of Zagonyi's coat, who at the instant runs the daring Rebel +through the body, he falls, and the men, thinking their commander hurt, +kill him with half a dozen wounds. + +"He was a brave man," said Zagonyi afterwards, "and I did wish to make +him prisoner." + +Meanwhile it has grown dark. The foe have left the village and the +battle has ceased. The assembly is sounded, and the Guard gathers in the +_Plaza_. Not more than eighty mounted men appear: the rest are killed, +wounded, or unhorsed. At this time one of the most characteristic +incidents of the affair took place. + +Just before the charge, Zagonyi directed one of his buglers, a +Frenchman, to sound a signal. The bugler did not seem to pay any +attention to the order, but darted off with Lieutenant Maythenyi. A +few moments afterwards he was observed in another part of the field +vigorously pursuing the flying infantry. His active form was always seen +in the thickest of the fight. When the line was formed in the _Plaza_, +Zagonyi noticed the bugler, and approaching him said, "In the midst of +the battle you disobeyed my order. You are unworthy to be a member of +the Guard. I dismiss you." The bugler showed his bugle to his indignant +commander;--the mouth-piece of the instrument was shot away. He said, +"The mouth was shoot off. I could not bugle viz mon bugle, and so I +bugle viz mon pistol and sabre." It is unnecessary to add, the brave +Frenchman was not dismissed. + +I must not forget to mention Sergeant Hunter, of the Kentucky company. +His soldierly figure never failed to attract the eye in the ranks of +the Guard. He had served in the regular cavalry, and the Body-Guard had +profited greatly from his skill as a drill-master. He lost three horses +in the fight. As soon as one was killed, he caught another from the +Rebels: the third horse taken by him in this way he rode into St. Louis. + +The Sergeant slew five men. "I won't speak of those I shot," said +he,--"another may have hit them; but those I touched with my sabre I am +sure of, because I _felt_ them." + +At the beginning of the charge, he came to the extreme right and took +position next to Zagonyi, whom he followed closely through the battle. +The Major, seeing him, said,-- + +"Why are you here, Sergeant Hunter? Your place is with your company on +the left." + +"I kind o' wanted to be in the front," was the answer. + +"What could I say to such a man?" exclaimed Zagonyi, speaking of the +matter afterwards. + +There was hardly a horse or rider among the survivors that did not bring +away some mark of the fray. I saw one animal with no less than seven +wounds,--none of them serious. Scabbards were bent, clothes and caps +pierced, pistols injured. I saw one pistol from which the sight had been +cut as neatly as it could have been done by machinery. A piece of board +a few inches long was cut from a fence on the field, in which there were +thirty-one shot-holes. + +It was now nine o'clock. The wounded had been carried to the hospital. +The dismounted troopers were placed in charge of them,--in the double +capacity of nurses and guards. Zagonyi expected the foe to return every +minute. It seemed like madness to try and hold the town with his small +force, exhausted by the long march and desperate fight. He therefore +left Springfield, and retired before morning twenty-five miles on the +Bolivar road. + +Captain Fairbanks did not see his commander after leaving the column in +the lane, at the commencement of the engagement. About dusk he repaired +to the prairie, and remained there within a mile of the village until +midnight, when he followed Zagonyi, rejoining him in the morning. + +I will now return to Major White. During the conflict upon the hill, he +was in the forest near the front of the Rebel line. Here his horse was +shot under him. Captain Wroton kept careful watch over him. When the +flight began he hurried White away, and, accompanied by a squad of +eleven men, took him ten miles into the country. They stopped at a +farm-house for the night. White discovered that their host was a Union +man. His parole having expired, he took advantage of the momentary +absence of his captor to speak to the farmer, telling him who he was, +and asking him to send for assistance. The countryman mounted his son +upon his swiftest horse, and sent him for succor. The party lay down by +the fire, White being placed in the midst. The Rebels were soon asleep, +but there was no sleep for the Major. He listened anxiously for the +footsteps of his rescuers. After long, weary hours, he heard the tramp +of horses. He arose, and walking on tiptoe, cautiously stepping over his +sleeping guards, he reached the door and silently unfastened it. The +Union men rushed into the room and took the astonished Wroton and his +followers prisoners. At daybreak White rode into Springfield at the head +of his captives and a motley band of Home-Guards. He found the Federals +still in possession of the place. As the officer of highest rank, be +took command. His garrison consisted of twenty-four men. He stationed +twenty-two of them as pickets in the outskirts of the village, and held +the other two as a reserve. At noon the enemy sent in a flag of truce, +and asked permission to bury their dead. Major White received the flag +with proper ceremony, but said that General Sigel was in command and the +request would have to be referred to him. Sigel was then forty miles +away. In a short time a written communication purporting to come from +General Sigel, saying that the Rebels might send a party under certain +restrictions to bury their dead, White drew in some of his pickets, +stationed them about the field, and under their surveillance the +Southern dead were buried. + +The loss of the enemy, as reported by some of their working party, was +one hundred and sixteen killed. The number of wounded could not be +ascertained. After the conflict had drifted away from the hill-side, +some of the foe had returned to the field, taken away their wounded, +and robbed our dead. The loss of the Guard was fifty-three out of one +hundred and forty-eight actually engaged, twelve men having been left by +Zagonyi in charge of his train. The Prairie Scouts reported a loss of +thirty-one out of one hundred and thirty: half of these belonged to the +Irish Dragoons. In a neighboring field an Irishman was found stark and +stiff, still clinging to the hilt of his sword, which was thrust through +the body of a Rebel who lay beside him. Within a few feet a second Rebel +lay, shot through the head. + +I have given a statement of this affair drawn from the testimony taken +before a Court of Inquiry, from conversations with men who were engaged +upon both sides, and from a careful examination of the locality. It was +the first essay of raw troops, and yet there are few more brilliant +achievements in history. + +It is humiliating to be obliged to tell what followed. The heroism of +the Guard was rewarded by such treatment as we blush to record. Upon +their return to St. Louis, rations and forage were denied them, the men +were compelled to wear the clothing soiled and torn in battle, they were +promptly disbanded, and the officers retired from service. The swords +which pricked the clouds and let the joyful sunshine of victory into the +darkness of constant defeat are now idle. But the fame of the Guard is +secure. Out from that fiery baptism they came children of the nation, +and American song and story will carry their heroic triumph down to the +latest generation. + + + + +MASON AND SLIDELL: A YANKEE IDYLL. + + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +Jaalam, 6th Jan., 1862. + +GENTLEMEN,--I was highly gratified by the insertion of a portion of my +letter in the last number of your valuable and entertaining Miscellany, +though in a type which rendered its substance inaccessible even to the +beautiful new spectacles presented to me by a Committee of the Parish on +New-Year's Day. I trust that I was able to bear your very considerable +abridgment of my lucubrations with a spirit becoming a Christian. My +third grand-daughter, Rebekah, aged fourteen years, and whom I have +trained to read slowly and with proper emphasis, (a practice too much +neglected in our modern systems of education,) read aloud to me the +excellent essay upon "Old Age," the authour of which I cannot help +suspecting to be a young man who has never yet known what it was to have +snow (_canities morosa_) upon his own roof. _Dissolve frigus, large +super foco ligna reponens_, is a rule for the young, whose wood-pile is +yet abundant for such cheerful lenitives. A good life behind him is the +best thing to keep an old man's shoulders from shivering at every breath +of sorrow or ill-fortune. But methinks it were easier for an old man to +feel the disadvantages of youth than the advantages of age. Of these +latter I reckon one of the chiefest to be this: that we attach a less +inordinate value to our own productions, and, distrusting daily more +and more our own wisdom, (with the conceit whereof at twenty we wrap +ourselves away from knowledge as with a garment,) do reconcile ourselves +with the wisdom of God. I could have wished, indeed, that room might +have been made for the residue of the anecdote relating to Deacon +Tinkham, which would not only have gratified a natural curiosity on the +part of the publick, (as I have reason to know from several letters of +inquiry already received,) but would also, as I think, have largely +increased the circulation of your Magazine in this town. _Nihil humani +alienum_, there is a curiosity about the affairs of our neighbours which +is not only pardonable, but even commendable. But I shall abide a more +fitting season. + +As touching the following literary effort of Esquire Biglow, much might +be profitably said on the topick of Idyllick and Pastoral Poetry, +and concerning the proper distinctions to be made between them, from +Theocritus, the inventor of the former, to Collins, the latest authour I +know of who has emulated the classicks in the latter style. But in the +time of a civil war worthy a Milton to defend and a Lucan to sing, it +may be reasonably doubted whether the publick, never too studious of +serious instruction, might not consider other objects more deserving of +present attention. Concerning the title of Idyll, which Mr. Biglow has +adopted at my suggestion, it may not be improper to animadvert, that the +name properly signifies a poem somewhat rustick in phrase, (for, though +the learned are not agreed as to the particular dialect employed by +Theocritus, they are universanimous both as to its rusticity and its +capacity of rising now and then to the level of more elevated sentiments +and expressions,) while it is also descriptive of real scenery and +manners. Yet it must be admitted that the production now in question +(which here and there bears perhaps too plainly the marks of my +correcting hand) does partake of the nature of a Pastoral, inasmuch as +the interlocutors therein are purely imaginary beings, and the whole +is little better than [Greek: skias onar.] The plot was, as I believe, +suggested by the "Twa Briggs" of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet of the +last century, as that found its prototype in the "Mutual Complaint of +Plainstanes and Causey" by Fergusson, though the metre of this latter +be different by a foot in each verse. I reminded my talented young +parishioner and friend that Concord Bridge had long since yielded to the +edacious tooth of Time. But he answered me to this effect: that there +was no greater mistake of an authour than to suppose the reader had +no fancy of his own; that, if once that faculty was to be called into +activity, it were _better_ to be in for the whole sheep than the +shoulder; and that he knew Concord like a book,--an expression +questionable in propriety, since there are few things with which he +is not more familiar than with the printed page. In proof of what he +affirmed, he showed me some verses which with others he had stricken out +as too much delaying the action, but which I communicate in this place +because they rightly define "punkin-seed," (which Mr. Bartlett would +have a kind of perch,--a creature to which I have found a rod or pole +not to be so easily equivalent in our inland waters as in the books of +arithmetic,) and because it conveys an eulogium on the worthy son of an +excellent father, with whose acquaintance (_eheu, fugaces anni!_) I was +formerly honoured. + + "But nowadays the Bridge ain't wut they show, + So much ez Em'son, Hawthorne, an' Thoreau. + I know the village, though: was sent there once + A-schoolin', coz to home I played the dunce; + An' I've ben sence a-visitin' the Jedge, + Whose garding whispers with the river's edge, + Where I've sot mornin's, lazy as the bream, + Whose only business is to head up-stream, + (We call 'em punkin-seed,) or else in chat + Along'th the Jedge, who covers with his hat + More wit an' gumption an' shrewd Yankee sense + Than there is mosses on an ole stone fence." + +Concerning the subject-matter of the verses I have not the leisure at +present to write so fully as I could wish, my time being occupied +with the preparation of a discourse for the forthcoming bi-centenary +celebration of the first settlement of Jaalam East Parish. It may +gratify the publick interest to mention the circumstance, that my +investigations to this end have enabled me to verify the fact (of much +historick importance, and hitherto hotly debated) that Shearjashub +Tarbox was the first child of white parentage born in this town, being +named in his father's will under date August 7th, or 9th, 1662. It is +well known that those who advocate the claims of Mehetable Goings are +unable to find any trace of her existence prior to October of that year. +As respects the settlement of the Mason and Slidell question, Mr. Biglow +has not incorrectly stated the popular sentiment, so far as I can judge +by its expression in this locality. For myself, I feel more sorrow than +resentment; for I am old enough to have heard those talk of England who +still, even after the unhappy estrangement, could not unschool their +lips from calling her the Mother-Country. But England has insisted on +ripping up old wounds, and has undone the healing work of fifty years; +for nations do not reason, they only feel, and the _spretae injuria +formae_ rankles in their minds as bitterly as in that of a woman. And +because this is so, I feel the more satisfaction that our Government has +acted (as all Governments should, standing as they do between the people +and their passions) as if it had arrived at years of discretion. There +are three short and simple words, the hardest of all to pronounce in any +language, (and I suspect they were no easier before the confusion of +tongues,) but which no man or nation that cannot utter can claim to have +arrived at manhood. Those words are, _I was wrong_; and I am proud, +that, while England played the boy, our rulers had strength enough from +below and wisdom enough from above to quit themselves like men. Let us +strengthen the hands of those in authority over us, and curb out own +tongues,[A] remembering that General Wait commonly proves in the end +more than a match for General Headlong, and that the Good Book ascribes +safety to a multitude, indeed, but not to a mob, of counsellours. Let us +remember and perpend the words of Paulus Emilius to the people of Rome: +that, "if they judged they could manage the war to more advantage by any +other, he would willingly yield up his charge; but if they confided in +him, _they were not to make themselves his colleagues in his office, or +raise reports, or criticize, his actions, but, without talking, supply +him with means and assistance necessary to the carrying on of the war; +for, if they proposed to command their own commander, they would render +this expedition more ridiculous than the former." (Vide Plutarchum in +vitâ P.E.)_ Let us also not forget what the same excellent authour +says concerning Perseus's fear of spending money, and not permit the +covetousness of Brother Jonathan to be the good-fortune of Jefferson +Davis. For my own part, till I am ready to admit the Commander-in-Chief +to my pulpit, I shall abstain from planning his battles. Patience is the +armour of a nation; and in our desire for peace, let us never be willing +to surrender the Constitution bequeathed us by fathers at least as wise +as ourselves, (even with Jefferson Davis to help us,) and, with those +degenerate Romans, _tuta et presentia quam vetera et periculosa malle._ + +With respect, +Your ob't humble serv't, +HOMER WILBUR, A.M. + +[Footnote A: And not only our own tongues, but the pens of others, which +are swift to convey useful intelligence to the enemy. This is no new +inconvenience; for, under date 3rd June, 1745, General Pepperell wrote +thus to Governour Shirley from Louisbourg:--"What your Excellency +observes of the _army's being made acquainted with any plans proposed, +until really to be put in execution_, has always been disagreeable +to me, and I have given many cautions relating to it. But when your +Excellency considers that _our Council of War consists of more than +twenty members_, am persuaded you will think it _impossible for me to +hinder it_, if any of them will persist in communicating to inferiour +officers and soldiers what ought to be kept secret. I am informed that +the Boston newspapers are filled with paragraphs from private letters +relating to the expedition. Will your Excellency permit me to say I +think it may be of ill consequence? Would it not be convenient, if your +Excellency should forbid the Printers' inserting such news?" Verily, if +_tempora mutantur,_ we may question the _et nos mutamur in illis;_ and +if tongues be leaky, it will need all hands at the pumps to save the +Ship of State. Our history dates and repeats itself. If Sassycus (rather +than Alcibiades) find a parallel in Beauregard, so Weakwash, as he is +called by the brave Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, need not seek far among +our own Sachems for his antitype.] + + I love to start out arter night's begun, + An' all the chores about the farm are done, + The critters milked an' foddered, gates shet fast, + Tools cleaned aginst to-morrer, supper past, + An' Nancy darnin' by her ker'sene lamp,-- + I love, I say, to start upon a tramp, + To shake the kinkles out o' back an' legs, + An' kind o' rack my life off from the dregs + Thet's apt to settle in the buttery-hutch + Of folks thet foller in one rut too much: + Hard work is good an' wholesome, past all doubt; + But 't ain't so, ef the mind gits tuckered out. + + Now, bein' born in Middlesex, you know, + There's certin spots where I like best to go: + The Concord road, for instance, (I, for one, + Most gin'lly ollers call it _John Bull's Run._)-- + The field o' Lexin'ton, where England tried + The fastest colors thet she ever dyed,-- + An' Concord Bridge, thet Davis, when he came, + Found was the bee-line track to heaven an' fame,-- + Ez all roads be by natur', ef your soul + Don't sneak thru shun-pikes so's to save the toll. + + They're 'most too fur away, take too much time + To visit often, ef it ain't in rhyme; + But there's a walk thet's hendier, a sight, + An' suits me fust-rate of a winter's night,-- + I mean the round whale's-back o' Prospect Hill. + I love to loiter there while night grows still, + An' in the twinklin' villages about, + Fust here, then there, the well-saved lights goes out, + An' nary sound but watch-dogs' false alarms, + Or muffled cock-crows from the drowsy farms, + Where some wise rooster (men act jest thet way) + Stands to't thet moon-rise is the break o' day: + So Mister Seward sticks a three-months pin + Where the war'd oughto end, then tries agin;-- + My gran'ther's rule was safer'n 't is to crow: + _Don't never prophesy--onless ye know._ + + I love to muse there till it kind o' seems + Ez ef the world went eddyin' off in dreams. + The Northwest wind thet twitches at my baird + Blows out o' sturdier days not easy scared, + An' the same moon thet this December shines + Starts out the tents an' booths o' Putnam's lines; + The rail-fence posts, acrost the hill thet runs, + Turn ghosts o' sogers should'rin' ghosts o' guns; + Ez wheels the sentry, glints a flash o' light + Along the firelock won at Concord Fight, + An' 'twixt the silences, now fur, now nigh, + Rings the sharp chellenge, hums the low reply. + Ez I was settin' so, it warn't long sence, + Mixin' the perfect with the present tense, + I heerd two voices som'ers in the air, + Though, ef I was to die, I can't tell where: + Voices I call 'em: 't was a kind o' sough + Like pine-trees thet the wind is geth'rin' through; + An', fact, I thought it _was_ the wind a spell,-- + Then some misdoubted,--couldn't fairly tell,-- + Fust sure, then not, jest as you hold an eel,-- + I knowed, an' didn't,--fin'lly seemed to feel + 'T was Concord Bridge a-talkin' off to kill + With the Stone Spike thet's druv thru Bunker Hill: + Whether't was so, or ef I only dreamed, + I couldn't say; I tell it ez it seemed. + + THE BRIDGE. + + Wal, neighbor, tell us, wut's turned up thet's new? + You're younger'n I be,--nigher Boston, tu; + An' down to Boston, ef you take their showin', + Wut they don't know ain't hardly wuth the knowin'. + There's _sunthin'_ goin' on, I know: las' night + The British sogers killed in our gret fight + (Nigh fifty year they hedn't stirred nor spoke) + Made sech a coil you'd thought a dam hed broke: + Why, one he up an' beat a revellee + With his own crossbones on a holler tree, + Till all the graveyards swarmed out like a hive + With faces I hain't seen sence Seventy-five. + Wut _is_ the news? 'T ain't good, or they'd be cheerin'. + Speak slow an' clear, for I'm some hard o' hearin'. + + THE MONIMENT. + + I don't know hardly ef it's good or bad,-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + At wust, it can't be wus than wut we've had. + + THE MONIMENT. + + You know them envys thet the Rebbles sent, + An' Cap'n Wilkes he borried o' the Trent? + + THE BRIDGE. + + Wut! hev they hanged 'em? Then their wits is gone! + Thet's a sure way to make a goose a swan! + + THE MONIMENT. + + No: England she _would_ hev 'em, _Fee, Faw, Fum!_ + (Ez though she hedn't fools enough to home,) + So they've returned 'em-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + _Hev_ they? Wal, by heaven, + Thet's the wust news I've heerd sence Seventy-seven! + _By George_, I meant to say, though I declare + It's 'most enough to make a deacon, swear. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Now don't go off half-cock: folks never gains + By usin' pepper-sarse instid o' brains. + Come, neighbor, you don't understand-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + How? Hey? + Not understand? Why, wut's to hender, pray? + Must I go huntin' round to find a chap + To tell me when my face hez hed a slap? + + THE MONIMENT. + + See here: the British they found out a flaw + In Cap'n Wilkes's readin' o' the law: + (They _make_ all laws, you know, an' so, o' course, + It's nateral they should understand their force:) + He'd oughto took the vessel into port, + An' hed her sot on by a reg'lar court; + She was a mail-ship, an' a steamer, tu, + An' thet, they say, hez changed the pint o' view, + Coz the old practice, bein' meant for sails, + Ef tried upon a steamer, kind o' falls; + You _may_ take out despatches, but you mus'n't + Take nary man-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + You mean to say, you dus'n't! + Changed pint o' view! No, no,--it's overboard + With law an' gospel, when their ox is gored! + I tell ye, England's law, on sea an' land, + Hez ollers ben, "_I've gut the heaviest hand_." + Take nary man? Fine preachin' from _her_ lips! + Why, she hez taken hunderds from our ships, + An' would agin, an' swear she hed a right to, + Ef we warn't strong enough to be perlite to. + Of all the sarse thet I can call to mind, + England _doos_ make the most onpleasant kind: + It's you're the sinner ollers, she's the saint; + Wut's good's all English, all thet isn't ain't; + Wut profits her is ollers right an' just, + An' ef you don't read Scriptur so, you must; + She's praised herself ontil she fairly thinks + There ain't no light in Natur when she winks; + Hain't she the Ten Comman'ments in her pus? + Could the world stir 'thout she went, tu, ez nus? + She ain't like other mortals, thet's a fact: + _She_ never stopped the habus-corpus act, + Nor specie payments, nor she never yet + Cut down the int'rest on her public debt; + _She_ don't put down rebellions, lets 'em breed, + An' 's ollers willin' Ireland should secede; + She's all thet's honest, honnable, an' fair, + An' when the vartoos died they made her heir. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Wal, wal, two wrongs don't never make a right; + Ef we're mistaken, own it, an' don't fight: + For gracious' sake, hain't we enough to du + 'Thout gittin' up a fight with England, tu? + She thinks we're rabble-rid------ + + THE BRIDGE + + An' so we can't + Distinguish 'twixt _You oughtn't_ an' _You shan't!_ + She jedges by herself; she's no idear + How 't stiddies folks to give 'em their fair sheer: + The odds 'twixt her an' us is plain's a steeple,-- + Her People's turned to Mob, our Mob's turned People. + + THE MONIMENT. + + She's riled jes' now------ + + THE BRIDGE + + Plain proof her cause ain't strong,-- + The one thet fust gits mad's most ollers wrong. + + THE MONIMENT. + + You're ollers quick to set your back aridge,-- + Though't suits a tom-cat more 'n a sober bridge: + Don't you git het: they thought the thing was planned; + They'll cool off when they come to understand. + + THE BRIDGE + + Ef _thet's_ wilt you expect, you'll _hev_ to wait: + Folks never understand the folks they hate: + She'll fin' some other grievance jest ez good, + 'Fore the month's out, to git misunderstood. + England cool off! She'll do it, ef she sees + She's run her head into a swarm o' bees. + I ain't so prejudiced ez wut you spose: + I hev thought England was the best thet goes; + Remember, (no, you can't,) when _I_ was reared, + _God save the King_ was all the tune you heerd: + But it's enough to turn Wachuset roun', + This stumpin' fellers when you think they're down. + + THE MONIMENT. + + But, neighbor, ef they prove their claim at law, + The best way is to settle, an' not jaw. + An' don't le' 's mutter 'bout the awfle bricks + We'll give 'em, ef we ketch 'em in a fix: + That 'ere's most frequently the kin' o' talk + Of critters can't be kicked to toe the chalk; + Your "You'll see _nex'_ time!" an' "Look out bimeby!" + Most ollers ends in eatin' umble-pie. + 'T wun't pay to scringe to England: will it pay + To fear thet meaner bully, old "They'll say"? + Suppose they _du_ say: words are dreffle bores, + But they ain't quite so bad ez seventy-fours. + Wut England wants is jest a wedge to fit + Where it'll help to widen out our split: + She's found her wedge, an' 't ain't for us to come + An' lend the beetle thet's to drive it home. + For growed-up folks like us 't would be a scandle, + When we git sarsed, to fly right off the handle. + England ain't _all_ bad, coz she thinks us blind: + Ef she can't change her skin, she can her mind; + An' you will see her change it double-quick, + Soon ez we've proved thet we're a-goin' to lick. + She an' Columby's gut to be fas' friends; + For the world prospers by their privit ends: + 'T would put the clock back all o' fifty years, + Ef they should fall together by the ears. + + THE BRIDGE. + + You may be right; but hearken in your ear,-- + I'm older 'n you,--Peace wun't keep house with Fear: + Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut to du + Is jest to show you're up to fightin', tu. + _I_ recollect how sailors' rights was won + Yard locked in yard, hot gun-lip kissin' gun: + Why, afore thet, John Bull sot up thet he + Hed gut a kind o' mortgage on the sea; + You'd thought he held by Gran'ther Adam's will, + An' ef you knuckle down, _he_'ll think so still. + Better thet all our ships an' all their crews + Should sink to rot in ocean's dreamless ooze, + Each torn flag wavin' chellenge ez it went, + An' each dumb gun a brave man's moniment, + Than seek sech peace ez only cowards crave: + Give me the peace of dead men or of brave! + + THE MONIMENT. + + I say, ole boy, it ain't the Glorious Fourth: + You'd oughto learned 'fore this wut talk wuz worth. + It ain't _our_ nose thet gits put out o' jint; + It's England thet gives up her dearest pint. + We've gut, I tell ye now, enough to du + In our own fem'ly fight, afore we're thru. + I hoped, las' spring, jest arter Sumter's shame, + When every flag-staff flapped its tethered flame, + An' all the people, startled from their doubt, + Come must'rin' to the flag with sech a shout,-- + + I hoped to see things settled 'fore this fall, + The Rebbles licked, Jeff Davis hanged, an' all; + Then come Bull Run, an' _sence_ then I've ben waitin' + Like boys in Jennooary thaw for skatin', + Nothin' to du but watch my shadder's trace + Swing, like a ship at anchor, roun' my base, + With daylight's flood an' ebb: it's gittin' slow, + An' I 'most think we'd better let 'em go. + I tell ye wut, this war's a-goin' to cost-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + An' I tell _you_ it wun't be money lost; + Taxes milks dry, but, neighbor, you'll allow + Thet havin' things onsettled kills the cow: + We've gut to fix this thing for good an' all; + It's no use buildin' wut's a-goin' to fall. + I'm older 'n you, an' I've seen things an' men, + An' here's wut my experience hez ben: + Folks thet worked thorough was the ones thet thriv, + But bad work follers ye ez long's ye live; + You can't git red on 't; jest ez sure ez sin, + It's ollers askin' to be done agin: + Ef we should part, it wouldn't be a week + 'Fore your soft-soddered peace would spring aleak. + We've turned our cuffs up, but, to put her thru, + We must git mad an' off with jackets, tu; + 'T wun't du to think thet killin' ain't perlite,-- + You've gut to be in airnest, ef you fight; + Why, two-thirds o' the Rebbles 'ould cut dirt, + Ef they once thought thet Guv'ment meant to hurt; + An' I _du_ wish our Gin'rals hed in mind + The folks in front more than the folks behind; + You wun't do much ontil you think it's God, + An' not constitoounts, thet holds the rod; + We want some more o' Gideon's sword, I jedge, + For proclamations hain't no gret of edge; + There's nothin' for a cancer but the knife, + Onless you set by 't more than by your life. + _I_'ve seen hard times; I see a war begun + Thet folks thet love their bellies never'd won,-- + Pharo's lean kine hung on for seven long year,-- + But when't was done, we didn't count it dear. + Why, law an' order, honor, civil right, + Ef they _ain't_ wuth it, wut _is_ wuth a fight? + I'm older 'n you: the plough, the axe, the mill, + All kinds o' labor an' all kinds o' skill, + Would be a rabbit in a wile-cat's claw, + Ef't warn't for thet slow critter, 'stablished law; + Onsettle _thet_, an' all the world goes whiz, + A screw is loose in everythin' there is: + Good buttresses once settled, don't you fret + An' stir 'em: take a bridge's word for thet! + Young folks are smart, but all ain't good thet's new; + I guess the gran'thers they knowed sunthin', tu. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Amen to thet! build sure in the beginning', + An' then don't never tech the underpinnin': + Th' older a Guv'ment is, the better 't suits; + New ones hunt folks's corns out like new boots: + Change jest for change is like those big hotels + Where they shift plates, an' let ye live on smells. + + THE BRIDGE + + Wal, don't give up afore the ship goes down: + It's a stiff gale, but Providence wun't drown; + An' God wun't leave us yet to sink or swim, + Ef we don't fail to du wut 's right by Him. + This land o' ourn, I tell ye, 's gut to be + A better country than man ever see. + I feel my sperit swellin' with a cry + Thet seems to say, "Break forth an' prophesy!" + O strange New World, thet yet wast never young, + Whose youth from thee by gripin' need was wrung,-- + Brown foundlin' o' the woods, whose baby-bed + Was prowled round by the Injun's cracklin' tread, + An' who grew'st strong thru shifts an' wants an' pains, + Nussed by stern men with empires in their brains, + Who saw in vision their young Ishmel strain + With each hard hand a vassal ocean's mane,-- + Thou, skilled by Freedom an' by gret events + To pitch new States ez Old-World men pitch tents,-- + Thou, taught by Fate to know Jehovah's plan + Thet only manhood ever makes a man, + An' whose free latch-string never was drawed in + Aginst the poorest child o' Adam's kin,-- + The grave's not dug where traitor hands shall lay + In fearful haste thy murdered corse away! + I see---- + + Jest here some dogs began to bark, + So thet I lost old Concord's last remark: + I listened long, but all I seemed to hear + Was dead leaves goss'pin' on some birch-trees near; + But ez they hedn't no gret things to say, + An' said 'em often, I come right away, + An', walkin' home'ards, jest to pass the time, + I put some thoughts thet bothered me in rhyme: + I hain't hed time to fairly try 'em on, + But here they be,--it's + + +JONATHAN TO JOHN. + + It don't seem hardly right, John, + When both my hands was full, + To stump me to a fight, John,-- + Your cousin, tu, John Bull! + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + We know it now," sez he, + "The lion's paw is all the law, + Accordin' to J.B., + Thet's fit for you an' me!" + + Blood ain't so cool as ink, John: + It's likely you'd ha' wrote, + An' stopped a spell to think, John, + _Arter_ they'd cut your throat? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + He'd skurce ha' stopped," sez he, + "To mind his p-s an' q-s, ef thet weasan' + Hed b'longed to ole J.B., + Instid o' you an' me!" + + Ef _I_ turned mad dogs loose, John, + On _your_ front-parlor stairs, + Would it jest meet your views, John, + To wait an' sue their heirs? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + I on'y guess," sez he, + "Thet, ef Vattel on _his_ toes fell, + 'T would kind o' rile J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + Who made the law thet hurts, John, + _Heads I win,--ditto, tails?_ + "_J.B._" was on his shirts, John, + Onless my memory fails. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + (I'm good at thet,)" sez he, + "Thet sauce for goose ain't _jest_ the juice + For ganders with J.B., + No more than you or me!" + + When your rights was our wrongs, John, + You didn't stop for fuss,-- + Britanny's trident-prongs, John, + Was good 'nough law for us. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Though physic's good," sez he, + "It doesn't foller thet he can swaller + Prescriptions signed 'J.B.,' + Put up by you an' me!" + + We own the ocean, tu, John: + You mus'n't take it hard, + Ef we can't think with you, John, + It's jest your own back-yard. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Ef _thet's_ his claim," sez he, + "The fencin'-stuff 'll cost enough + To bust up friend J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + Why talk so dreffle big, John, + Of honor, when it meant + You didn't care a fig, John, + But jest for _ten per cent_.? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + He's like the rest," sez he: + "When all is done, it's number one + Thet's nearest to J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + We give the critters back, John, + Coz Abram thought 't was right; + It warn't your bullyin' clack, John, + Provokin' us to fight. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + We've a hard row," sez he, + "To hoe jest now; but thet, somehow, + May heppen to J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + We ain't so weak an' poor, John, + With twenty million people, + An' close to every door, John, + A school-house an' a steeple. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + It is a fact," sez he, + "The surest plan to make a Man + Is, Think him so, J.B., + Ez much ez you or me!" + + Our folks believe in Law, John; + An' it's for her sake, now, + They've left the axe an' saw, John, + The anvil an' the plough. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Ef't warn't for law," sez he, + "There'd be one shindy from here to Indy; + An' thet don't suit J.B. + (When't ain't 'twixt you an' me!)" + + We know we've gut a cause, John, + Thet's honest, just, an' true; + We thought't would win applause, John, + Ef nowheres else, from you. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + His love of right," sez he, + "Hangs by a rotten fibre o' cotton: + There's natur' in J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + The South says, "_Poor folks down!_" John, + An' "_All men up!_" say we,-- + "White, yaller, black, an' brown, John: + Now which is your idee?" + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + John preaches wal," sez he; + "But, sermon thru, an' come to _du_, + Why, there's the old J.B. + A-crowdin' you an' me!" + + Shall it be love or hate, John? + It's you thet's to decide; + Ain't _your_ bonds held by Fate, John, + Like all the world's beside? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + Wise men forgive," sez he, + "But not forget; an' some time yet + Thet truth may strike J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + God means to make this land, John, + Clear thru, from sea to sea, + Believe an' understand, John, + The _wuth_ o' bein' free. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + God's price is high," sez he; + "But nothin' else than wut He sells + Wears long, an' thet J.B. + May learn like you an' me!" + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow_. A +Matter-of-Fact Romance. By CHARLES READE, Author of "Never too Late to +Mend," etc., etc. New York: Rudd & Carleton. 8vo. + +The novels of Charles Reade are generally marked not only by +individuality of genius, but by individualisms of egotism and caprice. +The latter provoke the reader almost as much as the former gives him +delight. It disturbs the least critical mind to find the keenest insight +in company with the loudest bravado, and the statement of a wise or +beautiful thought followed up by a dogmatic assertion of infallibility +as harsh as a slap on the face. The indisposition to recognize such a +genius comes from the fact that he irritates as well as stimulates the +minds he addresses. Everybody reads him, but the fooling he inspires is +made up of admiration and exasperation. The public is both delighted and +insulted. He not only does not attempt to conceal his contemptuous sense +of superiority to common men, but he absolutely screeches and bawls it +out. Fearful that the dull Anglo-Saxon mind cannot appreciate his finest +strokes, he emphasizes his inspirations not merely by Italics, but by +capitals, thus conveying his brightest wit and deepest contrivances by +a kind of typographic yell. Were there not a solid foundation of +observation, learning, genius, and conscience to his work, his egotistic +eccentricities would awake a tempest of hisses. Being, in reality, +superficial and not central, they are readily pardoned by discerning +critics. Even these, however, must object to his disposition to cluck or +crow, in a manner altogether unseemly, whenever he hits upon a thought +of more than ordinary delicacy or depth. + +It is but just to say, in palliation of this fault, that Mr. Reade's +insolent tone is not peculiar to him. It characterizes almost every +prominent person who has attempted to mould the opinions of the age. We +find it in Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Kingsley, as well as in Reade. +Modesty is not the characteristic of the genius of the nineteenth +century; and the last thing we look for in any powerful work of the +present day is toleration for other minds and opposing opinions. +Each capable person who puts in his thumb and pulls out a plum draws +instantly the same inference which occurred to the first explorer of +the Christmas-pie. Charles Reade has no reservation at all, and boldly +echoes Master Horner's sage conclusion. + +"The Cloister and the Hearth," in spite of its faults, is really a great +book. It is a positive contribution to history as well as to romance. It +would be vain to point to any other volume which could convey to common +minds so clear and accurate a conception of European life in the +fifteenth century as this. The author has deeply studied the annals, +memoirs, and histories which record the peculiarities of that life, and +he has carried into the study a knowledge of those powers and passions +of human nature which are the same in every age. The result is a +"romance of history" which contains more essential truth than the most +labored histories; for the writer is a man who has both the heart to +feel and the imagination to conceive the realities of the time about +which he writes. + +The characterization of the book is original, various, and powerful. +It ranges from the lowest hind to the most exquisite representative +of female tenderness and purity. The scenes of passion show a clear +conception of and a strong hold upon the emotional elements of +character, and a capacity to exhibit their most terrible workings +in language which seems identical with the feelings it so burningly +expresses. In vigor and vividness of description and narration the novel +excels any of Reade's previous books. The plot is about the same as that +of "The Good Fight," though the _dénouement_ is different. "The Cloister +and the Hearth," indeed, incorporates "The Good Fight" in its pages, but +the latter forms not more than a fourth of the extended work. Altogether +the romance must be classed among the best which have appeared during +the last twenty years. + + +_Lessons in Life_. A Series of Familiar Essays. By TIMOTHY TITCOMB. New +York: Charles Scribner, 16 mo. + +Who is more popular than honest Timothy? Opening this, his latest +volume, we read on, a fly-leaf fronting the title-page that twenty-six +editions of the "Letters to Young People," fifteen editions each of +"Bitter-Sweet" and "Gold Foil," and thirteen editions of "Miss Gilbert's +Career" have gone the way of all good books. The author says, in his +modest preface to the "Lessons," that he can hardly pretend to have done +more than to organize and put into form the average thinking of those +who read his books, and be only claims for his essays that they possess +the quality of common sense. He herein pays a very high compliment to +the crowd which demands over the bookseller's counter so many thousands +of his volumes. Wisdom, admirably put, is not a commodity glutting the +market every day. We find in the pages of this new venture so many +healthy maxims and so much excellent advice, that we hope the volume +will spread itself farther and wider than any of its predecessors. This +wish fulfilled will give it no mean circulation. "The Ways of Charity," +one of the papers in this volume, ought to be printed in tract form, and +scattered broadcast everywhere. And there are other articles in the book +quite as good as this. + + +_English Sacred Poetry of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and +Nineteenth Centuries._ Selected and edited by ROBERT ARIS WILLMOTT, M.A. +Illustrated by Holman Hunt, John Gilbert, and others. London: Routledge +& Co. 4to. + +Mr. Willmott has considerable reputation for judgment and taste as a +compiler. He knows a good poem afar off, and his chief pleasure seems +to lie in reproducing from old books the excellent things that time has +spared to us. His last contribution to the stock of elegant volumes is +this very handsome book of English Sacred Poetry. The illustrations are +by no means equally good, but the majority of them are satisfactory. +Delicious bits of English landscape scenery peep out along the pages, as +one turns the leaves of this beautiful collection. An old village church +rising among the graves of centuries, a bird's-nest snug and warm in the +boughs of a mossy tree, a group of old-time worshippers gathered on the +grass, a brook making its way through flower-enamelled banks, a shepherd +with his flock couched on the hill-side, and other similar scenes of +quiet and rest, abound in this volume. The printer and the binder have +produced as luxurious a specimen of their respective arts as we have +seen from the British holiday press. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in +the American Slave States. Based upon Three Former Volumes of Journeys +and Investigations by the Same Author. By Frederic Law Olmsted. In Two +Volumes. New York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. viii., 376; 404. $2.00. + +The Last Political Writings of General Nathaniel Lyon, U.S.A. With a +Sketch of his Life and Military Services. New York. Rudd & Carleton. +12mo. pp. 275. $1.00. + +The Lamplighter's Story; Hunted Down; The Detective Police, and other +Nouvellettes. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 12mo. pp. 467. $1.50. + +Poems. By John G. Saxe. Complete in One Volume. Blue and Gold. Boston. +Ticknor & Fields. 32mo. pp. vi., 308. 75 cts. + +Elijah, a Sacred Drama, and other Poems. By Rev. Robert Davidson, D.D. +New York. C. Scribner. 16mo. pp. 184. 75 cts. + +Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from Drawings +by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Old Curiosity-Shop. In Three +Volumes. New York. J.G. Gregory. 16mo. pp. viii., 303; 299; 298. $2.25. + +National Hymns: How they are Written, and how they are not Written. A +Lyric and National Study for the Times. By Richard Grant White. New +York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo. pp. 152. $1.00. + +A Manual of Elementary Geometrical Drawing, involving Three Dimensions. +Designed for Use in High Schools, Academies, Engineering Schools, etc.; +and for the Self-Instruction of Inventors, Artisans, etc. In Five +Divisions. By S. Edward Warren, C.E., Professor of Descriptive Geometry +and Geometrical Drawing in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., +and Author of a Treatise on the Orthographic Projections of Descriptive +Geometry. New York. John Wiley. 12mo. pp. x., 105. $1.25. + +For Better, for Worse. A Love Story. From "Temple Bar." Philadelphia. +T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 173. 25 cts. + +Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia. Revelation, +II., III. By Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D., Dean of Westminster. New +York. C. Scribner. 12mo. pp. 3l2. $1.00. + +Songs in Many Keys. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. +16mo. pp. x., 308. $1.25. + +Lessons in Life. A Series of Familiar Essays. By Timothy Titcomb, Author +of "Letters to the Young," "Gold Foil," etc. New York. C. Scribner. +12mo. pp. 344. $1.00. + +Wolfert's Roost, and other Papers. Now first collected. By Washington +Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 383, +46. $1.50. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, +February, 1862, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12066 *** 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..316886f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12066 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12066) diff --git a/old/12066-8.txt b/old/12066-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..188abd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12066-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9268 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, +1862, by Various + +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: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 17, 2004 [EBook #12066] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 52 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. Produced from page scans provided by Cornell University. + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. IX. FEBRUARY, 1862.--NO. LII + + * * * * * + + +BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. + + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps: + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; + Let this Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, + Since God is marching on." + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: + As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO + + +CHAPTER XX + +FLORENCE AND HER PROPHET + + +It was drawing towards evening, as two travellers, approaching Florence +from the south, checked their course on the summit of one of the circle +of hills which command a view of the city, and seemed to look down upon +it with admiration. One of these was our old friend Father Antonio, and +the other the Cavalier. The former was mounted on an ambling mule, whose +easy pace suited well with his meditative habits; while the other reined +in a high-mettled steed, who, though now somewhat jaded under the +fatigue of a long journey, showed by a series of little lively motions +of his ears and tail, and by pawing the ground impatiently, that he had +the inexhaustible stock of spirits which goes with good blood. + +"There she lies, my Florence," said the monk, stretching his hands out +with enthusiasm. "Is she not indeed a sheltered lily growing fair among +the hollows of the mountains? Little she may be, Sir, compared to old +Rome; but every inch of her is a gem,--every inch!" + +And, in truth, the scene was worthy of the artist's enthusiasm. All +the overhanging hills that encircle the city with their silvery +olive-gardens and their pearl-white villas were now lighted up with +evening glory. The old gray walls of the convents of San Miniato and the +Monte Oliveto were touched with yellow; and even the black obelisks of +the cypresses in their cemeteries had here and there streaks and dots +of gold, fluttering like bright birds among their gloomy branches. The +distant snow-peaks of the Apennines, which even in spring long wear +their icy mantles, were shimmering and changing like an opal ring +with tints of violet, green, blue, and rose, blended in inexpressible +softness by that dreamy haze which forms the peculiar feature of Italian +skies. + +In this loving embrace of mountains lay the city, divided by the Arno as +by a line of rosy crystal barred by the graceful arches of its bridges. +Amid the crowd of palaces and spires and towers rose central and +conspicuous the great Duomo, just crowned with that magnificent dome +which was then considered a novelty and a marvel in architecture, and +which Michel Angelo looked longingly back upon when he was going to Rome +to build that more wondrous orb of Saint Peter's. White and stately by +its side shot up the airy shaft of the Campanile; and the violet vapor +swathing the whole city in a tender indistinctness, these two striking +objects, rising by their magnitude far above it, seemed to stand alone +in a sort of airy grandeur. + +And now the bells of the churches were sounding the Ave Maria, filling +the air with sweet and solemn vibrations, as if angels were passing to +and fro overhead, harping as they went; and ever and anon the great bell +of the Campanile came pulsing in with a throb of sound of a quality so +different that one hushed one's breath to hear. It might be fancied to +be the voice of one of those kingly archangels that one sees drawn by +the old Florentine religious artists,--a voice grave and unearthly, and +with a plaintive undertone of divine mystery. + +The monk and the cavalier bent low in their saddles, and seemed to join +devoutly in the worship of the hour. + +One need not wonder at the enthusiasm of the returning pilgrim of those +days for the city of his love, who feels the charm that lingers around +that beautiful place even in modern times. Never was there a spot +to which the heart could insensibly grow with a more home-like +affection,--never one more thoroughly consecrated in every stone by the +sacred touch of genius. + +A republic, in the midst of contending elements, the history of +Florence, in the Middle Ages, was a history of what shoots and blossoms +the Italian nature might send forth, when rooted in the rich soil +of liberty. It was a city of poets and artists. Its statesmen, its +merchants, its common artisans, and the very monks in its convents, were +all pervaded by one spirit. The men of Florence in its best days were +men of a large, grave, earnest mould. What the Puritans of New England +wrought out with severest earnestness in their reasonings and their +lives these early Puritans of Italy embodied in poetry, sculpture, and +painting. They built their Cathedral and their Campanile, as the Jews +of old built their Temple, with awe and religious fear, that they might +thus express by costly and imperishable monuments their sense of God's +majesty and beauty. The modern traveller who visits the churches and +convents of Florence, or the museums where are preserved the fading +remains of its early religious Art, if he be a person of any +sensibility, cannot fail to be affected with the intense gravity and +earnestness which pervade them. They seem less to be paintings for the +embellishment of life than eloquent picture-writing by which burning +religious souls sought to preach the truths of the invisible world to +the eye of the multitude. Through all the deficiencies of perspective, +coloring, and outline incident to the childhood and early youth of Art, +one feels the passionate purpose of some lofty soul to express ideas of +patience, self-sacrifice, adoration, and aspiration far transcending the +limits of mortal capability. + +The angels and celestial beings of these grave old painters are as +different from the fat little pink Cupids or lovely laughing children of +Titian and Correggio as are the sermons of President Edwards from the +love-songs of Tom Moore. These old seers of the pencil give you grave, +radiant beings, strong as man, fine as woman, sweeping downward in lines +of floating undulation, and seeming by the ease with which they remain +poised in the air to feel none of that earthly attraction which draws +material bodies earthward. Whether they wear the morning star on their +forehead or bear the lily or the sword in their hand, there is still +that suggestion of mystery and power about them, that air of dignity and +repose, that speak the children of a nobler race than ours. One could +well believe such a being might pass in his serene poised majesty of +motion through the walls of a gross material dwelling without deranging +one graceful fold of his swaying robe or unclasping the hands folded +quietly on his bosom. Well has a modern master of art and style said of +these old artists, "Many pictures are ostentatious exhibitions of the +artist's power of speech, the clear and vigorous elocution of useless +and senseless words; while the earlier efforts of Giotto and Ciniabue +are the burning messages of prophecy delivered by the stammering lips of +infants." + +But at the time we write, Florence had passed through her ages of +primitive religions and republican simplicity, and was fast hastening to +her downfall. The genius, energy, and prophetic enthusiasm of Savonarola +had made, it is true, a desperate rally on the verge of the precipice; +but no one man has ever power to turn back the downward slide of a whole +generation. + +When Father Antonio left Sorrento in company with the cavalier, it +was the intention of the latter to go with him only so far as their +respective routes should lie together. The band under the command of +Agostino was posted in a ruined fortress in one of those airily perched +old mountain-towns which form so picturesque and characteristic a +feature of the Italian landscape. But before they reached this spot, the +simple, poetic, guileless monk, with his fresh artistic nature, had so +won upon his travelling companion that a most enthusiastic friendship +had sprung up between them, and Agostino could not find it in his heart +at once to separate from him. Tempest-tossed and homeless, burning with +a sense of wrong, alienated from the faith of his fathers through his +intellect and moral sense, yet clinging to it with his memory and +imagination, he found in the tender devotional fervor of the artist monk +a reconciling and healing power. He shared, too, in no small degree, the +feelings which now possessed the breast of his companion for the +great reformer whose purpose seemed to meditate nothing less than +the restoration of the Church of Italy to the primitive apostolic +simplicity. He longed to see him,--to listen to the eloquence of which +he had heard so much. Then, too, he had thoughts that but vaguely shaped +themselves in his mind. This noble man, so brave and courageous, menaced +by the forces of a cruel tyranny, might he not need the protection of a +good sword? He recollected, too, that he had an uncle high in the favor +of the King of France, to whom he had written a full account of his own +situation. Might he not be of use in urging this uncle to induce the +French King to throw before Savonarola the shield of his protection? At +all events, he entered Florence this evening with the burning zeal of a +young neophyte who hopes to effect something himself for a glorious and +sacred cause embodied in a leader who commands his deepest veneration. + +"My son," said Father Antonio, as they raised their heads after the +evening prayer, "I am at this time like a man who, having long been, +away from his home, fears, on returning, that he shall hear some evil +tidings of those he hath left. I long, yet dread, to go to my dear +Father Girolamo and the beloved brothers in our house. There is a +presage that lies heavy on my heart, so that I cannot shake it off. Look +at our glorious old Duomo;--doth she not sit there among the houses and +palaces as a queen-mother among nations,--worthy, in her greatness and +beauty, to represent the Church of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of the +Lord? Ah, I have seen it thronged and pressed with the multitude who +came to crave the bread of life from our master!" + +"Courage, my friend!" said Agostino; "it cannot be that Florence will +suffer her pride and glory to be trodden down. Let us hasten on, for the +shades of evening are coming fast, and there is a keen wind sweeping +down from your snowy mountains." + +And the two soon found themselves plunging into the shadows of the +streets, threading their devious way to the convent. + +At length they drew up before a dark wall, where the Father Antonio rang +a bell. + +A door was immediately opened, a cowled head appeared, and a cautious +voice asked,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"Ah, is that you, good Brother Angelo?" said Father Antonio, cheerily. + +"And is it you, dear Brother Antonio? Come in! come in!" was the cordial +response, as the two passed into the court; "truly, it will make all our +hearts leap to see you." + +"And, Brother Angelo, how is our dear father? I have been so anxious +about him!" + +"Oh, fear not!--he sustains himself in God, and is full of sweetness to +us all." + +"But do the people stand by him, Angelo, and the Signoria?" + +"He has strong friends as yet, but his enemies are like ravening wolves. +The Pope hath set on the Franciscans, and they hunt him as dogs do a +good stag.--But whom have you here with you?" added the monk, raising +his torch and regarding the knight. + +"Fear him not; he is a brave knight and good Christian, who comes to +offer his sword to our father and seek his counsels." + +"He shall be welcome," said the porter, cheerfully. "We will have you +into the refectory forthwith, for you must be hungry." + +The young cavalier, following the flickering torch of his conductor, had +only a dim notion of long cloistered corridors, out of which now and +then, as the light flared by, came a golden gleam from some quaint old +painting, where the pure angel forms of Angelico stood in the gravity +of an immortal youth, or the Madonna, like a bending lily, awaited the +message of Heaven; but when they entered the refectory, a cheerful voice +addressed them, and Father Antonio was clasped in the embrace of the +father so much beloved. + +"Welcome, welcome, my dear son!" said that rich voice which had thrilled +so many thousand Italian hearts with its music. "So you are come back to +the fold again. How goes the good work of the Lord?" + +"Well, everywhere," said Father Antonio; and then, recollecting his +young friend, he suddenly turned and said,-- + +"Let me present to you one son who comes to seek your instructions,--the +young Signor Agostino, of the noble house of Sarelli." + +The Superior turned to Agostino with a movement full of a generous +frankness, and warmly extended his hand, at the same time fixing upon +him the mesmeric glance of a pair of large, deep blue eyes, which might, +on slight observation, have been mistaken for black, so great was their +depth and brilliancy. + +Agostino surveyed his new acquaintance with that mingling of ingenuous +respect and curiosity with which an ardent young man would regard the +most distinguished leader of his age, and felt drawn to him by a +certain atmosphere of vital cordiality such as one can feel better than +describe. + +"You have ridden far to-day, my son,--you must be weary," said the +Superior, affably,--"but here you must feel yourself at home; command +us in anything we can do for you. The brothers will attend to those +refreshments which are needed after so long a journey; and when you have +rested and supped, we shall hope to see you a little more quietly." + +So saying, he signed to one or two brothers who stood by, and, +commending the travellers to their care, left the apartment. + +In a few moments a table was spread with a plain and wholesome repast, +to which the two travellers sat down with appetites sharpened by their +long journey. + +During the supper, the brothers of the convent, among whom Father +Antonio had always been a favorite, crowded around him in a state of +eager excitement. + +"You should have been here the last week," said one; "such a turmoil as +we have been in!" + +"Yes," said another,--"the Pope hath set on the Franciscans, who, you +know, are always ready enough to take up with anything against our +order, and they have been pursuing our father like so many hounds." + +"There hath been a whirlwind of preaching here and there," said a +third,--"in the Duomo, and Santa Croce, and San Lorenzo; and they have +battled to and fro, and all the city is full of it." + +"Tell him about yesterday, about the ordeal," shouted an eager voice. + +Two or three voices took up the story at once, and began to tell +it,--all the others correcting, contradicting, or adding incidents. From +the confused fragments here and there Agostino gathered that there had +been on the day before a popular spectacle in the grand piazza, in +which, according to an old superstition of the Middle Ages, Frà Girolamo +Savonarola and his opponents were expected to prove the truth of their +words by passing unhurt through the fire; that two immense piles of +combustibles had been constructed with a narrow passage between, and the +whole magistracy of the city convened, with a throng of the populace, +eager for the excitement of the spectacle; that the day had been spent +in discussions, and scruples, and preliminaries; and that, finally, +in the afternoon, a violent storm of rain arising had dispersed the +multitude and put a stop to the whole exhibition. + +"But the people are not satisfied," said Father Angelo; "and there are +enough mischief-makers among them to throw all the blame on our father." + +"Yes," said one, "they say he wanted to burn the Holy Sacrament, because +he was going to take it with him into the fire." + +"As if it could burn!" said another voice. + +"It would to all human appearance, I suppose," said a third. + +"Any way," said a fourth, "there is some mischief brewing; for here is +our friend Prospero Rondinelli just come in, who says, when he came past +the Duomo, he saw people gathering, and heard them threatening us: there +were as many as two hundred, he thought." + +"We ought to tell Father Girolamo," exclaimed several voices. + +"Oh, he will not be disturbed!" said Father Angelo. "Since these +affairs, he hath been in prayer in the chapter-room before the blessed +Angelico's picture of the Cross. When we would talk with him of these +things, he waves us away, and says only, 'I am weary; go and tell +Jesus.'" + +"He bade me come to him after supper," said Father Antonio. "I will talk +with him." + +"Do so,--that is right," said two or three eager voices, as the monk and +Agostino, having finished their repast, arose to be conducted to the +presence of the father. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE ATTACK ON SAN MARCO. + + +They found him in a large and dimly lighted apartment, sitting absorbed +in pensive contemplation before a picture of the Crucifixion by Frà +Angelico, which, whatever might be its _naïve_ faults of drawing and +perspective, had an intense earnestness of feeling, and, though faded +and dimmed by the lapse of centuries, still stirs in some faint wise +even the practised _dilettanti_ of our day. + +The face upon the cross, with its majestic patience, seemed to shed a +blessing down on the company of saints of all ages who were grouped by +their representative men at the foot. Saint Dominic, Saint Ambrose, +Saint Augustin, Saint Jerome, Saint Francis, and Saint Benedict were +depicted as standing before the Great Sacrifice in company with the +Twelve Apostles, the two Maries, and the fainting mother of Jesus,--thus +expressing the unity of the Church Universal in that great victory of +sorrow and glory. The painting was inclosed above by a semicircular +bordering composed of medallion heads of the Prophets, and below was a +similar medallion border of the principal saints and worthies of the +Dominican order. In our day such pictures are visited by tourists with +red guide-books in their hands, who survey them in the intervals of +careless conversation; but they were painted by the simple artist on +his knees, weeping and praying as he worked, and the sight of them was +accepted by like simple-hearted Christians as a perpetual sacrament of +the eye, by which they received Christ into their souls. + +So absorbed was the father in the contemplation of this picture, that he +did not hear the approaching footsteps of the knight and monk. When at +last they came so near as almost to touch him, he suddenly looked up, +and it became apparent that his eyes were full of tears. + +He rose, and, pointing with a mute gesture toward the painting, said,-- + +"There is more in that than in all Michel Angelo Buonarotti hath done +yet, though he be a God-fearing youth,--more than in all the heathen +marbles in Lorenzo's gardens. But sit down with me here. I have to come +here often, where I can refresh my courage." + +The monk and knight seated themselves, the latter with his attention +riveted on the remarkable man before him. The head and face of +Savonarola are familiar to us by many paintings and medallions, which, +however, fail to impart what must have been that effect of his personal +presence which so drew all hearts to him in his day. The knight saw a +man of middle age, of elastic, well-knit figure, and a flexibility +and grace of motion which seemed to make every nerve, even to his +finger-ends, vital with the expression of his soul. The close-shaven +crown and the plain white Dominican robe gave a severe and statuesque +simplicity to the lines of his figure. His head and face, like those +of most of the men of genius whom modern Italy has produced, were so +strongly cast in the antique mould as to leave no doubt of the identity +of modern Italian blood with that of the great men of ancient Italy. His +low, broad forehead, prominent Roman nose, well-cut, yet fully outlined +lips, and strong, finely moulded jaw and chin, all spoke the old Roman +vigor and energy, while the flexible delicacy of all the muscles of his +face and figure gave an inexpressible fascination to his appearance. +Every emotion and changing thought seemed to flutter and tremble over +his countenance as the shadow of leaves over sunny water. His eye had +a wonderful dilating power, and when he was excited seemed to shower +sparks; and his voice possessed a surprising scale of delicate and +melodious inflections, which could take him in a moment through the +whole range of human feeling, whether playful and tender or denunciatory +and terrible. Yet, when in repose among his friends, there was an almost +childlike simplicity and artlessness of manner, which drew the heart by +an irresistible attraction. At this moment it was easy to see by his +pale cheek and the furrowed lines of his face that he had been passing +through severe struggles; but his mind seemed stayed on some invisible +centre, in a solemn and mournful calm. + +"Come, tell me something of the good works of the Lord in our Italy, +brother," he said, with a smile which was almost playful in its +brightness. "You have been through all the lowly places of the land, +carrying our Lord's bread to the poor, and repairing and beautifying +shrines and altars by the noble gift that is in you." + +"Yes, father," said the monk; "and I have found that there are many +sheep of the Lord that feed quietly among the mountains of Italy, and +love nothing so much as to hear of the dear Shepherd who laid down His +life for them." + +"Even so, even so," said the Superior, with animation; "and it is the +thought of these sweet hearts that comforts me when my soul is among +lions. The foundation standeth sure,--the Lord knoweth them that are +His." + +"And it is good and encouraging," said Father Antonio, "to see the zeal +of the poor, who will give their last penny for the altar of the Lord, +and who flock so to hear the word and take the sacraments. I have +had precious seasons of preaching and confessing, and have worked in +blessedness many days restoring and beautifying the holy pictures and +statues whereby these little ones have been comforted. What with the +wranglings of princes and the factions and disturbances in our poor +Italy, there be many who suffer in want and loss of all things, so that +no refuge remains to them but the altars of our Jesus, and none cares +for them but He." + +"Brother," said the Superior, "there be thousands of flowers fairer than +man ever saw that grow up in waste places and in deep dells and shades +of mountains; but God bears each one in His heart, and delighteth +Himself in silence with them: and so doth He with these poor, simple, +unknown souls. The True Church is not a flaunting queen who goes boldly +forth among men displaying her beauties, but a veiled bride, a dove that +is in the cleft of the rocks, whose voice is known only to the Beloved. +Ah! when shall the great marriage-feast come, when all shall behold her +glorified? I had hoped to see the day here in Italy: but now"---- + +The father stopped, and seemed to lapse into unconscious musing,--his +large eye growing fixed and mysterious in its expression. + +"The brothers have been telling me somewhat of the tribulations you have +been through," said Father Antonio, who thought he saw a good opening to +introduce the subject nearest his heart. + +"No more of that!--no more!" said the Superior, turning away his head +with an expression of pain and weariness; "rather let us look up. What +think you, brother, are all _these_ doing now?" he said, pointing to the +saints in the picture. "They are all alive and well, and see clearly +through our darkness." Then, rising up, he added, solemnly, "Whatever +man may say or do, it is enough for me to feel that my dearest Lord and +His blessed Mother and all the holy archangels, the martyrs and prophets +and apostles, are with me. The end is coming." + +"But, dearest father," said Antonio, "think you the Lord will suffer the +wicked to prevail?" + +"It may be for a time," said Savonarola. "As for me, I am in His hands +only as an instrument. He is master of the forge and handles the hammer, +and when He has done using it He casts it from Him. Thus He did with +Jeremiah, whom He permitted to be stoned to death when his preaching +mission was accomplished; and thus He may do with _this_ hammer when He +has done using it." + +At this moment a monk rushed into the room with a face expressive of the +utmost terror, and called out,-- + +"Father, what shall we do? The mob are surrounding the convent! Hark! +hear them at the doors!" + +In truth, a wild, confused roar of mingled shrieks, cries, and blows +came in through the open door of the apartment; and the pattering sound +of approaching footsteps was heard like showering raindrops along the +cloisters. + +"Here come Messer Nicolo de' Lapi, and Francesco Valori!" called out a +voice. + +The room was soon filled with a confused crowd, consisting of +distinguished Florentine citizens, who had gained admittance through a +secret passage, and the excited novices and monks. + +"The streets outside the convent are packed close with men," cried one +of the citizens; "they have stationed guards everywhere to cut off our +friends who might come to help us." + +"I saw them seize a young man who was quietly walking, singing psalms, +and slay him on the steps of the Church of the Innocents," said another; +"they cried and hooted, 'No more psalm-singing!'" + +"And there's Arnolfo Battista," said a third;--"he went out to try +to speak to them, and they have killed him,--cut him down with their +sabres." + +"Hurry! hurry! barricade the door! arm yourselves!" was the cry from +other voices. + +"Shall we fight, father? shall we defend ourselves?" cried others, as +the monks pressed around their Superior. + +When the crowd first burst into the room, the face of the Superior +flushed, and there was a slight movement of surprise; then he seemed to +recollect himself, and murmuring, "I expected this, but not so soon," +appeared lost in mental prayer. To the agitated inquiries of his flock, +he answered,--"No, brothers; the weapons of monks must be spiritual, not +carnal." Then lifting on high a crucifix, he said,--"Come with me, and +let us walk in solemn procession to the altar, singing the praises of +our God." + +The monks, with the instinctive habit of obedience, fell into procession +behind their leader, whose voice, clear and strong, was heard raising +the Psalm, _"Quare fremunt gentes"_:-- + +"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? + +"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel +together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, + +"'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.' + +"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.: the Lord shall have them +in derision." + +As one voice after another took up the chant, the solemn enthusiasm rose +and deepened, and all present, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, fell +into the procession and joined in the anthem. Amid the wild uproar, the +din and clatter of axes, the thunders of heavy battering-implements on +the stone walls and portals, came this long-drawn solemn wave of sound, +rising and falling,--now drowned in the savage clamors of the mob, and +now bursting out clear and full like the voices of God's chosen amid the +confusion and struggles of all the generations of this mortal life. + +White-robed and grand the procession moved on, while the pictured saints +and angels on the walls seemed to smile calmly down upon them from a +golden twilight. They passed thus into the sacristy, where with all +solemnity and composure they arrayed their Father and Superior for the +last time in his sacramental robes, and then, still chanting, followed +him to the high altar,--where all bowed in prayer. And still, whenever +there was a pause in the stormy uproar and fiendish clamor, might be +heard the clear, plaintive uprising of that strange singing,--"O Lord, +save thy people, and bless thine heritage!" + +It needs not to tell in detail what history has told of that tragic +night: how the doors at last were forced, and the mob rushed in; how +citizens and friends, and many of the monks themselves, their instinct +of combativeness overcoming their spiritual beliefs, fought valiantly, +and used torches and crucifixes for purposes little contemplated when +they were made. + +Fiercest among the combatants was Agostino, who three times drove back +the crowd as they were approaching the choir, where Savonarola and his +immediate friends were still praying. Father Antonio, too, seized +a sword from the hand of a fallen man and laid about him with an +impetuosity which would be inexplicable to any who do not know what +force there is in gentle natures when the objects of their affections +are assailed. The artist monk fought for his master with the blind +desperation with which a woman fights over the cradle of her child. + +All in vain! Past midnight, and the news comes that artillery is planted +to blow down the walls of the convent, and the magistracy, who up to +this time have lifted not a finger to repress the tumult, send word to +Savonarola to surrender himself to them, together with the two most +active of his companions, Frà Domenico da Pescia and Frà Silvestro +Maruffi, as the only means of averting the destruction of the whole +order. They offer him assurances of protection and safe return, which he +does not in the least believe: nevertheless, he feels that his hour is +come, and gives himself up. + +His preparations were all made with a solemn method which showed that +he felt he was approaching the last act in the drama of life. He called +together his flock, scattered and forlorn, and gave them his last +words of fatherly advice, encouragement, and comfort,--ending with the +remarkable declaration, "A Christian's life consists in doing good and +suffering evil." "I go with joy to this marriage-supper," he said, as he +left the church for the last sad preparations. He and his doomed friends +then confessed and received the sacrament, and after that he surrendered +himself into the hands of the men who he felt in his prophetic soul had +come to take him to torture and to death. + +As he gave himself into their hands, he said, "I commend to your care +this flock of mine, and these good citizens of Florence who have been +with us"; and then once more turning to his brethren, said,--"Doubt not, +my brethren. God will not fail to perfect His work. Whether I live or +die, He will aid and console you." + +At this moment there was a struggle with the attendants in the outer +circle of the crowd, and the voice of Father Antonio was heard crying +out earnestly,--"Do not hold me! I will go with him! I must go with +him!"--"Son," said Savonarola, "I charge you on your obedience not to +come. It is I and Frà Domenico who are to die for the love of Christ." +And thus, at the ninth hour of the night, he passed the threshold of San +Marco. + +As he was leaving, a plaintive voice of distress was heard from a young +novice who had been peculiarly dear to him, who stretched his hands +after him, crying,--"Father! father! why do you leave us desolate?" +Whereupon he turned back a moment, and said,--"God will be your help. +If we do not see each other again in this world, we surely shall in +heaven." + +When the party had gone forth, the monks and citizens stood looking into +each other's faces, listening with dismay to the howl of wild ferocity +that was rising around the departing prisoner. + +"What shall we do?" was the outcry from many voices. + +"I know what I shall do," said Agostino. "If any man here will find me a +fleet horse, I will start for Milan this very hour; for my uncle is now +there on a visit, and he is a counsellor of weight with the King of +France: we must get the King to interfere." + +"Good! good! good!" rose from a hundred voices. + +"I will go with you," said Father Antonio. "I shall have no rest till I +do something." + +"And I," quoth Jacopo Niccolini, "will saddle for you, without delay, +two horses of part Arabian blood, swift of foot, and easy, and which +will travel day and night without sinking." + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +The rays of the setting sun were imparting even more than their wonted +cheerfulness to the airy and bustling streets of Milan. There was the +usual rush and roar of busy life which mark the great city, and the +display of gay costumes and brilliant trappings proper to a ducal +capital which at that time gave the law to Europe in all matters of +taste and elegance, even as Paris does now. It was, in fact, from the +reputation of this city in matters of external show that our English +term Milliner was probably derived; and one might well have believed +this, who saw the sweep of the ducal cortege at this moment returning +in pomp from the afternoon airing. Such glittering of gold-embroidered +mantles, such bewildering confusion of colors, such flashing of jewelry +from cap and dagger-hilt and finger-ring, and even from bridle and +stirrup, testified that the male sex at this period in Italy were no +whit behind the daughters of Eve in that passion for personal adornment +which our age is wont to consider exclusively feminine. Indeed, all that +was visible to the vulgar eye of this pageant was wholly masculine; +though no one doubted that behind the gold-embroidered curtains of the +litters which contained the female notabilities of the court still more +dazzling wonders might be concealed. Occasionally a white jewelled hand +would draw aside one of these screens, and a pair of eyes brighter than +any gems would peer forth; and then there would be tokens of a visible +commotion among the plumed and gemmed cavaliers around, and one young +head would nod to another with jests and quips, and there would be +bowing and curveting and all the antics and caracolings supposable among +gay young people on whom the sun shone brightly, and who felt the world +going well around them, and deemed themselves the observed of all +observers. + +Meanwhile, the mute, subservient common people looked on all this as +a part of their daily amusement. Meek dwellers in those dank, noisome +caverns, without any opening but a street-door, which are called +dwelling-places in Italy, they lived in uninquiring good-nature, +contentedly bringing up children on coarse bread, dirty cabbage-stumps, +and other garbage, while all that they could earn was sucked upward by +capillary attraction to nourish the extravagance of those upper classes +on which they stared with such blind and ignorant admiration. + +This was the lot they believed themselves born for, and which every +exhortation of their priests taught them to regard as the appointed +ordinance of God. The women, to be sure, as women always will be, were +true to the instinct of their sex, and crawled out of the damp and +vile-smelling recesses of their homes with solid gold ear-rings shaking +in their ears, and their blue-black lustrous hair ornamented with a +glittering circle of steel pins or other quaint coiffure. There was +sense in all this: for had not even Dukes of Milan been found so +condescending and affable as to admire the charms of the fair in the +lower orders, whence had come sons and daughters who took rank among +princes and princesses? What father, or what husband, could be +insensible to prospects of such honor? What priest would not readily +absolve such sin? Therefore one might have observed more than one comely +dark-eyed woman, brilliant as some tropical bird in the colors of her +peasant dress, who cast coquettish glances toward high places, not +unacknowledged by patronizing nods in return, while mothers and fathers +looked on in triumph. These were the days for the upper classes: the +Church bore them all in her bosom as a tender nursing-mother, and +provided for all their little peccadilloes with even grandmotherly +indulgence, and in return the world was immensely deferential towards +the Church; and it was only now and then some rugged John Baptist, +in raiment of camel's hair, like Savonarola, who dared to speak an +indecorous word of God's truth in the ear of power, and Herod and +Herodias had ever at hand the good old recipe for quieting such +disturbances. John Baptist was beheaded in prison, and then all the +world and all the Scribes and Pharisees applauded; and only a few poor +disciples were found to take up the body and go and tell Jesus. + +The whole piazza around the great Cathedral is at this moment full of +the dashing cavalcade of the ducal court, looking as brilliant in the +evening light as a field of poppy, corn-flower, and scarlet clover +at Sorrento; and there, amid the flutter and rush, the amours and +intrigues, the court scandal, the laughing, the gibing, the glitter, +and dazzle, stands that wonderful Cathedral, that silent witness, that +strange, pure, immaculate mountain of airy, unearthly loveliness,--the +most striking emblem of God's mingled vastness and sweetness that ever +it was given to human heart to devise or hands to execute. If there be +among the many mansions of our Father above, among the houses not made +with hands, aught purer and fairer, it must be the work of those grand +spirits who inspired and presided over the erection of this celestial +miracle of beauty. In the great, vain, wicked city, all alive with the +lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, it seemed +to stand as much apart and alone as if it were in the solemn desolation +of the Campagna, or in one of the wide deserts of Africa,--so little +part or lot did it appear to have in anything earthly, so little to +belong to the struggling, bustling crowd who beneath its white dazzling +pinnacles seemed dwarfed into crawling insects. They who could look up +from the dizzy, frivolous life below saw far, far above them, in the +blue Italian air, thousands of glorified saints standing on a thousand +airy points of brilliant whiteness, ever solemnly adoring. The marble +which below was somewhat touched and soiled with the dust of the street +seemed gradually to refine and brighten as it rose into the pure regions +of the air, till at last in those thousand distant pinnacles it had the +ethereal translucence of wintry frost-work, and now began to glow with +the violet and rose hues of evening, in solemn splendor. + +The ducal cortege sweeps by; but we have mounted the dizzy, dark +staircase that leads to the roof, where, amid the bustling life of the +city, there is a promenade of still and wondrous solitude. One seems to +have ascended in those few moments far beyond the tumult and dust of +earthly things, to the silence, the clearness, the tranquillity of +ethereal regions. The noise of the rushing tides of life below rises +only in a soft and distant murmur; while around, in the wide, clear +distance, is spread a prospect which has not on earth its like or its +equal. The beautiful plains of Lombardy lie beneath like a map, and the +northern horizon-line is glittering with the entire sweep of the Alps, +like a solemn senate of archangels with diamond mail and glittering +crowns. Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa with his countenance of light, the +Jungfrau and all the weird brothers of the Oberland, rise one after +another to the delighted gaze, and the range of the Tyrol melts far off +into the blue of the sky. On another side, the Apennines, with their +picturesque outlines and cloud-spotted sides, complete the inclosure. +All around, wherever the eye turns, is the unbroken phalanx of +mountains; and this temple, with its thousand saintly statues standing +in attitudes of ecstasy and prayer, seems like a worthy altar and shrine +for the beautiful plain which the mountains inclose: it seems to give +all Northern Italy to God. + +The effect of the statues in this high, pure air, in this solemn, +glorious scenery, is peculiar. They seem a meet companionship for these +exalted regions. They seem to stand exultant on their spires, poised +lightly as ethereal creatures, the fit inhabitants of the pure blue sky. +One feels that they have done with earth; one can fancy them a band of +white-robed kings and priests forever ministering in that great temple +of which the Alps and the Apennines are the walls and the Cathedral the +heart and centre. Never were Art and Nature so majestically married by +Religion in so worthy a temple. + +One form could be discerned standing in rapt attention, gazing from a +platform on the roof upon the far-distant scene. He was enveloped in +the white coarse woollen gown of the Dominican monks, and seemed wholly +absorbed in meditating on the scene before him, which appeared to move +him deeply; for, raising his hands, he repeated aloud from the Latin +Vulgate the words of an Apostle:-- + +"Accessistis ad Sion montem et civitatem Dei viventis, Ierusalem +caelestem, et multorum millinm angelorum frequentiam, ecclesiam +primitivorum, qui inscripti sunt in caelis."[A] + +[Footnote A: "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the +living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of +angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are +written in heaven."] + +At this moment the evening worship commenced within the Cathedral, and +the whole building seemed to vibrate with the rising swell of the great +organ, while the grave, long-drawn tones of the Ambrosian Liturgy rose +surging in waves and dying away in distant murmurs, like the rolling +of the tide on some ocean-shore. The monk turned and drew near to the +central part of the roof to listen, and as he turned he disclosed the +well-known features of Father Antonio. + +Haggard, weary, and travel-worn, his first impulse, on entering the +city, was to fly to this holy solitude, as the wandering sparrow of +sacred song sought her nest amid the altars of God's temple. Artist no +less than monk, he found in this wondrous shrine of beauty a repose +both for his artistic and his religious nature; and while waiting for +Agostino Sarelli to find his uncle's residence, he had determined to +pass the interval in this holy solitude. Many hours had he paced alone +up and down the long promenades of white marble which run everywhere +between forests of dazzling pinnacles and flying-buttresses of airy +lightness. Now he rested in fixed attention against the wall above the +choir, which he could feel pulsating with throbs of sacred sound, as if +a great warm heart were beating within the fair marble miracle, warming +it into mysterious life and sympathy. + +"I would now that boy were here to worship with me," he said. "No wonder +the child's faith fainteth: it takes such monuments as these of the +Church's former days to strengthen one's hopes. Ah, woe unto those by +whom such offence cometh!" + +At this moment the form of Agostino was seen ascending the marble +staircase. + +The eye of the monk brightened as he came towards him. He put out +one hand eagerly to take his, and raised the other with a gesture of +silence. + +"Look," he said, "and listen! Is it not the sound of many waters and +mighty thunderings?" + +Agostino stood subdued for the moment by the magnificent sights and +sounds; for, as the sun went down, the distant mountains grew every +moment more unearthly in their brilliancy,--and as they lay in a long +line, jewelled brightness mingling with the cloud-wreaths of the far +horizon, one might have imagined that he in truth beheld the foundations +of that celestial city of jasper, pearl, and translucent gold which the +Apostle saw, and that the risings and fallings of choral sound which +seemed to thrill and pulsate through the marble battlements were indeed +that song like many waters sung by the Church Triumphant above. + +For a few moments the monk and the young man stood in silence, till at +length the monk spoke. + +"You have told me, my son, that your heart often troubles you in being +more Roman than Christian; that you sometimes doubt whether the Church +on earth be other than a fiction or a fable. But look around us. Who +are these, this great multitude who praise and pray continually in this +temple of the upper air? These are they who have come out of great +tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood +of the Lamb. These are not the men that have sacked cities, and made +deserts, and written their triumphs in blood and carnage. These be men +that have sheltered the poor, and built houses for orphans, and sold +themselves into slavery to redeem their brothers in Christ. These be +pure women who have lodged saints, brought up children, lived holy and +prayerful lives. These be martyrs who have laid down their lives for the +testimony of Jesus. There were no such churches in old Rome,--no such +saints." + +"Well," said Agostino, "one thing is certain. If such be the True +Church, the Pope and the Cardinals of our day have no part in it; for +they are the men who sack cities and make desolations, who devour +widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. Let us see one of +_them_ selling himself into slavery for the love of anybody, while they +seek to keep all the world in slavery to themselves!" + +"That is the grievous declension our master weeps over," said the monk. +"Ah, if the Bishops of the Church now were like brave old Saint +Ambrose, strong alone by faith and prayer, showing no more favor to an +unrepentant Emperor than to the meanest slave, then would the Church be +a reality and a glory! Such is my master. Never is he afraid of the face +of king or lord, when he has God's truth to speak. You should have heard +how plainly he dealt with our Lorenzo de' Medici on his death-bed,--how +he refused him absolution, unless he would make restitution to the poor +and restore the liberties of Florence." + +"I should have thought," said the young man, sarcastically, "that +Lorenzo the Magnificent might have got absolution cheaper than that. +Where were all the bishops in his dominion, that he must needs send for +Jerome Savonarola?" + +"Son, it is ever so," replied the monk. "If there be a man that cares +neither for Duke nor Emperor, but for God alone, then Dukes and Emperors +would give more for his good word than for a whole dozen of common +priests." + +"I suppose it is something like a rare manuscript or a singular gem: +these _virtuosi_ have no rest till they have clutched it. The thing they +cannot get is always the thing they want." + +"Lorenzo was always seeking our master," said the monk. "Often would he +come walking in our gardens, expecting surely he would hasten down to +meet him; and the brothers would run all out of breath to his cell to +say, 'Father, Lorenzo is in the garden.' 'He is welcome,' would he +answer, with his pleasant smile. 'But, father, will you not descend +to meet him?' 'Hath he asked for me?' 'No.' 'Well, then, let us not +interrupt his meditations,' he would answer, and remain still at his +reading, so jealous was he lest he should seek the favor of princes and +forget God, as does all the world in our day." + +"And because he does not seek the favor of the men of this world he will +be trampled down and slain. Will the God in whom he trusts defend him?" + +The monk pointed expressively upward to the statues that stood glorified +above them, still wearing a rosy radiance, though the shadows of +twilight had fallen on all the city below. + +"My son," he said, "the victories of the True Church are not in time, +but in eternity. How many around us were conquered on earth that they +might triumph in heaven! What saith the Apostle? 'They were +tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better +resurrection.'" + +"But, alas!" said Agostino, "are we never to see the right triumph here? +I fear that this noble name is written in blood, like so many of whom +the world is not worthy. Can one do nothing to help it?" + +"How is that? What have you heard?" said the monk, eagerly. "Have you +seen your uncle?" + +"Not yet; he is gone into the country for a day,--so say his servants. I +saw, when the Duke's court passed, my cousin, who is in his train, and +got a moment's speech with him; and he promised, that, if I would wait +for him here, he would come to me as soon as he could be let off from +his attendance. When he comes, it were best that we confer alone." + +"I will retire to the southern side," said the monk, "and await the end +of your conference": and with that he crossed the platform on which they +were standing, and, going down a flight of white marble steps, was soon +lost to view amid the wilderness of frost-like carved work. + +He had scarcely vanished, before footsteps were heard ascending the +marble staircase on the other side, and the sound of a voice humming a +popular air of the court. + +The stranger was a young man of about five-and-twenty, habited with all +that richness and brilliancy of coloring which the fashion of the day +permitted to a young exquisite. His mantle of purple velvet falling +jauntily off from one shoulder disclosed a doublet of amber satin richly +embroidered with gold and seed-pearl. The long white plume which drooped +from his cap was held in its place by a large diamond which sparkled +like a star in the evening twilight. His finely moulded hands were +loaded with rings, and ruffles of the richest Venetian lace encircled +his wrists. He had worn over all a dark cloak with a peaked hood, the +usual evening disguise in Italy; but as he gained the top-stair of the +platform, he threw it carelessly down and gayly offered his hand. + +"Good even to you, cousin mine! So you see I am as true to my +appointment as if your name were Leonora or Camilla instead of Agostino. +How goes it with you? I wanted to talk with you below, but I saw we must +have a place without listeners. Our friends the saints are too high in +heavenly things to make mischief by eavesdropping." + +"Thank you, Cousin Carlos, for your promptness. And now to the point. +Did your father, my uncle, get the letter I wrote him about a month +since?" + +"He did; and he bade me treat with you about it. It's an abominable +snarl this they have got you into. My father says, your best way is to +come straight to him in France, and abide till things take a better +turn: he is high in favor with the King and can find you a very pretty +place at court, and he takes it upon him in time to reconcile the Pope. +Between you and me, the old Pope has no special spite in the world +against _you_: he merely wants your lands for his son, and as long +as you prowl round and lay claim to them, why, you must stay +excommunicated; but just clear the coast and leave them peaceably and +he will put you back into the True Church, and my father will charge +himself with your success. Popes don't last forever, or there may come +another falling out with the King of France, and either way there will +be a chance of your being one day put back into your rights; meanwhile, +a young fellow might do worse than have a good place in our court." + +During this long monologue, which the young speaker uttered with all the +flippant self-sufficiency of worldly people with whom the world is going +well, the face of the young nobleman who listened presented a picture of +many strong contending emotions. + +"You speak," he said, "as if man had nothing to do in this world but +seek his own ease and pleasure. What lies nearest my heart is not that +I am plundered of my estates, and my house uprooted, but it is that my +beautiful Rome, the city of my fathers, is a prisoner under the heel of +the tyrant. It is that the glorious religion of Christ, the holy faith +in which my mother died, the faith made venerable by all these saints +around us, is made the tool and instrument of such vileness and cruelty +that one is tempted to doubt whether it were not better to have been +born of heathen in the good old times of the Roman Republic,--God +forgive me for saying so! Does the Most Christian King of France know +that the man who pretends to rule in the name of Christ is not a +believer in the Christian religion,--that he does not believe even in a +God,--that he obtained the holy seat by simony,--that he uses all its +power to enrich a brood of children whose lives are so indecent that it +is a shame to modest lips even to _say_ what they do?" + +"Why, of course," said the other, "the King of France is pretty well +informed about all these things. You know old King Charles, when he +marched through Italy, had more than half a mind, they say, to pull the +old Pope out of his place; and he might have done it easily. My father +was in his train at that time, and he says the Pope was frightened +enough. Somehow they made it all up among them, and settled about their +territories, which is the main thing, after all; and now our new King, I +fancy, does not like to meddle with him: between you and me, he has his +eye in another direction here. This gay city would suit him admirably, +and he fancies he can govern it as well as it is governed now. My father +does not visit here with his eyes shut, _I_ can tell you. But as to the +Pope----Well, you see such things are delicate to handle. After all, +my dear Agostino, we are not priests,--our business is with this world; +and, no matter how they came by them, these fellows have the keys of the +kingdom of heaven, and one cannot afford to quarrel with them,--we must +have the ordinances, you know, or what becomes of our souls? Do you +suppose, now, that I should live as gay and easy a life as I do, if I +thought there were any doubt of my salvation? It's a mercy to us sinners +that the ordinances are not vitiated by the sins of the priests; it +would go hard with us, if they were: as it is, if they will live +scandalous lives, it is their affair, not ours." + +"And is it nothing," replied the other, "to a true man who has taken the +holy vows of knighthood on him, whether his Lord's religion be defamed +and dishonored and made a scandal and a scoffing? Did not all Europe go +out to save Christ's holy sepulchre from being dishonored by the feet of +the Infidel? and shall we let infidels have the very house of the Lord, +and reign supreme in His holy dwelling-place? There has risen a holy +prophet in Italy, the greatest since the time of Saint Francis, and his +preaching hath stirred all hearts to live more conformably with our +holy faith; and now for his pure life and good works he is under +excommunication of the Pope, and they have seized and imprisoned him, +and threaten his life." + +"Oh, you mean Savonarola," said the other. "Yes, we have heard of +him,--a most imprudent, impracticable fellow, who will not take advice +nor be guided. My father, I believe, thought well of him once, and +deemed that in the distracted state of Italy he might prove serviceable +in forwarding some of his plans: but he is wholly wrapt up in his own +notions; he heeds no will but his own." + +"Have you heard anything," said Agostino, "of a letter which he wrote to +the King of France lately, stirring him up to call a General Council of +the Christian Church to consider what is to be done about the scandals +at Rome?" + +"Then he has written one, has he?" replied the young man; "then the +story that I have heard whispered about here must be true. A man who +certainly is in a condition to know told me day before yesterday that +the Duke had arrested a courier with some such letter, and sent it on to +the Pope: it is likely, for the Duke hates Savonarola. If that be true, +it will go hard with him yet; for the Pope has a long arm for an enemy." + +"And so," said Agostino, with an expression of deep concern, "that +letter, from which the good man hoped so much, and which was so +powerful, will only go to increase his danger!" + +"The more fool he!--he might have known that it was of no use. Who was +going to take his part against the Pope?" + +"The city of Florence has stood by him until lately," said +Agostino,--"and would again, with a little help." + +"Oh, no! never think it, my dear Agostino! Depend upon it, it will end +as such things always do, and the man is only a madman that undertakes +it. Hark ye, cousin, what have _you_ to do with this man? Why do you +attach yourself to the side that is _sure_ to lose? I cannot conceive +what you would be at. This is no way to mend your fortunes. Come +to-night to my father's palace: the Duke has appointed us princely +lodgings, and treats us with great hospitality, and my father has plans +for your advantage. Between us, there is a fair young ward of his, of +large estates and noble blood, whom he designs for you. So you see, if +you turn your attention in this channel, there may come a reinforcement +of the family property, which will enable you to hold out until the Pope +dies, or some prince or other gets into a quarrel with him, which is +always happening, and then a move may be made for you. My father, I'll +promise you, is shrewd enough, and always keeps his eye open to see +where there is a joint in the harness, and have a trusty dagger-blade +all whetted to stick under. Of course, he means to see you righted; he +has the family interest at heart, and feels as indignant as you could at +the rascality which has been perpetrated; but I am quite sure he will +tell you that the way is not to come out openly against the Pope and +join this fanatical party." + +Agostino stood silent, with the melancholy air of a man who has much to +say, and is deeply moved by considerations which he perceives it would +be utterly idle and useless to attempt to explain. If the easy theology +of his friend were indeed true,--if the treasures of the heavenly +kingdom, glory, honor, and immortality, could indeed be placed in unholy +hands to be bought and sold and traded in,--if holiness of heart +and life, and all those nobler modes of living and being which were +witnessed in the histories of the thousand saints around him, were +indeed but a secondary thing in the strife for worldly place and +territory,--what, then, remained for the man of ideas, of aspirations? +In such a state of society, his track must be like that of the dove in +sacred history who found no rest for the sole of her foot. + +Agostino folded his arms and sighed deeply, and then made answer +mechanically, as one whose thoughts are afar off. + +"Present my duty," he said, "to my uncle, your father, and say to him +that I will wait on him to-night." + +"Even so," said the young man, picking up his cloak and folding it about +him. "And now, you know, I must go. Don't be discouraged; keep up a good +heart; you shall see what it is to have powerful friends to stand by +you; all will be right yet. Come, will you go with me now?" + +"Thank you," said Agostino, "I think I would be alone a little while. My +head is confused, and I would fain think over matters a little quietly." + +"Well, _au revoir_, then. I must leave you to the company of the saints. +But be sure and come early." + +So saying, he threw his cloak over his shoulder and sauntered carelessly +down the marble steps, humming again the gay air with which he had +ascended. + +Left alone, Agostino once more cast a glance on the strangely solemn +and impressive scene around him. He was standing on a platform of the +central tower which overlooked the whole building. The round, full moon +had now risen in the horizon, displacing by her solemn brightness +the glow of twilight; and her beams were reflected by the delicate +frost-work of the myriad pinnacles which rose in a bewildering maze +at his feet. It might seem to be some strange enchanted garden of +fairy-land, where a luxuriant and freakish growth of Nature had been +suddenly arrested and frozen into eternal stillness. Around in the +shadows at the foot of the Cathedral the lights of the great gay city +twinkled and danced and veered and fluttered like fire-flies in the +damp, dewy shadows of some moist meadow in summer. The sound of +clattering hoofs and rumbling wheels, of tinkling guitars and gay +roundelays, rose out of that obscure distance, seeming far off and +plaintive like the dream of a life that is past. The great church seemed +a vast world; the long aisles of statued pinnacles with their pure +floorings of white marble appeared as if they might be the corridors of +heaven; and it seemed as if the crowned and sceptred saints in their +white marriage-garments might come down and walk there, without ever a +spot of earth on their unsullied whiteness. + +In a few moments Father Antonio had glided back to the side of the young +man, whom he found so lost in reverie that not till he laid his hand +upon his arm did he awaken from his meditations. + +"Ah!" he said, with a start, "my father, is it you?" + +"Yes, my son. What of your conference? Have you learned anything?" + +"Father, I have learned far more than I wished to know." + +"What is it, my son? Speak it at once." + +"Well, then, I fear that the letter of our holy father to the King of +France has been intercepted here in Milan, and sent to the Pope." + +"What makes you think so?" said the monk, with an eagerness that showed +how much he felt the intelligence. + +"My cousin tells me that a person of consideration in the Duke's +household, who is supposed to be in a position to know, told him that it +was so." + +Agostino felt the light grasp which the monk had laid upon his arm +gradually closing with a convulsive pressure, and that he was trembling +with intense feeling. + +"Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight!" he said, after a +few moments of silence. + +"It is discouraging," said Agostino, "to see how little these princes +care for the true interests of religion and the service of God,--how +little real fealty there is to our Lord Jesus." + +"Yes," said the monk, "all seek their own, and not the things that are +Christ's. It is well written, 'Put not your trust in princes.'" + +"And what prospect, what hope do you see for him?" said Agostino. "Will +Florence stand firm?" + +"I could have thought so once," said the monk,--"in those days when I +have seen counsellors and nobles and women of the highest degree all +humbly craving to hear the word of God from his lips, and seeming to +seek nothing so much as to purify their houses, their hands, and their +hearts, that they might be worthy citizens of that commonwealth which +has chosen the Lord Jesus for its gonfalonier. I have seen the very +children thronging to kiss the hem of his robe, as he walked through the +streets; but, oh, my friend, did not Jerusalem bring palms and spread +its garments in the way of Christ only four days before he was +crucified?" + +The monk's voice here faltered. He turned away and seemed to wrestle +with a tempest of suppressed sobbing. A moment more, he looked +heavenward and pointed up with a smile. + +"Son," he said, "you ask _what hope there is_. I answer, There is hope +of such crowns as these wear who came out of great tribulation and now +reign with Christ in glory." + + + + +OUR ARTISTS IN ITALY. + + +LANDSCAPE ART. + + +A representation of Nature, in order to be a true landscape, must be +organic. It must not present itself as an aggregation, but as a growth. +It must manifest obedience to laws which are peculiarly its own, and +through the operation of which it has developed from the moment of +inception to that of maturity. And, moreover, that inception must have +been near a human heart, that development must have been nourished by +vitality derived from human life, and that maturity must be that of the +divine unity to which tend all the mysterious operations of organizing +energies. + +We hold this to be the first essential condition of Landscape Art, the +condition without which no rendering of Nature can be Art. Other +points of excellence may be unattained. Let this be evident, that the +production is an offspring of humanity, and it shall be perceived also +that it partakes of whatever immortality the human heart inherits. +Herein is concealed the whole secret of the value of pre-Raphaelite Art, +and not, as we have been assured, in the faithfulness of its followers +to the exact representation of the individual details of Nature. Each +wrought from the love of Nature, consciously giving what truth he +possessed, unconsciously giving of his own interior life. Each picture +was the child of the painter. Yet, however much the ancient artist may +have failed in rendering the specific truths of the external world, +we can never attribute his failure to any disregard for the true. +His picture never gives the impression of falsehood; and in the most +erroneous record of the external there is ever the promise of more +truth, and this promise is not that of the man, but of the principle +governing the character of his picture. + +We think that all works of Art may be divided into two distinct classes: +those which are the result of a man's whole nature, involving the +affectional, religious, and intellectual, and those which are the +productions of the intellect, and from the will. The first class +comprises those results of Art which are vital,--which come to +us through processes of growth, and impress us with a sense +of organization. The second includes those works which are +constructed,--which present an accumulation of objects mechanically +combined, parts skilfully joined through scientific means. + +Earnestness and the definite purpose which is its sign, love which drew +the soul into sweetest communion with our mother Nature, giving to him +who thus came revelations of the harmonies possible between her and her +children, and devotion to his art mightier than ever inspired the Hindoo +devotee in self-sacrifice, characterized those who have given all that +pure Art which has been alluded to as the true: and such were the +majority of those artists who preceded Raphael. + +True, all of those who were devoted to Landscape Art, or who made it a +part of their practice to introduce this element into their pictures, +often failed in attaining truth; but, by some strange power with +which they have invested their landscapes, an impulse is given to the +perception, and the essential truth, feebly hinted at, perhaps, is +recognized. But as the record comes down through the years, each +new picture approximates more nearly to the character of the scene +attempted, with, occasionally, (as in the works of Masaccio,) touches of +truth absolutely perfect, until at last appeared that man altogether at +one with Nature, who reproduced Nature in all its glory, pomp, freedom, +and life, as might an archangel. Titian brought to perfection the first +great class of Landscape Art, and, of course, in doing so, perfected +that department which was the only one as yet developed, and which +remains a distinct branch, subject to its own peculiar laws. We refer to +the rendering of natural scenery, beginning in the merely and completely +subordinate accessory, and ending, with Titian, in the perfectly +dignified and noble companionship of the visible universe with man. + +We speak of this Art perfected far back, because we feel assured that +landscape, as accessory to the historical, has an ideal altogether +distinct from that of pure landscape. + +It would not be just, perhaps, to regard the law which necessitates this +ideal as a law of subordination, although that condition prevails up to +the time of Titian. Nature, to the true man, never presents itself as +subordinate, but as correspondently ever equal with man, ever ready with +possibilities to match his own. So true is this, that a man's universe, +that of which his vision takes possession, is a part of himself, subject +to his sorrows and joys, his hope and his despair: to him, the violets, +the mountains, and the far-away worlds, throbbing in unison with his own +heart-beat, are in some wise the signs or the manifestations of his own +soul's possibilities. And he is right. That of the flower which is its +beauty, that of the mountains which is their magnificent grandeur, that +of the stars which is their ineffable glory and sublimity, is his, is +within him, is a part of his soul's life, waxing or waning so in unison +with its richness or poverty that wise men mark the soul's stature by +the part of it which is akin to the violets, the hills, or the infinite +sky. + +"The world is as large as a man's head." In that there is a fine hint +of a great truth, but beyond that is _the_ truth. It is not the mere +knowledge of Alcyone that necessitates the sublime. After that comes the +wonder. The world is as large as is a man, and its relation to him +is marked by a sympathy which acts and reacts with the certainty and +precision of law. + +The ideal of Landscape Art, used in alliance with representations of +the human figure, must, then, be founded upon this immutable sympathy +between the landscape world and the human. Thus, in the painting alluded +to in the article on Mr. Page, "The Entombment" of the Louvre, the +landscape is charged with the solemnity of the hour. No blade of grass +or shadow of leaf but seems conscious of the great event, and the sky +reveals, by its heavenly tenderness, that there all is known. + +How different in expression, yet how similar in strength, is the +landscape of that seeming miracle, "The Presentation in the Temple"! +It is clear, confident day,--so pure and perfect a day abroad over the +happy earth, that all things lure forth into an atmosphere so unsullied +that to breathe it is life and joy,--over an earth youthful with spring, +fresh with morning; and hither have come the people to see confirmed the +future mother of Christ, now the child Mary. As the maiden ascends the +steps of the Temple, a halo surrounds her,--not her head alone, but all +the form,--and far away a fainter halo rests upon the hills. Her youth, +its purity and half-recognized promise, seem sweetly imaged in the +morning freshness and spring-life of the landscape. + +We can remember no landscape by Titian which is not in full sympathy +with the motives which actuate his groups. It is the unison of scene and +act that gives his pictures a unity and completeness never or rarely +found elsewhere. + +After Titian came painters--among them, mighty ones--who, like +Tintoretto, wrought from the external. The elements of the landscape +were treated with knowledge and power, but not often with feeling, and +very seldom with a recognition of its central significance. One example +is so marvellous, however, that we cannot forbear referring to it. Its +truthfulness is the more remarkable from the fact that the painter's +conceptions rarely were such that any true landscape could be found +capable of harmony with their character. In this picture, "The +Temptation of Saint Anthony," one of the Pitti Palace Gallery, Salvator +has wrought marvellously like a demon. The horizon and the sky near it +are charged with a sense of demoniacal conflict for human souls, and +forebodings of defeat and woe. + +Yet within this, mantling the remotest depths, there is a sheen of +light, a gleam of hope and faith. + +In our own times there is little to refer to illustrative of excellence +in this branch of Art. Overbeck makes frequent use of natural scenery, +and his delicate yet firm outlines repeat, hill and valley and clouds, +the sentiment of peace and purity which pervades his noble productions. + +Not that there are not produced frequently, and especially in France, +works remarkable for truth and power. But, too often, the truths are +redundant, and the power vanquishes the sentiments of the group. + +One artist in France, Rosa Bonheur, has, however, embodied conceptions +so noble, so in unison with the finest Nature, that its most glorious +and most significant scenery, rendered with a handling akin to the old +mastership, is alone adequate to sympathize with and sustain them. I +need but refer to the wonderful view of the Pyrenees in the picture of +"The Muleteers," the tender morning spirit of that heathery scene in the +Highlands, and that miracle of representation, the near ground, crisp +and frosty, of Mr. Belmont's "Hunters in Early Morning." + +American Art, as represented in Italy, has few examples of excellence in +this branch of painting. Its followers have wrought more persistently +in other directions, toward the expression of a class of ideals rarely +involving the one which we have attempted to analyze. Yet, occasionally, +an artist has appeared, making Rome or Florence his home long enough to +win a place, which, when he has departed, is not quickly filled, who has +ideas of history and events calling for the record of the palette; +or there has been wrought in the studio of some resident painter a +composition in which landscape has been employed as accessory. + +In many instances there have been produced works which reflect the +highest honor upon our country. As it is foreign to the purpose of +the present paper to deal with other than the different phases of +landscape-painting, we forbear to speak as their merits suggest of the +figure portions of the works of Mr. Rothermel, the result of his brief +sojourn in Italy. In any passage of scenery, and particularly in sky +forms and tones, the expression and character are always such as +support vigorously the action of his group. We say vigorously; for Mr. +Rothermel, in his Italian pictures, revealed an artistic nature related +to humanity in its most agitated moods, as in the "Lear," and in the +"Saint Agnese,"--this beautiful picture being, however, a higher +conception, inasmuch as in it the spirit might find some rest in the +stillness of the maiden Agnese, already saint and about to be martyr, +and in the deep blue sky, on whose field linger white clouds, like lambs +"shepherded by the slow unwilling winds." + +Brief mention was made, in our allusion to Mr. Page's picture of the +"Flight into Egypt," to its landscape. This work was executed in Rome, +and its peculiar tone excited much interest among the friends of Mr. +Field, its fortunate possessor. A beautiful, yet not altogether original +idea, finds expression in the foreground group, where Mary, poised upon +the back of the ass, folds the child in her arms, the animal snatches at +a wayside weed, Joseph, drawing tightly the long rope by which he +leads, bends away into the desert with weird energy. In all other +representations of this subject the accessory landscape has usually been +living with full-foliaged trees, abundant herbage, and copious streams. +To indicate the Egyptian phase of its character, palms have been +introduced, as in the beautiful picture by Claude in the Doria Gallery, +and almost invariably the scene has been one of luxury and peace. +But with the event itself all this conflicts. In it were sorrow and +apprehension and death. The fugitives saw not then the safety, nor +anticipated the victory. In this picture, beyond and before the hurrying +group, stretches the immeasurable, hungry sand. A sad golden-brown +haze--such as sometimes comes in our Indian summer, when the hectic +autumn rests silent, mournful and hopeless, in the arms of Nature-- +pervades the plain; while on the horizon far away,--an infinite distance +it seems, so strangely spectral are they,--rise the Pyramids, just those +awful ghosts against the ominous sky! + +As different as are the subjects he chooses are the bits of scenery +Hamilton Wild introduces in his pictures of life as it now is. His are +more truly historical paintings, although aspiring to no record of the +greatly bad and sorrowful transactions of our age. They represent the +joy and hope of youth, the cheerfulness and vivacity of the lowly, their +pleasantest pursuits, their most primitive customs, their characteristic +and often superb costumes; and wherever a passage of scenery occurs, it +is always that which has aided in developing the human life with which +it is associated. + +There is never a discrepancy, nor is unison of sentiment ever achieved +by any bending of the truth. His keen sense of harmony never fails to +perceive, in the infinite range of tones and expressions of Nature, just +that which better than all others supports the character and action of +his group. With motives so healthful, it may be less difficult to find +that sympathy which Nature cheerfully gives; yet there is a tendency +with artists to be enticed away from Nature's joyousness, and especially +from her simplicity. + +To this temptation Mr. Wild can never have been subjected. The freedom +which he manifests is not that which has been won, but into which he +must have been born, and with that grew the ability which transfigures +labor into play. Unto such a Nature the out-world presents unasked her +phases of joy and brightness, her light and life. + +Does he seek Nature? No. Nature goes with him; and whether he tarry +among the Lagoons, where all seems Art or Death, or in the shadow and +desolation of the Campagna, in the unclean villages of the Alban Hills, +or where the shadows of deserted palaces fall black, broken, and jagged +on the red earth of Granada, there she companions him. She shows him, +that, after all, Venice is hers, and gives him the white marble enriched +with subtilest films of gold, alabaster which the processes of her +incessant years have changed to Oriental amber, a city made opalescent +by the magic of her sunsets. At Rome she opens vistas away from the +sepulchral, out into the wine-colored light of the Campagna, into +the peace gladdened by larks and the bleating of lambs; above are +pines,--Italian pines,--and across the path falls the still shadow of +blooming oleanders. She leads away from squalid towns, and gathers a +group of her children,--peasants, costumed in scarlet and gold, under +the grape-laden festoons of vines, while the now distant village glows +like cliffs of Carrara. How lavish she must have been of her old ideal +Spain, the while he dwelt in Granada!