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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:23 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:23 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12249-0.txt b/12249-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46ff4d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/12249-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11320 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12249 *** + +BART RIDGELEY; + +A STORY OF NORTHERN OHIO. + +BY + +A.G. RIDDLE + +1873. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. A FAILURE + + II. THE BLUE CHAMBER + + III. NEWBURY + + IV. AT THE POST OFFICE + + V. MRS. MARKHAM'S VIEWS + + VI. WHAT HE THOUGHT OF THINGS + + VII. LOGIC OF THE GODS + + VIII. A RAMBLE IN THE WOODS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT + + IX. A DARKENED SOUL + + X. AFTER THE FLOOD + + XI. UNCLE ALECK + + XII. A CONSECRATION + + XIII. BLACKSTONE + + XIV. THE YOUNG IDEA SHOOTS + + XV. SNOW'S PARTY + + XVI. WALTZ + + XVII. BART + + XVIII. SUGAR MAKING + + XIX. HENRY + + XX. WHAT THE GIRLS SAID + + XXI. A DEPARTURE + + XXII. A SHATTERED COLUMN + + XXIII. THE STORM + + XXIV. A LAW SUIT (TO BE SKIPPED) + + XXV. THE WARNING + + XXVI. LOST + + XXVII. THE BABES IN THE WOODS + + XXVIII. AT JUDGE MARKHAM'S + + XXIX. AFTER + + XXX. JEFFERSON + + XXXI. OLD BEN + + XXXII. THE LETTERS + + XXXIII. AT WILDER'S + + XXXIV. ROUGH SKETCHES + + XXXV. SARTLIFF + + XXXVI. OLD GID + + XXXVII. THE OLD STORY + +XXXVIII. THE OLD STORY OVER AGAIN + + XXXIX. ABOUT LAWYERS, AND DULL + + XL. THE DISGUISE + + XLI. THE INVITATION + + XLII. ADMITTED + + XLIII. JULIA + + XLIV. FINDING THE WAY + + XLV. SOME THINGS PUT AT REST + + XLVI. PRINCE ARTHUR + + XLVII. THE TRIAL + + XLVIII. THE ADVOCATE + + XLIX. WAITING + + L. THE GOSPEL OF LOVE + + LI. THE RETURN + + LII. FINAL DREAM LAND + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A FAILURE. + + +He could see from the top of the hill, down which the road wound to +the river, that the bridge was gone, and he paused for a moment +with an involuntary feeling that it was useless to go forward; but +remembering that his way led across, at all events, he walked down to +the bank. There it ran, broad, rapid, and in places apparently deep. +He looked up and down in vain: no lodged drift-wood; no fallen trees; +no raft or wreck; a recent freshet had swept all clear to high-water +mark, and the stream rolled, and foamed, and boiled, and gurgled, and +murmured in the afternoon August sun as gleefully and mockingly as if +its very purpose was to baffle the wearied youth who looked into and +over its changing tide. + +In coming from Cleveland that morning he had taken a wrong road, and +now, at mid-afternoon, he found his progress stayed with half his +day's journey still before him. It would have been but a moment's task +to remove his clothes and swim over, but the region was open and clear +on that side for a considerable distance, and notwithstanding his +solitude, he hesitated to make the transit in that manner. It was +apparent, from the little-travelled road, that the stream had been +forded by an indirect course, and one not easily determined from the +shore. It occurred to him that possibly some team from Cleveland might +pass along and take him over; and, wearied, he sat down by his light +valise to wait, and at least rest; and as he gazed into the rapid +current a half-remembered line of a forgotten poet ran and ran through +his mind thus: + + "Which running runs, and will run forever on." + +His reflections were not cheerful. Three months before he had gone +over to Hudson with a very young man's scheme of maintaining himself +at school, and finally in college; and finding it impracticable, had +strayed off to the lower part of the State with a vague idea of going +down the Mississippi, and, perhaps, to Texas. He spent some time with +relatives near Cincinnati, and under a sudden impulse--all his plans, +as he was pleased to call them, were impulses--he had returned, +adding, as he was conscious, another to a long-growing list of +failures, which, in the estimation of many acquaintances, also +included himself. + +His meditations were interrupted by the sound of an approaching +carriage coming over the hill. He knew the horses. They were Judge +Markham's, and driven by the Judge himself, alone, in a light vehicle. +The young man sprang up at the sight. Here was the man whom of all men +he most respected, and feared as much as he could fear any man, whose +good opinion he most cared to have, and yet who he was conscious had a +dislike for him. + +The Judge would certainly take him over the river, and so home, but +in his frank and ingenuous nature how could he face him on his +almost ignominious return? He stood still, a little away from the +carriage-track, half wishing he might not be seen. He was seen, +however, and a close observer might have discovered the half sneer on +the otherwise handsome and manly face of the Judge, who had taken in +the situation. The horses were held in a walk as they came down near +where the young man stood, with a half ashamed, yet eager, expression +of countenance, and turned partly away, as if he expected--in fact, +wished for nothing. + +"What are you doing here?" called out the Judge. + +It was not a wholly courteous inquiry, and scarcely necessary, though +not purposely offensive; but the tone and manner struck like an insult +on the young man's sensitive spirit, and his answer went back a little +sharply: + +"I am waiting for the river to run by," + +"Ah! I see. Well, I am glad you have found something that suits you." + +There was no mistaking the sarcasm of this remark, and perhaps its +sting was deeper than was meant. The Judge was not an unkind man, +though he did not relish the reply to his question; he held up his +horses on the margin of the water, and perhaps he wanted to be asked +by this pert youth for the favor of a passage over. Of course the +petition was not, and never would have been made. He lingered a +moment, and without another word entered the river, and, turning his +horses' heads up stream for a short distance, drove out on the other +side; as he turned into the regular track again, he caught a view of +the young man standing impassive on the same spot where he first saw +him. + +It is possible that Judge Markham, the most wealthy and popular man +of his region, did not feel wholly at ease as, with his fine team and +empty carriage, he drove away, leaving the weary, travel-stained youth +standing on the other side of the river; and it is possible that +the form of the deserted one may be brought to his memory in the +hereafter. + +"'Something that suits me'--'something that suits me!' All right, +Judge Markham!" and as the carriage was hidden in the woods, the +waters that rolled on between them were as nothing to the bitter, +swelling tide that, for a moment, swept through the young man's bosom. +He was undecided no longer. + +Removing his boots and stockings, he entered the river at the point, +and, following the course taken by the Judge, he passed out, and +resumed his journey homeward. + +As he walked rapidly onward, the momentary bitterness subsided. He was +not one to hate, or cherish animosities, but he was capable of deep +impressions, and of forming strong resolutions. There was a chord of +melancholy running through his nature, which, under excitement, often +vibrated the longest; and almost any strong emotion left behind a tone +of sadness that lingered for hours, and sometimes for days, although +his mind was normally buoyant and hopeful. + +As he went on over the hills, in the rude pioneer country of Northern +Ohio, thirty-six or seven years ago, he thought sad-colored thoughts +of the past, or, rather, he recalled sombre memories of the, to him, +far-off time, when, with his mother and brothers, he formed one of +a sobbing group around a bed whereon a gasping, dying man was vainly +trying to say some last words; of afterwards awakening in the deep +nights, and listening to the unutterably sweet and mournful singing of +his mother, unable to sleep in her loneliness; of the putting away +of his baby brother, and the jubilee when he was brought back; of the +final breaking up of the family, and of his own first goings away; of +the unceasing homesickness and pining with which he always languished +for home in his young boy years; of the joy with which he always +hurried home, the means by which he would prolong his stay, and the +anguish with which he went away again. His mother was to him the chief +good. For him, like Providence, she always was, and he could imagine +no possible good, or even existence, without her--it would be the end +of the world when she ceased to be. And he remembered all the places +where he had lived, and the many times he had run away. And then came +the memory of Julia Markham, as she was years ago, when he lived in +her neighborhood, and her sweet and beautiful mother used to intrust +her to his care, in the walks to and from school, down on the State +road--Julia, with her great wonderful eyes, and world of wavy hair, +and red lips; and then, as she grew into beautiful and ever more +beautiful girlhood, he used to be more and more at Judge Markham's +house, and used to read to Julia's mother and herself. It was there +that he discovered Shakespeare, and learned to like him, and Milton, +whom he didn't like and wouldn't read, and the Sketch Book, and +Knickerbocker's History, and Cooper's novels, and Scott, and, +more than all, Byron, whom Mrs. Markham did not want him to read, +recommending, instead, Young's Night Thoughts, and Pollock's Course of +Time, and Southey--the dear good woman! + +And then came a time when he was in the store of Markham & Co., and +finally was taken from the counter, because of his sharp words to +customers, and set at the books, and sent away from that post because +he illustrated them with caricatures on the margins, and smart +personal rhymes. Julia was sixteen, and as sweet a romping, hoydenish, +laughing, brave, strong girl as ever bewitched the heart of dreaming +youth; and he had taught her to ride on horseback; and then she was +sent off, away "down country," to the centre of the world, to Boston, +where were uncles and aunts, and was gone, oh, ever and ever so +long!--half a lifetime--nearly two years--and came back; and then his +thoughts became confused. Then he thought of Judge Markham, and now +he was sure that the Judge did not like him; and he remembered that +Julia's mother, as he came towards manhood, was kind and patronizing, +and that when he went to say good-by to Julia, three months ago, +although she knew he was coming, she was not at home, and he only saw +her mother and Nell Roberts. Then he thought of all the things he had +tried to do within the last two years, and how he had done none of +them. People had not liked him, and he had not suspected why, and had +not cared. People liked his elder brothers, and he was glad and proud +of it; and a jumble of odds and ends and fragments became tangled and +snarled in his mind. What would people say of his return? Did he care? +He asked nobody's leave to go, and came back on his own account. But +his mother--she would look sad; but she would be glad. It certainly +was a mistake, his going; could it be a blunder, his returning? + +He was thinking shallowly; but deeper thoughts came to him. He began +to believe that easy places did not exist; and he scorned to seek them +for himself, if they did. The world was as much to be struggled with +in one place as another; and, after all, was not the struggle mainly +with one's own self, and could that be avoided? Then what in himself +was wrong? what should be fought against? Who would tell him? Men +spoke roughly to him, and he answered back sharply. He couldn't help +doing that. How could he be blamed? He suspected he might be. + +He knew there were better things than to chop and clear land, and +make black salts, or tend a saw-mill, or drive oxen, or sell tape and +calico; but, in these woods, poor and unfriended, how could he find +them? Was not his brother Henry studying law at Jefferson, and were +they not all proud of him, and did not everybody expect great things +of him? But Henry was different from him. Dr. Lyman believed in +him; Judge Markham spoke with respect of him. Julia Markham--how +inexpressibly lovely and radiant and distant and inaccessible she +appeared! And then he felt sore, as if her father had dealt him a +blow, and he thought of his sending him away the year before, and +wished he had explained. No matter. How he writhed again and again +under the sting of his contemptuous sarcasm! "He wouldn't even pick me +up; would leave me to lie by the wayside." + +Towards sundown, weary and saddened, he reached the centre, +"Jugville," as he had named it, years before, in derision. He was a +mile and a half from home, and paused a moment to sit on the platform +in front of "Marlow's Hotel," and rest. The loungers were present in +more than usual force,--Jo and Biather Alexander, old Neaze Savage, +old Cal Chase, Tinker,--any number of old and not highly-esteemed +acquaintances. + +"Hullo, Bart Ridgeley! is that you?" + +Bart did not seem to think it necessary to affirm or deny. + +"Ben away, hain't ye? Must a-gone purty much all over all creation, +these last three months. How's all the folks where you ben?" + +No reply. A nod to one or two of the dozen attracted towards him was +the only notice he took of them, seeming not to hear the question and +comments of Tinker. His silence tempted old Cal, the small joker of +the place, to open: + +"You's gone an everlastin' while. S'pose you hardly know the place, +it's changed so." + +"It has changed some," he answered to this; "its bar-room loafers +are a good deal more unendurable, and its fools, always large, have +increased in size." + +A good-natured laugh welcomed this reply. + +"There, uncle Cal, it 'pears to me you've got it," said one. + +"'Pears to me we've all got it," was the response of that worthy. + +"Come in, Bart," said the landlord, "and take something on the +strength o' that." + +"Thank you, I will be excused; I have a horror of a sudden death;" +and, taking up his valise, he started across the fields to the near +woods. + +"Bully!" "Good!" "You've got that!" cried several to the discomfited +seller of drinks. "It is your treat; we'll risk the stuff!" and the +party turned in to the bar to realize their expectations. + +"There is one thing 'bout it," said Bi, "Bart hain't changed much, +anyway." + +"And there's another thing 'bout it," said uncle Bill, "a chap that +carries such a sassy tongue should be sassy able. He'll answer some +chap, some day, that wun't stan' it." + +"The man that picks him up'll find an ugly customer; he'd be licked +afore he begun. I tell you what, them Ridgeley boys is no fighters, +but the stuff's in 'em, and Bart's filled jest full. I'd as liv tackle +a young painter." This was Neaze's view. + +"That's so," said Jo. "Do you remember the time he had here last fall, +with that braggin' hunter chap, Mc-Something, who came along with his +rifle, darin' all hands about here to shute with him? He had one of +them new peck-lock rifles, and nobody dared shute with him; and Bart +came along, and asked to look at the feller's gun, and said something +'bout it, and Mc-Somebody dared him to shute, and Bart sent over to +Haw's and got 'old Potleg,' that Steve Patterson shot himself with, +and loaded 'er up, and then the hunter feller wouldn't shute except +on a bet, and Bart hadn't but fifty cents, and they shot twenty rods +off-hand, and Bart beat him; and they doubled the bet, and Bart beat +agin, and they went on till Bart won more'n sixty dollars. Sometimes +the feller shot wild, and Bart told him he'd have to get a dog to hunt +where he hit, and he got mad, and Bart picked up his first half-dollar +and pitched it to Jotham, who put up the mark, and left the rest on +the ground." + +"There come mighty near bein' trouble then, an' there would ha' ben ef +the Major hadn't took Bart off," said Bi. + +And while these rough, good-natured men talked him over, Barton walked +off southerly, across the newly-shorn meadow, to the woods. Twilight +was in their depths, and shadows were stealing mysteriously out, and +already the faint and subtle aroma which the gathering dew releases +from foliage, came out like an incense to bathe the quick and healthy +senses of the wearied youth. He removed his hat, opened his bosom, +expanded his nostrils and lungs, and drank it as the bee takes nectar +from the flowers. What an exquisite sense of relief and quiet came to +him, as he found himself lost in the shadows of the young night! Not a +tree in these woods that he did not know, and they all seemed to reach +out their mossy arms with their myriad of little, cool, green +hands, to welcome him back. They knew nothing of his failures and +disappointments, and were more sympathizing than the coarse and ribald +men whose rude taunts he had just heard, and to whose admiration he +was as indifferent as to their sarcasm. These were grand and beautiful +maple woods, free from tangling underbrush, and standing thick and +stately on wide, gentle slopes; and to-night the lisping breath of +the summer evening came to this young but sad and burdened heart, with +whispers soothing and restful. + +He had never been so long from home before; the nearer he approached +it, the more intense his longings grew, and he passed rapidly through +the open glades, disappearing momentarily in the obscurity of the +thickets, past the deserted sugar camp, until finally the woods grew +lighter, the trees more scattered, and he reached the open pasture +lands in sight of the low farm-house, which held his mother and home. +How strange, and yet familiar, even an absence of only three months +made everything! The distance of his journey seemed to have expanded +the months into years. + +He entered by a back way, and found his mother in the little front +sitting-room. She arose with--"Oh, Barton, have you come?" and +received from his lips and eyes the testimonials of his heart. She +was slight, lithe, and well made, with good Puritan blood, brain, and +resolution; and as she stood holding her child by both his hands, and +looking eagerly into his face, a stranger would have noticed their +striking resemblance. Her face, though womanly, was too marked and +strong for beauty. Both had the square decisive brow, and wide, deep +eyes--hers a lustrous black, and his dark gray or blue, as the light +was. Her hair was abundant, and very dark; his a light brown, thick, +wavy, and long. Both had the same aquiline nose, short upper-lip, +bland, firm, but soft mouth, and well-formed chin. Her complexion was +dark, and his fair--too fair for a man. + +"Yes, mother, I have come; are you glad to see me?" + +"Glad--very glad, but sorry." She had a good deal of the Spartan in +her nature, and received her son with a sense of another failure, +and failures were not popular with her. "I did not hear from you--was +anxious about you; but now, when you come back to the nothing for you +here, I know you found less elsewhere." + +"Well, mother, I know I am a dreadful drag even on your patience, and +I fear a burden besides, instead of a help. I need not say much to +you; you, at least, understand me. It was a mistake to go away as +I did, and I bring back all I carried away, with the result of some +reflection. I can do as much here as anywhere. I hoped I could do +something for you, and I, poor unweaned baby and booby, can do better +for myself near you than elsewhere." + +Not much was said. She was thoughtful, deep natured, tender, and +highly strung, though not demonstrative, and these qualities in him +were modified by the soft, sensuous, imaginative elements that came to +him--all that he inherited, except his complexion, from his father. + +His mother gave him supper, and he sat and inquired about home events, +and gave her a pleasant account of their relatives in the lower part +of the State. He said nothing of the discovery he had made among +them--her own family relatives--that she had married beneath her, +and had never been forgiven; and he fancied that he discovered some +opening of old, old sorrows, dating back to her girlhood days, as +he talked of her relatives. The two younger brothers came rattling +in--George, a handsome, eager young threshing-machine, a bright, +broad-browed boy, and Edward, older, with drooping head and thoughtful +face, and with something of Bart's readiness at reply. George ran to +him-- + +"Oh, Bart, I am so glad! and there is so much--a flock of turkeys--and +a wolverine, and oh! so many pigeons and everything--more than you can +shoot in all the fall!" + +"Well, captain, we will let them all live, I guess, unless that +wolverine comes around!" + +"There is a real, true wolverine; several have seen him, and he +screeches, and yells, and climbs trees, and everything!" + +"There _is_ something around," said Edward. "Theodore and Bill Johnson +heard him, over in the woods, not a week ago." + +"Likely enough," replied Bart; "but wolverines don't climb. There +may be a panther. Now, Ed, what has been going on on the farm? Is the +haying done?" + +"Yes; and the wheat is all in, and most all the oats. The corn is +splendid in the old elm lot, and then the Major has been chopping +down your old sugar camp, where we worked when you came home from old +Hewitt's." + +"Oh, dear, that was the loveliest bit of woodland, in the bend of the +creek, in all the magnificent woods; well?" + +"He has nearly finished the Jenks house," resumed Edward, "and is now +at Snow's, in Auburn. He said you would be home before now." + +"What about his colts?" + +"Oh, Arab runs about wild as ever, and he has Dolf with him." + +"How many hands has he with him?" + +"Four or five." + +"Dr. Lyman asked about you," said George, "and wondered where you +were. He said you would be back in three weeks, and that something +must have happened." + +"It would be lucky for the Doctor's patients," replied Bart, "if +something should keep him away three days." + +"I guess he wants you to go a-fishing with him. They had a great time +down there the other day--he, and Mr. Young, and Sol Johnson. They +undertook to put up a sail as Henry and you do, and it didn't work, +and they came near upsetting; and' Sol and old man Young were scart, +and old Young thought he would get drownded. Oh, it must have been +fun!" + +And so the boys chippered, chirped, and laughed on to a late bed-time, +and then went to bed perfectly happy. + +Then came inquiries about Henry, who had written not long before, and +had wondered why he had not heard from Barton; and, at last, wearied +and worn with his three hundred miles' walk, Bart bade his mother +good-night, and went to his old room, to rest and sleep as the young, +and healthful, and hopeful, without deep sorrows or the stings of +conscience, may do. In the strange freaks of a half-sleeping fancy, in +his dreams, he remembered to have heard the screech of a wild animal, +and to have seen the face of Julia Markham, pale with the mingled +expression of courage and fear. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE BLUE CHAMBER. + + +In the morning he found the front yard had a wild and tangled, and +the garden a neglected look, and busied himself, with the boys, in +improving their appearance. + +In the afternoon he overhauled a small desk, the contents of which +soon lay about on the floor. There were papers of all colors and +sizes--scraps, single sheets, and collections of several pages--all +covered with verses in many hands, from that of the young boy to +elegant clerkly manuscript. They seemed to represent every style of +poetic composition. It would have been amusing to watch the manner +and expression with which the youth dealt with these children of his +fancy, and to listen to his exclamations of condensed criticism. He +evidently found little to commend. As he opened or unrolled one after +another, and caught the heading, or a line of the text, he dashed it +to the floor, with a single word of contempt, disgust, or derision. +"Faugh!" "Oh!" "Pshaw!" "Blank verse? Blank enough!" Some he lingered +over for a moment, but his brow never cleared or relented, and each +and all were condemned with equal justice and impartiality. When the +last was thrown down, and he was certain that none remained, he rose +and contemplated their crumpled and creased forms with calm disdain. + +"Oh, dear! you thought, some of you, that you might possibly be +poetry, you miserable weaklings and beguilers! You are not even +verses--are hardly rhymes. You are, one and all, without sense or +sound." His brow grew severe in its condemnation. "There! take +that! and that! and that!"--stamping them with his foot; "poor +broken-backed, halting, limping, club-footed, no-going, unbodied, +unsouled, nameless things. How do you like it? What business had you +to be? You had no right to be born--never were born; had no capacity +for birth; you don't even amount to failures! Words are wasted on you: +let me see if you'll burn." Lighting one, he threw it upon the hearth. +"It does! I am surprised at that. I rather like it. How blue and faint +the flame is--it hardly produces smoke, and"--watching until it was +consumed--"no ashes. Too ethereal for smoke and ashes. Let me try the +rest;" and he did. + +He then opened a small drawer and took out a portfolio, in which were +various bits of bristol-board and paper, covered with crayon and pen +sketches, and some things in water-colors--all giving evidence of a +ready hand which showed some untaught practice. Whether his sense of +justice was somewhat appeased, or because he regarded them with more +favor, or reserved them for another occasion, was, perhaps, uncertain. +Singularly enough, on each of them, no matter what was the subject, +appeared one or more young girl's heads--some full-faced, some +three-fourths, and more in profile--all spirited, all looking alike, +and each having a strong resemblance to Julia Markham. Two or three +were studied and deliberate attempts. He contemplated these long and +earnestly, and laid them away with a sigh. They undoubtedly saved the +collection. + +That night he wrote to Henry: + +"DEAR BROTHER,--I am back, of course. It is an unpleasant way of +mine--this coming back. It was visionary for me to try a fall with the +sciences at Hudson. You would have been too many for them; I ran +away. I found Colton sick at Cincinnati. The Texan Rangers had left. +I looked into the waters of the Ohio, running and hurrying away +returnlessly to the south-west. Lord, how they called to me in their +liquid offers to carry me away! They seemed to draw me to linger, and +gurgle, and murmur in little staying, coaxing eddies at my feet, to +persuade me to go. + +"How near one seems to that far-off region of fever and swamp, of sun +and sea, of adventure and blood, and old buccaneering, standing by +those swift waters, already on their way thither! Should I go? Was +I not too good to go, and be lost? Think of the high moral +considerations involved? No matter, I didn't go--I came! Well! + +"On reflection--and I thus assume that I do reflect--I think men don't +find opportunities, or, if they do, they don't know them. One must +make an opportunity for himself, and then he will know what to do with +it. The other day I stood on the other side of the Chagrin waiting for +an opportunity, and it didn't come, and I made one. I waded through, +and liked it, and that was not the only lesson I learned at the same +time. But that other was for my personal improvement. A man can as +well find the material for his opportunity in one place as another. +See how I excuse myself! + +"Just now, I am a reformed young Blue Beard. Fatima and her sister may +go--have gone. I have just overhauled my 'Blue Chamber,' taken down +all my suspended wives, and burned them. They ended in smoke. Lord! +there wasn't flesh and blood enough in them all to decompose, and they +gave out no odor even while burning. I burned them all, cleaned off +all the blood-spots, ventilated the room, opened the windows, and will +turn it to a workshop. No more sighing for the unattainable, no more +grasping at the intangible, no more clutching at the impalpable. I am +no poet, and we don't want poetry. Our civilization isn't old enough. +Poets, like other maggots, will be produced when fermentation comes. +I am going about the humdrum and the useful. I am about as low in +the public estimation as I can well go; at any rate I am down on hard +land, which will be a good starting-point. Now don't go off and become +sanguine over me, nor trouble yourself much about me. + +"'The world will find me after many a day,' as Southey says of one of +his books. I doubt if it ever did. The Doctor contends that Southey +was a poet; but then he thinks I am, also! + +"What a deuce of a clamor is made about this new comet or planet! What +a useful thing to us poor, mud-stranded mortals to find out that there +is another little fragment of a world, away some hundreds of +millions of miles, outside of no particular where--for I believe +this astronomical detective is only on its track! The Doctor is in +ecstacies over it, takes it as a special personal favor, and declaims +luminously and constellationally about writing one's name among the +stars, like that frisky cow who, in jumping over the moon, upon a +time, made the milky way. I've always had some doubts about that +exploit; but then there is the mark she left. Your friend Roberts +is uneasy about this new star business; he is afraid that it will +unsettle the cheese market, and he don't know about it, nor do I. + +"There! I got home only last night, and haven't heard any news to +write you. Some time I will tell of two or three things I saw and +heard, and about some of our cousins, who regard us as belonging to +the outer and lower skirts of the race. If I am to be one end of a +family, let it be the beginning. + +"Mother sends love. Edward and George speak of you constantly. I've +not seen our Major since my return. + +"Write me a good, sharp, cutting, criticising, deuced brotherly letter +soon. As ever, + +"BART. + +"P.S. Have you read Pickwick? + +"B." + +It was full of badinage, with only a dip or two into an absorbing +purpose that he had fully formed, and which he evidenced to himself by +the summary expulsion of the muses. + +In the world of nature and humanity, is there such an embodiment of +contradictions and absurdities as a youth in his transit from the +dreamland of boyhood to the battle-field of manhood, through a region +partaking of both, and abounding with strange products of its own? I +am not speaking of the average boy, such boys as make up the male mass +of the world--the undreaming, unthinking, plodding, drudging, sweating +herd, whose few old commonplace, well-worn ideas don't possess the +power of reproduction, and whose thoughts are thirteenth or thirteen +hundredth-handed, and transmitted unimpregnated to other dullards, and +whose life and spirit is that of the young animal merely--but a real +young man, one of possibilities, intended for a man, and not merely +for a male, one in whom the primitive forces of nature are planted, +and who may develop into a new driving or forming power. What a mad, +impulsive, freaky thing it is! You may see him bruising his still +soft head a score of times against the impossible, and he will still +contend that he can do it. He will spring frantically up the face of +an unclimbable precipice, as the young salmon leaps up a cataract, and +die in the faith that he can go up it. + +Oh, sublime faith! Oh, sublime folly! What strides he is constantly +taking to the ridiculous, and not always from the sublime! How strong! +how weak! How wise! how foolish! Consistent only in folly, and steady +in the purpose of being foolish. How beautiful, and how ugly! What a +lovable, detestable, desirable, proud, wilful, arrogant, supercilious, +laughing, passionate, tender, cruel, loving, hating, good sort of a +good-for-nothing he is! He believes everything--he believes nothing; +and, like Mary's Son, questions and mocks the doctors to their beards +in the very temple. Patience! he must have his time, and room to grow +in, develop, and shape out. Let him have coral for his teeth, and +climbing, and running, and jumping for his muscle. No man may love +him, and no woman but his mother, and she is to be tried to the extent +of endurance. Wait for him; he will, with or without your help, turn +out good or bad, and in either event people will say: "I always told +you so," "I always knew it was in him"; and cite a score of unhappened +things in proof of their sagacity. + +Barton was one of these; neither better nor worse, full of +possibilities and capabilities, impulsive, rash, and unreasoning. He +has just made a resolve, and will act upon it; proud and sensitive +to a degree, he had heard a word of fault once at the store, which +another word would have explained. He would not say it, and went. It +was discovered that the fault was not his, in time for him to remain; +but he left without that word. He is willing to take his chances, and +must speak and act for himself. + +He sealed and directed his letter, walked about with the plaintive +airs of old melodies running and running through his head, and sang +snatches and verses of sad old ballads, going over and over with some +touching line, or complaining strain, till he was saturated with its +tender melancholy, and so he came back to ordinary life. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +NEWBURY. + + +Newbury was one of the twenty-odd townships, five miles square, that +then made up the county of Geauga, and a part of the Western Reserve, +the Yankee-doodledom of Ohio, settled exclusively by emigrants from +New England. It was so much of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, +etc., translated into the broader and freer West. It has been +said that the Yankee, like a certain vegetable, heads best when +transplanted. It was the old thing over, under new and trying +circumstances. The same old ideas and notions, habits of thought and +life; poor, economical and thrifty folk, with the same reverence +for religion and law, love of education, and restless desire for +improvement, and to better the present condition. In the West the +Yankee developed his best qualities in the second generation. He +became a little straighter and less angular, and wider between the +eyes. In the first generation he lived out his life scarcely refracted +by the new atmosphere. This crop still stood firm and hardy on the +Reserve, and they often turned homesick eyes, talked lovingly and +lingeringly of "down country," as they all called loved and cherished +New England. Most of the first settlers were poor, but hardy and +enterprising. The two last qualities were absolutely necessary to take +them through the long, wearisome journey to Ohio, the then far West. +They took up lands, built cabins, and forced a subsistence from the +newly-cleared, stumpy virgin soil. This homogeneous people constituted +a practical and thorough democracy. Their social relations were based +on personal equality, varied only by the accident of superior talents, +address or enterprise, and as yet but little modified by wealth or its +adventitious circumstances. + +Among the emigrants scattered here and there was occasionally found a +branch of a "down country" family of some pretensions, dating back to +services in the Revolution, to old wealth, or official position. +Among these were one or two families at Painesville, near the lake, at +Parkman, several at Warren, and more at Cleveland, who had made each +other's acquaintance, and who, as the country improved and the +means of communication were perfected, formed and kept up a sort of +association over the heads, and hardly within the observation, of the +people generally. Of these, as we may say, by right of his wife, +was Judge Markham. He was a hardy, intelligent, and, for his day, a +cultivated man, who came early into the woods as an agent for many +large stockholders of the old Connecticut Land Company, and a liberal +percentage of the sales placed in his hands the nucleus of a large +fortune. Sagacity in investments and improvements, with thorough +business capacity, had already made him one of the wealthiest men on +the Reserve; while a handsome person, and frank, pleasant address, +rendered him very popular. He had been for several years an associate +judge of the court of common pleas for Geauga county, and had an +extensive acquaintance and influence. Mrs. Markham, a genuine daughter +of the old Puritan ancestry, dating back to the first landing, a true +specimen of the best Yankee woman under favorable circumstances, was +a most thoroughly accomplished lady, who had gone into the woods with +her young husband, and who shed and exercised a wide and beneficent +influence through her sphere. So simple, sweet, natural and judicious +was she ever, that her neighbors felt her to be quite one of +themselves, as she was. Everybody was drawn to her; and so +approachable was she, that the lower and more common declared that she +was no lady at all. + +Their only child, Julia, just maturing into womanhood, was one of the +best and highest specimens of the American girl, to whom refinement, +grace, and a strong, rich, sweet nature, came by right of birth, +while she inherited beauty from both parents; she seemed, however, +unconscious of this last possession, as she was of the admiration +which filled the atmosphere that surrounded her. She, too, must speak +and act for herself. + +At the time of the incidents to be narrated, the northern and eastern +part of Newbury had a considerable population. It was traversed by +a highway leading west through its centre to Cleveland, and by a +stage-road leading from Painesville to the Ohio river, through its +eastern part. This was called the "State road," and on it stood +Parker's Hotel, a stage-house much frequented, and constituting the +centre of a little village, while further south was the extensive +trading establishment of Markham & Co., using the name and some of +the capital of the Judge, and managed mainly by Roberts and another +junior. Judge Markham's spacious and elegant dwelling stood about half +a mile south of the store. + +The south-western part of the township, with much of two adjoining +townships, remained an unbroken forest, belonging to an eccentric +landholder who refused to sell it. This was spoken of as "the +woods," and furnished cover and haunts for wild game and animals, +hunting-ground for the pioneers, and also gave shelter to a few +shiftless squatters, in various parts of its wide expanse. In the +eastern border of the township was Punderson's pond, a beautiful, +irregular-shaped body of limpid water, embosomed by deep wooded +hills, and of considerable extent, well stocked with fish, and much +frequented on that account. + +In the afternoon of the second day after his return, Bart went down +a highway leading east to the State road, to the post-office, kept at +Markham's store, and this road took him down by the southern end of +the pond, and thence southerly on the State road. He passed along by +Dr. Lyman's, Jonah Johnson's, and so on, past houses, and clearings, +and woodlands, looking almost wistfully, as if he expected pleasant +greetings; but the few he saw merely nodded to him, or called out: +"Are you back again?" He paused on the hill by the saw-mill, which +overlooked the pond, and gazed long over its beautiful surface, +sleeping in utter solitude amid the green hills, under the slanting +summer sun, and seemed to recognize in it what he had observed, on the +evening of his return, about the old homestead--the change that had +taken place in himself--a change which often accounts for the strange +appearance of the most familiar and cherished places. We find it +reflected in the face of inanimate nature, and wonder at her altered +guise, unconscious of the cause. He sauntered musingly on to the +State road, and over by the old grist-mill, past several houses, up to +Parker's. Here, by a beautiful spring under the shade of old apple +and cherry-trees, near the carriage-way, was an indolent group of +afternoon idlers. Conspicuous among them was the dark and striking +face of Dr. Lyman, the rich mahogany of Uncle Josh, and the homely, +shrewd, and fresh-colored countenance of Jonah Johnson. Bart could not +avoid them if he would; and regretted that he had not gone across the +woods to the post-office, and so escaped them. + +"Well, young Scholasticus," said the Doctor, after the slight +greetings had been given to the new-comer, "you seem to have graduated +with great rapidity. You went through college like--" + +"One of your emetics, Doctor. I came out at the same door I went in +at. Now, doctus, doctior, doctissimus, I am fair game on this point, +so blaze away with everything but your saddle-bags, and I will laugh +with the rest of you." + +A good-natured laugh welcomed this coming down. + +"Well," replied the doctor, "there can't be much more said." + +"I should like to know, young man," remarked Uncle Josh, "whether you +raly got into the college, I should." + +"Well, Mr. Burnett, I _raly_ did not, I didn't," mimicking Uncle Josh. + +"What did you do, badinage apart?" + +"I took a good outside look at the buildings, which was improving; +called on your friends Dr. Nutting and Rev. Beriah Green, who asked me +what church I belonged to, and who was my instructor in Latin." + +"What reply did you make?" + +"What could I say? I didn't hear the first; and as to the second, I +couldn't bring reproach upon you, and so I said I had never had +one. You must own, Doctor, that I showed great tenderness for your +reputation." + +"You certainly did me a kindness." + +"Thank you, Doctor." + +"I should raly like to know," said Uncle Josh, "what you are thanking +the Doctor for, I should." + +"Well, go on." + +"I went off," continued Bart. "The fact is, I thought that that +retreat of the sciences might hold that little learning, which is a +dangerous thing--as you used to not quote exactly--and I thought it +prudent to avoid that 'Pierian spring.'" + +"What is the young man talking about now?" inquired Uncle Josh. "I +would raly like to know, I would." + +"I must ask the Doctor to explain," answered Bart. "I was referring to +one of his old drinking-places, where, according to him, the more +one drank the soberer he grew. You would not fancy that tipple, would +you?" + +"You see, Uncle Josh," said the Doctor, laughing, "what comes of a +young man's going a week to college." + +"The young man didn't know anything at all, before," declared Uncle +Josh, "and he seems to know less now, amazingly." + +This was Uncle Josh's sincere opinion, and was received with a shout +of laughter, in which Bart heartily joined. Indeed, it was his first +sincere laugh for many a day. + +Johnson asked him "whether he went to the Ohio river," and being +answered in the affirmative, asked him "by what route he went, and +what he saw." + +Uncle Jonah, as Bart usually called him, was one of his very few +recognized friends, and asked in a way that induced him to make a +serious answer. + +"I walked the most of the way there, and all the way back. I went by +way of Canton, Columbus, Dayton, and so to Cincinnati, and returned +the same way." + +"What do you think of that part of the State which you saw?" + +"Unquestionably we have the poorest part of it. As our ancestors +landed on the most desolate part of the continent, so we took the +worst part of Ohio. If you were to see the wheat-fields of Stark, or +the corn on the Scioto, and the whole of the region about Xenia and +Dayton, and on the Miami, you would want to emigrate." + +"What about the people?" + +"Oh, dear! I didn't see much of them, and that little did not make +me wish to see more. The moment you step across the south line of the +Reserve you step into a foreign country, and among a foreign people, +who speak a foreign language, and who know one of us as quick as they +see us; and they seem to have a very prudent distrust of us. After +passing this black, Dutch region, you enter a population of emigrants +from Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and some from North Carolina, and +all unite in detesting and distrusting the Reserve Yankee. + +"It is singular, the difference between the lake and river side of the +State. At Cincinnati you seem to be within a step of New Orleans, and +hear of no other place--not a word of New York, and less of Boston. +There everything looks and goes south-west, while we all tend +eastward." In reply to questions, Bart told them of Columbus and +Cincinnati, giving fresh and graphic descriptions, for he observed +closely, and described with a racy, piquant exaggeration what he saw. +Breaking off rather abruptly, he seemed vexed at the length of his +monologue, and went on towards the post-office. + +"That young man will not come to a single darn," said Uncle Josh; "not +one darn. He is not good for anything, and never will be. His father +was a very likely man, and so is his mother, and his older brothers +are very likely men, but he is not worth a cuss." + +"Uncle Josh is thinking about Bart's sketch of him, clawing old Nore +Morton's face," said Uncle Jonah. + +"I did not like that; I did not like it at all. It made me look like +hell amazingly," said the old man, much moved. + +"You had good reason for not liking it," rejoined Uncle Jonah, "for it +was exactly like you." + +"Dr. Lyman, what do you think of this young man? He was with you, +wa'n't he, studyin' something or other?" asked Uncle Josh; "don't you +agree with me?" + +"I don't know," answered the Doctor, "I am out of all patience with +him. He is quick and ready, and wants to try his hand at every new +thing; and the moment he finds he can do it, he quits it. There is +no stability to him. He studied botany a week, and Latin a month, and +Euclid ten days." + +"He hunts well, and fishes well--don't he?" asked another. + +"They say he shoots well," said Uncle Josh, "but he will wander in the +woods all day, and let game run off from under his eyes, amazingly! +They said at the big hunt, in the woods, he opened the lines and let +all the deer out. He isn't good for a thing--not a cussed thing." + +"Isn't he as smart as his brother Henry?" asked Uncle Jonah. + +"It is not a question of smartness," replied the Doctor. "He is too +smart; but Henry has steadiness, and bottom, and purpose, and power, +and will, and industry. But Bart, if you start him on a thing, runs +away out of sight of you in an hour. The next you see of him he is off +loafing about, quizzing somebody; and if you call his attention +back to what you set him at, he laughs at you. I have given him +up, utterly; though I mean to ask him to go a-fishing one of these +nights." + +"Exactly," said Uncle Jonah, "make him useful. But, Dr. Lyman and +Joshua Burnett, the boy has got the stuff in him--the stuff in him. +Why, he told you here, in fifteen minutes, more about the State of +Ohio than you both ever knew. You will see--" + +"You will see, too, that he will not come to a darn," said Uncle Josh, +regarding that as a sad doom indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AT THE POST-OFFICE. + + +Barton found a more attractive group at the store. The post-office +occupied a window and corner near the front of the large, +old-fashioned, square store-room; and, as he entered the front door, +he saw, in the back part of the room, a gay, laughing, warbling, +giggling, chirping group of girls gathered about Julia Markham, as +their natural centre. Barton was a little abashed; he might have +moved up more cautiously, and reconnoitred, had he not been taken +by surprise. There was no help for it. He deposited his letters and +called for his mail, which gave him time to gather his forces in hand. + +Now Barton was born to love and serve women in all places, and under +all forms and circumstances. His was not a light, silly, vapid, +complimentary devotion, but deep in his nature, through and through, +he reverenced woman as something sacred and high, and above the vulgar +nature of men; this reformed his mind, and inspired his manners; and, +while he was generally disliked by men, he was favorably regarded by +women. It was not in woman's nature to think ill of a youth who was +always so modestly respectful, and anxious to please and oblige; +and no man thus constituted was ever awkward or long embarrassed in +woman's presence. She always gets from him, if not his best, what +is proper. If he can lose self-consciousness, and receive the full +inspiration of her presence, he will soon be at his ease, if not +graceful. + +The last thing absolutely that ever could occur to Barton, and it +never had as yet, was the possibility of his being an object of +interest personally to a woman, or to women. He was modest--almost to +bashfulness; but as he never presumed, he was never snubbed; and now, +on this summer afternoon, he had came upon a group of seven or eight +of the most attractive girls of the neighborhood, accompanied by one +or two strangers. There was Julia, never so lovely before, with a +warm color on her cheek, and a liquid light in her dark eyes, in +whose presence all other girls were commonplace; and her friends Nell +Roberts and Kate Fisher, Lizzie Mun and Pearlie Burnett, and several +others. The young man was seen and recognized, and had to advance. +Think of walking thirty feet alone in the faces of seven or eight +beautiful girls, and at the same time be easy and graceful! It is +funny, what a hush the presence of one young man will bring over +a laughing, romping cluster of young women. At his entrance, their +girlish clamor sunk to a liquid murmur; and, when he approached, they +were nearly silent, all but Julia and a stylish blonde, whom Barton +had never seen before. They were gathered around a cloud and tangle of +women's mysterious fabrics, whose names are as unknown to men as +their uses. Most of the young girls suspended their examinations and +rippling comments, and, with a little heightened color, awaited the +approach of the enemy. He came on, and gracefully bowed to each, was +permitted to take the hands of two or three, and greeted with a little +chorus of--"You have come back!" "Where have you been?" "How do you +do?" Julia greeted him with her eyes, as he entered, with a sweet +woman's way, that thrilled him, and which enabled him to approach her +so well. She had remained examining a bit of goods, as if unaware of +his immediate presence for a moment, and he had been introduced to +the strange lady by Kate Fisher as her cousin, Miss Walters, from +Pittsburgh. + +Then Julia turned to him, and, with a charming manner, asked: "Mr. +Ridgeley"--she had not called him Bart, or Barton, since her return +from Boston--"Mr. Ridgeley, what do the girls mean? Have you really +been away?" + +"Have I really been away? And if I really have, am I to be permitted +to take your hand, and asked how I really do? as if you really cared?" + +"Really," was her answer, "you see we have just received our fall +fashions, and it is not the fall style this year to give and take +hands after an absence." + +"A-h! how popular that will be with poor masculines! Is that to be +worn by all of you?" + +"I don't know," said Kate; "it is not fall with some of us yet." + +"Thank you! and may I ask Miss Markham if it was the spring and summer +style not to say good-bye at a parting?" + +The tone was gay, but there was something more in it, and the girl +replied: "That depends upon the lady, I presume; both styles may be +varied at her pleasure." + +"Ah, I think I understand! You are kind to explain." + +"Mr. Barton," said Lizzie, "Flora and I here cannot determine about +our colors"--holding up some gay ribbons--"and the rest can't help us +out. What do you think of them?" + +"That they are brilliant," answered Barton, looking both steadily and +innocently in the faces, in a way that deepened their hues. + +"Oh, no! these ribbons?" exclaimed the blushing girl, thrusting them +towards his eyes. + +"Indeed I am color blind, though not wholly blind to color." And a +little ripple of laughter ran over the bright group, and then they all +laughed again. + +Can any one tell why a young girl laughs, save that she is happy and +joyous? If she does or says anything, she laughs, and if she don't, +she laughs, and her companions laugh because she does, and then they +all laugh, and then laugh again because they laughed before, and then +they look at each other and laugh again; thus they did now, and Barton +could no more tell what they were laughing at than could they; he was +not so foolishly jealous as to imagine that they were laughing at him. + +Then Kate turned to him: "You won't go away again, I hope. We are +going to have a little party before long, and you must come, and I +want to see you waltz with my cousin. She waltzes beautifully, and I +want to see her with a good partner. Will you come?" + +"Indeed I would be most happy; but your compliment is ironical. You +know we don't waltz, and none of us can, if we try." + +"Is that the awful dance where the gentleman takes the lady around the +waist, and she leans on him, and they go swinging around? Oh, I think +that is awful!" + +"The Germans, and many of our best ladies, and gentlemen, waltz," +replied Miss Walters, "as they do in Baltimore and New York, and I +suppose my cousin thought no harm could be said of it at her little +party." + +"Oh, I am sure I did not mean that it was wrong, and I would like to +see the dance!" was the eager disclaimer. + +Barton had drawn away from this discussion, and lingered a moment near +Julia, to ask after her mother. She replied that Mrs. Markham was very +well, but did not ask him to call and see for himself, nor did she in +any way encourage him to prolong the conversation. So, with a little +badinage and _persiflage_, he took his leave. + +I shall not attempt to set down what was said of him after he left, +nor will I affirm that anything was said. Young ladies, for aught I +know, occasionally talk up young men among themselves, and if they do +it is nobody's business. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MRS. MARKHAM'S VIEWS. + + +In the gathering twilight, in a parlor at the Markham mansion, sat +Julia by the piano, resting her head on one hand, while with the other +she brought little ripples of music from the keys; sometimes a medley, +then single and prolonged notes, like heavy drops of water into a +deep pool, and then a twinkling shower of melody. She was not sad, or +pensive, or thoughtful; but in one of these quiet, sweet, and grave +moods that come to deep natures--as a cloud passing over deep, still +water enables one under its shadow to see into its depths. Her mother +stood at an open window, inhaling the evening fragrance of flowers, +and occasionally listening to the wild note of the mysterious +whippoorwill, that came from a thicket of forest-trees in the +distance. + +The step of her father caught the ear of the young girl, who sprang up +and ran towards him with eager face and sparkle of eye and voice. + +"Oh, papa, the trunks came this afternoon, with the fashion-plates, +and patterns, and everything, and all we girls--Nell, Kate Fisher, +Miss Flora Walter, Pearlie, Ann, and all hands of us--have had a +regular 'opening.' We went through with them all. The cottage bonnet +is a love of a thing, and I am going to have it trimmed for myself. +Sleeves are bigger than ever, and there were lots of splendid things!" + +"And so Roberts has suited you all, for once, has he?" said the Judge, +passing an arm around her small waist. + +"Roberts! Faugh, he had nothing to do with it. Aunt Mary selected +them all herself. They are the latest and newest from Paris--almost +direct." + +"Does that make them better?" + +"Well, I don't know that there is anything in their coming from Paris, +except that one likes to know that they come from the beginning-place +of such things. Now if they had been made in Boston, New York, or +Baltimore, one would not be certain they were like the right thing; +and now we know they are the real thing itself. Do you understand?" + +"Oh, yes--as well as a man may; and it is quite well put, too, and +I don't know that I ever had so clear an idea of the value of things +from a distance before." + +"Well, you see, when a thing comes clear from the farthest off, +we know there ain't anything beyond; and when it comes from the +beginning, we don't take it second hand." + +"I see; but why do you care, you girls in this far-off, rude region?" + +"Mamma, do you hear that? Here is my own especial father, and your +husband, asking me, a woman, and a very young woman too, for a +reason." + +"It is because you are a very young one that he expects you to give +a reason. Perhaps he thinks you will not claim the privilege of our +sex." + +"Well, I won't. Now, then, Papa Judge, this is not a far-off, rude +region, and you see that the French ladies want these styles and +fashions, and all that; well, if they want them, we want them too." + +"Now I don't quite see. How do you know they want them? Perhaps they +are sent here because they don't want them; and, besides, why should +a backwoods girl in Ohio want what a high-born lady in the French +capital wants?" + +"Because the American girl is a woman; and, besides, the court must +hear and decide, and not ask absurd questions." + +"And who is to see you in French millinery, here in the woods?" + +"Oh, bless its foolish man's heart, that thinks a woman dresses to +please its taste, when it hasn't any! We dress to please ourselves and +plague each other--don't you know that? and we ain't pleased with poky +home-made things." + +"Julia! Mother," appealed the Judge, with uplifted hands, to Mrs. +Markham, "where did this young lady get her notions?" + +"From the common source of woman's notions, as you call them, I +presume--her feelings and fancies; and she is merely letting you see +the workings of a woman's mind. We should all betray our sex a hundred +times a day, if our blessed husbands and fathers had the power to +understand us, I fear." + +"And don't we understand you?" + +"Of course you do, as well as you ever will. My dear husband, don't +you also understand that if you fully comprehended us, or we you, we +should lose interest in each other? that now we may be a perpetual +revelation and study to each other, and so never become worn and +common?" + +"There, Papa Judge, are you satisfied--not with our arguments, but +with us?" + +"The man who was not would be unreasonable and--" + +"Man-like," put in Julia. "Let me sing you my new song." + +A piano was a novelty in Northern Ohio. Julia played with a real skill +and expression, and her father, though no musician, loved to listen, +and more to hear her sing, with her clear, strong, sweet voice, and so +she played and sang her song. + +When she had finished, "By the way," remarked her father, "I +understand that our travelled young townsman, who has just returned +from foreign parts, was at the post-office this afternoon, and perhaps +you met him." + +"Whom do you mean?" asked Julia. + +"Your mother's pet, Bart Ridgeley." + +"Now, papa, that is hardly kind, after what you said of him the other +day. He is not mother's pet at all. She is only kind to him, as to +everybody. Indeed, he don't seem to me like anybody's pet, to be +patted and kept in-doors when it rains, and eat jellies, and be nice. +I saw him at the store a moment; he was very civil, and merely asked +after mamma, and went out." + +"Did you ask him to call and see mamma?" asked her father a little +gravely. + +"Not at all. The truth is, papa, after what you said I could not ask +him, and was hardly civil to him." + +"Was it unpleasant to be hardly civil to him?" + +"No; though I like to be civil to everybody. You know I have seen +little of him since I came home, and when I have, he was sometimes +silent and distant, and not like what he was before I went away." + +"You find him improved in appearance and manners?" persisted the +Judge. + +"Well, he was always good-looking, and had the way of a gentleman. +Miss Walters seemed quite taken with him, and was surprised that he +had grown up here in the woods." + +Her father was silent a moment, and the subject was changed. Mrs. +Markham was attentive to what was said of poor Bart, but made no +comment at the time. + + * * * * * + +In their room, that night, in her sweet, serious way, she said to +her husband, "Edward, I do not want to say a word in favor of Barton +Ridgeley. I do not ask you to change your opinion of him or your +course towards him; but I wish to ask if it is necessary to discuss +him, especially with Julia?" + +"Why?" + +"Well, can it be productive of good? If you are mistaken in your +estimate of him, you do him injustice, and in any event you will call +her attention to him, and she may observe and study him; and almost +any young woman who should do that might become interested in him." + +"Do you think so? Men don't like him." + +"Is that a reason why a woman would not?" + +"Have you discovered any reason to think that Julia cares in the least +for him?" + +"Julia is young, and, like the women of our family, develops in these +respects slowly; but, like the rest of us, she will have her own +fancies some time, and you know"--with a still softer voice--"that +one of them left a beautiful home, and a circle of love and luxury, to +follow her heart into the woods." + +"Yes, and thank God that she did! Roses and blessings and grace came +with you," said the Judge, with emotion. "But this boy--what is he +to us, or what can he ever be? He is so freaky, and unsteady, and +passionate, and flies off at a word, and goes before he is touched. He +will do nothing, and come to nothing." + +"What can he do? Would you really have him buy an axe and chop +cord-wood, or work as a carpenter, or sell tape behind the counter? +Are there not enough to do all that work as fast as it needs to be +done? Is there not a clamorous need of brain-work, and who is there to +do it? Who is to govern, and manage, and control twenty years hence? +Look over all the young men whom you know, and who promises to be fit +to lead? Think over those you know in Cleveland, or Painesville, or +Warren. Is somebody to come from somewhere else? Think of your own +plans and expectations. Who can help you? I see possibilities in this +wayward, passionate, hasty, generous youth. He is a tender and devoted +son, and I am glad he came back; and nobody knows how he may be pushed +against us and others." + +"Well," said the Judge, after a thoughtful pause, "what can I do? What +would you have me do--change myself, or try to change him?" + +"I don't know," thoughtfully: "I think there is nothing you can do +now. I would wish you to cultivate a manner towards him that would +leave it in your power to serve him or make him useful, if occasion +presents. He needs a better education, and perhaps a profession. He +should study law. He has a capacity to become a very superior public +speaker--one of the first. I don't think there is much danger of his +forming bad habits or associations. He avoids and shuns everything of +that kind. You know he deeded his share of his father's land to his +brother, to provide a home for his mother, and I presume will remain, +both from choice and necessity, with her for the present." + +The Judge mused over her words. He did not tell her of having met and +left Barton the other side of the Chagrin; nor did he disclose fully +the dislike he felt for him, or the fears he may have entertained at +the idea of any intimacy between him and Julia. His wife mused also +in her woman's way. She, too, would have hesitated to have Barton +restored to the old relations of his boyhood. While she knew of much +to admire and hope for in him, she knew also that there was much +to cause anxiety, if not apprehension. In thinking further, she was +inclined to call upon his mother, whom she much esteemed for her +strong and decisive traits of character, soft and womanly though +she was. Cares and anxieties had kept her from association with her +neighbors, among whom, as she knew, she seldom appeared, except on +occasions of sickness or suffering, or when some event seemed +to demand the presence of a deciding woman's mind and will. She +remembered one or two such times in their earlier forest life, when +Mrs. Ridgeley had quietly assumed her natural place for a day, to +go back to her round of widowed love, care and toil. She would make +occasion to see her, and perhaps find some indirect way to be useful +to both mother and son. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WHAT HE THOUGHT OF THINGS. + + +How grateful to the sensitive heart of the young man would have been +the knowledge that he was an object of thoughtful interest to Julia's +mother, who, next to his own, had his reverence and regard! He knew he +was generally disliked; his intuitions assured him of this, and in his +young arrogance he had not cared. Indeed, he had come to feel a morbid +pleasure in avoiding and being avoided; but now, as he sat in the +little silent room in the late night, he felt his isolation. He +had been appalled at a discovery--or rather a revelation--made that +afternoon. He knew that he loved Julia, and that this love would be +the one passion of manhood, as it had been of his boyhood. He had +given himself up to it as to a delicious onflowing stream, drifting +him through enchanted lands, and had not thought or cared whither it +might bear, or on what desolate shore it might finally strand him. + +Now he felt its full strength and power, and he knew, too, that it was +a force to be controlled, when perhaps that had become impossible. He +had never asked himself if a return of his passion were even possible, +until now, when his whole fervid nature had gone out in a great hungry +longing for her love and sympathy. She had never stood so lovely and +so inaccessible as he had seen her that day. How deeply through and +through came the first greeting of her eyes! It was an electric flash +never received before, and which as suddenly disappeared. How cool and +indifferent was her manner and look as he approached, and stood near +her! No inquiry, save that mocking one! Not a word; not a thought of +where he had been, or why he had returned, or what he would do; the +shortest answer as to his inquiry about her mother; no intimation that +he might even call at the house. Thus he went over with it all--over +and over again. What did he care? But he did, and could not deceive +himself. He did care, and must not; and then he went back over all +their intercourse since her return home, two or three months before he +left, and it was all alike on her part--a cool, indifferent avoidance +of him. + +Oh, she was so glorious--so beautiful! The whole world lay in the +span of her slender waist--a world not for him. Was it something to +be adventured for, fought for, found anywhere? something that he could +climb up to and take? something to plunge down to in fathomless ocean +and carry back? No, it was her woman's heart. Like her father, she +disliked him; and if, like her father, she would openly let him see +and hear it--but doesn't she? What had he to offer her? How could he +overcome her father's dislike? He felt in his soul what would come to +him finally, but then, in the lapsing time? And she avoided him now! + +He returned to his algebraic problem, with a desperate plunge at its +solution. The unknown quantity remained unknown; and, a moment later, +he was gratified to see how he had finally caught and expressed, with +his pencil, a look of Julia, that had always eluded him before. But +was he to be overcome by a girl? Was life and its ambitions to be +crushed out and brought to nought by one small hand? He would see. It +would be inexpressible luxury to tell her once--but just once--all his +passion and worship, and then, of course, remain silent forever, and +go out of her presence. He wished her to know it all, so that, as she +would hear and know of him in the coming years, she would know that he +was worthy, not of her love, but worthy to love her, whatever that may +mean, or whatever of comfort it might bring to either. What precious +logic the heart of a young man in his twenty-second year is capable +of! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LOGIC OF THE GODS. + + +"Doctor," said Barton, in the little office of the latter, "I've +called to borrow your Euclid; may I have it? I have never tried +Euclid, really." + +"Oh, yes, you can have it, and welcome. Do you want to try yourself on +the _pons asinorum?_" + +"What is that; another bridge of sighs? for I suppose they can be +found out of Venice." + +"It is a place over which asses have to be carried. It is, indeed, a +bridge of sighs, and a bridge of size." + +"Oh, Doctor, don't you do that! Well, let me try it! I want more +work; and especially I want a wrestle with Euclid." + +"Work! what are you doing, that you call work?" + +"Well, hoeing beans, pulling up weeds, harvesting oats, with +recreations in Latin Grammar, Dabol, Algebra, Watts on the Mind, +Butler's Analogy, and other trifles." + +"All at one time?" + +"No, not more than three at the same time. Don't lecture me, Doctor, I +am incorrigible. When I work, I don't play." + +"And when you don't play you work, occasionally; well, I think Euclid +will do you good." + +"I won't take it as a prescription, Doctor!" + +"A thorough course of mathematics would do more for one of your +flighty mind, than anything else; you want chaining down to the severe +logic of lines and angles." + +"To the solution of such profound problems as, that the whole of a +thing is more than a fraction of it; and things that are exactly alike +resemble each other, for instance, eh?" + +"Pshaw! you will make fun of everything. Will you ever reach +discretion, and deal with things seriously?" + +"I was never more serious in my life, and could cry with mortification +over my lost, idled-away hours, you never believed in me, and are not +to blame for that, nor have I any promises to make. I am not thought +to be at all promising, I believe." + +"Bart," said the Doctor, seriously, "you don't lack capacity; but you +are too quick and impulsive, and all imagination and fancy." + +"Well, Doctor, you flatter me; but really is not the imagination one +of the highest elements of the human mind? In the wide world's history +was it not a crowning, and one of the most useful qualities of many of +the greatest men?" + +"Great men have had imagination. I presume, and achieved great things +in spite of it; but through it, never." + +"Why, Doctor! the mere mathematician is the most servile of mortals. +He is useful, but cannot create, or even discover. He weighs and +measures. Project one of his angles into space, and, though it may +reach within ten feet of a blazing star that dazzles men with eyes, +yet he will neither see nor know of its existence. His foot-rule won't +reach it, and he has no eyes. Imagination! it was the logic of the +gods--the power to create; and among men it abolishes the impossible. +By its force and strength one may strike fire from hidden flints in +darkened worlds, and beat new windows in the blind sides of the ages. +Columbus imagined another continent, and sailed to it; and so of all +great discoverers." + +The Doctor listened with some surprise. "Did it ever occur to you, +Bart, that you might be an orator of some sort?" + +"Such an orator as Brutus is--cold, formal, and dead? I'd rather +not be an orator at all, 'but talk right on,' like plain, blunt Mark +Antony." + +"And yet Brutus has been quoted and held up by poets and orators as a +sublime example of virtue and patriotism, young man!" + +"And yet he never made murder the fashion;" and--striking an +attitude--"Caesar had his Brutus! Charles had his Cromwell! and George +III. had--what the devil did George have? He was stupid enough to have +been a mathematician, though I never heard that he was." + +"Oh dear, Bart!" said the Doctor, with a sigh, "for God's sake, and +your own, do study Euclid if you can! Don't you see that your mind is +always sky-rocketing and chasing thistle-down through the air?" + + "'The downy thistle-seed my fare, + My strain forever new,'" +said Bart, laughing, and preparing to go. + +"By the way," asked the Doctor, "wouldn't you like to go fishing one +of these nights? We haven't been but once or twice this summer. Jonah, +and Theodore, and 'Brother Young' and I have been talking about it +for some days. We will rig up a fire-jack, if you will go, and use the +spear." + +"I am afraid I would be sky-rocketing, Doctor; but send me word when +you are ready." + + * * * * * + +Barton had now entered upon something like a regular course. He had +one of those intense nervous temperaments that did not require or +permit excessive sleep. He arose with the first light, and took up at +once the severest study he had until breakfast, and then worked with +the boys, or alone, the most of the forenoon, at whatever on the farm, +or about the house, seemed most to want his hand; the afternoons and +evenings were given to unremitting study or reading. His tone of mind +and new habit of introspection induced him to take long walks in the +woods and secluded places, and after his work for the day was done; +he imposed upon himself a regular and systematic course, and compelled +himself to adhere to it. He saw few, went nowhere; and among that busy +people, after the little buzz occasioned by his return had subsided, +he ceased to be an object of interest or comment. + +It was remarked among them that they did not hear his rifle in the +forests, and nobody had presents of wild turkeys and venison, as they +sometimes had, and he was in his own silent way shaping out his own +destiny. + +He received a letter from Henry in reply to his own, full of kindness, +with such hints as the elder could give as to his course of study. His +observing mother saw at once a marked change in his manner and +words. Thoughtful and forbearing, his arrogance disappeared, and his +impetuous, dashing way evidently toned down, while he was more tender +towards her, and seemed to fall naturally into the place of an elder +brother--careful and gentle to the young boys. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A RAMBLE IN THE WOODS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + + +Already the summer had deepened and ripened into autumn. The sky had +a darker tint, and the breeze had a plaintive note in its voice; and +here and there the footprints of change were in the tree-tops. + +On one of those serene, deep afternoons, Barton, who had been +importuned by the boys to go into the woods in pursuit of a flock of +turkeys, that George had over and over declared "could be found just +out south, and which were just as thick and fat as anything," yielded, +and, taking his rifle, started out, accompanied by them, in high glee. +George's declaration about the turkeys was, without much difficulty, +verified, and Bart, who was a practised hunter, and knew all the +habits of the shy and difficult bird, managed in a short time to +secure two. He felt an old longing for a good, long, lonely ramble, +and directed the boys, who were in ecstacies at his skill and the +result, to carry the game back to their mother, while he went out +to the Slashing, adding that if he did not come back until into the +night, they might know he had gone to the pond, to meet the Doctor and +a fishing-party; and with a good-natured admonition from George, to +look out for that wolverine that haunted the Slashing, they separated. + +The "Slashing" was a large tract of fallen timber, all of which had +been cut down years before, and left to decay as it fell. Near this, +and to the east, an old roadway had been cut, leading south, which was +often used by the neighbors to go from the Ridgeley neighborhood +to settlements skirting the eastern border of "the woods" before +mentioned. Still further east, and surrounded by forest, on a small +stream, was Coe's carding machine and fulling mill, to which a +by-way led from the State road, at a point near Parker's. The Coes, +a shiftless, harmless set, lived much secluded, and were often the +objects of charity, and as such somewhat under the patronage of Mrs. +Markham and Julia; and some of her young friends were occasionally +attracted there for a ramble among the rocks and springs, from which +Coe's creek, a little stream, arose. From the old road a path led to +the fields of Judge Markham, about a fourth of a mile distant, which +was the shortest route from his house to Coe's. + + * * * * * + +On his return ramble, just as Bart was about to emerge from the woods +into the opening made by the old road from the west, he was surprised +to see Julia approaching him, going along that track towards home. She +was alone, and walking with a quick step. Lifting his hat, he stepped +forward towards the path in which she was walking. The meeting in the +wild, still woods, under the deepening shades of approaching night, +was a surprise to both; and, by the light in the eyes of the youth, +and warmer color in the face of the maiden, seemed not unpleasant to +either. + +"This is a surprise, meeting you here alone," said Barton, stepping to +the side of the footway, a little in advance of her. + +"It must be," answered Julia. "Poor old lady Coe is quite ill, and +I've been around there, and, as it was latish, I have taken this short +way home, rather than go all the way around the road." + +"Indeed, if you are really going this way you must permit me to +attend you," said Bart, placing his gun against a stump. "It is a +good half-mile to the path that leads out to your father's, and it is +already darkening;" and he turned and walked by her side. + +"It is really not necessary," said the girl, quite decidedly. "I know +the way, and am not in the least afraid." + +"Forgive me, Miss Markham, but I really fear that you must choose +between my attendance out of these woods and turning back around the +road," replied Bart. + +His manner, so frank and courteous, and his voice, so gentle, had +nevertheless, to her woman's ear, a vibration of the man's nerve of +force and will, to which the girl seemed unconsciously to yield. They +walked along. The mystery of night was weaving its weird charm in the +forest, and strange notes and sounds came from its depths, and these +young, pure natures found an undefined sweetness in companionship. +On they walked in silence, as if neither cared to break it. The young +girl at length said: + +"Mr. Ridgeley"--not Barton, or his first name, as in her +childhood--what a heart-swoon smote the youth at the formal +address!--"Mr. Ridgeley, there is something I must say to you. My +father does not care to have me in your company, and I must not +receive the most ordinary attention from you. He would not, I fear, +like to know that you were at our house." + +Did it cost her anything to say this? Apparently not, though her voice +and manner diminished its sting. A moment's pause, and Barton's voice, +cold and steady, answered back: + +"I know what your father's feelings towards me are," and then, with +warmth, "but I am sure that he would think less of me, if possible, +were I to permit any woman to find her way, at this hour, out of this +wilderness." + +It was not much to say, but it was well said, and he turned his face +towards her as he said it, lit up with a clear expression of man's +loyalty to woman--not unpleasant to the young girl. Why could not +he leave it there and to the future? They walked on, and the shadows +deepened. + +"Miss Markham, I, too, must say a thing to you: from my boyhood to +this hour, deeply, passionately, with my whole heart and soul, have I +loved you." + +There was no mistaking; the intensity of his voice made his words +thrill. She recoiled from them as if stunned, and turned her face, +pale now, and marked, fully towards him. + +"What! What did you say?" + +"I love you!" with a deep, full voice. + +"How dare you utter such words to me?" + +Her eyes flashed and nostrils dilated. + +"Because they are true; because I am a man and you are a woman," +steadily and proudly. + +"A man! you a man! Is it manly to waylay me in this lonely place, +and force yourself upon me, and insult me with this? You compel me +to--to--" + +"Scorn and despise you!" supplied the youth, in a bitter tone. + +"Take the words, then, if you choose them." + +She was simply grand in her style, till this last expression, which +had the angry snap of an enraged woman. Some high natures might have +answered back her scorn; a lower one might have complained; and still +another would have left her in the woods. Barton said nothing, +but, with a cold, stony face, walked on by her side. If, in his +desperation, he wanted this killing thrust, which must ever rankle and +never heal, to enable him to overcome and subdue his great passion, he +had got it. That little hand, that emphasized her words with a gesture +of superb disdain, would never have to repeat the blow. It raised +about her a barrier that he was never after to approach. + +He was not a man to complain. He would have told her why he said these +words; he could not now. Some men are like wolves in traps, and die +without a moan. Barton could die, and smile back into the face of his +slayer, and say no word. + +Night was now deepening in the woods, with the haughty maiden, and +high, proud and humiliated youth, walking still side by side through +its shadows. They at length reached the path that led from the open +way to the left, approaching Julia's home. There was a continuous +thicket of thrifty second-growth young trees bordering the track along +which the two were journeying, and the opening through it made by this +narrow path was black with shadow, like the entrance to a cave. + +"This is the way," said Bart, turning into it. + +These were the first words he had uttered, and came as if from a +distance. Without a word of hesitation Julia turned into the path with +him, yet with almost a shudder at the darkness. They had not taken +a dozen steps when an appalling, shrieking yell, a brute yell, of +ferocious animal rage--the rage for blood and lust to mangle and +tear--burst from the thicket on their right. A wild plunge through +tangled brush and limbs, another more appalling shriek, and a dark, +shadowy form, with a fierce, hungry growl, crouched in the pathway +just before them, with its yellow, tawny, cruel eyes flashing in their +faces. The first sound seemed to heat every fiery particle of the +blood of the youth into madness, and open an outlet to the burning +elements of his nature. Here was something to encounter, and for her, +and in her presence; and the brute had hardly crouched as if for its +spring, when, with an answering cry, a man's shout, a challenge and +a charge, he sprang forward, with his unarmed strength, to the +encounter. As if cowed and overcome by the higher nature, the brute +turned, and with a complaining whine like a kicked dog, ran into the +depths of the woods. Barton had momentarily, in a half frenzy, wished +for a grapple, and felt a pang of real disappointment. + +"The brute is a coward," he said, as he turned back, where the white +robes of Julia were dimly visible in the darkness. She was a daughter +of the Puritans, and had the blood and high courage of her race. The +first cry of the animal had almost frozen her blood, but the eager, +proud, manly shout of Barton affected her like a trumpet-call. She +exulted in his dashing courage, and felt an irresistible impulse to +rush forward to his aid. It all occurred in the fraction of a moment; +and when she realized that the peril was over, she was well-nigh +overcome. + +"You were always brave," said Barton, cheerily, with just a little +strain in his voice; "you were in no danger, and it is all over." + +No answer. + +"You are not overcome?" with an anxious voice. "Oh," coming close to +her, "if I might offer you support!" + +He held out his hand, and she put hers in it. How cool and firm his +touch was, and how her tremor subsided under it! He pulled her hand +within his arm, and hers rested fully upon his, with but their light +summer draperies between them. + +"But a little way further," he said, in his cheery voice, and they +hurried forward. + +Neither spoke. What did either think? The youth was sorry for the +awful fright of the poor girl, and so glad of the little thing that +eased his own humiliation. The girl--who can tell what a girl thinks? + +As they reached the cleared land, a sense of relief came to Julia, +who had started a dozen times, in her escape out of the woods, at +imaginary sounds. Day was still in the heavens, and the sight of her +father's house gladdened her. + +"Will you mind the dew?" asked her companion. + +"Not in the least," she answered; and he led her across the pastures +to the rear of an enclosure that surrounded the homestead. He seemed +to know the way, and conducted her through a large open gate, and so +to a lane that led directly to the rear of the house, but a few yards +distant. He laid his hand upon the small gate that opened into it, and +turning to her, said: + +"I may not intrude further upon you. For your relief, I ought perhaps +to say that the words of madness and folly which I uttered to you will +neither be recalled nor repeated. Let them lie where they fell--under +your feet. Your father's house, and your father's daughter, will be +sacred from me." + +The voice was firm, low, and steady; and opening the gate, the young +girl entered, paused a moment, and then, without a word, ran rapidly +towards the house. As she turned an angle, she saw the youth still +standing by the gate, as if to protect her. She flew past the corner, +and called, in a distressed voice: + +"Mamma! mamma! oh, mother!" + +She was a Puritan girl, with the self-repression and control of her +race, and the momentary apprehension that seized her as she left the +side of Barton was overcome as she entered her father's house. + +"Julia!" exclaimed her mother, coming forward, "is that you? Where +have you come from? What is the matter?" + +"I came through the woods," said the girl, hurriedly. "I've been so +awfully frightened! Such dreadful things have happened!" with a half +hysterical laugh, which ended in a sob. + +"Julia! Julia! my child! what under the heavens has happened? Are you +hurt?" + +"No, only dreadfully frightened. I was belated, and it came on dark, +and just as we turned into the path from the old road, that awful +beast, with a terrible shriek, sprang into the road before us, and was +about to leap upon me, when Barton sprang at him and drove him off. If +it had not been for him, I would have been torn in pieces." + +"Barton?--was he with you? Thank God! oh, bless and thank God for +your escape! My child! my child! How awful it sounds! Come! come to my +room, and let me hold you, and hear it all!" + +"Oh, mamma! what a weak and cowardly thing a woman is! I thought I was +so strong, and really courageous, and the thought of this thing makes +me tremble now." + +They gained her mother's room, and Julia, seating herself at her +mother's feet, and resting her arms on her mother's lap, undertook to +tell her story. + +"I cannot tell you how it all happened. Barton met me, and would come +along with me, and then he said strange things to me; and I answered +him back, and quarrelled with him, and--" + +"What could he have said to you? Tell me all." + +Julia began and told with great minuteness, and with much feeling, her +whole adventure. She explained that she really did not want Bart to +come with her, for that it would displease her father; and that when +he did, she thought he ought to know that he was not at liberty to be +her escort or come to the house, and so she told him. She could not +tell why she answered him just as she did, but she was surprised, and +not quite herself, and she might have said it differently, and need +not have said so much, and he certainly must know that she did not +mean it all. Surely it was most his fault; if he really had such +feelings, why should he tell her, and tell her as he did? It was +dreadful, and she would never be happy again; and she laid her head in +her mother's lap, in her great anguish. + +When her burst of grief had subsided, and she was calm, her mother +asked several questions, and learned all that was said, and was +much excited at Julia's account of the encounter with the beast and +Barton's intrepidity. She seemed to feel that they had both escaped a +great danger, through his courage. + +"My dear child," she said, "I don't know what to think of these +strange and trying events, mixed up as they are. There is one very, +very unfortunate thing about it." + +"That I met Barton? Oh, mother!" + +"No, no; not that. It was unfortunate that you came the way you did, +or unfortunate that you went, perhaps; but it is not that. It was most +providential that Barton was with you, but so unfortunate that he said +to you what he did." + +"Is it a misfortune to be loved, mother?" + +"Let us not talk of this to-night, my darling," stooping and kissing +her still pale cheek. "God only knows of these things. It may not be a +misfortune, but it may bring unhappiness, dear, to somebody." + +"Perhaps, mother, if he had not had such feelings he would not have +come with me." + +"My child! my child! don't say what might have happened. I am glad +and grateful--so grateful that he was with you--that he was generous +enough to come, after what you said to him; but now, how can we +express our gratitude to him?" + +"Oh, mamma! I am sure it is no matter. He won't care now what we +think." + +"You are too much agitated, my daughter, to-night; let us not talk it +over now. But what became of Barton? did he come in?" + +"No, I left him at the back gate, without a word, only waiting for me +to run in. Of course he went back to the woods and wild beasts. What +other place was there for him?" + +"Don't, don't, Julia! don't say such words. Harm will not come to +him." + +"I know it won't," said the young girl; "for when the whole world +turns against a brave, true heart, God watches over it with the more +care." + +"True, my child; and we can at least pray God to be near him, only +don't think of this matter now. In a day or two you will be yourself, +and look at it in a different light. Your father will return +to-morrow, and it may not be best to tell him of all this at present. +It would only disturb him." + +"Yes, mamma; I could not tell him everything as I have told you, and +so I must not tell him anything, nor anybody else. How wretched it all +is!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A DARKENED SOUL. + + +As Julia left Bart, the full force of her scornful words seemed for +the first time to reach him. The great restraint her presence imposed +in some way suspended, or broke their effect, and he turned from the +gate with a half-uttered moan of anguish. He did not then recall her +words or manner; he only realized that, in a cruel and merciless way, +she had crushed his heart and soul. It was not long; both recoiled +with a sense of wrong and injustice, and utter helplessness, for the +hurt came from a woman. Instinctively he returned to the point whence +they had emerged when they left the woods, and the thought of the +screaming brute came to him with a sense of relief. Here was an object +upon which he could wreak himself, and in a half frenzy of madness he +hurried towards a spot in the edge of the Slashing, towards which +the cowardly thing had run when it fled from his onset. He paused +to listen upon the margin of that tangled wilderness of young trees, +briers, and decaying trunks. How solemn and quiet, wild and lonely it +was, in the deep night and deeper woods! The solemn hush fell upon +the bruised spirit of the youth with the quieting touch and awe of a +palpable presence, rebukingly, yet tenderly and pityingly. + +Quick to compassionate others, he had ever been relentless to himself, +and refused to regard himself as an object of injustice, or as needing +compassion. As he stood for a moment confronting himself, scorned, +despised and humiliated, he felt for himself the measureless contempt +to which he seemed to have fallen; yet, under it all, and against it +all, he arose. "Oh, Bart! Bart! what a poor, abject, grovelling +thing you really are," he said bitterly, "when the word of a girl +so overcomes you! when the slap of her little hand so benumbs and +paralyzes you! If you can't put her haunting face from you now, God +can hardly help you. How grand she was, in her rage and scorn! Let me +always see her thus!" and he turned back into the old road. Along +this he sauntered until his eye met the dull gleam of his rifle-barrel +against the old stump where he left it. With a great start, he +exclaimed, "Oh, if I could only go back to the moment when I stood +here with power to choose, and dream!" It was a momentary weakness, a +mere recoil from the wound still so fresh and ragged. + +It was still in early evening, with time and life heavy on his hands, +when he remembered that the Doctor had sent him word to come to the +pond that night. Taking his rifle by the muzzle, and throwing it +across his shoulder, he plunged into the woods in a right line for the +west shore of the pond, at about its midway. + +Through thick woods tangled with underbrush and laced with wild +vines, down steep banks, over high hills and rocky precipices, across +clearings and hairy brier patches, he took his way, and found relief +in the physical exertions of which he was still capable. At last he +stood on the margin of the forest and hill-embosomed waters of that +lovely little lake. It was solitary and silent, but for the weird +sounds of night birds and aquatic animals that frequented its reedy +margin, and a soft, silvery mist was just rising from its unruffled +surface, that gathered in a translucent veil against the dark forest +of the opposite shore. Its simple, serene and quiet beauty, under the +stars and rising moon, was not lost upon the poetic nature of Barton, +still heaving with the recent storm. + +He ran his eye along the surface of the water, and discerned in the +shadow of the wood, near the island, a fourth of a mile distant, a +light, and below it the dark form of a boat. Placing his closed hands +to his lips, he blew a strong, clear, full whistle, with one or two +notes, and was answered by Theodore. At the landing near him was a +half-rotten canoe, partially filled with water, and near it was an old +paddle. Without a moment's thought, Barton pushed it into deep water, +springing into it as it glided away. He had not passed half the +distance to the other boat, when he discovered that it was filling. +With his usual rashness, he determined to reach his friends in it +by his own exertions, and without calling to them for aid, and by an +almost superhuman effort he drove on with his treacherous craft. The +ultimate danger was not much to a light and powerful swimmer, and he +plunged forward. The noise and commotion of forcing his waterlogged +canoe through the water attracted the attention of the party he +was approaching, but who had hardly appreciated his situation as he +lightly sprang from his nearly filled boat into their midst. + +"Hullo, Bart! Why under the heavens did you risk that old log? Why +didn't you call to us to meet you?" + +"Because," said Bart, excited by his effort and danger, "because to +myself I staked all my future on reaching you in that old hulk, and I +won. Had it sunk, I had made up my mind to go with her, and, like Mr. +Mantalini, in Dickens's last novel, 'become a body, a demnition moist +unpleasant body.'" + +"What old wreck is it?" inquired Young, looking at the scarcely +perceptible craft that was sinking near them. + +"It is the remains of the old canoe made by Thomas Ridgeley, in his +day, I think," said Jonah. + +"Nothing of the sort," said Bart; "it is the remains of old Bullock's +'gundalow,' that has been sinking and swimming, like old John Adams +in the Revolution, these five years past. Don't let me think to-night, +Uncle Jonah, that anything from my father's hand came to take me into +the depths of this pond." + +The craft occupied by the party was a broad, scow-like float, with low +sides, steady, and of considerable capacity. At the bow was a raised +platform, covered with gravel, on which stood a fire-jack. The crew +were lying on the silent water, engaged with their lines, when Bart so +unceremoniously joined them. He went forward to a vacant place and lay +down in the bottom, declining to take a line. + +"What is the matter, Bart?" asked the Doctor. + +"I don't know. I've been wandering about in the woods, and I must have +met something, or I have lost something,--I don't know which." + +"I guess you saw the wolverine," said Theodore. + +"I guess I did;" and pretty soon, "Doctor, is this your robe? Let +me cover myself with it; I am cold!" and there was something almost +plaintive in his voice. + +"Let me spread it over you," said the Doctor, with tenderness. "What +ails you, Bart? are you ill?" + +"If you left your saddle-bags at home, I think I am; if they are +here, I am very well. Doctor," he went on, "can a man have half of his +faculties shut off and retain the others clear and strong?" + +"I don't know,--perhaps so; why?" + +"Well, I feel as if one of your astringents had placed its claws on a +full half of me and drawn it all into a pucker; and the other half is +in some way set free, and I feel clairvoyant." + +"What do you think you can see?" asked the Doctor. + +"A young man--quite a young man--blindfolded, groping backward in the +chambers of his darkened soul, and trying to escape out of it," said +Bart. + +"What a queer fancy!" said the Doctor. + +"He must have an unusually large soul," said Uncle Jonah. + +"Every soul is big enough for the man to move in, small as it is," +said Bart. + +"What is your youth doing in his, now?" asked the Doctor. + +"He is sitting down, resigned," answered Bart. + +"If his soul was dark, why was he blindfolded?" asked the Doctor. + +"Well, I don't know. For the same reason that men with eyes think that +a blind man cannot see so well in the dark, perhaps," was the answer. +"And see here," looking into the water, "away down here is a beautiful +star. There, I can blot it out with my hand! and see, now, how I can +shatter it into wavelets of stars, and now break it into a hundred, by +merely disturbing the water where I see it, 'like sunshine broken in +a rill.' Who knows but it may be the just-arrived light of an old, old +star which has just come to us? How easy to climb back on one of these +filmy rays, myriads of millions of leagues, home to its source! I +will take off the bandage and let the poor boy see it, and climb if he +may." + +"You are fanciful and metaphysical," said the Doctor. "Euclid has not +operated, I fear. Why would you go up to the source of that ray? Would +you expect to find God and heaven there?" + +"I should but traverse the smallest portion of God," said Bart, "and +yet how far away He seems just now. Somebody's unshapen hand cuts His +light off; and I cannot see Him by looking down, and I haven't the +strength to look up." + +"How incoherently you talk; after all, suppose that there is no +God, for do your best, it is but a sentiment, a belief without +demonstrative proof." + +"Oh, Doctor, don't! You are material, and go by lines and angles; +cannot you understand that a God whose existence you would have +to prove is no God at all? that if His works and givings out don't +declare and proclaim him, He is a sham? You cannot see and hear, +Doctor, when you are in one of your material moods. Look up, if you +can see no reflection in the waters below." + +"Well, when I look into the revealed heaven, for instance, Bart, I see +it peopled with things of the earth, reflected into it from the earth; +showing that the whole idea is of the earth--earthy." + +"Oh, Doctor! like the poor old Galilean; when he thought it was all +up, he went out and dug bait, and started off a-fishing. You attend +to your fishing, and let me dream. If God should attempt to reveal +Himself to you to-night, which I wouldn't do, He would have to +elevate and enlarge and change you to a celestial, so that you could +understand Him; or shrink and shrivel Himself to your capacity, and +address you on your level, as I do, using the language and imagery of +this earth, and you would answer Him as you do me--'It is all of the +earth--earthy.' I want to sleep." + +The Doctor pondered as if there was a matter for thought in what +he had heard, and a little ripple of under-talk ran on about the +subjects, the everlasting old, old and eternally new problems that +men have dreamed and stumbled over, and always will--which Bart had +dreamily spoken of as if they were very familiar to his thoughts, and +they spoke of him, and wondered if anything had happened, and pulled +their boat to a new position, while the overtaxed youth subsided +into fitful slumber. Theodore finally awoke him, and said that they +proposed to light up the jack, if he would take the spear, and they +would push out to deeper water, and try for bass. Bart stared about +him uncomprehendingly for a moment. "Oh, Theodore, my fishing days +are over! I will never 'wound the gentle bosom of this lake' with fish +spear, or gig, or other instrument; and I've backed this old rifle +around for the last time to-day." + +"Bart, think of all our splendid times in the woods!" + +"What a funny dream I had: I dreamed I was a young Indian, not John +Brown's 'little Indian,' but a real red, strapping, painted young +Indian, and our tribe was encamped over on the west side of this +Indian lake, by Otter Point; and I was dreadfully in love with the +chief's daughter." + +"Who didn't love you again," said Theodore. + +"Of course not, being a well-brought up young Indianess: and I went +to the Indian spring, that runs into the pond, just above 'Barker's +Landing,' that you all know of." + +"I never knew that it was an Indian spring," said Young. + +"Well, it is," replied Bart. "It has a sort of an earthen rim around +it, or had a few minutes ago; and the water bubbles up from the +bottom. Well, you drop a scarlet berry into it, and if it rises and +runs over the rim, the sighed-for loves you, or she don't, and I have +forgotten which. I found a scarlet head of ginseng, and dropped the +seeds in one after another, and they all plumped straight to the +bottom." + +"Well, what was the conclusion?" + +"Logical. The berries were too heavy for the current, or the current +was too weak for the berries." + +"And the Indianess?" + +"She and all else faded out." + +"Oh, pshaw! how silly!" said Young. "Will you take the spear, or won't +you?" + +"Will you take the spear, or won't you?" replied Bart, mimicking him +with great effect. + +"Have you heard from Henry lately?" asked Uncle Jonah. + +"A few days ago," answered Bart, who turned moodily away like a +peevish child angered with half sleep, and a pang from the thrust he +had received. + +"Henry is the most ambitious young man I ever knew," said the Doctor; +"I fear he may never realize his aspirations." + +"Why not?" demanded Bart, with sudden energy. "What is there that my +brother Henry may not hope to win, I would like to know? He will win +it or die in the effort." + +"He will not, if he lives a thousand years," said Young, annoyed at +Bart's mimicking him. "It ain't in him." + +"What ain't in him, Old Testament?" demanded Bart, with asperity. + +"The stuff. I've sounded him; it ain't there!" + +"You've sounded him! Just as you are now sounding this bottomless +pond, with a tow string six feet long, having an angle worm at one +end, and an old hairy curmudgeonly grub at the other." + +"There, Brother Young," said Uncle Jonah, "stop before worse comes." + +"Mr. Young," said Bart, a moment later, with softened voice, making +way towards him, "forgive me if you can. I've done with coarse and +vulgar speeches like that. You believe in Henry, and only spoke to +annoy me. I take it all back. I will even spear you some bass, if +Theodore will light up the jack. Give me the oars, and let me wake up +a little, while we go to better ground below." + +For a few moments he handled the polished, slender-tined, long-handled +spear with great dexterity and success, and told the story of old +Leather Stocking spearing bass from the Pioneers. He soon ceased, +however, and declared he would do no more, and his companions, +disgusted with his freaky humor, prepared to return. Bart, casting +down his spear, remained in moody silence until they landed. Theodore +picked up his rifle, the fish were placed in baskets, the tackle +stowed away, the boat secured, and the party proceeded homeward. + +Bart lived further from the pond than any of the party, and Theodore, +who loved him, and was kind to his moods, taking a few of the finest +fish, accompanied him home. As they were about to separate from Uncle +Jonah--the father of Theodore--he turned to Bart, and said: "Something +has happened, no matter what; don't be discouraged, you stick to them +old books; there's souls in 'em, and they will carry you out to your +place, some time." + +"Thank you, thank you, Uncle Jonah!" said Bart, warmly; "these are the +only encouraging words I've heard for two years." + +"Theodore," said Bart, as they walked on, "what an uncomfortable bore +I must have been to-night." + +"Oh, I don't know! we thought that something had happened, perhaps." + +"No, I'm trying to change, and be more civil and quiet, and have been +thinking it all over, and don't feel quite comfortable; and we have +both something to do besides run in the woods. You were very good to +come with me, Theodore," he said, as they parted at the gate. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AFTER THE FLOOD. + + +The next morning Bart was not up as usual, and George rushed into the +low-ceiled room, under the roof. + +"Bart! breakfast is ready! Ma thinks it strange you ain't up. That was +a splendid big bass. Where did you take him? Are you sick?" as he came +in. + +"No, Georgie; I am only languid and dull. I must have been wofully +tired." + +"I should think you would be, running all day and up all night. I +should think you'd be hungry, too, by this time." + +"Georgie, how handsome you look this morning! What a splendid young +man you will be, and so bright, and joyous, and good! Everybody will +love you; no woman will scorn you. There, tell mother not to wait! I +will get up soon." + +Some time after, the light, quick step of his mother was heard +approaching his door, where she paused as if to listen. + +"I am up, mother," called out Bart; and she found him partly dressed, +and sitting listlessly on his bed, pale and dejected. + +"It is nothing, mother; I'm only a little depressed and dull. I'll be +all right in an hour. I ran in the woods a good deal, took cold, and +am tired." + +She looked steadily and wistfully at him. The great change in his face +could not escape her. Weary he looked, and worn, as from a heart-ill. + +"What has happened, Barton? Did you go to anybody's house? Whom did +you see?" + +"No; I went to the pond, and met the Doctor and Uncle Jonah, and +Theodore came home with me." + +"Did you meet Julia Markham anywhere?" + +"I did; she was going home from Coe's by the old road, and I went out +of the woods with her." + +A long, hard-drawn breath from his mother, who saw that he took her +question like a stab. + +"It is no matter, mother. It had to be over some time." + +"Barton! you don't mean, Barton--" + +"I do, just that, mother," steadily. "She was kinder in her scorn than +she meant. It was what I needed." + +"Her scorn! her scorn, Barton!" + +"Yes, her scorn, mother," decidedly and firmly. + +"You must have talked and acted foolishly, Barton." + +"I did talk and act foolishly, and I take the consequences." + +"You are both young, Barton, and you have all the world in which to +overcome your faults and repair your mistakes, and Julia--" + +"Not another word of her, mother dear! She has gone more utterly out +of my life than as if she were buried. Then I might think of her; now +I will not," firmly. + +"Oh, that this should come to you now, my poor, poor boy!" + +"Don't pity me, mother! I am soft enough now, and don't you for a +moment think that I have nothing else to do in this world but to be +killed out of it by the scorn of a girl. Let us not think of these +Markhams. The Judge is ambitious, and proud of his wealth and self, +and his daughter is ambitious too. The world wants me; it has work for +me. I can hear its voices calling me now, and I am not ready. Don't +think I am to sit and languish and pine for any girl;" and his mouth +was firm with will and purpose, and a great swell of pride and pain +agitated the bosom of his mother, who recognized the high elements of +a nature drawn from her own. + +"You know, mother," he continued, thoughtfully, "that I am not one +to be loved. I am not handsome and popular, like Morris, whom all +men like and many women love; nor thoughtful and accomplished and +considerate, like Henry, whom everybody esteems and respects, and of +whom so much is expected." + +"Do you envy them, Barton?" + +"Envy them, mother? Don't I love the world for loving Morris? Don't I +follow him about to feel the gladness that he brings? Don't I live on +the praises of Henry? and don't I tear every man that utters a doubt +of his infallibility? Poor old Dominie Young! I was savage on him last +night, for an unnecessary remark about Henry; and I'll go and hear him +preach, to show my contrition; and penitence can't go further. Now, +mother dear, I probably wanted this, and I am now down on the flat, +hard foundation of things. Don't blame this Julia, and don't think of +her in connection with me. No girl will ever scorn one of your boys +but once." + +She lingered, and would have said more; but he put her away with +affected gayety, and said he was coming down immediately,--and he did. +But the melancholy chords vibrated long. + +There was another overhauling of the little desk, and innumerable +sketches of various excellence, having a family resemblance, with +faults in common, were sent to join the departed verses. + +That night, in a letter to Henry, he said: "I've burned the last of my +ships, not saving even a small boat." + + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Ridgeley pondered over the revelation which her woman's +intuitions had drawn from Barton. No woman can understand why a son +of hers should fail with any natural-born daughter of woman, and she +suspected that poor Bart had, with his usual impetuosity, managed the +affair badly. No matter if he had; she felt that he was not an object +of any woman's scorn; and this particular Julia, she had every reason +to know, would live to correct her impressions and mourn her folly. +She, however, was incapable of injustice to even her own sex; and if +Julia did not fancy Barton, she was not to blame, however faulty her +taste. She remembered with satisfaction that she and hers were under +no obligations to the Markhams, and she only hoped that her son would +be equal to adhering to his purpose. She had little fear of this, +although she knew nothing of the offensive manner of his rejection, +and had no intimation of what followed it. To her, Julia was to be +less than the average girl of her acquaintance. + +In the afternoon the two mothers met by accident, at the store, +whither Mrs. Ridgeley had gone to make a few small purchases, and +Mrs. Markham to examine the newly-arrived goods. Mrs. Ridgeley had +no special inducement to waste herself on Mrs. Markham, and none to +exhibit any sensibility at the treatment of Barton; her manner was an +admirable specimen of the cool, neighborly, indifferently polite. She +was by nature a thorough-bred and high-spirited woman; and had Julia +openly murdered poor Bart, the manner of his mother would not have +betrayed her knowledge of the fact to Mrs. Markham. That lady +busied herself with some goods until Mrs. Ridgeley had completed her +purchases, when she approached her with her natural graciousness, +which was so spontaneous that it was hardly a virtue, and was met +with much of her own frank suavity. These ladies never discussed the +weather, or their neighbors, or hired girls,--which latter one of them +did not have; and with a moment's inquiry after each other's welfare, +in which each omitted the family of the other, Mrs. Markham asked +Mrs. Ridgeley's judgment as to the relative qualities of two or three +pieces of ladies' fabrics, carelessly saying that she was choosing for +Julia, who was quite undecided. Mrs. Ridgeley thought Miss Markham was +quite right to defer the matter to her mother's judgment, and feared +that her own ignorance of goods of that quality would not enable her +to aid Mrs. Markham. Mrs. Markham casually remarked that there was +much demand for the goods, and that Julia had had a long walk around +to the Coes the day before, and home through the woods, and was +a little wearied to-day, and had referred the matter to her. Mrs. +Ridgeley understood that Miss Markham was accustomed to healthy +out-door exercise, and yet young girls were sometimes, she presumed, +nearly as imprudent as boys, etc.; she trusted Miss Markham would soon +be restored. + +If either of the ladies looked the other in the face while speaking +and spoken to, as is allowable, neither discovered anything by the +scrutiny. Mrs. Markham thought Mrs. Ridgeley must suffer much on +account of the rashness of so many spirited boys, though she believed +that Mrs. Ridgeley was fortunate in the devotion of all her sons. Mrs. +Ridgeley thanked her; as to her boys, she had become accustomed to +their caring for themselves, and when they were out she seldom was +anxious about them. Mrs. Markham thought that they must have some +interesting adventures in their hunting excursions. Mrs. Ridgeley said +that Morris always enjoyed telling of what he had done and met in the +woods, while Barton never mentioned anything, unless he had found a +rare flower, a splendid tree, or a striking view, or something of that +sort. + +The ladies gave each other much well-bred attention, and Mrs. Markham +went on to remark that she had not seen Barton since his return, but +that Julia had mentioned meeting him once or twice. Mrs. Ridgeley +replied that soon after Barton came home, she remembered that he spoke +of meeting Miss Markham at the store. The faces of the ladies told +nothing to each other. Mrs. Markham gave an animated account of her +call at the house being built by Major Ridgeley for Mr. Snow, in +Auburn, and said that Mr. Snow was promising that Major Ridgeley might +give a ball in it; and the Major undertook to have it ready about New +Year's, and that the ball would be very select, she understood; the +house was to contain a very fine ball-room, etc. + +Had Mrs. Ridgeley received a letter recently from Henry? She had. +Would Barton probably go and study with his brother? She thought that +would be pleasant for both. Mrs. Markham was very kind to inquire +about the boys. Would Mrs. Ridgeley permit Mrs. Markham to send her +home in her new buggy? It stood at the door. Mrs. Ridgeley thanked +her; she was going up by Coe's, and so out across the bit of woods, +home. Did not Mrs. Ridgeley fear the animal that had been heard to +scream in these woods? Mrs. Ridgeley did not in the least, and she +doubted if there was one. + +The ladies separated. Mrs. Markham decided that Barton had not told +his mother of meeting Julia the day before, nor of their adventure +afterwards, and she was relieved from the duty of explaining anything; +and she thought well of the young man's discretion, or pride. + +Mrs. Ridgeley thought that Mrs. Markham was talking at her for a +purpose, perhaps to find out what Barton told her; and it was some +little satisfaction, perhaps, to know that Julia did not feel like +being out,--but then Julia was a noble girl, and would feel regret at +inflicting pain. Poor Bart! Generous Mrs. Ridgeley! It also occurred +to Mrs. Ridgeley that Mrs. Markham did not return to the subject of +the goods, and she was really afraid that Julia might lose her dress. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +UNCLE ALECK. + + +The marvellous power of Christianity to repeat itself in new forms +apparently variant, and reveal itself under new aspects, or rather its +wonderful fulness and completeness, that enables the different ages of +men, under ever-varying conditions of culture and development, to find +in it their greatest needs supplied, and their highest civilization +advanced, may be an old observation. A change in the theological +thought and speculation of New England was beginning to make its way +to the surface at about the time of the migration of its sons and +daughters to the far-off Ohio wilderness, and many minds carried with +them into the woods a tinge of the new light. Theodore Parker had not +announced the heresy that there was an important difference between +theology and religion, and that life was of more consequence than +creed. But Calvinism had come to mean less to some minds, and there +was another turning back to the great source by strong new seekers, +to whom the accepted formulas had become empty, dry shells, to be +pulverized, and the dead dust kneaded anew with the sweet waters of +the ever fresh fountain. Those who bore the germs of the new thought +to the wild freedom of nature, in the woods, found little to restrain +or direct it; and, as is usual upon the remoulding of religious +thought, while the strong religious nature questions only as to the +true, many of different temperament boldly question the truth of all. +The seeds and sources of a religious revolution are remote, and +its apparent results a generation of heretics and infidels. Heresy +sometimes becomes orthodoxy in its turn, and in its career towards +that, and in its days of zeal and warfare, the infidel often becomes +its convert. + +Those in the new colony, who turned to the somewhat softer and sweeter +givings out of the Great Teacher, and to whom these qualities made the +predominant elements of his doctrines, were few in numbers, scattered +and weak, while the mass of the immigrants were staunch in the +theology of their old home. The holders of the new ideas not only +suffered from the odium of all new heresies, but their doctrines were +especially odious, as tending to destroy the wholesome sanctions of +fitting punishments, while, like the teachers of all ideas at variance +with the old, they were surrounded by and confounded with the herd of +old scoffers and unbelievers, who always try to ally themselves +with those who, for any reason, doubt or question the dogmas always +rejected by them. + +And so it is that the apostles of a new dogma come to be weighted +with whatever of odium may attach to the old rejectors of the old; and +there is always this bond of sympathy between the new heretic and the +old infidel; they are both opposed to the holders of the old faith, +and hence so far are allies. + +In Newbury, in that far-off time, a dozen families, perhaps, +respectable for intelligence and morality, were zealous acceptors of +the new ideas; and about these, to their great scandal, gathered the +straggling, rude spirits and doubtful characters that lightly float on +the wave of emigration, to be dropped wherever that subsides. + +The organizing power of the new ideas in itself, was not great. Their +spirit was not, and cannot, be aggressive. They consisted in part of +a rejection of much that made Puritanism intolerant in doctrine, and +that furnished it with its organizing and militant power. + +Men organize to do, and not merely to not do. Among the most earnest +in the support of these ideas were Thomas Ridgeley and his wife, who +were also among the most prominent in their neighborhood. Their +public religious exercises were not frequent, and were holden in a +school-house in their vicinity, the most attractive feature of which +was the excellent singing of the small congregation. Mrs. Ridgeley +came from a family of much local celebrity for their vocal powers, +while her husband was not only an accomplished singer, but master of +several instruments, and in the new settlements he was often employed +as a teacher of music. + +The preacher of this small congregation was Mr. Alexander, "Uncle +Aleck," as everybody called him, who lived in the west part of the +town, on the border of "the woods." A man well in years, inferior in +person, with a mild, sweet, benevolent face, and blameless, dreamy +life, he spent much time in "sarching the Scripters," as he expressed +it, in constant conversations and mild disputations of Bible texts +and doctrines, and sermonizing at the Sunday assemblies of his +co-believers. He was a man without culture, without the advantage of +much converse with cultivated people, of rather feeble and slender +mental endowments, but of a wonderfully sweet, serene, cheerful +temper, and a most abiding faith. His was a heart and soul whose love +and compassion embraced the created universe. He believed that God +created only to multiply the objects of His own love, and that the +ultimate end of all Providence was to bless, and he did not doubt that +He would manage to have His way. That He had ever generated forces and +powers beyond His control, he did not believe. The gospels, to him, +were luminous with love, mercy, and protecting providence; and while +his sermons were faulty and confused, his language vicious, and his +pronounciation depraved, so that he furnished occasional provocation +to scoffers among the profane, and to critics among the orthodox, +there was always such sweetness and tenderness, and love so broad, +deep, rich and pure, that few earnest or thoughtful minds ever heard +him without being moved and elevated by his benignant spirit. + +He was always in converse with the Master in his early ministrations, +in beautiful, far-off, peaceful Galilee. He was a contented and +happy feeder upon the manna and wine of those early wanderings and +preachings among a simple and primitive people; and was forever +lingering away from Jerusalem, and avoiding the final catastrophe, +which he could never contemplate without shuddering horror. No power +on earth could ever convert his simple faith to the idea that this +great sacrifice was an ill-devised scheme to end in final failure; and +he preached accordingly. The elder Ridgeley had been dead many years; +the simple faith had gained few proselytes; Uncle Aleck's sermons made +little impression, and gained nothing in clearness of statement or +doctrine, but ripened and deepened in tenderness and sweetness. His +people remained unpopular, and nothing but the force of character of a +few saved them from personal proscription. + +The Ridgeley boys, the older ones, were steady in the faith of their +parents. Morris openly acknowledged it and Henry had been destined +by his father to its teachings; Barton stood by his mother, however he +esteemed her faith, and occasionally said sharp and pungent things of +its opponents, which confirmed the unpopular estimate in which he was +undoubtedly held. + +The Markhams were orthodox. Dr. Lyman was a nearly unbelieving +materialist at this time, but had several times "wabbled," as Bart +expressed it, from orthodoxy to infidelity, without touching the +proscribed ground of Uncle Aleck. + +Mr. Young was an obsolete revival exhorter, whose life did little +to illustrate and enforce his givings out. He had a weakness for the +elder Scriptures; and hence the irreverent name applied to him in the +boat by Bart. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A CONSECRATION. + + +Among the adherents of uncle Aleck were the Coes, a mild, moony race, +and recently it was understood that Emeline, the only daughter in a +family of eight or nine, a languid, dreamy, verse-making mystic, had +expressed a wish to receive the rite of Christian baptism, at that +time practised by Uncle Aleck and his associates in Northern Ohio. + +The ceremony had been postponed on account of the illness of her +mother, and was finally performed on the Sunday following the +incidents last narrated. A meeting was to be holden in the primitive +forest, near Coe's cabin, on the margin of a deep, crystal pool, +formed naturally by the springs that supplied Coe's Creek. Few events +happened in that quiet region, and this was an event. News of it had +circulated widely, and hundreds attended. + +The occasion was not without a certain touching interest. The beauty +of the day, the wildness of the scenery under the grand old trees, +with rude rocks, beautiful slopes, and running, pure water, and the +deepening tints of autumn in sky, cloud and foliage,--the warm shafts +of sunshine that here and there lit it all up,--the sincere gravity +that fell as a Sabbath hush on the expectant multitude, who seemed to +realize the presence of a solemn mystery,--carried back an imaginative +mind to an earlier day and a more primitive people, when the early +Christians, in the absence of schism, administered the same rite. + +Uncle Aleck, imbued with the sweetest spirit of his Master, seemed +inspired with a sense of the sacredness of the act he was to perform. +Of its divine origin, and sweet and consecrating efficacy, he had not +the slightest doubt. The simple services of his faith he performed in +a way that harmonized entirely with the occasion and its surroundings. +A grand hymn under the old trees was sung by the choir with fine +effect; a short, fervent prayer, the reading of two or three portions +of one of the gospels, and a few words of sweet and simple fervor, +expressive of a great love and sacrifice, and the unutterable hope +and rest of its grateful acknowledgment in the public act about to be +performed, followed; and then the believing, trembling girl was led +into the translucent waters, which for a single instant closed over +her, and was returned, with a little cry of ecstasy, to her friends. +Another hymn, a simple benediction, and the solemnly impressed crowd +broke up into little knots, and left the spot vacant to the silence of +approaching night. + +Conspicuous in this gathering, as conspicuous everywhere where he +appeared, was Major Ridgeley, an elder brother of Bart. Slightly +taller, and absolutely straight in the shoulders, with an uppish turn +to his head, the Major was universally pronounced a handsome man. His +large, bright, hazel eye, pure red and white complexion just touched +by the sun, with a world of black curling hair swept carelessly back +from, an open white brow, with well-formed mouth and chin, and his +frank, dashing, manly way, cheery voice, and gay manner, made him a +universal favorite; and, farmer and carpenter though he was, he was +welcomed as an equal by the best people in the community. He had +little literary cultivation, but mixing freely among men, and received +with universal kindness by all women, he had the ready manners of a +man of the world, which, with a shrewd vigor of mind, qualified him +for worldly success. + +Bart came upon the ground with his mother, near whom he remained, +and to whom he was very attentive. To him the whole thing was very +impressive. His poetic fancy idealized it, and carried him back till +he seemed to see and hear the dedication of a young, pure spirit to +the sweet sacredness of a holy life, as in the days of the preachings +of the apostles. When the final hymn was given out he stood by +his brother, facing most of the crowd, and for the first time they +recognized in him a nameless something that declared and asserted +itself--something that vaguely hinted of the sheaf of the boy Joseph, +that arose and stood upright, and to which their sheaves involuntarily +did obeisance. + +Still very young, and less handsome than his brother, he was yet +more striking, pale and fair, with little color, and a face of boyish +roundness, which began to develop lines of thought and strength. His +brow, not so beautiful, was more ample; his features were regular, but +lacked the light, bright, vivacious expression of Morris; while from +his deep, unwinking eyes men saw calmly looking out a strong, deep +nature, not observed before. He joined his mother and brother in the +last hymn. Everybody knew the Ridgeleys could sing. They carried +the burden of the grand and simple old tune nearly alone. The fine +mezzo-soprano of the mother, the splendid tenor of Morris, and the +rich baritone of Bart, in their united effect, had never been equalled +in the hearing of that assembly. The melody was a sweet and fitting +finale of the day, swelling out and dying away in the high arches of +the forest. + + * * * * * + +The Coes were objects of the kindness of Mrs. Markham and Julia, +obnoxious as was their religious faith; but Mrs. Markham was tolerant, +and she and her husband and daughter, with most of the State road +people, were present. + +While they were waiting for the crowd to disperse, so that they could +reach their carriage, the Ridgeleys, who began to move out, on their +way home, approached, and were pleasantly recognized by the Markhams, +with whom the Major was a great favorite. The two parties joined, +shook hands, and interchanged a pleasant greeting--all but Bart. He +moved a little away, and acknowledged their presence by holding his +hat in his hand, as if unconscious that he was a spectacle for the +eyes of some of them, and without betraying that he could by any +possibility care. It was a sore trial for him. + +Mrs. Markham looked at him several times as if she would go to him, +and an expression once or twice came into the sweet and pensive face +of Julia, that seemed to mean that she wished she could say to him, +"I want so much to thank you for your courage and generosity!" Morris +noticed the strange conduct of Barton, and felt an impulse to call to +him, and on their way home he spoke to him about it. + +"Why, Bart, what is the matter? I thought you and the Markhams were on +the best of terms; especially you and Julia and Mrs. Markham." + +"Well, Major, you see a shrewd man can be mistaken, don't you?" + +"What has happened?" + +"That which renders it absolutely impossible that I should ever +voluntarily go into the presence of these Markhams, and especially of +Julia." + +The voice was low, and full of force, with a little bitterness. Morris +looked at his brother with incredulous amazement. + +"Morris," said Bart, "don't ask more about it. Mother guessed +something of it. Pray don't refer to it ever again." + +Morris walked forward, with their mother; and when he turned back to +the stricken face of his young brother, there was a great tenderness +in his eye; but his brow gathered and his face darkened into a +momentary frown. He was by nature frank and brave, and could not long +do any one injustice. His nature was hopeful, and bright, and manly. +No girl could always scorn his brother Bart; nor did he believe that +Bart would willingly remain scorned. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BLACKSTONE. + + +The town of Burton was one of the oldest in the county. It was the +residence of many wealthy men, the seat of Judge Hitchcock, Chief +Justice of the State, as well as the home of Seabury Ford, a rising +young politician, just commencing a most useful and honorable career, +which was to conduct him to the Chief Magistracy of the State. + +The young Whig party had failed to elect Gen. Harrison, but the result +of the contest assured it of success in the campaign of 1840, for +which a vast magazine was rapidly and silently accumulating. The +monetary and credit disasters of '36-'37, occurring in the third term +of uninterrupted party rule, would of themselves have overthrown a +wiser and better administration than that of Mr. Van Buren, patriotic +and enlightened as that was, contrasted with some which followed. + +Men, too, were beginning to examine and analyze the nature and designs +of slavery; and already Theodore Weld had traversed the northern and +middle States, and with his marvellous eloquence and logic, second +to none of those who followed him, had stirred to their profoundest +depths the cool, strong, intellectual souls of the New Englanders of +those regions. + +One early October morning, as Gen. Ford, then commander of a brigade +of militia, in which Major Ridgeley held a commission, was arranging +some papers in his law office, a young man paused a moment in front +of the open door, and upon being observed, lifted his hat and stepped +frankly forward. Young men in Ohio then seldom removed their hats to +men, and rarely to women; and the act, gracefully done as it was, was +remarked by the lawyer. + +"General Ford, I believe?" said the youth. + +"Yes; will you walk in?" + +"I am Barton Ridgeley," said the young man, stepping in; "usually +called Bart." + +"A brother of Major Ridgeley?" + +"Yes; though I am thought not to be much like him." + +"The Major is a warm friend of mine," said the General, "and I should +be glad to serve you." + +"Thank you, General; I feel awkward over my errand here," hesitating; +"I wanted to see a lawyer in his office, with his books and papers, +and be permitted to look, especially at his books." + +"You are entirely welcome. I am not much of a lawyer, and have but a +few books, but nothing would give me more pleasure than to have you +examine them." + +"I may annoy you." + +"Not at all. I've not much to do. Take a seat." + +Bart did so. He found the General, whom he had only seen at a distance +on muster days, a man of the ordinary height, with heavy shoulders, +with a little stoop in them, a very fine head and face, and a clear, +strong, grayish, hazel eye; and, on the whole, striking in his +appearance. There were files of leading newspapers, the _National +Intelligencer, Ohio State Journal, Courier and Inquirer_, etc. These +did not so much attract the young man's attention; but, approaching a +large book-case, filled compactly with dull yellow books, uniform in +their dingy, leathery appearance, he asked: "Are these law-books?" + +"Yes, those are law-books." + +"And these, then, are the occult cabalistical books, full of darkness +and quirks and queer terms, in which is hidden away, somewhere, a rule +or twist or turn that will help the wrong side of every case?" + +"So people seem to think," said the General, smiling. + +"Does a student have to read all of these?" + +"Oh, no, not to exceed a dozen or fourteen." + +"A-h-h-h! not more than that? Will you show me some of them?" + +"Certainly. There, this is Blackstone, four volumes, which covers +the whole field of the law; all the other elementary writers are only +amplifications of the various titles or heads of Blackstone." + +"Indeed! only four volumes! Can one be a lawyer by reading +Blackstone?" + +"A thorough mastery of it is an admirable foundation of a good +lawyer." + +"How long is it expected that an ordinary dullard would require to +master Blackstone?" + +"Some students do it in four months. I have known one or two to do it +in three. They oftener require six, and some a year." + +Bart could hardly repress his astonishment. "Four months! a month to +one of these books!" running them over. "They have some notes, I see; +but, General, a man should commit it to memory in that time!" + +The General smiled. + +"This is an English work; is there an American which answers to +Blackstone?" + +"Yes, Kent's Commentaries, four volumes, which many prefer. I have +not got it. Also Swift's work, in two volumes, which does not stand +so high. Judge Cowan, of New York, has also written a book of some +merit." + +"Shall I annoy you if I sit down and read Blackstone a little?" + +"Not at all." + +He read the title-page, glanced at the American preface, etc., and +then plunged in promiscuously. "It has less Latin than I expected. Is +it good classical Latin?" + +A smile. + +"It is law Latin, and most of it would have puzzled Cicero and Virgil, +I fear. Are you a Latin scholar?" + +"I'm not a scholar at all. I've been an idler, generally, and have +picked up only a few phrases of Latin. I've a brother, a student with +Giddings & Wade, at Jefferson, who would have told me all I want to +know, but I had a fancy to find it out first hand." + +"Exactly;" and the General thought he looked like a youth who would +not take things second-hand. "They are able lawyers, and it is said +Giddings will retire from the bar and run for Congress. It is thought +that Mr. Whittlesey will resign, and make an opening." + +Bart thought that the General spoke of this with interest, and he made +another dab at Blackstone. He then wandered off to a small but select +case of miscellaneous books. "Adam Smith!" he said, with animation; "I +never saw that before. How interesting it must be to get back to the +beginning of things. And here is Junius, whom I have only read about! +and Hume! and Irving! and Scott's Novels! Oh dear, oh dear! General, +what a happy man you must be, with all these about you, and these +newspapers, to come and go between you and the outside world." + +"Oh! I don't know. I have but few books, compared with real libraries, +and yet I must say I have more than I make useful." + +Bart plunged into Ivanhoe for a moment, and then laid it down with a +sigh. + +The General, who found much in the frank enthusiasm of Bart to attract +him, asked him many questions about himself, surroundings, etc., all +of which were answered with a modest frankness, that won much on the +open, manly nature of Ford. + +Bart said he most of all wanted to study law, but he did not know how +to accomplish it. He was without means, and wanted to remain with his +mother, and he wanted only to look at the books, and learn a little +about what he would have to do, the time, etc. The General said "the +laws of Ohio required two years' study, before admission, which would +be upon examination before the Supreme Court, or by a committee of +lawyers appointed for that purpose; lawyers who received students +usually charged fifty or sixty dollars per year for use of books and +instruction, the last of which often did not amount to much." + +Bart looked wistfully at the books, and arose to go. The General +asked him to remain to dinner with such hearty cordiality, that Bart +assented, and the General took him into the house and introduced him +to Mrs. Ford, a tall, slender woman, of fine figure, with striking +features, and really handsome; of very kindly manners, and full of +genuine good womanly qualities, who believed in her husband, and was +full of ambition for him. + +The quiet, easy manners, and frank, sparkling conversation of Bart, +won her good-will at once. + +"Was he acquainted with Judge Markham's people?" + +"A little." + +"Mrs. Markham is one of the most superior and accomplished women I +ever met," said Mrs. Ford. Of course he was acquainted with Julia, who +was thought to be the belle of all that region? + +Barton was slightly acquainted with her, and thought her very +beautiful. His acquaintance with young ladies of her position was +very limited, but he could believe that few superiors of hers could be +found anywhere, etc. + +Poor Bart! + +Mrs. Ford presumed that a great many young men had their eyes on her, +and it would be a matter of interest to see where her choice would +fall. + +It was some satisfaction to Bart to feel that he could hear this point +referred to without any but the same pain and bruise of heart that any +thought of her occasioned. + +After dinner, General Ford said to Bart that if he really wished to +enter upon the study of the law, he would do what he could for him; +that he would permit him to take home such books as he could spare, +and when he had read one he would examine him upon it, and give him +another. + +This was more than had entered Bart's mind; and so unaccustomed was he +to receiving favors, that the sensations of gratitude were new to him, +and he hardly expressed them satisfactorily to himself. + +His new tutor had taken a real liking to him; he may have remembered +that the Major was one of the rising young men in the south-west part +of the county, whom he liked also. He called Barton's attention to the +chapters of Blackstone that would demand his more careful reading, and +they parted well pleased with each other. + +Bart pushed off across the fields in a right line for home, with the +priceless book in his hand; light came to him, and opportunity. Lord! +how his heart and soul and brain arose and went out to meet them! As +the branches of the young forest-tree that springs up by a river-side +shoot out, rank, and strong, and full, to the beautiful light and air, +and so, too, as the tree grows one-sided and disfigured, the danger is +that this embodiment of young force and energy may develop one-sided. +The poetic, upward tendency of his nature will help him, and his +devotion to his mother will hold him unwarped, while the struggle +with a great, pure, and utterly hopeless passion shall at least make +a sacred desert of his heart, where no unhallowed thought shall take +root. His was eminently a nature to be strengthened and purified by +suffering. + +But he had the law in his hands. No matter how gnarled, warped or +obscure were the paths to its lurking-places, he would find them all +out, and pluck out all its meanings, and make its soul his own. He had +already learned from his brother the fallacy of the vulgar judgment of +the law, and he knew enough of history to know that some of the wisest +and greatest of men were eminent lawyers, and he thought nothing of +the moral dangers of the law as a profession. He had never been even +in a magistrate's court, but he had heard the legends and traditions +of the advocates; had read that eminent fiction, Wirt's Life of +Patrick Henry, and a volume of Charles Phillips's speeches, and had +felt that strong inner going forth of the soul that yearned to find +utterance in oversweeping speech. + +Several times on his way home he stopped to read, and only suspended +his studies at the approach of evening, which found him east of the +pond, lying across his direct route, and which he found the means of +passing. + +Blackstone he took in earnest, and smiled to find nothing that he did +not seem to comprehend, and often went back, fearing that the seeming +might not be the real meaning. + +At the end of a week he returned to his kind friend, the General, +not without misgivings as to the result of his work. He found him at +leisure in the afternoon, and was received with much kindness. + +"Well, how goes Blackstone?" + +"Indeed I don't know; and I am anxious, if you have leisure, to find +out." + +The General took the book, and turning to the definition of law, and +the statement of a few elementary principles, found that they were +thoroughly understood. Turning on, he paused with his finger in the +book. + +"What do you think of the English Constitution?" + +Bart looked a little puzzled. + +"The English government seems to be an admirable structure--on paper; +but as to the principles that lie below it, or around it, that +govern and control its workings, and from which it can't depart, I am +cloudy." + +"Yes, a good many are; but then there is, as you know, a great +unwritten English Constitution--certain great fixed principles which +from time to time have been observed, through many ages, until their +observance has become a law, from which the government cannot depart, +and they take the form of maxims and rules." + +"I think I understand what you mean; but to me everything is in +cloud-land, vague and shifting, and the fact that nobody has ever +attempted to put in writing these principles, or even to enumerate +them, leads one to doubt whether really there are such things. When +king, lords and commons are, in theory and practice, absolutely +omnipotent, I can't comprehend how there can be any other +constitution. When they enact a law, nobody can question it, nobody +can be heard against it; no court can pronounce it unconstitutional. +What may have been thought to be unconstitutional they can declare +to be law, and that ends it. So they can annihilate any one of the +so-called constitutional maxims. When a party in power wants to do a +thing, it is constitutional; when a minister or great noble is to be +got rid of, he is impeached for a violation of the constitution, and +constitutionally beheaded." + +"Well," said the General, smiling, "but this, for instance: the great +palladium of British liberty, taxation, must be accompanied with +representation." + +"Yes; that, if adhered to, would protect property and its owners; +but then it never has been carried out, even in England, while the +non-taxpayer is wholly out of its reach; and my recollection is, that +the constitutional violation of this palladium of the Constitution by +king, lords and commons, produced a lively commotion, some sixty-odd +years ago." + +"Yes, I've heard of that; but the attempt to tax the colonies was +clearly unconstitutional; they were without representation in the +Parliament that enacted the law." + +"But then, General, you are to remember that, according to Blackstone, +Parliament was and is, by the English Constitution, omnipotent. The +fact is, we took one part of the constitution, and George the other; +we kept our part, and all our land, and George maintained his, on his +island, strong as ever; and yet there, property-owners always have +been and always will be taxed, who do not vote. I fear that it will be +found that all the other maxims have from time to time suffered in the +same way." + +"You must admit, however," said the General, "that the maxims in favor +of personal freedom have usually been adhered to in England proper." + +"Yes, the sturdy elements of the natural constitution of the English +people have vindicated their liberty against all constitutional +violations of it; and while I cordially detest them, one and all, +there isn't another nation in Europe that I am willing to be descended +from." + +"I fear that is the common sentiment among our people," said the +General. "And so you think the world-famous British Constitution +may be written in one condensed sentence--the old English +formula--Parliament is omnipotent." + +"Yes, just that. Parliament is the constitution; everything else is +ornamental." + +Without expressing any opinion, the General resumed, and turning at +hop, skip and jump, he found that Bart happened to be at home wherever +he alighted. He finally turned to the last page, and asked questions +with the same result, closing the book with: + +"Well, what else have you been doing this week?" + +"Not much; I've worked a little, dabbled with geometry some, read +Gibbon a little, newspapers less, run some in the woods, and fooled +away some of my time," answered Bart, with a self-condemning air. + +"Have you slept any?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"Oh, dear!" said the General, laughing good-humoredly, and then +looking grave, "this will never do--never!" + +"Well, General," said Bart, crestfallen, "I've only had the book a +week, and although I don't memorize easily, I believe I can commit the +whole before a month is out, except the notes." + +"Oh, my dear boy, it isn't that! I don't know but there is a man in +the world who, without having seen a law book before, has taken up and +mastered the first volume of Blackstone in a week, but I never heard +of him. What will never do is--it will not do for you to go on in this +way; you would read up a library in a year, if you lived, but will die +in six months, at this rate." + +With tears in his eyes, Bart said: "Do not fear me, General; I am +strong and healthy; besides, there are a good many things worse than +death." + +"I am serious," said the General. "No mortal can stand such work +long." + +"Well, General, I must work while the fit is on; I am thought to be +incapable of keeping to any one thing long." + +"How old are you?" + +"In my twenty-second year." + +"Have you ever practised speaking in public?" + +"I am thought to make sharp and rough answers to folks, quite too +much, I believe," answered Bart, laughing; "but, save in a debating +school, where I was ruled out for creating disorder, I've never tried +speech-making." + +"You will grow more thoughtful as you grow older," said the General. + +"If I do," said Bart, "I know those who think I can't grow old fast +enough." + +The General gave him the second volume of Blackstone, with the +injunction to be two weeks with it. + +"Suppose I finish it in a week?" + +"You must not; but if you do, bring it back, and take a scolding." + +"Certainly," said Bart. + +The General asked him to go in to tea. Bart thought that would not do, +and excused himself. + + * * * * * + +The end of another week found Bart at the end of the second volume, +and also at General Ford's office. The General was away; but he found +an opportunity further to cultivate the acquaintance of Mrs. Ford, who +introduced him to several of her circle of acquaintance, and permitted +him to take the third volume of Blackstone. + +The work was finished with the fourth week, to General Ford's +satisfaction, and Bart was then set to try his teeth on Buller's "Nisi +Prius," made up of the most condensed of all possible abstracts of +intricate cases, stated in the fewest possible words, and those of old +legal significance, the whole case often not occupying more than four +or five lines. + +The cases, as there stated, convey no shadow of an idea to the +unlearned mind. What a tussle poor Bart had with them! How often he +turned them over, and bit at and hammered them, before they could be +made to reveal themselves. + +The General looked grim when he handed him the book, and said that he +did so by the advice of Judge Hitchcock. He also loaned him Adam Smith +and Junius, with permission to take any books from his library during +the winter, and they parted--the General to go to his duties in the +Legislature, and Barton to work his way on through the winter and into +the law. + +The devotion of Bart to his books took him wholly from association +with others. He wrote occasionally to Henry, saying little of what he +was doing, and going rarely to the post-office, and never elsewhere. +He developed more his care of his mother, and a protecting tenderness +to his younger brothers. + +Kate Fisher's little party came and went, without Bart's attendance. + +The Major was spreading himself out in building houses, clearing land, +and unconsciously preparing the way to a smash-up; and the immediate +care of the family devolved more and more upon the younger brother. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE YOUNG IDEA SHOOTS. + + +There was a region south, on the State road, partly in the townships +of Auburn and Mantua, that, like "the woods," long remained a +wilderness, and was known as the "Mantua Woods." Within the last year +or two, the whole of it had been sold and settled, with the average of +new settlers, strong, plain, simple people, with a sprinkling of the +rough, and a little element of the dangerous. + +They had built there a neat frame school-house, just on the banks +of Bridge Creek, and were fully bent on availing themselves of the +benefits of the Ohio Common School Fund and laws. + +Here, on one bleak, late November Monday morning, in front of the +new school-house, stood Bart Ridgeley, who appeared then and there +pursuant to a stipulation made with him, to keep their first school. +He undertook it with great doubt of his ability to instruct the +pupils, but with none of his capacity to manage them. He stood +surrounded by some forty young specimens of both sexes and all +ages--from rough, stalwart young men, bold and fearless in eye and +bearing, down to urchins of five. One-half were girls, and among them +several well-grown lasses, rustic and sweet. + +There had also come up seven or eight of the principal patrons, to +see the young school-master and learn of the prospects. They were +evidently disappointed, and wondered what "Morey" could be thinking of +to hire that pale, green boy, with his neat dress and gloves, to come +down there. Grid Bingham or John Craft would throw him out of the +window in a week. Finally, Jo Keys did not hesitate to recommend him +to go home; while Canfield, who knew his brother Morris, thought he +had better try the school. + +Bart was surprised and indignant. He cut the matter very short. + +"Gentlemen," he said quietly, but most decidedly, "I came down here to +keep your school, and I shall certainly do it," with a little nod +of his head to Keys. "I shall be glad to see you at almost any other +time, but just now I am engaged." The decided way in which he put an +end to the interview was not without its effect. + +He called the scholars in, and began. They brought every sort of +reading-book, from the Bible, English Reader, American Preceptor, +Columbian Orator, Third Part, etc., to a New England Primer. But +beyond reading, and spelling, and writing, he had only arithmetic, +grammar and geography. On the whole, he got off well, and before the +end of the first week was on good terms, apparently, with his whole +school, with one or two exceptions; and so on through the second, +which closed on Friday, and Bart turned gladly and eagerly toward +home, to his mother and brothers. + +The close of that week had been a little under a cloud, which left +just a nameless shadow over the commencement of the third, and Bart +began it with an uneasy feeling. + +Bingham, a short, stout, compact young ruffian, of twenty-two or +twenty-three, not quite as tall as Bart, but a third more in weight, +and who had an ugly reputation as a quarrelsome fellow of many fights, +had at first treated Bart with good-natured toleration, and said he +would let him go on awhile. With him consorted John Craft, a chap +of about his age, but of better reputation. Bingham had broken up a +school the winter before, just below in Mantua, and was from the +first an object of dread to parents in the new district. He was a +dull scholar, and his blunders had exposed him to ridicule, which the +teacher could not always repress. He left the school, on that Friday, +moody and sullen, and came back on Monday full of mischief. + +Not a word was said, that reached Bart's ears, but the young women +had a scared look, and an ominous dread seemed to brood over the +school-room. Monday and Tuesday came and went, as did the scholars, +and also Wednesday forenoon. + +The room was arranged with three rows of desks on two sides, and one +on the third. Behind these sat the large scholars, with Grid, near the +door. When he called the scholars in, after the recess, Bart quietly +locked the outside door, and put the key in his pocket. He was cool, +collected, and on the alert. + +The first class began to read, each rising while reading, and then +sitting down. Bart had observed that Bingham sat with his book closed, +and wholly inattentive to the exercise, and quietly placed himself +within a few feet of his desk. + +As it came Bingham's turn, he sat with an assumed look of swaggering +indifference. "Mr. Bingham," said Bart very quietly, "will you read?" + +"I'm not goin' to read for any God damned----" the sentence was never +finished, though Grid was; yet just how, nobody who saw it could quite +tell. Something cracked, and Grid and his desk went sprawling into the +middle of the floor. A hand came upon his collar as the last word +was uttered. It was so sudden that he only seized his desk, which was +taken from its fastening at the bottom as if it were pasteboard, +and went in ruins with its occupant. As he struck, half stunned and +surprised, he arose partly to his feet, and received on the side of +his head a full blow from the fist of Bart. + +Craft, who had been amazed at the suddenness of the catastrophe, and +who was to have shared in the fight, if necessary, arose hesitatingly +just as Grid received his _quietus_. Bart turned upon him with his +white, galvanized face, and watery, flashing eyes, "Sit down, John +Craft," in a voice that tore him like a rasp on his spine, and John +sat down. During this time, and until now, no other sound was heard +in the room; now a half sob, with suppressed cries, broke from the +terrified girls and children. "Hush! hush! not a word!" said the still +excited master; "it is over, and nobody much hurt." Bingham now began +to rise, and Bart approached him: "Wait a moment, Mr. Bingham," he +said, and, unlocking the outside door: "There! now take your books and +leave, and don't let me find you about this school-house so long as +I remain--go!" and the humbled bully sullenly picked up his small +property and went. + +"Mr. Craft," said Bart, approaching that cowed and trembling youth, +"you and I can get along. I don't want to part with you if you will +remain with me. I will excuse you from school this afternoon, and you +can come back in the morning, and that may be the last of it. I will +not humiliate you and myself with any punishment." There was a +tremor in Bart's voice, and a softness in his face. John arose: "Mr. +Ridgeley, I don't know how I came to--I am very sorry--I want to stay +with you." + +"All right, John, we will shake hands on it." And they did. + +"My poor, poor children!" said Bart, going up to the younger ones, who +had huddled into the farthest corner and clambered on to the desks. +"My poor scared little things, it is all over now, and we are all so +glad and happy, aren't we?" and he took up some of the smallest in his +arms and kissed them, and the still frightened, but glad and rejoicing +young women, looked as if they would be willing to have that passed +round. When they were pacified, and resumed their places, Charley +Smith gathered up the boards and parts of the disabled desk, and Bart, +with a few kind words to the older scholars, resumed the exercises of +the school. + +Scenes of violence were rare, even in that rude day, among that +people; the sensibilities of the children were deeply wounded, and +none of them were in a fitting condition to profit by their exercises, +which were barely gone through with, and they were early dismissed to +their homes, with the marvellous tale of the afternoon's events. + +Bart was in the habit of remaining to write up the copies, and place +everything in order before he left. The young men and older maidens +lingered at the door, and then returned in a body, to say how glad +they were that it had ended as it did. They knew something would +happen, and they were so glad, and then they shook hands with him, and +went hurrying home. + +When they left, Bart locked the door, and, throwing himself into +the chair by his table, laid his head down and burst into an +uncontrollable flood of tears;--but he was a man now, and tears only +choked and suffocated him. He was ashamed of himself for his weakness, +and bathing his eyes, walked about the school-room to regain his +composure. Every particle of anger left his bosom before Bingham left +the house, and now he was fully under the influence of the melancholy +part of his nature. Never before, even in childish anger, had he +touched a human being with violence, and now he had exerted his +strength, and had grappled with and struck a fellow-man in a brute +struggle for animal mastery; he felt humiliated and abased. That the +fellow's nature was low, and that he was compelled to act as he had +done, was little comfort to him. He was glad that he decided not to +punish or expel John. Darkness came, and he was aroused by a noise at +the door. He unlocked it, and found Canfield and Morey and Smith. + +"Hullo, Ridgeley!" exclaimed the former. "Good God! and so you had +a pitched battle, and licked that bully before he had time to begin; +give me your hand! Who would have thought it?" + +"I did," said Morey. "I knowed he'd do it. What will Jo Keys say now, +I wonder?" And the party went inside, and wondered over the wrecked +desk, and asked all about it. And then came in the stalwart Jo +himself, celebrated for his strength. + +"Wal, wal, wal! if this don't beat all natur, I give it up! What are +you made of, young man, all spring and whalebone? I'd a bet he would +'a cleaned out a school-house full o' such dainty book chaps. I +give it up. Let me feel o' you," taking Bart good-naturedly by the +shoulder. "You'll do, by----. My Valdy said that when Grid gathered +himself up the first time, he went heels over head, clear to the +fire-place." + +And so the good-natured athlete went over with it all, with a huge +relish for the smallest detail, and others came in, until nearly all +the male patrons of the school had assembled; and Bart informally, but +with hearty unanimity, was declared the greatest school-master of his +day; they quoted all the similar instances within the range of memory +or legend, and this achievement was pronounced the greatest. They were +proud of him, and of the exploit, and of themselves that they had him. +Morey, who had taken him because he could find no other, blazed +up into a man of fine discernment; and Jo nearly killed him with +approving slaps on his feeble back. Indeed, his apologies for what he +had said were too striking. + +Life in all new communities is run mainly on muscle, and whoever +exhibits skill and bravery in its rough encounters, peaceful or +warlike, always commands a premium. The people among whom Bart lived +had not passed beyond the discipline of brute force, and he shared +the usual fortune of heroes of this sort, of having his powers and +achievements exaggerated, even by those under whose eyes he had acted. + +A rumor reached Markham's and Parker's, from which it spread, that +Bart's school had arisen against him, and the first version was that +he was killed, or very dangerously wounded; that he defended himself +with desperation, and killed one or two, but was finally overcome; +that the neighborhood was divided and in arms, and the school-house +had been burned. But the stage came in soon after, and the driver +declared that he had seen Grid Bingham, whom he knew, brought out +dead, that John Craft was badly hurt, and one or two more, and that +Bart, who escaped without injury, would be arrested for murder. It was +finally said that he would not be arrested, but that Grid was either +dead or dying; that he headed four or five of the older boys, and +they were whipped out by Bart single-handed, who locked the door, and +pitched in, etc. + +The rumor produced a deep sensation in Newbury; and, whilst it was +thought that Bart had been rash, and undoubtedly in fault, yet he had +behaved handsomely. When it was ascertained that he was victor, it was +generally thought that he was a credit to the place, which was very +natural and proper, considering that he had never before been thought +to be a credit to anything anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +SNOW'S PARTY. + + +It was called a house-warming, although the proprietor had not taken +possession of the house with his family. The ball-room and most of +the rooms were complete, and the building was, on the whole, in a +good condition to receive a large company. The Major was the presiding +genius of the festivities; and while the affair was in a way informal, +and an assemblage of friends and neighbors of the owner, still he had +made a judicious use of his authority, and had invited a good many +rather prominent people from a distance. The evening of the occasion +saw not only a numerous assemblage, but one in which the highest +grades of society were fully represented. + +As it was not strictly a ball, there was not the least impropriety in +the straightest church-members--and they were strict, then--attending +it; and they did. The sleighing was fine, and, as the usage was, +the guests came early, and went early--the next morning. The barns, +stables and neighboring houses were freely offered, and an efficient +corps of attendants were on hand, while the absence of public-houses +in the immediate neighborhood relieved the occasion of the presence +of the unbidden rough element that would otherwise have volunteered an +attendance. + +The Markhams were there, with Julia, and the bevy of beautiful girls +we saw with her at the store; Mrs. Ford from Burton, with some of her +set; two or three from Chardon; the Harmons from Mantua; some of +the Kings from Ravenna; two or three Perkinses from Warren, and many +others. A rather showy young Mr. Greer, a gentleman of leisure, and +who floated about quite extensively, knew everybody, and seemed on +pleasant terms with them all, was among the guests. + +The essential elements of pleasure and enjoyment--high and gay +spirits, good-nature, with a desire to please and be pleased, where +everybody was at their best, and where was a large infusion of good +breeding--were present, and a general good time was the logical +result. + +There was a plenty of good music, and the younger part of the company +put it to immediate and constant use. The style of dancing was that of +the mediaeval time, between the stately and solemn of the older, and +the easy, gliding, insipid of the present; and one which required, on +the part of the gentlemen, lightness and activity, rather than grace, +and allowed them great license in the matter of fancy steps. Two long +ranks contra-faced, and hence contra dance--degenerated to country +dance--was the prevailing figure; the leading couple commencing and +dancing down with every other couple, until in turn each on the floor +had thus gone through. + +The cotillon, with its uniform step and more graceful style, had been +already introduced by instructors, who had found short engagements +under the severe reprobation of the Orthodox churches; but the waltz +was unknown, except in name, and the polka, schottische, etc., had +then never been mentioned on the Reserve. + +The young people early took possession of the dancing-hall, where, +surrounded by the elders, a quick succession of Money Musk, Opera +Reel, Chorus Jig, etc., interspersed sparingly with cotillons, +evidenced the relish with which young spirits and light hearts enjoy +the exercises of the ball-room. + +Julia Markham was the conceded belle, beautiful and elegant in form +and style, faultless in dress and manner, brilliant with the vivacity +of healthy girlhood. Next to her, undoubtedly, was Miss Walters, with +whom ranked several elegant girls from abroad. + +And of the young people here may be remarked what is usually true in +all country places, that there were about three cultivated and refined +girls to one young man of corresponding accomplishments. + +As the ball went forward, the elders--and the elders did not dance in +the young Ohio in those days, rarely or never--gathered into various +groups, discussing the dancers and various kindred topics, and the +little odds and ends of graceful "they says" that append themselves to +the persons of those at all noticeable. + +Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Markham were the centre of the principal of these. +They were really good friends, and liked each other. Their husbands +were friends, and possible rivals, and watched each other. Both were +ambitious, and lived too near each other. + +"Who is Miss Walters?" Mrs. Ford asked. + +"She is from Pittsburgh. Her brother is in New Orleans, and she +remains with the Fishers, relatives of hers, till he returns." + +"She is very elegant." + +"She is indeed, and she and Julia are great friends." + +"Who is that dancing with Julia?" + +"A Mr. Thorndyke. He is of a Boston family, on a visit to his uncle in +Thorndyke. Mr. Markham knew them, and he came up to call on us." + +"He dances a little languidly, I think." + +"He feels a little out of place in this mixed company, I presume. His +notions are high Boston." + +"How does that suit Julia?" + +"It amuses her. He was telling her how this and that is done in +Boston, and she in return told him how we do not do the same things +here, and claimed that our way is the best." + +"Here comes Major Ridgeley. He seems much at home in a ball-room." + +"Yes, he is one of those ready men, who always appear best in a +crowd." + +He saw and made his way to them; inquired about the General, spoke +of his reply to Byington, complimented the dancing of Julia, inquired +about her partner, and rattled on about several things. + +"Will your brother Barton be here this evening?" asked Mrs. Ford. + +"I don't know; he thought he would not," was the reply. "He don't go +out at all, lately." + +"What an awful time he had with that Bingham!" said Mrs. Ford. "They +say he has broken up two or three schools, and was a powerful and +dangerous man, twenty-five or six years old. I would really like to +see Barton. He is quite a lion." + +"Bart is sensitive about it," answered the Major, "and don't speak +of it. Why, I was on my way up from Ravenna, the next day after it +happened, and called at his school-house for half an hour; the desk +had not been put up then, and I asked him what had happened to it, and +he said the boys had torn it down in a scuffle. He never said a word +of the fracas to me, and I only heard of it when I got up to Parker's. +There I found young Johnson, who had just come from there." + +"Why, how you talk! What is the reason for that, do you suppose?" + +"I don't know. He was at home a few days after, and seemed hurt +and sad over it; and when I asked him how many innocents he had +slaughtered since, he said one in two days, and at that rate they +would just last him through." + +"It is funny," said Mrs. Ford. + +"As I have observed, Barton is not much inclined to talk about what he +does," said Mrs. Markham; "and, do you know, Major, he has not given +me a chance to speak to him since his return." + +"He thinks, possibly, that he is under a cloud," answered the Major. + +"He chooses to think so, then," said Mrs. Markham; and the music +closed, and the dancers looked for seats, and the Major went away to +meet an engagement for the next dance. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WALTZ. + + +A little commotion about the door--a little mob of young men and +boys--and a little spreading buzz and whisper--some hand-shakings--two +or three introductions--then another buzz--and Bart made his way +forward, with an air of being annoyed and bored and pushed forward +as if to escape. He was under the inspiration of one of those sudden +impulses upon which he acted, so sudden, often, as to seem not the +result of mental process. + +He discovered Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Markham, with Julia, Miss Walters, +and several others, about them, whom he at once approached with the +modest assurance of a thorough-bred gentleman, safe in the certainty +of a gracious reception, and conscious of power to please. A happy +word to the two or three who made way for him, and he stood bowing and +smiling, and turning and bowing to each with the nice discriminating +tact that rendered to all their due. + +Mrs. Ford graciously extended her hand, which he took, and bowed very +low over; she was nearest him. Mrs. Markham, in a pleased surprise, +gave him hers, and its reception was, to her nice perception, even +more profoundly acknowledged. To Miss Markham and Miss Walters +precisely the same, with a little of the chivalrous devotion of a +knight to acknowledged beauty. + +"The fall and _winter_ style prevails, I presume," he said, in gay +banter, as if anticipating that their gloved hands were not to be +touched. + +"Your memory is good, Mr. Ridgeley," said Julia, with a little laugh +and a little flush. + +"Forgetfulness is not my weakness," he replied. + +"I was not aware you knew Mrs. Ford," said Mrs. Markham, observing the +little flutter in Julia's cheeks, and thinking there was a meaning in +Bart's _persiflage_. + +"Mrs. Ford and General Ford," he answered with much warmth, "have +been so very, very kind to me, that I have presumed to claim her +acquaintance, even here; but then, they have only known me three +months," with affected despair. + +"Well," said Mrs. Ford, "what of that?" + +"I find you with those who have known me all my life," with a +deprecating look towards Mrs. Markham. + +"Well, Mr. Ridgeley, you are not deserving of forbearance at my hands, +if I only knew of anything bad to say of you." + +"What exquisite irony! May I be permitted to know which of my thousand +faults is now specially remembered against me?" + +"You have not permitted me, until this moment, even to speak to you +since your return last summer." + +"May I ask that you will permit that to stand with my other +misdemeanors until some rare fortune enables me to atone for all at +once?" + +"And when will that be?" + +"Oh! + + In that blissful never, + When the Sundays come together, + When the sun and glorious weather + Wrap the earth in spring forever; + As in that past time olden, + Which poets call the golden." + +Laughing. + +"And so I have poetry, and inspire it myself--that is some +compensation, certainly," said Mrs. Markham, smiling. + +"I fear my verses have deepened my offence," said Bart, with affected +gravity. + +Kate Fisher intervened here: "Mr. Ridgeley, I have more cause for +offence than even Mrs. Markham. Why didn't you come to my little +party? I made it on your account." + +"The offence was great," he answered, "but then staying away was ample +punishment, as you must know." + +"No, I don't know it. I know you weren't there, and your excuse was +merely a regret, which always means one don't want to go." + +"Oh, Mrs. Ford!" said Bart, "see what your coming here, or my coming +here, exposes me to!" + +"Have I heard the worst?" + +"Well, you see, Mrs. Ford," said Kate, "that Mr. Ridgeley can waltz, +and so can Miss Walters, and I made a little party to see them waltz, +and he didn't come." + +"That is grave. Will you leave it to me to pass judgment upon him?" + +"I will." + +"And do you submit, Mr. Ridgeley?" + +"She's so very kind to you," remarked Mrs. Markham. + +"I do," said the young man, "and will religiously perform the +sentence." + +"Well, it won't be a religious exercise--you are to waltz with Miss +Walters, now and here." + +A little clapping of little hands marked the righteousness of the +award. + +"Mrs. Ford," observed the culprit, "your judgment, as usual, falls +heaviest on the innocent. Miss Walters, it remains for you to say +whether this sentence shall be executed. If you will permit me the +honor, I shall undergo execution with an edifying resignation." + +The smiling girl frankly placed her hand in his: "I should be sorry to +prevent justice," she said, which was also applauded. + +Major Ridgeley was spoken to, and it was understood that the next +dance would be a waltz, which had never before been more than named +in a Yankee ball-room, on the Reserve; and it was anticipated with +curiosity, not unmixed with horror, by many. + +The floor was cleared, a simple waltz air came from the band, and the +pleased Miss Walters, in the arms of Barton, was whirled out from her +mob of curious friends, on to and over the nearly vacant floor, +the centre of all eyes, few of which had witnessed such a spectacle +before. The music went on with its measured rise and fall, sweet and +simple, and youth and maiden possessed with it, seemed to abandon +themselves utterly to it, and were controlled and informed by it; with +one impulse, one motion, and one grace, each contributing an exact +proportion, they glided, circling; and while the maiden thus yielded +and was sustained, her attitude, so natural, graceful and womanly, +had nothing languishing, voluptuous or sensuous; a sweet, unconscious +girl, inspired by music and the poetry and grace of its controlling +power, in the dance. Miss Walters dearly loved to dance, and above all +to waltz. She had rarely met a partner who so exactly suited her step +and style, and who so helped the inspiration she was apt to feel. + +Bart had had little practice as a waltzer, but natural grace, and the +presence of ladies, usually brought him to his best; and it was not in +nature, perhaps, that he should not receive some inspiration from the +beautiful girl, half given to his embrace, and wholly to his guidance. + +So around and around through the hushed and admiring throng they went, +whirling, turning, advancing, retreating, rising and falling, swaying +and sinking, yet always in unison, and in rhythmic obedience to the +music. + +Sometimes the music rose loud and rapid, and then languished to almost +dying away; but whatever its movement or time, it was embodied and +realized by the beautiful pair, in their sweeping, graceful motions. +The maiden's face was wrapt with a sweet, joyous light in her +half-shut eyes; his, pale, but lit up and softened in the lamp-light, +seemed fairly beautiful, like a poet's. + +"How beautiful!" "How exquisite!" from the ladies. + +"What a dance for lovers!" said Mrs. Ford. + +"They are lovers, are they not?" asked a lady from Warren. + +"I think not," said Mrs. Markham, with a glance at Julia, who, never +withdrawing her eyes, stood with lips slightly apart, and her face +bright with unenvying admiration. + +A little ripple--a murmur--and a decided clapping of hands around the +room, with other sounds from the crowd at the entrance, marked the +appreciation of the beautiful performance. The moment that this +reached Barton, he led his delighted partner towards her group of +friends, remarking: "Your admirers are sincere, Miss Walters, but too +demonstrative, I fear." + +"Oh, I don't mind it," said the straightforward girl. + +"And I have to thank you for your courtesy to me," he went on, "and +only hope that all my punishments may come in the same form." + +"Mrs. Ford, is the judgment satisfied?" + +"Satisfactory as far as you went, but then you did not serve out your +time." + +"Have consideration, I pray, for the minister of justice," bowing to +Miss Walters. + +"She seemed rather to like it," said Mrs. Ford. + +"Indeed I did!" and the young ladies gathered about to congratulate +her, and cast admiring glances at her partner. + +"Mr. Ridgeley," said Mrs. Markham, "I was not aware that you were an +accomplished waltzer." + +"You forget," Bart answered mockingly, "that I am travelled; and you +know my only aptitude is for the useless." + +"I did not say that." + +"You are too kind. I sometimes supply words to obvious thoughts." + +"And sometimes to those that have no existence." + +The floor filled again, and the music struck up. Standing, a moment +later, at a window, Julia saw a figure pass out, pause at the roadway, +turn and look up. The full glare of the lamps revealed the face of +Bart, from which the light had faded, and its beauty and spirit of +expression had departed. He gazed for an instant up at the brilliant +and joyous scene, where a moment before he had been a central and +applauded figure, and then, muffling his face in his cloak, he turned +away. + +He had not intended to go, and sat melancholy through the darkness of +the early night; but somehow, a hungry, intense longing came to him +to go and look for a moment upon the loveliness of Julia, as she would +stand open to the eyes of all, just for one moment, and then to go +away. He felt that he ought not to do it, but he went. He could not +help it. + +When he reached the place, three miles away, he was annoyed by being +recognized and pointed at, and talked at, on account of his late +encounter with Grid. + +"He ain't a powerful-lookin' chap." "I wouldn't be afeared o' him." +"He's a darned sight harder'n he looks," etc. + +When he escaped into the ball-room, the impulse to go into the +immediate presence of Julia was followed, and ended by as sudden a +retreat. He had not known how utterly weak and helpless he was, and +felt angry with himself that he could ever wish for the presence of +one who had so scorned him. He was ashamed, also, that the music, the +dance, and gay joyance of the scene he had just left, had still such a +seductive charm for him, and he recorded a mental resolution to avoid +all similar allurements for the future. Having made this resolution, +and strong in his faith of keeping it, he merely turned to take final +leave, as he fell under the eyes of Julia, and without seeing her. + +The night outside was cold, dark, and thick, with a pitiless snow, +that was rapidly filling the track along the highway. Bart turned, +without the remotest touch of self-pity, to face it, with a heart as +cold and dark as the night that swallowed him up. He felt that there +was not a heart left behind that would throb with a moment's pain for +him--that would miss him, or wonder at his departure; and he was sure +that he did not care. + +Yet, with what a sweet, remonstrating, expostulating call the music +came after him, with its plaining at his desertion! Fainter and +sweeter it came, and died out with a wailing sob, as the night, with +its storm and darkness, blotted him out! + +Mrs. Ford, who may have anticipated his attendance at the +supper-table, missed him. His late partner in the dance cast her eyes +inquiringly through the thronged rooms. She remarked to Julia that +she believed Mr. Ridgeley had left, and thought it very strange. Julia +said she presumed he had, and did not say what she thought. + +Most of the elders left early; the young people danced the music and +themselves away, and the gray, belated dawn of the next day looked +coldly into the windows of a sacked, soiled, and silent house. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +BART. + + +Bart devoted himself unselfishly and unsparingly to his school, to all +its duties and to all his scholars, and especially to the children +of the poor, and the backward pupils. He went early to the house, and +remained late. He was the tender, considerate, elder brother of the +scholars, and was astonished at his power to win regard, and maintain +order. Order maintained itself after one memorable occasion--one to +which he never referred, and of which he did not like to hear. It made +his school famous, and drew to it many visitors, and to himself no +little curiosity and attention. + +He endeavored to carry on his law-reading; but beyond reviewing--and +not very thoroughly--Blackstone, he could do little. As usual, he was +homesick; and whenever a week was ended he left the school-house for +his mother's, and never returned until the following Monday morning. + +His kind patrons noticed with surprise that he seemed sad and +depressed after the expulsion of Grid, and that this gloominess was +deepened about the time of Snow's ball. + +Barton came to take a real pleasure in his school. Formed to love +everything, and without the power of hating, or of long retaining a +resentment, he became attached to his little flock, especially the +younger ones, and was loved in return by them, without reserve or +doubt. He did much to improve, not alone the minds of the older +pupils, but to soften and refine the manners of the young men under +his charge; while the young women, always inclined to idealize, found +how pleasant it was to receive little acts of gentlemanly attention +from him. + +In the afternoon of a long, bright, March day--one of those wondrous +days, glorious above with sky and sun, and joyous with the first note +of the blue-bird--the little red school-house by the margin of the +maple-woods was filled with the pupils and their parents, assembled +for the last time. Bart, in a low voice, tremulous with emotion, bade +them all good-by, and most of them forever, and taking his little +valise, walked with a saddened heart back to his mother. This time he +had not failed, and he never was to fail again. + +How many events and occurrences linked in an endless series unite to +form the sum-total of ordinary human life! Incident to it, they are +in fact all ordinary. If any appear extraordinary, it is because +they occur in the life of an extraordinary individual, or remarkable +consequences flow from them. Like all parts of human life, in and of +themselves they are always fragmentary: springing from what precedes +them, they have no beginning proper; causing and flowing into others, +they have no ending, in effect; and as the dramatic in actual life is +never framed with reference to the unities, so results are constantly +being produced and worked out by accidents, and the prominent events +often contribute nothing to any supposed final catastrophe. Strangers +interlope for a moment, and change destinies, coming out for a +day, from nothing, and going to nowhere, but marring and misshaping +everything. + +No plot is to develop as this sketch of old-time life continues, and +incidents will be of value only as they tend to mould and develop +the character and powers of one, and little will be noticed save that +which concerns him. It is, perhaps, already apparent that he is very +impressible, that slight forces which would produce little effect on +different natures, are capable of changing his shape, will beat him +flat, roll him round, or convert him into a cube or triangle, and yet, +that certain strong, always acting forces will restore him, with more +or less of the mark or impress of the disturbing cause upon him. He +has a strong, tenacious nature, unstained with the semblance of a +vice. He forms quick resolutions, but can adhere to them. He is tender +to weakness, and fanciful to phantasy. His aptitude for sarcasm and +ridicule, unsparingly as it had been turned upon everybody, brought +upon him general dislike. His indecision and vacillation in adopting +and pursuing a scheme in life, lost him the confidence of his +acquaintances--ready to believe anything of one who had dealt them +so many sharp thrusts. He was sensitive to a fault, and a slight word +would have driven him forever from Julia Markham, and turned him back +upon himself, as a dissolving and transforming fire. Mentally, he was +quick as a flash, with a strong grasp, and a power of ready analysis; +and so little did his mental achievements cost him, that his +acquirements were doubted. He already paid the penalty of a nervous +and brilliant intellect--that of being adjudged not profound. Men +are always being deceived as to the real value of things, by their +apparent cost. + +We see this illustrated in the case of some grave and ponderous +weakling, who has nothing really in him, and yet who creaks, and +groans, and labors, and toils, to get under way, until our sympathy +with his painful effort leads us so to rejoice over his final delivery +that we have lost all power or disposition to weigh or estimate his +half-strangled, commonplace bantling, when it is finally born, and +we are rather inclined to wonder over it as a prodigy. No doubt the +generation of men who witnessed the mountain in labor, regarded +the sickly, hairy little mouse, finally brought forth, as a genuine +wonder. + +Great is mediocrity! It is the average world, and the majority +conspires to do it reverence. Genius, if such a thing there is, may be +appreciated by school-boys; the average grown world count it as of no +value. If a man has a brilliant intellect, let him bewail it on the +mountains, as the daughter of Jephtha did her virginity. If he has +wit, let him become Brutus. + +Readiness and genius are apt to be arrogant; and, when joined with a +lively temper, with an ardent, impetuous nature, they render a young +man an object of dread, dislike, or worse. Bart had grave doubts +of his being a genius, but it had been abundantly manifest to his +sensitive perceptions that he was disliked; and he had in part arrived +at the probable cause, and was now very persistently endeavoring to +correct it by holding his tongue and temper. + +Like all young men bent upon a pursuit where his success must depend +upon intellect, he was most anxious to ascertain the quality and +extent of his brain-power--a matter of which a young man can form +no proper idea. Later in life a man is informed by the estimate of +others, and can judge somewhat by what he has done. The youth has +done nothing. He has made no manifestation by which an observer can +determine; when he looks at himself, he can examine his head and face; +but the mind, turned in upon itself, with no mirror, weight, count or +measure, feels the hopelessness of the effort. + +If some one would only tell him of his capacity and power, of his +mental weakness and deficiency, it would not, perhaps, change his +course, but might teach him how best to pursue it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +SUGAR MAKING. + + +The long, cold winter was past; spring had come, and with it sugar +making, the carnival season, in the open air, among the trees. + +The boys had the preparations for sugar making in an advanced stage. A +new camp had been selected on a dry slope, wood had been cut, the tubs +distributed, and they were waiting for Bart and a good day. Both came +together; and on the day following the close of his school, at an +early hour they hurried off to tap the trees. + +Spring and gladness were in the air. The trill of the blue-bird was +a thrill; and the first song of the robin was full of lilac and apple +blossoms. The softened winds fell to zephyrs, and whispered strange +mysterious legends to the brown silent trees, and murmured lovingly +over the warming beds of the slumbering flowers. Young juices were +starting up under rough bark, and young blood and spirits throbbed in +the veins of the boys, and loud and repeated bursts of joyous voices +gushed with the fulness of the renewing power of the season. + +The day, with its eager hope, strength and joyousness, filled Bart +to the eyes, and his spirit in exultation breaking from the unnatural +thrall that had for many months of darkness and anxious labor +overshadowed it, went with a bound of old buoyancy, and he started +with laughing, open brow, and springy step, over the spongy ground, to +the poetry of life in the woods. + +That one day they tapped all the trees. The next, the kettles were +hung on the large crane, the immense logs were rolled up, the kettles +filled with sap, and the blue smoke of the first fire went curling up +gracefully through the tree-tops. What an event, the first fire! Not +as in New England, sugar in the West is never made until the winter +snow has disappeared, and the surface has become dry, and the woods +pleasant, and the opening day at the boiling was as brilliant as its +predecessor. + +Bart and Edward, with a yoke of steers, gathered the sap towards +evening, and George tended the kettles; many curious bright-eyed +chickadees boldly ventured up about the works, peeping, flitting, +and examining, with head first on one side and then on the other, the +funny doings of these humans in their dominions, and searching for the +store of raw pork, which, according to their recollection, ought to be +hid away somewhere near by. + +The boys had pulled down, removed and rebuilt their old snug cabin, +with one end open to the broad and roaring fire; in the bottom of +which, over its floor, were placed a large quantity of sweet bright +straw, and two or three heavy blankets. + +The "run" made it necessary to boil all night; and filling the kettles +and adjusting the fires, Bart and the boys, hungry and tired, went +up to supper and the chores; after which Bart and Edward, taking the +former's rifle, and lighted by a hickory torch, returned to the camp +for the night--Edward really to sleep, sweet and unbroken, in the +cabin, and Bart to take care of the kettles and fires, to muse and +dream, and think bright, strange thoughts, and watch the effects of +the lights and shadows, listen to the dropping of the sap into the +buckets, and the boding owls, whose melancholy notes harmonized with, +rather than interrupted, the solemn effect of deepest night. Man +easily reverts to savagery and nature; and this tendency was marked in +Bart, whom this new recurrence to old habits of wood-life, so dear to +him, filled with such pleasant sensations of joyous unrest, that until +near the coming dawn he was disinclined to sleep, and when he did, the +first note of an old robin from the topmost twig of a giant old maple +awoke him fresh to the labor and enjoyment of another resplendent day. +And so the days followed each other, and the spring deepened. Myriads +of flower-beds shot up through the dead leaves, and opened out their +frail and wondrously tinted petals for a single day, and faded. Not +a new one opened--not a cloud or tint varied the sky--not a note of +a bird or tap of a woodpecker, that was not marked by Bart, to whom +Nature had at least given the power to appreciate and love her lighter +works. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +HENRY. + + +The principal event of the spring among the Ridgeleys, was the return +home of Henry. He had closed his novitiate, and was awaiting +his examination for admission to the bar. He had already, on the +recommendation of his friend and instructor, Wade, formed a favorable +business connection with the younger Hitchcock, at Painesville; and +now, after a year's absence, he came back to his mother and brothers, +for a few days of relaxation and visiting. Less strong than the Major, +of grave, thoughtful, but cheerful face and mien, heavy-browed and +deep-eyed, with plain, marked face, and finished manners, he was well +calculated to impress favorably, and win confidence and respect. His +mind was solid, but lacked the sparkle and vivacity of Bart's, and +compensatingly was believed to be deep. He was the pride and hope of +the family: around him gathered all its expectations of distinction, +and no one shared all these more intensely than Bart, who had awaited +his coming with hope and fear. He was accompanied by a fellow-student +named Ranney, of about his own age, and like him, above the usual +height, broad and heavy-shouldered, with a massive head and strong +face, a high narrow forehead; rather shy in manner, and taciturn. + +They came one night while Bart was in the sugar-camp, where he spent +many nights, and he met them the next morning at the breakfast-table. +No one could be gladder than he to meet his brother, but, like his +mother, he was struck by his emaciated form and languor of manner. + +Bart had heard of Ranney as a man of strong, profound, ingenious mind, +with much power of sarcasm, and who had formed a partnership with +Wade, on the retirement of Mr. Giddings from the bar. He stood a +little in awe of him, whose good opinion he would have gladly secured, +but who, he had a presentiment, would not understand him. Indeed, he +was quite certain he did not understand himself. + +The young men had been fellow-students for two years, had many things +in common, and were strong friends. + +Bart soon found that they had a slender view of his law reading, +and spoke slightingly of Ford as a lawyer. They had both diligently +studied to the lower depths of the law, had a fair appreciation of +their acquisitions, and would not overestimate the few months of +solitary reading of a boy in the country. + +Bart did not mention his studies, and only answered modestly his +brother's inquiries, who closed the subject for the time by saying +that if he was serious in his desire to study law, "he would either +arrange to take him to Painesville in the Fall, or have his friend +Ranney take him in hand." Bart was pleased with the idea of being with +either; and possibly he may have wondered whether whoever took him in +hand would not have that hand full. + +The young men strolled off to his sugar-camp during the forenoon, +lounged learnedly about, evincing little interest in the camp and +surroundings, although the deepening season had filled the woods with +flowers and birds; and Bart wondered whether "Coke on Littleton," and +executory devises, and contingent remainders, had produced in them +their natural consequences. He watched to see whether new maple sugar +was sweet to them, and on full reflection doubted if it was. + +They did not interfere with his work, and sauntered back to an early +dinner, and Bart saw no more of them until night. + +He closed out his work early for the day, and spent the evening with +them and his mother. + +Henry naturally inquired about his old acquaintances, and Bart +answered graphically. He was in a mood of reckless gayety. He took +them up, one after another, and in a few happy strokes presented +them in ludicrous caricature, irresistible for its hits of humor, +and sometimes for wit, and sometimes sarcasm--a stream of sparkle +and glitter, with queer quotations of history, poetry, and Scripture, +always apt, and the latter not always irreverent. Ranney had a +capacity to enjoy a medley, and both of the young men abandoned +themselves to uncontrollable laughter; and even the good mother, who +tried in vain to stop her reckless son, surprised herself with tears +streaming down her cheeks. Bart, for the most part, remained +grave, and occasionally Edward helped him out with a suggestion, or +contributed a dry and pungent word of his own. + +As the fit subsided, Henry, half serious and half laughing, turned to +him: "Oh, Bart, I thought you had reformed, and become considerate and +thoughtful, and I find that you are worse than ever." + +"But, Henry, what's the use of having neighbors and acquaintances and +friends, if one cannot serve them up to his guests; and only think, +I've gone about for six months with the odds and ends of 'flat, stale +and unprofitable' things accumulating in and about him--the said +Bart--until, as a sanitary measure, I had to utter them." + +"How do you feel after it?" inquired Henry. + +"Rather depressed, though I hope to tone up again." + +"Bart," said Henry, gravely, "I haven't seen much of you for two or +three years; I used to get queer glimpses of you in your letters, and +I must look through your mental and moral make-up some time." + +"You will find me like the sterile, stony glebe, which, when the +priest reached in his career of invocation and blessing--'Here,' said +the holy father, 'prayers and supplications are of no avail. This +must have manure.' Grace would, I fear, be wasted on me, and our good +mother would willingly see me under your subsoiling and fertilizing +hand." + +"Do you ever seriously think?" + +"I? oh yes! such thoughts as I can think. I think of the wondrously +beautiful in nature, and am glad. I think of the wretched race of men, +and am sad. I think of my shallow self, and am mad." + +Henry, with unchanged gravity: "Do you believe in anything?" + +"Yes, I believe fully in our mother; a good deal in you, though my +faith is shaken a little just now; and am inclined to great faith in +your friend Mr. Ranney." + +All smile but Henry. "Yes, all that of course, but abstract +propositions. Have you faith, in anything?" + +"Well, I believe in genius, I believe in poetry--though not much in +poets--music--though that is not for men. I believe in love--for those +who may have it. I believe in woman and in God. When I draw myself +close to Him, I am overcome with a great awe, and dare not pray. It +is only when I seem to push Him off, and coop Him up in a little +crystal-domed palace beyond the stars, and out of hearing, that I +dare tell Him how huge He is, and pipe little serenades of psalmody to +Him." + +"Oh, Barton, you are profane!" + +"No, mother, men are profane in their gorgeous egotism. We are the +braggarts, and ascribe egotism to God Himself; while we are the sole +objects of interest in the universe. God was and is on our account +only; and when men fancy that they have found a way of running things +without Him, they shove Him out entirely. I put it plainly, and it +sounds bad." + +"This is a compendious confession of faith," said Henry; and, pausing, +"why do you put genius first?" + +"As the most doubtful, and, at the same time, an interesting article. +I am at the age when a young man queries anxiously about it. Has he +any of it--the least bit?" + +"Well, what is your conclusion?" + +"Sometimes I fancy I feel faintly its stir and spur and inspiration." + +"When it may be only dyspepsia," said Henry. + +"It may be. I haven't ranked myself among geniuses." + +"Yet you believe in it. What is it?" + +"I can't tell. Can you tell what is electricity or life?" + +"That is not logical. You answer one question by asking another." + +"I am not sure but that is allowable," interrupted Ranney. "You pose +your opponent with an unanswerable question, and he in turn proposes +several, thereby suggesting that there are things unknown, and that if +you will push him to that realm you are equally involved. It may not +be logical, but it usually silences." + +"Not quite, in this instance," said Henry, "for we know by their +manifestations that life and electricity are; they manifest themselves +to us." + +"And by the same rule genius manifests itself to your brother, +although it may not to you." + +"Thank you, Mr. Ranney," said Bart. + +"Now I do not suppose," he went on, "that genius is a beneficent +little imp, or genie, lodged in the brain of the fortunate or +unfortunate, who is all-powerful, and always at hand to give strength, +emit a flash of light, or pour inspiration into the faculties, nor +does it consist in anything that answers to that idea. But there are +men endowed with quick, strong intellects, with warm, ardent, intense +temperaments, and with strong imaginations; where these, or their +equivalents, are found happily blended, the result is genius. There +is a working power that can do anything, and with apparent ease. If +it plunges down, it need not remain long; if it mounts up, it alights +again without effort or injury." + +"And such a 'working power,' you suppose, would, of itself, be a +constant self-supply, and always equal to emergencies, and of its own +unaided spontaneous inspirations and energies, I suppose," said Henry, +"and has nothing to do but float and plunge about, diving and soaring, +in the amplitude of nature?" + +"Well, Henry, you can't get out of a man what isn't in him. You need +not draw on a water-bottle for nectar, or hope to carve marble columns +from empty air; genius can't do that. An unformed, undeveloped mind +never threw out great things spontaneously, as the cloud throws out +lightning. Men are not great without achievement, nor wise without +study and reflection. Nor was there ever a genius, however strong and +brilliant in the rough, that would not have been stronger and more +brilliant by cutting," said Bart, with vehemence. "All I contend for +is, that genius, as I have supposed, can make the most and best of +things, often doing with them what other and commoner minds cannot do +at all." + +"This is not the school-boy's idea of genius," said Ranney. + +"And," said Bart, a little assertively, "I am not a school-boy." + +"So I perceive," said Ranney, coolly. + +"The fault I find with you geniuses--" + +"We geniuses!!--" + +"Is," said Henry, "you perpetually fly and caracol about, and just +because you can, apparently, and for the fun of the thing." + +"Eagles fly," said Bart. + +"And so do butterflies, and other gilded insects." + +"Therefore, flying should be dispensed with, I suppose," said Bart. +"Because things of mere painted wings, all wing and nothing else, can +float in the lower atmosphere, are all winged things to be despised? +Birds of strong flight can light and build on or near the ground, but +your barn-yard fowl can hardly soar to the top of the fence for his +crow." + +"But your geniuses, Bart, will not work, will not strip to the long, +patient, delving drudgery necessary to unravel, separate, analyze, +weigh, measure, estimate and count, and come to like work for work's +sake, and so grow to do the best and most work. They deal a few heavy +blows, scatter things, pick up a few glittering pebbles, and--" + +"Leave to dullards the riches of the mines they never would have +found," broke in Bart. + +"And fly away into upper air," pursued Henry. + +"Oh, I know that some chaps rise for want of weight, as you would say; +but mere weight will keep a man always at the surface. Your men who +are always plunging into things, digging and turning up the earth--who +believe with the ancients that truth is in a well--often lose +themselves, and are smothered in their own dirt-holes, and call on men +to see how deep they are. God coins with His image on the outside, +as men mint money, and your deep lookers can't see it; they are for +rushing into the bowels of things." + +"There is force in that, Bart. Men may see God in His works, if they +will; but men don't so stamp their works. At his best, man is weak; +unknowing truth, he puts false brands on his goods, mixes and mingles, +snarls and confuses, covers up, hides and effaces, so far as he can, +God's works, and palms off as His the works of the other. And it is +with these that the lawyer has to do: a work in which your mere genius +would make little headway. He would go to it without preparation; he +would grow weary of the hopelessness of the task, and fly away to some +pleasant perch, and plume his wing for another flight, I fear." + +"Might not his lamp of genius aid him somewhat?" put in Bart. + +"It might," said Ranney, "and he might be misled by its flare. He +would do better to use the old lights of the law. Some are a little +lurid, and some a little blue, but always the same in tempest or +calm. The law, as you have doubtless discovered, is founded in a few +principles of obvious right. Their application to cases is artificial. +The law, for its own wise purposes, takes care of itself; of its own +force, it embraces everything, investigates everything, construes +itself, and enforces itself, as the sole power in the premises. Its +rules in the text-books read plain enough, and are not difficult +of apprehension. The uncertainty of the law arises in the doubt and +uncertainty of the facts; and hence the doubt about which, of many +rules, ought to govern. A man of genius, as you describe him, ought +to become a good lawyer; he would excel in the investigation and +presentation of facts; but none but a lawyer saturated with the spirit +of the law until he comes to have a legal instinct, can with accuracy +apply it." + +This was clear and strong to Barton, and profitable to him. + +"Now Barton," said Henry, turning to Ranney, as if Bart were absent, +"went through with Blackstone in a month, and probably would go +through it every month in the year, and then he might be profitably +put to read Blackstone. If I were to shut him up with the +'Institutes,' in four days there might be nothing of poor Coke left +but covers and cords." + +"And what would become of Bart?" asked Ranney. + +"Go mad--but not from much learning," answered the youth for himself; +"or you would find him like a dried geranium-leaf hid in the leaves of +the year-books,-- + + 'Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead.'" + +There was a touch of sarcasm in his mocking voice; and flashing out +with his old sparkle, "Be patient with me, boys, the future works +miracles. There + + Are mountains ungrown, + And fountains unflown, + And flowers unblown, + And seed never strown, + And meadows unmown, + And maids all alone, + And lots of things to you unknown, + And every mother's son of us must + Always blow his own--nose, you know." + +And while the young men were a little astonished at the run of his +lines, the practical and unexpected climax threw them into another +laugh. + +Soon Henry took a candle, and the two young men retired. They paused a +moment in the little parlor. + +"Was there ever such a singular and brilliant compound?" said Ranney. +"What a power of expression he has! and I see that he generally knows +where he is going to hit. If you can hold him till he masters the law, +he will be a power before juries." + +"I think so too," said Henry; "but he must be a good lawyer before he +can be a good advocate,--though that isn't the popular idea." + +"Let him work," said Ranney. "He will shed his flightier notions as a +young bird moults its down." + +How kind to have said this to Bart! Oh, what a mistake, that just +praise is injurious! How many weary, fainting, doubting young hearts +have famished and died for a kind word of encouragement! + +When Bart returned to the sitting-room, his mother and younger +brothers had retired. + +"I am scorned of women and misunderstood of men--even by my own +brother," he said bitterly to himself. "Let me live to change this, +and then let me die." + +The old melancholy chords vibrated, and he went to his little attic, +remembering with anguish the stream of nonsense and folly he had +poured forth, and thought of the laughter he had provoked as so much +deserved rebuke; and he determined never to utter another word that +should provoke a smile. He would feed and sleep, and grow stupid and +stolid, heavy and dull, and bring forth emptiness and nothings with +solemn effort and dignified sweatings. + +Early on the morrow he was away to the camp, to renew the fires under +his sugar-kettles. The cool, fresh air of the woods refreshed and +restored his spirits somewhat. He placed on the breakfast-table two +bouquets of wood-flowers, and met his guests with the easy grace and +courtesy of an accomplished host; and both felt for the first time +the charm of his manner, and recognized that it sprung from a superior +nature. + +As they were about to rise from the breakfast-table, "Gentlemen," said +he, "Miss Kate Fisher gives, this afternoon, a little sugar party, out +at her father's camp. Henry, she sent over an invitation specially for +you two, with one to me, for courtesy. I cannot go; but you must. +You will meet, Mr. Ranney, several young ladies, any one of whom will +convert you to my creed of love and poetry, and two or three young, +men stupid enough to master the law,"--with a bright smile. "I +promised you would both go. The walk is not more than a mile, the day +a marvel right out of Paradise, and you both need the exercise, and to +feel that it is spring." + +"And why don't you go, Barton?" asked Henry. + +"Well, you are not a stranger to any whom you will meet, and don't +need me. In the first place, I must remain and gather the sap, and +can't go; in the second, I don't want to go, and won't; and in the +third, I have several good reasons for not going,"--all very bright, +and in good humor. + +"What do you say, Ranney?" + +"Well, I would like to go, and I would like to have Barton go with +us." + +"Would you, though?"--brightening. "No, I can't go; though I would be +glad to go with you anywhere." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +WHAT THE GIRLS SAID. + + +Kate's little party, out on the dry, bright yellow leaves, gay with +early flowers, under the grand old maples, elms and beeches, in the +warm sun, came and went, with laughter and light hearts. If it could +be reproduced with its lights, and colors, and voices, what a bright +little picture and resting-place it would be, in this sombre-colored +annal! I am sad for poor Bart, and I cannot sketch it. + +The young lawyers had been there, seen, talked to, got acquainted +with, were looked up to, deferred to, admired and flirted with, and +had gone, leaving themselves to be talked about. + +Two young girls, amid the fading light, with the rich warm blood of +young womanhood in their cheeks, and its latent emotions sending a +softened light into their eyes, with their arms about each other's +waists, were pensively walking out of the dusky woods to the open +fields, with a little ripple and murmur of voices, like the liquid +pearls of a brook. + +They had been speaking of the young lawyers. "And these two," said +Julia, "are some of those who are to go out and shape and mould and +govern. I am glad to have seen them, and hear them talk." + +"Do you think these are to be leading men?" asked Flora Walters. + +"I presume so. It is generally conceded that Henry Ridgeley is a young +man of ability; and I don't think any one could be long in the company +of Mr. Ranney without feeling that he is no ordinary man. Indeed, +Henry said that he was destined to a distinguished career." + +"Well, now to me they were both a little heavy and commonplace. +Mr. Ridgeley was easy and gentlemanly; Mr. Ranney a little shy and +awkward. I've no doubt one would come to like either of them, when one +came to know him." + +"Oh, Flora! the beauty of a man is strength and courage, and power and +will and ability. When one comes to see these, the outside passes out +of sight." + +"Do you think that absolute ugliness could be overcome in that way?" + +"Yes, even deformity. I should be taken even by beauty, in a man, +and should expect conforming beauty of heart and soul. Do you know, I +sometimes half feel that I would like to be a man?" + +"You, Julia! with your wealth, beauty and friends, who may, where you +will, look and choose?" + +"Yes, I, as much as you flatter me. I can feel the ambition of a +young man; and were I one, how gladly would I put the world and its +emptiness from me, and nurse and feed my soul and brain with the +thoughts and souls of other men, till I was strong and great; and +then, from my obscurity, I would come forth and take my place in the +lead;" and her great eyes flashed. + +"If you are ambitious, you have but to wait until the leading spirit +comes. What a help you would be to him!" + +"He might never come, or I might not know him when--" + +"Or you would not love him, if you did know him." + +"He might not love me; or, if he did, I might drive him away. But that +is not what was in my mind, although a woman must be ambitious through +another. To be one of these young men, to know their minds, to feel +their hopes and ambitions, and struggle with and against them, for the +places, the honors and leaderships!" + +"And would you never love and wed, woo and marry?" + +"Yes; and I would like to see the woman who would scorn me. I would +take her as mine, and she should not choose but love me!" + +"Why, Julia! who would think that you, sweet and deep as you are, +could say such things! Would you like to be wooed in that way?" + +"I never came to that. I am only a woman without aim in life. I am +only to float along between flowery banks, until somebody fishes me +out, I suppose!" + +"I am sure, were I you, I could well float on until the right man +came; and you, Julia, it is your own fault if you do not marry for +love. You will not be obliged to consult anything else." + +"And you?" said Julia, laughing. + +"I? oh! I am dependent on my brother, you know." + +"Yes, and there comes in the hardship; were you a man, you could go +out and make and choose. Now, a daughter remains where her father and +mother leave her. The sons may rise, the daughters stay below, and if +sought for, it is usually in the same channels in which the parents +move, and that is the hardship of those who, unlike you, are on a +lower plane, or who, like you, have no father and mother to sustain +them in their proper place. If you could win wealth, you would only +marry for love; and I am sure you will do so now." + +"A woman who wins fortune usually loses the capacity to win love, I +fear," said Flora. + +"And the woman who wins nothing deserves nothing," said Julia. "I am +a little like my mother, I presume; but who would win you, and how, I +wonder?" + +"Oh," answered Flora, "I suppose the man who really and truly loved +me. I would like to have him come, as the breeze comes, with the odor +of flowers, as the spring comes, with music and song, with all sweet +and gentle influences, with beauty and grace; but he must not be +effeminate." + +"He would have to be a good waltzer, I presume?" + +"Would that be an objection?" asked Flora. + +"No; but a man who excels in these light accomplishments may fail in +the stronger qualities. I admit that beauty and grace would go a great +way, if one could have them also." + +"Julia, were I you, I would have them all." + +"Girls, what are you loitering along there for? Talking over the young +lawyers, I'll bet; who takes which?" called back Kate, impetuously; "I +don't want either." + + * * * * * + +All the afternoon long, Bart was sad and silent, and spite of himself, +his thoughts would hover about that bright place in the maple woods, +sweet with one face of indescribable beauty; one form, one low, +many-toned voice which haunted--would haunt him. + +He came in to a latish supper, with a grave face. The spring was not +in his step; the ring was not in his voice, or the sparkle in his +words. + +The two guests were in high spirits, and talked gushingly of the young +ladies they had met, and they wondered that it did not provoke even a +sarcasm from him. + +"It would compensate you for not going," said Ranney, kindly, "if we +were to tell you what was said of you in your absence." + +"And who said it," added Henry. Not a word, nor a look even. + +"One might be willing to be called a genius, for such words, and from +such a young lady," ventured Ranney. + +"I am not sure but that I would even venture upon poetry, under such +inspiration," said Henry. + +To the youth these remarks sounded like sarcasm, and he felt too poor +even to retort. + +"Oh, boys!" finally said Bart, "it is good exercise for us all; +_persiflage_ is not your 'best holt,' as the wrestlers would say, +and you need practice, while I want to accustom myself to irony and +sarcasm without replying. If by any possibility you can, between +you, get off a good thing at my expense, it would confer a lasting +obligation; but I don't expect it." + +"Upon my word--" began Ranney. + +"We all speak kindly of our own dead," said Bart, "and should hardly +expect the dead to hear what we said. Mother said you had determined +to leave us in the morning;" to Ranney--"Our brother the Major will be +home in the morning, and would be glad to make your acquaintance, and +show you some attention." And so he escaped. + +When Ranney took leave the next morning, he kindly remarked to Bart +that he would at any time find a place in his office, and should have +his best endeavor to advance his studies. It was sincere, and that was +one of the charms of his character. Bart was pleased with it, and it +almost compensated for the unintentional wounds of the night before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A DEPARTURE. + + +Morris came, and the brothers were together, and the two elder went +around to many of their old acquaintance--many not named here, as not +necessary to the incidents of this story. For some reason Barton did +not accompany them. If anything was said between them about him, no +mention of it was made to him. Henry came to regard him with more +interest, and to treat him with marked tenderness and consideration, +which Bart took as a kindly effort to efface from his mind the pain +that he supposed Henry must be aware he had given him. Had he supposed +that it arose from an impression that he was suffering from any other +cause, he would have coldly shrunk from it. + + + * * * * * + +At the end of ten days, Henry's baggage was sent out to Hiccox's +for the stage, and he took leave of his mother, Morris, Edward, and +George, and, accompanied by Bart, walked out to the State road, to +take the stage for Painesville, where his work was to begin. He was +in bright spirits; his hopes were high; he was much nearer home; his +communication was easier, and his absences would be shorter. + +Bart, for some reason, was more depressed than usual. On their way +down, Henry asked him about a Mr. Greer whom he first saw at the sugar +party, and afterwards at Parker's, and who had seemed to take much +interest in Bart. Bart had met him only once or twice, and was not +favorably impressed by him. Henry said that he had talked of seeing +Bart, and that he (Henry) rather liked him. + +It had been already talked over and understood that Bart should go to +Painesville in the Fall, and enter fully upon the study of the law. As +they reached the stage-road, Bart's depression had been remarked by +Henry, who made an ineffectual effort to arouse him. Finally the stage +came rattling down the hill, and drew up. The brothers shook hands. +Henry got in, and the stage was about to move away, when Bart sprang +upon the step, and called out "Henry!" who leaned his face forward, +and received Barton's lips fully on his mouth. Men of the Yankee +nation never kiss each other, and the impression produced upon Henry +was great. Tears fell upon his face as their lips met, and from his +eyes, as the heavy coach rolled into the darkness of the night. + +Are there really such things as actual presentiments? God alone knows. +Is the subtle soul-atmosphere capable of a vibration at the approach +and in advance of an event? And are some spirits so acutely attuned +as to be over-sensible of this vibration? God knows. Or was the act +of Bart, like many of his, due to sudden impulse? Perhaps he could not +tell. If the faculty was his, don't envy him. + +Barton had already resumed his connection with Gen. Ford's office. +The General had returned full of his winter's labors, and found an +intelligent and sympathizing listener in Bart, who had a relish +for politics and the excitements of political life, although he was +resolved to owe no consideration that he might ever win to political +position. + +Under the stimulus from his intercourse with his brother and Ranney, +and profiting by their hints and suggestions, he plunged more eagerly +into law-books than ever. He constructed a light boat, with a pair of +sculls, and rigged also with a spar and sail, with which to traverse +the pond, with places to secure it on the opposite shores; and early +passers along the State road, that overlooked the placid waters, often +marked a solitary boatman pulling a little skiff towards the eastern +shore. + +And once, a belated picnic party, returning from Barker's landing, +discovered a phantom sail flitting slowly in the night breeze over the +dark waters to the west. They lingered on the brow of the hill, until +it disappeared under the shadow of the western wooded shore, wondering +and questioning much as to who and what it was. One, the loveliest, +knew, but said nothing. + +The Markhams, one day, in their carriage, passed Bart with his books +toiling up Oak Hill. He removed his hat as they passed, without other +recognition. All of them felt the invisible wall between them, and +two, at least, silently regretted that they might not invite him to an +unoccupied seat. They were at the Fords' to dinner that day, and Bart, +being invited to join them by the General, politely declined. + +The General was a little grave at the table, while Mrs. Ford was +decided and marked in her commendation of the young student, and +described, with great animation, a little excursion they had made +over to the pond, and the skill with which Bart had managed his little +sail-boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A SHATTERED COLUMN. + + +In mid June came the blow. George brought up from the post-office, one +evening, the following letter: + +"PAINESVILLE, June 18, 1837. BARTON RIDGELEY, ESQ.: + +"_Dear Sir_,--I write at the request of my sister, Mrs. Hitchcock. Your +brother is very ill. Wanders in his mind, and we are uneasy about +him. He has been sick about a week. Mr. Hitchcock is absent at court. +Sincerely yours, + +Edward Marshall." + + +"Henry is ill," said Barton, very quietly, after reading it. "This +letter is from Mrs. Hitchcock. He has been poorly for a week. I think +I had better go to him." + +"He did not write himself, it seems," said his mother. + +"He probably doesn't regard himself as very sick, and did not want +us sent for," said Bart, "and they may have written without his +knowledge. I will take Arab, and ride in the cool of the night." + +"You are alarmed, Barton, and don't tell me all. Read me the letter." +And he read it. "I will go with you, Barton," very quietly, but +decidedly. + +"How can you go, mother?" + +"As you do," firmly. + +"You cannot ride thirty miles on horseback, mother, even if we had a +horse you could ride at all." + +"I shall go with you," was her only answer. + +An hour later, with a horse and light buggy, procured from a neighbor, +they drove out into the warm, sweet June night. At Chardon, they +paused for half an hour, to breathe the horse, and went on. Bart was +a good horseman, from loving and knowing horses, and drove with skill +and judgment. They talked little on the road, and at about two in the +morning they drove up to the old American House in Painesville, and, +with his mother on his arm, Barton started out on River Street, to the +residence of Mr. Hitchcock. + +How silent the streets! and how ghostly the white houses stood, in the +stillness of the night! and how like a dream it all seemed! They had +no difficulty in finding the house, with its ominous lights, that had +all night long burned out dim into the darkness. + +The door was open, and the bell brought a sweet, matronly woman to +receive them. + +"We are Henry Ridgeley's mother and brother," said Barton. "Is he +still alive?" + +The question indicated his utter hopelessness of his brother's +condition. + +"Come in this way, into the parlor," said the lady; and stepping out, +"Mother," she called, "Mr. Ridgeley's mother has come. Please step +this way." + +A moment later, a tall, elderly lady, sad-faced as was her daughter, +and much agitated, entered the room. + +"My mother," said the younger lady. "I am Mrs. Hitchcock." + +"Your son--" said the elder lady. + +"Take me to him at once, I pray you! Let me see him! I am his mother! +Who shall keep me from him?" + +"Mother," said Barton, stepping up and placing his hands about her, +"don't you feel it? Henry is dead. I knew it ere we stepped in." + +"Dead! who says he is dead? He is not dead!" + +"Tell her," said Barton; "she is heroic: let her know the worst." + +"Take me to him!" she said, as they remained silent. + +Up the stairs, in a dimly-lighted room, past two or three young men, +and a kind neighbor or two, they conducted her; and there, composed +as if in slumber, with his grand head thrown back, and his fine strong +face fully upward, she found her third-born, growing chill in death. +She sprang forward--arrested herself when within a step of him, and +gazed. The light passed from her own eye, and the warmth from her +face; a spasm shook her, and nothing more. + +She did not shriek; she did not faint; she made no outcry,--scarcely +a visible sign; but steadily and almost stonily she gazed on her dead, +until the idea of the awful change came fully to her. The chill passed +from her face and manner; and seating herself on the bed,--"You won't +mind me, ladies. You can do no more for him. Leave him to me for a +little;" and she bent over and kissed his pallid lips, and laid her +face tenderly to his, and lifted with her thin fingers the damp masses +of his hair, brown and splendid, like Bart's, but darker, and without +the wave. + +"What a grand and splendid man you had become, Henry! and I may toy +with and caress you now, as when you were a soft and beautiful baby, +and you will permit me!" and lifting herself up, she steadfastly gazed +at his emaciated face and shrunken temples, and opening his bosom, and +baring its broad and finely-formed contour, she scanned it closely. + +"Oh, why could not I see and know, and be warned! I thought he could +not die! Oh, I thought that all I had would remain! that in their +father God had taken all he would reclaim from me! that I should go, +and together we should adorn a place where they should come to us! Oh, +Merciful Father!" and the storm of agony, such as uproots and sweeps +away weak natures, came upon her. + +As for Barton, his sensibilities were stunned and paralyzed, while +his mind was left to work free and clear. All his anguish was for his +mother; for himself, the moment had not come. He was appalled to feel +the almost indifference with which he looked upon the remains of +his manly and high-souled brother, and he repeated over and over to +himself: "Henry is dead! he is dead! Don't you hear? don't you know? +He is dead! Why don't you mourn?" + +An hour later, came a gentle tap at the door. Barton went to find Mrs. +Hitchcock standing there. + +"Your mother must be aroused and taken away. My mother and I will take +you to her house. She must be cared for now." + +"Mother," said Bart, taking her lightly in his arms, "these dear good +ladies must care for you. Let me take you out; and our dear Henry must +be cared for, too." + +How unnatural his voice sounded to him! Had he slain his brother, that +he should care so little?--that his voice should sound so hoarse and +hollow? + +His mother was passive in his hands,--wearied, broken, and +overwhelmed. He carried her across a small open space, and into a +large house, where her kind hostess received and cherished her as only +women experienced and chastened by sorrow can. + +Barton was conducted to a spacious, cool room, luxurious to his eyes; +yet he felt no weariness, but somehow supernaturally strained up to an +awful tension. + +"Why don't I shriek, and tear my hair, and make some fitting moan over +this awful loss? Why can't I feel it? O God! am I a wretch without +nature, or heart, or soul? He is dead! Why should he die, and now, +plucked and torn up by the root, just at flowering? What a vile +economy is this! what a waste and incompleteness! and the world full +of drivellers and dotards, that it would gladly be quit of. Wasn't +there space and breath for him? Why should such qualities be so +bestowed, to be so wasted? Why kindle such a light, to quench it so +soon in the dark river? What a blunder! Why was not I taken?" + +Why? Oh, weak, vain questioner! + +He threw off part of his clothing, and lay down on the bed and slept. +He awoke, offended and grieved that the sun should shine. Why was +it not hidden by thick clouds, and why should they not weep? But why +should they, if he did not? And what business had the birds to be +glad and joyous, and the perfume of flowers to steal out on the bright +air? + +He knew he was wrong. He was no longer angry and defiant, but his +grief was dry and harsh, and his sensibilities creaked like a dry +axle. + +He found his mother tender, calm, and pitying him. Awful as was the +bereavement to her, she felt that the loss was, after all, to him. +Her strong nature, quivering and bleeding under the blow, had righted +itself, and the sweet influence of faith and hope was coming up in +her heart. She saw Barton with his pallid face, and steady but bright +eyes. She knew that she never quite understood, had never quite +fathomed, his nature. + +Gentle voices, assuaging hands, and sweet charities were about the +stricken ones; and pious hands, with all Christian observances, +ministered to their beautiful dead. Nothing more could be done; and +before mid-day Barton, with his mother, started on their return, to +be followed at evening by the remains of the loved one, arrayed for +sepulture. + +Barton, with every faculty of mind intensely strong and clear, and +weighted with the great calamity to absolute gravity, had struck those +he met as a marvel of clear apprehension and perception of all the +surroundings and proprieties of his painful position. The younger +members of the Painesville Bar, who had begun to know and love their +young brother, had gathered about him in his illness, and now came +forward to take charge of and prepare his remains for final rest, and +to render to his friends the kindness of refined charity. Barton knew +that somehow they looked curiously at him, as he introduced himself to +them, and fancied that his dazed and dreamy manner was singular; but +knew that such considerate and kind, such brotherly young men, would +make allowances for him. + +When they gathered silently to take leave, he turned: "Gentlemen, you +know our obligations to you. Think of the most grateful expression +of them, and think I would so express them if I could. Some day I may +more fittingly thank you." + +They thought he never could. He remembered the fitting words to Mrs. +Hitchcock and her mother, Mrs. Marshall, and drove away, with his +pale, silent mother. + +All the way home in a dream. Something awful had happened, and it was +not always clear what it was, or how it had been brought about. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE STORM. + + +About midnight the Painesville hearse drove up, accompanied by the +four young pall-bearers, of the Painesville Bar, who attended the +remains of their young brother. The coffin was deposited in the little +parlor, and the carriages drove to Parker's for the night. + +The stricken and lonely mother was in the sanctity of her own room. +The children had cried themselves to sleep and forgetfulness. The +brother, who had been sent for, could not reach home until the next +morning. + +Barton had declined the offers of kind friends to remain, and was +alone with his dead. The coffin-lid had been removed, and he lifted +the dead-cloth from the face. He could not endure the sharp angle of +the nose, that so stabbed up into the dim night, unrelieved by the +other features. + +The wrath of a strong, deep nature, thoroughly aroused, is sublime; +its grief, when stirred to its depths, is awful. Barton knew now +what had happened and what he had lost. The acuteness of his fine +organization had recovered its sharpest edge. The heavens had been +darkened for him nearly a year before, but now the solid earth had +been rent and one-half cloven away, and that was the half that +held the only hopes he had. He didn't calculate this now. Genius, +intellect, imagination, courage, pride, scorn, all the intensities of +his nature, all that he supposed he possessed, all that lay hidden +and unsuspected, arose in their might to overcome him now. He did not +think, he did not aspire, or hope, or fear, or dream, or remember: he +only felt, and bled, and moaned low, hopeless, helpless moans. If it +is given to some natures to enjoy intensely, so such correspondingly +suffer; and Bart, alone with his pale, cold, dead brother, through +this deep, silent night, abandoned himself utterly to the first +anguish at his loss, and it was wise. As it is healthful and needful +for young children to cry away their pains and aches, so the stricken +and pained soul finds relief in pouring itself out in oversweeping +grief. + +The storm swept by and subsided, and Bart, kneeling by the coffin of +his brother, in the simple humility of a child, opened his heart +to the pitying eye of the Great Father. His lips did not move, but +steadily and reverently he turned to that sweet nearness of love and +compassion. Finally he asked that every unworthy thought, passion, +folly, or pride, might be exorcised from his heart and nature; and +then, holding himself in this steady and now sweet contemplation and +silent communion, a great calm came into his uplifted soul, and he +slept. And, as he passed from first slumber to oblivious and profound +sleep, there floated, through a celestial atmosphere, a radiant cloud, +on which was reclining a form of light and beauty. He thought it must +be his departed brother, but it turned fully towards him, and the face +was the face of Julia, with sweetest and tenderest compassion and love +in her eyes; and he slept profoundly. + +In the full light of the early morning, the elder brother stole into +the room, to be startled and awed by the pale faces of his dead and +his sleeping brothers, now so near each other, and never before so +much alike. How kingly the one in death! How beautiful the other in +sleep! And while he held his tears in the marvellous presence, his +pale, sweet mother came in, and placed her hand silently in his, +and gazed; and then the young boys, with their bare feet; and so the +silent, the sleeping, and the dead, were once more together. + + * * * * * + +At mid-day, those who had heard of the event gathered at the Ridgeley +house, sad-faced and sorrow-stricken. The family had always been much +esteemed, and Henry had been nearly as great a favorite as was Morris, +and all shared in the hope and expectation of his future success and +eminence. Uncle Aleck came, feeble and heart-stricken. A sweet prayer, +a few loving words, a simple hymn, and the young pall-bearers carried +out their pale brother, and, preceding the hearse in their carriage, +followed by the stricken ones and the rest in carriages and on foot, +the little procession went sadly to the burying-ground. There a +numerous company, attracted from various parts where the news had +reached, were assembled and awaiting the interment. The idle and +curious were rewarded by the sight of a hearse, and the presence of +the deputation of the Painesville Bar, and impressed with a sense of +the importance and consideration of the young man in whose honor such +attentions were bestowed. + +The ceremony of interment was short, and of the simplest. The +committing of the dead to final rest in the earth, is always +impressive. Man's innate egotism always invests the final hiding +away of the remains of one of his race in perpetual oblivion, with +solemnity and awe. One of the lords has departed; let man and nature +observe and be impressed. + +Uncle Aleck was too feeble to go to the grave. + +The mourners--the mother sustained by Barton, and Morris, attended by +his promised bride, a sweet and beautiful girl, and the two young +boys so interesting in their childish sorrow, so few in number, and +unsupported by uncles, aunts or cousins--were objects of unusual +interest and commiseration. But now, when the last act was performed +for them, and the burial hymn had been sung, there was no one to speak +for them the usual thanks for these kindnesses, and just as this came +painfully to the sensibilities of the thoughtful, Barton uncovered his +head and said the few needed words in a clear, steady voice, with such +grace, that matronly women would gladly have kissed him; and young +maidens noticed, what they had observed before, that there was +something of nameless attraction in his face and manner. + +Kind hands and sympathizing hearts were about the Ridgeleys, to +solace, cheer and help; but the great void in their circle and hearts, +only God and time could fill. The heart, when it loses out of it one +object of tenderness and love, only contracts the closer and more +tenderly about what it has left. + + * * * * * + +Time elapses. It kindly goes forward and takes us with it. No matter +how resolutely we cling to darkness and sorrow, time loosens +our hearts, dries our tears, and while we declare we will not be +comforted, and reproach ourselves, as the first poignancy of grief +consciously fades, yet we are comforted. The world will not wait for +us to mourn. The objects of love and of hate we may bear along with +us, but distance will intervene between us and the sources of deep +sorrow. + +So far as Bart was concerned, his nature was in the main healthy, +with only morbid tendencies, and the great blow of his brother's death +seemed in some way to restore the equilibrium of his mind, and leave +it to act more freely, under guidance of the strong common sense +inherited from his mother. He knew he must not linger about his +brother's grave and weep. + +He knew now that he was entirely upon his own resources. His brother +Morris's speculations, and dashing system of doing things, had already +hopelessly involved him, and Bart knew that no aid could be expected +from him. He had returned to Painesville, and closed up the few +matters of his brother Henry; had written to Ranney, at Jefferson, +and already had resumed his books with a saddened and sobered +determination. He supposed that Henry had died in consequence of a too +close and long-continued application to his studies; and while this +admonished him, he still believed that his own elasticity and power of +endurance would carry him forward and through, unscathed. + +He began also to mingle a little with others, and to take an interest +in their daily affairs. People affected to find him changed, and +vastly for the better. "He's had enough to sober him." "It is well he +has been warned, and heeds it." "God will visit with judgments, until +the thoughtless forbear," and other profound and Christian remarks +were made concerning him. As if Providence would cut off the best +and most promising, for such indirect and uncertain good as might, or +might not be produced in another less worthy! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +A LAW-SUIT (TO BE SKIPPED). + + +A young lover's first kiss, a young hunter's first deer, and a young +lawyer's first case, doubtless linger in their several memories, as +events of moment. + +Bart had tried his first case before a justice of the peace, been +beaten, and was duly mortified. It is very likely he was on the wrong +side, but he did not think so; and if he had thought so, he would +not have been fully consoled. A poorer advocate than he could have +convinced himself that he was right, and fail, as he did, to convince +the court. It was a case of little importance to any but the parties. +To them, every case is of the gravest moment. He acquitted himself +creditably: showed that he understood the case, examined his +witnesses, and presented it clearly. + +Others came to him, and he advised with caution and prudence; and as +Fall approached, he was in request in various small matters; men were +surprised at the modesty of his deportment, and the gentleness of his +speech. Instead of provoking his opponents, and answering back, as was +to be expected of him, he was conciliating and forbearing. + +A case finally arose, of unusual importance in the domestic tribunals; +it attracted much attention, helped to bring him forward in a small +way, and gained him much reputation among some persons whose esteem +was enviable. + +Old man Cole, "Old King Cole," as the boys derisively called him, an +inoffensive little man, with a weak, limp woman for a wife, and three +or four weaker and limper children, had for many years vegetated on +one corner of an hundred-and-sixty acres of woods, having made but +a small clearing, and managed in some unknown way to live on it. His +feeble condition exposed him to imposition, and he was the butt for +the unthinking, and victim of the unscrupulous and unruly. For some +years his land, a valuable tract, had been coveted by several greedy +men, and especially by one Sam Ward. Failing to induce Cole to sell +what right it was admitted he had, Ward, as was supposed, attempted +to intimidate, and finally to annoy Cole to such an extent, that for +peace and safety he would willingly part with his possession. He was +one of the earliest settlers, had become attached to his land, and +declined to be driven off. + +A lawless set of young men and boys were Ward's agents, although his +connection with them was never made very apparent, and had committed +various depredations upon the old man; until one night they made a +raid upon his premises, cut down several fruit-trees, filled up his +spring, tore down his old barn, and committed various acts of trespass +of a grave character. It would seem as if some intelligence controlled +their movements; no act criminal by the statutes of Ohio had been +committed, and, so far as was suspected, none but those under age had +been concerned in the affair. + +Poor old Cole, an object of derision, was barely within common +sympathy; and living remote, few knew of, and fewer cared for his +misfortunes. He applied for advice to Bart, who was indignant at the +recital, and entered upon an investigation of the outrage with great +energy. He was satisfied that the fathers of the trespassers could not +be held for their acts, that no breach of the criminal laws had been +committed; but that the boys themselves could be made liable in an +action, and that on failure to pay the judgment, they could themselves +be taken in execution and committed to jail. He at once commenced +a suit for the trespass before a magistrate, against all whom he +suspected. + +The commencement of the suit caused greater excitement then the +perpetration of the outrage. Many of the young men belonged to +respectable families, while many were old offenders, who had been +permitted to escape for fear of provoking graver misdemeanors. It was +known that Bart had taken up the case, and there was a feeling that he +had at least the courage to encounter the dangerous wrath of the young +scamps; the only ground of apprehension was that he had mistaken the +law. The popular impression was that an action could not be maintained +against minors. + +On the return-day of the summons Barton appeared, and demanded a jury, +then allowable, and the time for trial was fixed for the fifth day +afterwards. + +In that day, with the exception of one or two small lawyers at +Chardon, and Ford at Burton, there were none within twenty-five +miles of Newbury, and the legal field was gleaned in the magistrates' +courts, as in all new countries, by pettifoggers, of whom nearly every +township was made luminous with one. Of these, the acknowledged head +was Brace. In ordinary life he was a very good sort of a man, not +without capacity, but conceited, obstinate, and opinionated; he never +had any law learning. In his career before justices of the peace, he +was bold, adroit, unscrupulous, coarse, browbeating, and sometimes +brutal; anything that occurred to his not uninventive mind, as likely +in any way to help him on or out, he resorted to without hesitation. +At this time he was in full career, and was constantly employed, +going into two or three counties, occasionally meeting members of the +profession, who held him in detestation, and whom he was as likely to +drive out of court as he was to be worsted by them. + +He had been employed by the young scamps to defend them. He and Bart +had already met, and the latter was worsted in the case, and had +received from Brace the usual Billingsgate. He was on hand well +charged on the day for the appearance of the defendants, and was at no +pains to conceal the contempt he felt for his young opponent. + +Bart said no more than the occasion demanded, and seemingly paid no +attention to Brace. + +The magistrate, a man of plain, hard sense, adjourned the case to a +large school-house, and invited Judge Markham to sit in, and preside +at the trial, to which the Judge consented, which secured a decorous +and fair hearing. + +On the day, parties, witnesses, court, jury, and counsel, were on +hand--a larger crowd than Newbury had seen for years. The case was +called and the jury sworn, when Brace arose, and with a loud nourish +demanded that the plaintiff be nonsuited, on the ground of the nonage +of the defendants, and concluded by expressing his surprise at the +ignorance of the plaintiff's counsel: everybody knew that a minor +could not be sued; he even went so far as to express his pity for +the plaintiff. Bart answered that it did not appear that any of the +defendants were under age. If they were infants, and wanted to escape +on the cry of baby, they must plead it, if their counsel knew what +that meant; so that the plaintiff might take issue upon it, and the +court be informed of the facts. The court held this to be the law, and +Brace filed his plea of infancy. Bart then read from the Ohio statutes +that when a minor was sued in an action of tort, as in this case, the +court should appoint a guardian _ad litem,_ and the _parol_ should not +_demur_; and he moved the court to appoint guardians _ad litem_, for +the defendants. + +Brace's eyes sparkled; and springing to his feet, he thundered out: +"The parol shall not demur--the parol shall not demur. I have got this +simpleton where I wanted him! I didn't 'spose he was fool enough to +run into this trap; I set it on purpose for him: anybody else would +have seen it; anything will catch him. The case can go no farther; +the phrase, may it please the court, is Latin, and means that the +case shall be dismissed. The _parol_, the plaintiff shall not _demur_, +shall not have his suit. Why didn't Ford explain this matter to this +green bumpkin, and save his client the costs?" + +Barton reminded the court that the statute made it the duty of the +court to appoint guardians _ad litem_, which was a declaration that +the case was to go on; if it was to stop, no guardians were needed. +Brace had said the terms were Latin; he presumed that his Latin +was like his law; he thought it was old law French. He produced a +law--dictionary, from which it appeared that the meaning was, the +case should not be delayed, till the defendants were of age. Guardians +should be appointed for them, and the case proceed, and so the court +ruled. + +Bart went up immensely in popular estimation. Any man who knew a word +of Latin was a prodigy. Bart not only knew Latin, but the difference +between that and old law French. Who ever heard of that before? and +he had lived among them from babyhood, and they now looked upon him in +astonishment. "It does beat hell, amazingly!" said Uncle Josh, aside. + +After brief consultation the court appointed the fathers of the +defendants their guardians, when Bart remarked that his learned and +very polite opponent having found nurses for his babies, he would +proceed with the case, and called his witnesses. + +Against two or three of the ringleaders, the evidence was doubtful. +When Bart moved to discharge three of the younger of the defendants, +Brace opposed this. Bart asked him if he was there to oppose a +judgment in favor of his own clients? The court granted his motion; +when Bart put the young men on the stand as witnesses, and proved his +case conclusively against all the rest. + +What wonderful strategy this all seemed to be to the gaping crowd; and +all in spite of Brace, whom they had supposed to be the most adroit +and skilful man in the world; and who, although he objected, and +blustered, and blowed, really appeared to be a man without resources +of any sort. + +Barton rested his case. + +Brace called his witnesses, made ready to meet a case not made by +the plaintiff, and Bart quietly dissmissed them one after the other +without a word. Then Ward, who had kept in the background, was called, +in the hope to save one of the defendants. Him Bart cross-examined, +and it was observed that after a question or two he arose and turned +upon him, and plied him with questions rapid and unexpected, until +he was embarrassed and confused. Brace, by objections and argument, +intended as instructions to the witness, only increased his +perplexity, and he finally sat down with the impression that he had +made a bad exhibition of himself, and had damaged the case. + +It was now midnight, when the evidence was closed, and Barton proposed +to submit the case without argument. Brace objected. He wanted +to explain the case, and clear up the mistakes, and expose the +rascalities of the plaintiff's witnesses; and the trial was adjourned +until the next morning. + +When the case was resumed the following day, Bart, in a clear, simple +way, stated his case, and the evidence in support of it, making two or +three playful allusions to his profound and accomplished opponent. + +Brace followed on full preparation for the defence. Of course it was +obvious, even to him, that he was hopelessly beaten; and mortified and +enraged, he emptied all the vials of his wrath and vituperation upon +the head of Bart, his client and witnesses, and sat down, at the end +of an hour, exhausted. + +When Bart arose to reply, he seemed to stand a foot taller than he +ever appeared before. Calmly and in a suppressed voice he restated +his case, and, with a few well--directed blows, demolished the legal +aspects of the defence. He then turned upon his opponent; no restraint +was on him now. He did not descend to his level, but cut and thrust +and flayed him from above. Even the Newbury mob could now see the +difference between wit and vulgarity, and were made to understand that +coarseness and abuse were not strength. His address to the court was +superb; and when he finally turned to the jury, with a touching sketch +of the helplessness of the plaintiff, and of the lawless violence +of the defendants, who had long been a nuisance, and had now become +dangerous to peace and good order, and submitted the case, the crowd +looked and heard with open-mouthed wonder. Had a little summer cloud +come down, with thunder, lightning and tempest, they would not have +been more amazed. When he ceased, a murmur, which ran into applause, +broke from the cool, acute, observing and thinking New Englanders and +their children, who were present. + +Judge Markham promptly repressed the disorder, and in a few words gave +the case to the jury, who at once returned a verdict for the largest +amount within the court's jurisdiction; judgment was promptly +rendered, execution for the bodies of the defendants issued, and they +were arrested. + +The excitement had now become intense. Here were half a score of young +men in the hands of the law, under orders to be committed to jail. No +one remembered such a case in Newbury. Breaches of the law, in that +usually orderly community, were unknown, until the acts which gave +rise to this suit, and some fainter demonstrations of the same +character. The poor youths and their friends gathered helpless and +anxious about Brace, who could suggest nothing. Finally, Barton came +forward, and offered to take the promissory notes of the parties and +their fathers, for the amount of the judgment and costs, and release +them from arrest, which offer they gladly accepted, with many thanks +to their prosecutor; and the blow which he thus dealt was the end of +disorder in Newbury. + +For the time being Cole was left at peace, and enjoyed more +consideration than had ever been conceded to him before. He was +destined, however, not long after, to appear in the higher court, +to defend the doubtful title of his property, as will appear in the +progress of this narrative. + +As a general rule, the people of new communities are more curious +and interested in law--suits, and trials, and lawyers, than in +almost anything else to which their attention can be called. Lawyers, +especially, are the objects of their admiration and astonishment. +Unaccustomed to mental labor, conscious of an inability to perform it, +and justly regarding it as holding the first place in human effort, +the power and skill to conduct and maintain a long-continued mental +conflict, to pursue and examine witnesses, answer questions as well as +ask them, make and meet objections, make impromptu speeches and argue +difficult propositions, and, finally, to deliver off-hand, an +address of hours in length, full of argument, illustration, sometimes +interspersed with humor, wit, and pathos, and sometimes really +eloquent, is by them always regarded, and not without reason, as a +marvel that cannot be witnessed without astonishment. + +And here was this young Bart Ridgeley, who had been nowhere, had read +next to nothing, whom they had esteemed a lazy, shiftless fellow, +without capability for useful and thrifty pursuits, and who had in +their presence, for the last two days, taken up a hopeless case, and +conducted it against a man who, in their hearts, they had supposed was +more than a match for Joshua R. Giddings or Chief Justice Hitchcock, +beaten and baffled him, and finally thrashed him out of all semblance +of an advocate. + +When the case was over, and he came out, how quickly they made way for +him, and eagerly closed in behind and followed him out, and looked, +and watched, and waited for a word or a look from him. "What did I +tell you?" "What do you say now?" "I allus knew it was in 'im." "He'll +do," etc., rained about him as he went into the open air. + +Greer had attended the trial, and was one of the warmest admirers of +Bart's performance. Nobody knew much about this man, except that he +was often on hand, well dressed, drove good horses, was open, free and +pleasant, with plenty of leisure and money, always well received, and +often sought after. He had, at the first, taken a real liking to Bart; +and now, when the latter came out, he pleasantly approached him, and +offered to carry him home in his carriage, an offer the tired youth +was glad to accept. + +On their way, he mentioned to Bart something about a very profitable +and pleasant business, conducted by a few high-minded and honorable +gentlemen, without noise or excitement, which consisted in the sale +of very valuable commodities. They employed agents--young, active, and +accomplished men, and on terms very remunerative, and he thought it +very likely that if Bart would enter their service, it could be made +much for his advantage to do so; he would call again after Bart had +thought it over. + +His remarks made an impression on Bart's mind, and excited his +curiosity, and he remembered what Henry had said about Greer when at +home. + +Judge Markham had been very much impressed by Bart's management of his +case; perhaps to say that he was very much astonished, would better +express its effect upon him. He had always given him credit for a +great deal of light, ready, dashing talent, but was wholly unprepared +for the exhibition of thought, reflection, and logical power which he +had witnessed; the young man's grave, cautious and dignified manner +won much upon him, and he was surprised when he reflected how slender +was the ground of his dislike, and how that dislike had somehow +disappeared. Then he recalled the favorable estimate which his wife +had always put upon the qualities of Bart, and that he had usually +found her opinions of persons accurate. The frank appeal of Bart to +him was manly, and almost called for some acknowledgment; and he felt +that the invisible barrier between them was unpleasant. After all, was +not this young man one of the few destined to distinction, and on all +accounts would it not be well to give him countenance? And in this the +Judge was not wholly politic. He felt that it would be a good thing to +do, to serve this struggling young man, and he came out of the crowded +room with the settled purpose of taking Bart home to his mother's, if +he would ride with him, let what would come of it. He would frankly +tell him what he thought of his conduct of his case, and at least open +the way to renewed intercourse. + +He was detained for a moment, to answer questions, and got out just +in time to see Bart, apparently pleased, get into Greer's carriage and +ride away. The Judge looked thoughtful at this; and a close observer +would have noticed a serious change in the expression of his face. + +Of course he was well and intimately known to all parties present, +and his frank and cordial manners left him always open to the first +approach. He listened to the comments upon the trial, which all turned +upon Bart's efforts, and the Judge could easily see that the young +advocate had at once become the popular idol. He was asked what he +thought of Bart's speech, and replied that one could hardly judge of +a single effort, but that the same speech in the higher courts would +undoubtedly have gained for its author much reputation, and that if +Bart kept on, and did himself justice, he was certainly destined to +high distinction. It was kind, judicious, and all that was deserved, +but it was not up to the popular estimate, and one remarked that "the +Judge never did like him"; another, "that the Judge was afraid that +Julia would take a liking to Bart, and he hoped she would"; and a +third, "that Bart was good enough for her, but he never did care for +girls, who were all after him." + +How freely the speech of the common people runs! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE WARNING. + + +Two or three things occurred during the Autumn which had some +influence upon the fortunes of Barton. + +Five or six days after the trial, he received a letter, postmarked +Auburn, which read as follows: + + "Beware of Greer. + Don't listen to him. + Be careful of your associations." + +Only three lines, with the fewest words: not another word, line, mark, +or figure on any side of it. The hand was bold and free, and entirely +unknown to him. The paper was fine-tinted note, and Bart seemed to +catch a faint odor of violets as he opened it; a circumstance which +reminded him that a few days before he had found on the grave of his +brother, a faded bouquet of flowers. There was perhaps, no connection +between them, but they associated themselves in his mind. Some maiden, +unknown to him, had cherished the memory of his brother, may have +loved him; and had secretly laid this offering on his resting-place. +How sweet was the thought to him! Who was she? Would he ever know? She +had heard something of this Greer--there was something bad or wrong +about him; Henry may have spoken to her about the man; and she may +have seen or known of Greer's taking him home, and had written him +this note of warning. The hand was like that of a man, but no man in +Ohio would use such paper, scented with violets. How queer and strange +it was! and how the mind of the imaginative youth worked and worried, +but not unpleasantly, over it! Of course, if the note was from a +woman, she must have written because he was Henry's brother; and it +was, in a way, from him, and to be heeded, although Henry had himself +been favorably impressed by Greer. The warning was not lost upon him, +although it may not have been necessary. + +A few days later, the elegant and leisurely Greer made his appearance; +and after complimenting Bart upon his success in an easy, roundabout +way, approached the subject of his call; and Bart was duly impressed +that it arose from considerations of favor and regard to him, +that Greer now sought him. The visitor referred to the rule among +gentlemen, which Bart must understand, of course, that what he +might communicate, as well as their whole interview, must be purely +confidential. The agents, he said, were selected with the utmost care, +and were usually asked to subscribe articles, and sworn to secrecy; +but that he had so much confidence in Bart, that this would not be +necessary. Bart, who listened impassively, said that he understood +the rule of implied confidence extended only to communications in +themselves right and honorable; and that of course Mr. Greer could +have no other to make to him. Greer inquired what he meant. Bart +said that if a man approached, with or without exacting a pledge of +confidence, and made him a proposition strictly honorable, he should +of course regard it as sacred; but if he proposed to him to unite in +a robbery, house-burning, or to pass counterfeit money, or commit any +breach of morality, he should certainly hold himself at liberty to +disclose it, if he deemed it necessary. "If I am, in advance, asked to +regard a proposed communication as confidential, I should understand, +of course, that the proposer impliedly pledged that it should be of +a character that a man of honor could listen to and entertain; of +course, Mr. Greer, you can have no other to make to me, and you know I +would not listen to any other." + +During this statement, made with the utmost courtesy, Bart looked +Greer steadily in the face, and received a calm, full, unwinking look +in return. Greer assured him that his notions of the ethics of honor, +while they were nice, were his own, and he was glad to act upon them; +that he was not on that day fully authorized to open up the matter, +but should doubtless receive full instructions in a day or two; and he +had called to-day more to keep his word with Bart than to enter upon +an actual business transaction. Nothing could be franker and more +open than his way and manner in saying this; and as he was trained to +keenness of observation, he may have detected the flitting smile that +just hovered on Bart's lips. After a little pleasant commonplace talk +of common things, the leisurely Greer took a cordial leave, and never +approached Bart but once again. + +At the Whig nominating convention, for the county of Geanga, that +Fall, Major Ridgeley, who had, by a vote of the officers of his +regiment, become its Colonel, was a candidate for the office of +sheriff. He was popular, well-known, and his prospects fair. The +office was attractive, its emoluments good, and it was generally +sought after by the best class of ambitious men in the counties. + +He was defeated in the convention through a defection of his supposed +friends, which he charged, justly or otherwise, upon Judge Markham. +The disappointment was bitter, and he was indignant, of course. +Like Bart, when he thought a mishap was without remedy, he neither +complained nor asked explanations. When he and the Judge next met, +it was with cool contempt on his side, and with surprise, and then +coldness, on the part of Markham. Their words were few and courteous, +but for the next eighteen months they avoided each other. Of course, +Bart sympathized with his brother Morris; although he did not suppose +the Judge was ever committed, still he felt that he and all his +friends should have stood by his brother, and apprehended that the +Judge's dislike to him may have influenced his course. However that +may have been, Judge Markham never approached Bart, who continued to +act upon his old determination to avoid the whole Markham family. + +His engagements took the Judge to the State capital for the winter, +where, with his wife and Julia, he remained until the early spring, +following; as did also General and Mrs. Ford. + +Barton undertook the school in his mother's neighborhood for the +winter, with the understanding that he might attend to calls in the +line of his proposed profession, which grew upon his hands. He pushed +his studies with unremitting ardor; he had already made arrangements +with Mr. Ranney to enter his office on the first of the April +following, and hoped to secure an admission in the next September, +when he should seek a point for business, to which he proposed to +remove his mother and younger brothers, as soon afterwards as his +means would warrant. + +His friend Theodore had gone away permanently, from Newbury, and the +winter passed slowly and monotonously to Bart. He knew, although +he would not admit to himself, that the principal reason of his +discontent was the absence of Julia. What was she to him? What could +she ever be? and yet, how dreary was Newbury--the only place he had +ever loved---when she was away. Of course she would wed, some time, +and was undoubtedly much admired, and sought, and courted, by elegant +and accomplished men, this winter, upon whom she smiled, and to whom +she gave her hand when she met them, and who were permitted to dance +with her, and be near her at any time. And what was it all to him? How +sore, after all, his heart was; and how he hated and cursed himself, +that he must still think of her! He would go forever and ever away, +and ever so far away, and would hear and think of her no more. But +when she came back, with March, he somehow felt her return, and Spring +seemed naturally to come with her; and bright thoughts, and beautiful +and poetic figures and images, would arrange themselves in couplets +and stanzas, with her in the centre, in spite of him. + +Then came sugar making, with life and health of spirit, in the woods. +His brother was arranging to dispose of his interests, and had gone +further West, to look for a new point, for new enterprises. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +LOST. + + +March and sugar making had gone, and Bart had completed his scanty +arrangements to depart also; and no matter what the future might have +for him, he knew that he was now leaving Newbury; that whatever might +happen, his home would certainly be elsewhere; although it would +forever remain the best, and perhaps sole home of his heart and +memory. + +What he could do for his mother he had done. His limited wardrobe was +packed. He went to the pond, to all the dear and cherished places in +the woods; and one night he was guilty of the folly, as he knew it +was, of wandering up the State road, past Judge Markham's house. He +did not pretend to himself that it was not with the hope of seeing +Julia, but he only passed the darkened house where she lived, and went +disappointed away. He would go on the morrow, and when it came, he +sent his trunk up to Hiccox's, intending to walk down in the evening, +and intercept the stage, as Henry had done. + +He went again to his brother's grave, and there, on its head, was an +almost fresh wreath of wild flowers! He was unmanned; and, kneeling, +touched the dead children of the Spring with his lips, and dropped +tears upon them. How grateful he was that a watchful love was there to +care for this consecrated place, and he felt that he could not go +that night. What mattered one day? He would wait till to-morrow, +he thought, but was restless and undecided. George left him at the +cemetery, and went to the post-office, and was to have gone with +Edward to see him off, on the stage. As the time to leave approached, +Bart found his disinclination to go even stronger; and he finally told +his mother he would remain until the next day. + +She, unwomanlike, did not like the idea of his yielding to this +reluctance to go. "He was ready, nothing detained him, why not have +the final pain of going over at once?" + +He made no reply, but lounged restlessly about. + +At about nine o'clock George came bursting in, with his eyes flashing, +and his golden hair wet with perspiration; and catching his breath, +and reducing and restraining his voice, cried out: "Julia Markham is +lost in the woods, and they can't find her!" The words struck Bart +like electricity, and at once made him his best self. + +"Lost, George?" taking him by both hands, and speaking coolly, "tell +me all about it." + +A few great gasps had relieved George, and the cool, firm hands of +Bart had fully restored his quick wits. + +"She and Nell Roberts had been to Coe's, and Orville started to go +home with Julia, and he did go down to Judge Markham's fields, where +he left her." + +"Well?" + +"She did not go home, nor anywhere, and they have been looking for +her, all through the woods, everywhere." + +"All through what woods, Georgie?" + +"Down between Coe's and the State road." + +"They will never find her there; there is a new chopping, back of +Judge Markham's fields, which she mistook for the fields, and when +she found out the mistake she turned back to the old road, and I will +wager the world that she went into 'the woods,' confused and lost." +After a moment--"Mother, put some of your wine in my hunting-flask, +and give me something that can be eaten. Edward, bring me two of those +bundles of hickory; and George, let me have your hatchet and belt." + +He spoke in his ordinary voice, but he looked like one inspired. +Throwing off his coat, and arraying himself in a red "wamus," and +replacing his boots with heavy, close-fitting brogans, he was ready. + +"Boys," said he, "go about and notify all in the neighborhood to meet +at Markham's, at daylight; and tell them for God's sake, if she is not +found, to form a line, and sweep through the west woods. If I am +not back by daylight, push out and do all you can. Mother, don't be +anxious for me. If it storms and grows cold, you know I am a born +woodsman. I know now what kept me." + +"I am anxious, Barton, only that you may find her. God go with you!" + +With the other things, Edward placed in his hands a long wax taper, +made for the sugar camp, lighted, and with a kiss to his mother, and a +cheery good-night to the boys, he sprang out. + +As Julia did not return at dark, her father and mother supposed she +had stopped with Nell Roberts. Mrs. Markham remembered the adventure +which signalized her last walk from Coe's, and was anxious; and the +Judge went down to Roberts's for her. Nell had been home one hour, and +said Orville had gone home with Julia. A messenger was hurried off to +Coe's, and word was sent through the neighborhood, to call out the men +and boys. It had been years since an alarm and a hunt for the lost had +occurred. The messenger returned with young Coe, who said that he went +with Miss Markham to within sight of her father's fields, when she +insisted that he should return, and he did. + +Cool and collected, the Judge and his party, with lanterns and +torches, accompanied by Coe, proceeded to the point where he parted +with Julia, when it was discovered that what she had mistaken for +her father's fields, was a new opening in the woods, a considerable +distance back from them. It was supposed that in endeavoring to find +a passage through, or around the fallen timber, she had lost her way. +Obviously, if she went back towards the old road, which was a broad +opening through the woods, she would in no event cross it, and must +be somewhere within the forest, east of it, and between the State +road and the one which led from it to Coe's. Through these woods, with +flashing torch and gleaming lantern, with shout and loud halloa, the +Judge and his now numerous party swept. As often as a dry tree or +combustible matter was found, it was set on fire, there being no +danger of burning over the forest, wet with the rains of Spring. + +This forest covered hundreds of acres, traversed by streams and +gullies, and rocky precipices, rendered difficult of passage by fallen +trees, thickets, twining vines and briers. + +The weather had been intensely hot for the season, ominously so, for +the last two days, and on this day, the sun, after hanging like a +fiery ball in the thickening heavens, disappeared at mid-afternoon, +in the dark mass of vapor that gathered in the lower atmosphere. The +night came on early, with a black darkness, and while there was no +wind, there was a low, humming moan in the air, as if to warn +of coming tempest, and the atmosphere was already chill with the +approaching change. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BABES IN THE WOODS. + + +"There, Orville, here are our fields. I am almost home; now hurry back. +It is late. I am obliged to you." They had reached the opening, and +the young man turned back, and the young girl tripped lightly and +carelessly on; not to find the fence, as she expected, but an expanse +of fallen timber, huge trunks, immense jams of tree-tops, and numerous +piles of brush, under which the path was hidden. As she looked over +and across, in the gloomy twilight, trees seemed to stand thick and +high on the other side. Julia at once concluded that they had taken +a wrong path; and she thought that she remembered to have seen +one, which she and Barton passed, on the memorable night of their +adventure; and without attempting to traverse the chopping, or go +around it, she turned and hurried back to the old road. As she went, +she thought of what had then happened, and how pleasant it would be if +he were with her, and how bad it had all been since that time. + +When she got back to the old road, it seemed very strange, and as +if it had undergone some change; looking each way, for a moment, +undecided, she finally walked rapidly to the north, until she came to +a path leading to the left, which she entered, with a sense of relief, +and hurried forward. + +It was quite dark, silent, and gloomy in the woods, and she sped +on--on past huge trees, through open glades, down through little +sinks and swales, and up on high ground, until she came to an opening. +"Thank God! thank God!" cried the relieved and grateful child; "I am +out at last. How glad I am!" And she reached the margin of the woods, +to be confronted with an interminable black jungle of fallen and +decaying tree-trunks, limbs and thick standing brush, over which, and +out of which, stood the dense tops of young trees. She paused for +a moment, and turning to the left, thought to skirt about this +obstruction, until she should reach the fence and field, which she +was sure were now near her. On and on, and still on she went; over the +trunks of fallen trees, through tangles of brush and pools of water, +until, when she turned to look for the opening, she was alarmed and +dismayed to find that it had disappeared. Her heart now for the first +time sank within her. She listened, but no sound, save the ominous +moan in the air, came to her ear. The solemn, still, black night was +all about her. She looked up, and a cold, starless, dim blank was +all over her; and all around, standing thick, were cold, dark, silent +trees. She stood and tried to think back: where was she, and how +came she there? She knew she had once turned back, from something to +somewhere--to the old road, as she remembered; and it flashed across +her, that in the strange appearance of things, and in her confusion, +she had crossed it, and was in the awful, endless woods! How far had +she gone? If lost, had she wandered round and round, as lost folks do? +Then she thought of her dear, distracted mother, and of her brave +and kind father. She had been missed, and they were looking for her. +Everybody would hear of it, and would join in the hunt; and Barton +might hear of it, and if he did, she knew he would come to find her. +He was generous and heroic; and what a wonder and a talk it would all +make, and she didn't care if it did. Then she wondered if she had not +better stop and stand still, for fear she would go wrong. How awfully +dark it was, and the air was chilly. Did she really know which way +home was? And she strained her unseeing eyes intently for a moment, +and then closed them, to let the way come into her mind. That must +be the way, and she would go in that direction until she thought she +could make them hear; and then she would call. And ere she started, +amid the cold, unpitying trees, in her purity and innocence, that +savage nature reveres and respects, she knelt and prayed; she asked +for guidance and strength, and arose hopeful. But she found that she +was very weary: her feet were wet and cold, and when she was to start, +that she was confused and uncertain as to the direction. One more +invocation, and she went forward. How far or how long she travelled, +she had no idea. She paused to listen: no sound. Perhaps they would +now hear her, and she raised her voice, and called her father's name, +and again and again, with all her force, through the black, blank, +earless night, she sent her cry. + +As her voice went out, hope, and spirit, and strength went with it. +She trembled and wept, and tried once again to pray. She clasped her +hands; but suffocating darkness seemed to close over her, and she felt +lost, utterly and hopelessly lost! + +A sense of injustice, of ill-usage, came to her, and she dried her +eyes; she was young, and brave, and strong; and must; and would care +for herself. She should not perish; day would come some time, and she +should get out. She found she was very cold, and must arouse and exert +herself. Then came the thought and dread of wild animals; of that +awful beast; and she listened, and could hear their stealthy steps in +the dry leaves, and she shrunk from meeting the horrid glare of their +eyes. Oh, if Barton were only with her, just to drive them away! God +would protect him. + +There--as she could not help but stare into the black darkness, there +surely was the glare of their eyes, that horrid, yellowish-green, +glassy glare! and with a shriek she fled--not far, for she fell, and a +half swoon brought her a moment's oblivion; when the dead cold night, +and the dumb trees came back about her again. With the reaction she +arose, and found that she had lost her hood. She felt that a wild +beast had torn it from her head; and that she had taken his hot, brute +breath. + +Weak, hardly with the power of motion, she supported herself by the +trunk of a tree. "Father! Father God! a helpless, weak child calls +to Thee; show me my sin, let me repent of it; weak and lost, and +hopeless; sweet Saviour, with Thy loving sympathy, stay and help my +fainting heart. If it be Thy will that I perish, receive my spirit, +and let this weak, vain body, unmangled, be given back to my poor +grief-stricken parents. God and Saviour, hear me!" + +There now came to her ear the voice of running water. It had a sweet +sound of companionship and hope, and she made towards it, and soon +found herself on the banks of a wild and rapid stream. "Oh, thanks! +thanks!" she murmured, "this runs from darkness out to human +habitations, somewhere. It will lead out to daylight, and on its banks +are human homes, somewhere. Oh, give me strength to follow it, it is +so hard to perish here!" + +The wind had long been blowing, and had now risen to a tempest, bitter +and sharp from the north, and the trees were bending and breaking +under its fury. Julia was thoroughly chilled, and her feet were +benumbed with cold. She had been aware for some time that snow was +sifting over her, and rattling on the dry leaves under her feet. +She was dizzy, and almost overcome with sleep; and was conscious of +strange visions and queer voices, that seemed to haunt her senses. +Could she hold out till morning? She could not fix her wandering mind, +even on this question. She occasionally heard her own voice in broken +murmurs, but did not understand what she said. It was like the voice +of another. She knew her mouth was dry and parched with thirst, but +never thought of trying to drink from the stream, whose drowsy voice +ran through her wandering consciousness. The impulse to move on +remained long after all intelligent power of directing her movements +had left her; and blindly and mechanically, she staggered and reeled +about for a few or many minutes, until she sank to the earth unable +and unwilling to struggle further. Her last act was with pure womanly +instinct, to draw her torn and draggled skirts about her limbs and +feet. The faces of her father and mother, warm and sweet, were with +her for a moment, and she tried to think of her Heavenly Father; and +another face was all the time present, full of tenderness and love; +and then all faded into oblivion, blank and utter ... + +What was it? something whispered, or seemed to whisper in her heart as +vague consciousness returned, unutterably sweet; was it the voice +of an angel coming to bear her hence? Once again! and now her ear +caught--and still again--a voice of earth, clear; and it had power +to start her up from under the snow, that was surely weaving and +thickening her virgin winding-sheet. God in heaven! once again! +Strong, clear and powerful, it pealed through the arches of the +forest, overtopping the tempest. It was a voice she knew, and if aught +might, it would have called her back from death; as now, from a deadly +swoon. + +And once again, and nearer, with a cadence of impatience, and almost +doubt, a faint answer went back; and then a gleam of light; a broad, +wavering circle of glory, and Barton, with his flashing eyes, and +eager, flushed face, with his mass of damp curls filled with snow, and +dashed back, sprang with a glad cry to her side! + +"Barton!" she cried, trying to rise, and throwing out her hands to +him. + +"Oh, Julia! you are found! you are alive! Thank God! thank God!" +Throwing himself on his knees by her, and, clasping her cold hands +in his, and, in a paroxysm, pressing them to his lips and heart, and +covering them with kisses and with tears. + +"God sent you to me! God sent you to me!" murmured the poor, dear +grateful girl. + +Bart's self-command returned in a moment; he lifted her to her feet, +and supported her. "You are nearly frozen, and the snow had already +covered you. See what my mother sent to you," filling the top of his +flask and placing it to her lips. "It is nothing but old wine." How +revivingly it seemed to run through her veins! "I am very thirsty," +she said, and he brought her a full draught from the running stream. + +"Can you walk? let me carry you. We must get to some shelter." + +"I thought you would come. Where is my father?" + +"I am alone--may I save you?" + +"Oh, Barton!" + +"I have not seen your father; they are looking for you, miles away. +How under the heavens did you ever find your way here? How you must +have suffered! See! here is your hood!" placing it over her tangled +and dripping hair. "And let me put this on you." Removing his "wamus," +and putting her arms through the sleeves, he tied the lower corners +about her little waist, and buttoned the top over her bosom and +about her neck. He gave her another draught of wine, and paused for a +moment--"I must carry you." + +"Oh, I can walk!" said the revived girl, with vivacity. + +He lifted his nearly consumed torch, and conducted her to the stream. +"We must cross this, and find shelter on the other side." He let +himself at once from the abrupt bank, into the cold, swift water, +that came to his middle. "I must carry you over;" unhesitatingly +she stooped over to him, and was taken with one strong arm fully to +himself, while he held his torch with the other. He turned with her +then, and plunged across the creek, holding her above its waters. Its +deepest part ran next the bank where he entered; fortunately it was +not very wide, and he bore her safely to the opposite and lower bank. + +The other side was protected from the tempest, which was at its +greatest fury, by a high and perpendicular ledge of rocks which the +course of the creek followed, but leaving a narrow space of hard land +along the base. Under the shelter, Bart turned up stream with his +charge, occasionally lifting his torch and inspecting the mossy ledge. +Within a few feet of them the snow fell in wreaths and swirls, and +sometimes little eddies of wind sifted it over them. + +"Somewhere near here, is a place where they made shingles last summer, +and there was a shed against the rocks, if we could only find it." +Finally they doubled an abrupt angle in the nearly smooth wall, which +bent suddenly back from the stream, for many feet, making a semicircle +of a little space, and in the back of which Bart discovered the +anxiously looked-for shed;--a mere rude cover, on posts driven into +the ground. + +Under and about it were great quantities of dry shavings, and short +bits of wood, the hearts and saps of shingle blocks. To place a pile +of these on the margin of the creek, and apply his torch to them, took +but a moment; and in an instant a bright, white flame flashed and lit +up the little sheltered alcove. Another, and the almost overcome girl +was placed on a seat of soft, dry shavings, against the moss-grown +rock, under the rude roof, out of the reach of the snow or wind; and +another fire was lit of the dry shingle blocks, at her feet, from +which her saturated shoes were removed, and to which warmth was soon +restored. + +Barton now took from a pocket on the outside of the "wamus," a small +parcel, and produced some slices of tongue and bread, which the +famished girl ate with the relish and eagerness of a hungry child. +More wine, now mingled with water, completed her repast; and Bart made +further preparations for her comfort and rest. A larger mass of the +shavings so adjusted that she could recline upon them, was arranged +for her, which made an easy, springy couch; and as she lay wearily +back upon them, still others were placed about and over her, until, +protected as she was, warmth and comfort came to her. + +What a blessed sense of shelter, and safety, and peace, as from +heaven, fell upon the rescued girl's heart! And how exquisitely +delicious to be carried, and supported, and served by this beautiful +and heroic youth, who hovered about her so tenderly, and kneeling at +her feet, so gently and sweetly ministered to her! No thought of being +compromised, none of impropriety in the atmosphere of absolute purity, +came to cloud the stainless mind of the maiden. No memory of the past, +no thought of the future, was near her. She was lost, exhausted, and +dying, and God sent him to her; and she accepted him as from the hand +of God. He had restored, warmed and cheered her. She was under shelter +and protection, and now heavy with sleep, and still the storm raged +all about and over their heads, and the snow still fell within a few +feet of them, while in that little circle warmth and light pulsated, +like a tender human heart. + +When all was done that occurred to the tender, thoughtful youth, and +the eyes of the maiden were dreamily closing: "Have you said your +prayers?" asked Bart, who had spoken barely a word since lighting the +fires. + +"Not of thanks for my deliverance," replied the girl. "Will you say a +prayer for us?" in a low, sweet voice. + +The youth knelt a little from her. + +"Our Father, Whose Presence is Heaven, and Whose Presence is +everywhere, let this weary, wandering one feel that Presence in Its +sweetest power; let her repose in It; and through all time rest in +It. Hush the storm, and make short the hours of darkness, and with +the dawn give her back to her home of love. Impress her parents with a +sense of her safety. Remember my widowed mother and young brothers. +Be with all wanderers, all unsheltered birds, and lambs on bleak +hill-sides, and with all helpless, hopeless things." + +He ceased. + +"You ask nothing for yourself, Barton," in her tenderest voice. + +"Have I not been permitted to save you? What remains for me to ask?" + +How these words came to her afterwards! She turned, moved a little, as +if to make room, and slept. + +Barton shall at some time, in his own way, tell of his experiences of +that strange night. + +It had never come near him--the thought of seeking and saving her +for himself---and when he found her perishing, and bore her over the +water, and found shelter, and cheered and restored her, and as he now +sat to protect her, the idea that she was or could be more to him, or +different from what she had been, never approached him. It had been +an inspiration to seek her, and a great possession to find her. It had +brought back to him his self-respect, and had perhaps redeemed him, in +her eyes, from the scorn and contempt with which she had regarded him, +and in his heart he gratefully thanked God for it. Now his path was +open and serene, although unwarmed and unlighted with this precious +love, and so, in the heart of the forest, in the soul of the night, in +the bosom of the tempest, he had brought life and hope and peace +and rest to her, and an angel could not have done it with a purer +self-abnegation. + +He sat near her, at the foot of an old hemlock, waiting for the dawn. +The forest and night and storm thus held in their arms these two +young, strong, brave, sweet, and rich natures, so tender, and so +estranged, till the morning light brightened and flashed up in the +serene sky, and sent a new day over the snow-wreathed earth. The +tempest subsided, the snow ceased, the wind sunk to whispers, and the +young morning was rosy in the east. + +Barton had kept the fire burning near Julia, and when the new light +became decided, approached her, and not without some anxiety: "Miss +Markham--Miss Markham--Miss Markham!" raising his voice at each +repetition. She did not hear. "Julia!" in a low voice, bending over +her. Her eyes opened to the rude roof over her, and she started, +turned to him, flushed, and smiled: "Oh, we are still here in the +woods! Is it day?" + +"Yes; how do you feel? Can you walk?" cheerily. + +"Oh yes, I haven't suffered much!" rising from the woody coverings, +which she gayly shook from her. + +"Excuse me, while you make your toilet in this extensive +dressing-room, and I will look about. I will not go far, or be gone +long." Going still further up the stream, he found the end of the +ledge of rocks, with a steepish hill sloping down to the creek, down +which, under the snow, appeared to wind a road, which crossed the +creek when the water was low. He turned into this road, and went up +to the top of the hill, from which he could see an opening in the +otherwise unbroken woods, and a little farther on he was gladdened +with the sight of a smoke, rising like a cloud-column, above the +trees. + +He hastened back to find Julia equipped, and busy placing new fuel to +the crackling fire. "There is a cabin not more than half a mile away, +and the snow is not more than two or three inches deep; we can easily +reach it," he said, brightly. + +"Oh, Barton!" said the girl, with a deep rich voice, coming to +him, "how can we ever--how can my father and mother ever--how can I +repay"--and her voice broke and faltered with emotion, and tears fell +from her wondrous eyes. + +"Perhaps," said Bart, off his guard, "perhaps you may be willing to +forget the past!" + +"The past--forget the past?" + +"Pardon me, it was unfortunate! Let us go." + +"Barton!" + +"Not a word now," said Bart, gayly. "I am the doctor, you are terribly +shaken up, and not yourself. I shall not let you say a word of thanks. +Why, we are not out of the woods yet!"--this last laughingly. "When +you are all your old self, and in your pleasant home, everything of +this night and morning will come to you." + +"What do you mean, Mr. Ridgeley?" a little coolly. + +"Nothing," in a sad, low voice. They had gained the road. "See," said +he, "here is somebody's road, from some place to somewhere; we will +follow it up to the some place. There! I hear an axe. I hope he is +cutting wood; and there--you can see the smoke of his cabin. + + 'I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled.' + +Oh, I hope he will have a rousing fire." + +Julia walked rapidly and silently by his side, hardly hearing his last +words; she was thinking why he would not permit her to thank him--and +that it would all be recalled in her home--finally, his meaning came +to her. He would seek and save her from death, and even from the +memory of an unconsidered word, which might possibly be misconstrued; +and she clung more closely to the arm which had borne her over the +flood. + +"I am hurrying you, I fear." + +"No, not a bit. Oh, now I can see the cabin; and there is the man, +right by the side of it." + +"It must be Wilder's," said Bart. "He moved into the woods here +somewhere." + +As they approached, the chopper stopped abruptly, and gazed on them +in blank wonder. The dishevelled girl, with hanging hair, and red +"wamus," and the wild, haggard-looking, coatless youth, with belt +and hatchet, were as strange apparitions, coming up out of the +interminable woods, as could well meet the gaze of a rustic +wood-chopper of an early morning. + +"Can you give this young lady shelter and food?" asked Bart, gravely. + +"I guess so," said the man; "been out all night?" and he hurried them +into a warm and cheerful room, bright with a blazing fire, where was a +comely, busy matron, who turned to them in speechless surprise. + +"This is Judge Markham's daughter," said Bart, as Julia sank into a +chair, strongly inclined to break down completely; "she got lost, last +night, near her father's, and wandered all night alone, and I found +her just beyond the creek, not more than two hours ago. I must place +her in your hands, my good woman." + +"Poor, precious thing!" cried the woman, kneeling and pulling off her +shoes, and placing her chilled feet to the fire. "What a blessed mercy +you did not perish, you darling." + +"I should, if it had not been for him," now giving way. Mrs. Wilder +stepped a moment into the other of the two rooms, into which the +lower floor of the cabin was divided, and spoke to some one in it; +and giving Julia a bowl of hot milk and tea, led her to the inner +apartment. + +"Take care of him;" were her words, as she left, nodding her head +towards Barton. + +"How far is it to Markham's?" asked Bart. + +"'Bout seven mile round, an' five 'cross." + +"Have you a horse?" + +"Fust rate!" + +"Saddle him, and go to Markham's at once. The father and mother of +this girl are frantic: a thousand men are hunting for her; you'll be +paid." + +"I don't want no pay," said Wilder, hurrying out. Five minutes later, +sitting on his saddle, he received a slip of paper from Bart. + +"Who shall I say?" said Wilder, not without curiosity on his own +account. + +"That will tell the Judge all he'll want to know. He will hear my name +as soon as he will care to." + +Wilder dashed off down the forest-road by which Bart and Julia had +approached his house. + +Bart went listlessly into the house. His energy and excitement had +suddenly died out, with the exigency which called them forth; his +mental glow and physical effort, both wonderful and long-continued to +an intense strain, left him, and in the reaction he almost collapsed. +Mrs. Wilder offered him one of her husband's coats. He was not cold. +She placed a smoking breakfast before him. He loathed its sight and +fragrance, and drank a little milk. + +She knew he was a hero; so young and so handsome, yet a mere boy; his +sad, grave face had a wonderful beauty to her, and his manners were +so high, and like a gentleman born. She asked him some questions about +his finding Julia, and he answered dreamily, and in few words, and +seemed hardly to know what he said. + +"Is Miss Markham asleep?--is she quiet?" + +Mrs. Wilder stepped to the inner room. "She is," she answered; +"nothing seems to ail her but weariness and exhaustion. She will not +suffer from it." + +"Is she alone?" + +"She is in bed with my daughter Rose." + +"May I just look at her one moment?" + +"Certainly." + +One look from the door at the sweetly-sleeping face, and without a +word he hurried from the house. He had felt a great heart-throb when +he came upon her in the woods, and now, when all was over, and no +further call for action or invention was on him, the strong, wild rush +of the old love for a moment overwhelmed him. It would assert itself, +and was his momentary master. But presently he turned away, with an +unspoken and final adieu. + +Two hours later the Judge, on his smoking steed, dashed up to the +cabin, followed by the Doctor and two or three others. As he touched +the ground, Julia, with a cry of joy, sprang into his arms. + +She had murmured in her sleep, awoke, and would get up and dress. +She laughed, and said funny little things at her looks and dress, and +examined the "wamus" with great interest, with a blush put it on, and +tied it coquettishly about her waist, then seemed to think, and took +it off gravely. Next she ran eagerly out to the other room, and asked +for Bart, and looked grave, and wondered, when Mrs. Wilder told her he +had gone, and she wondered that Mrs. Wilder would let him go. + +She kissed that good woman when she first got up, and was already in +love with sweet, shy, tall, comely Rose, who was seventeen, and had +made fast friends with Ann and George, the younger ones. Then she ran +out into the melting snow and bright soft air. How serene it all was, +and how tall and silent stood the trees, in the bright sun! How calm +and innocent it all was, and looked as if nothing dreadful had ever +happened in it, and a robin came and sang from an old tree, near by. + +And she talked, and wondered about her mother and father, and, +by little bits, told much of what happened the night before; and +wondered--this time to herself--why Bart went off; and she looked sad +over it. + +Mrs. Wilder looked at her, and listened to her, and in her woman's +heart she pondered of these two, and wished she had kept Bart; she was +sad and sorry for them, and most for him, for she saw his soul die in +his eyes as he turned from Julia's sleeping face. + +Then came the tramp of horses, and Julia sprang out, and into her +father's arms. + +One hour after came Julia's mother and Nell, in the light carriage; +and kisses, and tears, and little laughy sobs, and words that ran out +with little freshets of tears, and unanswered questions, and unasked +answers, broken and incoherent; yet all were happy, and all thankful +and grateful to their Father in Heaven; and blessings and thanks--many +of them unsaid--to the absent one. + +And so the lost one was restored, and soon they started back. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +AT JUDGE MARKHAM'S. + + +When Mrs. Markham at last realized that Julia was lost, she hastily +arrayed herself and went out with the others to search for her, +calmly, hopefully, and persistently. She went, and clambered, and +looked, and called, and when she could look and go no further, as +woman may, she waited, and watched, and prayed, and the night grew +cold, and the wind and snow came, and as trumpets were blown and guns +discharged, and fires lighted in the woods, and torches flashed and +lanterns gleamed through the trees, she still watched, and hoped, and +prayed. + +When at last the storm and exhaustion drove men in, she was very calm +and pale, said little, and went about with chilled tears in her eyes. + +Judge Markham was a strong, brave, sagacious man, and struggled and +fought to the last, but finally in silence he rejoined his silent +wife. At about three in the morning, and while the storm was at its +height, she turned from the blank window where she stood, with a +softened look in her eyes, from which full tides were now for the +first time falling; and approaching her husband, who man-like, when +nothing more could be done by courage and strength, sat with his face +downward on his arms, resting on the table, and breathing great dry +gasps, and sobs of agony. + +"Edward," said she, stooping over him, "it comes to me somehow that +Julia is safe; that she has somewhere found shelter, and we shall find +her." + +And now she murmured, and whispered, and talked, as the impression +seemed to deepen in her own heart, and she knelt, and once more a +fervent prayer of hope and faith went up. The man came and knelt by +her, and joined in her prayer, and grew calm. + +"Julia," said he, "we have at least God, and with Him is all." + +When the morning came, five hundred anxious and determined men, +oppressed with sad forebodings, had gathered from all that region for +the search. + +Persistently they adhered to the idea that the missing girl was in the +lower woods. + +A regular organized search by men and boys, in a continuous line, +was resolved upon. Marshals were appointed, signals agreed upon, and +appliances and restoratives provided; and the men were hastening +to their places. A little knot near the Judge's house were still +discussing the matter, as in doubt about the expediency of further +search in that locality. + +George was in this group, and had, as directed, given Barton's +opinion. Judge Markham, who was giving some last directions joined +these men, and listened while Uncle Jonah, in a few words, explained +Bart's theory--that the girl would turn back from the chopping to the +old road, and if there confused, would be likely to go into the woods, +and directly away from her home. + +"And where is Bart?" asked the Judge. + +"He started at about nine last night, with two big bundles of +hickory," said George, "to look for her, and had not returned half an +hour ago." + +"Where did he go?" asked the Judge eagerly. + +"Into the woods." + +"And has not returned?" + +"No." + +"Your girl is safe," said Uncle Jonah. "The boy has found her, I'll +bet my soul!" + +While the Judge stood, struck and a little startled, by this +information, and Jonah's positive assurance, a man on a foaming steed +came plunging down the hill, just south of the house, and pulling up, +called out, "Where is Judge Markham?" + +"I am he." + +"Oh! Good-morning, Judge! This is for you. Your girl is safe." + +The Judge eagerly took the paper, gazed at it, and at the man, +speechless. + +"She's at my house, Judge, safe and sound." + +And then the group of men gave a shout; a cheer; and then another, and +another--and the men forming in the near-line heard it and took it up, +and repeated it, and it ran and rang miles away; and all knew that the +lost one was found, and safe. + +No man who has not felt the lifting up of such an awful pressure, can +estimate the rush of escaped feeling and emotion that follows it; and +none who have not witnessed its sudden effect upon a crowd of eager, +joyous men, shouting, cheering, crying, weeping, scrambling and +laughing, can comprehend it, and none can describe it. All hurried +eagerly back to the Judge's, gathered about the happy, wondering +Wilder, and patted and caressed his smoking horse. + +Mrs. Markham knew it, and with radiant face and eyes came out with her +grateful husband, when the bright sky again rang with the cheers of +the assembled multitude. After quiet came, the Judge read to them the +paper he had received from Wilder: + +"JUDGE MARKHAM: + +"Your daughter was found this morning, on the banks of the creek, a +mile from Wilder's, overcome and much exhausted. She rallied, got into +Wilder's, and appears strong and well. Wilder will take you to her." + +"Whose name is to it, Judge?" + +"There is none--who gave it to you?" + +"The young man who found the young lady, and he didn't give his name, +said the Judge would hear it as soon as he would want to," was the +answer; "he didn't talk much." + +"It was Barton Ridgeley," said Jonah. And the name of Barton went up +with new cheers, and louder than any. + +Soon away went the Judge, on a splendid chestnut, with the Doctor, and +two or three others, on horseback, followed by Mrs. Markham and Nell +Roberts in a carriage. The sun mounted up, the snow melted away, and +so did the crowd. Some returned home, and many gathered in little +knots to talk up the exciting event. The absurdest speculations were +indulged in, as to how Bart found Julia, and what would come out +of it. There was an obvious element of romance in the affair that +appealed to the sensibilities of the rudest. And then, would Bart come +back with Julia? + +As the day advanced, the neighboring women and children gathered +at Judge Markham's, all glad and happy, and a little teary over the +exciting incidents, and all impatient for the return of Julia. + +At a little past two the party returned--the Judge, Mrs. Markham, +Julia, and Nell, in the carriage--Julia on the front seat with her +father, a little pale, but with sparkling eyes, radiant, and never so +lovely. As the carriage drove up, a noisy welcome saluted her. As she +arose to alight, and again as she was about to enter the house, her +mother observed her cast her eyes eagerly over the crowd, as if in +search of some face, and she knew by her look that she did not find +it. What a gathering about her, and kissing and clinging and crying of +women and girls! Then followed, "ohs!" and "ahs!" and "wonders!" and +"did you evers!" and "never in my born days!" "and did Barton really +find you?" and "where is he?" etc. + +Every one noticed that he did not come with them, and wondered, and +demanded to know where he was, and doubted if he had had anything to +do with it, after all. + +The Judge told them, that by some means not yet explained, Barton +had found her, overcome, chilled, exhausted and in a swoon, and had +carried and conducted her out to Wilder's; that when she was restored, +he sent Wilder off with the news, and then went home, and that the +Doctor and Roberts had gone around to his mother's to see him. Beyond +doubt he had saved his daughter's life. He spoke with an honest, manly +warmth, and the people were satisfied, and lingeringly and reluctantly +dispersed to talk and wonder over the affair, and especially the part +Barton had performed. + +Toward sunset, Julia, in her luxurious chamber and night-robes, seemed +anxious and restless. Her mother was with her, and tried to soothe +her. Her father entered with a cheery face. + +"Roberts has just returned," he said. "Barton got home in the morning, +very much exhausted, of course. He seems not to have told his mother +much, and went to his room, and had not been out. His mother would not +permit him to be disturbed, and said he would be out all right in the +morning." + +"Did the Doctor see him?" asked Julia. + +"I suppose not; I will go and bring him around in the morning myself," +said the Judge. + +"Thank you, Papa; I would so like to see him, and I want to know how +he found me," said Julia. + +"I wonder he did not tell you," said the Judge. + +"He hardly spoke," said Julia, "unless compelled to, and told me I was +too broken down to say anything. I tried to thank him, and he said I +was not myself, and stopped me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +AFTER. + + +Toward noon of the next day, the Judge drove up to his own gate, +alone, and not a little troubled. His wife and daughter were evidently +expecting him. They seemed disappointed. + +"Wouldn't he come?" asked his wife. + +"He was not there to come." + +"Not there!" from both. + +"No; he went off in the stage last night to Jefferson." + +"Went off! Why, father!" + +"Well, it seems that he had arranged to leave on Tuesday, and sent +his trunk out to Hiccox's, but didn't go; and all day Wednesday +he wandered about, his mother said, seeming reluctant to start. At +evening she said he appeared much depressed, and said he would not go +until the next evening." + +"Thank God!" said the ladies. + +"George," continued the Judge, "who had been down to the Post-office, +heard that you were lost, and hurried home, and told him all he +had heard. His mother said when he heard it he asked a good many +questions, and said, 'I know now why I stayed,' and that in five +minutes he was off to the woods." + +"Father, there was a special Providence in it all." + +"And did Providence send him off last night?" + +"Perhaps so." + +"Did his mother tell how he came to think Julia had crossed the old +road?" + +"He didn't tell his mother much about it. She said he was more +cheerful and lighter hearted than he had been for a year, but did not +seem inclined to talk much; ate a very little breakfast, and went to +bed, saying that he hoped she would not let anybody disturb him. He +did not come down again until five, and then told her he should leave +that evening. She tried to dissuade him, but he said he must go--that +he was not wanted here any more--that he felt it was better for him +to go at once. She said that she spoke to him of us, of Julia, saying +that she thought he ought to remain and let us see him, if we wished. +He answered that he had better go then, and that they would understand +it. He said they might perhaps call and say some things to her; if +they did, she should say to them that he could understand what their +feelings might be, and appreciated them; that it was not necessary to +say anything to him; that he wished all the past to be forgotten, and +that nothing might be said or done to recall it; he had left Newbury +forever as a home. + +"I told her that I wanted to provide for his studies, and to start him +in business--of course in as delicate a way as possible. She rather +started up at that, and said she hoped I would never in any way make +any offer of help to him. I asked who went with him to meet the stage, +and his mother replied that he went alone--walked down just at dark, +and wouldn't permit either of the boys to go with him." + +"Why Edward! how strange this is!" + +"It isn't strange to me at all," remarked Julia, in a low, depressed +voice. + +"Father, I've a little story to tell you. I should have told it last +night, and then you would have better understood some things that have +occurred. It was nothing that happened between us yesterday morning. I +have told you every word and thing of that." + +Then she recited to the astonished Judge the incidents of her +adventure in the woods with Bart and the wolverine. + +"And I," said the Judge, "have also a little incident to relate," and +he told of the occurrence on the river with which this tale began. + +"Oh, father!" exclaimed Julia, "could you leave him, away there, weary +and alone?" + +"I did not mean to do that; I stopped, and lingered and looked +back, and waited and thought he would ask or call to me," said the +humiliated Judge: "and now he has repaid me by saving your life." + +"Father! father, dear!" going and laying her arm around his neck, +and her cheek against his, "You are my own dear papa, and could never +purposely harm a living thing. It was all to be, I suppose. Mamma, do +you remember the night of Snow's ball, when you playfully complained +of his inattention to you? and he said he would atone for all +offences,-- + + 'In that blissful never, + When the Sundays come together, + And the sun and glorious weather, + Wrapped the earth in spring forever?' + +and he has." + +"I remember, but I could not recall the words." + +"I can repeat the very words of the beautiful prayer that he made in +the woods," said the young girl. + +"And which I seemed to hear," said her mother. + +"And that 'blissful never' came, mother, and all its good was for +me--for us." + +"Not wholly, I trust. This young man's mind and nature are their own +law. His mother said he was lighter-hearted and more like himself than +for a long time. He has suffered much. He mourned more for his brother +than most could. He had lost his own self-respect somehow, and now he +has regained it, and will come to take right views of things, and a +blissful ever may come for him." + +"And he wanted all the past forgotten," said the girl. + +"Of all that happened between you before he has only remembered what +you said to him," said her mother. "And you possibly remember what he +said to you." + +"I remember his generosity and bravery, mother," replied Julia. + +The Judge remained thoughtful. Turning to his wife, "Would you have me +follow him to Jefferson?" + +"No. He went away in part to avoid us; he will be sensitive, and I +would not go to him at present. Write to him; write what you really +feel, a warm and manly letter like your own true self. I am not +certain, though, how he will receive it." + +A silence followed which was broken by Julia. + +"Father, do you know this Mr. Wade with whom Barton has gone to +study?" + +"Yes; I have met him several times and like him very much. He was our +senator, and made that awful speech against slavery last winter. He is +a frank, manly, straightforward man." + +"How old is he?" + +"Thirty-five, perhaps; why?" + +"Nothing. Is he married?" + +"He is an old bachelor; but I heard some one joking him about a young +lady, to whom it is said he is engaged. Why do you inquire about him?" + +"Oh! I wanted to know something of the man with whom he is. I met Mr. +Ranney a year ago, you know." + +That night the fair girl remained long in a serious and thoughtful +attitude. + + * * * * * + +In the afternoon of the next day, the ladies drove to Mrs. Ridgeley's. +The elders embraced cordially. One was thinking of the boy who had +died, and of him who had gone so sadly away; the other of her agony at +a supposed loss, and her great joy at the recovery. Julia took one +of Mrs. Ridgeley's thin, toil-hardened hands in her two, rosy and +dimpled, and kissed it, and shed tears over it. Then they sat down, +and Mrs. Markham, in her woman's direct natural way, poured out the +gratitude they both felt; Julia, with simple frankness, told the +happenings of the night, and both were surprised to learn that Bart +had told her so little. + +Mrs. Ridgeley described his going out, and coming back next morning, +and going again at evening. It was his way, his mother said. She was +proud of Barton, and wondered that this sweet girl should not love +him, and actually pitied her that she did not. She would not betray +his weakness; but when she came to speak of his final going, the +forlorn figure of the depressed boy walking out into the darkness, +alone, came before her, and she wept. Then Julia knelt by her, and +again taking her hand, said "Let me love you, while he is gone; I want +to care for all that are dear to him;" and the poor mother thought +that it was in part as a recompense for not loving Barton. There was +another thing that Julia came to say, and opening her satchel, she +pointed to something red and coarse, and putting her hand on it, she +said, "This was Bart's. He took it off himself, and put it on me; and +went cold and exposed. I did not think to restore it, and I want very +much to keep it--may I?" The poor mother raised her eyes to the +warm face of the girl, yet saw nothing. "Yes." And the pleased child +replaced it and closed her satchel. + +Then Mrs. Markham said their friends and neighbors were coming in on +the Tuesday evening following, to congratulate them, and would Mrs. +Ridgeley let them send for her? The gathering would be informal and +neighborly. But Mrs. Ridgeley begged to be excused. Julia wanted to +see the boys, and they came in from the garden--Ed shy, quiet and +reserved; George, dashing, sparkling and bashful. Julia went up and +shook them by their brown hands, and acted as if she would kiss George +if he did look very much like Bart. She talked with them in her frank +girl's way, and took them captive, and then mother and daughter drove +away. + + * * * * * + +The gathering at the Judge's was spontaneous almost, and cordial. The +whole family were popular individually, and the young girls especially +gathered about Julia, who was a real heroine and had been rescued by a +brave, handsome young man;--the affair was so romantic! + +They wondered why Bart should go away; and wouldn't he be there that +night? They seemed to assume that everything would be a matter of +course, only he behaved very badly in going off when he must know he +was most wanted. Of course he would come back, and Julia would forgive +him; and something they hinted of this. Kate and Ann, and sweet Pearly +Burnett, who had just come home from school, and was entitled to +rank next after Julia, with Nell and Kate, were very gushing on the +subject. + +Others took Bart to account. His sudden and mysterious flight was very +much against him, and his reputation was at a sudden ebb. Why did he +go? Then Greer's name was mentioned, and Brown, and New Orleans; and +it was talked over that night at Markham's with ominous mystery, and +one wouldn't wonder if Bart had not gone to Jefferson, at all--that +was a dodge; and another said that at Painesville he stopped and went +west to Cleveland; or to Fairport, and took a steamer; and Greer went +off about the same time. + +Julia caught these whispers and pondered them, and the Judge looked +grave over them. + +In the morning Julia asked him what it all meant. She remembered that +he had spoken of Bart in connection with Greer, when he came home from +the Cole trial, which made her uneasy; she now wanted to know what it +meant. + +The Judge replied that there was a rumor that Bart was an associate +of Greer, and engaged with him. "In what?" He didn't know; he was +a supposed agent of Brown's, and a company. "What were they doing?" +Nobody knew; but it was grossly unlawful and immoral. "Did anybody +believe this of Bart?" He didn't know; things looked suspicious. "Do +you suspect Bart of anything wrong?" He did not; but people talked and +men must be prudent. "Be prudent, when his name is assailed, and he +absent, and no brother to defend him?" "Why did he go?" asked the +Judge, "and where did he go?" + +"Father!" + +"I don't suspect anything wrong of him, and yet the temptation to this +thing might be great." + +Julia asked no more. + +The next morning she said that she had long promised Sarah King to pay +her a visit, and she thought she would go for two or three days. Sarah +had just been to Pittsburg, and had seen Miss Walters, and she wanted +so much to hear from her. This announcement quite settled it. She +had recently taken the possession of herself, in a certain sweet +determined way, and was inclined to act on her own judgment, or +caprice. She would go down in the stage; she could go alone--and she +went. + +The morning after, the elegant and leisurely Mr. Greer, at the +Prentiss House, Ravenna, received a dainty little note, saying that +Miss Markham was at Mr. King's, and would be glad to see him at his +early leisure. He pulled his whiskers down, and his collar up, +and called. He found Miss Markham in the parlor, who received him +graciously. + +What commands had she for him? + +"Mr. Greer, I want to ask you a question, if you will permit me." + +Anything he would answer cheerfully. + +"You know Barton Ridgeley?" + +"Yes, without being much acquainted with him. I like him." + +"Have you now, or have you ever had any business connection with him?" + +"I have not, and I never had." + +"Will you say this in writing?" + +"Cheerfully, if you wish it." + +"I do." + +Greer sat down to the desk in the library adjoining. + +"Address my father, please." + +He wrote and handed her the following: + +"Hon. E. MARKHAM: + +"_Dear Sir_,--I am asked if I have now, or have ever had any business +relations of any kind with Barton Ridgeley. I have not, and never had, +directly or indirectly, on my own, or on account of others. + +"Very respectfully, + +"THOS. J. GREER. + +"RAVENNA, April 1838." + + +"May I know why you wish this?" a little gravely; "you've heard +something said about something and somebody, by other somebodys or +nobodys, perhaps." + +"I have. Mr. Ridgeley is away. You have heard of our obligations to +him, and I have taken it upon myself to ask you." + +"You are a noble girl, Miss Markham. A man might go through fire for +you;" enthusiastically. + +"Thank you." + +"And now I hope your little heart is at rest." + +"It was quite at rest before. I am much obliged, Mr. Greer; and it may +not be in my power to make other returns." + +"Good morning, Miss Markham." + +"Good morning, Mr. Greer." + +In the afternoon, as the Judge was in his office, a little springy +step came clipping in. "Good afternoon! Papa Judge," and two +wonderful arms went about his neck, and two lips to his own. + +"Why Julia! you back! How is Sarah?" + +"Splendid!" + +"Your friend Miss Walters?" + +"Oh, she is well. See here, Papa Judge," holding out the Greer note. + +The Judge looked at and read it over in amazement. + +"Where under the heavens did you get this?" + +"Mr. Greer wrote it for me." + +"Mr. Greer wrote it for you? I am amazed! no man could have dared to +ask him for it! What put this into your head?" + +"You almost suspected Bart"--with decidedly damp eyes--"and others did +quite, and while in Ravenna I wrote a note to Mr. Greer, who called, +and I asked the direct question, and he answered. I asked him to write +it and he did, and paid me a handsome compliment besides. Papa Judge, +when you want a thing done send me." + +"Well, my noble girl, you deserve a compliment. A girl that can do +that can, of course, have a man go through night and storm and flood +for her," said the Judge with enthusiasm. + +"Mr. Greer said a man should go through fire," said Julia, as if a +little hurt. + +"And so he may," said the Judge, improving. + +"That is for you," said Julia, more gravely, and gave him the note. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +JEFFERSON. + + +Bart has come well nigh breaking down on my hands two or three times. +I find him unmanageable. He is pitched too high and tuned too nicely +for common life; and I am only too glad to get him off out of Newbury, +to care much how he went. To say, however, that he went off cheerful +and happy, would do the poor fellow injustice. He did his best to show +himself that it was all right. But something arose and whispered that +it was all wrong. Of course Julia and her love were not for him, and +yet in his heart a cry for her would make itself heard. + +Didn't he go voluntarily, because he would? Who was to blame? Yet he +despised himself as a huge baby, because there was a half conscious +feeling of self-pity, a consciousness of injustice, of being beaten. +Then he was lame from, over-exertion, and his heart was sore, and he +had to leave his mother and Ed and George. Would it have been better +to remain a day or two and meet Julia? He felt that he would certainly +break down in her presence, and he had started, and shut her forever +out. If she did not stay shut out it would be her own fault. And that +was logical. + +He got into the stage, and had the front seat, with wide soft +cushions, to himself, and drawing his large camlet cloak about him, he +would rest and sleep. + +Not a bit of it. On the back seat was an old lady and a young one +with her; and a man on the middle seat. At Parkers, where they changed +horses, they had heard all about it, and had it all delightfully +jumbled up. Barton Markham had rescued Miss Ridgeley from a gang of +wolves, which had driven her into the Chagrin River, which froze over, +etc., but it had all ended happily, and the wedding-day was fixed. + +Miss Ridgeley was a lovely girl, but poor; and Bart was a hero, whom +the ladies would be glad to see. + +The old lady asked Bart if he knew the parties. + +"Yes." And he straightened out the tangle of names. + +"Was Julia a beauty?" + +"Decidedly." + +"And Bart?" + +Well, he didn't think much of Bart and didn't want to speak of him. +He thought the performance no great shakes, etc. The ladies were +offended. + +"No matter, Julia would marry him?" + +"She would never think of it." + +At Hiccox's somebody recognized Bart and told the old lady who he was. + +"Oh, dear!" He wished he had walked to Jefferson and had a good mind +to get out. + +A few years ago, when Jefferson had become famous throughout the +United States as the residence of two men, a stranger, who met Senator +Wade, "old Ben," somewhere East, asked him what were the special +advantages of Jefferson. "Political," was the dry response. + +Those privileges were not apparent to Bart, as he looked over the +little mud-beleaguered town of two or three hundred inhabitants, with +its two taverns, Court House, two or three churches, and half a dozen +stores and shops, and the high, narrow wooden sidewalks, mere foot +bridges, rising high above the quaggy, tenacious mud, that would +otherwise have forbidden all communication. The town was built on a +low level plain, every part of which, to Bart's eye, seemed a foot or +two lower and more depressed than every other. + +In fact, his two days and two nights wallow in the mud, from Newbury +to Jefferson, had a rather depressing effect on a mind a little below +par when he started; and he was inclined to depressing views. + +Bart was not one to be easily beaten, or stay beaten, unless when he +abandoned the field; and the battle at Jefferson was to be fought out. +Lord! how far away were Newbury and all the events of three days ago. +There was one that was not inclined to vacate, but Bart was resolute. +It was dark, and he would shut his eyes and push straight forward till +light came. + +This, then, was the place where Henry had lived, and which he had +learned to like. He would like it too. He inquired the way, and soon +stood in front of a one-story wooden building, painted white, lettered +"Wade & Ranney, Attorneys at Law." The door was a little ajar and Bart +pushed it open and entered a largeish, dingy, soiled room, filled +with book-cases, tables and chairs, with a generally crumpled and +disarranged appearance; in the rear of which was its counterpart. A +slender, white-haired, very young looking man, and another of large +and heavy mould occupied the front room, while in the rear sat a +third, with his feet on the table. Bart looked around and bowing to +each: "I see Mr. Ranney is not in;" and with another glance around, "I +presume Mr. Wade is not?" + +"No. Both would be in during the evening." + +"I am Bart Ridgeley," he said. "You may remember my brother Henry?" + +"How are you, Bart? We know you, but did not at first recognize you," +said white-hair frankly. "My name is Case,--this is Ransom, and there +is Kennedy. We all knew your brother and liked him." + +Bart shook hands with, and looked at, each. Case had small but marked +features--was too light, but his eyes redeemed his face; and his +features improved on acquaintance. Ransom was twenty-seven or +twenty-eight, of heavy build, dark, and with a quick, sharp eye, and +jerky positive way. Kennedy was sandy--hair, face, eyebrows and skin, +with good eyes. + +"I think we shall like you, Bart," said Case, who had examined him. + +"I hope you will; it must be very pleasant to be liked," said Bart +vivaciously. "I've never tried it much." + +"There is one thing I observe," continued Case, "that won't suit +Ransom--that way of taking off your hat when you came in." + +"Oh!" said Bart, laughing, "I'm imitative, with a tendency to improve; +and shall doubtless find good models." + +"Don't mind Case," said Ransom; "he's of no account. Just come in?" + +"Yes." + +"How do you like our town?" + +"Very well. There seems to be a little confusion of dry land and sea." + +"You see, Mr. Ridgeley," said Case, "that the dry land and sea never +were separated here. The man that had the job failed, and nobody else +would ever undertake it. I think, Mr. Ridgeley," after a pause, "I +had better tell who and what we are, as we shall be together for some +time. This is Ransom--B. Ransom. His temperament is intellectual--I +may say, brainy. That B. stands for brains emphatically, being the +whole of them. He is rather a matter of fact than a conclusion of law, +and were you to apply a rule of law to him, although matter of fact, +he would be found to be immaterial, and might be wholly rejected as +surplusage. He's rather scriptural, also, and takes mostly to the +prophets, Jonadab, Meshac, and those revered worthies. He's highly +moral, and goes for light reading to the elder Scriptures, drawing +largely upon Tamar and Rachel and Leah, and the pure young daughters +of Lot. Ruth is too tame for him. He was the inventor of our 'moral +reform' sidewalks, on which, as you see, no young man can walk beside +a maiden. The effect on morals is salubrious." + +"Case! Case!" protested Ransom. + +"As for law, he goes into a law book as a mite goes through a cheese, +head on, and with about--" + +"Case! Case! Case!" broke in Ransom again, "hold up your infernal +gabble." + +"I know the importance of first impressions," said Case, with gravity, +"and I want you should start favorably; and if you don't come up +to my eulogium, something will be pardoned to the partiality of +friendship." + +"Yes, yes! partiality of friendship!" said Ransom, excitedly; and +turning to Bart, "he is a Case, as you see; but if a man should go +into Court with such a Case, he would be non-suited; he isn't even +_prima facie_." + +"Good!" exclaimed Kennedy. + +"Ransom, you are inspired; flattery does you good." + +"Go on!" said Case; "don't interrupt him, he'll never get such +another start." + +"He's a poetic cuss," continued Ransom, "and writes verses for the +Painesville papers, and signs them "C.," though I've never been +able to see anything in them. He's strong on Byron, and though +he's--he's--" and he stopped in excessive excitement. + +"There you're out, Ransom," said Case, "and that is by far the ablest +as well as the longest speech you ever made. If you had let me go on +and fully open out your excellencies, you might have completed the +last sentence. Now, Kennedy here--" resumed Case. + +"Spare me!" said Kennedy, laughing; "give Ridgeley a chance to find +out my strong points, if you please." + +"Now, Case," said Ransom, reflectively, "Case is not a bad fellow, +considering that he is good for nothing, and a smart fellow for one +who knows nothing, and you will like him. He's a little stiffish, and +devotes himself mostly to young ladies." + +"Thank you," said Case. + +Bart was amused at these free sketches, especially as none but good +feeling prevailed, and remarked, "that it was fortunate for him that +no acquaintance of his was present, who could do him justice." + +He walked up to the large and well-filled book-cases, and mused about. +"My brother wrote and told me so much of all this that I thought I was +familiar with it," he said at last. + +"He used to sit in that corner, by the table, with his back to the +window," said Kennedy, pointing to a place in the back room, which +Bart approached. "He was usually the first here in the morning and the +last to go at night, and then often took a book with him." + +"We liked him very much," said Ransom, "and we forwarded to you a set +of resolutions on hearing of his death." + +"I received them," replied Bart, "and if I did not acknowledge it, I +owe you an apology." + +"You did, to Ranney," said Case. + +The memory of his brother, who had read and worked, talked and +laughed, mused and hoped in that little nook, came up very fresh to +Barton. + +Case proposed that they take a stroll, or a "string" as he called it, +about the village, and as they walked in single file on the narrow +sidewalks, the idea of "string" seemed to be realized. They went +into the Court House and up into the court-room, and down into the +Recorder's office, filled with books, and introduced Bart to Ben +Graylord, the Recorder, who showed him a record-book written by his +brother, every page of which sparkled with the beauty of the writing. +Then they went to the clerk's office of Col. Hendry, with its stuffed +pigeon-holes, and books, and into the sheriff's office, and to divers +other places. + +Jefferson was about eleven or twelve miles from the lake, south of +Ashtabula. It was selected as the county seat, and at once became the +residence of the county officers, and of many wealthy and influential +citizens, but never became a place of much business, while Ashtabula +and Conneaut were already busy towns. Each lay at the mouth of a +considerable creek, whose names they respectively bore, and which +formed harbors for the lake commerce, and were both visited daily +by the steamers that run up and down Lake Erie. These facts were +communicated to Bart, as they walked about, and the residences of Mr. +Giddings, Judge Warren, Colonel Hendry, Mr. St. John, and others, were +pointed out to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +OLD BEN. + + +That evening, Case and Bart went in rather late to supper at the +Jefferson House, and Case pointed out B.P. Wade sitting at the head of +one of the tables. Bart studied him closely. + +He was then about thirty-five or thirty-six years of age; of a fine, +athletic, compact and vigorous frame, straight, round, and of full +average height, with an upward cast of the head and face that made him +look taller than he was. He had a remarkably fine head and a striking +face--a high, narrow, retreating forehead, a little compressed at the +temples, aquiline nose, firm, goodish mouth, and prominent chin, with +a deep dark eye, and strongly marked brow, not handsome, but a strong, +firm, noticeable face, which, with his frank, manly, decided manner +and carriage, would at once arrest the eye of a stranger, as it did +that of Bart, who knew that he saw a remarkable man. The head was +turned, so that the light fell upon the face, giving it strong light +and shadow in the Rembrandt style; and Bart studied and contemplated +it at great advantage. + +He tried to reproduce the recent scene in the Ohio Senate, in which +Wade performed so conspicuous a part. It was in the worst of the +bad days of Northern subserviency to slavery, which now seem +almost phantasmagorical; when, at the command of the Kentucky State +Commissioners, the grovelling majority of the Ohio Legislature +prostrated the State abjectly in the dust beneath its feet, it was +demanded that no man of African blood should be permitted to remain in +the State unless some responsible white man should become bail for his +good conduct, and that he should never become a public charge. + +The bill was about to be put on its final passage in the Senate, by a +majority made up of men so revoltingly servile, that even such infamy +failed to preserve their names. "Tin Pan" had decreed that a vote +should be taken before adjournment for the night, and the debate ran +into the deep hours. Gregg Powers, a tall, dark-haired, black-eyed, +black-browed young senator, from Akron, had just pronounced a fervent, +indignant, sarcastic and bitter phillipic against it, when, after +midnight, Wade arose, with angry brow and flashing eye. Argument and +logic were out of place; appeals to honor could not be comprehended +by men shameless by nature, abject by instinct, and infamous by habit, +and who cared nothing for the fame of their common State. Wade, +at white heat, turned on them a mingled torrent of sarcasm, scorn, +contempt, irony, scoffing, and derision, hot, seething, hissing, +blistering, and consuming. He then turned to the haughty and insolent +Commissioners of slavery, who were present, that the abasement of +the State might lack no mark or brand, and with an air haughtier and +prouder than their own, defied them. He declared himself their mortal +foe, and cast the gauntlet contemptuously into their faces. He told +them they would meet him again in the coming bitter days, and with +prodigious force, predicted the extirpation of slavery. Nobody called +him to order; nobody interrupted him; and when he closed his awful +phillipic, nobody tried to reply. The vote was taken, and the bill +passed into a law. And as Bart called up the scene, and looked at the +man taking his tea, and conversing carelessly, he thought that a life +would be a cheap price for such an opportunity and effort. + +Nature had been generous to Wade, and given him a fine, well-balanced, +strong, clear intellect, of a manly, direct, and bold cast, as well +of mind as temperament. He was not destitute of learning in his +profession, but rather despised culture, and had a certain indolence +of intellect, that arose in part from undervaluing books, and although +later a great reader, he was never a learned man. His manners were +rude though kind; he had wonderful personal popularity, and was the +freest possible from cant, pretence, or any sort of demagogueism. +He was as incapable of a mean thought as of uttering the slightest +approach to an untruth, or practising a possible insincerity. He was +a favorite with the young lawyers and students, who imitated his rude +manner and strong language; was a dangerous advocate, and had much +influence with courts. In all these early years he was known as Frank +Wade; "Ben" and "old Ben" came to him years after at Washington. + +When he left the supper room Case found an opportunity to introduce +Bart to him. Wade received him very cordially, and spoke with great +kindness of his brother Henry, and remarked that Bart did not much +resemble him. + +"So I am generally told," said Bart; "and I fear that I am less like +him in intellect than in person." + +"You may possibly not lose by that. Most persons would think you +better looking, and you may have as good a mind--that we will find out +for ourselves." + +Bart felt that this was kind. Wade then remarked that they would find +time on Monday to overhaul his law. Later, Bart met Ranney, who, he +thought, received him coolly. + +The next day the young men went to church. Nothing in the way of +heresy found foothold at Jefferson. It was wholly orthodox; although +it was suspected that Wade and Ranney had notions of their own in +religion; or rather the impression was that they had no religion of +any kind. Not to have the one and true, was to have none according to +the Jefferson platform. + +Monday was an anxious day for Bart. He would now be put to a real +test. He knew he had studied hard, but he remembered the air with +which Henry and Ranney waived him off. Then he was so poor, and was +so anxious to get through, and be admitted in September, that he was +a little nervous when the lawyers found leisure in the afternoon to +"overhaul his law," as Wade had expressed it. + +Ranney had no idea of letting him off on definitions and general +rules, and he plunged at once into special pleading, as presented by +Chitty, in his chapter on Replications. No severer test could have +been applied, and the young men thought it a little rough. Bart +answered the questions with some care, and gave the reason of the +rules clearly. Ranney then proposed a case of a certain special plea, +and asked Bart how he would reply. Bart enumerated all the various +replies that might be made, and the method of setting each forth. +Ranney then asked him to state an instance of new assignment, in +a replication; and when Bart had stated its purpose and given an +instance, he said he thought that a good pleader would always so state +his case in his declaration as to render a new assignment unnecessary, +perhaps impossible. He was then asked what defects in pleading would +be cured by a general verdict? and gave the rules quite luminously. + +Ranney then asked him what books he had read; and Bart named several. +"What others?" and he named as many more. "Is that all?" laughing. + +"Oh!" said Bart, "I remember what you and Henry said about my reading, +and really I have dipped into a good many besides." + +"Well, Ranney," said Wade, "what can we do for this young man? I think +he will pass now, better than one in a hundred." + +"I think so too; still, I think we can help him, or help him to help +himself." And he finally named a work on commercial law, a book on +medical jurisprudence, and a review of Kent. At leisure moments, he +would have him practise in drawing bills in Chancery, declarations, +pleas, etc. + +Bart certainly might be pleased with this result, and it evidently +advanced him very much in the estimation of all who had listened to +his examination, although he felt that the work imposed upon him was +rather slender, and just what he should do with the spare time this +labor would leave him he would not then determine. + +He liked his new position with these ambitious young men, engaged in +intellectual pursuits, with whom he was to associate and live, and +upon whom he felt that he had made a favorable impression. It did +not occur to him that there might be society, save with these and +his books; nor would it have occurred to him to enquire, or to seek +entrance into it, if it existed; with a sort of intellectual hunger +he rushed upon his books with a feeling that he had recently been +dissipated, and misapplied his time and energies. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE LETTERS. + + +Tuesday evening's mail brought him two letters, post-marked Newbury. +The sight of them came with a sort of a heart-blow. They were not +wholly expected, and he felt that there might still be a little +struggle for him, although he was certain that this must be the last. + +The well-known hand of Judge Markham addressed one of them. The +writing of the other he did not recognize; only after he had lost +its envelope, he remembered that it very much resembled the hand that +wrote the Greer warning. He put the letters into an inside pocket, and +tried to go on with his book; like a very young man he fancied that he +was observed. So he took his hat and went to the room he occupied with +Case. He pulled open the unknown, knew the hand, ran down and turned +over to the second page, and found "Julia" at the bottom, and below, +the words "with the profoundest gratitude." It ran: + +"NEWBURY, April 8, 1838. + +"BARTON RIDGELEY: + +"_Dear Sir_,--Is it characteristic of a brave and generous man to +confer the greatest obligations upon another, and not permit that +other the common privilege of expressing gratitude? Were I a man, I +would follow and weary you with a vain effort to utter the thanks I +owe you. But I can only say a few cold words on paper at the risk +of being misunderstood." ("Um-m, I don't see what danger she could +apprehend on that score," said Bart quite sharply.) "When I had +wandered beyond the help of my father and friends, into danger, and, +I think, to certain death, you were inspired with the heart, skill and +strength, to find and save me. Next to God, who led you, I owe my life +to you. When this is said, I cannot say more. I know of no earthly +good that you do not deserve; I can think of no gift of Heaven, that +I do not ask of It for you. + +"You will not be offended that I should most anxiously insist that +some little benefit should in some way come to you, from my father; +and you will certainly, when you first return to Newbury, give me +an opportunity to say to you how much I owe you, and how heavy the +obligation rests upon me. You promised me this and will fulfil it. My +mother, who sees this note, wants you to realize her profound sense of +your service to us, enhanced if possible by the noble and manly way +in which you rendered it. She was always your discerning and +discriminating friend." + +"Discriminating,"--Bart did not like that, but no matter. That was +all. + +"A very pretty letter, my lady Julia," said Bart with a long breath. +"Quite warm. I confess I don't care much for your gratitude--but very +pretty and condescending. And it is kind to advise me that whatever +may have been your estimate of me, your sweet lady mother 'discerned' +differently. What you mean by discriminating is a very pretty little +woman mystery, that I shall never know." + +"And now for my Lord Judge:" + +"NEWBURY, April 8, 1838. + +"BARTON RIDGELEY, ESQ.: + +"_My Dear Sir_,--I was disappointed at not finding you at Wilder's, +where your noble exertions had placed my daughter. I was more +disappointed on calling at your mother's the following morning, +hoping to carry you to my house. If anything in my conduct in the +past contributed to these disappointments, I regret it." ("Very manly, +Judge Markham," remarked Bart. "Don't feel uneasy, I should have acted +all the same.") "You saved to us, and to herself, our daughter, and +can better understand our feelings for this great benefit than I can +express them." ("All right Judge, I would not try it further, if I +were you.") "Whoever confers such a benefaction, also confers the +right upon the receiver, not only to express gratitude by words, but +by acts, which shall avail in some substantial way." ("Rather logical, +Judge!") "I shall insist that you permit me to place at your disposal +means to launch you in your profession in a way commensurate with your +talents and deservings." ("Um-m-m.") "I trust you will soon return to +Newbury, or permit me to see you in Jefferson, and when the past +may" ("I don't care about wading the Chagrin, Judge, and helping your +daughter out of the woods was no more than leading out any other +man's daughter, and I don't want to hear more of either. Just let me +alone.") "be atoned for. I need not say that my wife unites with me +in gratitude, and a hearty wish to be permitted to aid you; nor how +anxious we are to learn the details of your finding our daughter, all +of which is a profound mystery to us. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"EDWARD MARKHAM." + +There was a postscript to the Judge's, instead of Julia's, and Bart +looked at it two or three times with indifference, and walked up +and down the room with a sore, angry feeling that he did not care to +understand the source of, nor yet to control. "Very pretty letters! +very well said! Why did they care to say anything to me? When I came +away they might have known--but then, who and what am I? Why the devil +shouldn't they snub me one day and pat me on the head the next? And +I ought to be glad to be kicked, and glad to be thanked for being +kicked--only I'm not---though I don't know why! Well, this is the last +of it; in my own good time--or somebody's time, good or bad--I will +walk in upon my Lord Judge, my discriminating Lady the Mother, and +the Lady Julia, and hear them say their pieces without danger of +misapprehension." And his eye fell again on the Judge's postscript. +Reads: + +"Before I called at your mother's on that morning, I set apart the +chestnut 'Silver-tail,' well caparisoned, as your property. I +thought it a fitting way in which one gentleman might indicate his +appreciation of another. I knew you would appreciate him; I hoped he +would be useful to you. He is your property, whether you will or no, +and will be held subject to your order, and the fact that he is yours +will not diminish the care he will receive. May I know your pleasure +in reference to him? + +"E.M." + +This found the weak place, or one of the weak places, in Bart's +nature. The harshness and bitterness of his feelings melted out of his +heart, and left him to answer his letters in a spirit quite changed +from that which had just possessed him. + +To Julia he wrote: + +"JEFFERSON, April 11, 1838. + +"Miss JULIA MARKHAM: + +"Yours has just reached me. I am so little used to expressions of +kindness that yours seem to mock me like irony. You did not choose to +become involved in discomfort and danger, nor were you left to elect +who should aid you, and I can endure the reflection that you might +prefer to thank some other. + +"If your sense of obligation is unpleasant, there is one consideration +that may diminish it. A man of spirit, whose folly had placed him +in the position I occupied towards you, would have eagerly sought an +opportunity to render you any service, and would have done his poor +best in your behalf. When it was accomplished he would not have been +covetous of thanks, and might hope that it would be taken as some +recompense for the past, and only ask to forget and be forgotten. No +matter; so little that is pleasant has happened to me, that you surely +can permit me to enjoy the full luxury of having saved you without +having that diminished by the receipt of anything, in any form, from +anybody, by reason of it. It is in your power to explain one thing +to your father; by which he will see that I must be left to my own +exertions so far as he is concerned. I do believe that your gracious +mother was my one friend, who looked kindly upon my many faults, and +who will rejoice if I ever escape from them. + +"When in Newbury hereafter I shall feel at liberty to call at your +father's house. + +"With the sincerest wishes for your welfare, I remain + +"Your obedient servant, + +"A.B.E." + +To the Judge: + +"Hon. EDWARD MARKHAM: + +"_Dear Sir_,--I am in receipt of yours. It was, perhaps, necessary for +you to say some words to me. I may not judge of what would be fitting; +I feel that you have said more than was required. I had a boy's +sincere liking for you; but when I failed to secure the good-will +of anybody, it is certain that there were radical defects in my +character, and you but entertained the common feeling towards me. +It was an honest, hearty dislike, which I have accepted--as I accept +other things--without complaint or appeal. There is one near you who +can explain how impossible it is that I can become an object of your +interest or care. I am poor; let me remain so; I like it. Let me alone +to buffet and be buffetted. The atmosphere in which I live is cold and +thin, and exercise is needful for me. I have not deserved well of the +world, and the world has not been over kind to forget it. Leave me to +wage the war with it in my own way. It was God's pleasure to remove +from me those upon whom I had natural claims, and I do not murmur, nor +do I allude to it only as an indication that I am to go on alone. + +"I am aware that I do not meet you in the spirit which prompts your +generous and manly kindness--no matter. Think that it proceeds from +something ignoble in my nature, and be glad that you may in no way be +involved in any failure that awaits me. + +"I am sure Mrs. Markham has always been most kind to me, and if on the +miserable night when I left my own mother I could have stolen to her +somewhere, and have touched her robe with my lips, it would have been +most grateful to me. We shall meet probably again, and I am sure our +intercourse may be that at least of pleasant acquaintances. + +"With the sincerest respect, + +"A.B.E. + +"P.S.--Your postscript takes me at disadvantage. What can I say? Its +kindness is most unkind. The horse is a mount fit for a Prince. I wish +he might be found useful to Miss Markham; if she will accept him, I +would be glad that he might be devoted to her service. More than this +I cannot say. + +"B." + +I am inclined to follow these letters back to Newbury. It took a round +week for a letter and its answer to pass between Newbury and Jefferson +both ways. Somehow, it so happened that Julia, on the third day after +mailing hers to Bart, was at the Post-office every day, on the arrival +of the Northern mail, with the air of an unconcerned young woman who +did not expect anything. On the seventh, two letters in a hand she +knew were handed her by the clerk, who looked at the time as if he +thought these were the letters, but said nothing. + +On her way home she opened one of them and read it, and paused, and +read, and studied as if the hand was illegible, and looked grave and +hurt, and as if tears would start, and then calm and proud. "When she +got home she silently handed the other to her father, and her own to +her mother; then she went to her room. An hour later she came back, +took her letter, and going into her father's office, laid it open +before him, receiving his in return. This she read with a sad face; +once or twice a moisture came into her eyes in spite of her, and +then she sat and said nothing; and her mother came in and read her +husband's letter also. + +"Mother," said Julia, "are all young men really like this proud, +haughty, sensitive fellow? and yet he is so unhappy! Was father at all +like him?" + +"I don't know. You must remember that few at his age have been placed +in such trying positions, and had he been less, or more, or different, +we might have been without cause for gratitude to him." + +"Well, he graciously permits us to know that he may at least once +again approach 'Your father's house!'" + +"Julia! Could he have done it before?" + +"Could he not, mother, when he saved my life?" + +"Julia, was this poor youth more than human?" + +"Mother, I have sometimes felt that he was, and that somehow more was +to be required of him than of common men." + +The Judge sat in silence, with an expression that indicated that his +reflections were not wholly cheerful. The frank words that this youth +had always liked him, and that the Judge had cause for dislike, so +generous, were like so many stabs. + +"Papa Judge," said Julia, suddenly springing to her father's side, +"may I have him?" + +"Have him! Who?" + +"Why, Silver-tail, of course," laughing. "There is nobody else I can +have;" rather gravely. + +"Will you accept him?" + +"Of course I will, and ride him too. I've always coveted him. My old +'Twilight' has almost subsided into night, and is just fit for Nell +and Pearly. They may ride her; and when this prince wants his charger, +as he will, he must come to me for him--don't you see?" + +An hour later a splendid dark chestnut, with silver mane and tail, +round-limbed, with a high dainty head, small ears, and big nostrils, +with a human eye, spirited and docile, was brought round, caparisoned +for a lady, and Julia stood by him with his bridle in her hand, +caressing and petting him, while waiting for something ere she +mounted. "Your name shall not be 'Silver-tail' any longer; you are +'Prince'"--whispering something in his ear. "Do you hear, Prince? You +shall be my good friend, and serve me until your own true lord and +master comes for you. Do you hope it will be soon?" Prince slightly +shook his head, as if the wish was not his, at any rate. "Well, soon +or late, you naughty Prince, he alone shall take you from my hand. Do +you hear?" and being mounted, she galloped away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +AT WILDER'S. + + +April brightened out into May, and over all the beautiful fields, and +woods, and hills of Newbury, came bright warm tints of the deepening +season; and under the urgency of Julia, her mother and herself made +their contemplated visit of thanks to the Wilders, who could at least +be benefitted by their kindness to Julia, bearing a good many nice new +things for Mrs. Wilder and Rose, and the two younger children. Julia, +in her warmth, found everything about the neat log house and its +surroundings quite attractive. The fields were new, but grass was +fresh about the house, and shrubs and plants had been put out. + +She had taken a strong liking to Rose, a tall, sweet, shy girl of +seventeen, who had received her into her bed, and who now, in her +bashful way, was more glad to see her than she could express. The +house, in a lovely place, was sheltered by the near forest, and +everything about it was as unlike what Julia remembered as could well +be. It seemed to have changed its locality, and the one outside door +opened on the opposite side. She went all about and around it; and out +to the margin of the woods, gray and purple, and tenderest green, with +bursting buds and foliage. + +Her mother found Mrs. Wilder a comely, intelligent woman, who was +immensely obliged by her visit, and thankful for her generous presents +of dresses for herself, and Rose, and the children. + +After dinner, Julia went with Rose out by the road into the woods, +through which, a month ago, Bart had conducted her. She recognized +nothing in the surroundings. How bright and sweet, with sun and +flowers, the woods were, with great maple trees opening out their +swollen buds into little points of leaves, like baby-fists into chubby +fingers and thumbs. On they went down to the creek which flowed the +other way. Julia remembered that they came up it to find the road, +and they now turned down its bank. How sweet, and soft, and bright +it looked, flecked with sunbeams, and giving out little gurgles of +water-laughs, as if it recognized her--"Oh! it is you, is it, this +bright day? Where is the handsome youth you clung to, on a winter +morning, we know of? I know you!"