--the dance of the gypsies; +pomegranates heavy with ripeness hanging among the quivering glossy +leaves; olives gleaming with soft ashy whiteness, as the south-wind +wanders across their grove up to where the towers of the Alhambra lift +golden and pale lilac against the clear sky. + +We have dwelt thus lengthily upon this primitive and apparently less +important branch of Landscape Art for several reasons: from a conviction +that its importance is, and is only apparently less; from the fact that +from it have been derived all other classes of landscape; and because a +comprehension of its scope and purpose aids more than any other agency +in understanding those of the pure and simple Landscape Art. + +We have seen Nature ever ready with moods so related to the soul that +no ideal worthy of Art might be conceived beyond the range of her +sympathies. Even to that event involving all the intensity of human +thought and feeling, the last refinement of all spiritual emotion, and +a sense of mysteries more sublime than the creation of worlds,--even to +the Crucifixion,--Nature gathered herself, as the only possible +sign, the only expression for men, then and forever, of the awful +significance. The joyfulness of festivals, the pomp of processions, +the sublimity of great martyrdoms, the sorrow of defeats, the peace of +holiness, the innocence and sweetness of childhood, the hope of manhood, +and the retrospection of old age, when represented upon the canvas, find +in her forms and colors endless refrain of response. + +This truth, that Nature is capable of such cooperation with the human, +that she confines herself to no country or continent, and that her +expressions are not relative, depending upon the suggestiveness of the +human action to which they correspond, but are positive and under the +rule of the immutable, enables the artist to evolve the first great +class of simple landscape-painting. + +Had Art always been real and artists ever true, this consideration must +have called forth this class. It being true that natural scenery readily +allies itself with representations of the human figure in order to +express more perfectly than otherwise possible the ideal, it must be +through affinity with that which evolves the ideal, and only by indirect +relation to its sign or visible manifestation in form-language. Then why +not found a school of landscape by discarding the human figure as an +element of expression? A man comes who is born to the easel, yet who +feels no impulse to represent the practical effect upon human faces and +limbs of the various emotions, passions, and sentiments which demand +utterance. His thought is to hold himself to his kindred by more subtile +and far more delicate bonds. He knows that any one can look upon the +"Huguenot Lovers," by Millais, and feel responsive; for it occupies a +great plane, a part of which may be mistaken for passion. But he feels +that the love of Thekla and Max Piccolomini will permit no effigy but +that sacred bank beyond the cliffs of Libussa's Castle, whither come no +footsteps nor jarring of wheels, but only the sound of the deep Moldau +and of remote bells. It is the essence of the ideal which compels his +imagination, not the limited and restless circumstance which chanced +to occur as its revelator. Then the day uprises as if conscious of his +inner life and purpose. Then she gives him breadth after breadth of +color, within which is traced her no longer mystic alphabet. How +significant are the forms she gives him for the foreground, sweet +monosyllables! There are pansies, and rue, and violets, and rosemary. +Among these and their companions children walk and learn, and to the +child-man, the artist to be, she proffers these emblems. Should he +accept her gifts, then all this wonderful world of Art-Nature is open to +him. He inherits, possesses beyond all deeds, above all statutes,--as +does Mr. Gay, who painted that great, though unassuming, picture of "The +Marshes of Cohasset." + +Because Art was not held to the highest, few men have known the +elevation of this department of landscape-painting. Too deep or too +devoted a life seems to have been required, too constant communion with +Nature, or too broad a study of her phenomena. Unfortunately, we have +few representatives of this class, in Italy,--Mr. Wild producing +only rarely works which to the principles hinted at are precious +illustrations. After the remarks we have made, we fear that allusion to +the existing facts of painting may be deemed disparaging. Not so; we +deprecate such a conclusion. One great and living picture marks the man. +To be true to himself and Nature is the first duty, even should he be +compelled to stand lifelong with his face towards the west, in order to +possess his soul in Art. + +One of the pleasantest styles of landscape painting is that where the +artist, in a mood of deep peace, sits down in the midst of scenes +endeared by long and sweet association, and records in all tenderness +their spirit and beauty. Such scenery Italy affords, and the Alban +Hills seem to be the centre whence radiate all phases of the lovely and +beautiful in Nature. There her forms have conspired with all the highest +and rarest phenomena of light to render her state unapproachably +glorious. + +There has also been given such an artist,--a woman altogether truthful, +strong, and nobly delicate; and although several years have passed since +she left Italy, her representations of scenery peculiarly Italian are +too remarkable to be passed unnoticed. Indeed, this lady, Miss Sarah +Jane Clark, is the only artist whose works are illustrative of a +style of simple Landscape Art which unites in itself the love and +conscientiousness of early Art and the precision and science of the +modern. Her picture of Albano is wonderful,--not from the rendering of +unusual or brilliant effects, but from a sense of genuineness. We feel +that it grew. The flower and leaf forms which enrich the near ground are +such as spring up on days like the one she has chosen. Another month, +and new combinations would have given another key to her work and +rendered the present impossible. In that real landscape had wrought +the secret vitality clothing the earth in leafage and bloom. In its +representation we see that a still more refined, a diviner vitality, has +evolved leaf, flower, and golden grain. Another fact associated with +this painting, as well as with some of its companions, is its character +of restraint. + +Temperance in Landscape Art is very difficult in the vicinity of +Rome. In this picture the scene sweeps downward, with most gentle +and undulating inclination, over vast groves of olive and luxuriant +vineyards, to the Campagna with its convex waves of green and gold, on +which float the wrecks of cities, out to the sea itself, not so far away +as to conceal the flashing of waves upon the beach. Daily, over this +groundwork, so deftly wrought for their reception, are cast fields and +mighty bands of violet and rose, of amber and pale topaz, of blue, +orange, and garnet, upon the sea. It is as if an aurora had fallen from +Arctic skies, living, changeful, evanescent, athwart sea, plain, and +mountain. Here is sore temptation for the colorist; more, perhaps, +than by the wealth and combination of tints, he is affected by their +celestial quality. All is prismatic, or like those hues produced by the +interference of rays of light as seen in the colors of stars. Gorgeous +as are these phenomena, they are also as transitory; and although the +scene is repeated, it is with such subtile and such great changes as to +remove it from the grasp of the painter who wishes to study his work +wholly from Nature. The eye must be quick and the brush obedient, to +catch the fleeting glories of those Alban sunsets. Even the imperial +hand of Turner could give us only reminiscences. + +The allurements to adopt a style of coloring involving these effects +must have been great to one whose love of color amounted to a passion. +Only a still greater love could have drawn her of whom we speak to the +more subdued, but higher plane upon which she stands,--and that must +have been a love of truth, and of that which has appealed to her nature +through repetition's sweet influences. This is the scene lying in deep +repose in open, permanent day. Trees, hills, plain, and sea forget the +flying hours. Yesterday they did not remember, serene and changeless as +ivy on the wall. So gradual has been the transition, so slowly has the +surface of the grain lifted from the rippling blade to the billowy +stalk, so continually have the scarlet poppies bloomed since May came, +that, to her, this is ever the same beneficent and dear spot, sacred to +her soul, as well as fitting type and sign of her pure Art. + +The class of landscape-painting which deals with morning and evening +phenomena, and is based upon the fleeting and transitory, is the only +one that finds representation at present in Italy. Mr. Brown has +developed new and peculiar strength since his return to America, and +must require place from his new stand-point. Abel Nichols, whose copies +of Claude were so truthful, and whose original pictures ever strove to +be so, who through surpassing sacrifice became great, who lived, if ever +man has, the wonderful Christ-life, now sleeps the sleep of peace, the +last peace, under the sod of the landscape of his nativity. + +There remains to be considered a series of undeniably remarkable +pictures, executed in Rome by John Rollin Tilton. + +This artist's landscapes are remarkable for the conflicting effects +which they have produced on the public. They have excited, as they have +been exhibited in his studio in Rome, great enthusiasm, and admiration +which would listen to no criticism. Until perhaps the present year, +which is one of prostration in Rome, his works could not be purchased, +each one being the fulfilment of a commission given long before. These +commissions were given not by men merely wealthy, but by men widely +known for cultivation, discrimination, and for refinement of that taste +which requires the influences of Art. On the other hand, men equally as +remarkable for their accomplishments in matters of taste have expressed +their condemnation of all the paintings of Mr. Tilton, or rather for +those executed prior to 1859, and there were those who heaped them with +ridicule. In admiration and condemnation we have often shared;--in the +sentiment of ridicule never; for in all attempts there have been the +hintings of worthy purpose and a desire to excel. + +Those who most despise Mr. Tilton's style and productions are men whose +tendencies are to the theories of English pre-Raphaelism. Viewed in +relation to those principles, his pictures have little value. The +purchasers of them are the men who regard with enthusiastic admiration +the evanescent splendors of Nature. + +Mr. Tilton's early ambition was to be the painter to fulfil the demands +of this latter class. He not only sympathized with it in its greater +admiration for "effects" in Nature, but he found associated therewith an +enthusiasm which inspired him with unbounded hope and energy. + +When he came to Rome, the Campagnian sunsets were found to be +representative of the peculiar class of effects which he regarded as the +manifestation of his feeling; and so he forthwith took possession of +that part of the day which was passing while the sun performed the last +twelve degrees of his daily journey. Other portions of the twenty-four +hours did not appear to excite even ordinary interest; and whenever +conversation involved consideration of scenery under other than the +favorite character, he was prone to silence, or to attempts to change +the subject. Yet he has been known to speak in terms of commendation +of certain sunrises, and once was actually caught by a friend making a +sketch of Pilatus at sunrise across the Lake of Lucerne. + +The objects in the immediate foreground shared in the neglect which +attached to certain seasons. They were ignored as organized members of +what should be a living foreground, and their places were concealed by +unintelligible pigment. As to life there, he wanted none: light,--light +that gleams, and color to reflect it, were his aim. As an inevitable +attending result of these principles, or practices, the structure of the +whole landscape was ambiguous. The essential line and point were evaded, +and one perceived that the artist had _watched_ far more attentively +than he had studied Nature. + +At the same time the pictures produced in this studio were marked by +qualities of great beauty. The peculiarly ethereal character of the vast +bands of thin vapors made visible by the slant rays of the sun, and +illuminated with tints which are exquisitely pure and prismatic, was +rendered with surprising success. On examination, the tints which were +used to represent the prismatic character of those of Nature were found +to present surfaces of such excessive delicacy, that the evanescence of +the natural phenomena was suggested, and apprehensions were indulged as +to the permanency of the effects. That noble north light of a cloudless +Roman sky did not extend far, hardly to Civita Vecchia, certainly not +to England, Old or New; and with a less friendly hand than his own to +expose his work, under sight still less kind, there might be presented a +picture bereft of all but its faults. Such has been the case. + +We here dismiss willingly further recollection of the works to which we +have called attention. They are marked by error in theory, inasmuch as +they show neglect of the specific and essential, and by feebleness of +system, inasmuch as under no other light than that in which they were +painted could their finer qualities be perceived. Yet it is but just +to add that these were produced during a state of transition from one +method of applying pigments to another of totally different character. + +This period of the painter's experience was brought to a close by the +better one of a summer residence at Pieve di Cadore, a village among the +Friulian Alps. Thither he might have gone merely to make a pilgrimage +to the birthplace of Titian; for other reason than _that_ he stayed in +Cadore. He stayed for life, truth, and correction, and he found all. No +other place on the continent could have afforded Mr. Tilton the benefit +that this mountain village did. Here was no ambiguity, no optical +illusion, but frank; ingenuous Nature. The peaks which guarded the +valley were clear and immutable. They suffered no conflicting opinions; +accident had done little to disguise, their true character, but Nature +held them as specimens of the essential in mountain structure. That the +lesson of these peaks might not be forgotten, the student finds them +copied accurately in nearly every landscape painted by Titian. The +magnificent one in "The Presentation in the Temple" was his favorite. +The sketches of this period show that the artist's attention was divided +between the study of these hill forms and of the luxuriant vegetation +of the sloping fields and pastures so characteristic of Swiss scenery. +Cadore is most richly endowed in this respect. The hill-sides are +burdened with flowers, many of which are large and of tropical splendor. +The green of the broad fields is modified by the burden of blossoms. We +have seen against the background of one of these steepest fields what +seemed to be a column of delicate blue smoke wreathing up the hill-side. +In reality it was a bed of wild forget-me-nots, which marked the course +of a minute rill. Under such influences as these, a man born to be a +painter, to whom Art is all, whose hand never fails to execute, and +whose mind has risen above any erroneous combination of principles which +may have checked his progress toward the greatly excellent, must +find himself with new strength, a chastened imagination, and broader +conceptions of his art. + +The results of Mr. Tilton's labors since the summer in the Alps prove +that such was the effect upon him. His pictures have of late occupied +nearly every class of Landscape Art. The works now wrought in his Roman +studio are indicative of great changes in feeling, and are marked by +surprising improvements in execution. Yet the individuality of the +artist is impressed upon every canvas. The changes to which we refer are +these,--foregrounds suggested by or painted from living forms. In one +view of Nemi we saw a superb black, gold, and crimson butterfly resting +on a flower. Yet these foregrounds require more strength, more "body," +more of that which artists achieve who achieve nothing else. We notice +far more individualism in tree forms. The ideal tree, that is, the tree +as it should be, and the conventional one coming against the sky on one +side of the composition, the one bequeathed by Claude, have given place +to Nature's homelier types. The question as to the meaning of passages +no longer arises. The lines are drawn with a decision, with a sense of +certainty, raising them above all doubt. In the rendering of distant +mountains, Mr. Dillon evinces new knowledge of what such forms +necessarily imply,--their tendency to monotone and to flatness, yet +preserving all their essential surface markings, and their inevitable +cutting outline against the sky,--which sharpness Mr. Tilton as yet has +only hinted at, not represented. Positive edges are the true.--But we +have no further space to devote to these particulars of landscape form. +In these Mr. Tilton has many rivals and not a few superiors. + +There is left us the pleasant privilege of alluding to an ability which +we believe he shares with none, and which enables him to give his +present pictures their great value. This is the power to discriminate +accurately between the several classes of color,--the local, the +reflected, and the prismatic. It will be found on reference to most +landscapes, especially those of the English schools, that it is the +understanding, already informed on the subject, which accepts as +reflected the continual attempts to render this kind of color: they are +regarded as indicative. But the eye, which should have been satisfied +first, recognizes nothing more than local coloring. Near objects, under +broad, open daylight, yield us their local coloring,--as the surfaces +of stones, the trunks of trees, and the many tints of soil and +vegetation,--yet even here all is modified by reflections. We remember +a cliff at L'Ariccia, which, gray in morning light, became, as evening +approached, a marvellous beryl green, upon which some large poppies cast +wafts of purest scarlet. Farther away, both local and reflected color +lose their power. The rays no longer convey information of surfaces as +separate existences. Nature gathers up into masses, and these masses +tide back to the foreground colors far removed in character from the +near. Vast combinations of rays and atmospheric influences have wrought +this change. As we have said, noon gives us the earth clean and itself; +but, as the sun declines, flushes of color pass along the ground. Their +character we have already described. The particles which fill the +atmosphere just above the surface of the earth become illuminated and +visible in radiant masses. Farther away there is floated over the +mountains a miraculous bloom, a bloom like that upon virgin fruit; and +still more remote, upon the far sea, there is a dream of amber mantling +the sleeping blue. To render these effects, to give us the illuminated +air, the soft green which the mossy sod casts upon the shaded cliff, the +precious bloom upon the hills, and the tints diffused along the sea,--to +achieve this so completely that there never shall be any doubt, to give +us upon the canvas what shall be all this to the beholder, is great, and +this Mr. Tilton has performed. + + + + +THE EXPERIENCES OF THE A. C. + + +"Bridgeport! Change cars for the Naugatuck Railroad!" shouted the +conductor of the New York and Boston Express Train, on the evening of +May 27th, 1858. Indeed, he does it every night, (Sundays excepted,) +for that matter; but as this story refers especially to Mr. J. Edward +Johnson, who was a passenger on that train, on the aforesaid evening, +I make special mention of the fact. Mr. Johnson, carpet-bag in hand, +jumped upon the platform, entered the office, purchased a ticket for +Waterbury, and was soon whirling in the Naugatuck train towards his +destination. + +On reaching Waterbury, in the soft spring twilight, Mr. Johnson walked +up and down in front of the station, curiously scanning the faces of the +assembled crowd. Presently he noticed a gentleman who was performing +the same operation upon the faces of the alighting passengers. Throwing +himself directly in the way of the latter, the two exchanged a steady +gaze. + +"Is your name Billings?" "Is your name Johnson?" were simultaneous +questions, followed by the simultaneous exclamations,--"Ned!" "Enos!" + +Then there was a crushing grasp of hands, repeated after a pause, +in testimony of ancient friendship, and Mr. Billings, returning to +practical life, asked,-- + +"Is that all your baggage? Come, I have a buggy here: Eunice has heard +the whistle, and she'll be impatient to welcome you." + +The impatience of Eunice (Mrs. Billings, of course) was not of long +duration; for in five minutes thereafter she stood at the door of her +husband's chocolate-colored villa, receiving his friend. + +While these three persons are comfortably seated at the tea-table, +enjoying their waffles, cold tongue, and canned peaches, and asking +and answering questions helter-skelter in the delightful confusion of +reunion after long separation, let us briefly inform the reader who and +what they are. + +Mr. Enos Billings, then, was part owner of a manufactory of metal +buttons, forty years old, of middling height, ordinarily quiet and +rather shy, but with a large share of latent warmth and enthusiasm in +his nature. His hair was brown, slightly streaked with gray, his eyes a +soft, dark hazel, forehead square, eye-brows straight, nose of no very +marked character, and mouth moderately full, with a tendency to twitch +a little at the corners. His voice was undertoned, but mellow and +agreeable. + +Mrs. Eunice Billings, of nearly equal age, was a good specimen of the +wide-awake New-England woman. Her face had a piquant smartness of +expression, which might have been refined into a sharp edge, but for her +natural hearty good-humor. Her head was smoothly formed, her face a full +oval, her hair and eyes blond and blue in a strong light, but brown and +steel-gray at other times, and her complexion of that ripe fairness into +which a ruddier color will sometimes fade. Her form, neither plump nor +spare, had yet a firm, elastic compactness, and her slightest movement +conveyed a certain impression of decision and self-reliance. + +As for J. Edward Johnson, it is enough to say that he was a tall, +thin gentleman of forty-five, with an aquiline nose, narrow face, and +military whiskers, which swooped upwards and met under his nose in a +glossy black moustache. His complexion was dark, from the bronzing of +fifteen summers in New Orleans. He was a member of a wholesale hardware +firm in that city, and had now revisited his native North for the first +time since his departure. A year before, some letters relating to +invoices of metal buttons, signed "Foster, Kirkup, & Co., per Enos +Billings," had accidentally revealed to him the whereabouts of the old +friend of his youth, with whom we now find him domiciled. The first +thing he did, after attending to some necessary business matters in New +York, was to take the train for Waterbury. + +"Enos," said he, as he stretched out his hand for the third cup of tea, +(which he had taken only for the purpose of prolonging the pleasant +table-chat,) "I wonder which of us is most changed." + +"You, of course," said Mr. Billings, "with your brown face and big +moustache. Your own brother wouldn't have known you, if he had seen you +last, as I did, with smooth cheeks and hair of unmerciful length. Why, +not even your voice is the same!" + +"That is easily accounted for," replied Mr. Johnson. "But in your case, +Enos, I am puzzled to find where the difference lies. Your features seem +to be but little changed, now that I can examine them at leisure; yet it +is not the same face. But, really, I never looked at you for so long +a time, in those days. I beg pardon: you used to be so--so remarkably +shy." + +Mr. Billings blushed slightly, and seemed at a loss what to answer. His +wife, however, burst into a merry laugh, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, that was before the days of the A.C.!" + +He, catching the infection, laughed also: in fact, Mr. Johnson laughed, +but without knowing why. + +"The 'A.C.'!" said Mr. Billings. "Bless me, Eunice! how long it is since +we have talked of that summer! I had almost forgotten that there ever +was an A.C." + +"Enos, _could_ you ever forget Abel Mallory and the beer?--or that scene +between Hollins and Shelldrake?--or" (here _she_ blushed the least bit) +"your own fit of candor?" And she laughed again, more heartily than +ever. + +"What a precious lot of fools, to be sure!" exclaimed her husband. + +Mr. Johnson, meanwhile, though enjoying the cheerful humor of his hosts, +was not a little puzzled with regard to its cause. + +"What is the A.C.?" he ventured to ask. + +Mr. and Mrs. Billings looked at each other, and smiled, without +replying. + +"Really, Ned," said the former, finally, "the answer to your question +involves the whole story." + +"Then why not tell him the whole story, Enos?" remarked his wife. + +"You know I've never told it yet, and it's rather a hard thing to do, +seeing that I'm one of the heroes of the farce,--for it wasn't even +genteel comedy, Ned," said Mr. Billings. "However," he continued, +"absurd as the story may seem, it's the only key to the change in my +life, and I must run the risk of being laughed at." + +"I'll help you through, Enos," said his wife, encouragingly; "and +besides, my _rôle_ in the farce was no better than yours. Let us +resuscitate, for to-night only, the constitution of the A.C." + +"Upon my word, a capital idea! But we shall have to initiate Ned." + +Mr. Johnson merrily agreeing, he was blindfolded and conducted into +another room. A heavy arm-chair, rolling on casters, struck his legs in +the rear, and he sank into it with lamb-like resignation. + +"Open your mouth!" was the command, given with mock solemnity. + +He obeyed. + +"Now shut it!" + +And his lips closed upon a cigar, while at the same time the +handkerchief was whisked away from his eyes. He found himself in Mr. +Billings's library. + +"Your nose betrays your taste, Mr. Johnson," said the lady, "and I am +not hard-hearted enough to deprive you of the indulgence. Here are +matches." + +"Well," said he, acting upon the hint, "if the remainder of the +ceremonies are equally agreeable, I should like to be a permanent member +of your order." + +By this time Mr. and Mrs. Billings, having between them lighted the +lamp, stirred up the coal in the grate, closed the doors, and taken +possession of comfortable chairs, the latter proclaimed,-- + +"The Chapter (isn't that what you call it?) will now be held!" + +"Was it in '43 when you left home, Ned?" asked Mr. B. + +"Yes." + +"Well, the A.C. culminated in '45. You remember something of the society +of Norridgeport, the last winter you were there? Abel Mallory, for +instance?" + +"Let me think a moment," said Mr. Johnson, reflectively. "Really, it +seems like looking back a hundred years. Mallory,--wasn't that the +sentimental young man, with wispy hair, a tallowy skin, and big, sweaty +hands, who used to be spouting Carlyle on the 'reading evenings' at +Shelldrake's? Yes, to be sure; and there was Hollins, with his clerical +face and infidel talk,--and Pauline Ringtop, who used to say, 'The +Beautiful is the Good.' I can still hear her shrill voice singing, +'Would that _I_ were beautiful, would that _I_ were fair!'" + +There was a hearty chorus of laughter at poor Miss Ringtop's expense. +It harmed no one, however; for the tar-weed was already thick over her +Californian grave. + +"Oh, I see," said Mr. Billings, "you still remember the absurdities of +those days. In fact, I think you partially saw through them then. But I +was younger, and far from being so clear-headed, and I looked upon those +evenings at Shelldrake's as being equal, at least, to the _symposia_ of +Plato. Something in Mallory always repelled me. I detested the sight of +his thick nose, with the flaring nostrils, and his coarse, half-formed +lips, of the bluish color of raw corned-beef. But I looked upon these +feelings as unreasonable prejudices, and strove to conquer them, seeing +the admiration which he received from others. He was an oracle on the +subject of 'Nature.' Having eaten nothing for two years, except +Graham bread, vegetables without salt, and fruits, fresh or dried, +he considered himself to have attained an antediluvian purity of +health,--or that he would attain it, so soon as two pimples on his left +temple should have healed. These pimples he looked upon as the last +feeble stand made by the pernicious juices left from the meat he had +formerly eaten and the coffee he had drunk. His theory was, that through +a body so purged and purified none but true and natural impulses could +find access to the soul. Such, indeed, was the theory we all held. A +Return to Nature was the near Millennium, the dawn of which we already +beheld in the sky. To be sure, there was a difference in our individual +views as to how this should be achieved, but we were all agreed as to +what the result should be. + +"I can laugh over those days now, Ned; but they were really happy while +they lasted. We were the salt of the earth; we were lifted above those +grovelling instincts which we saw manifested in the lives of others. +Each contributed his share of gas to inflate the painted balloon to +which we all clung, in the expectation that it would presently soar +with us to the stars. But it only went up over the out-houses, dodged +backwards and forwards two or three times, and finally flopped down with +us into a swamp." + +"And that balloon was the A. C.?" suggested Mr. Johnson. + +"As President of this Chapter, I prohibit questions," said Eunice. "And, +Enos, don't send up your balloon until the proper time. Don't anticipate +the programme, or the performance will be spoiled." + +"I had almost forgotten that Ned is so much in the dark," her obedient +husband answered. "You can have but a slight notion," he continued, +turning to his friend, "of the extent to which this sentimental, or +transcendental, element in the little circle at Shelldrake's increased +after you left Norridgeport. We read the 'Dial,' and Emerson; we +believed in Alcott as the 'purple Plato' of modern times; we took +psychological works out of the library, and would listen for hours to +Hollins while he read Schelling or Fichte, and then go home with a +misty impression of having imbibed infinite wisdom. It was, perhaps, +a natural, though very eccentric rebound from the hard, practical, +unimaginative New-England mind which surrounded us; yet I look back upon +it with a kind of wonder. I was then, as you know, unformed mentally, +and might have been so still, but for the experiences of the A. C." + +Mr. Johnson shifted his position, a little impatiently. Eunice looked at +him with laughing eyes, and shook her finger with a mock threat. + +"Shelldrake," continued Mr. Billings, without noticing this by-play, +"was a man of more pretence than real cultivation, as I afterwards +discovered. He was in good circumstances, and always glad to receive us +at his house, as this made him, virtually, the chief of our tribe, +and the outlay for refreshments involved only the apples from his +own orchard and water from his well. There was an entire absence of +conventionality at our meetings, and this, compared with the somewhat +stiff society of the village, was really an attraction. There was a +mystic bond of union in our ideas: we discussed life, love, religion, +and the future state, not only with the utmost candor, but with a warmth +of feeling which, in many of us, was genuine. Even I (and you know how +painfully shy and bashful I was) felt myself more at home there than in +my father's house; and if I didn't talk much, I had a pleasant feeling +of being in harmony with those who did. + +"Well, 'twas in the early part of '45,--I think in April,--when we were +all gathered together, discussing, as usual, the possibility of leading +a life in accordance with Nature. Abel Mallory was there, and Hollins, +and Miss Ringtop, and Faith Levis, with her knitting,--and also Eunice +Hazleton, a lady whom you have never seen, but you may take my wife as +her representative"---- + +"Stick to the programme, Enos," interrupted Mrs. Billings. + +"Eunice Hazleton, then. I wish I could recollect some of the speeches +made on that occasion. Abel had but one pimple on his temple, (there was +a purple spot where the other had been,) and was estimating that in two +or three months more he would be a true, unspoiled man. His complexion, +nevertheless, was more clammy and whey-like than ever. + +"'Yes,' said he, 'I also am an Arcadian! This false dual existence which +I have been leading will soon be merged in the unity of Nature. Our +lives must conform to her sacred law. Why can't we strip off these +hollow Shams,' (he made great use of that word,) 'and be our true +selves, pure, perfect, and divine?' + +"Miss Ringtop heaved a sigh, and repeated a stanza from her favorite +poet:-- + + "'Ah, when wrecked are my desires + On the everlasting Never, + And my heart with all its fires + Out forever, + In the cradle of Creation + Finds the soul resuscitation!' + +"Shelldrake, however, turning to his wife, said,-- + +"'Elviry, how many up-stairs rooms is there in that house down on the +Sound?' + +"'Four,--besides three small ones under the roof. Why, what made you +think of that, Jesse?' said she. + +"'I've got an idea, while Abel's been talking,' he answered. 'We've +taken a house for the summer, down the other side of Bridgeport, right +on the water, where there's good fishing and a fine view of the Sound. +Now, there's room enough for all of us,--at least, all that can make it +suit to go. Abel, you and Enos, and Pauline and Eunice might fix matters +so that we could all take the place in partnership, and pass the summer +together, living a true and beautiful life in the bosom of Nature. There +we shall be perfectly free and untrammelled by the chains which still +hang around us in Norridgeport. You know how often we have wanted to be +set on some island in the Pacific Ocean, where we could build up a +true society, right from the start. Now, here's a chance to try the +experiment for a few months, anyhow.' + +"Eunice clapped her hands (yes, you did!) and cried out,-- + +"'Splendid! Arcadian! I'll give up my school for the summer.' + +"Miss Ringtop gave her opinion in another quotation:-- + + "'The rainbow hues of the Ideal + Condense to gems, and form the Real!' + +"Abel Mallory, of course, did not need to have the proposal repeated. He +was ready for anything which promised indolence, and the indulgence of +his sentimental tastes. I will do the fellow the justice to say that +he was not a hypocrite. He firmly believed both in himself and his +ideas,--especially the former. He pushed both hands through the long +wisps of his drab-colored hair, and threw his head back until his wide +nostrils resembled a double door to his brain. + +"'O Nature!' he said, 'you have found your lost children! We shall obey +your neglected laws! we shall hearken to your divine whispers! we shall +bring you back from your ignominious exile, and place you on your +ancestral throne!' + +"'Let us do it!' was the general cry. + +"A sudden enthusiasm fired us, and we grasped each other's hands in the +hearty impulse of the moment. My own private intention to make a summer +trip to the White Mountains had been relinquished the moment I heard +Eunice give in her adhesion. I may as well confess, at once, that I was +desperately in love, and afraid to speak to her. + +"By the time Mrs. Shelldrake brought in the apples and water we were +discussing the plan as a settled thing. Hollins had an engagement to +deliver Temperance lectures in Ohio during the summer, but decided to +postpone his departure until August, so that he might, at least, spend +two months with us. Faith Levis couldn't go,--at which, I think, we were +all secretly glad. Some three or four others were in the same case, and +the company was finally arranged to consist of the Shelldrakes, Hollins, +Mallory, Eunice, Miss Ringtop, and myself. We did not give much thought, +either to the preparations in advance, or to our mode of life when +settled there. We were to live near to Nature: that was the main thing. + +"'What shall we call the place?' asked Eunice. + +"'Arcadia!' said Abel Mallory, rolling up his large green eyes. + +"'Then,' said Hollins, 'let us constitute ourselves the Arcadian Club!'" + +----"Aha!" interrupted Mr. Johnson, "I see! The A.C.!" + +"Yes, you see the A.C. now," said Mrs. Billings; "but to understand it +fully, you should have had a share in those Arcadian experiences." + +"I am all the more interested in hearing them described. Go on, Enos." + +"The proposition was adopted. We called ourselves The Arcadian Club; but +in order to avoid gossip, and the usual ridicule, to which we were all +more or less sensitive, in case our plan should become generally known, +it was agreed that the initials only should be used. Besides, there was +an agreeable air of mystery about it: we thought of Delphi, and Eleusis, +and Samothrace: we should discover that Truth which the dim eyes of +worldly men and women were unable to see, and the day of disclosure +would be the day of Triumph. In one sense we were truly Arcadians: no +suspicion of impropriety, I verily believe, entered any of our minds. In +our aspirations after what we called a truer life there was no material +taint. We were fools, if you choose, but as far as possible from being +sinners. Besides, the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Shelldrake, who +naturally became the heads of our proposed community, were sufficient +to preserve us from slander or suspicion, if even our designs had been +publicly announced. + +"I won't bore you with an account of our preparations. In fact, there +was very little to be done. Mr. Shelldrake succeeded in hiring the +house, with most of its furniture, so that but a few articles had to be +supplied. My trunk contained more books than boots, more blank paper +than linen. + +"'Two shirts will be enough,' said Abel: 'you can wash one of them any +day, and dry it in the sun.' + +"The supplies consisted mostly of flour, potatoes, and sugar. There was +a vegetable-garden in good condition, Mr. Shelldrake said, which would +be our principal dependence. + +"'Besides, the clams!' I exclaimed, unthinkingly. + +"'Oh, yes!' said Eunice, 'we can have chowder-parties: that will be +delightful!' + +"'Clams! chowder! oh, worse than flesh!' groaned Abel. 'Will you +reverence Nature by outraging her first laws?' + +"I had made a great mistake, and felt very foolish. Eunice and I looked +at each other, for the first time." + +"Speak for yourself only, Enos," gently interpolated his wife. + +"It was a lovely afternoon in the beginning of June when we first +approached Arcadia. We had taken two double teams at Bridgeport, and +drove slowly forward to our destination, followed by a cart containing +our trunks and a few household articles. It was a sweet, bright, balmy +day: the wheat-fields were rich and green, the clover showed faint +streaks of ruby mist along slopes leaning southward, and the meadows +were yellow with buttercups. Now and then we caught glimpses of the +Sound, and, far beyond it, the dim Long-Island shore. Every old +white farm-house, with its gray-walled garden, its clumps of lilacs, +viburnums, and early roses, offered us a picture of pastoral simplicity +and repose. We passed them, one by one, in the happiest mood, enjoying +the earth around us, the sky above, and ourselves most of all. + +"The scenery, however, gradually became more rough and broken. Knobs +of gray gneiss, crowned by mournful cedars, intrenched upon the arable +land, and the dark-blue gleam of water appeared through the trees. Our +road, which had been approaching the Sound, now skirted the head of a +deep, irregular inlet, beyond which extended a beautiful promontory, +thickly studded with cedars, and with scattering groups of elm, oak, and +maple trees. Towards the end of the promontory stood a house, with white +walls shining against the blue line of the Sound. + +"'There is Arcadia, at last!' exclaimed Mr. Shelldrake. + +"A general outcry of delight greeted the announcement. And, indeed, the +loveliness of the picture surpassed our most poetic anticipations. The +low sun was throwing exquisite lights across the point, painting the +slopes of grass a golden green, and giving a pearly softness to the gray +rocks. In the background was drawn the far-off water-line, over which a +few specks of sail glimmered against the sky. Miss Ringtop, who, with +Eunice, Mallory, and myself, occupied one carriage, expressed her +'gushing' feelings in the usual manner:-- + + "'Where the turf is softest, greenest, + Doth an angel thrust me on,-- + Where the landscape lies serenest, + In the journey of the sun!' + +"'Don't, Pauline!' said Eunice; 'I never like to hear poetry flourished +in the face of Nature. This landscape surpasses any poem in the world. +Let us enjoy the best thing we have, rather than the next best.' + +"'Ah, yes!' sighed Miss Ringtop, 'tis true! + + "They sing to the ear; this sings to the eye."' + +"Thenceforward, to the house, all was childish joy and jubilee. All +minor personal repugnances were smoothed over in the general exultation. +Even Abel Mallory became agreeable; and Hollins, sitting beside Mrs. +Shelldrake on the back seat of the foremost carriage, shouted to us, in +boyish lightness of heart. + +"Passing the head of the inlet, we left the country-road, and entered, +through a gate in the tottering stone wall, on our summer domain. A +track, open to the field on one side, led us past a clump of deciduous +trees, between pastures broken by cedared knolls of rock, down +the centre of the peninsula, to the house. It was quite an old +frame-building, two stories high, with a gambrel roof and tall chimneys. +Two slim Lombardy poplars and a broad-leaved catalpa shaded the southern +side, and a kitchen-garden, divided in the centre by a double row of +untrimmed currant-bushes, flanked it on the east. For flowers, there +were masses of blue flags and coarse tawny-red lilies, besides a huge +trumpet-vine which swung its pendent arms from one of the gables. In +front of the house a natural lawn of mingled turf and rock sloped +steeply down to the water, which was not more than two hundred yards +distant. To the west was another and broader inlet of the Sound, out of +which our Arcadian promontory rose bluff and bold, crowned with a thick +fringe of pines. It was really a lovely spot which Shelldrake had +chosen,--so secluded, while almost surrounded, by the winged and moving +life of the Sound, so simple, so pastoral and home-like. No one doubted +the success of our experiment, for that evening, at least. + +"Perkins Brown, Shelldrake's boy-of-all-work, awaited us at the door. +He had been sent on two or three days in advance, to take charge of the +house, and seemed to have had enough of hermit-life, for he hailed +us with a wild whoop, throwing his straw hat half-way up one of the +poplars. Perkins was a boy of fifteen, the child of poor parents, +who were satisfied to get him off their hands, regardless as to what +humanitarian theories might be tested upon him. As the Arcadian Club +recognized no such thing as caste, he was always admitted to our +meetings, and understood just enough of our conversation to excite a +silly ambition in his slow mind. His animal nature was predominant, and +this led him to be deceitful. At that time, however, we all looked upon +him as a proper young Arcadian, and hoped that he would develop into a +second Abel Mallory. + +"After our effects had been deposited on the stoop, and the carriages +had driven away, we proceeded to apportion the rooms, and take +possession. On the first floor there were three rooms, two of which +would serve us as dining-and drawing-rooms, leaving the third for the +Shelldrakes. As neither Eunice and Miss Ringtop, nor Hollins and Abel +showed any disposition to room together, I quietly gave up to them the +four rooms in the second story, and installed myself in one of the attic +chambers. Here I could hear the music of the rain close above my head, +and through the little gable window, as I lay in bed, watch the colors +of the morning gradually steal over the distant shores. The end was, we +were all satisfied. + +"'Now for our first meal in Arcadia!' was the next cry. Mrs. Shelldrake, +like a prudent housekeeper, marched off to the kitchen, where Perkins +had already kindled a fire. We looked in at the door, but thought it +best to allow her undisputed sway in such a narrow realm. Eunice was +unpacking some loaves of bread and paper bags of crackers; and Miss +Ringtop, smiling through her ropy curls, as much as to say, 'You see, +_I_ also can perform the coarser tasks of life!' occupied herself with +plates and cups. We men, therefore, walked out to the garden, which we +found in a promising condition. The usual vegetables had been planted +and were growing finely, for the season was yet scarcely warm enough +for the weeds to make much headway. Radishes, young onions, and lettuce +formed our contribution to the table. The Shelldrakes, I should explain, +had not yet advanced to the antediluvian point, in diet: nor, indeed, +had either Eunice or myself. We acknowledged the fascination of tea, we +saw a very mitigated evil in milk and butter, and we were conscious of +stifled longings after the abomination of meat. Only Mallory, Rollins, +and Miss Ringtop had reached that loftiest round on the ladder of +progress where the material nature loosens the last fetter of the +spiritual. They looked down upon us, and we meekly admitted their right +to do so. + +"Our board, that evening, was really tempting. The absence of meat was +compensated to us by the crisp and racy onions, and I craved only a +little salt, which had been interdicted, as a most pernicious substance. +I sat at one corner of the table, beside Perkins Brown, who took an +opportunity, while the others were engaged in conversation, to jog my +elbow gently. As I turned towards him, he said nothing, but dropped his +eyes significantly. The little rascal had the lid of a blacking-box, +filled with salt, upon his knee, and was privately seasoning his onions +and radishes. I blushed at the thought of my hypocrisy, but the onions +were so much better that I couldn't help dipping into the lid with him. + +"'Oh,' said Eunice, 'we must send for some oil and vinegar! This lettuce +is very nice." + +"'Oil and vinegar?' exclaimed Abel. + +"'Why, yes,' said she, innocently: 'they are both vegetable substances.' + +"Abel at first looked rather foolish, but quickly recovering himself, +said,-- + +"'All vegetable substances are not proper for food: you would not taste +the poison-oak, or sit under the upas-tree of Java.' + +"'Well, Abel,' Eunice rejoined, 'how are we to distinguish what is best +for us? How are we to know _what_ vegetables to choose, or what animal +and mineral substances to avoid?' + +"'I will tell you,' he answered, with a lofty air. 'See here!' pointing +to his temple, where the second pimple--either from the change of air, +or because, in the excitement of the last few days, he had forgotten +it--was actually healed. 'My blood is at last pure. The struggle between +the natural and the unnatural is over, and I am beyond the depraved, +influences of my former taste. My instincts are now, therefore, entirely +pure also. What is good for man to eat, that I shall have a natural +desire to eat: what is bad will be naturally repelled. How does the cow +distinguish between the wholesome and the poisonous herbs of the meadow? +And is man less than a cow, that he cannot cultivate his instincts to +an equal point? Let me walk through, the woods and I can tell you every +berry and root which God designed for food, though I know not its name, +and have never seen it before. I shall make use of my time, during our +sojourn here, to test, by my purified instinct, every substance, animal, +mineral, and vegetable, upon which the human race subsists, and to +create a catalogue of the True Food of Man!' + +"Abel was eloquent on this theme, and he silenced not only Eunice, but +the rest of us. Indeed, as we were all half-infected with the same +delusions, it was not easy to answer his sophistries. + +"After supper was over, the prospect of cleaning the dishes and putting +things in order was not so agreeable; but Mrs. Shelldrake and Perkins +undertook the work, and we did not think it necessary to interfere with +them. Half an hour afterwards, when the full moon had risen, we took +our chairs upon the stoop, to enjoy the calm, silver night, the soft +sea-air, and our summer's residence in anticipatory talk. + +"'My friends,' said Hollins, (and _his_ hobby, as you may remember, Ned, +was the organization of Society, rather than those reforms which apply +directly to the Individual,)--'my friends, I think we are sufficiently +advanced in progressive ideas to establish our little Arcadian community +upon what I consider the true basis: not Law, nor Custom, but the +uncorrupted impulses of our nature. What Abel said in regard to dietetic +reform is true; but that alone will not regenerate the race. We must +rise superior to those conventional ideas of Duty whereby Life is warped +and crippled. Life must not be a prison, where each one must come and +go, work, eat, and sleep, as the jailer commands. Labor must not be +a necessity, but a spontaneous joy. 'T is true, but little labor is +required of us here: let us, therefore, have no set tasks, no fixed +rules, but each one work, rest, eat, sleep, talk or be silent, as his +own nature prompts.' + +"Perkins, sitting on the steps, gave a suppressed chuckle, which I think +no one heard but myself. I was vexed with his levity, but, nevertheless, +gave him a warning nudge with my toe, in payment for the surreptitious +salt. + +"'That's just the notion I had, when I first talked of our coming here,' +said Shelldrake. 'Here we're alone and unhindered; and if the plan +shouldn't happen to work well, (I don't see why it shouldn't, though,) +no harm will be done. I've had a deal of hard work in my life, and I've +been badgered and bullied so much by your strait-laced professors, +that I'm glad to get away from the world for a spell, and talk and do +rationally, without being laughed at.' + +"'Yes,' answered Hollins, 'and if we succeed, as I feel we shall, for I +think I know the hearts of all of us here, this may be the commencement +of a new _ee_poch for the world. We may become the turning-point between +two dispensations: behind us everything false and unnatural,--before us +everything true, beautiful, and good.' + +"'Ah,' sighed Miss Ringtop, 'it reminds me of Gamaliel J. Gawthrop's +beautiful lines:-- + + "Unrobed man is lying hoary + In the distance, gray and dead; + There no wreaths of godless glory + To his mist-like tresses wed, + And the foot-fall of the Ages + Reigns supreme, with noiseless tread."' + +"'I am willing to try the experiment,' said I, on being appealed to by +Hollins; 'but don't you think we had better observe some kind of order, +even in yielding everything to impulse? Shouldn't there be, at least, a +platform, as the politicians call it,--an agreement by which we shall +all be bound, and which we can afterwards exhibit as the basis of our +success?' + +"He meditated a few moments, and then answered,-- + +"'I think not. It resembles too much the thing we are trying to +overthrow. Can you bind a man's belief by making him sign certain +articles of Faith? No: his thought will be free, in spite of it; and I +would have Action--Life--as free as Thought. Our platform--to adopt your +image--has but one plank: Truth. Let each only be true to himself: _be_ +himself, _act_ himself, or herself, with the uttermost candor. We can +all agree upon that.' + +"The agreement was accordingly made. And certainly no happier or more +hopeful human beings went to bed in all New England that night. + +"I arose with the sun, went into the garden, and commenced weeding, +intending to do my quota of work before breakfast, and then devote the +day to reading and conversation. I was presently joined by Shelldrake +and Mallory, and between us we finished the onions and radishes, stuck +the peas, and cleaned the alleys. Perkins, after milking the cow and +turning her out to pasture, assisted Mrs. Shelldrake in the kitchen. At +breakfast we were joined by Hollins, who made no excuse for his easy +morning habits; nor was one expected. I may as well tell you now, +though, that his natural instincts never led him to work. After a week, +when a second crop of weeds was coming on, Mallory fell off also, and +thenceforth Shelldrake and myself had the entire charge of the garden. +Perkins did the rougher work, and was always on hand when he was wanted. +Very soon, however, I noticed that he was in the habit of disappearing +for two or three hours in the afternoon. + +"Our meals preserved the same Spartan simplicity. Eunice, however, +carried her point in regard to the salad; for Abel, after tasting and +finding it very palatable, decided that oil and vinegar might be classed +in the catalogue of True Food. Indeed, his long abstinence from piquant +flavors gave him such an appetite for it, that our supply of lettuce was +soon exhausted. An embarrassing accident also favored us with the use of +salt. Perkins happening to move his knee at the moment I was dipping an +onion into the blacking-box lid, our supply was knocked upon the floor. +He picked it up, and we both hoped the accident might pass unnoticed. +But Abel, stretching his long neck across the corner of the table, +caught a glimpse of what was going on. + +"'What's that?' he asked. + +"'Oh, it's--it's only,' said I, seeking for a synonyme, 'only _chloride +of sodium_!' + +"'Chloride of sodium! what do you do with it?' + +"'Eat it with onions,' said I, boldly: 'it's a chemical substance, but I +believe it is found in some plants.' + +"Eunice, who knew something of chemistry, (she taught a class, though +you wouldn't think it,) grew red with suppressed fun, but the others +were as ignorant as Abel Mallory himself. + +"'Let me taste it,' said he, stretching out an onion. + +"I handed him the box-lid, which still contained a portion of its +contents. He dipped the onion, bit off a piece, and chewed it gravely. + +"'Why,' said he, turning to me, 'it's very much like salt.' + +"Perkins burst into a spluttering yell, which discharged an onion-top he +had just put between his teeth across the table; Eunice and I gave way +at the same moment; and the others, catching the joke, joined us. But +while we were laughing, Abel was finishing his onion, and the result was +that Salt was added to the True Food, and thereafter appeared regularly +on the table. + +"The forenoons we usually spent in reading and writing, each in his or +her chamber. (Oh, the journals, Ned!--but you shall not see mine.) +After a mid-day meal,--I cannot call it dinner,--we sat upon the stoop, +listening while one of us read aloud, or strolled down the shores on +either side, or, when the sun was not too warm, got into a boat, and +rowed or floated lazily around the promontory. + +"One afternoon, as I was sauntering off, past the garden, towards the +eastern inlet, I noticed Perkins slipping along behind the cedar knobs, +towards the little woodland at the end of our domain. Curious to find +out the cause of his mysterious disappearances, I followed cautiously. +From the edge of the wood I saw him enter a little gap between the +rocks, which led down to the water. Presently a thread of blue smoke +stole up. Quietly creeping along, I got upon the nearer bluff and looked +down. There was a sort of hearth built up at the base of the rock, with +a brisk little lire burning upon it, but Perkins had disappeared. I +stretched myself out upon the moss, in the shade, and waited. In about +half an hour up came Perkins, with a large fish in one hand and a +lump of clay in the other. I now understood the mystery. He carefully +imbedded the fish in a thin layer of clay, placed it on the coals, and +then went down to the shore to wash his hands. On his return he found me +watching the fire. + +"'Ho, ho, Mr. Enos!' said he, 'you've found me out! But _you_ won't say +nothin'. Gosh! _you_ like it as well I do. Look 'ee there!'--breaking +open the clay, from which arose 'a steam of rich-distilled +perfumes,'--'and, I say, I've got the box-lid with that 'ere stuff in +it,--ho! ho!' and the scamp roared again. + +"Out of a hole in the rock he brought salt and the end of a loaf, and +between us we finished the fish. Before long, I got into a habit of +disappearing in the afternoon. + +"Now and then, we took walks, alone or collectively, to the nearest +village, or even to Bridgeport, for the papers or a late book. The few +purchases we required were made at such times, and sent down in a cart, +or, if not too heavy, carried by Perkins in a basket. I noticed that +Abel, whenever we had occasion to visit a grocery, would go sniffing +around, alternately attracted or repelled by the various articles: now +turning away with a shudder from a ham,--now inhaling, with a fearful +delight and uncertainty, the odor of smoked herrings. 'I think herrings +must feed on sea-weed,' said he, 'there is such a vegetable attraction +about them.' After his violent vegetarian harangues, however, he +hesitated about adding them to his catalogue. + +"But, one day, as we were passing through the village, he was reminded +by the sign of 'WARTER CRACKERS' in the window of an obscure grocery, +that he required a supply of those articles, and we therefore entered. +There was a splendid Rhode-Island cheese on the counter, from which the +shop-mistress was just cutting a slice for a customer. Abel leaned over +it, inhaling the rich, pungent fragrance. + +"'Enos,' said he to me, between his sniffs, 'this impresses me like +flowers,--like marigolds. It must be,--really,--yes, the vegetable +element is predominant. My instinct towards it is so strong that I +cannot be mistaken. May I taste it, Ma'am?' + +"The woman sliced off a thin corner, and presented it to him on the +knife. + +"'Delicious!' he exclaimed; 'I am right,--this is the True Food. Give me +two pounds,--and the crackers, Ma'am.' + +"I turned away, quite as much disgusted as amused with +this charlatanism. And yet I verily believe the fellow was +sincere,--self-deluded only. I had by this time lost my faith in him, +though not in the great Arcadian principles. On reaching home, after +an hour's walk, I found our household in unusual commotion. Abel was +writhing in intense pain: he had eaten the whole two pounds of cheese, +on his way home! His stomach, so weakened by years of unhealthy +abstinence from true nourishment, was now terribly tortured by this +sudden stimulus. Mrs. Shelldrake, fortunately, had some mustard among +her stores, and could therefore administer a timely emetic. His life was +saved, but he was very ill for two or three days. Hollins did not fail +to take advantage of this circumstance to overthrow the authority which +Abel had gradually acquired on the subject of food. He was so arrogant +in his nature that he could not tolerate the same quality in another, +even where their views coincided. + +"By this time several weeks had passed away. It was the beginning of +July, and the long summer heats had come. I was driven out of my attic +during the middle hours of the day, and the others found it pleasanter +on the doubly shaded stoop than in their chambers. We were thus thrown +more together than usual,--a circumstance which made our life more +monotonous to the others, as I could see; but to myself, who could at +last talk to Eunice, and who was happy at the very sight of her, this +'heated term' seemed borrowed from Elysium. I read aloud, and the sound +of my own voice gave me confidence; many passages suggested discussions, +in which I took a part; and you may judge, Ned, how fast I got on, from +the fact that I ventured to tell Eunice of my fish-bakes with Perkins, +and invite her to join them. After that, she, also, often disappeared +from sight for an hour or two in the afternoon." + +----"Oh, Mr. Johnson," interrupted Mrs. Billings, "it wasn't for the +fish!" + +"Of course not," said her husband; "it was for my sake." + +"No, you need not think it was for you. Enos," she added, perceiving the +feminine dilemma into which she had been led, "all this is not necessary +to the story." + +"Stop!" he answered. "The A.C. has been revived for this night only. +Do you remember our platform, or rather no-platform? I must follow my +impulses, and say whatever comes uppermost." + +"Right, Enos," said Mr. Johnson; "I, as temporary Arcadian, take the +same ground. My instinct tells me that you, Mrs. Billings, must permit +the confession." + +She submitted with a good grace, and her husband continued. + +"I said that our lazy life during the hot weather had become a little +monotonous. The Arcadian plan had worked tolerably well, on the whole, +for there was very little for any one to do,--Mrs. Shelldrake and +Perkins Brown excepted. Our conversation, however, lacked spirit and +variety. We were, perhaps unconsciously, a little tired of hearing and +assenting to the same sentiments. But, one evening, about this time, +Hollins struck upon a variation, the consequences of which he little +foresaw. We had been reading one of Bulwer's works, (the weather was too +hot for Psychology,) and came upon this paragraph, or something like +it:-- + +"'Ah, Behind the Veil! We see the summer smile of the Earth,--enamelled +meadow and limpid stream,--but what hides she in her sunless heart? +Caverns of serpents, or grottoes of priceless gems? Youth, whose soul +sits on thy countenance, thyself wearing no mask, strive not to lift the +masks of others! Be content with what thou seest; and wait until Time +and Experience shall teach thee to find jealousy behind the sweet smile, +and hatred under the honeyed word!' + +"This seemed to us a dark and bitter reflection; but one or another of +us recalled some illustration of human hypocrisy, and the evidences, +by the simple fact of repetition, gradually led to a division of +opinion,--Hollins, Shelldrake, and Miss Ringtop on the dark side, and +the rest of us on the bright. The last, however, contented herself with +quoting from her favorite poet, Gamaliel J. Gawthrop:-- + + "'I look beyond thy brow's concealment! + I see thy spirit's dark revealment! + Thy inner self betrayed I see: + Thy coward, craven, shivering ME!' + +"'We think we know one another,' exclaimed Hollins; 'but do we? We see +the faults of others, their weaknesses, their disagreeable qualities, +and we keep silent. How much we should gain, were candor as universal +as concealment! Then each one, seeing himself as others see him, would +truly know himself. How much misunderstanding might be avoided, how +much hidden shame be removed, hopeless because unspoken love made +glad, honest admiration cheer its object, uttered sympathy mitigate +misfortune,--in short, how much brighter and happier the world would +become, if each one expressed, everywhere and at all times, his true and +entire feeling! Why, even Evil would lose half its power!' + +"There seemed to be so much practical wisdom in these views that we were +all dazzled and half-convinced at the start. So, when Hollins, turning +towards me, as he continued, exclaimed,--'Come, why should not this +candor be adopted in our Arcadia? Will any one--will you, Enos--commence +at once by telling me now--to my face--my principal faults?' I answered, +after a moment's reflection,--'You have a great deal of intellectual +arrogance, and you are, physically, very indolent.' + +"He did not flinch from the self-invited test, though he looked a little +surprised. + +"'Well put,' said he, 'though I do not say that you are entirely +correct. Now, what are my merits?' + +"'You are clear-sighted,' I answered, 'an earnest seeker after truth, +and courageous in the avowal of your thoughts.' + +"This restored the balance, and we soon began to confess our own private +faults and weaknesses. Though the confessions did not go very deep,--no +one betraying anything we did not all know already,--yet they were +sufficient to strengthen Hollins in his new idea, and it was unanimously +resolved that Candor should thenceforth be the main charm of our +Arcadian life. It was the very thing _I_ wanted, in order to make a +certain communication to Eunice; but I should probably never have +reached the point, had not the same candor been exercised towards me, +from a quarter where I least expected it. + +"The next day, Abel, who had resumed his researches after the True Food, +came home to supper with a healthier color than I had before seen on his +face. + +"'Do you know,' said he, looking shyly at Hollins, 'that I begin to +think Beer must be a natural beverage? There was an auction in the +village to-day, as I passed through, and I stopped at a cake-stand to +get a glass of water, as it was very hot. There was no water,--only +beer: so I thought I would try a glass, simply as an experiment. Really, +the flavor was very agreeable. And it occurred to me, on the way +home, that all the elements contained in beer are vegetable. Besides, +fermentation is a natural process. I think the question has never been +properly tested before.' + +"'But the alcohol!' exclaimed Hollins. + +"'I could not distinguish any, either by taste or smell. I know that +chemical analysis is said to show it; but may not the alcohol be +created, somehow, during the analysis?' + +"'Abel,' said Hollins, in a fresh burst of candor, 'you will never be +a Reformer, until you possess some of the commonest elements of +knowledge.' + +"The rest of us were much diverted: it was a pleasant relief to our +monotonous amiability. + +"Abel, however, had a stubborn streak in his character. The next day he +sent Perkins Brown to Bridgeport for a dozen bottles of 'Beer.' Perkins, +either intentionally or by mistake, (I always suspected the former,) +brought pint-bottles of Scotch ale, which he placed in the coolest part +of the cellar. The evening happened to be exceedingly hot and sultry, +and, as we were all fanning ourselves and talking languidly, Abel +bethought him of his beer. In his thirst, he drank the contents of the +first bottle, almost at a single draught. + +"'The effect of beer,' said he, 'depends, I think, on the commixture of +the nourishing principle of the grain with the cooling properties of the +water. Perhaps, hereafter, a liquid food of the same character may be +invented, which shall save us from mastication and all the diseases of +the teeth.' + +"Hollins and Shelldrake, at his invitation, divided a bottle between +them, and he took a second. The potent beverage was not long in acting +on a brain so unaccustomed to its influence. He grew unusually talkative +and sentimental, in a few minutes. + +"'Oh, sing, somebody!' he sighed in hoarse rapture: 'the night was made +for Song.' + +"Miss Ringtop, nothing loath, immediately commenced, 'When stars are in +the quiet skies'; but scarcely had she finished the first verse before +Abel interrupted her. + +"'Candor's the order of the day, isn't it?' he asked. + +"'Yes!' 'Yes!' two or three answered. + +"'Well, then,' said he, 'candidly, Pauline, you've got the darn'dest +squeaky voice'---- + +"Miss Ringtop gave a faint little scream of horror. + +"'Oh, never mind!' he continued. 'We act according to impulse, don't we? +And I've the impulse to swear; and it's right. Let Nature have her +way. Listen! Damn, damn, damn, damn! I never knew it was so easy. Why, +there's a pleasure in it! Try it, Pauline! try it on me!' + +"'Oh-ooh!' was all Miss Ringtop could utter. + +"'Abel! Abel!' exclaimed Hollins, 'the beer has got into your head.' + +"'No, it isn't Beer,--it's Candor!' said Abel. 'It's your own proposal, +Hollins. Suppose it's evil to swear: isn't it better I should express +it, and be done with it, than keep it bottled up, to ferment in my mind? +Oh, you're a precious, consistent old humbug, _you_ are!' + +"And therewith he jumped off the stoop, and went dancing awkwardly down +towards the water, singing in a most unmelodious voice, ''T is home +where'er the heart is.' + +"'Oh, he may fall into the water!' exclaimed Eunice, in alarm. + +"'He's not fool enough to do that,' said Shelldrake. 'His head is a +little light, that's all. The air will cool him down presently.' + +"But she arose and followed him, not satisfied with this assurance. Miss +Ringtop sat rigidly still. She would have received with composure the +news of his drowning. + +"As Eunice's white dress disappeared among the cedars crowning the +shore, I sprang up and ran after her. I knew that Abel was not +intoxicated, but simply excited, and I had no fear on his account: I +obeyed an involuntary impulse. On approaching the water, I heard their +voices,--hers in friendly persuasion, his in sentimental entreaty,--then +the sound of oars in the rowlocks. Looking out from the last clump of +cedars, I saw them seated in the boat, Eunice at the stern, while Abel, +facing her, just dipped an oar now and then to keep from drifting with +the tide. She had found him already in the boat, which was loosely +chained to a stone. Stepping on one of the forward thwarts, in her +eagerness to persuade him to return, he sprang past her, jerked away the +chain, and pushed off before she could escape. She would have fallen, +but he caught her and placed her in, the stern, and then seated himself +at the oars. She must have been somewhat alarmed, but there was only +indignation in her voice. All this had transpired before my arrival, and +the first words I heard bound me to the spot and kept me silent. + +"'Abel, what does this mean?' she asked. + +"'It means Fate,--Destiny!' he exclaimed, rather wildly. 'Ah, Eunice, +ask the night, and the moon,--ask the impulse which told you to follow +me! Let us be candid, like the old Arcadians we imitate. Eunice, we know +that we love each other: why should we conceal it any longer? The Angel +of Love comes down from the stars on his azure wings, and whispers to +our hearts. Let us confess to each other! The female heart should not be +timid, in this pure and beautiful atmosphere of Love which we breathe. +Come, Eunice! we are alone: let your heart speak to me!' + +"Ned, if you've ever been in love, (we'll talk of that, after a while,) +you will easily understand what tortures I endured, in thus hearing him +speak. That _he_ should love Eunice! It was a profanation to her, an +outrage to me. Yet the assurance with which he spoke! _Could_ she love +this conceited, ridiculous, repulsive fellow, after all? I almost gasped +for breath, as I clinched the prickly boughs of the cedars in my hands, +and set my teeth, waiting to hear her answer. + +"'I will not hear such language! Take me back to the shore!' she said, +in very short, decided tones. + +"'Oh, Eunice,' he groaned, (and now, I think, he was perfectly sober,) +'don't you love me, indeed? _I_ love _you_,--from my heart I do: yes, I +love you. Tell me how you feel towards me.' + +"'Abel,' said she, earnestly, 'I feel towards you only as a friend; and +if you wish me to retain a friendly interest in you, you must never +again talk in this manner. I do not love you, and I never shall. Let me +go back to the house. + +"His head dropped upon his breast, but he rowed back to the shore, drew +the bow upon the rocks, and assisted her to land. Then, sitting down, he +groaned forth,-- + +"'Oh, Eunice, you have broken my heart!' and putting his big hands to +his face, began to cry. + +"She turned, placed one hand on his shoulder, and said, in a calm, but +kind tone,-- + +"'I am very sorry, Abel, but I cannot help it.' + +"I slipped aside, that she might not see me, and we returned by separate +paths. + +"I slept very little that night. The conviction, which I had chased away +from my mind as often as it returned, that our Arcadian experiment was +taking a ridiculous and at the same time impracticable development, +became clearer and stronger. I felt sure that our little community could +not hold together much longer without an explosion. I had a presentiment +that Eunice shared my impressions. My feelings towards her had reached +that crisis where a declaration was imperative: but how to make it? It +was a terrible struggle between my shyness and my affection. There was +another circumstance, in connection with this subject, which troubled me +not a little. Miss Ringtop evidently sought my company, and made me, as +much as possible, the recipient of her sentimental outpourings. I was +not bold enough to repel her,--indeed, I had none of that tact which +is so useful in such emergencies,--and she seemed to misinterpret my +submission. Not only was her conversation pointedly directed to me, but +she looked at me, when singing, (especially, 'Thou, thou, reign'st in +this bosom!') in a way that made me feel very uncomfortable. What if +Eunice should suspect an attachment towards her, on my part? What +if--oh, horror!--I had unconsciously said or done something to impress +Miss Ringtop herself with the same conviction? I shuddered as the +thought crossed my mind. One thing was very certain: this suspense was +not to be endured much longer. + +"We had an unusually silent breakfast the next morning. Abel scarcely +spoke, which the others attributed to a natural feeling of shame, after +his display of the previous evening. Hollins and Shelldrake discussed +Temperance, with a special view to his edification, and Miss Ringtop +favored us with several quotations about 'the maddening bowl,'--but he +paid no attention to them. Eunice was pale and thoughtful. I had no +doubt, in my mind, that she was already contemplating a removal from +Arcadia. Perkins, whose perceptive faculties were by no means dull, +whispered to me, 'Sha'n't I bring up some porgies for supper?' but I +shook my head. I was busy with other thoughts, and did not join him in +the wood, that day. + +"The forenoon was overcast, with frequent showers. Each one occupied his +or her room until dinner-time, when we met again with something of the +old geniality. There was an evident effort to restore our former flow of +good feeling. Abel's experience with the beer was freely discussed. He +insisted strongly that he had not been laboring under its effects, and +proposed a mutual test. He, Shelldrake, and Hollins were to drink it +in equal measures, and compare observations as to their physical +sensations. The others agreed,--quite willingly, I thought,--but I +refused. I had determined to make a desperate attempt at candor, and +Abel's fate was fresh before my eyes. + +"My nervous agitation increased during the day, and, after sunset, +fearing lest I should betray my excitement in some way, I walked down +to the end of the promontory, and took a seat on the rocks. The sky +had cleared, and the air was deliciously cool and sweet. The Sound was +spread out before me like a sea, for the Long-Island shore was veiled in +a silvery mist. My mind was soothed and calmed by the influences of the +scene, until the moon arose. Moonlight, you know, disturbs,--at least, +when one is in love. (Ah, Ned, I see you understand it!) I felt +blissfully miserable, ready to cry with joy at the knowledge that I +loved, and with fear and vexation at my cowardice, at the same time. + +"Suddenly I heard a rustling beside me. Every nerve in my body tingled, +and I turned my head, with a beating and expectant heart. Pshaw! It was +Miss Ringtop, who spread her blue dress on the rock beside me, and shook +back her long curls, and sighed, as she gazed at the silver path of the +moon on the water. + +"'Oh, how delicious!' she cried. 'How it seems to set the spirit free, +and we wander off on the wings of Fancy to other spheres!' + +"'Yes,' said I, 'it is very beautiful, but sad, when one is alone.' + +"I was thinking of Eunice. + +"'How inadequate,' she continued, 'is language to express the emotions +which Such a scene calls up in the bosom! Poetry alone is the voice of +the spiritual world, and we, who are not poets, must borrow the language +of the gifted sons of Song. Oh, Enos, I _wish_ you were a poet! But you +_feel_ poetry, I know you do. I have seen it in your eyes, when I quoted +the burning lines of Adeliza Kelley, or the soul-breathings of Gamaliel +J. Gawthrop. In _him_, particularly, I find the voice of my own nature. +Do you know his "Night-Whispers"? How it embodies the feelings of such a +scene as this! + + "Star-drooping bowers bending down the + spaces, + And moonlit glories sweep star-footed on; + And pale, sweet rivers, in their shining + races, + Are ever gliding through the moonlit places, + With silver ripples on their trancèd faces, + And forests clasp their dusky hands, with low + and sullen moan!" + +"'Ah!' she continued, as I made no reply, 'this is an hour for the soul +to unveil its most secret chambers! Do you not think, Enos, that love +rises superior to all conventionalities? that those whose souls are in +unison should be allowed to reveal themselves to each other, regardless +of the world's opinions?' + +"'Yes!' said I, earnestly. + +"'Enos, do you understand me?' she asked, in a tender voice,--almost a +whisper. + +"'Yes,' said I, with a blushing confidence of my own passion. + +"'Then,' she whispered, 'our hearts are wholly in unison. I know you are +true, Enos. I know your noble nature, and I will never doubt you. This +is indeed happiness!' + +"And therewith she laid her head on my shoulder, and sighed,-- + + "'Life remits his tortures cruel, + Love illumes his fairest fuel, + When the hearts that once were dual + Meet as one, in sweet renewal!' + +"'Miss Ringtop!' I cried, starting away from her, in alarm, 'you don't +mean that--that'---- + +"I could not finish the sentence. + +"'Yes, Enos, _dear_ Enos! henceforth we belong to each other.' + +"The painful embarrassment I felt, as her true meaning shot through my +mind, surpassed anything I had imagined, or experienced in anticipation, +when planning how I should declare myself to Eunice. Miss Ringtop was at +least ten years older than I, far from handsome, (but you remember her +face,) and so affectedly sentimental, that I, sentimental as I was then, +was sick of hearing her talk. Her hallucination was so monstrous, and +gave me such a shock of desperate alarm, that I spoke, on the impulse of +the moment, with great energy, without regarding how her feelings might +be wounded. + +"'You mistake!' I exclaimed. 'I didn't mean that,--I didn't understand +you. Don't talk to me that way,--don't look at me in that way, Miss +Ringtop! We were never meant for each other,--I wasn't----You're so +much older,--I mean different. It can't be,--no, it can never be! Let +us go back to the house: the night is cold.' + +"I rose hastily to my feet. She murmured something,--what, I did not +stay to hear,--but, plunging through the cedars, was hurrying with all +speed to the house, when, half-way up the lawn, beside one of the rocky +knobs, I met Eunice, who was apparently on her way to join us. In +my excited mood, after the ordeal through which I had just passed, +everything seemed easy. My usual timidity was blown to the four winds. I +went directly to her, took her hand, and said,-- + +"'Eunice, the others are driving me mad with their candor; will you let +me be candid, too?' + +"'I think you are always candid, Enos,' she answered. + +"Even then, if I had hesitated, I should have been lost. But I went on, +without pausing,-- + +"'Eunice, I love you,--I have loved you since we first met. I came here +that I might be near you; but I must leave you forever, and to-night, +unless you can trust your life in my keeping. God help me, since we have +been together I have lost my faith in almost everything but you. Pardon +me, if I am impetuous,--different from what I have seemed. I have +struggled so hard to speak! I have been a coward, Eunice, because of my +love. But now I have spoken, from my heart of hearts. Look at me: I can +bear it now. Read the truth in my eyes, before you answer.' + +"I felt her hand tremble while I spoke. As she turned towards me her +face, which had been averted, the moon shone full upon it, and I saw +that tears were upon her cheeks. What was said--whether anything was +said--I cannot tell. I felt the blessed fact, and that was enough. That +was the dawning of the true Arcadia." + +----Mrs. Billings, who had been silent during this recital, took her +husband's hand and smiled. Mr. Johnson felt a dull pang about the region +of his heart. If he had a secret, however, I do not feel justified in +betraying it. + +"It was late," Mr. Billings continued, "before we returned to the house. +I had a special dread of again encountering Miss Ringtop, but she was +wandering up and down the bluff, under the pines, singing, 'The dream +is past.' There was a sound of loud voices, as we approached the stoop. +Hollins, Shelldrake and his wife, and Abel Mallory were sitting together +near the door. Perkins Brown, as usual, was crouched on the lowest step, +with one leg over the other, and rubbing the top of his boot with a +vigor which betrayed to me some secret mirth. He looked up at me from +under his straw hat with the grin of a malicious Puck, glanced towards +the group, and made a curious gesture with his thumb. There were several +empty pint-bottles on the stoop. + +"'Now, are you sure you can bear the test?' we heard Hollins ask, as we +approached. + +"'Bear it? Why, to be sure!' replied Shelldrake; 'if I couldn't bear it, +or if _you_ couldn't, your theory's done for. Try! I can stand it as +long as you can.' + +"'Well, then,' said Hollins, 'I think you are a very ordinary man. I +derive no intellectual benefit from my intercourse with you, but +your house is convenient to me. I'm under no obligations for your +hospitality, however, because my company is an advantage to you. Indeed, +if I were treated according to my deserts, you couldn't do enough for +me.' + +"Mrs. Shelldrake was up in arms. + +"'Indeed,' she exclaimed, 'I think you get as good as you deserve, and +more too.' + +"'Elvira,' said he, with a benevolent condescension, 'I have no doubt +you think so, for your mind belongs to the lowest and most material +sphere. You have your place in Nature, and you fill it; but it is not +for you to judge of intelligences which move only on the upper planes.' + +"'Hollins,' said Shelldrake, 'Elviry's a good wife and a sensible woman, +and I won't allow you to turn up your nose at her.' + +"'I am not surprised,' he answered, 'that you should fail to stand the +test. I didn't expect it.' + +"'Let me try it on _you_!' cried Shelldrake. 'You, now, have some +intellect,--I don't deny that,--but not so much, by a long shot, as you +think you have. Besides that, you're awfully selfish, in your opinions. +You won't admit that anybody can be right who differs from you. You've +sponged on me for a long time; but I suppose I've learned something from +you, so we'll call it even. I think, however, that what you call acting +according to impulse is simply an excuse to cover your own laziness.' + +"'Gosh! that's it!' interrupted Perkins, jumping up; then, recollecting +himself, he sank down on the steps again, and shook with a suppressed +'Ho! ho! ho!' + +"Hollins, however, drew himself up with an exasperated air. + +"'Shelldrake,' said he, 'I pity you. I always knew your ignorance, but +I thought you honest in your human character. I never suspected you +of envy and malice. However, the true Reformer must expect to be +misunderstood and misrepresented by meaner minds. That love which I bear +to all creatures teaches me to forgive you. Without such love, all plans +of progress must fail. Is it not so, Abel?' + +"Shelldrake could only ejaculate the words, 'Pity!' 'Forgive!' in his +most contemptuous tone; while Mrs. Shelldrake, rocking violently in her +chair, gave utterance to that peculiar clucking '_ts, ts, ts, ts_,' +whereby certain women express emotions too deep for words. + +"Abel, roused by Hollins's question, answered, with a sudden energy,-- + +"'Love! there is no love in the world. Where will you find it? Tell me, +and I'll go there. Love! I'd like to see it! If all human hearts were +like mine, we might have an Arcadia; but most men have no hearts. The +world is a miserable, hollow, deceitful shell of vanity and hypocrisy. +No: let us give up. We were born before our time: this age is not worthy +of us.' + +"Hollins stared at the speaker in utter amazement. Shelldrake gave a +long whistle, and finally gasped out,-- + +"'Well, what next?' + +"None of us were prepared for such a sudden and complete wreck of our +Arcadian scheme. The foundations had been sapped before, it is true; but +we had not perceived it; and now, in two short days, the whole edifice +tumbled about our ears. Though it was inevitable, we felt a shock of +sorrow, and a silence fell upon us. Only that scamp of a Perkins Brown, +chuckling and rubbing his boot, really rejoiced. I could have kicked +him. + +"We all went to bed, feeling that the charm of our Arcadian life was +over. I was so full of the new happiness of love that I was scarcely +conscious of regret. I seemed to have leaped at once into responsible +manhood, and a glad rush of courage filled me at the knowledge that my +own heart was a better oracle than those--now so shamefully overthrown-- +on whom I had so long implicitly relied. In the first revulsion of +feeling, I was perhaps unjust to my associates. I see now, more clearly, +the causes of those vagaries, which originated in a genuine aspiration, +and failed from an ignorance of the true nature of Man, quite as much +as from the egotism of the individuals. Other attempts at reorganizing +Society were made about the same time by men of culture and experience, +but in the A.C. we had neither. Our leaders had caught a few +half-truths, which, in their minds, were speedily warped into errors. +I can laugh over the absurdities I helped to perpetrate, but I must +confess that the experiences of those few weeks went far towards making +a man of me." + +"Did the A.C. break up at once?" asked Mr. Johnson. + +"Not precisely; though Eunice and I left the house within two days, as +we had agreed. We were not married immediately, however. Three long +years--years of hope and mutual encouragement--passed away before that +happy consummation. Before our departure, Hollins had fallen into his +old manner, convinced, apparently, that Candor must be postponed to a +better age of the world. But the quarrel rankled in Shelldrake's mind, +and especially in that of his wife. I could see by her looks and little +fidgety ways that his further stay would be very uncomfortable. Abel +Mallory, finding himself gaining in weight and improving in color, had +no thought of returning. The day previous, as I afterwards learned, he +had discovered Perkins Brown's secret kitchen in the woods. + +"'Golly!' said that youth, in describing the circumstance to me, 'I had +to ketch _two_ porgies that day.' + +"Miss Ringtop, who must have suspected the new relation between Eunice +and myself, was for the most part rigidly silent. If she quoted, it was +from the darkest and dreariest utterances of her favorite Gamaliel. + +"What happened after our departure I learned from Perkins, on the return +of the Shelldrakes to Norridgeport, in September. Mrs. Shelldrake +stoutly persisted in refusing to make Hollins's bed, or to wash his +shirts. Her brain was dull, to be sure; but she was therefore all the +more stubborn in her resentment. He bore this state of things for about +a week, when his engagements to lecture in Ohio suddenly called him +away. Abel and Miss Ringtop were left to wander about the promontory in +company, and to exchange lamentations on the hollowness of human hopes +or the pleasures of despair. Whether it was owing to that attraction of +sex which would make any man and any woman, thrown together on a desert +island, finally become mates, or whether she skilfully ministered to +Abel's sentimental vanity, I will not undertake to decide: but the fact +is, they were actually betrothed, on leaving Arcadia. I think he would +willingly have retreated, after his return to the world; but that was +not so easy. Miss Ringtop held him with an inexorable clutch. They were +not married, however, until just before his departure for California, +whither she afterwards followed him. She died in less than a year, and +left him free." + +"And what became of the other Arcadians?" asked Mr. Johnson. + +"The Shelldrakes are still living in Norridgeport. They have become +Spiritualists, I understand, and cultivate Mediums. Hollins, when I +last heard of him, was a Deputy Surveyor in the New York Custom-House. +Perkins Brown is our butcher, here in Waterbury, and he often asks +me,--'Do you take chloride of soda on your beefsteaks? 'He is as fat as +a prize ox, and the father of five children." + +"Enos!" exclaimed Mrs. Billings, looking at the clock, "it's nearly +midnight! Mr. Johnson must be very tired, after such a long story. The +Chapter of the A.C. is hereby closed!" + + * * * * * + + +SNOW. + + +All through the long hours of yesterday the low clouds hung close above +our heads, to pour with more unswerving aim their constant storm of +sleet and snow,--sometimes working in soft silence, sometimes with +impatient gusty breaths, but always busily at work. Darkness brought no +rest to these laborious warriors of the air, but only fiercer strife: +the wild winds rose; noisy recruits, they howled beneath the eaves, +or swept around the walls, like hungry wolves, now here, now there, +howling; at opposite doors. Thus, through the anxious and wakeful night, +the storm went on. The household lay vexed by broken dreams, with +changing fancies of lost children on solitary moors, of sleighs +hopelessly overturned in drifted and pathless gorges, or of icy cordage +upon disabled vessels in Arctic seas; until a softer warmth, as of +sheltering snow-wreaths, lulled all into deeper rest till morning. + +And what a morning! The sun, a young conqueror, sends in his glorious +rays, like heralds, to rouse us for the inspection of his trophies. The +baffled foe, retiring, has left far and near the high-heaped spoils +behind. The glittering plains own the new victor. Over all these level +and wide-swept meadows, over all these drifted, spotless slopes, he is +proclaimed undisputed monarch. On the wooded hill-sides the startled +shadows are in motion; they flee like young fawns, bounding upward and +downward over rock and dell, as through the long gleaming arches the +king comes marching to his throne. But shade yet lingers undisturbed in +the valleys, mingled with timid smoke from household chimneys; blue as +the smoke, a gauzy haze is twined around the brow of every distant hill; +and the same soft azure confuses the outlines of the nearer trees, to +whose branches snowy wreaths are clinging, far up among the boughs, like +strange new flowers. Everywhere the unstained surface glistens in the +sunbeams. In the curves and wreaths and turrets of the drifts a blue +tinge nestles. The fresh pure sky answers to it; every cloud has +vanished, save one or two which linger near the horizon, pardoned +offenders, seeming far too innocent for mischief, although their dark +and sullen brothers, banished ignominiously below the horizon's verge, +may be plotting nameless treachery there. The brook still flows visibly +through the valley, and the myriad rocks that check its course are all +rounded with fleecy surfaces, till they seem like flocks of tranquil +sheep that drink the shallow flood. + +The day is one of moderate cold, but clear and bracing; the air sparkles +like the snow; everything seems dry and resonant, like the wood of a +violin. All sounds are musical,--the voices of children, the cooing +of doves, the crowing of cocks, the chopping of wood, the creaking of +country sleds, the sweet jangle of sleighbells. The snow has fallen +under a cold temperature, and the flakes are perfectly crystallized; +every shrub we pass bears wreaths which glitter as gorgeously as the +nebula in the constellation Perseus; but in another hour of sunshine +every one of those fragile outlines will disappear, and the white +surface glitter no longer with stars, but with star-dust. On such a +day, the universe seems to held but three pure tints,--blue, white, +and green. The loveliness of the universe seems simplified to its last +extreme of refined delicacy. That sensation we poor mortals often +have, of being just on the edge of infinite beauty, yet with always a +lingering film between, never presses down more closely than on days +like this. Everything seems perfectly prepared to satiate the soul with +inexpressible felicity if we could only, by one infinitesimal step +farther, reach the mood to dwell in it. + +Leaving behind us the sleighs and snow-shovels of the street, we turn +noiselessly toward the radiant margin of the sunlit woods. The yellow +willows on the causeway burn like flame against the darker background, +and will burn on until they burst into April. Yonder pines and hemlocks +stand motionless and dark against the sky. The statelier trees have +already shaken all the snow from their summits, but it still clothes the +lower ones with a white covering that looks solid as marble. Yet see how +lightly it escapes!--a slight gust shakes a single tree, there is a +_Staub-bach_ for a moment, and the branches stand free as in summer, a +pyramid of green amid the whiteness of the yet imprisoned forest. Each +branch raises itself when emancipated, thus changing the whole outline +of the growth; and the snow beneath is punctured with a thousand little +depressions, where the petty avalanches have just buried themselves and +disappeared. + +In crossing this white level, we have been tracking our way across an +invisible pond, which was alive last week with five hundred skaters. +Now there is a foot of snow upon it, through which there is a boyish +excitement in making the first path. Looking back upon our track, it +proves to be like all other human paths, straight in intention, but +slightly devious in deed. We have gay companions on our way; for a +breeze overtakes us, and a hundred little simooms of drift whirl along +beside us, and whelm in miniature burial whole caravans of dry leaves. +Here, too, our track intersects with that of some previous passer; he +has but just gone on, judging by the freshness of the trail, and we can +study his character and purposes. The large boots betoken a wood-man or +ice-man: yet such a one would hardly have stepped so irresolutely where +a little film of water has spread between the ice and snow and given a +look of insecurity; and here again he has stopped to observe the wreaths +on this pendent bough, and this snow-filled bird's-nest. And there the +footsteps of the lover of beauty turn abruptly to the road again, and he +vanishes from us forever. + +As we wander on through the wood, all the labyrinths of summer are +buried beneath one white inviting pathway, and the pledge of perfect +loneliness is given by the unbroken surface of the all-revealing snow. +There appears nothing living except a downy woodpecker, whirling round +and round upon a young beech-stem, and a few sparrows, plump with +grass-seed and hurrying with jerking flight down the sunny glade. But +the trees furnish society enough. What a congress of ermined kings is +this circle of hemlocks, which stand, white in their soft raiment, +around the daïs of this woodland pond! Are they held here, like the +sovereigns in the palace of the Sleeping Beauty, till some mortal breaks +their spell? What sage counsels must be theirs, as they nod their weary +heads and whisper ghostly memories and old men's tales to each other, +while the red leaves dance on the snowy sward below, or a fox or +squirrel steals hurriedly through the wild and wintry night! Here and +there is some discrowned Lear, who has thrown off his regal mantle, and +stands in faded russet, misplaced among the monarchs. + +What a simple and stately hospitality is that of Nature in winter! The +season which the residents of cities think an obstruction is in the +country an extension of intercourse: it opens every forest from here +to Labrador, free of entrance; the most tangled thicket, the most +treacherous marsh becomes passable; and the lumberer or moose-hunter, +mounted on his snow-shoes, has the world before him. He says "good +snow-shoeing," as we say "good sleighing"; and it gives a sensation like +a first visit to the sea-side and the shipping, when one first sees +exhibited, in the streets of Bangor or Montreal, these delicate Indian +conveyances. It seems as if a new element were suddenly opened for +travel, and all due facilities provided. One expects to go a little +farther, and see in the shop-windows, "Wings for sale,--gentlemen's and +ladies' sizes." The snow-shoe and the birch-canoe,--what other dying +race ever left behind it two memorials so perfect and so graceful? + +The shadows thrown by the trees upon the snow are blue and soft, sharply +defined, and so contrasted with the gleaming white as to appear narrower +than the boughs which cast them. There is something subtle and fantastic +about these shadows. Here is a leafless larch-sapling, eight feet high. +The image of the lower boughs is traced upon the snow, distinct and firm +as cordage, while the higher ones grow dimmer by fine gradations, until +the slender topmost twig is blurred and almost effaced. But the denser +upper spire of the young spruce by its side throws almost as distinct a +shadow as its base, and the whole figure looks of a more solid texture, +as if you could feel it with your hand. More beautiful than either is +the fine image of this baby hemlock: each delicate leaf droops above as +delicate a copy, and here and there the shadow and the substance kiss +and frolic with each other in the downy snow. + +The larger larches have a different plaything: on the bare branches, +thickly studded with buds, cling airily the small, light cones of last +year's growth, each crowned, with a little ball of soft snow, four times +taller than itself,--save where some have drooped sideways, so that +each carries, poor weary Atlas, a sphere upon its back. Thus the coy +creatures play cup and ball, and one has lost its plaything yonder, as +the branch slightly stirs, and the whole vanishes in a whirl of snow. +Meanwhile a fragment of low arbor-vitae hedge, poor outpost of a +neighboring plantation, is so covered and packed with solid drift, +inside and out, that it seems as if no power of sunshine could ever +steal in among its twigs and disentangle it. + +In winter each separate object interests us; in summer, the mass. +Natural beauty in winter is a poor man's luxury, infinitely enhanced in +quality by the diminution in quantity. Winter, with fewer and simpler +methods, yet seems to give all her works a finish even more delicate +than that of summer, working, as Emerson says of English agriculture, +with a pencil, instead of a plough. Or rather, the ploughshare is but +concealed; since a pithy old English preacher has said that, "the frost +is God's plough, which He drives through every inch of ground in the +world, opening each clod, and pulverizing the whole." + +Coming out upon a high hill-side, more exposed to the direct fury of the +sleet, we find Nature wearing a wilder look. Every white-birch clump +around us is bent divergingly to the ground, each white form prostrated +in mute despair upon the whiter bank. The bare, writhing branches of +yonder sombre oak-grove are steeped in snow, and in the misty air they +look so remote and foreign that there is not a wild creature of the +Norse mythology who might not stalk from beneath their haunted branches. +Buried races, Teutons and Cimbri, might tramp solemnly forth from those +weird arcades. The soft pines on this nearer knoll seem separated from +them by ages and generations. On the farther hills spread woods of +smaller growth, like forests of spun glass, jewelry by the acre provided +for this coronation of winter. + +We descend a steep bank, little pellets of snow rolling hastily beside +us, and leaving enamelled furrows behind. Entering the sheltered and +sunny glade, we are assailed by a sudden warmth whose languor is almost +oppressive. Wherever the sun strikes upon the pines and hemlocks, +there is a household gleam which gives a more vivid sensation than +the diffused brilliancy of summer. The sunbeams maintain a thousand +secondary fires in the reflection of light from every tree and stalk, +for the preservation of animal life and the ultimate melting of these +accumulated drifts. Around each trunk or stone the snow has melted and +fallen back. It is a singular fact, established beyond doubt by science, +that the snow is absolutely less influenced by the direct rays of the +sun than by these reflections. "If a blackened card is placed upon the +snow or ice in the sunshine, the frozen mass underneath it will be +gradually thawed, while that by which it is surrounded, though exposed +to the full power of solar heat, is but little disturbed. If, however, +we reflect the sun's rays from a metal surface, an exactly contrary +result takes place: the uncovered parts are the first to melt, and the +blackened card stands high above the surrounding portion." Look round +upon this buried meadow, and you will see emerging through the white +surface a thousand stalks of grass, sedge, osmunda, golden-rod, mullein, +Saint-John's-wort, plaintain, and eupatorium,--an allied army of the +sun, keeping up a perpetual volley of innumerable rays upon the yielding +snow. + +It is their last dying service. We misplace our tenderness in winter, +and look with pity upon the leafless trees. But there is no tragedy +in the trees: each is not dead, but sleepeth; and each bears a future +summer of buds safe nestled on its bosom, as a mother reposes with her +baby at her breast. The same security of life pervades every woody +shrub: the alder and the birch have their catkins all ready for the +first day of spring, and the sweet-fern has even now filled with +fragrance its folded blossom. Winter is no such solid bar between season +and season as we fancy, but only a slight check and interruption: one +may at any time produce these March blossoms by bringing the buds into +the warm house; and the petals of the May-flower sometimes show their +pink and white edges in autumn. But every grass-blade and flower-stalk +is a mausoleum of vanished summer, itself crumbling to dust, never to +rise again. Each child of June, scarce distinguishable in November +against the background of moss and rocks and bushes, is brought into +final prominence in December by the white snow which imbeds it. The +delicate flakes collapse and fall back around it, but they retain their +inexorable hold. Thus delicate is the action of Nature,--a finger of +air, and a grasp of iron. + +We pass the old red foundry, banked in with snow and its low eaves +draped with icicles, and come to the brook which turns its resounding +wheel. The musical motion of the water seems almost unnatural amidst +the general stillness: brooks, like men, must keep themselves warm by +exercise. The overhanging rushes and alder-sprays, weary of winter's +sameness, have made for themselves playthings,--each dangling a crystal +knob of ice, which sways gently in the water and gleams ruddy in the +sunlight. As we approach the foaming cascade, the toys become larger and +more glittering, movable stalactites, which the water tosses merrily +upon their flexible stems. The torrent pours down beneath an enamelled +mask of ice, wreathed and convoluted like a brain, and sparkling +with gorgeous glow. Tremulous motions and glimmerings go through the +translucent veil, as if it throbbed with the throbbing wave beneath. +It holds in its mazes stray bits of color,--scarlet berries, evergreen +sprigs, blue raspberry-stems, and sprays of yellow willow; glittering +necklaces and wreaths and tiaras of brilliant ice-work cling and trail +around its edges, and no regal palace shines with such carcanets of +jewels as this winter ball-room of the dancing drops. + +Above, the brook becomes a smooth black canal between two steep white +banks; and the glassy water seems momentarily stiffening into the +solider blackness of ice. Here and there thin films are already formed +over it, and are being constantly broken apart by the treacherous +current; a flake a foot square is jerked away and goes sliding beneath +the slight transparent surface till it reappears below. The same thing, +on a larger scale, helps to form the mighty ice-pack of the Northern +seas. Nothing except ice is capable of combining, on the largest scale, +bulk with mobility, and this imparts a dignity to its motions even on +the smallest scale. I do not believe that anything in Behring's Straits +could impress me with a grander sense of desolation or of power than +when in boyhood I watched the ice break up in the winding channel of +Charles River. + +Amidst so much that seems like death, let us turn and study the life. +There is much more to be seen in winter than most of us have ever +noticed. Far in the North the "moose-yards" are crowded and trampled, at +this season, and the wolf and the deer run noiselessly a deadly race, +as I have heard the hunters describe, upon the white surface of the +gleaming lake. But the pond beneath our feet keeps its stores of life +chiefly below its level platform, as the bright fishes in the basket of +yon heavy-booted fisherman can tell. Yet the scattered tracks of mink +and musk-rat beside the banks, of meadow-mice around the hay-stacks, of +squirrels under the trees, of rabbits and partridges in the wood, show +the warm life that is beating unseen, beneath fur or feathers, close +beside us. The chicadees are chattering merrily in the upland grove, the +blue-jays scream in the hemlock glade, the snow-bird mates the snow with +its whiteness, and the robin contrasts with it his still ruddy breast. +The weird and impenetrable crows, most talkative of birds and most +uncommunicative, their very food at this season a mystery, are almost as +numerous now as in summer. They always seem like some race of banished +goblins, doing penance for some primeval and inscrutable transgression, +and if any bird have a history, it is they. In the Spanish version of +the tradition of King Arthur it is said that he fled from the weeping +queens and the island valley of Avilion in the form of a crow; and hence +it is said in "Don Quixote" that no Englishman will ever kill one. + +The traces of the insects in the winter are prophetic,--from the +delicate cocoon of some infinitesimal feathery thing which hangs upon +the dry, starry calyx of the aster, to the large brown-paper parcel +which hides in peasant garb the costly beauty of some gorgeous moth. But +the hints of birds are retrospective. In each tree of this pasture, the +very pasture where last spring we looked for nests and found them not +among the deceitful foliage, the fragile domiciles now stand revealed. +But where are the birds that filled them? Could the airy creatures +nurtured in those nests have left permanently traced upon the air behind +them their own bright summer flight, the whole atmosphere would be +filled with interlacing lines and curves of gorgeous coloring, the +centre of all being this forsaken bird's-nest filled with snow. + +Among the many birds which winter here, and the many insects which are +called forth by a few days of thaw, not a few must die of cold or of +fatigue amid the storms. Yet how few traces one sees of this mortality! +Provision is made for it. Yonder a dead wasp has fallen on the snow, and +the warmth of its body, or its power of reflecting a few small rays +of light, is melting its little grave beneath it. With what a cleanly +purity does Nature strive to withdraw all unsightly objects into her +cemetery! Their own weight and lingering warmth take them through air +or water, snow or ice, to the level of the earth, and there with spring +comes an army of burying-insects, _Necrophagi_, in a livery of red and +black, to dig a grave beneath every one, and not a sparrow falleth to +the ground without knowledge. The tiny remains thus disappear from the +surface, and the dry leaves are soon spread above these Children in the +Wood. + +Thus varied and benignant are the aspects of winter on these sunny days. +But it is impossible to claim this weather as the only type of our +winter climate. There occasionally come days which, though perfectly +still and serene, suggest more terror than any tempest,--terrible, +clear, glaring days of pitiless cold,--when the sun seems powerless +or only a brighter moon, when the windows remain ground-glass at high +noontide, and when, on going out of doors, one is dazzled by the +brightness and fancies for a moment that it cannot be so cold as has +been reported, but presently discovers that the severity is only more +deadly for being so still. Exercise on such days seems to produce no +warmth; one's limbs appear ready to break on any sudden motion, like +icy boughs. Stage-drivers and dray-men are transformed to mere human +buffaloes by their fur coats; the patient oxen are frost-covered; the +horse that goes racing by waves a wreath of steam from his tossing head. +On such days life becomes a battle to all householders, the ordinary +apparatus for defence is insufficient, and the price of caloric is +continual vigilance. In innumerable armies the frost besieges the +portal, creeps in beneath it and above it, and on every latch and +key-handle lodges an advanced guard of white rime. Leave the door ajar +never so slightly and a chill creeps in cat-like; we are conscious by +the warmest fireside of the near vicinity of cold, its fingers are +feeling after us, and even if they do not clutch us, we know that they +are there. The sensations of such days almost make us associate their +clearness and whiteness with something malignant and evil. Charles Lamb +asserts of snow, "It glares too much for an innocent color, methinks." +Why does popular mythology associate the infernal regions with a high +temperature instead of a low one? El Aishi, the Arab writer, says of the +bleak wind of the Desert, (so writes Richardson, the African traveller,) +"The north wind blows with an intensity equalling _the cold of hell_; +language fails me to describe its rigorous temperature." Some have +thought that there is a similar allusion in the phrase, "weeping and +gnashing of teeth,"--the teeth chattering from frost. Milton also +enumerates cold as one of the torments of the lost:-- + + "O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp"; + +and one may sup full of horrors on the exceedingly cold collation +provided for the next world by the Norse Edda. + +But, after all, there are few such terrific periods in our Massachusetts +winters, and the appointed exit from their frigidity is usually through +a snow-storm. After a day of this severe sunshine there comes commonly +a darker day of cloud, still hard and forbidding, though milder in +promise, with a sky of lead, deepening near the horizon into darker +films of iron. Then, while all the nerves of the universe seem rigid and +tense, the first reluctant flake steals slowly down, like a tear. In a +few hours the whole atmosphere begins to relax once more, and in +our astonishing climate very possibly the snow changes to rain in +twenty-four hours, and a thaw sets in. It is not strange, therefore, +that snow, which to Southern races is typical of cold and terror, brings +associations of warmth and shelter to the children of the North. + +Snow, indeed, actually nourishes animal life. It holds in its bosom +numerous animalcules: you may have a glass of water, perfectly free from +_infusoria_, which yet, after your dissolving in it a handful of snow, +will show itself full of microscopic creatures, shrimp-like and swift; +and the famous red snow of the Arctic regions is only an exhibition of +the same property. It has sometimes been fancied that persons buried +under the snow have received sustenance through the pores of the skin, +like reptiles imbedded in rock. Elizabeth Woodcock lived eight days +beneath a snow-drift, in 1799, without eating a morsel; and a Swiss +family were buried beneath an avalanche, in a manger, for five months, +in 1755, with no food but a trifling store of chestnuts and a small +daily supply of milk from a goat which was buried with them. In neither +case was there extreme suffering from cold, and it is unquestionable +that the interior of a drift is far warmer than the surface. On the 23d +of December, 1860, at 9 P.M., I was surprised to observe drops falling +from the under side of a heavy bank of snow at the eaves, at a distance +from any chimney, while the mercury on the same side was only fifteen +degrees above zero, not having indeed risen above the point of freezing +during the whole day. + +Dr. Kane pays ample tribute to these kindly properties. "Few of us at +home can recognize the protecting value of this warm coverlet of snow. +No eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than +the sleeping-dress of winter about this feeble flower-life. The first +warm snows of August and September, falling on a thickly pleached carpet +of grasses, heaths, and willows, enshrine the flowery growths which +nestle round them in a non-conducting air-chamber; and as each +successive snow increases the thickness of the cover, we have, before +the intense cold of winter sets in, a light cellular bed covered by +drift, six, eight, or ten feet deep, in which the plant retains its +vitality. ... I have found in midwinter, in this high latitude of 78° +50', the surface so nearly moist as to be friable to the touch; and upon +the ice-floes, commencing with a surface-temperature of-30°, I found +at two feet deep a temperature of-8°, at four feet + 2°, and at eight +feet + 26°. ... The glacier which we became so familiar with afterwards +at Etah yields an uninterrupted stream throughout the year." And he +afterwards shows that even the varying texture and quality of the snow +deposited during the earlier and later portions of the Arctic winter +have their special adaptations to the welfare of the vegetation they +protect. + +The process of crystallization seems a microcosm of the universe. +Radiata, mollusca, feathers, flowers, ferns, mosses, palms, pines, +grain-fields, leaves of cedar, chestnut, elm, acanthus: these and +multitudes of other objects are figured on your frosty window; on +sixteen different panes I have counted sixteen patterns strikingly +distinct, and it appeared like a show-case for the globe. What can seem +remoter relatives than the star, the starfish, the star-flower, and the +starry snow-flake which clings this moment to your sleeve?--yet some +philosophers hold that one day their law of existence will be found +precisely the same. The connection with the primeval star, especially, +seems far and fanciful enough, but there are yet unexplored affinities +between light and crystallization: some crystals have a tendency to grow +toward the light, and others develop electricity and give out flashes of +light during their formation. Slight foundations for scientific fancies, +indeed, but slight is all our knowledge. + +More than a hundred different figures of snow-flakes, all regular and +kaleidoscopic, have been drawn by Scoresby, Lowe, and Glaisher, and may +be found pictured in the encyclopaedias and elsewhere, ranging from the +simplest stellar shapes to the most complicated ramifications. Professor +Tyndall, in his delightful book on "The Glaciers of the Alps," gives +drawings of a few of these snow-blossoms, which he watched falling for +hours, the whole air being filled with them, and drifts of several +inches being accumulated while he watched. "Let us imagine the eye +gifted with microscopic power sufficient to enable it to see the +molecules which composed these starry crystals; to observe the solid +nucleus formed and floating in the air; to see it drawing towards it its +allied atoms, and these arranging themselves as if they moved to music, +and ended with rendering that music concrete." Thus do the Alpine winds, +like Orpheus, build their walls by harmony. + +In some of these frost-flowers the rare and delicate blossom of our wild +_Mitella diphylla_ is beautifully figured. Snow-flakes have been also +found in the form of regular hexagons and other plane figures, as well +as in cylinders and spheres. As a general rule, the intenser the cold +the more perfect the formation, and the most perfect specimens are +Arctic or Alpine in their locality. In this climate the snow seldom +falls when the mercury is much below zero; but the slightest atmospheric +changes may alter the whole condition of the deposit, and decide whether +it shall sparkle like Italian marble, or be dead-white like the statuary +marble of Vermont,--whether it shall be a fine powder which can sift +through wherever dust can, or descend in large woolly masses, tossed +like mouthfuls to the hungry South. + +The most remarkable display of crystallization which I have ever seen +was on the 13th of January, 1859. There had been three days of unusual +cold, but during the night the weather had moderated, and the mercury in +the morning stood at + 14°. About two inches of snow had fallen, and the +trees appeared densely coated with it. It proved, on examination, that +every twig had on the leeward side a dense row of miniature fronds or +fern-leaves executed in snow, with a sharply defined central nerve, or +midrib, and perfect ramification, tapering to a point, and varying in +length from half an inch to three inches. On every post, every rail, and +the corners of every building, the same spectacle was seen; and where +the snow had accumulated in deep drifts, it was still made up of the +ruins of these fairy structures. The white, enamelled landscape was +beautiful, but a close view of the details was far more so. The +crystallizations were somewhat uniform in structure, yet suggested a +variety of natural objects, as feather-mosses, birds' feathers, and the +most delicate lace-corals, but the predominant analogy was with ferns. +Yet they seemed to assume a sort of fantastic kindred with the objects +to which they adhered: thus, on the leaves of spruce-trees and on +delicate lichens they seemed like reduplications of the original growth, +and they made the broad, fiat leaves of the arbor-vitae fully twice as +wide as before. But this fringe was always on one side only, except +when gathered upon dangling fragments of spider's web, or bits of stray +thread: these they entirely encircled, probably because these objects +had twirled in the light wind while the crystals were forming. Singular +disguises were produced: a bit of ragged rope appeared a piece of +twisted lace-work; a knot-hole in a board was adorned with a deep +antechamber of snowy wreaths; and the frozen body of a hairy caterpillar +became its own well-plumed hearse. The most peculiar circumstance was +the fact that single flakes never showed any regular crystallization: +the magic was in the combination; the under sides of rails and boards +exhibited it as unequivocally as the upper sides, indicating that the +phenomenon was created in the lower atmosphere, and was more akin to +frost than snow; and yet the largest snow-banks were composed of nothing +else, and seemed like heaps of blanched iron-filings. + +Interesting observations have been made on the relations between ice and +snow. The difference seems to lie only in the more or less compacted +arrangement of the frozen particles. Water and air, each being +transparent when separate, become opaque when intimately mingled; the +reason being that the inequalities of refraction break up and scatter +every ray of light. Thus, clouds cast a shadow; so does steam; so does +foam: and the same elements take a still denser texture when combined +as snow. Every snow-flake is permeated with minute airy chambers, among +which the light is bewildered and lost; while from perfectly hard and +transparent ice every trace of air disappears, and the transmission +of light is unbroken. Yet that same ice becomes white and opaque when +pulverized, its fragments being then intermingled with air again,--just +as colorless glass may be crushed into white powder. On the other +hand, Professor Tyndall has converted slabs of snow to ice by regular +pressure, and has shown that every Alpine glacier begins as a snow-drift +at its summit, and ends in a transparent ice-cavern below. "The blue +blocks which span the sources of the Arveiron were once powdery snow +upon the slopes of the Col du Géant." + +The varied and wonderful shapes assumed by snow and ice have been best +portrayed, perhaps, by Dr. Kane in his two works; but their resources of +color have been so explored by no one as by this same favored Professor +Tyndall, among his Alps. It appears that the tints which in temperate +regions are seen feebly and occasionally, in hollows or angles of fresh +drifts, become brilliant and constant above the line of perpetual snow, +and the higher the altitude the more lustrous the display. When a staff +was struck into the new-fallen drift, the hollow seemed instantly to +fill with a soft blue liquid, while the snow adhering to the staff took +a complementary color of pinkish yellow, and on moving it up and down +it was hard to resist the impression that a pink flame was rising and +sinking in the hole. The little natural furrows in the drifts appeared +faintly blue, the ridges were gray, while the parts most exposed to +view seemed least illuminated, and as if a light brown dust had been +sprinkled over them. The fresher the snow, the more marked the colors, +and it made no difference whether the sky were cloudless or foggy. Thus +was every white peak decked upon its brow with this tiara of ineffable +beauty. + +The impression is very general that the average quantity of snow has +greatly diminished in America; but it must be remembered that very +severe storms occur only at considerable intervals, and the Puritans did +not always, as boys fancy, step out of the upper windows upon the snow. +In 1717, the ground was covered from ten to twenty feet, indeed; but +during January, 1861, the snow was six feet on a level in many parts of +Maine and New Hampshire, and was probably drifted three times that depth +in particular spots. The greatest storm recorded in England, I believe, +is that of 1814, in which for forty-eight hours the snow fell so +furiously that drifts of sixteen, twenty, and even twenty-four feet were +recorded in various places. An inch an hour is thought to be the average +rate of deposit, though four inches are said to have fallen during the +severe storm of January 3d, 1859. When thus intensified, the "beautiful +meteor of the snow" begins to give a sensation of something formidable; +and when the mercury suddenly falls meanwhile, and the wind rises, there +are sometimes suggestions of such terror in a snowstorm as no summer +thunders can rival. The brief and singular tempest of February 7th, +1861, was a thing to be forever remembered by those who saw it, as I +did, over a wide plain. The sky suddenly appeared to open and let down +whole solid snow-banks at once, which were caught and torn to pieces by +the ravenous winds, and the traveller was instantaneously enveloped in +a whirling mass far denser than any fog; it was a tornado with snow +stirred into it. Standing in the middle of the road, with houses close +on every side, one could see absolutely nothing in any direction, one +could hear no sound but the storm. Every landmark vanished, and it was +no more possible to guess the points of the compass than in mid-ocean. +It was easy to conceive of being bewildered and overwhelmed within a rod +of one's own door. The tempest lasted only an hour; but if it had lasted +a week, we should have had such a storm as occurred on the steppes of +Kirgheez in Siberia, in 1827, destroying two hundred and eighty thousand +five hundred horses, thirty thousand four hundred cattle, a million +sheep, and ten thousand camels,--or as "the thirteen drifty days," +in 1620, which killed nine-tenths of all the sheep in the South of +Scotland. On Eskdale Moor, out of twenty thousand only forty-five were +left alive, and the shepherds everywhere built up huge semicircular +walls of the dead creatures, to afford shelter to the living, till the +gale should end. But the most remarkable narrative of a snowstorm which +I have ever seen was that written by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, +in record of one which took place January 24th, 1790. + +James Hogg at this time belonged to a sort of literary society of young +shepherds, and had set out, the day previous, to walk twenty miles over +the hills to the place of meeting; but so formidable was the look of the +sky that he felt anxious for his sheep, and finally turned back again. +There was at that time only a slight fall of snow, in thin flakes which +seemed uncertain whether to go up or down; the hills were covered with +deep folds of frost-fog, and in the valleys the same fog seemed dark, +dense, and as it were crushed together. An old shepherd, predicting a +storm, bade him watch for a sudden opening through this fog, and expect +a wind from that quarter; yet when he saw such an opening suddenly form +at midnight, (having then reached his own home,) he thought it all a +delusion, as the weather had grown milder and a thaw seemed setting in. +He therefore went to bed, and felt no more anxiety for his sheep; yet +he lay awake in spite of himself, and at two o'clock he heard the +storm begin. It smote the house suddenly, like a great peal of +thunder,--something utterly unlike any storm he had ever before heard. +On his rising and thrusting his bare arm through a hole in the roof, it +seemed precisely as if he had thrust it into a snow-bank, so densely was +the air filled with falling and driving particles. He lay still for an +hour, while the house rocked with the tempest, hoping it might prove +only a hurricane; but as there was no abatement, he wakened his +companion-shepherd, telling him "it was come on such a night or morning +as never blew from the heavens." The other at once arose, and, opening +the door of the shed where they slept, found a drift as high as the +farm-house already heaped between them and its walls, a distance of only +fourteen yards. He floundered through, Hogg soon following, and, finding +all the family up, they agreed that they must reach the sheep as soon as +possible, especially eight hundred ewes that were in one lot together, +at the farthest end of the farm. So, after family-prayers and breakfast, +four of them stuffed their pockets with bread and cheese, sewed their +plaids about them, tied down their hats, and, taking each his staff, set +out on their tremendous undertaking, two hours before day. + +Day dawned before they got three hundred yards from the house. +They could not see each other, and kept together with the greatest +difficulty. They had to make paths with their staves, rolled themselves +over drifts otherwise impassable, and every three or four minutes had to +hold their heads down between their knees to recover breath. They went +in single file, taking the lead by turns. The master soon gave out and +was speechless and semi-conscious for more than an hour, though he +afterwards recovered and held out with the rest. Two of them lost their +head-gear, and Hogg himself fell over a high precipice, but they reached +the flock at half-past ten. They found the ewes huddled together in a +dense body, under ten feet of snow,--packed so closely, that, to the +amazement of the shepherds, when they had extricated the first, the +whole flock walked out one after another, in a body, through the hole. + +How they got them home it is almost impossible, to tell. It was now +noon, and they sometimes could see through the storm for twenty yards, +but they had only one momentary glimpse of the hills through all that +terrible day. Yet Hogg persisted in going by himself afterwards to +rescue some flocks of his own, barely escaping with life from the +expedition; his eyes were sealed up with the storm, and he crossed a +formidable torrent, without knowing it, on a wreath of snow. Two of the +others lost themselves in a deep valley, and would have perished but +for being accidentally heard by a neighboring shepherd, who guided them +home, where the female portion of the family had abandoned all hope of +ever seeing them again. + +The next day was clear, with a cold wind, and they set forth again at +daybreak to seek the remainder of the flock. The face of the country +was perfectly transformed: not a hill was the same, not a brook or lake +could be recognized. Deep glens were filled in with snow, covering the +very tops of the trees; and over a hundred acres of ground, under an +average depth of six or eight feet, they were to look for four or five +hundred sheep. The attempt would have been hopeless but for a dog that +accompanied them: seeing their perplexity, he began snuffing about, and +presently scratching in the snow at a certain point, and then looking +round at his master: digging at this spot, they found a sheep beneath. +And so the dog led them all day, bounding eagerly from one place to +another, much faster than they could dig the creatures out, so that he +sometimes had twenty or thirty holes marked beforehand. In this way, +within a week, they got out every sheep on the farm except four, these +last being buried under a mountain of snow fifty feet deep, on the top +of which the dog had marked their places again and again. In every case +the sheep proved to be alive and warm, though half-suffocated; on being +taken out, they usually bounded away swiftly, and then fell helplessly +in a few moments, overcome by the change of atmosphere; some then died +almost instantly, and others were carried home and with difficulty +preserved, only about sixty being lost in all. Marvellous to tell, the +country-people unanimously agreed afterwards to refer the whole terrific +storm to some secret incantations of poor Hogg's literary society +aforesaid; it was generally maintained that a club of young dare-devils +had raised the Fiend himself among them in the likeness of a black dog, +the night preceding the storm, and the young students actually did not +dare to show themselves at fairs or at markets for a year afterwards. + +Snow-scenes less exciting, but more wild and dreary, may be found in +Alexander Henry's Travels with the Indians, in the last century. In the +winter of 1776, for instance, they wandered for many hundred miles over +the farthest northwestern prairies, where scarcely a white man had +before trodden. The snow lay from four to six feet deep. They went on +snow-shoes, drawing their stores on sleds. The mercury was sometimes +-32°; no fire could keep them warm at night, and often they had no fire, +being scarcely able to find wood enough to melt the snow for drink. They +lay beneath buffalo-skins and the stripped bark of trees: a foot of snow +sometimes fell on them before morning. The sun rose at half past nine +and set at half past two. "The country was one uninterrupted plain, in +many parts of which no wood nor even the smallest shrub was to be seen: +a frozen, sea, of which the little coppices were the islands. That +behind which we had encamped the night before soon sank in the horizon, +and the eye had nothing left save only the sky and snow." Fancy them +encamped by night, seeking shelter in a scanty grove from a wild tempest +of snow; then suddenly charged upon by a herd of buffaloes, thronging in +from all sides of the wood to take shelter likewise,--the dogs barking, +the Indians firing, and still the bewildered beasts rushing madly +in, blinded by the storm, fearing the guns within less than the fury +without, crashing through the trees, trampling over the tents, and +falling about in the deep and dreary snow! No other writer has ever +given us the full desolation of Indian winter-life. Whole families, +Henry said, frequently perished together in such storms. No wonder that +the Aboriginal legends are full of "mighty Peboan, the Winter," and of +Kabibonokka a his lodge of snow-drifts. + +The interest inspired by these simple narratives suggests the +reflection, that literature, which has thus far portrayed so few aspects +of external Nature, has described almost nothing of winter beauty. +In English books, especially, this season is simply forlorn and +disagreeable, dark and dismal. + + "And foul and fierce + All winter drives along the darkened air." + + "When dark December shrouds the transient + day, + And stormy winds are howling in their + ire, + Why com'st not thou?. ... Oh, haste to pay + The cordial visit sullen hours require!" + + "Winter will oft at eve resume the breeze, + Chill the pale morn, and bid his driving + blasts + Deform the day delightless." + + "Now that the fields are dank and ways are + mire, + With whom you might converse, and by the + fire + Help waste the sullen day." + +But our prevalent association with winter, in the Northern United +States, is with something white and dazzling and brilliant; and it is +time to paint our own pictures, and cease to borrow these gloomy alien +tints. One must turn eagerly every season to the few glimpses of +American winter aspects: to Emerson's "Snow-Storm," every word a +sculpture,--to the admirable storm in "Margaret,"--to Thoreau's "Winter +Walk," in the "Dial,"--and to Lowell's "First Snow-Flake." These are +fresh and real pictures, which carry us back to the Greek Anthology, +where the herds come wandering down from the wooded mountains, covered +with snow, and to Homer's aged Ulysses, his wise words falling like the +snows of winter. + +Let me add to this scanty gallery of snow-pictures the quaint lore +contained in one of the multitudinous sermons of Increase Mather, +printed in 1704, entitled "A Brief Discourse concerning the Prayse +due to God for His Mercy in giving Snow like Wool." One can fancy +the delight of the oppressed Puritan boys, in the days of the +nineteenthlies, driven to the place of worship by the tithing-men, +and cooped up on the pulpit-and gallery-stairs under charge of +the constables, at hearing for once a discourse which they could +understand,--snow-balling spiritualized. This was not one of Emerson's +terrible examples,--"the storm real, and the preacher only phenomenal"; +but this setting of snow-drifts, which in our winters lends such grace +to every stern rock and rugged tree, throws a charm even around the grim +theology of the Mathers. Three main propositions, seven subdivisions, +four applications, and four uses, but the wreaths and the gracefulness +are cast about them all,--while the wonderful commonplace-books of those +days, which held everything, had accumulated scraps of winter learning +which cannot be spared from these less abstruse pages. + +Beginning first at the foundation, the preacher must prove, "Prop. I. +_That the Snow is fitly resembled to Wool_. Snow like Wool, sayes the +Psalmist. And not only the Sacred Writers, but others make use of this +Comparison. The Grecians of old were wont to call the Snow, ERIODES +HUDOR _Wooly Water_, or wet Wool. The Latin word _Floccus_ signifies +both a Lock of Wool and a Flake of Snow, in that they resemble one +another. The aptness of the similitude appears in three things." "1. In +respect of the Whiteness thereof." "2. In respect of Softness." "3. In +respect of that Warming Vertue that does attend the Snow." [Here the +reasoning must not be omitted.] "Wool is warm. We say, _As warm as +Wool_. Woolen-cloth has a greater warmth than other Cloathing has. The +wool on Sheep keeps them warm in the Winter season. So when the back of +the Ground is covered with Snow, it keeps it warm. Some mention it as +one of the wonders of the Snow, that tho' it is itself cold, yet it +makes the Earth warm. But Naturalists observe that there is a saline +spirit in it, which is hot, by means whereof Plants under the Snow are +kept from freezing. Ice under the Snow is sooner melted and broken than +other Ice. In some Northern Climates, the wild barbarous People use to +cover themselves over with it to keep them warm. When the sharp Air has +begun to freeze a man's Limbs, Snow will bring heat into them again. If +persons Eat much Snow, or drink immoderately of Snow-water, it will burn +their Bowels and make them black. So that it has a warming vertue in it, +and is therefore fitly compared to Wool." + +Snow has many merits. "In _Lapland_, where there is little or no light +of the sun in the depth of Winter, there are great Snows continually on +the ground, and by the Light of that they are able to Travel from one +place to another... At this day in some hot Countreys, they have their +Snow-cellars, where it is kept in Summer, and if moderately used, is +known to be both refreshing and healthful. There are also Medicinal +Vertues in the snow. A late Learned Physician has found that a Salt +extracted out of snow is a sovereign Remedy against both putrid and +pestilential Feavors. Therefore Men should Praise God, who giveth Snow +like Wool." But there is an account against the snow, also. "Not only +the disease called _Bulimia_, but others more fatal have come out of the +Snow. _Geographers_ give us to understand that in some Countries Vapours +from the Snow have killed multitudes in less than a Quarter of an Hour. +Sometimes both Men and Beasts have been destroyed thereby. Writers speak +of no less than Forty Thousand men killed by a great Snow in one Day." + +It gives a touching sense of human sympathy, to find that we may look at +Orion and the Pleiades through the grave eyes of a Puritan divine. "The +_Seven Stars_ are the Summer Constellation: they bring on the spring +and summer; and _Orion_ is a Winter Constellation, which is attended +with snow and cold, as at this Day.... Moreover, Late _Philosophers_ by +the help of the _Microscope_ have observed the wonderful Wisdom of God +in the Figure of the Snow; each flake is usually of a _Stellate_ Form, +and of six Angles of exact equal length from the Center. It is _like a +little Star_. A great man speaks of it with admiration, that in a Body +so familiar as the Snow is, no Philosopher should for many Ages take +notice of a thing so obvious as the Figure of it. The learned _Kepler_, +who lived in this last Age, is acknowledged to be the first that +acquainted the world with the Sexangular Figure of the Snow." + +Then come the devout applications. "There is not a Flake of Snow that +falls on the Ground without the hand of God, Mat. 10. 29. 30. Not a +Sparrow falls to the Ground, without the Will of your Heavenly Father, +all the Hairs of your head are numbred. So the Great God has numbred all +the Flakes of Snow that covers the Earth. Altho' no man can number them, +that God that tells the number of the Stars has numbred them all.... We +often see it, when the Ground is bare, if God speaks the word, the Earth +is covered with snow in a few Minutes' time. Here is the power of the +Great God. If all the Princes and Great Ones of the Earth should send +their Commands to the Clouds, not a Flake of snow would come from +thence." + +Then follow the "uses," at last,--the little boys in the congregation +having grown uneasy long since, at hearing so much theorizing about +snow-drifts, with so little opportunity of personal practice. "Use I. If +we should Praise God for His giving Snow, surely then we ought to Praise +Him for Spiritual Blessings much more." "Use II. We should Humble our +selves under the Hand of God, when Snow in the season of it is +witheld from us." "Use III. Hence all Atheists will be left Eternally +Inexcusable." "Use IV. We should hence Learn to make a Spiritual +Improvement of the Snow." And then with a closing volley of every text +winch figures under the head of "Snow" in the Concordance, the discourse +comes to an end; and every liberated urchin goes home with his head full +of devout fancies of building a snow-fort, after sunset, from which to +propel consecrated missiles against imaginary or traditional Pequots. + +And the patient reader, too long snow-bound, must be liberated also. +After the winters of deepest drifts the spring often comes most +suddenly; there is little frost in the ground, and the liberated waters, +free without the expected freshet, are filtered into the earth, or climb +on ladders of sunbeams to the sky. The beautiful crystals all melt away, +and the places where they lay are silently made ready to be submerged +in new drifts of summer verdure. These also will be transmuted in their +turn, and so the eternal cycle of the seasons glides along. + +Near my house there is a garden, beneath whose stately sycamores a +fountain plays. Three sculptured girls lift forever upward a chalice +which distils unceasingly a fine and plashing rain; in summer the spray +holds the maidens in a glittering veil, but winter takes the radiant +drops and slowly builds them up into a shroud of ice which creeps +gradually about the three slight figures: the feet vanish, the waist is +encircled, the head is covered, the piteous uplifted arms disappear, as +if each were a Vestal Virgin entombed alive for her transgression. They +vanishing entirely, the fountain yet plays on unseen; all winter the +pile of ice grows larger, glittering organ-pipes of congelation add +themselves outside, and by February a great glacier is formed, at whose +buried centre stand immovably the patient girls. Spring comes at +last, the fated prince, to free with glittering spear these enchanted +beauties; the waning glacier, slowly receding, lies conquered before +their liberated feet; and still the fountain plays. Who can despair +before the iciest human life, when its unconscious symbols are so +beautiful? + + + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +PART V. + + +There was a dull smell of camphor; a further sense of coolness and +prickling wet on Holmes's hot, cracking face and hands; then silence and +sleep again. Sometime--when, he never knew--a gray light stinging his +eyes like pain, and again a slow sinking into warm, unsounded darkness +and unconsciousness. It might be years, it might be ages. Even in +after-life, looking back, he never broke that time into weeks or days: +people might so divide it for him, but he was uncertain, always: it was +a vague vacuum in his memory: he had drifted out of coarse, measured +life into some out-coast of eternity, and slept in its calm. When, by +long degrees, the shock of outer life jarred and woke him, it was feebly +done: he came back reluctant, weak: the quiet clinging to him, as if he +had been drowned in Lethe, and had brought its calming mist with him, +out of the shades. + +The low chatter of voices, the occasional lifting of his head on the +pillow, the very soothing draught, came to him, unreal at first: parts +only of the dull, lifeless pleasure. There was a sharper memory pierced +it sometimes, making him moan and try to sleep,--a remembrance of great, +cleaving pain, of falling giddily, of owing life to some one, and being +angry that he owed it, in the pain. Was it he that had borne it? He did +not know,--nor care: it made him tired to think. Even when he heard the +name Stephen Holmes, it had but a far-off meaning: he never woke enough +to know if it were his or not. He learned, long after, to watch the red +light curling among the shavings in the grate when they made a fire in +the evenings, to listen to the voices of the women by the bed, to know +that the pleasantest belonged to the one with the low, shapeless figure, +and to call her Lois when he wanted a drink, long before he knew +himself. + +They were very long, pleasant days in early December. The sunshine +was pale, but it suited his hurt eyes better: it crept slowly in the +mornings over the snuff-colored carpet on the floor, up the brown +foot-board of the bed, and, when the wind shook the window-curtains, +made little crimson pools of mottled light over the ceiling,--curdling +pools, that he liked to watch: going off, from the clean gray walls and +rustling curtain and transparent crimson, into sleeps that lasted all +day. + +He was not conscious how he knew he was in a hospital: but he did know +it, vaguely; thought sometimes of the long halls outside of the door +with ranges of rooms opening into them, like this, and of very barns of +rooms on the other side of the building with rows of white cots where +the poor patients lay: a stretch of travel from which his brain came +back to his snug fireplace, quite tired, and to Lois sitting knitting by +it. He called the little Welsh-woman, "Sister," too, who used to come in +a stuff dress, and white bands about her face, to give his medicine and +gossip with Lois in the evening: she had a comical voice, like a cricket +chirping. There was another with a real Scotch brogue, who came and +listened sometimes, bringing a basket of undarned stockings: the doctor +told him one day how fearless and skilful she was, every summer going to +New Orleans when the yellow fever came. She died there the next June: +but Holmes never, somehow, could realize a martyr in the cheery, +freckled-faced woman whom he always remembered darning stockings in the +quiet fire-light. It was very quiet; the voices about him were pleasant +and low. If he had drifted from any shock of pain into a sleep like +death, some of the stillness hung about him yet; but the outer life was +homely and fresh and natural. + +The doctor used to talk to him a little; and sometimes one or two of +the patients from the eye-ward would grow tired of sitting about in the +garden-alleys, and would loiter in, if Lois would give them leave; but +their talk wearied him, jarred him as strangely as if one had begun on +politics and price-currents to the silent souls in Hades. It was enough +thought for him to listen to the whispered stories of the sisters in the +long evenings, and, half-heard, try and make an end to them; to look +drowsily down into the garden, where the afternoon sunshine was still so +summer-like that a few hollyhocks persisted in showing their honest red +faces along the walls, and the very leaves that filled the paths would +not wither, but kept up a wholesome ruddy brown. One of the sisters had +a poultry-yard in it, which he could see: the wall around it was of +stone covered with a brown feathery lichen, which every rooster in that +yard was determined to stand on, or perish in the attempt; and Holmes +would watch, through the quiet, bright mornings, the frantic ambition +and the uproarious exultation of the successful aspirant with an amused +smile. + +"One'd thenk," said Lois, sagely, "a chicken never stood on a wall +before, to hear 'em, or a hen laid an egg." + +Nor did Holmes smile once because the chicken burlesqued man: his +thought was too single for that yet. It was long before he thought of +the people who came in quietly to see him as anything but shadows, or +wished for them to come again. Lois, perhaps, was the most real thing in +life then to him: growing conscious, day by day, as he watched her, of +his old life over the gulf. Very slowly conscious: with a weak groping +to comprehend the sudden, awful change that had come on him, and then +forgetting his old life, and the change, and the pity he felt for +himself, in the vague content of the fire-lit room, and his nurse with +her interminable knitting through the long afternoons, while the sky +without would thicken and gray and a few still flakes of snow would come +drifting down to whiten the brown fields,--with no chilly thought of +winter, but only to make the quiet autumn more quiet. Whatever honest, +commonplace affection was in the man came out in a simple way to this +Lois, who ruled his sick whims and crotchets in such a quiet, sturdy +way. Not because she had risked her life to save his; even when he +understood that, he recalled it with an uneasy, heavy gratitude; but the +drinks she made him, and the plot they laid to smuggle in some oysters +in defiance of all rules, and the cheerful pock-marked face he never +forgot. + +Doctor Knowles came sometimes, but seldom: never talked, when he did +come: late in the evening generally: and then would punch his skin, and +look at his tongue, and shake the bottles on the mantel-shelf with a +grunt that terrified Lois into the belief that the other doctor was a +quack, and her patient was totally undone. He would sit, grim enough, +with his feet higher than his head, chewing an unlighted cigar, and +leave them both thankful when he saw proper to go. + +The truth is, Knowles was thoroughly out of place in these little +mending-shops called sick-chambers, where bodies are taken to pieces, +and souls set right. He had no faith in your slow, impalpable cures: +all reforms were to be accomplished by a wrench, from the abolition of +slavery to the pulling of a tooth. + +He had no especial sympathy with Holmes, either: the men were started +in life from opposite poles: and with all the real tenderness under +his surly, rugged habit, it would have been hard to touch him with the +sudden doom fallen on this man, thrown crippled and penniless upon the +world, helpless, it might be, for life. He would have been apt to tell +you, savagely, that "he wrought for it." + +Besides, it made him out of temper to meet the sisters. Knowles could +have sketched for you with a fine decision of touch the _rôle_ played +by the Papal power in the progress of humanity,--how jar it served as a +stepping-stone, and the exact period when it became a wearisome clog. +The world was done with it now, utterly. Its breath was only poisoned, +with coming death. So the homely live charity of these women, their +work, which, no other hands were ready to take, jarred against his +abstract theory, and irritated him, as an obstinate fact always does run +into the hand of a man who is determined to clutch the very heart of a +matter. Truth will not underlie all facts, in this muddle of a world, in +spite of the positive philosophers, you know. + +Don't sneer at Knowles. Your own clear, tolerant brain, that reflects +all men and creeds alike, like colorless water, drawing the truth from +all, is very different, doubtless, from this narrow, solitary soul, who +thought the world waited for him to fight down his one evil before it +went on its slow way. An intolerant fanatic, of course. But the truth he +did know was so terribly real to him, he had suffered from the evil, and +there was such sick, throbbing pity in his heart for men who suffered as +he had done! And then, fanatics must make history for conservative men +to learn from, I suppose. + +If Knowles shunned the hospital, there was another place he shunned +more,--the place where his communist buildings were to have stood. He +went out there once, as one might go alone to bury his dead out of his +sight, the day after the mill was burnt,--looking first at the smoking +mass of hot bricks and charred shingles, so as clearly to understand how +utterly dead his life-long scheme was. He stalked gravely around it, +his hands in his pockets; the hodmen who were raking out their winter's +firewood from the ashes remarking, that "old Knowles didn't seem a bit +cut up about it." Then he went out to the farm he had meant to buy, as I +told you, and looked at it in the same stolid way. It was a dull day in +October. The Wabash crawled moodily past his feet, the dingy prairie +stretched drearily away on the other side, while the heavy-browed +Indiana hills stood solemnly looking down the plateau where the +buildings were to have risen. + +Well, most men have some plan for life, into which all the strength and +the keen, fine feeling of their nature enter; but generally they try to +make it real in early youth, and, balked then, laugh ever afterwards at +their own folly. This poor old Knowles had begun to block out his dream +when he was a gaunt, gray-haired man of sixty. I have known men so build +their heart's blood and brains into their work, that, when it tumbled +down, their lives went with it. His fell that dull day in October; but +if it hurt him, no man knew it. He sat there, looking at the broad +plateau, whistling softly to himself, a long time. He had meant that +a great many hearts should be made better and happier there; he had +dreamed----God knows what he had dreamed, of which this reality was the +foundation,--of how much freedom, or beauty, or kindly life this was the +heart or seed. It was all over now. All the afternoon the muddy sky hung +low over the hills and dull prairie, while he sat there looking at the +dingy gloom: just as you and I have done, perhaps, some time, thwarted +in some true hope,--sore and bitter against God, because He did not see +how much His universe needed our pet reform. + +He got up at last, and without a sigh went slowly away, leaving the +courage and self-reliance of his life behind him, buried with that one +beautiful, fair dream of life. He never came back again. People said +Knowles was quieter since his loss; but I think only God saw the depth +of the difference. When he was leaving the plateau, that day, he looked +back at it, as if to say good-bye,--not to the dingy fields and river, +but to the Something he had nursed so long in his rugged heart, and +given up now forever. As he looked, the warm, red sun came out, lighting +up with a heartsome warmth the whole gray day. Some blessing power +seemed to look at him from the gloomy hills, the prairie, and the river, +which he was to see again. His hope accomplished could not have looked +at him with surer content and fulfilment. He turned away, ungrateful and +moody. Long afterwards he remembered the calm and brightness which his +hand had not been raised to make, and understood the meaning of its +promise. + +He went to work now in earnest: he had to work for his bread-and-butter, +you understand? Restless, impatient at first; but we will forgive him +that: you yourself were not altogether submissive, perhaps, when the +slow-built hope of life was destroyed by some chance, as you called it, +no more controllable than this paltry burning of a mill. Yet, now that +the great hope was gone on which his brain had worked with rigid, fierce +intentness, now that his hands were powerless to redeem a perishing +class, he had time to fall into careless, kindly habit: he thought it +wasted time, remorsefully, of course. He was seized with a curiosity to +know what plan in living these people had who crossed his way on the +streets; if they were disappointed, like him. He went sometimes to read +the papers to old Tim Poole, who was bed-ridden, and did not pish or +pshaw once at his maundering about secession or the misery in his back. +Went to church sometimes: the sermons were bigotry, always, to his +notion, sitting on a back seat, squirting tobacco-juice about him; but +the simple, old-fashioned hymns brought the tears to his eyes:--"They +sounded to him like his mother's voice, singing in paradise: he hoped +she could not see how things had gone on here,--how all that was honest +and strong in his life had fallen in that infernal mill." Once or twice +he went down Crane Alley, and lumbered up three pair of stairs to the +garret where Kitts had his studio,--got him orders, in fact, for two +portraits; and when that pale-eyed young man, in a fit of confidence, +one night, with a very red face drew back the curtain from his grand +"Fall of Chapultepec," and watched him with a lean and hungry look, +Knowles, who knew no more about painting than a gorilla, walked about, +looking through his fist at it, saying, "how fine the _chiaroscuro_ was, +and that it was a devilish good thing altogether." "Well, well," he +soothed his conscience, going down-stairs, "maybe that bit of canvas is +as much to that poor chap as the phalanstery was once to another fool." +And so went on through the gas-lit streets into his parishes in cellars +and alleys, with a sorer heart, but cheerfuller words, now that he had +nothing but words to give. + +The only place where he hardened his heart was in the hospital with +Holmes. After he had wakened to full consciousness, Knowles thought the +man a beast to sit there uncomplaining day after day, cold and grave, +as if the lifeful warmth of the late autumn were enough for him. Did +he understand the iron fate laid on him? Where was the strength of the +self-existent soul now? Did he know that it was a balked, defeated +life, that waited for him, vacant of the triumphs he had planned? "The +self-existent soul! stopped in its growth by chance, this omnipotent +deity,--the chance burning of a mill!" Knowles muttered to himself, +looking at Holmes. With a dim flash of doubt, as he said it, whether +there might not, after all, be a Something,--some deep of calm, of +eternal order, where these coarse chances, these wrestling souls, these +creeds, Catholic or Humanitarian, even that namby-pamby Kitts and his +picture, might be unconsciously working out their part. Looking out +of the hospital-window, he saw the deep of the stainless blue, +impenetrable, with the stars unconscious in their silence of the maddest +raging of the petty world. There was such calm! such infinite love and +justice! it was around, above him; it held him, it held the world,--all +Wrong, all Right! For an instant the turbid heart of the man cowered, +awe-struck, as yours or mine has done when some swift touch of music or +human love gave us a cleaving glimpse of the great I AM. The next, he +opened the newspaper in his hand. What part in the eternal order could +_that_ hold? or slavery, or secession, or civil war? No harmony could +be infinite enough to hold such discords, he thought, pushing the whole +matter from him in despair. Why, the experiment of self-government, the +problem of the ages, was crumbling in ruin! So he despaired just as Tige +did the night the mill fell about his ears, in full confidence that the +world had come to an end now, without hope of salvation,--crawling out +of his cellar in dumb amazement, when the sun rose as usual the next +morning. + +Knowles sat, peering at Holmes over his paper, watching the languid +breath that showed how deep the hurt had been, the maimed body, the face +outwardly cool, watchful, reticent as before. He fancied the slough of +disappointment into which God had crushed the soul of this man: would +he struggle out? Would he take Miss Herne as the first step in his +stairway, or be content to be flung down in vigorous manhood to the +depth of impotent poverty? He could not tell if the quiet on Holmes's +face were stolid defiance or submission: the dumb kings might have +looked thus beneath the feet of Pharaoh. When he walked over the floor, +too, weak as he was, it was with the old iron tread. He asked Knowles +presently what business he had gone into. + +"My old hobby in an humble way,--the House of Refuge." + +They both laughed. + +"Yes, it is true. The janitor points me out to visitors as +'under-superintendent, a philanthropist in decayed circumstances.' +Perhaps it is my life-work,"--growing sad and earnest. + +"If you can inoculate these infant beggars and thieves with your theory, +it will be practice when you are dead." + +"I think that," said Knowles, gravely, his eye kindling,--"I think +that." + +"As thankless a task as that of Moses," said the other, watching him +curiously. "For _you_ will not see the pleasant land,--_you_ will not go +over." + +The old man's flabby face darkened. + +"I know," he said. + +He glanced involuntarily out at the blue, and the clear-shining, eternal +stars. If he could but believe in the To-Morrow! + +"I suppose," he said, after a while, cheerfully, "I must content myself +with Lois's creed, here,--'It'll come right some time.'" + +Lois looked up from the saucepan she was stirring, her face growing +quite red, nodding emphatically some half-dozen times. + +"Do you find your fallow field easily worked?" + +Knowles fidgeted uneasily. + +"No. Fact is, I'm beginning to think there's a good deal of an obstacle +in blood. I find difficulty, much difficulty, Sir, in giving the +youngest child true ideas of absolute freedom and unselfish heroism." + +"You teach them by reason alone?" said Holmes, gravely. + +"Well,--of course,--that is the true theory; but I--I find it necessary +to have them whipped, Mr. Holmes." + +Holmes stooped suddenly to pat Tiger, hiding a furtive smile. The old +man went on, anxiously,-- + +"Old Mr. Howth says that is the end of all self-governments: from +anarchy to despotism, he says. Old people are apt to be set in their +ways, you know. Honestly, we do not find unlimited freedom answer in the +House. I hope much from a woman's assistance: I have destined her for +this work always: she has great latent power of sympathy and endurance, +such as can bring the Christian teaching home to these wretches." + +"The Christian?" said Holmes. + +"Well, yes. I am not a believer myself, you know; but I find that it +takes hold of these people more vitally than more abstract faiths: I +suppose because of the humanity of Jesus. In Utopia, of course, we shall +live from scientific principles; but they do not answer in the House." + +"Who is the woman?" asked Holmes, carelessly. + +The other watched him keenly. + +"She is coming for five years. Margaret Howth." + +He patted the dog with the same hard, unmoved touch. + +"It is a religious duty with her. Besides, she must do something. They +have been almost starving since the mill was burnt." + +Holmes's face was bent; he could not see it. When he looked up, Knowles +thought it more rigid, immovable than before. + +When Knowles was going away, Holmes said to him,-- + +"When does Margaret Howth go into that devils' den?" + +"The House? On New-Year's." The scorn in him was too savage to be +silent. "You will have fulfilled your design by that time,--of +marriage?" + +Holmes was leaning on the mantel-shelf; his very lips were pale. + +"Yes, I shall, I shall,"--in his low, hard tone. + +Some sudden dream of warmth and beauty flashed before his gray eyes, +lighting them as Knowles never had seen before. + +"Miss Herne is beautiful,--let me congratulate you in Western fashion." + +The old man did not hide his sneer. + +Holmes bowed. + +"I thank you, for her." + +Lois held the candle to light the Doctor out of the long passages. + +"Yoh hevn't seen Barney out 't Mr. Howth's, Doctor? He's ther' now." + +"No. When shall you have done waiting on this--man, Lois? God help you, +child!" + +Lois's quick instinct answered,-- + +"He's very kind. He's like a woman fur kindness to such as me. When I +come to die, I'd like eyes such as his to look at, tender, pitiful." + +"Women are fools alike," grumbled the Doctor. "Never mind. 'When you +come to die?' What put that into your head? Look up." + +The child sheltered the flaring candle with her hand. + +"I've no tho't o' dyin'," she said, laughing. + +There was a gray shadow about her eyes, a peaked look to the face, he +never saw before, looking at her now with a physician's eyes. + +"Does anything hurt you here?" touching her chest. + +"It's better now. It was that night o' th' fire. Th' breath o' th' mill, +I thenk,--but it's nothin'." + +"Burning copperas? Of course it's better. Oh, that's nothing!" he said, +cheerfully. + +When they reached the door, he held out his hand, the first time he ever +had done it to her, and then waited, patting her on the head. + +"I think it'll come right, Lois," he said, dreamily, looking out into +the night. "You're a good girl. I think it'll all come right. For you +and me. Some time. Good night, child." + +After he was a long way down the street, he turned to nod good-night +again to the comical little figure in the doorway. + +If Knowles hated anybody that night, he hated the man he had left +standing there with pale, heavy jaws, and heart of iron; he could have +cursed him, standing there. He did not see how, after he was left alone, +the man lay with his face to the wall, holding his bony hand to his +forehead, with a look in his eyes that if you had seen, you would have +thought his soul had entered on that path whose steps take hold on hell. + +There was no struggle in his face; whatever was the resolve he had +reached in the solitary hours when he had stood so close upon the +borders of death, it was unshaken now; but the heart, crushed and +stifled before, was taking its dire revenge. If ever it had hungered, +through the cold, selfish days, for God's help, or a woman's love, it +hungered now with a craving like death. If ever he had thought how bare +and vacant the years would be, going down to the grave with lips that +never had known a true kiss of real affection, he remembered it now, +when it was too late, with bitterness such as wrings a man's heart but +once in a lifetime. If ever he had denied to his own soul this Margaret, +called her alien or foreign, he called her now, when it was too late, to +her rightful place; there was not a thought nor a hope in the darkest +depths of his nature that did not cry out for her help that night,--for +her, a part of himself,--now, when it was too late. He went over all the +years gone, and pictured the years to come; he remembered the money +that was to help his divine soul upward; he thought of it with a curse, +pacing the floor of the narrow room, slowly and quietly. Looking out +into the still starlight and the quaint garden, he tried to fancy this +woman as he knew her, after the restless power of her soul should have +been chilled and starved into a narrow, lifeless duty. He fancied her +old, and stern, and sick of life, she that might have been----what +might they not have been, together? And he had driven her to this for +money,--money! + +It was of no use to repent of it now. He had frozen the love out of her +heart, long ago. He remembered (all that he did remember of the blank +night after he was hurt) that he had seen her white, worn-out face +looking down at him; that she did not touch him; and that, when, one of +the sisters told her she might take her place, and sponge his forehead, +she said, bitterly, she had no right to do it, that he was no friend +of hers. He saw and heard that, unconscious to all else; he would have +known it, if he had been dead, lying there. It was too late now: why +need he think of what might have been? Yet he did think of it through +the long winter's night,--each moment his thought of the life to come, +or of her, growing more tender and more bitter. Do you wonder at the +remorse of this man? Wait, then, until you lie alone, as he had done, +through days as slow, revealing as ages, face to face with God and +death. Wait until you go down so close to eternity that the life you +have lived stands out before you in the dreadful bareness in which God +sees it,--as you shall see it some day from heaven or hell: money, and +hate, and love will stand in their true light then. Yet, coming back to +life again, he held whatever resolve he had reached down there with his +old iron will: all the pain he bore in looking back to the false life +before, or the ceaseless remembrance that it was too late now to atone +for that false life, made him the stronger to abide by that resolve, to +go on the path self-chosen, let the end be what it might. Whatever the +resolve was, it did not still the gnawing hunger in his heart that +night, which every trifle made more fresh and strong. + +There was a wicker-basket that Lois had left by the fire, piled up with +bits of cloth and leather out of which she was manufacturing Christmas +gifts; a pair of great woollen socks, which one of the sisters had told +him privately Lois meant for him, lying on top. As with all of her +people, Christmas was the great day of the year to her. Holmes could not +but smile, looking at them. Poor Lois!--Christmas would be here soon, +then? And sitting by the covered fire, he went back to Christmases gone, +the thought of all others that brought her nearest and warmest to him: +since he was a boy they had been together on that day. With his hand +over his eyes he sat quiet by the fire until morning. He heard some boy +going by in the gray dawn call to another that they would have holiday +on Christmas. It was coming, he thought, rousing himself,--but never +as it had been: that could never be again. Yet it was strange how this +thought of Christmas took hold of him,--famished his heart. As it +approached in the slow-coming winter, the days growing shorter, and +the nights longer and more solitary, so Margaret became more real to +him,--not rejected and lost, but as the wife she might have been, +with the simple passionate love she gave him once. The thought grew +intolerable to him; yet there was not a homely pleasure of those years +gone, when the old school-master kept high holiday on Christmas, that he +did not recall and linger over with a boyish yearning, now that these +things were over forever. He chafed under his weakness. If the day would +but come when he could go out and conquer his fate, as a man ought to +do! On Christmas eve he would put an end to these torturing taunts, his +soul should not be balked longer of its rightful food. For I fear that +even now Stephen Holmes thought of his own need and his own hunger. + +He watched Lois knitting and patching her poor little gifts, with a +vague feeling that every stitch made the time a moment shorter until he +should be free, with his life in his hand again. She left him at last, +sorrowfully enough, but he made her go: he fancied the close air of the +hospital was hurting her, seeing at night the strange shadow growing on +her face. I do not think he ever said to her that he knew all she had +done for him; but no dog or woman that Stephen Holmes loved could look +into his eyes and doubt that love. Sad, masterful eyes, such as are seen +but once or twice in a lifetime: no woman but would wish, like Lois, for +such eyes to be near her when she came to die, for her to remember the +world's love in. She came hobbling back every day to see him after she +had gone, and would stay to make his soup, telling him, child-like, how +many days it was until Christmas. He knew that, as well as she, waiting +through the cold, slow hours, in his solitary room. He thought sometimes +she had some eager petition to offer him, when she stood watching him +wistfully, twisting her hands together; but she always smothered it +with a sigh, and, tying her little woollen cap, went away, walking more +slowly, he thought, every day. + +Do you remember how Christmas came last year? how there was a waiting +pause, when the great States stood still, and from the peoples came the +first awful murmurs of the storm that was to shake the earth? how men's +hearts failed them for fear, how women turned pale and held their +children closer to their breasts, while they heard a far cry of +lamentation for their country that had fallen? Do you remember how, +through the fury of men's anger, the storehouses of God were opened for +that land? how the very sunshine gathered new splendors, the rains more +fruitful moisture, until the earth poured forth an unknown fulness +of life and beauty? Was there no promise there, no prophecy? Do you +remember, while the very life of the people hung in doubt before them, +while the angel of death came again to pass over the land, and there was +no blood on any door-post to keep him from that house, how slowly +the old earth folded in her harvest, dead, till it should waken to a +stronger life? how quietly, as the time came near for the birth of +Christ, this old earth made ready for his coming, heedless of the clamor +of men? how the air grew fresher, day by day, and the gray deep silently +opened for the snow to go down and screen and whiten and make holy that +fouled earth? I think the slow-falling snow did not fail in its quiet +warning; for I remember that men, too, in a feeble way tried to make +ready for the birth of Christ. There was a healthier glow than terror +stirred in their hearts; because of the vague, great dread without, it +may be, they drew closer together round household fires, were kindlier +in the good old-fashioned way; old friendships were wakened, old times +talked over, fathers and mothers and children planned homely ways to +show the love in their hearts and to welcome in Christmas. Who knew but +it might be the last? Let us be thankful for that happy Christmas-day. +What if it were the last? What if, when another comes, and another, +some voice, the kindest and cheerfullest then, shall never say +"Happy Christmas" to us again? Let us be thankful for that day the +more,--accept it the more as a sign of that which will surely come. + +Holmes, even, in his dreary room and drearier thought, felt the warmth +and expectant stir creeping through the land as the day drew near. Even +in the hospital, the sisters were in a busy flutter, decking their +little chapel with flowers, and preparing a Christmas _fête_ for their +patients. The doctor, as he bandaged his broken arm, hinted at faint +rumors in the city of masquerades and concerts. Even Knowles, who had +not visited the hospital for weeks, relented and came back, moody and +grim. He brought Kitts with him, and started him on talking of how +they kept Christmas in Ohio on his mother's farm; and the poor soul, +encouraged by the silence of two of his auditors, and the intense +interest of Lois in the background, mazed on about Santa-Claus trees +and Virginia reels until the clock struck twelve and Knowles began to +snore. + +Christmas was coming. As he stood, day after day, looking out of +the gray window, he could see the signs of its coming even in the +shop-windows glittering with miraculous toys, in the market-carts +with their red-faced drivers and heaps of ducks and turkeys, in every +stage-coach or omnibus that went by crowded with boys home for the +holidays, hallooing for Bell or Lincoln, forgetful that the election was +over and Carolina out. + +Pike came to see him one day, his arms full of a bundle, which turned +out to be an accordion for Sophy. + +"Christmas, you know," he said, taking off the brown paper, while he was +cursing the Cotton States the hardest, and gravely kneading at the keys, +and stretching it until he made as much discord as five Congressmen. "I +think Sophy will like that," he said, tying it up carefully. + +"I am sure she will," said Holmes,--and did not think the man a fool for +one moment. + +Always going back, this Holmes, when he was alone, to the certainty that +homecomings or children's kisses or Christmas feasts were not for such +as he,--never could be, though he sought for the old time in bitterness +of heart; and so, dully remembering his resolve, and waiting for +Christmas eve, when, he might end it all. Not one of the myriads of +happy children listened more intently to the clock clanging off hour +after hour than the silent, stern man who had no hope in that day that +was coming. + +He learned to watch even for poor Lois coming up the corridor every +day,--being the only tie that bound the solitary man to the inner world +of love and warmth. The deformed little body was quite alive with +Christmas now, and brought its glow with her, in her weak way. Different +from the others, he saw with a curious interest. The day was more real +to her than to them. Not because, only, the care she had of everybody +and everybody had of her seemed to reach its culmination of kindly +thought for the Christmas time; not because, as she sat talking slowly, +stopping for breath, her great fear seemed to be that she would not have +gifts enough to go round; but deeper than that,--the day was real to +her. As if it were actually true that the Master in whom she believed +was freshly born into the world once a year, to waken all that was +genial and noble and pure in the turbid, worn-out hearts; as if new +honor and pride and love did come with the breaking of Christmas morn. +It was a beautiful faith; he almost wished it were his. (Perhaps in that +day when the under-currents of life shall be bared, this man with his +self-reliant soul will know the subtile instincts that drew him to true +manhood and feeling by the homely practice of poor Lois. He did not see +them now.) A beautiful faith! it gave a meaning to the old custom of +gifts and kind words. _Love_ coming into the world!--the idea pleased +his artistic taste, being simple and sublime. Lois used to tell him, +while she feebly tried to set his room in order, of all her plans,--of +how Sam Polston was to be married on New-Year's,--but most of all of the +Christmas coming out at the old schoolmaster's: how the old house had +been scrubbed from top to bottom, was fairly glowing with shining paint +and hot fires,--how Margaret and her mother worked, in terror lest the +old man should find out how poor and bare it was,--how he and Joel had +some secret enterprise on foot at the far end of the plantation out in +the swamp, and were gone nearly all day. + +She ceased coming at last. One of the sisters went out to see her, and +told him she was too weak to walk, but meant to be better soon,--quite +well by the holidays. He wished the poor thing had told him what she +wanted of him,--wished it anxiously, with a dull presentiment of evil. + +The days went by, cold and slow. He watched grimly the preparations +the hospital physician was silently making in his case, for fever, +inflammation. + +"I must be strong enough to go out cured on Christmas eve," he said to +him one day, coolly. + +The old doctor glanced up shrewdly. He was an old Alsatian, very +plain-spoken. + +"You say so?" he mumbled. "Chut! Then you will go. There are +some--bull-dog men. They do what they please,--they never die unless +they choose, begar! We know them in our practice, Herr Holmes!" + +Holmes laughed. Some acumen there, he thought, in medicine or mind: as +for himself, it was true enough; whatever success he had gained in life +had been by no flush of enthusiasm or hope; a dogged persistence of +"holding on," rather. + +Christmas eve came at last; bright, still, frosty. "Whatever he had to +do, let it be done quickly "; but not till the set hour came. So he laid +his watch on the table beside him, waiting until it should mark the time +he had chosen: the ruling passion of self-control as strong in this turn +of life's tide as it would be in its ebb, at the last. The old doctor +found him alone in the dreary room, coming in with the frosty breath of +the eager street about him. A grim, chilling sight enough, as solitary +and impenetrable as the Sphinx. He did not like such faces in this +genial and gracious time, so hurried over his examination. The eye was +cool, the pulse steady, the man's body, battered though it was, strong +in its steely composure. "_Ja wohl!--ja wohl_!" he went on chuffily, +summing up: latent fever,--the very lips were blue, dry as husks; "he +would go,--_oui_?--then go!"--with a chuckle. "All right, _glück zu_!" +And so shuffled out latent fever? Doubtless, yet hardly from broken +bones, the doctor thought,--with no suspicion of the subtile, +intolerable passion smouldering in every drop of this man's phlegmatic +blood. + +Evening came at last. He stopped until the cracked bell of the chapel +had done striking the Angelus, and then put on his overcoat, and went +out. The air was cold and pungent. The crowded city seemed wakening to +some keen enjoyment; even his own weak, deliberate step rang on the +icy pavement as if it wished to rejoice with the rest. I said it was a +trading city: so it was, but the very trade to-day had a jolly Christmas +face on; the surly old banks and pawnbrokers' shops had grown ashamed +of their doings, and shut their doors, and covered their windows with +frosty trees, and cathedrals, and castles; the shops opened their +hearts; some child's angel had touched them, and they flushed out into +a magic splendor of Christmas trees, and lights, and toys; Santa Claus +might have made his head-quarters in any one of them. As for children, +you stumbled over them at every step, quite weighed down with the +heaviness of their joy, and the money burning their pockets; the acrid +old brokers and pettifoggers, that you met with a chill on other days, +had turned into jolly fathers of families, and lounged laughing along +with half a dozen little hands pulling them into candy-stores or +toy-shops: all the churches whose rules permitted them to show their +deep rejoicing in a simple way had covered their cold stone walls with +evergreens and wreaths of glowing fire-berries: the child's angel had +touched them too, perhaps,--not unwisely. + +He passed crowds of thin-clad women looking in through open doors, with +red cheeks and hungry eyes, at red-hot stoves within, and a placard, +"Christmas dinners for the poor, gratis"; out of every window on the +streets came a ruddy light, and a spicy smell; the very sunset sky had +caught the reflection of the countless Christmas fires, and flamed up to +the zenith, blood-red as cinnabar. + +Holmes turned down one of the back streets: he was going to see Lois, +first of all. I hardly know why: the child's angel may have touched him, +too; or his heart, full of a yearning pity for the poor cripple, who, +he believed now, had given her own life for his, may have plead for +indulgence, as men remember their childish prayers, before going into +battle. He came at last, in the quiet lane where she lived, to her +little brown frame-shanty, to which you mounted by a flight of wooden +steps: there were two narrow windows at the top, hung with red curtains; +he could hear her feeble voice singing within. As he turned to go up +the steps, he caught sight of something crouched underneath them in the +dark, hiding from him: whether a man--or a dog he could not see. He +touched it. + +"What d' ye want, Mas'r?" said a stifled voice. + +He touched it again with his stick. + +The man stood upright, back in the shadow: it was old Yare. + +"Had ye any word wi' me, Mas'r?" + +He saw the negro's face grow gray with fear. + +"Come out, Yare," he said, quietly. "Any word? What word is arson, eh?" + +The man did not move. Holmes touched him with the stick. + +"Come out," he said. + +He came out, looking gaunt, as with famine. + +"I'll not flurr myself," he said, crunching his ragged hat in his +hands,--"I'll not." + +He drove the hat down upon his head, and looked up with a sullen +fierceness. + +"Yoh've got me, an' I'm glad of 't. I'm tired, fearin'. I was born for +hangin', they say," with a laugh. "But I'll see my girl. I've waited +hyur, runnin' the resk,--not darin' to see her, on 'count o' yoh. I +thort I was safe on Christmas-day,--but what's Christmas to yoh or me?" + +Holmes's quiet motion drove him up the steps before him. He stopped at +the top, his cowardly nature getting the better of him, and sat down +whining on the upper step. + +"Be marciful, Mas'r! I wanted to see my girl,--that's all. She's all I +hev." + +Holmes passed him and went in. Was Christmas nothing to him? How did +this foul wretch know that they stood alone, apart from the world? + +It was a low, cheerful little room that he came into, stooping his tall +head: a tea-kettle humming and singing on the wood-fire, that lighted up +the coarse carpet and the gray walls, but spent its warmest heat on +the low settee where Lois lay sewing, and singing to herself. She was +wrapped up in a shawl, but the hands, he saw, were worn to skin and +bone; the gray shadow was heavier on her face, and the brooding brown +eyes were like a tired child's. She tried to jump up when she saw him, +and not being able, leaned on one elbow, half-crying as she laughed. + +"It's the best Christmas gift of all I I can hardly b'lieve +it!"--touching the strong hand humbly that was held out to her. + +Holmes had a gentle touch, I told you, for dogs and children and women: +so, sitting quietly by her, he listened with untiring patience to her +long story; looked at the heap of worthless trifles she had patched up +for gifts, wondering secretly at the delicate sense of color and grace +betrayed in the bits of flannel and leather; and took, with a grave look +of wonder, his own package, out of which a bit of woollen thread peeped +forth. + +"Don't look till to-morrow mornin'," she said, anxiously, as she lay +back trembling and exhausted. + +The breath of the mill! The fires of want and crime had finished their +work on her life,--so! She caught the meaning of his face quickly. + +"It's nothin'," she said, eagerly. "I'll be strong by New-Year's; it's +only a day or two rest I need. I've no tho't o' givin' up." + +And to show how strong she was, she got up and hobbled about to make the +tea. He had not the heart to stop her; she did not want to die,--why +should she? the world was a great, warm, beautiful nest for the little +cripple,--why need he show her the cold without? He saw her at last go +near the door where old Yare sat outside, then heard her breathless cry, +and a sob. A moment after the old man came into the room, carrying her, +and, laying her down on the settee, chafed her hands and misshapen head. + +"What ails her?" he said, looking up, bewildered, to Holmes. "We've +killed her among us." + +She laughed, though the great eyes were growing dim, and drew his coarse +gray hair into her hand. + +"Yoh wur long comin'," she said, weakly. "I hunted fur yoh every +day,--every day." + +The old man had pushed her hair back, and was reading the sunken face +with a wild fear. + +"What ails her?" he cried. "Ther' 's somethin' gone wi' my girl. Was it +my fault? Lo, was it my fault?" + +"Be quiet!" said Holmes, sternly. + +"Is it _that_?" he gasped, shrilly. "My God! not that! I can't bear it!" + +Lois soothed him, patting his face childishly. + +"Am I dyin'?" she asked, with a frightened look at Holmes. + +He told her no, cheerfully. + +"I've no tho't o' dyin'. I dunnot thenk o' dyin'. Don't mind, dear! +Yoh'll stay with me, fur good?" + +The man's paroxysm of fear for her over, his spite and cowardice came +uppermost. + +"It's him," he yelped, looking fiercely at Holmes. "He's got my life in +his hands. He kin take it. What does he keer fur me or my girl? I'll not +stay wi' yoh no longer, Lo. Mornin' he'll send me t' th' lock-up, an' +after"---- + +"I care for _you_, child," said Holmes, stooping suddenly close to the +girl's livid face. + +"To-morrow?" she muttered. "My Christmas-day?" + +He wet her face while he looked over at the wretch whose life he held +in his hands. It was the iron rule of Holmes's nature to be just; but +to-night dim perceptions of a deeper justice than law opened before +him,--problems he had no time to solve: the sternest fortress is liable +to be taken by assault,--and the dew of the coming morn was on his +heart. + +"So as I've hunted fur him!" she whispered, weakly. "I didn't think it +wud come to this. So as I loved him! Oh, Mr. Holmes, he's hed a pore +chance in livin',--forgive him this! Him that'll come to-morrow'd say to +forgive him this." + +She caught the old man's head in her arms with an agony of tears, and +held it tight. + +"I hev hed a pore chance," he said, looking up,--"that's God's truth, +Lo! I dunnot keer fur that: it's too late goin' back.--Mas'r," he +mumbled, servilely, "it's on'y a little time t' th' end: let me stay +with Lo. She loves me,--Lo does." + +A look of disgust crept over Holmes's face. + +"Stay, then," he muttered,--"I wash my hands of you, you old scoundrel!" + +He bent over Lois with his rare, pitiful smile. + +"Have I his life in my hands? I put it into yours,--so, child! Now put +it all out of your head, and look up here to wish me good-bye." + +She looked up cheerfully, hardly conscious how deep the danger had been; +but the flush had gone from her face, leaving it sad and still. + +"I must go to keep Christmas, Lois," he said, playfully. + +"Yoh're keepin' it here, Sir." She held her weak gripe on his hand +still, with the vague outlook in her eyes that came there sometimes. +"Was it fur me yoh done it?" + +"Yes, for you." + +She turned her eyes slowly around, bewildered. The clear evening light +fell on Holmes, as he stood there looking down at the dying little +lamiter: a powerful figure, with a face supreme, masterful, but tender: +you will find no higher type of manhood. Did God make him of the same +blood as the vicious, cringing wretch crouching to hide his black face +at the other side of the bed? Some such thought came into Lois's brain, +and vexed her, bringing the tears to her eyes: he was her father, you +know. + +"It's all wrong," she muttered,--"oh, it's far wrong! Ther' 's One could +make them 'like. Not me." + +She stroked her father's head once, and then let it go. Holmes glanced +out, and saw the sun was down. + +"Lois," he said, "I want you to wish me a happy Christmas, as people +do." + +Holmes had a curious vein of superstition: he knew no lips so pure as +this girl's, and he wanted them to wish him good-luck that night. She +did it, laughing and growing red: riddles of life did not trouble her +childish fancy long. And so he left her, with a dull feeling, as I said +before, that it was good to say a prayer before the battle came on. For +men who believed in prayers: for him, it was the same thing to make one +day for Lois happier. + + + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY. + + +IV. + + +In presenting Classification as the subject of a series of papers in +the "Atlantic Monthly," I am aware that I am drawing largely upon the +patience of its readers; since the technical nature of the topic renders +many details necessary which cannot be otherwise than dry to any but +professional naturalists. Yet believing, as I do, that classification, +rightly understood, means simply the creative plan of God as expressed +in organic forms, I feel the importance of attempting at least to +present it in a popular guise, divested, as far as possible, of +technicalities, while I would ask the indulgence of my readers for such +scientific terms and details as cannot well be dispensed with, begging +them to remember that a long and tedious road may bring us suddenly upon +a glorious prospect, and that a clearer mental atmosphere and a new +intellectual sensation may well reward us for a little weariness in the +outset. Besides, the time has come when scientific truth must cease to +be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common life +of the world; for we have reached the point where the results of science +touch the very problem of existence, and all men listen for the solving +of that mystery. When it will come, and how, none can say; but this much +at least is certain, that all our researches are leading up to that +question, and mankind will never rest till it is answered. If, then, the +results of science are of such general interest for the human race, if +they are gradually interpreting the purposes of the Deity in creation, +and the relation of man to all the past, then it is well that all +should share in its teachings, and that it should not be kept, like the +learning of the Egyptians, for an exclusive priesthood who may expound +the oracle according to their own theories, but should make a part of +all our intellectual culture and of our common educational systems. With +this view, I will endeavor to simplify as far as may be my illustrations +of the different groups of the Animal Kingdom, beginning with a more +careful analysis of those structural features on which classes are +founded. + +I have said that the Radiates are the lowest type among animals, +embodying, under an infinite variety of forms, that plan in which all +parts bear definite relations to a vertical central axis. The three +classes of Radiates are distinguished from each other by three distinct +ways of executing that plan. I dwell upon this point; for we shall never +arrive at a clear understanding of the different significance and value +of the various divisions of the Animal Kingdom, till we appreciate the +distinction between the structural conception and the material means by +which it is expressed. A comparison will, perhaps, better explain my +meaning. There are certain architectonic types, including edifices of +different materials, with an infinite variety of architectural details +and external ornaments; but the flat roof and the colonnade are typical +of all Grecian temples, whether built of marble or granite or wood, +whether Doric or Ionic or Corinthian, whether simple and massive or +light and ornamented; and, in like manner, the steep roof and pointed +arch are the typical characters of all Gothic cathedrals, whatever be +the material or the details. The architectural conception remains +the same in all its essential elements, however the more superficial +features vary. Such relations as these edifices bear to the +architectural idea that includes them all, do classes bear to the +primary divisions or branches of the Animal Kingdom. + +The three classes of Radiates, beginning with the lowest, and naming +them in their relative order, are Polyps, Acalephs or Jelly-Fishes, and +Echinoderms or Star-Fishes and Sea-Urchins. In the Polyps the plan is +executed in the simplest manner by a sac, the sides of which are folded +inward, at regular intervals from top to bottom, so as to divide it by +vertical radiating partitions, converging from the periphery toward the +centre. These folds or partitions do not meet in the centre, but leave +an open space, which is the main cavity of the body. This open space, +however, occupies only the lower part of the body; for in the upper +there is a second sac hanging to a certain distance within the first. +This inner sac has an aperture in the bottom, through which whatever +enters it passes into the main cavity of the body. A central opening +in the top forms a kind of mouth, around which are radiating tentacles +connecting with the open chambers formed by the partitions within. +Cutting such an animal across in a transverse section, we shall see +the radiation of the partitions from the centre to the circumference, +showing still more distinctly the typical structure of the division to +which it belongs. + +[Illustration: Vertical section of a Sea-Anemone of Actinia: _o_, mouth; +_t_, tentacles; _s_, inner sac or stomach; _b_, main cavity; _ff_, +reproductive organs; _g_, radiating partition; _eee_, radiating +chambers; _cc_, circular openings in the partitions; _aa_, lower floor.] + +[Illustration: Transverse section of a Sea-Anemone or Actinia.] + +[Illustration: Staurophera seen in profile.] + +[Illustration: Hippocrene seen in profile.] + +[Illustration: Melicertum seen from above, with the tentacles spreading: +_oo_, radiating tubes with ovaries; _m_, mouth; _tttt_, tentacles.] + +The second class is that of Jelly-Fishes or Acalephs; and here the same +plan is carried out in the form of a hemispherical gelatinous disk, the +digestive cavity being hollowed, or, as it were, scooped, out of the +substance of the body, which is traversed by tubes that radiate from +the centre to the periphery. Cutting it across transversely, or looking +through its transparent mass, the same radiation of the internal +structure is seen again; only that in this instance the radiating lines +are not produced by vertical partition-walls, with open spaces between, +as in the Polyps, but by radiating tubes passing through the gelatinous +mass of the body. At the periphery is a circular tube connecting them +all, and the tentacles, which hang down when the animal is in its +natural position, connect at their base with the radiating tubes, while +numerous smaller tentacles may form a kind of fringe all round the +margin. + +The third and highest class includes the Star-Fishes, Sea-Urchins, and +Holothurians or Beches-de-Mer. The radiation is equally distinct in each +of these; but here again the mode of execution differs from that of the +two other classes. The internal cavity and the radiating tubes, instead +of being connected with the outer wall of the body as in Polyps, or +hollowed out of the substance of the body as in Jelly-Fishes, are here +inclosed within independent walls of their own, quite distinct from the +wall of the body. But notwithstanding this difference, a transverse +section shows in these animals, as distinctly as in all the rest, the +radiating structure typical of the whole branch. In these three classes +we have no difference of plan, nor even any modification of the same +plan,--for either one of them expresses it as clearly as any other,--but +simply three different ways of executing one structural idea. + +[Illustration: Common Sea-Urchin, Echinus, seen from above] + +[Illustration: Echinarachnius, opened by a transverse or horizontal +section, and showing the internal arrangement: c, mouth; eeeee, +ambulacra, with their ramifications cmcmcm; wwww, interambulacra.] + +I have mentioned only three classes of Radiates. Cuvier had five in his +classification; for he placed among them the Intestinal Worms and the +Infusoria or Animalcules. The Intestinal Worms are much better known +now than they were in his day. Their anatomy and embryology have been +traced, and it has been shown that the essential features of these +parasites are the same as those of all Articulates, their whole body +being divided into successive, movable joints or rings. Cuvier was +misled by the circular arrangement of certain parts around the mouth, +and by the presence of a wreath of feelers around the head of some +of these Worms, resembling the tentacles of many Radiates. This is, +however, no indication of radiate structure, but a superficial feature +in no way related to the internal organization. + +We must carefully distinguish between affinity and analogy among +animals. The former is founded on identity of plan; the latter only upon +external resemblance, produced by similar features, which, when they are +intimately connected with the whole internal organization, as in some +groups, may be considered as typical characters, but when only grafted, +as it were, in a superficial manner on animals of another type, have +no relation to the essential elements of structure, and become at +once subordinate and unimportant. Such is the difference between the +tentacles in a Radiate and the wreath of feelers in a Worm;--the +external effect may be much the same; but in the former every tentacle +opens into one of the chambers as in a Polyp, or connects with one of +the radiating tubes as in Acalephs, or with the locomotive suckers as +in Star-Fishes, and is therefore closely linked with the whole internal +organization; whereas the feelers in the latter are only external +appendages, in no way connected with the essential structural elements. +We have a striking illustration of this superficial resemblance in the +wings of Birds and Insects. In Birds, wings are a typical feature, +corresponding to the front limbs in all Vertebrates, which are +constructed in the same way, whether they are arms as in Man, or +forelegs as in Quadrupeds, or pectoral fins as in Fishes, or wings as in +Birds. The wing in an Insect, on the contrary, is a flattened, dried-up +gill, having no structural relation whatever to the wing of a Bird. They +are analogous only because they resemble each other in function, being +in the same way subservient to flight; but as organs they are entirely +different. + +In adding Infusoria to the Radiates, Cuvier was false to his own +principle of founding all classification on plan. He was influenced by +their seeming simplicity of structure, and placed them in the lowest +division of the Animal Kingdom on that account. But even this simplicity +was only apparent in many of them. At certain seasons of the year +myriads of these little Animalcules may be seen in every brook and +road-side pool. They are like transparent little globules, without any +special organization, apparently; and were it not that they are in +constant rotation, exhibiting thus a motion of their own, one would +hardly suspect that they were endowed with life. To the superficial +observer they all look alike, and it is not strange, that, before they +had been more carefully investigated, they should have been associated +together as the lowest division of the Animal Kingdom, representing, as +it were, a border-land between animal and vegetable life. But since the +modern improvements in the microscope, Ehrenberg, the great master in +microscopic investigation, has shown that many of these little +globules have an extraordinary complication of structure. Subsequent +investigations have proved that they include a great variety of beings: +some of them belonging to the type of Mollusks; others to the type of +Articulates, being in fact little Shrimps; while many others are +the locomotive germs of plants, and so far from forming a class by +themselves, as a distinct group in the Animal Kingdom, they seem to +comprise representatives of all types except Vertebrates, and to belong +in part to the Vegetable Kingdom, Siebold, Leuckart, and other modern +zoölogists, have considered them as a primary type, and called them +Protozoa; but this is as great a mistake as the other. The rotatory +motion in them all is produced by an apparatus that exists not only +in all animals, but in plants also, and is a most important agent in +sustaining the freshness and vitality of their circulating fluids and of +the surrounding medium in which they live. It consists of soft fringes, +called Vibratile Cilia. Such fringes cover the whole surface of these +little living beings, and by their unceasing play they maintain the +rotating motion that carries them along in the water. + +The Mollusks, the next great division of the Animal Kingdom, also +include three classes. With them is introduced that character +of bilateral symmetry, or division of parts on either side of a +longitudinal axis, that prevails throughout the Animal Kingdom, with the +exception of the Radiates. The lowest class of Mollusks has been named +Acephala, to signify the absence of any distinct head; for though their +whole organization is based upon the principle of bilateral symmetry, it +is nevertheless very difficult to determine which is the right side and +which the left in these animals, because there is so little prominence +in the two ends of the body that the anterior and posterior extremities +are hardly to be distinguished. Take the Oyster as an example. It has, +like most Acephala, a shell with two valves united by a hinge on the +back, one of these valves being thick and swollen, while the other is +nearly flat. If we lift the shell, we find beneath a soft lining-skin +covering the whole animal and called by naturalists the mantle, from the +inner surface of which arise a double row of gills, forming two pendent +folds on the sides of the body; but at one end of the body these folds +do not meet, but leave an open space, where is the aperture we call the +mouth. This is the only indication of an anterior extremity; but it is +enough to establish a difference between the front and hind ends of +the body, and to serve as a guide in distinguishing the right and +left sides. If now we lift the mantle and gills, we find beneath the +principal organs: the stomach, with a winding alimentary canal; the +heart and liver; the blood-vessels, branching from either side of the +heart to join the gills; and a fleshy muscle passing from one valve +of the shell to the other, enabling the animal by its dilatation or +contraction to open and close its shell at will. A cut across an animal +of this class will show us better the bilateral arrangement of the +parts. In such a section we see the edge of the two shells on either +side; within these the edge of the mantle; then the double rows of +gills; and in the middle the alimentary canal, the heart, and the +blood-vessels branching right and left. Some of these animals have +eye-specks on the edge of the mantle; but this is not a constant +feature. This class of Acephala includes all the Oysters, Clams, +Mussels, and the like. When named with reference to their double shells, +they are called Bivalves; and with them are associated a host of less +conspicuous animals, known as Ascidians, Brachiopods, and Bryozoa. + +[Illustration: Common Mussel, Unio, cut transversely: _a_, foot; _bb_, +gills; _c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main cavity, with +intestines.] + +The second class in this type is that of Gasteropoda, so named from the +fleshy muscular expansion on which they move, and which is therefore +called a foot: a very inappropriate name; since it has no relation or +resemblance to a foot, though it is used as a locomotive organ. This +class includes all the Snails, Slugs, Cockles, Conchs, Periwinkles, +Whelks, Limpets, and the like. Some of them have no solid covering; but +the greater part are protected by a single shell, and on this account +they are called Univalves, in contradistinction to the Acephala or +Bivalves. These shells, though always single, differ from each other by +an endless variety of form and color,--from the flat simple shell of +the Limpet to the elaborate spiral and brilliant hues of the Cones and +Cowries. Different as is their external covering, however, if we examine +the internal structure of a Gasteropod, we find the same general +arrangement of parts that prevails in the Acephala, showing that both +belong to the same great division of the Animal Kingdom. The mantle +envelops the animal, and lines its single shell as it lined the double +shell of the Oyster; the gills are placed on either side of it; the +stomach, with the winding alimentary canal, is in the centre of the +body; the heart and liver are placed in the same relation to it as in +the Acephala; and though the so-called foot would seem to be a new +feature, it is but a muscular expansion of the ventral side of the body. +There is an evident superiority in this class over the preceding one, in +the greater prominence of the anterior extremity, where there are two or +more feelers, with which eyes more or less developed are connected; and +though there is nothing that can be properly called a head, yet there +can be no hesitation as to the distinction between the front and hind +ends of the body. + +[Illustration: Limpet, Patella, cut transversely: _a_, foot; _b_, gills; +_c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main cavity, with intestines.] + +The third and highest class of Mollusks has been called Cephalopoda, in +reference again to a special feature of their structure. They have long +arms or feelers around the head, serving as organs of locomotion, by +which they propel themselves through the water with a velocity that is +quite extraordinary, when compared with the sluggishness of the other +Mollusks. In these animals the head is distinctly marked,--being +separated, by a contraction or depression behind it, from the rest of +the body. The feelers, so prominent on the anterior extremity of +the Gasteropoda, are suppressed in Cephalopoda, and the eyes are +consequently brought immediately on the side of the head, and are very +large in proportion to the size of the animal. A skin corresponding +to the mantle envelops the body, and the gills are on either side of +it;--the stomach with its winding canal, the liver, and heart occupy the +centre of the body, as in the two other classes. This class includes all +the Cuttle-Fishes, Squids, and Nautili, and has a vast number of fossil +representatives. Many of these animals are destitute of any shell; and +where they have a shell, it is not coiled from right to left or from +left to right as in the spiral of the Gasteropoda, but from behind +forwards as in the Nautilus. These shells are usually divided into a +number of chambers,--the animal, as it grows, building a wall behind +it at regular intervals, and always occupying the external chamber, +retaining, however, a connection with his past home by a siphon that +runs through the whole succession of chambers. The readers of the +"Atlantic Monthly" cannot fail to remember the exquisite poem suggested +to the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by this singular feature in the +structure of the so-called Chambered Shells. + +[Illustration: Common Squid, Loligo, cut transversely: _a_, foot or +siphon; _b_, gills; _c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main +cavity, with intestines.] + +Cuvier divided the Mollusks also into a larger number of classes than +are now admitted. He placed the Barnacles with them on account of their +shells; and it is only since an investigation of the germs born from +these animals has shown them to be Articulates that their true position +is understood. They give birth to little Shrimps that afterwards become +attached to the rocks and assume the shelly covering that has misled +naturalists about them. Brachiopods formed another of his classes; +but these differ from the other Bivalves only in having a net-work of +blood-vessels in the place of the free gills, and this is merely a +complication of structure, not a difference in the general mode +of execution, for their position and relation to the rest of the +organization are exactly the same in both. Pteropods constituted another +class in his division of the type of Mollusks; but these animals, again, +form only an order in the class of Gasteropoda, as Brachiopods form an +order in the class of Acephala. + +In the third division of the Animal Kingdom, the Articulates, we have +again three classes: Worms, Crustacea, and Insects. The lowest of these +three classes, the Worms, presents the typical structure of that branch +in the most uniform manner, with little individualization of parts. The +body is a long cylinder divided through its whole length by movable +joints, while the head is indicated only by a difference in the +front-joint. There is here no concentration of vitality in special parts +of the structure, as in the higher animals, but the nervous force is +scattered through the whole body,--every ring having, on its lower side, +either two nervous swellings, one on the right, the other on the left +side, connected by nervous threads with those that precede and those +that follow them, or these swellings being united in the median line. +It is this equal distribution of nervous force through the whole system +that gives to these animals such an extraordinary power of repairing +any injured part, so that, if cut in two, the front part may even +reconstruct a tail for itself, while the hind part produces a new +head, and both continue to live as distinct animals. This facility of +self-repair, after a separation of the parts, which is even a normal +mode of multiplication in some of them, does not indicate, as may at +first appear, a greater intensity of vital energy, but, on the contrary, +arises from an absence of any one nervous centre such as exists in +all the higher animals, and is the key to their whole organization. A +serious injury to the brain of a Vertebrate destroys vitality at once, +for it holds the very essence of its life; whereas in many of the lower +animals any part of the body may be destroyed without injury to the +rest. The digestive cavity in the Worms runs the whole length of the +body; and the respiratory organs, wherever they are specialized, appear +as little vesicles or gill-like appendages either along the back or +below the sides, connected with the locomotive appendages. + +This class includes animals of various degrees of complication of +structure, from those with highly developed organizations to the lowest +Worms that float like long threads in the water and hardly seem to be +animals. Yet even these creatures, so low in the scale of life, are +not devoid of some instincts, however dim, of feeling and affection. I +remember a case in point that excited my own wonder at the time, and may +not be uninteresting to my readers. A gentleman from Detroit had had +the kindness to send me one of those long thread-like Worms (_Gordius_) +found often in brooks and called Horse-Hairs by the common people. When +I first received it, it was coiled up in a close roll at the bottom of +the bottle, filled with fresh water, that contained it, and looked more +like a little tangle of black sewing-silk than anything else. Wishing +to unwind it, that I might examine its entire length, I placed it in +a large china basin filled with water, and proceeded very gently to +disentangle its coils, when I perceived that the animal had twisted +itself around a bundle of its eggs, holding them fast in a close +embrace. In the process of unwinding, the eggs dropped away and floated +to a little distance. Having finally stretched it out to its full +length, perhaps half a yard, I sat watching to see if this singular +being that looked like a long black thread in the water would give any +signs of life. Almost immediately it moved towards the bundle of eggs, +and, having reached it, began to sew itself through and through the +little white mass, passing one end of its body through it, and then +returning to make another stitch, as it were, till the eggs were at last +completely entangled again in an intricate net-work of coils. It seemed +to me almost impossible that this care of copying could be the result of +any instinct of affection in a creature of so low an organization, and I +again separated it from the eggs, and placed them at a greater distance, +when the same action was repeated. On trying the experiment a third +time, the bundle of eggs had become loosened, and a few of them dropped +off singly into the water. The efforts which the animal then made to +recover the missing ones, winding itself round and round them, but +failing to bring them into the fold with the rest, because they were too +small, and evaded all efforts to secure them, when once parted from +the first little compact mass, convinced me that there was a definite +purpose in its attempts, and that even a being so low in the scale +of animal existence has some dim consciousness of a relation to its +offspring. I afterwards unwound also the mass of eggs, which, when +coiled up as I first saw it, made a roll of white substance about the +size of a coffee-bean, and found that it consisted of a string of eggs, +measuring more than twelve feet in length, the eggs being held together +by some gelatinous substance that cemented them and prevented them from +falling apart. Cutting this string across, and placing a small section +under the microscope, I counted on one surface of such a cut from +seventy to seventy-five eggs; and estimating the entire number of eggs +according to the number contained on such a surface, I found that there +were not less than eight millions of eggs in the whole string. The +fertility of these lower animals is truly amazing, and is no doubt a +provision of Nature against the many chances of destruction to which +these germs, so delicate and often microscopically small, must be +exposed. The higher we rise in the Animal Kingdom, the more limited do +we find the number of progeny, and the care bestowed upon them by the +parents is in proportion to this diminution. + +The next class in the type of Articulates is that of Crustacea, +including Lobsters, Crabs, and Shrimps. It may seem at first that +nothing can be more unlike a Worm than a Lobster; but a comparison of +the class-characters shows that the same general plan controls the +organization in both. The body of the Lobster is divided into a +succession of joints or rings, like that of the Worm; and the fact that +the front rings in the Lobster are soldered together, so as to make a +stiff front region of the body, inclosing the head and chest, while only +the hind rings remain movable, thus forming a flexible tail, does not +alter in the least the general structure, which consists in both of +a body built of articulated rings. The nervous swellings, which were +evenly distributed through the whole body in the Worm, are more +concentrated here, in accordance with the prevalent combination of the +rings in two distinct regions of the body, the larger ones corresponding +to the more important organs; but their relation to the rest of the +organization, and their connection by nervous threads with each other, +remain the same. The respiratory organs, which in most of the Worms were +mere vesicles on the lower part of the sides of the body, are here more +highly organized gills; but their general character and relation to +other parts of the structure are unchanged, and in this respect +the connection of the gills of Crustacea with their legs is quite +significant. The alimentary canal consists of a single digestive cavity +passing through the whole body, as in Worms, the anterior part of which +is surrounded by a large liver. What is true of the Lobsters is true +also, so far as class-characters are concerned, of all the Crustacea. + +Highest in this type are the Insects, and among these I include Spiders +and Centipedes as well as Winged Insects. It is true that the Centipedes +have a long uniform body like Worms, and the Spiders have the body +divided into two regions like the Crustacea, while the body in true +Insects has three distinct regions, head, chest, and hind body; but +notwithstanding this difference, both the former share in the peculiar +class-character that places them with the Winged Insects in a separate +group, distinct from all the other Articulates. We have seen that in the +Worms the respiratory organs are mere vesicles, while in the Crustacea +they are more highly organized gills; but in Centipedes, Spiders, +and Winged Insects, the breathing-apparatus is aerial, consisting of +air-holes on the sides of the body, connected with a system of tubes and +vessels extending into the body and admitting air to all parts of it. In +the Winged Insects this system is very elaborate, filling the body with +air to such a degree as to render it exceedingly light and adapted to +easy and rapid flight. The general arrangement of parts is the same in +this class as in the two others, the typical character being alike in +all. + +We come now to the highest branch of the Animal Kingdom, that to which +we ourselves belong,--the Vertebrates. This type is usually divided into +four classes, Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammalia; and though many +naturalists believe that it includes more, and I am myself of that +opinion, I shall allude here only to the four generally admitted +classes, as they are sufficient for my present purpose, and will serve +to show the characters upon which classes are based. In a former paper I +have explained in general terms the plan of structure of this type,--a +backbone, with a bony arch above and a bony arch below, forming two +cavities that contain all the systems of organs, the whole being +surrounded by the flesh and skin. Now whether a body so constructed lie +prone in the water, like a Fish,--or be lifted on imperfect legs, like +a Reptile,--or be balanced on two legs, while the front limbs become +wings, as in Birds,--or be raised upon four strong limbs terminating in +paws or feet, as in Quadrupeds,--or stand upright with head erect, while +the limbs consist of a pair of arms and a pair of legs, as in Man,--does +not in the least affect that structural conception under which they are +all included. Every Vertebrate has a backbone; every Vertebrate has a +bony arch above that backbone and a bony arch below it, forming two +cavities,--no matter whether these arches be of hard bone, or of +cartilage, or even of a softer substance; every Vertebrate has the +brain, the spinal marrow or spinal cord, and the organs of the senses in +the upper cavity, and the organs of digestion, respiration, circulation, +and reproduction in the lower one; every Vertebrate has four locomotive +appendages built of the same bones and bearing the same relation to the +rest of the organization, whether they be called pectoral and ventral +fins, or legs, or wings and legs, or arms and legs. Notwithstanding +the rudimentary condition of these limbs in some Vertebrates and their +difference of external appearance in the different groups, they are all +built of the same structural elements. These are the typical characters +of the whole branch, and exist in all its representatives. + +What now are the different modes of expressing this structural plan that +lead us to associate certain Vertebrates together in distinct classes? +Beginning with the lowest class,--the Fishes are cold-blooded, they +breathe through gills, and they are egg-laying; in other words, though +they have the same general structure as the other Vertebrates, they +have a special mode of circulation, respiration, and reproduction. The +Reptiles are also cold-blooded, though their system of circulation is +somewhat more complicated than that of the Fishes; they breathe through +lungs, though part of them retain their gills through life; and they lay +eggs, but larger and fewer ones than the Fishes, diminishing in number +in proportion to their own higher or lower position in their class. They +also bestow greater care upon their offspring than most of the +Fishes. The Birds are warm-blooded and air-breathing, having a double +circulation; they are egg-laying like the two other classes, but their +eggs are comparatively few in number, and the young are hatched by the +mother and fed by the parent birds till they can provide for themselves. + +The Mammalia are also warm-blooded and breathe through lungs; but +they differ from all other Vertebrates in their mode of reproduction, +bringing forth living young which they nurse with milk. Even in the +lowest members of this highest group of the Vertebrates, at the head +of which stands Man himself, looking heavenward it is true, but +nevertheless rooted deeply in the Animal Kingdom, we have the dawning +of those family relations, those intimate ties between parents and +children, on which the whole social organization of the human race is +based. Man is the crowning work of God on earth; but though so nobly +endowed, we must not forget that we are the lofty children of a race +whose lowest forms lie prostrate within the water, having no higher +aspiration than the desire for food; and we cannot understand the +possible degradation and moral wretchedness of Man, without knowing that +his physical nature is rooted in all the material characteristics that +belong to his type and link him even with the Fish. The moral and +intellectual gifts that distinguish him from them are his to use or to +abuse; he may, if he will, abjure his better nature and be _Vertebrate_ +more than Man. He may sink as low as the lowest of his type, or he may +rise to a spiritual height that will make that which distinguishes him +from the rest far more the controlling element of his being than that +which unites him with them. + + + + +LOVE AND SKATES. + +IN TWO PARTS. + + +PART II. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WADE DOWN! + + +The hugging of Wade by the happy pair had to be done metaphorically, +since it was done in the sight of all Dunderbunk. + +He had divined a happy result, when he missed Bill Tarbox from the +arena, and saw him a furlong away, hand in hand with his reconciled +sweetheart. + +"I envy you, Bill," said he, "almost too much to put proper fervor into +my congratulations." + +"Your time will come," the foreman rejoined. + +And says Belle, "I am sure there is a lady skating somewhere, and only +waiting for you to follow her." + +"I don't see her," Wade replied, looking with a mock-grave face up +and down and athwart the river. "When you've all gone to dinner, I'll +prospect ten miles up and down and try to find a good matrimonial claim +that's not taken." + +"You will not come up to dinner?" Belle asked. + +"I can hardly afford to make two bites of a holiday," said Wade. "I've +sent Perry up for a luncheon. Here he comes with it. So I cede my +quarter of your pie, Miss Belle, to a better fellow." + +"Oh!" cries Perry, coming up and bowing elaborately. "Mr. and Mrs. +Tarbox, I believe. Ah, yes! Well, I will mention it up at Albany. I am +going to take my Guards up to call on the Governor." + +Perry dashed off, followed by a score of Dunderbunk boys, organized by +him as the Purtett Guards, and taught to salute him as Generalissimo +with military honors. + +So many hundreds of turkeys, done to a turn, now began to have an effect +upon the atmosphere. Few odors are more subtile and pervading than this, +and few more appetizing. Indeed, there is said to be an odd fellow, a +strictly American gourmand, in New York, who sits, from noon to dusk +on Christmas-Day, up in a tall steeple, merely to catch the aroma of +roast-turkey floating over the city,--and much good, it is said, it does +him. + +Hard skating is nearly as effective to whet hunger as this gentleman's +expedient. When the spicy breezes began to blow soft as those of +Ceylon's isle over the river and every whiff talked Turkey, the +population of Dunderbunk listened to the wooing and began to follow its +several noses--snubs, beaks, blunts, sharps, piquants, dominants, fines, +bulgies, and bifids--on the way to the several households which those +noses adorned or defaced. Prosperous Dunderbunk had a Dinner, yes, a +DINNER, that day, and Richard Wade was gratefully remembered by many +over-fed foundry-men and their over-fed families. + +Wade had not had half skating enough. + +"I'll time myself down to Skerrett's Point," he thought, "and take my +luncheon there among the hemlocks." + +The Point was on the property of Peter Skerrett, Wade's friend and +college comrade of ten years gone. Peter had been an absentee in Europe, +and smokes from his chimneys this morning had confirmed to Wade's eyes +the rumor of his return. + +Skerrett's Point was a mile below the Foundry. Our hero did his mile +under three minutes. How many seconds under, I will not say. I do not +wish to make other fellows unhappy. + +The Point was a favorite spot of Wade's. Many a twilight of last summer, +tired with his fagging at the Works to make good the evil of Whiffler's +rule, he had lain there on the rocks under the hemlocks, breathing the +spicy methyl they poured into the air. After his day's hard fight, in +the dust and heat of the Foundry, with anarchy and unthrift, he used to +take the quiet restoratives of Nature, until the murmur and fragrance of +the woods, the cool wind, and the soothing loiter of the shining stream +had purged him from the fevers of his task. + +To this old haunt he skated, and kindling a little fire, as an old +campaigner loves to do, he sat down and lunched heartily on Mrs. +Purtett's cold leg,--cannibal thought!--on the cold leg of Mrs. +Purtett's yesterday's turkey. Then lighting his weed,--dear ally of the +lonely,--the Superintendent began to think of his foreman's bliss, and +to long for something similar on his own plane. + +"I hope the wish is father to its fulfilment," he said. "But I must not +stop here and be spooney. Such a halcyon day I may not have again in all +my life, and I ought to make the best of it, with my New Skates." + +So he dashed off, and filled the little cove above the Point with a +labyrinth of curves and flourishes. + +When that bit of crystal tablet was well covered, the podographer sighed +for a new sheet to inscribe his intricate rubricas upon. Why not write +more stanzas of the poetry of motion on the ice below the Point? Why +not? + +Braced by his lunch on the brown fibre of good Mrs. Purtett's cold +drumstick and thigh, Wade was now in fine trim. The air was more +glittering and electric than ever. It was triumph and victory and paean +in action to go flashing along over this footing, smoother than polished +marble and sheenier than first-water gems. + +Wade felt the high exhilaration of pure blood galloping through a body +alive from top to toe. The rhythm of his movement was like music to him. + +The Point ended in a sharp promontory. Just before he came abreast of +it, Wade under mighty headway flung into his favorite corkscrew spiral +on one foot, and went whirling dizzily along, round and round, in a +straight line. + +At the dizziest moment, he was suddenly aware of a figure, also turning +the Point at full speed, and rushing to a collision. + +He jerked aside to avoid it. He could not look to his footing. His skate +struck a broken oar, imbedded in the ice. He fell violently, and lay +like a dead man. + +His New Skates, Testimonial of Merit, seem to have served him a shabby +trick. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +TÊTE-À-TÊTE. + + +Seeing Wade lie there motionless, the lady---- + +Took off her spectacles, blew her great red nose, and stiffly drew near. + +Spectacles! Nose! No,--the latter feature of hers had never become +acquainted with the former; and there was as little stiffness as nasal +redness about her. + +A fresh start, then,--and this time accuracy! + +Appalled by the loud thump of the stranger's skull upon the chief river +of the State of New York, the lady--it was a young lady whom Wade had +tumbled to avoid--turned, saw a human being lying motionless, and swept +gracefully toward him, like a Good Samaritan, on the outer edge. It was +not her fault, but her destiny, that she had to be graceful even under +these tragic circumstances. + +"Dead!" she thought. "Is he dead?" + +The appalling thump had cracked the ice, and she could not know how well +the skull was cushioned inside with brains to resist a blow. + +She shuddered, as she swooped about toward this possible corpse. It +might be that he was killed, and half the fault hers. No wonder her +fine color, shining in the right parts of an admirably drawn face, all +disappeared instantly. + +But she evidently was not frightened. + +She halted, kneeled, looked curiously at the stranger, and then +proceeded, in a perfectly cool and self-possessed way, to pick him up. + +A solid fellow, heavy to lift in his present lumpish condition of +dead-weight! She had to tug mightily to get him up into a sitting +position. When he was raised, all the backbone seemed gone from his +spine, and it took the whole force of her vigorous arms to sustain him. + +The effort was enough to account for the return of her color. It came +rushing back splendidly. Cheeks, forehead, everything but nose, blushed. +The hard work of lifting so much avoirdupois, and possibly, also, the +novelty of supporting so much handsome fellow, intensified all her hues. +Her eyes--blue, or that shade even more faithful than blue--deepened; +and her pale golden hair grew several carats--not carrots--brighter. + +She was repaid for her active sympathy at once by discovering that this +big, awkward thing was not a dead, but only a stunned, body. It had an +ugly bump and a bleeding cut on its manly skull, but otherwise was quite +an agreeable object to contemplate, and plainly on its "unembarrassed +brow Nature had written 'Gentleman.'" + +As this young lady had never had a fair, steady stare at a stunned hero +before, she seized her advantage. She had hitherto been distant with +the other sex. She had no brother. Not one of her male cousins had ever +ventured near enough to get those cousinly privileges that timid cousins +sigh for and plucky cousins take, if they are worth taking. + +Wade's impressive face, though for the moment blind as a statue's, also +seized its advantage and stared at her intently, with a pained and +pleading look, new to those resolute features. + +Wade was entirely unconscious of the great hit he had made by his +tumble; plump into the arms of this heroine! There were fellows extant +who would have suffered any imaginable amputation, any conceivable +mauling, any fling from the apex of anything into the lowest deeps of +anywhere, for the honor he was now enjoying. + +But all he knew was that his skull was a beehive in an uproar, and that +one lobe of his brain was struggling to swarm off. His legs and arms +felt as if they belonged to another man, and a very limp one at that. A +ton of cast-iron seemed to be pressing his eyelids down, and a trickle +of red-hot metal flowed from his cut forehead. + +"I shall have to scream," thought the lady, after an instant of anxious +waiting, "if he does not revive. I cannot leave him to go for help." + +Not a prude, you see. A prude would have had cheap scruples about +compromising herself by taking a man in her arms. Not a vulgar person, +who would have required the stranger to be properly recommended by +somebody who came over in the Mayflower, before she helped him. Not a +feeble-minded damsel, who, if she had not fainted, would have fled away, +gasping and in tears. No timidity or prudery or underbred doubts about +this thorough creature. She knew she was in her right womanly place, and +she meant to stay there. + +But she began to need help, possibly a lancet, possibly a pocket-pistol, +possibly hot blankets, possibly somebody to knead these lifeless lungs +and pommel this flaccid body, until circulation was restored. + +Just as she was making up her mind to scream, Wade stirred. He began to +tingle as if a familiar of the Inquisition were slapping him all over +with fine-toothed curry-combs. He became half-conscious of a woman +supporting him. In a stammering and intoxicated voice he murmured,-- + + "Who ran to catch me when I fell, + And kissed the place to make it well? + My"------ + +He opened his eyes. It was not his mother; for she was long since +deceased. Nor was this non-mother kissing the place. + +In fact, abashed at the blind eyes suddenly unclosing so near her, she +was on the point of letting her burden drop. When dead men come to life +in such a position, and begin to talk about "kissing the place," young +ladies, however independent of conventions, may well grow uneasy. + +But the stranger, though alive, was evidently in a molluscous, +invertebrate condition. He could not sustain himself. She still held him +up, a little more at arm's-length, and all at once the reaction from +extreme anxiety brought a gush of tears to her eyes. + +"Don't cry," says Wade, vaguely, and still only half-conscious. "I +promise never to do so again." + +At this, said with a childlike earnestness, the lady smiled. + +"Don't scalp me," Wade continued, in the same tone. "Squaws never +scalp." + +He raised his hand to his bleeding forehead. + +She laughed outright at his queer plaintive tone and the new class he +had placed her in. + +Her laugh and his own movement brought Wade fully to himself. She +perceived that his look was transferring her from the order of scalping +squaws to her proper place as a beautiful young woman of the highest +civilization, not smeared with vermilion, but blushing celestial rosy. + +"Thank you," said Wade. "I can sit up now without assistance." And he +regretted profoundly that good breeding obliged him to say so. + +She withdrew her arms. He rested on the ice,--posture of the Dying +Gladiator. She made an effort to be cool and distant as usual; but it +would not do. This weak mighty man still interested her. It was still +her business to be strength to him. + +He made a feeble attempt to wipe away the drops of blood from his +forehead with his handkerchief. + +"Let me be your surgeon!" said she. + +She produced her own folded handkerchief,--M. D. were the initials in +the corner,--and neatly and tenderly turbaned him. + +Wade submitted with delight to this treatment. A tumble with such +trimmings was luxury indeed. + +"Who would not break his head," he thought, "to have these delicate +fingers plying about him, and this pure, noble face so close to his? +What a queenly indifferent manner she has! What a calm brow! What honest +eyes! What a firm nose! What equable cheeks! What a grand indignant +mouth! Not a bit afraid of me! She feels that I am a gentleman and will +not presume." + +"There!" said she, drawing back. "Is that comfortable?" + +"Luxury!" he ejaculated with fervor. + +"I am afraid I am to blame for your terrible fall." + +"No,--my own clumsiness and that oar-blade are in fault." + +"If you feel well enough to be left alone, I will skate off and call my +friends." + +"Please do not leave me quite yet!" says Wade, entirely satisfied with +the _tête-à-tête_. + +"Ah! here comes Mr. Skerrett round the Point!" she said,--and sprang up, +looking a little guilty. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LOVE IN THE FIRST DEGREE. + + +Peter Skerrett came sailing round the purple rocks of his Point, skating +like a man who has been in the South of Europe for two winters. + +He was decidedly Anglicized in his whiskers, coat, and shoes. Otherwise +he in all respects repeated his well-known ancestor, Skerrett of the +Revolution; whose two portraits--1. A ruddy hero in regimentals, in +Gilbert Stuart's early brandy-and-water manner; 2. A rosy sage in +senatorials, in Stuart's later claret-and-water manner--hang in his +descendant's dining-room. + +Peter's first look was a provokingly significant one at the confused and +blushing young lady. Secondly he inspected the Dying Gladiator on the +ice. + +"Have you been tilting at this gentleman, Mary?" he asked, in the voice +of a cheerful, friendly fellow. "Why! Hullo. Hooray! It's Wade, Richard +Wade, Dick Wade! Don't look, Miss Mary, while I give him the grips of +all the secret societies we belonged to in College." + +Mary, however, did look on, pleased and amused, while Peter plumped down +on the ice, shook his friend's hand, and examined him as if he were fine +crockery, spilt and perhaps shattered. + +"It's not a case of trepanning, Dick, my boy?" said he. + +"No," said the other. "I tumbled in trying to dodge this lady. The ice +thought my face ought to be scratched, because I had been scratching its +face without mercy. My wits were knocked out of me; but they are tired +of secession, and pleading to be let in again." + +"Keep some of them out for our sake! We must have you at our commonplace +level. Well, Miss Mary, I suppose this is the first time you have had +the sensation of breaking a man's head. You generally hit lower." Peter +tapped his heart. + +"I'm all right now, thanks to my surgeon," says Wade. "Give me a lift, +Peter." He pulled up and clung to his friend. + +"You're the vine and I'm the lamppost," Skerrett said. "Mary, do you +know what a pocket-pistol is?" + +"I have seen such weapons concealed about the persons of modern +warriors." + +"There's one in my overcoat-pocket, with a cup at the butt and a cork at +the muzzle. Skate off now, like an angel, and get it. Bring Fanny, too. +She is restorative." + +"Are you alive enough to admire that, Dick?" he continued, as she +skimmed away. + +"It would pat a soul under the ribs of Death." + +"I venerate that young woman," says Peter. "You see what a beauty she +is, and just as unspoiled as this ice. Unspoiled beauties are rarer than +rocs' eggs. + +"She has a singularly true face," Wade replied, "and that is the main +thing,--the most excellent thing in man or woman." + +"Yes, truth makes that nuisance, beauty, tolerable." + +"You did not do me the honor to present me." + +"I saw you had gone a great way beyond that, my boy. Have you not her +initials in cambric on your brow? Not M. T., which wouldn't apply; but +M. D." + +"Mary----?" + +"Damer." + +"I like the name," says Wade, repeating it. "It sounds simple and +thoroughbred." + +"Just what she is. One of the nine simple-hearted and thorough-bred +girls on this continent." + +"Nine?" + +"Is that too many? Three, then. That's one in ten millions. The exact +proportion of Poets, Painters, Oratory, Statesmen, and all other Great +Artists. Well,--three or nine,--Mary Damer is one of them. She never saw +fear or jealousy, or knowingly allowed an ignoble thought or an ungentle +word or an ungraceful act in herself. Her atmosphere does not tolerate +flirtation. You must find out for yourself how much genius she has and +has not. But I will say this,--that I think of puns two a minute faster +when I'm with her. Therefore she must be magnetic, and that is the first +charm in a woman." + +Wade laughed. + +"You have not lost your powers of analysis, Peter. But talking of this +heroine, you have not told me anything about yourself, except _apropos_ +of punning." + +"Come up and dine, and we'll fire away personal histories, broadside +for broadside! I've been looking in vain for a worthy hero to set +_vis-à-vis_ to my fair kinswoman. But stop! perhaps you have a Christmas +turkey at home, with a wife opposite, and a brace of boys waiting for +drumsticks." + +"No,--my boys, like cherubs, await their own drumsticks. They're not +born, and I'm not married." + +"I thought you looked incomplete and abnormal. Well, I will show you a +model wife,--and here she comes!" + +Here they came, the two ladies, gliding round the Point, with draperies +floating as artlessly artful as the robes of Raphael's Hours, or a +Pompeian Bacchante. For want of classic vase or _patera_, Miss Damer +brandished Peter Skerrett's pocket-pistol. + +Fanny Skerrett gave her hand cordially to Wade, and looked a little +anxiously at his pale face. + +"Now, M.D.," says Peter, "you have been surgeon, you shall be doctor and +dose our patient. Now, then,-- + + "'Hebe, pour free! + Quicken his eyes with mountain-dew, + That Styx, the detested, + No more he may view.'" + + "Thanks, Hebe!" + +Wade said, continuing the quotation,-- + + "I quaff it! + Io Paean, I cry! + The whiskey of the Immortals + Forbids me to die." + +"We effeminate women of the nineteenth century are afraid of broken +heads," said Fanny. "But Mary Damer seems quite to enjoy your accident, +Mr. Wade, as an adventure." + +Miss Damer certainly did seem gay and exhilarated. + +"I enjoy it," said Wade. "I perceive that I fell on my feet, when I fell +on my crown. I tumbled among old friends, and I hope among new ones." + +"I have been waiting to claim my place among your old friends," Mrs. +Skerrett said, "ever since Peter told me you were one of his models." + +She delivered this little speech with a caressing manner which totally +fascinated Wade. + +Nothing was ever so absolutely pretty as Mrs. Peter Skerrett. Her +complete prettiness left nothing to be desired. + +"Never," thought Wade, "did I see such a compact little casket of +perfections. Every feature is thoroughly well done and none intrusively +superior. Her little nose is a combination of all the amiabilities. Her +black eyes sparkle with fun and mischief and wit, all playing over deep +tenderness below. Her hair ripples itself full of gleams and shadows. +The same coquetry of Nature that rippled her hair has dinted her cheeks +with shifting dimples. Every time she smiles--and she smiles as if sixty +an hour were not half allowance--a dimple slides into view and vanishes +like a dot in a flow of sunny water. And, O Peter Skerrett! if you were +not the best fellow in the world, I should envy you that latent kiss of +a mouth." + +"You need not say it, Wade,--your broken head exempts you from the +business of compliments," said Peter; "but I see you think my wife +perfection. You'll think so the more, the more you know her." + +"Stop, Peter," said she, "or I shall have to hide behind the superior +charms of Mary Damer." + +Miss Damer certainly was a woman of a grander order. You might pull at +the bells or knock at the knockers and be introduced into the boudoirs +of all the houses, villas, seats, chateaus, and palaces in Christendom +without seeing such another. She belonged distinctly to the Northern +races,--the "brave and true and tender" women. There was, indeed, a +trace of hauteur and imperiousness in her look and manner; but it +did not ill become her distinguished figure and face. Wade, however, +remembered her sweet earnestness when she was playing leech to his +wound, and chose to take that mood as her dominant one. + +"She must have been desperately annoyed with bores and boobies," he +thought. "I do not wonder she protects herself by distance. I am afraid +I shall never get within her lines again,--not even if I should try +slow and regular approaches, and bombard her with bouquets for a +twelvemonth." + +"But, Wade," says Peter, "all this time you have not told us what good +luck sends you here to be wrecked on the hospitable shores of my Point." + +"I live here. I am chief cook and confectioner where you see the smoking +top of that tall chimney up-stream." + +"Why, of course! What a dolt I was, not to think of you, when Churm told +us an Athlete, a Brave, a Sage, and a Gentleman was the Superintendent +of Dunderbunk; but said we must find his name out for ourselves. You +remember, Mary. Miss Damer is Mr. Churm's ward." + +She acknowledged with a cool bow that she did remember her guardian's +character of Wade. + +"You do not say, Peter," says Mrs. Skerrett, with a bright little look +at the other lady, "why Mr. Churm was so mysterious about Mr. Wade." + +"Miss Damer shall tell us," Peter rejoined, repeating his wife's look of +merry significance. + +She looked somewhat teased. Wade could divine easily the meaning of +this little mischievous talk. His friend Churm had no doubt puffed him +furiously. + +"All this time," said Miss Darner, evading a reply, "we are neglecting +our skating privileges." + +"Peter and I have a few grains of humanity in our souls," Fanny said. +"We should blush to sail away from Mr. Wade, while he carries the +quarantine flag at his pale cheeks." + +"I am almost ruddy again," says Wade. "Your potion, Miss Damer, +has completed the work of your surgery. I can afford to dismiss my +lamp-post." + +"Whereupon the post changes to a tee-totum," Peter said, and spun off in +an eccentric, ending in a tumble. + +"I must have a share in your restoration, Mr. Wade," Fanny claimed. "I +see you need a second dose of medicine. Hand me the flask, Mary. What +shall I pour from this magic bottle? juice of Rhine, blood of Burgundy, +fire of Spain, bubble of Rheims, beeswing of Oporto, honey of Cyprus, +nectar, or whiskey? Whiskey is vulgar, but the proper thing, on the +whole, for these occasions. I prescribe it." And she gave him another +little draught to imbibe. + +He took it kindly, for her sake,--and not alone for that, but for its +own respectable sake. His recovery was complete. His head, to be sure, +sang a little still, and ached not a little. Some fellows would have +gone on the sick list with such a wound. Perhaps he would, if he had had +a trouble to dodge. But here instead was a pleasure to follow. So he +began to move about slowly, watching the ladies. + +Fanny was a novice in the Art, and this was her first day this winter. +She skated timidly, holding Peter very tightly. She went into the +dearest little panics for fear of tumbles, and uttered the most musical +screams and laughs. And if she succeeded in taking a few brave strokes +and finished with a neat slide, she pleaded for a verdict of "Well +done!" with such an appealing smile and such a fine show of dimples that +every one was fascinated and applauded heartily. + +Miss Damer skated as became her free and vigorous character. She had +passed her Little Go as a scholar, and was now steadily winning her way +through the list of achievements, before given, toward the Great Go. +To-day she was at work at small circles backward. Presently she wound +off a series of perfectly neat ones, and, looking up, pleased with her +prowess, caught Wade's admiring eye. At this she smiled and gave an +arch little womanly nod of self-approval, which also demanded masculine +sympathy before it was quite a perfect emotion. + +With this charming gesture, the alert feather in her Amazonian hat +nodded, too, as if it admired its lovely mistress. + +Wade was thrilled. "Brava!" he cried, in answer to the part of her look +which asked sympathy; and then, in reply to the implied challenge, he +forgot his hurt and his shock, and struck into the same figure. + +He tried not to surpass his fair exemplar too cruelly. But he did his +peripheries well enough to get a repetition of the captivating nod and a +Bravo! from the lady. + +"Bravo!" said she. "But do not tax your strength too soon." + +She began to feel that she was expressing too much interest in the +stranger. It was a new sensation for her to care whether men fell or got +up. A new sensation. She rather liked it. She was a trifle ashamed of +it. In either case, she did not wish to show that it was in her heart. +The consciousness of concealment flushed her damask check. + +It was a damask cheek. All her hues were cool and pearly; while Wade, +Saxon too, had hot golden tints in his hair and moustache, and his +color, now returning, was good strong red with plenty of bronze in it. + +"Thank you," he replied. "My force has all come back. You have +electrified me." + +A civil nothing; but meaning managed to get into his tone and look, +whether he would or not. + +Which he perceiving, on his part began to feel guilty. + +Of what crime? + +Of the very same crime as hers,--the most ancient and most pardonable +crime of youth and maiden,--that sweet and guiltless crime of love in +the first degree. + +So, without troubling themselves to analyze their feelings, they found +a piquant pleasure in skating together,--she in admiring his _tours de +force_, and he in instructing her. + +"Look, Peter!" said Mrs. Skerrett, pointing to the other pair skating, +he on the backward roll, she on the forward, with hands crossed and +locked;--such contacts are permitted in skating, as in dancing. "Your +hero and my heroine have dropped into an intimacy." + +"None but the Plucky deserve the Pretty," says Peter. + +"But he seems to be such a fine fellow,--suppose she shouldn't"---- + +The pretty face looked anxious. + +"Suppose _he_ shouldn't," Peter on the masculine behalf returned. + +"He cannot help it: Mary is so noble,--and so charming, when she does +not disdain to be." + +"I do not believe _she_ can help it. She cannot disdain Wade. He carries +too many guns for that. He is just as fine as she is. He was a hero when +I first knew him. His face does not show an atom of change; and you know +what Mr. Churm told us of his chivalric deeds elsewhere, and how he +tamed and reformed Dunderbunk. He is crystal grit, as crystalline and +gritty as he can be." + +"Grit seems to be your symbol of the highest qualities. It certainly is +a better thing in man than in ice-cream. But, Peter, suppose this should +be a true love and should not run smooth?" + +"What consequence is the smooth running, so long as there is strong +running and a final getting in neck and neck at the winning-post?" + +"But," still pleaded the anxious soul,--having no anxieties of her +own, she was always suffering for others,--"he seems to be such a fine +fellow! and she is so hard to win!" + +"Am I a fine fellow?" + +"No,--horrid!" + +"The truth,--or I let you tumble." + +"Well, upon compulsion, I admit that you are." + +"Then being a fine fellow does not diminish the said fellow's chances of +being blessed with a wife quite superfine." + +"If I thought you were personal, Peter, I should object to the +mercantile adjective. 'Superfine,' indeed!" + +"I am personal. I withdraw the obnoxious phrase, and substitute +transcendent. No, Fanny dear, I read Wade's experience in my own. I do +not feel very much concerned about him. He is big enough to take care of +himself. A man who is sincere, self-possessed, and steady does not get +into miseries with beautiful Amazons like our friend. He knows too much +to try to make his love run up hill; but let it once get started, rough +running gives it _vim_. Wade will love like a deluge, when he sees that +he may, and I'd advise obstacles to stand off." + +"It was pretty, Peter, to see cold Mary Damer so gentle and almost +tender." + +"I always have loved to see the first beginnings of what looks like +love, since I saw ours." + +"Ours," she said,--"it seems like yesterday." + +And then together they recalled that fair picture against its dark +ground of sorrow, and so went on refreshing the emotions of that time +until Fanny smiling said,-- + +"There must be something magical in skates, for here we are talking +sentimentally like a pair of young lovers." + +"Health and love are cause and effect," says Peter, sententiously. + +Meanwhile Wade had been fast skating into the good graces of his +companion. Perhaps the rap on his head had deranged him. He certainly +tossed himself about in a reckless and insane way. Still he justified +his conduct by never tumbling again, and by inventing new devices with +bewildering rapidity. + +This pair were not at all sentimental. Indeed, their talk was quite +technical: all about rings and edges, and heel and toe,--what skates are +best, and who best use them. There is an immense amount of sympathy to +be exchanged on such topics, and it was somewhat significant that they +avoided other themes where they might not sympathize so thoroughly. The +negative part of a conversation is often as important as its positive. + +So the four entertained themselves finely, sometimes as a quartette, +sometimes as two duos with proper changes of partners, until the clear +west began to grow golden and the clear east pink with sunset. + +"It is a pity to go," said Peter Skerrett. "Everything here is +perfection and Fine Art; but we must not be unfaithful to dinner. Dinner +would have a right to punish us, if we did not encourage its efforts to +be Fine Art also." + +"Now, Mr. Wade," Fanny commanded, "your most heroic series of exploits, +to close this heroic day." + +He nimbly dashed through his list. The ice was traced with a labyrinth +of involuted convolutions. + +Wade's last turn brought him to the very spot of his tumble. + +"Ah!" said he. "Here is the oar that tripped me, with 'Wade, his +mark,' gashed into it. If I had not this"--he touched Miss Damer's +handkerchief--"for a souvenir, I think I would dig up the oar and carry +it home." + +"Let it melt out and float away in the spring," Mary said. "It may be a +perch for a sea-gull or a buoy for a drowning man." + +Here, if this were a long story instead of a short one, might be given a +description of Peter Skerrett's house and the _menu_ of Mrs. Skerrett's +dinner. Peter and his wife had both been to great pillory dinners, _ad +nauseam_, and learnt what to avoid. How not to be bored is the object of +all civilization, and the Skerretts had discovered the methods. I must +dismiss the dinner and the evening, stamped with the general epithet, +Perfection. + +"You will join us again to-morrow on the river," said Mrs. Skerrett, as +Wade rose to go. + +"To-morrow I go to town to report to my Directors." + +"Then next day." + +"Next day, with pleasure." + +Wade departed and marked this halcyon day with white chalk, as the +whitest, brightest, sweetest of his life. + + +CHAPTER X. + +FOREBODINGS. + + +Jubilation! Jubilation now, instead of Consternation, in the office of +Mr. Benjamin Brummage in Wall Street. + +President Brummage had convoked his Directors to hear the First +Semi-Annual Report of the new Superintendent and Dictator of Dunderbunk. + +And there they sat around the green table, no longer forlorn and +dreading a, failure, but all chuckling with satisfaction over their +prosperity. + +They were a happy and hilarious family now,--so hilarious that +the President was obliged to be always rapping to Order with his +paper-knife. + +Every one of these gentlemen was proud of himself as a Director of so +successful a Company. The Dunderbunk advertisement might now consider +itself as permanent in the newspapers, and the Treasurer had very +unnecessarily inserted the notice of a dividend, which everybody knew of +already. + +When Mr. Churm was not by, they all claimed the honor of having +discovered Wade, or at least of having been the first to appreciate him. + +They all invited him to dinner,--the others at their houses, Sam Gwelp +at his club. + +They had not yet begun to wax fat and kick. They still remembered +the panic of last summer. They passed a unanimous vote of the most +complimentary confidence in Wade, approved of his system, forced upon +him an increase of salary, and began to talk of "launching out" and +doubling their capital. In short, they behaved as Directors do when all +is serene. + +Churm and Wade had a hearty laugh over the absurdities of the Board and +all their vague propositions. + +"Dunderbunk," said Churm, "was a company started on a sentimental basis, +as many others are." + +"Mr. Brummage fell in love with pig-iron?" + +"Precisely. He had been a dry-goods jobber, risen from a retailer +somewhere in the country. He felt a certain lack of dignity in his work. +He wanted to deal in something more masculine than lace and ribbons. He +read a sentimental article on Iron in the 'Journal of Commerce': how +Iron held the world together; how it was nerve and sinew; how it was +ductile and malleable and other things that sounded big; how without +Iron civilization would stop, and New Zealanders hunt rats among the +ruins of London; how anybody who would make two tons of Iron grow +where one grew before was a benefactor to the human race greater than +Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon; and so on,--you know the eloquent style. +Brummage's soul was fired. He determined to be greater than the three +heroes named. He was oozing with unoccupied capital. He went about among +the other rich jobbers, with the newspaper article in his hand, and +fired their souls. They determined to be great Iron-Kings,--magnificent +thought! They wanted to read in the newspapers, 'If all the iron rails +made at the Dunderbunk Works in the last six months were put together in +a straight line, they would reach twice round our terraqueous globe and +seventy-three miles two rails over.' So on that poetic foundation they +started the concern." + +Wade laughed. "But how did you happen to be with them?" + +"Oh! my friend Damer sold them the land for the shop and took stock in +payment. I came into the Board as his executor. Did I never tell you so +before?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, be informed that it was in Miss Damer's behalf that you +knocked down Friend Tarbox, and so got your skates for saving her +property. It's quite a romance already, Richard, my boy! and I suppose +you feel immensely bored that you had to come down and meet us old +chaps, instead of tumbling at her feet on the ice again to-day." + +"A tumble in this wet day would be a cold bath to romance." + +The Gulf Stream had sent up a warm spoil-sport rain that morning. It did +not stop, but poured furiously the whole day. + +From Cohoes to Spuyten Duyvil, on both sides of the river, all the +skaters swore at the weather, as profane persons no doubt did when the +windows of heaven were opened in Noah's time. The skateresses did not +swear, but savagely said, "It is too bad,"--and so it was. + +Wade, loaded with the blessings of his Directors, took the train next +morning for Dunderbunk. + +The weather was still mild and drizzly, but promised to clear. As the +train rattled along by the river, Wade could see that the thin ice +was breaking up everywhere. In mid-stream a procession of blocks was +steadily drifting along. Unless Zero came sliding down again pretty soon +from Boreal regions, the sheets that filled the coves and clung to the +shores would also sail away southward, and the whole Hudson be left +clear as in midsummer. + +At Yonkers a down train ranged by the side of Wade's train, and, looking +out, he saw Mr. and Mrs. Skerrett alighting. + +He jumped down, rather surprised, to speak to them. + +"We have just been telegraphed here," said Peter, gravely. "The son of a +widow, a friend of ours, was drowned this morning in the soft ice of the +river. He was a pet of mine, poor fellow! and the mother depends upon me +for advice. We have come down to say a kind word. Why won't you report +us to the ladies at my house, and say we shall not be at home until the +evening train? They do not know the cause of our journey, except that it +is a sad one." + +"Perhaps Mr. Wade will carve their turkey for them at dinner, Peter," +Fanny suggested. + +"Do, Wade! and keep their spirits up. Dinner's at six." + +Here the engine whistled. Wade promised to "shine substitute" at his +friend's board, and took his place again. The train galloped away. + +Peter and his wife exchanged a bright look over the fortunate incident +of this meeting, and went on their kind way to carry sympathy and such +consolation as might be to the widow. + +The train galloped northward. Until now, the beat of its wheels, like +the click of an enormous metronome, had kept time to jubilant measures +singing in Wade's brain. He was hurrying back, exhilarated with success, +to the presence of a woman whose smile was finer exhilaration than any +number of votes of confidence, passed unanimously by any number of +conclaves of overjoyed Directors, and signed by Brummage after Brummage, +with the signature of a capitalist in a flurry of delight at a ten per +cent dividend. + +But into this joyous mood of Wade's the thought of death suddenly +intruded. He could not keep a picture of death and drowning out of his +mind. As the train sprang along and opened gloomy breadth after breadth +of the leaden river, clogged with slow-drifting files of ice-blocks, he +found himself staring across the dreary waste and forever fancying some +one sinking there, helpless and alone. + +He seemed to see a brave, bright-eyed, ruddy boy, venturing out +carelessly along the edges of the weakened ice. Suddenly the ice gives +way, the little figure sinks, rises, clutches desperately at a fragment, +struggles a moment, is borne along in the relentless flow of the chilly +water, stares in vain shoreward, and so sinks again with a look of +agony, and is gone. + +But whenever this inevitable picture grew before Wade's eyes, as the +drowning figure of his fancy vanished, it suddenly changed features, and +presented the face of Mary Damer, perishing beyond succor. + +Of course he knew that this was but a morbid vision. Yet that it came at +all, and that it so agonized him, proved the force of his new feeling. + +He had not analyzed it before. This thought of death became its +touchstone. + +Men like Wade, strong, healthy, earnest, concentrated, straightforward, +isolated, judge men and women as friends or foes at once and once for +all. He had recognized in Mary Damer from the first a heart as true, +whole, noble, and healthy as his own. A fine instinct had told him that +she was waiting for her hero, as he was for his heroine. + +So he suddenly loved her. And yet not suddenly; for all his life, and +all his lesser forgotten or discarded passions, had been training him +for this master one. + +He suddenly and strongly loved her; and yet it had only been a beautiful +bewilderment of uncomprehended delight, until this haunting vision of +her fair face sinking amid the hungry ice beset him. Then he perceived +what would be lost to him, if she were lost. + +The thought of Death placed itself between him and Love. If the love +had been merely a pretty remembrance of a charming woman, he might have +dismissed his fancied drowning scene with a little emotion of regret. +Now, the fancy was an agony. + +He had too much power over himself to entertain it long. But the grisly +thought came uninvited, returned undesired, and no resolute Avaunt, even +backed by that magic wand, a cigar, availed to banish it wholly. + +The sky cleared cold at eleven o'clock. A sharp wind drew through the +Highlands. As the train rattled round the curve below the tunnel through +Skerrett's Point, Wade could see his skating course of Christmas-Day +with the ladies. Firm ice, glazed smooth by the sudden chill after the +rain, filled the Cove and stretched beyond the Point into the river. + +It was treacherous stuff, beautiful to the eyes of a skater, but sure +to be weak, and likely to break up any moment and join the deliberate +headlong drift of the masses in mid-current. + +Wade almost dreaded lest his vision should suddenly realize itself, +and he should see his enthusiastic companion of the other day sailing +gracefully along to certain death. + +Nothing living, however, was in sight, except here and there a crow, +skipping about in the floating ice. + +The lover was greatly relieved. He could now forewarn the lady against +the peril he had imagined. The train in a moment dropped him at +Dunderbunk. He hurried to the Foundry and wrote a note to Mrs. Damer. + +"Mr. Wade presents his compliments to Mrs. Damer, and has the honor to +inform her that Mr. Skerrett has nominated him carver to the ladies +to-day in their host's place. + +"Mr. Wade hopes that Miss Damer will excuse him from his engagement to +skate with her this afternoon. The ice is dangerous, and Miss Damer +should on no account venture upon it." + +Perry Purtett was the bearer of this billet. He swaggered into Peter +Skerrett's hall, and dreadfully alarmed the fresh-imported Englishman +who answered the bell, by ordering him in a severe tone,-- + +"Hurry up now, White Cravat, with that answer! I'm wanted down to the +Works. Steam don't bile when I'm off; and the fly-wheel will never buzz +another turn, unless I'm there to motion it to move on." + +Mrs. Damer's gracious reply informed Wade "that she should be charmed to +see him at dinner, etc., and would not fail to transmit his kind warning +to Miss Damer, when she returned from her drive to make calls." + +But when Miss Damer returned in the afternoon, her mother was taking a +gentle nap over the violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red +stripes of a gorgeous Afghan she was knitting. The daughter heard +nothing of the billet. The house was lonely without Fanny Skerrett. Mr. +Wade did not come at the appointed hour. Mary was not--willing to say to +herself how much she regretted his absence. + +Had he forgotten the appointment? + +No,--that was a thought not to be tolerated. + +"A gentleman does not forget," she thought. And she had a thorough +confidence, besides, that this gentleman was very willing to remember. + +She read a little, fitfully, sang fitfully, moved about the house +uneasily; and at last, when it grew late, and she was bored and Wade did +not arrive, she pronounced to herself that he had been detained in town. + +This point settled, she took her skates, put on her pretty Amazonian hat +with its alert feather, and went down to waste her beauty and grace on +the ice, unattended and alone. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CAP'S AMBUSTER'S SKIFF. + + +It was a busy afternoon at the Dunderbunk Foundry. + +The Superintendent had come back with his pocket full of orders. +Everybody, from the Czar of Russia to the President of the Guano +Republic, was in the market for machinery. Crisis was gone by. +Prosperity was come. The world was all ready to move, and only waited +for a fresh supply of wheels, cranks, side-levers, walking-beams, and +other such muscular creatures of iron, to push and tug and swing and +revolve and set Progress a-going. + +Dunderbunk was to have its full share in supplying the demand. It was +well understood by this time that the iron Wade made was as stanch +as the man who made it. Dunderbunk, therefore, Head and Hands, must +despatch. + +So it was a busy afternoon at the industrious Foundry. The men bestirred +themselves. The furnaces rumbled. The engine thumped. The drums in the +finishing-shop hummed merrily their lively song of labor. The four +trip-hammers--two bull-headed, two calf-headed--champed, like +carnivorous maws, upon red bars of iron, and over their banquet they +roared the big-toned music of the trip-hammer chorus,-- + + "Now, then! hit hard! + Strike while Iron's hot. Life's short. Art's long." + +By this massive refrain, ringing in at intervals above the ceaseless +buzz, murmur, and clang throughout the buildings, every man's work was +mightily nerved and inspired. Everybody liked to hear the sturdy song of +these grim vocalists; and whenever they struck in, each solo or duo or +quatuor of men, playing Anvil Chorus, quickened time, and all the action +and rumor of the busy opera went on more cheerily and lustily. So work +kept astir like play. + +An hour before sunset, Bill Tarbox stepped into Wade's office. Even oily +and begrimed, Bill could be recognized as a favored lover. He looked +more a man than ever before. + +"I forgot to mention," says the foreman, "that Cap'n Ambuster was in, +this morning, to see you. He says, that, if the river's clear enough for +him to get away from our dock, he'll go down to the City to-morrow, and +offers to take freight cheap. We might put that new walking-beam, we've +just rough-finished for the 'Union,' aboard of him." + +"Yes,--if he is sure to go to-morrow. It will not do to delay. The +owners complained to me yesterday that the 'Union' was in a bad way for +want of its new machinery. Tell your brother-in-law to come here, Bill." + +Tarbox looked sheepishly pleased, and summoned Perry Purtett. + +"Run down, Perry," said Wade, "to the 'Ambuster,' and ask Captain Isaac +to step up here a moment. Tell him I have some freight to send by him." + +Perry moved through the Foundry with his usual jaunty step, left his +dignity at the door, and ran off to the dock. + +The weather had grown fitful. Heavy clouds whirled over, trailing +snow-flurries. Rarely the sun found a cleft in the black canopy to shoot +a ray through and remind the world that he was still in his place and +ready to shine when he was wanted. + +Master Perry had a furlong to go before he reached the dock. He crossed +the stream, kept unfrozen by the warm influences of the Foundry. He ran +through a little dell hedged on each side by dull green cedars. It was +severely cold now, and our young friend condescended to prance and jump +over the ice-skimmed puddles to keep his blood in motion. + +The little rusty, pudgy steamboat lay at the down-stream side of the +Foundry wharf. Her name was so long and her paddle-box so short, that +the painter, beginning with ambitious large letters, had been compelled +to abbreviate the last syllable. Her title read thus:-- + +I. AMBUSTER. + +Certainly a formidable inscription for a steamboat! + +When she hove in sight, Perry halted, resumed his stately demeanor, and +em-barked as if he were a Doge entering a Bucentaur to wed a Sea. + +There was nobody on deck to witness the arrival and salute the +_magnifico_. + +Perry looked in at the Cap'n's office. He beheld a three-legged stool, +a hacked desk, an inky steel-pen, an inkless inkstand; but no Cap'n +Ambuster. + +Perry inspected the Cap'n's state-room. There was a cracked +looking-glass, into which he looked; a hair-brush suspended by the +glass, which he used; a lair of blankets in a berth, which he had no +present use for; and a smell of musty boots, which nobody with a nose +could help smelling. Still no Captain Ambuster, nor any of his crew. + +Search in the unsavory kitchen revealed no cook, coiled up in a corner, +suffering nightmares for the last greasy dinner he had brewed in his +frying-pan. There were no deck hands bundled into their bunks. Perry +rapped on the chain-box and inquired if anybody was within, and nobody +answering, he had to ventriloquize a negative. + +The engine-room, too, was vacant, and quite as unsavory as the other +dens on board. Perry patronized the engine by a pull or two at the +valves, and continued his tour of inspection. + +The Ambuster's skiff, lying on her forward deck, seemed to entertain him +vastly. + +"Jolly!" says Perry. And so it was a jolly boat in the literal, not the +technical sense. + +"The three wise men of Gotham went to sea in a bowl; and here's the +identical craft," says Perry. + +He gave the chubby little machine a push with his foot. It rolled and +wallowed about grotesquely. When it was still again, it looked so comic, +lying contentedly on its fat side like a pudgy baby, that Perry had a +roar of laughter, which, like other laughter to one's self, did not +sound very merry, particularly as the north-wind was howling ominously, +and the broken ice on its downward way was whispering and moaning and +talking on in a most mysterious and inarticulate manner. + +"Those sheets of ice would crunch up this skiff, as pigs do a punkin," +thinks Perry. + +And with this thought in his head he looked out on the river, and +fancied the foolish little vessel cast loose and buffeting helplessly +about in the ice. + +He had been so busy until now, in prying about the steamboat and making +up his mind that Captain and men had all gone off for a comfortable +supper on shore, that his eyes had not wandered toward the stream. + +Now his glance began to follow the course of the icy current. He +wondered where all this supply of cakes came from, and how many of them +would escape the stems of ferry-boats below and get safe to sea. + +All at once, as he looked lazily along the lazy files of ice, his eyes +caught a black object drifting on a fragment in a wide way of open water +opposite Skerrett's Point, a mile distant. + +Perry's heart stopped beating. He uttered a little gasping cry. He +sprang ashore, not at all like a Doge quitting a Bucentaur. He tore back +to the Foundry, dashing through the puddles, and, never stopping to pick +up his cap, burst in upon Wade and Bill Tarbos in the office. + +The boy was splashed from head to foot with red mud. His light hair, +blown wildly about, made his ashy face seem paler. He stood panting. + +His dumb terror brought back to Wade's mind all the bad omens of the +morning. + +"Speak!" said he, seizing Perry fiercely by the shoulder. + +The uproar of the Works seemed to hush for an instant, while the lad +stammered faintly,-- + +"There's somebody carried off in the ice by Skerrett's Point. It looks +like a woman. And there's nobody to help." + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IN THE ICE. + + +"Help! help!" shouted the four triphammers, bursting in like a magnified +echo of the boy's last word. + +"Help! help!" all the humming wheels and drums repeated more +plaintively. + +Wade made for the river. + +This was the moment all his manhood had been training and saving for. +For this he had kept sound and brave from his youth up. + +As he ran, he felt that the only chance of instant help was in that +queer little bowl-shaped skiff of the "Ambuster." + +He had never been conscious that he had observed it; but the image +had lain latent in his mind, biding its time. It might be ten, twenty +precious moments before another boat could be found. This one was on the +spot to do its duty at once. + +"Somebody carried off,--perhaps a woman," Wade thought. "Not--No, she +would not neglect my warning! Whoever it is, we must save her from this +dreadful death!" + +He sprang on board the little steamboat. She was swaying uneasily at her +moorings, as the ice crowded along and hammered against her stem. Wade +stared from her deck down the river, with all his life at his eyes. + +More than a mile away, below the hemlock-crested point, was the dark +object Perry had seen, still stirring along the edges of the floating +ice. A broad avenue of leaden-green water wrinkled by the cold wind +separated the field where this figure was moving from the shore. Dark +object and its footing of gray ice were drifting deliberately farther +and farther away. + +For one instant Wade thought that the terrible dread in his heart would +paralyze him. But in that one moment, while his blood stopped flowing +and his nerves failed, Bill Tarbos overtook him and was there by his +side. + +"I brought your cap," says Bill, "and our two coats." + +Wade put on his cap mechanically. This little action calmed him. + +"Bill," said he, "I'm afraid it is a woman,--a dear friend of mine,--a +very dear friend." + +Bill, a lover, understood the tone. + +"We'll take care of her between us," he said. + +The two turned at once to the little tub of a boat. + +Oars? Yes,--slung under the thwarts,--a pair of short sculls, worn and +split, but with work in them still. There they hung ready,--and a rusty +boat-hook, besides. + +"Find the thole-pins, Bill, while I cut a plug for her bottom out of +this broomstick," Wade said. + +This was done in a moment. Bill threw in the coats. + +"Now, together!" + +They lifted the skiff to the gangway. Wade jumped down on the ice and +received her carefully. They ran her along, as far as they could go, and +launched her in the sludge. + +"Take the sculls, Bill. I'll work the boat-hook in the bow." + +Nothing more was said. They thrust out with their crazy little craft +into the thick of the ice-flood. Bill, amidships, dug with his sculls +in among the huddled cakes. It was clumsy pulling. Now this oar and now +that would be thrown out. He could never get a full stroke. + +Wade in the bow could do better. He jammed the blocks aside with his +boat-hook. He dragged the skiff forward. He steered through the little +open ways of water. + +Sometimes they came to a broad sheet of solid ice. Then it was "Out with +her, Bill!" and they were both out and sliding their bowl so quick +over, that they had not time to go through the rotten surface. This was +drowning business; but neither could be spared to drown yet. + +In the leads of clear water, the oarsman got brave pulls and sent the +boat on mightily. Then again in the thick porridge of brash ice they +lost headway, or were baffled and stopped among the cakes. Slow work, +slow and painful; and for many minutes they seemed to gain nothing upon +the steady flow of the merciless current. + +A frail craft for such a voyage, this queer little half-pumpkin! A frail +and leaky shell. She bent and cracked from stem to stern among the +nipping masses. Water oozed in through her dry seams. Any moment a +rougher touch or a sharper edge might cut her through. But that was a +risk they had accepted. They did not take time to think of it, nor to +listen to the crunching and crackling of the hungry ice around. They +urged straight on, steadily, eagerly, coolly, spending and saving +strength. + +Not one moment to lose! The shattering of broad sheets of ice around +them was a warning of what might happen to the frail support of their +chase. One thrust of the boat-hook sometimes cleft a cake that to the +eye seemed stout enough to bear a heavier weight than a woman's. + +Not one moment to spare! The dark figure, now drifted far below the +hemlocks of the Point, no longer stirred. It seemed to have sunk upon +the ice and to be resting there weary and helpless, on one side a wide +way of lurid water, on the other half a mile of moving desolation. + +Far to go, and no time to waste! + +"Give way, Bill! Give way!" + +"Ay, ay!" + +Both spoke in low tones, hardly louder than the whisper of the ice +around them. + +By this time hundreds from the Foundry and the village were swarming +upon the wharf and the steamboat. + +"A hunderd tar-barrels wouldn't git up my steam in time to do any good," +says Cap'n Ambuster. "If them two in my skiff don't overhaul the man, +he's gone." + +"You're sure it's a man?" says Smith Wheelwright. + +"Take a squint through my glass. I'm dreffully afeard it's a gal; but +suthin's got into my eye, so I can't see." + +Suthin' had got into the old fellow's eye,--suthin' saline and +acrid,--namely, a tear. + +"It's a woman," says Wheelwright,--and suthin' of the same kind blinded +him also. + +Almost sunset now. But the air was suddenly filled with perplexing +snow-dust from a heavy squall. A white curtain dropped between the +anxious watchers on the wharf and the boatmen. + +The same white curtain hid the dark floating object from its pursuers. +There was nothing in sight to steer by, now. + +Wade steered by his last glimpse,--by the current,--by the rush of the +roaring wind,--by instinct. + +How merciful that in such a moment a man is spared the agony of thought! +His agony goes into action, intense as life. + +It was bitterly cold. A swash of ice-water filled the bottom of the +skiff. She was low enough down without that. They could not stop to +bail, and the miniature icebergs they passed began to look significantly +over the gunwale. Which would come to the point of foundering first, the +boat or the little floe it aimed for? + +Bitterly cold! The snow hardly melted upon Tarbox's bare hands. His +fingers stiffened to the oars; but there was life in them still, and +still he did his work, and never turned to see how the steersman was +doing his. + +A flight of crows came sailing with the snow-squall. They alighted all +about on the hummocks, and curiously watched the two men battling to +save life. One black impish bird, more malignant or more sympathetic +than his fellows, ventured to poise on the skiff's stern! + +Bill hissed off this third passenger. The crow rose on its toes, let +the boat slide away from under him, and followed croaking dismal good +wishes. + +The last sunbeams were now cutting in everywhere. The thick snow-flurry +was like a luminous cloud. Suddenly it drew aside. + +The industrious skiff had steered so well and made such headway, that +there, a hundred yards away, safe still, not gone, thank God! was the +woman they sought. + +A dusky mass flung together on a waning rood of ice,--Wade could see +nothing more. + +Weary or benumbed, or sick with pure forlornness and despair, she had +drooped down and showed no sign of life. + +The great wind shook the river. Her waning rood of ice narrowed, foot +by foot, like an unthrifty man's heritage. Inch by inch its edges wore +away, until the little space that half-sustained the dark heap was no +bigger than a coffin-lid. + +Help, now!--now, men, if you are to save! Thrust, Richard Wade, with +your boat-hook! Pull, Bill, till your oars snap! Out with your last +frenzies of vigor! For the little raft of ice, even that has crumbled +beneath its burden, and she sinks,--sinks, with succor close at hand! + +Sinks! No,--she rises and floats again. + +She clasps something that holds her head just above water. But the +unmannerly ice has buffeted her hat off. The fragments toss it +about,--that pretty Amazonian hat, with its alert feather, all drooping +and draggled. Her fair hair and pure forehead are uncovered for an +astonished sunbeam to alight upon. + +"It is my love, my life, Bill! Give way, once more!" + +"Way enough! Steady! Sit where you are, Bill, and trim boat, while I +lift her out. We cannot risk capsizing." + +He raised her carefully, tenderly, with his strong arms. + +A bit of wood had buoyed her up for that last moment. It was a broken +oar with a deep fresh gash in it. + +Wade knew his mark,--the cut of his own skate-iron. This busy oar was +still resolved to play its part in the drama. + +The round little skiff just bore the third person without sinking. + +Wade laid Mary Damer against the thwart. She would not let go her buoy. +He unclasped her stiffened hands. This friendly touch found its way to +her heart. She opened her eyes and knew him. + +"The ice shall not carry off her hat to frighten some mother, down +stream," says Bill Tarbox, catching it. + +All these proceedings Cap'n Ambuster's spy-glass announced to +Dunderbunk. + +"They're h'istin' her up. They've slumped her into the skiff. They're +puttin' for shore. Hooray!" + +Pity a spy-glass cannot shoot cheers a mile and a half! + +Perry Purtett instantly led a stampede of half Dunderbunk along the +railroad-track to learn who it was and all about it. + +All about it was, that Miss Damer was safe and not dangerously +frozen,--and that Wade and Tarbox had carried her up the hill to her +mother at Peter Skerrett's. + +Missing the heroes in chief, Dunderbunk made a hero of Cap'n Ambuster's +skiff. It was transported back on the shoulders of the crowd in +triumphal procession. Perry Purtett carried round the hat for a +contribution to new paint it, new rib it, new gunwale it, give it new +sculls and a new boat-hook,--indeed, to make a new vessel of the brave +little bowl. + +"I'm afeard," says Cap'n Ambuster, "that, when I git a harnsome new +skiff, I shall want a harnsome new steamboat, and then the boat will go +to cruisin' round for a harnsome new Cap'n." + +And now for the end of this story. + +Healthy love-stories always end in happy marriages. + +So ends this story, begun as to its love portion by the little romance +of a tumble, and continued by the bigger romance of a rescue. + +Of course there were incidents enough to fill a volume, obstacles enough +to fill a volume, and development of character enough to fill a tome +thick as "Webster's Unabridged," before the happy end of the beginning +of the Wade-Damer joint history. + +But we can safely take for granted that the lover being true and manly, +and the lady true and womanly, and both possessed of the high moral +qualities necessary to artistic skating, they will go on understanding +each other better, until they are as one as two can be. + +Masculine reader, attend to the moral of this tale:-- + +Skate well, be a hero, bravely deserve the fair, prove your deserts by +your deeds, find your "perfect woman nobly planned to warm, to comfort, +and command," catch her when found, and you are Blest. + +Reader of the gentler sex, likewise attend:-- + +All the essential blessings of life accompany a true heart and a good +complexion. Skate vigorously; then your heart will beat true, your +cheeks will bloom, your appointed lover will see your beautiful soul +shining through your beautiful face, he will tell you so, and after +sufficient circumlocution he will Pop, you will accept, and your lives +will glide sweetly as skating on virgin ice to silver music. + + * * * * * + + +MIDWINTER. + + + The speckled sky is dim with snow, + The light flakes falter and fall slow; + Athwart the hill-top, rapt and pale, + Silently drops a silvery veil; + The far-off mountain's misty form + Is entering now a tent of storm; + And all the valley is shut in + By flickering curtains gray and thin. + + But cheerily the chickadee + Singeth to me on fence and tree; + The snow sails round him, as he sings, + White as the down of angels' wings. + + I watch the slow flakes, as they fall + On bank and brier and broken wall; + Over the orchard, waste and brown, + All noiselessly they settle down, + Tipping the apple-boughs, and each + Light quivering twig of plum and peach. + + On turf and curb and bower-roof + The snow-storm spreads its ivory woof; + It paves with pearl the garden-walk; + And lovingly round tattered stalk + And shivering stem its magic weaves + A mantle fair as lily-leaves. + + The hooded beehive, small and low, + Stands like a maiden in the snow; + And the old door-slab is half hid + Under an alabaster lid. + + All day it snows: the sheeted post + Gleams in the dimness like a ghost; + All day the blasted oak has stood + A muffled wizard of the wood; + Garland and airy cap adorn + The sumach and the way-side thorn, + And clustering spangles lodge and shine + In the dark tresses of the pine. + + The ragged bramble, dwarfed and old, + Shrinks like a beggar in the cold; + In surplice white the cedar stands, + And blesses him with priestly hands. + + Still cheerily the chickadee + Singeth to me on fence and tree: + But in my inmost ear is heard + The music of a holier bird; + And heavenly thoughts, as soft and white + As snow-flakes, on my soul alight, + Clothing with love my lonely heart, + Healing with peace each bruisèd part, + Till all my being seems to be + Transfigured by their purity. + + * * * * * + + +EASE IN WORK. + + +To thoughts and expressions of peculiar force and beauty we give the +epithets "happy" and "felicitous," as if we esteemed them a product +rather of the writer's fortune than of his toil. Thus, Dryden says of +Shakspeare, "All the images of Nature were still present to him, and he +drew from them, not laboriously, but luckily." And, indeed, when one +contemplates a noble creation in art or literature, one seems to receive +from the work itself a certain testimony that it was never wrought out +with wrestling struggle, but was genially and joyfully produced, as the +sun sends forth his beams and the earth her herbage. This appearance +of play and ease is sometimes so notable as to cause a curious +misapprehension. For example, De Quincey permits himself, if my memory +serve me, to say that Plato probably wrote his works not in any +seriousness of spirit, but only as a pastime! A pastime for the +immortals that were. + +The reason of this ease may be that perfect performance is ever more the +effluence of a man's nature than the conscious labor of his hands. That +the hands are faithfully busy therein, that every faculty contributes +its purest industry, no one could for a moment doubt; since there could +not be a total action of one's nature without this loyalty of his +special powers. Nevertheless, there are times when the presiding +intelligence descends into expression by a law and necessity of its own, +as clouds descend into rain; and perhaps it is only then that consummate +work is done. He who by his particular powers and gifts serves as a +conduit for this flowing significance may indeed toil as no drudge ever +did or can, yet with such geniality and success, that he shall feel of +his toil only the joy, and that we shall see of it only the prosperity. +A swan labors in swimming, a pigeon in his flight; yet as no part +of this industry is defeated, as it issues momentarily in perfect +achievement, it makes upon us the impression, not of the limitation of +labor, but of the freedom and liberation of an animal genius. + +"Long deliberations," says Goethe, "commonly indicate that we have not +the point to be determined clearly in view." So an extreme sense +of striving effort, or, in other words, an extreme sense of inward +hindrance, in the performance of a high task, usually denotes the +presence in us of an element irrelevant to our work, and perhaps +unfriendly to it. If a stream flow roughly, you infer obstructions in +the channel. Often the explanation may be that one is attempting to-day +a task proper to some future time,--to another year, or another +century. It is the green fruit that clings tenaciously to the bough; the +ripe falls of itself. + +But as blighted and worm-eaten apples likewise fall of themselves, so in +this ease of execution the falsest work may agree with the best. That +the similarity is purely specious needs not be urged; yet in practically +distinguishing between the two there are not a few that fail. The most +precious work is performed with a noble, though not idle ease, because +it is the sincere, seasonable, and, as it were, inevitable flowering +into expression of one's inward life; and work utterly, glibly insincere +and imitative is often done with ease, because it is so successfully +separated from the inward life as not even to recognize its claim. +Accordingly, pure art and pure artifice, sincere creation and sheer +fabrication, flow; from the mixture of these, or from any mixture of +natural and necessary with factitious expression, comes embarrassment. +In the mastery of life, or of death, there is peace; the intermediate +state, that of sickness, is full of pain and struggle. In Homer and +in Tupper, in Cicero and the leaders of the London "Times," in Jeremy +Taylor and the latest Reverend Mr. Orotund, you find a liberal and +privileged utterance; but honest John Foster, made of powerful, but +ill-composed elements, and replete with an intelligence now gleaming and +now murky, could wring statements from his mind only as testimony in +cruel ages was obtained from unwilling witnesses, namely, by putting +himself to the torture. + +But it is of prime importance to observe that the aforementioned mature +fruit, which so falls at the tenderest touch into the hand, is no +sudden, no idle product. It comes, on the contrary, of a depth of +operation more profound, and testifies to a genius and sincerity in +Nature more subtile and religious, than we can understand or imagine. +This apple that in fancy we now pluck, and hardly need to pluck, from +the burdened bough,--think what a pedigree it has, what aeons of +world-making and world-maturing must elapse, all the genius of God +divinely assiduous, ere this could hang in ruddy and golden ripeness +here! Think, too, what a concurrence and consent of elements, of sun and +soil, of ocean-vapors and laden winds, of misty heats in the torrid zone +and condensing blasts from the North, were required before a single +apple could grow, before a single blossom could put forth its promise, +tender and beautiful amidst the gladness of spring!--and besides these +consenting ministries of Nature, how the special genius of the tree must +have wrought, making sacrifice of woody growth, and, by marvellous and +ineffable alchemies, co-working with the earth beneath, and the heaven +above! Ah, not from any indifference, not from any haste or indolence, +in Nature, come the fruits of her seasons and her centuries! + +Now he who has any faculty of thinking must see that thoughts are before +things in the order of existence. True it is, that here as elsewhere, as +everywhere, last is first and first is last. That which is innermost, +and consequently primary, is last to appear on the surface; and +accordingly thoughts _per se_ follow things in the order of +manifestation. But how could the thing exist, but for a thought that +preceded and begot it? And now that the thought has passed _through_ +the material symbol, has passed forward to a new and more consummate +expression, first in the soul, and afterwards by the voice, we should +be unwise indeed to deny or forget its antiquity. Thoughts are no +_parvenus_ or _novi homines_ in Nature, but came in with that Duke +William who first struck across the unnamed seas into this island of +time and material existence which we inhabit. Accordingly, it is using +extreme understatement, to say that every pure original thought has a +genesis equally ancient, earnest, vital with any product in Nature,--has +present relationships no less broad and cosmical, and an evolution +implying the like industries, veritable and precious beyond all scope of +affirmation. Even if we quite overlook its pre-personal ancestry, still +the roots it has in its immediate author will be of unmeasured depth, +and it will still proceed toward its consummate form by energies and +assiduities that beggar the estimation of all ordinary toil. With the +birth of the man himself was it first born, and to the time of its +perfect growth and birth into speech the burden of it was borne by every +ruddy drop of his heart's blood, by every vigor of his body,--nerve +and artery, eye and ear, and all the admirable servitors of the soul, +steadily bringing to that invisible matrix where it houses their +costly nutriments, their sacred offices; while every part and act of +experience, every gush of jubilance, every stifle of woe, all sweet +pangs of love and pity, all high breathings of faith and resolve, +contribute to the form and bloom it finally wears. Yet the more profound +and necessary product of one's spirit it is, the more likely at last +to fall softly from him,--so softly, perhaps, that he himself shall be +half-unaware when the separation occurs. + +And such only are men of genius as accomplish this divine utterance. +The voice itself may be strong or tiny,--that of a seraph, or that of a +song-sparrow; the range and power of combination may be Beethoven's, or +only such as are found in the hum of bees; but in this genuineness, this +depth of ancestry and purity of growth, this unmistakable issue under +the patronage of Nature, there is a test of genius that cannot vary. He +is not inimitable who imitates. He that speaks only what he has learned +speaks what the world will not long or greatly desire to learn from him. +"Shakspeare," said Dryden, not having the fear of Locke before his eyes, +"was naturally learned"; but whoever is quite destitute of natural +learning will never achieve winged words by dint and travail of other +erudition. If his soul have not been to school before coming to his +body, it is late in life for him to qualify himself for a teacher of +mankind. Words that are cups to contain the last essences of a sincere +life bear elixirs of life for as many lips as shall touch their brim; +they refresh all generations, nor by any quaffing of generations are +they to be drained. + +To this ease it may be owing that poets and artists are often so ill +judges of their own success. Their happiest performance is too nearly of +the same color with their permanent consciousness to be seen in relief: +work less sincere--that is, more related and bound to some partial state +or particular mood--would stand out more to the eye of the doer. To this +error he will be less exposed who learns--as most assuredly every artist +should--to estimate his work, not as it seems to him _striking_, but as +it echoes to his ear the earliest murmurs of his childhood, and reclaims +for the heart its wandered memories. Perhaps it is common for one's +happiest thoughts, in the moment of their apparition in words, to affect +him with a gentle surprise and sense of newness; but soon afterwards +they may probably come to touch him, on the contrary, with a vague +sense of reminiscence, as if his mother had sung them by his cradle, or +somewhere under the rosy east of life he had heard them from others. +A statement of our own which seems to us _very_ new and striking is +probably partial, is in some degree foreign to our hearts; that which +one, being the soul he is, could not do otherwise than say is probably +what he was created for the purpose of saying, and will be found his +most significant and living word. Yet just in proportion as one's speech +is a pure and simple efflux of his spirit, just in proportion as its +utterance lies in the order and inevitable procedure of his life, he +will be _liable_ to undervalue it. Who feels that the universe is +greatly enriched by his heart-beats?--that it is much that he breathes, +sleeps, walks? But the breaths of supreme genius are thoughts, and the +imaginations that people its day-world are more familiar to it than the +common dreams of sleepers to them, and the travel of its meditations is +daily and customary; insomuch that the very thought of all others which +one was born to utter he may _forget_ to mention, as presuming it to be +no news. Indeed, if a man of fertile soul be misled into the luckless +search after peculiar and surprising thoughts, there are many chances +that be will be betrayed into this oversight of his proper errand. As +Sir Martin Frobisher, according to Fuller, brought home from America a +cargo of precious stones which after examination were thrown out to mend +roads with, so he leaves untouched his divine knowledges, and comes +sailing into port full-freighted with conceits. + +May not the above considerations go far to explain that indifference, +otherwise so astonishing, with which Shakspeare cast his work from him? +It was his heart that wrote; but does the heart look with wonder and +admiration on the crimson of its own currents? + + * * * * * + + +AT PORT ROYAL. 1861. + + + The tent-lights glimmer on the land, + The ship-lights on the sea; + The night-wind smooths with drifting sand + Our track on lone Tybee. + + At last our grating keels outslide, + Our good boats forward swing; + And while we ride the land-locked tide, + Our negroes row and sing. + + For dear the bondman holds his gifts + Of music and of song: + The gold that kindly Nature sifts + Among his sands of wrong; + + The power to make his toiling days + And poor home-comforts please; + The quaint relief of mirth that plays + With sorrow's minor keys. + + Another glow than sunset's fire + Has filled the West with light, + Where field and garner, barn and byre + Are blazing through the night. + + The land is wild with fear and hate, + The rout runs mad and fast; + From hand to hand, from gate to gate, + The flaming brand is passed. + + The lurid glow falls strong across + Dark faces broad with smiles: + Not theirs the terror, hate, and loss + That fire yon blazing piles. + + With oar-strokes timing to their song, + They weave in simple lays + The pathos of remembered wrong, + The hope of better days,-- + + The triumph-note that Miriam sung, + The joy of uncaged birds: + Softening with Afric's mellow tongue + Their broken Saxon words. + + + + +SONG OF THE NEGRO BOATMEN. + + + Oh, praise an' tanks! De Lord he come + To set de people free; + An' massa tink it day ob doom, + An' we ob jubilee. + De Lord dat heap de Red Sea waves + He jus' as 'trong as den; + He say de word: we las' night slaves; + To-day, de Lord's freemen. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + Ole massa on he trabbels gone; + He leab de land behind: + De Lord's breff blow him furder on, + Like corn-shuck in de wind. + We own de hoe, we own de plough, + We own de hands dat hold; + We sell de pig, we sell de cow, + But nebber chile be sold. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + We pray de Lord: he gib us signs + Dat some day we be free; + + De Norf-wind tell it to de pines, + De wild-duck to de sea; + We tink it when de church-bell ring, + We dream it in de dream; + De rice-bird mean it when he sing, + De eagle when he scream. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + We know de promise nebber fail, + An' nebber lie de word; + So, like de 'postles in de jail, + We waited for de Lord: + An' now he open ebery door, + An' trow away de key; + He tink we lub him so before, + We lub him better free. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + He'll gib de rice an' corn: + So nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + So sing our dusky gondoliers; + And with a secret pain, + And smiles that seem akin to tears, + We hear the wild refrain. + + We dare not share the negro's trust, + Nor yet his hope deny; + We only know that God is just, + And every wrong shall die. + + Rude seems the song; each swarthy face, + Flame-lighted, ruder still; + We start to think that hapless race + Must shape our good or ill; + + That laws of changeless justice bind + Oppressor with oppressed; + And, close as sin and suffering joined, + We march to Fate abreast. + + Sing on, poor hearts! your chant shall be + Our sign of blight or bloom,-- + The Vala-song of Liberty, + Or death-rune of our doom! + + + + +FREMONT'S HUNDRED DAYS IN MISSOURI. + + +II. + + +_Camp Haskell, October 24th._ We have marched twelve miles to-day, and +are encamped near the house of a friendly German farmer. Our cortege has +been greatly diminished in number. Some of the staff have returned to +St. Louis; to others have been assigned duties which remove them from +head-quarters; and General Asboth's division being now in the rear, that +soldierly-looking officer no longer rides beside the General, and the +gentlemen of his staff no longer swell our ranks. + +As we approach the enemy there is a marked change in the General's +demeanor. Usually reserved, and even retiring,--now that his plans +begin to work out results, that the Osage is behind us, that the +difficulties of deficient transportation have been conquered, there is +an unwonted eagerness in his face, his voice is louder, and there is +more self-assertion in his attitude. He has hitherto proceeded on a +walk, but now he presses on at a trot. His horsemanship is perfect. +Asboth is a daring rider, loving to drive his animal at the top of his +speed. Zagonyi rides with surpassing grace, and selects fiery chargers +which no one else cares to mount. Colonel E. has an easy, business-like +gait. But in lightness and security in the saddle the General excels +them all. He never worries his beast, is sure to get from him all +the work of which he is capable, is himself quite incapable of being +fatigued in this way. + +Just after sundown the camp was startled by heavy infantry firing. Going +around the spur of the forest which screens head-quarters from the +prairie, we found the Guard dismounted, drawn up in line, firing their +carbines and revolvers. The circumstance excites curiosity, and we learn +that Zagonyi has been ordered to make a descent upon Springfield, and +capture or disperse the Rebel garrison, three or four hundred strong, +which is said to be there. Major White has already gone forward with his +squadron of "Prairie Scouts" to make a reconnoissance in the direction +of Springfield. Zagonyi will overtake White, assume command of the +whole force, which will number about three hundred men, and turn the +reconnoissance into an attack. The Guard set out at eight o'clock +this evening. A few are left behind to do duty around head-quarters. +Lieutenant Kennedy, of the Kentucky company, was ordered to remain in +command of our Home-Guard. He was greatly grieved, and went to the Major +and with tears in his eyes besought him to permit him to go. Zagonyi +could not refuse the gallant fellow, and all the officers of the Guard +have gone. There is a feeling of sadness in camp to-night. We wonder +which of our gay and generous comrades will come back to us again. + +_October 25th_. We moved only seven miles to-day. It is understood that +the General will gather the whole army upon a large prairie a few miles +north of Bolivar, and devote a few days to reviewing the troops, and to +field-manoeuvres. This will have an excellent effect. The men will be +encouraged when they see how large the column is, for the army has never +been concentrated. + +This morning we received news of the brilliant affair at Fredericktown. + +Just before the General left camp to-day, I received orders to report +myself to General Asboth, for duty as Judge-Advocate of a Court-Martial +to be held in his division. General Asboth was several miles behind us, +and I set out to ride back and join him. After a gallop of half an hour +across the prairie, I discovered that I had lost my way. I vainly tried +to find some landmark of yesterday's march, but was at last compelled to +trust to the sagacity of my horse,--the redoubtable Spitfire, so named +by reason of his utter contempt for gunpowder, whether sputtered out of +muskets or belched forth by cannon. I gave him his head. He snuffed the +air for a moment, deliberately swept the horizon with his eyes, and then +turned short around and carried me back to the farm-house from which I +had started. I arrived just in time for dinner. Two officers of Lane's +brigade, which had marched from Kansas, came in while we were at the +table. They seasoned our food with spicy incidents of Kansas life. + +After dinner I started with Captain R., of Springfield, to find Asboth. +As we left the house, we were joined by the most extraordinary character +I have seen. He was a man of medium height. His chest was enormous in +length and breadth; his arms long, muscular, and very large; his legs +short. He had the body of a giant upon the legs of a dwarf. This curious +figure was surmounted by a huge head, covered with coarse brown hair, +which grew very nearly down to his eyes, while his beard grew almost up +to his eyes. It seemed as if the hair and beard had had a struggle for +the possession of his face, and were kept apart by the deep chasm +in which his small gray eyes were set. He was armed with a huge +bowie-knife, which he carried slung like a sword. It was at least two +feet long, heavy as a butcher's cleaver, and was thrust into a sheath +of undressed hide. He called this pleasant instrument an Arkansas +toothpick. He bestrode, as well as his diminutive legs would let him, an +Indian pony as shaggy as himself. This person proved to be a bearer of +despatches, and offered to guide us to the main road, along which Asboth +was marching. + +The pony started off at a brisk trot, and in an hour we were upon the +road, which we found crowded with troops and wagons. Pressing through +the underbrush along-side the road, we kept on at a rapid pace. We soon +heard shouts and cheers ahead of us, and in a few moments came in sight +of a farm-house, in front of which was an excited crowd. Men were +swarming in at every door and window. The yard was filled with furniture +which the troops were angrily breaking, and a considerable party was +busy tearing up the roof. I could not learn the cause of the uproar, +except that a Secessionist lived there who had killed some one. I passed +on, and in a little while arrived at Asboth's quarters. + +He had established himself in an unpretending, but comfortable +farm-house, formerly owned by a German, named Brown. This house has +lately been the scene of one of those bloody outrages, instigated by +neighborhood hatred, which have been so frequent in Missouri. Old Brown +had lived here more than thirty years. He was industrious, thrifty, +and withal a skilful workman. Under his intelligent husbandry his farm +became the marvel of all that region. He had long outlived his strength, +and when the war broke out he could give to the Union nothing but +his voice and influence: these he gave freely and at all times. The +plain-spoken patriot excited the enmity of the Secessionists, and the +special hatred of one man, his nearest neighbor. All through the summer, +his barns were plundered, his cattle driven away, his fences torn down; +but no one offered violence to the white-headed old man, or to the three +women who composed his family. The approach of our army compelled the +Rebels of the neighborhood to fly, and among the fugitives was the foe I +have mentioned. He was not willing to depart and leave the old German +to welcome the Union troops. Just one week ago, at a late hour in the +evening, he rode up to Brown's door and knocked loudly. The old man +cautiously asked who it was. The wretch replied, "A friend who wants +lodging." As a matter of course,--for in this region every house is a +tavern,--the farmer opened the door, and at the instant was pierced +through the heart by a bullet from the pistol of his cowardly foe. The +blood-stains are upon the threshold still. It was the murderer's house +the soldiers sacked to-day. A German artillery company heard the +story, and began to plunder the premises under the influence of a not +unjustifiable desire for revenge. General Asboth, however, compelled the +men to desist, and to replace the furniture they had taken out. + +I found General Sturgis, and Captain Parrot, his Adjutant, at General +Asboth's, on their way to report to General Fremont. Sturgis has brought +his command one hundred and fifty miles in ten days. He says that large +numbers of deserters have come into his lines. Price's followers are +becoming discouraged by his continued retreat. + +The business which detained me in the rear was finished at an early +hour, but I waited in order to accompany General Asboth, who, with some +of his staff, was intending to go to head-quarters, five miles farther +south. We set out at nine o'clock. General Asboth likes to ride at the +top of his horse's speed, and at once put his gray into a trot so rapid +that we were compelled to gallop in order to keep up. We dashed over +a rough road, down a steep decline, and suddenly found ourselves +floundering through a stream nearly up to our saddle-girths. My horse +had had a hard day's work. He began to be unsteady on his pins. So I +drew up, preferring the hazards of a night-ride across the prairie to +a fall upon the stony road. The impetuous old soldier, followed by his +companions, rushed into the darkness, and the clatter of their hoofs and +the rattling of their sabres faded from my hearing. + +I was once more alone on the prairie. The sky was cloudless, but the +starlight struggling through a thin haze suggested rather than revealed +surrounding objects. I bent over my horse's shoulder to trace the course +of the road; but I could see nothing. There were no trees, no fences. +I listened for the rustling of the wind over the prairie-grass; but as +soon as Spitfire stopped, I found that not a breath of air was stirring: +his motion had created the breeze. I turned a little to the left, and at +once felt the Mexican stirrup strike against the long, rank grass. Quite +exultant with the thought that I had found a certain test that I was in +the road, I turned back and regained the beaten track. But now a new +difficulty arose. At once the thought suggested itself,--"Perhaps I +turned the wrong way when I came back into the road, and am now going +away from my destination." I drew up and looked around me. There was +nothing to be seen except the veiled stars above, and upon either hand +a vast dark expanse, which might be a lake, the sea, or a desert, for +anything I could discern. I listened: there was no sound except the +deep breathing of my faithful horse, who stood with ears erect, eagerly +snuffing the night-air. I had heard that horses can see better than men. +"Let me try the experiment." I gave Spitfire his head. He moved across +the road, went out upon the prairie a little distance, waded into a +brook which I had not seen, and began to drink. When he had finished, he +returned to the road without the least hesitation. + +"The horse can certainly see better than I. Perhaps I am the only one +of this company who is in trouble, and the good beast is all this while +perfectly composed and at ease, and knows quite well where to go." + +I loosened the reins. Spitfire went forward slowly, apparently quite +confident, and yet cautious about the stones in his path. + +I now began to speculate upon the distance I had come. I thought,--"It +is some time since we started. Head-quarters were only five miles off. I +rode fast at first. It is strange there are no campfires in sight." + +Time is measured by sensation, and with me minutes were drawn out into +hours. "Surely, it is midnight. I have been here three hours at the +least. The road must have forked, and I have gone the wrong way. The +most sagacious of horses could not be expected to know which of two +roads to take. There is nothing to be done. I am in for the night, and +had better stay here than go farther in the wrong direction." + +I dismount, fill my pipe, and strike a light. I laugh at my +thoughtlessness, and another match is lighted to look at my watch, which +tells me I have been on the road precisely twenty minutes. I mount. +Spitfire seems quite composed, perhaps a little astonished at the +unusual conduct of his rider, but he walks on composedly, carefully +avoiding the rolling stones. + +It is not a pleasant situation,--on a prairie alone and at night, not +knowing where you are going or where you ought to go. Zimmermann himself +never imagined a solitude more complete, albeit such a situation is not +so favorable to philosophic meditation as the rapt Zimmermann might +suppose. I employ my thoughts as well as I am able, and pin my faith to +the sagacity of Spitfire. Presently a light gleams in front of me. It +is only a flickering, uncertain ray; perhaps some belated teamster +is urging his reluctant mules to camp and has lighted his lantern. +No,--there are sparks; it is a camp-fire. I hearken for the challenge, +not without solicitude; for it is about as dangerous to approach a +nervous sentinel as to charge a battery. I do not hear the stern +inquiry, "Who comes there?" At last I am abreast of the fire, and myself +call out,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"We are travellers," is the reply. + +What this meant I did not know. What travellers are there through this +distracted, war-worn region? Are they fugitives from Price, or traitors +flying before us? I am not in sufficient force to capture half a dozen +men, and if they are foes, it is not worth while to be too inquisitive; +so I continue on my way, and they and their fire are soon enveloped by +the night. Presently I see another light in the far distance. This must +be a picket, for there are soldiers. I look around for the sentry, +not quite sure whether I am to be challenged or shot; but again I am +permitted to approach unquestioned. I call out,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"Men of Colonel Carr's regiment." + +"What are you doing here?" + +"We are guarding some of our wagons which were left here. Our regiment +has gone forward at a half-hour's notice to reinforce Zagonyi," said a +sergeant, rising and saluting me. + +"But is there no sentry here?" I asked. + +"There was one, but he has been withdrawn," replied the sergeant. + +"Where are head-quarters?" + +"At the first house on your right, about a hundred yards farther up the +road," he said, pointing in the direction I was going. + +It was strange that I could ride up to within pistol-shot of +head-quarters without being challenged, I soon reached the house. A +sentry stood at the gate. I tied my horse to the fence, and walked into +the Adjutant's tent. I had passed by night from one division of the army +to another, along the public road, and entered head-quarters without +being questioned. Twenty-five bold men might have carried off the +General. I at once reported these facts to Colonel E.; inquiry was made, +and it was found that some one had blundered. + +There is no report from Springfield. Zagonyi sent back for +reinforcements before he reached the town, and Carr's cavalry, with two +light field-pieces, have been sent forward. Captain R., my companion +this afternoon, has also gone to learn what he may. While I am writing +up my journal, a group of officers is around the fire in front of the +tent. They are talking about Zagonyi and the Guard. We are all feverish +with anxiety. + +_October 26th_. This morning I was awakened by loud cheers from the camp +of the Benton Cadets. My servant came at my call. + +"What are those cheers for, Dan?" + +"The Body-Guard has won a great victory, Sir! They have beaten the +Rebels, driven them out of Springfield, and killed over a hundred of +them. The news came late last night, and the General has issued an order +which has just been read to the Cadets." + +The joyful words had hardly reached my eager ears when shouts were heard +from the sharp-shooters. They have got the news. In an instant the camp +is astir. Half-dressed, the officers rush from their tents,--servants +leave their work, cooks forget breakfast,--they gather together, and +breathless drink in the delicious story. We hear how the brave Guard, +finding the foe three times as strong as had been reported, resolved +to go on, in spite of odds, for their own honor and the honor of our +General,--how Zagonyi led the onset,--how with cheers and shouts of +"Union and Fremont," the noble fellows rushed upon the foe as gayly as +boys at play,--what deeds of daring were done,--that Zagonyi, Foley, +Maythenyi, Newhall, Treikel, Goff, and Kennedy shone heroes in the +fray,--how gallantly the Guards had fought, and how gloriously they had +died. These things we heard, feasting upon every word, and interrupting +the fervid recital with involuntary exclamations of sympathy and joy. + +It did not fall to the fortune of the writer to take part with the +Body-Guard in their memorable attack, but, as the Judge-Advocate of +a Court of Inquiry into that affair, which was held at Springfield +immediately after our arrival there, I became familiar with the field +and the incidents of the battle. I trust it will not be regarded as +an inexcusable digression, if I recite the facts connected with the +engagement, which, as respects the odds encountered, the heroism +displayed, and the importance of its results, is still the most +remarkable encounter of the war. + + +THE BODY-GUARD AT SPRINGFIELD. + + +It may not be out of place to say a few words as to the character and +organization of the Guard. + +Among the foreign officers whom the fame of General Fremont drew around +him was Charles Zagonyi,--an Hungarian refugee, but long a resident of +this country. In his boyhood, Zagonyi had plunged into the passionate, +but unavailing, struggle which Hungary made for her liberty. He at once +attracted the attention of General Bem, and was by him placed in command +of a picked company of cavalry. In one of the desperate engagements of +the war, Zagonyi led a charge upon a large artillery force. More than +half of his men were slain. He was wounded and taken prisoner. Two years +passed before he could exchange an Austrian dungeon for American exile. + +General Fremont welcomed Zagonyi cordially, and authorized him to +recruit a company of horse, to act as his bodyguard. Zagonyi was most +scrupulous in his selection; but so ardent was the desire to serve under +the eye and near the person of the General, that in five days after the +lists were opened two full companies were enlisted. Soon after a whole +company, composed of the very flower of the youth of Kentucky, tendered +its services, and requested to be added to the Guard. Zagonyi was still +overwhelmed with applications, and he obtained permission to recruit a +fourth company. The fourth company, however, did not go with us into the +field. The men were clad in blue jackets, trousers, and caps. They were +armed with light German sabres, the best that at that time could be +procured, and revolvers; besides which, the first company carried +carbines. They were mounted upon bay horses, carefully chosen from +the Government stables. Zagonyi had but little time to instruct his +recruits, but in less than a month from the commencement of the +enlistments the Body-Guard was a well-disciplined and most efficient +corps of cavalry. The officers were all Americans except three,--one +Hollander, and two Hungarians, Zagonyi and Lieutenant Maythenyi, who +came to the United States during his boyhood. + +Zagonyi left our camp at eight o'clock on the evening of the +twenty-fourth, with about a hundred and sixty men, the remainder of the +Guard being left at headquarters under the command of a non-commissioned +officer. + +Major White was already on his way to Springfield with his squadron. +This young officer, hardly twenty-one years old, had won great +reputation for energy and zeal while a captain of infantry in a +New-York regiment stationed at Fort Monroe. He there saw much hazardous +scouting-service, and had been in a number of small engagements. In the +West he held a position upon General Fremont's staff, with the rank of +Major. While at Jefferson City, by permission of the General, he had +organized a battalion to act as scouts and rangers, composed of two +companies of the Third Illinois Cavalry, under Captains Fairbanks and +Kehoe, and a company of Irish dragoons, Captain Naughton, which had been +recruited for Mulligan's brigade, but had not joined Mulligan in time to +be at Lexington. + +Major White went to Georgetown in advance of the whole army, from there +marched sixty-five miles in one night to Lexington, surprised the +garrison, liberated a number of Federal officers who were there wounded +and prisoners, and captured the steamers which Price had taken from +Mulligan. From Lexington White came by way of Warrensburg to Warsaw. +During this long and hazardous expedition, the Prairie Scouts had been +without tents, and dependent for food upon the supplies they could take +from the enemy. + +Major White did not remain at Warsaw to recruit his health, seriously +impaired by hardship and exposure. He asked for further service, and was +directed to report himself to General Sigel, by whom he was ordered to +make a reconnoissance in the direction of Springfield. + +After a rapid night-march, Zagonyi overtook White, and assumed command +of the whole force. White was quite ill, and, unable to stay in the +saddle, was obliged to follow in a carriage. In the morning, yielding to +the request of Zagonyi, he remained at a farm-house where the troop had +halted for refreshment,--it being arranged that he should rest an +hour or two, come on in his carriage with a small escort, and overtake +Zagonyi before he reached Springfield. The Prairie Scouts numbered one +hundred and thirty, so that the troop was nearly three hundred strong. + +The day was fine, the road good, and the little column pushed on +merrily, hoping to surprise the enemy. When within two hours' march of +the town, they met a Union farmer of the neighborhood, who told Zagonyi +that a large body of Rebels had arrived at Springfield the day before, +on their way to reinforce Price, and that the enemy were now two +thousand strong. Zagonyi would have been justified, if he had turned +back. But the Guard had been made the subject of much malicious remark, +and had brought ridicule upon the General. Should they retire now, a +storm of abuse would burst upon them. Zagonyi therefore took no counsel +of prudence. He could not hope to defeat and capture the foe, but he +might surprise them, dash into their camp, destroy their train, and, as +he expressed it, "disturb their sleep,"--obtaining a victory which, for +its moral effects, would be worth the sacrifices it cost. His daring +resolve found unanimous and ardent assent with his zealous followers. + +The Union farmer offered to guide Zagonyi by a circuitous route to the +rear of the Rebel position, and under his guidance he left the main road +about five miles from Springfield. + +After an hour of repose, White set out in pursuit of his men, driving +his horses at a gallop. He knew nothing of the change in Zagonyi's +plans, and supposed the attack was to be made upon the front of the +town. He therefore continued upon the main road, expecting every minute +to overtake the column. As he drew near the village, and heard and saw +nothing of Zagonyi, he supposed the enemy had left the place and the +Federals had taken it without opposition. The approach to Springfield +from the north is through a forest, and the village cannot be seen until +its outskirts are reached. A sudden turn in the road brought White into +the very midst of a strong Rebel guard. They surrounded him, seized his +horses, and in an instant he and his companions were prisoners. When +they learned his rank, they danced around him like a pack of savages, +shouting and holding their cocked pieces at his heart. The leader of the +party had a few days before lost a brother in a skirmish with Wyman's +force, and with loud oaths he swore that the Federal Major should die +in expiation of his brother's death. He was about to carry his inhuman +threat into execution, Major White boldly facing him and saying, "If my +men were here, I'd give you all the revenge you want." At this +moment a young officer, Captain Wroton by name,--of whom more +hereafter,--pressed through the throng, and, placing himself in front of +White, declared that he would protect the prisoner with his own life. +The firm bearing of Wroton saved the Major's life, but his captors +robbed him and hurried him to their camp, where he remained during the +fight, exposed to the hottest of the fire, an excited, but helpless +spectator of the stirring events which followed. He promised his +generous protector that he would not attempt to escape, unless his men +should try to rescue him; but Captain Wroton remained by his side, +guarding him. + +Making a _détour_ of twelve miles, Zagonyi approached the position of +the enemy. They were encamped half a mile west of Springfield, upon a +hill which sloped to the east. Along the northern side of their camp was +a broad and well-travelled road; along the southern side a narrow lane +ran down to a brook at the foot of the hill: the space between, about +three hundred yards broad, was the field of battle. Along the west side +of the field, separating it from the county fair-ground, was another +lane, connecting the main road and the first-mentioned lane. The side +of the hill was clear, but its summit, which was broad and flat, was +covered with a rank growth of small timber, so dense as to be impervious +to horse. + +The following diagram, drawn from memory, will illustrate sufficiently +well the shape of the ground, and the position of the respective forces. + +[Illustration: A, Road leading into the village. B, Lane down which +Zagonyi came. C, Lane where Fairbanks led his men. D, Dense woods +covering the summit of the hill. E, Crest of the hill and clear land. F, +Hill-side up which the Guard charged. G, Brook at the foot of the hill. +H, Place where the Guard entered. I, Small patch of woods in front of +which the enemy's horse were stationed. J, Gate through which the Rebels +fled, Zagonyi pursuing. K, Fair-ground into which some of the enemy +fled. L, Place where Foley took down the fence.] + +The foe were advised of the intended attack. When Major White was +brought into their camp, they were preparing to defend their position. +As appears from the confessions of prisoners, they had twenty-two +hundred men, of whom four hundred were cavalry, the rest being infantry, +armed with shot-guns, American rifles, and revolvers. Twelve hundred of +their foot were posted along the edge of the wood upon the crest of the +hill. The cavalry was stationed upon the extreme left, on top of a spur +of the hill and in front of a patch of timber. Sharp-shooters were +concealed behind the trees close to the fence along-side the lane, and +a small number in some underbrush near the foot of the hill. Another +detachment guarded their train, holding possession of the county +fair-ground, which was surrounded by a high board-fence. + +This position was unassailable by cavalry from the road, the only point +of attack being down the lane on the right; and the enemy were so +disposed as to command this approach perfectly. The lane was a blind +one, being closed, after passing the brook, by fences and ploughed land: +it was in fact a _cul-de-sac_. If the infantry should stand, nothing +could save the rash assailants. There are horsemen sufficient to sweep +the little band before them, as helplessly as the withered forest-leaves +in the grasp of the autumn winds; there are deadly marksmen lying behind +the trees upon the heights and lurking in the long grass upon the +lowlands; while a long line of foot stand upon the summit of the slope, +who, only stepping a few paces back into the forest, may defy the +boldest riders. Yet, down this narrow lane, leading into the very jaws +of death, came the three hundred. + +On the prairie, at the edge of the woodland in which he knew his wily +foe lay hidden, Zagonyi halted his command. He spurred along the line. +With eager glance he scanned each horse and rider. To his officers he +gave the simple order, "Follow me! do as I do!" and then, drawing up in +front of his men, with a voice tremulous and shrill with emotion, he +spoke:-- + +"Fellow-soldiers, comrades, brothers! This is your first battle. For our +three hundred, the enemy are two thousand. If any of you are sick, or +tired by the long march, or if any think the number is too great, now is +the time to turn back." He paused; no one was sick or tired. "We must +not retreat. Our honor, the honor of our General and our country, tell +us to go on. I will lead you. We have been called holiday soldiers for +the pavements of St. Louis; to-day we will show that we are soldiers for +the battle. Your watchword shall be, '_The Union and Fremont_!' Draw +sabre! By the right flank,--quick trot,--march!" + +Bright swords flashed in the sunshine, a passionate shout burst from +every lip, and with one accord, the trot passing into a gallop, the +compact column swept on to its deadly purpose. Most of them were boys. A +few weeks before they had left their homes. Those who were cool enough +to note it say that ruddy cheeks grew pale, and fiery eyes were dimmed +with tears. Who shall tell what thoughts,--what visions of peaceful +cottages nestling among the groves of Kentucky or shining upon the +banks of the Ohio and the Illinois,--what sad recollections of tearful +farewells, of tender, loving faces, filled their minds during those +fearful moments of suspense? No word was spoken. With lips compressed, +firmly clenching their sword-hilts, with quick tramp of hoofs and clang +of steel, honor leading and glory awaiting them, the young soldiers flew +forward, each brave rider and each straining steed members of one huge +creature, enormous, terrible, irresistible. + + "'T were worth ten years of peaceful life, + One glance at their array." + +They pass the fair-ground. They are at the corner of the lane where the +wood begins. It runs close to the fence on their left for a hundred +yards, and beyond it they see white tents gleaming. They are half-way +past the forest, when, sharp and loud, a volley of musketry bursts upon +the head of the column; horses stagger, riders reel and fall, but the +troop presses forward undismayed. The farther corner of the wood +is reached, and Zagonyi beholds the terrible array. Amazed, he +involuntarily cheeks his horse. The Rebels are not surprised. There to +his left they stand crowning the height, foot and horse ready to ingulf +him, if he shall be rash enough to go on. The road he is following +declines rapidly. There is but one thing to do,--run the gantlet, gain +the cover of the hill, and charge up the steep. These thoughts pass +quicker than they can be told. He waves his sabre over his head, and +shouting, "Forward! follow me! quick trot! gallop!" he dashes headlong +down the stony road. The first company and most of the second follow. +From the left a thousand muzzles belch forth a hissing flood of bullets; +the poor fellows clutch wildly at the air and fall from their saddles, +and maddened horses throw themselves against the fences. Their speed is +not for an instant checked; farther down the hill they fly, like wasps +driven by the leaden storm. Sharp volleys pour out of the underbrush at +the left, clearing wide gaps through their ranks. They leap the brook, +take down the fence, and draw up under the shelter of the hill. Zagonyi +looks around him, and to his horror sees that only a fourth of his +men are with him. He cries, "They do not come,--we are lost!" and +frantically waves his sabre. + +He has not long to wait. The delay of the rest of the Guard was not from +hesitation. When Captain Foley reached the lower corner of the wood and +saw the enemy's line, he thought a flank attack might be advantageously +made. He ordered some of his men to dismount and take down the fence. +This was done under a severe fire. Several men fell, and he found the +wood so dense that it could not be penetrated. Looking down the hill, he +saw the flash of Zagonyi's sabre, and at once gave the order, "Forward!" +At the same time, Lieutenant Kennedy, a stalwart Kentuckian, shouted, +"Come on, boys! remember Old Kentucky!" and the third company of the +Guard, fire on every side of them,--from behind trees, from under the +fences,--with thundering strides and loud cheers, poured down the slope +and rushed to the side of Zagonyi. They have lost seventy dead and +wounded men, and the carcasses of horses are strewn along the lane. +Kennedy is wounded in the arm and lies upon the stones, his faithful +charger standing motionless beside him. Lieutenant Goff received a wound +in the thigh; he kept his seat, and cried out, "The devils have hit me, +but I will give it to them yet!" + +The remnant of the Guard are now in the field under the hill, and +from the shape of the ground the Rebel fire sweeps with the roar of a +whirlwind over their heads. Here we will leave them for a moment, and +trace the fortunes of the Prairie Scouts. + +When Foley brought his troop to a halt, Captain Fairbanks, at the head +of the first company of Scouts, was at the point where the first volley +of musketry had been received. The narrow lane was crowded by a dense +mass of struggling horses, and filled with the tumult of battle. Captain +Fairbanks says, and he is corroborated by several of his men who were +near, that at this moment an officer of the Guard rode up to him and +said, "They are flying; take your men down that lane and cut off their +retreat,"--pointing to the lane at the left. Captain Fairbanks was not +able to identify the person who gave this order. It certainly did not +come from Zagonyi, who was several hundred yards farther on. Captain +Fairbanks executed the order, followed by the second company of Prairie +Scouts, under Captain Kehoe. When this movement was made, Captain +Naughton, with the Third Irish Dragoons, had not reached the corner of +the lane. He came up at a gallop, and was about to follow Fairbanks, +when he saw a Guardsman who pointed in the direction in which Zagonyi +had gone. He took this for an order, and obeyed it. When he reached the +gap in the fence, made by Foley, not seeing anything of the Guard, he +supposed they had passed through at that place, and gallantly attempted +to follow. Thirteen men fell in a few minutes. He was shot in the arm +and dismounted. Lieutenant Connolly spurred into the underbrush and +received two balls through the lungs and one in the left shoulder. The +Dragoons, at the outset not more than fifty strong, were broken, and, +dispirited by the loss of their officers, retired. A sergeant rallied +a few and brought them up to the gap again, and they were again driven +back. Five of the boldest passed down the hill, joined Zagonyi, and were +conspicuous by their valor during the rest of the day.--Fairbanks and +Kehoe, having gained the rear and left of the enemy's position, made two +or three assaults upon detached parties of the foe, but did not join in +the main attack. + +I now return to the Guard. It is forming under the shelter of the hill. +In front with a gentle inclination rises a grassy slope broken by +occasional tree-stumps. A line of fire upon the summit marks the +position of the Rebel infantry, and nearer and on the top of a lower +eminence to the right stand their horse. Up to this time no Guardsman +has struck a blow, but blue coats and bay horses lie thick along the +bloody lane. Their time has come. Lieutenant Maythenyi with thirty men +is ordered to attack the cavalry. With sabres flashing over their heads, +the little band of heroes spring towards their tremendous foe. Right +upon the centre they charge. The dense mass opens, the blue coats force +their way in, and the whole Rebel squadron scatter in disgraceful flight +through the cornfields in the rear. The bays follow them, sabring the +fugitives. Days after, the enemy's horses lay thick among the uncut +corn. + +Zagonyi holds his main body until Maythenyi disappears in the cloud +of Rebel cavalry; then his voice rises through the air,--"In open +order,--charge!" The line opens out to give play to their sword-arm. +Steeds respond to the ardor of their riders, and quick as thought, with +thrilling cheers, the noble hearts rush into the leaden torrent which +pours down the incline. With unabated fire the gallant fellows press +through. Their fierce onset is not even checked. The foe do not wait for +them,--they waver, break, and fly. The Guardsmen spur into the midst of +the rout, and their fast-falling swords work a terrible revenge. Some +of the boldest of the Southrons retreat into the woods, and continue a +murderous fire from behind trees and thickets. Seven Guard horses fall +upon a space not more that twenty feet square. As his steed sinks under +him, one of the officers is caught around the shoulders by a grape-vine, +and hangs dangling in the air until he is cut down by his friends. + +The Rebel foot are flying in furious haste from the field. Some take +refuge in the fair-ground, some hurry into the cornfield, but the +greater part run along the edge of the wood, swarm over the fence into +the road, and hasten to the village. The Guardsmen follow. Zagonyi leads +them. Over the loudest roar of battle rings his clarion voice,--"Come +on, Old Kentuck! I'm with you!" And the flash of his sword-blade tells +his men where to go. As he approaches a barn, a man steps from behind +the door and lowers his rifle; but before it has reached the level, +Zagonyi's sabre-point descends upon his head, and his life-blood leaps +to the very top of the huge barn-door. + +The conflict now rages through the village,--in the public square, and +along the streets. Up and down the Guards ride in squads of three or +four, and wherever they see a group of the enemy charge upon and scatter +them. It is hand to hand. No one but has a share in the fray. + +There was at least one soldier in the Southern ranks. A young officer, +superbly mounted, charges alone upon a large body of the Guard. He +passes through the line unscathed, killing one man. He wheels, charges +back, and again breaks through, killing another man. A third time he +rushes upon the Federal line, a score of sabre-points confront him, +a cloud of bullets fly around him, but he pushes on until he reaches +Zagonyi,--he presses his pistol so close to the Major's side that he +feels it and draws convulsively back, the bullet passes through the +front of Zagonyi's coat, who at the instant runs the daring Rebel +through the body, he falls, and the men, thinking their commander hurt, +kill him with half a dozen wounds. + +"He was a brave man," said Zagonyi afterwards, "and I did wish to make +him prisoner." + +Meanwhile it has grown dark. The foe have left the village and the +battle has ceased. The assembly is sounded, and the Guard gathers in the +_Plaza_. Not more than eighty mounted men appear: the rest are killed, +wounded, or unhorsed. At this time one of the most characteristic +incidents of the affair took place. + +Just before the charge, Zagonyi directed one of his buglers, a +Frenchman, to sound a signal. The bugler did not seem to pay any +attention to the order, but darted off with Lieutenant Maythenyi. A +few moments afterwards he was observed in another part of the field +vigorously pursuing the flying infantry. His active form was always seen +in the thickest of the fight. When the line was formed in the _Plaza_, +Zagonyi noticed the bugler, and approaching him said, "In the midst of +the battle you disobeyed my order. You are unworthy to be a member of +the Guard. I dismiss you." The bugler showed his bugle to his indignant +commander;--the mouth-piece of the instrument was shot away. He said, +"The mouth was shoot off. I could not bugle viz mon bugle, and so I +bugle viz mon pistol and sabre." It is unnecessary to add, the brave +Frenchman was not dismissed. + +I must not forget to mention Sergeant Hunter, of the Kentucky company. +His soldierly figure never failed to attract the eye in the ranks of +the Guard. He had served in the regular cavalry, and the Body-Guard had +profited greatly from his skill as a drill-master. He lost three horses +in the fight. As soon as one was killed, he caught another from the +Rebels: the third horse taken by him in this way he rode into St. Louis. + +The Sergeant slew five men. "I won't speak of those I shot," said +he,--"another may have hit them; but those I touched with my sabre I am +sure of, because I _felt_ them." + +At the beginning of the charge, he came to the extreme right and took +position next to Zagonyi, whom he followed closely through the battle. +The Major, seeing him, said,-- + +"Why are you here, Sergeant Hunter? Your place is with your company on +the left." + +"I kind o' wanted to be in the front," was the answer. + +"What could I say to such a man?" exclaimed Zagonyi, speaking of the +matter afterwards. + +There was hardly a horse or rider among the survivors that did not bring +away some mark of the fray. I saw one animal with no less than seven +wounds,--none of them serious. Scabbards were bent, clothes and caps +pierced, pistols injured. I saw one pistol from which the sight had been +cut as neatly as it could have been done by machinery. A piece of board +a few inches long was cut from a fence on the field, in which there were +thirty-one shot-holes. + +It was now nine o'clock. The wounded had been carried to the hospital. +The dismounted troopers were placed in charge of them,--in the double +capacity of nurses and guards. Zagonyi expected the foe to return every +minute. It seemed like madness to try and hold the town with his small +force, exhausted by the long march and desperate fight. He therefore +left Springfield, and retired before morning twenty-five miles on the +Bolivar road. + +Captain Fairbanks did not see his commander after leaving the column in +the lane, at the commencement of the engagement. About dusk he repaired +to the prairie, and remained there within a mile of the village until +midnight, when he followed Zagonyi, rejoining him in the morning. + +I will now return to Major White. During the conflict upon the hill, he +was in the forest near the front of the Rebel line. Here his horse was +shot under him. Captain Wroton kept careful watch over him. When the +flight began he hurried White away, and, accompanied by a squad of +eleven men, took him ten miles into the country. They stopped at a +farm-house for the night. White discovered that their host was a Union +man. His parole having expired, he took advantage of the momentary +absence of his captor to speak to the farmer, telling him who he was, +and asking him to send for assistance. The countryman mounted his son +upon his swiftest horse, and sent him for succor. The party lay down by +the fire, White being placed in the midst. The Rebels were soon asleep, +but there was no sleep for the Major. He listened anxiously for the +footsteps of his rescuers. After long, weary hours, he heard the tramp +of horses. He arose, and walking on tiptoe, cautiously stepping over his +sleeping guards, he reached the door and silently unfastened it. The +Union men rushed into the room and took the astonished Wroton and his +followers prisoners. At daybreak White rode into Springfield at the head +of his captives and a motley band of Home-Guards. He found the Federals +still in possession of the place. As the officer of highest rank, be +took command. His garrison consisted of twenty-four men. He stationed +twenty-two of them as pickets in the outskirts of the village, and held +the other two as a reserve. At noon the enemy sent in a flag of truce, +and asked permission to bury their dead. Major White received the flag +with proper ceremony, but said that General Sigel was in command and the +request would have to be referred to him. Sigel was then forty miles +away. In a short time a written communication purporting to come from +General Sigel, saying that the Rebels might send a party under certain +restrictions to bury their dead, White drew in some of his pickets, +stationed them about the field, and under their surveillance the +Southern dead were buried. + +The loss of the enemy, as reported by some of their working party, was +one hundred and sixteen killed. The number of wounded could not be +ascertained. After the conflict had drifted away from the hill-side, +some of the foe had returned to the field, taken away their wounded, +and robbed our dead. The loss of the Guard was fifty-three out of one +hundred and forty-eight actually engaged, twelve men having been left by +Zagonyi in charge of his train. The Prairie Scouts reported a loss of +thirty-one out of one hundred and thirty: half of these belonged to the +Irish Dragoons. In a neighboring field an Irishman was found stark and +stiff, still clinging to the hilt of his sword, which was thrust through +the body of a Rebel who lay beside him. Within a few feet a second Rebel +lay, shot through the head. + +I have given a statement of this affair drawn from the testimony taken +before a Court of Inquiry, from conversations with men who were engaged +upon both sides, and from a careful examination of the locality. It was +the first essay of raw troops, and yet there are few more brilliant +achievements in history. + +It is humiliating to be obliged to tell what followed. The heroism of +the Guard was rewarded by such treatment as we blush to record. Upon +their return to St. Louis, rations and forage were denied them, the men +were compelled to wear the clothing soiled and torn in battle, they were +promptly disbanded, and the officers retired from service. The swords +which pricked the clouds and let the joyful sunshine of victory into the +darkness of constant defeat are now idle. But the fame of the Guard is +secure. Out from that fiery baptism they came children of the nation, +and American song and story will carry their heroic triumph down to the +latest generation. + + + + +MASON AND SLIDELL: A YANKEE IDYLL. + + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +Jaalam, 6th Jan., 1862. + +GENTLEMEN,--I was highly gratified by the insertion of a portion of my +letter in the last number of your valuable and entertaining Miscellany, +though in a type which rendered its substance inaccessible even to the +beautiful new spectacles presented to me by a Committee of the Parish on +New-Year's Day. I trust that I was able to bear your very considerable +abridgment of my lucubrations with a spirit becoming a Christian. My +third grand-daughter, Rebekah, aged fourteen years, and whom I have +trained to read slowly and with proper emphasis, (a practice too much +neglected in our modern systems of education,) read aloud to me the +excellent essay upon "Old Age," the authour of which I cannot help +suspecting to be a young man who has never yet known what it was to have +snow (_canities morosa_) upon his own roof. _Dissolve frigus, large +super foco ligna reponens_, is a rule for the young, whose wood-pile is +yet abundant for such cheerful lenitives. A good life behind him is the +best thing to keep an old man's shoulders from shivering at every breath +of sorrow or ill-fortune. But methinks it were easier for an old man to +feel the disadvantages of youth than the advantages of age. Of these +latter I reckon one of the chiefest to be this: that we attach a less +inordinate value to our own productions, and, distrusting daily more +and more our own wisdom, (with the conceit whereof at twenty we wrap +ourselves away from knowledge as with a garment,) do reconcile ourselves +with the wisdom of God. I could have wished, indeed, that room might +have been made for the residue of the anecdote relating to Deacon +Tinkham, which would not only have gratified a natural curiosity on the +part of the publick, (as I have reason to know from several letters of +inquiry already received,) but would also, as I think, have largely +increased the circulation of your Magazine in this town. _Nihil humani +alienum_, there is a curiosity about the affairs of our neighbours which +is not only pardonable, but even commendable. But I shall abide a more +fitting season. + +As touching the following literary effort of Esquire Biglow, much might +be profitably said on the topick of Idyllick and Pastoral Poetry, +and concerning the proper distinctions to be made between them, from +Theocritus, the inventor of the former, to Collins, the latest authour I +know of who has emulated the classicks in the latter style. But in the +time of a civil war worthy a Milton to defend and a Lucan to sing, it +may be reasonably doubted whether the publick, never too studious of +serious instruction, might not consider other objects more deserving of +present attention. Concerning the title of Idyll, which Mr. Biglow has +adopted at my suggestion, it may not be improper to animadvert, that the +name properly signifies a poem somewhat rustick in phrase, (for, though +the learned are not agreed as to the particular dialect employed by +Theocritus, they are universanimous both as to its rusticity and its +capacity of rising now and then to the level of more elevated sentiments +and expressions,) while it is also descriptive of real scenery and +manners. Yet it must be admitted that the production now in question +(which here and there bears perhaps too plainly the marks of my +correcting hand) does partake of the nature of a Pastoral, inasmuch as +the interlocutors therein are purely imaginary beings, and the whole +is little better than [Greek: skias onar.] The plot was, as I believe, +suggested by the "Twa Briggs" of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet of the +last century, as that found its prototype in the "Mutual Complaint of +Plainstanes and Causey" by Fergusson, though the metre of this latter +be different by a foot in each verse. I reminded my talented young +parishioner and friend that Concord Bridge had long since yielded to the +edacious tooth of Time. But he answered me to this effect: that there +was no greater mistake of an authour than to suppose the reader had +no fancy of his own; that, if once that faculty was to be called into +activity, it were _better_ to be in for the whole sheep than the +shoulder; and that he knew Concord like a book,--an expression +questionable in propriety, since there are few things with which he +is not more familiar than with the printed page. In proof of what he +affirmed, he showed me some verses which with others he had stricken out +as too much delaying the action, but which I communicate in this place +because they rightly define "punkin-seed," (which Mr. Bartlett would +have a kind of perch,--a creature to which I have found a rod or pole +not to be so easily equivalent in our inland waters as in the books of +arithmetic,) and because it conveys an eulogium on the worthy son of an +excellent father, with whose acquaintance (_eheu, fugaces anni!_) I was +formerly honoured. + + "But nowadays the Bridge ain't wut they show, + So much ez Em'son, Hawthorne, an' Thoreau. + I know the village, though: was sent there once + A-schoolin', coz to home I played the dunce; + An' I've ben sence a-visitin' the Jedge, + Whose garding whispers with the river's edge, + Where I've sot mornin's, lazy as the bream, + Whose only business is to head up-stream, + (We call 'em punkin-seed,) or else in chat + Along'th the Jedge, who covers with his hat + More wit an' gumption an' shrewd Yankee sense + Than there is mosses on an ole stone fence." + +Concerning the subject-matter of the verses I have not the leisure at +present to write so fully as I could wish, my time being occupied +with the preparation of a discourse for the forthcoming bi-centenary +celebration of the first settlement of Jaalam East Parish. It may +gratify the publick interest to mention the circumstance, that my +investigations to this end have enabled me to verify the fact (of much +historick importance, and hitherto hotly debated) that Shearjashub +Tarbox was the first child of white parentage born in this town, being +named in his father's will under date August 7th, or 9th, 1662. It is +well known that those who advocate the claims of Mehetable Goings are +unable to find any trace of her existence prior to October of that year. +As respects the settlement of the Mason and Slidell question, Mr. Biglow +has not incorrectly stated the popular sentiment, so far as I can judge +by its expression in this locality. For myself, I feel more sorrow than +resentment; for I am old enough to have heard those talk of England who +still, even after the unhappy estrangement, could not unschool their +lips from calling her the Mother-Country. But England has insisted on +ripping up old wounds, and has undone the healing work of fifty years; +for nations do not reason, they only feel, and the _spretae injuria +formae_ rankles in their minds as bitterly as in that of a woman. And +because this is so, I feel the more satisfaction that our Government has +acted (as all Governments should, standing as they do between the people +and their passions) as if it had arrived at years of discretion. There +are three short and simple words, the hardest of all to pronounce in any +language, (and I suspect they were no easier before the confusion of +tongues,) but which no man or nation that cannot utter can claim to have +arrived at manhood. Those words are, _I was wrong_; and I am proud, +that, while England played the boy, our rulers had strength enough from +below and wisdom enough from above to quit themselves like men. Let us +strengthen the hands of those in authority over us, and curb out own +tongues,[A] remembering that General Wait commonly proves in the end +more than a match for General Headlong, and that the Good Book ascribes +safety to a multitude, indeed, but not to a mob, of counsellours. Let us +remember and perpend the words of Paulus Emilius to the people of Rome: +that, "if they judged they could manage the war to more advantage by any +other, he would willingly yield up his charge; but if they confided in +him, _they were not to make themselves his colleagues in his office, or +raise reports, or criticize, his actions, but, without talking, supply +him with means and assistance necessary to the carrying on of the war; +for, if they proposed to command their own commander, they would render +this expedition more ridiculous than the former." (Vide Plutarchum in +vitâ P.E.)_ Let us also not forget what the same excellent authour +says concerning Perseus's fear of spending money, and not permit the +covetousness of Brother Jonathan to be the good-fortune of Jefferson +Davis. For my own part, till I am ready to admit the Commander-in-Chief +to my pulpit, I shall abstain from planning his battles. Patience is the +armour of a nation; and in our desire for peace, let us never be willing +to surrender the Constitution bequeathed us by fathers at least as wise +as ourselves, (even with Jefferson Davis to help us,) and, with those +degenerate Romans, _tuta et presentia quam vetera et periculosa malle._ + +With respect, +Your ob't humble serv't, +HOMER WILBUR, A.M. + +[Footnote A: And not only our own tongues, but the pens of others, which +are swift to convey useful intelligence to the enemy. This is no new +inconvenience; for, under date 3rd June, 1745, General Pepperell wrote +thus to Governour Shirley from Louisbourg:--"What your Excellency +observes of the _army's being made acquainted with any plans proposed, +until really to be put in execution_, has always been disagreeable +to me, and I have given many cautions relating to it. But when your +Excellency considers that _our Council of War consists of more than +twenty members_, am persuaded you will think it _impossible for me to +hinder it_, if any of them will persist in communicating to inferiour +officers and soldiers what ought to be kept secret. I am informed that +the Boston newspapers are filled with paragraphs from private letters +relating to the expedition. Will your Excellency permit me to say I +think it may be of ill consequence? Would it not be convenient, if your +Excellency should forbid the Printers' inserting such news?" Verily, if +_tempora mutantur,_ we may question the _et nos mutamur in illis;_ and +if tongues be leaky, it will need all hands at the pumps to save the +Ship of State. Our history dates and repeats itself. If Sassycus (rather +than Alcibiades) find a parallel in Beauregard, so Weakwash, as he is +called by the brave Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, need not seek far among +our own Sachems for his antitype.] + + I love to start out arter night's begun, + An' all the chores about the farm are done, + The critters milked an' foddered, gates shet fast, + Tools cleaned aginst to-morrer, supper past, + An' Nancy darnin' by her ker'sene lamp,-- + I love, I say, to start upon a tramp, + To shake the kinkles out o' back an' legs, + An' kind o' rack my life off from the dregs + Thet's apt to settle in the buttery-hutch + Of folks thet foller in one rut too much: + Hard work is good an' wholesome, past all doubt; + But 't ain't so, ef the mind gits tuckered out. + + Now, bein' born in Middlesex, you know, + There's certin spots where I like best to go: + The Concord road, for instance, (I, for one, + Most gin'lly ollers call it _John Bull's Run._)-- + The field o' Lexin'ton, where England tried + The fastest colors thet she ever dyed,-- + An' Concord Bridge, thet Davis, when he came, + Found was the bee-line track to heaven an' fame,-- + Ez all roads be by natur', ef your soul + Don't sneak thru shun-pikes so's to save the toll. + + They're 'most too fur away, take too much time + To visit often, ef it ain't in rhyme; + But there's a walk thet's hendier, a sight, + An' suits me fust-rate of a winter's night,-- + I mean the round whale's-back o' Prospect Hill. + I love to loiter there while night grows still, + An' in the twinklin' villages about, + Fust here, then there, the well-saved lights goes out, + An' nary sound but watch-dogs' false alarms, + Or muffled cock-crows from the drowsy farms, + Where some wise rooster (men act jest thet way) + Stands to't thet moon-rise is the break o' day: + So Mister Seward sticks a three-months pin + Where the war'd oughto end, then tries agin;-- + My gran'ther's rule was safer'n 't is to crow: + _Don't never prophesy--onless ye know._ + + I love to muse there till it kind o' seems + Ez ef the world went eddyin' off in dreams. + The Northwest wind thet twitches at my baird + Blows out o' sturdier days not easy scared, + An' the same moon thet this December shines + Starts out the tents an' booths o' Putnam's lines; + The rail-fence posts, acrost the hill thet runs, + Turn ghosts o' sogers should'rin' ghosts o' guns; + Ez wheels the sentry, glints a flash o' light + Along the firelock won at Concord Fight, + An' 'twixt the silences, now fur, now nigh, + Rings the sharp chellenge, hums the low reply. + Ez I was settin' so, it warn't long sence, + Mixin' the perfect with the present tense, + I heerd two voices som'ers in the air, + Though, ef I was to die, I can't tell where: + Voices I call 'em: 't was a kind o' sough + Like pine-trees thet the wind is geth'rin' through; + An', fact, I thought it _was_ the wind a spell,-- + Then some misdoubted,--couldn't fairly tell,-- + Fust sure, then not, jest as you hold an eel,-- + I knowed, an' didn't,--fin'lly seemed to feel + 'T was Concord Bridge a-talkin' off to kill + With the Stone Spike thet's druv thru Bunker Hill: + Whether't was so, or ef I only dreamed, + I couldn't say; I tell it ez it seemed. + + THE BRIDGE. + + Wal, neighbor, tell us, wut's turned up thet's new? + You're younger'n I be,--nigher Boston, tu; + An' down to Boston, ef you take their showin', + Wut they don't know ain't hardly wuth the knowin'. + There's _sunthin'_ goin' on, I know: las' night + The British sogers killed in our gret fight + (Nigh fifty year they hedn't stirred nor spoke) + Made sech a coil you'd thought a dam hed broke: + Why, one he up an' beat a revellee + With his own crossbones on a holler tree, + Till all the graveyards swarmed out like a hive + With faces I hain't seen sence Seventy-five. + Wut _is_ the news? 'T ain't good, or they'd be cheerin'. + Speak slow an' clear, for I'm some hard o' hearin'. + + THE MONIMENT. + + I don't know hardly ef it's good or bad,-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + At wust, it can't be wus than wut we've had. + + THE MONIMENT. + + You know them envys thet the Rebbles sent, + An' Cap'n Wilkes he borried o' the Trent? + + THE BRIDGE. + + Wut! hev they hanged 'em? Then their wits is gone! + Thet's a sure way to make a goose a swan! + + THE MONIMENT. + + No: England she _would_ hev 'em, _Fee, Faw, Fum!_ + (Ez though she hedn't fools enough to home,) + So they've returned 'em-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + _Hev_ they? Wal, by heaven, + Thet's the wust news I've heerd sence Seventy-seven! + _By George_, I meant to say, though I declare + It's 'most enough to make a deacon, swear. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Now don't go off half-cock: folks never gains + By usin' pepper-sarse instid o' brains. + Come, neighbor, you don't understand-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + How? Hey? + Not understand? Why, wut's to hender, pray? + Must I go huntin' round to find a chap + To tell me when my face hez hed a slap? + + THE MONIMENT. + + See here: the British they found out a flaw + In Cap'n Wilkes's readin' o' the law: + (They _make_ all laws, you know, an' so, o' course, + It's nateral they should understand their force:) + He'd oughto took the vessel into port, + An' hed her sot on by a reg'lar court; + She was a mail-ship, an' a steamer, tu, + An' thet, they say, hez changed the pint o' view, + Coz the old practice, bein' meant for sails, + Ef tried upon a steamer, kind o' falls; + You _may_ take out despatches, but you mus'n't + Take nary man-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + You mean to say, you dus'n't! + Changed pint o' view! No, no,--it's overboard + With law an' gospel, when their ox is gored! + I tell ye, England's law, on sea an' land, + Hez ollers ben, "_I've gut the heaviest hand_." + Take nary man? Fine preachin' from _her_ lips! + Why, she hez taken hunderds from our ships, + An' would agin, an' swear she hed a right to, + Ef we warn't strong enough to be perlite to. + Of all the sarse thet I can call to mind, + England _doos_ make the most onpleasant kind: + It's you're the sinner ollers, she's the saint; + Wut's good's all English, all thet isn't ain't; + Wut profits her is ollers right an' just, + An' ef you don't read Scriptur so, you must; + She's praised herself ontil she fairly thinks + There ain't no light in Natur when she winks; + Hain't she the Ten Comman'ments in her pus? + Could the world stir 'thout she went, tu, ez nus? + She ain't like other mortals, thet's a fact: + _She_ never stopped the habus-corpus act, + Nor specie payments, nor she never yet + Cut down the int'rest on her public debt; + _She_ don't put down rebellions, lets 'em breed, + An' 's ollers willin' Ireland should secede; + She's all thet's honest, honnable, an' fair, + An' when the vartoos died they made her heir. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Wal, wal, two wrongs don't never make a right; + Ef we're mistaken, own it, an' don't fight: + For gracious' sake, hain't we enough to du + 'Thout gittin' up a fight with England, tu? + She thinks we're rabble-rid------ + + THE BRIDGE + + An' so we can't + Distinguish 'twixt _You oughtn't_ an' _You shan't!_ + She jedges by herself; she's no idear + How 't stiddies folks to give 'em their fair sheer: + The odds 'twixt her an' us is plain's a steeple,-- + Her People's turned to Mob, our Mob's turned People. + + THE MONIMENT. + + She's riled jes' now------ + + THE BRIDGE + + Plain proof her cause ain't strong,-- + The one thet fust gits mad's most ollers wrong. + + THE MONIMENT. + + You're ollers quick to set your back aridge,-- + Though't suits a tom-cat more 'n a sober bridge: + Don't you git het: they thought the thing was planned; + They'll cool off when they come to understand. + + THE BRIDGE + + Ef _thet's_ wilt you expect, you'll _hev_ to wait: + Folks never understand the folks they hate: + She'll fin' some other grievance jest ez good, + 'Fore the month's out, to git misunderstood. + England cool off! She'll do it, ef she sees + She's run her head into a swarm o' bees. + I ain't so prejudiced ez wut you spose: + I hev thought England was the best thet goes; + Remember, (no, you can't,) when _I_ was reared, + _God save the King_ was all the tune you heerd: + But it's enough to turn Wachuset roun', + This stumpin' fellers when you think they're down. + + THE MONIMENT. + + But, neighbor, ef they prove their claim at law, + The best way is to settle, an' not jaw. + An' don't le' 's mutter 'bout the awfle bricks + We'll give 'em, ef we ketch 'em in a fix: + That 'ere's most frequently the kin' o' talk + Of critters can't be kicked to toe the chalk; + Your "You'll see _nex'_ time!" an' "Look out bimeby!" + Most ollers ends in eatin' umble-pie. + 'T wun't pay to scringe to England: will it pay + To fear thet meaner bully, old "They'll say"? + Suppose they _du_ say: words are dreffle bores, + But they ain't quite so bad ez seventy-fours. + Wut England wants is jest a wedge to fit + Where it'll help to widen out our split: + She's found her wedge, an' 't ain't for us to come + An' lend the beetle thet's to drive it home. + For growed-up folks like us 't would be a scandle, + When we git sarsed, to fly right off the handle. + England ain't _all_ bad, coz she thinks us blind: + Ef she can't change her skin, she can her mind; + An' you will see her change it double-quick, + Soon ez we've proved thet we're a-goin' to lick. + She an' Columby's gut to be fas' friends; + For the world prospers by their privit ends: + 'T would put the clock back all o' fifty years, + Ef they should fall together by the ears. + + THE BRIDGE. + + You may be right; but hearken in your ear,-- + I'm older 'n you,--Peace wun't keep house with Fear: + Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut to du + Is jest to show you're up to fightin', tu. + _I_ recollect how sailors' rights was won + Yard locked in yard, hot gun-lip kissin' gun: + Why, afore thet, John Bull sot up thet he + Hed gut a kind o' mortgage on the sea; + You'd thought he held by Gran'ther Adam's will, + An' ef you knuckle down, _he_'ll think so still. + Better thet all our ships an' all their crews + Should sink to rot in ocean's dreamless ooze, + Each torn flag wavin' chellenge ez it went, + An' each dumb gun a brave man's moniment, + Than seek sech peace ez only cowards crave: + Give me the peace of dead men or of brave! + + THE MONIMENT. + + I say, ole boy, it ain't the Glorious Fourth: + You'd oughto learned 'fore this wut talk wuz worth. + It ain't _our_ nose thet gits put out o' jint; + It's England thet gives up her dearest pint. + We've gut, I tell ye now, enough to du + In our own fem'ly fight, afore we're thru. + I hoped, las' spring, jest arter Sumter's shame, + When every flag-staff flapped its tethered flame, + An' all the people, startled from their doubt, + Come must'rin' to the flag with sech a shout,-- + + I hoped to see things settled 'fore this fall, + The Rebbles licked, Jeff Davis hanged, an' all; + Then come Bull Run, an' _sence_ then I've ben waitin' + Like boys in Jennooary thaw for skatin', + Nothin' to du but watch my shadder's trace + Swing, like a ship at anchor, roun' my base, + With daylight's flood an' ebb: it's gittin' slow, + An' I 'most think we'd better let 'em go. + I tell ye wut, this war's a-goin' to cost-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + An' I tell _you_ it wun't be money lost; + Taxes milks dry, but, neighbor, you'll allow + Thet havin' things onsettled kills the cow: + We've gut to fix this thing for good an' all; + It's no use buildin' wut's a-goin' to fall. + I'm older 'n you, an' I've seen things an' men, + An' here's wut my experience hez ben: + Folks thet worked thorough was the ones thet thriv, + But bad work follers ye ez long's ye live; + You can't git red on 't; jest ez sure ez sin, + It's ollers askin' to be done agin: + Ef we should part, it wouldn't be a week + 'Fore your soft-soddered peace would spring aleak. + We've turned our cuffs up, but, to put her thru, + We must git mad an' off with jackets, tu; + 'T wun't du to think thet killin' ain't perlite,-- + You've gut to be in airnest, ef you fight; + Why, two-thirds o' the Rebbles 'ould cut dirt, + Ef they once thought thet Guv'ment meant to hurt; + An' I _du_ wish our Gin'rals hed in mind + The folks in front more than the folks behind; + You wun't do much ontil you think it's God, + An' not constitoounts, thet holds the rod; + We want some more o' Gideon's sword, I jedge, + For proclamations hain't no gret of edge; + There's nothin' for a cancer but the knife, + Onless you set by 't more than by your life. + _I_'ve seen hard times; I see a war begun + Thet folks thet love their bellies never'd won,-- + Pharo's lean kine hung on for seven long year,-- + But when't was done, we didn't count it dear. + Why, law an' order, honor, civil right, + Ef they _ain't_ wuth it, wut _is_ wuth a fight? + I'm older 'n you: the plough, the axe, the mill, + All kinds o' labor an' all kinds o' skill, + Would be a rabbit in a wile-cat's claw, + Ef't warn't for thet slow critter, 'stablished law; + Onsettle _thet_, an' all the world goes whiz, + A screw is loose in everythin' there is: + Good buttresses once settled, don't you fret + An' stir 'em: take a bridge's word for thet! + Young folks are smart, but all ain't good thet's new; + I guess the gran'thers they knowed sunthin', tu. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Amen to thet! build sure in the beginning', + An' then don't never tech the underpinnin': + Th' older a Guv'ment is, the better 't suits; + New ones hunt folks's corns out like new boots: + Change jest for change is like those big hotels + Where they shift plates, an' let ye live on smells. + + THE BRIDGE + + Wal, don't give up afore the ship goes down: + It's a stiff gale, but Providence wun't drown; + An' God wun't leave us yet to sink or swim, + Ef we don't fail to du wut 's right by Him. + This land o' ourn, I tell ye, 's gut to be + A better country than man ever see. + I feel my sperit swellin' with a cry + Thet seems to say, "Break forth an' prophesy!" + O strange New World, thet yet wast never young, + Whose youth from thee by gripin' need was wrung,-- + Brown foundlin' o' the woods, whose baby-bed + Was prowled round by the Injun's cracklin' tread, + An' who grew'st strong thru shifts an' wants an' pains, + Nussed by stern men with empires in their brains, + Who saw in vision their young Ishmel strain + With each hard hand a vassal ocean's mane,-- + Thou, skilled by Freedom an' by gret events + To pitch new States ez Old-World men pitch tents,-- + Thou, taught by Fate to know Jehovah's plan + Thet only manhood ever makes a man, + An' whose free latch-string never was drawed in + Aginst the poorest child o' Adam's kin,-- + The grave's not dug where traitor hands shall lay + In fearful haste thy murdered corse away! + I see---- + + Jest here some dogs began to bark, + So thet I lost old Concord's last remark: + I listened long, but all I seemed to hear + Was dead leaves goss'pin' on some birch-trees near; + But ez they hedn't no gret things to say, + An' said 'em often, I come right away, + An', walkin' home'ards, jest to pass the time, + I put some thoughts thet bothered me in rhyme: + I hain't hed time to fairly try 'em on, + But here they be,--it's + + +JONATHAN TO JOHN. + + It don't seem hardly right, John, + When both my hands was full, + To stump me to a fight, John,-- + Your cousin, tu, John Bull! + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + We know it now," sez he, + "The lion's paw is all the law, + Accordin' to J.B., + Thet's fit for you an' me!" + + Blood ain't so cool as ink, John: + It's likely you'd ha' wrote, + An' stopped a spell to think, John, + _Arter_ they'd cut your throat? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + He'd skurce ha' stopped," sez he, + "To mind his p-s an' q-s, ef thet weasan' + Hed b'longed to ole J.B., + Instid o' you an' me!" + + Ef _I_ turned mad dogs loose, John, + On _your_ front-parlor stairs, + Would it jest meet your views, John, + To wait an' sue their heirs? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + I on'y guess," sez he, + "Thet, ef Vattel on _his_ toes fell, + 'T would kind o' rile J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + Who made the law thet hurts, John, + _Heads I win,--ditto, tails?_ + "_J.B._" was on his shirts, John, + Onless my memory fails. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + (I'm good at thet,)" sez he, + "Thet sauce for goose ain't _jest_ the juice + For ganders with J.B., + No more than you or me!" + + When your rights was our wrongs, John, + You didn't stop for fuss,-- + Britanny's trident-prongs, John, + Was good 'nough law for us. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Though physic's good," sez he, + "It doesn't foller thet he can swaller + Prescriptions signed 'J.B.,' + Put up by you an' me!" + + We own the ocean, tu, John: + You mus'n't take it hard, + Ef we can't think with you, John, + It's jest your own back-yard. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Ef _thet's_ his claim," sez he, + "The fencin'-stuff 'll cost enough + To bust up friend J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + Why talk so dreffle big, John, + Of honor, when it meant + You didn't care a fig, John, + But jest for _ten per cent_.? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + He's like the rest," sez he: + "When all is done, it's number one + Thet's nearest to J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + We give the critters back, John, + Coz Abram thought 't was right; + It warn't your bullyin' clack, John, + Provokin' us to fight. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + We've a hard row," sez he, + "To hoe jest now; but thet, somehow, + May heppen to J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + We ain't so weak an' poor, John, + With twenty million people, + An' close to every door, John, + A school-house an' a steeple. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + It is a fact," sez he, + "The surest plan to make a Man + Is, Think him so, J.B., + Ez much ez you or me!" + + Our folks believe in Law, John; + An' it's for her sake, now, + They've left the axe an' saw, John, + The anvil an' the plough. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Ef't warn't for law," sez he, + "There'd be one shindy from here to Indy; + An' thet don't suit J.B. + (When't ain't 'twixt you an' me!)" + + We know we've gut a cause, John, + Thet's honest, just, an' true; + We thought't would win applause, John, + Ef nowheres else, from you. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + His love of right," sez he, + "Hangs by a rotten fibre o' cotton: + There's natur' in J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + The South says, "_Poor folks down!_" John, + An' "_All men up!_" say we,-- + "White, yaller, black, an' brown, John: + Now which is your idee?" + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + John preaches wal," sez he; + "But, sermon thru, an' come to _du_, + Why, there's the old J.B. + A-crowdin' you an' me!" + + Shall it be love or hate, John? + It's you thet's to decide; + Ain't _your_ bonds held by Fate, John, + Like all the world's beside? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + Wise men forgive," sez he, + "But not forget; an' some time yet + Thet truth may strike J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + God means to make this land, John, + Clear thru, from sea to sea, + Believe an' understand, John, + The _wuth_ o' bein' free. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + God's price is high," sez he; + "But nothin' else than wut He sells + Wears long, an' thet J.B. + May learn like you an' me!" + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow_. A +Matter-of-Fact Romance. By CHARLES READE, Author of "Never too Late to +Mend," etc., etc. New York: Rudd & Carleton. 8vo. + +The novels of Charles Reade are generally marked not only by +individuality of genius, but by individualisms of egotism and caprice. +The latter provoke the reader almost as much as the former gives him +delight. It disturbs the least critical mind to find the keenest insight +in company with the loudest bravado, and the statement of a wise or +beautiful thought followed up by a dogmatic assertion of infallibility +as harsh as a slap on the face. The indisposition to recognize such a +genius comes from the fact that he irritates as well as stimulates the +minds he addresses. Everybody reads him, but the fooling he inspires is +made up of admiration and exasperation. The public is both delighted and +insulted. He not only does not attempt to conceal his contemptuous sense +of superiority to common men, but he absolutely screeches and bawls it +out. Fearful that the dull Anglo-Saxon mind cannot appreciate his finest +strokes, he emphasizes his inspirations not merely by Italics, but by +capitals, thus conveying his brightest wit and deepest contrivances by +a kind of typographic yell. Were there not a solid foundation of +observation, learning, genius, and conscience to his work, his egotistic +eccentricities would awake a tempest of hisses. Being, in reality, +superficial and not central, they are readily pardoned by discerning +critics. Even these, however, must object to his disposition to cluck or +crow, in a manner altogether unseemly, whenever he hits upon a thought +of more than ordinary delicacy or depth. + +It is but just to say, in palliation of this fault, that Mr. Reade's +insolent tone is not peculiar to him. It characterizes almost every +prominent person who has attempted to mould the opinions of the age. We +find it in Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Kingsley, as well as in Reade. +Modesty is not the characteristic of the genius of the nineteenth +century; and the last thing we look for in any powerful work of the +present day is toleration for other minds and opposing opinions. +Each capable person who puts in his thumb and pulls out a plum draws +instantly the same inference which occurred to the first explorer of +the Christmas-pie. Charles Reade has no reservation at all, and boldly +echoes Master Horner's sage conclusion. + +"The Cloister and the Hearth," in spite of its faults, is really a great +book. It is a positive contribution to history as well as to romance. It +would be vain to point to any other volume which could convey to common +minds so clear and accurate a conception of European life in the +fifteenth century as this. The author has deeply studied the annals, +memoirs, and histories which record the peculiarities of that life, and +he has carried into the study a knowledge of those powers and passions +of human nature which are the same in every age. The result is a +"romance of history" which contains more essential truth than the most +labored histories; for the writer is a man who has both the heart to +feel and the imagination to conceive the realities of the time about +which he writes. + +The characterization of the book is original, various, and powerful. +It ranges from the lowest hind to the most exquisite representative +of female tenderness and purity. The scenes of passion show a clear +conception of and a strong hold upon the emotional elements of +character, and a capacity to exhibit their most terrible workings +in language which seems identical with the feelings it so burningly +expresses. In vigor and vividness of description and narration the novel +excels any of Reade's previous books. The plot is about the same as that +of "The Good Fight," though the _dénouement_ is different. "The Cloister +and the Hearth," indeed, incorporates "The Good Fight" in its pages, but +the latter forms not more than a fourth of the extended work. Altogether +the romance must be classed among the best which have appeared during +the last twenty years. + + +_Lessons in Life_. A Series of Familiar Essays. By TIMOTHY TITCOMB. New +York: Charles Scribner, 16 mo. + +Who is more popular than honest Timothy? Opening this, his latest +volume, we read on, a fly-leaf fronting the title-page that twenty-six +editions of the "Letters to Young People," fifteen editions each of +"Bitter-Sweet" and "Gold Foil," and thirteen editions of "Miss Gilbert's +Career" have gone the way of all good books. The author says, in his +modest preface to the "Lessons," that he can hardly pretend to have done +more than to organize and put into form the average thinking of those +who read his books, and be only claims for his essays that they possess +the quality of common sense. He herein pays a very high compliment to +the crowd which demands over the bookseller's counter so many thousands +of his volumes. Wisdom, admirably put, is not a commodity glutting the +market every day. We find in the pages of this new venture so many +healthy maxims and so much excellent advice, that we hope the volume +will spread itself farther and wider than any of its predecessors. This +wish fulfilled will give it no mean circulation. "The Ways of Charity," +one of the papers in this volume, ought to be printed in tract form, and +scattered broadcast everywhere. And there are other articles in the book +quite as good as this. + + +_English Sacred Poetry of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and +Nineteenth Centuries._ Selected and edited by ROBERT ARIS WILLMOTT, M.A. +Illustrated by Holman Hunt, John Gilbert, and others. London: Routledge +& Co. 4to. + +Mr. Willmott has considerable reputation for judgment and taste as a +compiler. He knows a good poem afar off, and his chief pleasure seems +to lie in reproducing from old books the excellent things that time has +spared to us. His last contribution to the stock of elegant volumes is +this very handsome book of English Sacred Poetry. The illustrations are +by no means equally good, but the majority of them are satisfactory. +Delicious bits of English landscape scenery peep out along the pages, as +one turns the leaves of this beautiful collection. An old village church +rising among the graves of centuries, a bird's-nest snug and warm in the +boughs of a mossy tree, a group of old-time worshippers gathered on the +grass, a brook making its way through flower-enamelled banks, a shepherd +with his flock couched on the hill-side, and other similar scenes of +quiet and rest, abound in this volume. The printer and the binder have +produced as luxurious a specimen of their respective arts as we have +seen from the British holiday press. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in +the American Slave States. Based upon Three Former Volumes of Journeys +and Investigations by the Same Author. By Frederic Law Olmsted. In Two +Volumes. New York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. viii., 376; 404. $2.00. + +The Last Political Writings of General Nathaniel Lyon, U.S.A. With a +Sketch of his Life and Military Services. New York. Rudd & Carleton. +12mo. pp. 275. $1.00. + +The Lamplighter's Story; Hunted Down; The Detective Police, and other +Nouvellettes. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 12mo. pp. 467. $1.50. + +Poems. By John G. Saxe. Complete in One Volume. Blue and Gold. Boston. +Ticknor & Fields. 32mo. pp. vi., 308. 75 cts. + +Elijah, a Sacred Drama, and other Poems. By Rev. Robert Davidson, D.D. +New York. C. Scribner. 16mo. pp. 184. 75 cts. + +Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from Drawings +by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Old Curiosity-Shop. In Three +Volumes. New York. J.G. Gregory. 16mo. pp. viii., 303; 299; 298. $2.25. + +National Hymns: How they are Written, and how they are not Written. A +Lyric and National Study for the Times. By Richard Grant White. New +York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo. pp. 152. $1.00. + +A Manual of Elementary Geometrical Drawing, involving Three Dimensions. +Designed for Use in High Schools, Academies, Engineering Schools, etc.; +and for the Self-Instruction of Inventors, Artisans, etc. In Five +Divisions. By S. Edward Warren, C.E., Professor of Descriptive Geometry +and Geometrical Drawing in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., +and Author of a Treatise on the Orthographic Projections of Descriptive +Geometry. New York. John Wiley. 12mo. pp. x., 105. $1.25. + +For Better, for Worse. A Love Story. From "Temple Bar." Philadelphia. +T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 173. 25 cts. + +Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia. Revelation, +II., III. By Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D., Dean of Westminster. New +York. C. Scribner. 12mo. pp. 3l2. $1.00. + +Songs in Many Keys. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. +16mo. pp. x., 308. $1.25. + +Lessons in Life. A Series of Familiar Essays. By Timothy Titcomb, Author +of "Letters to the Young," "Gold Foil," etc. New York. C. Scribner. +12mo. pp. 344. $1.00. + +Wolfert's Roost, and other Papers. Now first collected. By Washington +Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 383, +46. $1.50. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, +February, 1862, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 52 *** + +***** This file should be named 12066-8.txt or 12066-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/0/6/12066/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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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/12066-8.zip b/old/12066-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..38b528e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12066-8.zip diff --git a/old/12066.txt b/old/12066.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6bac804 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12066.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9268 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, +1862, by Various + +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: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 17, 2004 [EBook #12066] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 52 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. Produced from page scans provided by Cornell University. + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + + * * * * * + +VOL. IX. FEBRUARY, 1862.--NO. LII + + * * * * * + + +BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. + + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps: + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; + Let this Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, + Since God is marching on." + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: + As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO + + +CHAPTER XX + +FLORENCE AND HER PROPHET + + +It was drawing towards evening, as two travellers, approaching Florence +from the south, checked their course on the summit of one of the circle +of hills which command a view of the city, and seemed to look down upon +it with admiration. One of these was our old friend Father Antonio, and +the other the Cavalier. The former was mounted on an ambling mule, whose +easy pace suited well with his meditative habits; while the other reined +in a high-mettled steed, who, though now somewhat jaded under the +fatigue of a long journey, showed by a series of little lively motions +of his ears and tail, and by pawing the ground impatiently, that he had +the inexhaustible stock of spirits which goes with good blood. + +"There she lies, my Florence," said the monk, stretching his hands out +with enthusiasm. "Is she not indeed a sheltered lily growing fair among +the hollows of the mountains? Little she may be, Sir, compared to old +Rome; but every inch of her is a gem,--every inch!" + +And, in truth, the scene was worthy of the artist's enthusiasm. All +the overhanging hills that encircle the city with their silvery +olive-gardens and their pearl-white villas were now lighted up with +evening glory. The old gray walls of the convents of San Miniato and the +Monte Oliveto were touched with yellow; and even the black obelisks of +the cypresses in their cemeteries had here and there streaks and dots +of gold, fluttering like bright birds among their gloomy branches. The +distant snow-peaks of the Apennines, which even in spring long wear +their icy mantles, were shimmering and changing like an opal ring +with tints of violet, green, blue, and rose, blended in inexpressible +softness by that dreamy haze which forms the peculiar feature of Italian +skies. + +In this loving embrace of mountains lay the city, divided by the Arno as +by a line of rosy crystal barred by the graceful arches of its bridges. +Amid the crowd of palaces and spires and towers rose central and +conspicuous the great Duomo, just crowned with that magnificent dome +which was then considered a novelty and a marvel in architecture, and +which Michel Angelo looked longingly back upon when he was going to Rome +to build that more wondrous orb of Saint Peter's. White and stately by +its side shot up the airy shaft of the Campanile; and the violet vapor +swathing the whole city in a tender indistinctness, these two striking +objects, rising by their magnitude far above it, seemed to stand alone +in a sort of airy grandeur. + +And now the bells of the churches were sounding the Ave Maria, filling +the air with sweet and solemn vibrations, as if angels were passing to +and fro overhead, harping as they went; and ever and anon the great bell +of the Campanile came pulsing in with a throb of sound of a quality so +different that one hushed one's breath to hear. It might be fancied to +be the voice of one of those kingly archangels that one sees drawn by +the old Florentine religious artists,--a voice grave and unearthly, and +with a plaintive undertone of divine mystery. + +The monk and the cavalier bent low in their saddles, and seemed to join +devoutly in the worship of the hour. + +One need not wonder at the enthusiasm of the returning pilgrim of those +days for the city of his love, who feels the charm that lingers around +that beautiful place even in modern times. Never was there a spot +to which the heart could insensibly grow with a more home-like +affection,--never one more thoroughly consecrated in every stone by the +sacred touch of genius. + +A republic, in the midst of contending elements, the history of +Florence, in the Middle Ages, was a history of what shoots and blossoms +the Italian nature might send forth, when rooted in the rich soil +of liberty. It was a city of poets and artists. Its statesmen, its +merchants, its common artisans, and the very monks in its convents, were +all pervaded by one spirit. The men of Florence in its best days were +men of a large, grave, earnest mould. What the Puritans of New England +wrought out with severest earnestness in their reasonings and their +lives these early Puritans of Italy embodied in poetry, sculpture, and +painting. They built their Cathedral and their Campanile, as the Jews +of old built their Temple, with awe and religious fear, that they might +thus express by costly and imperishable monuments their sense of God's +majesty and beauty. The modern traveller who visits the churches and +convents of Florence, or the museums where are preserved the fading +remains of its early religious Art, if he be a person of any +sensibility, cannot fail to be affected with the intense gravity and +earnestness which pervade them. They seem less to be paintings for the +embellishment of life than eloquent picture-writing by which burning +religious souls sought to preach the truths of the invisible world to +the eye of the multitude. Through all the deficiencies of perspective, +coloring, and outline incident to the childhood and early youth of Art, +one feels the passionate purpose of some lofty soul to express ideas of +patience, self-sacrifice, adoration, and aspiration far transcending the +limits of mortal capability. + +The angels and celestial beings of these grave old painters are as +different from the fat little pink Cupids or lovely laughing children of +Titian and Correggio as are the sermons of President Edwards from the +love-songs of Tom Moore. These old seers of the pencil give you grave, +radiant beings, strong as man, fine as woman, sweeping downward in lines +of floating undulation, and seeming by the ease with which they remain +poised in the air to feel none of that earthly attraction which draws +material bodies earthward. Whether they wear the morning star on their +forehead or bear the lily or the sword in their hand, there is still +that suggestion of mystery and power about them, that air of dignity and +repose, that speak the children of a nobler race than ours. One could +well believe such a being might pass in his serene poised majesty of +motion through the walls of a gross material dwelling without deranging +one graceful fold of his swaying robe or unclasping the hands folded +quietly on his bosom. Well has a modern master of art and style said of +these old artists, "Many pictures are ostentatious exhibitions of the +artist's power of speech, the clear and vigorous elocution of useless +and senseless words; while the earlier efforts of Giotto and Ciniabue +are the burning messages of prophecy delivered by the stammering lips of +infants." + +But at the time we write, Florence had passed through her ages of +primitive religions and republican simplicity, and was fast hastening to +her downfall. The genius, energy, and prophetic enthusiasm of Savonarola +had made, it is true, a desperate rally on the verge of the precipice; +but no one man has ever power to turn back the downward slide of a whole +generation. + +When Father Antonio left Sorrento in company with the cavalier, it +was the intention of the latter to go with him only so far as their +respective routes should lie together. The band under the command of +Agostino was posted in a ruined fortress in one of those airily perched +old mountain-towns which form so picturesque and characteristic a +feature of the Italian landscape. But before they reached this spot, the +simple, poetic, guileless monk, with his fresh artistic nature, had so +won upon his travelling companion that a most enthusiastic friendship +had sprung up between them, and Agostino could not find it in his heart +at once to separate from him. Tempest-tossed and homeless, burning with +a sense of wrong, alienated from the faith of his fathers through his +intellect and moral sense, yet clinging to it with his memory and +imagination, he found in the tender devotional fervor of the artist monk +a reconciling and healing power. He shared, too, in no small degree, the +feelings which now possessed the breast of his companion for the +great reformer whose purpose seemed to meditate nothing less than +the restoration of the Church of Italy to the primitive apostolic +simplicity. He longed to see him,--to listen to the eloquence of which +he had heard so much. Then, too, he had thoughts that but vaguely shaped +themselves in his mind. This noble man, so brave and courageous, menaced +by the forces of a cruel tyranny, might he not need the protection of a +good sword? He recollected, too, that he had an uncle high in the favor +of the King of France, to whom he had written a full account of his own +situation. Might he not be of use in urging this uncle to induce the +French King to throw before Savonarola the shield of his protection? At +all events, he entered Florence this evening with the burning zeal of a +young neophyte who hopes to effect something himself for a glorious and +sacred cause embodied in a leader who commands his deepest veneration. + +"My son," said Father Antonio, as they raised their heads after the +evening prayer, "I am at this time like a man who, having long been, +away from his home, fears, on returning, that he shall hear some evil +tidings of those he hath left. I long, yet dread, to go to my dear +Father Girolamo and the beloved brothers in our house. There is a +presage that lies heavy on my heart, so that I cannot shake it off. Look +at our glorious old Duomo;--doth she not sit there among the houses and +palaces as a queen-mother among nations,--worthy, in her greatness and +beauty, to represent the Church of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of the +Lord? Ah, I have seen it thronged and pressed with the multitude who +came to crave the bread of life from our master!" + +"Courage, my friend!" said Agostino; "it cannot be that Florence will +suffer her pride and glory to be trodden down. Let us hasten on, for the +shades of evening are coming fast, and there is a keen wind sweeping +down from your snowy mountains." + +And the two soon found themselves plunging into the shadows of the +streets, threading their devious way to the convent. + +At length they drew up before a dark wall, where the Father Antonio rang +a bell. + +A door was immediately opened, a cowled head appeared, and a cautious +voice asked,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"Ah, is that you, good Brother Angelo?" said Father Antonio, cheerily. + +"And is it you, dear Brother Antonio? Come in! come in!" was the cordial +response, as the two passed into the court; "truly, it will make all our +hearts leap to see you." + +"And, Brother Angelo, how is our dear father? I have been so anxious +about him!" + +"Oh, fear not!--he sustains himself in God, and is full of sweetness to +us all." + +"But do the people stand by him, Angelo, and the Signoria?" + +"He has strong friends as yet, but his enemies are like ravening wolves. +The Pope hath set on the Franciscans, and they hunt him as dogs do a +good stag.--But whom have you here with you?" added the monk, raising +his torch and regarding the knight. + +"Fear him not; he is a brave knight and good Christian, who comes to +offer his sword to our father and seek his counsels." + +"He shall be welcome," said the porter, cheerfully. "We will have you +into the refectory forthwith, for you must be hungry." + +The young cavalier, following the flickering torch of his conductor, had +only a dim notion of long cloistered corridors, out of which now and +then, as the light flared by, came a golden gleam from some quaint old +painting, where the pure angel forms of Angelico stood in the gravity +of an immortal youth, or the Madonna, like a bending lily, awaited the +message of Heaven; but when they entered the refectory, a cheerful voice +addressed them, and Father Antonio was clasped in the embrace of the +father so much beloved. + +"Welcome, welcome, my dear son!" said that rich voice which had thrilled +so many thousand Italian hearts with its music. "So you are come back to +the fold again. How goes the good work of the Lord?" + +"Well, everywhere," said Father Antonio; and then, recollecting his +young friend, he suddenly turned and said,-- + +"Let me present to you one son who comes to seek your instructions,--the +young Signor Agostino, of the noble house of Sarelli." + +The Superior turned to Agostino with a movement full of a generous +frankness, and warmly extended his hand, at the same time fixing upon +him the mesmeric glance of a pair of large, deep blue eyes, which might, +on slight observation, have been mistaken for black, so great was their +depth and brilliancy. + +Agostino surveyed his new acquaintance with that mingling of ingenuous +respect and curiosity with which an ardent young man would regard the +most distinguished leader of his age, and felt drawn to him by a +certain atmosphere of vital cordiality such as one can feel better than +describe. + +"You have ridden far to-day, my son,--you must be weary," said the +Superior, affably,--"but here you must feel yourself at home; command +us in anything we can do for you. The brothers will attend to those +refreshments which are needed after so long a journey; and when you have +rested and supped, we shall hope to see you a little more quietly." + +So saying, he signed to one or two brothers who stood by, and, +commending the travellers to their care, left the apartment. + +In a few moments a table was spread with a plain and wholesome repast, +to which the two travellers sat down with appetites sharpened by their +long journey. + +During the supper, the brothers of the convent, among whom Father +Antonio had always been a favorite, crowded around him in a state of +eager excitement. + +"You should have been here the last week," said one; "such a turmoil as +we have been in!" + +"Yes," said another,--"the Pope hath set on the Franciscans, who, you +know, are always ready enough to take up with anything against our +order, and they have been pursuing our father like so many hounds." + +"There hath been a whirlwind of preaching here and there," said a +third,--"in the Duomo, and Santa Croce, and San Lorenzo; and they have +battled to and fro, and all the city is full of it." + +"Tell him about yesterday, about the ordeal," shouted an eager voice. + +Two or three voices took up the story at once, and began to tell +it,--all the others correcting, contradicting, or adding incidents. From +the confused fragments here and there Agostino gathered that there had +been on the day before a popular spectacle in the grand piazza, in +which, according to an old superstition of the Middle Ages, Fra Girolamo +Savonarola and his opponents were expected to prove the truth of their +words by passing unhurt through the fire; that two immense piles of +combustibles had been constructed with a narrow passage between, and the +whole magistracy of the city convened, with a throng of the populace, +eager for the excitement of the spectacle; that the day had been spent +in discussions, and scruples, and preliminaries; and that, finally, +in the afternoon, a violent storm of rain arising had dispersed the +multitude and put a stop to the whole exhibition. + +"But the people are not satisfied," said Father Angelo; "and there are +enough mischief-makers among them to throw all the blame on our father." + +"Yes," said one, "they say he wanted to burn the Holy Sacrament, because +he was going to take it with him into the fire." + +"As if it could burn!" said another voice. + +"It would to all human appearance, I suppose," said a third. + +"Any way," said a fourth, "there is some mischief brewing; for here is +our friend Prospero Rondinelli just come in, who says, when he came past +the Duomo, he saw people gathering, and heard them threatening us: there +were as many as two hundred, he thought." + +"We ought to tell Father Girolamo," exclaimed several voices. + +"Oh, he will not be disturbed!" said Father Angelo. "Since these +affairs, he hath been in prayer in the chapter-room before the blessed +Angelico's picture of the Cross. When we would talk with him of these +things, he waves us away, and says only, 'I am weary; go and tell +Jesus.'" + +"He bade me come to him after supper," said Father Antonio. "I will talk +with him." + +"Do so,--that is right," said two or three eager voices, as the monk and +Agostino, having finished their repast, arose to be conducted to the +presence of the father. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE ATTACK ON SAN MARCO. + + +They found him in a large and dimly lighted apartment, sitting absorbed +in pensive contemplation before a picture of the Crucifixion by Fra +Angelico, which, whatever might be its _naive_ faults of drawing and +perspective, had an intense earnestness of feeling, and, though faded +and dimmed by the lapse of centuries, still stirs in some faint wise +even the practised _dilettanti_ of our day. + +The face upon the cross, with its majestic patience, seemed to shed a +blessing down on the company of saints of all ages who were grouped by +their representative men at the foot. Saint Dominic, Saint Ambrose, +Saint Augustin, Saint Jerome, Saint Francis, and Saint Benedict were +depicted as standing before the Great Sacrifice in company with the +Twelve Apostles, the two Maries, and the fainting mother of Jesus,--thus +expressing the unity of the Church Universal in that great victory of +sorrow and glory. The painting was inclosed above by a semicircular +bordering composed of medallion heads of the Prophets, and below was a +similar medallion border of the principal saints and worthies of the +Dominican order. In our day such pictures are visited by tourists with +red guide-books in their hands, who survey them in the intervals of +careless conversation; but they were painted by the simple artist on +his knees, weeping and praying as he worked, and the sight of them was +accepted by like simple-hearted Christians as a perpetual sacrament of +the eye, by which they received Christ into their souls. + +So absorbed was the father in the contemplation of this picture, that he +did not hear the approaching footsteps of the knight and monk. When at +last they came so near as almost to touch him, he suddenly looked up, +and it became apparent that his eyes were full of tears. + +He rose, and, pointing with a mute gesture toward the painting, said,-- + +"There is more in that than in all Michel Angelo Buonarotti hath done +yet, though he be a God-fearing youth,--more than in all the heathen +marbles in Lorenzo's gardens. But sit down with me here. I have to come +here often, where I can refresh my courage." + +The monk and knight seated themselves, the latter with his attention +riveted on the remarkable man before him. The head and face of +Savonarola are familiar to us by many paintings and medallions, which, +however, fail to impart what must have been that effect of his personal +presence which so drew all hearts to him in his day. The knight saw a +man of middle age, of elastic, well-knit figure, and a flexibility +and grace of motion which seemed to make every nerve, even to his +finger-ends, vital with the expression of his soul. The close-shaven +crown and the plain white Dominican robe gave a severe and statuesque +simplicity to the lines of his figure. His head and face, like those +of most of the men of genius whom modern Italy has produced, were so +strongly cast in the antique mould as to leave no doubt of the identity +of modern Italian blood with that of the great men of ancient Italy. His +low, broad forehead, prominent Roman nose, well-cut, yet fully outlined +lips, and strong, finely moulded jaw and chin, all spoke the old Roman +vigor and energy, while the flexible delicacy of all the muscles of his +face and figure gave an inexpressible fascination to his appearance. +Every emotion and changing thought seemed to flutter and tremble over +his countenance as the shadow of leaves over sunny water. His eye had +a wonderful dilating power, and when he was excited seemed to shower +sparks; and his voice possessed a surprising scale of delicate and +melodious inflections, which could take him in a moment through the +whole range of human feeling, whether playful and tender or denunciatory +and terrible. Yet, when in repose among his friends, there was an almost +childlike simplicity and artlessness of manner, which drew the heart by +an irresistible attraction. At this moment it was easy to see by his +pale cheek and the furrowed lines of his face that he had been passing +through severe struggles; but his mind seemed stayed on some invisible +centre, in a solemn and mournful calm. + +"Come, tell me something of the good works of the Lord in our Italy, +brother," he said, with a smile which was almost playful in its +brightness. "You have been through all the lowly places of the land, +carrying our Lord's bread to the poor, and repairing and beautifying +shrines and altars by the noble gift that is in you." + +"Yes, father," said the monk; "and I have found that there are many +sheep of the Lord that feed quietly among the mountains of Italy, and +love nothing so much as to hear of the dear Shepherd who laid down His +life for them." + +"Even so, even so," said the Superior, with animation; "and it is the +thought of these sweet hearts that comforts me when my soul is among +lions. The foundation standeth sure,--the Lord knoweth them that are +His." + +"And it is good and encouraging," said Father Antonio, "to see the zeal +of the poor, who will give their last penny for the altar of the Lord, +and who flock so to hear the word and take the sacraments. I have +had precious seasons of preaching and confessing, and have worked in +blessedness many days restoring and beautifying the holy pictures and +statues whereby these little ones have been comforted. What with the +wranglings of princes and the factions and disturbances in our poor +Italy, there be many who suffer in want and loss of all things, so that +no refuge remains to them but the altars of our Jesus, and none cares +for them but He." + +"Brother," said the Superior, "there be thousands of flowers fairer than +man ever saw that grow up in waste places and in deep dells and shades +of mountains; but God bears each one in His heart, and delighteth +Himself in silence with them: and so doth He with these poor, simple, +unknown souls. The True Church is not a flaunting queen who goes boldly +forth among men displaying her beauties, but a veiled bride, a dove that +is in the cleft of the rocks, whose voice is known only to the Beloved. +Ah! when shall the great marriage-feast come, when all shall behold her +glorified? I had hoped to see the day here in Italy: but now"---- + +The father stopped, and seemed to lapse into unconscious musing,--his +large eye growing fixed and mysterious in its expression. + +"The brothers have been telling me somewhat of the tribulations you have +been through," said Father Antonio, who thought he saw a good opening to +introduce the subject nearest his heart. + +"No more of that!--no more!" said the Superior, turning away his head +with an expression of pain and weariness; "rather let us look up. What +think you, brother, are all _these_ doing now?" he said, pointing to the +saints in the picture. "They are all alive and well, and see clearly +through our darkness." Then, rising up, he added, solemnly, "Whatever +man may say or do, it is enough for me to feel that my dearest Lord and +His blessed Mother and all the holy archangels, the martyrs and prophets +and apostles, are with me. The end is coming." + +"But, dearest father," said Antonio, "think you the Lord will suffer the +wicked to prevail?" + +"It may be for a time," said Savonarola. "As for me, I am in His hands +only as an instrument. He is master of the forge and handles the hammer, +and when He has done using it He casts it from Him. Thus He did with +Jeremiah, whom He permitted to be stoned to death when his preaching +mission was accomplished; and thus He may do with _this_ hammer when He +has done using it." + +At this moment a monk rushed into the room with a face expressive of the +utmost terror, and called out,-- + +"Father, what shall we do? The mob are surrounding the convent! Hark! +hear them at the doors!" + +In truth, a wild, confused roar of mingled shrieks, cries, and blows +came in through the open door of the apartment; and the pattering sound +of approaching footsteps was heard like showering raindrops along the +cloisters. + +"Here come Messer Nicolo de' Lapi, and Francesco Valori!" called out a +voice. + +The room was soon filled with a confused crowd, consisting of +distinguished Florentine citizens, who had gained admittance through a +secret passage, and the excited novices and monks. + +"The streets outside the convent are packed close with men," cried one +of the citizens; "they have stationed guards everywhere to cut off our +friends who might come to help us." + +"I saw them seize a young man who was quietly walking, singing psalms, +and slay him on the steps of the Church of the Innocents," said another; +"they cried and hooted, 'No more psalm-singing!'" + +"And there's Arnolfo Battista," said a third;--"he went out to try +to speak to them, and they have killed him,--cut him down with their +sabres." + +"Hurry! hurry! barricade the door! arm yourselves!" was the cry from +other voices. + +"Shall we fight, father? shall we defend ourselves?" cried others, as +the monks pressed around their Superior. + +When the crowd first burst into the room, the face of the Superior +flushed, and there was a slight movement of surprise; then he seemed to +recollect himself, and murmuring, "I expected this, but not so soon," +appeared lost in mental prayer. To the agitated inquiries of his flock, +he answered,--"No, brothers; the weapons of monks must be spiritual, not +carnal." Then lifting on high a crucifix, he said,--"Come with me, and +let us walk in solemn procession to the altar, singing the praises of +our God." + +The monks, with the instinctive habit of obedience, fell into procession +behind their leader, whose voice, clear and strong, was heard raising +the Psalm, _"Quare fremunt gentes"_:-- + +"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? + +"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel +together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, + +"'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.' + +"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.: the Lord shall have them +in derision." + +As one voice after another took up the chant, the solemn enthusiasm rose +and deepened, and all present, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, fell +into the procession and joined in the anthem. Amid the wild uproar, the +din and clatter of axes, the thunders of heavy battering-implements on +the stone walls and portals, came this long-drawn solemn wave of sound, +rising and falling,--now drowned in the savage clamors of the mob, and +now bursting out clear and full like the voices of God's chosen amid the +confusion and struggles of all the generations of this mortal life. + +White-robed and grand the procession moved on, while the pictured saints +and angels on the walls seemed to smile calmly down upon them from a +golden twilight. They passed thus into the sacristy, where with all +solemnity and composure they arrayed their Father and Superior for the +last time in his sacramental robes, and then, still chanting, followed +him to the high altar,--where all bowed in prayer. And still, whenever +there was a pause in the stormy uproar and fiendish clamor, might be +heard the clear, plaintive uprising of that strange singing,--"O Lord, +save thy people, and bless thine heritage!" + +It needs not to tell in detail what history has told of that tragic +night: how the doors at last were forced, and the mob rushed in; how +citizens and friends, and many of the monks themselves, their instinct +of combativeness overcoming their spiritual beliefs, fought valiantly, +and used torches and crucifixes for purposes little contemplated when +they were made. + +Fiercest among the combatants was Agostino, who three times drove back +the crowd as they were approaching the choir, where Savonarola and his +immediate friends were still praying. Father Antonio, too, seized +a sword from the hand of a fallen man and laid about him with an +impetuosity which would be inexplicable to any who do not know what +force there is in gentle natures when the objects of their affections +are assailed. The artist monk fought for his master with the blind +desperation with which a woman fights over the cradle of her child. + +All in vain! Past midnight, and the news comes that artillery is planted +to blow down the walls of the convent, and the magistracy, who up to +this time have lifted not a finger to repress the tumult, send word to +Savonarola to surrender himself to them, together with the two most +active of his companions, Fra Domenico da Pescia and Fra Silvestro +Maruffi, as the only means of averting the destruction of the whole +order. They offer him assurances of protection and safe return, which he +does not in the least believe: nevertheless, he feels that his hour is +come, and gives himself up. + +His preparations were all made with a solemn method which showed that +he felt he was approaching the last act in the drama of life. He called +together his flock, scattered and forlorn, and gave them his last +words of fatherly advice, encouragement, and comfort,--ending with the +remarkable declaration, "A Christian's life consists in doing good and +suffering evil." "I go with joy to this marriage-supper," he said, as he +left the church for the last sad preparations. He and his doomed friends +then confessed and received the sacrament, and after that he surrendered +himself into the hands of the men who he felt in his prophetic soul had +come to take him to torture and to death. + +As he gave himself into their hands, he said, "I commend to your care +this flock of mine, and these good citizens of Florence who have been +with us"; and then once more turning to his brethren, said,--"Doubt not, +my brethren. God will not fail to perfect His work. Whether I live or +die, He will aid and console you." + +At this moment there was a struggle with the attendants in the outer +circle of the crowd, and the voice of Father Antonio was heard crying +out earnestly,--"Do not hold me! I will go with him! I must go with +him!"--"Son," said Savonarola, "I charge you on your obedience not to +come. It is I and Fra Domenico who are to die for the love of Christ." +And thus, at the ninth hour of the night, he passed the threshold of San +Marco. + +As he was leaving, a plaintive voice of distress was heard from a young +novice who had been peculiarly dear to him, who stretched his hands +after him, crying,--"Father! father! why do you leave us desolate?" +Whereupon he turned back a moment, and said,--"God will be your help. +If we do not see each other again in this world, we surely shall in +heaven." + +When the party had gone forth, the monks and citizens stood looking into +each other's faces, listening with dismay to the howl of wild ferocity +that was rising around the departing prisoner. + +"What shall we do?" was the outcry from many voices. + +"I know what I shall do," said Agostino. "If any man here will find me a +fleet horse, I will start for Milan this very hour; for my uncle is now +there on a visit, and he is a counsellor of weight with the King of +France: we must get the King to interfere." + +"Good! good! good!" rose from a hundred voices. + +"I will go with you," said Father Antonio. "I shall have no rest till I +do something." + +"And I," quoth Jacopo Niccolini, "will saddle for you, without delay, +two horses of part Arabian blood, swift of foot, and easy, and which +will travel day and night without sinking." + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +The rays of the setting sun were imparting even more than their wonted +cheerfulness to the airy and bustling streets of Milan. There was the +usual rush and roar of busy life which mark the great city, and the +display of gay costumes and brilliant trappings proper to a ducal +capital which at that time gave the law to Europe in all matters of +taste and elegance, even as Paris does now. It was, in fact, from the +reputation of this city in matters of external show that our English +term Milliner was probably derived; and one might well have believed +this, who saw the sweep of the ducal cortege at this moment returning +in pomp from the afternoon airing. Such glittering of gold-embroidered +mantles, such bewildering confusion of colors, such flashing of jewelry +from cap and dagger-hilt and finger-ring, and even from bridle and +stirrup, testified that the male sex at this period in Italy were no +whit behind the daughters of Eve in that passion for personal adornment +which our age is wont to consider exclusively feminine. Indeed, all that +was visible to the vulgar eye of this pageant was wholly masculine; +though no one doubted that behind the gold-embroidered curtains of the +litters which contained the female notabilities of the court still more +dazzling wonders might be concealed. Occasionally a white jewelled hand +would draw aside one of these screens, and a pair of eyes brighter than +any gems would peer forth; and then there would be tokens of a visible +commotion among the plumed and gemmed cavaliers around, and one young +head would nod to another with jests and quips, and there would be +bowing and curveting and all the antics and caracolings supposable among +gay young people on whom the sun shone brightly, and who felt the world +going well around them, and deemed themselves the observed of all +observers. + +Meanwhile, the mute, subservient common people looked on all this as +a part of their daily amusement. Meek dwellers in those dank, noisome +caverns, without any opening but a street-door, which are called +dwelling-places in Italy, they lived in uninquiring good-nature, +contentedly bringing up children on coarse bread, dirty cabbage-stumps, +and other garbage, while all that they could earn was sucked upward by +capillary attraction to nourish the extravagance of those upper classes +on which they stared with such blind and ignorant admiration. + +This was the lot they believed themselves born for, and which every +exhortation of their priests taught them to regard as the appointed +ordinance of God. The women, to be sure, as women always will be, were +true to the instinct of their sex, and crawled out of the damp and +vile-smelling recesses of their homes with solid gold ear-rings shaking +in their ears, and their blue-black lustrous hair ornamented with a +glittering circle of steel pins or other quaint coiffure. There was +sense in all this: for had not even Dukes of Milan been found so +condescending and affable as to admire the charms of the fair in the +lower orders, whence had come sons and daughters who took rank among +princes and princesses? What father, or what husband, could be +insensible to prospects of such honor? What priest would not readily +absolve such sin? Therefore one might have observed more than one comely +dark-eyed woman, brilliant as some tropical bird in the colors of her +peasant dress, who cast coquettish glances toward high places, not +unacknowledged by patronizing nods in return, while mothers and fathers +looked on in triumph. These were the days for the upper classes: the +Church bore them all in her bosom as a tender nursing-mother, and +provided for all their little peccadilloes with even grandmotherly +indulgence, and in return the world was immensely deferential towards +the Church; and it was only now and then some rugged John Baptist, +in raiment of camel's hair, like Savonarola, who dared to speak an +indecorous word of God's truth in the ear of power, and Herod and +Herodias had ever at hand the good old recipe for quieting such +disturbances. John Baptist was beheaded in prison, and then all the +world and all the Scribes and Pharisees applauded; and only a few poor +disciples were found to take up the body and go and tell Jesus. + +The whole piazza around the great Cathedral is at this moment full of +the dashing cavalcade of the ducal court, looking as brilliant in the +evening light as a field of poppy, corn-flower, and scarlet clover +at Sorrento; and there, amid the flutter and rush, the amours and +intrigues, the court scandal, the laughing, the gibing, the glitter, +and dazzle, stands that wonderful Cathedral, that silent witness, that +strange, pure, immaculate mountain of airy, unearthly loveliness,--the +most striking emblem of God's mingled vastness and sweetness that ever +it was given to human heart to devise or hands to execute. If there be +among the many mansions of our Father above, among the houses not made +with hands, aught purer and fairer, it must be the work of those grand +spirits who inspired and presided over the erection of this celestial +miracle of beauty. In the great, vain, wicked city, all alive with the +lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, it seemed +to stand as much apart and alone as if it were in the solemn desolation +of the Campagna, or in one of the wide deserts of Africa,--so little +part or lot did it appear to have in anything earthly, so little to +belong to the struggling, bustling crowd who beneath its white dazzling +pinnacles seemed dwarfed into crawling insects. They who could look up +from the dizzy, frivolous life below saw far, far above them, in the +blue Italian air, thousands of glorified saints standing on a thousand +airy points of brilliant whiteness, ever solemnly adoring. The marble +which below was somewhat touched and soiled with the dust of the street +seemed gradually to refine and brighten as it rose into the pure regions +of the air, till at last in those thousand distant pinnacles it had the +ethereal translucence of wintry frost-work, and now began to glow with +the violet and rose hues of evening, in solemn splendor. + +The ducal cortege sweeps by; but we have mounted the dizzy, dark +staircase that leads to the roof, where, amid the bustling life of the +city, there is a promenade of still and wondrous solitude. One seems to +have ascended in those few moments far beyond the tumult and dust of +earthly things, to the silence, the clearness, the tranquillity of +ethereal regions. The noise of the rushing tides of life below rises +only in a soft and distant murmur; while around, in the wide, clear +distance, is spread a prospect which has not on earth its like or its +equal. The beautiful plains of Lombardy lie beneath like a map, and the +northern horizon-line is glittering with the entire sweep of the Alps, +like a solemn senate of archangels with diamond mail and glittering +crowns. Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa with his countenance of light, the +Jungfrau and all the weird brothers of the Oberland, rise one after +another to the delighted gaze, and the range of the Tyrol melts far off +into the blue of the sky. On another side, the Apennines, with their +picturesque outlines and cloud-spotted sides, complete the inclosure. +All around, wherever the eye turns, is the unbroken phalanx of +mountains; and this temple, with its thousand saintly statues standing +in attitudes of ecstasy and prayer, seems like a worthy altar and shrine +for the beautiful plain which the mountains inclose: it seems to give +all Northern Italy to God. + +The effect of the statues in this high, pure air, in this solemn, +glorious scenery, is peculiar. They seem a meet companionship for these +exalted regions. They seem to stand exultant on their spires, poised +lightly as ethereal creatures, the fit inhabitants of the pure blue sky. +One feels that they have done with earth; one can fancy them a band of +white-robed kings and priests forever ministering in that great temple +of which the Alps and the Apennines are the walls and the Cathedral the +heart and centre. Never were Art and Nature so majestically married by +Religion in so worthy a temple. + +One form could be discerned standing in rapt attention, gazing from a +platform on the roof upon the far-distant scene. He was enveloped in +the white coarse woollen gown of the Dominican monks, and seemed wholly +absorbed in meditating on the scene before him, which appeared to move +him deeply; for, raising his hands, he repeated aloud from the Latin +Vulgate the words of an Apostle:-- + +"Accessistis ad Sion montem et civitatem Dei viventis, Ierusalem +caelestem, et multorum millinm angelorum frequentiam, ecclesiam +primitivorum, qui inscripti sunt in caelis."[A] + +[Footnote A: "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the +living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of +angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are +written in heaven."] + +At this moment the evening worship commenced within the Cathedral, and +the whole building seemed to vibrate with the rising swell of the great +organ, while the grave, long-drawn tones of the Ambrosian Liturgy rose +surging in waves and dying away in distant murmurs, like the rolling +of the tide on some ocean-shore. The monk turned and drew near to the +central part of the roof to listen, and as he turned he disclosed the +well-known features of Father Antonio. + +Haggard, weary, and travel-worn, his first impulse, on entering the +city, was to fly to this holy solitude, as the wandering sparrow of +sacred song sought her nest amid the altars of God's temple. Artist no +less than monk, he found in this wondrous shrine of beauty a repose +both for his artistic and his religious nature; and while waiting for +Agostino Sarelli to find his uncle's residence, he had determined to +pass the interval in this holy solitude. Many hours had he paced alone +up and down the long promenades of white marble which run everywhere +between forests of dazzling pinnacles and flying-buttresses of airy +lightness. Now he rested in fixed attention against the wall above the +choir, which he could feel pulsating with throbs of sacred sound, as if +a great warm heart were beating within the fair marble miracle, warming +it into mysterious life and sympathy. + +"I would now that boy were here to worship with me," he said. "No wonder +the child's faith fainteth: it takes such monuments as these of the +Church's former days to strengthen one's hopes. Ah, woe unto those by +whom such offence cometh!" + +At this moment the form of Agostino was seen ascending the marble +staircase. + +The eye of the monk brightened as he came towards him. He put out +one hand eagerly to take his, and raised the other with a gesture of +silence. + +"Look," he said, "and listen! Is it not the sound of many waters and +mighty thunderings?" + +Agostino stood subdued for the moment by the magnificent sights and +sounds; for, as the sun went down, the distant mountains grew every +moment more unearthly in their brilliancy,--and as they lay in a long +line, jewelled brightness mingling with the cloud-wreaths of the far +horizon, one might have imagined that he in truth beheld the foundations +of that celestial city of jasper, pearl, and translucent gold which the +Apostle saw, and that the risings and fallings of choral sound which +seemed to thrill and pulsate through the marble battlements were indeed +that song like many waters sung by the Church Triumphant above. + +For a few moments the monk and the young man stood in silence, till at +length the monk spoke. + +"You have told me, my son, that your heart often troubles you in being +more Roman than Christian; that you sometimes doubt whether the Church +on earth be other than a fiction or a fable. But look around us. Who +are these, this great multitude who praise and pray continually in this +temple of the upper air? These are they who have come out of great +tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood +of the Lamb. These are not the men that have sacked cities, and made +deserts, and written their triumphs in blood and carnage. These be men +that have sheltered the poor, and built houses for orphans, and sold +themselves into slavery to redeem their brothers in Christ. These be +pure women who have lodged saints, brought up children, lived holy and +prayerful lives. These be martyrs who have laid down their lives for the +testimony of Jesus. There were no such churches in old Rome,--no such +saints." + +"Well," said Agostino, "one thing is certain. If such be the True +Church, the Pope and the Cardinals of our day have no part in it; for +they are the men who sack cities and make desolations, who devour +widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. Let us see one of +_them_ selling himself into slavery for the love of anybody, while they +seek to keep all the world in slavery to themselves!" + +"That is the grievous declension our master weeps over," said the monk. +"Ah, if the Bishops of the Church now were like brave old Saint +Ambrose, strong alone by faith and prayer, showing no more favor to an +unrepentant Emperor than to the meanest slave, then would the Church be +a reality and a glory! Such is my master. Never is he afraid of the face +of king or lord, when he has God's truth to speak. You should have heard +how plainly he dealt with our Lorenzo de' Medici on his death-bed,--how +he refused him absolution, unless he would make restitution to the poor +and restore the liberties of Florence." + +"I should have thought," said the young man, sarcastically, "that +Lorenzo the Magnificent might have got absolution cheaper than that. +Where were all the bishops in his dominion, that he must needs send for +Jerome Savonarola?" + +"Son, it is ever so," replied the monk. "If there be a man that cares +neither for Duke nor Emperor, but for God alone, then Dukes and Emperors +would give more for his good word than for a whole dozen of common +priests." + +"I suppose it is something like a rare manuscript or a singular gem: +these _virtuosi_ have no rest till they have clutched it. The thing they +cannot get is always the thing they want." + +"Lorenzo was always seeking our master," said the monk. "Often would he +come walking in our gardens, expecting surely he would hasten down to +meet him; and the brothers would run all out of breath to his cell to +say, 'Father, Lorenzo is in the garden.' 'He is welcome,' would he +answer, with his pleasant smile. 'But, father, will you not descend +to meet him?' 'Hath he asked for me?' 'No.' 'Well, then, let us not +interrupt his meditations,' he would answer, and remain still at his +reading, so jealous was he lest he should seek the favor of princes and +forget God, as does all the world in our day." + +"And because he does not seek the favor of the men of this world he will +be trampled down and slain. Will the God in whom he trusts defend him?" + +The monk pointed expressively upward to the statues that stood glorified +above them, still wearing a rosy radiance, though the shadows of +twilight had fallen on all the city below. + +"My son," he said, "the victories of the True Church are not in time, +but in eternity. How many around us were conquered on earth that they +might triumph in heaven! What saith the Apostle? 'They were +tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better +resurrection.'" + +"But, alas!" said Agostino, "are we never to see the right triumph here? +I fear that this noble name is written in blood, like so many of whom +the world is not worthy. Can one do nothing to help it?" + +"How is that? What have you heard?" said the monk, eagerly. "Have you +seen your uncle?" + +"Not yet; he is gone into the country for a day,--so say his servants. I +saw, when the Duke's court passed, my cousin, who is in his train, and +got a moment's speech with him; and he promised, that, if I would wait +for him here, he would come to me as soon as he could be let off from +his attendance. When he comes, it were best that we confer alone." + +"I will retire to the southern side," said the monk, "and await the end +of your conference": and with that he crossed the platform on which they +were standing, and, going down a flight of white marble steps, was soon +lost to view amid the wilderness of frost-like carved work. + +He had scarcely vanished, before footsteps were heard ascending the +marble staircase on the other side, and the sound of a voice humming a +popular air of the court. + +The stranger was a young man of about five-and-twenty, habited with all +that richness and brilliancy of coloring which the fashion of the day +permitted to a young exquisite. His mantle of purple velvet falling +jauntily off from one shoulder disclosed a doublet of amber satin richly +embroidered with gold and seed-pearl. The long white plume which drooped +from his cap was held in its place by a large diamond which sparkled +like a star in the evening twilight. His finely moulded hands were +loaded with rings, and ruffles of the richest Venetian lace encircled +his wrists. He had worn over all a dark cloak with a peaked hood, the +usual evening disguise in Italy; but as he gained the top-stair of the +platform, he threw it carelessly down and gayly offered his hand. + +"Good even to you, cousin mine! So you see I am as true to my +appointment as if your name were Leonora or Camilla instead of Agostino. +How goes it with you? I wanted to talk with you below, but I saw we must +have a place without listeners. Our friends the saints are too high in +heavenly things to make mischief by eavesdropping." + +"Thank you, Cousin Carlos, for your promptness. And now to the point. +Did your father, my uncle, get the letter I wrote him about a month +since?" + +"He did; and he bade me treat with you about it. It's an abominable +snarl this they have got you into. My father says, your best way is to +come straight to him in France, and abide till things take a better +turn: he is high in favor with the King and can find you a very pretty +place at court, and he takes it upon him in time to reconcile the Pope. +Between you and me, the old Pope has no special spite in the world +against _you_: he merely wants your lands for his son, and as long +as you prowl round and lay claim to them, why, you must stay +excommunicated; but just clear the coast and leave them peaceably and +he will put you back into the True Church, and my father will charge +himself with your success. Popes don't last forever, or there may come +another falling out with the King of France, and either way there will +be a chance of your being one day put back into your rights; meanwhile, +a young fellow might do worse than have a good place in our court." + +During this long monologue, which the young speaker uttered with all the +flippant self-sufficiency of worldly people with whom the world is going +well, the face of the young nobleman who listened presented a picture of +many strong contending emotions. + +"You speak," he said, "as if man had nothing to do in this world but +seek his own ease and pleasure. What lies nearest my heart is not that +I am plundered of my estates, and my house uprooted, but it is that my +beautiful Rome, the city of my fathers, is a prisoner under the heel of +the tyrant. It is that the glorious religion of Christ, the holy faith +in which my mother died, the faith made venerable by all these saints +around us, is made the tool and instrument of such vileness and cruelty +that one is tempted to doubt whether it were not better to have been +born of heathen in the good old times of the Roman Republic,--God +forgive me for saying so! Does the Most Christian King of France know +that the man who pretends to rule in the name of Christ is not a +believer in the Christian religion,--that he does not believe even in a +God,--that he obtained the holy seat by simony,--that he uses all its +power to enrich a brood of children whose lives are so indecent that it +is a shame to modest lips even to _say_ what they do?" + +"Why, of course," said the other, "the King of France is pretty well +informed about all these things. You know old King Charles, when he +marched through Italy, had more than half a mind, they say, to pull the +old Pope out of his place; and he might have done it easily. My father +was in his train at that time, and he says the Pope was frightened +enough. Somehow they made it all up among them, and settled about their +territories, which is the main thing, after all; and now our new King, I +fancy, does not like to meddle with him: between you and me, he has his +eye in another direction here. This gay city would suit him admirably, +and he fancies he can govern it as well as it is governed now. My father +does not visit here with his eyes shut, _I_ can tell you. But as to the +Pope----Well, you see such things are delicate to handle. After all, +my dear Agostino, we are not priests,--our business is with this world; +and, no matter how they came by them, these fellows have the keys of the +kingdom of heaven, and one cannot afford to quarrel with them,--we must +have the ordinances, you know, or what becomes of our souls? Do you +suppose, now, that I should live as gay and easy a life as I do, if I +thought there were any doubt of my salvation? It's a mercy to us sinners +that the ordinances are not vitiated by the sins of the priests; it +would go hard with us, if they were: as it is, if they will live +scandalous lives, it is their affair, not ours." + +"And is it nothing," replied the other, "to a true man who has taken the +holy vows of knighthood on him, whether his Lord's religion be defamed +and dishonored and made a scandal and a scoffing? Did not all Europe go +out to save Christ's holy sepulchre from being dishonored by the feet of +the Infidel? and shall we let infidels have the very house of the Lord, +and reign supreme in His holy dwelling-place? There has risen a holy +prophet in Italy, the greatest since the time of Saint Francis, and his +preaching hath stirred all hearts to live more conformably with our +holy faith; and now for his pure life and good works he is under +excommunication of the Pope, and they have seized and imprisoned him, +and threaten his life." + +"Oh, you mean Savonarola," said the other. "Yes, we have heard of +him,--a most imprudent, impracticable fellow, who will not take advice +nor be guided. My father, I believe, thought well of him once, and +deemed that in the distracted state of Italy he might prove serviceable +in forwarding some of his plans: but he is wholly wrapt up in his own +notions; he heeds no will but his own." + +"Have you heard anything," said Agostino, "of a letter which he wrote to +the King of France lately, stirring him up to call a General Council of +the Christian Church to consider what is to be done about the scandals +at Rome?" + +"Then he has written one, has he?" replied the young man; "then the +story that I have heard whispered about here must be true. A man who +certainly is in a condition to know told me day before yesterday that +the Duke had arrested a courier with some such letter, and sent it on to +the Pope: it is likely, for the Duke hates Savonarola. If that be true, +it will go hard with him yet; for the Pope has a long arm for an enemy." + +"And so," said Agostino, with an expression of deep concern, "that +letter, from which the good man hoped so much, and which was so +powerful, will only go to increase his danger!" + +"The more fool he!--he might have known that it was of no use. Who was +going to take his part against the Pope?" + +"The city of Florence has stood by him until lately," said +Agostino,--"and would again, with a little help." + +"Oh, no! never think it, my dear Agostino! Depend upon it, it will end +as such things always do, and the man is only a madman that undertakes +it. Hark ye, cousin, what have _you_ to do with this man? Why do you +attach yourself to the side that is _sure_ to lose? I cannot conceive +what you would be at. This is no way to mend your fortunes. Come +to-night to my father's palace: the Duke has appointed us princely +lodgings, and treats us with great hospitality, and my father has plans +for your advantage. Between us, there is a fair young ward of his, of +large estates and noble blood, whom he designs for you. So you see, if +you turn your attention in this channel, there may come a reinforcement +of the family property, which will enable you to hold out until the Pope +dies, or some prince or other gets into a quarrel with him, which is +always happening, and then a move may be made for you. My father, I'll +promise you, is shrewd enough, and always keeps his eye open to see +where there is a joint in the harness, and have a trusty dagger-blade +all whetted to stick under. Of course, he means to see you righted; he +has the family interest at heart, and feels as indignant as you could at +the rascality which has been perpetrated; but I am quite sure he will +tell you that the way is not to come out openly against the Pope and +join this fanatical party." + +Agostino stood silent, with the melancholy air of a man who has much to +say, and is deeply moved by considerations which he perceives it would +be utterly idle and useless to attempt to explain. If the easy theology +of his friend were indeed true,--if the treasures of the heavenly +kingdom, glory, honor, and immortality, could indeed be placed in unholy +hands to be bought and sold and traded in,--if holiness of heart +and life, and all those nobler modes of living and being which were +witnessed in the histories of the thousand saints around him, were +indeed but a secondary thing in the strife for worldly place and +territory,--what, then, remained for the man of ideas, of aspirations? +In such a state of society, his track must be like that of the dove in +sacred history who found no rest for the sole of her foot. + +Agostino folded his arms and sighed deeply, and then made answer +mechanically, as one whose thoughts are afar off. + +"Present my duty," he said, "to my uncle, your father, and say to him +that I will wait on him to-night." + +"Even so," said the young man, picking up his cloak and folding it about +him. "And now, you know, I must go. Don't be discouraged; keep up a good +heart; you shall see what it is to have powerful friends to stand by +you; all will be right yet. Come, will you go with me now?" + +"Thank you," said Agostino, "I think I would be alone a little while. My +head is confused, and I would fain think over matters a little quietly." + +"Well, _au revoir_, then. I must leave you to the company of the saints. +But be sure and come early." + +So saying, he threw his cloak over his shoulder and sauntered carelessly +down the marble steps, humming again the gay air with which he had +ascended. + +Left alone, Agostino once more cast a glance on the strangely solemn +and impressive scene around him. He was standing on a platform of the +central tower which overlooked the whole building. The round, full moon +had now risen in the horizon, displacing by her solemn brightness +the glow of twilight; and her beams were reflected by the delicate +frost-work of the myriad pinnacles which rose in a bewildering maze +at his feet. It might seem to be some strange enchanted garden of +fairy-land, where a luxuriant and freakish growth of Nature had been +suddenly arrested and frozen into eternal stillness. Around in the +shadows at the foot of the Cathedral the lights of the great gay city +twinkled and danced and veered and fluttered like fire-flies in the +damp, dewy shadows of some moist meadow in summer. The sound of +clattering hoofs and rumbling wheels, of tinkling guitars and gay +roundelays, rose out of that obscure distance, seeming far off and +plaintive like the dream of a life that is past. The great church seemed +a vast world; the long aisles of statued pinnacles with their pure +floorings of white marble appeared as if they might be the corridors of +heaven; and it seemed as if the crowned and sceptred saints in their +white marriage-garments might come down and walk there, without ever a +spot of earth on their unsullied whiteness. + +In a few moments Father Antonio had glided back to the side of the young +man, whom he found so lost in reverie that not till he laid his hand +upon his arm did he awaken from his meditations. + +"Ah!" he said, with a start, "my father, is it you?" + +"Yes, my son. What of your conference? Have you learned anything?" + +"Father, I have learned far more than I wished to know." + +"What is it, my son? Speak it at once." + +"Well, then, I fear that the letter of our holy father to the King of +France has been intercepted here in Milan, and sent to the Pope." + +"What makes you think so?" said the monk, with an eagerness that showed +how much he felt the intelligence. + +"My cousin tells me that a person of consideration in the Duke's +household, who is supposed to be in a position to know, told him that it +was so." + +Agostino felt the light grasp which the monk had laid upon his arm +gradually closing with a convulsive pressure, and that he was trembling +with intense feeling. + +"Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight!" he said, after a +few moments of silence. + +"It is discouraging," said Agostino, "to see how little these princes +care for the true interests of religion and the service of God,--how +little real fealty there is to our Lord Jesus." + +"Yes," said the monk, "all seek their own, and not the things that are +Christ's. It is well written, 'Put not your trust in princes.'" + +"And what prospect, what hope do you see for him?" said Agostino. "Will +Florence stand firm?" + +"I could have thought so once," said the monk,--"in those days when I +have seen counsellors and nobles and women of the highest degree all +humbly craving to hear the word of God from his lips, and seeming to +seek nothing so much as to purify their houses, their hands, and their +hearts, that they might be worthy citizens of that commonwealth which +has chosen the Lord Jesus for its gonfalonier. I have seen the very +children thronging to kiss the hem of his robe, as he walked through the +streets; but, oh, my friend, did not Jerusalem bring palms and spread +its garments in the way of Christ only four days before he was +crucified?" + +The monk's voice here faltered. He turned away and seemed to wrestle +with a tempest of suppressed sobbing. A moment more, he looked +heavenward and pointed up with a smile. + +"Son," he said, "you ask _what hope there is_. I answer, There is hope +of such crowns as these wear who came out of great tribulation and now +reign with Christ in glory." + + + + +OUR ARTISTS IN ITALY. + + +LANDSCAPE ART. + + +A representation of Nature, in order to be a true landscape, must be +organic. It must not present itself as an aggregation, but as a growth. +It must manifest obedience to laws which are peculiarly its own, and +through the operation of which it has developed from the moment of +inception to that of maturity. And, moreover, that inception must have +been near a human heart, that development must have been nourished by +vitality derived from human life, and that maturity must be that of the +divine unity to which tend all the mysterious operations of organizing +energies. + +We hold this to be the first essential condition of Landscape Art, the +condition without which no rendering of Nature can be Art. Other +points of excellence may be unattained. Let this be evident, that the +production is an offspring of humanity, and it shall be perceived also +that it partakes of whatever immortality the human heart inherits. +Herein is concealed the whole secret of the value of pre-Raphaelite Art, +and not, as we have been assured, in the faithfulness of its followers +to the exact representation of the individual details of Nature. Each +wrought from the love of Nature, consciously giving what truth he +possessed, unconsciously giving of his own interior life. Each picture +was the child of the painter. Yet, however much the ancient artist may +have failed in rendering the specific truths of the external world, +we can never attribute his failure to any disregard for the true. +His picture never gives the impression of falsehood; and in the most +erroneous record of the external there is ever the promise of more +truth, and this promise is not that of the man, but of the principle +governing the character of his picture. + +We think that all works of Art may be divided into two distinct classes: +those which are the result of a man's whole nature, involving the +affectional, religious, and intellectual, and those which are the +productions of the intellect, and from the will. The first class +comprises those results of Art which are vital,--which come to +us through processes of growth, and impress us with a sense +of organization. The second includes those works which are +constructed,--which present an accumulation of objects mechanically +combined, parts skilfully joined through scientific means. + +Earnestness and the definite purpose which is its sign, love which drew +the soul into sweetest communion with our mother Nature, giving to him +who thus came revelations of the harmonies possible between her and her +children, and devotion to his art mightier than ever inspired the Hindoo +devotee in self-sacrifice, characterized those who have given all that +pure Art which has been alluded to as the true: and such were the +majority of those artists who preceded Raphael. + +True, all of those who were devoted to Landscape Art, or who made it a +part of their practice to introduce this element into their pictures, +often failed in attaining truth; but, by some strange power with +which they have invested their landscapes, an impulse is given to the +perception, and the essential truth, feebly hinted at, perhaps, is +recognized. But as the record comes down through the years, each +new picture approximates more nearly to the character of the scene +attempted, with, occasionally, (as in the works of Masaccio,) touches of +truth absolutely perfect, until at last appeared that man altogether at +one with Nature, who reproduced Nature in all its glory, pomp, freedom, +and life, as might an archangel. Titian brought to perfection the first +great class of Landscape Art, and, of course, in doing so, perfected +that department which was the only one as yet developed, and which +remains a distinct branch, subject to its own peculiar laws. We refer to +the rendering of natural scenery, beginning in the merely and completely +subordinate accessory, and ending, with Titian, in the perfectly +dignified and noble companionship of the visible universe with man. + +We speak of this Art perfected far back, because we feel assured that +landscape, as accessory to the historical, has an ideal altogether +distinct from that of pure landscape. + +It would not be just, perhaps, to regard the law which necessitates this +ideal as a law of subordination, although that condition prevails up to +the time of Titian. Nature, to the true man, never presents itself as +subordinate, but as correspondently ever equal with man, ever ready with +possibilities to match his own. So true is this, that a man's universe, +that of which his vision takes possession, is a part of himself, subject +to his sorrows and joys, his hope and his despair: to him, the violets, +the mountains, and the far-away worlds, throbbing in unison with his own +heart-beat, are in some wise the signs or the manifestations of his own +soul's possibilities. And he is right. That of the flower which is its +beauty, that of the mountains which is their magnificent grandeur, that +of the stars which is their ineffable glory and sublimity, is his, is +within him, is a part of his soul's life, waxing or waning so in unison +with its richness or poverty that wise men mark the soul's stature by +the part of it which is akin to the violets, the hills, or the infinite +sky. + +"The world is as large as a man's head." In that there is a fine hint +of a great truth, but beyond that is _the_ truth. It is not the mere +knowledge of Alcyone that necessitates the sublime. After that comes the +wonder. The world is as large as is a man, and its relation to him +is marked by a sympathy which acts and reacts with the certainty and +precision of law. + +The ideal of Landscape Art, used in alliance with representations of +the human figure, must, then, be founded upon this immutable sympathy +between the landscape world and the human. Thus, in the painting alluded +to in the article on Mr. Page, "The Entombment" of the Louvre, the +landscape is charged with the solemnity of the hour. No blade of grass +or shadow of leaf but seems conscious of the great event, and the sky +reveals, by its heavenly tenderness, that there all is known. + +How different in expression, yet how similar in strength, is the +landscape of that seeming miracle, "The Presentation in the Temple"! +It is clear, confident day,--so pure and perfect a day abroad over the +happy earth, that all things lure forth into an atmosphere so unsullied +that to breathe it is life and joy,--over an earth youthful with spring, +fresh with morning; and hither have come the people to see confirmed the +future mother of Christ, now the child Mary. As the maiden ascends the +steps of the Temple, a halo surrounds her,--not her head alone, but all +the form,--and far away a fainter halo rests upon the hills. Her youth, +its purity and half-recognized promise, seem sweetly imaged in the +morning freshness and spring-life of the landscape. + +We can remember no landscape by Titian which is not in full sympathy +with the motives which actuate his groups. It is the unison of scene and +act that gives his pictures a unity and completeness never or rarely +found elsewhere. + +After Titian came painters--among them, mighty ones--who, like +Tintoretto, wrought from the external. The elements of the landscape +were treated with knowledge and power, but not often with feeling, and +very seldom with a recognition of its central significance. One example +is so marvellous, however, that we cannot forbear referring to it. Its +truthfulness is the more remarkable from the fact that the painter's +conceptions rarely were such that any true landscape could be found +capable of harmony with their character. In this picture, "The +Temptation of Saint Anthony," one of the Pitti Palace Gallery, Salvator +has wrought marvellously like a demon. The horizon and the sky near it +are charged with a sense of demoniacal conflict for human souls, and +forebodings of defeat and woe. + +Yet within this, mantling the remotest depths, there is a sheen of +light, a gleam of hope and faith. + +In our own times there is little to refer to illustrative of excellence +in this branch of Art. Overbeck makes frequent use of natural scenery, +and his delicate yet firm outlines repeat, hill and valley and clouds, +the sentiment of peace and purity which pervades his noble productions. + +Not that there are not produced frequently, and especially in France, +works remarkable for truth and power. But, too often, the truths are +redundant, and the power vanquishes the sentiments of the group. + +One artist in France, Rosa Bonheur, has, however, embodied conceptions +so noble, so in unison with the finest Nature, that its most glorious +and most significant scenery, rendered with a handling akin to the old +mastership, is alone adequate to sympathize with and sustain them. I +need but refer to the wonderful view of the Pyrenees in the picture of +"The Muleteers," the tender morning spirit of that heathery scene in the +Highlands, and that miracle of representation, the near ground, crisp +and frosty, of Mr. Belmont's "Hunters in Early Morning." + +American Art, as represented in Italy, has few examples of excellence in +this branch of painting. Its followers have wrought more persistently +in other directions, toward the expression of a class of ideals rarely +involving the one which we have attempted to analyze. Yet, occasionally, +an artist has appeared, making Rome or Florence his home long enough to +win a place, which, when he has departed, is not quickly filled, who has +ideas of history and events calling for the record of the palette; +or there has been wrought in the studio of some resident painter a +composition in which landscape has been employed as accessory. + +In many instances there have been produced works which reflect the +highest honor upon our country. As it is foreign to the purpose of +the present paper to deal with other than the different phases of +landscape-painting, we forbear to speak as their merits suggest of the +figure portions of the works of Mr. Rothermel, the result of his brief +sojourn in Italy. In any passage of scenery, and particularly in sky +forms and tones, the expression and character are always such as +support vigorously the action of his group. We say vigorously; for Mr. +Rothermel, in his Italian pictures, revealed an artistic nature related +to humanity in its most agitated moods, as in the "Lear," and in the +"Saint Agnese,"--this beautiful picture being, however, a higher +conception, inasmuch as in it the spirit might find some rest in the +stillness of the maiden Agnese, already saint and about to be martyr, +and in the deep blue sky, on whose field linger white clouds, like lambs +"shepherded by the slow unwilling winds." + +Brief mention was made, in our allusion to Mr. Page's picture of the +"Flight into Egypt," to its landscape. This work was executed in Rome, +and its peculiar tone excited much interest among the friends of Mr. +Field, its fortunate possessor. A beautiful, yet not altogether original +idea, finds expression in the foreground group, where Mary, poised upon +the back of the ass, folds the child in her arms, the animal snatches at +a wayside weed, Joseph, drawing tightly the long rope by which he +leads, bends away into the desert with weird energy. In all other +representations of this subject the accessory landscape has usually been +living with full-foliaged trees, abundant herbage, and copious streams. +To indicate the Egyptian phase of its character, palms have been +introduced, as in the beautiful picture by Claude in the Doria Gallery, +and almost invariably the scene has been one of luxury and peace. +But with the event itself all this conflicts. In it were sorrow and +apprehension and death. The fugitives saw not then the safety, nor +anticipated the victory. In this picture, beyond and before the hurrying +group, stretches the immeasurable, hungry sand. A sad golden-brown +haze--such as sometimes comes in our Indian summer, when the hectic +autumn rests silent, mournful and hopeless, in the arms of Nature-- +pervades the plain; while on the horizon far away,--an infinite distance +it seems, so strangely spectral are they,--rise the Pyramids, just those +awful ghosts against the ominous sky! + +As different as are the subjects he chooses are the bits of scenery +Hamilton Wild introduces in his pictures of life as it now is. His are +more truly historical paintings, although aspiring to no record of the +greatly bad and sorrowful transactions of our age. They represent the +joy and hope of youth, the cheerfulness and vivacity of the lowly, their +pleasantest pursuits, their most primitive customs, their characteristic +and often superb costumes; and wherever a passage of scenery occurs, it +is always that which has aided in developing the human life with which +it is associated. + +There is never a discrepancy, nor is unison of sentiment ever achieved +by any bending of the truth. His keen sense of harmony never fails to +perceive, in the infinite range of tones and expressions of Nature, just +that which better than all others supports the character and action of +his group. With motives so healthful, it may be less difficult to find +that sympathy which Nature cheerfully gives; yet there is a tendency +with artists to be enticed away from Nature's joyousness, and especially +from her simplicity. + +To this temptation Mr. Wild can never have been subjected. The freedom +which he manifests is not that which has been won, but into which he +must have been born, and with that grew the ability which transfigures +labor into play. Unto such a Nature the out-world presents unasked her +phases of joy and brightness, her light and life. + +Does he seek Nature? No. Nature goes with him; and whether he tarry +among the Lagoons, where all seems Art or Death, or in the shadow and +desolation of the Campagna, in the unclean villages of the Alban Hills, +or where the shadows of deserted palaces fall black, broken, and jagged +on the red earth of Granada, there she companions him. She shows him, +that, after all, Venice is hers, and gives him the white marble enriched +with subtilest films of gold, alabaster which the processes of her +incessant years have changed to Oriental amber, a city made opalescent +by the magic of her sunsets. At Rome she opens vistas away from the +sepulchral, out into the wine-colored light of the Campagna, into +the peace gladdened by larks and the bleating of lambs; above are +pines,--Italian pines,--and across the path falls the still shadow of +blooming oleanders. She leads away from squalid towns, and gathers a +group of her children,--peasants, costumed in scarlet and gold, under +the grape-laden festoons of vines, while the now distant village glows +like cliffs of Carrara. How lavish she must have been of her old ideal +Spain, the while he dwelt in Granada!--the dance of the gypsies; +pomegranates heavy with ripeness hanging among the quivering glossy +leaves; olives gleaming with soft ashy whiteness, as the south-wind +wanders across their grove up to where the towers of the Alhambra lift +golden and pale lilac against the clear sky. + +We have dwelt thus lengthily upon this primitive and apparently less +important branch of Landscape Art for several reasons: from a conviction +that its importance is, and is only apparently less; from the fact that +from it have been derived all other classes of landscape; and because a +comprehension of its scope and purpose aids more than any other agency +in understanding those of the pure and simple Landscape Art. + +We have seen Nature ever ready with moods so related to the soul that +no ideal worthy of Art might be conceived beyond the range of her +sympathies. Even to that event involving all the intensity of human +thought and feeling, the last refinement of all spiritual emotion, and +a sense of mysteries more sublime than the creation of worlds,--even to +the Crucifixion,--Nature gathered herself, as the only possible +sign, the only expression for men, then and forever, of the awful +significance. The joyfulness of festivals, the pomp of processions, +the sublimity of great martyrdoms, the sorrow of defeats, the peace of +holiness, the innocence and sweetness of childhood, the hope of manhood, +and the retrospection of old age, when represented upon the canvas, find +in her forms and colors endless refrain of response. + +This truth, that Nature is capable of such cooperation with the human, +that she confines herself to no country or continent, and that her +expressions are not relative, depending upon the suggestiveness of the +human action to which they correspond, but are positive and under the +rule of the immutable, enables the artist to evolve the first great +class of simple landscape-painting. + +Had Art always been real and artists ever true, this consideration must +have called forth this class. It being true that natural scenery readily +allies itself with representations of the human figure in order to +express more perfectly than otherwise possible the ideal, it must be +through affinity with that which evolves the ideal, and only by indirect +relation to its sign or visible manifestation in form-language. Then why +not found a school of landscape by discarding the human figure as an +element of expression? A man comes who is born to the easel, yet who +feels no impulse to represent the practical effect upon human faces and +limbs of the various emotions, passions, and sentiments which demand +utterance. His thought is to hold himself to his kindred by more subtile +and far more delicate bonds. He knows that any one can look upon the +"Huguenot Lovers," by Millais, and feel responsive; for it occupies a +great plane, a part of which may be mistaken for passion. But he feels +that the love of Thekla and Max Piccolomini will permit no effigy but +that sacred bank beyond the cliffs of Libussa's Castle, whither come no +footsteps nor jarring of wheels, but only the sound of the deep Moldau +and of remote bells. It is the essence of the ideal which compels his +imagination, not the limited and restless circumstance which chanced +to occur as its revelator. Then the day uprises as if conscious of his +inner life and purpose. Then she gives him breadth after breadth of +color, within which is traced her no longer mystic alphabet. How +significant are the forms she gives him for the foreground, sweet +monosyllables! There are pansies, and rue, and violets, and rosemary. +Among these and their companions children walk and learn, and to the +child-man, the artist to be, she proffers these emblems. Should he +accept her gifts, then all this wonderful world of Art-Nature is open to +him. He inherits, possesses beyond all deeds, above all statutes,--as +does Mr. Gay, who painted that great, though unassuming, picture of "The +Marshes of Cohasset." + +Because Art was not held to the highest, few men have known the +elevation of this department of landscape-painting. Too deep or too +devoted a life seems to have been required, too constant communion with +Nature, or too broad a study of her phenomena. Unfortunately, we have +few representatives of this class, in Italy,--Mr. Wild producing +only rarely works which to the principles hinted at are precious +illustrations. After the remarks we have made, we fear that allusion to +the existing facts of painting may be deemed disparaging. Not so; we +deprecate such a conclusion. One great and living picture marks the man. +To be true to himself and Nature is the first duty, even should he be +compelled to stand lifelong with his face towards the west, in order to +possess his soul in Art. + +One of the pleasantest styles of landscape painting is that where the +artist, in a mood of deep peace, sits down in the midst of scenes +endeared by long and sweet association, and records in all tenderness +their spirit and beauty. Such scenery Italy affords, and the Alban +Hills seem to be the centre whence radiate all phases of the lovely and +beautiful in Nature. There her forms have conspired with all the highest +and rarest phenomena of light to render her state unapproachably +glorious. + +There has also been given such an artist,--a woman altogether truthful, +strong, and nobly delicate; and although several years have passed since +she left Italy, her representations of scenery peculiarly Italian are +too remarkable to be passed unnoticed. Indeed, this lady, Miss Sarah +Jane Clark, is the only artist whose works are illustrative of a +style of simple Landscape Art which unites in itself the love and +conscientiousness of early Art and the precision and science of the +modern. Her picture of Albano is wonderful,--not from the rendering of +unusual or brilliant effects, but from a sense of genuineness. We feel +that it grew. The flower and leaf forms which enrich the near ground are +such as spring up on days like the one she has chosen. Another month, +and new combinations would have given another key to her work and +rendered the present impossible. In that real landscape had wrought +the secret vitality clothing the earth in leafage and bloom. In its +representation we see that a still more refined, a diviner vitality, has +evolved leaf, flower, and golden grain. Another fact associated with +this painting, as well as with some of its companions, is its character +of restraint. + +Temperance in Landscape Art is very difficult in the vicinity of +Rome. In this picture the scene sweeps downward, with most gentle +and undulating inclination, over vast groves of olive and luxuriant +vineyards, to the Campagna with its convex waves of green and gold, on +which float the wrecks of cities, out to the sea itself, not so far away +as to conceal the flashing of waves upon the beach. Daily, over this +groundwork, so deftly wrought for their reception, are cast fields and +mighty bands of violet and rose, of amber and pale topaz, of blue, +orange, and garnet, upon the sea. It is as if an aurora had fallen from +Arctic skies, living, changeful, evanescent, athwart sea, plain, and +mountain. Here is sore temptation for the colorist; more, perhaps, +than by the wealth and combination of tints, he is affected by their +celestial quality. All is prismatic, or like those hues produced by the +interference of rays of light as seen in the colors of stars. Gorgeous +as are these phenomena, they are also as transitory; and although the +scene is repeated, it is with such subtile and such great changes as to +remove it from the grasp of the painter who wishes to study his work +wholly from Nature. The eye must be quick and the brush obedient, to +catch the fleeting glories of those Alban sunsets. Even the imperial +hand of Turner could give us only reminiscences. + +The allurements to adopt a style of coloring involving these effects +must have been great to one whose love of color amounted to a passion. +Only a still greater love could have drawn her of whom we speak to the +more subdued, but higher plane upon which she stands,--and that must +have been a love of truth, and of that which has appealed to her nature +through repetition's sweet influences. This is the scene lying in deep +repose in open, permanent day. Trees, hills, plain, and sea forget the +flying hours. Yesterday they did not remember, serene and changeless as +ivy on the wall. So gradual has been the transition, so slowly has the +surface of the grain lifted from the rippling blade to the billowy +stalk, so continually have the scarlet poppies bloomed since May came, +that, to her, this is ever the same beneficent and dear spot, sacred to +her soul, as well as fitting type and sign of her pure Art. + +The class of landscape-painting which deals with morning and evening +phenomena, and is based upon the fleeting and transitory, is the only +one that finds representation at present in Italy. Mr. Brown has +developed new and peculiar strength since his return to America, and +must require place from his new stand-point. Abel Nichols, whose copies +of Claude were so truthful, and whose original pictures ever strove to +be so, who through surpassing sacrifice became great, who lived, if ever +man has, the wonderful Christ-life, now sleeps the sleep of peace, the +last peace, under the sod of the landscape of his nativity. + +There remains to be considered a series of undeniably remarkable +pictures, executed in Rome by John Rollin Tilton. + +This artist's landscapes are remarkable for the conflicting effects +which they have produced on the public. They have excited, as they have +been exhibited in his studio in Rome, great enthusiasm, and admiration +which would listen to no criticism. Until perhaps the present year, +which is one of prostration in Rome, his works could not be purchased, +each one being the fulfilment of a commission given long before. These +commissions were given not by men merely wealthy, but by men widely +known for cultivation, discrimination, and for refinement of that taste +which requires the influences of Art. On the other hand, men equally as +remarkable for their accomplishments in matters of taste have expressed +their condemnation of all the paintings of Mr. Tilton, or rather for +those executed prior to 1859, and there were those who heaped them with +ridicule. In admiration and condemnation we have often shared;--in the +sentiment of ridicule never; for in all attempts there have been the +hintings of worthy purpose and a desire to excel. + +Those who most despise Mr. Tilton's style and productions are men whose +tendencies are to the theories of English pre-Raphaelism. Viewed in +relation to those principles, his pictures have little value. The +purchasers of them are the men who regard with enthusiastic admiration +the evanescent splendors of Nature. + +Mr. Tilton's early ambition was to be the painter to fulfil the demands +of this latter class. He not only sympathized with it in its greater +admiration for "effects" in Nature, but he found associated therewith an +enthusiasm which inspired him with unbounded hope and energy. + +When he came to Rome, the Campagnian sunsets were found to be +representative of the peculiar class of effects which he regarded as the +manifestation of his feeling; and so he forthwith took possession of +that part of the day which was passing while the sun performed the last +twelve degrees of his daily journey. Other portions of the twenty-four +hours did not appear to excite even ordinary interest; and whenever +conversation involved consideration of scenery under other than the +favorite character, he was prone to silence, or to attempts to change +the subject. Yet he has been known to speak in terms of commendation +of certain sunrises, and once was actually caught by a friend making a +sketch of Pilatus at sunrise across the Lake of Lucerne. + +The objects in the immediate foreground shared in the neglect which +attached to certain seasons. They were ignored as organized members of +what should be a living foreground, and their places were concealed by +unintelligible pigment. As to life there, he wanted none: light,--light +that gleams, and color to reflect it, were his aim. As an inevitable +attending result of these principles, or practices, the structure of the +whole landscape was ambiguous. The essential line and point were evaded, +and one perceived that the artist had _watched_ far more attentively +than he had studied Nature. + +At the same time the pictures produced in this studio were marked by +qualities of great beauty. The peculiarly ethereal character of the vast +bands of thin vapors made visible by the slant rays of the sun, and +illuminated with tints which are exquisitely pure and prismatic, was +rendered with surprising success. On examination, the tints which were +used to represent the prismatic character of those of Nature were found +to present surfaces of such excessive delicacy, that the evanescence of +the natural phenomena was suggested, and apprehensions were indulged as +to the permanency of the effects. That noble north light of a cloudless +Roman sky did not extend far, hardly to Civita Vecchia, certainly not +to England, Old or New; and with a less friendly hand than his own to +expose his work, under sight still less kind, there might be presented a +picture bereft of all but its faults. Such has been the case. + +We here dismiss willingly further recollection of the works to which we +have called attention. They are marked by error in theory, inasmuch as +they show neglect of the specific and essential, and by feebleness of +system, inasmuch as under no other light than that in which they were +painted could their finer qualities be perceived. Yet it is but just +to add that these were produced during a state of transition from one +method of applying pigments to another of totally different character. + +This period of the painter's experience was brought to a close by the +better one of a summer residence at Pieve di Cadore, a village among the +Friulian Alps. Thither he might have gone merely to make a pilgrimage +to the birthplace of Titian; for other reason than _that_ he stayed in +Cadore. He stayed for life, truth, and correction, and he found all. No +other place on the continent could have afforded Mr. Tilton the benefit +that this mountain village did. Here was no ambiguity, no optical +illusion, but frank; ingenuous Nature. The peaks which guarded the +valley were clear and immutable. They suffered no conflicting opinions; +accident had done little to disguise, their true character, but Nature +held them as specimens of the essential in mountain structure. That the +lesson of these peaks might not be forgotten, the student finds them +copied accurately in nearly every landscape painted by Titian. The +magnificent one in "The Presentation in the Temple" was his favorite. +The sketches of this period show that the artist's attention was divided +between the study of these hill forms and of the luxuriant vegetation +of the sloping fields and pastures so characteristic of Swiss scenery. +Cadore is most richly endowed in this respect. The hill-sides are +burdened with flowers, many of which are large and of tropical splendor. +The green of the broad fields is modified by the burden of blossoms. We +have seen against the background of one of these steepest fields what +seemed to be a column of delicate blue smoke wreathing up the hill-side. +In reality it was a bed of wild forget-me-nots, which marked the course +of a minute rill. Under such influences as these, a man born to be a +painter, to whom Art is all, whose hand never fails to execute, and +whose mind has risen above any erroneous combination of principles which +may have checked his progress toward the greatly excellent, must +find himself with new strength, a chastened imagination, and broader +conceptions of his art. + +The results of Mr. Tilton's labors since the summer in the Alps prove +that such was the effect upon him. His pictures have of late occupied +nearly every class of Landscape Art. The works now wrought in his Roman +studio are indicative of great changes in feeling, and are marked by +surprising improvements in execution. Yet the individuality of the +artist is impressed upon every canvas. The changes to which we refer are +these,--foregrounds suggested by or painted from living forms. In one +view of Nemi we saw a superb black, gold, and crimson butterfly resting +on a flower. Yet these foregrounds require more strength, more "body," +more of that which artists achieve who achieve nothing else. We notice +far more individualism in tree forms. The ideal tree, that is, the tree +as it should be, and the conventional one coming against the sky on one +side of the composition, the one bequeathed by Claude, have given place +to Nature's homelier types. The question as to the meaning of passages +no longer arises. The lines are drawn with a decision, with a sense of +certainty, raising them above all doubt. In the rendering of distant +mountains, Mr. Dillon evinces new knowledge of what such forms +necessarily imply,--their tendency to monotone and to flatness, yet +preserving all their essential surface markings, and their inevitable +cutting outline against the sky,--which sharpness Mr. Tilton as yet has +only hinted at, not represented. Positive edges are the true.--But we +have no further space to devote to these particulars of landscape form. +In these Mr. Tilton has many rivals and not a few superiors. + +There is left us the pleasant privilege of alluding to an ability which +we believe he shares with none, and which enables him to give his +present pictures their great value. This is the power to discriminate +accurately between the several classes of color,--the local, the +reflected, and the prismatic. It will be found on reference to most +landscapes, especially those of the English schools, that it is the +understanding, already informed on the subject, which accepts as +reflected the continual attempts to render this kind of color: they are +regarded as indicative. But the eye, which should have been satisfied +first, recognizes nothing more than local coloring. Near objects, under +broad, open daylight, yield us their local coloring,--as the surfaces +of stones, the trunks of trees, and the many tints of soil and +vegetation,--yet even here all is modified by reflections. We remember +a cliff at L'Ariccia, which, gray in morning light, became, as evening +approached, a marvellous beryl green, upon which some large poppies cast +wafts of purest scarlet. Farther away, both local and reflected color +lose their power. The rays no longer convey information of surfaces as +separate existences. Nature gathers up into masses, and these masses +tide back to the foreground colors far removed in character from the +near. Vast combinations of rays and atmospheric influences have wrought +this change. As we have said, noon gives us the earth clean and itself; +but, as the sun declines, flushes of color pass along the ground. Their +character we have already described. The particles which fill the +atmosphere just above the surface of the earth become illuminated and +visible in radiant masses. Farther away there is floated over the +mountains a miraculous bloom, a bloom like that upon virgin fruit; and +still more remote, upon the far sea, there is a dream of amber mantling +the sleeping blue. To render these effects, to give us the illuminated +air, the soft green which the mossy sod casts upon the shaded cliff, the +precious bloom upon the hills, and the tints diffused along the sea,--to +achieve this so completely that there never shall be any doubt, to give +us upon the canvas what shall be all this to the beholder, is great, and +this Mr. Tilton has performed. + + + + +THE EXPERIENCES OF THE A. C. + + +"Bridgeport! Change cars for the Naugatuck Railroad!" shouted the +conductor of the New York and Boston Express Train, on the evening of +May 27th, 1858. Indeed, he does it every night, (Sundays excepted,) +for that matter; but as this story refers especially to Mr. J. Edward +Johnson, who was a passenger on that train, on the aforesaid evening, +I make special mention of the fact. Mr. Johnson, carpet-bag in hand, +jumped upon the platform, entered the office, purchased a ticket for +Waterbury, and was soon whirling in the Naugatuck train towards his +destination. + +On reaching Waterbury, in the soft spring twilight, Mr. Johnson walked +up and down in front of the station, curiously scanning the faces of the +assembled crowd. Presently he noticed a gentleman who was performing +the same operation upon the faces of the alighting passengers. Throwing +himself directly in the way of the latter, the two exchanged a steady +gaze. + +"Is your name Billings?" "Is your name Johnson?" were simultaneous +questions, followed by the simultaneous exclamations,--"Ned!" "Enos!" + +Then there was a crushing grasp of hands, repeated after a pause, +in testimony of ancient friendship, and Mr. Billings, returning to +practical life, asked,-- + +"Is that all your baggage? Come, I have a buggy here: Eunice has heard +the whistle, and she'll be impatient to welcome you." + +The impatience of Eunice (Mrs. Billings, of course) was not of long +duration; for in five minutes thereafter she stood at the door of her +husband's chocolate-colored villa, receiving his friend. + +While these three persons are comfortably seated at the tea-table, +enjoying their waffles, cold tongue, and canned peaches, and asking +and answering questions helter-skelter in the delightful confusion of +reunion after long separation, let us briefly inform the reader who and +what they are. + +Mr. Enos Billings, then, was part owner of a manufactory of metal +buttons, forty years old, of middling height, ordinarily quiet and +rather shy, but with a large share of latent warmth and enthusiasm in +his nature. His hair was brown, slightly streaked with gray, his eyes a +soft, dark hazel, forehead square, eye-brows straight, nose of no very +marked character, and mouth moderately full, with a tendency to twitch +a little at the corners. His voice was undertoned, but mellow and +agreeable. + +Mrs. Eunice Billings, of nearly equal age, was a good specimen of the +wide-awake New-England woman. Her face had a piquant smartness of +expression, which might have been refined into a sharp edge, but for her +natural hearty good-humor. Her head was smoothly formed, her face a full +oval, her hair and eyes blond and blue in a strong light, but brown and +steel-gray at other times, and her complexion of that ripe fairness into +which a ruddier color will sometimes fade. Her form, neither plump nor +spare, had yet a firm, elastic compactness, and her slightest movement +conveyed a certain impression of decision and self-reliance. + +As for J. Edward Johnson, it is enough to say that he was a tall, +thin gentleman of forty-five, with an aquiline nose, narrow face, and +military whiskers, which swooped upwards and met under his nose in a +glossy black moustache. His complexion was dark, from the bronzing of +fifteen summers in New Orleans. He was a member of a wholesale hardware +firm in that city, and had now revisited his native North for the first +time since his departure. A year before, some letters relating to +invoices of metal buttons, signed "Foster, Kirkup, & Co., per Enos +Billings," had accidentally revealed to him the whereabouts of the old +friend of his youth, with whom we now find him domiciled. The first +thing he did, after attending to some necessary business matters in New +York, was to take the train for Waterbury. + +"Enos," said he, as he stretched out his hand for the third cup of tea, +(which he had taken only for the purpose of prolonging the pleasant +table-chat,) "I wonder which of us is most changed." + +"You, of course," said Mr. Billings, "with your brown face and big +moustache. Your own brother wouldn't have known you, if he had seen you +last, as I did, with smooth cheeks and hair of unmerciful length. Why, +not even your voice is the same!" + +"That is easily accounted for," replied Mr. Johnson. "But in your case, +Enos, I am puzzled to find where the difference lies. Your features seem +to be but little changed, now that I can examine them at leisure; yet it +is not the same face. But, really, I never looked at you for so long +a time, in those days. I beg pardon: you used to be so--so remarkably +shy." + +Mr. Billings blushed slightly, and seemed at a loss what to answer. His +wife, however, burst into a merry laugh, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, that was before the days of the A.C.!" + +He, catching the infection, laughed also: in fact, Mr. Johnson laughed, +but without knowing why. + +"The 'A.C.'!" said Mr. Billings. "Bless me, Eunice! how long it is since +we have talked of that summer! I had almost forgotten that there ever +was an A.C." + +"Enos, _could_ you ever forget Abel Mallory and the beer?--or that scene +between Hollins and Shelldrake?--or" (here _she_ blushed the least bit) +"your own fit of candor?" And she laughed again, more heartily than +ever. + +"What a precious lot of fools, to be sure!" exclaimed her husband. + +Mr. Johnson, meanwhile, though enjoying the cheerful humor of his hosts, +was not a little puzzled with regard to its cause. + +"What is the A.C.?" he ventured to ask. + +Mr. and Mrs. Billings looked at each other, and smiled, without +replying. + +"Really, Ned," said the former, finally, "the answer to your question +involves the whole story." + +"Then why not tell him the whole story, Enos?" remarked his wife. + +"You know I've never told it yet, and it's rather a hard thing to do, +seeing that I'm one of the heroes of the farce,--for it wasn't even +genteel comedy, Ned," said Mr. Billings. "However," he continued, +"absurd as the story may seem, it's the only key to the change in my +life, and I must run the risk of being laughed at." + +"I'll help you through, Enos," said his wife, encouragingly; "and +besides, my _role_ in the farce was no better than yours. Let us +resuscitate, for to-night only, the constitution of the A.C." + +"Upon my word, a capital idea! But we shall have to initiate Ned." + +Mr. Johnson merrily agreeing, he was blindfolded and conducted into +another room. A heavy arm-chair, rolling on casters, struck his legs in +the rear, and he sank into it with lamb-like resignation. + +"Open your mouth!" was the command, given with mock solemnity. + +He obeyed. + +"Now shut it!" + +And his lips closed upon a cigar, while at the same time the +handkerchief was whisked away from his eyes. He found himself in Mr. +Billings's library. + +"Your nose betrays your taste, Mr. Johnson," said the lady, "and I am +not hard-hearted enough to deprive you of the indulgence. Here are +matches." + +"Well," said he, acting upon the hint, "if the remainder of the +ceremonies are equally agreeable, I should like to be a permanent member +of your order." + +By this time Mr. and Mrs. Billings, having between them lighted the +lamp, stirred up the coal in the grate, closed the doors, and taken +possession of comfortable chairs, the latter proclaimed,-- + +"The Chapter (isn't that what you call it?) will now be held!" + +"Was it in '43 when you left home, Ned?" asked Mr. B. + +"Yes." + +"Well, the A.C. culminated in '45. You remember something of the society +of Norridgeport, the last winter you were there? Abel Mallory, for +instance?" + +"Let me think a moment," said Mr. Johnson, reflectively. "Really, it +seems like looking back a hundred years. Mallory,--wasn't that the +sentimental young man, with wispy hair, a tallowy skin, and big, sweaty +hands, who used to be spouting Carlyle on the 'reading evenings' at +Shelldrake's? Yes, to be sure; and there was Hollins, with his clerical +face and infidel talk,--and Pauline Ringtop, who used to say, 'The +Beautiful is the Good.' I can still hear her shrill voice singing, +'Would that _I_ were beautiful, would that _I_ were fair!'" + +There was a hearty chorus of laughter at poor Miss Ringtop's expense. +It harmed no one, however; for the tar-weed was already thick over her +Californian grave. + +"Oh, I see," said Mr. Billings, "you still remember the absurdities of +those days. In fact, I think you partially saw through them then. But I +was younger, and far from being so clear-headed, and I looked upon those +evenings at Shelldrake's as being equal, at least, to the _symposia_ of +Plato. Something in Mallory always repelled me. I detested the sight of +his thick nose, with the flaring nostrils, and his coarse, half-formed +lips, of the bluish color of raw corned-beef. But I looked upon these +feelings as unreasonable prejudices, and strove to conquer them, seeing +the admiration which he received from others. He was an oracle on the +subject of 'Nature.' Having eaten nothing for two years, except +Graham bread, vegetables without salt, and fruits, fresh or dried, +he considered himself to have attained an antediluvian purity of +health,--or that he would attain it, so soon as two pimples on his left +temple should have healed. These pimples he looked upon as the last +feeble stand made by the pernicious juices left from the meat he had +formerly eaten and the coffee he had drunk. His theory was, that through +a body so purged and purified none but true and natural impulses could +find access to the soul. Such, indeed, was the theory we all held. A +Return to Nature was the near Millennium, the dawn of which we already +beheld in the sky. To be sure, there was a difference in our individual +views as to how this should be achieved, but we were all agreed as to +what the result should be. + +"I can laugh over those days now, Ned; but they were really happy while +they lasted. We were the salt of the earth; we were lifted above those +grovelling instincts which we saw manifested in the lives of others. +Each contributed his share of gas to inflate the painted balloon to +which we all clung, in the expectation that it would presently soar +with us to the stars. But it only went up over the out-houses, dodged +backwards and forwards two or three times, and finally flopped down with +us into a swamp." + +"And that balloon was the A. C.?" suggested Mr. Johnson. + +"As President of this Chapter, I prohibit questions," said Eunice. "And, +Enos, don't send up your balloon until the proper time. Don't anticipate +the programme, or the performance will be spoiled." + +"I had almost forgotten that Ned is so much in the dark," her obedient +husband answered. "You can have but a slight notion," he continued, +turning to his friend, "of the extent to which this sentimental, or +transcendental, element in the little circle at Shelldrake's increased +after you left Norridgeport. We read the 'Dial,' and Emerson; we +believed in Alcott as the 'purple Plato' of modern times; we took +psychological works out of the library, and would listen for hours to +Hollins while he read Schelling or Fichte, and then go home with a +misty impression of having imbibed infinite wisdom. It was, perhaps, +a natural, though very eccentric rebound from the hard, practical, +unimaginative New-England mind which surrounded us; yet I look back upon +it with a kind of wonder. I was then, as you know, unformed mentally, +and might have been so still, but for the experiences of the A. C." + +Mr. Johnson shifted his position, a little impatiently. Eunice looked at +him with laughing eyes, and shook her finger with a mock threat. + +"Shelldrake," continued Mr. Billings, without noticing this by-play, +"was a man of more pretence than real cultivation, as I afterwards +discovered. He was in good circumstances, and always glad to receive us +at his house, as this made him, virtually, the chief of our tribe, +and the outlay for refreshments involved only the apples from his +own orchard and water from his well. There was an entire absence of +conventionality at our meetings, and this, compared with the somewhat +stiff society of the village, was really an attraction. There was a +mystic bond of union in our ideas: we discussed life, love, religion, +and the future state, not only with the utmost candor, but with a warmth +of feeling which, in many of us, was genuine. Even I (and you know how +painfully shy and bashful I was) felt myself more at home there than in +my father's house; and if I didn't talk much, I had a pleasant feeling +of being in harmony with those who did. + +"Well, 'twas in the early part of '45,--I think in April,--when we were +all gathered together, discussing, as usual, the possibility of leading +a life in accordance with Nature. Abel Mallory was there, and Hollins, +and Miss Ringtop, and Faith Levis, with her knitting,--and also Eunice +Hazleton, a lady whom you have never seen, but you may take my wife as +her representative"---- + +"Stick to the programme, Enos," interrupted Mrs. Billings. + +"Eunice Hazleton, then. I wish I could recollect some of the speeches +made on that occasion. Abel had but one pimple on his temple, (there was +a purple spot where the other had been,) and was estimating that in two +or three months more he would be a true, unspoiled man. His complexion, +nevertheless, was more clammy and whey-like than ever. + +"'Yes,' said he, 'I also am an Arcadian! This false dual existence which +I have been leading will soon be merged in the unity of Nature. Our +lives must conform to her sacred law. Why can't we strip off these +hollow Shams,' (he made great use of that word,) 'and be our true +selves, pure, perfect, and divine?' + +"Miss Ringtop heaved a sigh, and repeated a stanza from her favorite +poet:-- + + "'Ah, when wrecked are my desires + On the everlasting Never, + And my heart with all its fires + Out forever, + In the cradle of Creation + Finds the soul resuscitation!' + +"Shelldrake, however, turning to his wife, said,-- + +"'Elviry, how many up-stairs rooms is there in that house down on the +Sound?' + +"'Four,--besides three small ones under the roof. Why, what made you +think of that, Jesse?' said she. + +"'I've got an idea, while Abel's been talking,' he answered. 'We've +taken a house for the summer, down the other side of Bridgeport, right +on the water, where there's good fishing and a fine view of the Sound. +Now, there's room enough for all of us,--at least, all that can make it +suit to go. Abel, you and Enos, and Pauline and Eunice might fix matters +so that we could all take the place in partnership, and pass the summer +together, living a true and beautiful life in the bosom of Nature. There +we shall be perfectly free and untrammelled by the chains which still +hang around us in Norridgeport. You know how often we have wanted to be +set on some island in the Pacific Ocean, where we could build up a +true society, right from the start. Now, here's a chance to try the +experiment for a few months, anyhow.' + +"Eunice clapped her hands (yes, you did!) and cried out,-- + +"'Splendid! Arcadian! I'll give up my school for the summer.' + +"Miss Ringtop gave her opinion in another quotation:-- + + "'The rainbow hues of the Ideal + Condense to gems, and form the Real!' + +"Abel Mallory, of course, did not need to have the proposal repeated. He +was ready for anything which promised indolence, and the indulgence of +his sentimental tastes. I will do the fellow the justice to say that +he was not a hypocrite. He firmly believed both in himself and his +ideas,--especially the former. He pushed both hands through the long +wisps of his drab-colored hair, and threw his head back until his wide +nostrils resembled a double door to his brain. + +"'O Nature!' he said, 'you have found your lost children! We shall obey +your neglected laws! we shall hearken to your divine whispers! we shall +bring you back from your ignominious exile, and place you on your +ancestral throne!' + +"'Let us do it!' was the general cry. + +"A sudden enthusiasm fired us, and we grasped each other's hands in the +hearty impulse of the moment. My own private intention to make a summer +trip to the White Mountains had been relinquished the moment I heard +Eunice give in her adhesion. I may as well confess, at once, that I was +desperately in love, and afraid to speak to her. + +"By the time Mrs. Shelldrake brought in the apples and water we were +discussing the plan as a settled thing. Hollins had an engagement to +deliver Temperance lectures in Ohio during the summer, but decided to +postpone his departure until August, so that he might, at least, spend +two months with us. Faith Levis couldn't go,--at which, I think, we were +all secretly glad. Some three or four others were in the same case, and +the company was finally arranged to consist of the Shelldrakes, Hollins, +Mallory, Eunice, Miss Ringtop, and myself. We did not give much thought, +either to the preparations in advance, or to our mode of life when +settled there. We were to live near to Nature: that was the main thing. + +"'What shall we call the place?' asked Eunice. + +"'Arcadia!' said Abel Mallory, rolling up his large green eyes. + +"'Then,' said Hollins, 'let us constitute ourselves the Arcadian Club!'" + +----"Aha!" interrupted Mr. Johnson, "I see! The A.C.!" + +"Yes, you see the A.C. now," said Mrs. Billings; "but to understand it +fully, you should have had a share in those Arcadian experiences." + +"I am all the more interested in hearing them described. Go on, Enos." + +"The proposition was adopted. We called ourselves The Arcadian Club; but +in order to avoid gossip, and the usual ridicule, to which we were all +more or less sensitive, in case our plan should become generally known, +it was agreed that the initials only should be used. Besides, there was +an agreeable air of mystery about it: we thought of Delphi, and Eleusis, +and Samothrace: we should discover that Truth which the dim eyes of +worldly men and women were unable to see, and the day of disclosure +would be the day of Triumph. In one sense we were truly Arcadians: no +suspicion of impropriety, I verily believe, entered any of our minds. In +our aspirations after what we called a truer life there was no material +taint. We were fools, if you choose, but as far as possible from being +sinners. Besides, the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Shelldrake, who +naturally became the heads of our proposed community, were sufficient +to preserve us from slander or suspicion, if even our designs had been +publicly announced. + +"I won't bore you with an account of our preparations. In fact, there +was very little to be done. Mr. Shelldrake succeeded in hiring the +house, with most of its furniture, so that but a few articles had to be +supplied. My trunk contained more books than boots, more blank paper +than linen. + +"'Two shirts will be enough,' said Abel: 'you can wash one of them any +day, and dry it in the sun.' + +"The supplies consisted mostly of flour, potatoes, and sugar. There was +a vegetable-garden in good condition, Mr. Shelldrake said, which would +be our principal dependence. + +"'Besides, the clams!' I exclaimed, unthinkingly. + +"'Oh, yes!' said Eunice, 'we can have chowder-parties: that will be +delightful!' + +"'Clams! chowder! oh, worse than flesh!' groaned Abel. 'Will you +reverence Nature by outraging her first laws?' + +"I had made a great mistake, and felt very foolish. Eunice and I looked +at each other, for the first time." + +"Speak for yourself only, Enos," gently interpolated his wife. + +"It was a lovely afternoon in the beginning of June when we first +approached Arcadia. We had taken two double teams at Bridgeport, and +drove slowly forward to our destination, followed by a cart containing +our trunks and a few household articles. It was a sweet, bright, balmy +day: the wheat-fields were rich and green, the clover showed faint +streaks of ruby mist along slopes leaning southward, and the meadows +were yellow with buttercups. Now and then we caught glimpses of the +Sound, and, far beyond it, the dim Long-Island shore. Every old +white farm-house, with its gray-walled garden, its clumps of lilacs, +viburnums, and early roses, offered us a picture of pastoral simplicity +and repose. We passed them, one by one, in the happiest mood, enjoying +the earth around us, the sky above, and ourselves most of all. + +"The scenery, however, gradually became more rough and broken. Knobs +of gray gneiss, crowned by mournful cedars, intrenched upon the arable +land, and the dark-blue gleam of water appeared through the trees. Our +road, which had been approaching the Sound, now skirted the head of a +deep, irregular inlet, beyond which extended a beautiful promontory, +thickly studded with cedars, and with scattering groups of elm, oak, and +maple trees. Towards the end of the promontory stood a house, with white +walls shining against the blue line of the Sound. + +"'There is Arcadia, at last!' exclaimed Mr. Shelldrake. + +"A general outcry of delight greeted the announcement. And, indeed, the +loveliness of the picture surpassed our most poetic anticipations. The +low sun was throwing exquisite lights across the point, painting the +slopes of grass a golden green, and giving a pearly softness to the gray +rocks. In the background was drawn the far-off water-line, over which a +few specks of sail glimmered against the sky. Miss Ringtop, who, with +Eunice, Mallory, and myself, occupied one carriage, expressed her +'gushing' feelings in the usual manner:-- + + "'Where the turf is softest, greenest, + Doth an angel thrust me on,-- + Where the landscape lies serenest, + In the journey of the sun!' + +"'Don't, Pauline!' said Eunice; 'I never like to hear poetry flourished +in the face of Nature. This landscape surpasses any poem in the world. +Let us enjoy the best thing we have, rather than the next best.' + +"'Ah, yes!' sighed Miss Ringtop, 'tis true! + + "They sing to the ear; this sings to the eye."' + +"Thenceforward, to the house, all was childish joy and jubilee. All +minor personal repugnances were smoothed over in the general exultation. +Even Abel Mallory became agreeable; and Hollins, sitting beside Mrs. +Shelldrake on the back seat of the foremost carriage, shouted to us, in +boyish lightness of heart. + +"Passing the head of the inlet, we left the country-road, and entered, +through a gate in the tottering stone wall, on our summer domain. A +track, open to the field on one side, led us past a clump of deciduous +trees, between pastures broken by cedared knolls of rock, down +the centre of the peninsula, to the house. It was quite an old +frame-building, two stories high, with a gambrel roof and tall chimneys. +Two slim Lombardy poplars and a broad-leaved catalpa shaded the southern +side, and a kitchen-garden, divided in the centre by a double row of +untrimmed currant-bushes, flanked it on the east. For flowers, there +were masses of blue flags and coarse tawny-red lilies, besides a huge +trumpet-vine which swung its pendent arms from one of the gables. In +front of the house a natural lawn of mingled turf and rock sloped +steeply down to the water, which was not more than two hundred yards +distant. To the west was another and broader inlet of the Sound, out of +which our Arcadian promontory rose bluff and bold, crowned with a thick +fringe of pines. It was really a lovely spot which Shelldrake had +chosen,--so secluded, while almost surrounded, by the winged and moving +life of the Sound, so simple, so pastoral and home-like. No one doubted +the success of our experiment, for that evening, at least. + +"Perkins Brown, Shelldrake's boy-of-all-work, awaited us at the door. +He had been sent on two or three days in advance, to take charge of the +house, and seemed to have had enough of hermit-life, for he hailed +us with a wild whoop, throwing his straw hat half-way up one of the +poplars. Perkins was a boy of fifteen, the child of poor parents, +who were satisfied to get him off their hands, regardless as to what +humanitarian theories might be tested upon him. As the Arcadian Club +recognized no such thing as caste, he was always admitted to our +meetings, and understood just enough of our conversation to excite a +silly ambition in his slow mind. His animal nature was predominant, and +this led him to be deceitful. At that time, however, we all looked upon +him as a proper young Arcadian, and hoped that he would develop into a +second Abel Mallory. + +"After our effects had been deposited on the stoop, and the carriages +had driven away, we proceeded to apportion the rooms, and take +possession. On the first floor there were three rooms, two of which +would serve us as dining-and drawing-rooms, leaving the third for the +Shelldrakes. As neither Eunice and Miss Ringtop, nor Hollins and Abel +showed any disposition to room together, I quietly gave up to them the +four rooms in the second story, and installed myself in one of the attic +chambers. Here I could hear the music of the rain close above my head, +and through the little gable window, as I lay in bed, watch the colors +of the morning gradually steal over the distant shores. The end was, we +were all satisfied. + +"'Now for our first meal in Arcadia!' was the next cry. Mrs. Shelldrake, +like a prudent housekeeper, marched off to the kitchen, where Perkins +had already kindled a fire. We looked in at the door, but thought it +best to allow her undisputed sway in such a narrow realm. Eunice was +unpacking some loaves of bread and paper bags of crackers; and Miss +Ringtop, smiling through her ropy curls, as much as to say, 'You see, +_I_ also can perform the coarser tasks of life!' occupied herself with +plates and cups. We men, therefore, walked out to the garden, which we +found in a promising condition. The usual vegetables had been planted +and were growing finely, for the season was yet scarcely warm enough +for the weeds to make much headway. Radishes, young onions, and lettuce +formed our contribution to the table. The Shelldrakes, I should explain, +had not yet advanced to the antediluvian point, in diet: nor, indeed, +had either Eunice or myself. We acknowledged the fascination of tea, we +saw a very mitigated evil in milk and butter, and we were conscious of +stifled longings after the abomination of meat. Only Mallory, Rollins, +and Miss Ringtop had reached that loftiest round on the ladder of +progress where the material nature loosens the last fetter of the +spiritual. They looked down upon us, and we meekly admitted their right +to do so. + +"Our board, that evening, was really tempting. The absence of meat was +compensated to us by the crisp and racy onions, and I craved only a +little salt, which had been interdicted, as a most pernicious substance. +I sat at one corner of the table, beside Perkins Brown, who took an +opportunity, while the others were engaged in conversation, to jog my +elbow gently. As I turned towards him, he said nothing, but dropped his +eyes significantly. The little rascal had the lid of a blacking-box, +filled with salt, upon his knee, and was privately seasoning his onions +and radishes. I blushed at the thought of my hypocrisy, but the onions +were so much better that I couldn't help dipping into the lid with him. + +"'Oh,' said Eunice, 'we must send for some oil and vinegar! This lettuce +is very nice." + +"'Oil and vinegar?' exclaimed Abel. + +"'Why, yes,' said she, innocently: 'they are both vegetable substances.' + +"Abel at first looked rather foolish, but quickly recovering himself, +said,-- + +"'All vegetable substances are not proper for food: you would not taste +the poison-oak, or sit under the upas-tree of Java.' + +"'Well, Abel,' Eunice rejoined, 'how are we to distinguish what is best +for us? How are we to know _what_ vegetables to choose, or what animal +and mineral substances to avoid?' + +"'I will tell you,' he answered, with a lofty air. 'See here!' pointing +to his temple, where the second pimple--either from the change of air, +or because, in the excitement of the last few days, he had forgotten +it--was actually healed. 'My blood is at last pure. The struggle between +the natural and the unnatural is over, and I am beyond the depraved, +influences of my former taste. My instincts are now, therefore, entirely +pure also. What is good for man to eat, that I shall have a natural +desire to eat: what is bad will be naturally repelled. How does the cow +distinguish between the wholesome and the poisonous herbs of the meadow? +And is man less than a cow, that he cannot cultivate his instincts to +an equal point? Let me walk through, the woods and I can tell you every +berry and root which God designed for food, though I know not its name, +and have never seen it before. I shall make use of my time, during our +sojourn here, to test, by my purified instinct, every substance, animal, +mineral, and vegetable, upon which the human race subsists, and to +create a catalogue of the True Food of Man!' + +"Abel was eloquent on this theme, and he silenced not only Eunice, but +the rest of us. Indeed, as we were all half-infected with the same +delusions, it was not easy to answer his sophistries. + +"After supper was over, the prospect of cleaning the dishes and putting +things in order was not so agreeable; but Mrs. Shelldrake and Perkins +undertook the work, and we did not think it necessary to interfere with +them. Half an hour afterwards, when the full moon had risen, we took +our chairs upon the stoop, to enjoy the calm, silver night, the soft +sea-air, and our summer's residence in anticipatory talk. + +"'My friends,' said Hollins, (and _his_ hobby, as you may remember, Ned, +was the organization of Society, rather than those reforms which apply +directly to the Individual,)--'my friends, I think we are sufficiently +advanced in progressive ideas to establish our little Arcadian community +upon what I consider the true basis: not Law, nor Custom, but the +uncorrupted impulses of our nature. What Abel said in regard to dietetic +reform is true; but that alone will not regenerate the race. We must +rise superior to those conventional ideas of Duty whereby Life is warped +and crippled. Life must not be a prison, where each one must come and +go, work, eat, and sleep, as the jailer commands. Labor must not be +a necessity, but a spontaneous joy. 'T is true, but little labor is +required of us here: let us, therefore, have no set tasks, no fixed +rules, but each one work, rest, eat, sleep, talk or be silent, as his +own nature prompts.' + +"Perkins, sitting on the steps, gave a suppressed chuckle, which I think +no one heard but myself. I was vexed with his levity, but, nevertheless, +gave him a warning nudge with my toe, in payment for the surreptitious +salt. + +"'That's just the notion I had, when I first talked of our coming here,' +said Shelldrake. 'Here we're alone and unhindered; and if the plan +shouldn't happen to work well, (I don't see why it shouldn't, though,) +no harm will be done. I've had a deal of hard work in my life, and I've +been badgered and bullied so much by your strait-laced professors, +that I'm glad to get away from the world for a spell, and talk and do +rationally, without being laughed at.' + +"'Yes,' answered Hollins, 'and if we succeed, as I feel we shall, for I +think I know the hearts of all of us here, this may be the commencement +of a new _ee_poch for the world. We may become the turning-point between +two dispensations: behind us everything false and unnatural,--before us +everything true, beautiful, and good.' + +"'Ah,' sighed Miss Ringtop, 'it reminds me of Gamaliel J. Gawthrop's +beautiful lines:-- + + "Unrobed man is lying hoary + In the distance, gray and dead; + There no wreaths of godless glory + To his mist-like tresses wed, + And the foot-fall of the Ages + Reigns supreme, with noiseless tread."' + +"'I am willing to try the experiment,' said I, on being appealed to by +Hollins; 'but don't you think we had better observe some kind of order, +even in yielding everything to impulse? Shouldn't there be, at least, a +platform, as the politicians call it,--an agreement by which we shall +all be bound, and which we can afterwards exhibit as the basis of our +success?' + +"He meditated a few moments, and then answered,-- + +"'I think not. It resembles too much the thing we are trying to +overthrow. Can you bind a man's belief by making him sign certain +articles of Faith? No: his thought will be free, in spite of it; and I +would have Action--Life--as free as Thought. Our platform--to adopt your +image--has but one plank: Truth. Let each only be true to himself: _be_ +himself, _act_ himself, or herself, with the uttermost candor. We can +all agree upon that.' + +"The agreement was accordingly made. And certainly no happier or more +hopeful human beings went to bed in all New England that night. + +"I arose with the sun, went into the garden, and commenced weeding, +intending to do my quota of work before breakfast, and then devote the +day to reading and conversation. I was presently joined by Shelldrake +and Mallory, and between us we finished the onions and radishes, stuck +the peas, and cleaned the alleys. Perkins, after milking the cow and +turning her out to pasture, assisted Mrs. Shelldrake in the kitchen. At +breakfast we were joined by Hollins, who made no excuse for his easy +morning habits; nor was one expected. I may as well tell you now, +though, that his natural instincts never led him to work. After a week, +when a second crop of weeds was coming on, Mallory fell off also, and +thenceforth Shelldrake and myself had the entire charge of the garden. +Perkins did the rougher work, and was always on hand when he was wanted. +Very soon, however, I noticed that he was in the habit of disappearing +for two or three hours in the afternoon. + +"Our meals preserved the same Spartan simplicity. Eunice, however, +carried her point in regard to the salad; for Abel, after tasting and +finding it very palatable, decided that oil and vinegar might be classed +in the catalogue of True Food. Indeed, his long abstinence from piquant +flavors gave him such an appetite for it, that our supply of lettuce was +soon exhausted. An embarrassing accident also favored us with the use of +salt. Perkins happening to move his knee at the moment I was dipping an +onion into the blacking-box lid, our supply was knocked upon the floor. +He picked it up, and we both hoped the accident might pass unnoticed. +But Abel, stretching his long neck across the corner of the table, +caught a glimpse of what was going on. + +"'What's that?' he asked. + +"'Oh, it's--it's only,' said I, seeking for a synonyme, 'only _chloride +of sodium_!' + +"'Chloride of sodium! what do you do with it?' + +"'Eat it with onions,' said I, boldly: 'it's a chemical substance, but I +believe it is found in some plants.' + +"Eunice, who knew something of chemistry, (she taught a class, though +you wouldn't think it,) grew red with suppressed fun, but the others +were as ignorant as Abel Mallory himself. + +"'Let me taste it,' said he, stretching out an onion. + +"I handed him the box-lid, which still contained a portion of its +contents. He dipped the onion, bit off a piece, and chewed it gravely. + +"'Why,' said he, turning to me, 'it's very much like salt.' + +"Perkins burst into a spluttering yell, which discharged an onion-top he +had just put between his teeth across the table; Eunice and I gave way +at the same moment; and the others, catching the joke, joined us. But +while we were laughing, Abel was finishing his onion, and the result was +that Salt was added to the True Food, and thereafter appeared regularly +on the table. + +"The forenoons we usually spent in reading and writing, each in his or +her chamber. (Oh, the journals, Ned!--but you shall not see mine.) +After a mid-day meal,--I cannot call it dinner,--we sat upon the stoop, +listening while one of us read aloud, or strolled down the shores on +either side, or, when the sun was not too warm, got into a boat, and +rowed or floated lazily around the promontory. + +"One afternoon, as I was sauntering off, past the garden, towards the +eastern inlet, I noticed Perkins slipping along behind the cedar knobs, +towards the little woodland at the end of our domain. Curious to find +out the cause of his mysterious disappearances, I followed cautiously. +From the edge of the wood I saw him enter a little gap between the +rocks, which led down to the water. Presently a thread of blue smoke +stole up. Quietly creeping along, I got upon the nearer bluff and looked +down. There was a sort of hearth built up at the base of the rock, with +a brisk little lire burning upon it, but Perkins had disappeared. I +stretched myself out upon the moss, in the shade, and waited. In about +half an hour up came Perkins, with a large fish in one hand and a +lump of clay in the other. I now understood the mystery. He carefully +imbedded the fish in a thin layer of clay, placed it on the coals, and +then went down to the shore to wash his hands. On his return he found me +watching the fire. + +"'Ho, ho, Mr. Enos!' said he, 'you've found me out! But _you_ won't say +nothin'. Gosh! _you_ like it as well I do. Look 'ee there!'--breaking +open the clay, from which arose 'a steam of rich-distilled +perfumes,'--'and, I say, I've got the box-lid with that 'ere stuff in +it,--ho! ho!' and the scamp roared again. + +"Out of a hole in the rock he brought salt and the end of a loaf, and +between us we finished the fish. Before long, I got into a habit of +disappearing in the afternoon. + +"Now and then, we took walks, alone or collectively, to the nearest +village, or even to Bridgeport, for the papers or a late book. The few +purchases we required were made at such times, and sent down in a cart, +or, if not too heavy, carried by Perkins in a basket. I noticed that +Abel, whenever we had occasion to visit a grocery, would go sniffing +around, alternately attracted or repelled by the various articles: now +turning away with a shudder from a ham,--now inhaling, with a fearful +delight and uncertainty, the odor of smoked herrings. 'I think herrings +must feed on sea-weed,' said he, 'there is such a vegetable attraction +about them.' After his violent vegetarian harangues, however, he +hesitated about adding them to his catalogue. + +"But, one day, as we were passing through the village, he was reminded +by the sign of 'WARTER CRACKERS' in the window of an obscure grocery, +that he required a supply of those articles, and we therefore entered. +There was a splendid Rhode-Island cheese on the counter, from which the +shop-mistress was just cutting a slice for a customer. Abel leaned over +it, inhaling the rich, pungent fragrance. + +"'Enos,' said he to me, between his sniffs, 'this impresses me like +flowers,--like marigolds. It must be,--really,--yes, the vegetable +element is predominant. My instinct towards it is so strong that I +cannot be mistaken. May I taste it, Ma'am?' + +"The woman sliced off a thin corner, and presented it to him on the +knife. + +"'Delicious!' he exclaimed; 'I am right,--this is the True Food. Give me +two pounds,--and the crackers, Ma'am.' + +"I turned away, quite as much disgusted as amused with +this charlatanism. And yet I verily believe the fellow was +sincere,--self-deluded only. I had by this time lost my faith in him, +though not in the great Arcadian principles. On reaching home, after +an hour's walk, I found our household in unusual commotion. Abel was +writhing in intense pain: he had eaten the whole two pounds of cheese, +on his way home! His stomach, so weakened by years of unhealthy +abstinence from true nourishment, was now terribly tortured by this +sudden stimulus. Mrs. Shelldrake, fortunately, had some mustard among +her stores, and could therefore administer a timely emetic. His life was +saved, but he was very ill for two or three days. Hollins did not fail +to take advantage of this circumstance to overthrow the authority which +Abel had gradually acquired on the subject of food. He was so arrogant +in his nature that he could not tolerate the same quality in another, +even where their views coincided. + +"By this time several weeks had passed away. It was the beginning of +July, and the long summer heats had come. I was driven out of my attic +during the middle hours of the day, and the others found it pleasanter +on the doubly shaded stoop than in their chambers. We were thus thrown +more together than usual,--a circumstance which made our life more +monotonous to the others, as I could see; but to myself, who could at +last talk to Eunice, and who was happy at the very sight of her, this +'heated term' seemed borrowed from Elysium. I read aloud, and the sound +of my own voice gave me confidence; many passages suggested discussions, +in which I took a part; and you may judge, Ned, how fast I got on, from +the fact that I ventured to tell Eunice of my fish-bakes with Perkins, +and invite her to join them. After that, she, also, often disappeared +from sight for an hour or two in the afternoon." + +----"Oh, Mr. Johnson," interrupted Mrs. Billings, "it wasn't for the +fish!" + +"Of course not," said her husband; "it was for my sake." + +"No, you need not think it was for you. Enos," she added, perceiving the +feminine dilemma into which she had been led, "all this is not necessary +to the story." + +"Stop!" he answered. "The A.C. has been revived for this night only. +Do you remember our platform, or rather no-platform? I must follow my +impulses, and say whatever comes uppermost." + +"Right, Enos," said Mr. Johnson; "I, as temporary Arcadian, take the +same ground. My instinct tells me that you, Mrs. Billings, must permit +the confession." + +She submitted with a good grace, and her husband continued. + +"I said that our lazy life during the hot weather had become a little +monotonous. The Arcadian plan had worked tolerably well, on the whole, +for there was very little for any one to do,--Mrs. Shelldrake and +Perkins Brown excepted. Our conversation, however, lacked spirit and +variety. We were, perhaps unconsciously, a little tired of hearing and +assenting to the same sentiments. But, one evening, about this time, +Hollins struck upon a variation, the consequences of which he little +foresaw. We had been reading one of Bulwer's works, (the weather was too +hot for Psychology,) and came upon this paragraph, or something like +it:-- + +"'Ah, Behind the Veil! We see the summer smile of the Earth,--enamelled +meadow and limpid stream,--but what hides she in her sunless heart? +Caverns of serpents, or grottoes of priceless gems? Youth, whose soul +sits on thy countenance, thyself wearing no mask, strive not to lift the +masks of others! Be content with what thou seest; and wait until Time +and Experience shall teach thee to find jealousy behind the sweet smile, +and hatred under the honeyed word!' + +"This seemed to us a dark and bitter reflection; but one or another of +us recalled some illustration of human hypocrisy, and the evidences, +by the simple fact of repetition, gradually led to a division of +opinion,--Hollins, Shelldrake, and Miss Ringtop on the dark side, and +the rest of us on the bright. The last, however, contented herself with +quoting from her favorite poet, Gamaliel J. Gawthrop:-- + + "'I look beyond thy brow's concealment! + I see thy spirit's dark revealment! + Thy inner self betrayed I see: + Thy coward, craven, shivering ME!' + +"'We think we know one another,' exclaimed Hollins; 'but do we? We see +the faults of others, their weaknesses, their disagreeable qualities, +and we keep silent. How much we should gain, were candor as universal +as concealment! Then each one, seeing himself as others see him, would +truly know himself. How much misunderstanding might be avoided, how +much hidden shame be removed, hopeless because unspoken love made +glad, honest admiration cheer its object, uttered sympathy mitigate +misfortune,--in short, how much brighter and happier the world would +become, if each one expressed, everywhere and at all times, his true and +entire feeling! Why, even Evil would lose half its power!' + +"There seemed to be so much practical wisdom in these views that we were +all dazzled and half-convinced at the start. So, when Hollins, turning +towards me, as he continued, exclaimed,--'Come, why should not this +candor be adopted in our Arcadia? Will any one--will you, Enos--commence +at once by telling me now--to my face--my principal faults?' I answered, +after a moment's reflection,--'You have a great deal of intellectual +arrogance, and you are, physically, very indolent.' + +"He did not flinch from the self-invited test, though he looked a little +surprised. + +"'Well put,' said he, 'though I do not say that you are entirely +correct. Now, what are my merits?' + +"'You are clear-sighted,' I answered, 'an earnest seeker after truth, +and courageous in the avowal of your thoughts.' + +"This restored the balance, and we soon began to confess our own private +faults and weaknesses. Though the confessions did not go very deep,--no +one betraying anything we did not all know already,--yet they were +sufficient to strengthen Hollins in his new idea, and it was unanimously +resolved that Candor should thenceforth be the main charm of our +Arcadian life. It was the very thing _I_ wanted, in order to make a +certain communication to Eunice; but I should probably never have +reached the point, had not the same candor been exercised towards me, +from a quarter where I least expected it. + +"The next day, Abel, who had resumed his researches after the True Food, +came home to supper with a healthier color than I had before seen on his +face. + +"'Do you know,' said he, looking shyly at Hollins, 'that I begin to +think Beer must be a natural beverage? There was an auction in the +village to-day, as I passed through, and I stopped at a cake-stand to +get a glass of water, as it was very hot. There was no water,--only +beer: so I thought I would try a glass, simply as an experiment. Really, +the flavor was very agreeable. And it occurred to me, on the way +home, that all the elements contained in beer are vegetable. Besides, +fermentation is a natural process. I think the question has never been +properly tested before.' + +"'But the alcohol!' exclaimed Hollins. + +"'I could not distinguish any, either by taste or smell. I know that +chemical analysis is said to show it; but may not the alcohol be +created, somehow, during the analysis?' + +"'Abel,' said Hollins, in a fresh burst of candor, 'you will never be +a Reformer, until you possess some of the commonest elements of +knowledge.' + +"The rest of us were much diverted: it was a pleasant relief to our +monotonous amiability. + +"Abel, however, had a stubborn streak in his character. The next day he +sent Perkins Brown to Bridgeport for a dozen bottles of 'Beer.' Perkins, +either intentionally or by mistake, (I always suspected the former,) +brought pint-bottles of Scotch ale, which he placed in the coolest part +of the cellar. The evening happened to be exceedingly hot and sultry, +and, as we were all fanning ourselves and talking languidly, Abel +bethought him of his beer. In his thirst, he drank the contents of the +first bottle, almost at a single draught. + +"'The effect of beer,' said he, 'depends, I think, on the commixture of +the nourishing principle of the grain with the cooling properties of the +water. Perhaps, hereafter, a liquid food of the same character may be +invented, which shall save us from mastication and all the diseases of +the teeth.' + +"Hollins and Shelldrake, at his invitation, divided a bottle between +them, and he took a second. The potent beverage was not long in acting +on a brain so unaccustomed to its influence. He grew unusually talkative +and sentimental, in a few minutes. + +"'Oh, sing, somebody!' he sighed in hoarse rapture: 'the night was made +for Song.' + +"Miss Ringtop, nothing loath, immediately commenced, 'When stars are in +the quiet skies'; but scarcely had she finished the first verse before +Abel interrupted her. + +"'Candor's the order of the day, isn't it?' he asked. + +"'Yes!' 'Yes!' two or three answered. + +"'Well, then,' said he, 'candidly, Pauline, you've got the darn'dest +squeaky voice'---- + +"Miss Ringtop gave a faint little scream of horror. + +"'Oh, never mind!' he continued. 'We act according to impulse, don't we? +And I've the impulse to swear; and it's right. Let Nature have her +way. Listen! Damn, damn, damn, damn! I never knew it was so easy. Why, +there's a pleasure in it! Try it, Pauline! try it on me!' + +"'Oh-ooh!' was all Miss Ringtop could utter. + +"'Abel! Abel!' exclaimed Hollins, 'the beer has got into your head.' + +"'No, it isn't Beer,--it's Candor!' said Abel. 'It's your own proposal, +Hollins. Suppose it's evil to swear: isn't it better I should express +it, and be done with it, than keep it bottled up, to ferment in my mind? +Oh, you're a precious, consistent old humbug, _you_ are!' + +"And therewith he jumped off the stoop, and went dancing awkwardly down +towards the water, singing in a most unmelodious voice, ''T is home +where'er the heart is.' + +"'Oh, he may fall into the water!' exclaimed Eunice, in alarm. + +"'He's not fool enough to do that,' said Shelldrake. 'His head is a +little light, that's all. The air will cool him down presently.' + +"But she arose and followed him, not satisfied with this assurance. Miss +Ringtop sat rigidly still. She would have received with composure the +news of his drowning. + +"As Eunice's white dress disappeared among the cedars crowning the +shore, I sprang up and ran after her. I knew that Abel was not +intoxicated, but simply excited, and I had no fear on his account: I +obeyed an involuntary impulse. On approaching the water, I heard their +voices,--hers in friendly persuasion, his in sentimental entreaty,--then +the sound of oars in the rowlocks. Looking out from the last clump of +cedars, I saw them seated in the boat, Eunice at the stern, while Abel, +facing her, just dipped an oar now and then to keep from drifting with +the tide. She had found him already in the boat, which was loosely +chained to a stone. Stepping on one of the forward thwarts, in her +eagerness to persuade him to return, he sprang past her, jerked away the +chain, and pushed off before she could escape. She would have fallen, +but he caught her and placed her in, the stern, and then seated himself +at the oars. She must have been somewhat alarmed, but there was only +indignation in her voice. All this had transpired before my arrival, and +the first words I heard bound me to the spot and kept me silent. + +"'Abel, what does this mean?' she asked. + +"'It means Fate,--Destiny!' he exclaimed, rather wildly. 'Ah, Eunice, +ask the night, and the moon,--ask the impulse which told you to follow +me! Let us be candid, like the old Arcadians we imitate. Eunice, we know +that we love each other: why should we conceal it any longer? The Angel +of Love comes down from the stars on his azure wings, and whispers to +our hearts. Let us confess to each other! The female heart should not be +timid, in this pure and beautiful atmosphere of Love which we breathe. +Come, Eunice! we are alone: let your heart speak to me!' + +"Ned, if you've ever been in love, (we'll talk of that, after a while,) +you will easily understand what tortures I endured, in thus hearing him +speak. That _he_ should love Eunice! It was a profanation to her, an +outrage to me. Yet the assurance with which he spoke! _Could_ she love +this conceited, ridiculous, repulsive fellow, after all? I almost gasped +for breath, as I clinched the prickly boughs of the cedars in my hands, +and set my teeth, waiting to hear her answer. + +"'I will not hear such language! Take me back to the shore!' she said, +in very short, decided tones. + +"'Oh, Eunice,' he groaned, (and now, I think, he was perfectly sober,) +'don't you love me, indeed? _I_ love _you_,--from my heart I do: yes, I +love you. Tell me how you feel towards me.' + +"'Abel,' said she, earnestly, 'I feel towards you only as a friend; and +if you wish me to retain a friendly interest in you, you must never +again talk in this manner. I do not love you, and I never shall. Let me +go back to the house. + +"His head dropped upon his breast, but he rowed back to the shore, drew +the bow upon the rocks, and assisted her to land. Then, sitting down, he +groaned forth,-- + +"'Oh, Eunice, you have broken my heart!' and putting his big hands to +his face, began to cry. + +"She turned, placed one hand on his shoulder, and said, in a calm, but +kind tone,-- + +"'I am very sorry, Abel, but I cannot help it.' + +"I slipped aside, that she might not see me, and we returned by separate +paths. + +"I slept very little that night. The conviction, which I had chased away +from my mind as often as it returned, that our Arcadian experiment was +taking a ridiculous and at the same time impracticable development, +became clearer and stronger. I felt sure that our little community could +not hold together much longer without an explosion. I had a presentiment +that Eunice shared my impressions. My feelings towards her had reached +that crisis where a declaration was imperative: but how to make it? It +was a terrible struggle between my shyness and my affection. There was +another circumstance, in connection with this subject, which troubled me +not a little. Miss Ringtop evidently sought my company, and made me, as +much as possible, the recipient of her sentimental outpourings. I was +not bold enough to repel her,--indeed, I had none of that tact which +is so useful in such emergencies,--and she seemed to misinterpret my +submission. Not only was her conversation pointedly directed to me, but +she looked at me, when singing, (especially, 'Thou, thou, reign'st in +this bosom!') in a way that made me feel very uncomfortable. What if +Eunice should suspect an attachment towards her, on my part? What +if--oh, horror!--I had unconsciously said or done something to impress +Miss Ringtop herself with the same conviction? I shuddered as the +thought crossed my mind. One thing was very certain: this suspense was +not to be endured much longer. + +"We had an unusually silent breakfast the next morning. Abel scarcely +spoke, which the others attributed to a natural feeling of shame, after +his display of the previous evening. Hollins and Shelldrake discussed +Temperance, with a special view to his edification, and Miss Ringtop +favored us with several quotations about 'the maddening bowl,'--but he +paid no attention to them. Eunice was pale and thoughtful. I had no +doubt, in my mind, that she was already contemplating a removal from +Arcadia. Perkins, whose perceptive faculties were by no means dull, +whispered to me, 'Sha'n't I bring up some porgies for supper?' but I +shook my head. I was busy with other thoughts, and did not join him in +the wood, that day. + +"The forenoon was overcast, with frequent showers. Each one occupied his +or her room until dinner-time, when we met again with something of the +old geniality. There was an evident effort to restore our former flow of +good feeling. Abel's experience with the beer was freely discussed. He +insisted strongly that he had not been laboring under its effects, and +proposed a mutual test. He, Shelldrake, and Hollins were to drink it +in equal measures, and compare observations as to their physical +sensations. The others agreed,--quite willingly, I thought,--but I +refused. I had determined to make a desperate attempt at candor, and +Abel's fate was fresh before my eyes. + +"My nervous agitation increased during the day, and, after sunset, +fearing lest I should betray my excitement in some way, I walked down +to the end of the promontory, and took a seat on the rocks. The sky +had cleared, and the air was deliciously cool and sweet. The Sound was +spread out before me like a sea, for the Long-Island shore was veiled in +a silvery mist. My mind was soothed and calmed by the influences of the +scene, until the moon arose. Moonlight, you know, disturbs,--at least, +when one is in love. (Ah, Ned, I see you understand it!) I felt +blissfully miserable, ready to cry with joy at the knowledge that I +loved, and with fear and vexation at my cowardice, at the same time. + +"Suddenly I heard a rustling beside me. Every nerve in my body tingled, +and I turned my head, with a beating and expectant heart. Pshaw! It was +Miss Ringtop, who spread her blue dress on the rock beside me, and shook +back her long curls, and sighed, as she gazed at the silver path of the +moon on the water. + +"'Oh, how delicious!' she cried. 'How it seems to set the spirit free, +and we wander off on the wings of Fancy to other spheres!' + +"'Yes,' said I, 'it is very beautiful, but sad, when one is alone.' + +"I was thinking of Eunice. + +"'How inadequate,' she continued, 'is language to express the emotions +which Such a scene calls up in the bosom! Poetry alone is the voice of +the spiritual world, and we, who are not poets, must borrow the language +of the gifted sons of Song. Oh, Enos, I _wish_ you were a poet! But you +_feel_ poetry, I know you do. I have seen it in your eyes, when I quoted +the burning lines of Adeliza Kelley, or the soul-breathings of Gamaliel +J. Gawthrop. In _him_, particularly, I find the voice of my own nature. +Do you know his "Night-Whispers"? How it embodies the feelings of such a +scene as this! + + "Star-drooping bowers bending down the + spaces, + And moonlit glories sweep star-footed on; + And pale, sweet rivers, in their shining + races, + Are ever gliding through the moonlit places, + With silver ripples on their tranced faces, + And forests clasp their dusky hands, with low + and sullen moan!" + +"'Ah!' she continued, as I made no reply, 'this is an hour for the soul +to unveil its most secret chambers! Do you not think, Enos, that love +rises superior to all conventionalities? that those whose souls are in +unison should be allowed to reveal themselves to each other, regardless +of the world's opinions?' + +"'Yes!' said I, earnestly. + +"'Enos, do you understand me?' she asked, in a tender voice,--almost a +whisper. + +"'Yes,' said I, with a blushing confidence of my own passion. + +"'Then,' she whispered, 'our hearts are wholly in unison. I know you are +true, Enos. I know your noble nature, and I will never doubt you. This +is indeed happiness!' + +"And therewith she laid her head on my shoulder, and sighed,-- + + "'Life remits his tortures cruel, + Love illumes his fairest fuel, + When the hearts that once were dual + Meet as one, in sweet renewal!' + +"'Miss Ringtop!' I cried, starting away from her, in alarm, 'you don't +mean that--that'---- + +"I could not finish the sentence. + +"'Yes, Enos, _dear_ Enos! henceforth we belong to each other.' + +"The painful embarrassment I felt, as her true meaning shot through my +mind, surpassed anything I had imagined, or experienced in anticipation, +when planning how I should declare myself to Eunice. Miss Ringtop was at +least ten years older than I, far from handsome, (but you remember her +face,) and so affectedly sentimental, that I, sentimental as I was then, +was sick of hearing her talk. Her hallucination was so monstrous, and +gave me such a shock of desperate alarm, that I spoke, on the impulse of +the moment, with great energy, without regarding how her feelings might +be wounded. + +"'You mistake!' I exclaimed. 'I didn't mean that,--I didn't understand +you. Don't talk to me that way,--don't look at me in that way, Miss +Ringtop! We were never meant for each other,--I wasn't----You're so +much older,--I mean different. It can't be,--no, it can never be! Let +us go back to the house: the night is cold.' + +"I rose hastily to my feet. She murmured something,--what, I did not +stay to hear,--but, plunging through the cedars, was hurrying with all +speed to the house, when, half-way up the lawn, beside one of the rocky +knobs, I met Eunice, who was apparently on her way to join us. In +my excited mood, after the ordeal through which I had just passed, +everything seemed easy. My usual timidity was blown to the four winds. I +went directly to her, took her hand, and said,-- + +"'Eunice, the others are driving me mad with their candor; will you let +me be candid, too?' + +"'I think you are always candid, Enos,' she answered. + +"Even then, if I had hesitated, I should have been lost. But I went on, +without pausing,-- + +"'Eunice, I love you,--I have loved you since we first met. I came here +that I might be near you; but I must leave you forever, and to-night, +unless you can trust your life in my keeping. God help me, since we have +been together I have lost my faith in almost everything but you. Pardon +me, if I am impetuous,--different from what I have seemed. I have +struggled so hard to speak! I have been a coward, Eunice, because of my +love. But now I have spoken, from my heart of hearts. Look at me: I can +bear it now. Read the truth in my eyes, before you answer.' + +"I felt her hand tremble while I spoke. As she turned towards me her +face, which had been averted, the moon shone full upon it, and I saw +that tears were upon her cheeks. What was said--whether anything was +said--I cannot tell. I felt the blessed fact, and that was enough. That +was the dawning of the true Arcadia." + +----Mrs. Billings, who had been silent during this recital, took her +husband's hand and smiled. Mr. Johnson felt a dull pang about the region +of his heart. If he had a secret, however, I do not feel justified in +betraying it. + +"It was late," Mr. Billings continued, "before we returned to the house. +I had a special dread of again encountering Miss Ringtop, but she was +wandering up and down the bluff, under the pines, singing, 'The dream +is past.' There was a sound of loud voices, as we approached the stoop. +Hollins, Shelldrake and his wife, and Abel Mallory were sitting together +near the door. Perkins Brown, as usual, was crouched on the lowest step, +with one leg over the other, and rubbing the top of his boot with a +vigor which betrayed to me some secret mirth. He looked up at me from +under his straw hat with the grin of a malicious Puck, glanced towards +the group, and made a curious gesture with his thumb. There were several +empty pint-bottles on the stoop. + +"'Now, are you sure you can bear the test?' we heard Hollins ask, as we +approached. + +"'Bear it? Why, to be sure!' replied Shelldrake; 'if I couldn't bear it, +or if _you_ couldn't, your theory's done for. Try! I can stand it as +long as you can.' + +"'Well, then,' said Hollins, 'I think you are a very ordinary man. I +derive no intellectual benefit from my intercourse with you, but +your house is convenient to me. I'm under no obligations for your +hospitality, however, because my company is an advantage to you. Indeed, +if I were treated according to my deserts, you couldn't do enough for +me.' + +"Mrs. Shelldrake was up in arms. + +"'Indeed,' she exclaimed, 'I think you get as good as you deserve, and +more too.' + +"'Elvira,' said he, with a benevolent condescension, 'I have no doubt +you think so, for your mind belongs to the lowest and most material +sphere. You have your place in Nature, and you fill it; but it is not +for you to judge of intelligences which move only on the upper planes.' + +"'Hollins,' said Shelldrake, 'Elviry's a good wife and a sensible woman, +and I won't allow you to turn up your nose at her.' + +"'I am not surprised,' he answered, 'that you should fail to stand the +test. I didn't expect it.' + +"'Let me try it on _you_!' cried Shelldrake. 'You, now, have some +intellect,--I don't deny that,--but not so much, by a long shot, as you +think you have. Besides that, you're awfully selfish, in your opinions. +You won't admit that anybody can be right who differs from you. You've +sponged on me for a long time; but I suppose I've learned something from +you, so we'll call it even. I think, however, that what you call acting +according to impulse is simply an excuse to cover your own laziness.' + +"'Gosh! that's it!' interrupted Perkins, jumping up; then, recollecting +himself, he sank down on the steps again, and shook with a suppressed +'Ho! ho! ho!' + +"Hollins, however, drew himself up with an exasperated air. + +"'Shelldrake,' said he, 'I pity you. I always knew your ignorance, but +I thought you honest in your human character. I never suspected you +of envy and malice. However, the true Reformer must expect to be +misunderstood and misrepresented by meaner minds. That love which I bear +to all creatures teaches me to forgive you. Without such love, all plans +of progress must fail. Is it not so, Abel?' + +"Shelldrake could only ejaculate the words, 'Pity!' 'Forgive!' in his +most contemptuous tone; while Mrs. Shelldrake, rocking violently in her +chair, gave utterance to that peculiar clucking '_ts, ts, ts, ts_,' +whereby certain women express emotions too deep for words. + +"Abel, roused by Hollins's question, answered, with a sudden energy,-- + +"'Love! there is no love in the world. Where will you find it? Tell me, +and I'll go there. Love! I'd like to see it! If all human hearts were +like mine, we might have an Arcadia; but most men have no hearts. The +world is a miserable, hollow, deceitful shell of vanity and hypocrisy. +No: let us give up. We were born before our time: this age is not worthy +of us.' + +"Hollins stared at the speaker in utter amazement. Shelldrake gave a +long whistle, and finally gasped out,-- + +"'Well, what next?' + +"None of us were prepared for such a sudden and complete wreck of our +Arcadian scheme. The foundations had been sapped before, it is true; but +we had not perceived it; and now, in two short days, the whole edifice +tumbled about our ears. Though it was inevitable, we felt a shock of +sorrow, and a silence fell upon us. Only that scamp of a Perkins Brown, +chuckling and rubbing his boot, really rejoiced. I could have kicked +him. + +"We all went to bed, feeling that the charm of our Arcadian life was +over. I was so full of the new happiness of love that I was scarcely +conscious of regret. I seemed to have leaped at once into responsible +manhood, and a glad rush of courage filled me at the knowledge that my +own heart was a better oracle than those--now so shamefully overthrown-- +on whom I had so long implicitly relied. In the first revulsion of +feeling, I was perhaps unjust to my associates. I see now, more clearly, +the causes of those vagaries, which originated in a genuine aspiration, +and failed from an ignorance of the true nature of Man, quite as much +as from the egotism of the individuals. Other attempts at reorganizing +Society were made about the same time by men of culture and experience, +but in the A.C. we had neither. Our leaders had caught a few +half-truths, which, in their minds, were speedily warped into errors. +I can laugh over the absurdities I helped to perpetrate, but I must +confess that the experiences of those few weeks went far towards making +a man of me." + +"Did the A.C. break up at once?" asked Mr. Johnson. + +"Not precisely; though Eunice and I left the house within two days, as +we had agreed. We were not married immediately, however. Three long +years--years of hope and mutual encouragement--passed away before that +happy consummation. Before our departure, Hollins had fallen into his +old manner, convinced, apparently, that Candor must be postponed to a +better age of the world. But the quarrel rankled in Shelldrake's mind, +and especially in that of his wife. I could see by her looks and little +fidgety ways that his further stay would be very uncomfortable. Abel +Mallory, finding himself gaining in weight and improving in color, had +no thought of returning. The day previous, as I afterwards learned, he +had discovered Perkins Brown's secret kitchen in the woods. + +"'Golly!' said that youth, in describing the circumstance to me, 'I had +to ketch _two_ porgies that day.' + +"Miss Ringtop, who must have suspected the new relation between Eunice +and myself, was for the most part rigidly silent. If she quoted, it was +from the darkest and dreariest utterances of her favorite Gamaliel. + +"What happened after our departure I learned from Perkins, on the return +of the Shelldrakes to Norridgeport, in September. Mrs. Shelldrake +stoutly persisted in refusing to make Hollins's bed, or to wash his +shirts. Her brain was dull, to be sure; but she was therefore all the +more stubborn in her resentment. He bore this state of things for about +a week, when his engagements to lecture in Ohio suddenly called him +away. Abel and Miss Ringtop were left to wander about the promontory in +company, and to exchange lamentations on the hollowness of human hopes +or the pleasures of despair. Whether it was owing to that attraction of +sex which would make any man and any woman, thrown together on a desert +island, finally become mates, or whether she skilfully ministered to +Abel's sentimental vanity, I will not undertake to decide: but the fact +is, they were actually betrothed, on leaving Arcadia. I think he would +willingly have retreated, after his return to the world; but that was +not so easy. Miss Ringtop held him with an inexorable clutch. They were +not married, however, until just before his departure for California, +whither she afterwards followed him. She died in less than a year, and +left him free." + +"And what became of the other Arcadians?" asked Mr. Johnson. + +"The Shelldrakes are still living in Norridgeport. They have become +Spiritualists, I understand, and cultivate Mediums. Hollins, when I +last heard of him, was a Deputy Surveyor in the New York Custom-House. +Perkins Brown is our butcher, here in Waterbury, and he often asks +me,--'Do you take chloride of soda on your beefsteaks? 'He is as fat as +a prize ox, and the father of five children." + +"Enos!" exclaimed Mrs. Billings, looking at the clock, "it's nearly +midnight! Mr. Johnson must be very tired, after such a long story. The +Chapter of the A.C. is hereby closed!" + + * * * * * + + +SNOW. + + +All through the long hours of yesterday the low clouds hung close above +our heads, to pour with more unswerving aim their constant storm of +sleet and snow,--sometimes working in soft silence, sometimes with +impatient gusty breaths, but always busily at work. Darkness brought no +rest to these laborious warriors of the air, but only fiercer strife: +the wild winds rose; noisy recruits, they howled beneath the eaves, +or swept around the walls, like hungry wolves, now here, now there, +howling; at opposite doors. Thus, through the anxious and wakeful night, +the storm went on. The household lay vexed by broken dreams, with +changing fancies of lost children on solitary moors, of sleighs +hopelessly overturned in drifted and pathless gorges, or of icy cordage +upon disabled vessels in Arctic seas; until a softer warmth, as of +sheltering snow-wreaths, lulled all into deeper rest till morning. + +And what a morning! The sun, a young conqueror, sends in his glorious +rays, like heralds, to rouse us for the inspection of his trophies. The +baffled foe, retiring, has left far and near the high-heaped spoils +behind. The glittering plains own the new victor. Over all these level +and wide-swept meadows, over all these drifted, spotless slopes, he is +proclaimed undisputed monarch. On the wooded hill-sides the startled +shadows are in motion; they flee like young fawns, bounding upward and +downward over rock and dell, as through the long gleaming arches the +king comes marching to his throne. But shade yet lingers undisturbed in +the valleys, mingled with timid smoke from household chimneys; blue as +the smoke, a gauzy haze is twined around the brow of every distant hill; +and the same soft azure confuses the outlines of the nearer trees, to +whose branches snowy wreaths are clinging, far up among the boughs, like +strange new flowers. Everywhere the unstained surface glistens in the +sunbeams. In the curves and wreaths and turrets of the drifts a blue +tinge nestles. The fresh pure sky answers to it; every cloud has +vanished, save one or two which linger near the horizon, pardoned +offenders, seeming far too innocent for mischief, although their dark +and sullen brothers, banished ignominiously below the horizon's verge, +may be plotting nameless treachery there. The brook still flows visibly +through the valley, and the myriad rocks that check its course are all +rounded with fleecy surfaces, till they seem like flocks of tranquil +sheep that drink the shallow flood. + +The day is one of moderate cold, but clear and bracing; the air sparkles +like the snow; everything seems dry and resonant, like the wood of a +violin. All sounds are musical,--the voices of children, the cooing +of doves, the crowing of cocks, the chopping of wood, the creaking of +country sleds, the sweet jangle of sleighbells. The snow has fallen +under a cold temperature, and the flakes are perfectly crystallized; +every shrub we pass bears wreaths which glitter as gorgeously as the +nebula in the constellation Perseus; but in another hour of sunshine +every one of those fragile outlines will disappear, and the white +surface glitter no longer with stars, but with star-dust. On such a +day, the universe seems to held but three pure tints,--blue, white, +and green. The loveliness of the universe seems simplified to its last +extreme of refined delicacy. That sensation we poor mortals often +have, of being just on the edge of infinite beauty, yet with always a +lingering film between, never presses down more closely than on days +like this. Everything seems perfectly prepared to satiate the soul with +inexpressible felicity if we could only, by one infinitesimal step +farther, reach the mood to dwell in it. + +Leaving behind us the sleighs and snow-shovels of the street, we turn +noiselessly toward the radiant margin of the sunlit woods. The yellow +willows on the causeway burn like flame against the darker background, +and will burn on until they burst into April. Yonder pines and hemlocks +stand motionless and dark against the sky. The statelier trees have +already shaken all the snow from their summits, but it still clothes the +lower ones with a white covering that looks solid as marble. Yet see how +lightly it escapes!--a slight gust shakes a single tree, there is a +_Staub-bach_ for a moment, and the branches stand free as in summer, a +pyramid of green amid the whiteness of the yet imprisoned forest. Each +branch raises itself when emancipated, thus changing the whole outline +of the growth; and the snow beneath is punctured with a thousand little +depressions, where the petty avalanches have just buried themselves and +disappeared. + +In crossing this white level, we have been tracking our way across an +invisible pond, which was alive last week with five hundred skaters. +Now there is a foot of snow upon it, through which there is a boyish +excitement in making the first path. Looking back upon our track, it +proves to be like all other human paths, straight in intention, but +slightly devious in deed. We have gay companions on our way; for a +breeze overtakes us, and a hundred little simooms of drift whirl along +beside us, and whelm in miniature burial whole caravans of dry leaves. +Here, too, our track intersects with that of some previous passer; he +has but just gone on, judging by the freshness of the trail, and we can +study his character and purposes. The large boots betoken a wood-man or +ice-man: yet such a one would hardly have stepped so irresolutely where +a little film of water has spread between the ice and snow and given a +look of insecurity; and here again he has stopped to observe the wreaths +on this pendent bough, and this snow-filled bird's-nest. And there the +footsteps of the lover of beauty turn abruptly to the road again, and he +vanishes from us forever. + +As we wander on through the wood, all the labyrinths of summer are +buried beneath one white inviting pathway, and the pledge of perfect +loneliness is given by the unbroken surface of the all-revealing snow. +There appears nothing living except a downy woodpecker, whirling round +and round upon a young beech-stem, and a few sparrows, plump with +grass-seed and hurrying with jerking flight down the sunny glade. But +the trees furnish society enough. What a congress of ermined kings is +this circle of hemlocks, which stand, white in their soft raiment, +around the dais of this woodland pond! Are they held here, like the +sovereigns in the palace of the Sleeping Beauty, till some mortal breaks +their spell? What sage counsels must be theirs, as they nod their weary +heads and whisper ghostly memories and old men's tales to each other, +while the red leaves dance on the snowy sward below, or a fox or +squirrel steals hurriedly through the wild and wintry night! Here and +there is some discrowned Lear, who has thrown off his regal mantle, and +stands in faded russet, misplaced among the monarchs. + +What a simple and stately hospitality is that of Nature in winter! The +season which the residents of cities think an obstruction is in the +country an extension of intercourse: it opens every forest from here +to Labrador, free of entrance; the most tangled thicket, the most +treacherous marsh becomes passable; and the lumberer or moose-hunter, +mounted on his snow-shoes, has the world before him. He says "good +snow-shoeing," as we say "good sleighing"; and it gives a sensation like +a first visit to the sea-side and the shipping, when one first sees +exhibited, in the streets of Bangor or Montreal, these delicate Indian +conveyances. It seems as if a new element were suddenly opened for +travel, and all due facilities provided. One expects to go a little +farther, and see in the shop-windows, "Wings for sale,--gentlemen's and +ladies' sizes." The snow-shoe and the birch-canoe,--what other dying +race ever left behind it two memorials so perfect and so graceful? + +The shadows thrown by the trees upon the snow are blue and soft, sharply +defined, and so contrasted with the gleaming white as to appear narrower +than the boughs which cast them. There is something subtle and fantastic +about these shadows. Here is a leafless larch-sapling, eight feet high. +The image of the lower boughs is traced upon the snow, distinct and firm +as cordage, while the higher ones grow dimmer by fine gradations, until +the slender topmost twig is blurred and almost effaced. But the denser +upper spire of the young spruce by its side throws almost as distinct a +shadow as its base, and the whole figure looks of a more solid texture, +as if you could feel it with your hand. More beautiful than either is +the fine image of this baby hemlock: each delicate leaf droops above as +delicate a copy, and here and there the shadow and the substance kiss +and frolic with each other in the downy snow. + +The larger larches have a different plaything: on the bare branches, +thickly studded with buds, cling airily the small, light cones of last +year's growth, each crowned, with a little ball of soft snow, four times +taller than itself,--save where some have drooped sideways, so that +each carries, poor weary Atlas, a sphere upon its back. Thus the coy +creatures play cup and ball, and one has lost its plaything yonder, as +the branch slightly stirs, and the whole vanishes in a whirl of snow. +Meanwhile a fragment of low arbor-vitae hedge, poor outpost of a +neighboring plantation, is so covered and packed with solid drift, +inside and out, that it seems as if no power of sunshine could ever +steal in among its twigs and disentangle it. + +In winter each separate object interests us; in summer, the mass. +Natural beauty in winter is a poor man's luxury, infinitely enhanced in +quality by the diminution in quantity. Winter, with fewer and simpler +methods, yet seems to give all her works a finish even more delicate +than that of summer, working, as Emerson says of English agriculture, +with a pencil, instead of a plough. Or rather, the ploughshare is but +concealed; since a pithy old English preacher has said that, "the frost +is God's plough, which He drives through every inch of ground in the +world, opening each clod, and pulverizing the whole." + +Coming out upon a high hill-side, more exposed to the direct fury of the +sleet, we find Nature wearing a wilder look. Every white-birch clump +around us is bent divergingly to the ground, each white form prostrated +in mute despair upon the whiter bank. The bare, writhing branches of +yonder sombre oak-grove are steeped in snow, and in the misty air they +look so remote and foreign that there is not a wild creature of the +Norse mythology who might not stalk from beneath their haunted branches. +Buried races, Teutons and Cimbri, might tramp solemnly forth from those +weird arcades. The soft pines on this nearer knoll seem separated from +them by ages and generations. On the farther hills spread woods of +smaller growth, like forests of spun glass, jewelry by the acre provided +for this coronation of winter. + +We descend a steep bank, little pellets of snow rolling hastily beside +us, and leaving enamelled furrows behind. Entering the sheltered and +sunny glade, we are assailed by a sudden warmth whose languor is almost +oppressive. Wherever the sun strikes upon the pines and hemlocks, +there is a household gleam which gives a more vivid sensation than +the diffused brilliancy of summer. The sunbeams maintain a thousand +secondary fires in the reflection of light from every tree and stalk, +for the preservation of animal life and the ultimate melting of these +accumulated drifts. Around each trunk or stone the snow has melted and +fallen back. It is a singular fact, established beyond doubt by science, +that the snow is absolutely less influenced by the direct rays of the +sun than by these reflections. "If a blackened card is placed upon the +snow or ice in the sunshine, the frozen mass underneath it will be +gradually thawed, while that by which it is surrounded, though exposed +to the full power of solar heat, is but little disturbed. If, however, +we reflect the sun's rays from a metal surface, an exactly contrary +result takes place: the uncovered parts are the first to melt, and the +blackened card stands high above the surrounding portion." Look round +upon this buried meadow, and you will see emerging through the white +surface a thousand stalks of grass, sedge, osmunda, golden-rod, mullein, +Saint-John's-wort, plaintain, and eupatorium,--an allied army of the +sun, keeping up a perpetual volley of innumerable rays upon the yielding +snow. + +It is their last dying service. We misplace our tenderness in winter, +and look with pity upon the leafless trees. But there is no tragedy +in the trees: each is not dead, but sleepeth; and each bears a future +summer of buds safe nestled on its bosom, as a mother reposes with her +baby at her breast. The same security of life pervades every woody +shrub: the alder and the birch have their catkins all ready for the +first day of spring, and the sweet-fern has even now filled with +fragrance its folded blossom. Winter is no such solid bar between season +and season as we fancy, but only a slight check and interruption: one +may at any time produce these March blossoms by bringing the buds into +the warm house; and the petals of the May-flower sometimes show their +pink and white edges in autumn. But every grass-blade and flower-stalk +is a mausoleum of vanished summer, itself crumbling to dust, never to +rise again. Each child of June, scarce distinguishable in November +against the background of moss and rocks and bushes, is brought into +final prominence in December by the white snow which imbeds it. The +delicate flakes collapse and fall back around it, but they retain their +inexorable hold. Thus delicate is the action of Nature,--a finger of +air, and a grasp of iron. + +We pass the old red foundry, banked in with snow and its low eaves +draped with icicles, and come to the brook which turns its resounding +wheel. The musical motion of the water seems almost unnatural amidst +the general stillness: brooks, like men, must keep themselves warm by +exercise. The overhanging rushes and alder-sprays, weary of winter's +sameness, have made for themselves playthings,--each dangling a crystal +knob of ice, which sways gently in the water and gleams ruddy in the +sunlight. As we approach the foaming cascade, the toys become larger and +more glittering, movable stalactites, which the water tosses merrily +upon their flexible stems. The torrent pours down beneath an enamelled +mask of ice, wreathed and convoluted like a brain, and sparkling +with gorgeous glow. Tremulous motions and glimmerings go through the +translucent veil, as if it throbbed with the throbbing wave beneath. +It holds in its mazes stray bits of color,--scarlet berries, evergreen +sprigs, blue raspberry-stems, and sprays of yellow willow; glittering +necklaces and wreaths and tiaras of brilliant ice-work cling and trail +around its edges, and no regal palace shines with such carcanets of +jewels as this winter ball-room of the dancing drops. + +Above, the brook becomes a smooth black canal between two steep white +banks; and the glassy water seems momentarily stiffening into the +solider blackness of ice. Here and there thin films are already formed +over it, and are being constantly broken apart by the treacherous +current; a flake a foot square is jerked away and goes sliding beneath +the slight transparent surface till it reappears below. The same thing, +on a larger scale, helps to form the mighty ice-pack of the Northern +seas. Nothing except ice is capable of combining, on the largest scale, +bulk with mobility, and this imparts a dignity to its motions even on +the smallest scale. I do not believe that anything in Behring's Straits +could impress me with a grander sense of desolation or of power than +when in boyhood I watched the ice break up in the winding channel of +Charles River. + +Amidst so much that seems like death, let us turn and study the life. +There is much more to be seen in winter than most of us have ever +noticed. Far in the North the "moose-yards" are crowded and trampled, at +this season, and the wolf and the deer run noiselessly a deadly race, +as I have heard the hunters describe, upon the white surface of the +gleaming lake. But the pond beneath our feet keeps its stores of life +chiefly below its level platform, as the bright fishes in the basket of +yon heavy-booted fisherman can tell. Yet the scattered tracks of mink +and musk-rat beside the banks, of meadow-mice around the hay-stacks, of +squirrels under the trees, of rabbits and partridges in the wood, show +the warm life that is beating unseen, beneath fur or feathers, close +beside us. The chicadees are chattering merrily in the upland grove, the +blue-jays scream in the hemlock glade, the snow-bird mates the snow with +its whiteness, and the robin contrasts with it his still ruddy breast. +The weird and impenetrable crows, most talkative of birds and most +uncommunicative, their very food at this season a mystery, are almost as +numerous now as in summer. They always seem like some race of banished +goblins, doing penance for some primeval and inscrutable transgression, +and if any bird have a history, it is they. In the Spanish version of +the tradition of King Arthur it is said that he fled from the weeping +queens and the island valley of Avilion in the form of a crow; and hence +it is said in "Don Quixote" that no Englishman will ever kill one. + +The traces of the insects in the winter are prophetic,--from the +delicate cocoon of some infinitesimal feathery thing which hangs upon +the dry, starry calyx of the aster, to the large brown-paper parcel +which hides in peasant garb the costly beauty of some gorgeous moth. But +the hints of birds are retrospective. In each tree of this pasture, the +very pasture where last spring we looked for nests and found them not +among the deceitful foliage, the fragile domiciles now stand revealed. +But where are the birds that filled them? Could the airy creatures +nurtured in those nests have left permanently traced upon the air behind +them their own bright summer flight, the whole atmosphere would be +filled with interlacing lines and curves of gorgeous coloring, the +centre of all being this forsaken bird's-nest filled with snow. + +Among the many birds which winter here, and the many insects which are +called forth by a few days of thaw, not a few must die of cold or of +fatigue amid the storms. Yet how few traces one sees of this mortality! +Provision is made for it. Yonder a dead wasp has fallen on the snow, and +the warmth of its body, or its power of reflecting a few small rays +of light, is melting its little grave beneath it. With what a cleanly +purity does Nature strive to withdraw all unsightly objects into her +cemetery! Their own weight and lingering warmth take them through air +or water, snow or ice, to the level of the earth, and there with spring +comes an army of burying-insects, _Necrophagi_, in a livery of red and +black, to dig a grave beneath every one, and not a sparrow falleth to +the ground without knowledge. The tiny remains thus disappear from the +surface, and the dry leaves are soon spread above these Children in the +Wood. + +Thus varied and benignant are the aspects of winter on these sunny days. +But it is impossible to claim this weather as the only type of our +winter climate. There occasionally come days which, though perfectly +still and serene, suggest more terror than any tempest,--terrible, +clear, glaring days of pitiless cold,--when the sun seems powerless +or only a brighter moon, when the windows remain ground-glass at high +noontide, and when, on going out of doors, one is dazzled by the +brightness and fancies for a moment that it cannot be so cold as has +been reported, but presently discovers that the severity is only more +deadly for being so still. Exercise on such days seems to produce no +warmth; one's limbs appear ready to break on any sudden motion, like +icy boughs. Stage-drivers and dray-men are transformed to mere human +buffaloes by their fur coats; the patient oxen are frost-covered; the +horse that goes racing by waves a wreath of steam from his tossing head. +On such days life becomes a battle to all householders, the ordinary +apparatus for defence is insufficient, and the price of caloric is +continual vigilance. In innumerable armies the frost besieges the +portal, creeps in beneath it and above it, and on every latch and +key-handle lodges an advanced guard of white rime. Leave the door ajar +never so slightly and a chill creeps in cat-like; we are conscious by +the warmest fireside of the near vicinity of cold, its fingers are +feeling after us, and even if they do not clutch us, we know that they +are there. The sensations of such days almost make us associate their +clearness and whiteness with something malignant and evil. Charles Lamb +asserts of snow, "It glares too much for an innocent color, methinks." +Why does popular mythology associate the infernal regions with a high +temperature instead of a low one? El Aishi, the Arab writer, says of the +bleak wind of the Desert, (so writes Richardson, the African traveller,) +"The north wind blows with an intensity equalling _the cold of hell_; +language fails me to describe its rigorous temperature." Some have +thought that there is a similar allusion in the phrase, "weeping and +gnashing of teeth,"--the teeth chattering from frost. Milton also +enumerates cold as one of the torments of the lost:-- + + "O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp"; + +and one may sup full of horrors on the exceedingly cold collation +provided for the next world by the Norse Edda. + +But, after all, there are few such terrific periods in our Massachusetts +winters, and the appointed exit from their frigidity is usually through +a snow-storm. After a day of this severe sunshine there comes commonly +a darker day of cloud, still hard and forbidding, though milder in +promise, with a sky of lead, deepening near the horizon into darker +films of iron. Then, while all the nerves of the universe seem rigid and +tense, the first reluctant flake steals slowly down, like a tear. In a +few hours the whole atmosphere begins to relax once more, and in +our astonishing climate very possibly the snow changes to rain in +twenty-four hours, and a thaw sets in. It is not strange, therefore, +that snow, which to Southern races is typical of cold and terror, brings +associations of warmth and shelter to the children of the North. + +Snow, indeed, actually nourishes animal life. It holds in its bosom +numerous animalcules: you may have a glass of water, perfectly free from +_infusoria_, which yet, after your dissolving in it a handful of snow, +will show itself full of microscopic creatures, shrimp-like and swift; +and the famous red snow of the Arctic regions is only an exhibition of +the same property. It has sometimes been fancied that persons buried +under the snow have received sustenance through the pores of the skin, +like reptiles imbedded in rock. Elizabeth Woodcock lived eight days +beneath a snow-drift, in 1799, without eating a morsel; and a Swiss +family were buried beneath an avalanche, in a manger, for five months, +in 1755, with no food but a trifling store of chestnuts and a small +daily supply of milk from a goat which was buried with them. In neither +case was there extreme suffering from cold, and it is unquestionable +that the interior of a drift is far warmer than the surface. On the 23d +of December, 1860, at 9 P.M., I was surprised to observe drops falling +from the under side of a heavy bank of snow at the eaves, at a distance +from any chimney, while the mercury on the same side was only fifteen +degrees above zero, not having indeed risen above the point of freezing +during the whole day. + +Dr. Kane pays ample tribute to these kindly properties. "Few of us at +home can recognize the protecting value of this warm coverlet of snow. +No eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than +the sleeping-dress of winter about this feeble flower-life. The first +warm snows of August and September, falling on a thickly pleached carpet +of grasses, heaths, and willows, enshrine the flowery growths which +nestle round them in a non-conducting air-chamber; and as each +successive snow increases the thickness of the cover, we have, before +the intense cold of winter sets in, a light cellular bed covered by +drift, six, eight, or ten feet deep, in which the plant retains its +vitality. ... I have found in midwinter, in this high latitude of 78 deg. +50', the surface so nearly moist as to be friable to the touch; and upon +the ice-floes, commencing with a surface-temperature of-30 deg., I found +at two feet deep a temperature of-8 deg., at four feet + 2 deg., and at eight +feet + 26 deg.. ... The glacier which we became so familiar with afterwards +at Etah yields an uninterrupted stream throughout the year." And he +afterwards shows that even the varying texture and quality of the snow +deposited during the earlier and later portions of the Arctic winter +have their special adaptations to the welfare of the vegetation they +protect. + +The process of crystallization seems a microcosm of the universe. +Radiata, mollusca, feathers, flowers, ferns, mosses, palms, pines, +grain-fields, leaves of cedar, chestnut, elm, acanthus: these and +multitudes of other objects are figured on your frosty window; on +sixteen different panes I have counted sixteen patterns strikingly +distinct, and it appeared like a show-case for the globe. What can seem +remoter relatives than the star, the starfish, the star-flower, and the +starry snow-flake which clings this moment to your sleeve?--yet some +philosophers hold that one day their law of existence will be found +precisely the same. The connection with the primeval star, especially, +seems far and fanciful enough, but there are yet unexplored affinities +between light and crystallization: some crystals have a tendency to grow +toward the light, and others develop electricity and give out flashes of +light during their formation. Slight foundations for scientific fancies, +indeed, but slight is all our knowledge. + +More than a hundred different figures of snow-flakes, all regular and +kaleidoscopic, have been drawn by Scoresby, Lowe, and Glaisher, and may +be found pictured in the encyclopaedias and elsewhere, ranging from the +simplest stellar shapes to the most complicated ramifications. Professor +Tyndall, in his delightful book on "The Glaciers of the Alps," gives +drawings of a few of these snow-blossoms, which he watched falling for +hours, the whole air being filled with them, and drifts of several +inches being accumulated while he watched. "Let us imagine the eye +gifted with microscopic power sufficient to enable it to see the +molecules which composed these starry crystals; to observe the solid +nucleus formed and floating in the air; to see it drawing towards it its +allied atoms, and these arranging themselves as if they moved to music, +and ended with rendering that music concrete." Thus do the Alpine winds, +like Orpheus, build their walls by harmony. + +In some of these frost-flowers the rare and delicate blossom of our wild +_Mitella diphylla_ is beautifully figured. Snow-flakes have been also +found in the form of regular hexagons and other plane figures, as well +as in cylinders and spheres. As a general rule, the intenser the cold +the more perfect the formation, and the most perfect specimens are +Arctic or Alpine in their locality. In this climate the snow seldom +falls when the mercury is much below zero; but the slightest atmospheric +changes may alter the whole condition of the deposit, and decide whether +it shall sparkle like Italian marble, or be dead-white like the statuary +marble of Vermont,--whether it shall be a fine powder which can sift +through wherever dust can, or descend in large woolly masses, tossed +like mouthfuls to the hungry South. + +The most remarkable display of crystallization which I have ever seen +was on the 13th of January, 1859. There had been three days of unusual +cold, but during the night the weather had moderated, and the mercury in +the morning stood at + 14 deg.. About two inches of snow had fallen, and the +trees appeared densely coated with it. It proved, on examination, that +every twig had on the leeward side a dense row of miniature fronds or +fern-leaves executed in snow, with a sharply defined central nerve, or +midrib, and perfect ramification, tapering to a point, and varying in +length from half an inch to three inches. On every post, every rail, and +the corners of every building, the same spectacle was seen; and where +the snow had accumulated in deep drifts, it was still made up of the +ruins of these fairy structures. The white, enamelled landscape was +beautiful, but a close view of the details was far more so. The +crystallizations were somewhat uniform in structure, yet suggested a +variety of natural objects, as feather-mosses, birds' feathers, and the +most delicate lace-corals, but the predominant analogy was with ferns. +Yet they seemed to assume a sort of fantastic kindred with the objects +to which they adhered: thus, on the leaves of spruce-trees and on +delicate lichens they seemed like reduplications of the original growth, +and they made the broad, fiat leaves of the arbor-vitae fully twice as +wide as before. But this fringe was always on one side only, except +when gathered upon dangling fragments of spider's web, or bits of stray +thread: these they entirely encircled, probably because these objects +had twirled in the light wind while the crystals were forming. Singular +disguises were produced: a bit of ragged rope appeared a piece of +twisted lace-work; a knot-hole in a board was adorned with a deep +antechamber of snowy wreaths; and the frozen body of a hairy caterpillar +became its own well-plumed hearse. The most peculiar circumstance was +the fact that single flakes never showed any regular crystallization: +the magic was in the combination; the under sides of rails and boards +exhibited it as unequivocally as the upper sides, indicating that the +phenomenon was created in the lower atmosphere, and was more akin to +frost than snow; and yet the largest snow-banks were composed of nothing +else, and seemed like heaps of blanched iron-filings. + +Interesting observations have been made on the relations between ice and +snow. The difference seems to lie only in the more or less compacted +arrangement of the frozen particles. Water and air, each being +transparent when separate, become opaque when intimately mingled; the +reason being that the inequalities of refraction break up and scatter +every ray of light. Thus, clouds cast a shadow; so does steam; so does +foam: and the same elements take a still denser texture when combined +as snow. Every snow-flake is permeated with minute airy chambers, among +which the light is bewildered and lost; while from perfectly hard and +transparent ice every trace of air disappears, and the transmission +of light is unbroken. Yet that same ice becomes white and opaque when +pulverized, its fragments being then intermingled with air again,--just +as colorless glass may be crushed into white powder. On the other +hand, Professor Tyndall has converted slabs of snow to ice by regular +pressure, and has shown that every Alpine glacier begins as a snow-drift +at its summit, and ends in a transparent ice-cavern below. "The blue +blocks which span the sources of the Arveiron were once powdery snow +upon the slopes of the Col du Geant." + +The varied and wonderful shapes assumed by snow and ice have been best +portrayed, perhaps, by Dr. Kane in his two works; but their resources of +color have been so explored by no one as by this same favored Professor +Tyndall, among his Alps. It appears that the tints which in temperate +regions are seen feebly and occasionally, in hollows or angles of fresh +drifts, become brilliant and constant above the line of perpetual snow, +and the higher the altitude the more lustrous the display. When a staff +was struck into the new-fallen drift, the hollow seemed instantly to +fill with a soft blue liquid, while the snow adhering to the staff took +a complementary color of pinkish yellow, and on moving it up and down +it was hard to resist the impression that a pink flame was rising and +sinking in the hole. The little natural furrows in the drifts appeared +faintly blue, the ridges were gray, while the parts most exposed to +view seemed least illuminated, and as if a light brown dust had been +sprinkled over them. The fresher the snow, the more marked the colors, +and it made no difference whether the sky were cloudless or foggy. Thus +was every white peak decked upon its brow with this tiara of ineffable +beauty. + +The impression is very general that the average quantity of snow has +greatly diminished in America; but it must be remembered that very +severe storms occur only at considerable intervals, and the Puritans did +not always, as boys fancy, step out of the upper windows upon the snow. +In 1717, the ground was covered from ten to twenty feet, indeed; but +during January, 1861, the snow was six feet on a level in many parts of +Maine and New Hampshire, and was probably drifted three times that depth +in particular spots. The greatest storm recorded in England, I believe, +is that of 1814, in which for forty-eight hours the snow fell so +furiously that drifts of sixteen, twenty, and even twenty-four feet were +recorded in various places. An inch an hour is thought to be the average +rate of deposit, though four inches are said to have fallen during the +severe storm of January 3d, 1859. When thus intensified, the "beautiful +meteor of the snow" begins to give a sensation of something formidable; +and when the mercury suddenly falls meanwhile, and the wind rises, there +are sometimes suggestions of such terror in a snowstorm as no summer +thunders can rival. The brief and singular tempest of February 7th, +1861, was a thing to be forever remembered by those who saw it, as I +did, over a wide plain. The sky suddenly appeared to open and let down +whole solid snow-banks at once, which were caught and torn to pieces by +the ravenous winds, and the traveller was instantaneously enveloped in +a whirling mass far denser than any fog; it was a tornado with snow +stirred into it. Standing in the middle of the road, with houses close +on every side, one could see absolutely nothing in any direction, one +could hear no sound but the storm. Every landmark vanished, and it was +no more possible to guess the points of the compass than in mid-ocean. +It was easy to conceive of being bewildered and overwhelmed within a rod +of one's own door. The tempest lasted only an hour; but if it had lasted +a week, we should have had such a storm as occurred on the steppes of +Kirgheez in Siberia, in 1827, destroying two hundred and eighty thousand +five hundred horses, thirty thousand four hundred cattle, a million +sheep, and ten thousand camels,--or as "the thirteen drifty days," +in 1620, which killed nine-tenths of all the sheep in the South of +Scotland. On Eskdale Moor, out of twenty thousand only forty-five were +left alive, and the shepherds everywhere built up huge semicircular +walls of the dead creatures, to afford shelter to the living, till the +gale should end. But the most remarkable narrative of a snowstorm which +I have ever seen was that written by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, +in record of one which took place January 24th, 1790. + +James Hogg at this time belonged to a sort of literary society of young +shepherds, and had set out, the day previous, to walk twenty miles over +the hills to the place of meeting; but so formidable was the look of the +sky that he felt anxious for his sheep, and finally turned back again. +There was at that time only a slight fall of snow, in thin flakes which +seemed uncertain whether to go up or down; the hills were covered with +deep folds of frost-fog, and in the valleys the same fog seemed dark, +dense, and as it were crushed together. An old shepherd, predicting a +storm, bade him watch for a sudden opening through this fog, and expect +a wind from that quarter; yet when he saw such an opening suddenly form +at midnight, (having then reached his own home,) he thought it all a +delusion, as the weather had grown milder and a thaw seemed setting in. +He therefore went to bed, and felt no more anxiety for his sheep; yet +he lay awake in spite of himself, and at two o'clock he heard the +storm begin. It smote the house suddenly, like a great peal of +thunder,--something utterly unlike any storm he had ever before heard. +On his rising and thrusting his bare arm through a hole in the roof, it +seemed precisely as if he had thrust it into a snow-bank, so densely was +the air filled with falling and driving particles. He lay still for an +hour, while the house rocked with the tempest, hoping it might prove +only a hurricane; but as there was no abatement, he wakened his +companion-shepherd, telling him "it was come on such a night or morning +as never blew from the heavens." The other at once arose, and, opening +the door of the shed where they slept, found a drift as high as the +farm-house already heaped between them and its walls, a distance of only +fourteen yards. He floundered through, Hogg soon following, and, finding +all the family up, they agreed that they must reach the sheep as soon as +possible, especially eight hundred ewes that were in one lot together, +at the farthest end of the farm. So, after family-prayers and breakfast, +four of them stuffed their pockets with bread and cheese, sewed their +plaids about them, tied down their hats, and, taking each his staff, set +out on their tremendous undertaking, two hours before day. + +Day dawned before they got three hundred yards from the house. +They could not see each other, and kept together with the greatest +difficulty. They had to make paths with their staves, rolled themselves +over drifts otherwise impassable, and every three or four minutes had to +hold their heads down between their knees to recover breath. They went +in single file, taking the lead by turns. The master soon gave out and +was speechless and semi-conscious for more than an hour, though he +afterwards recovered and held out with the rest. Two of them lost their +head-gear, and Hogg himself fell over a high precipice, but they reached +the flock at half-past ten. They found the ewes huddled together in a +dense body, under ten feet of snow,--packed so closely, that, to the +amazement of the shepherds, when they had extricated the first, the +whole flock walked out one after another, in a body, through the hole. + +How they got them home it is almost impossible, to tell. It was now +noon, and they sometimes could see through the storm for twenty yards, +but they had only one momentary glimpse of the hills through all that +terrible day. Yet Hogg persisted in going by himself afterwards to +rescue some flocks of his own, barely escaping with life from the +expedition; his eyes were sealed up with the storm, and he crossed a +formidable torrent, without knowing it, on a wreath of snow. Two of the +others lost themselves in a deep valley, and would have perished but +for being accidentally heard by a neighboring shepherd, who guided them +home, where the female portion of the family had abandoned all hope of +ever seeing them again. + +The next day was clear, with a cold wind, and they set forth again at +daybreak to seek the remainder of the flock. The face of the country +was perfectly transformed: not a hill was the same, not a brook or lake +could be recognized. Deep glens were filled in with snow, covering the +very tops of the trees; and over a hundred acres of ground, under an +average depth of six or eight feet, they were to look for four or five +hundred sheep. The attempt would have been hopeless but for a dog that +accompanied them: seeing their perplexity, he began snuffing about, and +presently scratching in the snow at a certain point, and then looking +round at his master: digging at this spot, they found a sheep beneath. +And so the dog led them all day, bounding eagerly from one place to +another, much faster than they could dig the creatures out, so that he +sometimes had twenty or thirty holes marked beforehand. In this way, +within a week, they got out every sheep on the farm except four, these +last being buried under a mountain of snow fifty feet deep, on the top +of which the dog had marked their places again and again. In every case +the sheep proved to be alive and warm, though half-suffocated; on being +taken out, they usually bounded away swiftly, and then fell helplessly +in a few moments, overcome by the change of atmosphere; some then died +almost instantly, and others were carried home and with difficulty +preserved, only about sixty being lost in all. Marvellous to tell, the +country-people unanimously agreed afterwards to refer the whole terrific +storm to some secret incantations of poor Hogg's literary society +aforesaid; it was generally maintained that a club of young dare-devils +had raised the Fiend himself among them in the likeness of a black dog, +the night preceding the storm, and the young students actually did not +dare to show themselves at fairs or at markets for a year afterwards. + +Snow-scenes less exciting, but more wild and dreary, may be found in +Alexander Henry's Travels with the Indians, in the last century. In the +winter of 1776, for instance, they wandered for many hundred miles over +the farthest northwestern prairies, where scarcely a white man had +before trodden. The snow lay from four to six feet deep. They went on +snow-shoes, drawing their stores on sleds. The mercury was sometimes +-32 deg.; no fire could keep them warm at night, and often they had no fire, +being scarcely able to find wood enough to melt the snow for drink. They +lay beneath buffalo-skins and the stripped bark of trees: a foot of snow +sometimes fell on them before morning. The sun rose at half past nine +and set at half past two. "The country was one uninterrupted plain, in +many parts of which no wood nor even the smallest shrub was to be seen: +a frozen, sea, of which the little coppices were the islands. That +behind which we had encamped the night before soon sank in the horizon, +and the eye had nothing left save only the sky and snow." Fancy them +encamped by night, seeking shelter in a scanty grove from a wild tempest +of snow; then suddenly charged upon by a herd of buffaloes, thronging in +from all sides of the wood to take shelter likewise,--the dogs barking, +the Indians firing, and still the bewildered beasts rushing madly +in, blinded by the storm, fearing the guns within less than the fury +without, crashing through the trees, trampling over the tents, and +falling about in the deep and dreary snow! No other writer has ever +given us the full desolation of Indian winter-life. Whole families, +Henry said, frequently perished together in such storms. No wonder that +the Aboriginal legends are full of "mighty Peboan, the Winter," and of +Kabibonokka a his lodge of snow-drifts. + +The interest inspired by these simple narratives suggests the +reflection, that literature, which has thus far portrayed so few aspects +of external Nature, has described almost nothing of winter beauty. +In English books, especially, this season is simply forlorn and +disagreeable, dark and dismal. + + "And foul and fierce + All winter drives along the darkened air." + + "When dark December shrouds the transient + day, + And stormy winds are howling in their + ire, + Why com'st not thou?. ... Oh, haste to pay + The cordial visit sullen hours require!" + + "Winter will oft at eve resume the breeze, + Chill the pale morn, and bid his driving + blasts + Deform the day delightless." + + "Now that the fields are dank and ways are + mire, + With whom you might converse, and by the + fire + Help waste the sullen day." + +But our prevalent association with winter, in the Northern United +States, is with something white and dazzling and brilliant; and it is +time to paint our own pictures, and cease to borrow these gloomy alien +tints. One must turn eagerly every season to the few glimpses of +American winter aspects: to Emerson's "Snow-Storm," every word a +sculpture,--to the admirable storm in "Margaret,"--to Thoreau's "Winter +Walk," in the "Dial,"--and to Lowell's "First Snow-Flake." These are +fresh and real pictures, which carry us back to the Greek Anthology, +where the herds come wandering down from the wooded mountains, covered +with snow, and to Homer's aged Ulysses, his wise words falling like the +snows of winter. + +Let me add to this scanty gallery of snow-pictures the quaint lore +contained in one of the multitudinous sermons of Increase Mather, +printed in 1704, entitled "A Brief Discourse concerning the Prayse +due to God for His Mercy in giving Snow like Wool." One can fancy +the delight of the oppressed Puritan boys, in the days of the +nineteenthlies, driven to the place of worship by the tithing-men, +and cooped up on the pulpit-and gallery-stairs under charge of +the constables, at hearing for once a discourse which they could +understand,--snow-balling spiritualized. This was not one of Emerson's +terrible examples,--"the storm real, and the preacher only phenomenal"; +but this setting of snow-drifts, which in our winters lends such grace +to every stern rock and rugged tree, throws a charm even around the grim +theology of the Mathers. Three main propositions, seven subdivisions, +four applications, and four uses, but the wreaths and the gracefulness +are cast about them all,--while the wonderful commonplace-books of those +days, which held everything, had accumulated scraps of winter learning +which cannot be spared from these less abstruse pages. + +Beginning first at the foundation, the preacher must prove, "Prop. I. +_That the Snow is fitly resembled to Wool_. Snow like Wool, sayes the +Psalmist. And not only the Sacred Writers, but others make use of this +Comparison. The Grecians of old were wont to call the Snow, ERIODES +HUDOR _Wooly Water_, or wet Wool. The Latin word _Floccus_ signifies +both a Lock of Wool and a Flake of Snow, in that they resemble one +another. The aptness of the similitude appears in three things." "1. In +respect of the Whiteness thereof." "2. In respect of Softness." "3. In +respect of that Warming Vertue that does attend the Snow." [Here the +reasoning must not be omitted.] "Wool is warm. We say, _As warm as +Wool_. Woolen-cloth has a greater warmth than other Cloathing has. The +wool on Sheep keeps them warm in the Winter season. So when the back of +the Ground is covered with Snow, it keeps it warm. Some mention it as +one of the wonders of the Snow, that tho' it is itself cold, yet it +makes the Earth warm. But Naturalists observe that there is a saline +spirit in it, which is hot, by means whereof Plants under the Snow are +kept from freezing. Ice under the Snow is sooner melted and broken than +other Ice. In some Northern Climates, the wild barbarous People use to +cover themselves over with it to keep them warm. When the sharp Air has +begun to freeze a man's Limbs, Snow will bring heat into them again. If +persons Eat much Snow, or drink immoderately of Snow-water, it will burn +their Bowels and make them black. So that it has a warming vertue in it, +and is therefore fitly compared to Wool." + +Snow has many merits. "In _Lapland_, where there is little or no light +of the sun in the depth of Winter, there are great Snows continually on +the ground, and by the Light of that they are able to Travel from one +place to another... At this day in some hot Countreys, they have their +Snow-cellars, where it is kept in Summer, and if moderately used, is +known to be both refreshing and healthful. There are also Medicinal +Vertues in the snow. A late Learned Physician has found that a Salt +extracted out of snow is a sovereign Remedy against both putrid and +pestilential Feavors. Therefore Men should Praise God, who giveth Snow +like Wool." But there is an account against the snow, also. "Not only +the disease called _Bulimia_, but others more fatal have come out of the +Snow. _Geographers_ give us to understand that in some Countries Vapours +from the Snow have killed multitudes in less than a Quarter of an Hour. +Sometimes both Men and Beasts have been destroyed thereby. Writers speak +of no less than Forty Thousand men killed by a great Snow in one Day." + +It gives a touching sense of human sympathy, to find that we may look at +Orion and the Pleiades through the grave eyes of a Puritan divine. "The +_Seven Stars_ are the Summer Constellation: they bring on the spring +and summer; and _Orion_ is a Winter Constellation, which is attended +with snow and cold, as at this Day.... Moreover, Late _Philosophers_ by +the help of the _Microscope_ have observed the wonderful Wisdom of God +in the Figure of the Snow; each flake is usually of a _Stellate_ Form, +and of six Angles of exact equal length from the Center. It is _like a +little Star_. A great man speaks of it with admiration, that in a Body +so familiar as the Snow is, no Philosopher should for many Ages take +notice of a thing so obvious as the Figure of it. The learned _Kepler_, +who lived in this last Age, is acknowledged to be the first that +acquainted the world with the Sexangular Figure of the Snow." + +Then come the devout applications. "There is not a Flake of Snow that +falls on the Ground without the hand of God, Mat. 10. 29. 30. Not a +Sparrow falls to the Ground, without the Will of your Heavenly Father, +all the Hairs of your head are numbred. So the Great God has numbred all +the Flakes of Snow that covers the Earth. Altho' no man can number them, +that God that tells the number of the Stars has numbred them all.... We +often see it, when the Ground is bare, if God speaks the word, the Earth +is covered with snow in a few Minutes' time. Here is the power of the +Great God. If all the Princes and Great Ones of the Earth should send +their Commands to the Clouds, not a Flake of snow would come from +thence." + +Then follow the "uses," at last,--the little boys in the congregation +having grown uneasy long since, at hearing so much theorizing about +snow-drifts, with so little opportunity of personal practice. "Use I. If +we should Praise God for His giving Snow, surely then we ought to Praise +Him for Spiritual Blessings much more." "Use II. We should Humble our +selves under the Hand of God, when Snow in the season of it is +witheld from us." "Use III. Hence all Atheists will be left Eternally +Inexcusable." "Use IV. We should hence Learn to make a Spiritual +Improvement of the Snow." And then with a closing volley of every text +winch figures under the head of "Snow" in the Concordance, the discourse +comes to an end; and every liberated urchin goes home with his head full +of devout fancies of building a snow-fort, after sunset, from which to +propel consecrated missiles against imaginary or traditional Pequots. + +And the patient reader, too long snow-bound, must be liberated also. +After the winters of deepest drifts the spring often comes most +suddenly; there is little frost in the ground, and the liberated waters, +free without the expected freshet, are filtered into the earth, or climb +on ladders of sunbeams to the sky. The beautiful crystals all melt away, +and the places where they lay are silently made ready to be submerged +in new drifts of summer verdure. These also will be transmuted in their +turn, and so the eternal cycle of the seasons glides along. + +Near my house there is a garden, beneath whose stately sycamores a +fountain plays. Three sculptured girls lift forever upward a chalice +which distils unceasingly a fine and plashing rain; in summer the spray +holds the maidens in a glittering veil, but winter takes the radiant +drops and slowly builds them up into a shroud of ice which creeps +gradually about the three slight figures: the feet vanish, the waist is +encircled, the head is covered, the piteous uplifted arms disappear, as +if each were a Vestal Virgin entombed alive for her transgression. They +vanishing entirely, the fountain yet plays on unseen; all winter the +pile of ice grows larger, glittering organ-pipes of congelation add +themselves outside, and by February a great glacier is formed, at whose +buried centre stand immovably the patient girls. Spring comes at +last, the fated prince, to free with glittering spear these enchanted +beauties; the waning glacier, slowly receding, lies conquered before +their liberated feet; and still the fountain plays. Who can despair +before the iciest human life, when its unconscious symbols are so +beautiful? + + + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +PART V. + + +There was a dull smell of camphor; a further sense of coolness and +prickling wet on Holmes's hot, cracking face and hands; then silence and +sleep again. Sometime--when, he never knew--a gray light stinging his +eyes like pain, and again a slow sinking into warm, unsounded darkness +and unconsciousness. It might be years, it might be ages. Even in +after-life, looking back, he never broke that time into weeks or days: +people might so divide it for him, but he was uncertain, always: it was +a vague vacuum in his memory: he had drifted out of coarse, measured +life into some out-coast of eternity, and slept in its calm. When, by +long degrees, the shock of outer life jarred and woke him, it was feebly +done: he came back reluctant, weak: the quiet clinging to him, as if he +had been drowned in Lethe, and had brought its calming mist with him, +out of the shades. + +The low chatter of voices, the occasional lifting of his head on the +pillow, the very soothing draught, came to him, unreal at first: parts +only of the dull, lifeless pleasure. There was a sharper memory pierced +it sometimes, making him moan and try to sleep,--a remembrance of great, +cleaving pain, of falling giddily, of owing life to some one, and being +angry that he owed it, in the pain. Was it he that had borne it? He did +not know,--nor care: it made him tired to think. Even when he heard the +name Stephen Holmes, it had but a far-off meaning: he never woke enough +to know if it were his or not. He learned, long after, to watch the red +light curling among the shavings in the grate when they made a fire in +the evenings, to listen to the voices of the women by the bed, to know +that the pleasantest belonged to the one with the low, shapeless figure, +and to call her Lois when he wanted a drink, long before he knew +himself. + +They were very long, pleasant days in early December. The sunshine +was pale, but it suited his hurt eyes better: it crept slowly in the +mornings over the snuff-colored carpet on the floor, up the brown +foot-board of the bed, and, when the wind shook the window-curtains, +made little crimson pools of mottled light over the ceiling,--curdling +pools, that he liked to watch: going off, from the clean gray walls and +rustling curtain and transparent crimson, into sleeps that lasted all +day. + +He was not conscious how he knew he was in a hospital: but he did know +it, vaguely; thought sometimes of the long halls outside of the door +with ranges of rooms opening into them, like this, and of very barns of +rooms on the other side of the building with rows of white cots where +the poor patients lay: a stretch of travel from which his brain came +back to his snug fireplace, quite tired, and to Lois sitting knitting by +it. He called the little Welsh-woman, "Sister," too, who used to come in +a stuff dress, and white bands about her face, to give his medicine and +gossip with Lois in the evening: she had a comical voice, like a cricket +chirping. There was another with a real Scotch brogue, who came and +listened sometimes, bringing a basket of undarned stockings: the doctor +told him one day how fearless and skilful she was, every summer going to +New Orleans when the yellow fever came. She died there the next June: +but Holmes never, somehow, could realize a martyr in the cheery, +freckled-faced woman whom he always remembered darning stockings in the +quiet fire-light. It was very quiet; the voices about him were pleasant +and low. If he had drifted from any shock of pain into a sleep like +death, some of the stillness hung about him yet; but the outer life was +homely and fresh and natural. + +The doctor used to talk to him a little; and sometimes one or two of +the patients from the eye-ward would grow tired of sitting about in the +garden-alleys, and would loiter in, if Lois would give them leave; but +their talk wearied him, jarred him as strangely as if one had begun on +politics and price-currents to the silent souls in Hades. It was enough +thought for him to listen to the whispered stories of the sisters in the +long evenings, and, half-heard, try and make an end to them; to look +drowsily down into the garden, where the afternoon sunshine was still so +summer-like that a few hollyhocks persisted in showing their honest red +faces along the walls, and the very leaves that filled the paths would +not wither, but kept up a wholesome ruddy brown. One of the sisters had +a poultry-yard in it, which he could see: the wall around it was of +stone covered with a brown feathery lichen, which every rooster in that +yard was determined to stand on, or perish in the attempt; and Holmes +would watch, through the quiet, bright mornings, the frantic ambition +and the uproarious exultation of the successful aspirant with an amused +smile. + +"One'd thenk," said Lois, sagely, "a chicken never stood on a wall +before, to hear 'em, or a hen laid an egg." + +Nor did Holmes smile once because the chicken burlesqued man: his +thought was too single for that yet. It was long before he thought of +the people who came in quietly to see him as anything but shadows, or +wished for them to come again. Lois, perhaps, was the most real thing in +life then to him: growing conscious, day by day, as he watched her, of +his old life over the gulf. Very slowly conscious: with a weak groping +to comprehend the sudden, awful change that had come on him, and then +forgetting his old life, and the change, and the pity he felt for +himself, in the vague content of the fire-lit room, and his nurse with +her interminable knitting through the long afternoons, while the sky +without would thicken and gray and a few still flakes of snow would come +drifting down to whiten the brown fields,--with no chilly thought of +winter, but only to make the quiet autumn more quiet. Whatever honest, +commonplace affection was in the man came out in a simple way to this +Lois, who ruled his sick whims and crotchets in such a quiet, sturdy +way. Not because she had risked her life to save his; even when he +understood that, he recalled it with an uneasy, heavy gratitude; but the +drinks she made him, and the plot they laid to smuggle in some oysters +in defiance of all rules, and the cheerful pock-marked face he never +forgot. + +Doctor Knowles came sometimes, but seldom: never talked, when he did +come: late in the evening generally: and then would punch his skin, and +look at his tongue, and shake the bottles on the mantel-shelf with a +grunt that terrified Lois into the belief that the other doctor was a +quack, and her patient was totally undone. He would sit, grim enough, +with his feet higher than his head, chewing an unlighted cigar, and +leave them both thankful when he saw proper to go. + +The truth is, Knowles was thoroughly out of place in these little +mending-shops called sick-chambers, where bodies are taken to pieces, +and souls set right. He had no faith in your slow, impalpable cures: +all reforms were to be accomplished by a wrench, from the abolition of +slavery to the pulling of a tooth. + +He had no especial sympathy with Holmes, either: the men were started +in life from opposite poles: and with all the real tenderness under +his surly, rugged habit, it would have been hard to touch him with the +sudden doom fallen on this man, thrown crippled and penniless upon the +world, helpless, it might be, for life. He would have been apt to tell +you, savagely, that "he wrought for it." + +Besides, it made him out of temper to meet the sisters. Knowles could +have sketched for you with a fine decision of touch the _role_ played +by the Papal power in the progress of humanity,--how jar it served as a +stepping-stone, and the exact period when it became a wearisome clog. +The world was done with it now, utterly. Its breath was only poisoned, +with coming death. So the homely live charity of these women, their +work, which, no other hands were ready to take, jarred against his +abstract theory, and irritated him, as an obstinate fact always does run +into the hand of a man who is determined to clutch the very heart of a +matter. Truth will not underlie all facts, in this muddle of a world, in +spite of the positive philosophers, you know. + +Don't sneer at Knowles. Your own clear, tolerant brain, that reflects +all men and creeds alike, like colorless water, drawing the truth from +all, is very different, doubtless, from this narrow, solitary soul, who +thought the world waited for him to fight down his one evil before it +went on its slow way. An intolerant fanatic, of course. But the truth he +did know was so terribly real to him, he had suffered from the evil, and +there was such sick, throbbing pity in his heart for men who suffered as +he had done! And then, fanatics must make history for conservative men +to learn from, I suppose. + +If Knowles shunned the hospital, there was another place he shunned +more,--the place where his communist buildings were to have stood. He +went out there once, as one might go alone to bury his dead out of his +sight, the day after the mill was burnt,--looking first at the smoking +mass of hot bricks and charred shingles, so as clearly to understand how +utterly dead his life-long scheme was. He stalked gravely around it, +his hands in his pockets; the hodmen who were raking out their winter's +firewood from the ashes remarking, that "old Knowles didn't seem a bit +cut up about it." Then he went out to the farm he had meant to buy, as I +told you, and looked at it in the same stolid way. It was a dull day in +October. The Wabash crawled moodily past his feet, the dingy prairie +stretched drearily away on the other side, while the heavy-browed +Indiana hills stood solemnly looking down the plateau where the +buildings were to have risen. + +Well, most men have some plan for life, into which all the strength and +the keen, fine feeling of their nature enter; but generally they try to +make it real in early youth, and, balked then, laugh ever afterwards at +their own folly. This poor old Knowles had begun to block out his dream +when he was a gaunt, gray-haired man of sixty. I have known men so build +their heart's blood and brains into their work, that, when it tumbled +down, their lives went with it. His fell that dull day in October; but +if it hurt him, no man knew it. He sat there, looking at the broad +plateau, whistling softly to himself, a long time. He had meant that +a great many hearts should be made better and happier there; he had +dreamed----God knows what he had dreamed, of which this reality was the +foundation,--of how much freedom, or beauty, or kindly life this was the +heart or seed. It was all over now. All the afternoon the muddy sky hung +low over the hills and dull prairie, while he sat there looking at the +dingy gloom: just as you and I have done, perhaps, some time, thwarted +in some true hope,--sore and bitter against God, because He did not see +how much His universe needed our pet reform. + +He got up at last, and without a sigh went slowly away, leaving the +courage and self-reliance of his life behind him, buried with that one +beautiful, fair dream of life. He never came back again. People said +Knowles was quieter since his loss; but I think only God saw the depth +of the difference. When he was leaving the plateau, that day, he looked +back at it, as if to say good-bye,--not to the dingy fields and river, +but to the Something he had nursed so long in his rugged heart, and +given up now forever. As he looked, the warm, red sun came out, lighting +up with a heartsome warmth the whole gray day. Some blessing power +seemed to look at him from the gloomy hills, the prairie, and the river, +which he was to see again. His hope accomplished could not have looked +at him with surer content and fulfilment. He turned away, ungrateful and +moody. Long afterwards he remembered the calm and brightness which his +hand had not been raised to make, and understood the meaning of its +promise. + +He went to work now in earnest: he had to work for his bread-and-butter, +you understand? Restless, impatient at first; but we will forgive him +that: you yourself were not altogether submissive, perhaps, when the +slow-built hope of life was destroyed by some chance, as you called it, +no more controllable than this paltry burning of a mill. Yet, now that +the great hope was gone on which his brain had worked with rigid, fierce +intentness, now that his hands were powerless to redeem a perishing +class, he had time to fall into careless, kindly habit: he thought it +wasted time, remorsefully, of course. He was seized with a curiosity to +know what plan in living these people had who crossed his way on the +streets; if they were disappointed, like him. He went sometimes to read +the papers to old Tim Poole, who was bed-ridden, and did not pish or +pshaw once at his maundering about secession or the misery in his back. +Went to church sometimes: the sermons were bigotry, always, to his +notion, sitting on a back seat, squirting tobacco-juice about him; but +the simple, old-fashioned hymns brought the tears to his eyes:--"They +sounded to him like his mother's voice, singing in paradise: he hoped +she could not see how things had gone on here,--how all that was honest +and strong in his life had fallen in that infernal mill." Once or twice +he went down Crane Alley, and lumbered up three pair of stairs to the +garret where Kitts had his studio,--got him orders, in fact, for two +portraits; and when that pale-eyed young man, in a fit of confidence, +one night, with a very red face drew back the curtain from his grand +"Fall of Chapultepec," and watched him with a lean and hungry look, +Knowles, who knew no more about painting than a gorilla, walked about, +looking through his fist at it, saying, "how fine the _chiaroscuro_ was, +and that it was a devilish good thing altogether." "Well, well," he +soothed his conscience, going down-stairs, "maybe that bit of canvas is +as much to that poor chap as the phalanstery was once to another fool." +And so went on through the gas-lit streets into his parishes in cellars +and alleys, with a sorer heart, but cheerfuller words, now that he had +nothing but words to give. + +The only place where he hardened his heart was in the hospital with +Holmes. After he had wakened to full consciousness, Knowles thought the +man a beast to sit there uncomplaining day after day, cold and grave, +as if the lifeful warmth of the late autumn were enough for him. Did +he understand the iron fate laid on him? Where was the strength of the +self-existent soul now? Did he know that it was a balked, defeated +life, that waited for him, vacant of the triumphs he had planned? "The +self-existent soul! stopped in its growth by chance, this omnipotent +deity,--the chance burning of a mill!" Knowles muttered to himself, +looking at Holmes. With a dim flash of doubt, as he said it, whether +there might not, after all, be a Something,--some deep of calm, of +eternal order, where these coarse chances, these wrestling souls, these +creeds, Catholic or Humanitarian, even that namby-pamby Kitts and his +picture, might be unconsciously working out their part. Looking out +of the hospital-window, he saw the deep of the stainless blue, +impenetrable, with the stars unconscious in their silence of the maddest +raging of the petty world. There was such calm! such infinite love and +justice! it was around, above him; it held him, it held the world,--all +Wrong, all Right! For an instant the turbid heart of the man cowered, +awe-struck, as yours or mine has done when some swift touch of music or +human love gave us a cleaving glimpse of the great I AM. The next, he +opened the newspaper in his hand. What part in the eternal order could +_that_ hold? or slavery, or secession, or civil war? No harmony could +be infinite enough to hold such discords, he thought, pushing the whole +matter from him in despair. Why, the experiment of self-government, the +problem of the ages, was crumbling in ruin! So he despaired just as Tige +did the night the mill fell about his ears, in full confidence that the +world had come to an end now, without hope of salvation,--crawling out +of his cellar in dumb amazement, when the sun rose as usual the next +morning. + +Knowles sat, peering at Holmes over his paper, watching the languid +breath that showed how deep the hurt had been, the maimed body, the face +outwardly cool, watchful, reticent as before. He fancied the slough of +disappointment into which God had crushed the soul of this man: would +he struggle out? Would he take Miss Herne as the first step in his +stairway, or be content to be flung down in vigorous manhood to the +depth of impotent poverty? He could not tell if the quiet on Holmes's +face were stolid defiance or submission: the dumb kings might have +looked thus beneath the feet of Pharaoh. When he walked over the floor, +too, weak as he was, it was with the old iron tread. He asked Knowles +presently what business he had gone into. + +"My old hobby in an humble way,--the House of Refuge." + +They both laughed. + +"Yes, it is true. The janitor points me out to visitors as +'under-superintendent, a philanthropist in decayed circumstances.' +Perhaps it is my life-work,"--growing sad and earnest. + +"If you can inoculate these infant beggars and thieves with your theory, +it will be practice when you are dead." + +"I think that," said Knowles, gravely, his eye kindling,--"I think +that." + +"As thankless a task as that of Moses," said the other, watching him +curiously. "For _you_ will not see the pleasant land,--_you_ will not go +over." + +The old man's flabby face darkened. + +"I know," he said. + +He glanced involuntarily out at the blue, and the clear-shining, eternal +stars. If he could but believe in the To-Morrow! + +"I suppose," he said, after a while, cheerfully, "I must content myself +with Lois's creed, here,--'It'll come right some time.'" + +Lois looked up from the saucepan she was stirring, her face growing +quite red, nodding emphatically some half-dozen times. + +"Do you find your fallow field easily worked?" + +Knowles fidgeted uneasily. + +"No. Fact is, I'm beginning to think there's a good deal of an obstacle +in blood. I find difficulty, much difficulty, Sir, in giving the +youngest child true ideas of absolute freedom and unselfish heroism." + +"You teach them by reason alone?" said Holmes, gravely. + +"Well,--of course,--that is the true theory; but I--I find it necessary +to have them whipped, Mr. Holmes." + +Holmes stooped suddenly to pat Tiger, hiding a furtive smile. The old +man went on, anxiously,-- + +"Old Mr. Howth says that is the end of all self-governments: from +anarchy to despotism, he says. Old people are apt to be set in their +ways, you know. Honestly, we do not find unlimited freedom answer in the +House. I hope much from a woman's assistance: I have destined her for +this work always: she has great latent power of sympathy and endurance, +such as can bring the Christian teaching home to these wretches." + +"The Christian?" said Holmes. + +"Well, yes. I am not a believer myself, you know; but I find that it +takes hold of these people more vitally than more abstract faiths: I +suppose because of the humanity of Jesus. In Utopia, of course, we shall +live from scientific principles; but they do not answer in the House." + +"Who is the woman?" asked Holmes, carelessly. + +The other watched him keenly. + +"She is coming for five years. Margaret Howth." + +He patted the dog with the same hard, unmoved touch. + +"It is a religious duty with her. Besides, she must do something. They +have been almost starving since the mill was burnt." + +Holmes's face was bent; he could not see it. When he looked up, Knowles +thought it more rigid, immovable than before. + +When Knowles was going away, Holmes said to him,-- + +"When does Margaret Howth go into that devils' den?" + +"The House? On New-Year's." The scorn in him was too savage to be +silent. "You will have fulfilled your design by that time,--of +marriage?" + +Holmes was leaning on the mantel-shelf; his very lips were pale. + +"Yes, I shall, I shall,"--in his low, hard tone. + +Some sudden dream of warmth and beauty flashed before his gray eyes, +lighting them as Knowles never had seen before. + +"Miss Herne is beautiful,--let me congratulate you in Western fashion." + +The old man did not hide his sneer. + +Holmes bowed. + +"I thank you, for her." + +Lois held the candle to light the Doctor out of the long passages. + +"Yoh hevn't seen Barney out 't Mr. Howth's, Doctor? He's ther' now." + +"No. When shall you have done waiting on this--man, Lois? God help you, +child!" + +Lois's quick instinct answered,-- + +"He's very kind. He's like a woman fur kindness to such as me. When I +come to die, I'd like eyes such as his to look at, tender, pitiful." + +"Women are fools alike," grumbled the Doctor. "Never mind. 'When you +come to die?' What put that into your head? Look up." + +The child sheltered the flaring candle with her hand. + +"I've no tho't o' dyin'," she said, laughing. + +There was a gray shadow about her eyes, a peaked look to the face, he +never saw before, looking at her now with a physician's eyes. + +"Does anything hurt you here?" touching her chest. + +"It's better now. It was that night o' th' fire. Th' breath o' th' mill, +I thenk,--but it's nothin'." + +"Burning copperas? Of course it's better. Oh, that's nothing!" he said, +cheerfully. + +When they reached the door, he held out his hand, the first time he ever +had done it to her, and then waited, patting her on the head. + +"I think it'll come right, Lois," he said, dreamily, looking out into +the night. "You're a good girl. I think it'll all come right. For you +and me. Some time. Good night, child." + +After he was a long way down the street, he turned to nod good-night +again to the comical little figure in the doorway. + +If Knowles hated anybody that night, he hated the man he had left +standing there with pale, heavy jaws, and heart of iron; he could have +cursed him, standing there. He did not see how, after he was left alone, +the man lay with his face to the wall, holding his bony hand to his +forehead, with a look in his eyes that if you had seen, you would have +thought his soul had entered on that path whose steps take hold on hell. + +There was no struggle in his face; whatever was the resolve he had +reached in the solitary hours when he had stood so close upon the +borders of death, it was unshaken now; but the heart, crushed and +stifled before, was taking its dire revenge. If ever it had hungered, +through the cold, selfish days, for God's help, or a woman's love, it +hungered now with a craving like death. If ever he had thought how bare +and vacant the years would be, going down to the grave with lips that +never had known a true kiss of real affection, he remembered it now, +when it was too late, with bitterness such as wrings a man's heart but +once in a lifetime. If ever he had denied to his own soul this Margaret, +called her alien or foreign, he called her now, when it was too late, to +her rightful place; there was not a thought nor a hope in the darkest +depths of his nature that did not cry out for her help that night,--for +her, a part of himself,--now, when it was too late. He went over all the +years gone, and pictured the years to come; he remembered the money +that was to help his divine soul upward; he thought of it with a curse, +pacing the floor of the narrow room, slowly and quietly. Looking out +into the still starlight and the quaint garden, he tried to fancy this +woman as he knew her, after the restless power of her soul should have +been chilled and starved into a narrow, lifeless duty. He fancied her +old, and stern, and sick of life, she that might have been----what +might they not have been, together? And he had driven her to this for +money,--money! + +It was of no use to repent of it now. He had frozen the love out of her +heart, long ago. He remembered (all that he did remember of the blank +night after he was hurt) that he had seen her white, worn-out face +looking down at him; that she did not touch him; and that, when, one of +the sisters told her she might take her place, and sponge his forehead, +she said, bitterly, she had no right to do it, that he was no friend +of hers. He saw and heard that, unconscious to all else; he would have +known it, if he had been dead, lying there. It was too late now: why +need he think of what might have been? Yet he did think of it through +the long winter's night,--each moment his thought of the life to come, +or of her, growing more tender and more bitter. Do you wonder at the +remorse of this man? Wait, then, until you lie alone, as he had done, +through days as slow, revealing as ages, face to face with God and +death. Wait until you go down so close to eternity that the life you +have lived stands out before you in the dreadful bareness in which God +sees it,--as you shall see it some day from heaven or hell: money, and +hate, and love will stand in their true light then. Yet, coming back to +life again, he held whatever resolve he had reached down there with his +old iron will: all the pain he bore in looking back to the false life +before, or the ceaseless remembrance that it was too late now to atone +for that false life, made him the stronger to abide by that resolve, to +go on the path self-chosen, let the end be what it might. Whatever the +resolve was, it did not still the gnawing hunger in his heart that +night, which every trifle made more fresh and strong. + +There was a wicker-basket that Lois had left by the fire, piled up with +bits of cloth and leather out of which she was manufacturing Christmas +gifts; a pair of great woollen socks, which one of the sisters had told +him privately Lois meant for him, lying on top. As with all of her +people, Christmas was the great day of the year to her. Holmes could not +but smile, looking at them. Poor Lois!--Christmas would be here soon, +then? And sitting by the covered fire, he went back to Christmases gone, +the thought of all others that brought her nearest and warmest to him: +since he was a boy they had been together on that day. With his hand +over his eyes he sat quiet by the fire until morning. He heard some boy +going by in the gray dawn call to another that they would have holiday +on Christmas. It was coming, he thought, rousing himself,--but never +as it had been: that could never be again. Yet it was strange how this +thought of Christmas took hold of him,--famished his heart. As it +approached in the slow-coming winter, the days growing shorter, and +the nights longer and more solitary, so Margaret became more real to +him,--not rejected and lost, but as the wife she might have been, +with the simple passionate love she gave him once. The thought grew +intolerable to him; yet there was not a homely pleasure of those years +gone, when the old school-master kept high holiday on Christmas, that he +did not recall and linger over with a boyish yearning, now that these +things were over forever. He chafed under his weakness. If the day would +but come when he could go out and conquer his fate, as a man ought to +do! On Christmas eve he would put an end to these torturing taunts, his +soul should not be balked longer of its rightful food. For I fear that +even now Stephen Holmes thought of his own need and his own hunger. + +He watched Lois knitting and patching her poor little gifts, with a +vague feeling that every stitch made the time a moment shorter until he +should be free, with his life in his hand again. She left him at last, +sorrowfully enough, but he made her go: he fancied the close air of the +hospital was hurting her, seeing at night the strange shadow growing on +her face. I do not think he ever said to her that he knew all she had +done for him; but no dog or woman that Stephen Holmes loved could look +into his eyes and doubt that love. Sad, masterful eyes, such as are seen +but once or twice in a lifetime: no woman but would wish, like Lois, for +such eyes to be near her when she came to die, for her to remember the +world's love in. She came hobbling back every day to see him after she +had gone, and would stay to make his soup, telling him, child-like, how +many days it was until Christmas. He knew that, as well as she, waiting +through the cold, slow hours, in his solitary room. He thought sometimes +she had some eager petition to offer him, when she stood watching him +wistfully, twisting her hands together; but she always smothered it +with a sigh, and, tying her little woollen cap, went away, walking more +slowly, he thought, every day. + +Do you remember how Christmas came last year? how there was a waiting +pause, when the great States stood still, and from the peoples came the +first awful murmurs of the storm that was to shake the earth? how men's +hearts failed them for fear, how women turned pale and held their +children closer to their breasts, while they heard a far cry of +lamentation for their country that had fallen? Do you remember how, +through the fury of men's anger, the storehouses of God were opened for +that land? how the very sunshine gathered new splendors, the rains more +fruitful moisture, until the earth poured forth an unknown fulness +of life and beauty? Was there no promise there, no prophecy? Do you +remember, while the very life of the people hung in doubt before them, +while the angel of death came again to pass over the land, and there was +no blood on any door-post to keep him from that house, how slowly +the old earth folded in her harvest, dead, till it should waken to a +stronger life? how quietly, as the time came near for the birth of +Christ, this old earth made ready for his coming, heedless of the clamor +of men? how the air grew fresher, day by day, and the gray deep silently +opened for the snow to go down and screen and whiten and make holy that +fouled earth? I think the slow-falling snow did not fail in its quiet +warning; for I remember that men, too, in a feeble way tried to make +ready for the birth of Christ. There was a healthier glow than terror +stirred in their hearts; because of the vague, great dread without, it +may be, they drew closer together round household fires, were kindlier +in the good old-fashioned way; old friendships were wakened, old times +talked over, fathers and mothers and children planned homely ways to +show the love in their hearts and to welcome in Christmas. Who knew but +it might be the last? Let us be thankful for that happy Christmas-day. +What if it were the last? What if, when another comes, and another, +some voice, the kindest and cheerfullest then, shall never say +"Happy Christmas" to us again? Let us be thankful for that day the +more,--accept it the more as a sign of that which will surely come. + +Holmes, even, in his dreary room and drearier thought, felt the warmth +and expectant stir creeping through the land as the day drew near. Even +in the hospital, the sisters were in a busy flutter, decking their +little chapel with flowers, and preparing a Christmas _fete_ for their +patients. The doctor, as he bandaged his broken arm, hinted at faint +rumors in the city of masquerades and concerts. Even Knowles, who had +not visited the hospital for weeks, relented and came back, moody and +grim. He brought Kitts with him, and started him on talking of how +they kept Christmas in Ohio on his mother's farm; and the poor soul, +encouraged by the silence of two of his auditors, and the intense +interest of Lois in the background, mazed on about Santa-Claus trees +and Virginia reels until the clock struck twelve and Knowles began to +snore. + +Christmas was coming. As he stood, day after day, looking out of +the gray window, he could see the signs of its coming even in the +shop-windows glittering with miraculous toys, in the market-carts +with their red-faced drivers and heaps of ducks and turkeys, in every +stage-coach or omnibus that went by crowded with boys home for the +holidays, hallooing for Bell or Lincoln, forgetful that the election was +over and Carolina out. + +Pike came to see him one day, his arms full of a bundle, which turned +out to be an accordion for Sophy. + +"Christmas, you know," he said, taking off the brown paper, while he was +cursing the Cotton States the hardest, and gravely kneading at the keys, +and stretching it until he made as much discord as five Congressmen. "I +think Sophy will like that," he said, tying it up carefully. + +"I am sure she will," said Holmes,--and did not think the man a fool for +one moment. + +Always going back, this Holmes, when he was alone, to the certainty that +homecomings or children's kisses or Christmas feasts were not for such +as he,--never could be, though he sought for the old time in bitterness +of heart; and so, dully remembering his resolve, and waiting for +Christmas eve, when, he might end it all. Not one of the myriads of +happy children listened more intently to the clock clanging off hour +after hour than the silent, stern man who had no hope in that day that +was coming. + +He learned to watch even for poor Lois coming up the corridor every +day,--being the only tie that bound the solitary man to the inner world +of love and warmth. The deformed little body was quite alive with +Christmas now, and brought its glow with her, in her weak way. Different +from the others, he saw with a curious interest. The day was more real +to her than to them. Not because, only, the care she had of everybody +and everybody had of her seemed to reach its culmination of kindly +thought for the Christmas time; not because, as she sat talking slowly, +stopping for breath, her great fear seemed to be that she would not have +gifts enough to go round; but deeper than that,--the day was real to +her. As if it were actually true that the Master in whom she believed +was freshly born into the world once a year, to waken all that was +genial and noble and pure in the turbid, worn-out hearts; as if new +honor and pride and love did come with the breaking of Christmas morn. +It was a beautiful faith; he almost wished it were his. (Perhaps in that +day when the under-currents of life shall be bared, this man with his +self-reliant soul will know the subtile instincts that drew him to true +manhood and feeling by the homely practice of poor Lois. He did not see +them now.) A beautiful faith! it gave a meaning to the old custom of +gifts and kind words. _Love_ coming into the world!--the idea pleased +his artistic taste, being simple and sublime. Lois used to tell him, +while she feebly tried to set his room in order, of all her plans,--of +how Sam Polston was to be married on New-Year's,--but most of all of the +Christmas coming out at the old schoolmaster's: how the old house had +been scrubbed from top to bottom, was fairly glowing with shining paint +and hot fires,--how Margaret and her mother worked, in terror lest the +old man should find out how poor and bare it was,--how he and Joel had +some secret enterprise on foot at the far end of the plantation out in +the swamp, and were gone nearly all day. + +She ceased coming at last. One of the sisters went out to see her, and +told him she was too weak to walk, but meant to be better soon,--quite +well by the holidays. He wished the poor thing had told him what she +wanted of him,--wished it anxiously, with a dull presentiment of evil. + +The days went by, cold and slow. He watched grimly the preparations +the hospital physician was silently making in his case, for fever, +inflammation. + +"I must be strong enough to go out cured on Christmas eve," he said to +him one day, coolly. + +The old doctor glanced up shrewdly. He was an old Alsatian, very +plain-spoken. + +"You say so?" he mumbled. "Chut! Then you will go. There are +some--bull-dog men. They do what they please,--they never die unless +they choose, begar! We know them in our practice, Herr Holmes!" + +Holmes laughed. Some acumen there, he thought, in medicine or mind: as +for himself, it was true enough; whatever success he had gained in life +had been by no flush of enthusiasm or hope; a dogged persistence of +"holding on," rather. + +Christmas eve came at last; bright, still, frosty. "Whatever he had to +do, let it be done quickly "; but not till the set hour came. So he laid +his watch on the table beside him, waiting until it should mark the time +he had chosen: the ruling passion of self-control as strong in this turn +of life's tide as it would be in its ebb, at the last. The old doctor +found him alone in the dreary room, coming in with the frosty breath of +the eager street about him. A grim, chilling sight enough, as solitary +and impenetrable as the Sphinx. He did not like such faces in this +genial and gracious time, so hurried over his examination. The eye was +cool, the pulse steady, the man's body, battered though it was, strong +in its steely composure. "_Ja wohl!--ja wohl_!" he went on chuffily, +summing up: latent fever,--the very lips were blue, dry as husks; "he +would go,--_oui_?--then go!"--with a chuckle. "All right, _glueck zu_!" +And so shuffled out latent fever? Doubtless, yet hardly from broken +bones, the doctor thought,--with no suspicion of the subtile, +intolerable passion smouldering in every drop of this man's phlegmatic +blood. + +Evening came at last. He stopped until the cracked bell of the chapel +had done striking the Angelus, and then put on his overcoat, and went +out. The air was cold and pungent. The crowded city seemed wakening to +some keen enjoyment; even his own weak, deliberate step rang on the +icy pavement as if it wished to rejoice with the rest. I said it was a +trading city: so it was, but the very trade to-day had a jolly Christmas +face on; the surly old banks and pawnbrokers' shops had grown ashamed +of their doings, and shut their doors, and covered their windows with +frosty trees, and cathedrals, and castles; the shops opened their +hearts; some child's angel had touched them, and they flushed out into +a magic splendor of Christmas trees, and lights, and toys; Santa Claus +might have made his head-quarters in any one of them. As for children, +you stumbled over them at every step, quite weighed down with the +heaviness of their joy, and the money burning their pockets; the acrid +old brokers and pettifoggers, that you met with a chill on other days, +had turned into jolly fathers of families, and lounged laughing along +with half a dozen little hands pulling them into candy-stores or +toy-shops: all the churches whose rules permitted them to show their +deep rejoicing in a simple way had covered their cold stone walls with +evergreens and wreaths of glowing fire-berries: the child's angel had +touched them too, perhaps,--not unwisely. + +He passed crowds of thin-clad women looking in through open doors, with +red cheeks and hungry eyes, at red-hot stoves within, and a placard, +"Christmas dinners for the poor, gratis"; out of every window on the +streets came a ruddy light, and a spicy smell; the very sunset sky had +caught the reflection of the countless Christmas fires, and flamed up to +the zenith, blood-red as cinnabar. + +Holmes turned down one of the back streets: he was going to see Lois, +first of all. I hardly know why: the child's angel may have touched him, +too; or his heart, full of a yearning pity for the poor cripple, who, +he believed now, had given her own life for his, may have plead for +indulgence, as men remember their childish prayers, before going into +battle. He came at last, in the quiet lane where she lived, to her +little brown frame-shanty, to which you mounted by a flight of wooden +steps: there were two narrow windows at the top, hung with red curtains; +he could hear her feeble voice singing within. As he turned to go up +the steps, he caught sight of something crouched underneath them in the +dark, hiding from him: whether a man--or a dog he could not see. He +touched it. + +"What d' ye want, Mas'r?" said a stifled voice. + +He touched it again with his stick. + +The man stood upright, back in the shadow: it was old Yare. + +"Had ye any word wi' me, Mas'r?" + +He saw the negro's face grow gray with fear. + +"Come out, Yare," he said, quietly. "Any word? What word is arson, eh?" + +The man did not move. Holmes touched him with the stick. + +"Come out," he said. + +He came out, looking gaunt, as with famine. + +"I'll not flurr myself," he said, crunching his ragged hat in his +hands,--"I'll not." + +He drove the hat down upon his head, and looked up with a sullen +fierceness. + +"Yoh've got me, an' I'm glad of 't. I'm tired, fearin'. I was born for +hangin', they say," with a laugh. "But I'll see my girl. I've waited +hyur, runnin' the resk,--not darin' to see her, on 'count o' yoh. I +thort I was safe on Christmas-day,--but what's Christmas to yoh or me?" + +Holmes's quiet motion drove him up the steps before him. He stopped at +the top, his cowardly nature getting the better of him, and sat down +whining on the upper step. + +"Be marciful, Mas'r! I wanted to see my girl,--that's all. She's all I +hev." + +Holmes passed him and went in. Was Christmas nothing to him? How did +this foul wretch know that they stood alone, apart from the world? + +It was a low, cheerful little room that he came into, stooping his tall +head: a tea-kettle humming and singing on the wood-fire, that lighted up +the coarse carpet and the gray walls, but spent its warmest heat on +the low settee where Lois lay sewing, and singing to herself. She was +wrapped up in a shawl, but the hands, he saw, were worn to skin and +bone; the gray shadow was heavier on her face, and the brooding brown +eyes were like a tired child's. She tried to jump up when she saw him, +and not being able, leaned on one elbow, half-crying as she laughed. + +"It's the best Christmas gift of all I I can hardly b'lieve +it!"--touching the strong hand humbly that was held out to her. + +Holmes had a gentle touch, I told you, for dogs and children and women: +so, sitting quietly by her, he listened with untiring patience to her +long story; looked at the heap of worthless trifles she had patched up +for gifts, wondering secretly at the delicate sense of color and grace +betrayed in the bits of flannel and leather; and took, with a grave look +of wonder, his own package, out of which a bit of woollen thread peeped +forth. + +"Don't look till to-morrow mornin'," she said, anxiously, as she lay +back trembling and exhausted. + +The breath of the mill! The fires of want and crime had finished their +work on her life,--so! She caught the meaning of his face quickly. + +"It's nothin'," she said, eagerly. "I'll be strong by New-Year's; it's +only a day or two rest I need. I've no tho't o' givin' up." + +And to show how strong she was, she got up and hobbled about to make the +tea. He had not the heart to stop her; she did not want to die,--why +should she? the world was a great, warm, beautiful nest for the little +cripple,--why need he show her the cold without? He saw her at last go +near the door where old Yare sat outside, then heard her breathless cry, +and a sob. A moment after the old man came into the room, carrying her, +and, laying her down on the settee, chafed her hands and misshapen head. + +"What ails her?" he said, looking up, bewildered, to Holmes. "We've +killed her among us." + +She laughed, though the great eyes were growing dim, and drew his coarse +gray hair into her hand. + +"Yoh wur long comin'," she said, weakly. "I hunted fur yoh every +day,--every day." + +The old man had pushed her hair back, and was reading the sunken face +with a wild fear. + +"What ails her?" he cried. "Ther' 's somethin' gone wi' my girl. Was it +my fault? Lo, was it my fault?" + +"Be quiet!" said Holmes, sternly. + +"Is it _that_?" he gasped, shrilly. "My God! not that! I can't bear it!" + +Lois soothed him, patting his face childishly. + +"Am I dyin'?" she asked, with a frightened look at Holmes. + +He told her no, cheerfully. + +"I've no tho't o' dyin'. I dunnot thenk o' dyin'. Don't mind, dear! +Yoh'll stay with me, fur good?" + +The man's paroxysm of fear for her over, his spite and cowardice came +uppermost. + +"It's him," he yelped, looking fiercely at Holmes. "He's got my life in +his hands. He kin take it. What does he keer fur me or my girl? I'll not +stay wi' yoh no longer, Lo. Mornin' he'll send me t' th' lock-up, an' +after"---- + +"I care for _you_, child," said Holmes, stooping suddenly close to the +girl's livid face. + +"To-morrow?" she muttered. "My Christmas-day?" + +He wet her face while he looked over at the wretch whose life he held +in his hands. It was the iron rule of Holmes's nature to be just; but +to-night dim perceptions of a deeper justice than law opened before +him,--problems he had no time to solve: the sternest fortress is liable +to be taken by assault,--and the dew of the coming morn was on his +heart. + +"So as I've hunted fur him!" she whispered, weakly. "I didn't think it +wud come to this. So as I loved him! Oh, Mr. Holmes, he's hed a pore +chance in livin',--forgive him this! Him that'll come to-morrow'd say to +forgive him this." + +She caught the old man's head in her arms with an agony of tears, and +held it tight. + +"I hev hed a pore chance," he said, looking up,--"that's God's truth, +Lo! I dunnot keer fur that: it's too late goin' back.--Mas'r," he +mumbled, servilely, "it's on'y a little time t' th' end: let me stay +with Lo. She loves me,--Lo does." + +A look of disgust crept over Holmes's face. + +"Stay, then," he muttered,--"I wash my hands of you, you old scoundrel!" + +He bent over Lois with his rare, pitiful smile. + +"Have I his life in my hands? I put it into yours,--so, child! Now put +it all out of your head, and look up here to wish me good-bye." + +She looked up cheerfully, hardly conscious how deep the danger had been; +but the flush had gone from her face, leaving it sad and still. + +"I must go to keep Christmas, Lois," he said, playfully. + +"Yoh're keepin' it here, Sir." She held her weak gripe on his hand +still, with the vague outlook in her eyes that came there sometimes. +"Was it fur me yoh done it?" + +"Yes, for you." + +She turned her eyes slowly around, bewildered. The clear evening light +fell on Holmes, as he stood there looking down at the dying little +lamiter: a powerful figure, with a face supreme, masterful, but tender: +you will find no higher type of manhood. Did God make him of the same +blood as the vicious, cringing wretch crouching to hide his black face +at the other side of the bed? Some such thought came into Lois's brain, +and vexed her, bringing the tears to her eyes: he was her father, you +know. + +"It's all wrong," she muttered,--"oh, it's far wrong! Ther' 's One could +make them 'like. Not me." + +She stroked her father's head once, and then let it go. Holmes glanced +out, and saw the sun was down. + +"Lois," he said, "I want you to wish me a happy Christmas, as people +do." + +Holmes had a curious vein of superstition: he knew no lips so pure as +this girl's, and he wanted them to wish him good-luck that night. She +did it, laughing and growing red: riddles of life did not trouble her +childish fancy long. And so he left her, with a dull feeling, as I said +before, that it was good to say a prayer before the battle came on. For +men who believed in prayers: for him, it was the same thing to make one +day for Lois happier. + + + + +METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY. + + +IV. + + +In presenting Classification as the subject of a series of papers in +the "Atlantic Monthly," I am aware that I am drawing largely upon the +patience of its readers; since the technical nature of the topic renders +many details necessary which cannot be otherwise than dry to any but +professional naturalists. Yet believing, as I do, that classification, +rightly understood, means simply the creative plan of God as expressed +in organic forms, I feel the importance of attempting at least to +present it in a popular guise, divested, as far as possible, of +technicalities, while I would ask the indulgence of my readers for such +scientific terms and details as cannot well be dispensed with, begging +them to remember that a long and tedious road may bring us suddenly upon +a glorious prospect, and that a clearer mental atmosphere and a new +intellectual sensation may well reward us for a little weariness in the +outset. Besides, the time has come when scientific truth must cease to +be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common life +of the world; for we have reached the point where the results of science +touch the very problem of existence, and all men listen for the solving +of that mystery. When it will come, and how, none can say; but this much +at least is certain, that all our researches are leading up to that +question, and mankind will never rest till it is answered. If, then, the +results of science are of such general interest for the human race, if +they are gradually interpreting the purposes of the Deity in creation, +and the relation of man to all the past, then it is well that all +should share in its teachings, and that it should not be kept, like the +learning of the Egyptians, for an exclusive priesthood who may expound +the oracle according to their own theories, but should make a part of +all our intellectual culture and of our common educational systems. With +this view, I will endeavor to simplify as far as may be my illustrations +of the different groups of the Animal Kingdom, beginning with a more +careful analysis of those structural features on which classes are +founded. + +I have said that the Radiates are the lowest type among animals, +embodying, under an infinite variety of forms, that plan in which all +parts bear definite relations to a vertical central axis. The three +classes of Radiates are distinguished from each other by three distinct +ways of executing that plan. I dwell upon this point; for we shall never +arrive at a clear understanding of the different significance and value +of the various divisions of the Animal Kingdom, till we appreciate the +distinction between the structural conception and the material means by +which it is expressed. A comparison will, perhaps, better explain my +meaning. There are certain architectonic types, including edifices of +different materials, with an infinite variety of architectural details +and external ornaments; but the flat roof and the colonnade are typical +of all Grecian temples, whether built of marble or granite or wood, +whether Doric or Ionic or Corinthian, whether simple and massive or +light and ornamented; and, in like manner, the steep roof and pointed +arch are the typical characters of all Gothic cathedrals, whatever be +the material or the details. The architectural conception remains +the same in all its essential elements, however the more superficial +features vary. Such relations as these edifices bear to the +architectural idea that includes them all, do classes bear to the +primary divisions or branches of the Animal Kingdom. + +The three classes of Radiates, beginning with the lowest, and naming +them in their relative order, are Polyps, Acalephs or Jelly-Fishes, and +Echinoderms or Star-Fishes and Sea-Urchins. In the Polyps the plan is +executed in the simplest manner by a sac, the sides of which are folded +inward, at regular intervals from top to bottom, so as to divide it by +vertical radiating partitions, converging from the periphery toward the +centre. These folds or partitions do not meet in the centre, but leave +an open space, which is the main cavity of the body. This open space, +however, occupies only the lower part of the body; for in the upper +there is a second sac hanging to a certain distance within the first. +This inner sac has an aperture in the bottom, through which whatever +enters it passes into the main cavity of the body. A central opening +in the top forms a kind of mouth, around which are radiating tentacles +connecting with the open chambers formed by the partitions within. +Cutting such an animal across in a transverse section, we shall see +the radiation of the partitions from the centre to the circumference, +showing still more distinctly the typical structure of the division to +which it belongs. + +[Illustration: Vertical section of a Sea-Anemone of Actinia: _o_, mouth; +_t_, tentacles; _s_, inner sac or stomach; _b_, main cavity; _ff_, +reproductive organs; _g_, radiating partition; _eee_, radiating +chambers; _cc_, circular openings in the partitions; _aa_, lower floor.] + +[Illustration: Transverse section of a Sea-Anemone or Actinia.] + +[Illustration: Staurophera seen in profile.] + +[Illustration: Hippocrene seen in profile.] + +[Illustration: Melicertum seen from above, with the tentacles spreading: +_oo_, radiating tubes with ovaries; _m_, mouth; _tttt_, tentacles.] + +The second class is that of Jelly-Fishes or Acalephs; and here the same +plan is carried out in the form of a hemispherical gelatinous disk, the +digestive cavity being hollowed, or, as it were, scooped, out of the +substance of the body, which is traversed by tubes that radiate from +the centre to the periphery. Cutting it across transversely, or looking +through its transparent mass, the same radiation of the internal +structure is seen again; only that in this instance the radiating lines +are not produced by vertical partition-walls, with open spaces between, +as in the Polyps, but by radiating tubes passing through the gelatinous +mass of the body. At the periphery is a circular tube connecting them +all, and the tentacles, which hang down when the animal is in its +natural position, connect at their base with the radiating tubes, while +numerous smaller tentacles may form a kind of fringe all round the +margin. + +The third and highest class includes the Star-Fishes, Sea-Urchins, and +Holothurians or Beches-de-Mer. The radiation is equally distinct in each +of these; but here again the mode of execution differs from that of the +two other classes. The internal cavity and the radiating tubes, instead +of being connected with the outer wall of the body as in Polyps, or +hollowed out of the substance of the body as in Jelly-Fishes, are here +inclosed within independent walls of their own, quite distinct from the +wall of the body. But notwithstanding this difference, a transverse +section shows in these animals, as distinctly as in all the rest, the +radiating structure typical of the whole branch. In these three classes +we have no difference of plan, nor even any modification of the same +plan,--for either one of them expresses it as clearly as any other,--but +simply three different ways of executing one structural idea. + +[Illustration: Common Sea-Urchin, Echinus, seen from above] + +[Illustration: Echinarachnius, opened by a transverse or horizontal +section, and showing the internal arrangement: c, mouth; eeeee, +ambulacra, with their ramifications cmcmcm; wwww, interambulacra.] + +I have mentioned only three classes of Radiates. Cuvier had five in his +classification; for he placed among them the Intestinal Worms and the +Infusoria or Animalcules. The Intestinal Worms are much better known +now than they were in his day. Their anatomy and embryology have been +traced, and it has been shown that the essential features of these +parasites are the same as those of all Articulates, their whole body +being divided into successive, movable joints or rings. Cuvier was +misled by the circular arrangement of certain parts around the mouth, +and by the presence of a wreath of feelers around the head of some +of these Worms, resembling the tentacles of many Radiates. This is, +however, no indication of radiate structure, but a superficial feature +in no way related to the internal organization. + +We must carefully distinguish between affinity and analogy among +animals. The former is founded on identity of plan; the latter only upon +external resemblance, produced by similar features, which, when they are +intimately connected with the whole internal organization, as in some +groups, may be considered as typical characters, but when only grafted, +as it were, in a superficial manner on animals of another type, have +no relation to the essential elements of structure, and become at +once subordinate and unimportant. Such is the difference between the +tentacles in a Radiate and the wreath of feelers in a Worm;--the +external effect may be much the same; but in the former every tentacle +opens into one of the chambers as in a Polyp, or connects with one of +the radiating tubes as in Acalephs, or with the locomotive suckers as +in Star-Fishes, and is therefore closely linked with the whole internal +organization; whereas the feelers in the latter are only external +appendages, in no way connected with the essential structural elements. +We have a striking illustration of this superficial resemblance in the +wings of Birds and Insects. In Birds, wings are a typical feature, +corresponding to the front limbs in all Vertebrates, which are +constructed in the same way, whether they are arms as in Man, or +forelegs as in Quadrupeds, or pectoral fins as in Fishes, or wings as in +Birds. The wing in an Insect, on the contrary, is a flattened, dried-up +gill, having no structural relation whatever to the wing of a Bird. They +are analogous only because they resemble each other in function, being +in the same way subservient to flight; but as organs they are entirely +different. + +In adding Infusoria to the Radiates, Cuvier was false to his own +principle of founding all classification on plan. He was influenced by +their seeming simplicity of structure, and placed them in the lowest +division of the Animal Kingdom on that account. But even this simplicity +was only apparent in many of them. At certain seasons of the year +myriads of these little Animalcules may be seen in every brook and +road-side pool. They are like transparent little globules, without any +special organization, apparently; and were it not that they are in +constant rotation, exhibiting thus a motion of their own, one would +hardly suspect that they were endowed with life. To the superficial +observer they all look alike, and it is not strange, that, before they +had been more carefully investigated, they should have been associated +together as the lowest division of the Animal Kingdom, representing, as +it were, a border-land between animal and vegetable life. But since the +modern improvements in the microscope, Ehrenberg, the great master in +microscopic investigation, has shown that many of these little +globules have an extraordinary complication of structure. Subsequent +investigations have proved that they include a great variety of beings: +some of them belonging to the type of Mollusks; others to the type of +Articulates, being in fact little Shrimps; while many others are +the locomotive germs of plants, and so far from forming a class by +themselves, as a distinct group in the Animal Kingdom, they seem to +comprise representatives of all types except Vertebrates, and to belong +in part to the Vegetable Kingdom, Siebold, Leuckart, and other modern +zooelogists, have considered them as a primary type, and called them +Protozoa; but this is as great a mistake as the other. The rotatory +motion in them all is produced by an apparatus that exists not only +in all animals, but in plants also, and is a most important agent in +sustaining the freshness and vitality of their circulating fluids and of +the surrounding medium in which they live. It consists of soft fringes, +called Vibratile Cilia. Such fringes cover the whole surface of these +little living beings, and by their unceasing play they maintain the +rotating motion that carries them along in the water. + +The Mollusks, the next great division of the Animal Kingdom, also +include three classes. With them is introduced that character +of bilateral symmetry, or division of parts on either side of a +longitudinal axis, that prevails throughout the Animal Kingdom, with the +exception of the Radiates. The lowest class of Mollusks has been named +Acephala, to signify the absence of any distinct head; for though their +whole organization is based upon the principle of bilateral symmetry, it +is nevertheless very difficult to determine which is the right side and +which the left in these animals, because there is so little prominence +in the two ends of the body that the anterior and posterior extremities +are hardly to be distinguished. Take the Oyster as an example. It has, +like most Acephala, a shell with two valves united by a hinge on the +back, one of these valves being thick and swollen, while the other is +nearly flat. If we lift the shell, we find beneath a soft lining-skin +covering the whole animal and called by naturalists the mantle, from the +inner surface of which arise a double row of gills, forming two pendent +folds on the sides of the body; but at one end of the body these folds +do not meet, but leave an open space, where is the aperture we call the +mouth. This is the only indication of an anterior extremity; but it is +enough to establish a difference between the front and hind ends of +the body, and to serve as a guide in distinguishing the right and +left sides. If now we lift the mantle and gills, we find beneath the +principal organs: the stomach, with a winding alimentary canal; the +heart and liver; the blood-vessels, branching from either side of the +heart to join the gills; and a fleshy muscle passing from one valve +of the shell to the other, enabling the animal by its dilatation or +contraction to open and close its shell at will. A cut across an animal +of this class will show us better the bilateral arrangement of the +parts. In such a section we see the edge of the two shells on either +side; within these the edge of the mantle; then the double rows of +gills; and in the middle the alimentary canal, the heart, and the +blood-vessels branching right and left. Some of these animals have +eye-specks on the edge of the mantle; but this is not a constant +feature. This class of Acephala includes all the Oysters, Clams, +Mussels, and the like. When named with reference to their double shells, +they are called Bivalves; and with them are associated a host of less +conspicuous animals, known as Ascidians, Brachiopods, and Bryozoa. + +[Illustration: Common Mussel, Unio, cut transversely: _a_, foot; _bb_, +gills; _c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main cavity, with +intestines.] + +The second class in this type is that of Gasteropoda, so named from the +fleshy muscular expansion on which they move, and which is therefore +called a foot: a very inappropriate name; since it has no relation or +resemblance to a foot, though it is used as a locomotive organ. This +class includes all the Snails, Slugs, Cockles, Conchs, Periwinkles, +Whelks, Limpets, and the like. Some of them have no solid covering; but +the greater part are protected by a single shell, and on this account +they are called Univalves, in contradistinction to the Acephala or +Bivalves. These shells, though always single, differ from each other by +an endless variety of form and color,--from the flat simple shell of +the Limpet to the elaborate spiral and brilliant hues of the Cones and +Cowries. Different as is their external covering, however, if we examine +the internal structure of a Gasteropod, we find the same general +arrangement of parts that prevails in the Acephala, showing that both +belong to the same great division of the Animal Kingdom. The mantle +envelops the animal, and lines its single shell as it lined the double +shell of the Oyster; the gills are placed on either side of it; the +stomach, with the winding alimentary canal, is in the centre of the +body; the heart and liver are placed in the same relation to it as in +the Acephala; and though the so-called foot would seem to be a new +feature, it is but a muscular expansion of the ventral side of the body. +There is an evident superiority in this class over the preceding one, in +the greater prominence of the anterior extremity, where there are two or +more feelers, with which eyes more or less developed are connected; and +though there is nothing that can be properly called a head, yet there +can be no hesitation as to the distinction between the front and hind +ends of the body. + +[Illustration: Limpet, Patella, cut transversely: _a_, foot; _b_, gills; +_c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main cavity, with intestines.] + +The third and highest class of Mollusks has been called Cephalopoda, in +reference again to a special feature of their structure. They have long +arms or feelers around the head, serving as organs of locomotion, by +which they propel themselves through the water with a velocity that is +quite extraordinary, when compared with the sluggishness of the other +Mollusks. In these animals the head is distinctly marked,--being +separated, by a contraction or depression behind it, from the rest of +the body. The feelers, so prominent on the anterior extremity of +the Gasteropoda, are suppressed in Cephalopoda, and the eyes are +consequently brought immediately on the side of the head, and are very +large in proportion to the size of the animal. A skin corresponding +to the mantle envelops the body, and the gills are on either side of +it;--the stomach with its winding canal, the liver, and heart occupy the +centre of the body, as in the two other classes. This class includes all +the Cuttle-Fishes, Squids, and Nautili, and has a vast number of fossil +representatives. Many of these animals are destitute of any shell; and +where they have a shell, it is not coiled from right to left or from +left to right as in the spiral of the Gasteropoda, but from behind +forwards as in the Nautilus. These shells are usually divided into a +number of chambers,--the animal, as it grows, building a wall behind +it at regular intervals, and always occupying the external chamber, +retaining, however, a connection with his past home by a siphon that +runs through the whole succession of chambers. The readers of the +"Atlantic Monthly" cannot fail to remember the exquisite poem suggested +to the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by this singular feature in the +structure of the so-called Chambered Shells. + +[Illustration: Common Squid, Loligo, cut transversely: _a_, foot or +siphon; _b_, gills; _c_, mantle; _d_, shell; _e_, heart; _f_, main +cavity, with intestines.] + +Cuvier divided the Mollusks also into a larger number of classes than +are now admitted. He placed the Barnacles with them on account of their +shells; and it is only since an investigation of the germs born from +these animals has shown them to be Articulates that their true position +is understood. They give birth to little Shrimps that afterwards become +attached to the rocks and assume the shelly covering that has misled +naturalists about them. Brachiopods formed another of his classes; +but these differ from the other Bivalves only in having a net-work of +blood-vessels in the place of the free gills, and this is merely a +complication of structure, not a difference in the general mode +of execution, for their position and relation to the rest of the +organization are exactly the same in both. Pteropods constituted another +class in his division of the type of Mollusks; but these animals, again, +form only an order in the class of Gasteropoda, as Brachiopods form an +order in the class of Acephala. + +In the third division of the Animal Kingdom, the Articulates, we have +again three classes: Worms, Crustacea, and Insects. The lowest of these +three classes, the Worms, presents the typical structure of that branch +in the most uniform manner, with little individualization of parts. The +body is a long cylinder divided through its whole length by movable +joints, while the head is indicated only by a difference in the +front-joint. There is here no concentration of vitality in special parts +of the structure, as in the higher animals, but the nervous force is +scattered through the whole body,--every ring having, on its lower side, +either two nervous swellings, one on the right, the other on the left +side, connected by nervous threads with those that precede and those +that follow them, or these swellings being united in the median line. +It is this equal distribution of nervous force through the whole system +that gives to these animals such an extraordinary power of repairing +any injured part, so that, if cut in two, the front part may even +reconstruct a tail for itself, while the hind part produces a new +head, and both continue to live as distinct animals. This facility of +self-repair, after a separation of the parts, which is even a normal +mode of multiplication in some of them, does not indicate, as may at +first appear, a greater intensity of vital energy, but, on the contrary, +arises from an absence of any one nervous centre such as exists in +all the higher animals, and is the key to their whole organization. A +serious injury to the brain of a Vertebrate destroys vitality at once, +for it holds the very essence of its life; whereas in many of the lower +animals any part of the body may be destroyed without injury to the +rest. The digestive cavity in the Worms runs the whole length of the +body; and the respiratory organs, wherever they are specialized, appear +as little vesicles or gill-like appendages either along the back or +below the sides, connected with the locomotive appendages. + +This class includes animals of various degrees of complication of +structure, from those with highly developed organizations to the lowest +Worms that float like long threads in the water and hardly seem to be +animals. Yet even these creatures, so low in the scale of life, are +not devoid of some instincts, however dim, of feeling and affection. I +remember a case in point that excited my own wonder at the time, and may +not be uninteresting to my readers. A gentleman from Detroit had had +the kindness to send me one of those long thread-like Worms (_Gordius_) +found often in brooks and called Horse-Hairs by the common people. When +I first received it, it was coiled up in a close roll at the bottom of +the bottle, filled with fresh water, that contained it, and looked more +like a little tangle of black sewing-silk than anything else. Wishing +to unwind it, that I might examine its entire length, I placed it in +a large china basin filled with water, and proceeded very gently to +disentangle its coils, when I perceived that the animal had twisted +itself around a bundle of its eggs, holding them fast in a close +embrace. In the process of unwinding, the eggs dropped away and floated +to a little distance. Having finally stretched it out to its full +length, perhaps half a yard, I sat watching to see if this singular +being that looked like a long black thread in the water would give any +signs of life. Almost immediately it moved towards the bundle of eggs, +and, having reached it, began to sew itself through and through the +little white mass, passing one end of its body through it, and then +returning to make another stitch, as it were, till the eggs were at last +completely entangled again in an intricate net-work of coils. It seemed +to me almost impossible that this care of copying could be the result of +any instinct of affection in a creature of so low an organization, and I +again separated it from the eggs, and placed them at a greater distance, +when the same action was repeated. On trying the experiment a third +time, the bundle of eggs had become loosened, and a few of them dropped +off singly into the water. The efforts which the animal then made to +recover the missing ones, winding itself round and round them, but +failing to bring them into the fold with the rest, because they were too +small, and evaded all efforts to secure them, when once parted from +the first little compact mass, convinced me that there was a definite +purpose in its attempts, and that even a being so low in the scale +of animal existence has some dim consciousness of a relation to its +offspring. I afterwards unwound also the mass of eggs, which, when +coiled up as I first saw it, made a roll of white substance about the +size of a coffee-bean, and found that it consisted of a string of eggs, +measuring more than twelve feet in length, the eggs being held together +by some gelatinous substance that cemented them and prevented them from +falling apart. Cutting this string across, and placing a small section +under the microscope, I counted on one surface of such a cut from +seventy to seventy-five eggs; and estimating the entire number of eggs +according to the number contained on such a surface, I found that there +were not less than eight millions of eggs in the whole string. The +fertility of these lower animals is truly amazing, and is no doubt a +provision of Nature against the many chances of destruction to which +these germs, so delicate and often microscopically small, must be +exposed. The higher we rise in the Animal Kingdom, the more limited do +we find the number of progeny, and the care bestowed upon them by the +parents is in proportion to this diminution. + +The next class in the type of Articulates is that of Crustacea, +including Lobsters, Crabs, and Shrimps. It may seem at first that +nothing can be more unlike a Worm than a Lobster; but a comparison of +the class-characters shows that the same general plan controls the +organization in both. The body of the Lobster is divided into a +succession of joints or rings, like that of the Worm; and the fact that +the front rings in the Lobster are soldered together, so as to make a +stiff front region of the body, inclosing the head and chest, while only +the hind rings remain movable, thus forming a flexible tail, does not +alter in the least the general structure, which consists in both of +a body built of articulated rings. The nervous swellings, which were +evenly distributed through the whole body in the Worm, are more +concentrated here, in accordance with the prevalent combination of the +rings in two distinct regions of the body, the larger ones corresponding +to the more important organs; but their relation to the rest of the +organization, and their connection by nervous threads with each other, +remain the same. The respiratory organs, which in most of the Worms were +mere vesicles on the lower part of the sides of the body, are here more +highly organized gills; but their general character and relation to +other parts of the structure are unchanged, and in this respect +the connection of the gills of Crustacea with their legs is quite +significant. The alimentary canal consists of a single digestive cavity +passing through the whole body, as in Worms, the anterior part of which +is surrounded by a large liver. What is true of the Lobsters is true +also, so far as class-characters are concerned, of all the Crustacea. + +Highest in this type are the Insects, and among these I include Spiders +and Centipedes as well as Winged Insects. It is true that the Centipedes +have a long uniform body like Worms, and the Spiders have the body +divided into two regions like the Crustacea, while the body in true +Insects has three distinct regions, head, chest, and hind body; but +notwithstanding this difference, both the former share in the peculiar +class-character that places them with the Winged Insects in a separate +group, distinct from all the other Articulates. We have seen that in the +Worms the respiratory organs are mere vesicles, while in the Crustacea +they are more highly organized gills; but in Centipedes, Spiders, +and Winged Insects, the breathing-apparatus is aerial, consisting of +air-holes on the sides of the body, connected with a system of tubes and +vessels extending into the body and admitting air to all parts of it. In +the Winged Insects this system is very elaborate, filling the body with +air to such a degree as to render it exceedingly light and adapted to +easy and rapid flight. The general arrangement of parts is the same in +this class as in the two others, the typical character being alike in +all. + +We come now to the highest branch of the Animal Kingdom, that to which +we ourselves belong,--the Vertebrates. This type is usually divided into +four classes, Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammalia; and though many +naturalists believe that it includes more, and I am myself of that +opinion, I shall allude here only to the four generally admitted +classes, as they are sufficient for my present purpose, and will serve +to show the characters upon which classes are based. In a former paper I +have explained in general terms the plan of structure of this type,--a +backbone, with a bony arch above and a bony arch below, forming two +cavities that contain all the systems of organs, the whole being +surrounded by the flesh and skin. Now whether a body so constructed lie +prone in the water, like a Fish,--or be lifted on imperfect legs, like +a Reptile,--or be balanced on two legs, while the front limbs become +wings, as in Birds,--or be raised upon four strong limbs terminating in +paws or feet, as in Quadrupeds,--or stand upright with head erect, while +the limbs consist of a pair of arms and a pair of legs, as in Man,--does +not in the least affect that structural conception under which they are +all included. Every Vertebrate has a backbone; every Vertebrate has a +bony arch above that backbone and a bony arch below it, forming two +cavities,--no matter whether these arches be of hard bone, or of +cartilage, or even of a softer substance; every Vertebrate has the +brain, the spinal marrow or spinal cord, and the organs of the senses in +the upper cavity, and the organs of digestion, respiration, circulation, +and reproduction in the lower one; every Vertebrate has four locomotive +appendages built of the same bones and bearing the same relation to the +rest of the organization, whether they be called pectoral and ventral +fins, or legs, or wings and legs, or arms and legs. Notwithstanding +the rudimentary condition of these limbs in some Vertebrates and their +difference of external appearance in the different groups, they are all +built of the same structural elements. These are the typical characters +of the whole branch, and exist in all its representatives. + +What now are the different modes of expressing this structural plan that +lead us to associate certain Vertebrates together in distinct classes? +Beginning with the lowest class,--the Fishes are cold-blooded, they +breathe through gills, and they are egg-laying; in other words, though +they have the same general structure as the other Vertebrates, they +have a special mode of circulation, respiration, and reproduction. The +Reptiles are also cold-blooded, though their system of circulation is +somewhat more complicated than that of the Fishes; they breathe through +lungs, though part of them retain their gills through life; and they lay +eggs, but larger and fewer ones than the Fishes, diminishing in number +in proportion to their own higher or lower position in their class. They +also bestow greater care upon their offspring than most of the +Fishes. The Birds are warm-blooded and air-breathing, having a double +circulation; they are egg-laying like the two other classes, but their +eggs are comparatively few in number, and the young are hatched by the +mother and fed by the parent birds till they can provide for themselves. + +The Mammalia are also warm-blooded and breathe through lungs; but +they differ from all other Vertebrates in their mode of reproduction, +bringing forth living young which they nurse with milk. Even in the +lowest members of this highest group of the Vertebrates, at the head +of which stands Man himself, looking heavenward it is true, but +nevertheless rooted deeply in the Animal Kingdom, we have the dawning +of those family relations, those intimate ties between parents and +children, on which the whole social organization of the human race is +based. Man is the crowning work of God on earth; but though so nobly +endowed, we must not forget that we are the lofty children of a race +whose lowest forms lie prostrate within the water, having no higher +aspiration than the desire for food; and we cannot understand the +possible degradation and moral wretchedness of Man, without knowing that +his physical nature is rooted in all the material characteristics that +belong to his type and link him even with the Fish. The moral and +intellectual gifts that distinguish him from them are his to use or to +abuse; he may, if he will, abjure his better nature and be _Vertebrate_ +more than Man. He may sink as low as the lowest of his type, or he may +rise to a spiritual height that will make that which distinguishes him +from the rest far more the controlling element of his being than that +which unites him with them. + + + + +LOVE AND SKATES. + +IN TWO PARTS. + + +PART II. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WADE DOWN! + + +The hugging of Wade by the happy pair had to be done metaphorically, +since it was done in the sight of all Dunderbunk. + +He had divined a happy result, when he missed Bill Tarbox from the +arena, and saw him a furlong away, hand in hand with his reconciled +sweetheart. + +"I envy you, Bill," said he, "almost too much to put proper fervor into +my congratulations." + +"Your time will come," the foreman rejoined. + +And says Belle, "I am sure there is a lady skating somewhere, and only +waiting for you to follow her." + +"I don't see her," Wade replied, looking with a mock-grave face up +and down and athwart the river. "When you've all gone to dinner, I'll +prospect ten miles up and down and try to find a good matrimonial claim +that's not taken." + +"You will not come up to dinner?" Belle asked. + +"I can hardly afford to make two bites of a holiday," said Wade. "I've +sent Perry up for a luncheon. Here he comes with it. So I cede my +quarter of your pie, Miss Belle, to a better fellow." + +"Oh!" cries Perry, coming up and bowing elaborately. "Mr. and Mrs. +Tarbox, I believe. Ah, yes! Well, I will mention it up at Albany. I am +going to take my Guards up to call on the Governor." + +Perry dashed off, followed by a score of Dunderbunk boys, organized by +him as the Purtett Guards, and taught to salute him as Generalissimo +with military honors. + +So many hundreds of turkeys, done to a turn, now began to have an effect +upon the atmosphere. Few odors are more subtile and pervading than this, +and few more appetizing. Indeed, there is said to be an odd fellow, a +strictly American gourmand, in New York, who sits, from noon to dusk +on Christmas-Day, up in a tall steeple, merely to catch the aroma of +roast-turkey floating over the city,--and much good, it is said, it does +him. + +Hard skating is nearly as effective to whet hunger as this gentleman's +expedient. When the spicy breezes began to blow soft as those of +Ceylon's isle over the river and every whiff talked Turkey, the +population of Dunderbunk listened to the wooing and began to follow its +several noses--snubs, beaks, blunts, sharps, piquants, dominants, fines, +bulgies, and bifids--on the way to the several households which those +noses adorned or defaced. Prosperous Dunderbunk had a Dinner, yes, a +DINNER, that day, and Richard Wade was gratefully remembered by many +over-fed foundry-men and their over-fed families. + +Wade had not had half skating enough. + +"I'll time myself down to Skerrett's Point," he thought, "and take my +luncheon there among the hemlocks." + +The Point was on the property of Peter Skerrett, Wade's friend and +college comrade of ten years gone. Peter had been an absentee in Europe, +and smokes from his chimneys this morning had confirmed to Wade's eyes +the rumor of his return. + +Skerrett's Point was a mile below the Foundry. Our hero did his mile +under three minutes. How many seconds under, I will not say. I do not +wish to make other fellows unhappy. + +The Point was a favorite spot of Wade's. Many a twilight of last summer, +tired with his fagging at the Works to make good the evil of Whiffler's +rule, he had lain there on the rocks under the hemlocks, breathing the +spicy methyl they poured into the air. After his day's hard fight, in +the dust and heat of the Foundry, with anarchy and unthrift, he used to +take the quiet restoratives of Nature, until the murmur and fragrance of +the woods, the cool wind, and the soothing loiter of the shining stream +had purged him from the fevers of his task. + +To this old haunt he skated, and kindling a little fire, as an old +campaigner loves to do, he sat down and lunched heartily on Mrs. +Purtett's cold leg,--cannibal thought!--on the cold leg of Mrs. +Purtett's yesterday's turkey. Then lighting his weed,--dear ally of the +lonely,--the Superintendent began to think of his foreman's bliss, and +to long for something similar on his own plane. + +"I hope the wish is father to its fulfilment," he said. "But I must not +stop here and be spooney. Such a halcyon day I may not have again in all +my life, and I ought to make the best of it, with my New Skates." + +So he dashed off, and filled the little cove above the Point with a +labyrinth of curves and flourishes. + +When that bit of crystal tablet was well covered, the podographer sighed +for a new sheet to inscribe his intricate rubricas upon. Why not write +more stanzas of the poetry of motion on the ice below the Point? Why +not? + +Braced by his lunch on the brown fibre of good Mrs. Purtett's cold +drumstick and thigh, Wade was now in fine trim. The air was more +glittering and electric than ever. It was triumph and victory and paean +in action to go flashing along over this footing, smoother than polished +marble and sheenier than first-water gems. + +Wade felt the high exhilaration of pure blood galloping through a body +alive from top to toe. The rhythm of his movement was like music to him. + +The Point ended in a sharp promontory. Just before he came abreast of +it, Wade under mighty headway flung into his favorite corkscrew spiral +on one foot, and went whirling dizzily along, round and round, in a +straight line. + +At the dizziest moment, he was suddenly aware of a figure, also turning +the Point at full speed, and rushing to a collision. + +He jerked aside to avoid it. He could not look to his footing. His skate +struck a broken oar, imbedded in the ice. He fell violently, and lay +like a dead man. + +His New Skates, Testimonial of Merit, seem to have served him a shabby +trick. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +TETE-A-TETE. + + +Seeing Wade lie there motionless, the lady---- + +Took off her spectacles, blew her great red nose, and stiffly drew near. + +Spectacles! Nose! No,--the latter feature of hers had never become +acquainted with the former; and there was as little stiffness as nasal +redness about her. + +A fresh start, then,--and this time accuracy! + +Appalled by the loud thump of the stranger's skull upon the chief river +of the State of New York, the lady--it was a young lady whom Wade had +tumbled to avoid--turned, saw a human being lying motionless, and swept +gracefully toward him, like a Good Samaritan, on the outer edge. It was +not her fault, but her destiny, that she had to be graceful even under +these tragic circumstances. + +"Dead!" she thought. "Is he dead?" + +The appalling thump had cracked the ice, and she could not know how well +the skull was cushioned inside with brains to resist a blow. + +She shuddered, as she swooped about toward this possible corpse. It +might be that he was killed, and half the fault hers. No wonder her +fine color, shining in the right parts of an admirably drawn face, all +disappeared instantly. + +But she evidently was not frightened. + +She halted, kneeled, looked curiously at the stranger, and then +proceeded, in a perfectly cool and self-possessed way, to pick him up. + +A solid fellow, heavy to lift in his present lumpish condition of +dead-weight! She had to tug mightily to get him up into a sitting +position. When he was raised, all the backbone seemed gone from his +spine, and it took the whole force of her vigorous arms to sustain him. + +The effort was enough to account for the return of her color. It came +rushing back splendidly. Cheeks, forehead, everything but nose, blushed. +The hard work of lifting so much avoirdupois, and possibly, also, the +novelty of supporting so much handsome fellow, intensified all her hues. +Her eyes--blue, or that shade even more faithful than blue--deepened; +and her pale golden hair grew several carats--not carrots--brighter. + +She was repaid for her active sympathy at once by discovering that this +big, awkward thing was not a dead, but only a stunned, body. It had an +ugly bump and a bleeding cut on its manly skull, but otherwise was quite +an agreeable object to contemplate, and plainly on its "unembarrassed +brow Nature had written 'Gentleman.'" + +As this young lady had never had a fair, steady stare at a stunned hero +before, she seized her advantage. She had hitherto been distant with +the other sex. She had no brother. Not one of her male cousins had ever +ventured near enough to get those cousinly privileges that timid cousins +sigh for and plucky cousins take, if they are worth taking. + +Wade's impressive face, though for the moment blind as a statue's, also +seized its advantage and stared at her intently, with a pained and +pleading look, new to those resolute features. + +Wade was entirely unconscious of the great hit he had made by his +tumble; plump into the arms of this heroine! There were fellows extant +who would have suffered any imaginable amputation, any conceivable +mauling, any fling from the apex of anything into the lowest deeps of +anywhere, for the honor he was now enjoying. + +But all he knew was that his skull was a beehive in an uproar, and that +one lobe of his brain was struggling to swarm off. His legs and arms +felt as if they belonged to another man, and a very limp one at that. A +ton of cast-iron seemed to be pressing his eyelids down, and a trickle +of red-hot metal flowed from his cut forehead. + +"I shall have to scream," thought the lady, after an instant of anxious +waiting, "if he does not revive. I cannot leave him to go for help." + +Not a prude, you see. A prude would have had cheap scruples about +compromising herself by taking a man in her arms. Not a vulgar person, +who would have required the stranger to be properly recommended by +somebody who came over in the Mayflower, before she helped him. Not a +feeble-minded damsel, who, if she had not fainted, would have fled away, +gasping and in tears. No timidity or prudery or underbred doubts about +this thorough creature. She knew she was in her right womanly place, and +she meant to stay there. + +But she began to need help, possibly a lancet, possibly a pocket-pistol, +possibly hot blankets, possibly somebody to knead these lifeless lungs +and pommel this flaccid body, until circulation was restored. + +Just as she was making up her mind to scream, Wade stirred. He began to +tingle as if a familiar of the Inquisition were slapping him all over +with fine-toothed curry-combs. He became half-conscious of a woman +supporting him. In a stammering and intoxicated voice he murmured,-- + + "Who ran to catch me when I fell, + And kissed the place to make it well? + My"------ + +He opened his eyes. It was not his mother; for she was long since +deceased. Nor was this non-mother kissing the place. + +In fact, abashed at the blind eyes suddenly unclosing so near her, she +was on the point of letting her burden drop. When dead men come to life +in such a position, and begin to talk about "kissing the place," young +ladies, however independent of conventions, may well grow uneasy. + +But the stranger, though alive, was evidently in a molluscous, +invertebrate condition. He could not sustain himself. She still held him +up, a little more at arm's-length, and all at once the reaction from +extreme anxiety brought a gush of tears to her eyes. + +"Don't cry," says Wade, vaguely, and still only half-conscious. "I +promise never to do so again." + +At this, said with a childlike earnestness, the lady smiled. + +"Don't scalp me," Wade continued, in the same tone. "Squaws never +scalp." + +He raised his hand to his bleeding forehead. + +She laughed outright at his queer plaintive tone and the new class he +had placed her in. + +Her laugh and his own movement brought Wade fully to himself. She +perceived that his look was transferring her from the order of scalping +squaws to her proper place as a beautiful young woman of the highest +civilization, not smeared with vermilion, but blushing celestial rosy. + +"Thank you," said Wade. "I can sit up now without assistance." And he +regretted profoundly that good breeding obliged him to say so. + +She withdrew her arms. He rested on the ice,--posture of the Dying +Gladiator. She made an effort to be cool and distant as usual; but it +would not do. This weak mighty man still interested her. It was still +her business to be strength to him. + +He made a feeble attempt to wipe away the drops of blood from his +forehead with his handkerchief. + +"Let me be your surgeon!" said she. + +She produced her own folded handkerchief,--M. D. were the initials in +the corner,--and neatly and tenderly turbaned him. + +Wade submitted with delight to this treatment. A tumble with such +trimmings was luxury indeed. + +"Who would not break his head," he thought, "to have these delicate +fingers plying about him, and this pure, noble face so close to his? +What a queenly indifferent manner she has! What a calm brow! What honest +eyes! What a firm nose! What equable cheeks! What a grand indignant +mouth! Not a bit afraid of me! She feels that I am a gentleman and will +not presume." + +"There!" said she, drawing back. "Is that comfortable?" + +"Luxury!" he ejaculated with fervor. + +"I am afraid I am to blame for your terrible fall." + +"No,--my own clumsiness and that oar-blade are in fault." + +"If you feel well enough to be left alone, I will skate off and call my +friends." + +"Please do not leave me quite yet!" says Wade, entirely satisfied with +the _tete-a-tete_. + +"Ah! here comes Mr. Skerrett round the Point!" she said,--and sprang up, +looking a little guilty. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LOVE IN THE FIRST DEGREE. + + +Peter Skerrett came sailing round the purple rocks of his Point, skating +like a man who has been in the South of Europe for two winters. + +He was decidedly Anglicized in his whiskers, coat, and shoes. Otherwise +he in all respects repeated his well-known ancestor, Skerrett of the +Revolution; whose two portraits--1. A ruddy hero in regimentals, in +Gilbert Stuart's early brandy-and-water manner; 2. A rosy sage in +senatorials, in Stuart's later claret-and-water manner--hang in his +descendant's dining-room. + +Peter's first look was a provokingly significant one at the confused and +blushing young lady. Secondly he inspected the Dying Gladiator on the +ice. + +"Have you been tilting at this gentleman, Mary?" he asked, in the voice +of a cheerful, friendly fellow. "Why! Hullo. Hooray! It's Wade, Richard +Wade, Dick Wade! Don't look, Miss Mary, while I give him the grips of +all the secret societies we belonged to in College." + +Mary, however, did look on, pleased and amused, while Peter plumped down +on the ice, shook his friend's hand, and examined him as if he were fine +crockery, spilt and perhaps shattered. + +"It's not a case of trepanning, Dick, my boy?" said he. + +"No," said the other. "I tumbled in trying to dodge this lady. The ice +thought my face ought to be scratched, because I had been scratching its +face without mercy. My wits were knocked out of me; but they are tired +of secession, and pleading to be let in again." + +"Keep some of them out for our sake! We must have you at our commonplace +level. Well, Miss Mary, I suppose this is the first time you have had +the sensation of breaking a man's head. You generally hit lower." Peter +tapped his heart. + +"I'm all right now, thanks to my surgeon," says Wade. "Give me a lift, +Peter." He pulled up and clung to his friend. + +"You're the vine and I'm the lamppost," Skerrett said. "Mary, do you +know what a pocket-pistol is?" + +"I have seen such weapons concealed about the persons of modern +warriors." + +"There's one in my overcoat-pocket, with a cup at the butt and a cork at +the muzzle. Skate off now, like an angel, and get it. Bring Fanny, too. +She is restorative." + +"Are you alive enough to admire that, Dick?" he continued, as she +skimmed away. + +"It would pat a soul under the ribs of Death." + +"I venerate that young woman," says Peter. "You see what a beauty she +is, and just as unspoiled as this ice. Unspoiled beauties are rarer than +rocs' eggs. + +"She has a singularly true face," Wade replied, "and that is the main +thing,--the most excellent thing in man or woman." + +"Yes, truth makes that nuisance, beauty, tolerable." + +"You did not do me the honor to present me." + +"I saw you had gone a great way beyond that, my boy. Have you not her +initials in cambric on your brow? Not M. T., which wouldn't apply; but +M. D." + +"Mary----?" + +"Damer." + +"I like the name," says Wade, repeating it. "It sounds simple and +thoroughbred." + +"Just what she is. One of the nine simple-hearted and thorough-bred +girls on this continent." + +"Nine?" + +"Is that too many? Three, then. That's one in ten millions. The exact +proportion of Poets, Painters, Oratory, Statesmen, and all other Great +Artists. Well,--three or nine,--Mary Damer is one of them. She never saw +fear or jealousy, or knowingly allowed an ignoble thought or an ungentle +word or an ungraceful act in herself. Her atmosphere does not tolerate +flirtation. You must find out for yourself how much genius she has and +has not. But I will say this,--that I think of puns two a minute faster +when I'm with her. Therefore she must be magnetic, and that is the first +charm in a woman." + +Wade laughed. + +"You have not lost your powers of analysis, Peter. But talking of this +heroine, you have not told me anything about yourself, except _apropos_ +of punning." + +"Come up and dine, and we'll fire away personal histories, broadside +for broadside! I've been looking in vain for a worthy hero to set +_vis-a-vis_ to my fair kinswoman. But stop! perhaps you have a Christmas +turkey at home, with a wife opposite, and a brace of boys waiting for +drumsticks." + +"No,--my boys, like cherubs, await their own drumsticks. They're not +born, and I'm not married." + +"I thought you looked incomplete and abnormal. Well, I will show you a +model wife,--and here she comes!" + +Here they came, the two ladies, gliding round the Point, with draperies +floating as artlessly artful as the robes of Raphael's Hours, or a +Pompeian Bacchante. For want of classic vase or _patera_, Miss Damer +brandished Peter Skerrett's pocket-pistol. + +Fanny Skerrett gave her hand cordially to Wade, and looked a little +anxiously at his pale face. + +"Now, M.D.," says Peter, "you have been surgeon, you shall be doctor and +dose our patient. Now, then,-- + + "'Hebe, pour free! + Quicken his eyes with mountain-dew, + That Styx, the detested, + No more he may view.'" + + "Thanks, Hebe!" + +Wade said, continuing the quotation,-- + + "I quaff it! + Io Paean, I cry! + The whiskey of the Immortals + Forbids me to die." + +"We effeminate women of the nineteenth century are afraid of broken +heads," said Fanny. "But Mary Damer seems quite to enjoy your accident, +Mr. Wade, as an adventure." + +Miss Damer certainly did seem gay and exhilarated. + +"I enjoy it," said Wade. "I perceive that I fell on my feet, when I fell +on my crown. I tumbled among old friends, and I hope among new ones." + +"I have been waiting to claim my place among your old friends," Mrs. +Skerrett said, "ever since Peter told me you were one of his models." + +She delivered this little speech with a caressing manner which totally +fascinated Wade. + +Nothing was ever so absolutely pretty as Mrs. Peter Skerrett. Her +complete prettiness left nothing to be desired. + +"Never," thought Wade, "did I see such a compact little casket of +perfections. Every feature is thoroughly well done and none intrusively +superior. Her little nose is a combination of all the amiabilities. Her +black eyes sparkle with fun and mischief and wit, all playing over deep +tenderness below. Her hair ripples itself full of gleams and shadows. +The same coquetry of Nature that rippled her hair has dinted her cheeks +with shifting dimples. Every time she smiles--and she smiles as if sixty +an hour were not half allowance--a dimple slides into view and vanishes +like a dot in a flow of sunny water. And, O Peter Skerrett! if you were +not the best fellow in the world, I should envy you that latent kiss of +a mouth." + +"You need not say it, Wade,--your broken head exempts you from the +business of compliments," said Peter; "but I see you think my wife +perfection. You'll think so the more, the more you know her." + +"Stop, Peter," said she, "or I shall have to hide behind the superior +charms of Mary Damer." + +Miss Damer certainly was a woman of a grander order. You might pull at +the bells or knock at the knockers and be introduced into the boudoirs +of all the houses, villas, seats, chateaus, and palaces in Christendom +without seeing such another. She belonged distinctly to the Northern +races,--the "brave and true and tender" women. There was, indeed, a +trace of hauteur and imperiousness in her look and manner; but it +did not ill become her distinguished figure and face. Wade, however, +remembered her sweet earnestness when she was playing leech to his +wound, and chose to take that mood as her dominant one. + +"She must have been desperately annoyed with bores and boobies," he +thought. "I do not wonder she protects herself by distance. I am afraid +I shall never get within her lines again,--not even if I should try +slow and regular approaches, and bombard her with bouquets for a +twelvemonth." + +"But, Wade," says Peter, "all this time you have not told us what good +luck sends you here to be wrecked on the hospitable shores of my Point." + +"I live here. I am chief cook and confectioner where you see the smoking +top of that tall chimney up-stream." + +"Why, of course! What a dolt I was, not to think of you, when Churm told +us an Athlete, a Brave, a Sage, and a Gentleman was the Superintendent +of Dunderbunk; but said we must find his name out for ourselves. You +remember, Mary. Miss Damer is Mr. Churm's ward." + +She acknowledged with a cool bow that she did remember her guardian's +character of Wade. + +"You do not say, Peter," says Mrs. Skerrett, with a bright little look +at the other lady, "why Mr. Churm was so mysterious about Mr. Wade." + +"Miss Damer shall tell us," Peter rejoined, repeating his wife's look of +merry significance. + +She looked somewhat teased. Wade could divine easily the meaning of +this little mischievous talk. His friend Churm had no doubt puffed him +furiously. + +"All this time," said Miss Darner, evading a reply, "we are neglecting +our skating privileges." + +"Peter and I have a few grains of humanity in our souls," Fanny said. +"We should blush to sail away from Mr. Wade, while he carries the +quarantine flag at his pale cheeks." + +"I am almost ruddy again," says Wade. "Your potion, Miss Damer, +has completed the work of your surgery. I can afford to dismiss my +lamp-post." + +"Whereupon the post changes to a tee-totum," Peter said, and spun off in +an eccentric, ending in a tumble. + +"I must have a share in your restoration, Mr. Wade," Fanny claimed. "I +see you need a second dose of medicine. Hand me the flask, Mary. What +shall I pour from this magic bottle? juice of Rhine, blood of Burgundy, +fire of Spain, bubble of Rheims, beeswing of Oporto, honey of Cyprus, +nectar, or whiskey? Whiskey is vulgar, but the proper thing, on the +whole, for these occasions. I prescribe it." And she gave him another +little draught to imbibe. + +He took it kindly, for her sake,--and not alone for that, but for its +own respectable sake. His recovery was complete. His head, to be sure, +sang a little still, and ached not a little. Some fellows would have +gone on the sick list with such a wound. Perhaps he would, if he had had +a trouble to dodge. But here instead was a pleasure to follow. So he +began to move about slowly, watching the ladies. + +Fanny was a novice in the Art, and this was her first day this winter. +She skated timidly, holding Peter very tightly. She went into the +dearest little panics for fear of tumbles, and uttered the most musical +screams and laughs. And if she succeeded in taking a few brave strokes +and finished with a neat slide, she pleaded for a verdict of "Well +done!" with such an appealing smile and such a fine show of dimples that +every one was fascinated and applauded heartily. + +Miss Damer skated as became her free and vigorous character. She had +passed her Little Go as a scholar, and was now steadily winning her way +through the list of achievements, before given, toward the Great Go. +To-day she was at work at small circles backward. Presently she wound +off a series of perfectly neat ones, and, looking up, pleased with her +prowess, caught Wade's admiring eye. At this she smiled and gave an +arch little womanly nod of self-approval, which also demanded masculine +sympathy before it was quite a perfect emotion. + +With this charming gesture, the alert feather in her Amazonian hat +nodded, too, as if it admired its lovely mistress. + +Wade was thrilled. "Brava!" he cried, in answer to the part of her look +which asked sympathy; and then, in reply to the implied challenge, he +forgot his hurt and his shock, and struck into the same figure. + +He tried not to surpass his fair exemplar too cruelly. But he did his +peripheries well enough to get a repetition of the captivating nod and a +Bravo! from the lady. + +"Bravo!" said she. "But do not tax your strength too soon." + +She began to feel that she was expressing too much interest in the +stranger. It was a new sensation for her to care whether men fell or got +up. A new sensation. She rather liked it. She was a trifle ashamed of +it. In either case, she did not wish to show that it was in her heart. +The consciousness of concealment flushed her damask check. + +It was a damask cheek. All her hues were cool and pearly; while Wade, +Saxon too, had hot golden tints in his hair and moustache, and his +color, now returning, was good strong red with plenty of bronze in it. + +"Thank you," he replied. "My force has all come back. You have +electrified me." + +A civil nothing; but meaning managed to get into his tone and look, +whether he would or not. + +Which he perceiving, on his part began to feel guilty. + +Of what crime? + +Of the very same crime as hers,--the most ancient and most pardonable +crime of youth and maiden,--that sweet and guiltless crime of love in +the first degree. + +So, without troubling themselves to analyze their feelings, they found +a piquant pleasure in skating together,--she in admiring his _tours de +force_, and he in instructing her. + +"Look, Peter!" said Mrs. Skerrett, pointing to the other pair skating, +he on the backward roll, she on the forward, with hands crossed and +locked;--such contacts are permitted in skating, as in dancing. "Your +hero and my heroine have dropped into an intimacy." + +"None but the Plucky deserve the Pretty," says Peter. + +"But he seems to be such a fine fellow,--suppose she shouldn't"---- + +The pretty face looked anxious. + +"Suppose _he_ shouldn't," Peter on the masculine behalf returned. + +"He cannot help it: Mary is so noble,--and so charming, when she does +not disdain to be." + +"I do not believe _she_ can help it. She cannot disdain Wade. He carries +too many guns for that. He is just as fine as she is. He was a hero when +I first knew him. His face does not show an atom of change; and you know +what Mr. Churm told us of his chivalric deeds elsewhere, and how he +tamed and reformed Dunderbunk. He is crystal grit, as crystalline and +gritty as he can be." + +"Grit seems to be your symbol of the highest qualities. It certainly is +a better thing in man than in ice-cream. But, Peter, suppose this should +be a true love and should not run smooth?" + +"What consequence is the smooth running, so long as there is strong +running and a final getting in neck and neck at the winning-post?" + +"But," still pleaded the anxious soul,--having no anxieties of her +own, she was always suffering for others,--"he seems to be such a fine +fellow! and she is so hard to win!" + +"Am I a fine fellow?" + +"No,--horrid!" + +"The truth,--or I let you tumble." + +"Well, upon compulsion, I admit that you are." + +"Then being a fine fellow does not diminish the said fellow's chances of +being blessed with a wife quite superfine." + +"If I thought you were personal, Peter, I should object to the +mercantile adjective. 'Superfine,' indeed!" + +"I am personal. I withdraw the obnoxious phrase, and substitute +transcendent. No, Fanny dear, I read Wade's experience in my own. I do +not feel very much concerned about him. He is big enough to take care of +himself. A man who is sincere, self-possessed, and steady does not get +into miseries with beautiful Amazons like our friend. He knows too much +to try to make his love run up hill; but let it once get started, rough +running gives it _vim_. Wade will love like a deluge, when he sees that +he may, and I'd advise obstacles to stand off." + +"It was pretty, Peter, to see cold Mary Damer so gentle and almost +tender." + +"I always have loved to see the first beginnings of what looks like +love, since I saw ours." + +"Ours," she said,--"it seems like yesterday." + +And then together they recalled that fair picture against its dark +ground of sorrow, and so went on refreshing the emotions of that time +until Fanny smiling said,-- + +"There must be something magical in skates, for here we are talking +sentimentally like a pair of young lovers." + +"Health and love are cause and effect," says Peter, sententiously. + +Meanwhile Wade had been fast skating into the good graces of his +companion. Perhaps the rap on his head had deranged him. He certainly +tossed himself about in a reckless and insane way. Still he justified +his conduct by never tumbling again, and by inventing new devices with +bewildering rapidity. + +This pair were not at all sentimental. Indeed, their talk was quite +technical: all about rings and edges, and heel and toe,--what skates are +best, and who best use them. There is an immense amount of sympathy to +be exchanged on such topics, and it was somewhat significant that they +avoided other themes where they might not sympathize so thoroughly. The +negative part of a conversation is often as important as its positive. + +So the four entertained themselves finely, sometimes as a quartette, +sometimes as two duos with proper changes of partners, until the clear +west began to grow golden and the clear east pink with sunset. + +"It is a pity to go," said Peter Skerrett. "Everything here is +perfection and Fine Art; but we must not be unfaithful to dinner. Dinner +would have a right to punish us, if we did not encourage its efforts to +be Fine Art also." + +"Now, Mr. Wade," Fanny commanded, "your most heroic series of exploits, +to close this heroic day." + +He nimbly dashed through his list. The ice was traced with a labyrinth +of involuted convolutions. + +Wade's last turn brought him to the very spot of his tumble. + +"Ah!" said he. "Here is the oar that tripped me, with 'Wade, his +mark,' gashed into it. If I had not this"--he touched Miss Damer's +handkerchief--"for a souvenir, I think I would dig up the oar and carry +it home." + +"Let it melt out and float away in the spring," Mary said. "It may be a +perch for a sea-gull or a buoy for a drowning man." + +Here, if this were a long story instead of a short one, might be given a +description of Peter Skerrett's house and the _menu_ of Mrs. Skerrett's +dinner. Peter and his wife had both been to great pillory dinners, _ad +nauseam_, and learnt what to avoid. How not to be bored is the object of +all civilization, and the Skerretts had discovered the methods. I must +dismiss the dinner and the evening, stamped with the general epithet, +Perfection. + +"You will join us again to-morrow on the river," said Mrs. Skerrett, as +Wade rose to go. + +"To-morrow I go to town to report to my Directors." + +"Then next day." + +"Next day, with pleasure." + +Wade departed and marked this halcyon day with white chalk, as the +whitest, brightest, sweetest of his life. + + +CHAPTER X. + +FOREBODINGS. + + +Jubilation! Jubilation now, instead of Consternation, in the office of +Mr. Benjamin Brummage in Wall Street. + +President Brummage had convoked his Directors to hear the First +Semi-Annual Report of the new Superintendent and Dictator of Dunderbunk. + +And there they sat around the green table, no longer forlorn and +dreading a, failure, but all chuckling with satisfaction over their +prosperity. + +They were a happy and hilarious family now,--so hilarious that +the President was obliged to be always rapping to Order with his +paper-knife. + +Every one of these gentlemen was proud of himself as a Director of so +successful a Company. The Dunderbunk advertisement might now consider +itself as permanent in the newspapers, and the Treasurer had very +unnecessarily inserted the notice of a dividend, which everybody knew of +already. + +When Mr. Churm was not by, they all claimed the honor of having +discovered Wade, or at least of having been the first to appreciate him. + +They all invited him to dinner,--the others at their houses, Sam Gwelp +at his club. + +They had not yet begun to wax fat and kick. They still remembered +the panic of last summer. They passed a unanimous vote of the most +complimentary confidence in Wade, approved of his system, forced upon +him an increase of salary, and began to talk of "launching out" and +doubling their capital. In short, they behaved as Directors do when all +is serene. + +Churm and Wade had a hearty laugh over the absurdities of the Board and +all their vague propositions. + +"Dunderbunk," said Churm, "was a company started on a sentimental basis, +as many others are." + +"Mr. Brummage fell in love with pig-iron?" + +"Precisely. He had been a dry-goods jobber, risen from a retailer +somewhere in the country. He felt a certain lack of dignity in his work. +He wanted to deal in something more masculine than lace and ribbons. He +read a sentimental article on Iron in the 'Journal of Commerce': how +Iron held the world together; how it was nerve and sinew; how it was +ductile and malleable and other things that sounded big; how without +Iron civilization would stop, and New Zealanders hunt rats among the +ruins of London; how anybody who would make two tons of Iron grow +where one grew before was a benefactor to the human race greater than +Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon; and so on,--you know the eloquent style. +Brummage's soul was fired. He determined to be greater than the three +heroes named. He was oozing with unoccupied capital. He went about among +the other rich jobbers, with the newspaper article in his hand, and +fired their souls. They determined to be great Iron-Kings,--magnificent +thought! They wanted to read in the newspapers, 'If all the iron rails +made at the Dunderbunk Works in the last six months were put together in +a straight line, they would reach twice round our terraqueous globe and +seventy-three miles two rails over.' So on that poetic foundation they +started the concern." + +Wade laughed. "But how did you happen to be with them?" + +"Oh! my friend Damer sold them the land for the shop and took stock in +payment. I came into the Board as his executor. Did I never tell you so +before?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, be informed that it was in Miss Damer's behalf that you +knocked down Friend Tarbox, and so got your skates for saving her +property. It's quite a romance already, Richard, my boy! and I suppose +you feel immensely bored that you had to come down and meet us old +chaps, instead of tumbling at her feet on the ice again to-day." + +"A tumble in this wet day would be a cold bath to romance." + +The Gulf Stream had sent up a warm spoil-sport rain that morning. It did +not stop, but poured furiously the whole day. + +From Cohoes to Spuyten Duyvil, on both sides of the river, all the +skaters swore at the weather, as profane persons no doubt did when the +windows of heaven were opened in Noah's time. The skateresses did not +swear, but savagely said, "It is too bad,"--and so it was. + +Wade, loaded with the blessings of his Directors, took the train next +morning for Dunderbunk. + +The weather was still mild and drizzly, but promised to clear. As the +train rattled along by the river, Wade could see that the thin ice +was breaking up everywhere. In mid-stream a procession of blocks was +steadily drifting along. Unless Zero came sliding down again pretty soon +from Boreal regions, the sheets that filled the coves and clung to the +shores would also sail away southward, and the whole Hudson be left +clear as in midsummer. + +At Yonkers a down train ranged by the side of Wade's train, and, looking +out, he saw Mr. and Mrs. Skerrett alighting. + +He jumped down, rather surprised, to speak to them. + +"We have just been telegraphed here," said Peter, gravely. "The son of a +widow, a friend of ours, was drowned this morning in the soft ice of the +river. He was a pet of mine, poor fellow! and the mother depends upon me +for advice. We have come down to say a kind word. Why won't you report +us to the ladies at my house, and say we shall not be at home until the +evening train? They do not know the cause of our journey, except that it +is a sad one." + +"Perhaps Mr. Wade will carve their turkey for them at dinner, Peter," +Fanny suggested. + +"Do, Wade! and keep their spirits up. Dinner's at six." + +Here the engine whistled. Wade promised to "shine substitute" at his +friend's board, and took his place again. The train galloped away. + +Peter and his wife exchanged a bright look over the fortunate incident +of this meeting, and went on their kind way to carry sympathy and such +consolation as might be to the widow. + +The train galloped northward. Until now, the beat of its wheels, like +the click of an enormous metronome, had kept time to jubilant measures +singing in Wade's brain. He was hurrying back, exhilarated with success, +to the presence of a woman whose smile was finer exhilaration than any +number of votes of confidence, passed unanimously by any number of +conclaves of overjoyed Directors, and signed by Brummage after Brummage, +with the signature of a capitalist in a flurry of delight at a ten per +cent dividend. + +But into this joyous mood of Wade's the thought of death suddenly +intruded. He could not keep a picture of death and drowning out of his +mind. As the train sprang along and opened gloomy breadth after breadth +of the leaden river, clogged with slow-drifting files of ice-blocks, he +found himself staring across the dreary waste and forever fancying some +one sinking there, helpless and alone. + +He seemed to see a brave, bright-eyed, ruddy boy, venturing out +carelessly along the edges of the weakened ice. Suddenly the ice gives +way, the little figure sinks, rises, clutches desperately at a fragment, +struggles a moment, is borne along in the relentless flow of the chilly +water, stares in vain shoreward, and so sinks again with a look of +agony, and is gone. + +But whenever this inevitable picture grew before Wade's eyes, as the +drowning figure of his fancy vanished, it suddenly changed features, and +presented the face of Mary Damer, perishing beyond succor. + +Of course he knew that this was but a morbid vision. Yet that it came at +all, and that it so agonized him, proved the force of his new feeling. + +He had not analyzed it before. This thought of death became its +touchstone. + +Men like Wade, strong, healthy, earnest, concentrated, straightforward, +isolated, judge men and women as friends or foes at once and once for +all. He had recognized in Mary Damer from the first a heart as true, +whole, noble, and healthy as his own. A fine instinct had told him that +she was waiting for her hero, as he was for his heroine. + +So he suddenly loved her. And yet not suddenly; for all his life, and +all his lesser forgotten or discarded passions, had been training him +for this master one. + +He suddenly and strongly loved her; and yet it had only been a beautiful +bewilderment of uncomprehended delight, until this haunting vision of +her fair face sinking amid the hungry ice beset him. Then he perceived +what would be lost to him, if she were lost. + +The thought of Death placed itself between him and Love. If the love +had been merely a pretty remembrance of a charming woman, he might have +dismissed his fancied drowning scene with a little emotion of regret. +Now, the fancy was an agony. + +He had too much power over himself to entertain it long. But the grisly +thought came uninvited, returned undesired, and no resolute Avaunt, even +backed by that magic wand, a cigar, availed to banish it wholly. + +The sky cleared cold at eleven o'clock. A sharp wind drew through the +Highlands. As the train rattled round the curve below the tunnel through +Skerrett's Point, Wade could see his skating course of Christmas-Day +with the ladies. Firm ice, glazed smooth by the sudden chill after the +rain, filled the Cove and stretched beyond the Point into the river. + +It was treacherous stuff, beautiful to the eyes of a skater, but sure +to be weak, and likely to break up any moment and join the deliberate +headlong drift of the masses in mid-current. + +Wade almost dreaded lest his vision should suddenly realize itself, +and he should see his enthusiastic companion of the other day sailing +gracefully along to certain death. + +Nothing living, however, was in sight, except here and there a crow, +skipping about in the floating ice. + +The lover was greatly relieved. He could now forewarn the lady against +the peril he had imagined. The train in a moment dropped him at +Dunderbunk. He hurried to the Foundry and wrote a note to Mrs. Damer. + +"Mr. Wade presents his compliments to Mrs. Damer, and has the honor to +inform her that Mr. Skerrett has nominated him carver to the ladies +to-day in their host's place. + +"Mr. Wade hopes that Miss Damer will excuse him from his engagement to +skate with her this afternoon. The ice is dangerous, and Miss Damer +should on no account venture upon it." + +Perry Purtett was the bearer of this billet. He swaggered into Peter +Skerrett's hall, and dreadfully alarmed the fresh-imported Englishman +who answered the bell, by ordering him in a severe tone,-- + +"Hurry up now, White Cravat, with that answer! I'm wanted down to the +Works. Steam don't bile when I'm off; and the fly-wheel will never buzz +another turn, unless I'm there to motion it to move on." + +Mrs. Damer's gracious reply informed Wade "that she should be charmed to +see him at dinner, etc., and would not fail to transmit his kind warning +to Miss Damer, when she returned from her drive to make calls." + +But when Miss Damer returned in the afternoon, her mother was taking a +gentle nap over the violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red +stripes of a gorgeous Afghan she was knitting. The daughter heard +nothing of the billet. The house was lonely without Fanny Skerrett. Mr. +Wade did not come at the appointed hour. Mary was not--willing to say to +herself how much she regretted his absence. + +Had he forgotten the appointment? + +No,--that was a thought not to be tolerated. + +"A gentleman does not forget," she thought. And she had a thorough +confidence, besides, that this gentleman was very willing to remember. + +She read a little, fitfully, sang fitfully, moved about the house +uneasily; and at last, when it grew late, and she was bored and Wade did +not arrive, she pronounced to herself that he had been detained in town. + +This point settled, she took her skates, put on her pretty Amazonian hat +with its alert feather, and went down to waste her beauty and grace on +the ice, unattended and alone. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CAP'S AMBUSTER'S SKIFF. + + +It was a busy afternoon at the Dunderbunk Foundry. + +The Superintendent had come back with his pocket full of orders. +Everybody, from the Czar of Russia to the President of the Guano +Republic, was in the market for machinery. Crisis was gone by. +Prosperity was come. The world was all ready to move, and only waited +for a fresh supply of wheels, cranks, side-levers, walking-beams, and +other such muscular creatures of iron, to push and tug and swing and +revolve and set Progress a-going. + +Dunderbunk was to have its full share in supplying the demand. It was +well understood by this time that the iron Wade made was as stanch +as the man who made it. Dunderbunk, therefore, Head and Hands, must +despatch. + +So it was a busy afternoon at the industrious Foundry. The men bestirred +themselves. The furnaces rumbled. The engine thumped. The drums in the +finishing-shop hummed merrily their lively song of labor. The four +trip-hammers--two bull-headed, two calf-headed--champed, like +carnivorous maws, upon red bars of iron, and over their banquet they +roared the big-toned music of the trip-hammer chorus,-- + + "Now, then! hit hard! + Strike while Iron's hot. Life's short. Art's long." + +By this massive refrain, ringing in at intervals above the ceaseless +buzz, murmur, and clang throughout the buildings, every man's work was +mightily nerved and inspired. Everybody liked to hear the sturdy song of +these grim vocalists; and whenever they struck in, each solo or duo or +quatuor of men, playing Anvil Chorus, quickened time, and all the action +and rumor of the busy opera went on more cheerily and lustily. So work +kept astir like play. + +An hour before sunset, Bill Tarbox stepped into Wade's office. Even oily +and begrimed, Bill could be recognized as a favored lover. He looked +more a man than ever before. + +"I forgot to mention," says the foreman, "that Cap'n Ambuster was in, +this morning, to see you. He says, that, if the river's clear enough for +him to get away from our dock, he'll go down to the City to-morrow, and +offers to take freight cheap. We might put that new walking-beam, we've +just rough-finished for the 'Union,' aboard of him." + +"Yes,--if he is sure to go to-morrow. It will not do to delay. The +owners complained to me yesterday that the 'Union' was in a bad way for +want of its new machinery. Tell your brother-in-law to come here, Bill." + +Tarbox looked sheepishly pleased, and summoned Perry Purtett. + +"Run down, Perry," said Wade, "to the 'Ambuster,' and ask Captain Isaac +to step up here a moment. Tell him I have some freight to send by him." + +Perry moved through the Foundry with his usual jaunty step, left his +dignity at the door, and ran off to the dock. + +The weather had grown fitful. Heavy clouds whirled over, trailing +snow-flurries. Rarely the sun found a cleft in the black canopy to shoot +a ray through and remind the world that he was still in his place and +ready to shine when he was wanted. + +Master Perry had a furlong to go before he reached the dock. He crossed +the stream, kept unfrozen by the warm influences of the Foundry. He ran +through a little dell hedged on each side by dull green cedars. It was +severely cold now, and our young friend condescended to prance and jump +over the ice-skimmed puddles to keep his blood in motion. + +The little rusty, pudgy steamboat lay at the down-stream side of the +Foundry wharf. Her name was so long and her paddle-box so short, that +the painter, beginning with ambitious large letters, had been compelled +to abbreviate the last syllable. Her title read thus:-- + +I. AMBUSTER. + +Certainly a formidable inscription for a steamboat! + +When she hove in sight, Perry halted, resumed his stately demeanor, and +em-barked as if he were a Doge entering a Bucentaur to wed a Sea. + +There was nobody on deck to witness the arrival and salute the +_magnifico_. + +Perry looked in at the Cap'n's office. He beheld a three-legged stool, +a hacked desk, an inky steel-pen, an inkless inkstand; but no Cap'n +Ambuster. + +Perry inspected the Cap'n's state-room. There was a cracked +looking-glass, into which he looked; a hair-brush suspended by the +glass, which he used; a lair of blankets in a berth, which he had no +present use for; and a smell of musty boots, which nobody with a nose +could help smelling. Still no Captain Ambuster, nor any of his crew. + +Search in the unsavory kitchen revealed no cook, coiled up in a corner, +suffering nightmares for the last greasy dinner he had brewed in his +frying-pan. There were no deck hands bundled into their bunks. Perry +rapped on the chain-box and inquired if anybody was within, and nobody +answering, he had to ventriloquize a negative. + +The engine-room, too, was vacant, and quite as unsavory as the other +dens on board. Perry patronized the engine by a pull or two at the +valves, and continued his tour of inspection. + +The Ambuster's skiff, lying on her forward deck, seemed to entertain him +vastly. + +"Jolly!" says Perry. And so it was a jolly boat in the literal, not the +technical sense. + +"The three wise men of Gotham went to sea in a bowl; and here's the +identical craft," says Perry. + +He gave the chubby little machine a push with his foot. It rolled and +wallowed about grotesquely. When it was still again, it looked so comic, +lying contentedly on its fat side like a pudgy baby, that Perry had a +roar of laughter, which, like other laughter to one's self, did not +sound very merry, particularly as the north-wind was howling ominously, +and the broken ice on its downward way was whispering and moaning and +talking on in a most mysterious and inarticulate manner. + +"Those sheets of ice would crunch up this skiff, as pigs do a punkin," +thinks Perry. + +And with this thought in his head he looked out on the river, and +fancied the foolish little vessel cast loose and buffeting helplessly +about in the ice. + +He had been so busy until now, in prying about the steamboat and making +up his mind that Captain and men had all gone off for a comfortable +supper on shore, that his eyes had not wandered toward the stream. + +Now his glance began to follow the course of the icy current. He +wondered where all this supply of cakes came from, and how many of them +would escape the stems of ferry-boats below and get safe to sea. + +All at once, as he looked lazily along the lazy files of ice, his eyes +caught a black object drifting on a fragment in a wide way of open water +opposite Skerrett's Point, a mile distant. + +Perry's heart stopped beating. He uttered a little gasping cry. He +sprang ashore, not at all like a Doge quitting a Bucentaur. He tore back +to the Foundry, dashing through the puddles, and, never stopping to pick +up his cap, burst in upon Wade and Bill Tarbos in the office. + +The boy was splashed from head to foot with red mud. His light hair, +blown wildly about, made his ashy face seem paler. He stood panting. + +His dumb terror brought back to Wade's mind all the bad omens of the +morning. + +"Speak!" said he, seizing Perry fiercely by the shoulder. + +The uproar of the Works seemed to hush for an instant, while the lad +stammered faintly,-- + +"There's somebody carried off in the ice by Skerrett's Point. It looks +like a woman. And there's nobody to help." + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IN THE ICE. + + +"Help! help!" shouted the four triphammers, bursting in like a magnified +echo of the boy's last word. + +"Help! help!" all the humming wheels and drums repeated more +plaintively. + +Wade made for the river. + +This was the moment all his manhood had been training and saving for. +For this he had kept sound and brave from his youth up. + +As he ran, he felt that the only chance of instant help was in that +queer little bowl-shaped skiff of the "Ambuster." + +He had never been conscious that he had observed it; but the image +had lain latent in his mind, biding its time. It might be ten, twenty +precious moments before another boat could be found. This one was on the +spot to do its duty at once. + +"Somebody carried off,--perhaps a woman," Wade thought. "Not--No, she +would not neglect my warning! Whoever it is, we must save her from this +dreadful death!" + +He sprang on board the little steamboat. She was swaying uneasily at her +moorings, as the ice crowded along and hammered against her stem. Wade +stared from her deck down the river, with all his life at his eyes. + +More than a mile away, below the hemlock-crested point, was the dark +object Perry had seen, still stirring along the edges of the floating +ice. A broad avenue of leaden-green water wrinkled by the cold wind +separated the field where this figure was moving from the shore. Dark +object and its footing of gray ice were drifting deliberately farther +and farther away. + +For one instant Wade thought that the terrible dread in his heart would +paralyze him. But in that one moment, while his blood stopped flowing +and his nerves failed, Bill Tarbos overtook him and was there by his +side. + +"I brought your cap," says Bill, "and our two coats." + +Wade put on his cap mechanically. This little action calmed him. + +"Bill," said he, "I'm afraid it is a woman,--a dear friend of mine,--a +very dear friend." + +Bill, a lover, understood the tone. + +"We'll take care of her between us," he said. + +The two turned at once to the little tub of a boat. + +Oars? Yes,--slung under the thwarts,--a pair of short sculls, worn and +split, but with work in them still. There they hung ready,--and a rusty +boat-hook, besides. + +"Find the thole-pins, Bill, while I cut a plug for her bottom out of +this broomstick," Wade said. + +This was done in a moment. Bill threw in the coats. + +"Now, together!" + +They lifted the skiff to the gangway. Wade jumped down on the ice and +received her carefully. They ran her along, as far as they could go, and +launched her in the sludge. + +"Take the sculls, Bill. I'll work the boat-hook in the bow." + +Nothing more was said. They thrust out with their crazy little craft +into the thick of the ice-flood. Bill, amidships, dug with his sculls +in among the huddled cakes. It was clumsy pulling. Now this oar and now +that would be thrown out. He could never get a full stroke. + +Wade in the bow could do better. He jammed the blocks aside with his +boat-hook. He dragged the skiff forward. He steered through the little +open ways of water. + +Sometimes they came to a broad sheet of solid ice. Then it was "Out with +her, Bill!" and they were both out and sliding their bowl so quick +over, that they had not time to go through the rotten surface. This was +drowning business; but neither could be spared to drown yet. + +In the leads of clear water, the oarsman got brave pulls and sent the +boat on mightily. Then again in the thick porridge of brash ice they +lost headway, or were baffled and stopped among the cakes. Slow work, +slow and painful; and for many minutes they seemed to gain nothing upon +the steady flow of the merciless current. + +A frail craft for such a voyage, this queer little half-pumpkin! A frail +and leaky shell. She bent and cracked from stem to stern among the +nipping masses. Water oozed in through her dry seams. Any moment a +rougher touch or a sharper edge might cut her through. But that was a +risk they had accepted. They did not take time to think of it, nor to +listen to the crunching and crackling of the hungry ice around. They +urged straight on, steadily, eagerly, coolly, spending and saving +strength. + +Not one moment to lose! The shattering of broad sheets of ice around +them was a warning of what might happen to the frail support of their +chase. One thrust of the boat-hook sometimes cleft a cake that to the +eye seemed stout enough to bear a heavier weight than a woman's. + +Not one moment to spare! The dark figure, now drifted far below the +hemlocks of the Point, no longer stirred. It seemed to have sunk upon +the ice and to be resting there weary and helpless, on one side a wide +way of lurid water, on the other half a mile of moving desolation. + +Far to go, and no time to waste! + +"Give way, Bill! Give way!" + +"Ay, ay!" + +Both spoke in low tones, hardly louder than the whisper of the ice +around them. + +By this time hundreds from the Foundry and the village were swarming +upon the wharf and the steamboat. + +"A hunderd tar-barrels wouldn't git up my steam in time to do any good," +says Cap'n Ambuster. "If them two in my skiff don't overhaul the man, +he's gone." + +"You're sure it's a man?" says Smith Wheelwright. + +"Take a squint through my glass. I'm dreffully afeard it's a gal; but +suthin's got into my eye, so I can't see." + +Suthin' had got into the old fellow's eye,--suthin' saline and +acrid,--namely, a tear. + +"It's a woman," says Wheelwright,--and suthin' of the same kind blinded +him also. + +Almost sunset now. But the air was suddenly filled with perplexing +snow-dust from a heavy squall. A white curtain dropped between the +anxious watchers on the wharf and the boatmen. + +The same white curtain hid the dark floating object from its pursuers. +There was nothing in sight to steer by, now. + +Wade steered by his last glimpse,--by the current,--by the rush of the +roaring wind,--by instinct. + +How merciful that in such a moment a man is spared the agony of thought! +His agony goes into action, intense as life. + +It was bitterly cold. A swash of ice-water filled the bottom of the +skiff. She was low enough down without that. They could not stop to +bail, and the miniature icebergs they passed began to look significantly +over the gunwale. Which would come to the point of foundering first, the +boat or the little floe it aimed for? + +Bitterly cold! The snow hardly melted upon Tarbox's bare hands. His +fingers stiffened to the oars; but there was life in them still, and +still he did his work, and never turned to see how the steersman was +doing his. + +A flight of crows came sailing with the snow-squall. They alighted all +about on the hummocks, and curiously watched the two men battling to +save life. One black impish bird, more malignant or more sympathetic +than his fellows, ventured to poise on the skiff's stern! + +Bill hissed off this third passenger. The crow rose on its toes, let +the boat slide away from under him, and followed croaking dismal good +wishes. + +The last sunbeams were now cutting in everywhere. The thick snow-flurry +was like a luminous cloud. Suddenly it drew aside. + +The industrious skiff had steered so well and made such headway, that +there, a hundred yards away, safe still, not gone, thank God! was the +woman they sought. + +A dusky mass flung together on a waning rood of ice,--Wade could see +nothing more. + +Weary or benumbed, or sick with pure forlornness and despair, she had +drooped down and showed no sign of life. + +The great wind shook the river. Her waning rood of ice narrowed, foot +by foot, like an unthrifty man's heritage. Inch by inch its edges wore +away, until the little space that half-sustained the dark heap was no +bigger than a coffin-lid. + +Help, now!--now, men, if you are to save! Thrust, Richard Wade, with +your boat-hook! Pull, Bill, till your oars snap! Out with your last +frenzies of vigor! For the little raft of ice, even that has crumbled +beneath its burden, and she sinks,--sinks, with succor close at hand! + +Sinks! No,--she rises and floats again. + +She clasps something that holds her head just above water. But the +unmannerly ice has buffeted her hat off. The fragments toss it +about,--that pretty Amazonian hat, with its alert feather, all drooping +and draggled. Her fair hair and pure forehead are uncovered for an +astonished sunbeam to alight upon. + +"It is my love, my life, Bill! Give way, once more!" + +"Way enough! Steady! Sit where you are, Bill, and trim boat, while I +lift her out. We cannot risk capsizing." + +He raised her carefully, tenderly, with his strong arms. + +A bit of wood had buoyed her up for that last moment. It was a broken +oar with a deep fresh gash in it. + +Wade knew his mark,--the cut of his own skate-iron. This busy oar was +still resolved to play its part in the drama. + +The round little skiff just bore the third person without sinking. + +Wade laid Mary Damer against the thwart. She would not let go her buoy. +He unclasped her stiffened hands. This friendly touch found its way to +her heart. She opened her eyes and knew him. + +"The ice shall not carry off her hat to frighten some mother, down +stream," says Bill Tarbox, catching it. + +All these proceedings Cap'n Ambuster's spy-glass announced to +Dunderbunk. + +"They're h'istin' her up. They've slumped her into the skiff. They're +puttin' for shore. Hooray!" + +Pity a spy-glass cannot shoot cheers a mile and a half! + +Perry Purtett instantly led a stampede of half Dunderbunk along the +railroad-track to learn who it was and all about it. + +All about it was, that Miss Damer was safe and not dangerously +frozen,--and that Wade and Tarbox had carried her up the hill to her +mother at Peter Skerrett's. + +Missing the heroes in chief, Dunderbunk made a hero of Cap'n Ambuster's +skiff. It was transported back on the shoulders of the crowd in +triumphal procession. Perry Purtett carried round the hat for a +contribution to new paint it, new rib it, new gunwale it, give it new +sculls and a new boat-hook,--indeed, to make a new vessel of the brave +little bowl. + +"I'm afeard," says Cap'n Ambuster, "that, when I git a harnsome new +skiff, I shall want a harnsome new steamboat, and then the boat will go +to cruisin' round for a harnsome new Cap'n." + +And now for the end of this story. + +Healthy love-stories always end in happy marriages. + +So ends this story, begun as to its love portion by the little romance +of a tumble, and continued by the bigger romance of a rescue. + +Of course there were incidents enough to fill a volume, obstacles enough +to fill a volume, and development of character enough to fill a tome +thick as "Webster's Unabridged," before the happy end of the beginning +of the Wade-Damer joint history. + +But we can safely take for granted that the lover being true and manly, +and the lady true and womanly, and both possessed of the high moral +qualities necessary to artistic skating, they will go on understanding +each other better, until they are as one as two can be. + +Masculine reader, attend to the moral of this tale:-- + +Skate well, be a hero, bravely deserve the fair, prove your deserts by +your deeds, find your "perfect woman nobly planned to warm, to comfort, +and command," catch her when found, and you are Blest. + +Reader of the gentler sex, likewise attend:-- + +All the essential blessings of life accompany a true heart and a good +complexion. Skate vigorously; then your heart will beat true, your +cheeks will bloom, your appointed lover will see your beautiful soul +shining through your beautiful face, he will tell you so, and after +sufficient circumlocution he will Pop, you will accept, and your lives +will glide sweetly as skating on virgin ice to silver music. + + * * * * * + + +MIDWINTER. + + + The speckled sky is dim with snow, + The light flakes falter and fall slow; + Athwart the hill-top, rapt and pale, + Silently drops a silvery veil; + The far-off mountain's misty form + Is entering now a tent of storm; + And all the valley is shut in + By flickering curtains gray and thin. + + But cheerily the chickadee + Singeth to me on fence and tree; + The snow sails round him, as he sings, + White as the down of angels' wings. + + I watch the slow flakes, as they fall + On bank and brier and broken wall; + Over the orchard, waste and brown, + All noiselessly they settle down, + Tipping the apple-boughs, and each + Light quivering twig of plum and peach. + + On turf and curb and bower-roof + The snow-storm spreads its ivory woof; + It paves with pearl the garden-walk; + And lovingly round tattered stalk + And shivering stem its magic weaves + A mantle fair as lily-leaves. + + The hooded beehive, small and low, + Stands like a maiden in the snow; + And the old door-slab is half hid + Under an alabaster lid. + + All day it snows: the sheeted post + Gleams in the dimness like a ghost; + All day the blasted oak has stood + A muffled wizard of the wood; + Garland and airy cap adorn + The sumach and the way-side thorn, + And clustering spangles lodge and shine + In the dark tresses of the pine. + + The ragged bramble, dwarfed and old, + Shrinks like a beggar in the cold; + In surplice white the cedar stands, + And blesses him with priestly hands. + + Still cheerily the chickadee + Singeth to me on fence and tree: + But in my inmost ear is heard + The music of a holier bird; + And heavenly thoughts, as soft and white + As snow-flakes, on my soul alight, + Clothing with love my lonely heart, + Healing with peace each bruised part, + Till all my being seems to be + Transfigured by their purity. + + * * * * * + + +EASE IN WORK. + + +To thoughts and expressions of peculiar force and beauty we give the +epithets "happy" and "felicitous," as if we esteemed them a product +rather of the writer's fortune than of his toil. Thus, Dryden says of +Shakspeare, "All the images of Nature were still present to him, and he +drew from them, not laboriously, but luckily." And, indeed, when one +contemplates a noble creation in art or literature, one seems to receive +from the work itself a certain testimony that it was never wrought out +with wrestling struggle, but was genially and joyfully produced, as the +sun sends forth his beams and the earth her herbage. This appearance +of play and ease is sometimes so notable as to cause a curious +misapprehension. For example, De Quincey permits himself, if my memory +serve me, to say that Plato probably wrote his works not in any +seriousness of spirit, but only as a pastime! A pastime for the +immortals that were. + +The reason of this ease may be that perfect performance is ever more the +effluence of a man's nature than the conscious labor of his hands. That +the hands are faithfully busy therein, that every faculty contributes +its purest industry, no one could for a moment doubt; since there could +not be a total action of one's nature without this loyalty of his +special powers. Nevertheless, there are times when the presiding +intelligence descends into expression by a law and necessity of its own, +as clouds descend into rain; and perhaps it is only then that consummate +work is done. He who by his particular powers and gifts serves as a +conduit for this flowing significance may indeed toil as no drudge ever +did or can, yet with such geniality and success, that he shall feel of +his toil only the joy, and that we shall see of it only the prosperity. +A swan labors in swimming, a pigeon in his flight; yet as no part +of this industry is defeated, as it issues momentarily in perfect +achievement, it makes upon us the impression, not of the limitation of +labor, but of the freedom and liberation of an animal genius. + +"Long deliberations," says Goethe, "commonly indicate that we have not +the point to be determined clearly in view." So an extreme sense +of striving effort, or, in other words, an extreme sense of inward +hindrance, in the performance of a high task, usually denotes the +presence in us of an element irrelevant to our work, and perhaps +unfriendly to it. If a stream flow roughly, you infer obstructions in +the channel. Often the explanation may be that one is attempting to-day +a task proper to some future time,--to another year, or another +century. It is the green fruit that clings tenaciously to the bough; the +ripe falls of itself. + +But as blighted and worm-eaten apples likewise fall of themselves, so in +this ease of execution the falsest work may agree with the best. That +the similarity is purely specious needs not be urged; yet in practically +distinguishing between the two there are not a few that fail. The most +precious work is performed with a noble, though not idle ease, because +it is the sincere, seasonable, and, as it were, inevitable flowering +into expression of one's inward life; and work utterly, glibly insincere +and imitative is often done with ease, because it is so successfully +separated from the inward life as not even to recognize its claim. +Accordingly, pure art and pure artifice, sincere creation and sheer +fabrication, flow; from the mixture of these, or from any mixture of +natural and necessary with factitious expression, comes embarrassment. +In the mastery of life, or of death, there is peace; the intermediate +state, that of sickness, is full of pain and struggle. In Homer and +in Tupper, in Cicero and the leaders of the London "Times," in Jeremy +Taylor and the latest Reverend Mr. Orotund, you find a liberal and +privileged utterance; but honest John Foster, made of powerful, but +ill-composed elements, and replete with an intelligence now gleaming and +now murky, could wring statements from his mind only as testimony in +cruel ages was obtained from unwilling witnesses, namely, by putting +himself to the torture. + +But it is of prime importance to observe that the aforementioned mature +fruit, which so falls at the tenderest touch into the hand, is no +sudden, no idle product. It comes, on the contrary, of a depth of +operation more profound, and testifies to a genius and sincerity in +Nature more subtile and religious, than we can understand or imagine. +This apple that in fancy we now pluck, and hardly need to pluck, from +the burdened bough,--think what a pedigree it has, what aeons of +world-making and world-maturing must elapse, all the genius of God +divinely assiduous, ere this could hang in ruddy and golden ripeness +here! Think, too, what a concurrence and consent of elements, of sun and +soil, of ocean-vapors and laden winds, of misty heats in the torrid zone +and condensing blasts from the North, were required before a single +apple could grow, before a single blossom could put forth its promise, +tender and beautiful amidst the gladness of spring!--and besides these +consenting ministries of Nature, how the special genius of the tree must +have wrought, making sacrifice of woody growth, and, by marvellous and +ineffable alchemies, co-working with the earth beneath, and the heaven +above! Ah, not from any indifference, not from any haste or indolence, +in Nature, come the fruits of her seasons and her centuries! + +Now he who has any faculty of thinking must see that thoughts are before +things in the order of existence. True it is, that here as elsewhere, as +everywhere, last is first and first is last. That which is innermost, +and consequently primary, is last to appear on the surface; and +accordingly thoughts _per se_ follow things in the order of +manifestation. But how could the thing exist, but for a thought that +preceded and begot it? And now that the thought has passed _through_ +the material symbol, has passed forward to a new and more consummate +expression, first in the soul, and afterwards by the voice, we should +be unwise indeed to deny or forget its antiquity. Thoughts are no +_parvenus_ or _novi homines_ in Nature, but came in with that Duke +William who first struck across the unnamed seas into this island of +time and material existence which we inhabit. Accordingly, it is using +extreme understatement, to say that every pure original thought has a +genesis equally ancient, earnest, vital with any product in Nature,--has +present relationships no less broad and cosmical, and an evolution +implying the like industries, veritable and precious beyond all scope of +affirmation. Even if we quite overlook its pre-personal ancestry, still +the roots it has in its immediate author will be of unmeasured depth, +and it will still proceed toward its consummate form by energies and +assiduities that beggar the estimation of all ordinary toil. With the +birth of the man himself was it first born, and to the time of its +perfect growth and birth into speech the burden of it was borne by every +ruddy drop of his heart's blood, by every vigor of his body,--nerve +and artery, eye and ear, and all the admirable servitors of the soul, +steadily bringing to that invisible matrix where it houses their +costly nutriments, their sacred offices; while every part and act of +experience, every gush of jubilance, every stifle of woe, all sweet +pangs of love and pity, all high breathings of faith and resolve, +contribute to the form and bloom it finally wears. Yet the more profound +and necessary product of one's spirit it is, the more likely at last +to fall softly from him,--so softly, perhaps, that he himself shall be +half-unaware when the separation occurs. + +And such only are men of genius as accomplish this divine utterance. +The voice itself may be strong or tiny,--that of a seraph, or that of a +song-sparrow; the range and power of combination may be Beethoven's, or +only such as are found in the hum of bees; but in this genuineness, this +depth of ancestry and purity of growth, this unmistakable issue under +the patronage of Nature, there is a test of genius that cannot vary. He +is not inimitable who imitates. He that speaks only what he has learned +speaks what the world will not long or greatly desire to learn from him. +"Shakspeare," said Dryden, not having the fear of Locke before his eyes, +"was naturally learned"; but whoever is quite destitute of natural +learning will never achieve winged words by dint and travail of other +erudition. If his soul have not been to school before coming to his +body, it is late in life for him to qualify himself for a teacher of +mankind. Words that are cups to contain the last essences of a sincere +life bear elixirs of life for as many lips as shall touch their brim; +they refresh all generations, nor by any quaffing of generations are +they to be drained. + +To this ease it may be owing that poets and artists are often so ill +judges of their own success. Their happiest performance is too nearly of +the same color with their permanent consciousness to be seen in relief: +work less sincere--that is, more related and bound to some partial state +or particular mood--would stand out more to the eye of the doer. To this +error he will be less exposed who learns--as most assuredly every artist +should--to estimate his work, not as it seems to him _striking_, but as +it echoes to his ear the earliest murmurs of his childhood, and reclaims +for the heart its wandered memories. Perhaps it is common for one's +happiest thoughts, in the moment of their apparition in words, to affect +him with a gentle surprise and sense of newness; but soon afterwards +they may probably come to touch him, on the contrary, with a vague +sense of reminiscence, as if his mother had sung them by his cradle, or +somewhere under the rosy east of life he had heard them from others. +A statement of our own which seems to us _very_ new and striking is +probably partial, is in some degree foreign to our hearts; that which +one, being the soul he is, could not do otherwise than say is probably +what he was created for the purpose of saying, and will be found his +most significant and living word. Yet just in proportion as one's speech +is a pure and simple efflux of his spirit, just in proportion as its +utterance lies in the order and inevitable procedure of his life, he +will be _liable_ to undervalue it. Who feels that the universe is +greatly enriched by his heart-beats?--that it is much that he breathes, +sleeps, walks? But the breaths of supreme genius are thoughts, and the +imaginations that people its day-world are more familiar to it than the +common dreams of sleepers to them, and the travel of its meditations is +daily and customary; insomuch that the very thought of all others which +one was born to utter he may _forget_ to mention, as presuming it to be +no news. Indeed, if a man of fertile soul be misled into the luckless +search after peculiar and surprising thoughts, there are many chances +that be will be betrayed into this oversight of his proper errand. As +Sir Martin Frobisher, according to Fuller, brought home from America a +cargo of precious stones which after examination were thrown out to mend +roads with, so he leaves untouched his divine knowledges, and comes +sailing into port full-freighted with conceits. + +May not the above considerations go far to explain that indifference, +otherwise so astonishing, with which Shakspeare cast his work from him? +It was his heart that wrote; but does the heart look with wonder and +admiration on the crimson of its own currents? + + * * * * * + + +AT PORT ROYAL. 1861. + + + The tent-lights glimmer on the land, + The ship-lights on the sea; + The night-wind smooths with drifting sand + Our track on lone Tybee. + + At last our grating keels outslide, + Our good boats forward swing; + And while we ride the land-locked tide, + Our negroes row and sing. + + For dear the bondman holds his gifts + Of music and of song: + The gold that kindly Nature sifts + Among his sands of wrong; + + The power to make his toiling days + And poor home-comforts please; + The quaint relief of mirth that plays + With sorrow's minor keys. + + Another glow than sunset's fire + Has filled the West with light, + Where field and garner, barn and byre + Are blazing through the night. + + The land is wild with fear and hate, + The rout runs mad and fast; + From hand to hand, from gate to gate, + The flaming brand is passed. + + The lurid glow falls strong across + Dark faces broad with smiles: + Not theirs the terror, hate, and loss + That fire yon blazing piles. + + With oar-strokes timing to their song, + They weave in simple lays + The pathos of remembered wrong, + The hope of better days,-- + + The triumph-note that Miriam sung, + The joy of uncaged birds: + Softening with Afric's mellow tongue + Their broken Saxon words. + + + + +SONG OF THE NEGRO BOATMEN. + + + Oh, praise an' tanks! De Lord he come + To set de people free; + An' massa tink it day ob doom, + An' we ob jubilee. + De Lord dat heap de Red Sea waves + He jus' as 'trong as den; + He say de word: we las' night slaves; + To-day, de Lord's freemen. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + Ole massa on he trabbels gone; + He leab de land behind: + De Lord's breff blow him furder on, + Like corn-shuck in de wind. + We own de hoe, we own de plough, + We own de hands dat hold; + We sell de pig, we sell de cow, + But nebber chile be sold. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + We pray de Lord: he gib us signs + Dat some day we be free; + + De Norf-wind tell it to de pines, + De wild-duck to de sea; + We tink it when de church-bell ring, + We dream it in de dream; + De rice-bird mean it when he sing, + De eagle when he scream. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + We'll hab de rice an' corn: + Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + We know de promise nebber fail, + An' nebber lie de word; + So, like de 'postles in de jail, + We waited for de Lord: + An' now he open ebery door, + An' trow away de key; + He tink we lub him so before, + We lub him better free. + De yam will grow, de cotton blow, + He'll gib de rice an' corn: + So nebber you fear, if nebber you hear + De driver blow his horn! + + So sing our dusky gondoliers; + And with a secret pain, + And smiles that seem akin to tears, + We hear the wild refrain. + + We dare not share the negro's trust, + Nor yet his hope deny; + We only know that God is just, + And every wrong shall die. + + Rude seems the song; each swarthy face, + Flame-lighted, ruder still; + We start to think that hapless race + Must shape our good or ill; + + That laws of changeless justice bind + Oppressor with oppressed; + And, close as sin and suffering joined, + We march to Fate abreast. + + Sing on, poor hearts! your chant shall be + Our sign of blight or bloom,-- + The Vala-song of Liberty, + Or death-rune of our doom! + + + + +FREMONT'S HUNDRED DAYS IN MISSOURI. + + +II. + + +_Camp Haskell, October 24th._ We have marched twelve miles to-day, and +are encamped near the house of a friendly German farmer. Our cortege has +been greatly diminished in number. Some of the staff have returned to +St. Louis; to others have been assigned duties which remove them from +head-quarters; and General Asboth's division being now in the rear, that +soldierly-looking officer no longer rides beside the General, and the +gentlemen of his staff no longer swell our ranks. + +As we approach the enemy there is a marked change in the General's +demeanor. Usually reserved, and even retiring,--now that his plans +begin to work out results, that the Osage is behind us, that the +difficulties of deficient transportation have been conquered, there is +an unwonted eagerness in his face, his voice is louder, and there is +more self-assertion in his attitude. He has hitherto proceeded on a +walk, but now he presses on at a trot. His horsemanship is perfect. +Asboth is a daring rider, loving to drive his animal at the top of his +speed. Zagonyi rides with surpassing grace, and selects fiery chargers +which no one else cares to mount. Colonel E. has an easy, business-like +gait. But in lightness and security in the saddle the General excels +them all. He never worries his beast, is sure to get from him all +the work of which he is capable, is himself quite incapable of being +fatigued in this way. + +Just after sundown the camp was startled by heavy infantry firing. Going +around the spur of the forest which screens head-quarters from the +prairie, we found the Guard dismounted, drawn up in line, firing their +carbines and revolvers. The circumstance excites curiosity, and we learn +that Zagonyi has been ordered to make a descent upon Springfield, and +capture or disperse the Rebel garrison, three or four hundred strong, +which is said to be there. Major White has already gone forward with his +squadron of "Prairie Scouts" to make a reconnoissance in the direction +of Springfield. Zagonyi will overtake White, assume command of the +whole force, which will number about three hundred men, and turn the +reconnoissance into an attack. The Guard set out at eight o'clock +this evening. A few are left behind to do duty around head-quarters. +Lieutenant Kennedy, of the Kentucky company, was ordered to remain in +command of our Home-Guard. He was greatly grieved, and went to the Major +and with tears in his eyes besought him to permit him to go. Zagonyi +could not refuse the gallant fellow, and all the officers of the Guard +have gone. There is a feeling of sadness in camp to-night. We wonder +which of our gay and generous comrades will come back to us again. + +_October 25th_. We moved only seven miles to-day. It is understood that +the General will gather the whole army upon a large prairie a few miles +north of Bolivar, and devote a few days to reviewing the troops, and to +field-manoeuvres. This will have an excellent effect. The men will be +encouraged when they see how large the column is, for the army has never +been concentrated. + +This morning we received news of the brilliant affair at Fredericktown. + +Just before the General left camp to-day, I received orders to report +myself to General Asboth, for duty as Judge-Advocate of a Court-Martial +to be held in his division. General Asboth was several miles behind us, +and I set out to ride back and join him. After a gallop of half an hour +across the prairie, I discovered that I had lost my way. I vainly tried +to find some landmark of yesterday's march, but was at last compelled to +trust to the sagacity of my horse,--the redoubtable Spitfire, so named +by reason of his utter contempt for gunpowder, whether sputtered out of +muskets or belched forth by cannon. I gave him his head. He snuffed the +air for a moment, deliberately swept the horizon with his eyes, and then +turned short around and carried me back to the farm-house from which I +had started. I arrived just in time for dinner. Two officers of Lane's +brigade, which had marched from Kansas, came in while we were at the +table. They seasoned our food with spicy incidents of Kansas life. + +After dinner I started with Captain R., of Springfield, to find Asboth. +As we left the house, we were joined by the most extraordinary character +I have seen. He was a man of medium height. His chest was enormous in +length and breadth; his arms long, muscular, and very large; his legs +short. He had the body of a giant upon the legs of a dwarf. This curious +figure was surmounted by a huge head, covered with coarse brown hair, +which grew very nearly down to his eyes, while his beard grew almost up +to his eyes. It seemed as if the hair and beard had had a struggle for +the possession of his face, and were kept apart by the deep chasm +in which his small gray eyes were set. He was armed with a huge +bowie-knife, which he carried slung like a sword. It was at least two +feet long, heavy as a butcher's cleaver, and was thrust into a sheath +of undressed hide. He called this pleasant instrument an Arkansas +toothpick. He bestrode, as well as his diminutive legs would let him, an +Indian pony as shaggy as himself. This person proved to be a bearer of +despatches, and offered to guide us to the main road, along which Asboth +was marching. + +The pony started off at a brisk trot, and in an hour we were upon the +road, which we found crowded with troops and wagons. Pressing through +the underbrush along-side the road, we kept on at a rapid pace. We soon +heard shouts and cheers ahead of us, and in a few moments came in sight +of a farm-house, in front of which was an excited crowd. Men were +swarming in at every door and window. The yard was filled with furniture +which the troops were angrily breaking, and a considerable party was +busy tearing up the roof. I could not learn the cause of the uproar, +except that a Secessionist lived there who had killed some one. I passed +on, and in a little while arrived at Asboth's quarters. + +He had established himself in an unpretending, but comfortable +farm-house, formerly owned by a German, named Brown. This house has +lately been the scene of one of those bloody outrages, instigated by +neighborhood hatred, which have been so frequent in Missouri. Old Brown +had lived here more than thirty years. He was industrious, thrifty, +and withal a skilful workman. Under his intelligent husbandry his farm +became the marvel of all that region. He had long outlived his strength, +and when the war broke out he could give to the Union nothing but +his voice and influence: these he gave freely and at all times. The +plain-spoken patriot excited the enmity of the Secessionists, and the +special hatred of one man, his nearest neighbor. All through the summer, +his barns were plundered, his cattle driven away, his fences torn down; +but no one offered violence to the white-headed old man, or to the three +women who composed his family. The approach of our army compelled the +Rebels of the neighborhood to fly, and among the fugitives was the foe I +have mentioned. He was not willing to depart and leave the old German +to welcome the Union troops. Just one week ago, at a late hour in the +evening, he rode up to Brown's door and knocked loudly. The old man +cautiously asked who it was. The wretch replied, "A friend who wants +lodging." As a matter of course,--for in this region every house is a +tavern,--the farmer opened the door, and at the instant was pierced +through the heart by a bullet from the pistol of his cowardly foe. The +blood-stains are upon the threshold still. It was the murderer's house +the soldiers sacked to-day. A German artillery company heard the +story, and began to plunder the premises under the influence of a not +unjustifiable desire for revenge. General Asboth, however, compelled the +men to desist, and to replace the furniture they had taken out. + +I found General Sturgis, and Captain Parrot, his Adjutant, at General +Asboth's, on their way to report to General Fremont. Sturgis has brought +his command one hundred and fifty miles in ten days. He says that large +numbers of deserters have come into his lines. Price's followers are +becoming discouraged by his continued retreat. + +The business which detained me in the rear was finished at an early +hour, but I waited in order to accompany General Asboth, who, with some +of his staff, was intending to go to head-quarters, five miles farther +south. We set out at nine o'clock. General Asboth likes to ride at the +top of his horse's speed, and at once put his gray into a trot so rapid +that we were compelled to gallop in order to keep up. We dashed over +a rough road, down a steep decline, and suddenly found ourselves +floundering through a stream nearly up to our saddle-girths. My horse +had had a hard day's work. He began to be unsteady on his pins. So I +drew up, preferring the hazards of a night-ride across the prairie to +a fall upon the stony road. The impetuous old soldier, followed by his +companions, rushed into the darkness, and the clatter of their hoofs and +the rattling of their sabres faded from my hearing. + +I was once more alone on the prairie. The sky was cloudless, but the +starlight struggling through a thin haze suggested rather than revealed +surrounding objects. I bent over my horse's shoulder to trace the course +of the road; but I could see nothing. There were no trees, no fences. +I listened for the rustling of the wind over the prairie-grass; but as +soon as Spitfire stopped, I found that not a breath of air was stirring: +his motion had created the breeze. I turned a little to the left, and at +once felt the Mexican stirrup strike against the long, rank grass. Quite +exultant with the thought that I had found a certain test that I was in +the road, I turned back and regained the beaten track. But now a new +difficulty arose. At once the thought suggested itself,--"Perhaps I +turned the wrong way when I came back into the road, and am now going +away from my destination." I drew up and looked around me. There was +nothing to be seen except the veiled stars above, and upon either hand +a vast dark expanse, which might be a lake, the sea, or a desert, for +anything I could discern. I listened: there was no sound except the +deep breathing of my faithful horse, who stood with ears erect, eagerly +snuffing the night-air. I had heard that horses can see better than men. +"Let me try the experiment." I gave Spitfire his head. He moved across +the road, went out upon the prairie a little distance, waded into a +brook which I had not seen, and began to drink. When he had finished, he +returned to the road without the least hesitation. + +"The horse can certainly see better than I. Perhaps I am the only one +of this company who is in trouble, and the good beast is all this while +perfectly composed and at ease, and knows quite well where to go." + +I loosened the reins. Spitfire went forward slowly, apparently quite +confident, and yet cautious about the stones in his path. + +I now began to speculate upon the distance I had come. I thought,--"It +is some time since we started. Head-quarters were only five miles off. I +rode fast at first. It is strange there are no campfires in sight." + +Time is measured by sensation, and with me minutes were drawn out into +hours. "Surely, it is midnight. I have been here three hours at the +least. The road must have forked, and I have gone the wrong way. The +most sagacious of horses could not be expected to know which of two +roads to take. There is nothing to be done. I am in for the night, and +had better stay here than go farther in the wrong direction." + +I dismount, fill my pipe, and strike a light. I laugh at my +thoughtlessness, and another match is lighted to look at my watch, which +tells me I have been on the road precisely twenty minutes. I mount. +Spitfire seems quite composed, perhaps a little astonished at the +unusual conduct of his rider, but he walks on composedly, carefully +avoiding the rolling stones. + +It is not a pleasant situation,--on a prairie alone and at night, not +knowing where you are going or where you ought to go. Zimmermann himself +never imagined a solitude more complete, albeit such a situation is not +so favorable to philosophic meditation as the rapt Zimmermann might +suppose. I employ my thoughts as well as I am able, and pin my faith to +the sagacity of Spitfire. Presently a light gleams in front of me. It +is only a flickering, uncertain ray; perhaps some belated teamster +is urging his reluctant mules to camp and has lighted his lantern. +No,--there are sparks; it is a camp-fire. I hearken for the challenge, +not without solicitude; for it is about as dangerous to approach a +nervous sentinel as to charge a battery. I do not hear the stern +inquiry, "Who comes there?" At last I am abreast of the fire, and myself +call out,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"We are travellers," is the reply. + +What this meant I did not know. What travellers are there through this +distracted, war-worn region? Are they fugitives from Price, or traitors +flying before us? I am not in sufficient force to capture half a dozen +men, and if they are foes, it is not worth while to be too inquisitive; +so I continue on my way, and they and their fire are soon enveloped by +the night. Presently I see another light in the far distance. This must +be a picket, for there are soldiers. I look around for the sentry, +not quite sure whether I am to be challenged or shot; but again I am +permitted to approach unquestioned. I call out,-- + +"Who is there?" + +"Men of Colonel Carr's regiment." + +"What are you doing here?" + +"We are guarding some of our wagons which were left here. Our regiment +has gone forward at a half-hour's notice to reinforce Zagonyi," said a +sergeant, rising and saluting me. + +"But is there no sentry here?" I asked. + +"There was one, but he has been withdrawn," replied the sergeant. + +"Where are head-quarters?" + +"At the first house on your right, about a hundred yards farther up the +road," he said, pointing in the direction I was going. + +It was strange that I could ride up to within pistol-shot of +head-quarters without being challenged, I soon reached the house. A +sentry stood at the gate. I tied my horse to the fence, and walked into +the Adjutant's tent. I had passed by night from one division of the army +to another, along the public road, and entered head-quarters without +being questioned. Twenty-five bold men might have carried off the +General. I at once reported these facts to Colonel E.; inquiry was made, +and it was found that some one had blundered. + +There is no report from Springfield. Zagonyi sent back for +reinforcements before he reached the town, and Carr's cavalry, with two +light field-pieces, have been sent forward. Captain R., my companion +this afternoon, has also gone to learn what he may. While I am writing +up my journal, a group of officers is around the fire in front of the +tent. They are talking about Zagonyi and the Guard. We are all feverish +with anxiety. + +_October 26th_. This morning I was awakened by loud cheers from the camp +of the Benton Cadets. My servant came at my call. + +"What are those cheers for, Dan?" + +"The Body-Guard has won a great victory, Sir! They have beaten the +Rebels, driven them out of Springfield, and killed over a hundred of +them. The news came late last night, and the General has issued an order +which has just been read to the Cadets." + +The joyful words had hardly reached my eager ears when shouts were heard +from the sharp-shooters. They have got the news. In an instant the camp +is astir. Half-dressed, the officers rush from their tents,--servants +leave their work, cooks forget breakfast,--they gather together, and +breathless drink in the delicious story. We hear how the brave Guard, +finding the foe three times as strong as had been reported, resolved +to go on, in spite of odds, for their own honor and the honor of our +General,--how Zagonyi led the onset,--how with cheers and shouts of +"Union and Fremont," the noble fellows rushed upon the foe as gayly as +boys at play,--what deeds of daring were done,--that Zagonyi, Foley, +Maythenyi, Newhall, Treikel, Goff, and Kennedy shone heroes in the +fray,--how gallantly the Guards had fought, and how gloriously they had +died. These things we heard, feasting upon every word, and interrupting +the fervid recital with involuntary exclamations of sympathy and joy. + +It did not fall to the fortune of the writer to take part with the +Body-Guard in their memorable attack, but, as the Judge-Advocate of +a Court of Inquiry into that affair, which was held at Springfield +immediately after our arrival there, I became familiar with the field +and the incidents of the battle. I trust it will not be regarded as +an inexcusable digression, if I recite the facts connected with the +engagement, which, as respects the odds encountered, the heroism +displayed, and the importance of its results, is still the most +remarkable encounter of the war. + + +THE BODY-GUARD AT SPRINGFIELD. + + +It may not be out of place to say a few words as to the character and +organization of the Guard. + +Among the foreign officers whom the fame of General Fremont drew around +him was Charles Zagonyi,--an Hungarian refugee, but long a resident of +this country. In his boyhood, Zagonyi had plunged into the passionate, +but unavailing, struggle which Hungary made for her liberty. He at once +attracted the attention of General Bem, and was by him placed in command +of a picked company of cavalry. In one of the desperate engagements of +the war, Zagonyi led a charge upon a large artillery force. More than +half of his men were slain. He was wounded and taken prisoner. Two years +passed before he could exchange an Austrian dungeon for American exile. + +General Fremont welcomed Zagonyi cordially, and authorized him to +recruit a company of horse, to act as his bodyguard. Zagonyi was most +scrupulous in his selection; but so ardent was the desire to serve under +the eye and near the person of the General, that in five days after the +lists were opened two full companies were enlisted. Soon after a whole +company, composed of the very flower of the youth of Kentucky, tendered +its services, and requested to be added to the Guard. Zagonyi was still +overwhelmed with applications, and he obtained permission to recruit a +fourth company. The fourth company, however, did not go with us into the +field. The men were clad in blue jackets, trousers, and caps. They were +armed with light German sabres, the best that at that time could be +procured, and revolvers; besides which, the first company carried +carbines. They were mounted upon bay horses, carefully chosen from +the Government stables. Zagonyi had but little time to instruct his +recruits, but in less than a month from the commencement of the +enlistments the Body-Guard was a well-disciplined and most efficient +corps of cavalry. The officers were all Americans except three,--one +Hollander, and two Hungarians, Zagonyi and Lieutenant Maythenyi, who +came to the United States during his boyhood. + +Zagonyi left our camp at eight o'clock on the evening of the +twenty-fourth, with about a hundred and sixty men, the remainder of the +Guard being left at headquarters under the command of a non-commissioned +officer. + +Major White was already on his way to Springfield with his squadron. +This young officer, hardly twenty-one years old, had won great +reputation for energy and zeal while a captain of infantry in a +New-York regiment stationed at Fort Monroe. He there saw much hazardous +scouting-service, and had been in a number of small engagements. In the +West he held a position upon General Fremont's staff, with the rank of +Major. While at Jefferson City, by permission of the General, he had +organized a battalion to act as scouts and rangers, composed of two +companies of the Third Illinois Cavalry, under Captains Fairbanks and +Kehoe, and a company of Irish dragoons, Captain Naughton, which had been +recruited for Mulligan's brigade, but had not joined Mulligan in time to +be at Lexington. + +Major White went to Georgetown in advance of the whole army, from there +marched sixty-five miles in one night to Lexington, surprised the +garrison, liberated a number of Federal officers who were there wounded +and prisoners, and captured the steamers which Price had taken from +Mulligan. From Lexington White came by way of Warrensburg to Warsaw. +During this long and hazardous expedition, the Prairie Scouts had been +without tents, and dependent for food upon the supplies they could take +from the enemy. + +Major White did not remain at Warsaw to recruit his health, seriously +impaired by hardship and exposure. He asked for further service, and was +directed to report himself to General Sigel, by whom he was ordered to +make a reconnoissance in the direction of Springfield. + +After a rapid night-march, Zagonyi overtook White, and assumed command +of the whole force. White was quite ill, and, unable to stay in the +saddle, was obliged to follow in a carriage. In the morning, yielding to +the request of Zagonyi, he remained at a farm-house where the troop had +halted for refreshment,--it being arranged that he should rest an +hour or two, come on in his carriage with a small escort, and overtake +Zagonyi before he reached Springfield. The Prairie Scouts numbered one +hundred and thirty, so that the troop was nearly three hundred strong. + +The day was fine, the road good, and the little column pushed on +merrily, hoping to surprise the enemy. When within two hours' march of +the town, they met a Union farmer of the neighborhood, who told Zagonyi +that a large body of Rebels had arrived at Springfield the day before, +on their way to reinforce Price, and that the enemy were now two +thousand strong. Zagonyi would have been justified, if he had turned +back. But the Guard had been made the subject of much malicious remark, +and had brought ridicule upon the General. Should they retire now, a +storm of abuse would burst upon them. Zagonyi therefore took no counsel +of prudence. He could not hope to defeat and capture the foe, but he +might surprise them, dash into their camp, destroy their train, and, as +he expressed it, "disturb their sleep,"--obtaining a victory which, for +its moral effects, would be worth the sacrifices it cost. His daring +resolve found unanimous and ardent assent with his zealous followers. + +The Union farmer offered to guide Zagonyi by a circuitous route to the +rear of the Rebel position, and under his guidance he left the main road +about five miles from Springfield. + +After an hour of repose, White set out in pursuit of his men, driving +his horses at a gallop. He knew nothing of the change in Zagonyi's +plans, and supposed the attack was to be made upon the front of the +town. He therefore continued upon the main road, expecting every minute +to overtake the column. As he drew near the village, and heard and saw +nothing of Zagonyi, he supposed the enemy had left the place and the +Federals had taken it without opposition. The approach to Springfield +from the north is through a forest, and the village cannot be seen until +its outskirts are reached. A sudden turn in the road brought White into +the very midst of a strong Rebel guard. They surrounded him, seized his +horses, and in an instant he and his companions were prisoners. When +they learned his rank, they danced around him like a pack of savages, +shouting and holding their cocked pieces at his heart. The leader of the +party had a few days before lost a brother in a skirmish with Wyman's +force, and with loud oaths he swore that the Federal Major should die +in expiation of his brother's death. He was about to carry his inhuman +threat into execution, Major White boldly facing him and saying, "If my +men were here, I'd give you all the revenge you want." At this +moment a young officer, Captain Wroton by name,--of whom more +hereafter,--pressed through the throng, and, placing himself in front of +White, declared that he would protect the prisoner with his own life. +The firm bearing of Wroton saved the Major's life, but his captors +robbed him and hurried him to their camp, where he remained during the +fight, exposed to the hottest of the fire, an excited, but helpless +spectator of the stirring events which followed. He promised his +generous protector that he would not attempt to escape, unless his men +should try to rescue him; but Captain Wroton remained by his side, +guarding him. + +Making a _detour_ of twelve miles, Zagonyi approached the position of +the enemy. They were encamped half a mile west of Springfield, upon a +hill which sloped to the east. Along the northern side of their camp was +a broad and well-travelled road; along the southern side a narrow lane +ran down to a brook at the foot of the hill: the space between, about +three hundred yards broad, was the field of battle. Along the west side +of the field, separating it from the county fair-ground, was another +lane, connecting the main road and the first-mentioned lane. The side +of the hill was clear, but its summit, which was broad and flat, was +covered with a rank growth of small timber, so dense as to be impervious +to horse. + +The following diagram, drawn from memory, will illustrate sufficiently +well the shape of the ground, and the position of the respective forces. + +[Illustration: A, Road leading into the village. B, Lane down which +Zagonyi came. C, Lane where Fairbanks led his men. D, Dense woods +covering the summit of the hill. E, Crest of the hill and clear land. F, +Hill-side up which the Guard charged. G, Brook at the foot of the hill. +H, Place where the Guard entered. I, Small patch of woods in front of +which the enemy's horse were stationed. J, Gate through which the Rebels +fled, Zagonyi pursuing. K, Fair-ground into which some of the enemy +fled. L, Place where Foley took down the fence.] + +The foe were advised of the intended attack. When Major White was +brought into their camp, they were preparing to defend their position. +As appears from the confessions of prisoners, they had twenty-two +hundred men, of whom four hundred were cavalry, the rest being infantry, +armed with shot-guns, American rifles, and revolvers. Twelve hundred of +their foot were posted along the edge of the wood upon the crest of the +hill. The cavalry was stationed upon the extreme left, on top of a spur +of the hill and in front of a patch of timber. Sharp-shooters were +concealed behind the trees close to the fence along-side the lane, and +a small number in some underbrush near the foot of the hill. Another +detachment guarded their train, holding possession of the county +fair-ground, which was surrounded by a high board-fence. + +This position was unassailable by cavalry from the road, the only point +of attack being down the lane on the right; and the enemy were so +disposed as to command this approach perfectly. The lane was a blind +one, being closed, after passing the brook, by fences and ploughed land: +it was in fact a _cul-de-sac_. If the infantry should stand, nothing +could save the rash assailants. There are horsemen sufficient to sweep +the little band before them, as helplessly as the withered forest-leaves +in the grasp of the autumn winds; there are deadly marksmen lying behind +the trees upon the heights and lurking in the long grass upon the +lowlands; while a long line of foot stand upon the summit of the slope, +who, only stepping a few paces back into the forest, may defy the +boldest riders. Yet, down this narrow lane, leading into the very jaws +of death, came the three hundred. + +On the prairie, at the edge of the woodland in which he knew his wily +foe lay hidden, Zagonyi halted his command. He spurred along the line. +With eager glance he scanned each horse and rider. To his officers he +gave the simple order, "Follow me! do as I do!" and then, drawing up in +front of his men, with a voice tremulous and shrill with emotion, he +spoke:-- + +"Fellow-soldiers, comrades, brothers! This is your first battle. For our +three hundred, the enemy are two thousand. If any of you are sick, or +tired by the long march, or if any think the number is too great, now is +the time to turn back." He paused; no one was sick or tired. "We must +not retreat. Our honor, the honor of our General and our country, tell +us to go on. I will lead you. We have been called holiday soldiers for +the pavements of St. Louis; to-day we will show that we are soldiers for +the battle. Your watchword shall be, '_The Union and Fremont_!' Draw +sabre! By the right flank,--quick trot,--march!" + +Bright swords flashed in the sunshine, a passionate shout burst from +every lip, and with one accord, the trot passing into a gallop, the +compact column swept on to its deadly purpose. Most of them were boys. A +few weeks before they had left their homes. Those who were cool enough +to note it say that ruddy cheeks grew pale, and fiery eyes were dimmed +with tears. Who shall tell what thoughts,--what visions of peaceful +cottages nestling among the groves of Kentucky or shining upon the +banks of the Ohio and the Illinois,--what sad recollections of tearful +farewells, of tender, loving faces, filled their minds during those +fearful moments of suspense? No word was spoken. With lips compressed, +firmly clenching their sword-hilts, with quick tramp of hoofs and clang +of steel, honor leading and glory awaiting them, the young soldiers flew +forward, each brave rider and each straining steed members of one huge +creature, enormous, terrible, irresistible. + + "'T were worth ten years of peaceful life, + One glance at their array." + +They pass the fair-ground. They are at the corner of the lane where the +wood begins. It runs close to the fence on their left for a hundred +yards, and beyond it they see white tents gleaming. They are half-way +past the forest, when, sharp and loud, a volley of musketry bursts upon +the head of the column; horses stagger, riders reel and fall, but the +troop presses forward undismayed. The farther corner of the wood +is reached, and Zagonyi beholds the terrible array. Amazed, he +involuntarily cheeks his horse. The Rebels are not surprised. There to +his left they stand crowning the height, foot and horse ready to ingulf +him, if he shall be rash enough to go on. The road he is following +declines rapidly. There is but one thing to do,--run the gantlet, gain +the cover of the hill, and charge up the steep. These thoughts pass +quicker than they can be told. He waves his sabre over his head, and +shouting, "Forward! follow me! quick trot! gallop!" he dashes headlong +down the stony road. The first company and most of the second follow. +From the left a thousand muzzles belch forth a hissing flood of bullets; +the poor fellows clutch wildly at the air and fall from their saddles, +and maddened horses throw themselves against the fences. Their speed is +not for an instant checked; farther down the hill they fly, like wasps +driven by the leaden storm. Sharp volleys pour out of the underbrush at +the left, clearing wide gaps through their ranks. They leap the brook, +take down the fence, and draw up under the shelter of the hill. Zagonyi +looks around him, and to his horror sees that only a fourth of his +men are with him. He cries, "They do not come,--we are lost!" and +frantically waves his sabre. + +He has not long to wait. The delay of the rest of the Guard was not from +hesitation. When Captain Foley reached the lower corner of the wood and +saw the enemy's line, he thought a flank attack might be advantageously +made. He ordered some of his men to dismount and take down the fence. +This was done under a severe fire. Several men fell, and he found the +wood so dense that it could not be penetrated. Looking down the hill, he +saw the flash of Zagonyi's sabre, and at once gave the order, "Forward!" +At the same time, Lieutenant Kennedy, a stalwart Kentuckian, shouted, +"Come on, boys! remember Old Kentucky!" and the third company of the +Guard, fire on every side of them,--from behind trees, from under the +fences,--with thundering strides and loud cheers, poured down the slope +and rushed to the side of Zagonyi. They have lost seventy dead and +wounded men, and the carcasses of horses are strewn along the lane. +Kennedy is wounded in the arm and lies upon the stones, his faithful +charger standing motionless beside him. Lieutenant Goff received a wound +in the thigh; he kept his seat, and cried out, "The devils have hit me, +but I will give it to them yet!" + +The remnant of the Guard are now in the field under the hill, and +from the shape of the ground the Rebel fire sweeps with the roar of a +whirlwind over their heads. Here we will leave them for a moment, and +trace the fortunes of the Prairie Scouts. + +When Foley brought his troop to a halt, Captain Fairbanks, at the head +of the first company of Scouts, was at the point where the first volley +of musketry had been received. The narrow lane was crowded by a dense +mass of struggling horses, and filled with the tumult of battle. Captain +Fairbanks says, and he is corroborated by several of his men who were +near, that at this moment an officer of the Guard rode up to him and +said, "They are flying; take your men down that lane and cut off their +retreat,"--pointing to the lane at the left. Captain Fairbanks was not +able to identify the person who gave this order. It certainly did not +come from Zagonyi, who was several hundred yards farther on. Captain +Fairbanks executed the order, followed by the second company of Prairie +Scouts, under Captain Kehoe. When this movement was made, Captain +Naughton, with the Third Irish Dragoons, had not reached the corner of +the lane. He came up at a gallop, and was about to follow Fairbanks, +when he saw a Guardsman who pointed in the direction in which Zagonyi +had gone. He took this for an order, and obeyed it. When he reached the +gap in the fence, made by Foley, not seeing anything of the Guard, he +supposed they had passed through at that place, and gallantly attempted +to follow. Thirteen men fell in a few minutes. He was shot in the arm +and dismounted. Lieutenant Connolly spurred into the underbrush and +received two balls through the lungs and one in the left shoulder. The +Dragoons, at the outset not more than fifty strong, were broken, and, +dispirited by the loss of their officers, retired. A sergeant rallied +a few and brought them up to the gap again, and they were again driven +back. Five of the boldest passed down the hill, joined Zagonyi, and were +conspicuous by their valor during the rest of the day.--Fairbanks and +Kehoe, having gained the rear and left of the enemy's position, made two +or three assaults upon detached parties of the foe, but did not join in +the main attack. + +I now return to the Guard. It is forming under the shelter of the hill. +In front with a gentle inclination rises a grassy slope broken by +occasional tree-stumps. A line of fire upon the summit marks the +position of the Rebel infantry, and nearer and on the top of a lower +eminence to the right stand their horse. Up to this time no Guardsman +has struck a blow, but blue coats and bay horses lie thick along the +bloody lane. Their time has come. Lieutenant Maythenyi with thirty men +is ordered to attack the cavalry. With sabres flashing over their heads, +the little band of heroes spring towards their tremendous foe. Right +upon the centre they charge. The dense mass opens, the blue coats force +their way in, and the whole Rebel squadron scatter in disgraceful flight +through the cornfields in the rear. The bays follow them, sabring the +fugitives. Days after, the enemy's horses lay thick among the uncut +corn. + +Zagonyi holds his main body until Maythenyi disappears in the cloud +of Rebel cavalry; then his voice rises through the air,--"In open +order,--charge!" The line opens out to give play to their sword-arm. +Steeds respond to the ardor of their riders, and quick as thought, with +thrilling cheers, the noble hearts rush into the leaden torrent which +pours down the incline. With unabated fire the gallant fellows press +through. Their fierce onset is not even checked. The foe do not wait for +them,--they waver, break, and fly. The Guardsmen spur into the midst of +the rout, and their fast-falling swords work a terrible revenge. Some +of the boldest of the Southrons retreat into the woods, and continue a +murderous fire from behind trees and thickets. Seven Guard horses fall +upon a space not more that twenty feet square. As his steed sinks under +him, one of the officers is caught around the shoulders by a grape-vine, +and hangs dangling in the air until he is cut down by his friends. + +The Rebel foot are flying in furious haste from the field. Some take +refuge in the fair-ground, some hurry into the cornfield, but the +greater part run along the edge of the wood, swarm over the fence into +the road, and hasten to the village. The Guardsmen follow. Zagonyi leads +them. Over the loudest roar of battle rings his clarion voice,--"Come +on, Old Kentuck! I'm with you!" And the flash of his sword-blade tells +his men where to go. As he approaches a barn, a man steps from behind +the door and lowers his rifle; but before it has reached the level, +Zagonyi's sabre-point descends upon his head, and his life-blood leaps +to the very top of the huge barn-door. + +The conflict now rages through the village,--in the public square, and +along the streets. Up and down the Guards ride in squads of three or +four, and wherever they see a group of the enemy charge upon and scatter +them. It is hand to hand. No one but has a share in the fray. + +There was at least one soldier in the Southern ranks. A young officer, +superbly mounted, charges alone upon a large body of the Guard. He +passes through the line unscathed, killing one man. He wheels, charges +back, and again breaks through, killing another man. A third time he +rushes upon the Federal line, a score of sabre-points confront him, +a cloud of bullets fly around him, but he pushes on until he reaches +Zagonyi,--he presses his pistol so close to the Major's side that he +feels it and draws convulsively back, the bullet passes through the +front of Zagonyi's coat, who at the instant runs the daring Rebel +through the body, he falls, and the men, thinking their commander hurt, +kill him with half a dozen wounds. + +"He was a brave man," said Zagonyi afterwards, "and I did wish to make +him prisoner." + +Meanwhile it has grown dark. The foe have left the village and the +battle has ceased. The assembly is sounded, and the Guard gathers in the +_Plaza_. Not more than eighty mounted men appear: the rest are killed, +wounded, or unhorsed. At this time one of the most characteristic +incidents of the affair took place. + +Just before the charge, Zagonyi directed one of his buglers, a +Frenchman, to sound a signal. The bugler did not seem to pay any +attention to the order, but darted off with Lieutenant Maythenyi. A +few moments afterwards he was observed in another part of the field +vigorously pursuing the flying infantry. His active form was always seen +in the thickest of the fight. When the line was formed in the _Plaza_, +Zagonyi noticed the bugler, and approaching him said, "In the midst of +the battle you disobeyed my order. You are unworthy to be a member of +the Guard. I dismiss you." The bugler showed his bugle to his indignant +commander;--the mouth-piece of the instrument was shot away. He said, +"The mouth was shoot off. I could not bugle viz mon bugle, and so I +bugle viz mon pistol and sabre." It is unnecessary to add, the brave +Frenchman was not dismissed. + +I must not forget to mention Sergeant Hunter, of the Kentucky company. +His soldierly figure never failed to attract the eye in the ranks of +the Guard. He had served in the regular cavalry, and the Body-Guard had +profited greatly from his skill as a drill-master. He lost three horses +in the fight. As soon as one was killed, he caught another from the +Rebels: the third horse taken by him in this way he rode into St. Louis. + +The Sergeant slew five men. "I won't speak of those I shot," said +he,--"another may have hit them; but those I touched with my sabre I am +sure of, because I _felt_ them." + +At the beginning of the charge, he came to the extreme right and took +position next to Zagonyi, whom he followed closely through the battle. +The Major, seeing him, said,-- + +"Why are you here, Sergeant Hunter? Your place is with your company on +the left." + +"I kind o' wanted to be in the front," was the answer. + +"What could I say to such a man?" exclaimed Zagonyi, speaking of the +matter afterwards. + +There was hardly a horse or rider among the survivors that did not bring +away some mark of the fray. I saw one animal with no less than seven +wounds,--none of them serious. Scabbards were bent, clothes and caps +pierced, pistols injured. I saw one pistol from which the sight had been +cut as neatly as it could have been done by machinery. A piece of board +a few inches long was cut from a fence on the field, in which there were +thirty-one shot-holes. + +It was now nine o'clock. The wounded had been carried to the hospital. +The dismounted troopers were placed in charge of them,--in the double +capacity of nurses and guards. Zagonyi expected the foe to return every +minute. It seemed like madness to try and hold the town with his small +force, exhausted by the long march and desperate fight. He therefore +left Springfield, and retired before morning twenty-five miles on the +Bolivar road. + +Captain Fairbanks did not see his commander after leaving the column in +the lane, at the commencement of the engagement. About dusk he repaired +to the prairie, and remained there within a mile of the village until +midnight, when he followed Zagonyi, rejoining him in the morning. + +I will now return to Major White. During the conflict upon the hill, he +was in the forest near the front of the Rebel line. Here his horse was +shot under him. Captain Wroton kept careful watch over him. When the +flight began he hurried White away, and, accompanied by a squad of +eleven men, took him ten miles into the country. They stopped at a +farm-house for the night. White discovered that their host was a Union +man. His parole having expired, he took advantage of the momentary +absence of his captor to speak to the farmer, telling him who he was, +and asking him to send for assistance. The countryman mounted his son +upon his swiftest horse, and sent him for succor. The party lay down by +the fire, White being placed in the midst. The Rebels were soon asleep, +but there was no sleep for the Major. He listened anxiously for the +footsteps of his rescuers. After long, weary hours, he heard the tramp +of horses. He arose, and walking on tiptoe, cautiously stepping over his +sleeping guards, he reached the door and silently unfastened it. The +Union men rushed into the room and took the astonished Wroton and his +followers prisoners. At daybreak White rode into Springfield at the head +of his captives and a motley band of Home-Guards. He found the Federals +still in possession of the place. As the officer of highest rank, be +took command. His garrison consisted of twenty-four men. He stationed +twenty-two of them as pickets in the outskirts of the village, and held +the other two as a reserve. At noon the enemy sent in a flag of truce, +and asked permission to bury their dead. Major White received the flag +with proper ceremony, but said that General Sigel was in command and the +request would have to be referred to him. Sigel was then forty miles +away. In a short time a written communication purporting to come from +General Sigel, saying that the Rebels might send a party under certain +restrictions to bury their dead, White drew in some of his pickets, +stationed them about the field, and under their surveillance the +Southern dead were buried. + +The loss of the enemy, as reported by some of their working party, was +one hundred and sixteen killed. The number of wounded could not be +ascertained. After the conflict had drifted away from the hill-side, +some of the foe had returned to the field, taken away their wounded, +and robbed our dead. The loss of the Guard was fifty-three out of one +hundred and forty-eight actually engaged, twelve men having been left by +Zagonyi in charge of his train. The Prairie Scouts reported a loss of +thirty-one out of one hundred and thirty: half of these belonged to the +Irish Dragoons. In a neighboring field an Irishman was found stark and +stiff, still clinging to the hilt of his sword, which was thrust through +the body of a Rebel who lay beside him. Within a few feet a second Rebel +lay, shot through the head. + +I have given a statement of this affair drawn from the testimony taken +before a Court of Inquiry, from conversations with men who were engaged +upon both sides, and from a careful examination of the locality. It was +the first essay of raw troops, and yet there are few more brilliant +achievements in history. + +It is humiliating to be obliged to tell what followed. The heroism of +the Guard was rewarded by such treatment as we blush to record. Upon +their return to St. Louis, rations and forage were denied them, the men +were compelled to wear the clothing soiled and torn in battle, they were +promptly disbanded, and the officers retired from service. The swords +which pricked the clouds and let the joyful sunshine of victory into the +darkness of constant defeat are now idle. But the fame of the Guard is +secure. Out from that fiery baptism they came children of the nation, +and American song and story will carry their heroic triumph down to the +latest generation. + + + + +MASON AND SLIDELL: A YANKEE IDYLL. + + +_To the Editors of the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +Jaalam, 6th Jan., 1862. + +GENTLEMEN,--I was highly gratified by the insertion of a portion of my +letter in the last number of your valuable and entertaining Miscellany, +though in a type which rendered its substance inaccessible even to the +beautiful new spectacles presented to me by a Committee of the Parish on +New-Year's Day. I trust that I was able to bear your very considerable +abridgment of my lucubrations with a spirit becoming a Christian. My +third grand-daughter, Rebekah, aged fourteen years, and whom I have +trained to read slowly and with proper emphasis, (a practice too much +neglected in our modern systems of education,) read aloud to me the +excellent essay upon "Old Age," the authour of which I cannot help +suspecting to be a young man who has never yet known what it was to have +snow (_canities morosa_) upon his own roof. _Dissolve frigus, large +super foco ligna reponens_, is a rule for the young, whose wood-pile is +yet abundant for such cheerful lenitives. A good life behind him is the +best thing to keep an old man's shoulders from shivering at every breath +of sorrow or ill-fortune. But methinks it were easier for an old man to +feel the disadvantages of youth than the advantages of age. Of these +latter I reckon one of the chiefest to be this: that we attach a less +inordinate value to our own productions, and, distrusting daily more +and more our own wisdom, (with the conceit whereof at twenty we wrap +ourselves away from knowledge as with a garment,) do reconcile ourselves +with the wisdom of God. I could have wished, indeed, that room might +have been made for the residue of the anecdote relating to Deacon +Tinkham, which would not only have gratified a natural curiosity on the +part of the publick, (as I have reason to know from several letters of +inquiry already received,) but would also, as I think, have largely +increased the circulation of your Magazine in this town. _Nihil humani +alienum_, there is a curiosity about the affairs of our neighbours which +is not only pardonable, but even commendable. But I shall abide a more +fitting season. + +As touching the following literary effort of Esquire Biglow, much might +be profitably said on the topick of Idyllick and Pastoral Poetry, +and concerning the proper distinctions to be made between them, from +Theocritus, the inventor of the former, to Collins, the latest authour I +know of who has emulated the classicks in the latter style. But in the +time of a civil war worthy a Milton to defend and a Lucan to sing, it +may be reasonably doubted whether the publick, never too studious of +serious instruction, might not consider other objects more deserving of +present attention. Concerning the title of Idyll, which Mr. Biglow has +adopted at my suggestion, it may not be improper to animadvert, that the +name properly signifies a poem somewhat rustick in phrase, (for, though +the learned are not agreed as to the particular dialect employed by +Theocritus, they are universanimous both as to its rusticity and its +capacity of rising now and then to the level of more elevated sentiments +and expressions,) while it is also descriptive of real scenery and +manners. Yet it must be admitted that the production now in question +(which here and there bears perhaps too plainly the marks of my +correcting hand) does partake of the nature of a Pastoral, inasmuch as +the interlocutors therein are purely imaginary beings, and the whole +is little better than [Greek: skias onar.] The plot was, as I believe, +suggested by the "Twa Briggs" of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet of the +last century, as that found its prototype in the "Mutual Complaint of +Plainstanes and Causey" by Fergusson, though the metre of this latter +be different by a foot in each verse. I reminded my talented young +parishioner and friend that Concord Bridge had long since yielded to the +edacious tooth of Time. But he answered me to this effect: that there +was no greater mistake of an authour than to suppose the reader had +no fancy of his own; that, if once that faculty was to be called into +activity, it were _better_ to be in for the whole sheep than the +shoulder; and that he knew Concord like a book,--an expression +questionable in propriety, since there are few things with which he +is not more familiar than with the printed page. In proof of what he +affirmed, he showed me some verses which with others he had stricken out +as too much delaying the action, but which I communicate in this place +because they rightly define "punkin-seed," (which Mr. Bartlett would +have a kind of perch,--a creature to which I have found a rod or pole +not to be so easily equivalent in our inland waters as in the books of +arithmetic,) and because it conveys an eulogium on the worthy son of an +excellent father, with whose acquaintance (_eheu, fugaces anni!_) I was +formerly honoured. + + "But nowadays the Bridge ain't wut they show, + So much ez Em'son, Hawthorne, an' Thoreau. + I know the village, though: was sent there once + A-schoolin', coz to home I played the dunce; + An' I've ben sence a-visitin' the Jedge, + Whose garding whispers with the river's edge, + Where I've sot mornin's, lazy as the bream, + Whose only business is to head up-stream, + (We call 'em punkin-seed,) or else in chat + Along'th the Jedge, who covers with his hat + More wit an' gumption an' shrewd Yankee sense + Than there is mosses on an ole stone fence." + +Concerning the subject-matter of the verses I have not the leisure at +present to write so fully as I could wish, my time being occupied +with the preparation of a discourse for the forthcoming bi-centenary +celebration of the first settlement of Jaalam East Parish. It may +gratify the publick interest to mention the circumstance, that my +investigations to this end have enabled me to verify the fact (of much +historick importance, and hitherto hotly debated) that Shearjashub +Tarbox was the first child of white parentage born in this town, being +named in his father's will under date August 7th, or 9th, 1662. It is +well known that those who advocate the claims of Mehetable Goings are +unable to find any trace of her existence prior to October of that year. +As respects the settlement of the Mason and Slidell question, Mr. Biglow +has not incorrectly stated the popular sentiment, so far as I can judge +by its expression in this locality. For myself, I feel more sorrow than +resentment; for I am old enough to have heard those talk of England who +still, even after the unhappy estrangement, could not unschool their +lips from calling her the Mother-Country. But England has insisted on +ripping up old wounds, and has undone the healing work of fifty years; +for nations do not reason, they only feel, and the _spretae injuria +formae_ rankles in their minds as bitterly as in that of a woman. And +because this is so, I feel the more satisfaction that our Government has +acted (as all Governments should, standing as they do between the people +and their passions) as if it had arrived at years of discretion. There +are three short and simple words, the hardest of all to pronounce in any +language, (and I suspect they were no easier before the confusion of +tongues,) but which no man or nation that cannot utter can claim to have +arrived at manhood. Those words are, _I was wrong_; and I am proud, +that, while England played the boy, our rulers had strength enough from +below and wisdom enough from above to quit themselves like men. Let us +strengthen the hands of those in authority over us, and curb out own +tongues,[A] remembering that General Wait commonly proves in the end +more than a match for General Headlong, and that the Good Book ascribes +safety to a multitude, indeed, but not to a mob, of counsellours. Let us +remember and perpend the words of Paulus Emilius to the people of Rome: +that, "if they judged they could manage the war to more advantage by any +other, he would willingly yield up his charge; but if they confided in +him, _they were not to make themselves his colleagues in his office, or +raise reports, or criticize, his actions, but, without talking, supply +him with means and assistance necessary to the carrying on of the war; +for, if they proposed to command their own commander, they would render +this expedition more ridiculous than the former." (Vide Plutarchum in +vita P.E.)_ Let us also not forget what the same excellent authour +says concerning Perseus's fear of spending money, and not permit the +covetousness of Brother Jonathan to be the good-fortune of Jefferson +Davis. For my own part, till I am ready to admit the Commander-in-Chief +to my pulpit, I shall abstain from planning his battles. Patience is the +armour of a nation; and in our desire for peace, let us never be willing +to surrender the Constitution bequeathed us by fathers at least as wise +as ourselves, (even with Jefferson Davis to help us,) and, with those +degenerate Romans, _tuta et presentia quam vetera et periculosa malle._ + +With respect, +Your ob't humble serv't, +HOMER WILBUR, A.M. + +[Footnote A: And not only our own tongues, but the pens of others, which +are swift to convey useful intelligence to the enemy. This is no new +inconvenience; for, under date 3rd June, 1745, General Pepperell wrote +thus to Governour Shirley from Louisbourg:--"What your Excellency +observes of the _army's being made acquainted with any plans proposed, +until really to be put in execution_, has always been disagreeable +to me, and I have given many cautions relating to it. But when your +Excellency considers that _our Council of War consists of more than +twenty members_, am persuaded you will think it _impossible for me to +hinder it_, if any of them will persist in communicating to inferiour +officers and soldiers what ought to be kept secret. I am informed that +the Boston newspapers are filled with paragraphs from private letters +relating to the expedition. Will your Excellency permit me to say I +think it may be of ill consequence? Would it not be convenient, if your +Excellency should forbid the Printers' inserting such news?" Verily, if +_tempora mutantur,_ we may question the _et nos mutamur in illis;_ and +if tongues be leaky, it will need all hands at the pumps to save the +Ship of State. Our history dates and repeats itself. If Sassycus (rather +than Alcibiades) find a parallel in Beauregard, so Weakwash, as he is +called by the brave Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, need not seek far among +our own Sachems for his antitype.] + + I love to start out arter night's begun, + An' all the chores about the farm are done, + The critters milked an' foddered, gates shet fast, + Tools cleaned aginst to-morrer, supper past, + An' Nancy darnin' by her ker'sene lamp,-- + I love, I say, to start upon a tramp, + To shake the kinkles out o' back an' legs, + An' kind o' rack my life off from the dregs + Thet's apt to settle in the buttery-hutch + Of folks thet foller in one rut too much: + Hard work is good an' wholesome, past all doubt; + But 't ain't so, ef the mind gits tuckered out. + + Now, bein' born in Middlesex, you know, + There's certin spots where I like best to go: + The Concord road, for instance, (I, for one, + Most gin'lly ollers call it _John Bull's Run._)-- + The field o' Lexin'ton, where England tried + The fastest colors thet she ever dyed,-- + An' Concord Bridge, thet Davis, when he came, + Found was the bee-line track to heaven an' fame,-- + Ez all roads be by natur', ef your soul + Don't sneak thru shun-pikes so's to save the toll. + + They're 'most too fur away, take too much time + To visit often, ef it ain't in rhyme; + But there's a walk thet's hendier, a sight, + An' suits me fust-rate of a winter's night,-- + I mean the round whale's-back o' Prospect Hill. + I love to loiter there while night grows still, + An' in the twinklin' villages about, + Fust here, then there, the well-saved lights goes out, + An' nary sound but watch-dogs' false alarms, + Or muffled cock-crows from the drowsy farms, + Where some wise rooster (men act jest thet way) + Stands to't thet moon-rise is the break o' day: + So Mister Seward sticks a three-months pin + Where the war'd oughto end, then tries agin;-- + My gran'ther's rule was safer'n 't is to crow: + _Don't never prophesy--onless ye know._ + + I love to muse there till it kind o' seems + Ez ef the world went eddyin' off in dreams. + The Northwest wind thet twitches at my baird + Blows out o' sturdier days not easy scared, + An' the same moon thet this December shines + Starts out the tents an' booths o' Putnam's lines; + The rail-fence posts, acrost the hill thet runs, + Turn ghosts o' sogers should'rin' ghosts o' guns; + Ez wheels the sentry, glints a flash o' light + Along the firelock won at Concord Fight, + An' 'twixt the silences, now fur, now nigh, + Rings the sharp chellenge, hums the low reply. + Ez I was settin' so, it warn't long sence, + Mixin' the perfect with the present tense, + I heerd two voices som'ers in the air, + Though, ef I was to die, I can't tell where: + Voices I call 'em: 't was a kind o' sough + Like pine-trees thet the wind is geth'rin' through; + An', fact, I thought it _was_ the wind a spell,-- + Then some misdoubted,--couldn't fairly tell,-- + Fust sure, then not, jest as you hold an eel,-- + I knowed, an' didn't,--fin'lly seemed to feel + 'T was Concord Bridge a-talkin' off to kill + With the Stone Spike thet's druv thru Bunker Hill: + Whether't was so, or ef I only dreamed, + I couldn't say; I tell it ez it seemed. + + THE BRIDGE. + + Wal, neighbor, tell us, wut's turned up thet's new? + You're younger'n I be,--nigher Boston, tu; + An' down to Boston, ef you take their showin', + Wut they don't know ain't hardly wuth the knowin'. + There's _sunthin'_ goin' on, I know: las' night + The British sogers killed in our gret fight + (Nigh fifty year they hedn't stirred nor spoke) + Made sech a coil you'd thought a dam hed broke: + Why, one he up an' beat a revellee + With his own crossbones on a holler tree, + Till all the graveyards swarmed out like a hive + With faces I hain't seen sence Seventy-five. + Wut _is_ the news? 'T ain't good, or they'd be cheerin'. + Speak slow an' clear, for I'm some hard o' hearin'. + + THE MONIMENT. + + I don't know hardly ef it's good or bad,-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + At wust, it can't be wus than wut we've had. + + THE MONIMENT. + + You know them envys thet the Rebbles sent, + An' Cap'n Wilkes he borried o' the Trent? + + THE BRIDGE. + + Wut! hev they hanged 'em? Then their wits is gone! + Thet's a sure way to make a goose a swan! + + THE MONIMENT. + + No: England she _would_ hev 'em, _Fee, Faw, Fum!_ + (Ez though she hedn't fools enough to home,) + So they've returned 'em-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + _Hev_ they? Wal, by heaven, + Thet's the wust news I've heerd sence Seventy-seven! + _By George_, I meant to say, though I declare + It's 'most enough to make a deacon, swear. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Now don't go off half-cock: folks never gains + By usin' pepper-sarse instid o' brains. + Come, neighbor, you don't understand-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + How? Hey? + Not understand? Why, wut's to hender, pray? + Must I go huntin' round to find a chap + To tell me when my face hez hed a slap? + + THE MONIMENT. + + See here: the British they found out a flaw + In Cap'n Wilkes's readin' o' the law: + (They _make_ all laws, you know, an' so, o' course, + It's nateral they should understand their force:) + He'd oughto took the vessel into port, + An' hed her sot on by a reg'lar court; + She was a mail-ship, an' a steamer, tu, + An' thet, they say, hez changed the pint o' view, + Coz the old practice, bein' meant for sails, + Ef tried upon a steamer, kind o' falls; + You _may_ take out despatches, but you mus'n't + Take nary man-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + You mean to say, you dus'n't! + Changed pint o' view! No, no,--it's overboard + With law an' gospel, when their ox is gored! + I tell ye, England's law, on sea an' land, + Hez ollers ben, "_I've gut the heaviest hand_." + Take nary man? Fine preachin' from _her_ lips! + Why, she hez taken hunderds from our ships, + An' would agin, an' swear she hed a right to, + Ef we warn't strong enough to be perlite to. + Of all the sarse thet I can call to mind, + England _doos_ make the most onpleasant kind: + It's you're the sinner ollers, she's the saint; + Wut's good's all English, all thet isn't ain't; + Wut profits her is ollers right an' just, + An' ef you don't read Scriptur so, you must; + She's praised herself ontil she fairly thinks + There ain't no light in Natur when she winks; + Hain't she the Ten Comman'ments in her pus? + Could the world stir 'thout she went, tu, ez nus? + She ain't like other mortals, thet's a fact: + _She_ never stopped the habus-corpus act, + Nor specie payments, nor she never yet + Cut down the int'rest on her public debt; + _She_ don't put down rebellions, lets 'em breed, + An' 's ollers willin' Ireland should secede; + She's all thet's honest, honnable, an' fair, + An' when the vartoos died they made her heir. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Wal, wal, two wrongs don't never make a right; + Ef we're mistaken, own it, an' don't fight: + For gracious' sake, hain't we enough to du + 'Thout gittin' up a fight with England, tu? + She thinks we're rabble-rid------ + + THE BRIDGE + + An' so we can't + Distinguish 'twixt _You oughtn't_ an' _You shan't!_ + She jedges by herself; she's no idear + How 't stiddies folks to give 'em their fair sheer: + The odds 'twixt her an' us is plain's a steeple,-- + Her People's turned to Mob, our Mob's turned People. + + THE MONIMENT. + + She's riled jes' now------ + + THE BRIDGE + + Plain proof her cause ain't strong,-- + The one thet fust gits mad's most ollers wrong. + + THE MONIMENT. + + You're ollers quick to set your back aridge,-- + Though't suits a tom-cat more 'n a sober bridge: + Don't you git het: they thought the thing was planned; + They'll cool off when they come to understand. + + THE BRIDGE + + Ef _thet's_ wilt you expect, you'll _hev_ to wait: + Folks never understand the folks they hate: + She'll fin' some other grievance jest ez good, + 'Fore the month's out, to git misunderstood. + England cool off! She'll do it, ef she sees + She's run her head into a swarm o' bees. + I ain't so prejudiced ez wut you spose: + I hev thought England was the best thet goes; + Remember, (no, you can't,) when _I_ was reared, + _God save the King_ was all the tune you heerd: + But it's enough to turn Wachuset roun', + This stumpin' fellers when you think they're down. + + THE MONIMENT. + + But, neighbor, ef they prove their claim at law, + The best way is to settle, an' not jaw. + An' don't le' 's mutter 'bout the awfle bricks + We'll give 'em, ef we ketch 'em in a fix: + That 'ere's most frequently the kin' o' talk + Of critters can't be kicked to toe the chalk; + Your "You'll see _nex'_ time!" an' "Look out bimeby!" + Most ollers ends in eatin' umble-pie. + 'T wun't pay to scringe to England: will it pay + To fear thet meaner bully, old "They'll say"? + Suppose they _du_ say: words are dreffle bores, + But they ain't quite so bad ez seventy-fours. + Wut England wants is jest a wedge to fit + Where it'll help to widen out our split: + She's found her wedge, an' 't ain't for us to come + An' lend the beetle thet's to drive it home. + For growed-up folks like us 't would be a scandle, + When we git sarsed, to fly right off the handle. + England ain't _all_ bad, coz she thinks us blind: + Ef she can't change her skin, she can her mind; + An' you will see her change it double-quick, + Soon ez we've proved thet we're a-goin' to lick. + She an' Columby's gut to be fas' friends; + For the world prospers by their privit ends: + 'T would put the clock back all o' fifty years, + Ef they should fall together by the ears. + + THE BRIDGE. + + You may be right; but hearken in your ear,-- + I'm older 'n you,--Peace wun't keep house with Fear: + Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut to du + Is jest to show you're up to fightin', tu. + _I_ recollect how sailors' rights was won + Yard locked in yard, hot gun-lip kissin' gun: + Why, afore thet, John Bull sot up thet he + Hed gut a kind o' mortgage on the sea; + You'd thought he held by Gran'ther Adam's will, + An' ef you knuckle down, _he_'ll think so still. + Better thet all our ships an' all their crews + Should sink to rot in ocean's dreamless ooze, + Each torn flag wavin' chellenge ez it went, + An' each dumb gun a brave man's moniment, + Than seek sech peace ez only cowards crave: + Give me the peace of dead men or of brave! + + THE MONIMENT. + + I say, ole boy, it ain't the Glorious Fourth: + You'd oughto learned 'fore this wut talk wuz worth. + It ain't _our_ nose thet gits put out o' jint; + It's England thet gives up her dearest pint. + We've gut, I tell ye now, enough to du + In our own fem'ly fight, afore we're thru. + I hoped, las' spring, jest arter Sumter's shame, + When every flag-staff flapped its tethered flame, + An' all the people, startled from their doubt, + Come must'rin' to the flag with sech a shout,-- + + I hoped to see things settled 'fore this fall, + The Rebbles licked, Jeff Davis hanged, an' all; + Then come Bull Run, an' _sence_ then I've ben waitin' + Like boys in Jennooary thaw for skatin', + Nothin' to du but watch my shadder's trace + Swing, like a ship at anchor, roun' my base, + With daylight's flood an' ebb: it's gittin' slow, + An' I 'most think we'd better let 'em go. + I tell ye wut, this war's a-goin' to cost-- + + THE BRIDGE. + + An' I tell _you_ it wun't be money lost; + Taxes milks dry, but, neighbor, you'll allow + Thet havin' things onsettled kills the cow: + We've gut to fix this thing for good an' all; + It's no use buildin' wut's a-goin' to fall. + I'm older 'n you, an' I've seen things an' men, + An' here's wut my experience hez ben: + Folks thet worked thorough was the ones thet thriv, + But bad work follers ye ez long's ye live; + You can't git red on 't; jest ez sure ez sin, + It's ollers askin' to be done agin: + Ef we should part, it wouldn't be a week + 'Fore your soft-soddered peace would spring aleak. + We've turned our cuffs up, but, to put her thru, + We must git mad an' off with jackets, tu; + 'T wun't du to think thet killin' ain't perlite,-- + You've gut to be in airnest, ef you fight; + Why, two-thirds o' the Rebbles 'ould cut dirt, + Ef they once thought thet Guv'ment meant to hurt; + An' I _du_ wish our Gin'rals hed in mind + The folks in front more than the folks behind; + You wun't do much ontil you think it's God, + An' not constitoounts, thet holds the rod; + We want some more o' Gideon's sword, I jedge, + For proclamations hain't no gret of edge; + There's nothin' for a cancer but the knife, + Onless you set by 't more than by your life. + _I_'ve seen hard times; I see a war begun + Thet folks thet love their bellies never'd won,-- + Pharo's lean kine hung on for seven long year,-- + But when't was done, we didn't count it dear. + Why, law an' order, honor, civil right, + Ef they _ain't_ wuth it, wut _is_ wuth a fight? + I'm older 'n you: the plough, the axe, the mill, + All kinds o' labor an' all kinds o' skill, + Would be a rabbit in a wile-cat's claw, + Ef't warn't for thet slow critter, 'stablished law; + Onsettle _thet_, an' all the world goes whiz, + A screw is loose in everythin' there is: + Good buttresses once settled, don't you fret + An' stir 'em: take a bridge's word for thet! + Young folks are smart, but all ain't good thet's new; + I guess the gran'thers they knowed sunthin', tu. + + THE MONIMENT. + + Amen to thet! build sure in the beginning', + An' then don't never tech the underpinnin': + Th' older a Guv'ment is, the better 't suits; + New ones hunt folks's corns out like new boots: + Change jest for change is like those big hotels + Where they shift plates, an' let ye live on smells. + + THE BRIDGE + + Wal, don't give up afore the ship goes down: + It's a stiff gale, but Providence wun't drown; + An' God wun't leave us yet to sink or swim, + Ef we don't fail to du wut 's right by Him. + This land o' ourn, I tell ye, 's gut to be + A better country than man ever see. + I feel my sperit swellin' with a cry + Thet seems to say, "Break forth an' prophesy!" + O strange New World, thet yet wast never young, + Whose youth from thee by gripin' need was wrung,-- + Brown foundlin' o' the woods, whose baby-bed + Was prowled round by the Injun's cracklin' tread, + An' who grew'st strong thru shifts an' wants an' pains, + Nussed by stern men with empires in their brains, + Who saw in vision their young Ishmel strain + With each hard hand a vassal ocean's mane,-- + Thou, skilled by Freedom an' by gret events + To pitch new States ez Old-World men pitch tents,-- + Thou, taught by Fate to know Jehovah's plan + Thet only manhood ever makes a man, + An' whose free latch-string never was drawed in + Aginst the poorest child o' Adam's kin,-- + The grave's not dug where traitor hands shall lay + In fearful haste thy murdered corse away! + I see---- + + Jest here some dogs began to bark, + So thet I lost old Concord's last remark: + I listened long, but all I seemed to hear + Was dead leaves goss'pin' on some birch-trees near; + But ez they hedn't no gret things to say, + An' said 'em often, I come right away, + An', walkin' home'ards, jest to pass the time, + I put some thoughts thet bothered me in rhyme: + I hain't hed time to fairly try 'em on, + But here they be,--it's + + +JONATHAN TO JOHN. + + It don't seem hardly right, John, + When both my hands was full, + To stump me to a fight, John,-- + Your cousin, tu, John Bull! + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + We know it now," sez he, + "The lion's paw is all the law, + Accordin' to J.B., + Thet's fit for you an' me!" + + Blood ain't so cool as ink, John: + It's likely you'd ha' wrote, + An' stopped a spell to think, John, + _Arter_ they'd cut your throat? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + He'd skurce ha' stopped," sez he, + "To mind his p-s an' q-s, ef thet weasan' + Hed b'longed to ole J.B., + Instid o' you an' me!" + + Ef _I_ turned mad dogs loose, John, + On _your_ front-parlor stairs, + Would it jest meet your views, John, + To wait an' sue their heirs? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + I on'y guess," sez he, + "Thet, ef Vattel on _his_ toes fell, + 'T would kind o' rile J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + Who made the law thet hurts, John, + _Heads I win,--ditto, tails?_ + "_J.B._" was on his shirts, John, + Onless my memory fails. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + (I'm good at thet,)" sez he, + "Thet sauce for goose ain't _jest_ the juice + For ganders with J.B., + No more than you or me!" + + When your rights was our wrongs, John, + You didn't stop for fuss,-- + Britanny's trident-prongs, John, + Was good 'nough law for us. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Though physic's good," sez he, + "It doesn't foller thet he can swaller + Prescriptions signed 'J.B.,' + Put up by you an' me!" + + We own the ocean, tu, John: + You mus'n't take it hard, + Ef we can't think with you, John, + It's jest your own back-yard. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Ef _thet's_ his claim," sez he, + "The fencin'-stuff 'll cost enough + To bust up friend J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + Why talk so dreffle big, John, + Of honor, when it meant + You didn't care a fig, John, + But jest for _ten per cent_.? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + He's like the rest," sez he: + "When all is done, it's number one + Thet's nearest to J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + We give the critters back, John, + Coz Abram thought 't was right; + It warn't your bullyin' clack, John, + Provokin' us to fight. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + We've a hard row," sez he, + "To hoe jest now; but thet, somehow, + May heppen to J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + We ain't so weak an' poor, John, + With twenty million people, + An' close to every door, John, + A school-house an' a steeple. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + It is a fact," sez he, + "The surest plan to make a Man + Is, Think him so, J.B., + Ez much ez you or me!" + + Our folks believe in Law, John; + An' it's for her sake, now, + They've left the axe an' saw, John, + The anvil an' the plough. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + Ef't warn't for law," sez he, + "There'd be one shindy from here to Indy; + An' thet don't suit J.B. + (When't ain't 'twixt you an' me!)" + + We know we've gut a cause, John, + Thet's honest, just, an' true; + We thought't would win applause, John, + Ef nowheres else, from you. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + His love of right," sez he, + "Hangs by a rotten fibre o' cotton: + There's natur' in J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + The South says, "_Poor folks down!_" John, + An' "_All men up!_" say we,-- + "White, yaller, black, an' brown, John: + Now which is your idee?" + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + John preaches wal," sez he; + "But, sermon thru, an' come to _du_, + Why, there's the old J.B. + A-crowdin' you an' me!" + + Shall it be love or hate, John? + It's you thet's to decide; + Ain't _your_ bonds held by Fate, John, + Like all the world's beside? + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess + Wise men forgive," sez he, + "But not forget; an' some time yet + Thet truth may strike J.B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!" + + God means to make this land, John, + Clear thru, from sea to sea, + Believe an' understand, John, + The _wuth_ o' bein' free. + Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess, + God's price is high," sez he; + "But nothin' else than wut He sells + Wears long, an' thet J.B. + May learn like you an' me!" + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow_. A +Matter-of-Fact Romance. By CHARLES READE, Author of "Never too Late to +Mend," etc., etc. New York: Rudd & Carleton. 8vo. + +The novels of Charles Reade are generally marked not only by +individuality of genius, but by individualisms of egotism and caprice. +The latter provoke the reader almost as much as the former gives him +delight. It disturbs the least critical mind to find the keenest insight +in company with the loudest bravado, and the statement of a wise or +beautiful thought followed up by a dogmatic assertion of infallibility +as harsh as a slap on the face. The indisposition to recognize such a +genius comes from the fact that he irritates as well as stimulates the +minds he addresses. Everybody reads him, but the fooling he inspires is +made up of admiration and exasperation. The public is both delighted and +insulted. He not only does not attempt to conceal his contemptuous sense +of superiority to common men, but he absolutely screeches and bawls it +out. Fearful that the dull Anglo-Saxon mind cannot appreciate his finest +strokes, he emphasizes his inspirations not merely by Italics, but by +capitals, thus conveying his brightest wit and deepest contrivances by +a kind of typographic yell. Were there not a solid foundation of +observation, learning, genius, and conscience to his work, his egotistic +eccentricities would awake a tempest of hisses. Being, in reality, +superficial and not central, they are readily pardoned by discerning +critics. Even these, however, must object to his disposition to cluck or +crow, in a manner altogether unseemly, whenever he hits upon a thought +of more than ordinary delicacy or depth. + +It is but just to say, in palliation of this fault, that Mr. Reade's +insolent tone is not peculiar to him. It characterizes almost every +prominent person who has attempted to mould the opinions of the age. We +find it in Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Kingsley, as well as in Reade. +Modesty is not the characteristic of the genius of the nineteenth +century; and the last thing we look for in any powerful work of the +present day is toleration for other minds and opposing opinions. +Each capable person who puts in his thumb and pulls out a plum draws +instantly the same inference which occurred to the first explorer of +the Christmas-pie. Charles Reade has no reservation at all, and boldly +echoes Master Horner's sage conclusion. + +"The Cloister and the Hearth," in spite of its faults, is really a great +book. It is a positive contribution to history as well as to romance. It +would be vain to point to any other volume which could convey to common +minds so clear and accurate a conception of European life in the +fifteenth century as this. The author has deeply studied the annals, +memoirs, and histories which record the peculiarities of that life, and +he has carried into the study a knowledge of those powers and passions +of human nature which are the same in every age. The result is a +"romance of history" which contains more essential truth than the most +labored histories; for the writer is a man who has both the heart to +feel and the imagination to conceive the realities of the time about +which he writes. + +The characterization of the book is original, various, and powerful. +It ranges from the lowest hind to the most exquisite representative +of female tenderness and purity. The scenes of passion show a clear +conception of and a strong hold upon the emotional elements of +character, and a capacity to exhibit their most terrible workings +in language which seems identical with the feelings it so burningly +expresses. In vigor and vividness of description and narration the novel +excels any of Reade's previous books. The plot is about the same as that +of "The Good Fight," though the _denouement_ is different. "The Cloister +and the Hearth," indeed, incorporates "The Good Fight" in its pages, but +the latter forms not more than a fourth of the extended work. Altogether +the romance must be classed among the best which have appeared during +the last twenty years. + + +_Lessons in Life_. A Series of Familiar Essays. By TIMOTHY TITCOMB. New +York: Charles Scribner, 16 mo. + +Who is more popular than honest Timothy? Opening this, his latest +volume, we read on, a fly-leaf fronting the title-page that twenty-six +editions of the "Letters to Young People," fifteen editions each of +"Bitter-Sweet" and "Gold Foil," and thirteen editions of "Miss Gilbert's +Career" have gone the way of all good books. The author says, in his +modest preface to the "Lessons," that he can hardly pretend to have done +more than to organize and put into form the average thinking of those +who read his books, and be only claims for his essays that they possess +the quality of common sense. He herein pays a very high compliment to +the crowd which demands over the bookseller's counter so many thousands +of his volumes. Wisdom, admirably put, is not a commodity glutting the +market every day. We find in the pages of this new venture so many +healthy maxims and so much excellent advice, that we hope the volume +will spread itself farther and wider than any of its predecessors. This +wish fulfilled will give it no mean circulation. "The Ways of Charity," +one of the papers in this volume, ought to be printed in tract form, and +scattered broadcast everywhere. And there are other articles in the book +quite as good as this. + + +_English Sacred Poetry of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and +Nineteenth Centuries._ Selected and edited by ROBERT ARIS WILLMOTT, M.A. +Illustrated by Holman Hunt, John Gilbert, and others. London: Routledge +& Co. 4to. + +Mr. Willmott has considerable reputation for judgment and taste as a +compiler. He knows a good poem afar off, and his chief pleasure seems +to lie in reproducing from old books the excellent things that time has +spared to us. His last contribution to the stock of elegant volumes is +this very handsome book of English Sacred Poetry. The illustrations are +by no means equally good, but the majority of them are satisfactory. +Delicious bits of English landscape scenery peep out along the pages, as +one turns the leaves of this beautiful collection. An old village church +rising among the graves of centuries, a bird's-nest snug and warm in the +boughs of a mossy tree, a group of old-time worshippers gathered on the +grass, a brook making its way through flower-enamelled banks, a shepherd +with his flock couched on the hill-side, and other similar scenes of +quiet and rest, abound in this volume. The printer and the binder have +produced as luxurious a specimen of their respective arts as we have +seen from the British holiday press. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in +the American Slave States. Based upon Three Former Volumes of Journeys +and Investigations by the Same Author. By Frederic Law Olmsted. In Two +Volumes. New York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. viii., 376; 404. $2.00. + +The Last Political Writings of General Nathaniel Lyon, U.S.A. With a +Sketch of his Life and Military Services. New York. Rudd & Carleton. +12mo. pp. 275. $1.00. + +The Lamplighter's Story; Hunted Down; The Detective Police, and other +Nouvellettes. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 12mo. pp. 467. $1.50. + +Poems. By John G. Saxe. Complete in One Volume. Blue and Gold. Boston. +Ticknor & Fields. 32mo. pp. vi., 308. 75 cts. + +Elijah, a Sacred Drama, and other Poems. By Rev. Robert Davidson, D.D. +New York. C. Scribner. 16mo. pp. 184. 75 cts. + +Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from Drawings +by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Old Curiosity-Shop. In Three +Volumes. New York. J.G. Gregory. 16mo. pp. viii., 303; 299; 298. $2.25. + +National Hymns: How they are Written, and how they are not Written. A +Lyric and National Study for the Times. By Richard Grant White. New +York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo. pp. 152. $1.00. + +A Manual of Elementary Geometrical Drawing, involving Three Dimensions. +Designed for Use in High Schools, Academies, Engineering Schools, etc.; +and for the Self-Instruction of Inventors, Artisans, etc. In Five +Divisions. By S. Edward Warren, C.E., Professor of Descriptive Geometry +and Geometrical Drawing in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., +and Author of a Treatise on the Orthographic Projections of Descriptive +Geometry. New York. John Wiley. 12mo. pp. x., 105. $1.25. + +For Better, for Worse. A Love Story. From "Temple Bar." Philadelphia. +T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 173. 25 cts. + +Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia. Revelation, +II., III. By Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D., Dean of Westminster. New +York. C. Scribner. 12mo. pp. 3l2. $1.00. + +Songs in Many Keys. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. +16mo. pp. x., 308. $1.25. + +Lessons in Life. A Series of Familiar Essays. By Timothy Titcomb, Author +of "Letters to the Young," "Gold Foil," etc. New York. C. Scribner. +12mo. pp. 344. $1.00. + +Wolfert's Roost, and other Papers. Now first collected. By Washington +Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 383, +46. $1.50. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, +February, 1862, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 52 *** + +***** This file should be named 12066.txt or 12066.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/0/6/12066/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. 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