--with its little ripples. + +They soon came to where the rock cropped out from the sloping ground +and formed a ledge along the margin of the diminished stream, and soon +reached the little cove; there was the rude shelter which had covered +Julia, and under it the couch of shavings on which she had rested, a +little scattered and just as she had left it; and, near its foot, the +still fresh brands that almost seemed to smoke. How strong and real it +all came to the sensibilities of the girl! Nothing had been there but +the tender silent fingers of nature. Yes, as she sat down on her old +bed, and glanced up, she saw a bright-eyed Phoebe-bird who had built +just over her head, and now was on her nest, while her mate poured out +the cheery clang of his love song, on a limb near by. The little half +circle of ground, walled in by the high mossy rocks, opened southerly, +and received the full glow of the afternoon sun, while in front of +it ran the laughing, gleeful creek. It was very bright, but to Julia +very, very lonely. In a few words she pointed out to the sympathizing +Bose the few localities, and mentioned the incidents of that awful +morning, and then she turned very gravely and thoughtfully back. + +Rose very, very much wanted to ask about Barton; her woman's instincts +told her that here was a something sweet and yet mysterious, that made +everything so dear to this beautiful and now pensive girl by her side. +His name had not been mentioned, and Julia had only referred to him, +as "he did this;" "he sat by that tree." At last Rose ventured: "Where +is he--this Mr. Ridgeley? Mother said he went away." + +"Yes; I never saw him after you took me into your bed, Rose," said +Julia. + +"He saw you after that, Miss Markham." + +"What do you mean, Rose?" + +"I am sure you would like to know," said Rose. "I know I would. Mother +said that after father had gone, and after we were asleep, he asked +her if he might just look upon you for a moment; and she opened the +door, and he stood in it, looked towards you for a second, and +then turned and went out without a single word, seeming very much +agitated." Rose's voice was a little agitated too. Though she felt the +arm that was twined tenderly about her waist, she did not dare to look +in the face so near her own. "Mother says," she continued, "that he +was very handsome and very pale. I suppose he is very poor, but--" + +"But what, Rose?" + +"I am sure," she said, hesitatingly, "that will make no difference." + +Julia only answered with a little caress. + +"When he comes back," said simple Rose, who was certain that it would +all come right, "he will want to come and see that lovely little +place, and you will want to come with him; I would like to see him." + +"When he comes back," said Julia, brightly, "you shall see him, little +Rose; you are a dear, good girl, and if you are ever in peril, I am +sure some brave, handsome man will come to you." + +Rose hoped he would. + +The older women had talked matters over also in their grave, prudent +woman's way, and both learned from the brightness in Julia's face and +eyes, that the ramble in the woods had been pleasant. On their way +home Julia described it all to her mother. + +They drove around by way of Mrs. Ridgeley's, and found her busy and +cheerful. She had a letter from Bart full of cheerful encouragement, +and the Colonel had returned, and would remain in Newbury for the +present. + +Julia caught George and this time actually kissed the blushing, +half-angry, yet really pleased boy. + +The next day Mrs. Ridgeley visited the graves of her husband and son, +on her way from her friend Mrs. Punderson's, and was touched by the +evidences of a watchful care that marked them. At the head of Henry's +grave was planted a beautiful rose tree, full of buds, and a few wild +flowers lay withered among the green grass springing so freshly over +him. The mother wondered what hand performed this pious act. Like +Bart, she supposed that some gentle maiden thus evinced her tenderness +for his memory, and was very anxious to know who she was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +ROUGH SKETCHES. + + +The sun drank up the waters out of Jefferson, and the almanac brought +the day for the May term of the Court for Ashtabula county; came +the Judge, the juries and unfortunate parties; came also some twenty +lawyers, from the various points of North-eastern Ohio. It was to be +a great time for our young students. Bart had seen the Court once or +twice at Chardon, and had heard the advocates in the famous case of +Ohio _vs._ Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet, for conspiring to murder +Newell, and came to know some of them by name and sight. The same +judge presided on that trial as in the present court--Judge Humphrey. +Bart was much interested of course in the proceedings, and observed +them attentively from the opening proclamation, the calling and +swearing of the grand jury, calling of the calendar of cases, etc. +Much more interested was he in Case's graphic sketches of the members +of the bar, who hit them off, well or ill, with a few words. + +"That elderly man, shortish, with the soft, autumn-like face, is +Elisha Whittlesey, sixteen years in Congress; where he never made a +speech, but where he ranks with the most useful members: sober colors +that wear. He was a good lawyer, and comes back to practice. The old +men will employ him, and wonder why they get beaten." + +"That brisk, cheery, neat man by his side is Norton--lively, smirky +and smiling--you see the hair leaves the top of his head, to lay +the fact bare that there is not much there; and just why that snubby +little nose should perk itself up, I can't tell, unless to find out +whether there really is anything above it. He has quite a reputation +with juries, and a tendency to bore, sometimes in very dry places, for +water, and usually furnishes his own moisture. When he isn't damp he +is funny. They both live in Canfield." + +"Who is that fine-looking, fine-featured, florid man?" + +"That is Crowell, from Warren. Mark him and see how studied are all +his motions. He tears up that paper with an air and grace only reached +by long and intense practice and study. He is a little unpopular, but +is a man of ability, and is often effective with a jury. The trouble +is, his shadow is immense, and falls all about him on every thing, and +he sees every thing through it." + +"That young, dark-eyed handsome man is Labe Sherman, admitted last +year. He and Ranney are the two young men of the democracy; but there +is enough of Ranney to make two of him. He is a fine advocate." + +"Look at that tall, rather over-dressed, youngish man." + +"The one with weak, washed-out gray eyes?" + +"Yes." + +"Does he know anything?" + +"Not a devilish thing. His strong point, where he concentrates in +force, is his collar and stock; from that he radiates into shirt +bosom, and fades off into coat and pants. Law! He don't know the +difference between a bill in Chancery and the Pope's Bull. Here's +another knowledge-cuss. He's from Warren--McKnight. His great effort +is to keep himself in--to hold himself from mischief, and working +general ruin. He knows perfectly well that if he should let himself +loose in a case, in open court, the other side would stand no chance +at all; and his sense of right prevents his putting forth his real +power. It would be equal to a denial of justice to the other side." + +"An instance where the severity of the law is tempered and modified by +equity," remarked Bart. + +"Exactly." + +"Who is that man on the left of Bowen, and beyond, with that splendid +head and face, and eyes like Juno, if a man can have such eyes?" + +"That is Dave Tod, son of old Judge Tod, of Warren. Two things are in +his way: he is a democrat, and lazy as thunder; otherwise he would be +among the first--and it will do to keep him in mind anyway. There is +some sort of a future for him." + +"Here's another minister of the law in the temple of justice--that man +with the cape on. He always wears it, and the boys irreverently call +him Cape Cod--Ward of Connaught. He puts a paper into the clerk's +office and calls it commencing a suit. He puts in another and calls it +a declaration. If anybody makes himself a party, and offers to go to +trial with him, and nobody objects, he has a trial of something, +at some time, and if he gets a verdict or gets licked it is equally +incomprehensible to him, and to everybody else. + +"There are Hitchcock and Perkins, of Painesville, whom you know. What +great wide staring eyes Hitchcock has: but they look into things. And +see how elegantly Perkins is dressed. I'd like to hear Frank Wade on +that costume--but Perkins is a good lawyer, for all that. Look at +that stout, broad, club-faced man--that's old Dick Matoon. You see +the lower part of his face was made for larger upper works; and after +puckering and drawing the under lip in all he can, he speaks in a +grain whistle through an opening still left, around under one ear. He +knows no more law than does necessity; but is cunning, and acts upon +his one rule, 'that it is always safe to continue.' + +"Here is a man you must get acquainted with; this dark swarthy man +with the black eyes, black curling hair, and cast-iron face, sour and +austere. That is Ned Wade, Frank's younger brother, and one of the +pleasantest and best-hearted men alive. He has more book than Frank, +and quite as much talent, and will hammer his way towards the front." + +"Who is that little, old, hump-backed, wry-necked chap hoisting his +face up as if trying to look into a basket on his shoulder?" + +"That? That is the immortal Brainard, of Unionville. He is the Atlas +who has sustained the whole world of the law-on his back until he has +grown hump-backed; and that attitude is the only way in which he can +look into the law on his back, as you remark. + +"And there is Steve Mathews, mostly legs. His face begins with his +chin, and runs right up over the top of his head; that head has no +more brains inside than hair out. You see that little knob there in +front? Well, that was originally intended for a bump, and, as you see, +just succeeded in becoming a wart. Ranney suggested to him at the last +term that the books were all against his straddling about the bar, as +he always does." + +"That smallish man with the prominent chin and retreating forehead, is +Horace Wilder, one of the best men at the bar. You see he is pleasant +and amiable. He is a good lawyer, and give him a case which involves a +question of morals and he develops immense power." + +"Who is that dark, singular-looking young man, with full beard and +open throat? Is he a lawyer?" + +"That," said Case, sadly, "is Sartliff, the most brilliant intellect +our region has produced; full of learning, full of genius and strange +new thoughts! He is a lawyer, and should equal Daniel Webster." + +"What is the matter with him?" + +"God only knows! men call him crazy. If he is, the rest of us never +had intellect enough to become crazy. Look at his dress; he wears a +kind of frock, tied with a hay rope, and is barefoot, I presume. Some +strange new or old idea has taken possession of him to get back to +nature. If he keeps on he will become crazy. I must introduce you; he +and you will like one another." + +"Because I am crazy, too?" laughing. + +"Because you have some out-of-the-way notions, Bart, and I want you +should hear him. He will make you feel as if you were in the visible +presence of the forces of nature. He knew your brother well and liked +him." + +"Where does he live?" + +"Nowhere! He remains in the open air when he can, day and night; +drinks water and eats roots and herbs; sometimes a little plain +bread--never meat. He was formerly vigorous, as you see, he is now +thin and drooping." + +"Has he had any unusual history, any heart agony?" + +"None that I ever heard of; nor was he particularly poetic or +imaginative. He does not attempt any business now; but goes and comes +with lawyers, the most of whom now avoid him. He has brothers, +able and accomplished men, and whom he usually avoids. He commenced +business with Giddings, with a brilliant opening, ten years ago." + +The calendar was finished, a jury sworn in a case, and the court +adjourned. + +How closely the young men watched the proceedings of the court, all +the trials and points made, and the rulings, and how stripped of +mystery seemed the mere practice, as at that time in Ohio it really +was. Wise men had taken the best of the old common law practice, and +with the aid of judicious legislation and intelligent courts, had got +about the best it was capable of. + +Bart managed to make himself useful and do himself some good on one +occasion. Ranney had taken a position in a case, on a trial of some +importance, on which the court was apparently against him. Bart had +just gone over with it, in a text-book, and in a moment brought it in, +with the case referred to, and received, as men often do, more credit +than he was entitled to, Ranney carried his point, and could afford to +be generous. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +SARTLIFF. + + +Bart had been introduced to Sartliff, who was an object of universal +curiosity, even where he was best known, and coming out of the +court-room one delicious afternoon, he asked the young students to +walk away from the squabbles of men to more quiet and cleaner scenes. +They took their way out of the town towards a beech forest, whose +tender, orange-tinted, green young leaves were just shaping out, and +relieving the hard skeleton lines of trunks and naked limbs. Passing +the rude and rotting fences, by which rank herbage, young elders and +briars were springing up: + +"See," said Sartliff, "how kindly nature comes to cover over the +faults and failures of men. These rotting unsightly 'improvements,' +as we call them, will soon be covered over and hidden with beautiful +foliage." + +"With weeds, and nettles, and elders," said Case, contemptuously. + +"Weeds and nettles!" repeated Sartliff; "and why weeds and nettles? +Was there ever such arrogance! Man in his boundless conceit and +ignorance, after having ruined his powers, snuffs and picks about, and +finds the use of a few insignificant things, which he pronounces good; +all the rest he pushes off in a mass as weeds and nettles. Thus the +great bulk of the universe is to him useless or hurtful, because +he will not, or cannot, learn its secrets. These unknown things are +standing reproaches to his ignorance and sloth." + +"Poisons, for instance, might become sanitary," said Case. + +"If man lived in accord with nature," said Sartliff, "she would not +harm him. It is a baby's notion that everything is made to eat, and +that all must go into the mouth. Men should have got beyond this +universal alimentiveness, ere this. Find the uses of things, and +poisons and nettles fall into their places in harmony, and are no +longer poisons and nettles." + +"And accidents would help us on, instead of off," suggested Case. + +"They help as often one way as the other now," replied Sartliff. "But +there are really no accidents; everything is produced by law." + +"There must be two or three systems then," suggested Case. "Things +collide, while each obeys its law. Your systems clash." + +"Not a bit. This is apparent only; man acts abnormally under evil +influences; he will not observe law; he turns upon nature and says +he will subvert her laws, and compel her to obey his. Of course +confusion, disorder, and death are the consequences, and always will +be, till he puts himself in harmony with her." + +"It seems to me, Mr. Sartliff, that in your effort to get back +individually, you have encountered more difficulties, collisions, and +ills, than the most of us do, who keep on the old orthodox civilized +way to the devil." + +"That may be; I am one, looking alone; nobody helps me." + +"And like the younger Mr. Weller, you find it a pursuit of knowledge +under difficulties." + +"Precisely; I inherited an artificial constitution, and tastes, and +needs. I began perverted and corrupted, and when I go back to Nature, +she teaches me less than she does the beasts and birds. Before I can +understand, or even hear her voice, I must recover the original purity +and strength of organs and faculties which I might have had. I may +perish in the attempt to reach a point at which I can learn. The earth +chills and hurts my feet, the sun burns my skin, the winds shrivel me, +and the snows and frosts would kill me, while many of the fruits +good for food are indigestible to me. See to what the perversions of +civilization have reduced me." + +"Do you propose in thus getting back to nature, to go back to what we +call savagery?" asked Bart. + +"Not a bit of it. It was the wants and needs of the race that whipped +it into what we call civilization. When once men got a start they +went, and went in one direction alone, and completely away from +Nature, instead of keeping with her and with an unvarying result; +an endless series of common catastrophes has overtaken all civilized +nations alike, while the savage tribes have alone been perpetual. I +don't say that savage life is at all preferable, only that it alone +has been capable of perpetuating races. In going back to Nature, I +propose to take what of good we have derived from civilization." + +"As historic verity," said Bart, "I am not quite prepared to admit +that savage races are perpetual. We know little of them, and what +little we do know is that tribes appear and disappear. General +savagery may reign, like perpetual night, over a given region, but +who can say how many races of savages have destroyed and devoured each +other in its darkness?" + +They had reached the forest, and Sartliff placed himself in an easy +position at the foot of an old beech, extending his limbs and bare +feet over the dry leaves, in such a way as not to injure any springing +herb. "Mr. Ridgeley," said he, "I would like to know more of you. +You young men are fresher, see, and what is better, feel quicker and +clearer than the older and more hackneyed. Are you already shelled +over with accepted dogmas, and without the power of receiving new +ideas?" + +"I hardly know; I fear I am not very reverent. I was born of a +question-asking time, like that Galilean boy, whose, mother, after +long search, found him in the Temple, disputing with the doctors, and +asking them questions." + +"Good! good! that is it; my great mother will find me in her Temple, +asking questions of her doctors and ministers!" exclaimed Sartliff. + +"And what do you ask, and what response do you get?" asked Bart. + +"I lay myself on the earth's bosom in holy solitudes, with fasting and +great prayer, and send my soul forth in one great mute, hungry demand +for light. I, a man, with some of the Father God stirring the awful +mysteries of my nature, go yearningly naked, empty, and alone, and +clamor to know the way. And sometimes deep, sweet, hollow voices +answer in murmurs, which I feel rather than hear; but I cannot +interpret them, I cannot compass their sounds. And sometimes gigantic +formless shadows overcloud me. I know they have forms of wondrous +symmetry and beauty, but they are so grand that my vision does not +reach their outline, and I cannot comprehend them. I know that I am +dominant of the physical creation on this earth, but at those times I +feel that these great and mighty essences, whose world in which they +live and move, envelopes ours and us, and to whom our matter is as +impalpable air--I know that they and we, theirs and ours, are involved +in higher and yet higher conditions and elements, that in some +mysterious way we mutually and blindly contribute and minister to each +other." + +"And what profit do you find in such communication?" asked Bart. + +"It is but preparatory to try the powers, clear the vision and senses, +train and discipline the essential faculties for a communion with +this essence that may be fully revealed, and aid in the workings and +immediate government of our gross material world, and the spirits that +pertain to it more immediately, if such there are." + +"And you are in doubt about that?" + +"Somewhat; and yet through some such agencies came the givings forth +of the Prophets." + +"You believe in the Prophets?" asked Case. + +"Assuredly. The many generations which inherited from each other the +seer faculty, developed and improved, living the secluded, severe, and +simple lives of the anchorite, amid the grand and solemn silence of +mountain and desert, were enabled, by wondrous and protracted effort, +to wear through the filament--impenetrable as adamant to common +men--that screened from them the invisible future, and they told What +they saw." + +"Yet they never told it so that any mortal ever understood what they +said, or could apply their visions to any passing events, and the same +givings out of these half-crazed old bards, for such they were, +have been applied to fifty different things by as many different +generations of men," said Case. + +"That may have arisen, in part," said Bart, "from the dim sight of the +seer, and the difficulty of clothing extraordinary visions in the garb +of ordinary things. It is not easy, however, for the common mind +to see why, if God had a special message for His children of such +importance that He would provide a special messenger to communicate +it, and had a choice of messengers, it should reach them finally, in +a form that nobody could interpret. With God every thing is in the +present, all that has happened, and all that will, is as the now is +to us. If a man can reach the power or faculty of getting a glimpse of +things as God sees them, he would make some utterance, if he survived, +and it would be very incoherent. Besides, human events repeat +themselves, and a good general description of great human calamities +would truthfully apply to several, and so might be fulfilled your half +hundred times, Mr. Case." + +"That isn't a bad theory of prophecy," said Case approvingly; "but all +these marvels were in the old time; how came the faculty to be lost?" + +"Is it?" asked Bart. "Don't you hear of it in barbarous and savage +conditions of men, now? Our friend Sartliff would say that the faculty +was lost, through the corruptions and clogs of civilization; and he +proposes to restore it." + +"No, I don't propose to restore that exactly. I want to find a way +back to Nature for myself, and then teach it to others, when the +power of prophecy will be restored. I want to see man restored to his +rightful position, as the head of this lower universe. There are ills +and powers of mischief now at large, and operative, that would find +their master in a perfect man. One such, under favorable auspices, was +once born into this world; and we know that it is possible. He took +His natural place at the head; and all minor powers and agencies +acknowledged Him at once. I have never been quite able to understand +why He, with His power of clear discernment, should have precipitated +Himself upon the Jewish and Roman power, and so perished, and at so +early a day in His life." + +"So that the prophets might be fulfilled," said Case. + +"It may have been," resumed Sartliff. + +"Upon the merely human theory of the thing," said Bart, "He could +foresee that this was the only logical conclusion of his teachings, +and best, perhaps only means of fixing his messages and doctrines in +the hearts of men. I may not venture a suggestion, Mr. Sartliff," Bart +continued; "but it seems to me, that your search back will necessarily +fail. In searching back, as you call it, for the happy point when the +strength and purity and the inspiration of nature can be united with +all that is good in Christian civilization, if your theory is correct, +your civilized eyes will never discern the place. You will have passed +it before you have re-acquired the power to find it, and your life +will be spent in a vain running to and fro, in search of it. Miracles +have ceased to be wonders, for we work them by ordinary means +now-a-days, and we don't know them when we meet them." + +Sartliff arose; he had been for sometime silent. His face was sad. + +"It may be. I like you, Barton; you have a good deal of your brother's +common sense, uncommon as that is, and I shall come and see you +often." + +And without another word he strode off deeper into the woods, and was +lost to the eyes of the young men. + +"Is it possible," said Bart, "that this was an educated, strong, and +brilliant mind, capable of dealing with difficult questions of law? +I fear that he has worn or torn through the filament that divides the +workings of the healthy mind from the visions of the dreamer--wrecked +on the everlasting old rocks that jut out all about our shores, and +always challenging us to dash upon them. Shall we know when we die? +Shall we die when we know? After all, are not these things to be +known? Why place them under our eyes so that a child of five years +will ask questions that no mortal, or immortal, has yet solved? Have +we lost the clue to this knowledge? Do we overlook it? Do we stumble +over it, perish, wanting it, with it in our hands without the power to +see or feel it? Has some rift opened to a hidden store of truth, and +has a gleam of it come to the eyes of this man, filling him with +a hunger of which he is to die? When the man arises to whom these +mysteries shall reveal themselves, as he assuredly will, the old +gospels will be supplemented." + +"Or superseded," said Case. "And is it not about time? Have not the +old done for us about all they can? Do we not need, as well as wish +for, a new?" + +"A man may doubtless so abuse and deprave his powers, that old healthy +food ceases to be endurable, and yields to him no nutrition; of course +he must perish," answered Bart. "He will demand new food." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +OLD GID. + + +Towards the close of the term, there came into the court-room, one +day, a man of giant mould: standing head and shoulders above his +fellows, broad shouldered, deep chested, with a short neck and large +flat face, a regal brow, and large, roomy head in which to work out +great problems. He had light grayish blue, or blueish gray eyes, and a +scarlet mark disfiguring one side of his face. The proceedings paused, +and men gathered about him. His manner was bland, his smile, that +took up his whole face, very pleasant. Bart knew that this was J.R. +Giddings, just home from Washington, where he had already overhauled +the Seminole war, and begun that mining into the foundation of things +that finally overthrew slavery. + +During the term Bart heard him before the court and jury, and found +him a dullish, heavy speaker, a little as he thought the indifferently +good English parliamentary speaker might be. He often hesitated for a +word, and usually waited for it; sometimes he would persist in having +it at once, when he would close his eyes very tight, and compel it. +His manner and gesture could not be called good, and yet Bart felt +that he was in the presence of a formidable man. + +His mind was one of a high order, without a scintilla of genius or any +of its elements. He had a powerful grasp, and elude, as it might, he +finally clutched the idea or principle sought it never escaped him: +and he never rested until its soul and blood were his, or rejected +as useless, after the application of every test. It was a bad day +for slavery when Giddings determined to enter Congress. Cool, shrewd, +adroit, wary and wily, never baffled, never off his guard and never +bluffed; with a reserve of power and expedients always sufficient, +with a courage that knew no blenching, he moved forward. He had more +industry and patience, and was a better lawyer than Wade, but was +his inferior as an advocate. They were opposed in the case in which +Giddings appeared, and Bart already felt that in the atmosphere of the +contest was the element of dislike on the part of Wade, and of cool, +watchful care on the part of Giddings. Wade made two or three headlong +onsets, which were received and parried with bland, smiling coolness. +From his manner no one could tell what Giddings thought of his case or +opponent. + +Two or three evenings after, an informal "reception," as it would now +be called, was held at the Giddings residence, to which the students +and nearly everybody else went. It was a pleasant greeting between +friends and neighbors, and a valued citizen, just home after a half +year's absence. Nothing could be more kind and natural than the +manner of Mr. Giddings, supported by motherly Mrs. Giddings, and the +accomplished Miss Giddings, who had spent the winter with her father +at Washington. She was like her father, in mind and person, softened +and sweetened and much more gracious by sex; tall, graceful, and with +the easy presence and manner of society and cultivation. + +Bart was taken to her, and taken by her at once. She seemed like an +old acquaintance, and spoke in the kindest terms of his brother, told +him of Washington, its society and customs, and called him Barton at +once, as if they were to be on the best of terms. Bart could see that +she was plain, but he forgot that in a moment, and it never occurred +to him again. + +In the course of the evening she returned to him, and said she wished +to introduce him to a young lady friend, whom she was sure he would +like on her own account, and on that of his brother, to whom she was +to have been all that woman might be. It took Bart's breath away. He +was unaware that his brother had ever been engaged, or wished to be, +to any lady. + +"She knows you are in Jefferson," said Miss Giddings, "and has wanted +very much to see you." + +She conducted him into a small sitting-room, and leading: him up to +a young lady in black, introduced him to Miss Aikens--Ida Aikens. The +young lady came forward, gave him her little hand, and looked him full +and sadly in the face. "You are like him," she said, "and I have much +wanted to see you." + +"I received a letter from you," said Bart, "and fear my answer was a +poor one. Had I known you better, I could have written differently. +My brother was more to me than most brothers can be, and all who were +dear to him come at once into my tenderest regard." + +"You could not answer my letter better than you did. I never had a +brother, and nothing can be more grateful to me than to meet you as we +now meet." + +They sat, and he held the hand that belonged to his dead brother, and +that the hand of lover was never again to clasp. Gentle in deeds of +charity and tenderness, it would linger in its widowed whiteness until +it signalled back to the hand that already beckoned over the dark +waters. + +Strangers who saw them would have taken them for lovers. They were of +nearly the same age. She, with dark, luminous eyes, and hair colored +like Haidee's, matched well with the dark gray and light brown. What a +world of tender and mournful sweetness this interview opened up to the +hungry heart of Bart--the love of a sweet, thoughtful, considerate, +intellectual and cultivated sister, unselfish and pure, to which no +touch or color of earth or passion could come. How fully and tenderly +he wrote of her to his mother, and how the unbidden wish came to his +heart to tell another of her, and as if he had the right to do so. + +Miss Aikens was a young lady of high mental endowments, and great +force of character, cultivated in the true sense of culture, and +very accomplished. How sad and bitter seemed the untimely fate of his +brother; and the meeting of this sweet and mourning girl lent another +anguish to his heart, that was so slow in its recovery from that blow. + +The court ran on, grew irksome, and passed. Bart saw something more of +Sartliff, and felt a melancholy interest in him. He also saw much of +Ida, whom he could not help liking, and something of Miss Giddings, +whom he admired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE OLD STORY. + + +On the morning after Wade's return from the Geauga Court, upon +entering the office, where Bart found him and Ranney and Case, and one +or two others, there was the sudden hush that advises a new arrival +that he has been a subject of remark. + +"Good morning, Mr. Wade." + +"Good morning, Ridgeley." + +"You returned earlier than you anticipated?" + +"Yes. How do you come on?" + +"About the old way. Did you see my old client, Cole," the King?" + +"Old King Cole? Yes, I saw that worthy, and they say on the other side +that they can't try the case under a year, perhaps." + +"Well, we defend, and our defence will be as good then as ever," said +Bart. + +"The suit was commenced to save the statute of limitations," said +Wade; "and if any defence exists I fear it will be in chancery." + +"My dear sir, we will make a defence at law," was the decided answer. + +"I saw some of your friends over there," said Wade, "who made many +enquiries about you." + +"They are kind." said Bart. + +"Of course you know Judge Markham?" said Wade. + +Bart bowed. "He is a very honorable and high minded man!" Bart bowed +again. "He spoke of you in the very highest terms, and I was very glad +to hear him." + +"You are very kind," said Bart. + +"And by the way." pursued Mr. Wade, "I heard a little story: the Judge +has a very beautiful daughter," looking directly at Bart, who bowed to +this also. "It seems that the girl in going home from somewhere, got +lost in the woods, and wandered off into a devil of a big forest there +is down there, covering two or three townships. It was in the night +of that awful storm in April, and she went miles away, and finally +overcome, lay down to die, and was covered with the snow, when a young +chap found her--God knows how--took her up, carried her across the +Chagrin River, or one of its branches, in under some rocks, built a +fire, and brought her to, and finally got her to a man's house in the +woods, sent word to her father, and went off. Do you know anything +about it? The story is, that you are the chap who did it." + +All eyes were on Bart. + +"I heard something of it," said he, smiling. "I came off the evening +after this marvel; and in the stage two ladies were full of it. +They made it a little stronger than your version. I think there were +several wild animals in theirs. We stopped at a tavern two or three +miles on, when somebody told the old lady that I was 'the chap that +did it;' but as I had told her that this Bart wasn't much of a fellow, +she was inclined to doubt her informant. The old lady stopped in +Chardon, and you must have heard her story." + +"The young lady herself said that you saved her," said Wade, with his +usual directness. "What do you say to that?" + +"If the young lady was in a condition to know," replied Bart, "I +should take her word for it." And passing into the back room he closed +the door. + +"What the devil is there in it?" said Wade. "It is just as I say. Has +he ever said a word about it?" + +"Not a word," said the young men. + +"I met Miss Markham a year ago, when I was in Newbury, at a sugar +party," said Ranney. "She is one of the most beautiful girls I ever +saw, and superior in every way. Bart was not there--he wouldn't go; +and I remember her talking about him, with Henry. When we got back we +undertook to tell him what she said, and he wouldn't hear a word." + +"The fact is," said Case, decidedly, "her father is rich, and she is +proud and ambitious. Bart wasn't good enough for her, and he has taken +his revenge by saving her life, and now he won't yield an inch." + +"They say he came off and won't have anything to do with them," said +Wade. + +"That's it," said Case, "and I glory in his spunk. They have just +found out their mistake." + +During the day Bart was asked by Wade if he had yet seen Mr. Windsor; +and replied that he had not, but that he was anxious to do so, as his +brother always spoke of him with gratitude, as one who had been very +kind to him. Mr. Wade said that the day before he had seen Windsor, +who expressed a wish to meet Henry's brother, and thought he would +come to Jefferson in a day or two, when he would call on him. Bart was +much gratified, and remarked that he was doing quite a business on his +brother's popularity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE OLD STORY OVER AGAIN. + + +"Mr. Ridgeley," asked Miss Giddings, "what is this delightful little +romance about the rich Judge's beautiful daughter, and the chivalrous +young law student? I declare, if it does not bring back the days of +knight-errantry, and makes me believe in love and heroism." It was +one evening at her father's where Bart had called with his newly found +sister Ida, to whom he was quite attentive. + +The young man looked annoyed in spite of his good breeding. "Has he +told you the story?"--to Miss Aikens. + +"Not a word of it," said the latter. "You know," she then said to Miss +Giddings, "that some things so pleasant to hear may not be pleasant +for a party concerned to tell about." + +"Forgive me, Mr. Ridgeley. It never occurred to me that this could be +of that sort, but as it was so delightful as told to me, I wanted to +know if it was an actual occurrence, in this humdrum world." + +"I suppose," said Ida, "that a great many beautiful and heroic events +are very prosy and painful to the actors therein, and they never dream +the world will give them the gloss of romance." + +"Ladies," said the young man, with a gay and mocking air, "hear the +romance of the Judge's daughter, and the poor student--certainly a +_very_ poor student. There was a rich, powerful and proud Judge; he +had an only daughter, more beautiful than a painter's dream, and proud +as a princess born. In the neighborhood was a poor and idle youth, who +had been the Judge's secretary, and had been dismissed, and who loved +the proud and beautiful maiden, as idle and foolish youths sometimes +do. The beautiful maiden scorned him with a scorn that banished him +from her sight, for he was prouder than Judge and daughter, both. +While disporting with her damsels among the spring flowers in the +forest, one day, the beautiful maiden wandered away and became lost +in the heart of an interminable wood, more wild and lonely than that +which swallowed up the babes of the old ballad. Day passed and night +came, and in its bosom was hidden a fierce tempest of wind and hail +and snow. The poor maiden wandered on, and on, and on, until she came +upon the banks of a dart, cold river; wild and lost amid tempest and +storm, she wandered down its banks, until, in despair, chilled and +benumbed without heart or hope, she laid her down to die, and the pure +snow covered her. Her father, the proud Judge, and his friends, were +searching for her miles away. + +"A little boy told the story to the poor student, who hurried into +the forest, and under the inspiration of his scorned love, ran and ran +until he found the swooning maiden under the snow, took her up in his +arms, placed his garments upon her, and bore her through the cold +and rapid stream, found a shelter under the rocks on the other side, +kindled a fire, gave the maiden, proud no longer, a cordial, warmed +and restored her, made her a couch of moss and dried leaves, and while +she slept he watched over her until the day dawned. Then he conducted +her to a wood-chopper's cabin in the forest, where she was tenderly +cared for. The poor, proud youth would hear no thanks from the maiden. +He sent a note, without his name, to the proud Judge, telling him +where his daughter could be found; and never saw the beautiful maiden, +or proud rich Judge afterwards. This, ladies," with the same gay +banter, "is the romance of the Judge's daughter and the poor student." + +"And I suspect," said Miss Giddings, seriously, "that it is about +the literal truth of the affair, and it is more romantic than I had +thought." + + * * * * * + +"Barton has made the acquaintance of poor Sartliff," said Ida, willing +to introduce a new subject, "and was much struck by him." + +"Do you think he is actually shattered?" asked Miss Giddings. + +"I really have no opinion. His mind moves in such unaccustomed +channels: we find it in such unusual haunts, that nobody can tell +whether it remains healthy or not. It works logically enough, granting +his premises. Of course he is under delusions--we should call them +mistakes merely, if they occurred in ordinary speculations; but with +him, in his abnormal pursuits, they are to be expressed under the +vapory forms of delusions." + +"Oh, it is the saddest sight to see this young man, with a nature so +richly endowed, asking only for light, and the right way; to see +him turning so blindly from the true given light, and searching with +simple earnestness along sterile, rocky byways and thorny hedges, to +find the path or opening that conducts back to a true starting place. +He opens his bosom to sun and air, and bares his feet to the earth, +thinking that inspiration will, through some avenue, reach his senses, +and so inform him. It is the most pitiful spectacle that the eye can +see," said Ida, pathetically. + +"Like a kind spirit sent from heaven to earth," said Bart, "who, +having forgotten his message, can never find his way back; but is +doomed to wander up and down the uncongenial region, searching in vain +for the star-beam by which he descended." + +"My father has quite given him up," said Miss Giddings; "he says he +passed long since the verge of healthy thought and speculation. I used +to think that possibly some new and powerful stimulus, such as might +spring from some new cause--" + +"Love, for instance," suggested Bart. + +"Yes, love, for instance. I declare, Mr. Ridgeley, you think as a +woman." + +"Do women really think? I thought their minds were so clear and +strong that thought was unnecessary, and they were always blest with +intuitions." + +"Well, sir, some of them are obliged to think--when they want to be +understood by men, who don't have intuitions, and can't go at all +without something to hold up by--and a woman would think, perhaps, +that if Sartliff could fall in love--" + +"And if he can't he isn't worth the saving," interjected Bart. + +"Exactly; and if he could, that through its medium he might be brought +back to a healthy frame of mind, or a healthy walk of mind. There, +Mr. Ridgeley, I have got out with that, though rather limpingly, after +all." + +"And a forcible case you have made. Here is a man crazy about Nature; +you propose as a cure for that, to make him mad about a woman. And +what next?" + +"Well, love is human--or inhuman," said Miss Giddings; "if the former, +marriage is the specific; if the latter, his lady-love might get lost +in a wood, you know." + +"Yes, I see. Poor Sartliff had better remain where he is, winking and +blinking for the lights of Nature," said Bart. + +"I remember," interposed Ida, "that he and your brother, among the +matters they used to discuss, disagreed in their estimate of authors. +Sartliff could never endure N.P. Willis, for instance." + +"A sign," said Miss Giddings, "that he was sane then, at least. +Willis, in Europe, is called the poet's lap-dog, with his ringlets and +Lady Blessingtons." + +"I believe he had the pluck to meet Captain Marryatt," said Bart. + +"Was that particularly creditable?" asked Miss Giddings. + +"Well, poets' lap-dogs don't fight duels, much; and Miss Giddings, do +you think a lap-dog could have written this?" And taking up a volume +of Willis, he turned from them and read "Hagar." As he read, he seemed +possessed with the power and pathos of the piece, and his deep voice +trembled under its burthen. At the end, he laid the book down, and +walked to a window while his emotion subsided. His voice always had a +strange power of exciting him. After a moment's silence, Miss Giddings +said, with feeling: + +"I never knew before that there was half that force and strength +in Willis. As you render it, it is almost sublime. Will you read +another?" + +Taking up the book, he read "Jepthah's Daughter:" reading it with less +feeling, perhaps, but in a better manner. + +"I give it up," said Miss Giddings, "though I am not certain whether +it is not in you, rather than in Willis, after all." + +"Six or seven years ago, when my brother Henry came home and gathered +us up, and rekindled the home fires on the old hearth," said Bart, "he +commenced taking the _New York Mirror_, just established by George +P. Morris, assisted by Fay and Willis. Fay, you know, has recently +published his novel, 'Norman Leslie,' the second volume of which flats +out so awfully. At that time these younger men were in Europe; and +we took wonderfully to them, and particularly to Willis's 'First +Impressions,' and 'Pencillings by the Way.' To me they were authentic, +and opened the inside of English literary society and life, and I came +to like him. The language has a wonderful flexile power and grace in +his hands; and I think he has real poetry in his veins, much more than +John Neal, or Dr. Drake, though certainly less than Bryant. Yet there +is a kind of puppyism about the man that will probably prevent his +ever achieving the highest place in our literature." + +"You are a poet yourself, Mr. Ridgeley, I understand," said Miss +Giddings. + +"I like poetry, which is a totally different thing from the power to +produce it; this I am sure I have not," was the candid answer. + +"You have tried?" + +"Most young men with a lively fancy and fervid feelings, write verses, +I believe. Here is Mr. Case, quite a verse writer, and some of his +lines have a tone or tinge of poetry." + +"Would you like literature for a pursuit?" + +"I like books, as I like art and music, but I somehow feel that our +state of society at the West, and indeed our civilization, is not ripe +enough to reach a first excellence in any of these high branches of +achievement. Our hands are thick and hard from grappling with the +rough savagery of our new rude continent. We can construct the strong +works of utility, and shall meet the demands for the higher and better +work when that demand actually exists." + +"But does not that demand exist? Hasn't there been a clamor for +the American novel? A standing advertisement--'Wanted, the American +Novel'--has been placarded ever since I can remember; and I must +forget how long that is," said Miss Giddings. + +"Yes, I've heard of that; but that is not the demand that will compel +what it asks for. It will be the craving of millions, stimulating +millions of brains, and some man will arise superior to the herd, and +his achievement will challenge every other man of conscious powers, +and they will educate and ripen each other till the best, who is never +the first, will appear and supply the need. No great man ever appeared +alone. He is the greatest of a group of great men, many of whom +preceded him, and without whom he would have been impossible. Homer, +alone of his group, has reached us; Shakespeare will live alone of his +age, four thousand years hence." + +"But, Mr. Ridgeley, our continent and our life, with our fresh, young, +intense natures, seem to me to contain all the elements of poetry, and +the highest drama," said Miss Giddings. + +"So they seem to us, and yet how much of that is due to our +egotism--because it is ours--who can tell? Of course there is any +amount of poetry in the raw, and so it will remain until somebody +comes to work it up. There are plenty of things to inspire, but the +man to be inspired is the thing most needed." + +"So that, Mr. Ridgeley," said Ida, "we may not in our time hope for +the American novel, the great American epic, or the great American +drama?" + +"Well, I don't know that these will ever be. That will depend upon our +luck in acquiring a mode and style, and habit of thought, and power +of expression of our own, which for many reasons we may never have. An +American new writes as much like an Englishman as he can--and the more +servile the imitation, the better we like him--as a woman writes like +a man as nearly as she possibly can, for he is the standard. What +is there in Irving, that is not wholly and purely English? And so of +Cooper; his sturdiness and vigor are those of a genuine Englishman, +and when they write of American subjects, they write as an Englishman +would; and if better, it is because they are better informed." + +"Mr. Ridgeley," said Miss Giddings, "can't you give us an American +book?" + + "'When the little fishes fly + Like swallows in the sky,' + +An American will write an American book," said Bart, laughing. "But +your question is a good answer to my solemn twaddle on literature." + +"No, I don't quite rate it as twaddle," said Ida. + +"Don't you though?" asked Bart. + +"No," seriously. "Now what is the effect of our American literature +upon the general character of English literature? We certainly add to +its bulk." + +"And much to its value, I've no doubt," said Bart. "Well, with +increased strength and vigor, we shall begin by imperceptible degrees, +to modify and change the whole, and the whole will ultimately become +Americanized, till the English of this continent, partaking of its +color and character, imparts its tone and flavor finally to the whole +everywhere. I have not much faith in a purely American literature, +notwithstanding Miss Giddings' advertisement." + +"Mr. Ridgeley," said Miss Giddings, "your notions are depressing. I +don't believe in them, and will oppose my woman's intuitions to your +man's argument." + +"My dear Miss Giddings," said Bart, laughing, "you value my notions +quite as highly as I do; and I wouldn't take the criticisms of a young +man who ran away from the only college he ever saw, and who has only +heard the names of a few authors." + +"I wont. They are not American; and yet there seems to be force in +them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +ABOUT LAWYERS, AND DULL. + + +Mr. Giddings was always much interested in all young men, and put +himself in their way and society, and while he affected nothing +juvenile, no man could make himself more winning and attractive to +them. It was said by his enemies, who were of his political household, +that in this, as in all else, he was politic; that he sought out and +cultivated every young man in the circle of his acquaintance; made +himself familiar with his make-up; flattered and encouraged him +with little attentions; sent him speeches and books, and occasional +letters, and thus attached nearly all the rising young men of +Northeastern Ohio to himself personally. This may have been one source +of his great and long continued popularity and strength; he thoroughly +educated at least one generation of voters. + +However that may be, he was much in the old office where he had done +so much effective work, and laid the foundations of his position at +the bar, which was with those of the first in the State. + +He associated on terms of the pleasantest intimacy with the young men, +and early evinced a liking for Bart, who, poor fellow, was ready to +like anybody who would permit him. + +Mr. Giddings was at pains to impress them with the absolute +impossibility of even moderate success at the bar, without industry, +while with it, mediocrity of talents would insure that. "Of the whole +number who were admitted," he said, "about ten or fifteen per cent. +succeeded; and one in a hundred became eminent. Undoubtedly the +greatest lawyer in the world did not possess the greatest intellect; +but he must have been among the most industrious. Brilliant parts +may be useful; they are always dangerous. The man who trusts to the +inspiration of genius, or his capacity to get advantage by ingenious +management in court, will find himself passed by a patient dullard. +The admiring world who witness some of the really fine intellectual +performances that sometimes occur in court, haven't the faintest +conception as to when the real work was done, nor at all what it +consisted in; nor when and how the raw material was gathered and +worked up. The soldier in war is enlisted to fight, but really a small +part of his time is spent in battle; almost the whole of it is in +preparation, training, gathering material, manoeuvring, gaining +strategic advantages, and once in a while producing a field day, which +tests the thoroughness of the preparation. This illustrates the value +of absolute thoroughness in the preparation of cases. A good case is +often lost, and a bad one gained, wholly by the care or negligence in +their preparation. You really try your cases out of court." + +Barton asked why it was that, while the world generally admired and +respected the bar, there was a distrust of its honesty?--at which +there was a general smile. + +"Because," said Mr. Giddings, "there really are unworthy members of +it; and the bar, like the ministry and the medical faculty, being +comparatively a small body, is tried by its failures. The whole +is condemned in the person of a few; while a majority--the bulk of +men--estimate themselves by their successes. One great man sheds +glory on his race, while one villain is condemned alone. The popular +judgment, that lawyers are insincere and dishonest, because they +appear on both sides of a case, with equal zeal, when there can be but +one right side, is not peculiar to the bar. It should be remembered +that learned and pious divines take opposite sides of all doctrinal +points of Scripture, and yet nobody thinks of questioning their +honesty." + +"When both are wrong," put in Wade. + +"Now there are, nominally at least, two sides in a law suit--certainly +two parties. One party goes to Frank, here, and tells his side, most +favorably to himself, and gets an opinion in his favor, and a suit is +commenced. The other tells his side to me, for instance, and on his +statement I think he has a good defence. From that moment each looks +for evidence and law to sustain his side, and to meet the case made +by the other; and invariably we come to the final trial, each honestly +thinking he is right. We try the case zealously and sincerely, and the +one who is finally beaten, feels that injustice has been done. It is +the first task of an advocate to convince himself, and unless he has +already done that, he may not expect to convince court and jury; and +a man must be a poor advocate, or have a very bad case, who fails +to convince himself, however he may fare with a jury. You need never +expect to convince your opponent; he is under a retainer not to agree +with you." + +"There is another thing about it," said Wade. "The bar and writers +talk about the ethics of the bar, and legal morality, and all that +nonsense, until there is an impression, both among lawyers and the +public, that there is one rule for lawyers and another for the rest of +mankind--that we are remitted to a lower standard of honesty. This is +all bosh; there can be but one standard of right and wrong; and that +which is wrong out of court, cannot be right in it. I'll have but one +rule. A man who will lie to a court or a jury, will lie anywhere--he +is a liar." + +"Will you submit to that rule?" asked Giddings, laughing. + +"I always have," said Wade, "and I wont have any other. Now of all +men, a lawyer can the least afford to be dishonest; for a taint, a +doubt of his honor, ruins him; and there cannot be a more honorable +body of men in the world, and never was, than the fair majority of the +bar. The habit of contesting in open court, in the face of the +world, engenders an honorable, manly highmindedness, free from the +underhanded jealousy and petty wars of the doctors. If a man lies, or +is mean, he is pretty certain to be detected and exposed at once. A +lawyer cannot afford to lie and be mean. And besides, I have observed +that there is really no healthy, manly development of intellect, +without a healthy, manly development of the moral nature." + +"Now, Frank," said Mr. Giddings, "why not go a step further, and +perfect the man, and say that religion should add its strength and +grace, as a crown?" + +"Well, Gid, I've no objection to your religion--that is, I have no +objection to religion--I don't know about yours--but I have known a +good many religious men who were very bad men, and I have known a good +many bad men to get religion, who did not mend their morals. If a man +is a good man, it don't hurt him to join a church, as far as I know; +and a bad man usually remains bad." + +"Well, Frank, leave these young men to form their own opinions." + +"Certainly; I did not broach the subject." + +"They ought to become better lawyers than we are," said Mr. Giddings. +"Their means of education are far in advance; the increase of new and +valuable text-books, the great progress in the learning and competency +of the courts, as well as the general rapid improvement of the people +in intelligence, are all in their favor; they ought to be better +lawyers and better Christians." + +"They couldn't well be worse," was the bluff response of Wade. + +The young men remained pondering the remarks of their seniors. + +"Well, boys," said Ranney, "you've heard the ideas of two observing +men. They give you the result of their experience on two or three very +important practical points; what do you think of it?" + +"Ransom," said the ready Case, "is thinking who and what must be the +one hundred, of whom he is to be the one. They would be a sad sight." + +"And Case," rejoined the ever irate Ransom, "that if John Doe and +Richard Roe, with a declaration in ejectment, could only be turned +into doggerel, he would be an eminent land lawyer." + +"What has happened to Ransom?" asked Kennedy. + +"I don't know," replied Case; "he has sparkled up in this same way, +two or three times. Can it be that an idea has been committed to his +skull, lately? If one has, a _habeas corpus_ must be sued out for its +delivery. Solitary confinement is forbidden by the statutes of Ohio." + +"Never you mind the idea," said Ransom. "I mean to find a lawyer in +good practice, and go into partnership with him at once." + +"Now, Ransom," said Case, still gravely, "you are a very clever +fellow, and devilish near half witted; and you would allow such a man, +whom you thus permitted to take himself in with you, one third or one +fourth of the proceeds of the first year." + +"I would have no trouble about that," said Ransom, not quite feeling +the force of Case's compliment. + +"Well," said Ranney, "I suspect that generally lawyers, desirable as +partners, if they wish them, will be already supplied, and then, when +one could secure an eligible connection of this kind, the danger is, +that he would be overshadowed and dwarfed, and always relying on his +senior, would never come to a robust maturity. Well, Kennedy, what do +you say?" + +"Not much; I hope to be able to work when admitted. I mean to find +some good point further West, where there is an opening, and stop and +wait. I don't mean to be a failure." + +"Ridgeley, what are your views?" + +"Modest, as becomes me; I don't think I am to be counted in any +hundred, and so I avoid unpleasant comparisons. I don't mean to look +long for an opening, or an opportunity; I would prefer to make both. +I would begin with the first thing, however small, and do my best with +it, and so of every other thing that came, leaving the eminence and +places to adjust themselves. I intend to practice law, and, like +Kennedy, I don't mean to fail." + +"Mr. Ranney," continued Bart, "what is the reason of this universal +failure of law students?" + +"I think the estimate of Giddings is large," said Ranney. "but of +all the young men who study law, about one half do it with no settled +purpose of ever practising, and, of course, don't. Of those who do +intend to practice, one half never really establish themselves in it. +That leaves one fourth of the whole number, who make a serious and +determined effort at the bar, and one half of these--one eighth of the +whole--succeed; and that brings out about as Giddings estimated." + +"Well, on the whole, that is not a discouraging view," said Bart, "and +for one, I am obliged to you." + +Nevertheless, he pondered the whole matter, and turned to face calmly +as he had before, the time when his novitiate should end, and he +should actually enter upon his experiment. + +"Now, Case, this is a serious matter. A young and utterly unknown man, +without money, friends, acquaintances or books, and doubtful whether +he has brains, learning and capacity, in some small or large town, +attacks the world, throws down his gage--or rather nails it up, in the +shape of a tin card, four by twelve inches, with his perfectly obscure +name on it. Think of it! Just suppose you have a little back room, up +stairs, with a table, two chairs, half a quire of paper, an inkstand, +two steel pens, Swan's Treatise, and the twenty-ninth volume of Ohio +Statutes. You would be very busy arranging all this array of things, +and would whistle cheerfully till that was accomplished, and then you +would grow sad, and sit down to wait and think--" + +"Of the rich Judge's beautiful daughter," broke in Case. + +"And wait," continued Bart. + +"Oh, Bart! I glory in your pluck and spunk," said Case, "and I think +of your performance as Major Noah said of Adam and Eve: 'As touching +that first kiss,' said he, 'I have often thought I would like to have +been the man who did it; but the chance was Adam's.'" + +"Ridgeley seems to be taken in hand by Miss Giddings," said Kennedy; +"that would not be a bad opening for an ambitious man." + +"Of the ripe years of twenty-three," put in Case. "The average age +would be about right. She has led out one or two of each crop of law +students since she was sixteen." + +"What has been the trouble?" asked Kennedy. + +"I don't know. They came, and went-- + + 'Their hold was frail, their stay was brief, + Restless, and quick to pass away'-- + +while she remains," replied Case. "Bart seems to be a new inspiration, +and she is as gay and lively as a spring butterfly." + +"And worth forty young flirts," observed Ransom. + +"Oh, come, boys!" cried Bart, "hold up. Miss Giddings is an attractive +woman, full of accomplishment and goodness--" + +"And experience," put in Case. + +"Who permits me to enjoy her society sometimes," continued Bart. "The +benefit and pleasure are wholly mine, and I can't consent to hear her +spoken of so lightly." + +"Bart is right, as usual," said Case, gravely; "and I don't know of +anything more unmanly than the way we young men habitually talk of +women." + +"Except the way they talk of us," said Kennedy. + +"You would expect a lady to speak in an _un_manly way," remarked Bart. +"Of course, if we are ever spoken of by them, it is in our absence; +but I'll venture that they seldom speak of us at all, and then in +ignorance of our worst faults. We are not likely to receive injustice +at their hands." + +"Bart, you must always have been lucky," said Ransom. + +"I am doing my best not to be conceited and vain, and find it +confounded hard work," was the frank, good-natured reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE DISGUISE. + + +Mrs. Ridgeley received the following: + +"JEFFERSON, June 8, 1838. + +"_Dear Mother_:--A strange thing has happened to me, for which I am +indebted to Henry; indeed, I am destined to trade upon his capital. +You remember how kind he said a Mr. Windsor was to him, employing him +to transact small business matters for him, and paying him largely, +besides making him useful and valuable presents? He seems to have +been dissatisfied with himself for not doing more, and I am to be the +recipient of his bounty in full. + +"He called to see me about a week ago; and then two or three days +after, he sent a carriage for me, and I have just returned. He is very +wealthy, an old bachelor, lives elegantly, is a thoroughly educated +man, and not eccentric, except in his liking to Henry, which he +transfers to me. He is without near relations, and has had a history. +Now he insists on advancing to me enough to carry me through, clothing +me, and starting me with a fine library. He says I must go East to +a law school at least a year, and so start from a most favorable and +advanced position. + +"It took my breath away. It seems fairly wrong that I should permit +myself to take this man's money, for whom I have done nothing, and +to whom I can make no return, and whose money I might never repay. +He laughed, and said I was very simple and romantic. Wasn't the money +his? and couldn't he do what he pleased with it? and if he invested it +in me, nobody was harmed by it. I told him I might be; I am not +sure that I should be safe with the pressure and stimulus of poverty +removed from me. + +"Moreover he had purchased an elegant watch, to be given to Henry, on +his marriage with poor Miss Aikens, of whom I told you; and this he +insists on my taking and wearing, with a chain big and long enough to +hang me in. I told him if he wanted to give it away, that it should, +I thought, properly go to Miss A.--to whom, by the way, I gave that +beautiful pin. I cannot wear anything that was Henry's, and this would +be one objection to wearing this watch. Mr. Windsor said it certainly +was never intended for Ida; that it had never been Henry's, that it +was mine, and I had to bring it away. I feel guilty, and as if I had +swindled or stolen, or committed some mean act; and as I hold it to my +ear, its strong beat reproaches me like the throb of a guilty heart. + +"What can I do? Your feelings are right, and your judgment is good. +I can't afford to be killed with a weight of obligation, nor must I +remit or relax a single effort. This may stimulate me more. If I were +to relax and lie down now, and let another carry me, I should deserve +the scorn and contempt I have received. + +"Write me upon this, and don't mention it to the Colonel. + +"I have made the acquaintance of Miss Giddings, who is very kind to +me; and she and Ida furnish that essential element of ladies' society +which you desired I should have. I confess I don't care much for +men; but I have so little to give in return for the kindness of +these noble, refined and intellectual ladies, that here again I am +a receiver of alms. No matter; women never receive any proper return +from men, any way. + +"Ask Ed and George to write, and tell me all the little pleasant +details of the farm life and home. How tender and sweet and dear it +all is to me; and what a gulf seems to have opened between me and all +the past! + +"Ever with love, dear mother, + +BART." + +Mrs. Ridgeley received and read the letter in the store. While she was +absorbed in it. Mrs. Markham came in, and was struck by the expression +of her face. As she finished the perusal, she discovered Mrs. Markham, +and her look of recognition induced the latter to approach her. The +incidents of the last few weeks had silently ripened the liking of +the two women into a very warm and cordial feeling. As Mrs. Markham +approached, the other gave her her hand, and held out Bart's letter. +Mrs. Markham received it, and as her eye ran over it, Mrs. Ridgeley +could easily see the look of pleasure and warmth that lit up her face. + +"Oh, by all means," she said, "tell him not hesitate a moment. +Providence has sent him a friend, and means, and his pride should not +be in the way of this offer." + +"He is proud," said Mrs. Ridgeley, gravely; "but it is not wholly +pride that makes him hesitate." + +"Pardon me," said Mrs. Markham, "I don't mean to blame him; I +sympathize with even his pride, and admire him for the very qualities +that prevented his allowing us to aid him, and I hope those high +qualities will never lose a proper influence over him." + +The mother was a little more than appeased. + +"Am I to read the rest?" + +"Certainly." + +And she resumed. A little graver she looked at one or two lines, and +then the sweet smile and light came back to her face; and she handed +back the letter. + +"What a treasure to you this son must be," she said; and she again +urged her to write to Bart at once, and induce him to accept the kind +offer made to him. + +Mrs. Ridgeley explained who Miss Aikens was, and her relations to +Henry; that Miss Giddings was the daughter of the member of Congress, +&c. Mrs. Markham had noticed that Bart spoke of them as "ladies," and +not as young ladies, though what mental comment she made upon it was +never known. + +People in the country go by the almanac, instead of by events, as in +cities; and May quickened into June, June warmed into July, and ran on +to fervid August. Quiet ruled in the Ridgeley cottage, rarely broken, +save when Julia galloped up and made a pleasant little call, had a +game of romps with George, a few quick words with Edward; an enquiry, +or adroit circumlocution, would bring out Bart's name, which the young +lady would hear with the most innocent air in the world. She always +had some excuse; she was going, returning to, or from some sick +person, or on some kind errand. Once or twice later, young King, of +Ravenna, accompanied her; and still later, Mr. Thorndyke was riding +with her frequently. + +It was observed that while her beauty had perfected, if possible, the +character of her face had deepened, and a tenderer light was in her +eyes. As the time came for Bart's examination, she carelessly remarked +that he would be home soon, and was told that he had decided to take +a short course in the Albany law-school, and would go directly from +Jefferson; that when he left in the spring, he had determined not to +return to Newbury until the end of a year; but that his mother might +expect him certainly at that time. Julia was turning over a bound +volume of the _New York Mirror_, and came upon a Bristol board, on +which was a fine pen-and-ink outline head of Bart. She took it up and +asked Mrs. Ridgeley if she might have it. "Certainly," was the answer, +"if you wish it," and she carried it away. After leaving the house +she discovered on the other side, a better finished and more artistic +likeness of herself in crayon, with her hair falling about her neck +and shoulders; and surrounding it, two or three outlines of her +features in profile, which she recognized by the hair--one of poor +Bart's "ships" that had escaped the general burning. + + * * * * * + +Barton decided to avail himself of the kindness of Mr. Windsor, +and quietly made his arrangements accordingly. The summer was very +pleasant to him. He devoted himself with his usual ardor to his books, +but gave much of his leisure to Ida, who began to feel the approach of +a calamity that gradually extinguished the light in her eyes. She +was already suffering--although not anticipating a serious result--a +pressure in the forehead, and a gradual impairing of vision, without +pain. Under its shadow, that no medical art could dissipate, she found +a wonderful solace in the tender devotion of her newly found brother, +who read to her, walked with her, and occasionally rode with her, in +all tender, manly ways surrounding her with an atmosphere of kind +and loving observances, which she more than repaid, with the strong, +healthy and pure womanly influence, which she exercised over him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE INVITATION. + + +Late one wondrously beautiful August night, as Bart was returning from +a solitary stroll, he was suddenly joined by Sartliff, bare-headed +and bare-footed, who placed his hand within his arm, and turning him +about, walked him back towards the wood. Bart had not seen him for +weeks, and he thought his face was thinner and more haggard, and his +eyes more cavernous than he had ever seen them. + +"What progress are you making?" asked Bart, quietly. + +"I am getting increase of power. I don't know that I need light; +I think I want strength. I hear the voices oftener, and they are +wonderfully sweeter; I find that they consist of marvelous musical +sounds, and I can distinguish some notes; meanings are conveyed by +them. If I could only comprehend and interpret them. I shall in time +if I can hold out. I find as the flesh becomes more spirit-like, that +this power increases. If I only had some fine-fibred soul who +could take this up where I must leave it! Barton, you believe God +communicates with men through other than his ordinary works?" + +"I don't know; I see and hear God in the wondrous symbols of nature; +when they say that he speaks directly, I don't feel so certain. I am +so made up, that the very nature, the character and quality of the +evidence, is unequal to the facts to be proven, and so to produce +conviction. If a score of you were to say to me, that in the forest +to-day, you saw a fallen and decayed tree arise and strike down new +roots, and shoot out new branches, and unfold new foliage and flowers, +I would not believe it: Nor, though five hundred men should swear +that they saw a grave heave up, and its tenant come forth to life and +beauty, would I believe. The quality of the evidence is not equal to +sustain the burthen of the fact to be established, and it does not +help the matter, that alleged proofs come to me through uncertain +historical media. Yet I can't say that I disbelieve. Who can say that +there is not within us a religious spiritual faculty, or a set of +faculties, that take impressions, and receive communications, +not through the ordinary perceptions and convictions of the mere +mind--that sees and hears, retains and transmits, loves, hopes and +worships, in a spiritual or religious atmosphere of its own; whose +memories are superstitions, whose realizations are extatic visions, +and whose hopes are the future of blessedness; and that it is through +these faculties that religious sentiments are received, transmitted +and propagated, and to which God speaks and acts, spirit to spirit, as +matter to matter? Who can tell how many sets of faculties are possible +to us? We may have developed only a few of the lowest. I sometimes +fancy that I feel the rudiments of a higher and finer set within me. +Who shall say that I have them not?" + +"Go on, Barton; I like to hear you unfold yourself," said Sartliff. + +"I can't," said Bart, "I can only vaguely talk about what I so vaguely +feel." + +"Barton," said Sartliff, "go with me; let me impart to you what I +know; perhaps you have a finer and subtler sense than I had. At any +rate I can help you. You can be warned by my failures and blunders, +and possess yourself of my small gains. I know I have taken some +steps. I shall last long enough to place you well on the road. You are +silent. Do you think me crazy--mad?" + +"No, not that, nor do I think that we have occupied all the fields +of human knowledge. We are constantly acquiring a faculty to see new +things and to take new meanings from the common and old. Nature has +not yet delivered her full speech to man. She can communicate only as +he acquires the power to receive. This idea of finding new pathways, +and new regions and realms, with new powers, of finding an opening +from our day into the more effulgent, with new strange and glorious +creatures, with new voices and forms, with whom we may communicate, is +alluring, and may all lay within the realm of possibility. I don't say +that to dream of it, is to be mad." + +"It is possible," said Sartliff with fervor. "I have seen the forms +and heard the voices." + +"And to what purpose do you pursue these mystical studies and +researches." + +"Partly for the extacy and glory of the present, mainly for the +ultimate good to the races of men, when the new and powerful agencies +that come of the wisdom and strength which will be thus acquired, the +powers within and about us, are developed and employed for the common +good; and man is emancipated from his sordid slavery to the gross and +physical of his worst and lowest nature, and when woman through this +emancipation takes her real position, glorified, by the side of her +glorified companion; when she seeks to be wife and mother, with free +choice to be other--what a race will spring from them! Strong, brave, +beautiful men, great, radiant, beautiful women, like the first +mothers of the race, bringing forth their young, with the same joy and +gladness, as that with which they receive their young bridegrooms." + +"Go and help me find the way for our common race." + +He had turned, and stood with intent eyes burning into the soul of the +young man. "I have faith in you. Of all the young men I have met, you +have exhibited more capacity to comprehend me than any other, and I am +beginning to feel the need of help," said Sartliff, plaintively. + +"God alone can help you," said Bart, "I cannot. You believe in this; +to me it is a dream, with which my fancy, when idle, willingly toys. I +like to talk with you. I sympathise with you; I cannot go with you. I +will not enter upon your speculations. Don't think me unkind." + +"I don't," said Sartliff, "nor do I blame you. You are young and +gifted, and opportunities will come to you; and distinction and fame, +and some beautiful woman's love await you, and God bless you." And he +walked away. + +There was always something about Sartliff that stimulated, but at the +same time excited an apprehension in Bart, who regarded him as past +recall to healthy life, and he felt a sense of relief when he was +alone; but the old, melancholy chords continued to vibrate, and Bart +returned to the village under a depression that lingered about him for +days. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +ADMITTED. + + +At the September term of the Supreme Court, Mr. Ranney presented the +certificates and applications for the admission of Case, Ransom, +and Bart on the first day, and they were, as usual, referred to a +Committee of the whole bar, for examination and report. + +The Committee met that evening in the Court room, the Supreme Judges, +Wood and Lane, being present. + +Old Webb, of Warren, whom Case ought to have sketched in his rough +outlines as the senior of the bar, turned suddenly to Bart, the +youngest of the applicants, and asked him if a certain "estate could +exist in Ohio?" + +After a moment's reflection, Bart answered that it could not. + +"Why?" + +Bart explained the nature and conditions of the estate, and said that +one of them was rendered impossible by a statute; and explained how. +A good deal of surprise was expressed at this; the statute was called +for, and on its being placed in his hands, Bart turned to it, read the +law, and showed its application. + +Wood said, "Judge Lane, I think this young man has decided your +Hamilton Co. case for you." + +Some general conversation ensued, and when it subsided, old Webb +said, "Well! well! young man, we may as well go home, when we get such +things from a law student." And they did not ask him another question. + +The examination was over at last. Case had acquitted himself well, +and Ransom tolerably. Bart was mortified and disgusted. This was the +extent then of the ordeal; all his labor, hard study, and anxiety, +ended in this! + +The next morning, on the assembling of the Court, the three young men +were admitted, sworn in, and became attorneys and counsellors at law, +and solicitors in chancery, authorized to practise in all the courts +of Ohio. All this was made to appear by the clerk's certificate, under +the great seal of the Supreme Court of the State, tied with a blue +ribbon, and presented to each of them. + +It tended not much to relieve Bart, to know that the question he had +so summarily disposed of had much excited and disturbed the legal +world of Middle and Southern Ohio; that the best legal minds had been +divided on it; and that a case had just been reserved for the court in +bane, which turned on this very point. + +It was over; he had his diploma, but he felt that in some way it was a +swindle. + +What a longing came to him to go to Newbury; and he was half mad and +wholly sad to think that one face would come to him with the sweet, +submissive, reproachful, arch expression, it wore when he forbid its +owner to speak, one memorable morning, in the woods and snow; and he +found himself wondering if what Ida told him might by any possibility +be true; he knew it could not be, and so put it all away. + +He took Ida over to Mr. Windsor's for a long day's visit, made a few +calls, packed his trunk, bade Miss Giddings, who did not hesitate to +express her sorrow at his departure, a regretful good-bye, and the +next morning rode to Ashtabula, and there took a steamer down the +lake. + +I am glad to have him off my hands for six months; and when he falls +under them next time, seriously, I will dispose of him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +JULIA. + + +It will be remembered that Greer was a somewhat ambiguous character, +about whom and whose movements some suspicions were at times afloat; +but these did not much disturb him or interrupt his pleasant relations +with the pleasant part of the world. + +He was at Jefferson during the first term of the Court while Bart was +there, and it so happened that there was a prosecution pending against +a party for passing counterfeit money; who finally gave bail and +never returned to take his trial; but nobody connected Greer with +that matter. He was also there after Bart was admitted, and had an +interview with the young lawyer, professionally, which was followed by +some consequences to both, hereafter to be mentioned. + +Just before this last visit, a man by the name of Myers--Dr. Myers--a +young man of fine address and of fair position, was arrested in Geauga +for stealing a pair of valuable horses. The arrest created great +astonishment, which was increased when it was known that in default of +the heavy bail demanded he had been committed to the jail at Chardon. +This was followed by the rumor of his confession, in which it was said +that he implicated Jim Brown, of Akron, and various parties in other +places, and also Greer, and, as some said, Bart Ridgeley, all of whom +belonged to an association, many members of which had been arrested. +The rumors produced much excitement everywhere, and especially in the +south part of Geauga; and the impression was deepened and confirmed +by an article in the _Geauga Gazette_, issued soon after Myers was +committed. With staring head-lines and exclamation points, it stated +that Dr. Myers, since his imprisonment, had made a full confession, +which it gave in substance, as above. Bart was referred to as a young +law student at Jefferson, and a resident of the south part of the +county, who, as was said, had escaped, and it was supposed that he had +gone East, where the officers had gone in pursuit. Most of the others +had been arrested. + +Mrs. Ridgeley had caught something of the first rumor in her far off +quiet home; but nobody had told her of Barton's connection with it, +nor did her neighbors seem inclined to talk with her about the general +subject. As usual, one of the boys went to the Post Office on the +day of the arrival of the Chardon paper; and brought in not only that +journal, but the rumor in reference to Barton. His mother read and +took it all in, and was standing in blank amazement and indignation, +when Julia came flashing in, and found her still mutely staring at the +article. + +"Oh, Mrs. Ridgeley! Mrs. Ridgeley!" exclaimed the aroused girl, +seizing her hands; "it is all false--every word of it--about Barton! +Every single word is a lie!" + +"I know it is; but how can that be made to appear? Men will believe +it, if it is false!" + +"Never! No one will ever believe evil of him. He is now surrounded +by the best and truest of men; and when this wretched Myers is tried, +everything will be made clear. I knew you would see this paper, and +I came at once to tell you what I know of Barton's connection with +Greer. Please listen;" and she told her of the old rumor about them, +and of her journey to Ravenna, to see the latter, and showed her his +note, addressed to her father. + +The quick mind of the elder lady appreciated it as it was stated to +her; and another thing, new and sudden as a revelation, came to her; +and with tears in her eyes, and a softened and illuminated face, +she turned to Julia, a moment since so proud and defiant, and now so +humble and subdued, with averted eyes and crimsoned face: "Oh, Julia!" +and passed one arm around the slender girl. + +"Please! please!" cried her pleading voice, with her face still +away. "This is my secret--you will not tell--let him find it out for +himself--please!" + +"Certainly; I will leave to him the joy of hearing it from you," said +the elder, in her inmost soul sympathizing with the younger. + +What a deep and tranquil joy possessed the heart of the mother, and +with what wonder she contemplated the now conscious maiden! and how +she wondered at her own blindness! And so the threatening cloud broke +for her: broke into not only a serene peace, but a heartfelt joy and +gratitude; and she parted with Julia with the first kiss she had ever +bestowed upon her. + +At the ensuing fall term of the Geauga Common Pleas, Myers was +indicted for horse-stealing. The prosecuting officer refused to make +terms with him, and permit him to escape, on condition of furnishing +evidence against others, as he had hoped when he made his confession; +and when arraigned, he plead not guilty, and upon proper showing, his +case was continued to the next term, in January. + +A great crowd from all parts of the adjacent country, and many from a +distance, had assembled to witness the trial of Myers. The region of +Eastern Ohio had, like many new and exposed communities, suffered +for years from the occasional depredations of horse thieves. It was +supposed that an organization existed, extending into Pennsylvania. +The horses taken were traced to the mountain region in that State, +where they disappeared; and although Greer and Brown were never before +connected with this branch of industry, it was thought that the horses +in question, which had been intercepted, were in the regular channels +of the trade, which it was hoped, would now be broken up. One +noticeable thing at the court was the presence of Greer, who +apparently came and went at pleasure. He was cool and elegant as +usual, and seemingly unconcerned and a little more exclusive. His +being at large was much at variance with the understood programme, and +necessitated its reconstruction. Little was said about Bart, and it +was apparent that the public mind had returned to a more favorable +tone towards him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +FINDING THE WAY. + + +On an early December evening, in a bright, quiet room, at the Delavan +House, in Albany, sat Bart Ridgeley alone, thoughtfully and sadly +contemplating a manuscript, that lay before him, which ran as follows: + +"UNIONVILLE, Nov. 27, 1838. + +"_My Dear Bart_:--Poor Sartliff has, it seems, finally found the way. +It was that short, direct, everlasting old way, so crowded, which +everybody finds, and nobody loses or mistakes. You told me of your +last interview with him, as did he, not long after you left. It seemed +to have depressed him. He spoke of you as one who could have greatly +aided him, but did not blame you. + +"The next time I saw him, I found him much changed for the worse. +He was thin and haggard--more so than I had ever seen him. His old +hopefulness and buoyancy were gone, and he was given to very gloomy +and depressing views of things. He thought he had made great progress, +in fact had reached a new discovery, and it was not in the least +encouraging. + +"He finally concluded that the grand and wondrously beautiful spirits +that he seemed to get glimpses of, and whose voices he used to hear, +were really convict spirits, or angels, imprisoned on or banished +to this earth, for a period of years, or for eternity, for crimes +committed in the sun, or some less luminous abode; and I presume are +cutting up here, much after their old way. Though it must be conceded +that this world is a place of severe punishment. + +"He went on to a more depressing view of us mortals, and said he +had concluded that our souls were also the souls of beings who had +inhabited some more favored region of the universe, also sent here for +punishment; and that each was compelled to enter and inhabit a human +body, for the lifetime of that body; and to suffer by partaking of +all of its wretched, sensual, and degrading vicissitudes; and that +whenever the soul is sufficiently punished, the body dies and permits +it to escape. + +"I suggested that it made no difference where the soul came from, if +there was one, nor how many bodies it had inhabited; and that it made +against his idea, that the soul was older than the body; for if it +was, it would be conscious of that pre-existence. He said that every +soul did at times have a consciousness of existence in another and +older form, which was very dark from its transgressions. But he took +the part of the native body against this alien soul, and felt hurt and +grieved that our world was a mere penal colony--a penitentiary for +all the scabbed and leprous souls and spirits of the rest of God's +creation. It was bad economy; and he grieved over it as a deep and +irreparable personal injury. + +"This was a month ago; and I never saw him again. He wandered off down +into the neighborhood of Erie, where he had many acquaintances, took +less care of himself, went more scantily clad, was more abstemious in +diet, and more and more disregarded the conditions of human existence. +Finally, his mind became as wandering as his body. + +"He wanted nothing, asked for nothing, rejected food, and refused +shelter, and as often as taken in and cared for, he managed to escape, +and wander away, feebly and helplessly, from human association and +ministration. He complained to himself that his great mother, Nature, +had deserted him, a helpless child, to wander and perish in the +wilderness. He said he had gone after her, until weary, starving, +and worn, he must lie down and die. He had called after her until +his voice had sunk to a wail; and he finally died of a child's +heart-broken sense of abandonment and desertion. + +"He was found one day, nearly unconscious, with the tears frozen in +his eyes, and on being cared for, wailed his life out in broken sobs. + +"Let us not grieve that he has found rest. + +"I am too sad to write of other things, and you will be melancholy +over this for a month. + +"CASE." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +SOME THINGS PUT AT REST. + + +At the January term of the Court, the case of Ohio _vs._ Myers, came +up; and the defendant failing on his motion to continue, the case was +brought on for trial, and a jury was sworn. His principal counsel was +Bissell, of Painesville, a man of great native force and talent, and +who in a desperate stand-up fight, had no superior at that time in +Northern Ohio. He expected to exclude the confession, on the ground +that Myers had been induced to make it upon representations that it +would be for his advantage to do so; and if this could be got out of +the way, he was not without the hope of finding the other evidence of +the State too weak to work a conviction. + +The interest in the case had not abated, and a great throng of people +were in attendance. + +Hitchcock, with whom Henry Ridgeley was in company at the time of his +death, then an able lawyer, was the prosecuting officer, aided by the +younger Wilder, who had succeeded Henry as his partner. + +Wilder was a young lawyer of great promise, and was the active man in +the criminal cases. + +He stated the case to the court and jury, saying among other things, +that he would not only prove the larceny by ordinary evidence, but +by the confession of the prisoner himself. Bissell dropped his heavy +brows, and remarked in his seat, "that he would have a good time doing +that." + +Wilder called one of the officers who made the arrest, proved that +fact, and then asked him the plump question, in a way to avoid +a leading form, whether the prisoner made a confession? Bissell +objected, on the ground that before he could answer, the defendant +had a right to know whether he was induced to make it, by any +representations from the witness or others. + +Wilder answered, that it did not yet appear that a confession had been +made. If it should be shown that one had, it would be then time to +discuss its admissibility; and so the court ruled; and the witness +answered that Myers did make a full confession. Wilder directed him +to state it, Bissell again objected, and although Wilder urged that he +had a right to go through with his witness, and leave the other side +to call out the inducement, if any, on cross-examination, the court +ruled that the circumstances under which the confession was made was +a preliminary matter that the defendant had a right to show. When the +witness answered to Bissell, that he told Myers after his arrest that +they knew all about the larceny, but did not know who his accomplices +were, and that if he would tell all about them he would undoubtedly +be favored; and that then the defendant told his story. Upon this +statement, Wilder cross-examined the witness, and managed to extract +several items of the confession, when the court held that the +confession was inadmissible. + +Myers drew a breath of relief, but Bissell's brow did not clear. He +knew that the State had gained all it expected to; it had proved +that a confession was made, which was about as bad as the confession +itself. Under this cloud, Wilder called his other evidence, which of +itself, was very inconclusive, and which, with the added weight that a +confession had been made, left much uncertainty as to the result, and +Bissell was girding himself for the final struggle. Wilder then +called the name of John T. Greer--when the head of Myers dropped, and +midnight fell upon the brow of Bissell. + +Placidly and serenely, that gentleman answered the call, and took the +stand--seemingly the only unconcerned gentleman present. He said that +he knew Myers well--had known him for years; that on the morning +after the larceny, he saw him and another man, at McMillan's, near +Youngstown; that they brought with them a pair of horses, which he +described exactly as the stolen horses, and that Myers told him they +got them the night before, at Conant's barn in Troy; that he denounced +Myers to his face as a horse thief, and threatened to expose him. + +This evidence produced a prodigious sensation. Bissell put the witness +through a savage cross-examination. In answer to the questions, he +said that Myers and himself, and others, belonged to an association, +of which Jim Brown was the head, for manufacturing paper currency and +coin, and supplying it at various points; had never passed a dollar +himself; that he broke with Myers because he was a thief, and no +gentleman; that the association had never had any connection with +running off horses, &c. + +"To whom did you first disclose this act of Myers?" + +"To a young lawyer at Jefferson, in his private room." + +"Who was he?" + +"Barton Ridgeley." Great sensation, and men looked at one another. + +"Did he belong to your financial association?" + +"Never!" Sensation. + +"Why did you go to him?" + +"I had a little acquaintance with him, and had great confidence in +him. I wanted to consult somebody, and I went to him." He went on to +say that he consulted him as a lawyer and not as a friend; that when +he told Ridgeley of the association, which was drawn out of him by a +cross-examination, Ridgeley told him at once, that while he would +not use this against the witness, he certainly would against his +associates. That soon after Mr. Wade came in, and he found out that +Ridgeley had managed to send for him. That Ridgeley then insisted +that he should tell the whole story to Mr. Wade, and he did. That Wade +called in a United States Deputy Marshal, and induced the witness to +make an affidavit, when the Marshal went to Columbus, got warrants, +and arrested Brown and others. + +He was asked what fee he paid young Ridgeley, and he answered, +nothing. He offered him a liberal fee, and he refused it. He +understood Ridgeley had gone East, but did not know; nor who furnished +him with money. + +The prosecution rested. + +Wade was present, and Bissell called him; and in answer to Wilder, +said he proposed to contradict Greer. Wilder replied, that although +he was not entitled to such a privilege, yet he had no objection; and +Wade, in the most emphatic way, corroborated Greer throughout. He said +that Ridgeley was at that time at the Albany law-school, and would +soon be back to answer for himself; and when asked if he was not poor, +answered, that friends always came to such young men, with a glance at +the bench, where Markham sat with Humphrey. The perfect desperation of +his case alone warranted Bissell in calling Wade, with whose testimony +the trial closed; and on the verdict of guilty, Myers was sentenced +to the Penitentiary for ten years. And for the third or fourth time +Barton's acquaintances were disposed to regard him as a hero. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +PRINCE ARTHUR. + + +It was not in nature, particularly in young man-nature, that such a +creature as Julia should ripen into womanhood without lovers. In her +little circle of Newbury, boys and girls loved her much alike, and +with few shades of difference on account of sex. No youth of them +dreamed of becoming her suitor; not even Barton, whom I have sketched +in vain, if it is not apparent that it would not have been over +presumption in him, to dream of anything. + +Of the numerous, and more or less accomplished young men from +other places, who had met and admired her, two had somewhat singled +themselves out, as her admirers, both of whom, I fear, had a good way +passed the pleasant, though dangerous, line of admiration. + +Young King, of Ravenna, a frank, handsome, high-spirited youth, had +for a long time been at no pains to conceal his partiality; so far +from that, he had sought many occasions to evince in a modest, manly +way, his devotion. His observing sister, Julia's warm and admiring +friend, had in vain looked wise, lifted her finger, and shaken her +warning head at him. He would inevitably have committed himself, +had not the high-souled and generous Julia, by her frank, ingenuous +woman's way with him, made him see and feel in time the uselessness of +a more ardent pursuit; and so content himself with the real luxury of +her friendship. The peril to him was great, and if for a time he was +not unhappy, he had a grave and serious mood, that lasted many months. +She had a real woman's warm, unselfish friendship for him, which +has much of the sweetness and all the purity and unselfishness of a +sister's love; and all unconscious as she seemed, that he could wish +for more or other, she succeeded in placing him in the position of a +devoted and trusted friend. + +Thorndyke, the fourth or fifth of aristocratic generations, of a good +old colonial strain, elegant to a fault, and refined to uselessness, +of tastes and pursuits that took him out of the ordinary atmosphere; +languid more for the want of a spur, than from lack of nerve and +ability; and unambitious for want of an object, rather than from want +of power to climb, was really smothered by the softness and luxury of +his surroundings, rather than reduced by the poverty and feebleness of +his nature; had really the elements of manly strength and elevation, +and had misfortune or poverty fallen upon him, early, he would +undoubtedly have developed into a man of the higher type, like the +first generations of his family. + +Like every man he was struck as much as he could be, with Julia, and +when he saw her in the rudeness of pioneer surroundings, he began +by pitying her, and finally ended by pitying himself. When it first +occurred to him to carry her out of the woods, to the actual world, +and real human life, he was not a little surprised. She was not born +in Boston, nor did her father's family date back to the flood, but her +mother's did. Indeed, that came over with it. + +In revolving this grave matter, the only factors to be considered, +were Mr. Thorndyke's own judgment, taste and inclinations, and Julia +has matured in these pages, to a small purpose, or Mr. T. was much +less a man than I have supposed, if these parties should not finally +unite in consenting to the alliance. Of course, Miss Julia could be +had, both of herself and parents, for the asking. But his fastidious +notions could alone be satisfied with a gentlemanly course of +gradually warming and more devoted attentions, with all the forms and +observances, so far as the disadvantages of her surroundings would +permit. It was some time in the last summer, that he had made up a +definite judgment in the premises under which he commenced his lambent +action. During the autumn he often met King at her father's, and the +young men occasionally made up small parties with Julia and Nell or +some other young ladies for rides and excursions. Towards winter, King +was less at Newbury; and as winter approached, Mr. Thorndyke seemed +left to monopolize the time and society of Julia. So gracious, frank +and open was her invariable manner to him, that he could not for a +moment doubt that after a gentlemanly lapse of time, and a course of +rides, calls, walks and teas, he might in his own way dispose of the +matter. + +His splendid gray, "West Wind," was no mean companion for Prince, and +many a gallop they had together, and Thorndyke was a gentlemanly rider +and drove well, and during the winter he often drove Julia out in a +single sleigh. + +In a moment of weakness it occurred to him that West Wind and Prince +would go well in double harness, and he proposed to Julia to match +them for a drive. + +"What!" exclaimed that young lady, "put Prince in harness? make a +draught horse of him?" + +"With West Wind--certainly. Why not?" + +"Because I don't choose it. There is but one man in the world who +shall drive Prince, and I am sure he will not want to." + +"I presume Judge Markham don't care to drive him?" + +"I presume he don't;" laughing and blushing. + +That was the end of that, and not overly pleasing to the gentleman. It +was apparent, that she was disinclined to match the horses. + +And March was coming, and Julia was sweet and arch and gracious, and +at times as he came to know her better, he thought a little grave and +pensive. This was certainly a good sign; and somehow, he found himself +now often watching and calculating the signs, and somehow again they +did not seem to deepen or change, or indicate much. He could not on +the whole convince himself that he had made much progress, except that +he should ask her at some time and she would accept him, and he +was certainly approaching that time. The matter in hand had become +absorbing--very: and he knew he was very much interested in it; and +the laugh of the beautiful girl was as rich, musical and gay as ever, +though he some how fancied, that it was a little less frequent; and +once or twice something had been dropped about some day early in +April, at which there was a little flutter in Julia. What could it be? +did she think he was slow? He would speak, and put an end to it. But +he didn't, and somehow he could not. He might do it any day; but did +not. At any event, before that April, something should be asked and +answered--but how answered? + +The sleigh was left under cover, the roads hardened in the March sun +and wind, and several horseback excursions had been made. Toward the +close of the month, on their return one day, Thorndyke, who had been +unusually silent, suddenly asked Julia if she would be at leisure +that evening, at about eight; and might he call? She answered that she +would be at home, and as he knew, he was quite at liberty to call. He +said that he had something quite particular which he wished to say to +her, and that of course she must know what it was. + +"Indeed! If I must know what it is, you must, by the same rule, know +what I will say in reply. Let us consider the thing said and answered, +and then your business call can be one of pleasure." + +"I had hoped that it might possibly be one of pleasure." + +The girl, looked grave for a moment, and then turning in her best +manner to her escort-- + +"Mr. Thorndyke, I think I had better tell you the little story of my +horse. If we ride slow, I will have time before we reach the gate." +With a little increase of color, "It is not much of a story, but you +may see a little moral in it." + +"Certainly, I shall be glad to hear it. No doubt it will interest me." + +"You see his name is Prince." + +"I hear that is his name." + +"You will see presently that is not his whole name." + +"Silvertail?" + +"Silver-sticks! Please attend, sir. His name is Prince Arthur." + +"Named after a gentleman who lived a few years ago; who dined off 'a +table round,' and who was thought to be unfortunate in his lady." + +"No, sir. He was named for a man who may have been called after that +personage; and whose life shows that the old legend may have been +true, and this Arthur is not unfortunate in his lady," with a +softening voice, and deepening blush on her averted face. + +"Have you never heard the story of the lost girl? who less than a year +ago, bewildered and distracted, wandered away into the endless woods, +in the night, mid darkness and storm; and who, o'ercome with fright +and weariness and cold, lay down to die, and was covered over with +snow; and that a young man with strength and courage, was conducted by +God to her rescue, and carried her over an icy stream, and revived and +restored her to her father and mother. Did you ever hear of that?" Her +voice was low, deep, and earnest. He bowed. + +"My father gave him this horse, and he gave him to me, and I gave him +that young man's name. Prince is a prince among horses, and that youth +is a prince among men," proudly, and with increasing color. + +"I thought that young man's name was Bart Ridgeley," very much +disgusted. + +"Arthur Barton Ridgeley. Prince bears his first name, and he bears +me;" lowering her voice and turning away. + +"A very pleasant arrangement, no doubt," querulously. + +"Very pleasant to me," very sweetly. + +"It seems to me I have heard something else about this Arthur Barton +Ridgeley, Esq.; and not quite so much to his credit." Oh dear! But +then he was hardly responsible. + +"I presume you have. And you heard it with the same ears with which +you hear everything disconnected with your precious self. Were their +acuteness equal to their length, you would also have heard, that in +this, as in everything else, he was true and noble." The voice was +shaken a little by two or three emotions, and tears sprang to her eyes +and dried there. + +When Thorndyke recovered, they had reached Judge Markham's gate; and +springing unaided from her saddle, Julia turned to him with all her +grace and graciousness fully restored. + +"Many thanks for your escort, Mr. Thorndyke. I shall expect you at +eight." + +At about that hour, a boy from Parker's brought her the following +note: + +"THURSDAY EVENING. + +"_Miss Markham_:--Pardon, if you can, my rudeness of this afternoon. +Kindly remember the severity of my punishment. Believe me capable of +appreciating a heroic act; and the womanly devotion that can alone +reward it. From my heart, I congratulate you. + +"With the profoundest respect. + +"W. THORNDYKE." + +As she read, a softer light, almost a mist, came into the eyes of the +young girl. + +"I fear I have done this man a real injustice." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +THE TRIAL + + +The March term of the Court at Chardon was at the beginning of its +third and last week. The important case in ejectment of Fisk _vs_. +Cole, was reached at the commencement of the second, and laid over for +the absence of defendant's counsel. This directly involved the title +of Cole to his land; a title that had been loosely talked about, and +generally supposed to be bad. + +In the fall of 1837, a stranger by the name of Fisk appeared in the +country, placed a deed of the land in question on record; gave Cole +notice to quit, commenced his suit, and leisurely proceeded to take +his evidence in Conn, and Mass., and get ready for the trial. Bart's +trial of Coles's first case had rendered the latter an object of +interest; and it was generally felt that the new case was one of great +oppression and hardship; and popular opinion and sympathy were wholly +with Cole, and all the more so, as the impression was that he would +lose his land. + +The people of Newbury, however, really believed that if Bart would +return and take the case in hand, in some way, he would win it; but +the Court had commenced, the case was called, and he still lingered in +the East. In the spring before he left Newbury, he had spent much time +in examining the case, looking up the witnesses, and with such aid as +his brother, the Colonel, could give, their names had been obtained +and they were all subpoenaed to attend. Among them were two or three +old hunters and soldiers, on the Western frontier. + +Ford was in the case, and had made up the issue, and at the trial, +Bart had intended to secure the aid of Wade or Hitchcock. Except +himself, no one knew much of the case, and none had confidence that +Cole would prevail in the trial, and a general feeling of despondency +prevailed as to his prospect. On the afternoon of the third Monday, +Bart reached Chardon, from Albany, secured a room, assembled his +witnesses, talked up the matter with the old hunters, and by his +quiet, modest confidence, and quick, ready knowledge of all the +details, he at once put a new aspect upon the defence. Wade was also +in Chardon, and on that evening, Bart laid his programme before him +and Ford, who were not more than half convinced, and it was arranged +that Bart should go forward with the case, to be backed and sustained +by his seniors. + +On the next morning he made his first appearance in Court, and in +person, air and manner, he had become one to arrest attention, in a +crowd, such as thronged the court room; and when his name transpired, +he was at once identified as a prominent person in the detection and +arrest of Brown & Co., whose name had become widely known; and men +scanned him with unusual interest. Some noticed and commented upon the +brown moustache, that shaded the rather too soft and bland mouth; and +observed the elegant tone of his dress, which, when it was examined, +resolved itself rather into the way his clothes were worn. Ford +introduced him to the lawyers present, with whom his quiet, modest +manner deepened the impression made by his person. As he took his +seat, his eye fully met the eager gaze of Judge Markham, from the +bench. Bart felt the earnest, anxious look of the Judge, and the Judge +thought he saw a shadow of sadness in the frank eyes of Bart. + +A case on trial ran until late in the afternoon, when Fisk _vs_. Cole +was called, was ready, and a jury sworn. Mr. Kelly, of Cleveland, +appeared for the plaintiff, a very accomplished lawyer and a courteous +gentleman. He produced the record of the old Conn. Land Co., an +allotment and map of the lands showing that the tract in dispute was +originally the property of one John Williams. He then made proof of +the death of Williams, and that certain parties were his heirs-at-law; +and produced and proved a deed from these to the plaintiff. This made +what lawyers call a paper title, when the plaintiff rested his case. + +For the defendant, Barton said he would produce and prove a deed +from John Williams, junior, only child of Williams, mentioned by the +plaintiff, to the defendant, directly, dated January, 1816, under +which he took possession of the land in January, 1817; and that he +also found a man in possession of the premises, who had possessed and +claimed the land for years, and whose right he purchased. It would +thus appear, whatever might be said of his written title, that he had +complete right by possession, adverse to the plaintiff, for twenty +years. + +"You will do well if you sustain that claim," said Kelly, +incredulously. + +"I shall labor for your commendation," was Bart's pleasant reply. + +The deed was proven, as well as the relationship of John and John, +Jr. Bart also produced a book of the Probate records of Geauga County, +which he said contained a record of the administration of one Hiram +Fowler, which he might want to refer to, for a date, thereafter, and +if the Court would permit, he would refer to, if it became necessary. +He wished the record to be considered in evidence, for what it was +competent to prove. + +"Certainly," from the Court, who made a note of it. + +He then proved that Cole left Massachusetts early in the spring of +1817, but failed to show when he reached Ohio, whether in 1817, or +1818. One man remembered to have seen Hiram Fowler at work for him +on a tree fence, along the back line of it, during the summer of his +arrival on the land. He also made proof, that at a very early day, +tree fences were about at least three sides of the land, thus forming +a cattle range, and evidencing possession and occupancy. He then +called McConough, of Bainbridge, and men bent eagerly forward to +gaze at the old Indian hunter, who had been a sharp-shooter on the +ill-fated "Lawrence," in Perry's sea fight, off Put-in-Bay, and who +was also with Gen. Harrison at the Thames; a quiet, compact, athletic, +swarthy man, a little dull and taciturn. He said he was first on the +ground in 1810 or 1811, and found a man by the name of Basil Windsor, +who lived in a small cabin by the spring, near which he had then two +small apple trees. He was there again, with John Harrington, in 1816. +They drove a herd of elk through an opening, into and through Basil's +yard, at the south side, and back into the woods north, until they +came to a tree fence, when they turned east, and were headed off by +another hedge, and the elk were too tired to get over; and there +in the angle they killed two or three, when it came on dark. That +Harrington lit a fire, staid by the slaughtered elk through the night, +to keep the wolves from devouring them, and that he, McConough, went +and staid with Basil. That Basil was a sort of hermit, who lived in +the woods and kept two or three cows. That on their way to Court a few +days ago, he and Harrington went to the premises of Cole, and found +his house near the old Basil spring, and that one of the apple trees +was still standing there. The other had been recently cut down. + +Harrington, a still more celebrated hunter and pioneer, and who +furnished a good idea of old Leatherstocking, and who was with +Winchester at the battle of River Raisin, from which he escaped, +and was one of Harrison's scouts, had been often at Basil Windsor's. +Hunters often found shelter there. He was there both before and after +the war; and he fully corroborated McConough. + +Old Bullock was then called, a heavy-framed, sluggish giant, of that +strong, old-fashioned type of head and face, now nearly out of date. +He, too, had served in the army, and was a famous hunter and trapper. + +He knew Basil, a man who avoided others, and who had met with +misfortunes "down country." "He had hunted and trapped all through +the woods about him, and knew of his having had fences to confine his +cows. Knew Cole; he came in in 1817, 18 or 19, couldn't tell which. +Cole showed him his deed; went with him to find his land, and found +it was the same on which Basil was living. Went with him to see Basil, +who thought it was hard. He said that the land was his'n. He had a +hundred and sixty acres; showed no deed or writin's. Cole finally +bought him out--his right, and 'betterments;' and gave him a horse and +harness, and we went down to Square Punderson's, to git writin's made, +and he wa'n't to home, and none was made. Basil took the horse and +left, and Cole moved into the old cabin. I knew about the slash +fences, and ketched a spotted fawn once, hid in one on 'em. I used +to cross over by the big maples, by the spring run, where Coles's two +children were buried, to go to my traps." + +Bullock was put under a sharp cross-examination, but his story was not +shaken. He had a plenty of good-natured, lazy force, and took care +of himself. A witness brought in a short section of one of the apple +trees, which had twenty-nine rings showing its age, which made a +sensation. + +Several other witnesses swore that when they were boys, they used +to hunt for cattle, on the bottoms, to the north of Cole's land, and +often got on to the old tree fences, to listen for the cow-bells. And +Bart rested his case. + +One branch of this defence looked ugly. The defendant had not clearly +proven that he in person took possession of the land in time to +perfect his title by adverse possession. But he had shown another man +in possession, of some of the property, at least, and claiming it, and +he had purchased this right, whatever it was, had gone in under him, +and so succeeded to his possession, and right, if he had any. + +This took the plaintiff by surprise, and when the defendant rested, he +and his counsel were on the alert to meet it. A note came in from the +outside, and the plaintiff and his counsel retired under leave of the +Court, for consultation. Meanwhile Judge Markham and the President, +who had taken much interest in the case, engaged in an earnest +conversation. Then Judge Markham came down from the bench, and calling +Bart to him, shook him warmly by the hand, and introduced him to Judge +Humphrey, and his associates. All of which the jury observed. + +Upon resuming the case, the plaintiff produced his depositions, and +proved that the defendant's grantor, John Williams, Junior, was the +reputed natural son of Williams, of the Land Company, &c.; also called +witnesses to show that Cole came into the county in 1818. An attempt +was then made to impeach Bullock, which failed. Ward was then put on +the stand, and swore that he met Basil Hall, on a certain time, who +told him that he had no claim, right or title to the land whatever. He +also swore that he saw Hiram Fowler at work, mending the tree fence, +on the north, the summer that Cole came in. + +Bart, who had evinced rare skill in the examination of his own +witnesses--a more difficult thing, by the way, than to cross-examine +those of an adversary--put him through a sharp and stinging +cross-examination. Under pretence of testing his memory, and of +showing bias, he took him over the whole course, and it appeared that +if he ever had the conversation he claimed with Basil, it must +have been after his sale to Cole; and got from him such damaging +statements, that it could be fairly claimed to the jury that the whole +case was prosecuted in the interest of Ward. If so, this would exclude +his testimony wholly. This was in the dark legal days, when not only +were parties excluded from giving evidence, but a pecuniary interest +in the result of the suit to the value of one mill, would render a man +incompetent as a witness. + +Ward had not expected to appear as a witness at all, and though a +shrewd man, he came upon the stand not well knowing the legal ground +he was upon; and the questions came so thick upon each other, that +they fairly took his breath. If plaintiff objected to a question, +it was at once withdrawn, and another instantly put, so that he was +rather confused, than aided, by his counsel's interference. + +It was certainly a relief to both Kelly and Ward, when the latter, +tattered and battered, was permitted, with the ironical thanks of +Bart, to retire; and the plaintiff's rebutting evidence closed. Bart +called two or three to sustain Bullock, and rested also. This was near +the close of Wednesday. + +Mr. Kelly then arose, and delivered the opening of the final argument +to the jury, contenting himself with presenting his own case. He +only glanced at the case of defense, and said he would reserve full +argument on this, as he might, until he had heard from the other side. +As Bart arose to commence, the Court said: + +"Mr. Ridgeley, we will hear you in the morning. Mr. Sheriff, adjourn +the Court until to-morrow morning." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +THE ADVOCATE. + + +At the opening of the Court on Thursday, the court room was crowded. +The interest in the case was general, and the character of the +facts, and principal witnesses for the defense, was such as appealed +powerfully to the memories and early associations of the people, and +there was an earnest desire to hear the speech of the young advocate, +whose management of the case had so far, won for him the heartiest +admiration. + +When the jury had answered to their names, "Mr. Ridgeley, proceed with +your argument," said Judge Humphrey. The young man rose, bowed to the +Court and jury, and stood silent a moment, with his eyes cast down, +and it was at first thought on his rising for his speech, that he +was laboring under embarrassment. When he raised his eyes, however, +embarrassed as he certainly was, and commenced with a low sweet voice, +it was discovered that his faltering was due mainly to the emotions +of sensibility. Nature had been liberal in bestowing many of +the qualifications of a great advocate upon him. He had a strong +compelling will, when he chose to exercise it, which in the conflicts +of the bar often prevails, and courage of a chivalrous cast, which +throws a man impetuously and audaciously upon strong points, and +enables him to gain a footing by the boldness and force of his onset. +Barton was one to lead a forlorn hope, or defend a pass single handed, +against a host. Without something of this quality, a great advocate is +impossible. + +With a warm, poetic imagination, Nature had given him quick perceptive +powers, and the faculty of expressing his thoughts without apparent +effort, in simple, strong language, as well defined, and sharply +cut as a cameo. Beyond this, and better than all, was a tender, +sympathetic sensibility; which, if it sometimes overmastered him, made +him the master of others. The commonest things in his hands took +the motion and color of living things. It was not the mere sensuous +magnetism of powerful physical nature; but it excited the higher +intellectual sympathies, which in turn awoke and captivated the +reasoning and reflective organs, that found themselves delightfully +conducted along a natural and logical course, that led them +unconsciously to inevitable conclusions and convictions, ere the +danger was perceived, or an alarm was sounded. + +On the present occasion, he had not been on his feet five minutes ere +it was felt that a real power, of an unusual order, was manifesting +itself. + +The case was not one framed or arranged with any vulgar reference to +a forensic display. Cases never will get themselves up for any +such occasion; and if the lawyer waits for such a case, he will die +unknown. Cases spring out of dry, hard contentions, with nothing +but vulgar surroundings; and it is to these, that the real advocate +applies himself, breathes upon them the breath of genius and creative +power, and clothes them with life, and interest, and beauty, endows +them with his own soul and imagination, and lifts them from the +level of the common to the height of the remarkable, the unusual, and +sometimes of the wonderful; and endeavors to establish between them, +and a jury and himself, the bonds of intense sympathy, upon which +their emotions and sensibilities will come and go, as did the angels +on the dream-ladder of the patriarch. + +In the advocate's hour of strength and glory, the formulas of the +law burst their mouldy cerements and leap forth into life, tender +and beautiful to protect, or awful to warn or punish. Mysteries are +unfolded, secrets reveal themselves, hidden things are proclaimed, and +courts and juries, awed and abashed, yet elevated and inspired, accept +and act upon his conclusions as infallible. For one hour he touches +the pinnacle of human achievement. + +After all, the effectiveness of the advocate is not so much in what +he says, as in the way he says it. One man with real strength arises +outside, and batters and bangs with real power, deals forcible blows, +and yet does not carry his point; while another, with less intellect, +gets up within the charmed circle of the sympathies, by the warm, +human side of a jury, whom they don't think of resisting, and could +not if they tried. + +The speaker usually rises a little outside of the subject, on a sort +of neutral ground, and Bart made the transit of this, naturally and +simply. He graphically explained to the jury those legal phantoms, +John Doe and Richard Roe; how Richard was always maltreating and +dispossessing John, and how John was always going to law with Dick, +and was hence an immense favorite with lawyers; and how, when Dick is +sued, he always, having got up a muss, notifies the actual party in +possession, and who ought to have been sued; tells him he must look +out for himself, and hurries off to find where John has squat himself +into other property; and thereupon he thrusts him out again, and so +on. It was a fiction invented by the English lawyers to try the right +of two parties to the possession of real estate; because they could +do it in no other way, and the 4th of July had not freed us from this +relic of antiquity. The issue here was, whether Fisk had a better +right to the possession of this land, than had Cole; and whatever did +not in some way help to enlighten them on that issue, had no business +to be said at all. + +In a few happy strokes, he sketched the defendant buying this land, +packing up, bidding adieu to the dear down-country home, and his +toilsome journey into the woods, arrival, and purchase, and poor, +hard life of toil and deprivation: here was his all. He sketched the +plaintiff as a well or ill-to-do gentleman, of a speculative turn of +mind, whose eye coveted the rich bottom-lands of the defendant; and +finding him helpless and poor, searched out the weak place in his +title, hunted up obscure relatives, and procured for a song sung by +themselves, their signatures to a deed of property of which they had +never heard; he had proven that John Williams, Junior, son of John +Williams, Senior, was born out of wedlock, had gone grubbing back into +forgotten burying-places, and disinterred the dead, searched out the +weakness of their lives; had raked out a forgotten scandal, carefully +gathered it up in its rottenness, and had poured it out, before the +jury; and the frailty and infamy of an unhappy woman, and the crime of +one wretched man, were the sole virtue and strength of his case--sole +source of his title to the land in dispute. And the plaintiff demanded +that the law in its honor should now rob poor Cole of his homestead, +and of the graves of his children, that John Fisk--or rather, Sam +Ward--might possess that to which he had just the same moral right, +that Dr. Myers had to the horses he stole. And this learned Court, and +gentlemen of the jury, pioneers in these receding woods, are to be the +instruments of this transfer. + +The language was simple and plain, the imagery bold and striking, +and the closing sentences were pronounced with great fervor. The jury +shrank from the issue, which might have a possible conclusion, and +looked eagerly for any escape, as jurors will. + +The young advocate clearly opened out the nature of the defence of +adverse possession, and the philosophy upon which it rested; and +explained that the defendant, to meet the plaintiff's paper case, must +show that he and those under whom he claimed, had been in the open, +continued, and notorious possession of the property for twenty years, +before suit was brought, claiming to be the owners. This the defendant +was to show, at the peril of destruction; and in a few happy sentences +he brought the jury to feel an intense anxiety that he should succeed. + +Then he turned back the years, blotted out the highways, re-planted +the forests, till the court house dissolved, and a wondrous maple +wood crowned the hill on which it stood. And so back, till the Indians +returned, and elk and panthers roamed at will. Then he pointed out +a sorrow-stricken, moody, brooding man, seeking a "lodge in the vast +wilderness," hunting the spring, and building his shanty, making his +clearing, and planting a few apple seeds, brought from his old home; +and picking up the section of the tree trunk, he read off from its +end, "twenty-nine years ago!" + +He sketched in rapid, natural lines, the life of the recluse, the +necessities of his situation, his keeping cows, and the means of +restricting their range; dwelt upon the evidence of the tree fences, +and argued that the fact that two of them were used for that purpose, +was conclusive that the other sides were also fenced, for without them +no enclosure could exist. And he referred to the well known universal +custom of that early day. + +Lord! how those old and somewhat mythical tree fences grew, and came +out under his hands! The hunters had herded elk in their angles; +bears had been trapped in their jungles; the doe hid her fawn in their +recesses; wolves and foxes had found lairs in them; birds had built +nests in them; men in search of strayed cattle had climbed upon them +to listen for the tinkling bell; balm and thyme, wild sun-flowers and +celandine had made them fragrant with perfume, and bright with color. + +Basil Hall went to that spring, and built and occupied, because he +owned it. His very settlement and occupancy was a proclamation of +ownership--an assertion of right--the most satisfactory, and so the +Court would say. Here he read from the Ohio Reports, to show that a +parol claim, without any written color of title, was sufficient to +make the claim. He then referred to the evidence of Bullock, that Hall +did by word claim such right; that the claim was acknowledged by Cole, +who bought and paid for it. If Hall had been without claim of right, +Cole would have turned him out; but he acknowledged it, bought, +got it, and held it. The word of Ward could not be taken; he was +interested; if taken, it could not be believed; if believed, it proved +nothing, for the admission of Hall to him, that he had no right, +was made after Hall had sold out, and hence not evidence against the +purchaser, all of which he forcibly illustrated; and the proposition +was conceded to be law. He claimed that this defence under the +purchase from Hall, was perfect in itself. + +His defence of Bullock from the attack on him, was forcible and +beautiful. The old man was a hunter, had been a soldier, etc., and the +unforgotten Indian battles of the recent war flashed before the jury, +and all the sylvan romance of a hunter's life was reproduced as by +magic. + +In the second place he contended that Cole made an absolute defense +on his claim of title under his deed; no matter though John Williams, +Junior, was the bastard of a bastard; his deed was good to make a +claim of title under, by the common law of England, and that of every +State of the United States; and he read authorities to the Court. + +He then showed pretty conclusively that Cole left Connecticut in the +spring of 1817, and was not a year and two months on the road; that +he came in in 1817, and not in 1818; and this, he said he would +demonstrate. John Fowler, Hiram Fowler's son, had sworn positively +that his father worked for Cole, repairing the fence on the north. +Ward swore to the same; he had told this one bit of truth by some +unaccountable accident; so that the plaintiff had also proven that +Hiram Fowler had worked for Cole on this land, and hence Cole was in +possession of it in the lifetime of Fowler. When did Fowler die? + +"Now," said Bart, "I will read from this probate record, already put +in evidence, but not read," and he opened and read from the record +of the Court, begun and held in the court house at Chardon, for the +county of Geauga, commencing April 17, 1818, the appointment of an +administrator on the estate of "Hiram Fowler, late deceased, of the +township of Newbury, in said county," and closed the book with a clap. +"Thus this record of absolute verity declares that Hiram Fowler had +died before April, 1818, and the plaintiff and defendant both prove +that he was alive, after Cole came into this State. Beyond the +possibility of doubt then, Cole came to the possession of this land in +1817, and his title is perfect in law, equity and morality." + +When he closed this part of his case, a murmur almost of open applause +ran through the densely packed house. Here he rested the argument. + +In a rapid _resume_ of the case, he seemed to have stumbled upon the +two little grass-grown graves of Cole's children, up under the old +maples. He paused, hesitated, faltered, and stopped, tears came to his +eyes, and his lips quivered. No art could have produced this effect, +and a sob broke from many in the court room. Suddenly resuming, he +finished his grouping in a saddened voice, and paused for a moment, +sending his eager glance through the court room, till it finally +rested on the face of Sam Ward. Looking at him, in half a dozen +sentences, he pilloried him for the scorn and derision of the jury; +and then turning to them, in a voice of wonderful sweetness, half sad +and regretful, he committed the case to them, and sat down. + +A great hum like that of swarming bees, ran through the court house, +and men who had looked often into each other's eyes, looked again, +with a joyous sense of relief. + +During some parts of his speech, which occupied an hour and a half, +men at times leaned from all parts of the room towards him, open-eyed +and open-mouthed. At others they swayed gently to and fro, like tree +tops in a breeze; and when he sat down, the oldest at the bar--the +President on the bench--felt that it was among the best speeches they +had ever heard, if not the best. The youthfulness of the orator of +course enhanced its effect. It had some faults of redundancy, both of +words and imagery, but its tone and manner were admirable. At times +his delivery was very rapid and vehement, but his voice, always rich +and full, never broke, or seemed strained; while in the moments +of excitement, every nerve and fibre of his form quivered with the +intensity of his emotion. His form was lithe and elastic, and admitted +of easy, rapid and forcible action, which was never more than was +allowable to one of his passionate temperament. + +When he closed, almost everybody supposed the case was ended. Wade +arose with a radiant face, and said the defense rested the argument on +that which had just been delivered. + +Kelly was taken by surprise again, both by the quality and force of +Bart's speech, and the submission of the case. The first carried him +off his feet, and he hoped to recover during the delivery of another +on the same side. He was a good chancery and real estate lawyer, but +he was not the man to reply to Barton's argument. He followed him, +however--that is, he spoke after him, and on the other side, for a +half hour, and submitted the case. + +The Court gave the case to the jury on the law, as the defense claimed +it. Indeed there was no dispute about the law. He explained fully and +clearly the case, which arose on the defense; and saying, in a very +graceful and gracious way, that the merits of the case had been +presented with a force and beauty rarely equalled, and which might +tend to aid the jury in coming to their conclusion, he submitted it to +them, and took a recess for dinner. + +At the recess, the lawyers crowded about Bart to congratulate him for +his defense, among whom Kelly was the foremost. Judge Markham came +up, and with moisture in his eyes, took him by both hands and drew him +away to Judge Humphrey, who complimented him in the highest terms, and +insisted upon his dining with him, which invitation Bart accepted. The +Judge was as much taken with his modest, quiet, gentlemanly manners, +and quick, happy wit, as with his splendid speech in the court room. +The fact was, his exertions had fully awakened his intellectual +forces, and they were all in the field, armed and with blades drawn. +He could not eat, and never drank, save water or milk; and now between +the two Judges, and surrounded by lawyers, with a glass of milk and a +plate of honey, petted and lionized for the moment, he gave himself +up to sparkling and brilliant answers to the numerous questions and +remarks addressed to him, and showed that, whatever draft had been +made upon him, he had plenty of resources in reserve. + +Upon a return to the court house, at half past one, the jury, who had +made up and sealed their verdict, were called; it was opened and +read, and as anticipated, was for the defendant. This announcement was +received with scarcely suppressed applause. The verdict was recorded +by the clerk, and in due time followed by the judgment of the Court, +and so ended Fisk _vs_. Cole. Cole went out of the court room, with +one exception, the most observed man in the crowd. + +Very naturally Barton and his last performance was the common theme +of conversation in the region round about for many days. All over +Newbury, as witnesses and other spectators returned, the whole thing +was talked over, with such various eulogies as suited the exaggerated +estimate his various admirers put upon his merits. + +"What do you say now?" said Uncle Jonah to Uncle Josh, as the two had +just listened to an account of the trial, in Parker's bar room. + +"It does beat hell amazingly!" answered that accomplished rhetorician. + +"What did I tell you?" said Jo, at Jugville, to Uncle Cal, and that +set. + +"Oh, I was there," said Uncle Cal. "I always said, ever since the +trial here, that he had the stuff in him. But he went beyond anything +I ever hearn," and Uncle Cal relapsed into admiring silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +WAITING. + + +Julia sat alone that evening in an elegantly, and, for that day, +luxuriously furnished room, around which she had many times glanced, +and in which her own hands had several times arranged and re-arranged +the various articles. There was a bed in the room, which was large +and airy, a vase filled with wild and hot-house flowers; yet it was +evidently not a lady's room, and unoccupied save at this moment by the +fair Julia, who with an abundance of color in her cheeks and lips, and +a liquid light in her eyes, was nevertheless pensive and seemingly not +quite at ease. She held two letters in her hands, which she many times +re-read. They ran as follows: + +"CHARDON, Wednesday P.M. + +"_My Dear Wife_:--Barton reached here on Monday P.M. I did not think +it best to call upon him, and did not see him till yesterday morning +in the court room, when, without looking me in the face save for a +second, he bowed to me. He had so changed that I did not at first +recognize him, and did not acknowledge his bow as I would. Later, +when his case was called and he came to make a remark to the court, he +looked me in the eye, calmly and steadily, and I thought I could see +in his face regret, the shadow of suffering, and a very kindly, but +sad expression, which seemed almost like a revelation. + +"He is much changed and improved. The old boyish recklessness and dash +is gone. His face is thinner, has much character, and is disfigured, +as I think, with a moustache, which gives him the look of a foreigner. +He is, of course, well dressed, and has the quiet, high-bred air of a +thorough gentleman. + +"Judge Humphrey is immensely taken with him, and he has so far managed +his case admirably, and like an experienced lawyer. We cannot keep our +eyes from him, but watch every word and movement with great interest. +Though Wade and Ford are with him, he tries the case alone, thus far. + +"I shall see him--if he will see me--as of course he will, the moment +he is free from his case. + +"Of course you will show this to Julia. + +"Ever yours, EDWARD." + + +"CHARDON, Thursday P.M. + +"_My Dear Wife:_--I cannot in sober language express my astonishment +and admiration for Barton's masterly speech this forenoon. As much +as I expected from him, I was completely taken by surprise. Judge +Humphrey is unbounded in his praises of him; but I will tell you about +all this when I return. + +"At the recess, among others I went to congratulate him, which was +the second time I had been where I could give him my hand. He held out +both of his, and seemed unable to speak. As soon as he could extricate +himself from the ovation, he went with me to Judge Humphrey, who took +him to dine with us. His conversation at the dinner table was more +brilliant than his speech. He ate nothing but a little honey, and +drank a glass of milk. I confess I was a little alarmed at some of his +sallies. + +"On our way back to court, I observed he began to grow serious, and +I arranged to see him as soon as his case was at an end. The jury +returned a verdict for Cole, on the coming in after dinner, and that +case, thanks to Bart, is finally ended. + +"After this, I left the bench and was joined by Bart. It was difficult +for him to escape from the crowd who followed him out; when he did, +he joined me, and we walked off down the hill toward Newbury. Bart was +evidently depressed. The re-action had come; the great strain of the +last three days was removed, and the poor boy was sad and melancholy. + +"We went on in silence, I not knowing just how to commence. + +"' Judge Markham,' said he, turning frankly to me, 'you know I am a +born fool, and just now I feel like breaking entirely down, and crying +like a woman. For these last four years I have lived utterly alone, +confiding nothing to any one, and I am too weak to go so, always.' + +"Oh, how I wished you had been there, with your sweet woman's heart, +and voice, and tact. + +"'My dear boy,' said I, 'if there is anything in the wide world that I +can say and do_ only let me know what it is. I am more anxious to help +you, than you are to be helped, if I only may.' + +"'I don't know how I ought to meet you, Judge Markham. You wrote me a +manly letter, full of kindness, and I answered--God knows what--I was +so wretched.' + +"'I could not blame you,'I said, 'I am much in fault towards you, but +it was from my not knowing you. I regret it very much.' + +"'I don't know,' he answered, 'that you should say that to me. I feel +sorry and hurt that anybody should make apologies to me. Why should +you have known me"? I did not not know myself, and don't now. I know I +can not hate or even dislike anybody, and I always liked you, and I do +now.' + +"'Barton,' said I, 'God bless you! you never can have cause of +complaint against me or mine again: only give us your confidence, and +trust us.' + +"'I am sure you are very kind,' said he, 'and it is very pleasant +to hear it said. I want to see Mrs. Markham, and in some way say how +grateful I am for her kind expressions towards me, and she and--and +you all, have been very kind to my poor dear mother for the past +year.' + +"'You would not let us be kind to you,' said I. + +"'No. How could I?' he answered. + +"'I don't know,'said I. 'I only hope now that there may be no more +misunderstandings; that you will now let us--will give Julia an +opportunity, at least to express her gratitude to you, and that we may +all unite in so doing.' + +"He was silent a moment, and then went on as if thinking aloud: + +"'Julia! Good Heavens! how can I ever meet her!--Pardon me; I mean +Miss Markham. I shall certainly call upon the ladies at a very early +day,' he said, coldly. 'The fact is, Judge Markham,' continued he, 'I +have been under a little strain, and I am not used to it. I come back +here near home, and see so many old Newbury people, who make me forget +how they used to dislike me, and all the old, and all the more recent +things, come back upon me so strongly, and I find I am as weak and +boyish and foolish as ever.' + +"He did not say much more--he finally asked about you, and after much +hesitation, about Julia. It is so easy to see that his heart is full +of her, that I could not help feeling almost wretched for him. I then +asked him when he was going to Newbury. He thought of going to-morrow +in the stage, but said some parties wanted to see him Friday evening. +He has finally consented to wait and ride down with us on Saturday, +after the term closes. + +"Now, my dear wife, come and bring Julia, if you think it best. I +confess I wish that they might meet at an early day--but be governed +by your better judgment in this--and you will show her this letter of +course. + +"Ever, with love and kisses to you both, + +EDWARD." + + +"Mother," she said afterwards, "let me suggest that you send up a +carriage to-morrow evening, which Papa Judge may take as an invitation +to come early on Saturday morning. If Mr. Ridgeley sees me, had he not +better find me in my mother's and father's house?" + +"_If_ he sees you, Julia?" + +"Of course if he wishes to, he will." + +And she was not conversational, and wandered about, and if possible +would have been a little pettish. + +"Are you not glad, Julia, that he has acquitted himself so well? He +seems to have carried the Court and jury and all by storm." + +"Of course he did. Does that surprise you? But it is all so stupid, +staying there to try that pokey old case." + +"Julia, what under the sun is the matter?" looking at her in +surprise. + +The girl turned and knelt by her mother, and laid her face down in her +lap, and burst into violent sobbings. + +On the morrow Julia arose, sweet and composed, with the old light in +her eyes, and her wonted color coming and going with the mysterious +emotions within. She was almost gay and joyous at breakfast, and then +grew fitful and restless, and then became pensive again. + +The day was a marvel of the forward spring, and the sun filled the +whole heavens with its wondrous light. The blue bird called down in +his flight, with his trill of gladness, and the robins flooded the +leafless trees and the lawn with gushes of purest melody. Julia could +not remain in the house; she could not remain anywhere; and as the +morning deepened, she took a sudden resolution and ordered Prince to +be saddled at once. + +"Mother," said she, "I have the whole of this long, long day. I must +gallop off through the woods, around to Wilder's. I haven't been there +since last fall; and then I will come around by Mrs. Ridgeley's and +tell her, and so home. Don't gay a word, mother; I must go. I cannot +stay here. I'll be back in good time." + +So mounting Prince she bounded off. When she felt herself going with +the springy, elastic leap of her splendid steed, she thought she +had found what she most wanted--to go to that little blessed nook of +shelter and repose under the rocks by the running stream, in the +sun. Something seemed to call her, and the day, the rapid motion, the +exhilaration of the atmosphere, as she dashed through it, softened her +excitement, and a calm, elevated, half-religious extasy possessed her; +and the sky and air, and brown, desolate earth, just warming with the +April sun, all glowed with hope. How near to her seemed Heaven and +all holy, sweet influences; and the centre of it all was one radiant, +beautiful face, looking with sad, wistful eyes to her for love and +life which she so wanted to give. She felt and knew that to this +one in some way, she would be fully revealed, and misconception and +absence and doubt would vanish. She should meet him, but just how he +would look, or what he would say, or how she should or could answer +him, she could not shadow out, and would not try. All that, she was +sure, would take care of itself, and he would know and understand her +finally. + +Prince seemed fully to appreciate the day, and to be inspired with +its subtle and exhilarating elixir; but after a mile or two of +over-spirit, he sobered down into his long, easy, springy, untiring +gallop. They passed the fields and went along the hard and dry +highway, till she reached the diverging trail that struck off through +the woods toward the settlement on the other side, the nearest house +of which was Wilder's. + +On she went among the trees, past recently deserted sugar camps, away +from human habitations, into and through the heart of the forest, +joyous and glad in her beauty and young life and hope, and happy +thoughts; and finally she came to the creek; here she drew up her +still fresh horse, and rode slowly through its clear, rapid waters, +and turned down on its other bank. How glad it seemed, gurgling and +rippling, and swirling, with liquid music and motion! Slowly she rode +down and with a half timid feeling, as somehow doubting if she would +not return. But it was all silent and quiet; the sunshine and the +voice of the stream seemed to re-assure her, and the strange feeling +passed away, as she entered the little nook so dear to her memory. +How silent and empty it was, in the rich, bright light of the +mid-forenoon! She dismounted, and taking her skirt upon her arm, was +about to step under the rude shed, with the thought of the birds who +had reared their young there the year before, when Prince lifted his +head with a forward movement of his ears, and turning her eyes down +the stream, they fell upon Barton, who had just passed around the +lower angle of the rocks, and paused in speechless surprise, within a +few feet of her. + +With a little cry of joy, she threw out her hands and sprang towards +him. Her forgotten skirt tripped her, and she would have fallen, but +the quick arms of Barton were about her, and for an exquisite moment +she abandoned herself fully to him. + +"Oh, Arthur, you have come to me!" + +Their lips found each other, the great mass of dark brown hair almost +overflowed the light brown curls, and their glad tears mingled. + +"Julia! I am alive--awake! and you are in my arms! Your kiss has been +on my lips! You love me!" + +"With my whole heart and soul!" + +"Oh, how blessed to die at this moment!" murmured Bart. + +"Would it not be more blessed to live, love?" she whispered. + +"And you have always loved me?" + +"Always--there--there!" with a touch of her lips at each word. + +"I thought--" + +"I know you did. You shall never, never think again--there!" + +She withdrew from his arms, and adjusted her skirt, and stood by him +in her wondrous beauty, radiant with the great happiness that filled +her heart. + +Barton was still confused, and looked with eyes wide open with +amazement, partly at seeing her at all, partly at her marvellous +beauty, which to him was seraphic, and more and most of all, at the +revelation of her great love. + +"Oh Julia! How was this? how is this--this coming of Heaven to me; +this marvel of your love?" + +"Did you really think, Arthur, that I had no eyes; that I had no ears; +that I had no woman's heart? How could you think so meanly of me, and +so meanly of yourself?" + +"But you so scorned me." + +"Hush! that was your word: it was not true; you were even then in my +foolish girl's heart. Don't speak of that to me now; surely you must +have known that that was all a mistake." + +"And you always loved me? How wonderful that we should meet here and +to-day!" he said, unable to take his eyes from her. + +"You know the place and remember the day? Is it more marvellous, than +that we should have been here before? I never knew how you found me +then, and I am as much puzzled about your being here now. Father wrote +us that you would come down with him to-morrow." + +"Tell me how _you_ come to be here, to-day, of all the things in the +world?" said Bart. + +"Am I to tell first? Well, you see, I wanted to see Mrs. Wilder and +Rose; I have not been to their house since last fall, and so, having +nothing else to do, I rode over, and just thought we would come down +here--didn't we, Prince?" + +"And so you call him Prince?" said Bart, who had recognized the horse. + +"Yes, and I will sometime tell you why, if you will tell me how you +came here to-day." + +"I came on purpose, because I wanted to. Because you had hallowed the +place, I knew that I should find your haunting presence in it. Oh, +when that case was over, and I got out, all the old dreams, and +visions, and memories, and voices came to me. And your face never +absent, not with the old look of scorn that it seemed to wear, but +sweet, and half reproachful, haunted me, and made me half believe +what poor Henry's smitten love said to me of you, when I told her my +story." + +"Bless her," murmured Julia. + +"And I walked, and mused, and dreamed all the night; and this morning +I sent your kind, good father a note, and came off. I came as directly +here as I could, and now indeed I believe God sent me." + +His arm was about her, and he held both her hands. The frank +confession, so sweet to her, had its immediate reward from her lips. + +"Arthur," she said, "I, too, came to see this place, with its sweet +and sacred memories. I have been here three times before. You may know +every thought and feeling of my heart. I could not have got through +the day without coming: and how blessed I am for coming. Do you +remember, when you had done all you could for my rest and comfort, +how, on that awful yet precious night, you asked me if I had said a +prayer, and I asked you to pray? Do you know that my mother and I both +believe that that prayer was answered, and that she was impressed +with my safety in answer to it? Oh, how grateful to our Father for his +goodness to us we should be. Arthur, can you thank Him for us, now?" +And they knelt in the forest solitude, with God and his blessed sun +and blue sky, and their two young, pure, loving hearts joined in a +fervent outpouring of gratitude. + +"Our Father, for the precious and blessed revelation of our hearts, +each to the other, we thank Thee. Let this love be as pure, and +sacred, and holy, and eternal, as we now feel it to be. Grant, dear +Father, that it may be sanctified by holy marriage; and that through +Thy gracious providence, this union of hearts and souls may ever +be ours. Hear us, thy young, helpless, yet trusting, believing, and +loving children." + +And she: "Sweet and blessed Saviour; let Thy precious love and +presence be also about us, to keep us, help us, and bless us; and +Father, let the maiden's voice also join in the prayer that Thou wilt +bless us, as one." + +They arose, and turned to each other, with sweet, calm, restful, happy +faces; with souls full of trust and confidence, that was to know no +change or diminution. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. + + +Julia pointed out the bird's nest under the roof, and to a faded +garland of flowers, hung upon the rough bark of the old hemlock, +against which Barton had reclined, and another upon the rock just over +where she had rested. In some way these brought to Bart's mind the +flowers on Henry's grave; and in a moment he felt that her hand had +placed them there; the precious little hand that lay so willingly in +his own. Raising it to his lips, he said: "Julia, this same blessed +hand has strewn my poor dear brother's grave with flowers." + +"Are you glad, Arthur?" + +"Oh, so glad, and grateful! And the same hand wrote me the generous +warning against that wretched Greer?" + +"Yes, Arthur. Father came home from that first trial distressed about +you, and I wrote it. I thought you would not know the hand." + +"I did not--though when your letter came to me in Jefferson, the +address reminded me of it. But I did not think you wrote it. And when +rumors were abroad of my connection with these men, after I went +to Albany, who was it who sent somebody to Ravenna, to get a +contradiction from Greer, himself?" + +"No one sent anybody: some one went," in the lowest little voice. + +"Oh, Julia! did you go, yourself?" + +"Yes." + +"With the love of such a woman, what may not a man do?" cried Bart, +with enthusiasm. "Julia, I suspect more--that I owe all and everything +to you." + +"You saved my life, Arthur, and will you not take little things from +me?" + +"I owe you for all the love and happiness of all my future, Julia, and +for the stimulus that has made me work these three years. You love +me; and love takes from love, and gives all it can and has, and is +content." + +"Bless you, Arthur!" and affecting to notice the passage of the sun +towards the meridian--she turned to him a little anxiously--"What time +is it, Arthur?"--as if she cared! He told her, and she extended her +hand and took the watch, and toyed with it a moment; "it is a pretty +watch, open it, please," which he did. Looking at it intently, with +heightened color, she pointed with the rosy tip of a finger, to an +almost hidden inscription, which Bart had never seen before, and which +he saw were letters spelling "Julia." He started up amazed, and for +the moment trembled. + +"Oh, Julia! all that I have and am, the food I have eaten, the clothes +I wear, all came from you! Old Windsor is a fraud--an instrument--and +I have carried your blessed name these long months, not knowing it." + +"Arthur, 'you love me, and love takes from love. It gives all it has +and can, and is content.' It is a blessed gospel, Arthur. Think how +much I owe you--gladly owe you;--the obligation was not a burthen; but +you would not even let me express my gratitude. Think of your dreadful +letter. When you knelt and prayed for me, I would have put my lips to +yours, had you been near me. I let you see my very heart in every +line I wrote you, and you turned from me so coldly, and proudly, and +blindly, and I could see you were so unhappy. Oh, I would not have +been worthy to be carried a step in your arms, if I had not done the +last thing in my power. I went and saw Mr. Wade, and father promised +me the money, and Mr. Wade arranged it all for me; and dear, blessed +Mr. Windsor is not a fraud; he loves you himself, and loved your +brother." + +"Forgive me, forgive me, Julia," said Bart, who had sunk on the leaves +at her feet, and was resting his head against her bosom, with one arm +of hers about his neck; "and this watch?" + +"That I purchased and had engraved, and perhaps--what would you have +done had you seen my name?" + +"Come straight to you at once." + +"And you are content?" + +"Perfectly; you love me, and I accept the gospel of love," and he +looked up with his clear, open brow and honest, transparent eyes, and +gazing down into them and into the depths of his soul, seeming to see +great happiness, dimmed a little with regret, she bent her head and +put her lips to his, and tears fell from her eyes once again upon his +face. + +"Arthur," again lifting her head, "how glad I am that this is all told +you now, when you are tenderest to me, and I have no secret to carry +and fear, nothing to do now but to make you happy, and be so happy. +Sometime, soon, you will tell me all your precious heart history, +keeping nothing from me." + +"Everything, everything, Julia! and something I may say now--I don't +want to leave this sweet, sacred place, without a word about my +letter. It was written in utter hopelessness of your love. The +occurrences of that strange night had replaced me within the reach of +my own esteem." + +"How had you ever lost that, Arthur?" + +"By my own folly. I loved you when I came back--before I went +away--always. It was a dream, a sweet, delicious dream--that inspired +poetry, and kindled ambition, but was purely unselfish. I had not a +thought or a hope of a return. This passion came to possess me, to +occupy my mind, and absorb my whole being. I knew it could not in the +nature of things be returned." + +"Arthur!" + +"And I rushed into your presence, and declared it, and received what +I expected and needed--though it paralyzed me, but my pride came to my +rescue, and what strength I had; I went away humiliated, and aroused +myself and found places on which I could stand, and strength to work. +So far as you were concerned, Julia, I only hoped that in the far +future, if you ever recalled my mad words--" + +"That did not fall in the dust under my feet, and were not forgotten, +sir," interrupted Julia. + +"Thank you, dearest--but if they should come to you, you would feel +that they had not insulted you. I avoided you, of course, and had to +avoid your mother. I would not see you, but you were ever about me, +and became an inspiring power. I burned all the sketches I had made of +you, but one, and that I mislaid." + +"I found it. I am glad you lost it, you naughty child." + +"Did you? Well, I went through the winter and spring, and the awful +calamity of Henry's death, and the next fall and winter, and you wore +away, and although I might not see you, your absence made Newbury a +desert. And I felt it, when you came back. And when I got ready to go +I could not. I set the time, sent off my trunk, and lingered. I even +went one night past your father's house, only to see where you were, +and yet I lingered; I found flowers on my brother's grave, and thought +that some maiden loved him." + +"When she loved you." + +"That Wednesday night I would go, but couldn't." + +"Tell me all that happened to you that night; it is a mystery to us +all; you did not even tell your mother." + +"It is not much. I had abandoned my intention of going that night, and +was restless and uneasy, when George rushed in and told me you were +lost. He had learned all that was known, and told it very clearly. I +knew of the chopping, and where the path led up to it, and I thought +you would tarn back to the old road, and might enter the woods, on the +other side. Everything seemed wonderfully clear to me. My great love +kindled and aroused every faculty, and strung every nerve. I was +ready in a moment. George brought me two immense hickory torches, that +together would burn out a winter night; and with one of our sugar camp +tapers. I lighted one, as I went. I must have reached the point where +you left the old road, in ten minutes. I was never so strong, I seemed +to know that I would find you, and felt that it was for this I had +staid, and blamed myself for the selfish joy I felt, that I could +serve and perhaps save you. + +"I examined the old road, and in one wet place, I found your track +going north, and a little further was the old path, that led to the +slashing. At the entrance to it, the leaves had been disturbed, as if +by footsteps; I saw many of them, and thought you had become lost, and +would follow the path; so I went on. When I reached the slashing, I +knew you would not enter that, but supposed you would skirt around +on the east and south side, as the path led southwesterly to it. Of +course I looked and searched the ground, and could occasionally see +where a footfall had disturbed the leaves. + +"I concluded that sooner or later, you would realize that you were +lost; and then--for I knew you were strong and brave--would undertake +to strike off toward home, without reference to anything; and I knew, +of course, that you would then go exactly the wrong way, because +you were lost. After skirting about the slashing, I could find no +foot-marks in the leaves; and I struck out southerly, and in a little +thicket of young beeches and prickly ash, hanging to a thorn, I found +your hood. Oh, God! what joy and thankfulness were mine; and there in +the deep leaves, going westerly, was your trail." + +"I thought I saw that awful beast, just before I reached that place, +and fled, not knowing where," said Julia. + +"Did you call, Julia?" + +"I had called before that, many times." + +"You were too far to be heard by your father and friends; and I was +too late to hear you. I called several times, when I found the hood. +Of course no answer came, and following the trail where it could be +seen, I went on. I missed it often, and circled about until I found +it, or something like it, always bearing away deeper and deeper into +the wood. Then the wind blew awfully, and the snow began to sift down. +My first torch was well burned out, and I knew I had been out some +hours. I lighted the other and went on; soon I struck this creek, and +fancied that you, if you had reached it, would follow it down." + +"I did." + +"Soon after, at a soft place where a little branch came in, I found +your tracks again, several of them; and I knew I was right, and was +certain I should find you. In my great joy, I thanked God, with my +whole heart. It was storming fearfully; and trees were cracking, and +breaking, and falling, in the fury of the wind. I called, but I knew +nobody could hear me a dozen rods away. It had become intensely cold, +and I feared you would become exhausted and fall down, and perhaps +perish ere I could reach you. I hurried on, looked by every tree and +log, calling and searching. I don't know where I struck the creek, +though I knew every rood of the woods: I am, as you know, a born +woodsman, and know all wood craft. Although I was certain I would find +you, I began to grow fearfully anxious, and almost to doubt. As I went +I called your name, and listened. Finally a faint sound came back to +me, and I sprang forward--when you rose partly up before me. Oh, God! +oh, God!" and his voice was lost in emotion. "For one moment I was +overcome, and did, I know not what, save that I knelt by you and +kissed your hands. Their chilly touch recalled me. I felt that I had +saved you not only for your father and mother, but for your pure self, +and to be the bride of some unknown man; and I was resolved that no +memory of yours, and no thought of his, should ever occasion a blush +for what should occur between us." + +"How noble and heroic you were--" + +"You know all that happened after." + +"And in your anxiety to save me from myself, you would not even let me +thank you. And when I slept, you stole away." + +"What could I do. Julia? I had saved you, I had redeemed myself; and +found a calm, cold peace and joy in which I could go. In view of what +had happened between us before, how hard and embarrassing for you +to meet and thank me, and I feared to meet you. It was better that I +should go, and with one stolen look at your sweet, sleeping face, I +went." + +"Arthur, my poor best will I do to repay you for all your pain and +anguish." + +"Am I not more than repaid, proud and happy? It was for the best. I +needed to suffer and work; and yet how blessed to have carried the +knowledge of your love with me!" + +"Oh, I wanted to whisper it to you, to have you know; and I was +unhappy because I knew you were," she murmured. + +"My poor letter in answer to yours I fear was rude and proud and +unmanly. What could I say? The possibility that I could be more than a +friend to you never occurred to me, and when Ida tried to persuade me +that you did love me, her efforts were vain; I could hardly induce her +to abandon the idea of writing you." + +"There is a blessed Providence in it all, Arthur; and in nothing more +blessed than in bringing us together here, where we could meet and +speak, with only the sunshine and this bright stream for witnesses." + +"And what a sweet little story of love and hope and joy it carries +murmuring along!" said Bart, struck with the poetry of her figure. + +"But we must not always stay here," said the practical woman. "We must +go home, must not we, Prince?" addressing the horse, which had stood +quietly watching the lovers, and occasionally looking about him. + +"You have changed his name?" said Bart. + +"Yes. You see he is your horse, and I called him Prince Arthur the +very day I received him, which was the day your letter came. I call +him Prince. He is a prince--and so is his namesake," she added, +playfully pulling his moustache. "You don't like that?" said Bart; +"the moustache? I can cut it away in a moment." + +"I do like it, and you must not cut it away. Stand out there, and let +me have a good look at you; please turn your eyes away from me--there +so." + +"You find me changed," he said, "and I find you more lovely than +ever," rushing back to her. + +"You spoilt my view, sir." + +"You will see enough of me," he said, gaily. + +"You are changed," she went on, "but I like you better. Now, sir, here +is your horse. I deliver you, Prince, to your true lord and master; +and you must love him, and serve him truly." + +"And I have already dedicated you to your lady and mistress," said +Bart, "and you must forever serve her." + +"And the first thing you do, will be to carry Wilder down to my dear +mother, with a letter--how blessed and happy she will be!--asking her +to send up a carriage--unless you have one somewhere?" + +"Me? I haven't anything anywhere, but you. A carriage brought me into +this region, and I sent it back. Keep and ride the Prince, as you call +him; I can walk. I've done it before." + +"You shall never do it again; if you do I will walk with you. We will +go to Wilder's, and see Mrs. Wilder, who is a blessed woman, and who +knew your secret, and knows mine; and Rose, who took me into her bed; +and we will have some dinner, unromantic ham and eggs; and when the +carriage comes, I will drive you to your mother's, and then you shall +drive me home--do you understand?" + +"Perfectly; and shall implicitly obey. Do you know, I half suspect +this is all a dream, and that I shall wake up in Albany, or Jefferson, +or somewhere? I know I am not in Chardon, for I could not sleep long +enough to dream there." + +"Why?" + +"I was too near Newbury, and under the spell of old feelings and +memories; and I don't care to sleep again." + +As they were about to leave the dear little nook, "Arthur," said +Julia, "let us buy a bit of this land, and keep this little romantic +spot from destruction." So they went out through the trees in the warm +sun, Bart with Prince's bridle in his hand, and Julia with her skirt +over one arm and the other in that of her lover. + +"I hold tightly to your arm," said Bart, laughing, "so that if you +vanish, I may vanish with you." + +"And I will be careful and not go to sleep while we are at Wilder's, +for fear you will steal away from me, you bad boy. If you knew how I +felt when I woke and found you had gone--" + +"I should not have gone," interrupted Bart. + +Thus all the little sweet nothings that would look merely silly on +paper, and sound foolish to other ears, yet so precious to them, +passed from one to the other as they went. + +Wilder had eaten his dinner, and lounged out into the sun, with his +pipe, as they walked up. He knew Julia, of course, and Prince, and +looked hard at Bart, as they passed; when the comely wife came running +out. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, taking Julia's hand, "and this--this is Mr. +Ridgeley." + +"It is indeed," said Bart, brightly. + +"And you are not--not--Oh! your two hearts are happy I see it in both +your faces. I am so glad." + +Julia bent and kissed her. + +"Oh, I knew when he went off so heart-broken, that it wasn't your +fault, and I always wished I had kept him." + +Sweet, shy, blushing Rose came forward, and Bart took her hands and +hoped she would look upon him as an older brother long absent, and +just returned. And little lisping George, staring at him curiously, +"Are you Plinth Arthur?" + +"Prince Arthur?" cried Bart, catching him up, "do I look like a +prince?" + +"Yeth." + +"Take that," said Bart, laughing, giving him a gold coin. + +"He is a prince," said Julia, "and you see he gives like a prince." + +"Exactly," answered Bart; "princes always give other peoples' gold for +flattery." + +"And now, Mr. Wilder, I want you to put your saddle on Prince, and +gallop straight to my mother, and drive back a carriage. I found this +unhappy youth wandering about in these same woods, and I am going to +take him with me this time." + +When Wilder was ready, she gave him the following note: + +"_Dear Mother_:--I am so blessed and happy. Arthur and I met this +morning in the dear old nook under the rocks, and we are the happiest +two in the world. + +"JULIA. + +"P.S. I forgot. Send a carriage by Wilder. I don't want a driver. We +will go round by Arthur's mother's, and be with you this evening. J. + +"P.S. Send me a skirt." + +And whether the sun stood still or journeyed on, they did not note, +nor could they remember what Mrs. Wilder gave them for dinner, or +whether they tasted it. At last Wilder appeared with a light carriage +and pair. Julia's saddle was put on board, and the lovers, Julia +holding the reins, drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +THE RETURN. + + +Spring came with its new life and promise, sweetly and serenely to the +home and heart of Barton's mother, who was looking and hoping for his +return, with a strong, intense, but silent yearning. For herself, +for his brothers, and more for Julia, whom she now understood, and +tenderly loved, and whose secret was sacred to her woman's heart; and +most of all for Barton's own sake; for she knew that when these two +met, the shadow that had surrounded them would disappear. Some pang +she felt that there should be to him a dearer one; but she knew that +Julia did not come between them, and that nothing would chill that +side of his heart--the child side--that was next her own. + +On Wednesday morning Julia had galloped up and given her Bart's letter +of Tuesday, so that she knew he was in Chardon, well and hopeful, and +would return to her as soon as he escaped from his trial. + +Thursday evening Dr. Lyman came all aglow from Chardon. He had seen +Bart and heard his argument, and all the enthusiasm of his nature was +fully excited. + +Now on this long, warm Friday--the anniversary of his departure--he +was to come; and naturally enough she looked to see him come the way +he went--from the east. Often, even before noon, she turned her eyes +wistfully down the road, and until it met the rise the other side of +the little valley, so on up past the red school house, and was lost +over the summit; but the road was empty and lonely. + +As the afternoon ran toward evening, she began to grow anxious. +Suddenly the sound of wheels caught her ear, and she turned as Judge +Markham's grays headed up to her gate. She recognized Julia, who, +without waiting to be helped, sprang lightly from the carriage, with +her face radiant, and bounding to her threw her arms about her neck. + +"Oh, mother--my mother now--he is here. I met him in those blessed +woods and brought him to you." + +Then she made room for him, and for a moment the mother's arms +encircled them both. How glad and happy she was, no man may know; as +no man understands, and no woman can reveal, the depth and strength of +mother love. + +The three in happy tears--tears, that soon vanish, went into the dear +old house, into whose every room Bart rushed in a moment, calling for +the boys, and asking a thousand unanswered questions, and coming back, +with a flood of words, half tears and half laughs. + +"So, Bart," said the proud and happy mother, "it is all right," with a +look towards Julia. "I knew it would be." + +"And, mother, you knew it, too?" + +"A woman sees where a man is blind, sometimes," she answered. "And +boys must find these things out for themselves. Poor boy, I wanted +somebody to whisper it to you." + +"Somebody has done so, mother, and I am now so glad that it was left +for that one to tell me." + +The boys came in, and were a little overwhelmed, even George, with the +warmth of their brother's reception. Julia went straight to George, +saying, "Now, sir, you belong to me; you are to be my dear +youngest brother! What a row of handsome brothers I shall +have--there!--there!"--with a kiss for each word. + +George at first did not quite comprehend: "Julia, are you going to be +Bart's wife?" + +"Yes," with a richer color. + +"When?" + +"Hush! That isn't a question for you to ask." And she bent over him +with another low sweet "hush," that he understood. + +Soon the Colonel and his sweet young wife came in, and they all came +to know that Julia was one of them; and she knew what warm, true +hearts had come so suddenly about her with their strong, steady +tenderness. + +Then, as the sun fell among the western tree tops, Julia said to Mrs. +Ridgeley, "Now Arthur must drive me home; his other mother has not +seen him; and to-morrow I will bring him to you. He is to remain with +us, and we will come and go between our two homes for, I don't know +how long; until he grows stout and strong, and has run through all the +woods, and visited all the dear old places, and grows weary of us, and +sighs for Blackstone, and all those horrid books." + +She took her happy place by his side in the carriage, after kissing +them all, including Ed, and they drove leisurely away. + +As they went, he told her gaily of the lonely walk, in darkness, +when he last went over this road. The sketch brought new tears to the +tender eyes at his side. + +"Oh, Arthur! if you could have only known! if you had come to me for +one moment." + +"Today could never have come," he interrupted. "I like it as it is. +How could I ever have had the beautiful revelation of your high and +heroic qualities, Julia? And we could not have met as we did +this morning. The very memory of that meeting equals the hope and +blessedness of Heaven." + +Down past the quiet houses they rode; through bits of woods that still +fringed parts of the road; down past the old saw mill; up over the +hill, where they paused to look over the beautiful pond, full to its +high banks; then to the State road, and south over the high hills, +overlooking the little cemetery, towards which Bart looked tenderly. + +"Not to-night, love," said Julia; "their beautiful spirits see and +love, and go with us." + +So in the twilight, and with a pensive and serene happiness, they +passed up through the straggling village, Julia and her lover, to her +own home. + +It had somehow been made known that Bart would that evening arrive. +His trunk had been received by the stage, at the stage house, and a +group of curious persons were on the look out in front of Parker's, as +they drove past. When Bart lifted his hat, they recognized and greeted +him with a hearty cheer; which was repeated when the carriage passed +the store. Bart was deeply touched. + +"You see," said the happy Julia, "that everybody loves you." + +"You see they greet us on your account," he answered. + +A little group was also at her father's gate, and as Bart sprang out, +Julia's mother took him by both hands. + +"So you have come at last, and will be one of us." + +Just how he answered, or how Julia alighted, he could never tell. +This was the final touch and test, and if the whole did not vanish, he +should certainly accept it all as real. + +"What a sweet and wonderful little romance it all is," said the happy +mother; "and to happen to us here, in this new, wild, humdrum region! +Who shall say that God does not order, and that heroism does not +exist; and that faithful love is not still rewarded." + +"Mrs. Markham"-- + +"Call me mother!" said that lady; "I have long loved you, and thought +of you as my son." + +"And your husband?" said Bart. + +"Is here to answer for himself," said the Judge, entering. He came +forward and greeted Bart warmly. + +"Judge Markham," said Bart, holding each parent by a hand; "Julia and +I met by accident this morning, at the place where we were sheltered a +year ago. We found that no explanation was needed, and we there asked +God to bless our love and marriage. Of course we may have taken too +much for granted." + +"No, no!" said the Judge, warmly, placing Julia's hand within his. "We +will now, and always, and ever, ask God to bless your love, and crown +it with a true and sacred marriage. Such as ours has been, my love, +won't we?" + +"Certainly," answered Mrs. Markham. "And we take him to our home and +hearts as our true son." + +Then all knelt, and the father's voice in reverent prayer and +thanksgiving, was for a moment lifted to the Great Father. + +Later, they were quiet and happy, around a tea, or rather a supper +table. But Bart toyed with his fork, and sparkled with happy, +brilliant sallies. Julia watched him with real concern. + +"Arthur," she said, "I am a woman; and a woman likes to see even +her lover eat. It is the mother part, isn't it, mamma?" blushing and +laughing, "that likes to see children feed. Now he has not eaten a +mouthful to-day; and I shall be anxious." + +"For that matter he dined on a gill of milk, and one ounce of honey +yesterday," said the Judge, "Don't you ever eat?" + +"And I shall shock him;" said Julia, "he will soon find that I am only +common vulgar flesh and blood, to be fed and nourished." + +"Don't fear," said Bart; "I like a strong, healthy, deep chested +woman, who can live and endure. I am not the least bit of a Byron. And +now let me get used to this new heaven, into which you have just taken +me; let my heart get steady, if it will, in its great happiness. Let +me have some good runs in the woods, some good rows on the ponds, some +hard gallops. Let me get tired, and I'll astonish you with a famine." + +"I shall be glad to see it," said Julia. + +There came pleasant talk of trifles, that only lay about on the +surface, and near the great joy of their new happiness; and little +pleasantries of the Judge. He asked Julia, "how she liked the +moustache, suggesting that it might be in the way. + +"I like it," said Julia, "and it isn't a bit in the way." + +Then he referred to a certain other grave matter, and wanted to know +when? + +"That isn't for you to ask, Papa Judge--is it, mamma?" + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +FINAL DREAM LAND. + + +Later still, when the elders had left the lovers to each other, Bart +found himself reclining on the sofa, with his head in Julia's lap. And +those little rosy tipped fingers toyed caressingly with that coveted +moustache, and were kissed for it, and went and did it again, and so +on; and then tenderly with the long light brown wavy curls. + +"Julia, these blessed moments of love and rest, though they run into +days or weeks, will end." + +"Arthur"--reproachfully. + +"Time will not stand and leave us to float, and come and go on a sweet +shaded river of delight; sometime I must go out to show that I am not +unworthy of you, to find, and to make. You shall have your own sweet +way, and will, and yet you will also--will you not?--tell me when this +happiness shall be lost in the greater, merely that I may do my man's +part." + +"Arthur, I take you at your word. My will is that for two blessed +months, of which this shall not be counted as one day, for it must +stand forever apart, you shall say nothing of books, or wanting them; +or of business, or cases, or location, but shall stay with us, our +mothers and father, with me, and run, and ride, and hunt, and fish, +and grow strong, and eat, and I will let you go, and alone, when you +wish; and at the end of two months, I will tell you when." + +"And Arthur," stooping low over him, "a young girl's heart and ways +are curious, and not worth a man's knowing, or thought, perhaps. Let +me know you, let me be acquainted with you, and I would like you to +know me also, though it may not repay you; and let me grow to be your +wife. We have such funny notions, such weak girl ways and thoughts. +I have not had my lover a full day yet. A young girl wishes to be +courted and sought, and made believe that she is supreme; and she +likes to have her lover come at a set time, and sit and wait and think +the clock has been turned back, and that he won't come, and yet he +must come, at the moment; and she will affect to have forgotten it. +She likes to be wooed with music, and flowers, and poetry, and to +remain coy and only yield when her full heart had gone long before; +and then to be engaged, and wear her ring, and be proud of her +affianced, and to be envied--oh, it is a thousand, thousand times more +to us than to you. It is our all, and we can enjoy it but once, and +think what is lost out of the life of the young girl who has not +enjoyed it at all. See, Arthur, what poor, petty, weak things we are, +not worth the understanding, and not worth the winning, as we would be +won." + +Arthur had started up, and glided to the floor, on his knees, had +clasped his hands about her slender waist, and was looking earnestly +and tenderly into her coy, half-averted face, as, half seriously and +half in badinage, she made her plaint. + +"Oh, Julia!" + +"Nay, Arthur, I like it as it is. It was in your nature to have known +me, and to have courted me in the old way; but it would have been poor +and tame, and made up of a few faded flowers and scraps of verses; and +think what I have had--a daring hero between me and a wild beast--a +brave, devoted and passionate lover, who, in spite of scorn and +rejection, hunted for me through night and tempest, to rescue me from +death, who takes me up in his strong arms, carries me over a flood, +and nourishes me back to life, and goes proudly away, asking nothing +but the great boon of serving me. Oh! I had a thousand times rather +have this! It is now a beautiful romance. But I am to have my ring, +and"-- + +"Be my sweet and blessed sovereign lady; to be served and worshipped, +and to hear music and poetry; whose word and wish is to be law in all +the realm of love." + +"From which you are not to depart for two full months of thirty-one +days each." + +Then she conducted him to the apartment in which we beheld her the +night before. + +"This," pushing open the door, into the room, warm and sweet with the +odor of flowers, "is your own special room, to be yours, always." + +"Always?" a little plaintively. + +"Always--until--until--I--we give you another." + +"Good night, Arthur." + +"Good night, Julia." + +She tripped down the hall, and turned her bright face to catch a kiss, +and throw it back. + +With a sweet unrest in her full heart, the young maiden on her couch, +set herself to count up the gathered treasures of the wonderful day. + +How was it? Did her riding skirt really get under her feet? Would +he have caught her in his arms if she had not fallen? She thought he +would. + +And so she mused; and at last in slumber dreamed sweet maiden's dreams +of love and heaven. + +And Bart found himself in a marvellous forest, wandering with Julia, +wondrous in her fresh and tender beauty, on through endless glades, +amid the gush of bird-songs, and the fragrance of flowers. + +And there in the dream land whence I called them, I leave them. Why +should I awake them again? For them can another day so bright and +happy ever dawn? I who love them, could have kept them for a bright +brief space longer. I could have heard the sparkling voice of Bart, +and the answering laugh of Julia--and then I should listen and not +hear--look anxiously around and not see! + +I part in real sorrow with these bright children of my fancy, sweet +awakeners of old time memories, placed amid far off scenes, to +win from others, tenderness and love if they may. And may they be +remembered as forever lingering in perennial youth and love, in the +land of dreams. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bart Ridgeley, by A. G. Riddle + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12249 *** 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..74c4c23 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12249 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12249) diff --git a/old/12249.txt b/old/12249.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6842fe --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12249.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11748 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bart Ridgeley, by A. G. Riddle + +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: Bart Ridgeley + A Story of Northern Ohio + +Author: A. G. Riddle + +Release Date: May 3, 2004 [EBook #12249] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BART RIDGELEY *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Leah Moser and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team from Images provided by Case Western Reserve +University's Preservation Department +(http://www.cwru.edu/UL/preserve/general.htm). + + + + + + +BART RIDGELEY; + +A STORY OF NORTHERN OHIO. + +BY + +A.G. RIDDLE + +1873. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. A FAILURE + + II. THE BLUE CHAMBER + + III. NEWBURY + + IV. AT THE POST OFFICE + + V. MRS. MARKHAM'S VIEWS + + VI. WHAT HE THOUGHT OF THINGS + + VII. LOGIC OF THE GODS + + VIII. A RAMBLE IN THE WOODS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT + + IX. A DARKENED SOUL + + X. AFTER THE FLOOD + + XI. UNCLE ALECK + + XII. A CONSECRATION + + XIII. BLACKSTONE + + XIV. THE YOUNG IDEA SHOOTS + + XV. SNOW'S PARTY + + XVI. WALTZ + + XVII. BART + + XVIII. SUGAR MAKING + + XIX. HENRY + + XX. WHAT THE GIRLS SAID + + XXI. A DEPARTURE + + XXII. A SHATTERED COLUMN + + XXIII. THE STORM + + XXIV. A LAW SUIT (TO BE SKIPPED) + + XXV. THE WARNING + + XXVI. LOST + + XXVII. THE BABES IN THE WOODS + + XXVIII. AT JUDGE MARKHAM'S + + XXIX. AFTER + + XXX. JEFFERSON + + XXXI. OLD BEN + + XXXII. THE LETTERS + + XXXIII. AT WILDER'S + + XXXIV. ROUGH SKETCHES + + XXXV. SARTLIFF + + XXXVI. OLD GID + + XXXVII. THE OLD STORY + +XXXVIII. THE OLD STORY OVER AGAIN + + XXXIX. ABOUT LAWYERS, AND DULL + + XL. THE DISGUISE + + XLI. THE INVITATION + + XLII. ADMITTED + + XLIII. JULIA + + XLIV. FINDING THE WAY + + XLV. SOME THINGS PUT AT REST + + XLVI. PRINCE ARTHUR + + XLVII. THE TRIAL + + XLVIII. THE ADVOCATE + + XLIX. WAITING + + L. THE GOSPEL OF LOVE + + LI. THE RETURN + + LII. FINAL DREAM LAND + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A FAILURE. + + +He could see from the top of the hill, down which the road wound to +the river, that the bridge was gone, and he paused for a moment +with an involuntary feeling that it was useless to go forward; but +remembering that his way led across, at all events, he walked down to +the bank. There it ran, broad, rapid, and in places apparently deep. +He looked up and down in vain: no lodged drift-wood; no fallen trees; +no raft or wreck; a recent freshet had swept all clear to high-water +mark, and the stream rolled, and foamed, and boiled, and gurgled, and +murmured in the afternoon August sun as gleefully and mockingly as if +its very purpose was to baffle the wearied youth who looked into and +over its changing tide. + +In coming from Cleveland that morning he had taken a wrong road, and +now, at mid-afternoon, he found his progress stayed with half his +day's journey still before him. It would have been but a moment's task +to remove his clothes and swim over, but the region was open and clear +on that side for a considerable distance, and notwithstanding his +solitude, he hesitated to make the transit in that manner. It was +apparent, from the little-travelled road, that the stream had been +forded by an indirect course, and one not easily determined from the +shore. It occurred to him that possibly some team from Cleveland might +pass along and take him over; and, wearied, he sat down by his light +valise to wait, and at least rest; and as he gazed into the rapid +current a half-remembered line of a forgotten poet ran and ran through +his mind thus: + + "Which running runs, and will run forever on." + +His reflections were not cheerful. Three months before he had gone +over to Hudson with a very young man's scheme of maintaining himself +at school, and finally in college; and finding it impracticable, had +strayed off to the lower part of the State with a vague idea of going +down the Mississippi, and, perhaps, to Texas. He spent some time with +relatives near Cincinnati, and under a sudden impulse--all his plans, +as he was pleased to call them, were impulses--he had returned, +adding, as he was conscious, another to a long-growing list of +failures, which, in the estimation of many acquaintances, also +included himself. + +His meditations were interrupted by the sound of an approaching +carriage coming over the hill. He knew the horses. They were Judge +Markham's, and driven by the Judge himself, alone, in a light vehicle. +The young man sprang up at the sight. Here was the man whom of all men +he most respected, and feared as much as he could fear any man, whose +good opinion he most cared to have, and yet who he was conscious had a +dislike for him. + +The Judge would certainly take him over the river, and so home, but +in his frank and ingenuous nature how could he face him on his +almost ignominious return? He stood still, a little away from the +carriage-track, half wishing he might not be seen. He was seen, +however, and a close observer might have discovered the half sneer on +the otherwise handsome and manly face of the Judge, who had taken in +the situation. The horses were held in a walk as they came down near +where the young man stood, with a half ashamed, yet eager, expression +of countenance, and turned partly away, as if he expected--in fact, +wished for nothing. + +"What are you doing here?" called out the Judge. + +It was not a wholly courteous inquiry, and scarcely necessary, though +not purposely offensive; but the tone and manner struck like an insult +on the young man's sensitive spirit, and his answer went back a little +sharply: + +"I am waiting for the river to run by," + +"Ah! I see. Well, I am glad you have found something that suits you." + +There was no mistaking the sarcasm of this remark, and perhaps its +sting was deeper than was meant. The Judge was not an unkind man, +though he did not relish the reply to his question; he held up his +horses on the margin of the water, and perhaps he wanted to be asked +by this pert youth for the favor of a passage over. Of course the +petition was not, and never would have been made. He lingered a +moment, and without another word entered the river, and, turning his +horses' heads up stream for a short distance, drove out on the other +side; as he turned into the regular track again, he caught a view of +the young man standing impassive on the same spot where he first saw +him. + +It is possible that Judge Markham, the most wealthy and popular man +of his region, did not feel wholly at ease as, with his fine team and +empty carriage, he drove away, leaving the weary, travel-stained youth +standing on the other side of the river; and it is possible that +the form of the deserted one may be brought to his memory in the +hereafter. + +"'Something that suits me'--'something that suits me!' All right, +Judge Markham!" and as the carriage was hidden in the woods, the +waters that rolled on between them were as nothing to the bitter, +swelling tide that, for a moment, swept through the young man's bosom. +He was undecided no longer. + +Removing his boots and stockings, he entered the river at the point, +and, following the course taken by the Judge, he passed out, and +resumed his journey homeward. + +As he walked rapidly onward, the momentary bitterness subsided. He was +not one to hate, or cherish animosities, but he was capable of deep +impressions, and of forming strong resolutions. There was a chord of +melancholy running through his nature, which, under excitement, often +vibrated the longest; and almost any strong emotion left behind a tone +of sadness that lingered for hours, and sometimes for days, although +his mind was normally buoyant and hopeful. + +As he went on over the hills, in the rude pioneer country of Northern +Ohio, thirty-six or seven years ago, he thought sad-colored thoughts +of the past, or, rather, he recalled sombre memories of the, to him, +far-off time, when, with his mother and brothers, he formed one of +a sobbing group around a bed whereon a gasping, dying man was vainly +trying to say some last words; of afterwards awakening in the deep +nights, and listening to the unutterably sweet and mournful singing of +his mother, unable to sleep in her loneliness; of the putting away +of his baby brother, and the jubilee when he was brought back; of the +final breaking up of the family, and of his own first goings away; of +the unceasing homesickness and pining with which he always languished +for home in his young boy years; of the joy with which he always +hurried home, the means by which he would prolong his stay, and the +anguish with which he went away again. His mother was to him the chief +good. For him, like Providence, she always was, and he could imagine +no possible good, or even existence, without her--it would be the end +of the world when she ceased to be. And he remembered all the places +where he had lived, and the many times he had run away. And then came +the memory of Julia Markham, as she was years ago, when he lived in +her neighborhood, and her sweet and beautiful mother used to intrust +her to his care, in the walks to and from school, down on the State +road--Julia, with her great wonderful eyes, and world of wavy hair, +and red lips; and then, as she grew into beautiful and ever more +beautiful girlhood, he used to be more and more at Judge Markham's +house, and used to read to Julia's mother and herself. It was there +that he discovered Shakespeare, and learned to like him, and Milton, +whom he didn't like and wouldn't read, and the Sketch Book, and +Knickerbocker's History, and Cooper's novels, and Scott, and, +more than all, Byron, whom Mrs. Markham did not want him to read, +recommending, instead, Young's Night Thoughts, and Pollock's Course of +Time, and Southey--the dear good woman! + +And then came a time when he was in the store of Markham & Co., and +finally was taken from the counter, because of his sharp words to +customers, and set at the books, and sent away from that post because +he illustrated them with caricatures on the margins, and smart +personal rhymes. Julia was sixteen, and as sweet a romping, hoydenish, +laughing, brave, strong girl as ever bewitched the heart of dreaming +youth; and he had taught her to ride on horseback; and then she was +sent off, away "down country," to the centre of the world, to Boston, +where were uncles and aunts, and was gone, oh, ever and ever so +long!--half a lifetime--nearly two years--and came back; and then his +thoughts became confused. Then he thought of Judge Markham, and now +he was sure that the Judge did not like him; and he remembered that +Julia's mother, as he came towards manhood, was kind and patronizing, +and that when he went to say good-by to Julia, three months ago, +although she knew he was coming, she was not at home, and he only saw +her mother and Nell Roberts. Then he thought of all the things he had +tried to do within the last two years, and how he had done none of +them. People had not liked him, and he had not suspected why, and had +not cared. People liked his elder brothers, and he was glad and proud +of it; and a jumble of odds and ends and fragments became tangled and +snarled in his mind. What would people say of his return? Did he care? +He asked nobody's leave to go, and came back on his own account. But +his mother--she would look sad; but she would be glad. It certainly +was a mistake, his going; could it be a blunder, his returning? + +He was thinking shallowly; but deeper thoughts came to him. He began +to believe that easy places did not exist; and he scorned to seek them +for himself, if they did. The world was as much to be struggled with +in one place as another; and, after all, was not the struggle mainly +with one's own self, and could that be avoided? Then what in himself +was wrong? what should be fought against? Who would tell him? Men +spoke roughly to him, and he answered back sharply. He couldn't help +doing that. How could he be blamed? He suspected he might be. + +He knew there were better things than to chop and clear land, and +make black salts, or tend a saw-mill, or drive oxen, or sell tape and +calico; but, in these woods, poor and unfriended, how could he find +them? Was not his brother Henry studying law at Jefferson, and were +they not all proud of him, and did not everybody expect great things +of him? But Henry was different from him. Dr. Lyman believed in +him; Judge Markham spoke with respect of him. Julia Markham--how +inexpressibly lovely and radiant and distant and inaccessible she +appeared! And then he felt sore, as if her father had dealt him a +blow, and he thought of his sending him away the year before, and +wished he had explained. No matter. How he writhed again and again +under the sting of his contemptuous sarcasm! "He wouldn't even pick me +up; would leave me to lie by the wayside." + +Towards sundown, weary and saddened, he reached the centre, +"Jugville," as he had named it, years before, in derision. He was a +mile and a half from home, and paused a moment to sit on the platform +in front of "Marlow's Hotel," and rest. The loungers were present in +more than usual force,--Jo and Biather Alexander, old Neaze Savage, +old Cal Chase, Tinker,--any number of old and not highly-esteemed +acquaintances. + +"Hullo, Bart Ridgeley! is that you?" + +Bart did not seem to think it necessary to affirm or deny. + +"Ben away, hain't ye? Must a-gone purty much all over all creation, +these last three months. How's all the folks where you ben?" + +No reply. A nod to one or two of the dozen attracted towards him was +the only notice he took of them, seeming not to hear the question and +comments of Tinker. His silence tempted old Cal, the small joker of +the place, to open: + +"You's gone an everlastin' while. S'pose you hardly know the place, +it's changed so." + +"It has changed some," he answered to this; "its bar-room loafers +are a good deal more unendurable, and its fools, always large, have +increased in size." + +A good-natured laugh welcomed this reply. + +"There, uncle Cal, it 'pears to me you've got it," said one. + +"'Pears to me we've all got it," was the response of that worthy. + +"Come in, Bart," said the landlord, "and take something on the +strength o' that." + +"Thank you, I will be excused; I have a horror of a sudden death;" +and, taking up his valise, he started across the fields to the near +woods. + +"Bully!" "Good!" "You've got that!" cried several to the discomfited +seller of drinks. "It is your treat; we'll risk the stuff!" and the +party turned in to the bar to realize their expectations. + +"There is one thing 'bout it," said Bi, "Bart hain't changed much, +anyway." + +"And there's another thing 'bout it," said uncle Bill, "a chap that +carries such a sassy tongue should be sassy able. He'll answer some +chap, some day, that wun't stan' it." + +"The man that picks him up'll find an ugly customer; he'd be licked +afore he begun. I tell you what, them Ridgeley boys is no fighters, +but the stuff's in 'em, and Bart's filled jest full. I'd as liv tackle +a young painter." This was Neaze's view. + +"That's so," said Jo. "Do you remember the time he had here last fall, +with that braggin' hunter chap, Mc-Something, who came along with his +rifle, darin' all hands about here to shute with him? He had one of +them new peck-lock rifles, and nobody dared shute with him; and Bart +came along, and asked to look at the feller's gun, and said something +'bout it, and Mc-Somebody dared him to shute, and Bart sent over to +Haw's and got 'old Potleg,' that Steve Patterson shot himself with, +and loaded 'er up, and then the hunter feller wouldn't shute except +on a bet, and Bart hadn't but fifty cents, and they shot twenty rods +off-hand, and Bart beat him; and they doubled the bet, and Bart beat +agin, and they went on till Bart won more'n sixty dollars. Sometimes +the feller shot wild, and Bart told him he'd have to get a dog to hunt +where he hit, and he got mad, and Bart picked up his first half-dollar +and pitched it to Jotham, who put up the mark, and left the rest on +the ground." + +"There come mighty near bein' trouble then, an' there would ha' ben ef +the Major hadn't took Bart off," said Bi. + +And while these rough, good-natured men talked him over, Barton walked +off southerly, across the newly-shorn meadow, to the woods. Twilight +was in their depths, and shadows were stealing mysteriously out, and +already the faint and subtle aroma which the gathering dew releases +from foliage, came out like an incense to bathe the quick and healthy +senses of the wearied youth. He removed his hat, opened his bosom, +expanded his nostrils and lungs, and drank it as the bee takes nectar +from the flowers. What an exquisite sense of relief and quiet came to +him, as he found himself lost in the shadows of the young night! Not a +tree in these woods that he did not know, and they all seemed to reach +out their mossy arms with their myriad of little, cool, green +hands, to welcome him back. They knew nothing of his failures and +disappointments, and were more sympathizing than the coarse and ribald +men whose rude taunts he had just heard, and to whose admiration he +was as indifferent as to their sarcasm. These were grand and beautiful +maple woods, free from tangling underbrush, and standing thick and +stately on wide, gentle slopes; and to-night the lisping breath of +the summer evening came to this young but sad and burdened heart, with +whispers soothing and restful. + +He had never been so long from home before; the nearer he approached +it, the more intense his longings grew, and he passed rapidly through +the open glades, disappearing momentarily in the obscurity of the +thickets, past the deserted sugar camp, until finally the woods grew +lighter, the trees more scattered, and he reached the open pasture +lands in sight of the low farm-house, which held his mother and home. +How strange, and yet familiar, even an absence of only three months +made everything! The distance of his journey seemed to have expanded +the months into years. + +He entered by a back way, and found his mother in the little front +sitting-room. She arose with--"Oh, Barton, have you come?" and +received from his lips and eyes the testimonials of his heart. She +was slight, lithe, and well made, with good Puritan blood, brain, and +resolution; and as she stood holding her child by both his hands, and +looking eagerly into his face, a stranger would have noticed their +striking resemblance. Her face, though womanly, was too marked and +strong for beauty. Both had the square decisive brow, and wide, deep +eyes--hers a lustrous black, and his dark gray or blue, as the light +was. Her hair was abundant, and very dark; his a light brown, thick, +wavy, and long. Both had the same aquiline nose, short upper-lip, +bland, firm, but soft mouth, and well-formed chin. Her complexion was +dark, and his fair--too fair for a man. + +"Yes, mother, I have come; are you glad to see me?" + +"Glad--very glad, but sorry." She had a good deal of the Spartan in +her nature, and received her son with a sense of another failure, +and failures were not popular with her. "I did not hear from you--was +anxious about you; but now, when you come back to the nothing for you +here, I know you found less elsewhere." + +"Well, mother, I know I am a dreadful drag even on your patience, and +I fear a burden besides, instead of a help. I need not say much to +you; you, at least, understand me. It was a mistake to go away as +I did, and I bring back all I carried away, with the result of some +reflection. I can do as much here as anywhere. I hoped I could do +something for you, and I, poor unweaned baby and booby, can do better +for myself near you than elsewhere." + +Not much was said. She was thoughtful, deep natured, tender, and +highly strung, though not demonstrative, and these qualities in him +were modified by the soft, sensuous, imaginative elements that came to +him--all that he inherited, except his complexion, from his father. + +His mother gave him supper, and he sat and inquired about home events, +and gave her a pleasant account of their relatives in the lower part +of the State. He said nothing of the discovery he had made among +them--her own family relatives--that she had married beneath her, +and had never been forgiven; and he fancied that he discovered some +opening of old, old sorrows, dating back to her girlhood days, as +he talked of her relatives. The two younger brothers came rattling +in--George, a handsome, eager young threshing-machine, a bright, +broad-browed boy, and Edward, older, with drooping head and thoughtful +face, and with something of Bart's readiness at reply. George ran to +him-- + +"Oh, Bart, I am so glad! and there is so much--a flock of turkeys--and +a wolverine, and oh! so many pigeons and everything--more than you can +shoot in all the fall!" + +"Well, captain, we will let them all live, I guess, unless that +wolverine comes around!" + +"There is a real, true wolverine; several have seen him, and he +screeches, and yells, and climbs trees, and everything!" + +"There _is_ something around," said Edward. "Theodore and Bill Johnson +heard him, over in the woods, not a week ago." + +"Likely enough," replied Bart; "but wolverines don't climb. There +may be a panther. Now, Ed, what has been going on on the farm? Is the +haying done?" + +"Yes; and the wheat is all in, and most all the oats. The corn is +splendid in the old elm lot, and then the Major has been chopping +down your old sugar camp, where we worked when you came home from old +Hewitt's." + +"Oh, dear, that was the loveliest bit of woodland, in the bend of the +creek, in all the magnificent woods; well?" + +"He has nearly finished the Jenks house," resumed Edward, "and is now +at Snow's, in Auburn. He said you would be home before now." + +"What about his colts?" + +"Oh, Arab runs about wild as ever, and he has Dolf with him." + +"How many hands has he with him?" + +"Four or five." + +"Dr. Lyman asked about you," said George, "and wondered where you +were. He said you would be back in three weeks, and that something +must have happened." + +"It would be lucky for the Doctor's patients," replied Bart, "if +something should keep him away three days." + +"I guess he wants you to go a-fishing with him. They had a great time +down there the other day--he, and Mr. Young, and Sol Johnson. They +undertook to put up a sail as Henry and you do, and it didn't work, +and they came near upsetting; and' Sol and old man Young were scart, +and old Young thought he would get drownded. Oh, it must have been +fun!" + +And so the boys chippered, chirped, and laughed on to a late bed-time, +and then went to bed perfectly happy. + +Then came inquiries about Henry, who had written not long before, and +had wondered why he had not heard from Barton; and, at last, wearied +and worn with his three hundred miles' walk, Bart bade his mother +good-night, and went to his old room, to rest and sleep as the young, +and healthful, and hopeful, without deep sorrows or the stings of +conscience, may do. In the strange freaks of a half-sleeping fancy, in +his dreams, he remembered to have heard the screech of a wild animal, +and to have seen the face of Julia Markham, pale with the mingled +expression of courage and fear. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE BLUE CHAMBER. + + +In the morning he found the front yard had a wild and tangled, and +the garden a neglected look, and busied himself, with the boys, in +improving their appearance. + +In the afternoon he overhauled a small desk, the contents of which +soon lay about on the floor. There were papers of all colors and +sizes--scraps, single sheets, and collections of several pages--all +covered with verses in many hands, from that of the young boy to +elegant clerkly manuscript. They seemed to represent every style of +poetic composition. It would have been amusing to watch the manner +and expression with which the youth dealt with these children of his +fancy, and to listen to his exclamations of condensed criticism. He +evidently found little to commend. As he opened or unrolled one after +another, and caught the heading, or a line of the text, he dashed it +to the floor, with a single word of contempt, disgust, or derision. +"Faugh!" "Oh!" "Pshaw!" "Blank verse? Blank enough!" Some he lingered +over for a moment, but his brow never cleared or relented, and each +and all were condemned with equal justice and impartiality. When the +last was thrown down, and he was certain that none remained, he rose +and contemplated their crumpled and creased forms with calm disdain. + +"Oh, dear! you thought, some of you, that you might possibly be +poetry, you miserable weaklings and beguilers! You are not even +verses--are hardly rhymes. You are, one and all, without sense or +sound." His brow grew severe in its condemnation. "There! take +that! and that! and that!"--stamping them with his foot; "poor +broken-backed, halting, limping, club-footed, no-going, unbodied, +unsouled, nameless things. How do you like it? What business had you +to be? You had no right to be born--never were born; had no capacity +for birth; you don't even amount to failures! Words are wasted on you: +let me see if you'll burn." Lighting one, he threw it upon the hearth. +"It does! I am surprised at that. I rather like it. How blue and faint +the flame is--it hardly produces smoke, and"--watching until it was +consumed--"no ashes. Too ethereal for smoke and ashes. Let me try the +rest;" and he did. + +He then opened a small drawer and took out a portfolio, in which were +various bits of bristol-board and paper, covered with crayon and pen +sketches, and some things in water-colors--all giving evidence of a +ready hand which showed some untaught practice. Whether his sense of +justice was somewhat appeased, or because he regarded them with more +favor, or reserved them for another occasion, was, perhaps, uncertain. +Singularly enough, on each of them, no matter what was the subject, +appeared one or more young girl's heads--some full-faced, some +three-fourths, and more in profile--all spirited, all looking alike, +and each having a strong resemblance to Julia Markham. Two or three +were studied and deliberate attempts. He contemplated these long and +earnestly, and laid them away with a sigh. They undoubtedly saved the +collection. + +That night he wrote to Henry: + +"DEAR BROTHER,--I am back, of course. It is an unpleasant way of +mine--this coming back. It was visionary for me to try a fall with the +sciences at Hudson. You would have been too many for them; I ran +away. I found Colton sick at Cincinnati. The Texan Rangers had left. +I looked into the waters of the Ohio, running and hurrying away +returnlessly to the south-west. Lord, how they called to me in their +liquid offers to carry me away! They seemed to draw me to linger, and +gurgle, and murmur in little staying, coaxing eddies at my feet, to +persuade me to go. + +"How near one seems to that far-off region of fever and swamp, of sun +and sea, of adventure and blood, and old buccaneering, standing by +those swift waters, already on their way thither! Should I go? Was +I not too good to go, and be lost? Think of the high moral +considerations involved? No matter, I didn't go--I came! Well! + +"On reflection--and I thus assume that I do reflect--I think men don't +find opportunities, or, if they do, they don't know them. One must +make an opportunity for himself, and then he will know what to do with +it. The other day I stood on the other side of the Chagrin waiting for +an opportunity, and it didn't come, and I made one. I waded through, +and liked it, and that was not the only lesson I learned at the same +time. But that other was for my personal improvement. A man can as +well find the material for his opportunity in one place as another. +See how I excuse myself! + +"Just now, I am a reformed young Blue Beard. Fatima and her sister may +go--have gone. I have just overhauled my 'Blue Chamber,' taken down +all my suspended wives, and burned them. They ended in smoke. Lord! +there wasn't flesh and blood enough in them all to decompose, and they +gave out no odor even while burning. I burned them all, cleaned off +all the blood-spots, ventilated the room, opened the windows, and will +turn it to a workshop. No more sighing for the unattainable, no more +grasping at the intangible, no more clutching at the impalpable. I am +no poet, and we don't want poetry. Our civilization isn't old enough. +Poets, like other maggots, will be produced when fermentation comes. +I am going about the humdrum and the useful. I am about as low in +the public estimation as I can well go; at any rate I am down on hard +land, which will be a good starting-point. Now don't go off and become +sanguine over me, nor trouble yourself much about me. + +"'The world will find me after many a day,' as Southey says of one of +his books. I doubt if it ever did. The Doctor contends that Southey +was a poet; but then he thinks I am, also! + +"What a deuce of a clamor is made about this new comet or planet! What +a useful thing to us poor, mud-stranded mortals to find out that there +is another little fragment of a world, away some hundreds of +millions of miles, outside of no particular where--for I believe +this astronomical detective is only on its track! The Doctor is in +ecstacies over it, takes it as a special personal favor, and declaims +luminously and constellationally about writing one's name among the +stars, like that frisky cow who, in jumping over the moon, upon a +time, made the milky way. I've always had some doubts about that +exploit; but then there is the mark she left. Your friend Roberts +is uneasy about this new star business; he is afraid that it will +unsettle the cheese market, and he don't know about it, nor do I. + +"There! I got home only last night, and haven't heard any news to +write you. Some time I will tell of two or three things I saw and +heard, and about some of our cousins, who regard us as belonging to +the outer and lower skirts of the race. If I am to be one end of a +family, let it be the beginning. + +"Mother sends love. Edward and George speak of you constantly. I've +not seen our Major since my return. + +"Write me a good, sharp, cutting, criticising, deuced brotherly letter +soon. As ever, + +"BART. + +"P.S. Have you read Pickwick? + +"B." + +It was full of badinage, with only a dip or two into an absorbing +purpose that he had fully formed, and which he evidenced to himself by +the summary expulsion of the muses. + +In the world of nature and humanity, is there such an embodiment of +contradictions and absurdities as a youth in his transit from the +dreamland of boyhood to the battle-field of manhood, through a region +partaking of both, and abounding with strange products of its own? I +am not speaking of the average boy, such boys as make up the male mass +of the world--the undreaming, unthinking, plodding, drudging, sweating +herd, whose few old commonplace, well-worn ideas don't possess the +power of reproduction, and whose thoughts are thirteenth or thirteen +hundredth-handed, and transmitted unimpregnated to other dullards, and +whose life and spirit is that of the young animal merely--but a real +young man, one of possibilities, intended for a man, and not merely +for a male, one in whom the primitive forces of nature are planted, +and who may develop into a new driving or forming power. What a mad, +impulsive, freaky thing it is! You may see him bruising his still +soft head a score of times against the impossible, and he will still +contend that he can do it. He will spring frantically up the face of +an unclimbable precipice, as the young salmon leaps up a cataract, and +die in the faith that he can go up it. + +Oh, sublime faith! Oh, sublime folly! What strides he is constantly +taking to the ridiculous, and not always from the sublime! How strong! +how weak! How wise! how foolish! Consistent only in folly, and steady +in the purpose of being foolish. How beautiful, and how ugly! What a +lovable, detestable, desirable, proud, wilful, arrogant, supercilious, +laughing, passionate, tender, cruel, loving, hating, good sort of a +good-for-nothing he is! He believes everything--he believes nothing; +and, like Mary's Son, questions and mocks the doctors to their beards +in the very temple. Patience! he must have his time, and room to grow +in, develop, and shape out. Let him have coral for his teeth, and +climbing, and running, and jumping for his muscle. No man may love +him, and no woman but his mother, and she is to be tried to the extent +of endurance. Wait for him; he will, with or without your help, turn +out good or bad, and in either event people will say: "I always told +you so," "I always knew it was in him"; and cite a score of unhappened +things in proof of their sagacity. + +Barton was one of these; neither better nor worse, full of +possibilities and capabilities, impulsive, rash, and unreasoning. He +has just made a resolve, and will act upon it; proud and sensitive +to a degree, he had heard a word of fault once at the store, which +another word would have explained. He would not say it, and went. It +was discovered that the fault was not his, in time for him to remain; +but he left without that word. He is willing to take his chances, and +must speak and act for himself. + +He sealed and directed his letter, walked about with the plaintive +airs of old melodies running and running through his head, and sang +snatches and verses of sad old ballads, going over and over with some +touching line, or complaining strain, till he was saturated with its +tender melancholy, and so he came back to ordinary life. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +NEWBURY. + + +Newbury was one of the twenty-odd townships, five miles square, that +then made up the county of Geauga, and a part of the Western Reserve, +the Yankee-doodledom of Ohio, settled exclusively by emigrants from +New England. It was so much of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, +etc., translated into the broader and freer West. It has been +said that the Yankee, like a certain vegetable, heads best when +transplanted. It was the old thing over, under new and trying +circumstances. The same old ideas and notions, habits of thought and +life; poor, economical and thrifty folk, with the same reverence +for religion and law, love of education, and restless desire for +improvement, and to better the present condition. In the West the +Yankee developed his best qualities in the second generation. He +became a little straighter and less angular, and wider between the +eyes. In the first generation he lived out his life scarcely refracted +by the new atmosphere. This crop still stood firm and hardy on the +Reserve, and they often turned homesick eyes, talked lovingly and +lingeringly of "down country," as they all called loved and cherished +New England. Most of the first settlers were poor, but hardy and +enterprising. The two last qualities were absolutely necessary to take +them through the long, wearisome journey to Ohio, the then far West. +They took up lands, built cabins, and forced a subsistence from the +newly-cleared, stumpy virgin soil. This homogeneous people constituted +a practical and thorough democracy. Their social relations were based +on personal equality, varied only by the accident of superior talents, +address or enterprise, and as yet but little modified by wealth or its +adventitious circumstances. + +Among the emigrants scattered here and there was occasionally found a +branch of a "down country" family of some pretensions, dating back to +services in the Revolution, to old wealth, or official position. +Among these were one or two families at Painesville, near the lake, at +Parkman, several at Warren, and more at Cleveland, who had made each +other's acquaintance, and who, as the country improved and the +means of communication were perfected, formed and kept up a sort of +association over the heads, and hardly within the observation, of the +people generally. Of these, as we may say, by right of his wife, +was Judge Markham. He was a hardy, intelligent, and, for his day, a +cultivated man, who came early into the woods as an agent for many +large stockholders of the old Connecticut Land Company, and a liberal +percentage of the sales placed in his hands the nucleus of a large +fortune. Sagacity in investments and improvements, with thorough +business capacity, had already made him one of the wealthiest men on +the Reserve; while a handsome person, and frank, pleasant address, +rendered him very popular. He had been for several years an associate +judge of the court of common pleas for Geauga county, and had an +extensive acquaintance and influence. Mrs. Markham, a genuine daughter +of the old Puritan ancestry, dating back to the first landing, a true +specimen of the best Yankee woman under favorable circumstances, was +a most thoroughly accomplished lady, who had gone into the woods with +her young husband, and who shed and exercised a wide and beneficent +influence through her sphere. So simple, sweet, natural and judicious +was she ever, that her neighbors felt her to be quite one of +themselves, as she was. Everybody was drawn to her; and so +approachable was she, that the lower and more common declared that she +was no lady at all. + +Their only child, Julia, just maturing into womanhood, was one of the +best and highest specimens of the American girl, to whom refinement, +grace, and a strong, rich, sweet nature, came by right of birth, +while she inherited beauty from both parents; she seemed, however, +unconscious of this last possession, as she was of the admiration +which filled the atmosphere that surrounded her. She, too, must speak +and act for herself. + +At the time of the incidents to be narrated, the northern and eastern +part of Newbury had a considerable population. It was traversed by +a highway leading west through its centre to Cleveland, and by a +stage-road leading from Painesville to the Ohio river, through its +eastern part. This was called the "State road," and on it stood +Parker's Hotel, a stage-house much frequented, and constituting the +centre of a little village, while further south was the extensive +trading establishment of Markham & Co., using the name and some of +the capital of the Judge, and managed mainly by Roberts and another +junior. Judge Markham's spacious and elegant dwelling stood about half +a mile south of the store. + +The south-western part of the township, with much of two adjoining +townships, remained an unbroken forest, belonging to an eccentric +landholder who refused to sell it. This was spoken of as "the +woods," and furnished cover and haunts for wild game and animals, +hunting-ground for the pioneers, and also gave shelter to a few +shiftless squatters, in various parts of its wide expanse. In the +eastern border of the township was Punderson's pond, a beautiful, +irregular-shaped body of limpid water, embosomed by deep wooded +hills, and of considerable extent, well stocked with fish, and much +frequented on that account. + +In the afternoon of the second day after his return, Bart went down +a highway leading east to the State road, to the post-office, kept at +Markham's store, and this road took him down by the southern end of +the pond, and thence southerly on the State road. He passed along by +Dr. Lyman's, Jonah Johnson's, and so on, past houses, and clearings, +and woodlands, looking almost wistfully, as if he expected pleasant +greetings; but the few he saw merely nodded to him, or called out: +"Are you back again?" He paused on the hill by the saw-mill, which +overlooked the pond, and gazed long over its beautiful surface, +sleeping in utter solitude amid the green hills, under the slanting +summer sun, and seemed to recognize in it what he had observed, on the +evening of his return, about the old homestead--the change that had +taken place in himself--a change which often accounts for the strange +appearance of the most familiar and cherished places. We find it +reflected in the face of inanimate nature, and wonder at her altered +guise, unconscious of the cause. He sauntered musingly on to the +State road, and over by the old grist-mill, past several houses, up to +Parker's. Here, by a beautiful spring under the shade of old apple +and cherry-trees, near the carriage-way, was an indolent group of +afternoon idlers. Conspicuous among them was the dark and striking +face of Dr. Lyman, the rich mahogany of Uncle Josh, and the homely, +shrewd, and fresh-colored countenance of Jonah Johnson. Bart could not +avoid them if he would; and regretted that he had not gone across the +woods to the post-office, and so escaped them. + +"Well, young Scholasticus," said the Doctor, after the slight +greetings had been given to the new-comer, "you seem to have graduated +with great rapidity. You went through college like--" + +"One of your emetics, Doctor. I came out at the same door I went in +at. Now, doctus, doctior, doctissimus, I am fair game on this point, +so blaze away with everything but your saddle-bags, and I will laugh +with the rest of you." + +A good-natured laugh welcomed this coming down. + +"Well," replied the doctor, "there can't be much more said." + +"I should like to know, young man," remarked Uncle Josh, "whether you +raly got into the college, I should." + +"Well, Mr. Burnett, I _raly_ did not, I didn't," mimicking Uncle Josh. + +"What did you do, badinage apart?" + +"I took a good outside look at the buildings, which was improving; +called on your friends Dr. Nutting and Rev. Beriah Green, who asked me +what church I belonged to, and who was my instructor in Latin." + +"What reply did you make?" + +"What could I say? I didn't hear the first; and as to the second, I +couldn't bring reproach upon you, and so I said I had never had +one. You must own, Doctor, that I showed great tenderness for your +reputation." + +"You certainly did me a kindness." + +"Thank you, Doctor." + +"I should raly like to know," said Uncle Josh, "what you are thanking +the Doctor for, I should." + +"Well, go on." + +"I went off," continued Bart. "The fact is, I thought that that +retreat of the sciences might hold that little learning, which is a +dangerous thing--as you used to not quote exactly--and I thought it +prudent to avoid that 'Pierian spring.'" + +"What is the young man talking about now?" inquired Uncle Josh. "I +would raly like to know, I would." + +"I must ask the Doctor to explain," answered Bart. "I was referring to +one of his old drinking-places, where, according to him, the more +one drank the soberer he grew. You would not fancy that tipple, would +you?" + +"You see, Uncle Josh," said the Doctor, laughing, "what comes of a +young man's going a week to college." + +"The young man didn't know anything at all, before," declared Uncle +Josh, "and he seems to know less now, amazingly." + +This was Uncle Josh's sincere opinion, and was received with a shout +of laughter, in which Bart heartily joined. Indeed, it was his first +sincere laugh for many a day. + +Johnson asked him "whether he went to the Ohio river," and being +answered in the affirmative, asked him "by what route he went, and +what he saw." + +Uncle Jonah, as Bart usually called him, was one of his very few +recognized friends, and asked in a way that induced him to make a +serious answer. + +"I walked the most of the way there, and all the way back. I went by +way of Canton, Columbus, Dayton, and so to Cincinnati, and returned +the same way." + +"What do you think of that part of the State which you saw?" + +"Unquestionably we have the poorest part of it. As our ancestors +landed on the most desolate part of the continent, so we took the +worst part of Ohio. If you were to see the wheat-fields of Stark, or +the corn on the Scioto, and the whole of the region about Xenia and +Dayton, and on the Miami, you would want to emigrate." + +"What about the people?" + +"Oh, dear! I didn't see much of them, and that little did not make +me wish to see more. The moment you step across the south line of the +Reserve you step into a foreign country, and among a foreign people, +who speak a foreign language, and who know one of us as quick as they +see us; and they seem to have a very prudent distrust of us. After +passing this black, Dutch region, you enter a population of emigrants +from Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and some from North Carolina, and +all unite in detesting and distrusting the Reserve Yankee. + +"It is singular, the difference between the lake and river side of the +State. At Cincinnati you seem to be within a step of New Orleans, and +hear of no other place--not a word of New York, and less of Boston. +There everything looks and goes south-west, while we all tend +eastward." In reply to questions, Bart told them of Columbus and +Cincinnati, giving fresh and graphic descriptions, for he observed +closely, and described with a racy, piquant exaggeration what he saw. +Breaking off rather abruptly, he seemed vexed at the length of his +monologue, and went on towards the post-office. + +"That young man will not come to a single darn," said Uncle Josh; "not +one darn. He is not good for anything, and never will be. His father +was a very likely man, and so is his mother, and his older brothers +are very likely men, but he is not worth a cuss." + +"Uncle Josh is thinking about Bart's sketch of him, clawing old Nore +Morton's face," said Uncle Jonah. + +"I did not like that; I did not like it at all. It made me look like +hell amazingly," said the old man, much moved. + +"You had good reason for not liking it," rejoined Uncle Jonah, "for it +was exactly like you." + +"Dr. Lyman, what do you think of this young man? He was with you, +wa'n't he, studyin' something or other?" asked Uncle Josh; "don't you +agree with me?" + +"I don't know," answered the Doctor, "I am out of all patience with +him. He is quick and ready, and wants to try his hand at every new +thing; and the moment he finds he can do it, he quits it. There is +no stability to him. He studied botany a week, and Latin a month, and +Euclid ten days." + +"He hunts well, and fishes well--don't he?" asked another. + +"They say he shoots well," said Uncle Josh, "but he will wander in the +woods all day, and let game run off from under his eyes, amazingly! +They said at the big hunt, in the woods, he opened the lines and let +all the deer out. He isn't good for a thing--not a cussed thing." + +"Isn't he as smart as his brother Henry?" asked Uncle Jonah. + +"It is not a question of smartness," replied the Doctor. "He is too +smart; but Henry has steadiness, and bottom, and purpose, and power, +and will, and industry. But Bart, if you start him on a thing, runs +away out of sight of you in an hour. The next you see of him he is off +loafing about, quizzing somebody; and if you call his attention +back to what you set him at, he laughs at you. I have given him +up, utterly; though I mean to ask him to go a-fishing one of these +nights." + +"Exactly," said Uncle Jonah, "make him useful. But, Dr. Lyman and +Joshua Burnett, the boy has got the stuff in him--the stuff in him. +Why, he told you here, in fifteen minutes, more about the State of +Ohio than you both ever knew. You will see--" + +"You will see, too, that he will not come to a darn," said Uncle Josh, +regarding that as a sad doom indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AT THE POST-OFFICE. + + +Barton found a more attractive group at the store. The post-office +occupied a window and corner near the front of the large, +old-fashioned, square store-room; and, as he entered the front door, +he saw, in the back part of the room, a gay, laughing, warbling, +giggling, chirping group of girls gathered about Julia Markham, as +their natural centre. Barton was a little abashed; he might have +moved up more cautiously, and reconnoitred, had he not been taken +by surprise. There was no help for it. He deposited his letters and +called for his mail, which gave him time to gather his forces in hand. + +Now Barton was born to love and serve women in all places, and under +all forms and circumstances. His was not a light, silly, vapid, +complimentary devotion, but deep in his nature, through and through, +he reverenced woman as something sacred and high, and above the vulgar +nature of men; this reformed his mind, and inspired his manners; and, +while he was generally disliked by men, he was favorably regarded by +women. It was not in woman's nature to think ill of a youth who was +always so modestly respectful, and anxious to please and oblige; +and no man thus constituted was ever awkward or long embarrassed in +woman's presence. She always gets from him, if not his best, what +is proper. If he can lose self-consciousness, and receive the full +inspiration of her presence, he will soon be at his ease, if not +graceful. + +The last thing absolutely that ever could occur to Barton, and it +never had as yet, was the possibility of his being an object of +interest personally to a woman, or to women. He was modest--almost to +bashfulness; but as he never presumed, he was never snubbed; and now, +on this summer afternoon, he had came upon a group of seven or eight +of the most attractive girls of the neighborhood, accompanied by one +or two strangers. There was Julia, never so lovely before, with a +warm color on her cheek, and a liquid light in her dark eyes, in +whose presence all other girls were commonplace; and her friends Nell +Roberts and Kate Fisher, Lizzie Mun and Pearlie Burnett, and several +others. The young man was seen and recognized, and had to advance. +Think of walking thirty feet alone in the faces of seven or eight +beautiful girls, and at the same time be easy and graceful! It is +funny, what a hush the presence of one young man will bring over +a laughing, romping cluster of young women. At his entrance, their +girlish clamor sunk to a liquid murmur; and, when he approached, they +were nearly silent, all but Julia and a stylish blonde, whom Barton +had never seen before. They were gathered around a cloud and tangle of +women's mysterious fabrics, whose names are as unknown to men as +their uses. Most of the young girls suspended their examinations and +rippling comments, and, with a little heightened color, awaited the +approach of the enemy. He came on, and gracefully bowed to each, was +permitted to take the hands of two or three, and greeted with a little +chorus of--"You have come back!" "Where have you been?" "How do you +do?" Julia greeted him with her eyes, as he entered, with a sweet +woman's way, that thrilled him, and which enabled him to approach her +so well. She had remained examining a bit of goods, as if unaware of +his immediate presence for a moment, and he had been introduced to +the strange lady by Kate Fisher as her cousin, Miss Walters, from +Pittsburgh. + +Then Julia turned to him, and, with a charming manner, asked: "Mr. +Ridgeley"--she had not called him Bart, or Barton, since her return +from Boston--"Mr. Ridgeley, what do the girls mean? Have you really +been away?" + +"Have I really been away? And if I really have, am I to be permitted +to take your hand, and asked how I really do? as if you really cared?" + +"Really," was her answer, "you see we have just received our fall +fashions, and it is not the fall style this year to give and take +hands after an absence." + +"A-h! how popular that will be with poor masculines! Is that to be +worn by all of you?" + +"I don't know," said Kate; "it is not fall with some of us yet." + +"Thank you! and may I ask Miss Markham if it was the spring and summer +style not to say good-bye at a parting?" + +The tone was gay, but there was something more in it, and the girl +replied: "That depends upon the lady, I presume; both styles may be +varied at her pleasure." + +"Ah, I think I understand! You are kind to explain." + +"Mr. Barton," said Lizzie, "Flora and I here cannot determine about +our colors"--holding up some gay ribbons--"and the rest can't help us +out. What do you think of them?" + +"That they are brilliant," answered Barton, looking both steadily and +innocently in the faces, in a way that deepened their hues. + +"Oh, no! these ribbons?" exclaimed the blushing girl, thrusting them +towards his eyes. + +"Indeed I am color blind, though not wholly blind to color." And a +little ripple of laughter ran over the bright group, and then they all +laughed again. + +Can any one tell why a young girl laughs, save that she is happy and +joyous? If she does or says anything, she laughs, and if she don't, +she laughs, and her companions laugh because she does, and then they +all laugh, and then laugh again because they laughed before, and then +they look at each other and laugh again; thus they did now, and Barton +could no more tell what they were laughing at than could they; he was +not so foolishly jealous as to imagine that they were laughing at him. + +Then Kate turned to him: "You won't go away again, I hope. We are +going to have a little party before long, and you must come, and I +want to see you waltz with my cousin. She waltzes beautifully, and I +want to see her with a good partner. Will you come?" + +"Indeed I would be most happy; but your compliment is ironical. You +know we don't waltz, and none of us can, if we try." + +"Is that the awful dance where the gentleman takes the lady around the +waist, and she leans on him, and they go swinging around? Oh, I think +that is awful!" + +"The Germans, and many of our best ladies, and gentlemen, waltz," +replied Miss Walters, "as they do in Baltimore and New York, and I +suppose my cousin thought no harm could be said of it at her little +party." + +"Oh, I am sure I did not mean that it was wrong, and I would like to +see the dance!" was the eager disclaimer. + +Barton had drawn away from this discussion, and lingered a moment near +Julia, to ask after her mother. She replied that Mrs. Markham was very +well, but did not ask him to call and see for himself, nor did she in +any way encourage him to prolong the conversation. So, with a little +badinage and _persiflage_, he took his leave. + +I shall not attempt to set down what was said of him after he left, +nor will I affirm that anything was said. Young ladies, for aught I +know, occasionally talk up young men among themselves, and if they do +it is nobody's business. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MRS. MARKHAM'S VIEWS. + + +In the gathering twilight, in a parlor at the Markham mansion, sat +Julia by the piano, resting her head on one hand, while with the other +she brought little ripples of music from the keys; sometimes a medley, +then single and prolonged notes, like heavy drops of water into a +deep pool, and then a twinkling shower of melody. She was not sad, or +pensive, or thoughtful; but in one of these quiet, sweet, and grave +moods that come to deep natures--as a cloud passing over deep, still +water enables one under its shadow to see into its depths. Her mother +stood at an open window, inhaling the evening fragrance of flowers, +and occasionally listening to the wild note of the mysterious +whippoorwill, that came from a thicket of forest-trees in the +distance. + +The step of her father caught the ear of the young girl, who sprang up +and ran towards him with eager face and sparkle of eye and voice. + +"Oh, papa, the trunks came this afternoon, with the fashion-plates, +and patterns, and everything, and all we girls--Nell, Kate Fisher, +Miss Flora Walter, Pearlie, Ann, and all hands of us--have had a +regular 'opening.' We went through with them all. The cottage bonnet +is a love of a thing, and I am going to have it trimmed for myself. +Sleeves are bigger than ever, and there were lots of splendid things!" + +"And so Roberts has suited you all, for once, has he?" said the Judge, +passing an arm around her small waist. + +"Roberts! Faugh, he had nothing to do with it. Aunt Mary selected +them all herself. They are the latest and newest from Paris--almost +direct." + +"Does that make them better?" + +"Well, I don't know that there is anything in their coming from Paris, +except that one likes to know that they come from the beginning-place +of such things. Now if they had been made in Boston, New York, or +Baltimore, one would not be certain they were like the right thing; +and now we know they are the real thing itself. Do you understand?" + +"Oh, yes--as well as a man may; and it is quite well put, too, and +I don't know that I ever had so clear an idea of the value of things +from a distance before." + +"Well, you see, when a thing comes clear from the farthest off, +we know there ain't anything beyond; and when it comes from the +beginning, we don't take it second hand." + +"I see; but why do you care, you girls in this far-off, rude region?" + +"Mamma, do you hear that? Here is my own especial father, and your +husband, asking me, a woman, and a very young woman too, for a +reason." + +"It is because you are a very young one that he expects you to give +a reason. Perhaps he thinks you will not claim the privilege of our +sex." + +"Well, I won't. Now, then, Papa Judge, this is not a far-off, rude +region, and you see that the French ladies want these styles and +fashions, and all that; well, if they want them, we want them too." + +"Now I don't quite see. How do you know they want them? Perhaps they +are sent here because they don't want them; and, besides, why should +a backwoods girl in Ohio want what a high-born lady in the French +capital wants?" + +"Because the American girl is a woman; and, besides, the court must +hear and decide, and not ask absurd questions." + +"And who is to see you in French millinery, here in the woods?" + +"Oh, bless its foolish man's heart, that thinks a woman dresses to +please its taste, when it hasn't any! We dress to please ourselves and +plague each other--don't you know that? and we ain't pleased with poky +home-made things." + +"Julia! Mother," appealed the Judge, with uplifted hands, to Mrs. +Markham, "where did this young lady get her notions?" + +"From the common source of woman's notions, as you call them, I +presume--her feelings and fancies; and she is merely letting you see +the workings of a woman's mind. We should all betray our sex a hundred +times a day, if our blessed husbands and fathers had the power to +understand us, I fear." + +"And don't we understand you?" + +"Of course you do, as well as you ever will. My dear husband, don't +you also understand that if you fully comprehended us, or we you, we +should lose interest in each other? that now we may be a perpetual +revelation and study to each other, and so never become worn and +common?" + +"There, Papa Judge, are you satisfied--not with our arguments, but +with us?" + +"The man who was not would be unreasonable and--" + +"Man-like," put in Julia. "Let me sing you my new song." + +A piano was a novelty in Northern Ohio. Julia played with a real skill +and expression, and her father, though no musician, loved to listen, +and more to hear her sing, with her clear, strong, sweet voice, and so +she played and sang her song. + +When she had finished, "By the way," remarked her father, "I +understand that our travelled young townsman, who has just returned +from foreign parts, was at the post-office this afternoon, and perhaps +you met him." + +"Whom do you mean?" asked Julia. + +"Your mother's pet, Bart Ridgeley." + +"Now, papa, that is hardly kind, after what you said of him the other +day. He is not mother's pet at all. She is only kind to him, as to +everybody. Indeed, he don't seem to me like anybody's pet, to be +patted and kept in-doors when it rains, and eat jellies, and be nice. +I saw him at the store a moment; he was very civil, and merely asked +after mamma, and went out." + +"Did you ask him to call and see mamma?" asked her father a little +gravely. + +"Not at all. The truth is, papa, after what you said I could not ask +him, and was hardly civil to him." + +"Was it unpleasant to be hardly civil to him?" + +"No; though I like to be civil to everybody. You know I have seen +little of him since I came home, and when I have, he was sometimes +silent and distant, and not like what he was before I went away." + +"You find him improved in appearance and manners?" persisted the +Judge. + +"Well, he was always good-looking, and had the way of a gentleman. +Miss Walters seemed quite taken with him, and was surprised that he +had grown up here in the woods." + +Her father was silent a moment, and the subject was changed. Mrs. +Markham was attentive to what was said of poor Bart, but made no +comment at the time. + + * * * * * + +In their room, that night, in her sweet, serious way, she said to +her husband, "Edward, I do not want to say a word in favor of Barton +Ridgeley. I do not ask you to change your opinion of him or your +course towards him; but I wish to ask if it is necessary to discuss +him, especially with Julia?" + +"Why?" + +"Well, can it be productive of good? If you are mistaken in your +estimate of him, you do him injustice, and in any event you will call +her attention to him, and she may observe and study him; and almost +any young woman who should do that might become interested in him." + +"Do you think so? Men don't like him." + +"Is that a reason why a woman would not?" + +"Have you discovered any reason to think that Julia cares in the least +for him?" + +"Julia is young, and, like the women of our family, develops in these +respects slowly; but, like the rest of us, she will have her own +fancies some time, and you know"--with a still softer voice--"that +one of them left a beautiful home, and a circle of love and luxury, to +follow her heart into the woods." + +"Yes, and thank God that she did! Roses and blessings and grace came +with you," said the Judge, with emotion. "But this boy--what is he +to us, or what can he ever be? He is so freaky, and unsteady, and +passionate, and flies off at a word, and goes before he is touched. He +will do nothing, and come to nothing." + +"What can he do? Would you really have him buy an axe and chop +cord-wood, or work as a carpenter, or sell tape behind the counter? +Are there not enough to do all that work as fast as it needs to be +done? Is there not a clamorous need of brain-work, and who is there to +do it? Who is to govern, and manage, and control twenty years hence? +Look over all the young men whom you know, and who promises to be fit +to lead? Think over those you know in Cleveland, or Painesville, or +Warren. Is somebody to come from somewhere else? Think of your own +plans and expectations. Who can help you? I see possibilities in this +wayward, passionate, hasty, generous youth. He is a tender and devoted +son, and I am glad he came back; and nobody knows how he may be pushed +against us and others." + +"Well," said the Judge, after a thoughtful pause, "what can I do? What +would you have me do--change myself, or try to change him?" + +"I don't know," thoughtfully: "I think there is nothing you can do +now. I would wish you to cultivate a manner towards him that would +leave it in your power to serve him or make him useful, if occasion +presents. He needs a better education, and perhaps a profession. He +should study law. He has a capacity to become a very superior public +speaker--one of the first. I don't think there is much danger of his +forming bad habits or associations. He avoids and shuns everything of +that kind. You know he deeded his share of his father's land to his +brother, to provide a home for his mother, and I presume will remain, +both from choice and necessity, with her for the present." + +The Judge mused over her words. He did not tell her of having met and +left Barton the other side of the Chagrin; nor did he disclose fully +the dislike he felt for him, or the fears he may have entertained at +the idea of any intimacy between him and Julia. His wife mused also +in her woman's way. She, too, would have hesitated to have Barton +restored to the old relations of his boyhood. While she knew of much +to admire and hope for in him, she knew also that there was much +to cause anxiety, if not apprehension. In thinking further, she was +inclined to call upon his mother, whom she much esteemed for her +strong and decisive traits of character, soft and womanly though +she was. Cares and anxieties had kept her from association with her +neighbors, among whom, as she knew, she seldom appeared, except on +occasions of sickness or suffering, or when some event seemed +to demand the presence of a deciding woman's mind and will. She +remembered one or two such times in their earlier forest life, when +Mrs. Ridgeley had quietly assumed her natural place for a day, to +go back to her round of widowed love, care and toil. She would make +occasion to see her, and perhaps find some indirect way to be useful +to both mother and son. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WHAT HE THOUGHT OF THINGS. + + +How grateful to the sensitive heart of the young man would have been +the knowledge that he was an object of thoughtful interest to Julia's +mother, who, next to his own, had his reverence and regard! He knew he +was generally disliked; his intuitions assured him of this, and in his +young arrogance he had not cared. Indeed, he had come to feel a morbid +pleasure in avoiding and being avoided; but now, as he sat in the +little silent room in the late night, he felt his isolation. He +had been appalled at a discovery--or rather a revelation--made that +afternoon. He knew that he loved Julia, and that this love would be +the one passion of manhood, as it had been of his boyhood. He had +given himself up to it as to a delicious onflowing stream, drifting +him through enchanted lands, and had not thought or cared whither it +might bear, or on what desolate shore it might finally strand him. + +Now he felt its full strength and power, and he knew, too, that it was +a force to be controlled, when perhaps that had become impossible. He +had never asked himself if a return of his passion were even possible, +until now, when his whole fervid nature had gone out in a great hungry +longing for her love and sympathy. She had never stood so lovely and +so inaccessible as he had seen her that day. How deeply through and +through came the first greeting of her eyes! It was an electric flash +never received before, and which as suddenly disappeared. How cool and +indifferent was her manner and look as he approached, and stood near +her! No inquiry, save that mocking one! Not a word; not a thought of +where he had been, or why he had returned, or what he would do; the +shortest answer as to his inquiry about her mother; no intimation that +he might even call at the house. Thus he went over with it all--over +and over again. What did he care? But he did, and could not deceive +himself. He did care, and must not; and then he went back over all +their intercourse since her return home, two or three months before he +left, and it was all alike on her part--a cool, indifferent avoidance +of him. + +Oh, she was so glorious--so beautiful! The whole world lay in the +span of her slender waist--a world not for him. Was it something to +be adventured for, fought for, found anywhere? something that he could +climb up to and take? something to plunge down to in fathomless ocean +and carry back? No, it was her woman's heart. Like her father, she +disliked him; and if, like her father, she would openly let him see +and hear it--but doesn't she? What had he to offer her? How could he +overcome her father's dislike? He felt in his soul what would come to +him finally, but then, in the lapsing time? And she avoided him now! + +He returned to his algebraic problem, with a desperate plunge at its +solution. The unknown quantity remained unknown; and, a moment later, +he was gratified to see how he had finally caught and expressed, with +his pencil, a look of Julia, that had always eluded him before. But +was he to be overcome by a girl? Was life and its ambitions to be +crushed out and brought to nought by one small hand? He would see. It +would be inexpressible luxury to tell her once--but just once--all his +passion and worship, and then, of course, remain silent forever, and +go out of her presence. He wished her to know it all, so that, as she +would hear and know of him in the coming years, she would know that he +was worthy, not of her love, but worthy to love her, whatever that may +mean, or whatever of comfort it might bring to either. What precious +logic the heart of a young man in his twenty-second year is capable +of! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LOGIC OF THE GODS. + + +"Doctor," said Barton, in the little office of the latter, "I've +called to borrow your Euclid; may I have it? I have never tried +Euclid, really." + +"Oh, yes, you can have it, and welcome. Do you want to try yourself on +the _pons asinorum?_" + +"What is that; another bridge of sighs? for I suppose they can be +found out of Venice." + +"It is a place over which asses have to be carried. It is, indeed, a +bridge of sighs, and a bridge of size." + +"Oh, Doctor, don't you do that! Well, let me try it! I want more +work; and especially I want a wrestle with Euclid." + +"Work! what are you doing, that you call work?" + +"Well, hoeing beans, pulling up weeds, harvesting oats, with +recreations in Latin Grammar, Dabol, Algebra, Watts on the Mind, +Butler's Analogy, and other trifles." + +"All at one time?" + +"No, not more than three at the same time. Don't lecture me, Doctor, I +am incorrigible. When I work, I don't play." + +"And when you don't play you work, occasionally; well, I think Euclid +will do you good." + +"I won't take it as a prescription, Doctor!" + +"A thorough course of mathematics would do more for one of your +flighty mind, than anything else; you want chaining down to the severe +logic of lines and angles." + +"To the solution of such profound problems as, that the whole of a +thing is more than a fraction of it; and things that are exactly alike +resemble each other, for instance, eh?" + +"Pshaw! you will make fun of everything. Will you ever reach +discretion, and deal with things seriously?" + +"I was never more serious in my life, and could cry with mortification +over my lost, idled-away hours, you never believed in me, and are not +to blame for that, nor have I any promises to make. I am not thought +to be at all promising, I believe." + +"Bart," said the Doctor, seriously, "you don't lack capacity; but you +are too quick and impulsive, and all imagination and fancy." + +"Well, Doctor, you flatter me; but really is not the imagination one +of the highest elements of the human mind? In the wide world's history +was it not a crowning, and one of the most useful qualities of many of +the greatest men?" + +"Great men have had imagination. I presume, and achieved great things +in spite of it; but through it, never." + +"Why, Doctor! the mere mathematician is the most servile of mortals. +He is useful, but cannot create, or even discover. He weighs and +measures. Project one of his angles into space, and, though it may +reach within ten feet of a blazing star that dazzles men with eyes, +yet he will neither see nor know of its existence. His foot-rule won't +reach it, and he has no eyes. Imagination! it was the logic of the +gods--the power to create; and among men it abolishes the impossible. +By its force and strength one may strike fire from hidden flints in +darkened worlds, and beat new windows in the blind sides of the ages. +Columbus imagined another continent, and sailed to it; and so of all +great discoverers." + +The Doctor listened with some surprise. "Did it ever occur to you, +Bart, that you might be an orator of some sort?" + +"Such an orator as Brutus is--cold, formal, and dead? I'd rather +not be an orator at all, 'but talk right on,' like plain, blunt Mark +Antony." + +"And yet Brutus has been quoted and held up by poets and orators as a +sublime example of virtue and patriotism, young man!" + +"And yet he never made murder the fashion;" and--striking an +attitude--"Caesar had his Brutus! Charles had his Cromwell! and George +III. had--what the devil did George have? He was stupid enough to have +been a mathematician, though I never heard that he was." + +"Oh dear, Bart!" said the Doctor, with a sigh, "for God's sake, and +your own, do study Euclid if you can! Don't you see that your mind is +always sky-rocketing and chasing thistle-down through the air?" + + "'The downy thistle-seed my fare, + My strain forever new,'" +said Bart, laughing, and preparing to go. + +"By the way," asked the Doctor, "wouldn't you like to go fishing one +of these nights? We haven't been but once or twice this summer. Jonah, +and Theodore, and 'Brother Young' and I have been talking about it +for some days. We will rig up a fire-jack, if you will go, and use the +spear." + +"I am afraid I would be sky-rocketing, Doctor; but send me word when +you are ready." + + * * * * * + +Barton had now entered upon something like a regular course. He had +one of those intense nervous temperaments that did not require or +permit excessive sleep. He arose with the first light, and took up at +once the severest study he had until breakfast, and then worked with +the boys, or alone, the most of the forenoon, at whatever on the farm, +or about the house, seemed most to want his hand; the afternoons and +evenings were given to unremitting study or reading. His tone of mind +and new habit of introspection induced him to take long walks in the +woods and secluded places, and after his work for the day was done; +he imposed upon himself a regular and systematic course, and compelled +himself to adhere to it. He saw few, went nowhere; and among that busy +people, after the little buzz occasioned by his return had subsided, +he ceased to be an object of interest or comment. + +It was remarked among them that they did not hear his rifle in the +forests, and nobody had presents of wild turkeys and venison, as they +sometimes had, and he was in his own silent way shaping out his own +destiny. + +He received a letter from Henry in reply to his own, full of kindness, +with such hints as the elder could give as to his course of study. His +observing mother saw at once a marked change in his manner and +words. Thoughtful and forbearing, his arrogance disappeared, and his +impetuous, dashing way evidently toned down, while he was more tender +towards her, and seemed to fall naturally into the place of an elder +brother--careful and gentle to the young boys. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A RAMBLE IN THE WOODS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + + +Already the summer had deepened and ripened into autumn. The sky had +a darker tint, and the breeze had a plaintive note in its voice; and +here and there the footprints of change were in the tree-tops. + +On one of those serene, deep afternoons, Barton, who had been +importuned by the boys to go into the woods in pursuit of a flock of +turkeys, that George had over and over declared "could be found just +out south, and which were just as thick and fat as anything," yielded, +and, taking his rifle, started out, accompanied by them, in high glee. +George's declaration about the turkeys was, without much difficulty, +verified, and Bart, who was a practised hunter, and knew all the +habits of the shy and difficult bird, managed in a short time to +secure two. He felt an old longing for a good, long, lonely ramble, +and directed the boys, who were in ecstacies at his skill and the +result, to carry the game back to their mother, while he went out +to the Slashing, adding that if he did not come back until into the +night, they might know he had gone to the pond, to meet the Doctor and +a fishing-party; and with a good-natured admonition from George, to +look out for that wolverine that haunted the Slashing, they separated. + +The "Slashing" was a large tract of fallen timber, all of which had +been cut down years before, and left to decay as it fell. Near this, +and to the east, an old roadway had been cut, leading south, which was +often used by the neighbors to go from the Ridgeley neighborhood +to settlements skirting the eastern border of "the woods" before +mentioned. Still further east, and surrounded by forest, on a small +stream, was Coe's carding machine and fulling mill, to which a +by-way led from the State road, at a point near Parker's. The Coes, +a shiftless, harmless set, lived much secluded, and were often the +objects of charity, and as such somewhat under the patronage of Mrs. +Markham and Julia; and some of her young friends were occasionally +attracted there for a ramble among the rocks and springs, from which +Coe's creek, a little stream, arose. From the old road a path led to +the fields of Judge Markham, about a fourth of a mile distant, which +was the shortest route from his house to Coe's. + + * * * * * + +On his return ramble, just as Bart was about to emerge from the woods +into the opening made by the old road from the west, he was surprised +to see Julia approaching him, going along that track towards home. She +was alone, and walking with a quick step. Lifting his hat, he stepped +forward towards the path in which she was walking. The meeting in the +wild, still woods, under the deepening shades of approaching night, +was a surprise to both; and, by the light in the eyes of the youth, +and warmer color in the face of the maiden, seemed not unpleasant to +either. + +"This is a surprise, meeting you here alone," said Barton, stepping to +the side of the footway, a little in advance of her. + +"It must be," answered Julia. "Poor old lady Coe is quite ill, and +I've been around there, and, as it was latish, I have taken this short +way home, rather than go all the way around the road." + +"Indeed, if you are really going this way you must permit me to +attend you," said Bart, placing his gun against a stump. "It is a +good half-mile to the path that leads out to your father's, and it is +already darkening;" and he turned and walked by her side. + +"It is really not necessary," said the girl, quite decidedly. "I know +the way, and am not in the least afraid." + +"Forgive me, Miss Markham, but I really fear that you must choose +between my attendance out of these woods and turning back around the +road," replied Bart. + +His manner, so frank and courteous, and his voice, so gentle, had +nevertheless, to her woman's ear, a vibration of the man's nerve of +force and will, to which the girl seemed unconsciously to yield. They +walked along. The mystery of night was weaving its weird charm in the +forest, and strange notes and sounds came from its depths, and these +young, pure natures found an undefined sweetness in companionship. +On they walked in silence, as if neither cared to break it. The young +girl at length said: + +"Mr. Ridgeley"--not Barton, or his first name, as in her +childhood--what a heart-swoon smote the youth at the formal +address!--"Mr. Ridgeley, there is something I must say to you. My +father does not care to have me in your company, and I must not +receive the most ordinary attention from you. He would not, I fear, +like to know that you were at our house." + +Did it cost her anything to say this? Apparently not, though her voice +and manner diminished its sting. A moment's pause, and Barton's voice, +cold and steady, answered back: + +"I know what your father's feelings towards me are," and then, with +warmth, "but I am sure that he would think less of me, if possible, +were I to permit any woman to find her way, at this hour, out of this +wilderness." + +It was not much to say, but it was well said, and he turned his face +towards her as he said it, lit up with a clear expression of man's +loyalty to woman--not unpleasant to the young girl. Why could not +he leave it there and to the future? They walked on, and the shadows +deepened. + +"Miss Markham, I, too, must say a thing to you: from my boyhood to +this hour, deeply, passionately, with my whole heart and soul, have I +loved you." + +There was no mistaking; the intensity of his voice made his words +thrill. She recoiled from them as if stunned, and turned her face, +pale now, and marked, fully towards him. + +"What! What did you say?" + +"I love you!" with a deep, full voice. + +"How dare you utter such words to me?" + +Her eyes flashed and nostrils dilated. + +"Because they are true; because I am a man and you are a woman," +steadily and proudly. + +"A man! you a man! Is it manly to waylay me in this lonely place, +and force yourself upon me, and insult me with this? You compel me +to--to--" + +"Scorn and despise you!" supplied the youth, in a bitter tone. + +"Take the words, then, if you choose them." + +She was simply grand in her style, till this last expression, which +had the angry snap of an enraged woman. Some high natures might have +answered back her scorn; a lower one might have complained; and still +another would have left her in the woods. Barton said nothing, +but, with a cold, stony face, walked on by her side. If, in his +desperation, he wanted this killing thrust, which must ever rankle and +never heal, to enable him to overcome and subdue his great passion, he +had got it. That little hand, that emphasized her words with a gesture +of superb disdain, would never have to repeat the blow. It raised +about her a barrier that he was never after to approach. + +He was not a man to complain. He would have told her why he said these +words; he could not now. Some men are like wolves in traps, and die +without a moan. Barton could die, and smile back into the face of his +slayer, and say no word. + +Night was now deepening in the woods, with the haughty maiden, and +high, proud and humiliated youth, walking still side by side through +its shadows. They at length reached the path that led from the open +way to the left, approaching Julia's home. There was a continuous +thicket of thrifty second-growth young trees bordering the track along +which the two were journeying, and the opening through it made by this +narrow path was black with shadow, like the entrance to a cave. + +"This is the way," said Bart, turning into it. + +These were the first words he had uttered, and came as if from a +distance. Without a word of hesitation Julia turned into the path with +him, yet with almost a shudder at the darkness. They had not taken +a dozen steps when an appalling, shrieking yell, a brute yell, of +ferocious animal rage--the rage for blood and lust to mangle and +tear--burst from the thicket on their right. A wild plunge through +tangled brush and limbs, another more appalling shriek, and a dark, +shadowy form, with a fierce, hungry growl, crouched in the pathway +just before them, with its yellow, tawny, cruel eyes flashing in their +faces. The first sound seemed to heat every fiery particle of the +blood of the youth into madness, and open an outlet to the burning +elements of his nature. Here was something to encounter, and for her, +and in her presence; and the brute had hardly crouched as if for its +spring, when, with an answering cry, a man's shout, a challenge and +a charge, he sprang forward, with his unarmed strength, to the +encounter. As if cowed and overcome by the higher nature, the brute +turned, and with a complaining whine like a kicked dog, ran into the +depths of the woods. Barton had momentarily, in a half frenzy, wished +for a grapple, and felt a pang of real disappointment. + +"The brute is a coward," he said, as he turned back, where the white +robes of Julia were dimly visible in the darkness. She was a daughter +of the Puritans, and had the blood and high courage of her race. The +first cry of the animal had almost frozen her blood, but the eager, +proud, manly shout of Barton affected her like a trumpet-call. She +exulted in his dashing courage, and felt an irresistible impulse to +rush forward to his aid. It all occurred in the fraction of a moment; +and when she realized that the peril was over, she was well-nigh +overcome. + +"You were always brave," said Barton, cheerily, with just a little +strain in his voice; "you were in no danger, and it is all over." + +No answer. + +"You are not overcome?" with an anxious voice. "Oh," coming close to +her, "if I might offer you support!" + +He held out his hand, and she put hers in it. How cool and firm his +touch was, and how her tremor subsided under it! He pulled her hand +within his arm, and hers rested fully upon his, with but their light +summer draperies between them. + +"But a little way further," he said, in his cheery voice, and they +hurried forward. + +Neither spoke. What did either think? The youth was sorry for the +awful fright of the poor girl, and so glad of the little thing that +eased his own humiliation. The girl--who can tell what a girl thinks? + +As they reached the cleared land, a sense of relief came to Julia, +who had started a dozen times, in her escape out of the woods, at +imaginary sounds. Day was still in the heavens, and the sight of her +father's house gladdened her. + +"Will you mind the dew?" asked her companion. + +"Not in the least," she answered; and he led her across the pastures +to the rear of an enclosure that surrounded the homestead. He seemed +to know the way, and conducted her through a large open gate, and so +to a lane that led directly to the rear of the house, but a few yards +distant. He laid his hand upon the small gate that opened into it, and +turning to her, said: + +"I may not intrude further upon you. For your relief, I ought perhaps +to say that the words of madness and folly which I uttered to you will +neither be recalled nor repeated. Let them lie where they fell--under +your feet. Your father's house, and your father's daughter, will be +sacred from me." + +The voice was firm, low, and steady; and opening the gate, the young +girl entered, paused a moment, and then, without a word, ran rapidly +towards the house. As she turned an angle, she saw the youth still +standing by the gate, as if to protect her. She flew past the corner, +and called, in a distressed voice: + +"Mamma! mamma! oh, mother!" + +She was a Puritan girl, with the self-repression and control of her +race, and the momentary apprehension that seized her as she left the +side of Barton was overcome as she entered her father's house. + +"Julia!" exclaimed her mother, coming forward, "is that you? Where +have you come from? What is the matter?" + +"I came through the woods," said the girl, hurriedly. "I've been so +awfully frightened! Such dreadful things have happened!" with a half +hysterical laugh, which ended in a sob. + +"Julia! Julia! my child! what under the heavens has happened? Are you +hurt?" + +"No, only dreadfully frightened. I was belated, and it came on dark, +and just as we turned into the path from the old road, that awful +beast, with a terrible shriek, sprang into the road before us, and was +about to leap upon me, when Barton sprang at him and drove him off. If +it had not been for him, I would have been torn in pieces." + +"Barton?--was he with you? Thank God! oh, bless and thank God for +your escape! My child! my child! How awful it sounds! Come! come to my +room, and let me hold you, and hear it all!" + +"Oh, mamma! what a weak and cowardly thing a woman is! I thought I was +so strong, and really courageous, and the thought of this thing makes +me tremble now." + +They gained her mother's room, and Julia, seating herself at her +mother's feet, and resting her arms on her mother's lap, undertook to +tell her story. + +"I cannot tell you how it all happened. Barton met me, and would come +along with me, and then he said strange things to me; and I answered +him back, and quarrelled with him, and--" + +"What could he have said to you? Tell me all." + +Julia began and told with great minuteness, and with much feeling, her +whole adventure. She explained that she really did not want Bart to +come with her, for that it would displease her father; and that when +he did, she thought he ought to know that he was not at liberty to be +her escort or come to the house, and so she told him. She could not +tell why she answered him just as she did, but she was surprised, and +not quite herself, and she might have said it differently, and need +not have said so much, and he certainly must know that she did not +mean it all. Surely it was most his fault; if he really had such +feelings, why should he tell her, and tell her as he did? It was +dreadful, and she would never be happy again; and she laid her head in +her mother's lap, in her great anguish. + +When her burst of grief had subsided, and she was calm, her mother +asked several questions, and learned all that was said, and was +much excited at Julia's account of the encounter with the beast and +Barton's intrepidity. She seemed to feel that they had both escaped a +great danger, through his courage. + +"My dear child," she said, "I don't know what to think of these +strange and trying events, mixed up as they are. There is one very, +very unfortunate thing about it." + +"That I met Barton? Oh, mother!" + +"No, no; not that. It was unfortunate that you came the way you did, +or unfortunate that you went, perhaps; but it is not that. It was most +providential that Barton was with you, but so unfortunate that he said +to you what he did." + +"Is it a misfortune to be loved, mother?" + +"Let us not talk of this to-night, my darling," stooping and kissing +her still pale cheek. "God only knows of these things. It may not be a +misfortune, but it may bring unhappiness, dear, to somebody." + +"Perhaps, mother, if he had not had such feelings he would not have +come with me." + +"My child! my child! don't say what might have happened. I am glad +and grateful--so grateful that he was with you--that he was generous +enough to come, after what you said to him; but now, how can we +express our gratitude to him?" + +"Oh, mamma! I am sure it is no matter. He won't care now what we +think." + +"You are too much agitated, my daughter, to-night; let us not talk it +over now. But what became of Barton? did he come in?" + +"No, I left him at the back gate, without a word, only waiting for me +to run in. Of course he went back to the woods and wild beasts. What +other place was there for him?" + +"Don't, don't, Julia! don't say such words. Harm will not come to +him." + +"I know it won't," said the young girl; "for when the whole world +turns against a brave, true heart, God watches over it with the more +care." + +"True, my child; and we can at least pray God to be near him, only +don't think of this matter now. In a day or two you will be yourself, +and look at it in a different light. Your father will return +to-morrow, and it may not be best to tell him of all this at present. +It would only disturb him." + +"Yes, mamma; I could not tell him everything as I have told you, and +so I must not tell him anything, nor anybody else. How wretched it all +is!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A DARKENED SOUL. + + +As Julia left Bart, the full force of her scornful words seemed for +the first time to reach him. The great restraint her presence imposed +in some way suspended, or broke their effect, and he turned from the +gate with a half-uttered moan of anguish. He did not then recall her +words or manner; he only realized that, in a cruel and merciless way, +she had crushed his heart and soul. It was not long; both recoiled +with a sense of wrong and injustice, and utter helplessness, for the +hurt came from a woman. Instinctively he returned to the point whence +they had emerged when they left the woods, and the thought of the +screaming brute came to him with a sense of relief. Here was an object +upon which he could wreak himself, and in a half frenzy of madness he +hurried towards a spot in the edge of the Slashing, towards which +the cowardly thing had run when it fled from his onset. He paused +to listen upon the margin of that tangled wilderness of young trees, +briers, and decaying trunks. How solemn and quiet, wild and lonely it +was, in the deep night and deeper woods! The solemn hush fell upon +the bruised spirit of the youth with the quieting touch and awe of a +palpable presence, rebukingly, yet tenderly and pityingly. + +Quick to compassionate others, he had ever been relentless to himself, +and refused to regard himself as an object of injustice, or as needing +compassion. As he stood for a moment confronting himself, scorned, +despised and humiliated, he felt for himself the measureless contempt +to which he seemed to have fallen; yet, under it all, and against it +all, he arose. "Oh, Bart! Bart! what a poor, abject, grovelling +thing you really are," he said bitterly, "when the word of a girl +so overcomes you! when the slap of her little hand so benumbs and +paralyzes you! If you can't put her haunting face from you now, God +can hardly help you. How grand she was, in her rage and scorn! Let me +always see her thus!" and he turned back into the old road. Along +this he sauntered until his eye met the dull gleam of his rifle-barrel +against the old stump where he left it. With a great start, he +exclaimed, "Oh, if I could only go back to the moment when I stood +here with power to choose, and dream!" It was a momentary weakness, a +mere recoil from the wound still so fresh and ragged. + +It was still in early evening, with time and life heavy on his hands, +when he remembered that the Doctor had sent him word to come to the +pond that night. Taking his rifle by the muzzle, and throwing it +across his shoulder, he plunged into the woods in a right line for the +west shore of the pond, at about its midway. + +Through thick woods tangled with underbrush and laced with wild +vines, down steep banks, over high hills and rocky precipices, across +clearings and hairy brier patches, he took his way, and found relief +in the physical exertions of which he was still capable. At last he +stood on the margin of the forest and hill-embosomed waters of that +lovely little lake. It was solitary and silent, but for the weird +sounds of night birds and aquatic animals that frequented its reedy +margin, and a soft, silvery mist was just rising from its unruffled +surface, that gathered in a translucent veil against the dark forest +of the opposite shore. Its simple, serene and quiet beauty, under the +stars and rising moon, was not lost upon the poetic nature of Barton, +still heaving with the recent storm. + +He ran his eye along the surface of the water, and discerned in the +shadow of the wood, near the island, a fourth of a mile distant, a +light, and below it the dark form of a boat. Placing his closed hands +to his lips, he blew a strong, clear, full whistle, with one or two +notes, and was answered by Theodore. At the landing near him was a +half-rotten canoe, partially filled with water, and near it was an old +paddle. Without a moment's thought, Barton pushed it into deep water, +springing into it as it glided away. He had not passed half the +distance to the other boat, when he discovered that it was filling. +With his usual rashness, he determined to reach his friends in it +by his own exertions, and without calling to them for aid, and by an +almost superhuman effort he drove on with his treacherous craft. The +ultimate danger was not much to a light and powerful swimmer, and he +plunged forward. The noise and commotion of forcing his waterlogged +canoe through the water attracted the attention of the party he +was approaching, but who had hardly appreciated his situation as he +lightly sprang from his nearly filled boat into their midst. + +"Hullo, Bart! Why under the heavens did you risk that old log? Why +didn't you call to us to meet you?" + +"Because," said Bart, excited by his effort and danger, "because to +myself I staked all my future on reaching you in that old hulk, and I +won. Had it sunk, I had made up my mind to go with her, and, like Mr. +Mantalini, in Dickens's last novel, 'become a body, a demnition moist +unpleasant body.'" + +"What old wreck is it?" inquired Young, looking at the scarcely +perceptible craft that was sinking near them. + +"It is the remains of the old canoe made by Thomas Ridgeley, in his +day, I think," said Jonah. + +"Nothing of the sort," said Bart; "it is the remains of old Bullock's +'gundalow,' that has been sinking and swimming, like old John Adams +in the Revolution, these five years past. Don't let me think to-night, +Uncle Jonah, that anything from my father's hand came to take me into +the depths of this pond." + +The craft occupied by the party was a broad, scow-like float, with low +sides, steady, and of considerable capacity. At the bow was a raised +platform, covered with gravel, on which stood a fire-jack. The crew +were lying on the silent water, engaged with their lines, when Bart so +unceremoniously joined them. He went forward to a vacant place and lay +down in the bottom, declining to take a line. + +"What is the matter, Bart?" asked the Doctor. + +"I don't know. I've been wandering about in the woods, and I must have +met something, or I have lost something,--I don't know which." + +"I guess you saw the wolverine," said Theodore. + +"I guess I did;" and pretty soon, "Doctor, is this your robe? Let +me cover myself with it; I am cold!" and there was something almost +plaintive in his voice. + +"Let me spread it over you," said the Doctor, with tenderness. "What +ails you, Bart? are you ill?" + +"If you left your saddle-bags at home, I think I am; if they are +here, I am very well. Doctor," he went on, "can a man have half of his +faculties shut off and retain the others clear and strong?" + +"I don't know,--perhaps so; why?" + +"Well, I feel as if one of your astringents had placed its claws on a +full half of me and drawn it all into a pucker; and the other half is +in some way set free, and I feel clairvoyant." + +"What do you think you can see?" asked the Doctor. + +"A young man--quite a young man--blindfolded, groping backward in the +chambers of his darkened soul, and trying to escape out of it," said +Bart. + +"What a queer fancy!" said the Doctor. + +"He must have an unusually large soul," said Uncle Jonah. + +"Every soul is big enough for the man to move in, small as it is," +said Bart. + +"What is your youth doing in his, now?" asked the Doctor. + +"He is sitting down, resigned," answered Bart. + +"If his soul was dark, why was he blindfolded?" asked the Doctor. + +"Well, I don't know. For the same reason that men with eyes think that +a blind man cannot see so well in the dark, perhaps," was the answer. +"And see here," looking into the water, "away down here is a beautiful +star. There, I can blot it out with my hand! and see, now, how I can +shatter it into wavelets of stars, and now break it into a hundred, by +merely disturbing the water where I see it, 'like sunshine broken in +a rill.' Who knows but it may be the just-arrived light of an old, old +star which has just come to us? How easy to climb back on one of these +filmy rays, myriads of millions of leagues, home to its source! I +will take off the bandage and let the poor boy see it, and climb if he +may." + +"You are fanciful and metaphysical," said the Doctor. "Euclid has not +operated, I fear. Why would you go up to the source of that ray? Would +you expect to find God and heaven there?" + +"I should but traverse the smallest portion of God," said Bart, "and +yet how far away He seems just now. Somebody's unshapen hand cuts His +light off; and I cannot see Him by looking down, and I haven't the +strength to look up." + +"How incoherently you talk; after all, suppose that there is no +God, for do your best, it is but a sentiment, a belief without +demonstrative proof." + +"Oh, Doctor, don't! You are material, and go by lines and angles; +cannot you understand that a God whose existence you would have +to prove is no God at all? that if His works and givings out don't +declare and proclaim him, He is a sham? You cannot see and hear, +Doctor, when you are in one of your material moods. Look up, if you +can see no reflection in the waters below." + +"Well, when I look into the revealed heaven, for instance, Bart, I see +it peopled with things of the earth, reflected into it from the earth; +showing that the whole idea is of the earth--earthy." + +"Oh, Doctor! like the poor old Galilean; when he thought it was all +up, he went out and dug bait, and started off a-fishing. You attend +to your fishing, and let me dream. If God should attempt to reveal +Himself to you to-night, which I wouldn't do, He would have to +elevate and enlarge and change you to a celestial, so that you could +understand Him; or shrink and shrivel Himself to your capacity, and +address you on your level, as I do, using the language and imagery of +this earth, and you would answer Him as you do me--'It is all of the +earth--earthy.' I want to sleep." + +The Doctor pondered as if there was a matter for thought in what +he had heard, and a little ripple of under-talk ran on about the +subjects, the everlasting old, old and eternally new problems that +men have dreamed and stumbled over, and always will--which Bart had +dreamily spoken of as if they were very familiar to his thoughts, and +they spoke of him, and wondered if anything had happened, and pulled +their boat to a new position, while the overtaxed youth subsided +into fitful slumber. Theodore finally awoke him, and said that they +proposed to light up the jack, if he would take the spear, and they +would push out to deeper water, and try for bass. Bart stared about +him uncomprehendingly for a moment. "Oh, Theodore, my fishing days +are over! I will never 'wound the gentle bosom of this lake' with fish +spear, or gig, or other instrument; and I've backed this old rifle +around for the last time to-day." + +"Bart, think of all our splendid times in the woods!" + +"What a funny dream I had: I dreamed I was a young Indian, not John +Brown's 'little Indian,' but a real red, strapping, painted young +Indian, and our tribe was encamped over on the west side of this +Indian lake, by Otter Point; and I was dreadfully in love with the +chief's daughter." + +"Who didn't love you again," said Theodore. + +"Of course not, being a well-brought up young Indianess: and I went +to the Indian spring, that runs into the pond, just above 'Barker's +Landing,' that you all know of." + +"I never knew that it was an Indian spring," said Young. + +"Well, it is," replied Bart. "It has a sort of an earthen rim around +it, or had a few minutes ago; and the water bubbles up from the +bottom. Well, you drop a scarlet berry into it, and if it rises and +runs over the rim, the sighed-for loves you, or she don't, and I have +forgotten which. I found a scarlet head of ginseng, and dropped the +seeds in one after another, and they all plumped straight to the +bottom." + +"Well, what was the conclusion?" + +"Logical. The berries were too heavy for the current, or the current +was too weak for the berries." + +"And the Indianess?" + +"She and all else faded out." + +"Oh, pshaw! how silly!" said Young. "Will you take the spear, or won't +you?" + +"Will you take the spear, or won't you?" replied Bart, mimicking him +with great effect. + +"Have you heard from Henry lately?" asked Uncle Jonah. + +"A few days ago," answered Bart, who turned moodily away like a +peevish child angered with half sleep, and a pang from the thrust he +had received. + +"Henry is the most ambitious young man I ever knew," said the Doctor; +"I fear he may never realize his aspirations." + +"Why not?" demanded Bart, with sudden energy. "What is there that my +brother Henry may not hope to win, I would like to know? He will win +it or die in the effort." + +"He will not, if he lives a thousand years," said Young, annoyed at +Bart's mimicking him. "It ain't in him." + +"What ain't in him, Old Testament?" demanded Bart, with asperity. + +"The stuff. I've sounded him; it ain't there!" + +"You've sounded him! Just as you are now sounding this bottomless +pond, with a tow string six feet long, having an angle worm at one +end, and an old hairy curmudgeonly grub at the other." + +"There, Brother Young," said Uncle Jonah, "stop before worse comes." + +"Mr. Young," said Bart, a moment later, with softened voice, making +way towards him, "forgive me if you can. I've done with coarse and +vulgar speeches like that. You believe in Henry, and only spoke to +annoy me. I take it all back. I will even spear you some bass, if +Theodore will light up the jack. Give me the oars, and let me wake up +a little, while we go to better ground below." + +For a few moments he handled the polished, slender-tined, long-handled +spear with great dexterity and success, and told the story of old +Leather Stocking spearing bass from the Pioneers. He soon ceased, +however, and declared he would do no more, and his companions, +disgusted with his freaky humor, prepared to return. Bart, casting +down his spear, remained in moody silence until they landed. Theodore +picked up his rifle, the fish were placed in baskets, the tackle +stowed away, the boat secured, and the party proceeded homeward. + +Bart lived further from the pond than any of the party, and Theodore, +who loved him, and was kind to his moods, taking a few of the finest +fish, accompanied him home. As they were about to separate from Uncle +Jonah--the father of Theodore--he turned to Bart, and said: "Something +has happened, no matter what; don't be discouraged, you stick to them +old books; there's souls in 'em, and they will carry you out to your +place, some time." + +"Thank you, thank you, Uncle Jonah!" said Bart, warmly; "these are the +only encouraging words I've heard for two years." + +"Theodore," said Bart, as they walked on, "what an uncomfortable bore +I must have been to-night." + +"Oh, I don't know! we thought that something had happened, perhaps." + +"No, I'm trying to change, and be more civil and quiet, and have been +thinking it all over, and don't feel quite comfortable; and we have +both something to do besides run in the woods. You were very good to +come with me, Theodore," he said, as they parted at the gate. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AFTER THE FLOOD. + + +The next morning Bart was not up as usual, and George rushed into the +low-ceiled room, under the roof. + +"Bart! breakfast is ready! Ma thinks it strange you ain't up. That was +a splendid big bass. Where did you take him? Are you sick?" as he came +in. + +"No, Georgie; I am only languid and dull. I must have been wofully +tired." + +"I should think you would be, running all day and up all night. I +should think you'd be hungry, too, by this time." + +"Georgie, how handsome you look this morning! What a splendid young +man you will be, and so bright, and joyous, and good! Everybody will +love you; no woman will scorn you. There, tell mother not to wait! I +will get up soon." + +Some time after, the light, quick step of his mother was heard +approaching his door, where she paused as if to listen. + +"I am up, mother," called out Bart; and she found him partly dressed, +and sitting listlessly on his bed, pale and dejected. + +"It is nothing, mother; I'm only a little depressed and dull. I'll be +all right in an hour. I ran in the woods a good deal, took cold, and +am tired." + +She looked steadily and wistfully at him. The great change in his face +could not escape her. Weary he looked, and worn, as from a heart-ill. + +"What has happened, Barton? Did you go to anybody's house? Whom did +you see?" + +"No; I went to the pond, and met the Doctor and Uncle Jonah, and +Theodore came home with me." + +"Did you meet Julia Markham anywhere?" + +"I did; she was going home from Coe's by the old road, and I went out +of the woods with her." + +A long, hard-drawn breath from his mother, who saw that he took her +question like a stab. + +"It is no matter, mother. It had to be over some time." + +"Barton! you don't mean, Barton--" + +"I do, just that, mother," steadily. "She was kinder in her scorn than +she meant. It was what I needed." + +"Her scorn! her scorn, Barton!" + +"Yes, her scorn, mother," decidedly and firmly. + +"You must have talked and acted foolishly, Barton." + +"I did talk and act foolishly, and I take the consequences." + +"You are both young, Barton, and you have all the world in which to +overcome your faults and repair your mistakes, and Julia--" + +"Not another word of her, mother dear! She has gone more utterly out +of my life than as if she were buried. Then I might think of her; now +I will not," firmly. + +"Oh, that this should come to you now, my poor, poor boy!" + +"Don't pity me, mother! I am soft enough now, and don't you for a +moment think that I have nothing else to do in this world but to be +killed out of it by the scorn of a girl. Let us not think of these +Markhams. The Judge is ambitious, and proud of his wealth and self, +and his daughter is ambitious too. The world wants me; it has work for +me. I can hear its voices calling me now, and I am not ready. Don't +think I am to sit and languish and pine for any girl;" and his mouth +was firm with will and purpose, and a great swell of pride and pain +agitated the bosom of his mother, who recognized the high elements of +a nature drawn from her own. + +"You know, mother," he continued, thoughtfully, "that I am not one +to be loved. I am not handsome and popular, like Morris, whom all +men like and many women love; nor thoughtful and accomplished and +considerate, like Henry, whom everybody esteems and respects, and of +whom so much is expected." + +"Do you envy them, Barton?" + +"Envy them, mother? Don't I love the world for loving Morris? Don't I +follow him about to feel the gladness that he brings? Don't I live on +the praises of Henry? and don't I tear every man that utters a doubt +of his infallibility? Poor old Dominie Young! I was savage on him last +night, for an unnecessary remark about Henry; and I'll go and hear him +preach, to show my contrition; and penitence can't go further. Now, +mother dear, I probably wanted this, and I am now down on the flat, +hard foundation of things. Don't blame this Julia, and don't think of +her in connection with me. No girl will ever scorn one of your boys +but once." + +She lingered, and would have said more; but he put her away with +affected gayety, and said he was coming down immediately,--and he did. +But the melancholy chords vibrated long. + +There was another overhauling of the little desk, and innumerable +sketches of various excellence, having a family resemblance, with +faults in common, were sent to join the departed verses. + +That night, in a letter to Henry, he said: "I've burned the last of my +ships, not saving even a small boat." + + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Ridgeley pondered over the revelation which her woman's +intuitions had drawn from Barton. No woman can understand why a son +of hers should fail with any natural-born daughter of woman, and she +suspected that poor Bart had, with his usual impetuosity, managed the +affair badly. No matter if he had; she felt that he was not an object +of any woman's scorn; and this particular Julia, she had every reason +to know, would live to correct her impressions and mourn her folly. +She, however, was incapable of injustice to even her own sex; and if +Julia did not fancy Barton, she was not to blame, however faulty her +taste. She remembered with satisfaction that she and hers were under +no obligations to the Markhams, and she only hoped that her son would +be equal to adhering to his purpose. She had little fear of this, +although she knew nothing of the offensive manner of his rejection, +and had no intimation of what followed it. To her, Julia was to be +less than the average girl of her acquaintance. + +In the afternoon the two mothers met by accident, at the store, +whither Mrs. Ridgeley had gone to make a few small purchases, and +Mrs. Markham to examine the newly-arrived goods. Mrs. Ridgeley had +no special inducement to waste herself on Mrs. Markham, and none to +exhibit any sensibility at the treatment of Barton; her manner was an +admirable specimen of the cool, neighborly, indifferently polite. She +was by nature a thorough-bred and high-spirited woman; and had Julia +openly murdered poor Bart, the manner of his mother would not have +betrayed her knowledge of the fact to Mrs. Markham. That lady +busied herself with some goods until Mrs. Ridgeley had completed her +purchases, when she approached her with her natural graciousness, +which was so spontaneous that it was hardly a virtue, and was met +with much of her own frank suavity. These ladies never discussed the +weather, or their neighbors, or hired girls,--which latter one of them +did not have; and with a moment's inquiry after each other's welfare, +in which each omitted the family of the other, Mrs. Markham asked +Mrs. Ridgeley's judgment as to the relative qualities of two or three +pieces of ladies' fabrics, carelessly saying that she was choosing for +Julia, who was quite undecided. Mrs. Ridgeley thought Miss Markham was +quite right to defer the matter to her mother's judgment, and feared +that her own ignorance of goods of that quality would not enable her +to aid Mrs. Markham. Mrs. Markham casually remarked that there was +much demand for the goods, and that Julia had had a long walk around +to the Coes the day before, and home through the woods, and was +a little wearied to-day, and had referred the matter to her. Mrs. +Ridgeley understood that Miss Markham was accustomed to healthy +out-door exercise, and yet young girls were sometimes, she presumed, +nearly as imprudent as boys, etc.; she trusted Miss Markham would soon +be restored. + +If either of the ladies looked the other in the face while speaking +and spoken to, as is allowable, neither discovered anything by the +scrutiny. Mrs. Markham thought Mrs. Ridgeley must suffer much on +account of the rashness of so many spirited boys, though she believed +that Mrs. Ridgeley was fortunate in the devotion of all her sons. Mrs. +Ridgeley thanked her; as to her boys, she had become accustomed to +their caring for themselves, and when they were out she seldom was +anxious about them. Mrs. Markham thought that they must have some +interesting adventures in their hunting excursions. Mrs. Ridgeley said +that Morris always enjoyed telling of what he had done and met in the +woods, while Barton never mentioned anything, unless he had found a +rare flower, a splendid tree, or a striking view, or something of that +sort. + +The ladies gave each other much well-bred attention, and Mrs. Markham +went on to remark that she had not seen Barton since his return, but +that Julia had mentioned meeting him once or twice. Mrs. Ridgeley +replied that soon after Barton came home, she remembered that he spoke +of meeting Miss Markham at the store. The faces of the ladies told +nothing to each other. Mrs. Markham gave an animated account of her +call at the house being built by Major Ridgeley for Mr. Snow, in +Auburn, and said that Mr. Snow was promising that Major Ridgeley might +give a ball in it; and the Major undertook to have it ready about New +Year's, and that the ball would be very select, she understood; the +house was to contain a very fine ball-room, etc. + +Had Mrs. Ridgeley received a letter recently from Henry? She had. +Would Barton probably go and study with his brother? She thought that +would be pleasant for both. Mrs. Markham was very kind to inquire +about the boys. Would Mrs. Ridgeley permit Mrs. Markham to send her +home in her new buggy? It stood at the door. Mrs. Ridgeley thanked +her; she was going up by Coe's, and so out across the bit of woods, +home. Did not Mrs. Ridgeley fear the animal that had been heard to +scream in these woods? Mrs. Ridgeley did not in the least, and she +doubted if there was one. + +The ladies separated. Mrs. Markham decided that Barton had not told +his mother of meeting Julia the day before, nor of their adventure +afterwards, and she was relieved from the duty of explaining anything; +and she thought well of the young man's discretion, or pride. + +Mrs. Ridgeley thought that Mrs. Markham was talking at her for a +purpose, perhaps to find out what Barton told her; and it was some +little satisfaction, perhaps, to know that Julia did not feel like +being out,--but then Julia was a noble girl, and would feel regret at +inflicting pain. Poor Bart! Generous Mrs. Ridgeley! It also occurred +to Mrs. Ridgeley that Mrs. Markham did not return to the subject of +the goods, and she was really afraid that Julia might lose her dress. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +UNCLE ALECK. + + +The marvellous power of Christianity to repeat itself in new forms +apparently variant, and reveal itself under new aspects, or rather its +wonderful fulness and completeness, that enables the different ages of +men, under ever-varying conditions of culture and development, to find +in it their greatest needs supplied, and their highest civilization +advanced, may be an old observation. A change in the theological +thought and speculation of New England was beginning to make its way +to the surface at about the time of the migration of its sons and +daughters to the far-off Ohio wilderness, and many minds carried with +them into the woods a tinge of the new light. Theodore Parker had not +announced the heresy that there was an important difference between +theology and religion, and that life was of more consequence than +creed. But Calvinism had come to mean less to some minds, and there +was another turning back to the great source by strong new seekers, +to whom the accepted formulas had become empty, dry shells, to be +pulverized, and the dead dust kneaded anew with the sweet waters of +the ever fresh fountain. Those who bore the germs of the new thought +to the wild freedom of nature, in the woods, found little to restrain +or direct it; and, as is usual upon the remoulding of religious +thought, while the strong religious nature questions only as to the +true, many of different temperament boldly question the truth of all. +The seeds and sources of a religious revolution are remote, and +its apparent results a generation of heretics and infidels. Heresy +sometimes becomes orthodoxy in its turn, and in its career towards +that, and in its days of zeal and warfare, the infidel often becomes +its convert. + +Those in the new colony, who turned to the somewhat softer and sweeter +givings out of the Great Teacher, and to whom these qualities made the +predominant elements of his doctrines, were few in numbers, scattered +and weak, while the mass of the immigrants were staunch in the +theology of their old home. The holders of the new ideas not only +suffered from the odium of all new heresies, but their doctrines were +especially odious, as tending to destroy the wholesome sanctions of +fitting punishments, while, like the teachers of all ideas at variance +with the old, they were surrounded by and confounded with the herd of +old scoffers and unbelievers, who always try to ally themselves +with those who, for any reason, doubt or question the dogmas always +rejected by them. + +And so it is that the apostles of a new dogma come to be weighted +with whatever of odium may attach to the old rejectors of the old; and +there is always this bond of sympathy between the new heretic and the +old infidel; they are both opposed to the holders of the old faith, +and hence so far are allies. + +In Newbury, in that far-off time, a dozen families, perhaps, +respectable for intelligence and morality, were zealous acceptors of +the new ideas; and about these, to their great scandal, gathered the +straggling, rude spirits and doubtful characters that lightly float on +the wave of emigration, to be dropped wherever that subsides. + +The organizing power of the new ideas in itself, was not great. Their +spirit was not, and cannot, be aggressive. They consisted in part of +a rejection of much that made Puritanism intolerant in doctrine, and +that furnished it with its organizing and militant power. + +Men organize to do, and not merely to not do. Among the most earnest +in the support of these ideas were Thomas Ridgeley and his wife, who +were also among the most prominent in their neighborhood. Their +public religious exercises were not frequent, and were holden in a +school-house in their vicinity, the most attractive feature of which +was the excellent singing of the small congregation. Mrs. Ridgeley +came from a family of much local celebrity for their vocal powers, +while her husband was not only an accomplished singer, but master of +several instruments, and in the new settlements he was often employed +as a teacher of music. + +The preacher of this small congregation was Mr. Alexander, "Uncle +Aleck," as everybody called him, who lived in the west part of the +town, on the border of "the woods." A man well in years, inferior in +person, with a mild, sweet, benevolent face, and blameless, dreamy +life, he spent much time in "sarching the Scripters," as he expressed +it, in constant conversations and mild disputations of Bible texts +and doctrines, and sermonizing at the Sunday assemblies of his +co-believers. He was a man without culture, without the advantage of +much converse with cultivated people, of rather feeble and slender +mental endowments, but of a wonderfully sweet, serene, cheerful +temper, and a most abiding faith. His was a heart and soul whose love +and compassion embraced the created universe. He believed that God +created only to multiply the objects of His own love, and that the +ultimate end of all Providence was to bless, and he did not doubt that +He would manage to have His way. That He had ever generated forces and +powers beyond His control, he did not believe. The gospels, to him, +were luminous with love, mercy, and protecting providence; and while +his sermons were faulty and confused, his language vicious, and his +pronounciation depraved, so that he furnished occasional provocation +to scoffers among the profane, and to critics among the orthodox, +there was always such sweetness and tenderness, and love so broad, +deep, rich and pure, that few earnest or thoughtful minds ever heard +him without being moved and elevated by his benignant spirit. + +He was always in converse with the Master in his early ministrations, +in beautiful, far-off, peaceful Galilee. He was a contented and +happy feeder upon the manna and wine of those early wanderings and +preachings among a simple and primitive people; and was forever +lingering away from Jerusalem, and avoiding the final catastrophe, +which he could never contemplate without shuddering horror. No power +on earth could ever convert his simple faith to the idea that this +great sacrifice was an ill-devised scheme to end in final failure; and +he preached accordingly. The elder Ridgeley had been dead many years; +the simple faith had gained few proselytes; Uncle Aleck's sermons made +little impression, and gained nothing in clearness of statement or +doctrine, but ripened and deepened in tenderness and sweetness. His +people remained unpopular, and nothing but the force of character of a +few saved them from personal proscription. + +The Ridgeley boys, the older ones, were steady in the faith of their +parents. Morris openly acknowledged it and Henry had been destined +by his father to its teachings; Barton stood by his mother, however he +esteemed her faith, and occasionally said sharp and pungent things of +its opponents, which confirmed the unpopular estimate in which he was +undoubtedly held. + +The Markhams were orthodox. Dr. Lyman was a nearly unbelieving +materialist at this time, but had several times "wabbled," as Bart +expressed it, from orthodoxy to infidelity, without touching the +proscribed ground of Uncle Aleck. + +Mr. Young was an obsolete revival exhorter, whose life did little +to illustrate and enforce his givings out. He had a weakness for the +elder Scriptures; and hence the irreverent name applied to him in the +boat by Bart. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A CONSECRATION. + + +Among the adherents of uncle Aleck were the Coes, a mild, moony race, +and recently it was understood that Emeline, the only daughter in a +family of eight or nine, a languid, dreamy, verse-making mystic, had +expressed a wish to receive the rite of Christian baptism, at that +time practised by Uncle Aleck and his associates in Northern Ohio. + +The ceremony had been postponed on account of the illness of her +mother, and was finally performed on the Sunday following the +incidents last narrated. A meeting was to be holden in the primitive +forest, near Coe's cabin, on the margin of a deep, crystal pool, +formed naturally by the springs that supplied Coe's Creek. Few events +happened in that quiet region, and this was an event. News of it had +circulated widely, and hundreds attended. + +The occasion was not without a certain touching interest. The beauty +of the day, the wildness of the scenery under the grand old trees, +with rude rocks, beautiful slopes, and running, pure water, and the +deepening tints of autumn in sky, cloud and foliage,--the warm shafts +of sunshine that here and there lit it all up,--the sincere gravity +that fell as a Sabbath hush on the expectant multitude, who seemed to +realize the presence of a solemn mystery,--carried back an imaginative +mind to an earlier day and a more primitive people, when the early +Christians, in the absence of schism, administered the same rite. + +Uncle Aleck, imbued with the sweetest spirit of his Master, seemed +inspired with a sense of the sacredness of the act he was to perform. +Of its divine origin, and sweet and consecrating efficacy, he had not +the slightest doubt. The simple services of his faith he performed in +a way that harmonized entirely with the occasion and its surroundings. +A grand hymn under the old trees was sung by the choir with fine +effect; a short, fervent prayer, the reading of two or three portions +of one of the gospels, and a few words of sweet and simple fervor, +expressive of a great love and sacrifice, and the unutterable hope +and rest of its grateful acknowledgment in the public act about to be +performed, followed; and then the believing, trembling girl was led +into the translucent waters, which for a single instant closed over +her, and was returned, with a little cry of ecstasy, to her friends. +Another hymn, a simple benediction, and the solemnly impressed crowd +broke up into little knots, and left the spot vacant to the silence of +approaching night. + +Conspicuous in this gathering, as conspicuous everywhere where he +appeared, was Major Ridgeley, an elder brother of Bart. Slightly +taller, and absolutely straight in the shoulders, with an uppish turn +to his head, the Major was universally pronounced a handsome man. His +large, bright, hazel eye, pure red and white complexion just touched +by the sun, with a world of black curling hair swept carelessly back +from, an open white brow, with well-formed mouth and chin, and his +frank, dashing, manly way, cheery voice, and gay manner, made him a +universal favorite; and, farmer and carpenter though he was, he was +welcomed as an equal by the best people in the community. He had +little literary cultivation, but mixing freely among men, and received +with universal kindness by all women, he had the ready manners of a +man of the world, which, with a shrewd vigor of mind, qualified him +for worldly success. + +Bart came upon the ground with his mother, near whom he remained, +and to whom he was very attentive. To him the whole thing was very +impressive. His poetic fancy idealized it, and carried him back till +he seemed to see and hear the dedication of a young, pure spirit to +the sweet sacredness of a holy life, as in the days of the preachings +of the apostles. When the final hymn was given out he stood by +his brother, facing most of the crowd, and for the first time they +recognized in him a nameless something that declared and asserted +itself--something that vaguely hinted of the sheaf of the boy Joseph, +that arose and stood upright, and to which their sheaves involuntarily +did obeisance. + +Still very young, and less handsome than his brother, he was yet +more striking, pale and fair, with little color, and a face of boyish +roundness, which began to develop lines of thought and strength. His +brow, not so beautiful, was more ample; his features were regular, but +lacked the light, bright, vivacious expression of Morris; while from +his deep, unwinking eyes men saw calmly looking out a strong, deep +nature, not observed before. He joined his mother and brother in the +last hymn. Everybody knew the Ridgeleys could sing. They carried +the burden of the grand and simple old tune nearly alone. The fine +mezzo-soprano of the mother, the splendid tenor of Morris, and the +rich baritone of Bart, in their united effect, had never been equalled +in the hearing of that assembly. The melody was a sweet and fitting +finale of the day, swelling out and dying away in the high arches of +the forest. + + * * * * * + +The Coes were objects of the kindness of Mrs. Markham and Julia, +obnoxious as was their religious faith; but Mrs. Markham was tolerant, +and she and her husband and daughter, with most of the State road +people, were present. + +While they were waiting for the crowd to disperse, so that they could +reach their carriage, the Ridgeleys, who began to move out, on their +way home, approached, and were pleasantly recognized by the Markhams, +with whom the Major was a great favorite. The two parties joined, +shook hands, and interchanged a pleasant greeting--all but Bart. He +moved a little away, and acknowledged their presence by holding his +hat in his hand, as if unconscious that he was a spectacle for the +eyes of some of them, and without betraying that he could by any +possibility care. It was a sore trial for him. + +Mrs. Markham looked at him several times as if she would go to him, +and an expression once or twice came into the sweet and pensive face +of Julia, that seemed to mean that she wished she could say to him, +"I want so much to thank you for your courage and generosity!" Morris +noticed the strange conduct of Barton, and felt an impulse to call to +him, and on their way home he spoke to him about it. + +"Why, Bart, what is the matter? I thought you and the Markhams were on +the best of terms; especially you and Julia and Mrs. Markham." + +"Well, Major, you see a shrewd man can be mistaken, don't you?" + +"What has happened?" + +"That which renders it absolutely impossible that I should ever +voluntarily go into the presence of these Markhams, and especially of +Julia." + +The voice was low, and full of force, with a little bitterness. Morris +looked at his brother with incredulous amazement. + +"Morris," said Bart, "don't ask more about it. Mother guessed +something of it. Pray don't refer to it ever again." + +Morris walked forward, with their mother; and when he turned back to +the stricken face of his young brother, there was a great tenderness +in his eye; but his brow gathered and his face darkened into a +momentary frown. He was by nature frank and brave, and could not long +do any one injustice. His nature was hopeful, and bright, and manly. +No girl could always scorn his brother Bart; nor did he believe that +Bart would willingly remain scorned. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BLACKSTONE. + + +The town of Burton was one of the oldest in the county. It was the +residence of many wealthy men, the seat of Judge Hitchcock, Chief +Justice of the State, as well as the home of Seabury Ford, a rising +young politician, just commencing a most useful and honorable career, +which was to conduct him to the Chief Magistracy of the State. + +The young Whig party had failed to elect Gen. Harrison, but the result +of the contest assured it of success in the campaign of 1840, for +which a vast magazine was rapidly and silently accumulating. The +monetary and credit disasters of '36-'37, occurring in the third term +of uninterrupted party rule, would of themselves have overthrown a +wiser and better administration than that of Mr. Van Buren, patriotic +and enlightened as that was, contrasted with some which followed. + +Men, too, were beginning to examine and analyze the nature and designs +of slavery; and already Theodore Weld had traversed the northern and +middle States, and with his marvellous eloquence and logic, second +to none of those who followed him, had stirred to their profoundest +depths the cool, strong, intellectual souls of the New Englanders of +those regions. + +One early October morning, as Gen. Ford, then commander of a brigade +of militia, in which Major Ridgeley held a commission, was arranging +some papers in his law office, a young man paused a moment in front +of the open door, and upon being observed, lifted his hat and stepped +frankly forward. Young men in Ohio then seldom removed their hats to +men, and rarely to women; and the act, gracefully done as it was, was +remarked by the lawyer. + +"General Ford, I believe?" said the youth. + +"Yes; will you walk in?" + +"I am Barton Ridgeley," said the young man, stepping in; "usually +called Bart." + +"A brother of Major Ridgeley?" + +"Yes; though I am thought not to be much like him." + +"The Major is a warm friend of mine," said the General, "and I should +be glad to serve you." + +"Thank you, General; I feel awkward over my errand here," hesitating; +"I wanted to see a lawyer in his office, with his books and papers, +and be permitted to look, especially at his books." + +"You are entirely welcome. I am not much of a lawyer, and have but a +few books, but nothing would give me more pleasure than to have you +examine them." + +"I may annoy you." + +"Not at all. I've not much to do. Take a seat." + +Bart did so. He found the General, whom he had only seen at a distance +on muster days, a man of the ordinary height, with heavy shoulders, +with a little stoop in them, a very fine head and face, and a clear, +strong, grayish, hazel eye; and, on the whole, striking in his +appearance. There were files of leading newspapers, the _National +Intelligencer, Ohio State Journal, Courier and Inquirer_, etc. These +did not so much attract the young man's attention; but, approaching a +large book-case, filled compactly with dull yellow books, uniform in +their dingy, leathery appearance, he asked: "Are these law-books?" + +"Yes, those are law-books." + +"And these, then, are the occult cabalistical books, full of darkness +and quirks and queer terms, in which is hidden away, somewhere, a rule +or twist or turn that will help the wrong side of every case?" + +"So people seem to think," said the General, smiling. + +"Does a student have to read all of these?" + +"Oh, no, not to exceed a dozen or fourteen." + +"A-h-h-h! not more than that? Will you show me some of them?" + +"Certainly. There, this is Blackstone, four volumes, which covers +the whole field of the law; all the other elementary writers are only +amplifications of the various titles or heads of Blackstone." + +"Indeed! only four volumes! Can one be a lawyer by reading +Blackstone?" + +"A thorough mastery of it is an admirable foundation of a good +lawyer." + +"How long is it expected that an ordinary dullard would require to +master Blackstone?" + +"Some students do it in four months. I have known one or two to do it +in three. They oftener require six, and some a year." + +Bart could hardly repress his astonishment. "Four months! a month to +one of these books!" running them over. "They have some notes, I see; +but, General, a man should commit it to memory in that time!" + +The General smiled. + +"This is an English work; is there an American which answers to +Blackstone?" + +"Yes, Kent's Commentaries, four volumes, which many prefer. I have +not got it. Also Swift's work, in two volumes, which does not stand +so high. Judge Cowan, of New York, has also written a book of some +merit." + +"Shall I annoy you if I sit down and read Blackstone a little?" + +"Not at all." + +He read the title-page, glanced at the American preface, etc., and +then plunged in promiscuously. "It has less Latin than I expected. Is +it good classical Latin?" + +A smile. + +"It is law Latin, and most of it would have puzzled Cicero and Virgil, +I fear. Are you a Latin scholar?" + +"I'm not a scholar at all. I've been an idler, generally, and have +picked up only a few phrases of Latin. I've a brother, a student with +Giddings & Wade, at Jefferson, who would have told me all I want to +know, but I had a fancy to find it out first hand." + +"Exactly;" and the General thought he looked like a youth who would +not take things second-hand. "They are able lawyers, and it is said +Giddings will retire from the bar and run for Congress. It is thought +that Mr. Whittlesey will resign, and make an opening." + +Bart thought that the General spoke of this with interest, and he made +another dab at Blackstone. He then wandered off to a small but select +case of miscellaneous books. "Adam Smith!" he said, with animation; "I +never saw that before. How interesting it must be to get back to the +beginning of things. And here is Junius, whom I have only read about! +and Hume! and Irving! and Scott's Novels! Oh dear, oh dear! General, +what a happy man you must be, with all these about you, and these +newspapers, to come and go between you and the outside world." + +"Oh! I don't know. I have but few books, compared with real libraries, +and yet I must say I have more than I make useful." + +Bart plunged into Ivanhoe for a moment, and then laid it down with a +sigh. + +The General, who found much in the frank enthusiasm of Bart to attract +him, asked him many questions about himself, surroundings, etc., all +of which were answered with a modest frankness, that won much on the +open, manly nature of Ford. + +Bart said he most of all wanted to study law, but he did not know how +to accomplish it. He was without means, and wanted to remain with his +mother, and he wanted only to look at the books, and learn a little +about what he would have to do, the time, etc. The General said "the +laws of Ohio required two years' study, before admission, which would +be upon examination before the Supreme Court, or by a committee of +lawyers appointed for that purpose; lawyers who received students +usually charged fifty or sixty dollars per year for use of books and +instruction, the last of which often did not amount to much." + +Bart looked wistfully at the books, and arose to go. The General +asked him to remain to dinner with such hearty cordiality, that Bart +assented, and the General took him into the house and introduced him +to Mrs. Ford, a tall, slender woman, of fine figure, with striking +features, and really handsome; of very kindly manners, and full of +genuine good womanly qualities, who believed in her husband, and was +full of ambition for him. + +The quiet, easy manners, and frank, sparkling conversation of Bart, +won her good-will at once. + +"Was he acquainted with Judge Markham's people?" + +"A little." + +"Mrs. Markham is one of the most superior and accomplished women I +ever met," said Mrs. Ford. Of course he was acquainted with Julia, who +was thought to be the belle of all that region? + +Barton was slightly acquainted with her, and thought her very +beautiful. His acquaintance with young ladies of her position was +very limited, but he could believe that few superiors of hers could be +found anywhere, etc. + +Poor Bart! + +Mrs. Ford presumed that a great many young men had their eyes on her, +and it would be a matter of interest to see where her choice would +fall. + +It was some satisfaction to Bart to feel that he could hear this point +referred to without any but the same pain and bruise of heart that any +thought of her occasioned. + +After dinner, General Ford said to Bart that if he really wished to +enter upon the study of the law, he would do what he could for him; +that he would permit him to take home such books as he could spare, +and when he had read one he would examine him upon it, and give him +another. + +This was more than had entered Bart's mind; and so unaccustomed was he +to receiving favors, that the sensations of gratitude were new to him, +and he hardly expressed them satisfactorily to himself. + +His new tutor had taken a real liking to him; he may have remembered +that the Major was one of the rising young men in the south-west part +of the county, whom he liked also. He called Barton's attention to the +chapters of Blackstone that would demand his more careful reading, and +they parted well pleased with each other. + +Bart pushed off across the fields in a right line for home, with the +priceless book in his hand; light came to him, and opportunity. Lord! +how his heart and soul and brain arose and went out to meet them! As +the branches of the young forest-tree that springs up by a river-side +shoot out, rank, and strong, and full, to the beautiful light and air, +and so, too, as the tree grows one-sided and disfigured, the danger is +that this embodiment of young force and energy may develop one-sided. +The poetic, upward tendency of his nature will help him, and his +devotion to his mother will hold him unwarped, while the struggle +with a great, pure, and utterly hopeless passion shall at least make +a sacred desert of his heart, where no unhallowed thought shall take +root. His was eminently a nature to be strengthened and purified by +suffering. + +But he had the law in his hands. No matter how gnarled, warped or +obscure were the paths to its lurking-places, he would find them all +out, and pluck out all its meanings, and make its soul his own. He had +already learned from his brother the fallacy of the vulgar judgment of +the law, and he knew enough of history to know that some of the wisest +and greatest of men were eminent lawyers, and he thought nothing of +the moral dangers of the law as a profession. He had never been even +in a magistrate's court, but he had heard the legends and traditions +of the advocates; had read that eminent fiction, Wirt's Life of +Patrick Henry, and a volume of Charles Phillips's speeches, and had +felt that strong inner going forth of the soul that yearned to find +utterance in oversweeping speech. + +Several times on his way home he stopped to read, and only suspended +his studies at the approach of evening, which found him east of the +pond, lying across his direct route, and which he found the means of +passing. + +Blackstone he took in earnest, and smiled to find nothing that he did +not seem to comprehend, and often went back, fearing that the seeming +might not be the real meaning. + +At the end of a week he returned to his kind friend, the General, +not without misgivings as to the result of his work. He found him at +leisure in the afternoon, and was received with much kindness. + +"Well, how goes Blackstone?" + +"Indeed I don't know; and I am anxious, if you have leisure, to find +out." + +The General took the book, and turning to the definition of law, and +the statement of a few elementary principles, found that they were +thoroughly understood. Turning on, he paused with his finger in the +book. + +"What do you think of the English Constitution?" + +Bart looked a little puzzled. + +"The English government seems to be an admirable structure--on paper; +but as to the principles that lie below it, or around it, that +govern and control its workings, and from which it can't depart, I am +cloudy." + +"Yes, a good many are; but then there is, as you know, a great +unwritten English Constitution--certain great fixed principles which +from time to time have been observed, through many ages, until their +observance has become a law, from which the government cannot depart, +and they take the form of maxims and rules." + +"I think I understand what you mean; but to me everything is in +cloud-land, vague and shifting, and the fact that nobody has ever +attempted to put in writing these principles, or even to enumerate +them, leads one to doubt whether really there are such things. When +king, lords and commons are, in theory and practice, absolutely +omnipotent, I can't comprehend how there can be any other +constitution. When they enact a law, nobody can question it, nobody +can be heard against it; no court can pronounce it unconstitutional. +What may have been thought to be unconstitutional they can declare +to be law, and that ends it. So they can annihilate any one of the +so-called constitutional maxims. When a party in power wants to do a +thing, it is constitutional; when a minister or great noble is to be +got rid of, he is impeached for a violation of the constitution, and +constitutionally beheaded." + +"Well," said the General, smiling, "but this, for instance: the great +palladium of British liberty, taxation, must be accompanied with +representation." + +"Yes; that, if adhered to, would protect property and its owners; +but then it never has been carried out, even in England, while the +non-taxpayer is wholly out of its reach; and my recollection is, that +the constitutional violation of this palladium of the Constitution by +king, lords and commons, produced a lively commotion, some sixty-odd +years ago." + +"Yes, I've heard of that; but the attempt to tax the colonies was +clearly unconstitutional; they were without representation in the +Parliament that enacted the law." + +"But then, General, you are to remember that, according to Blackstone, +Parliament was and is, by the English Constitution, omnipotent. The +fact is, we took one part of the constitution, and George the other; +we kept our part, and all our land, and George maintained his, on his +island, strong as ever; and yet there, property-owners always have +been and always will be taxed, who do not vote. I fear that it will be +found that all the other maxims have from time to time suffered in the +same way." + +"You must admit, however," said the General, "that the maxims in favor +of personal freedom have usually been adhered to in England proper." + +"Yes, the sturdy elements of the natural constitution of the English +people have vindicated their liberty against all constitutional +violations of it; and while I cordially detest them, one and all, +there isn't another nation in Europe that I am willing to be descended +from." + +"I fear that is the common sentiment among our people," said the +General. "And so you think the world-famous British Constitution +may be written in one condensed sentence--the old English +formula--Parliament is omnipotent." + +"Yes, just that. Parliament is the constitution; everything else is +ornamental." + +Without expressing any opinion, the General resumed, and turning at +hop, skip and jump, he found that Bart happened to be at home wherever +he alighted. He finally turned to the last page, and asked questions +with the same result, closing the book with: + +"Well, what else have you been doing this week?" + +"Not much; I've worked a little, dabbled with geometry some, read +Gibbon a little, newspapers less, run some in the woods, and fooled +away some of my time," answered Bart, with a self-condemning air. + +"Have you slept any?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"Oh, dear!" said the General, laughing good-humoredly, and then +looking grave, "this will never do--never!" + +"Well, General," said Bart, crestfallen, "I've only had the book a +week, and although I don't memorize easily, I believe I can commit the +whole before a month is out, except the notes." + +"Oh, my dear boy, it isn't that! I don't know but there is a man in +the world who, without having seen a law book before, has taken up and +mastered the first volume of Blackstone in a week, but I never heard +of him. What will never do is--it will not do for you to go on in this +way; you would read up a library in a year, if you lived, but will die +in six months, at this rate." + +With tears in his eyes, Bart said: "Do not fear me, General; I am +strong and healthy; besides, there are a good many things worse than +death." + +"I am serious," said the General. "No mortal can stand such work +long." + +"Well, General, I must work while the fit is on; I am thought to be +incapable of keeping to any one thing long." + +"How old are you?" + +"In my twenty-second year." + +"Have you ever practised speaking in public?" + +"I am thought to make sharp and rough answers to folks, quite too +much, I believe," answered Bart, laughing; "but, save in a debating +school, where I was ruled out for creating disorder, I've never tried +speech-making." + +"You will grow more thoughtful as you grow older," said the General. + +"If I do," said Bart, "I know those who think I can't grow old fast +enough." + +The General gave him the second volume of Blackstone, with the +injunction to be two weeks with it. + +"Suppose I finish it in a week?" + +"You must not; but if you do, bring it back, and take a scolding." + +"Certainly," said Bart. + +The General asked him to go in to tea. Bart thought that would not do, +and excused himself. + + * * * * * + +The end of another week found Bart at the end of the second volume, +and also at General Ford's office. The General was away; but he found +an opportunity further to cultivate the acquaintance of Mrs. Ford, who +introduced him to several of her circle of acquaintance, and permitted +him to take the third volume of Blackstone. + +The work was finished with the fourth week, to General Ford's +satisfaction, and Bart was then set to try his teeth on Buller's "Nisi +Prius," made up of the most condensed of all possible abstracts of +intricate cases, stated in the fewest possible words, and those of old +legal significance, the whole case often not occupying more than four +or five lines. + +The cases, as there stated, convey no shadow of an idea to the +unlearned mind. What a tussle poor Bart had with them! How often he +turned them over, and bit at and hammered them, before they could be +made to reveal themselves. + +The General looked grim when he handed him the book, and said that he +did so by the advice of Judge Hitchcock. He also loaned him Adam Smith +and Junius, with permission to take any books from his library during +the winter, and they parted--the General to go to his duties in the +Legislature, and Barton to work his way on through the winter and into +the law. + +The devotion of Bart to his books took him wholly from association +with others. He wrote occasionally to Henry, saying little of what he +was doing, and going rarely to the post-office, and never elsewhere. +He developed more his care of his mother, and a protecting tenderness +to his younger brothers. + +Kate Fisher's little party came and went, without Bart's attendance. + +The Major was spreading himself out in building houses, clearing land, +and unconsciously preparing the way to a smash-up; and the immediate +care of the family devolved more and more upon the younger brother. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE YOUNG IDEA SHOOTS. + + +There was a region south, on the State road, partly in the townships +of Auburn and Mantua, that, like "the woods," long remained a +wilderness, and was known as the "Mantua Woods." Within the last year +or two, the whole of it had been sold and settled, with the average of +new settlers, strong, plain, simple people, with a sprinkling of the +rough, and a little element of the dangerous. + +They had built there a neat frame school-house, just on the banks +of Bridge Creek, and were fully bent on availing themselves of the +benefits of the Ohio Common School Fund and laws. + +Here, on one bleak, late November Monday morning, in front of the +new school-house, stood Bart Ridgeley, who appeared then and there +pursuant to a stipulation made with him, to keep their first school. +He undertook it with great doubt of his ability to instruct the +pupils, but with none of his capacity to manage them. He stood +surrounded by some forty young specimens of both sexes and all +ages--from rough, stalwart young men, bold and fearless in eye and +bearing, down to urchins of five. One-half were girls, and among them +several well-grown lasses, rustic and sweet. + +There had also come up seven or eight of the principal patrons, to +see the young school-master and learn of the prospects. They were +evidently disappointed, and wondered what "Morey" could be thinking of +to hire that pale, green boy, with his neat dress and gloves, to come +down there. Grid Bingham or John Craft would throw him out of the +window in a week. Finally, Jo Keys did not hesitate to recommend him +to go home; while Canfield, who knew his brother Morris, thought he +had better try the school. + +Bart was surprised and indignant. He cut the matter very short. + +"Gentlemen," he said quietly, but most decidedly, "I came down here to +keep your school, and I shall certainly do it," with a little nod +of his head to Keys. "I shall be glad to see you at almost any other +time, but just now I am engaged." The decided way in which he put an +end to the interview was not without its effect. + +He called the scholars in, and began. They brought every sort of +reading-book, from the Bible, English Reader, American Preceptor, +Columbian Orator, Third Part, etc., to a New England Primer. But +beyond reading, and spelling, and writing, he had only arithmetic, +grammar and geography. On the whole, he got off well, and before the +end of the first week was on good terms, apparently, with his whole +school, with one or two exceptions; and so on through the second, +which closed on Friday, and Bart turned gladly and eagerly toward +home, to his mother and brothers. + +The close of that week had been a little under a cloud, which left +just a nameless shadow over the commencement of the third, and Bart +began it with an uneasy feeling. + +Bingham, a short, stout, compact young ruffian, of twenty-two or +twenty-three, not quite as tall as Bart, but a third more in weight, +and who had an ugly reputation as a quarrelsome fellow of many fights, +had at first treated Bart with good-natured toleration, and said he +would let him go on awhile. With him consorted John Craft, a chap +of about his age, but of better reputation. Bingham had broken up a +school the winter before, just below in Mantua, and was from the +first an object of dread to parents in the new district. He was a +dull scholar, and his blunders had exposed him to ridicule, which the +teacher could not always repress. He left the school, on that Friday, +moody and sullen, and came back on Monday full of mischief. + +Not a word was said, that reached Bart's ears, but the young women +had a scared look, and an ominous dread seemed to brood over the +school-room. Monday and Tuesday came and went, as did the scholars, +and also Wednesday forenoon. + +The room was arranged with three rows of desks on two sides, and one +on the third. Behind these sat the large scholars, with Grid, near the +door. When he called the scholars in, after the recess, Bart quietly +locked the outside door, and put the key in his pocket. He was cool, +collected, and on the alert. + +The first class began to read, each rising while reading, and then +sitting down. Bart had observed that Bingham sat with his book closed, +and wholly inattentive to the exercise, and quietly placed himself +within a few feet of his desk. + +As it came Bingham's turn, he sat with an assumed look of swaggering +indifference. "Mr. Bingham," said Bart very quietly, "will you read?" + +"I'm not goin' to read for any God damned----" the sentence was never +finished, though Grid was; yet just how, nobody who saw it could quite +tell. Something cracked, and Grid and his desk went sprawling into the +middle of the floor. A hand came upon his collar as the last word +was uttered. It was so sudden that he only seized his desk, which was +taken from its fastening at the bottom as if it were pasteboard, +and went in ruins with its occupant. As he struck, half stunned and +surprised, he arose partly to his feet, and received on the side of +his head a full blow from the fist of Bart. + +Craft, who had been amazed at the suddenness of the catastrophe, and +who was to have shared in the fight, if necessary, arose hesitatingly +just as Grid received his _quietus_. Bart turned upon him with his +white, galvanized face, and watery, flashing eyes, "Sit down, John +Craft," in a voice that tore him like a rasp on his spine, and John +sat down. During this time, and until now, no other sound was heard +in the room; now a half sob, with suppressed cries, broke from the +terrified girls and children. "Hush! hush! not a word!" said the still +excited master; "it is over, and nobody much hurt." Bingham now began +to rise, and Bart approached him: "Wait a moment, Mr. Bingham," he +said, and, unlocking the outside door: "There! now take your books and +leave, and don't let me find you about this school-house so long as +I remain--go!" and the humbled bully sullenly picked up his small +property and went. + +"Mr. Craft," said Bart, approaching that cowed and trembling youth, +"you and I can get along. I don't want to part with you if you will +remain with me. I will excuse you from school this afternoon, and you +can come back in the morning, and that may be the last of it. I will +not humiliate you and myself with any punishment." There was a +tremor in Bart's voice, and a softness in his face. John arose: "Mr. +Ridgeley, I don't know how I came to--I am very sorry--I want to stay +with you." + +"All right, John, we will shake hands on it." And they did. + +"My poor, poor children!" said Bart, going up to the younger ones, who +had huddled into the farthest corner and clambered on to the desks. +"My poor scared little things, it is all over now, and we are all so +glad and happy, aren't we?" and he took up some of the smallest in his +arms and kissed them, and the still frightened, but glad and rejoicing +young women, looked as if they would be willing to have that passed +round. When they were pacified, and resumed their places, Charley +Smith gathered up the boards and parts of the disabled desk, and Bart, +with a few kind words to the older scholars, resumed the exercises of +the school. + +Scenes of violence were rare, even in that rude day, among that +people; the sensibilities of the children were deeply wounded, and +none of them were in a fitting condition to profit by their exercises, +which were barely gone through with, and they were early dismissed to +their homes, with the marvellous tale of the afternoon's events. + +Bart was in the habit of remaining to write up the copies, and place +everything in order before he left. The young men and older maidens +lingered at the door, and then returned in a body, to say how glad +they were that it had ended as it did. They knew something would +happen, and they were so glad, and then they shook hands with him, and +went hurrying home. + +When they left, Bart locked the door, and, throwing himself into +the chair by his table, laid his head down and burst into an +uncontrollable flood of tears;--but he was a man now, and tears only +choked and suffocated him. He was ashamed of himself for his weakness, +and bathing his eyes, walked about the school-room to regain his +composure. Every particle of anger left his bosom before Bingham left +the house, and now he was fully under the influence of the melancholy +part of his nature. Never before, even in childish anger, had he +touched a human being with violence, and now he had exerted his +strength, and had grappled with and struck a fellow-man in a brute +struggle for animal mastery; he felt humiliated and abased. That the +fellow's nature was low, and that he was compelled to act as he had +done, was little comfort to him. He was glad that he decided not to +punish or expel John. Darkness came, and he was aroused by a noise at +the door. He unlocked it, and found Canfield and Morey and Smith. + +"Hullo, Ridgeley!" exclaimed the former. "Good God! and so you had +a pitched battle, and licked that bully before he had time to begin; +give me your hand! Who would have thought it?" + +"I did," said Morey. "I knowed he'd do it. What will Jo Keys say now, +I wonder?" And the party went inside, and wondered over the wrecked +desk, and asked all about it. And then came in the stalwart Jo +himself, celebrated for his strength. + +"Wal, wal, wal! if this don't beat all natur, I give it up! What are +you made of, young man, all spring and whalebone? I'd a bet he would +'a cleaned out a school-house full o' such dainty book chaps. I +give it up. Let me feel o' you," taking Bart good-naturedly by the +shoulder. "You'll do, by----. My Valdy said that when Grid gathered +himself up the first time, he went heels over head, clear to the +fire-place." + +And so the good-natured athlete went over with it all, with a huge +relish for the smallest detail, and others came in, until nearly all +the male patrons of the school had assembled; and Bart informally, but +with hearty unanimity, was declared the greatest school-master of his +day; they quoted all the similar instances within the range of memory +or legend, and this achievement was pronounced the greatest. They were +proud of him, and of the exploit, and of themselves that they had him. +Morey, who had taken him because he could find no other, blazed +up into a man of fine discernment; and Jo nearly killed him with +approving slaps on his feeble back. Indeed, his apologies for what he +had said were too striking. + +Life in all new communities is run mainly on muscle, and whoever +exhibits skill and bravery in its rough encounters, peaceful or +warlike, always commands a premium. The people among whom Bart lived +had not passed beyond the discipline of brute force, and he shared +the usual fortune of heroes of this sort, of having his powers and +achievements exaggerated, even by those under whose eyes he had acted. + +A rumor reached Markham's and Parker's, from which it spread, that +Bart's school had arisen against him, and the first version was that +he was killed, or very dangerously wounded; that he defended himself +with desperation, and killed one or two, but was finally overcome; +that the neighborhood was divided and in arms, and the school-house +had been burned. But the stage came in soon after, and the driver +declared that he had seen Grid Bingham, whom he knew, brought out +dead, that John Craft was badly hurt, and one or two more, and that +Bart, who escaped without injury, would be arrested for murder. It was +finally said that he would not be arrested, but that Grid was either +dead or dying; that he headed four or five of the older boys, and +they were whipped out by Bart single-handed, who locked the door, and +pitched in, etc. + +The rumor produced a deep sensation in Newbury; and, whilst it was +thought that Bart had been rash, and undoubtedly in fault, yet he had +behaved handsomely. When it was ascertained that he was victor, it was +generally thought that he was a credit to the place, which was very +natural and proper, considering that he had never before been thought +to be a credit to anything anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +SNOW'S PARTY. + + +It was called a house-warming, although the proprietor had not taken +possession of the house with his family. The ball-room and most of +the rooms were complete, and the building was, on the whole, in a +good condition to receive a large company. The Major was the presiding +genius of the festivities; and while the affair was in a way informal, +and an assemblage of friends and neighbors of the owner, still he had +made a judicious use of his authority, and had invited a good many +rather prominent people from a distance. The evening of the occasion +saw not only a numerous assemblage, but one in which the highest +grades of society were fully represented. + +As it was not strictly a ball, there was not the least impropriety in +the straightest church-members--and they were strict, then--attending +it; and they did. The sleighing was fine, and, as the usage was, +the guests came early, and went early--the next morning. The barns, +stables and neighboring houses were freely offered, and an efficient +corps of attendants were on hand, while the absence of public-houses +in the immediate neighborhood relieved the occasion of the presence +of the unbidden rough element that would otherwise have volunteered an +attendance. + +The Markhams were there, with Julia, and the bevy of beautiful girls +we saw with her at the store; Mrs. Ford from Burton, with some of her +set; two or three from Chardon; the Harmons from Mantua; some of +the Kings from Ravenna; two or three Perkinses from Warren, and many +others. A rather showy young Mr. Greer, a gentleman of leisure, and +who floated about quite extensively, knew everybody, and seemed on +pleasant terms with them all, was among the guests. + +The essential elements of pleasure and enjoyment--high and gay +spirits, good-nature, with a desire to please and be pleased, where +everybody was at their best, and where was a large infusion of good +breeding--were present, and a general good time was the logical +result. + +There was a plenty of good music, and the younger part of the company +put it to immediate and constant use. The style of dancing was that of +the mediaeval time, between the stately and solemn of the older, and +the easy, gliding, insipid of the present; and one which required, on +the part of the gentlemen, lightness and activity, rather than grace, +and allowed them great license in the matter of fancy steps. Two long +ranks contra-faced, and hence contra dance--degenerated to country +dance--was the prevailing figure; the leading couple commencing and +dancing down with every other couple, until in turn each on the floor +had thus gone through. + +The cotillon, with its uniform step and more graceful style, had been +already introduced by instructors, who had found short engagements +under the severe reprobation of the Orthodox churches; but the waltz +was unknown, except in name, and the polka, schottische, etc., had +then never been mentioned on the Reserve. + +The young people early took possession of the dancing-hall, where, +surrounded by the elders, a quick succession of Money Musk, Opera +Reel, Chorus Jig, etc., interspersed sparingly with cotillons, +evidenced the relish with which young spirits and light hearts enjoy +the exercises of the ball-room. + +Julia Markham was the conceded belle, beautiful and elegant in form +and style, faultless in dress and manner, brilliant with the vivacity +of healthy girlhood. Next to her, undoubtedly, was Miss Walters, with +whom ranked several elegant girls from abroad. + +And of the young people here may be remarked what is usually true in +all country places, that there were about three cultivated and refined +girls to one young man of corresponding accomplishments. + +As the ball went forward, the elders--and the elders did not dance in +the young Ohio in those days, rarely or never--gathered into various +groups, discussing the dancers and various kindred topics, and the +little odds and ends of graceful "they says" that append themselves to +the persons of those at all noticeable. + +Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Markham were the centre of the principal of these. +They were really good friends, and liked each other. Their husbands +were friends, and possible rivals, and watched each other. Both were +ambitious, and lived too near each other. + +"Who is Miss Walters?" Mrs. Ford asked. + +"She is from Pittsburgh. Her brother is in New Orleans, and she +remains with the Fishers, relatives of hers, till he returns." + +"She is very elegant." + +"She is indeed, and she and Julia are great friends." + +"Who is that dancing with Julia?" + +"A Mr. Thorndyke. He is of a Boston family, on a visit to his uncle in +Thorndyke. Mr. Markham knew them, and he came up to call on us." + +"He dances a little languidly, I think." + +"He feels a little out of place in this mixed company, I presume. His +notions are high Boston." + +"How does that suit Julia?" + +"It amuses her. He was telling her how this and that is done in +Boston, and she in return told him how we do not do the same things +here, and claimed that our way is the best." + +"Here comes Major Ridgeley. He seems much at home in a ball-room." + +"Yes, he is one of those ready men, who always appear best in a +crowd." + +He saw and made his way to them; inquired about the General, spoke +of his reply to Byington, complimented the dancing of Julia, inquired +about her partner, and rattled on about several things. + +"Will your brother Barton be here this evening?" asked Mrs. Ford. + +"I don't know; he thought he would not," was the reply. "He don't go +out at all, lately." + +"What an awful time he had with that Bingham!" said Mrs. Ford. "They +say he has broken up two or three schools, and was a powerful and +dangerous man, twenty-five or six years old. I would really like to +see Barton. He is quite a lion." + +"Bart is sensitive about it," answered the Major, "and don't speak +of it. Why, I was on my way up from Ravenna, the next day after it +happened, and called at his school-house for half an hour; the desk +had not been put up then, and I asked him what had happened to it, and +he said the boys had torn it down in a scuffle. He never said a word +of the fracas to me, and I only heard of it when I got up to Parker's. +There I found young Johnson, who had just come from there." + +"Why, how you talk! What is the reason for that, do you suppose?" + +"I don't know. He was at home a few days after, and seemed hurt +and sad over it; and when I asked him how many innocents he had +slaughtered since, he said one in two days, and at that rate they +would just last him through." + +"It is funny," said Mrs. Ford. + +"As I have observed, Barton is not much inclined to talk about what he +does," said Mrs. Markham; "and, do you know, Major, he has not given +me a chance to speak to him since his return." + +"He thinks, possibly, that he is under a cloud," answered the Major. + +"He chooses to think so, then," said Mrs. Markham; and the music +closed, and the dancers looked for seats, and the Major went away to +meet an engagement for the next dance. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WALTZ. + + +A little commotion about the door--a little mob of young men and +boys--and a little spreading buzz and whisper--some hand-shakings--two +or three introductions--then another buzz--and Bart made his way +forward, with an air of being annoyed and bored and pushed forward +as if to escape. He was under the inspiration of one of those sudden +impulses upon which he acted, so sudden, often, as to seem not the +result of mental process. + +He discovered Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Markham, with Julia, Miss Walters, +and several others, about them, whom he at once approached with the +modest assurance of a thorough-bred gentleman, safe in the certainty +of a gracious reception, and conscious of power to please. A happy +word to the two or three who made way for him, and he stood bowing and +smiling, and turning and bowing to each with the nice discriminating +tact that rendered to all their due. + +Mrs. Ford graciously extended her hand, which he took, and bowed very +low over; she was nearest him. Mrs. Markham, in a pleased surprise, +gave him hers, and its reception was, to her nice perception, even +more profoundly acknowledged. To Miss Markham and Miss Walters +precisely the same, with a little of the chivalrous devotion of a +knight to acknowledged beauty. + +"The fall and _winter_ style prevails, I presume," he said, in gay +banter, as if anticipating that their gloved hands were not to be +touched. + +"Your memory is good, Mr. Ridgeley," said Julia, with a little laugh +and a little flush. + +"Forgetfulness is not my weakness," he replied. + +"I was not aware you knew Mrs. Ford," said Mrs. Markham, observing the +little flutter in Julia's cheeks, and thinking there was a meaning in +Bart's _persiflage_. + +"Mrs. Ford and General Ford," he answered with much warmth, "have +been so very, very kind to me, that I have presumed to claim her +acquaintance, even here; but then, they have only known me three +months," with affected despair. + +"Well," said Mrs. Ford, "what of that?" + +"I find you with those who have known me all my life," with a +deprecating look towards Mrs. Markham. + +"Well, Mr. Ridgeley, you are not deserving of forbearance at my hands, +if I only knew of anything bad to say of you." + +"What exquisite irony! May I be permitted to know which of my thousand +faults is now specially remembered against me?" + +"You have not permitted me, until this moment, even to speak to you +since your return last summer." + +"May I ask that you will permit that to stand with my other +misdemeanors until some rare fortune enables me to atone for all at +once?" + +"And when will that be?" + +"Oh! + + In that blissful never, + When the Sundays come together, + When the sun and glorious weather + Wrap the earth in spring forever; + As in that past time olden, + Which poets call the golden." + +Laughing. + +"And so I have poetry, and inspire it myself--that is some +compensation, certainly," said Mrs. Markham, smiling. + +"I fear my verses have deepened my offence," said Bart, with affected +gravity. + +Kate Fisher intervened here: "Mr. Ridgeley, I have more cause for +offence than even Mrs. Markham. Why didn't you come to my little +party? I made it on your account." + +"The offence was great," he answered, "but then staying away was ample +punishment, as you must know." + +"No, I don't know it. I know you weren't there, and your excuse was +merely a regret, which always means one don't want to go." + +"Oh, Mrs. Ford!" said Bart, "see what your coming here, or my coming +here, exposes me to!" + +"Have I heard the worst?" + +"Well, you see, Mrs. Ford," said Kate, "that Mr. Ridgeley can waltz, +and so can Miss Walters, and I made a little party to see them waltz, +and he didn't come." + +"That is grave. Will you leave it to me to pass judgment upon him?" + +"I will." + +"And do you submit, Mr. Ridgeley?" + +"She's so very kind to you," remarked Mrs. Markham. + +"I do," said the young man, "and will religiously perform the +sentence." + +"Well, it won't be a religious exercise--you are to waltz with Miss +Walters, now and here." + +A little clapping of little hands marked the righteousness of the +award. + +"Mrs. Ford," observed the culprit, "your judgment, as usual, falls +heaviest on the innocent. Miss Walters, it remains for you to say +whether this sentence shall be executed. If you will permit me the +honor, I shall undergo execution with an edifying resignation." + +The smiling girl frankly placed her hand in his: "I should be sorry to +prevent justice," she said, which was also applauded. + +Major Ridgeley was spoken to, and it was understood that the next +dance would be a waltz, which had never before been more than named +in a Yankee ball-room, on the Reserve; and it was anticipated with +curiosity, not unmixed with horror, by many. + +The floor was cleared, a simple waltz air came from the band, and the +pleased Miss Walters, in the arms of Barton, was whirled out from her +mob of curious friends, on to and over the nearly vacant floor, +the centre of all eyes, few of which had witnessed such a spectacle +before. The music went on with its measured rise and fall, sweet and +simple, and youth and maiden possessed with it, seemed to abandon +themselves utterly to it, and were controlled and informed by it; with +one impulse, one motion, and one grace, each contributing an exact +proportion, they glided, circling; and while the maiden thus yielded +and was sustained, her attitude, so natural, graceful and womanly, +had nothing languishing, voluptuous or sensuous; a sweet, unconscious +girl, inspired by music and the poetry and grace of its controlling +power, in the dance. Miss Walters dearly loved to dance, and above all +to waltz. She had rarely met a partner who so exactly suited her step +and style, and who so helped the inspiration she was apt to feel. + +Bart had had little practice as a waltzer, but natural grace, and the +presence of ladies, usually brought him to his best; and it was not in +nature, perhaps, that he should not receive some inspiration from the +beautiful girl, half given to his embrace, and wholly to his guidance. + +So around and around through the hushed and admiring throng they went, +whirling, turning, advancing, retreating, rising and falling, swaying +and sinking, yet always in unison, and in rhythmic obedience to the +music. + +Sometimes the music rose loud and rapid, and then languished to almost +dying away; but whatever its movement or time, it was embodied and +realized by the beautiful pair, in their sweeping, graceful motions. +The maiden's face was wrapt with a sweet, joyous light in her +half-shut eyes; his, pale, but lit up and softened in the lamp-light, +seemed fairly beautiful, like a poet's. + +"How beautiful!" "How exquisite!" from the ladies. + +"What a dance for lovers!" said Mrs. Ford. + +"They are lovers, are they not?" asked a lady from Warren. + +"I think not," said Mrs. Markham, with a glance at Julia, who, never +withdrawing her eyes, stood with lips slightly apart, and her face +bright with unenvying admiration. + +A little ripple--a murmur--and a decided clapping of hands around the +room, with other sounds from the crowd at the entrance, marked the +appreciation of the beautiful performance. The moment that this +reached Barton, he led his delighted partner towards her group of +friends, remarking: "Your admirers are sincere, Miss Walters, but too +demonstrative, I fear." + +"Oh, I don't mind it," said the straightforward girl. + +"And I have to thank you for your courtesy to me," he went on, "and +only hope that all my punishments may come in the same form." + +"Mrs. Ford, is the judgment satisfied?" + +"Satisfactory as far as you went, but then you did not serve out your +time." + +"Have consideration, I pray, for the minister of justice," bowing to +Miss Walters. + +"She seemed rather to like it," said Mrs. Ford. + +"Indeed I did!" and the young ladies gathered about to congratulate +her, and cast admiring glances at her partner. + +"Mr. Ridgeley," said Mrs. Markham, "I was not aware that you were an +accomplished waltzer." + +"You forget," Bart answered mockingly, "that I am travelled; and you +know my only aptitude is for the useless." + +"I did not say that." + +"You are too kind. I sometimes supply words to obvious thoughts." + +"And sometimes to those that have no existence." + +The floor filled again, and the music struck up. Standing, a moment +later, at a window, Julia saw a figure pass out, pause at the roadway, +turn and look up. The full glare of the lamps revealed the face of +Bart, from which the light had faded, and its beauty and spirit of +expression had departed. He gazed for an instant up at the brilliant +and joyous scene, where a moment before he had been a central and +applauded figure, and then, muffling his face in his cloak, he turned +away. + +He had not intended to go, and sat melancholy through the darkness of +the early night; but somehow, a hungry, intense longing came to him +to go and look for a moment upon the loveliness of Julia, as she would +stand open to the eyes of all, just for one moment, and then to go +away. He felt that he ought not to do it, but he went. He could not +help it. + +When he reached the place, three miles away, he was annoyed by being +recognized and pointed at, and talked at, on account of his late +encounter with Grid. + +"He ain't a powerful-lookin' chap." "I wouldn't be afeared o' him." +"He's a darned sight harder'n he looks," etc. + +When he escaped into the ball-room, the impulse to go into the +immediate presence of Julia was followed, and ended by as sudden a +retreat. He had not known how utterly weak and helpless he was, and +felt angry with himself that he could ever wish for the presence of +one who had so scorned him. He was ashamed, also, that the music, the +dance, and gay joyance of the scene he had just left, had still such a +seductive charm for him, and he recorded a mental resolution to avoid +all similar allurements for the future. Having made this resolution, +and strong in his faith of keeping it, he merely turned to take final +leave, as he fell under the eyes of Julia, and without seeing her. + +The night outside was cold, dark, and thick, with a pitiless snow, +that was rapidly filling the track along the highway. Bart turned, +without the remotest touch of self-pity, to face it, with a heart as +cold and dark as the night that swallowed him up. He felt that there +was not a heart left behind that would throb with a moment's pain for +him--that would miss him, or wonder at his departure; and he was sure +that he did not care. + +Yet, with what a sweet, remonstrating, expostulating call the music +came after him, with its plaining at his desertion! Fainter and +sweeter it came, and died out with a wailing sob, as the night, with +its storm and darkness, blotted him out! + +Mrs. Ford, who may have anticipated his attendance at the +supper-table, missed him. His late partner in the dance cast her eyes +inquiringly through the thronged rooms. She remarked to Julia that +she believed Mr. Ridgeley had left, and thought it very strange. Julia +said she presumed he had, and did not say what she thought. + +Most of the elders left early; the young people danced the music and +themselves away, and the gray, belated dawn of the next day looked +coldly into the windows of a sacked, soiled, and silent house. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +BART. + + +Bart devoted himself unselfishly and unsparingly to his school, to all +its duties and to all his scholars, and especially to the children +of the poor, and the backward pupils. He went early to the house, and +remained late. He was the tender, considerate, elder brother of the +scholars, and was astonished at his power to win regard, and maintain +order. Order maintained itself after one memorable occasion--one to +which he never referred, and of which he did not like to hear. It made +his school famous, and drew to it many visitors, and to himself no +little curiosity and attention. + +He endeavored to carry on his law-reading; but beyond reviewing--and +not very thoroughly--Blackstone, he could do little. As usual, he was +homesick; and whenever a week was ended he left the school-house for +his mother's, and never returned until the following Monday morning. + +His kind patrons noticed with surprise that he seemed sad and +depressed after the expulsion of Grid, and that this gloominess was +deepened about the time of Snow's ball. + +Barton came to take a real pleasure in his school. Formed to love +everything, and without the power of hating, or of long retaining a +resentment, he became attached to his little flock, especially the +younger ones, and was loved in return by them, without reserve or +doubt. He did much to improve, not alone the minds of the older +pupils, but to soften and refine the manners of the young men under +his charge; while the young women, always inclined to idealize, found +how pleasant it was to receive little acts of gentlemanly attention +from him. + +In the afternoon of a long, bright, March day--one of those wondrous +days, glorious above with sky and sun, and joyous with the first note +of the blue-bird--the little red school-house by the margin of the +maple-woods was filled with the pupils and their parents, assembled +for the last time. Bart, in a low voice, tremulous with emotion, bade +them all good-by, and most of them forever, and taking his little +valise, walked with a saddened heart back to his mother. This time he +had not failed, and he never was to fail again. + +How many events and occurrences linked in an endless series unite to +form the sum-total of ordinary human life! Incident to it, they are +in fact all ordinary. If any appear extraordinary, it is because +they occur in the life of an extraordinary individual, or remarkable +consequences flow from them. Like all parts of human life, in and of +themselves they are always fragmentary: springing from what precedes +them, they have no beginning proper; causing and flowing into others, +they have no ending, in effect; and as the dramatic in actual life is +never framed with reference to the unities, so results are constantly +being produced and worked out by accidents, and the prominent events +often contribute nothing to any supposed final catastrophe. Strangers +interlope for a moment, and change destinies, coming out for a +day, from nothing, and going to nowhere, but marring and misshaping +everything. + +No plot is to develop as this sketch of old-time life continues, and +incidents will be of value only as they tend to mould and develop +the character and powers of one, and little will be noticed save that +which concerns him. It is, perhaps, already apparent that he is very +impressible, that slight forces which would produce little effect on +different natures, are capable of changing his shape, will beat him +flat, roll him round, or convert him into a cube or triangle, and yet, +that certain strong, always acting forces will restore him, with more +or less of the mark or impress of the disturbing cause upon him. He +has a strong, tenacious nature, unstained with the semblance of a +vice. He forms quick resolutions, but can adhere to them. He is tender +to weakness, and fanciful to phantasy. His aptitude for sarcasm and +ridicule, unsparingly as it had been turned upon everybody, brought +upon him general dislike. His indecision and vacillation in adopting +and pursuing a scheme in life, lost him the confidence of his +acquaintances--ready to believe anything of one who had dealt them +so many sharp thrusts. He was sensitive to a fault, and a slight word +would have driven him forever from Julia Markham, and turned him back +upon himself, as a dissolving and transforming fire. Mentally, he was +quick as a flash, with a strong grasp, and a power of ready analysis; +and so little did his mental achievements cost him, that his +acquirements were doubted. He already paid the penalty of a nervous +and brilliant intellect--that of being adjudged not profound. Men +are always being deceived as to the real value of things, by their +apparent cost. + +We see this illustrated in the case of some grave and ponderous +weakling, who has nothing really in him, and yet who creaks, and +groans, and labors, and toils, to get under way, until our sympathy +with his painful effort leads us so to rejoice over his final delivery +that we have lost all power or disposition to weigh or estimate his +half-strangled, commonplace bantling, when it is finally born, and +we are rather inclined to wonder over it as a prodigy. No doubt the +generation of men who witnessed the mountain in labor, regarded +the sickly, hairy little mouse, finally brought forth, as a genuine +wonder. + +Great is mediocrity! It is the average world, and the majority +conspires to do it reverence. Genius, if such a thing there is, may be +appreciated by school-boys; the average grown world count it as of no +value. If a man has a brilliant intellect, let him bewail it on the +mountains, as the daughter of Jephtha did her virginity. If he has +wit, let him become Brutus. + +Readiness and genius are apt to be arrogant; and, when joined with a +lively temper, with an ardent, impetuous nature, they render a young +man an object of dread, dislike, or worse. Bart had grave doubts +of his being a genius, but it had been abundantly manifest to his +sensitive perceptions that he was disliked; and he had in part arrived +at the probable cause, and was now very persistently endeavoring to +correct it by holding his tongue and temper. + +Like all young men bent upon a pursuit where his success must depend +upon intellect, he was most anxious to ascertain the quality and +extent of his brain-power--a matter of which a young man can form +no proper idea. Later in life a man is informed by the estimate of +others, and can judge somewhat by what he has done. The youth has +done nothing. He has made no manifestation by which an observer can +determine; when he looks at himself, he can examine his head and face; +but the mind, turned in upon itself, with no mirror, weight, count or +measure, feels the hopelessness of the effort. + +If some one would only tell him of his capacity and power, of his +mental weakness and deficiency, it would not, perhaps, change his +course, but might teach him how best to pursue it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +SUGAR MAKING. + + +The long, cold winter was past; spring had come, and with it sugar +making, the carnival season, in the open air, among the trees. + +The boys had the preparations for sugar making in an advanced stage. A +new camp had been selected on a dry slope, wood had been cut, the tubs +distributed, and they were waiting for Bart and a good day. Both came +together; and on the day following the close of his school, at an +early hour they hurried off to tap the trees. + +Spring and gladness were in the air. The trill of the blue-bird was +a thrill; and the first song of the robin was full of lilac and apple +blossoms. The softened winds fell to zephyrs, and whispered strange +mysterious legends to the brown silent trees, and murmured lovingly +over the warming beds of the slumbering flowers. Young juices were +starting up under rough bark, and young blood and spirits throbbed in +the veins of the boys, and loud and repeated bursts of joyous voices +gushed with the fulness of the renewing power of the season. + +The day, with its eager hope, strength and joyousness, filled Bart +to the eyes, and his spirit in exultation breaking from the unnatural +thrall that had for many months of darkness and anxious labor +overshadowed it, went with a bound of old buoyancy, and he started +with laughing, open brow, and springy step, over the spongy ground, to +the poetry of life in the woods. + +That one day they tapped all the trees. The next, the kettles were +hung on the large crane, the immense logs were rolled up, the kettles +filled with sap, and the blue smoke of the first fire went curling up +gracefully through the tree-tops. What an event, the first fire! Not +as in New England, sugar in the West is never made until the winter +snow has disappeared, and the surface has become dry, and the woods +pleasant, and the opening day at the boiling was as brilliant as its +predecessor. + +Bart and Edward, with a yoke of steers, gathered the sap towards +evening, and George tended the kettles; many curious bright-eyed +chickadees boldly ventured up about the works, peeping, flitting, +and examining, with head first on one side and then on the other, the +funny doings of these humans in their dominions, and searching for the +store of raw pork, which, according to their recollection, ought to be +hid away somewhere near by. + +The boys had pulled down, removed and rebuilt their old snug cabin, +with one end open to the broad and roaring fire; in the bottom of +which, over its floor, were placed a large quantity of sweet bright +straw, and two or three heavy blankets. + +The "run" made it necessary to boil all night; and filling the kettles +and adjusting the fires, Bart and the boys, hungry and tired, went +up to supper and the chores; after which Bart and Edward, taking the +former's rifle, and lighted by a hickory torch, returned to the camp +for the night--Edward really to sleep, sweet and unbroken, in the +cabin, and Bart to take care of the kettles and fires, to muse and +dream, and think bright, strange thoughts, and watch the effects of +the lights and shadows, listen to the dropping of the sap into the +buckets, and the boding owls, whose melancholy notes harmonized with, +rather than interrupted, the solemn effect of deepest night. Man +easily reverts to savagery and nature; and this tendency was marked in +Bart, whom this new recurrence to old habits of wood-life, so dear to +him, filled with such pleasant sensations of joyous unrest, that until +near the coming dawn he was disinclined to sleep, and when he did, the +first note of an old robin from the topmost twig of a giant old maple +awoke him fresh to the labor and enjoyment of another resplendent day. +And so the days followed each other, and the spring deepened. Myriads +of flower-beds shot up through the dead leaves, and opened out their +frail and wondrously tinted petals for a single day, and faded. Not +a new one opened--not a cloud or tint varied the sky--not a note of +a bird or tap of a woodpecker, that was not marked by Bart, to whom +Nature had at least given the power to appreciate and love her lighter +works. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +HENRY. + + +The principal event of the spring among the Ridgeleys, was the return +home of Henry. He had closed his novitiate, and was awaiting +his examination for admission to the bar. He had already, on the +recommendation of his friend and instructor, Wade, formed a favorable +business connection with the younger Hitchcock, at Painesville; and +now, after a year's absence, he came back to his mother and brothers, +for a few days of relaxation and visiting. Less strong than the Major, +of grave, thoughtful, but cheerful face and mien, heavy-browed and +deep-eyed, with plain, marked face, and finished manners, he was well +calculated to impress favorably, and win confidence and respect. His +mind was solid, but lacked the sparkle and vivacity of Bart's, and +compensatingly was believed to be deep. He was the pride and hope of +the family: around him gathered all its expectations of distinction, +and no one shared all these more intensely than Bart, who had awaited +his coming with hope and fear. He was accompanied by a fellow-student +named Ranney, of about his own age, and like him, above the usual +height, broad and heavy-shouldered, with a massive head and strong +face, a high narrow forehead; rather shy in manner, and taciturn. + +They came one night while Bart was in the sugar-camp, where he spent +many nights, and he met them the next morning at the breakfast-table. +No one could be gladder than he to meet his brother, but, like his +mother, he was struck by his emaciated form and languor of manner. + +Bart had heard of Ranney as a man of strong, profound, ingenious mind, +with much power of sarcasm, and who had formed a partnership with +Wade, on the retirement of Mr. Giddings from the bar. He stood a +little in awe of him, whose good opinion he would have gladly secured, +but who, he had a presentiment, would not understand him. Indeed, he +was quite certain he did not understand himself. + +The young men had been fellow-students for two years, had many things +in common, and were strong friends. + +Bart soon found that they had a slender view of his law reading, +and spoke slightingly of Ford as a lawyer. They had both diligently +studied to the lower depths of the law, had a fair appreciation of +their acquisitions, and would not overestimate the few months of +solitary reading of a boy in the country. + +Bart did not mention his studies, and only answered modestly his +brother's inquiries, who closed the subject for the time by saying +that if he was serious in his desire to study law, "he would either +arrange to take him to Painesville in the Fall, or have his friend +Ranney take him in hand." Bart was pleased with the idea of being with +either; and possibly he may have wondered whether whoever took him in +hand would not have that hand full. + +The young men strolled off to his sugar-camp during the forenoon, +lounged learnedly about, evincing little interest in the camp and +surroundings, although the deepening season had filled the woods with +flowers and birds; and Bart wondered whether "Coke on Littleton," and +executory devises, and contingent remainders, had produced in them +their natural consequences. He watched to see whether new maple sugar +was sweet to them, and on full reflection doubted if it was. + +They did not interfere with his work, and sauntered back to an early +dinner, and Bart saw no more of them until night. + +He closed out his work early for the day, and spent the evening with +them and his mother. + +Henry naturally inquired about his old acquaintances, and Bart +answered graphically. He was in a mood of reckless gayety. He took +them up, one after another, and in a few happy strokes presented +them in ludicrous caricature, irresistible for its hits of humor, +and sometimes for wit, and sometimes sarcasm--a stream of sparkle +and glitter, with queer quotations of history, poetry, and Scripture, +always apt, and the latter not always irreverent. Ranney had a +capacity to enjoy a medley, and both of the young men abandoned +themselves to uncontrollable laughter; and even the good mother, who +tried in vain to stop her reckless son, surprised herself with tears +streaming down her cheeks. Bart, for the most part, remained +grave, and occasionally Edward helped him out with a suggestion, or +contributed a dry and pungent word of his own. + +As the fit subsided, Henry, half serious and half laughing, turned to +him: "Oh, Bart, I thought you had reformed, and become considerate and +thoughtful, and I find that you are worse than ever." + +"But, Henry, what's the use of having neighbors and acquaintances and +friends, if one cannot serve them up to his guests; and only think, +I've gone about for six months with the odds and ends of 'flat, stale +and unprofitable' things accumulating in and about him--the said +Bart--until, as a sanitary measure, I had to utter them." + +"How do you feel after it?" inquired Henry. + +"Rather depressed, though I hope to tone up again." + +"Bart," said Henry, gravely, "I haven't seen much of you for two or +three years; I used to get queer glimpses of you in your letters, and +I must look through your mental and moral make-up some time." + +"You will find me like the sterile, stony glebe, which, when the +priest reached in his career of invocation and blessing--'Here,' said +the holy father, 'prayers and supplications are of no avail. This +must have manure.' Grace would, I fear, be wasted on me, and our good +mother would willingly see me under your subsoiling and fertilizing +hand." + +"Do you ever seriously think?" + +"I? oh yes! such thoughts as I can think. I think of the wondrously +beautiful in nature, and am glad. I think of the wretched race of men, +and am sad. I think of my shallow self, and am mad." + +Henry, with unchanged gravity: "Do you believe in anything?" + +"Yes, I believe fully in our mother; a good deal in you, though my +faith is shaken a little just now; and am inclined to great faith in +your friend Mr. Ranney." + +All smile but Henry. "Yes, all that of course, but abstract +propositions. Have you faith, in anything?" + +"Well, I believe in genius, I believe in poetry--though not much in +poets--music--though that is not for men. I believe in love--for those +who may have it. I believe in woman and in God. When I draw myself +close to Him, I am overcome with a great awe, and dare not pray. It +is only when I seem to push Him off, and coop Him up in a little +crystal-domed palace beyond the stars, and out of hearing, that I +dare tell Him how huge He is, and pipe little serenades of psalmody to +Him." + +"Oh, Barton, you are profane!" + +"No, mother, men are profane in their gorgeous egotism. We are the +braggarts, and ascribe egotism to God Himself; while we are the sole +objects of interest in the universe. God was and is on our account +only; and when men fancy that they have found a way of running things +without Him, they shove Him out entirely. I put it plainly, and it +sounds bad." + +"This is a compendious confession of faith," said Henry; and, pausing, +"why do you put genius first?" + +"As the most doubtful, and, at the same time, an interesting article. +I am at the age when a young man queries anxiously about it. Has he +any of it--the least bit?" + +"Well, what is your conclusion?" + +"Sometimes I fancy I feel faintly its stir and spur and inspiration." + +"When it may be only dyspepsia," said Henry. + +"It may be. I haven't ranked myself among geniuses." + +"Yet you believe in it. What is it?" + +"I can't tell. Can you tell what is electricity or life?" + +"That is not logical. You answer one question by asking another." + +"I am not sure but that is allowable," interrupted Ranney. "You pose +your opponent with an unanswerable question, and he in turn proposes +several, thereby suggesting that there are things unknown, and that if +you will push him to that realm you are equally involved. It may not +be logical, but it usually silences." + +"Not quite, in this instance," said Henry, "for we know by their +manifestations that life and electricity are; they manifest themselves +to us." + +"And by the same rule genius manifests itself to your brother, +although it may not to you." + +"Thank you, Mr. Ranney," said Bart. + +"Now I do not suppose," he went on, "that genius is a beneficent +little imp, or genie, lodged in the brain of the fortunate or +unfortunate, who is all-powerful, and always at hand to give strength, +emit a flash of light, or pour inspiration into the faculties, nor +does it consist in anything that answers to that idea. But there are +men endowed with quick, strong intellects, with warm, ardent, intense +temperaments, and with strong imaginations; where these, or their +equivalents, are found happily blended, the result is genius. There +is a working power that can do anything, and with apparent ease. If +it plunges down, it need not remain long; if it mounts up, it alights +again without effort or injury." + +"And such a 'working power,' you suppose, would, of itself, be a +constant self-supply, and always equal to emergencies, and of its own +unaided spontaneous inspirations and energies, I suppose," said Henry, +"and has nothing to do but float and plunge about, diving and soaring, +in the amplitude of nature?" + +"Well, Henry, you can't get out of a man what isn't in him. You need +not draw on a water-bottle for nectar, or hope to carve marble columns +from empty air; genius can't do that. An unformed, undeveloped mind +never threw out great things spontaneously, as the cloud throws out +lightning. Men are not great without achievement, nor wise without +study and reflection. Nor was there ever a genius, however strong and +brilliant in the rough, that would not have been stronger and more +brilliant by cutting," said Bart, with vehemence. "All I contend for +is, that genius, as I have supposed, can make the most and best of +things, often doing with them what other and commoner minds cannot do +at all." + +"This is not the school-boy's idea of genius," said Ranney. + +"And," said Bart, a little assertively, "I am not a school-boy." + +"So I perceive," said Ranney, coolly. + +"The fault I find with you geniuses--" + +"We geniuses!!--" + +"Is," said Henry, "you perpetually fly and caracol about, and just +because you can, apparently, and for the fun of the thing." + +"Eagles fly," said Bart. + +"And so do butterflies, and other gilded insects." + +"Therefore, flying should be dispensed with, I suppose," said Bart. +"Because things of mere painted wings, all wing and nothing else, can +float in the lower atmosphere, are all winged things to be despised? +Birds of strong flight can light and build on or near the ground, but +your barn-yard fowl can hardly soar to the top of the fence for his +crow." + +"But your geniuses, Bart, will not work, will not strip to the long, +patient, delving drudgery necessary to unravel, separate, analyze, +weigh, measure, estimate and count, and come to like work for work's +sake, and so grow to do the best and most work. They deal a few heavy +blows, scatter things, pick up a few glittering pebbles, and--" + +"Leave to dullards the riches of the mines they never would have +found," broke in Bart. + +"And fly away into upper air," pursued Henry. + +"Oh, I know that some chaps rise for want of weight, as you would say; +but mere weight will keep a man always at the surface. Your men who +are always plunging into things, digging and turning up the earth--who +believe with the ancients that truth is in a well--often lose +themselves, and are smothered in their own dirt-holes, and call on men +to see how deep they are. God coins with His image on the outside, +as men mint money, and your deep lookers can't see it; they are for +rushing into the bowels of things." + +"There is force in that, Bart. Men may see God in His works, if they +will; but men don't so stamp their works. At his best, man is weak; +unknowing truth, he puts false brands on his goods, mixes and mingles, +snarls and confuses, covers up, hides and effaces, so far as he can, +God's works, and palms off as His the works of the other. And it is +with these that the lawyer has to do: a work in which your mere genius +would make little headway. He would go to it without preparation; he +would grow weary of the hopelessness of the task, and fly away to some +pleasant perch, and plume his wing for another flight, I fear." + +"Might not his lamp of genius aid him somewhat?" put in Bart. + +"It might," said Ranney, "and he might be misled by its flare. He +would do better to use the old lights of the law. Some are a little +lurid, and some a little blue, but always the same in tempest or +calm. The law, as you have doubtless discovered, is founded in a few +principles of obvious right. Their application to cases is artificial. +The law, for its own wise purposes, takes care of itself; of its own +force, it embraces everything, investigates everything, construes +itself, and enforces itself, as the sole power in the premises. Its +rules in the text-books read plain enough, and are not difficult +of apprehension. The uncertainty of the law arises in the doubt and +uncertainty of the facts; and hence the doubt about which, of many +rules, ought to govern. A man of genius, as you describe him, ought +to become a good lawyer; he would excel in the investigation and +presentation of facts; but none but a lawyer saturated with the spirit +of the law until he comes to have a legal instinct, can with accuracy +apply it." + +This was clear and strong to Barton, and profitable to him. + +"Now Barton," said Henry, turning to Ranney, as if Bart were absent, +"went through with Blackstone in a month, and probably would go +through it every month in the year, and then he might be profitably +put to read Blackstone. If I were to shut him up with the +'Institutes,' in four days there might be nothing of poor Coke left +but covers and cords." + +"And what would become of Bart?" asked Ranney. + +"Go mad--but not from much learning," answered the youth for himself; +"or you would find him like a dried geranium-leaf hid in the leaves of +the year-books,-- + + 'Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead.'" + +There was a touch of sarcasm in his mocking voice; and flashing out +with his old sparkle, "Be patient with me, boys, the future works +miracles. There + + Are mountains ungrown, + And fountains unflown, + And flowers unblown, + And seed never strown, + And meadows unmown, + And maids all alone, + And lots of things to you unknown, + And every mother's son of us must + Always blow his own--nose, you know." + +And while the young men were a little astonished at the run of his +lines, the practical and unexpected climax threw them into another +laugh. + +Soon Henry took a candle, and the two young men retired. They paused a +moment in the little parlor. + +"Was there ever such a singular and brilliant compound?" said Ranney. +"What a power of expression he has! and I see that he generally knows +where he is going to hit. If you can hold him till he masters the law, +he will be a power before juries." + +"I think so too," said Henry; "but he must be a good lawyer before he +can be a good advocate,--though that isn't the popular idea." + +"Let him work," said Ranney. "He will shed his flightier notions as a +young bird moults its down." + +How kind to have said this to Bart! Oh, what a mistake, that just +praise is injurious! How many weary, fainting, doubting young hearts +have famished and died for a kind word of encouragement! + +When Bart returned to the sitting-room, his mother and younger +brothers had retired. + +"I am scorned of women and misunderstood of men--even by my own +brother," he said bitterly to himself. "Let me live to change this, +and then let me die." + +The old melancholy chords vibrated, and he went to his little attic, +remembering with anguish the stream of nonsense and folly he had +poured forth, and thought of the laughter he had provoked as so much +deserved rebuke; and he determined never to utter another word that +should provoke a smile. He would feed and sleep, and grow stupid and +stolid, heavy and dull, and bring forth emptiness and nothings with +solemn effort and dignified sweatings. + +Early on the morrow he was away to the camp, to renew the fires under +his sugar-kettles. The cool, fresh air of the woods refreshed and +restored his spirits somewhat. He placed on the breakfast-table two +bouquets of wood-flowers, and met his guests with the easy grace and +courtesy of an accomplished host; and both felt for the first time +the charm of his manner, and recognized that it sprung from a superior +nature. + +As they were about to rise from the breakfast-table, "Gentlemen," said +he, "Miss Kate Fisher gives, this afternoon, a little sugar party, out +at her father's camp. Henry, she sent over an invitation specially for +you two, with one to me, for courtesy. I cannot go; but you must. +You will meet, Mr. Ranney, several young ladies, any one of whom will +convert you to my creed of love and poetry, and two or three young, +men stupid enough to master the law,"--with a bright smile. "I +promised you would both go. The walk is not more than a mile, the day +a marvel right out of Paradise, and you both need the exercise, and to +feel that it is spring." + +"And why don't you go, Barton?" asked Henry. + +"Well, you are not a stranger to any whom you will meet, and don't +need me. In the first place, I must remain and gather the sap, and +can't go; in the second, I don't want to go, and won't; and in the +third, I have several good reasons for not going,"--all very bright, +and in good humor. + +"What do you say, Ranney?" + +"Well, I would like to go, and I would like to have Barton go with +us." + +"Would you, though?"--brightening. "No, I can't go; though I would be +glad to go with you anywhere." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +WHAT THE GIRLS SAID. + + +Kate's little party, out on the dry, bright yellow leaves, gay with +early flowers, under the grand old maples, elms and beeches, in the +warm sun, came and went, with laughter and light hearts. If it could +be reproduced with its lights, and colors, and voices, what a bright +little picture and resting-place it would be, in this sombre-colored +annal! I am sad for poor Bart, and I cannot sketch it. + +The young lawyers had been there, seen, talked to, got acquainted +with, were looked up to, deferred to, admired and flirted with, and +had gone, leaving themselves to be talked about. + +Two young girls, amid the fading light, with the rich warm blood of +young womanhood in their cheeks, and its latent emotions sending a +softened light into their eyes, with their arms about each other's +waists, were pensively walking out of the dusky woods to the open +fields, with a little ripple and murmur of voices, like the liquid +pearls of a brook. + +They had been speaking of the young lawyers. "And these two," said +Julia, "are some of those who are to go out and shape and mould and +govern. I am glad to have seen them, and hear them talk." + +"Do you think these are to be leading men?" asked Flora Walters. + +"I presume so. It is generally conceded that Henry Ridgeley is a young +man of ability; and I don't think any one could be long in the company +of Mr. Ranney without feeling that he is no ordinary man. Indeed, +Henry said that he was destined to a distinguished career." + +"Well, now to me they were both a little heavy and commonplace. +Mr. Ridgeley was easy and gentlemanly; Mr. Ranney a little shy and +awkward. I've no doubt one would come to like either of them, when one +came to know him." + +"Oh, Flora! the beauty of a man is strength and courage, and power and +will and ability. When one comes to see these, the outside passes out +of sight." + +"Do you think that absolute ugliness could be overcome in that way?" + +"Yes, even deformity. I should be taken even by beauty, in a man, +and should expect conforming beauty of heart and soul. Do you know, I +sometimes half feel that I would like to be a man?" + +"You, Julia! with your wealth, beauty and friends, who may, where you +will, look and choose?" + +"Yes, I, as much as you flatter me. I can feel the ambition of a +young man; and were I one, how gladly would I put the world and its +emptiness from me, and nurse and feed my soul and brain with the +thoughts and souls of other men, till I was strong and great; and +then, from my obscurity, I would come forth and take my place in the +lead;" and her great eyes flashed. + +"If you are ambitious, you have but to wait until the leading spirit +comes. What a help you would be to him!" + +"He might never come, or I might not know him when--" + +"Or you would not love him, if you did know him." + +"He might not love me; or, if he did, I might drive him away. But that +is not what was in my mind, although a woman must be ambitious through +another. To be one of these young men, to know their minds, to feel +their hopes and ambitions, and struggle with and against them, for the +places, the honors and leaderships!" + +"And would you never love and wed, woo and marry?" + +"Yes; and I would like to see the woman who would scorn me. I would +take her as mine, and she should not choose but love me!" + +"Why, Julia! who would think that you, sweet and deep as you are, +could say such things! Would you like to be wooed in that way?" + +"I never came to that. I am only a woman without aim in life. I am +only to float along between flowery banks, until somebody fishes me +out, I suppose!" + +"I am sure, were I you, I could well float on until the right man +came; and you, Julia, it is your own fault if you do not marry for +love. You will not be obliged to consult anything else." + +"And you?" said Julia, laughing. + +"I? oh! I am dependent on my brother, you know." + +"Yes, and there comes in the hardship; were you a man, you could go +out and make and choose. Now, a daughter remains where her father and +mother leave her. The sons may rise, the daughters stay below, and if +sought for, it is usually in the same channels in which the parents +move, and that is the hardship of those who, unlike you, are on a +lower plane, or who, like you, have no father and mother to sustain +them in their proper place. If you could win wealth, you would only +marry for love; and I am sure you will do so now." + +"A woman who wins fortune usually loses the capacity to win love, I +fear," said Flora. + +"And the woman who wins nothing deserves nothing," said Julia. "I am +a little like my mother, I presume; but who would win you, and how, I +wonder?" + +"Oh," answered Flora, "I suppose the man who really and truly loved +me. I would like to have him come, as the breeze comes, with the odor +of flowers, as the spring comes, with music and song, with all sweet +and gentle influences, with beauty and grace; but he must not be +effeminate." + +"He would have to be a good waltzer, I presume?" + +"Would that be an objection?" asked Flora. + +"No; but a man who excels in these light accomplishments may fail in +the stronger qualities. I admit that beauty and grace would go a great +way, if one could have them also." + +"Julia, were I you, I would have them all." + +"Girls, what are you loitering along there for? Talking over the young +lawyers, I'll bet; who takes which?" called back Kate, impetuously; "I +don't want either." + + * * * * * + +All the afternoon long, Bart was sad and silent, and spite of himself, +his thoughts would hover about that bright place in the maple woods, +sweet with one face of indescribable beauty; one form, one low, +many-toned voice which haunted--would haunt him. + +He came in to a latish supper, with a grave face. The spring was not +in his step; the ring was not in his voice, or the sparkle in his +words. + +The two guests were in high spirits, and talked gushingly of the young +ladies they had met, and they wondered that it did not provoke even a +sarcasm from him. + +"It would compensate you for not going," said Ranney, kindly, "if we +were to tell you what was said of you in your absence." + +"And who said it," added Henry. Not a word, nor a look even. + +"One might be willing to be called a genius, for such words, and from +such a young lady," ventured Ranney. + +"I am not sure but that I would even venture upon poetry, under such +inspiration," said Henry. + +To the youth these remarks sounded like sarcasm, and he felt too poor +even to retort. + +"Oh, boys!" finally said Bart, "it is good exercise for us all; +_persiflage_ is not your 'best holt,' as the wrestlers would say, +and you need practice, while I want to accustom myself to irony and +sarcasm without replying. If by any possibility you can, between +you, get off a good thing at my expense, it would confer a lasting +obligation; but I don't expect it." + +"Upon my word--" began Ranney. + +"We all speak kindly of our own dead," said Bart, "and should hardly +expect the dead to hear what we said. Mother said you had determined +to leave us in the morning;" to Ranney--"Our brother the Major will be +home in the morning, and would be glad to make your acquaintance, and +show you some attention." And so he escaped. + +When Ranney took leave the next morning, he kindly remarked to Bart +that he would at any time find a place in his office, and should have +his best endeavor to advance his studies. It was sincere, and that was +one of the charms of his character. Bart was pleased with it, and it +almost compensated for the unintentional wounds of the night before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A DEPARTURE. + + +Morris came, and the brothers were together, and the two elder went +around to many of their old acquaintance--many not named here, as not +necessary to the incidents of this story. For some reason Barton did +not accompany them. If anything was said between them about him, no +mention of it was made to him. Henry came to regard him with more +interest, and to treat him with marked tenderness and consideration, +which Bart took as a kindly effort to efface from his mind the pain +that he supposed Henry must be aware he had given him. Had he supposed +that it arose from an impression that he was suffering from any other +cause, he would have coldly shrunk from it. + + + * * * * * + +At the end of ten days, Henry's baggage was sent out to Hiccox's +for the stage, and he took leave of his mother, Morris, Edward, and +George, and, accompanied by Bart, walked out to the State road, to +take the stage for Painesville, where his work was to begin. He was +in bright spirits; his hopes were high; he was much nearer home; his +communication was easier, and his absences would be shorter. + +Bart, for some reason, was more depressed than usual. On their way +down, Henry asked him about a Mr. Greer whom he first saw at the sugar +party, and afterwards at Parker's, and who had seemed to take much +interest in Bart. Bart had met him only once or twice, and was not +favorably impressed by him. Henry said that he had talked of seeing +Bart, and that he (Henry) rather liked him. + +It had been already talked over and understood that Bart should go to +Painesville in the Fall, and enter fully upon the study of the law. As +they reached the stage-road, Bart's depression had been remarked by +Henry, who made an ineffectual effort to arouse him. Finally the stage +came rattling down the hill, and drew up. The brothers shook hands. +Henry got in, and the stage was about to move away, when Bart sprang +upon the step, and called out "Henry!" who leaned his face forward, +and received Barton's lips fully on his mouth. Men of the Yankee +nation never kiss each other, and the impression produced upon Henry +was great. Tears fell upon his face as their lips met, and from his +eyes, as the heavy coach rolled into the darkness of the night. + +Are there really such things as actual presentiments? God alone knows. +Is the subtle soul-atmosphere capable of a vibration at the approach +and in advance of an event? And are some spirits so acutely attuned +as to be over-sensible of this vibration? God knows. Or was the act +of Bart, like many of his, due to sudden impulse? Perhaps he could not +tell. If the faculty was his, don't envy him. + +Barton had already resumed his connection with Gen. Ford's office. +The General had returned full of his winter's labors, and found an +intelligent and sympathizing listener in Bart, who had a relish +for politics and the excitements of political life, although he was +resolved to owe no consideration that he might ever win to political +position. + +Under the stimulus from his intercourse with his brother and Ranney, +and profiting by their hints and suggestions, he plunged more eagerly +into law-books than ever. He constructed a light boat, with a pair of +sculls, and rigged also with a spar and sail, with which to traverse +the pond, with places to secure it on the opposite shores; and early +passers along the State road, that overlooked the placid waters, often +marked a solitary boatman pulling a little skiff towards the eastern +shore. + +And once, a belated picnic party, returning from Barker's landing, +discovered a phantom sail flitting slowly in the night breeze over the +dark waters to the west. They lingered on the brow of the hill, until +it disappeared under the shadow of the western wooded shore, wondering +and questioning much as to who and what it was. One, the loveliest, +knew, but said nothing. + +The Markhams, one day, in their carriage, passed Bart with his books +toiling up Oak Hill. He removed his hat as they passed, without other +recognition. All of them felt the invisible wall between them, and +two, at least, silently regretted that they might not invite him to an +unoccupied seat. They were at the Fords' to dinner that day, and Bart, +being invited to join them by the General, politely declined. + +The General was a little grave at the table, while Mrs. Ford was +decided and marked in her commendation of the young student, and +described, with great animation, a little excursion they had made +over to the pond, and the skill with which Bart had managed his little +sail-boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A SHATTERED COLUMN. + + +In mid June came the blow. George brought up from the post-office, one +evening, the following letter: + +"PAINESVILLE, June 18, 1837. BARTON RIDGELEY, ESQ.: + +"_Dear Sir_,--I write at the request of my sister, Mrs. Hitchcock. Your +brother is very ill. Wanders in his mind, and we are uneasy about +him. He has been sick about a week. Mr. Hitchcock is absent at court. +Sincerely yours, + +Edward Marshall." + + +"Henry is ill," said Barton, very quietly, after reading it. "This +letter is from Mrs. Hitchcock. He has been poorly for a week. I think +I had better go to him." + +"He did not write himself, it seems," said his mother. + +"He probably doesn't regard himself as very sick, and did not want +us sent for," said Bart, "and they may have written without his +knowledge. I will take Arab, and ride in the cool of the night." + +"You are alarmed, Barton, and don't tell me all. Read me the letter." +And he read it. "I will go with you, Barton," very quietly, but +decidedly. + +"How can you go, mother?" + +"As you do," firmly. + +"You cannot ride thirty miles on horseback, mother, even if we had a +horse you could ride at all." + +"I shall go with you," was her only answer. + +An hour later, with a horse and light buggy, procured from a neighbor, +they drove out into the warm, sweet June night. At Chardon, they +paused for half an hour, to breathe the horse, and went on. Bart was +a good horseman, from loving and knowing horses, and drove with skill +and judgment. They talked little on the road, and at about two in the +morning they drove up to the old American House in Painesville, and, +with his mother on his arm, Barton started out on River Street, to the +residence of Mr. Hitchcock. + +How silent the streets! and how ghostly the white houses stood, in the +stillness of the night! and how like a dream it all seemed! They had +no difficulty in finding the house, with its ominous lights, that had +all night long burned out dim into the darkness. + +The door was open, and the bell brought a sweet, matronly woman to +receive them. + +"We are Henry Ridgeley's mother and brother," said Barton. "Is he +still alive?" + +The question indicated his utter hopelessness of his brother's +condition. + +"Come in this way, into the parlor," said the lady; and stepping out, +"Mother," she called, "Mr. Ridgeley's mother has come. Please step +this way." + +A moment later, a tall, elderly lady, sad-faced as was her daughter, +and much agitated, entered the room. + +"My mother," said the younger lady. "I am Mrs. Hitchcock." + +"Your son--" said the elder lady. + +"Take me to him at once, I pray you! Let me see him! I am his mother! +Who shall keep me from him?" + +"Mother," said Barton, stepping up and placing his hands about her, +"don't you feel it? Henry is dead. I knew it ere we stepped in." + +"Dead! who says he is dead? He is not dead!" + +"Tell her," said Barton; "she is heroic: let her know the worst." + +"Take me to him!" she said, as they remained silent. + +Up the stairs, in a dimly-lighted room, past two or three young men, +and a kind neighbor or two, they conducted her; and there, composed +as if in slumber, with his grand head thrown back, and his fine strong +face fully upward, she found her third-born, growing chill in death. +She sprang forward--arrested herself when within a step of him, and +gazed. The light passed from her own eye, and the warmth from her +face; a spasm shook her, and nothing more. + +She did not shriek; she did not faint; she made no outcry,--scarcely +a visible sign; but steadily and almost stonily she gazed on her dead, +until the idea of the awful change came fully to her. The chill passed +from her face and manner; and seating herself on the bed,--"You won't +mind me, ladies. You can do no more for him. Leave him to me for a +little;" and she bent over and kissed his pallid lips, and laid her +face tenderly to his, and lifted with her thin fingers the damp masses +of his hair, brown and splendid, like Bart's, but darker, and without +the wave. + +"What a grand and splendid man you had become, Henry! and I may toy +with and caress you now, as when you were a soft and beautiful baby, +and you will permit me!" and lifting herself up, she steadfastly gazed +at his emaciated face and shrunken temples, and opening his bosom, and +baring its broad and finely-formed contour, she scanned it closely. + +"Oh, why could not I see and know, and be warned! I thought he could +not die! Oh, I thought that all I had would remain! that in their +father God had taken all he would reclaim from me! that I should go, +and together we should adorn a place where they should come to us! Oh, +Merciful Father!" and the storm of agony, such as uproots and sweeps +away weak natures, came upon her. + +As for Barton, his sensibilities were stunned and paralyzed, while +his mind was left to work free and clear. All his anguish was for his +mother; for himself, the moment had not come. He was appalled to feel +the almost indifference with which he looked upon the remains of +his manly and high-souled brother, and he repeated over and over to +himself: "Henry is dead! he is dead! Don't you hear? don't you know? +He is dead! Why don't you mourn?" + +An hour later, came a gentle tap at the door. Barton went to find Mrs. +Hitchcock standing there. + +"Your mother must be aroused and taken away. My mother and I will take +you to her house. She must be cared for now." + +"Mother," said Bart, taking her lightly in his arms, "these dear good +ladies must care for you. Let me take you out; and our dear Henry must +be cared for, too." + +How unnatural his voice sounded to him! Had he slain his brother, that +he should care so little?--that his voice should sound so hoarse and +hollow? + +His mother was passive in his hands,--wearied, broken, and +overwhelmed. He carried her across a small open space, and into a +large house, where her kind hostess received and cherished her as only +women experienced and chastened by sorrow can. + +Barton was conducted to a spacious, cool room, luxurious to his eyes; +yet he felt no weariness, but somehow supernaturally strained up to an +awful tension. + +"Why don't I shriek, and tear my hair, and make some fitting moan over +this awful loss? Why can't I feel it? O God! am I a wretch without +nature, or heart, or soul? He is dead! Why should he die, and now, +plucked and torn up by the root, just at flowering? What a vile +economy is this! what a waste and incompleteness! and the world full +of drivellers and dotards, that it would gladly be quit of. Wasn't +there space and breath for him? Why should such qualities be so +bestowed, to be so wasted? Why kindle such a light, to quench it so +soon in the dark river? What a blunder! Why was not I taken?" + +Why? Oh, weak, vain questioner! + +He threw off part of his clothing, and lay down on the bed and slept. +He awoke, offended and grieved that the sun should shine. Why was +it not hidden by thick clouds, and why should they not weep? But why +should they, if he did not? And what business had the birds to be +glad and joyous, and the perfume of flowers to steal out on the bright +air? + +He knew he was wrong. He was no longer angry and defiant, but his +grief was dry and harsh, and his sensibilities creaked like a dry +axle. + +He found his mother tender, calm, and pitying him. Awful as was the +bereavement to her, she felt that the loss was, after all, to him. +Her strong nature, quivering and bleeding under the blow, had righted +itself, and the sweet influence of faith and hope was coming up in +her heart. She saw Barton with his pallid face, and steady but bright +eyes. She knew that she never quite understood, had never quite +fathomed, his nature. + +Gentle voices, assuaging hands, and sweet charities were about the +stricken ones; and pious hands, with all Christian observances, +ministered to their beautiful dead. Nothing more could be done; and +before mid-day Barton, with his mother, started on their return, to +be followed at evening by the remains of the loved one, arrayed for +sepulture. + +Barton, with every faculty of mind intensely strong and clear, and +weighted with the great calamity to absolute gravity, had struck those +he met as a marvel of clear apprehension and perception of all the +surroundings and proprieties of his painful position. The younger +members of the Painesville Bar, who had begun to know and love their +young brother, had gathered about him in his illness, and now came +forward to take charge of and prepare his remains for final rest, and +to render to his friends the kindness of refined charity. Barton knew +that somehow they looked curiously at him, as he introduced himself to +them, and fancied that his dazed and dreamy manner was singular; but +knew that such considerate and kind, such brotherly young men, would +make allowances for him. + +When they gathered silently to take leave, he turned: "Gentlemen, you +know our obligations to you. Think of the most grateful expression +of them, and think I would so express them if I could. Some day I may +more fittingly thank you." + +They thought he never could. He remembered the fitting words to Mrs. +Hitchcock and her mother, Mrs. Marshall, and drove away, with his +pale, silent mother. + +All the way home in a dream. Something awful had happened, and it was +not always clear what it was, or how it had been brought about. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE STORM. + + +About midnight the Painesville hearse drove up, accompanied by the +four young pall-bearers, of the Painesville Bar, who attended the +remains of their young brother. The coffin was deposited in the little +parlor, and the carriages drove to Parker's for the night. + +The stricken and lonely mother was in the sanctity of her own room. +The children had cried themselves to sleep and forgetfulness. The +brother, who had been sent for, could not reach home until the next +morning. + +Barton had declined the offers of kind friends to remain, and was +alone with his dead. The coffin-lid had been removed, and he lifted +the dead-cloth from the face. He could not endure the sharp angle of +the nose, that so stabbed up into the dim night, unrelieved by the +other features. + +The wrath of a strong, deep nature, thoroughly aroused, is sublime; +its grief, when stirred to its depths, is awful. Barton knew now +what had happened and what he had lost. The acuteness of his fine +organization had recovered its sharpest edge. The heavens had been +darkened for him nearly a year before, but now the solid earth had +been rent and one-half cloven away, and that was the half that +held the only hopes he had. He didn't calculate this now. Genius, +intellect, imagination, courage, pride, scorn, all the intensities of +his nature, all that he supposed he possessed, all that lay hidden +and unsuspected, arose in their might to overcome him now. He did not +think, he did not aspire, or hope, or fear, or dream, or remember: he +only felt, and bled, and moaned low, hopeless, helpless moans. If it +is given to some natures to enjoy intensely, so such correspondingly +suffer; and Bart, alone with his pale, cold, dead brother, through +this deep, silent night, abandoned himself utterly to the first +anguish at his loss, and it was wise. As it is healthful and needful +for young children to cry away their pains and aches, so the stricken +and pained soul finds relief in pouring itself out in oversweeping +grief. + +The storm swept by and subsided, and Bart, kneeling by the coffin of +his brother, in the simple humility of a child, opened his heart +to the pitying eye of the Great Father. His lips did not move, but +steadily and reverently he turned to that sweet nearness of love and +compassion. Finally he asked that every unworthy thought, passion, +folly, or pride, might be exorcised from his heart and nature; and +then, holding himself in this steady and now sweet contemplation and +silent communion, a great calm came into his uplifted soul, and he +slept. And, as he passed from first slumber to oblivious and profound +sleep, there floated, through a celestial atmosphere, a radiant cloud, +on which was reclining a form of light and beauty. He thought it must +be his departed brother, but it turned fully towards him, and the face +was the face of Julia, with sweetest and tenderest compassion and love +in her eyes; and he slept profoundly. + +In the full light of the early morning, the elder brother stole into +the room, to be startled and awed by the pale faces of his dead and +his sleeping brothers, now so near each other, and never before so +much alike. How kingly the one in death! How beautiful the other in +sleep! And while he held his tears in the marvellous presence, his +pale, sweet mother came in, and placed her hand silently in his, +and gazed; and then the young boys, with their bare feet; and so the +silent, the sleeping, and the dead, were once more together. + + * * * * * + +At mid-day, those who had heard of the event gathered at the Ridgeley +house, sad-faced and sorrow-stricken. The family had always been much +esteemed, and Henry had been nearly as great a favorite as was Morris, +and all shared in the hope and expectation of his future success and +eminence. Uncle Aleck came, feeble and heart-stricken. A sweet prayer, +a few loving words, a simple hymn, and the young pall-bearers carried +out their pale brother, and, preceding the hearse in their carriage, +followed by the stricken ones and the rest in carriages and on foot, +the little procession went sadly to the burying-ground. There a +numerous company, attracted from various parts where the news had +reached, were assembled and awaiting the interment. The idle and +curious were rewarded by the sight of a hearse, and the presence of +the deputation of the Painesville Bar, and impressed with a sense of +the importance and consideration of the young man in whose honor such +attentions were bestowed. + +The ceremony of interment was short, and of the simplest. The +committing of the dead to final rest in the earth, is always +impressive. Man's innate egotism always invests the final hiding +away of the remains of one of his race in perpetual oblivion, with +solemnity and awe. One of the lords has departed; let man and nature +observe and be impressed. + +Uncle Aleck was too feeble to go to the grave. + +The mourners--the mother sustained by Barton, and Morris, attended by +his promised bride, a sweet and beautiful girl, and the two young +boys so interesting in their childish sorrow, so few in number, and +unsupported by uncles, aunts or cousins--were objects of unusual +interest and commiseration. But now, when the last act was performed +for them, and the burial hymn had been sung, there was no one to speak +for them the usual thanks for these kindnesses, and just as this came +painfully to the sensibilities of the thoughtful, Barton uncovered his +head and said the few needed words in a clear, steady voice, with such +grace, that matronly women would gladly have kissed him; and young +maidens noticed, what they had observed before, that there was +something of nameless attraction in his face and manner. + +Kind hands and sympathizing hearts were about the Ridgeleys, to +solace, cheer and help; but the great void in their circle and hearts, +only God and time could fill. The heart, when it loses out of it one +object of tenderness and love, only contracts the closer and more +tenderly about what it has left. + + * * * * * + +Time elapses. It kindly goes forward and takes us with it. No matter +how resolutely we cling to darkness and sorrow, time loosens +our hearts, dries our tears, and while we declare we will not be +comforted, and reproach ourselves, as the first poignancy of grief +consciously fades, yet we are comforted. The world will not wait for +us to mourn. The objects of love and of hate we may bear along with +us, but distance will intervene between us and the sources of deep +sorrow. + +So far as Bart was concerned, his nature was in the main healthy, +with only morbid tendencies, and the great blow of his brother's death +seemed in some way to restore the equilibrium of his mind, and leave +it to act more freely, under guidance of the strong common sense +inherited from his mother. He knew he must not linger about his +brother's grave and weep. + +He knew now that he was entirely upon his own resources. His brother +Morris's speculations, and dashing system of doing things, had already +hopelessly involved him, and Bart knew that no aid could be expected +from him. He had returned to Painesville, and closed up the few +matters of his brother Henry; had written to Ranney, at Jefferson, +and already had resumed his books with a saddened and sobered +determination. He supposed that Henry had died in consequence of a too +close and long-continued application to his studies; and while this +admonished him, he still believed that his own elasticity and power of +endurance would carry him forward and through, unscathed. + +He began also to mingle a little with others, and to take an interest +in their daily affairs. People affected to find him changed, and +vastly for the better. "He's had enough to sober him." "It is well he +has been warned, and heeds it." "God will visit with judgments, until +the thoughtless forbear," and other profound and Christian remarks +were made concerning him. As if Providence would cut off the best +and most promising, for such indirect and uncertain good as might, or +might not be produced in another less worthy! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +A LAW-SUIT (TO BE SKIPPED). + + +A young lover's first kiss, a young hunter's first deer, and a young +lawyer's first case, doubtless linger in their several memories, as +events of moment. + +Bart had tried his first case before a justice of the peace, been +beaten, and was duly mortified. It is very likely he was on the wrong +side, but he did not think so; and if he had thought so, he would +not have been fully consoled. A poorer advocate than he could have +convinced himself that he was right, and fail, as he did, to convince +the court. It was a case of little importance to any but the parties. +To them, every case is of the gravest moment. He acquitted himself +creditably: showed that he understood the case, examined his +witnesses, and presented it clearly. + +Others came to him, and he advised with caution and prudence; and as +Fall approached, he was in request in various small matters; men were +surprised at the modesty of his deportment, and the gentleness of his +speech. Instead of provoking his opponents, and answering back, as was +to be expected of him, he was conciliating and forbearing. + +A case finally arose, of unusual importance in the domestic tribunals; +it attracted much attention, helped to bring him forward in a small +way, and gained him much reputation among some persons whose esteem +was enviable. + +Old man Cole, "Old King Cole," as the boys derisively called him, an +inoffensive little man, with a weak, limp woman for a wife, and three +or four weaker and limper children, had for many years vegetated on +one corner of an hundred-and-sixty acres of woods, having made but +a small clearing, and managed in some unknown way to live on it. His +feeble condition exposed him to imposition, and he was the butt for +the unthinking, and victim of the unscrupulous and unruly. For some +years his land, a valuable tract, had been coveted by several greedy +men, and especially by one Sam Ward. Failing to induce Cole to sell +what right it was admitted he had, Ward, as was supposed, attempted +to intimidate, and finally to annoy Cole to such an extent, that for +peace and safety he would willingly part with his possession. He was +one of the earliest settlers, had become attached to his land, and +declined to be driven off. + +A lawless set of young men and boys were Ward's agents, although his +connection with them was never made very apparent, and had committed +various depredations upon the old man; until one night they made a +raid upon his premises, cut down several fruit-trees, filled up his +spring, tore down his old barn, and committed various acts of trespass +of a grave character. It would seem as if some intelligence controlled +their movements; no act criminal by the statutes of Ohio had been +committed, and, so far as was suspected, none but those under age had +been concerned in the affair. + +Poor old Cole, an object of derision, was barely within common +sympathy; and living remote, few knew of, and fewer cared for his +misfortunes. He applied for advice to Bart, who was indignant at the +recital, and entered upon an investigation of the outrage with great +energy. He was satisfied that the fathers of the trespassers could not +be held for their acts, that no breach of the criminal laws had been +committed; but that the boys themselves could be made liable in an +action, and that on failure to pay the judgment, they could themselves +be taken in execution and committed to jail. He at once commenced +a suit for the trespass before a magistrate, against all whom he +suspected. + +The commencement of the suit caused greater excitement then the +perpetration of the outrage. Many of the young men belonged to +respectable families, while many were old offenders, who had been +permitted to escape for fear of provoking graver misdemeanors. It was +known that Bart had taken up the case, and there was a feeling that he +had at least the courage to encounter the dangerous wrath of the young +scamps; the only ground of apprehension was that he had mistaken the +law. The popular impression was that an action could not be maintained +against minors. + +On the return-day of the summons Barton appeared, and demanded a jury, +then allowable, and the time for trial was fixed for the fifth day +afterwards. + +In that day, with the exception of one or two small lawyers at +Chardon, and Ford at Burton, there were none within twenty-five +miles of Newbury, and the legal field was gleaned in the magistrates' +courts, as in all new countries, by pettifoggers, of whom nearly every +township was made luminous with one. Of these, the acknowledged head +was Brace. In ordinary life he was a very good sort of a man, not +without capacity, but conceited, obstinate, and opinionated; he never +had any law learning. In his career before justices of the peace, he +was bold, adroit, unscrupulous, coarse, browbeating, and sometimes +brutal; anything that occurred to his not uninventive mind, as likely +in any way to help him on or out, he resorted to without hesitation. +At this time he was in full career, and was constantly employed, +going into two or three counties, occasionally meeting members of the +profession, who held him in detestation, and whom he was as likely to +drive out of court as he was to be worsted by them. + +He had been employed by the young scamps to defend them. He and Bart +had already met, and the latter was worsted in the case, and had +received from Brace the usual Billingsgate. He was on hand well +charged on the day for the appearance of the defendants, and was at no +pains to conceal the contempt he felt for his young opponent. + +Bart said no more than the occasion demanded, and seemingly paid no +attention to Brace. + +The magistrate, a man of plain, hard sense, adjourned the case to a +large school-house, and invited Judge Markham to sit in, and preside +at the trial, to which the Judge consented, which secured a decorous +and fair hearing. + +On the day, parties, witnesses, court, jury, and counsel, were on +hand--a larger crowd than Newbury had seen for years. The case was +called and the jury sworn, when Brace arose, and with a loud nourish +demanded that the plaintiff be nonsuited, on the ground of the nonage +of the defendants, and concluded by expressing his surprise at the +ignorance of the plaintiff's counsel: everybody knew that a minor +could not be sued; he even went so far as to express his pity for +the plaintiff. Bart answered that it did not appear that any of the +defendants were under age. If they were infants, and wanted to escape +on the cry of baby, they must plead it, if their counsel knew what +that meant; so that the plaintiff might take issue upon it, and the +court be informed of the facts. The court held this to be the law, and +Brace filed his plea of infancy. Bart then read from the Ohio statutes +that when a minor was sued in an action of tort, as in this case, the +court should appoint a guardian _ad litem,_ and the _parol_ should not +_demur_; and he moved the court to appoint guardians _ad litem_, for +the defendants. + +Brace's eyes sparkled; and springing to his feet, he thundered out: +"The parol shall not demur--the parol shall not demur. I have got this +simpleton where I wanted him! I didn't 'spose he was fool enough to +run into this trap; I set it on purpose for him: anybody else would +have seen it; anything will catch him. The case can go no farther; +the phrase, may it please the court, is Latin, and means that the +case shall be dismissed. The _parol_, the plaintiff shall not _demur_, +shall not have his suit. Why didn't Ford explain this matter to this +green bumpkin, and save his client the costs?" + +Barton reminded the court that the statute made it the duty of the +court to appoint guardians _ad litem_, which was a declaration that +the case was to go on; if it was to stop, no guardians were needed. +Brace had said the terms were Latin; he presumed that his Latin +was like his law; he thought it was old law French. He produced a +law--dictionary, from which it appeared that the meaning was, the +case should not be delayed, till the defendants were of age. Guardians +should be appointed for them, and the case proceed, and so the court +ruled. + +Bart went up immensely in popular estimation. Any man who knew a word +of Latin was a prodigy. Bart not only knew Latin, but the difference +between that and old law French. Who ever heard of that before? and +he had lived among them from babyhood, and they now looked upon him in +astonishment. "It does beat hell, amazingly!" said Uncle Josh, aside. + +After brief consultation the court appointed the fathers of the +defendants their guardians, when Bart remarked that his learned and +very polite opponent having found nurses for his babies, he would +proceed with the case, and called his witnesses. + +Against two or three of the ringleaders, the evidence was doubtful. +When Bart moved to discharge three of the younger of the defendants, +Brace opposed this. Bart asked him if he was there to oppose a +judgment in favor of his own clients? The court granted his motion; +when Bart put the young men on the stand as witnesses, and proved his +case conclusively against all the rest. + +What wonderful strategy this all seemed to be to the gaping crowd; and +all in spite of Brace, whom they had supposed to be the most adroit +and skilful man in the world; and who, although he objected, and +blustered, and blowed, really appeared to be a man without resources +of any sort. + +Barton rested his case. + +Brace called his witnesses, made ready to meet a case not made by +the plaintiff, and Bart quietly dissmissed them one after the other +without a word. Then Ward, who had kept in the background, was called, +in the hope to save one of the defendants. Him Bart cross-examined, +and it was observed that after a question or two he arose and turned +upon him, and plied him with questions rapid and unexpected, until +he was embarrassed and confused. Brace, by objections and argument, +intended as instructions to the witness, only increased his +perplexity, and he finally sat down with the impression that he had +made a bad exhibition of himself, and had damaged the case. + +It was now midnight, when the evidence was closed, and Barton proposed +to submit the case without argument. Brace objected. He wanted +to explain the case, and clear up the mistakes, and expose the +rascalities of the plaintiff's witnesses; and the trial was adjourned +until the next morning. + +When the case was resumed the following day, Bart, in a clear, simple +way, stated his case, and the evidence in support of it, making two or +three playful allusions to his profound and accomplished opponent. + +Brace followed on full preparation for the defence. Of course it was +obvious, even to him, that he was hopelessly beaten; and mortified and +enraged, he emptied all the vials of his wrath and vituperation upon +the head of Bart, his client and witnesses, and sat down, at the end +of an hour, exhausted. + +When Bart arose to reply, he seemed to stand a foot taller than he +ever appeared before. Calmly and in a suppressed voice he restated +his case, and, with a few well--directed blows, demolished the legal +aspects of the defence. He then turned upon his opponent; no restraint +was on him now. He did not descend to his level, but cut and thrust +and flayed him from above. Even the Newbury mob could now see the +difference between wit and vulgarity, and were made to understand that +coarseness and abuse were not strength. His address to the court was +superb; and when he finally turned to the jury, with a touching sketch +of the helplessness of the plaintiff, and of the lawless violence +of the defendants, who had long been a nuisance, and had now become +dangerous to peace and good order, and submitted the case, the crowd +looked and heard with open-mouthed wonder. Had a little summer cloud +come down, with thunder, lightning and tempest, they would not have +been more amazed. When he ceased, a murmur, which ran into applause, +broke from the cool, acute, observing and thinking New Englanders and +their children, who were present. + +Judge Markham promptly repressed the disorder, and in a few words gave +the case to the jury, who at once returned a verdict for the largest +amount within the court's jurisdiction; judgment was promptly +rendered, execution for the bodies of the defendants issued, and they +were arrested. + +The excitement had now become intense. Here were half a score of young +men in the hands of the law, under orders to be committed to jail. No +one remembered such a case in Newbury. Breaches of the law, in that +usually orderly community, were unknown, until the acts which gave +rise to this suit, and some fainter demonstrations of the same +character. The poor youths and their friends gathered helpless and +anxious about Brace, who could suggest nothing. Finally, Barton came +forward, and offered to take the promissory notes of the parties and +their fathers, for the amount of the judgment and costs, and release +them from arrest, which offer they gladly accepted, with many thanks +to their prosecutor; and the blow which he thus dealt was the end of +disorder in Newbury. + +For the time being Cole was left at peace, and enjoyed more +consideration than had ever been conceded to him before. He was +destined, however, not long after, to appear in the higher court, +to defend the doubtful title of his property, as will appear in the +progress of this narrative. + +As a general rule, the people of new communities are more curious +and interested in law--suits, and trials, and lawyers, than in +almost anything else to which their attention can be called. Lawyers, +especially, are the objects of their admiration and astonishment. +Unaccustomed to mental labor, conscious of an inability to perform it, +and justly regarding it as holding the first place in human effort, +the power and skill to conduct and maintain a long-continued mental +conflict, to pursue and examine witnesses, answer questions as well as +ask them, make and meet objections, make impromptu speeches and argue +difficult propositions, and, finally, to deliver off-hand, an +address of hours in length, full of argument, illustration, sometimes +interspersed with humor, wit, and pathos, and sometimes really +eloquent, is by them always regarded, and not without reason, as a +marvel that cannot be witnessed without astonishment. + +And here was this young Bart Ridgeley, who had been nowhere, had read +next to nothing, whom they had esteemed a lazy, shiftless fellow, +without capability for useful and thrifty pursuits, and who had in +their presence, for the last two days, taken up a hopeless case, and +conducted it against a man who, in their hearts, they had supposed was +more than a match for Joshua R. Giddings or Chief Justice Hitchcock, +beaten and baffled him, and finally thrashed him out of all semblance +of an advocate. + +When the case was over, and he came out, how quickly they made way for +him, and eagerly closed in behind and followed him out, and looked, +and watched, and waited for a word or a look from him. "What did I +tell you?" "What do you say now?" "I allus knew it was in 'im." "He'll +do," etc., rained about him as he went into the open air. + +Greer had attended the trial, and was one of the warmest admirers of +Bart's performance. Nobody knew much about this man, except that he +was often on hand, well dressed, drove good horses, was open, free and +pleasant, with plenty of leisure and money, always well received, and +often sought after. He had, at the first, taken a real liking to Bart; +and now, when the latter came out, he pleasantly approached him, and +offered to carry him home in his carriage, an offer the tired youth +was glad to accept. + +On their way, he mentioned to Bart something about a very profitable +and pleasant business, conducted by a few high-minded and honorable +gentlemen, without noise or excitement, which consisted in the sale +of very valuable commodities. They employed agents--young, active, and +accomplished men, and on terms very remunerative, and he thought it +very likely that if Bart would enter their service, it could be made +much for his advantage to do so; he would call again after Bart had +thought it over. + +His remarks made an impression on Bart's mind, and excited his +curiosity, and he remembered what Henry had said about Greer when at +home. + +Judge Markham had been very much impressed by Bart's management of his +case; perhaps to say that he was very much astonished, would better +express its effect upon him. He had always given him credit for a +great deal of light, ready, dashing talent, but was wholly unprepared +for the exhibition of thought, reflection, and logical power which he +had witnessed; the young man's grave, cautious and dignified manner +won much upon him, and he was surprised when he reflected how slender +was the ground of his dislike, and how that dislike had somehow +disappeared. Then he recalled the favorable estimate which his wife +had always put upon the qualities of Bart, and that he had usually +found her opinions of persons accurate. The frank appeal of Bart to +him was manly, and almost called for some acknowledgment; and he felt +that the invisible barrier between them was unpleasant. After all, was +not this young man one of the few destined to distinction, and on all +accounts would it not be well to give him countenance? And in this the +Judge was not wholly politic. He felt that it would be a good thing to +do, to serve this struggling young man, and he came out of the crowded +room with the settled purpose of taking Bart home to his mother's, if +he would ride with him, let what would come of it. He would frankly +tell him what he thought of his conduct of his case, and at least open +the way to renewed intercourse. + +He was detained for a moment, to answer questions, and got out just +in time to see Bart, apparently pleased, get into Greer's carriage and +ride away. The Judge looked thoughtful at this; and a close observer +would have noticed a serious change in the expression of his face. + +Of course he was well and intimately known to all parties present, +and his frank and cordial manners left him always open to the first +approach. He listened to the comments upon the trial, which all turned +upon Bart's efforts, and the Judge could easily see that the young +advocate had at once become the popular idol. He was asked what he +thought of Bart's speech, and replied that one could hardly judge of +a single effort, but that the same speech in the higher courts would +undoubtedly have gained for its author much reputation, and that if +Bart kept on, and did himself justice, he was certainly destined to +high distinction. It was kind, judicious, and all that was deserved, +but it was not up to the popular estimate, and one remarked that "the +Judge never did like him"; another, "that the Judge was afraid that +Julia would take a liking to Bart, and he hoped she would"; and a +third, "that Bart was good enough for her, but he never did care for +girls, who were all after him." + +How freely the speech of the common people runs! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE WARNING. + + +Two or three things occurred during the Autumn which had some +influence upon the fortunes of Barton. + +Five or six days after the trial, he received a letter, postmarked +Auburn, which read as follows: + + "Beware of Greer. + Don't listen to him. + Be careful of your associations." + +Only three lines, with the fewest words: not another word, line, mark, +or figure on any side of it. The hand was bold and free, and entirely +unknown to him. The paper was fine-tinted note, and Bart seemed to +catch a faint odor of violets as he opened it; a circumstance which +reminded him that a few days before he had found on the grave of his +brother, a faded bouquet of flowers. There was perhaps, no connection +between them, but they associated themselves in his mind. Some maiden, +unknown to him, had cherished the memory of his brother, may have +loved him; and had secretly laid this offering on his resting-place. +How sweet was the thought to him! Who was she? Would he ever know? She +had heard something of this Greer--there was something bad or wrong +about him; Henry may have spoken to her about the man; and she may +have seen or known of Greer's taking him home, and had written him +this note of warning. The hand was like that of a man, but no man in +Ohio would use such paper, scented with violets. How queer and strange +it was! and how the mind of the imaginative youth worked and worried, +but not unpleasantly, over it! Of course, if the note was from a +woman, she must have written because he was Henry's brother; and it +was, in a way, from him, and to be heeded, although Henry had himself +been favorably impressed by Greer. The warning was not lost upon him, +although it may not have been necessary. + +A few days later, the elegant and leisurely Greer made his appearance; +and after complimenting Bart upon his success in an easy, roundabout +way, approached the subject of his call; and Bart was duly impressed +that it arose from considerations of favor and regard to him, +that Greer now sought him. The visitor referred to the rule among +gentlemen, which Bart must understand, of course, that what he +might communicate, as well as their whole interview, must be purely +confidential. The agents, he said, were selected with the utmost care, +and were usually asked to subscribe articles, and sworn to secrecy; +but that he had so much confidence in Bart, that this would not be +necessary. Bart, who listened impassively, said that he understood +the rule of implied confidence extended only to communications in +themselves right and honorable; and that of course Mr. Greer could +have no other to make to him. Greer inquired what he meant. Bart +said that if a man approached, with or without exacting a pledge of +confidence, and made him a proposition strictly honorable, he should +of course regard it as sacred; but if he proposed to him to unite in +a robbery, house-burning, or to pass counterfeit money, or commit any +breach of morality, he should certainly hold himself at liberty to +disclose it, if he deemed it necessary. "If I am, in advance, asked to +regard a proposed communication as confidential, I should understand, +of course, that the proposer impliedly pledged that it should be of +a character that a man of honor could listen to and entertain; of +course, Mr. Greer, you can have no other to make to me, and you know I +would not listen to any other." + +During this statement, made with the utmost courtesy, Bart looked +Greer steadily in the face, and received a calm, full, unwinking look +in return. Greer assured him that his notions of the ethics of honor, +while they were nice, were his own, and he was glad to act upon them; +that he was not on that day fully authorized to open up the matter, +but should doubtless receive full instructions in a day or two; and he +had called to-day more to keep his word with Bart than to enter upon +an actual business transaction. Nothing could be franker and more +open than his way and manner in saying this; and as he was trained to +keenness of observation, he may have detected the flitting smile that +just hovered on Bart's lips. After a little pleasant commonplace talk +of common things, the leisurely Greer took a cordial leave, and never +approached Bart but once again. + +At the Whig nominating convention, for the county of Geanga, that +Fall, Major Ridgeley, who had, by a vote of the officers of his +regiment, become its Colonel, was a candidate for the office of +sheriff. He was popular, well-known, and his prospects fair. The +office was attractive, its emoluments good, and it was generally +sought after by the best class of ambitious men in the counties. + +He was defeated in the convention through a defection of his supposed +friends, which he charged, justly or otherwise, upon Judge Markham. +The disappointment was bitter, and he was indignant, of course. +Like Bart, when he thought a mishap was without remedy, he neither +complained nor asked explanations. When he and the Judge next met, +it was with cool contempt on his side, and with surprise, and then +coldness, on the part of Markham. Their words were few and courteous, +but for the next eighteen months they avoided each other. Of course, +Bart sympathized with his brother Morris; although he did not suppose +the Judge was ever committed, still he felt that he and all his +friends should have stood by his brother, and apprehended that the +Judge's dislike to him may have influenced his course. However that +may have been, Judge Markham never approached Bart, who continued to +act upon his old determination to avoid the whole Markham family. + +His engagements took the Judge to the State capital for the winter, +where, with his wife and Julia, he remained until the early spring, +following; as did also General and Mrs. Ford. + +Barton undertook the school in his mother's neighborhood for the +winter, with the understanding that he might attend to calls in the +line of his proposed profession, which grew upon his hands. He pushed +his studies with unremitting ardor; he had already made arrangements +with Mr. Ranney to enter his office on the first of the April +following, and hoped to secure an admission in the next September, +when he should seek a point for business, to which he proposed to +remove his mother and younger brothers, as soon afterwards as his +means would warrant. + +His friend Theodore had gone away permanently, from Newbury, and the +winter passed slowly and monotonously to Bart. He knew, although +he would not admit to himself, that the principal reason of his +discontent was the absence of Julia. What was she to him? What could +she ever be? and yet, how dreary was Newbury--the only place he had +ever loved---when she was away. Of course she would wed, some time, +and was undoubtedly much admired, and sought, and courted, by elegant +and accomplished men, this winter, upon whom she smiled, and to whom +she gave her hand when she met them, and who were permitted to dance +with her, and be near her at any time. And what was it all to him? How +sore, after all, his heart was; and how he hated and cursed himself, +that he must still think of her! He would go forever and ever away, +and ever so far away, and would hear and think of her no more. But +when she came back, with March, he somehow felt her return, and Spring +seemed naturally to come with her; and bright thoughts, and beautiful +and poetic figures and images, would arrange themselves in couplets +and stanzas, with her in the centre, in spite of him. + +Then came sugar making, with life and health of spirit, in the woods. +His brother was arranging to dispose of his interests, and had gone +further West, to look for a new point, for new enterprises. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +LOST. + + +March and sugar making had gone, and Bart had completed his scanty +arrangements to depart also; and no matter what the future might have +for him, he knew that he was now leaving Newbury; that whatever might +happen, his home would certainly be elsewhere; although it would +forever remain the best, and perhaps sole home of his heart and +memory. + +What he could do for his mother he had done. His limited wardrobe was +packed. He went to the pond, to all the dear and cherished places in +the woods; and one night he was guilty of the folly, as he knew it +was, of wandering up the State road, past Judge Markham's house. He +did not pretend to himself that it was not with the hope of seeing +Julia, but he only passed the darkened house where she lived, and went +disappointed away. He would go on the morrow, and when it came, he +sent his trunk up to Hiccox's, intending to walk down in the evening, +and intercept the stage, as Henry had done. + +He went again to his brother's grave, and there, on its head, was an +almost fresh wreath of wild flowers! He was unmanned; and, kneeling, +touched the dead children of the Spring with his lips, and dropped +tears upon them. How grateful he was that a watchful love was there to +care for this consecrated place, and he felt that he could not go +that night. What mattered one day? He would wait till to-morrow, +he thought, but was restless and undecided. George left him at the +cemetery, and went to the post-office, and was to have gone with +Edward to see him off, on the stage. As the time to leave approached, +Bart found his disinclination to go even stronger; and he finally told +his mother he would remain until the next day. + +She, unwomanlike, did not like the idea of his yielding to this +reluctance to go. "He was ready, nothing detained him, why not have +the final pain of going over at once?" + +He made no reply, but lounged restlessly about. + +At about nine o'clock George came bursting in, with his eyes flashing, +and his golden hair wet with perspiration; and catching his breath, +and reducing and restraining his voice, cried out: "Julia Markham is +lost in the woods, and they can't find her!" The words struck Bart +like electricity, and at once made him his best self. + +"Lost, George?" taking him by both hands, and speaking coolly, "tell +me all about it." + +A few great gasps had relieved George, and the cool, firm hands of +Bart had fully restored his quick wits. + +"She and Nell Roberts had been to Coe's, and Orville started to go +home with Julia, and he did go down to Judge Markham's fields, where +he left her." + +"Well?" + +"She did not go home, nor anywhere, and they have been looking for +her, all through the woods, everywhere." + +"All through what woods, Georgie?" + +"Down between Coe's and the State road." + +"They will never find her there; there is a new chopping, back of +Judge Markham's fields, which she mistook for the fields, and when +she found out the mistake she turned back to the old road, and I will +wager the world that she went into 'the woods,' confused and lost." +After a moment--"Mother, put some of your wine in my hunting-flask, +and give me something that can be eaten. Edward, bring me two of those +bundles of hickory; and George, let me have your hatchet and belt." + +He spoke in his ordinary voice, but he looked like one inspired. +Throwing off his coat, and arraying himself in a red "wamus," and +replacing his boots with heavy, close-fitting brogans, he was ready. + +"Boys," said he, "go about and notify all in the neighborhood to meet +at Markham's, at daylight; and tell them for God's sake, if she is not +found, to form a line, and sweep through the west woods. If I am +not back by daylight, push out and do all you can. Mother, don't be +anxious for me. If it storms and grows cold, you know I am a born +woodsman. I know now what kept me." + +"I am anxious, Barton, only that you may find her. God go with you!" + +With the other things, Edward placed in his hands a long wax taper, +made for the sugar camp, lighted, and with a kiss to his mother, and a +cheery good-night to the boys, he sprang out. + +As Julia did not return at dark, her father and mother supposed she +had stopped with Nell Roberts. Mrs. Markham remembered the adventure +which signalized her last walk from Coe's, and was anxious; and the +Judge went down to Roberts's for her. Nell had been home one hour, and +said Orville had gone home with Julia. A messenger was hurried off to +Coe's, and word was sent through the neighborhood, to call out the men +and boys. It had been years since an alarm and a hunt for the lost had +occurred. The messenger returned with young Coe, who said that he went +with Miss Markham to within sight of her father's fields, when she +insisted that he should return, and he did. + +Cool and collected, the Judge and his party, with lanterns and +torches, accompanied by Coe, proceeded to the point where he parted +with Julia, when it was discovered that what she had mistaken for +her father's fields, was a new opening in the woods, a considerable +distance back from them. It was supposed that in endeavoring to find +a passage through, or around the fallen timber, she had lost her way. +Obviously, if she went back towards the old road, which was a broad +opening through the woods, she would in no event cross it, and must +be somewhere within the forest, east of it, and between the State +road and the one which led from it to Coe's. Through these woods, with +flashing torch and gleaming lantern, with shout and loud halloa, the +Judge and his now numerous party swept. As often as a dry tree or +combustible matter was found, it was set on fire, there being no +danger of burning over the forest, wet with the rains of Spring. + +This forest covered hundreds of acres, traversed by streams and +gullies, and rocky precipices, rendered difficult of passage by fallen +trees, thickets, twining vines and briers. + +The weather had been intensely hot for the season, ominously so, for +the last two days, and on this day, the sun, after hanging like a +fiery ball in the thickening heavens, disappeared at mid-afternoon, +in the dark mass of vapor that gathered in the lower atmosphere. The +night came on early, with a black darkness, and while there was no +wind, there was a low, humming moan in the air, as if to warn +of coming tempest, and the atmosphere was already chill with the +approaching change. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BABES IN THE WOODS. + + +"There, Orville, here are our fields. I am almost home; now hurry back. +It is late. I am obliged to you." They had reached the opening, and +the young man turned back, and the young girl tripped lightly and +carelessly on; not to find the fence, as she expected, but an expanse +of fallen timber, huge trunks, immense jams of tree-tops, and numerous +piles of brush, under which the path was hidden. As she looked over +and across, in the gloomy twilight, trees seemed to stand thick and +high on the other side. Julia at once concluded that they had taken +a wrong path; and she thought that she remembered to have seen +one, which she and Barton passed, on the memorable night of their +adventure; and without attempting to traverse the chopping, or go +around it, she turned and hurried back to the old road. As she went, +she thought of what had then happened, and how pleasant it would be if +he were with her, and how bad it had all been since that time. + +When she got back to the old road, it seemed very strange, and as +if it had undergone some change; looking each way, for a moment, +undecided, she finally walked rapidly to the north, until she came to +a path leading to the left, which she entered, with a sense of relief, +and hurried forward. + +It was quite dark, silent, and gloomy in the woods, and she sped +on--on past huge trees, through open glades, down through little +sinks and swales, and up on high ground, until she came to an opening. +"Thank God! thank God!" cried the relieved and grateful child; "I am +out at last. How glad I am!" And she reached the margin of the woods, +to be confronted with an interminable black jungle of fallen and +decaying tree-trunks, limbs and thick standing brush, over which, and +out of which, stood the dense tops of young trees. She paused for +a moment, and turning to the left, thought to skirt about this +obstruction, until she should reach the fence and field, which she +was sure were now near her. On and on, and still on she went; over the +trunks of fallen trees, through tangles of brush and pools of water, +until, when she turned to look for the opening, she was alarmed and +dismayed to find that it had disappeared. Her heart now for the first +time sank within her. She listened, but no sound, save the ominous +moan in the air, came to her ear. The solemn, still, black night was +all about her. She looked up, and a cold, starless, dim blank was +all over her; and all around, standing thick, were cold, dark, silent +trees. She stood and tried to think back: where was she, and how +came she there? She knew she had once turned back, from something to +somewhere--to the old road, as she remembered; and it flashed across +her, that in the strange appearance of things, and in her confusion, +she had crossed it, and was in the awful, endless woods! How far had +she gone? If lost, had she wandered round and round, as lost folks do? +Then she thought of her dear, distracted mother, and of her brave +and kind father. She had been missed, and they were looking for her. +Everybody would hear of it, and would join in the hunt; and Barton +might hear of it, and if he did, she knew he would come to find her. +He was generous and heroic; and what a wonder and a talk it would all +make, and she didn't care if it did. Then she wondered if she had not +better stop and stand still, for fear she would go wrong. How awfully +dark it was, and the air was chilly. Did she really know which way +home was? And she strained her unseeing eyes intently for a moment, +and then closed them, to let the way come into her mind. That must +be the way, and she would go in that direction until she thought she +could make them hear; and then she would call. And ere she started, +amid the cold, unpitying trees, in her purity and innocence, that +savage nature reveres and respects, she knelt and prayed; she asked +for guidance and strength, and arose hopeful. But she found that she +was very weary: her feet were wet and cold, and when she was to start, +that she was confused and uncertain as to the direction. One more +invocation, and she went forward. How far or how long she travelled, +she had no idea. She paused to listen: no sound. Perhaps they would +now hear her, and she raised her voice, and called her father's name, +and again and again, with all her force, through the black, blank, +earless night, she sent her cry. + +As her voice went out, hope, and spirit, and strength went with it. +She trembled and wept, and tried once again to pray. She clasped her +hands; but suffocating darkness seemed to close over her, and she felt +lost, utterly and hopelessly lost! + +A sense of injustice, of ill-usage, came to her, and she dried her +eyes; she was young, and brave, and strong; and must; and would care +for herself. She should not perish; day would come some time, and she +should get out. She found she was very cold, and must arouse and exert +herself. Then came the thought and dread of wild animals; of that +awful beast; and she listened, and could hear their stealthy steps in +the dry leaves, and she shrunk from meeting the horrid glare of their +eyes. Oh, if Barton were only with her, just to drive them away! God +would protect him. + +There--as she could not help but stare into the black darkness, there +surely was the glare of their eyes, that horrid, yellowish-green, +glassy glare! and with a shriek she fled--not far, for she fell, and a +half swoon brought her a moment's oblivion; when the dead cold night, +and the dumb trees came back about her again. With the reaction she +arose, and found that she had lost her hood. She felt that a wild +beast had torn it from her head; and that she had taken his hot, brute +breath. + +Weak, hardly with the power of motion, she supported herself by the +trunk of a tree. "Father! Father God! a helpless, weak child calls +to Thee; show me my sin, let me repent of it; weak and lost, and +hopeless; sweet Saviour, with Thy loving sympathy, stay and help my +fainting heart. If it be Thy will that I perish, receive my spirit, +and let this weak, vain body, unmangled, be given back to my poor +grief-stricken parents. God and Saviour, hear me!" + +There now came to her ear the voice of running water. It had a sweet +sound of companionship and hope, and she made towards it, and soon +found herself on the banks of a wild and rapid stream. "Oh, thanks! +thanks!" she murmured, "this runs from darkness out to human +habitations, somewhere. It will lead out to daylight, and on its banks +are human homes, somewhere. Oh, give me strength to follow it, it is +so hard to perish here!" + +The wind had long been blowing, and had now risen to a tempest, bitter +and sharp from the north, and the trees were bending and breaking +under its fury. Julia was thoroughly chilled, and her feet were +benumbed with cold. She had been aware for some time that snow was +sifting over her, and rattling on the dry leaves under her feet. +She was dizzy, and almost overcome with sleep; and was conscious of +strange visions and queer voices, that seemed to haunt her senses. +Could she hold out till morning? She could not fix her wandering mind, +even on this question. She occasionally heard her own voice in broken +murmurs, but did not understand what she said. It was like the voice +of another. She knew her mouth was dry and parched with thirst, but +never thought of trying to drink from the stream, whose drowsy voice +ran through her wandering consciousness. The impulse to move on +remained long after all intelligent power of directing her movements +had left her; and blindly and mechanically, she staggered and reeled +about for a few or many minutes, until she sank to the earth unable +and unwilling to struggle further. Her last act was with pure womanly +instinct, to draw her torn and draggled skirts about her limbs and +feet. The faces of her father and mother, warm and sweet, were with +her for a moment, and she tried to think of her Heavenly Father; and +another face was all the time present, full of tenderness and love; +and then all faded into oblivion, blank and utter ... + +What was it? something whispered, or seemed to whisper in her heart as +vague consciousness returned, unutterably sweet; was it the voice +of an angel coming to bear her hence? Once again! and now her ear +caught--and still again--a voice of earth, clear; and it had power +to start her up from under the snow, that was surely weaving and +thickening her virgin winding-sheet. God in heaven! once again! +Strong, clear and powerful, it pealed through the arches of the +forest, overtopping the tempest. It was a voice she knew, and if aught +might, it would have called her back from death; as now, from a deadly +swoon. + +And once again, and nearer, with a cadence of impatience, and almost +doubt, a faint answer went back; and then a gleam of light; a broad, +wavering circle of glory, and Barton, with his flashing eyes, and +eager, flushed face, with his mass of damp curls filled with snow, and +dashed back, sprang with a glad cry to her side! + +"Barton!" she cried, trying to rise, and throwing out her hands to +him. + +"Oh, Julia! you are found! you are alive! Thank God! thank God!" +Throwing himself on his knees by her, and, clasping her cold hands +in his, and, in a paroxysm, pressing them to his lips and heart, and +covering them with kisses and with tears. + +"God sent you to me! God sent you to me!" murmured the poor, dear +grateful girl. + +Bart's self-command returned in a moment; he lifted her to her feet, +and supported her. "You are nearly frozen, and the snow had already +covered you. See what my mother sent to you," filling the top of his +flask and placing it to her lips. "It is nothing but old wine." How +revivingly it seemed to run through her veins! "I am very thirsty," +she said, and he brought her a full draught from the running stream. + +"Can you walk? let me carry you. We must get to some shelter." + +"I thought you would come. Where is my father?" + +"I am alone--may I save you?" + +"Oh, Barton!" + +"I have not seen your father; they are looking for you, miles away. +How under the heavens did you ever find your way here? How you must +have suffered! See! here is your hood!" placing it over her tangled +and dripping hair. "And let me put this on you." Removing his "wamus," +and putting her arms through the sleeves, he tied the lower corners +about her little waist, and buttoned the top over her bosom and +about her neck. He gave her another draught of wine, and paused for a +moment--"I must carry you." + +"Oh, I can walk!" said the revived girl, with vivacity. + +He lifted his nearly consumed torch, and conducted her to the stream. +"We must cross this, and find shelter on the other side." He let +himself at once from the abrupt bank, into the cold, swift water, +that came to his middle. "I must carry you over;" unhesitatingly +she stooped over to him, and was taken with one strong arm fully to +himself, while he held his torch with the other. He turned with her +then, and plunged across the creek, holding her above its waters. Its +deepest part ran next the bank where he entered; fortunately it was +not very wide, and he bore her safely to the opposite and lower bank. + +The other side was protected from the tempest, which was at its +greatest fury, by a high and perpendicular ledge of rocks which the +course of the creek followed, but leaving a narrow space of hard land +along the base. Under the shelter, Bart turned up stream with his +charge, occasionally lifting his torch and inspecting the mossy ledge. +Within a few feet of them the snow fell in wreaths and swirls, and +sometimes little eddies of wind sifted it over them. + +"Somewhere near here, is a place where they made shingles last summer, +and there was a shed against the rocks, if we could only find it." +Finally they doubled an abrupt angle in the nearly smooth wall, which +bent suddenly back from the stream, for many feet, making a semicircle +of a little space, and in the back of which Bart discovered the +anxiously looked-for shed;--a mere rude cover, on posts driven into +the ground. + +Under and about it were great quantities of dry shavings, and short +bits of wood, the hearts and saps of shingle blocks. To place a pile +of these on the margin of the creek, and apply his torch to them, took +but a moment; and in an instant a bright, white flame flashed and lit +up the little sheltered alcove. Another, and the almost overcome girl +was placed on a seat of soft, dry shavings, against the moss-grown +rock, under the rude roof, out of the reach of the snow or wind; and +another fire was lit of the dry shingle blocks, at her feet, from +which her saturated shoes were removed, and to which warmth was soon +restored. + +Barton now took from a pocket on the outside of the "wamus," a small +parcel, and produced some slices of tongue and bread, which the +famished girl ate with the relish and eagerness of a hungry child. +More wine, now mingled with water, completed her repast; and Bart made +further preparations for her comfort and rest. A larger mass of the +shavings so adjusted that she could recline upon them, was arranged +for her, which made an easy, springy couch; and as she lay wearily +back upon them, still others were placed about and over her, until, +protected as she was, warmth and comfort came to her. + +What a blessed sense of shelter, and safety, and peace, as from +heaven, fell upon the rescued girl's heart! And how exquisitely +delicious to be carried, and supported, and served by this beautiful +and heroic youth, who hovered about her so tenderly, and kneeling at +her feet, so gently and sweetly ministered to her! No thought of being +compromised, none of impropriety in the atmosphere of absolute purity, +came to cloud the stainless mind of the maiden. No memory of the past, +no thought of the future, was near her. She was lost, exhausted, and +dying, and God sent him to her; and she accepted him as from the hand +of God. He had restored, warmed and cheered her. She was under shelter +and protection, and now heavy with sleep, and still the storm raged +all about and over their heads, and the snow still fell within a few +feet of them, while in that little circle warmth and light pulsated, +like a tender human heart. + +When all was done that occurred to the tender, thoughtful youth, and +the eyes of the maiden were dreamily closing: "Have you said your +prayers?" asked Bart, who had spoken barely a word since lighting the +fires. + +"Not of thanks for my deliverance," replied the girl. "Will you say a +prayer for us?" in a low, sweet voice. + +The youth knelt a little from her. + +"Our Father, Whose Presence is Heaven, and Whose Presence is +everywhere, let this weary, wandering one feel that Presence in Its +sweetest power; let her repose in It; and through all time rest in +It. Hush the storm, and make short the hours of darkness, and with +the dawn give her back to her home of love. Impress her parents with a +sense of her safety. Remember my widowed mother and young brothers. +Be with all wanderers, all unsheltered birds, and lambs on bleak +hill-sides, and with all helpless, hopeless things." + +He ceased. + +"You ask nothing for yourself, Barton," in her tenderest voice. + +"Have I not been permitted to save you? What remains for me to ask?" + +How these words came to her afterwards! She turned, moved a little, as +if to make room, and slept. + +Barton shall at some time, in his own way, tell of his experiences of +that strange night. + +It had never come near him--the thought of seeking and saving her +for himself---and when he found her perishing, and bore her over the +water, and found shelter, and cheered and restored her, and as he now +sat to protect her, the idea that she was or could be more to him, or +different from what she had been, never approached him. It had been +an inspiration to seek her, and a great possession to find her. It had +brought back to him his self-respect, and had perhaps redeemed him, in +her eyes, from the scorn and contempt with which she had regarded him, +and in his heart he gratefully thanked God for it. Now his path was +open and serene, although unwarmed and unlighted with this precious +love, and so, in the heart of the forest, in the soul of the night, in +the bosom of the tempest, he had brought life and hope and peace +and rest to her, and an angel could not have done it with a purer +self-abnegation. + +He sat near her, at the foot of an old hemlock, waiting for the dawn. +The forest and night and storm thus held in their arms these two +young, strong, brave, sweet, and rich natures, so tender, and so +estranged, till the morning light brightened and flashed up in the +serene sky, and sent a new day over the snow-wreathed earth. The +tempest subsided, the snow ceased, the wind sunk to whispers, and the +young morning was rosy in the east. + +Barton had kept the fire burning near Julia, and when the new light +became decided, approached her, and not without some anxiety: "Miss +Markham--Miss Markham--Miss Markham!" raising his voice at each +repetition. She did not hear. "Julia!" in a low voice, bending over +her. Her eyes opened to the rude roof over her, and she started, +turned to him, flushed, and smiled: "Oh, we are still here in the +woods! Is it day?" + +"Yes; how do you feel? Can you walk?" cheerily. + +"Oh yes, I haven't suffered much!" rising from the woody coverings, +which she gayly shook from her. + +"Excuse me, while you make your toilet in this extensive +dressing-room, and I will look about. I will not go far, or be gone +long." Going still further up the stream, he found the end of the +ledge of rocks, with a steepish hill sloping down to the creek, down +which, under the snow, appeared to wind a road, which crossed the +creek when the water was low. He turned into this road, and went up +to the top of the hill, from which he could see an opening in the +otherwise unbroken woods, and a little farther on he was gladdened +with the sight of a smoke, rising like a cloud-column, above the +trees. + +He hastened back to find Julia equipped, and busy placing new fuel to +the crackling fire. "There is a cabin not more than half a mile away, +and the snow is not more than two or three inches deep; we can easily +reach it," he said, brightly. + +"Oh, Barton!" said the girl, with a deep rich voice, coming to +him, "how can we ever--how can my father and mother ever--how can I +repay"--and her voice broke and faltered with emotion, and tears fell +from her wondrous eyes. + +"Perhaps," said Bart, off his guard, "perhaps you may be willing to +forget the past!" + +"The past--forget the past?" + +"Pardon me, it was unfortunate! Let us go." + +"Barton!" + +"Not a word now," said Bart, gayly. "I am the doctor, you are terribly +shaken up, and not yourself. I shall not let you say a word of thanks. +Why, we are not out of the woods yet!"--this last laughingly. "When +you are all your old self, and in your pleasant home, everything of +this night and morning will come to you." + +"What do you mean, Mr. Ridgeley?" a little coolly. + +"Nothing," in a sad, low voice. They had gained the road. "See," said +he, "here is somebody's road, from some place to somewhere; we will +follow it up to the some place. There! I hear an axe. I hope he is +cutting wood; and there--you can see the smoke of his cabin. + + 'I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled.' + +Oh, I hope he will have a rousing fire." + +Julia walked rapidly and silently by his side, hardly hearing his last +words; she was thinking why he would not permit her to thank him--and +that it would all be recalled in her home--finally, his meaning came +to her. He would seek and save her from death, and even from the +memory of an unconsidered word, which might possibly be misconstrued; +and she clung more closely to the arm which had borne her over the +flood. + +"I am hurrying you, I fear." + +"No, not a bit. Oh, now I can see the cabin; and there is the man, +right by the side of it." + +"It must be Wilder's," said Bart. "He moved into the woods here +somewhere." + +As they approached, the chopper stopped abruptly, and gazed on them +in blank wonder. The dishevelled girl, with hanging hair, and red +"wamus," and the wild, haggard-looking, coatless youth, with belt +and hatchet, were as strange apparitions, coming up out of the +interminable woods, as could well meet the gaze of a rustic +wood-chopper of an early morning. + +"Can you give this young lady shelter and food?" asked Bart, gravely. + +"I guess so," said the man; "been out all night?" and he hurried them +into a warm and cheerful room, bright with a blazing fire, where was a +comely, busy matron, who turned to them in speechless surprise. + +"This is Judge Markham's daughter," said Bart, as Julia sank into a +chair, strongly inclined to break down completely; "she got lost, last +night, near her father's, and wandered all night alone, and I found +her just beyond the creek, not more than two hours ago. I must place +her in your hands, my good woman." + +"Poor, precious thing!" cried the woman, kneeling and pulling off her +shoes, and placing her chilled feet to the fire. "What a blessed mercy +you did not perish, you darling." + +"I should, if it had not been for him," now giving way. Mrs. Wilder +stepped a moment into the other of the two rooms, into which the +lower floor of the cabin was divided, and spoke to some one in it; +and giving Julia a bowl of hot milk and tea, led her to the inner +apartment. + +"Take care of him;" were her words, as she left, nodding her head +towards Barton. + +"How far is it to Markham's?" asked Bart. + +"'Bout seven mile round, an' five 'cross." + +"Have you a horse?" + +"Fust rate!" + +"Saddle him, and go to Markham's at once. The father and mother of +this girl are frantic: a thousand men are hunting for her; you'll be +paid." + +"I don't want no pay," said Wilder, hurrying out. Five minutes later, +sitting on his saddle, he received a slip of paper from Bart. + +"Who shall I say?" said Wilder, not without curiosity on his own +account. + +"That will tell the Judge all he'll want to know. He will hear my name +as soon as he will care to." + +Wilder dashed off down the forest-road by which Bart and Julia had +approached his house. + +Bart went listlessly into the house. His energy and excitement had +suddenly died out, with the exigency which called them forth; his +mental glow and physical effort, both wonderful and long-continued to +an intense strain, left him, and in the reaction he almost collapsed. +Mrs. Wilder offered him one of her husband's coats. He was not cold. +She placed a smoking breakfast before him. He loathed its sight and +fragrance, and drank a little milk. + +She knew he was a hero; so young and so handsome, yet a mere boy; his +sad, grave face had a wonderful beauty to her, and his manners were +so high, and like a gentleman born. She asked him some questions about +his finding Julia, and he answered dreamily, and in few words, and +seemed hardly to know what he said. + +"Is Miss Markham asleep?--is she quiet?" + +Mrs. Wilder stepped to the inner room. "She is," she answered; +"nothing seems to ail her but weariness and exhaustion. She will not +suffer from it." + +"Is she alone?" + +"She is in bed with my daughter Rose." + +"May I just look at her one moment?" + +"Certainly." + +One look from the door at the sweetly-sleeping face, and without a +word he hurried from the house. He had felt a great heart-throb when +he came upon her in the woods, and now, when all was over, and no +further call for action or invention was on him, the strong, wild rush +of the old love for a moment overwhelmed him. It would assert itself, +and was his momentary master. But presently he turned away, with an +unspoken and final adieu. + +Two hours later the Judge, on his smoking steed, dashed up to the +cabin, followed by the Doctor and two or three others. As he touched +the ground, Julia, with a cry of joy, sprang into his arms. + +She had murmured in her sleep, awoke, and would get up and dress. +She laughed, and said funny little things at her looks and dress, and +examined the "wamus" with great interest, with a blush put it on, and +tied it coquettishly about her waist, then seemed to think, and took +it off gravely. Next she ran eagerly out to the other room, and asked +for Bart, and looked grave, and wondered, when Mrs. Wilder told her he +had gone, and she wondered that Mrs. Wilder would let him go. + +She kissed that good woman when she first got up, and was already in +love with sweet, shy, tall, comely Rose, who was seventeen, and had +made fast friends with Ann and George, the younger ones. Then she ran +out into the melting snow and bright soft air. How serene it all was, +and how tall and silent stood the trees, in the bright sun! How calm +and innocent it all was, and looked as if nothing dreadful had ever +happened in it, and a robin came and sang from an old tree, near by. + +And she talked, and wondered about her mother and father, and, +by little bits, told much of what happened the night before; and +wondered--this time to herself--why Bart went off; and she looked sad +over it. + +Mrs. Wilder looked at her, and listened to her, and in her woman's +heart she pondered of these two, and wished she had kept Bart; she was +sad and sorry for them, and most for him, for she saw his soul die in +his eyes as he turned from Julia's sleeping face. + +Then came the tramp of horses, and Julia sprang out, and into her +father's arms. + +One hour after came Julia's mother and Nell, in the light carriage; +and kisses, and tears, and little laughy sobs, and words that ran out +with little freshets of tears, and unanswered questions, and unasked +answers, broken and incoherent; yet all were happy, and all thankful +and grateful to their Father in Heaven; and blessings and thanks--many +of them unsaid--to the absent one. + +And so the lost one was restored, and soon they started back. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +AT JUDGE MARKHAM'S. + + +When Mrs. Markham at last realized that Julia was lost, she hastily +arrayed herself and went out with the others to search for her, +calmly, hopefully, and persistently. She went, and clambered, and +looked, and called, and when she could look and go no further, as +woman may, she waited, and watched, and prayed, and the night grew +cold, and the wind and snow came, and as trumpets were blown and guns +discharged, and fires lighted in the woods, and torches flashed and +lanterns gleamed through the trees, she still watched, and hoped, and +prayed. + +When at last the storm and exhaustion drove men in, she was very calm +and pale, said little, and went about with chilled tears in her eyes. + +Judge Markham was a strong, brave, sagacious man, and struggled and +fought to the last, but finally in silence he rejoined his silent +wife. At about three in the morning, and while the storm was at its +height, she turned from the blank window where she stood, with a +softened look in her eyes, from which full tides were now for the +first time falling; and approaching her husband, who man-like, when +nothing more could be done by courage and strength, sat with his face +downward on his arms, resting on the table, and breathing great dry +gasps, and sobs of agony. + +"Edward," said she, stooping over him, "it comes to me somehow that +Julia is safe; that she has somewhere found shelter, and we shall find +her." + +And now she murmured, and whispered, and talked, as the impression +seemed to deepen in her own heart, and she knelt, and once more a +fervent prayer of hope and faith went up. The man came and knelt by +her, and joined in her prayer, and grew calm. + +"Julia," said he, "we have at least God, and with Him is all." + +When the morning came, five hundred anxious and determined men, +oppressed with sad forebodings, had gathered from all that region for +the search. + +Persistently they adhered to the idea that the missing girl was in the +lower woods. + +A regular organized search by men and boys, in a continuous line, +was resolved upon. Marshals were appointed, signals agreed upon, and +appliances and restoratives provided; and the men were hastening +to their places. A little knot near the Judge's house were still +discussing the matter, as in doubt about the expediency of further +search in that locality. + +George was in this group, and had, as directed, given Barton's +opinion. Judge Markham, who was giving some last directions joined +these men, and listened while Uncle Jonah, in a few words, explained +Bart's theory--that the girl would turn back from the chopping to the +old road, and if there confused, would be likely to go into the woods, +and directly away from her home. + +"And where is Bart?" asked the Judge. + +"He started at about nine last night, with two big bundles of +hickory," said George, "to look for her, and had not returned half an +hour ago." + +"Where did he go?" asked the Judge eagerly. + +"Into the woods." + +"And has not returned?" + +"No." + +"Your girl is safe," said Uncle Jonah. "The boy has found her, I'll +bet my soul!" + +While the Judge stood, struck and a little startled, by this +information, and Jonah's positive assurance, a man on a foaming steed +came plunging down the hill, just south of the house, and pulling up, +called out, "Where is Judge Markham?" + +"I am he." + +"Oh! Good-morning, Judge! This is for you. Your girl is safe." + +The Judge eagerly took the paper, gazed at it, and at the man, +speechless. + +"She's at my house, Judge, safe and sound." + +And then the group of men gave a shout; a cheer; and then another, and +another--and the men forming in the near-line heard it and took it up, +and repeated it, and it ran and rang miles away; and all knew that the +lost one was found, and safe. + +No man who has not felt the lifting up of such an awful pressure, can +estimate the rush of escaped feeling and emotion that follows it; and +none who have not witnessed its sudden effect upon a crowd of eager, +joyous men, shouting, cheering, crying, weeping, scrambling and +laughing, can comprehend it, and none can describe it. All hurried +eagerly back to the Judge's, gathered about the happy, wondering +Wilder, and patted and caressed his smoking horse. + +Mrs. Markham knew it, and with radiant face and eyes came out with her +grateful husband, when the bright sky again rang with the cheers of +the assembled multitude. After quiet came, the Judge read to them the +paper he had received from Wilder: + +"JUDGE MARKHAM: + +"Your daughter was found this morning, on the banks of the creek, a +mile from Wilder's, overcome and much exhausted. She rallied, got into +Wilder's, and appears strong and well. Wilder will take you to her." + +"Whose name is to it, Judge?" + +"There is none--who gave it to you?" + +"The young man who found the young lady, and he didn't give his name, +said the Judge would hear it as soon as he would want to," was the +answer; "he didn't talk much." + +"It was Barton Ridgeley," said Jonah. And the name of Barton went up +with new cheers, and louder than any. + +Soon away went the Judge, on a splendid chestnut, with the Doctor, and +two or three others, on horseback, followed by Mrs. Markham and Nell +Roberts in a carriage. The sun mounted up, the snow melted away, and +so did the crowd. Some returned home, and many gathered in little +knots to talk up the exciting event. The absurdest speculations were +indulged in, as to how Bart found Julia, and what would come out +of it. There was an obvious element of romance in the affair that +appealed to the sensibilities of the rudest. And then, would Bart come +back with Julia? + +As the day advanced, the neighboring women and children gathered +at Judge Markham's, all glad and happy, and a little teary over the +exciting incidents, and all impatient for the return of Julia. + +At a little past two the party returned--the Judge, Mrs. Markham, +Julia, and Nell, in the carriage--Julia on the front seat with her +father, a little pale, but with sparkling eyes, radiant, and never so +lovely. As the carriage drove up, a noisy welcome saluted her. As she +arose to alight, and again as she was about to enter the house, her +mother observed her cast her eyes eagerly over the crowd, as if in +search of some face, and she knew by her look that she did not find +it. What a gathering about her, and kissing and clinging and crying of +women and girls! Then followed, "ohs!" and "ahs!" and "wonders!" and +"did you evers!" and "never in my born days!" "and did Barton really +find you?" and "where is he?" etc. + +Every one noticed that he did not come with them, and wondered, and +demanded to know where he was, and doubted if he had had anything to +do with it, after all. + +The Judge told them, that by some means not yet explained, Barton +had found her, overcome, chilled, exhausted and in a swoon, and had +carried and conducted her out to Wilder's; that when she was restored, +he sent Wilder off with the news, and then went home, and that the +Doctor and Roberts had gone around to his mother's to see him. Beyond +doubt he had saved his daughter's life. He spoke with an honest, manly +warmth, and the people were satisfied, and lingeringly and reluctantly +dispersed to talk and wonder over the affair, and especially the part +Barton had performed. + +Toward sunset, Julia, in her luxurious chamber and night-robes, seemed +anxious and restless. Her mother was with her, and tried to soothe +her. Her father entered with a cheery face. + +"Roberts has just returned," he said. "Barton got home in the morning, +very much exhausted, of course. He seems not to have told his mother +much, and went to his room, and had not been out. His mother would not +permit him to be disturbed, and said he would be out all right in the +morning." + +"Did the Doctor see him?" asked Julia. + +"I suppose not; I will go and bring him around in the morning myself," +said the Judge. + +"Thank you, Papa; I would so like to see him, and I want to know how +he found me," said Julia. + +"I wonder he did not tell you," said the Judge. + +"He hardly spoke," said Julia, "unless compelled to, and told me I was +too broken down to say anything. I tried to thank him, and he said I +was not myself, and stopped me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +AFTER. + + +Toward noon of the next day, the Judge drove up to his own gate, +alone, and not a little troubled. His wife and daughter were evidently +expecting him. They seemed disappointed. + +"Wouldn't he come?" asked his wife. + +"He was not there to come." + +"Not there!" from both. + +"No; he went off in the stage last night to Jefferson." + +"Went off! Why, father!" + +"Well, it seems that he had arranged to leave on Tuesday, and sent +his trunk out to Hiccox's, but didn't go; and all day Wednesday +he wandered about, his mother said, seeming reluctant to start. At +evening she said he appeared much depressed, and said he would not go +until the next evening." + +"Thank God!" said the ladies. + +"George," continued the Judge, "who had been down to the Post-office, +heard that you were lost, and hurried home, and told him all he +had heard. His mother said when he heard it he asked a good many +questions, and said, 'I know now why I stayed,' and that in five +minutes he was off to the woods." + +"Father, there was a special Providence in it all." + +"And did Providence send him off last night?" + +"Perhaps so." + +"Did his mother tell how he came to think Julia had crossed the old +road?" + +"He didn't tell his mother much about it. She said he was more +cheerful and lighter hearted than he had been for a year, but did not +seem inclined to talk much; ate a very little breakfast, and went to +bed, saying that he hoped she would not let anybody disturb him. He +did not come down again until five, and then told her he should leave +that evening. She tried to dissuade him, but he said he must go--that +he was not wanted here any more--that he felt it was better for him +to go at once. She said that she spoke to him of us, of Julia, saying +that she thought he ought to remain and let us see him, if we wished. +He answered that he had better go then, and that they would understand +it. He said they might perhaps call and say some things to her; if +they did, she should say to them that he could understand what their +feelings might be, and appreciated them; that it was not necessary to +say anything to him; that he wished all the past to be forgotten, and +that nothing might be said or done to recall it; he had left Newbury +forever as a home. + +"I told her that I wanted to provide for his studies, and to start him +in business--of course in as delicate a way as possible. She rather +started up at that, and said she hoped I would never in any way make +any offer of help to him. I asked who went with him to meet the stage, +and his mother replied that he went alone--walked down just at dark, +and wouldn't permit either of the boys to go with him." + +"Why Edward! how strange this is!" + +"It isn't strange to me at all," remarked Julia, in a low, depressed +voice. + +"Father, I've a little story to tell you. I should have told it last +night, and then you would have better understood some things that have +occurred. It was nothing that happened between us yesterday morning. I +have told you every word and thing of that." + +Then she recited to the astonished Judge the incidents of her +adventure in the woods with Bart and the wolverine. + +"And I," said the Judge, "have also a little incident to relate," and +he told of the occurrence on the river with which this tale began. + +"Oh, father!" exclaimed Julia, "could you leave him, away there, weary +and alone?" + +"I did not mean to do that; I stopped, and lingered and looked +back, and waited and thought he would ask or call to me," said the +humiliated Judge: "and now he has repaid me by saving your life." + +"Father! father, dear!" going and laying her arm around his neck, +and her cheek against his, "You are my own dear papa, and could never +purposely harm a living thing. It was all to be, I suppose. Mamma, do +you remember the night of Snow's ball, when you playfully complained +of his inattention to you? and he said he would atone for all +offences,-- + + 'In that blissful never, + When the Sundays come together, + And the sun and glorious weather, + Wrapped the earth in spring forever?' + +and he has." + +"I remember, but I could not recall the words." + +"I can repeat the very words of the beautiful prayer that he made in +the woods," said the young girl. + +"And which I seemed to hear," said her mother. + +"And that 'blissful never' came, mother, and all its good was for +me--for us." + +"Not wholly, I trust. This young man's mind and nature are their own +law. His mother said he was lighter-hearted and more like himself than +for a long time. He has suffered much. He mourned more for his brother +than most could. He had lost his own self-respect somehow, and now he +has regained it, and will come to take right views of things, and a +blissful ever may come for him." + +"And he wanted all the past forgotten," said the girl. + +"Of all that happened between you before he has only remembered what +you said to him," said her mother. "And you possibly remember what he +said to you." + +"I remember his generosity and bravery, mother," replied Julia. + +The Judge remained thoughtful. Turning to his wife, "Would you have me +follow him to Jefferson?" + +"No. He went away in part to avoid us; he will be sensitive, and I +would not go to him at present. Write to him; write what you really +feel, a warm and manly letter like your own true self. I am not +certain, though, how he will receive it." + +A silence followed which was broken by Julia. + +"Father, do you know this Mr. Wade with whom Barton has gone to +study?" + +"Yes; I have met him several times and like him very much. He was our +senator, and made that awful speech against slavery last winter. He is +a frank, manly, straightforward man." + +"How old is he?" + +"Thirty-five, perhaps; why?" + +"Nothing. Is he married?" + +"He is an old bachelor; but I heard some one joking him about a young +lady, to whom it is said he is engaged. Why do you inquire about him?" + +"Oh! I wanted to know something of the man with whom he is. I met Mr. +Ranney a year ago, you know." + +That night the fair girl remained long in a serious and thoughtful +attitude. + + * * * * * + +In the afternoon of the next day, the ladies drove to Mrs. Ridgeley's. +The elders embraced cordially. One was thinking of the boy who had +died, and of him who had gone so sadly away; the other of her agony at +a supposed loss, and her great joy at the recovery. Julia took one +of Mrs. Ridgeley's thin, toil-hardened hands in her two, rosy and +dimpled, and kissed it, and shed tears over it. Then they sat down, +and Mrs. Markham, in her woman's direct natural way, poured out the +gratitude they both felt; Julia, with simple frankness, told the +happenings of the night, and both were surprised to learn that Bart +had told her so little. + +Mrs. Ridgeley described his going out, and coming back next morning, +and going again at evening. It was his way, his mother said. She was +proud of Barton, and wondered that this sweet girl should not love +him, and actually pitied her that she did not. She would not betray +his weakness; but when she came to speak of his final going, the +forlorn figure of the depressed boy walking out into the darkness, +alone, came before her, and she wept. Then Julia knelt by her, and +again taking her hand, said "Let me love you, while he is gone; I want +to care for all that are dear to him;" and the poor mother thought +that it was in part as a recompense for not loving Barton. There was +another thing that Julia came to say, and opening her satchel, she +pointed to something red and coarse, and putting her hand on it, she +said, "This was Bart's. He took it off himself, and put it on me; and +went cold and exposed. I did not think to restore it, and I want very +much to keep it--may I?" The poor mother raised her eyes to the +warm face of the girl, yet saw nothing. "Yes." And the pleased child +replaced it and closed her satchel. + +Then Mrs. Markham said their friends and neighbors were coming in on +the Tuesday evening following, to congratulate them, and would Mrs. +Ridgeley let them send for her? The gathering would be informal and +neighborly. But Mrs. Ridgeley begged to be excused. Julia wanted to +see the boys, and they came in from the garden--Ed shy, quiet and +reserved; George, dashing, sparkling and bashful. Julia went up and +shook them by their brown hands, and acted as if she would kiss George +if he did look very much like Bart. She talked with them in her frank +girl's way, and took them captive, and then mother and daughter drove +away. + + * * * * * + +The gathering at the Judge's was spontaneous almost, and cordial. The +whole family were popular individually, and the young girls especially +gathered about Julia, who was a real heroine and had been rescued by a +brave, handsome young man;--the affair was so romantic! + +They wondered why Bart should go away; and wouldn't he be there that +night? They seemed to assume that everything would be a matter of +course, only he behaved very badly in going off when he must know he +was most wanted. Of course he would come back, and Julia would forgive +him; and something they hinted of this. Kate and Ann, and sweet Pearly +Burnett, who had just come home from school, and was entitled to +rank next after Julia, with Nell and Kate, were very gushing on the +subject. + +Others took Bart to account. His sudden and mysterious flight was very +much against him, and his reputation was at a sudden ebb. Why did he +go? Then Greer's name was mentioned, and Brown, and New Orleans; and +it was talked over that night at Markham's with ominous mystery, and +one wouldn't wonder if Bart had not gone to Jefferson, at all--that +was a dodge; and another said that at Painesville he stopped and went +west to Cleveland; or to Fairport, and took a steamer; and Greer went +off about the same time. + +Julia caught these whispers and pondered them, and the Judge looked +grave over them. + +In the morning Julia asked him what it all meant. She remembered that +he had spoken of Bart in connection with Greer, when he came home from +the Cole trial, which made her uneasy; she now wanted to know what it +meant. + +The Judge replied that there was a rumor that Bart was an associate +of Greer, and engaged with him. "In what?" He didn't know; he was +a supposed agent of Brown's, and a company. "What were they doing?" +Nobody knew; but it was grossly unlawful and immoral. "Did anybody +believe this of Bart?" He didn't know; things looked suspicious. "Do +you suspect Bart of anything wrong?" He did not; but people talked and +men must be prudent. "Be prudent, when his name is assailed, and he +absent, and no brother to defend him?" "Why did he go?" asked the +Judge, "and where did he go?" + +"Father!" + +"I don't suspect anything wrong of him, and yet the temptation to this +thing might be great." + +Julia asked no more. + +The next morning she said that she had long promised Sarah King to pay +her a visit, and she thought she would go for two or three days. Sarah +had just been to Pittsburg, and had seen Miss Walters, and she wanted +so much to hear from her. This announcement quite settled it. She +had recently taken the possession of herself, in a certain sweet +determined way, and was inclined to act on her own judgment, or +caprice. She would go down in the stage; she could go alone--and she +went. + +The morning after, the elegant and leisurely Mr. Greer, at the +Prentiss House, Ravenna, received a dainty little note, saying that +Miss Markham was at Mr. King's, and would be glad to see him at his +early leisure. He pulled his whiskers down, and his collar up, +and called. He found Miss Markham in the parlor, who received him +graciously. + +What commands had she for him? + +"Mr. Greer, I want to ask you a question, if you will permit me." + +Anything he would answer cheerfully. + +"You know Barton Ridgeley?" + +"Yes, without being much acquainted with him. I like him." + +"Have you now, or have you ever had any business connection with him?" + +"I have not, and I never had." + +"Will you say this in writing?" + +"Cheerfully, if you wish it." + +"I do." + +Greer sat down to the desk in the library adjoining. + +"Address my father, please." + +He wrote and handed her the following: + +"Hon. E. MARKHAM: + +"_Dear Sir_,--I am asked if I have now, or have ever had any business +relations of any kind with Barton Ridgeley. I have not, and never had, +directly or indirectly, on my own, or on account of others. + +"Very respectfully, + +"THOS. J. GREER. + +"RAVENNA, April 1838." + + +"May I know why you wish this?" a little gravely; "you've heard +something said about something and somebody, by other somebodys or +nobodys, perhaps." + +"I have. Mr. Ridgeley is away. You have heard of our obligations to +him, and I have taken it upon myself to ask you." + +"You are a noble girl, Miss Markham. A man might go through fire for +you;" enthusiastically. + +"Thank you." + +"And now I hope your little heart is at rest." + +"It was quite at rest before. I am much obliged, Mr. Greer; and it may +not be in my power to make other returns." + +"Good morning, Miss Markham." + +"Good morning, Mr. Greer." + +In the afternoon, as the Judge was in his office, a little springy +step came clipping in. "Good afternoon! Papa Judge," and two +wonderful arms went about his neck, and two lips to his own. + +"Why Julia! you back! How is Sarah?" + +"Splendid!" + +"Your friend Miss Walters?" + +"Oh, she is well. See here, Papa Judge," holding out the Greer note. + +The Judge looked at and read it over in amazement. + +"Where under the heavens did you get this?" + +"Mr. Greer wrote it for me." + +"Mr. Greer wrote it for you? I am amazed! no man could have dared to +ask him for it! What put this into your head?" + +"You almost suspected Bart"--with decidedly damp eyes--"and others did +quite, and while in Ravenna I wrote a note to Mr. Greer, who called, +and I asked the direct question, and he answered. I asked him to write +it and he did, and paid me a handsome compliment besides. Papa Judge, +when you want a thing done send me." + +"Well, my noble girl, you deserve a compliment. A girl that can do +that can, of course, have a man go through night and storm and flood +for her," said the Judge with enthusiasm. + +"Mr. Greer said a man should go through fire," said Julia, as if a +little hurt. + +"And so he may," said the Judge, improving. + +"That is for you," said Julia, more gravely, and gave him the note. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +JEFFERSON. + + +Bart has come well nigh breaking down on my hands two or three times. +I find him unmanageable. He is pitched too high and tuned too nicely +for common life; and I am only too glad to get him off out of Newbury, +to care much how he went. To say, however, that he went off cheerful +and happy, would do the poor fellow injustice. He did his best to show +himself that it was all right. But something arose and whispered that +it was all wrong. Of course Julia and her love were not for him, and +yet in his heart a cry for her would make itself heard. + +Didn't he go voluntarily, because he would? Who was to blame? Yet he +despised himself as a huge baby, because there was a half conscious +feeling of self-pity, a consciousness of injustice, of being beaten. +Then he was lame from, over-exertion, and his heart was sore, and he +had to leave his mother and Ed and George. Would it have been better +to remain a day or two and meet Julia? He felt that he would certainly +break down in her presence, and he had started, and shut her forever +out. If she did not stay shut out it would be her own fault. And that +was logical. + +He got into the stage, and had the front seat, with wide soft +cushions, to himself, and drawing his large camlet cloak about him, he +would rest and sleep. + +Not a bit of it. On the back seat was an old lady and a young one +with her; and a man on the middle seat. At Parkers, where they changed +horses, they had heard all about it, and had it all delightfully +jumbled up. Barton Markham had rescued Miss Ridgeley from a gang of +wolves, which had driven her into the Chagrin River, which froze over, +etc., but it had all ended happily, and the wedding-day was fixed. + +Miss Ridgeley was a lovely girl, but poor; and Bart was a hero, whom +the ladies would be glad to see. + +The old lady asked Bart if he knew the parties. + +"Yes." And he straightened out the tangle of names. + +"Was Julia a beauty?" + +"Decidedly." + +"And Bart?" + +Well, he didn't think much of Bart and didn't want to speak of him. +He thought the performance no great shakes, etc. The ladies were +offended. + +"No matter, Julia would marry him?" + +"She would never think of it." + +At Hiccox's somebody recognized Bart and told the old lady who he was. + +"Oh, dear!" He wished he had walked to Jefferson and had a good mind +to get out. + +A few years ago, when Jefferson had become famous throughout the +United States as the residence of two men, a stranger, who met Senator +Wade, "old Ben," somewhere East, asked him what were the special +advantages of Jefferson. "Political," was the dry response. + +Those privileges were not apparent to Bart, as he looked over the +little mud-beleaguered town of two or three hundred inhabitants, with +its two taverns, Court House, two or three churches, and half a dozen +stores and shops, and the high, narrow wooden sidewalks, mere foot +bridges, rising high above the quaggy, tenacious mud, that would +otherwise have forbidden all communication. The town was built on a +low level plain, every part of which, to Bart's eye, seemed a foot or +two lower and more depressed than every other. + +In fact, his two days and two nights wallow in the mud, from Newbury +to Jefferson, had a rather depressing effect on a mind a little below +par when he started; and he was inclined to depressing views. + +Bart was not one to be easily beaten, or stay beaten, unless when he +abandoned the field; and the battle at Jefferson was to be fought out. +Lord! how far away were Newbury and all the events of three days ago. +There was one that was not inclined to vacate, but Bart was resolute. +It was dark, and he would shut his eyes and push straight forward till +light came. + +This, then, was the place where Henry had lived, and which he had +learned to like. He would like it too. He inquired the way, and soon +stood in front of a one-story wooden building, painted white, lettered +"Wade & Ranney, Attorneys at Law." The door was a little ajar and Bart +pushed it open and entered a largeish, dingy, soiled room, filled +with book-cases, tables and chairs, with a generally crumpled and +disarranged appearance; in the rear of which was its counterpart. A +slender, white-haired, very young looking man, and another of large +and heavy mould occupied the front room, while in the rear sat a +third, with his feet on the table. Bart looked around and bowing to +each: "I see Mr. Ranney is not in;" and with another glance around, "I +presume Mr. Wade is not?" + +"No. Both would be in during the evening." + +"I am Bart Ridgeley," he said. "You may remember my brother Henry?" + +"How are you, Bart? We know you, but did not at first recognize you," +said white-hair frankly. "My name is Case,--this is Ransom, and there +is Kennedy. We all knew your brother and liked him." + +Bart shook hands with, and looked at, each. Case had small but marked +features--was too light, but his eyes redeemed his face; and his +features improved on acquaintance. Ransom was twenty-seven or +twenty-eight, of heavy build, dark, and with a quick, sharp eye, and +jerky positive way. Kennedy was sandy--hair, face, eyebrows and skin, +with good eyes. + +"I think we shall like you, Bart," said Case, who had examined him. + +"I hope you will; it must be very pleasant to be liked," said Bart +vivaciously. "I've never tried it much." + +"There is one thing I observe," continued Case, "that won't suit +Ransom--that way of taking off your hat when you came in." + +"Oh!" said Bart, laughing, "I'm imitative, with a tendency to improve; +and shall doubtless find good models." + +"Don't mind Case," said Ransom; "he's of no account. Just come in?" + +"Yes." + +"How do you like our town?" + +"Very well. There seems to be a little confusion of dry land and sea." + +"You see, Mr. Ridgeley," said Case, "that the dry land and sea never +were separated here. The man that had the job failed, and nobody else +would ever undertake it. I think, Mr. Ridgeley," after a pause, "I +had better tell who and what we are, as we shall be together for some +time. This is Ransom--B. Ransom. His temperament is intellectual--I +may say, brainy. That B. stands for brains emphatically, being the +whole of them. He is rather a matter of fact than a conclusion of law, +and were you to apply a rule of law to him, although matter of fact, +he would be found to be immaterial, and might be wholly rejected as +surplusage. He's rather scriptural, also, and takes mostly to the +prophets, Jonadab, Meshac, and those revered worthies. He's highly +moral, and goes for light reading to the elder Scriptures, drawing +largely upon Tamar and Rachel and Leah, and the pure young daughters +of Lot. Ruth is too tame for him. He was the inventor of our 'moral +reform' sidewalks, on which, as you see, no young man can walk beside +a maiden. The effect on morals is salubrious." + +"Case! Case!" protested Ransom. + +"As for law, he goes into a law book as a mite goes through a cheese, +head on, and with about--" + +"Case! Case! Case!" broke in Ransom again, "hold up your infernal +gabble." + +"I know the importance of first impressions," said Case, with gravity, +"and I want you should start favorably; and if you don't come up +to my eulogium, something will be pardoned to the partiality of +friendship." + +"Yes, yes! partiality of friendship!" said Ransom, excitedly; and +turning to Bart, "he is a Case, as you see; but if a man should go +into Court with such a Case, he would be non-suited; he isn't even +_prima facie_." + +"Good!" exclaimed Kennedy. + +"Ransom, you are inspired; flattery does you good." + +"Go on!" said Case; "don't interrupt him, he'll never get such +another start." + +"He's a poetic cuss," continued Ransom, "and writes verses for the +Painesville papers, and signs them "C.," though I've never been +able to see anything in them. He's strong on Byron, and though +he's--he's--" and he stopped in excessive excitement. + +"There you're out, Ransom," said Case, "and that is by far the ablest +as well as the longest speech you ever made. If you had let me go on +and fully open out your excellencies, you might have completed the +last sentence. Now, Kennedy here--" resumed Case. + +"Spare me!" said Kennedy, laughing; "give Ridgeley a chance to find +out my strong points, if you please." + +"Now, Case," said Ransom, reflectively, "Case is not a bad fellow, +considering that he is good for nothing, and a smart fellow for one +who knows nothing, and you will like him. He's a little stiffish, and +devotes himself mostly to young ladies." + +"Thank you," said Case. + +Bart was amused at these free sketches, especially as none but good +feeling prevailed, and remarked, "that it was fortunate for him that +no acquaintance of his was present, who could do him justice." + +He walked up to the large and well-filled book-cases, and mused about. +"My brother wrote and told me so much of all this that I thought I was +familiar with it," he said at last. + +"He used to sit in that corner, by the table, with his back to the +window," said Kennedy, pointing to a place in the back room, which +Bart approached. "He was usually the first here in the morning and the +last to go at night, and then often took a book with him." + +"We liked him very much," said Ransom, "and we forwarded to you a set +of resolutions on hearing of his death." + +"I received them," replied Bart, "and if I did not acknowledge it, I +owe you an apology." + +"You did, to Ranney," said Case. + +The memory of his brother, who had read and worked, talked and +laughed, mused and hoped in that little nook, came up very fresh to +Barton. + +Case proposed that they take a stroll, or a "string" as he called it, +about the village, and as they walked in single file on the narrow +sidewalks, the idea of "string" seemed to be realized. They went +into the Court House and up into the court-room, and down into the +Recorder's office, filled with books, and introduced Bart to Ben +Graylord, the Recorder, who showed him a record-book written by his +brother, every page of which sparkled with the beauty of the writing. +Then they went to the clerk's office of Col. Hendry, with its stuffed +pigeon-holes, and books, and into the sheriff's office, and to divers +other places. + +Jefferson was about eleven or twelve miles from the lake, south of +Ashtabula. It was selected as the county seat, and at once became the +residence of the county officers, and of many wealthy and influential +citizens, but never became a place of much business, while Ashtabula +and Conneaut were already busy towns. Each lay at the mouth of a +considerable creek, whose names they respectively bore, and which +formed harbors for the lake commerce, and were both visited daily +by the steamers that run up and down Lake Erie. These facts were +communicated to Bart, as they walked about, and the residences of Mr. +Giddings, Judge Warren, Colonel Hendry, Mr. St. John, and others, were +pointed out to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +OLD BEN. + + +That evening, Case and Bart went in rather late to supper at the +Jefferson House, and Case pointed out B.P. Wade sitting at the head of +one of the tables. Bart studied him closely. + +He was then about thirty-five or thirty-six years of age; of a fine, +athletic, compact and vigorous frame, straight, round, and of full +average height, with an upward cast of the head and face that made him +look taller than he was. He had a remarkably fine head and a striking +face--a high, narrow, retreating forehead, a little compressed at the +temples, aquiline nose, firm, goodish mouth, and prominent chin, with +a deep dark eye, and strongly marked brow, not handsome, but a strong, +firm, noticeable face, which, with his frank, manly, decided manner +and carriage, would at once arrest the eye of a stranger, as it did +that of Bart, who knew that he saw a remarkable man. The head was +turned, so that the light fell upon the face, giving it strong light +and shadow in the Rembrandt style; and Bart studied and contemplated +it at great advantage. + +He tried to reproduce the recent scene in the Ohio Senate, in which +Wade performed so conspicuous a part. It was in the worst of the +bad days of Northern subserviency to slavery, which now seem +almost phantasmagorical; when, at the command of the Kentucky State +Commissioners, the grovelling majority of the Ohio Legislature +prostrated the State abjectly in the dust beneath its feet, it was +demanded that no man of African blood should be permitted to remain in +the State unless some responsible white man should become bail for his +good conduct, and that he should never become a public charge. + +The bill was about to be put on its final passage in the Senate, by a +majority made up of men so revoltingly servile, that even such infamy +failed to preserve their names. "Tin Pan" had decreed that a vote +should be taken before adjournment for the night, and the debate ran +into the deep hours. Gregg Powers, a tall, dark-haired, black-eyed, +black-browed young senator, from Akron, had just pronounced a fervent, +indignant, sarcastic and bitter phillipic against it, when, after +midnight, Wade arose, with angry brow and flashing eye. Argument and +logic were out of place; appeals to honor could not be comprehended +by men shameless by nature, abject by instinct, and infamous by habit, +and who cared nothing for the fame of their common State. Wade, +at white heat, turned on them a mingled torrent of sarcasm, scorn, +contempt, irony, scoffing, and derision, hot, seething, hissing, +blistering, and consuming. He then turned to the haughty and insolent +Commissioners of slavery, who were present, that the abasement of +the State might lack no mark or brand, and with an air haughtier and +prouder than their own, defied them. He declared himself their mortal +foe, and cast the gauntlet contemptuously into their faces. He told +them they would meet him again in the coming bitter days, and with +prodigious force, predicted the extirpation of slavery. Nobody called +him to order; nobody interrupted him; and when he closed his awful +phillipic, nobody tried to reply. The vote was taken, and the bill +passed into a law. And as Bart called up the scene, and looked at the +man taking his tea, and conversing carelessly, he thought that a life +would be a cheap price for such an opportunity and effort. + +Nature had been generous to Wade, and given him a fine, well-balanced, +strong, clear intellect, of a manly, direct, and bold cast, as well +of mind as temperament. He was not destitute of learning in his +profession, but rather despised culture, and had a certain indolence +of intellect, that arose in part from undervaluing books, and although +later a great reader, he was never a learned man. His manners were +rude though kind; he had wonderful personal popularity, and was the +freest possible from cant, pretence, or any sort of demagogueism. +He was as incapable of a mean thought as of uttering the slightest +approach to an untruth, or practising a possible insincerity. He was +a favorite with the young lawyers and students, who imitated his rude +manner and strong language; was a dangerous advocate, and had much +influence with courts. In all these early years he was known as Frank +Wade; "Ben" and "old Ben" came to him years after at Washington. + +When he left the supper room Case found an opportunity to introduce +Bart to him. Wade received him very cordially, and spoke with great +kindness of his brother Henry, and remarked that Bart did not much +resemble him. + +"So I am generally told," said Bart; "and I fear that I am less like +him in intellect than in person." + +"You may possibly not lose by that. Most persons would think you +better looking, and you may have as good a mind--that we will find out +for ourselves." + +Bart felt that this was kind. Wade then remarked that they would find +time on Monday to overhaul his law. Later, Bart met Ranney, who, he +thought, received him coolly. + +The next day the young men went to church. Nothing in the way of +heresy found foothold at Jefferson. It was wholly orthodox; although +it was suspected that Wade and Ranney had notions of their own in +religion; or rather the impression was that they had no religion of +any kind. Not to have the one and true, was to have none according to +the Jefferson platform. + +Monday was an anxious day for Bart. He would now be put to a real +test. He knew he had studied hard, but he remembered the air with +which Henry and Ranney waived him off. Then he was so poor, and was +so anxious to get through, and be admitted in September, that he was +a little nervous when the lawyers found leisure in the afternoon to +"overhaul his law," as Wade had expressed it. + +Ranney had no idea of letting him off on definitions and general +rules, and he plunged at once into special pleading, as presented by +Chitty, in his chapter on Replications. No severer test could have +been applied, and the young men thought it a little rough. Bart +answered the questions with some care, and gave the reason of the +rules clearly. Ranney then proposed a case of a certain special plea, +and asked Bart how he would reply. Bart enumerated all the various +replies that might be made, and the method of setting each forth. +Ranney then asked him to state an instance of new assignment, in +a replication; and when Bart had stated its purpose and given an +instance, he said he thought that a good pleader would always so state +his case in his declaration as to render a new assignment unnecessary, +perhaps impossible. He was then asked what defects in pleading would +be cured by a general verdict? and gave the rules quite luminously. + +Ranney then asked him what books he had read; and Bart named several. +"What others?" and he named as many more. "Is that all?" laughing. + +"Oh!" said Bart, "I remember what you and Henry said about my reading, +and really I have dipped into a good many besides." + +"Well, Ranney," said Wade, "what can we do for this young man? I think +he will pass now, better than one in a hundred." + +"I think so too; still, I think we can help him, or help him to help +himself." And he finally named a work on commercial law, a book on +medical jurisprudence, and a review of Kent. At leisure moments, he +would have him practise in drawing bills in Chancery, declarations, +pleas, etc. + +Bart certainly might be pleased with this result, and it evidently +advanced him very much in the estimation of all who had listened to +his examination, although he felt that the work imposed upon him was +rather slender, and just what he should do with the spare time this +labor would leave him he would not then determine. + +He liked his new position with these ambitious young men, engaged in +intellectual pursuits, with whom he was to associate and live, and +upon whom he felt that he had made a favorable impression. It did +not occur to him that there might be society, save with these and +his books; nor would it have occurred to him to enquire, or to seek +entrance into it, if it existed; with a sort of intellectual hunger +he rushed upon his books with a feeling that he had recently been +dissipated, and misapplied his time and energies. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE LETTERS. + + +Tuesday evening's mail brought him two letters, post-marked Newbury. +The sight of them came with a sort of a heart-blow. They were not +wholly expected, and he felt that there might still be a little +struggle for him, although he was certain that this must be the last. + +The well-known hand of Judge Markham addressed one of them. The +writing of the other he did not recognize; only after he had lost +its envelope, he remembered that it very much resembled the hand that +wrote the Greer warning. He put the letters into an inside pocket, and +tried to go on with his book; like a very young man he fancied that he +was observed. So he took his hat and went to the room he occupied with +Case. He pulled open the unknown, knew the hand, ran down and turned +over to the second page, and found "Julia" at the bottom, and below, +the words "with the profoundest gratitude." It ran: + +"NEWBURY, April 8, 1838. + +"BARTON RIDGELEY: + +"_Dear Sir_,--Is it characteristic of a brave and generous man to +confer the greatest obligations upon another, and not permit that +other the common privilege of expressing gratitude? Were I a man, I +would follow and weary you with a vain effort to utter the thanks I +owe you. But I can only say a few cold words on paper at the risk +of being misunderstood." ("Um-m, I don't see what danger she could +apprehend on that score," said Bart quite sharply.) "When I had +wandered beyond the help of my father and friends, into danger, and, +I think, to certain death, you were inspired with the heart, skill and +strength, to find and save me. Next to God, who led you, I owe my life +to you. When this is said, I cannot say more. I know of no earthly +good that you do not deserve; I can think of no gift of Heaven, that +I do not ask of It for you. + +"You will not be offended that I should most anxiously insist that +some little benefit should in some way come to you, from my father; +and you will certainly, when you first return to Newbury, give me +an opportunity to say to you how much I owe you, and how heavy the +obligation rests upon me. You promised me this and will fulfil it. My +mother, who sees this note, wants you to realize her profound sense of +your service to us, enhanced if possible by the noble and manly way +in which you rendered it. She was always your discerning and +discriminating friend." + +"Discriminating,"--Bart did not like that, but no matter. That was +all. + +"A very pretty letter, my lady Julia," said Bart with a long breath. +"Quite warm. I confess I don't care much for your gratitude--but very +pretty and condescending. And it is kind to advise me that whatever +may have been your estimate of me, your sweet lady mother 'discerned' +differently. What you mean by discriminating is a very pretty little +woman mystery, that I shall never know." + +"And now for my Lord Judge:" + +"NEWBURY, April 8, 1838. + +"BARTON RIDGELEY, ESQ.: + +"_My Dear Sir_,--I was disappointed at not finding you at Wilder's, +where your noble exertions had placed my daughter. I was more +disappointed on calling at your mother's the following morning, +hoping to carry you to my house. If anything in my conduct in the +past contributed to these disappointments, I regret it." ("Very manly, +Judge Markham," remarked Bart. "Don't feel uneasy, I should have acted +all the same.") "You saved to us, and to herself, our daughter, and +can better understand our feelings for this great benefit than I can +express them." ("All right Judge, I would not try it further, if I +were you.") "Whoever confers such a benefaction, also confers the +right upon the receiver, not only to express gratitude by words, but +by acts, which shall avail in some substantial way." ("Rather logical, +Judge!") "I shall insist that you permit me to place at your disposal +means to launch you in your profession in a way commensurate with your +talents and deservings." ("Um-m-m.") "I trust you will soon return to +Newbury, or permit me to see you in Jefferson, and when the past +may" ("I don't care about wading the Chagrin, Judge, and helping your +daughter out of the woods was no more than leading out any other +man's daughter, and I don't want to hear more of either. Just let me +alone.") "be atoned for. I need not say that my wife unites with me +in gratitude, and a hearty wish to be permitted to aid you; nor how +anxious we are to learn the details of your finding our daughter, all +of which is a profound mystery to us. + +"Sincerely yours, + +"EDWARD MARKHAM." + +There was a postscript to the Judge's, instead of Julia's, and Bart +looked at it two or three times with indifference, and walked up +and down the room with a sore, angry feeling that he did not care to +understand the source of, nor yet to control. "Very pretty letters! +very well said! Why did they care to say anything to me? When I came +away they might have known--but then, who and what am I? Why the devil +shouldn't they snub me one day and pat me on the head the next? And +I ought to be glad to be kicked, and glad to be thanked for being +kicked--only I'm not---though I don't know why! Well, this is the last +of it; in my own good time--or somebody's time, good or bad--I will +walk in upon my Lord Judge, my discriminating Lady the Mother, and +the Lady Julia, and hear them say their pieces without danger of +misapprehension." And his eye fell again on the Judge's postscript. +Reads: + +"Before I called at your mother's on that morning, I set apart the +chestnut 'Silver-tail,' well caparisoned, as your property. I +thought it a fitting way in which one gentleman might indicate his +appreciation of another. I knew you would appreciate him; I hoped he +would be useful to you. He is your property, whether you will or no, +and will be held subject to your order, and the fact that he is yours +will not diminish the care he will receive. May I know your pleasure +in reference to him? + +"E.M." + +This found the weak place, or one of the weak places, in Bart's +nature. The harshness and bitterness of his feelings melted out of his +heart, and left him to answer his letters in a spirit quite changed +from that which had just possessed him. + +To Julia he wrote: + +"JEFFERSON, April 11, 1838. + +"Miss JULIA MARKHAM: + +"Yours has just reached me. I am so little used to expressions of +kindness that yours seem to mock me like irony. You did not choose to +become involved in discomfort and danger, nor were you left to elect +who should aid you, and I can endure the reflection that you might +prefer to thank some other. + +"If your sense of obligation is unpleasant, there is one consideration +that may diminish it. A man of spirit, whose folly had placed him +in the position I occupied towards you, would have eagerly sought an +opportunity to render you any service, and would have done his poor +best in your behalf. When it was accomplished he would not have been +covetous of thanks, and might hope that it would be taken as some +recompense for the past, and only ask to forget and be forgotten. No +matter; so little that is pleasant has happened to me, that you surely +can permit me to enjoy the full luxury of having saved you without +having that diminished by the receipt of anything, in any form, from +anybody, by reason of it. It is in your power to explain one thing +to your father; by which he will see that I must be left to my own +exertions so far as he is concerned. I do believe that your gracious +mother was my one friend, who looked kindly upon my many faults, and +who will rejoice if I ever escape from them. + +"When in Newbury hereafter I shall feel at liberty to call at your +father's house. + +"With the sincerest wishes for your welfare, I remain + +"Your obedient servant, + +"A.B.E." + +To the Judge: + +"Hon. EDWARD MARKHAM: + +"_Dear Sir_,--I am in receipt of yours. It was, perhaps, necessary for +you to say some words to me. I may not judge of what would be fitting; +I feel that you have said more than was required. I had a boy's +sincere liking for you; but when I failed to secure the good-will +of anybody, it is certain that there were radical defects in my +character, and you but entertained the common feeling towards me. +It was an honest, hearty dislike, which I have accepted--as I accept +other things--without complaint or appeal. There is one near you who +can explain how impossible it is that I can become an object of your +interest or care. I am poor; let me remain so; I like it. Let me alone +to buffet and be buffetted. The atmosphere in which I live is cold and +thin, and exercise is needful for me. I have not deserved well of the +world, and the world has not been over kind to forget it. Leave me to +wage the war with it in my own way. It was God's pleasure to remove +from me those upon whom I had natural claims, and I do not murmur, nor +do I allude to it only as an indication that I am to go on alone. + +"I am aware that I do not meet you in the spirit which prompts your +generous and manly kindness--no matter. Think that it proceeds from +something ignoble in my nature, and be glad that you may in no way be +involved in any failure that awaits me. + +"I am sure Mrs. Markham has always been most kind to me, and if on the +miserable night when I left my own mother I could have stolen to her +somewhere, and have touched her robe with my lips, it would have been +most grateful to me. We shall meet probably again, and I am sure our +intercourse may be that at least of pleasant acquaintances. + +"With the sincerest respect, + +"A.B.E. + +"P.S.--Your postscript takes me at disadvantage. What can I say? Its +kindness is most unkind. The horse is a mount fit for a Prince. I wish +he might be found useful to Miss Markham; if she will accept him, I +would be glad that he might be devoted to her service. More than this +I cannot say. + +"B." + +I am inclined to follow these letters back to Newbury. It took a round +week for a letter and its answer to pass between Newbury and Jefferson +both ways. Somehow, it so happened that Julia, on the third day after +mailing hers to Bart, was at the Post-office every day, on the arrival +of the Northern mail, with the air of an unconcerned young woman who +did not expect anything. On the seventh, two letters in a hand she +knew were handed her by the clerk, who looked at the time as if he +thought these were the letters, but said nothing. + +On her way home she opened one of them and read it, and paused, and +read, and studied as if the hand was illegible, and looked grave and +hurt, and as if tears would start, and then calm and proud. "When she +got home she silently handed the other to her father, and her own to +her mother; then she went to her room. An hour later she came back, +took her letter, and going into her father's office, laid it open +before him, receiving his in return. This she read with a sad face; +once or twice a moisture came into her eyes in spite of her, and +then she sat and said nothing; and her mother came in and read her +husband's letter also. + +"Mother," said Julia, "are all young men really like this proud, +haughty, sensitive fellow? and yet he is so unhappy! Was father at all +like him?" + +"I don't know. You must remember that few at his age have been placed +in such trying positions, and had he been less, or more, or different, +we might have been without cause for gratitude to him." + +"Well, he graciously permits us to know that he may at least once +again approach 'Your father's house!'" + +"Julia! Could he have done it before?" + +"Could he not, mother, when he saved my life?" + +"Julia, was this poor youth more than human?" + +"Mother, I have sometimes felt that he was, and that somehow more was +to be required of him than of common men." + +The Judge sat in silence, with an expression that indicated that his +reflections were not wholly cheerful. The frank words that this youth +had always liked him, and that the Judge had cause for dislike, so +generous, were like so many stabs. + +"Papa Judge," said Julia, suddenly springing to her father's side, +"may I have him?" + +"Have him! Who?" + +"Why, Silver-tail, of course," laughing. "There is nobody else I can +have;" rather gravely. + +"Will you accept him?" + +"Of course I will, and ride him too. I've always coveted him. My old +'Twilight' has almost subsided into night, and is just fit for Nell +and Pearly. They may ride her; and when this prince wants his charger, +as he will, he must come to me for him--don't you see?" + +An hour later a splendid dark chestnut, with silver mane and tail, +round-limbed, with a high dainty head, small ears, and big nostrils, +with a human eye, spirited and docile, was brought round, caparisoned +for a lady, and Julia stood by him with his bridle in her hand, +caressing and petting him, while waiting for something ere she +mounted. "Your name shall not be 'Silver-tail' any longer; you are +'Prince'"--whispering something in his ear. "Do you hear, Prince? You +shall be my good friend, and serve me until your own true lord and +master comes for you. Do you hope it will be soon?" Prince slightly +shook his head, as if the wish was not his, at any rate. "Well, soon +or late, you naughty Prince, he alone shall take you from my hand. Do +you hear?" and being mounted, she galloped away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +AT WILDER'S. + + +April brightened out into May, and over all the beautiful fields, and +woods, and hills of Newbury, came bright warm tints of the deepening +season; and under the urgency of Julia, her mother and herself made +their contemplated visit of thanks to the Wilders, who could at least +be benefitted by their kindness to Julia, bearing a good many nice new +things for Mrs. Wilder and Rose, and the two younger children. Julia, +in her warmth, found everything about the neat log house and its +surroundings quite attractive. The fields were new, but grass was +fresh about the house, and shrubs and plants had been put out. + +She had taken a strong liking to Rose, a tall, sweet, shy girl of +seventeen, who had received her into her bed, and who now, in her +bashful way, was more glad to see her than she could express. The +house, in a lovely place, was sheltered by the near forest, and +everything about it was as unlike what Julia remembered as could well +be. It seemed to have changed its locality, and the one outside door +opened on the opposite side. She went all about and around it; and out +to the margin of the woods, gray and purple, and tenderest green, with +bursting buds and foliage. + +Her mother found Mrs. Wilder a comely, intelligent woman, who was +immensely obliged by her visit, and thankful for her generous presents +of dresses for herself, and Rose, and the children. + +After dinner, Julia went with Rose out by the road into the woods, +through which, a month ago, Bart had conducted her. She recognized +nothing in the surroundings. How bright and sweet, with sun and +flowers, the woods were, with great maple trees opening out their +swollen buds into little points of leaves, like baby-fists into chubby +fingers and thumbs. On they went down to the creek which flowed the +other way. Julia remembered that they came up it to find the road, +and they now turned down its bank. How sweet, and soft, and bright +it looked, flecked with sunbeams, and giving out little gurgles of +water-laughs, as if it recognized her--"Oh! it is you, is it, this +bright day? Where is the handsome youth you clung to, on a winter +morning, we know of? I know you!"--with its little ripples. + +They soon came to where the rock cropped out from the sloping ground +and formed a ledge along the margin of the diminished stream, and soon +reached the little cove; there was the rude shelter which had covered +Julia, and under it the couch of shavings on which she had rested, a +little scattered and just as she had left it; and, near its foot, the +still fresh brands that almost seemed to smoke. How strong and real it +all came to the sensibilities of the girl! Nothing had been there but +the tender silent fingers of nature. Yes, as she sat down on her old +bed, and glanced up, she saw a bright-eyed Phoebe-bird who had built +just over her head, and now was on her nest, while her mate poured out +the cheery clang of his love song, on a limb near by. The little half +circle of ground, walled in by the high mossy rocks, opened southerly, +and received the full glow of the afternoon sun, while in front of +it ran the laughing, gleeful creek. It was very bright, but to Julia +very, very lonely. In a few words she pointed out to the sympathizing +Bose the few localities, and mentioned the incidents of that awful +morning, and then she turned very gravely and thoughtfully back. + +Rose very, very much wanted to ask about Barton; her woman's instincts +told her that here was a something sweet and yet mysterious, that made +everything so dear to this beautiful and now pensive girl by her side. +His name had not been mentioned, and Julia had only referred to him, +as "he did this;" "he sat by that tree." At last Rose ventured: "Where +is he--this Mr. Ridgeley? Mother said he went away." + +"Yes; I never saw him after you took me into your bed, Rose," said +Julia. + +"He saw you after that, Miss Markham." + +"What do you mean, Rose?" + +"I am sure you would like to know," said Rose. "I know I would. Mother +said that after father had gone, and after we were asleep, he asked +her if he might just look upon you for a moment; and she opened the +door, and he stood in it, looked towards you for a second, and +then turned and went out without a single word, seeming very much +agitated." Rose's voice was a little agitated too. Though she felt the +arm that was twined tenderly about her waist, she did not dare to look +in the face so near her own. "Mother says," she continued, "that he +was very handsome and very pale. I suppose he is very poor, but--" + +"But what, Rose?" + +"I am sure," she said, hesitatingly, "that will make no difference." + +Julia only answered with a little caress. + +"When he comes back," said simple Rose, who was certain that it would +all come right, "he will want to come and see that lovely little +place, and you will want to come with him; I would like to see him." + +"When he comes back," said Julia, brightly, "you shall see him, little +Rose; you are a dear, good girl, and if you are ever in peril, I am +sure some brave, handsome man will come to you." + +Rose hoped he would. + +The older women had talked matters over also in their grave, prudent +woman's way, and both learned from the brightness in Julia's face and +eyes, that the ramble in the woods had been pleasant. On their way +home Julia described it all to her mother. + +They drove around by way of Mrs. Ridgeley's, and found her busy and +cheerful. She had a letter from Bart full of cheerful encouragement, +and the Colonel had returned, and would remain in Newbury for the +present. + +Julia caught George and this time actually kissed the blushing, +half-angry, yet really pleased boy. + +The next day Mrs. Ridgeley visited the graves of her husband and son, +on her way from her friend Mrs. Punderson's, and was touched by the +evidences of a watchful care that marked them. At the head of Henry's +grave was planted a beautiful rose tree, full of buds, and a few wild +flowers lay withered among the green grass springing so freshly over +him. The mother wondered what hand performed this pious act. Like +Bart, she supposed that some gentle maiden thus evinced her tenderness +for his memory, and was very anxious to know who she was. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +ROUGH SKETCHES. + + +The sun drank up the waters out of Jefferson, and the almanac brought +the day for the May term of the Court for Ashtabula county; came +the Judge, the juries and unfortunate parties; came also some twenty +lawyers, from the various points of North-eastern Ohio. It was to be +a great time for our young students. Bart had seen the Court once or +twice at Chardon, and had heard the advocates in the famous case of +Ohio _vs._ Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet, for conspiring to murder +Newell, and came to know some of them by name and sight. The same +judge presided on that trial as in the present court--Judge Humphrey. +Bart was much interested of course in the proceedings, and observed +them attentively from the opening proclamation, the calling and +swearing of the grand jury, calling of the calendar of cases, etc. +Much more interested was he in Case's graphic sketches of the members +of the bar, who hit them off, well or ill, with a few words. + +"That elderly man, shortish, with the soft, autumn-like face, is +Elisha Whittlesey, sixteen years in Congress; where he never made a +speech, but where he ranks with the most useful members: sober colors +that wear. He was a good lawyer, and comes back to practice. The old +men will employ him, and wonder why they get beaten." + +"That brisk, cheery, neat man by his side is Norton--lively, smirky +and smiling--you see the hair leaves the top of his head, to lay +the fact bare that there is not much there; and just why that snubby +little nose should perk itself up, I can't tell, unless to find out +whether there really is anything above it. He has quite a reputation +with juries, and a tendency to bore, sometimes in very dry places, for +water, and usually furnishes his own moisture. When he isn't damp he +is funny. They both live in Canfield." + +"Who is that fine-looking, fine-featured, florid man?" + +"That is Crowell, from Warren. Mark him and see how studied are all +his motions. He tears up that paper with an air and grace only reached +by long and intense practice and study. He is a little unpopular, but +is a man of ability, and is often effective with a jury. The trouble +is, his shadow is immense, and falls all about him on every thing, and +he sees every thing through it." + +"That young, dark-eyed handsome man is Labe Sherman, admitted last +year. He and Ranney are the two young men of the democracy; but there +is enough of Ranney to make two of him. He is a fine advocate." + +"Look at that tall, rather over-dressed, youngish man." + +"The one with weak, washed-out gray eyes?" + +"Yes." + +"Does he know anything?" + +"Not a devilish thing. His strong point, where he concentrates in +force, is his collar and stock; from that he radiates into shirt +bosom, and fades off into coat and pants. Law! He don't know the +difference between a bill in Chancery and the Pope's Bull. Here's +another knowledge-cuss. He's from Warren--McKnight. His great effort +is to keep himself in--to hold himself from mischief, and working +general ruin. He knows perfectly well that if he should let himself +loose in a case, in open court, the other side would stand no chance +at all; and his sense of right prevents his putting forth his real +power. It would be equal to a denial of justice to the other side." + +"An instance where the severity of the law is tempered and modified by +equity," remarked Bart. + +"Exactly." + +"Who is that man on the left of Bowen, and beyond, with that splendid +head and face, and eyes like Juno, if a man can have such eyes?" + +"That is Dave Tod, son of old Judge Tod, of Warren. Two things are in +his way: he is a democrat, and lazy as thunder; otherwise he would be +among the first--and it will do to keep him in mind anyway. There is +some sort of a future for him." + +"Here's another minister of the law in the temple of justice--that man +with the cape on. He always wears it, and the boys irreverently call +him Cape Cod--Ward of Connaught. He puts a paper into the clerk's +office and calls it commencing a suit. He puts in another and calls it +a declaration. If anybody makes himself a party, and offers to go to +trial with him, and nobody objects, he has a trial of something, +at some time, and if he gets a verdict or gets licked it is equally +incomprehensible to him, and to everybody else. + +"There are Hitchcock and Perkins, of Painesville, whom you know. What +great wide staring eyes Hitchcock has: but they look into things. And +see how elegantly Perkins is dressed. I'd like to hear Frank Wade on +that costume--but Perkins is a good lawyer, for all that. Look at +that stout, broad, club-faced man--that's old Dick Matoon. You see +the lower part of his face was made for larger upper works; and after +puckering and drawing the under lip in all he can, he speaks in a +grain whistle through an opening still left, around under one ear. He +knows no more law than does necessity; but is cunning, and acts upon +his one rule, 'that it is always safe to continue.' + +"Here is a man you must get acquainted with; this dark swarthy man +with the black eyes, black curling hair, and cast-iron face, sour and +austere. That is Ned Wade, Frank's younger brother, and one of the +pleasantest and best-hearted men alive. He has more book than Frank, +and quite as much talent, and will hammer his way towards the front." + +"Who is that little, old, hump-backed, wry-necked chap hoisting his +face up as if trying to look into a basket on his shoulder?" + +"That? That is the immortal Brainard, of Unionville. He is the Atlas +who has sustained the whole world of the law-on his back until he has +grown hump-backed; and that attitude is the only way in which he can +look into the law on his back, as you remark. + +"And there is Steve Mathews, mostly legs. His face begins with his +chin, and runs right up over the top of his head; that head has no +more brains inside than hair out. You see that little knob there in +front? Well, that was originally intended for a bump, and, as you see, +just succeeded in becoming a wart. Ranney suggested to him at the last +term that the books were all against his straddling about the bar, as +he always does." + +"That smallish man with the prominent chin and retreating forehead, is +Horace Wilder, one of the best men at the bar. You see he is pleasant +and amiable. He is a good lawyer, and give him a case which involves a +question of morals and he develops immense power." + +"Who is that dark, singular-looking young man, with full beard and +open throat? Is he a lawyer?" + +"That," said Case, sadly, "is Sartliff, the most brilliant intellect +our region has produced; full of learning, full of genius and strange +new thoughts! He is a lawyer, and should equal Daniel Webster." + +"What is the matter with him?" + +"God only knows! men call him crazy. If he is, the rest of us never +had intellect enough to become crazy. Look at his dress; he wears a +kind of frock, tied with a hay rope, and is barefoot, I presume. Some +strange new or old idea has taken possession of him to get back to +nature. If he keeps on he will become crazy. I must introduce you; he +and you will like one another." + +"Because I am crazy, too?" laughing. + +"Because you have some out-of-the-way notions, Bart, and I want you +should hear him. He will make you feel as if you were in the visible +presence of the forces of nature. He knew your brother well and liked +him." + +"Where does he live?" + +"Nowhere! He remains in the open air when he can, day and night; +drinks water and eats roots and herbs; sometimes a little plain +bread--never meat. He was formerly vigorous, as you see, he is now +thin and drooping." + +"Has he had any unusual history, any heart agony?" + +"None that I ever heard of; nor was he particularly poetic or +imaginative. He does not attempt any business now; but goes and comes +with lawyers, the most of whom now avoid him. He has brothers, +able and accomplished men, and whom he usually avoids. He commenced +business with Giddings, with a brilliant opening, ten years ago." + +The calendar was finished, a jury sworn in a case, and the court +adjourned. + +How closely the young men watched the proceedings of the court, all +the trials and points made, and the rulings, and how stripped of +mystery seemed the mere practice, as at that time in Ohio it really +was. Wise men had taken the best of the old common law practice, and +with the aid of judicious legislation and intelligent courts, had got +about the best it was capable of. + +Bart managed to make himself useful and do himself some good on one +occasion. Ranney had taken a position in a case, on a trial of some +importance, on which the court was apparently against him. Bart had +just gone over with it, in a text-book, and in a moment brought it in, +with the case referred to, and received, as men often do, more credit +than he was entitled to, Ranney carried his point, and could afford to +be generous. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +SARTLIFF. + + +Bart had been introduced to Sartliff, who was an object of universal +curiosity, even where he was best known, and coming out of the +court-room one delicious afternoon, he asked the young students to +walk away from the squabbles of men to more quiet and cleaner scenes. +They took their way out of the town towards a beech forest, whose +tender, orange-tinted, green young leaves were just shaping out, and +relieving the hard skeleton lines of trunks and naked limbs. Passing +the rude and rotting fences, by which rank herbage, young elders and +briars were springing up: + +"See," said Sartliff, "how kindly nature comes to cover over the +faults and failures of men. These rotting unsightly 'improvements,' +as we call them, will soon be covered over and hidden with beautiful +foliage." + +"With weeds, and nettles, and elders," said Case, contemptuously. + +"Weeds and nettles!" repeated Sartliff; "and why weeds and nettles? +Was there ever such arrogance! Man in his boundless conceit and +ignorance, after having ruined his powers, snuffs and picks about, and +finds the use of a few insignificant things, which he pronounces good; +all the rest he pushes off in a mass as weeds and nettles. Thus the +great bulk of the universe is to him useless or hurtful, because +he will not, or cannot, learn its secrets. These unknown things are +standing reproaches to his ignorance and sloth." + +"Poisons, for instance, might become sanitary," said Case. + +"If man lived in accord with nature," said Sartliff, "she would not +harm him. It is a baby's notion that everything is made to eat, and +that all must go into the mouth. Men should have got beyond this +universal alimentiveness, ere this. Find the uses of things, and +poisons and nettles fall into their places in harmony, and are no +longer poisons and nettles." + +"And accidents would help us on, instead of off," suggested Case. + +"They help as often one way as the other now," replied Sartliff. "But +there are really no accidents; everything is produced by law." + +"There must be two or three systems then," suggested Case. "Things +collide, while each obeys its law. Your systems clash." + +"Not a bit. This is apparent only; man acts abnormally under evil +influences; he will not observe law; he turns upon nature and says +he will subvert her laws, and compel her to obey his. Of course +confusion, disorder, and death are the consequences, and always will +be, till he puts himself in harmony with her." + +"It seems to me, Mr. Sartliff, that in your effort to get back +individually, you have encountered more difficulties, collisions, and +ills, than the most of us do, who keep on the old orthodox civilized +way to the devil." + +"That may be; I am one, looking alone; nobody helps me." + +"And like the younger Mr. Weller, you find it a pursuit of knowledge +under difficulties." + +"Precisely; I inherited an artificial constitution, and tastes, and +needs. I began perverted and corrupted, and when I go back to Nature, +she teaches me less than she does the beasts and birds. Before I can +understand, or even hear her voice, I must recover the original purity +and strength of organs and faculties which I might have had. I may +perish in the attempt to reach a point at which I can learn. The earth +chills and hurts my feet, the sun burns my skin, the winds shrivel me, +and the snows and frosts would kill me, while many of the fruits +good for food are indigestible to me. See to what the perversions of +civilization have reduced me." + +"Do you propose in thus getting back to nature, to go back to what we +call savagery?" asked Bart. + +"Not a bit of it. It was the wants and needs of the race that whipped +it into what we call civilization. When once men got a start they +went, and went in one direction alone, and completely away from +Nature, instead of keeping with her and with an unvarying result; +an endless series of common catastrophes has overtaken all civilized +nations alike, while the savage tribes have alone been perpetual. I +don't say that savage life is at all preferable, only that it alone +has been capable of perpetuating races. In going back to Nature, I +propose to take what of good we have derived from civilization." + +"As historic verity," said Bart, "I am not quite prepared to admit +that savage races are perpetual. We know little of them, and what +little we do know is that tribes appear and disappear. General +savagery may reign, like perpetual night, over a given region, but +who can say how many races of savages have destroyed and devoured each +other in its darkness?" + +They had reached the forest, and Sartliff placed himself in an easy +position at the foot of an old beech, extending his limbs and bare +feet over the dry leaves, in such a way as not to injure any springing +herb. "Mr. Ridgeley," said he, "I would like to know more of you. +You young men are fresher, see, and what is better, feel quicker and +clearer than the older and more hackneyed. Are you already shelled +over with accepted dogmas, and without the power of receiving new +ideas?" + +"I hardly know; I fear I am not very reverent. I was born of a +question-asking time, like that Galilean boy, whose, mother, after +long search, found him in the Temple, disputing with the doctors, and +asking them questions." + +"Good! good! that is it; my great mother will find me in her Temple, +asking questions of her doctors and ministers!" exclaimed Sartliff. + +"And what do you ask, and what response do you get?" asked Bart. + +"I lay myself on the earth's bosom in holy solitudes, with fasting and +great prayer, and send my soul forth in one great mute, hungry demand +for light. I, a man, with some of the Father God stirring the awful +mysteries of my nature, go yearningly naked, empty, and alone, and +clamor to know the way. And sometimes deep, sweet, hollow voices +answer in murmurs, which I feel rather than hear; but I cannot +interpret them, I cannot compass their sounds. And sometimes gigantic +formless shadows overcloud me. I know they have forms of wondrous +symmetry and beauty, but they are so grand that my vision does not +reach their outline, and I cannot comprehend them. I know that I am +dominant of the physical creation on this earth, but at those times I +feel that these great and mighty essences, whose world in which they +live and move, envelopes ours and us, and to whom our matter is as +impalpable air--I know that they and we, theirs and ours, are involved +in higher and yet higher conditions and elements, that in some +mysterious way we mutually and blindly contribute and minister to each +other." + +"And what profit do you find in such communication?" asked Bart. + +"It is but preparatory to try the powers, clear the vision and senses, +train and discipline the essential faculties for a communion with +this essence that may be fully revealed, and aid in the workings and +immediate government of our gross material world, and the spirits that +pertain to it more immediately, if such there are." + +"And you are in doubt about that?" + +"Somewhat; and yet through some such agencies came the givings forth +of the Prophets." + +"You believe in the Prophets?" asked Case. + +"Assuredly. The many generations which inherited from each other the +seer faculty, developed and improved, living the secluded, severe, and +simple lives of the anchorite, amid the grand and solemn silence of +mountain and desert, were enabled, by wondrous and protracted effort, +to wear through the filament--impenetrable as adamant to common +men--that screened from them the invisible future, and they told What +they saw." + +"Yet they never told it so that any mortal ever understood what they +said, or could apply their visions to any passing events, and the same +givings out of these half-crazed old bards, for such they were, +have been applied to fifty different things by as many different +generations of men," said Case. + +"That may have arisen, in part," said Bart, "from the dim sight of the +seer, and the difficulty of clothing extraordinary visions in the garb +of ordinary things. It is not easy, however, for the common mind +to see why, if God had a special message for His children of such +importance that He would provide a special messenger to communicate +it, and had a choice of messengers, it should reach them finally, in +a form that nobody could interpret. With God every thing is in the +present, all that has happened, and all that will, is as the now is +to us. If a man can reach the power or faculty of getting a glimpse of +things as God sees them, he would make some utterance, if he survived, +and it would be very incoherent. Besides, human events repeat +themselves, and a good general description of great human calamities +would truthfully apply to several, and so might be fulfilled your half +hundred times, Mr. Case." + +"That isn't a bad theory of prophecy," said Case approvingly; "but all +these marvels were in the old time; how came the faculty to be lost?" + +"Is it?" asked Bart. "Don't you hear of it in barbarous and savage +conditions of men, now? Our friend Sartliff would say that the faculty +was lost, through the corruptions and clogs of civilization; and he +proposes to restore it." + +"No, I don't propose to restore that exactly. I want to find a way +back to Nature for myself, and then teach it to others, when the +power of prophecy will be restored. I want to see man restored to his +rightful position, as the head of this lower universe. There are ills +and powers of mischief now at large, and operative, that would find +their master in a perfect man. One such, under favorable auspices, was +once born into this world; and we know that it is possible. He took +His natural place at the head; and all minor powers and agencies +acknowledged Him at once. I have never been quite able to understand +why He, with His power of clear discernment, should have precipitated +Himself upon the Jewish and Roman power, and so perished, and at so +early a day in His life." + +"So that the prophets might be fulfilled," said Case. + +"It may have been," resumed Sartliff. + +"Upon the merely human theory of the thing," said Bart, "He could +foresee that this was the only logical conclusion of his teachings, +and best, perhaps only means of fixing his messages and doctrines in +the hearts of men. I may not venture a suggestion, Mr. Sartliff," Bart +continued; "but it seems to me, that your search back will necessarily +fail. In searching back, as you call it, for the happy point when the +strength and purity and the inspiration of nature can be united with +all that is good in Christian civilization, if your theory is correct, +your civilized eyes will never discern the place. You will have passed +it before you have re-acquired the power to find it, and your life +will be spent in a vain running to and fro, in search of it. Miracles +have ceased to be wonders, for we work them by ordinary means +now-a-days, and we don't know them when we meet them." + +Sartliff arose; he had been for sometime silent. His face was sad. + +"It may be. I like you, Barton; you have a good deal of your brother's +common sense, uncommon as that is, and I shall come and see you +often." + +And without another word he strode off deeper into the woods, and was +lost to the eyes of the young men. + +"Is it possible," said Bart, "that this was an educated, strong, and +brilliant mind, capable of dealing with difficult questions of law? +I fear that he has worn or torn through the filament that divides the +workings of the healthy mind from the visions of the dreamer--wrecked +on the everlasting old rocks that jut out all about our shores, and +always challenging us to dash upon them. Shall we know when we die? +Shall we die when we know? After all, are not these things to be +known? Why place them under our eyes so that a child of five years +will ask questions that no mortal, or immortal, has yet solved? Have +we lost the clue to this knowledge? Do we overlook it? Do we stumble +over it, perish, wanting it, with it in our hands without the power to +see or feel it? Has some rift opened to a hidden store of truth, and +has a gleam of it come to the eyes of this man, filling him with +a hunger of which he is to die? When the man arises to whom these +mysteries shall reveal themselves, as he assuredly will, the old +gospels will be supplemented." + +"Or superseded," said Case. "And is it not about time? Have not the +old done for us about all they can? Do we not need, as well as wish +for, a new?" + +"A man may doubtless so abuse and deprave his powers, that old healthy +food ceases to be endurable, and yields to him no nutrition; of course +he must perish," answered Bart. "He will demand new food." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +OLD GID. + + +Towards the close of the term, there came into the court-room, one +day, a man of giant mould: standing head and shoulders above his +fellows, broad shouldered, deep chested, with a short neck and large +flat face, a regal brow, and large, roomy head in which to work out +great problems. He had light grayish blue, or blueish gray eyes, and a +scarlet mark disfiguring one side of his face. The proceedings paused, +and men gathered about him. His manner was bland, his smile, that +took up his whole face, very pleasant. Bart knew that this was J.R. +Giddings, just home from Washington, where he had already overhauled +the Seminole war, and begun that mining into the foundation of things +that finally overthrew slavery. + +During the term Bart heard him before the court and jury, and found +him a dullish, heavy speaker, a little as he thought the indifferently +good English parliamentary speaker might be. He often hesitated for a +word, and usually waited for it; sometimes he would persist in having +it at once, when he would close his eyes very tight, and compel it. +His manner and gesture could not be called good, and yet Bart felt +that he was in the presence of a formidable man. + +His mind was one of a high order, without a scintilla of genius or any +of its elements. He had a powerful grasp, and elude, as it might, he +finally clutched the idea or principle sought it never escaped him: +and he never rested until its soul and blood were his, or rejected +as useless, after the application of every test. It was a bad day +for slavery when Giddings determined to enter Congress. Cool, shrewd, +adroit, wary and wily, never baffled, never off his guard and never +bluffed; with a reserve of power and expedients always sufficient, +with a courage that knew no blenching, he moved forward. He had more +industry and patience, and was a better lawyer than Wade, but was +his inferior as an advocate. They were opposed in the case in which +Giddings appeared, and Bart already felt that in the atmosphere of the +contest was the element of dislike on the part of Wade, and of cool, +watchful care on the part of Giddings. Wade made two or three headlong +onsets, which were received and parried with bland, smiling coolness. +From his manner no one could tell what Giddings thought of his case or +opponent. + +Two or three evenings after, an informal "reception," as it would now +be called, was held at the Giddings residence, to which the students +and nearly everybody else went. It was a pleasant greeting between +friends and neighbors, and a valued citizen, just home after a half +year's absence. Nothing could be more kind and natural than the +manner of Mr. Giddings, supported by motherly Mrs. Giddings, and the +accomplished Miss Giddings, who had spent the winter with her father +at Washington. She was like her father, in mind and person, softened +and sweetened and much more gracious by sex; tall, graceful, and with +the easy presence and manner of society and cultivation. + +Bart was taken to her, and taken by her at once. She seemed like an +old acquaintance, and spoke in the kindest terms of his brother, told +him of Washington, its society and customs, and called him Barton at +once, as if they were to be on the best of terms. Bart could see that +she was plain, but he forgot that in a moment, and it never occurred +to him again. + +In the course of the evening she returned to him, and said she wished +to introduce him to a young lady friend, whom she was sure he would +like on her own account, and on that of his brother, to whom she was +to have been all that woman might be. It took Bart's breath away. He +was unaware that his brother had ever been engaged, or wished to be, +to any lady. + +"She knows you are in Jefferson," said Miss Giddings, "and has wanted +very much to see you." + +She conducted him into a small sitting-room, and leading: him up to +a young lady in black, introduced him to Miss Aikens--Ida Aikens. The +young lady came forward, gave him her little hand, and looked him full +and sadly in the face. "You are like him," she said, "and I have much +wanted to see you." + +"I received a letter from you," said Bart, "and fear my answer was a +poor one. Had I known you better, I could have written differently. +My brother was more to me than most brothers can be, and all who were +dear to him come at once into my tenderest regard." + +"You could not answer my letter better than you did. I never had a +brother, and nothing can be more grateful to me than to meet you as we +now meet." + +They sat, and he held the hand that belonged to his dead brother, and +that the hand of lover was never again to clasp. Gentle in deeds of +charity and tenderness, it would linger in its widowed whiteness until +it signalled back to the hand that already beckoned over the dark +waters. + +Strangers who saw them would have taken them for lovers. They were of +nearly the same age. She, with dark, luminous eyes, and hair colored +like Haidee's, matched well with the dark gray and light brown. What a +world of tender and mournful sweetness this interview opened up to the +hungry heart of Bart--the love of a sweet, thoughtful, considerate, +intellectual and cultivated sister, unselfish and pure, to which no +touch or color of earth or passion could come. How fully and tenderly +he wrote of her to his mother, and how the unbidden wish came to his +heart to tell another of her, and as if he had the right to do so. + +Miss Aikens was a young lady of high mental endowments, and great +force of character, cultivated in the true sense of culture, and +very accomplished. How sad and bitter seemed the untimely fate of his +brother; and the meeting of this sweet and mourning girl lent another +anguish to his heart, that was so slow in its recovery from that blow. + +The court ran on, grew irksome, and passed. Bart saw something more of +Sartliff, and felt a melancholy interest in him. He also saw much of +Ida, whom he could not help liking, and something of Miss Giddings, +whom he admired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE OLD STORY. + + +On the morning after Wade's return from the Geauga Court, upon +entering the office, where Bart found him and Ranney and Case, and one +or two others, there was the sudden hush that advises a new arrival +that he has been a subject of remark. + +"Good morning, Mr. Wade." + +"Good morning, Ridgeley." + +"You returned earlier than you anticipated?" + +"Yes. How do you come on?" + +"About the old way. Did you see my old client, Cole," the King?" + +"Old King Cole? Yes, I saw that worthy, and they say on the other side +that they can't try the case under a year, perhaps." + +"Well, we defend, and our defence will be as good then as ever," said +Bart. + +"The suit was commenced to save the statute of limitations," said +Wade; "and if any defence exists I fear it will be in chancery." + +"My dear sir, we will make a defence at law," was the decided answer. + +"I saw some of your friends over there," said Wade, "who made many +enquiries about you." + +"They are kind." said Bart. + +"Of course you know Judge Markham?" said Wade. + +Bart bowed. "He is a very honorable and high minded man!" Bart bowed +again. "He spoke of you in the very highest terms, and I was very glad +to hear him." + +"You are very kind," said Bart. + +"And by the way." pursued Mr. Wade, "I heard a little story: the Judge +has a very beautiful daughter," looking directly at Bart, who bowed to +this also. "It seems that the girl in going home from somewhere, got +lost in the woods, and wandered off into a devil of a big forest there +is down there, covering two or three townships. It was in the night +of that awful storm in April, and she went miles away, and finally +overcome, lay down to die, and was covered with the snow, when a young +chap found her--God knows how--took her up, carried her across the +Chagrin River, or one of its branches, in under some rocks, built a +fire, and brought her to, and finally got her to a man's house in the +woods, sent word to her father, and went off. Do you know anything +about it? The story is, that you are the chap who did it." + +All eyes were on Bart. + +"I heard something of it," said he, smiling. "I came off the evening +after this marvel; and in the stage two ladies were full of it. +They made it a little stronger than your version. I think there were +several wild animals in theirs. We stopped at a tavern two or three +miles on, when somebody told the old lady that I was 'the chap that +did it;' but as I had told her that this Bart wasn't much of a fellow, +she was inclined to doubt her informant. The old lady stopped in +Chardon, and you must have heard her story." + +"The young lady herself said that you saved her," said Wade, with his +usual directness. "What do you say to that?" + +"If the young lady was in a condition to know," replied Bart, "I +should take her word for it." And passing into the back room he closed +the door. + +"What the devil is there in it?" said Wade. "It is just as I say. Has +he ever said a word about it?" + +"Not a word," said the young men. + +"I met Miss Markham a year ago, when I was in Newbury, at a sugar +party," said Ranney. "She is one of the most beautiful girls I ever +saw, and superior in every way. Bart was not there--he wouldn't go; +and I remember her talking about him, with Henry. When we got back we +undertook to tell him what she said, and he wouldn't hear a word." + +"The fact is," said Case, decidedly, "her father is rich, and she is +proud and ambitious. Bart wasn't good enough for her, and he has taken +his revenge by saving her life, and now he won't yield an inch." + +"They say he came off and won't have anything to do with them," said +Wade. + +"That's it," said Case, "and I glory in his spunk. They have just +found out their mistake." + +During the day Bart was asked by Wade if he had yet seen Mr. Windsor; +and replied that he had not, but that he was anxious to do so, as his +brother always spoke of him with gratitude, as one who had been very +kind to him. Mr. Wade said that the day before he had seen Windsor, +who expressed a wish to meet Henry's brother, and thought he would +come to Jefferson in a day or two, when he would call on him. Bart was +much gratified, and remarked that he was doing quite a business on his +brother's popularity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE OLD STORY OVER AGAIN. + + +"Mr. Ridgeley," asked Miss Giddings, "what is this delightful little +romance about the rich Judge's beautiful daughter, and the chivalrous +young law student? I declare, if it does not bring back the days of +knight-errantry, and makes me believe in love and heroism." It was +one evening at her father's where Bart had called with his newly found +sister Ida, to whom he was quite attentive. + +The young man looked annoyed in spite of his good breeding. "Has he +told you the story?"--to Miss Aikens. + +"Not a word of it," said the latter. "You know," she then said to Miss +Giddings, "that some things so pleasant to hear may not be pleasant +for a party concerned to tell about." + +"Forgive me, Mr. Ridgeley. It never occurred to me that this could be +of that sort, but as it was so delightful as told to me, I wanted to +know if it was an actual occurrence, in this humdrum world." + +"I suppose," said Ida, "that a great many beautiful and heroic events +are very prosy and painful to the actors therein, and they never dream +the world will give them the gloss of romance." + +"Ladies," said the young man, with a gay and mocking air, "hear the +romance of the Judge's daughter, and the poor student--certainly a +_very_ poor student. There was a rich, powerful and proud Judge; he +had an only daughter, more beautiful than a painter's dream, and proud +as a princess born. In the neighborhood was a poor and idle youth, who +had been the Judge's secretary, and had been dismissed, and who loved +the proud and beautiful maiden, as idle and foolish youths sometimes +do. The beautiful maiden scorned him with a scorn that banished him +from her sight, for he was prouder than Judge and daughter, both. +While disporting with her damsels among the spring flowers in the +forest, one day, the beautiful maiden wandered away and became lost +in the heart of an interminable wood, more wild and lonely than that +which swallowed up the babes of the old ballad. Day passed and night +came, and in its bosom was hidden a fierce tempest of wind and hail +and snow. The poor maiden wandered on, and on, and on, until she came +upon the banks of a dart, cold river; wild and lost amid tempest and +storm, she wandered down its banks, until, in despair, chilled and +benumbed without heart or hope, she laid her down to die, and the pure +snow covered her. Her father, the proud Judge, and his friends, were +searching for her miles away. + +"A little boy told the story to the poor student, who hurried into +the forest, and under the inspiration of his scorned love, ran and ran +until he found the swooning maiden under the snow, took her up in his +arms, placed his garments upon her, and bore her through the cold +and rapid stream, found a shelter under the rocks on the other side, +kindled a fire, gave the maiden, proud no longer, a cordial, warmed +and restored her, made her a couch of moss and dried leaves, and while +she slept he watched over her until the day dawned. Then he conducted +her to a wood-chopper's cabin in the forest, where she was tenderly +cared for. The poor, proud youth would hear no thanks from the maiden. +He sent a note, without his name, to the proud Judge, telling him +where his daughter could be found; and never saw the beautiful maiden, +or proud rich Judge afterwards. This, ladies," with the same gay +banter, "is the romance of the Judge's daughter and the poor student." + +"And I suspect," said Miss Giddings, seriously, "that it is about +the literal truth of the affair, and it is more romantic than I had +thought." + + * * * * * + +"Barton has made the acquaintance of poor Sartliff," said Ida, willing +to introduce a new subject, "and was much struck by him." + +"Do you think he is actually shattered?" asked Miss Giddings. + +"I really have no opinion. His mind moves in such unaccustomed +channels: we find it in such unusual haunts, that nobody can tell +whether it remains healthy or not. It works logically enough, granting +his premises. Of course he is under delusions--we should call them +mistakes merely, if they occurred in ordinary speculations; but with +him, in his abnormal pursuits, they are to be expressed under the +vapory forms of delusions." + +"Oh, it is the saddest sight to see this young man, with a nature so +richly endowed, asking only for light, and the right way; to see +him turning so blindly from the true given light, and searching with +simple earnestness along sterile, rocky byways and thorny hedges, to +find the path or opening that conducts back to a true starting place. +He opens his bosom to sun and air, and bares his feet to the earth, +thinking that inspiration will, through some avenue, reach his senses, +and so inform him. It is the most pitiful spectacle that the eye can +see," said Ida, pathetically. + +"Like a kind spirit sent from heaven to earth," said Bart, "who, +having forgotten his message, can never find his way back; but is +doomed to wander up and down the uncongenial region, searching in vain +for the star-beam by which he descended." + +"My father has quite given him up," said Miss Giddings; "he says he +passed long since the verge of healthy thought and speculation. I used +to think that possibly some new and powerful stimulus, such as might +spring from some new cause--" + +"Love, for instance," suggested Bart. + +"Yes, love, for instance. I declare, Mr. Ridgeley, you think as a +woman." + +"Do women really think? I thought their minds were so clear and +strong that thought was unnecessary, and they were always blest with +intuitions." + +"Well, sir, some of them are obliged to think--when they want to be +understood by men, who don't have intuitions, and can't go at all +without something to hold up by--and a woman would think, perhaps, +that if Sartliff could fall in love--" + +"And if he can't he isn't worth the saving," interjected Bart. + +"Exactly; and if he could, that through its medium he might be brought +back to a healthy frame of mind, or a healthy walk of mind. There, +Mr. Ridgeley, I have got out with that, though rather limpingly, after +all." + +"And a forcible case you have made. Here is a man crazy about Nature; +you propose as a cure for that, to make him mad about a woman. And +what next?" + +"Well, love is human--or inhuman," said Miss Giddings; "if the former, +marriage is the specific; if the latter, his lady-love might get lost +in a wood, you know." + +"Yes, I see. Poor Sartliff had better remain where he is, winking and +blinking for the lights of Nature," said Bart. + +"I remember," interposed Ida, "that he and your brother, among the +matters they used to discuss, disagreed in their estimate of authors. +Sartliff could never endure N.P. Willis, for instance." + +"A sign," said Miss Giddings, "that he was sane then, at least. +Willis, in Europe, is called the poet's lap-dog, with his ringlets and +Lady Blessingtons." + +"I believe he had the pluck to meet Captain Marryatt," said Bart. + +"Was that particularly creditable?" asked Miss Giddings. + +"Well, poets' lap-dogs don't fight duels, much; and Miss Giddings, do +you think a lap-dog could have written this?" And taking up a volume +of Willis, he turned from them and read "Hagar." As he read, he seemed +possessed with the power and pathos of the piece, and his deep voice +trembled under its burthen. At the end, he laid the book down, and +walked to a window while his emotion subsided. His voice always had a +strange power of exciting him. After a moment's silence, Miss Giddings +said, with feeling: + +"I never knew before that there was half that force and strength +in Willis. As you render it, it is almost sublime. Will you read +another?" + +Taking up the book, he read "Jepthah's Daughter:" reading it with less +feeling, perhaps, but in a better manner. + +"I give it up," said Miss Giddings, "though I am not certain whether +it is not in you, rather than in Willis, after all." + +"Six or seven years ago, when my brother Henry came home and gathered +us up, and rekindled the home fires on the old hearth," said Bart, "he +commenced taking the _New York Mirror_, just established by George +P. Morris, assisted by Fay and Willis. Fay, you know, has recently +published his novel, 'Norman Leslie,' the second volume of which flats +out so awfully. At that time these younger men were in Europe; and +we took wonderfully to them, and particularly to Willis's 'First +Impressions,' and 'Pencillings by the Way.' To me they were authentic, +and opened the inside of English literary society and life, and I came +to like him. The language has a wonderful flexile power and grace in +his hands; and I think he has real poetry in his veins, much more than +John Neal, or Dr. Drake, though certainly less than Bryant. Yet there +is a kind of puppyism about the man that will probably prevent his +ever achieving the highest place in our literature." + +"You are a poet yourself, Mr. Ridgeley, I understand," said Miss +Giddings. + +"I like poetry, which is a totally different thing from the power to +produce it; this I am sure I have not," was the candid answer. + +"You have tried?" + +"Most young men with a lively fancy and fervid feelings, write verses, +I believe. Here is Mr. Case, quite a verse writer, and some of his +lines have a tone or tinge of poetry." + +"Would you like literature for a pursuit?" + +"I like books, as I like art and music, but I somehow feel that our +state of society at the West, and indeed our civilization, is not ripe +enough to reach a first excellence in any of these high branches of +achievement. Our hands are thick and hard from grappling with the +rough savagery of our new rude continent. We can construct the strong +works of utility, and shall meet the demands for the higher and better +work when that demand actually exists." + +"But does not that demand exist? Hasn't there been a clamor for +the American novel? A standing advertisement--'Wanted, the American +Novel'--has been placarded ever since I can remember; and I must +forget how long that is," said Miss Giddings. + +"Yes, I've heard of that; but that is not the demand that will compel +what it asks for. It will be the craving of millions, stimulating +millions of brains, and some man will arise superior to the herd, and +his achievement will challenge every other man of conscious powers, +and they will educate and ripen each other till the best, who is never +the first, will appear and supply the need. No great man ever appeared +alone. He is the greatest of a group of great men, many of whom +preceded him, and without whom he would have been impossible. Homer, +alone of his group, has reached us; Shakespeare will live alone of his +age, four thousand years hence." + +"But, Mr. Ridgeley, our continent and our life, with our fresh, young, +intense natures, seem to me to contain all the elements of poetry, and +the highest drama," said Miss Giddings. + +"So they seem to us, and yet how much of that is due to our +egotism--because it is ours--who can tell? Of course there is any +amount of poetry in the raw, and so it will remain until somebody +comes to work it up. There are plenty of things to inspire, but the +man to be inspired is the thing most needed." + +"So that, Mr. Ridgeley," said Ida, "we may not in our time hope for +the American novel, the great American epic, or the great American +drama?" + +"Well, I don't know that these will ever be. That will depend upon our +luck in acquiring a mode and style, and habit of thought, and power +of expression of our own, which for many reasons we may never have. An +American new writes as much like an Englishman as he can--and the more +servile the imitation, the better we like him--as a woman writes like +a man as nearly as she possibly can, for he is the standard. What +is there in Irving, that is not wholly and purely English? And so of +Cooper; his sturdiness and vigor are those of a genuine Englishman, +and when they write of American subjects, they write as an Englishman +would; and if better, it is because they are better informed." + +"Mr. Ridgeley," said Miss Giddings, "can't you give us an American +book?" + + "'When the little fishes fly + Like swallows in the sky,' + +An American will write an American book," said Bart, laughing. "But +your question is a good answer to my solemn twaddle on literature." + +"No, I don't quite rate it as twaddle," said Ida. + +"Don't you though?" asked Bart. + +"No," seriously. "Now what is the effect of our American literature +upon the general character of English literature? We certainly add to +its bulk." + +"And much to its value, I've no doubt," said Bart. "Well, with +increased strength and vigor, we shall begin by imperceptible degrees, +to modify and change the whole, and the whole will ultimately become +Americanized, till the English of this continent, partaking of its +color and character, imparts its tone and flavor finally to the whole +everywhere. I have not much faith in a purely American literature, +notwithstanding Miss Giddings' advertisement." + +"Mr. Ridgeley," said Miss Giddings, "your notions are depressing. I +don't believe in them, and will oppose my woman's intuitions to your +man's argument." + +"My dear Miss Giddings," said Bart, laughing, "you value my notions +quite as highly as I do; and I wouldn't take the criticisms of a young +man who ran away from the only college he ever saw, and who has only +heard the names of a few authors." + +"I wont. They are not American; and yet there seems to be force in +them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +ABOUT LAWYERS, AND DULL. + + +Mr. Giddings was always much interested in all young men, and put +himself in their way and society, and while he affected nothing +juvenile, no man could make himself more winning and attractive to +them. It was said by his enemies, who were of his political household, +that in this, as in all else, he was politic; that he sought out and +cultivated every young man in the circle of his acquaintance; made +himself familiar with his make-up; flattered and encouraged him +with little attentions; sent him speeches and books, and occasional +letters, and thus attached nearly all the rising young men of +Northeastern Ohio to himself personally. This may have been one source +of his great and long continued popularity and strength; he thoroughly +educated at least one generation of voters. + +However that may be, he was much in the old office where he had done +so much effective work, and laid the foundations of his position at +the bar, which was with those of the first in the State. + +He associated on terms of the pleasantest intimacy with the young men, +and early evinced a liking for Bart, who, poor fellow, was ready to +like anybody who would permit him. + +Mr. Giddings was at pains to impress them with the absolute +impossibility of even moderate success at the bar, without industry, +while with it, mediocrity of talents would insure that. "Of the whole +number who were admitted," he said, "about ten or fifteen per cent. +succeeded; and one in a hundred became eminent. Undoubtedly the +greatest lawyer in the world did not possess the greatest intellect; +but he must have been among the most industrious. Brilliant parts +may be useful; they are always dangerous. The man who trusts to the +inspiration of genius, or his capacity to get advantage by ingenious +management in court, will find himself passed by a patient dullard. +The admiring world who witness some of the really fine intellectual +performances that sometimes occur in court, haven't the faintest +conception as to when the real work was done, nor at all what it +consisted in; nor when and how the raw material was gathered and +worked up. The soldier in war is enlisted to fight, but really a small +part of his time is spent in battle; almost the whole of it is in +preparation, training, gathering material, manoeuvring, gaining +strategic advantages, and once in a while producing a field day, which +tests the thoroughness of the preparation. This illustrates the value +of absolute thoroughness in the preparation of cases. A good case is +often lost, and a bad one gained, wholly by the care or negligence in +their preparation. You really try your cases out of court." + +Barton asked why it was that, while the world generally admired and +respected the bar, there was a distrust of its honesty?--at which +there was a general smile. + +"Because," said Mr. Giddings, "there really are unworthy members of +it; and the bar, like the ministry and the medical faculty, being +comparatively a small body, is tried by its failures. The whole +is condemned in the person of a few; while a majority--the bulk of +men--estimate themselves by their successes. One great man sheds +glory on his race, while one villain is condemned alone. The popular +judgment, that lawyers are insincere and dishonest, because they +appear on both sides of a case, with equal zeal, when there can be but +one right side, is not peculiar to the bar. It should be remembered +that learned and pious divines take opposite sides of all doctrinal +points of Scripture, and yet nobody thinks of questioning their +honesty." + +"When both are wrong," put in Wade. + +"Now there are, nominally at least, two sides in a law suit--certainly +two parties. One party goes to Frank, here, and tells his side, most +favorably to himself, and gets an opinion in his favor, and a suit is +commenced. The other tells his side to me, for instance, and on his +statement I think he has a good defence. From that moment each looks +for evidence and law to sustain his side, and to meet the case made +by the other; and invariably we come to the final trial, each honestly +thinking he is right. We try the case zealously and sincerely, and the +one who is finally beaten, feels that injustice has been done. It is +the first task of an advocate to convince himself, and unless he has +already done that, he may not expect to convince court and jury; and +a man must be a poor advocate, or have a very bad case, who fails +to convince himself, however he may fare with a jury. You need never +expect to convince your opponent; he is under a retainer not to agree +with you." + +"There is another thing about it," said Wade. "The bar and writers +talk about the ethics of the bar, and legal morality, and all that +nonsense, until there is an impression, both among lawyers and the +public, that there is one rule for lawyers and another for the rest of +mankind--that we are remitted to a lower standard of honesty. This is +all bosh; there can be but one standard of right and wrong; and that +which is wrong out of court, cannot be right in it. I'll have but one +rule. A man who will lie to a court or a jury, will lie anywhere--he +is a liar." + +"Will you submit to that rule?" asked Giddings, laughing. + +"I always have," said Wade, "and I wont have any other. Now of all +men, a lawyer can the least afford to be dishonest; for a taint, a +doubt of his honor, ruins him; and there cannot be a more honorable +body of men in the world, and never was, than the fair majority of the +bar. The habit of contesting in open court, in the face of the +world, engenders an honorable, manly highmindedness, free from the +underhanded jealousy and petty wars of the doctors. If a man lies, or +is mean, he is pretty certain to be detected and exposed at once. A +lawyer cannot afford to lie and be mean. And besides, I have observed +that there is really no healthy, manly development of intellect, +without a healthy, manly development of the moral nature." + +"Now, Frank," said Mr. Giddings, "why not go a step further, and +perfect the man, and say that religion should add its strength and +grace, as a crown?" + +"Well, Gid, I've no objection to your religion--that is, I have no +objection to religion--I don't know about yours--but I have known a +good many religious men who were very bad men, and I have known a good +many bad men to get religion, who did not mend their morals. If a man +is a good man, it don't hurt him to join a church, as far as I know; +and a bad man usually remains bad." + +"Well, Frank, leave these young men to form their own opinions." + +"Certainly; I did not broach the subject." + +"They ought to become better lawyers than we are," said Mr. Giddings. +"Their means of education are far in advance; the increase of new and +valuable text-books, the great progress in the learning and competency +of the courts, as well as the general rapid improvement of the people +in intelligence, are all in their favor; they ought to be better +lawyers and better Christians." + +"They couldn't well be worse," was the bluff response of Wade. + +The young men remained pondering the remarks of their seniors. + +"Well, boys," said Ranney, "you've heard the ideas of two observing +men. They give you the result of their experience on two or three very +important practical points; what do you think of it?" + +"Ransom," said the ready Case, "is thinking who and what must be the +one hundred, of whom he is to be the one. They would be a sad sight." + +"And Case," rejoined the ever irate Ransom, "that if John Doe and +Richard Roe, with a declaration in ejectment, could only be turned +into doggerel, he would be an eminent land lawyer." + +"What has happened to Ransom?" asked Kennedy. + +"I don't know," replied Case; "he has sparkled up in this same way, +two or three times. Can it be that an idea has been committed to his +skull, lately? If one has, a _habeas corpus_ must be sued out for its +delivery. Solitary confinement is forbidden by the statutes of Ohio." + +"Never you mind the idea," said Ransom. "I mean to find a lawyer in +good practice, and go into partnership with him at once." + +"Now, Ransom," said Case, still gravely, "you are a very clever +fellow, and devilish near half witted; and you would allow such a man, +whom you thus permitted to take himself in with you, one third or one +fourth of the proceeds of the first year." + +"I would have no trouble about that," said Ransom, not quite feeling +the force of Case's compliment. + +"Well," said Ranney, "I suspect that generally lawyers, desirable as +partners, if they wish them, will be already supplied, and then, when +one could secure an eligible connection of this kind, the danger is, +that he would be overshadowed and dwarfed, and always relying on his +senior, would never come to a robust maturity. Well, Kennedy, what do +you say?" + +"Not much; I hope to be able to work when admitted. I mean to find +some good point further West, where there is an opening, and stop and +wait. I don't mean to be a failure." + +"Ridgeley, what are your views?" + +"Modest, as becomes me; I don't think I am to be counted in any +hundred, and so I avoid unpleasant comparisons. I don't mean to look +long for an opening, or an opportunity; I would prefer to make both. +I would begin with the first thing, however small, and do my best with +it, and so of every other thing that came, leaving the eminence and +places to adjust themselves. I intend to practice law, and, like +Kennedy, I don't mean to fail." + +"Mr. Ranney," continued Bart, "what is the reason of this universal +failure of law students?" + +"I think the estimate of Giddings is large," said Ranney. "but of +all the young men who study law, about one half do it with no settled +purpose of ever practising, and, of course, don't. Of those who do +intend to practice, one half never really establish themselves in it. +That leaves one fourth of the whole number, who make a serious and +determined effort at the bar, and one half of these--one eighth of the +whole--succeed; and that brings out about as Giddings estimated." + +"Well, on the whole, that is not a discouraging view," said Bart, "and +for one, I am obliged to you." + +Nevertheless, he pondered the whole matter, and turned to face calmly +as he had before, the time when his novitiate should end, and he +should actually enter upon his experiment. + +"Now, Case, this is a serious matter. A young and utterly unknown man, +without money, friends, acquaintances or books, and doubtful whether +he has brains, learning and capacity, in some small or large town, +attacks the world, throws down his gage--or rather nails it up, in the +shape of a tin card, four by twelve inches, with his perfectly obscure +name on it. Think of it! Just suppose you have a little back room, up +stairs, with a table, two chairs, half a quire of paper, an inkstand, +two steel pens, Swan's Treatise, and the twenty-ninth volume of Ohio +Statutes. You would be very busy arranging all this array of things, +and would whistle cheerfully till that was accomplished, and then you +would grow sad, and sit down to wait and think--" + +"Of the rich Judge's beautiful daughter," broke in Case. + +"And wait," continued Bart. + +"Oh, Bart! I glory in your pluck and spunk," said Case, "and I think +of your performance as Major Noah said of Adam and Eve: 'As touching +that first kiss,' said he, 'I have often thought I would like to have +been the man who did it; but the chance was Adam's.'" + +"Ridgeley seems to be taken in hand by Miss Giddings," said Kennedy; +"that would not be a bad opening for an ambitious man." + +"Of the ripe years of twenty-three," put in Case. "The average age +would be about right. She has led out one or two of each crop of law +students since she was sixteen." + +"What has been the trouble?" asked Kennedy. + +"I don't know. They came, and went-- + + 'Their hold was frail, their stay was brief, + Restless, and quick to pass away'-- + +while she remains," replied Case. "Bart seems to be a new inspiration, +and she is as gay and lively as a spring butterfly." + +"And worth forty young flirts," observed Ransom. + +"Oh, come, boys!" cried Bart, "hold up. Miss Giddings is an attractive +woman, full of accomplishment and goodness--" + +"And experience," put in Case. + +"Who permits me to enjoy her society sometimes," continued Bart. "The +benefit and pleasure are wholly mine, and I can't consent to hear her +spoken of so lightly." + +"Bart is right, as usual," said Case, gravely; "and I don't know of +anything more unmanly than the way we young men habitually talk of +women." + +"Except the way they talk of us," said Kennedy. + +"You would expect a lady to speak in an _un_manly way," remarked Bart. +"Of course, if we are ever spoken of by them, it is in our absence; +but I'll venture that they seldom speak of us at all, and then in +ignorance of our worst faults. We are not likely to receive injustice +at their hands." + +"Bart, you must always have been lucky," said Ransom. + +"I am doing my best not to be conceited and vain, and find it +confounded hard work," was the frank, good-natured reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE DISGUISE. + + +Mrs. Ridgeley received the following: + +"JEFFERSON, June 8, 1838. + +"_Dear Mother_:--A strange thing has happened to me, for which I am +indebted to Henry; indeed, I am destined to trade upon his capital. +You remember how kind he said a Mr. Windsor was to him, employing him +to transact small business matters for him, and paying him largely, +besides making him useful and valuable presents? He seems to have +been dissatisfied with himself for not doing more, and I am to be the +recipient of his bounty in full. + +"He called to see me about a week ago; and then two or three days +after, he sent a carriage for me, and I have just returned. He is very +wealthy, an old bachelor, lives elegantly, is a thoroughly educated +man, and not eccentric, except in his liking to Henry, which he +transfers to me. He is without near relations, and has had a history. +Now he insists on advancing to me enough to carry me through, clothing +me, and starting me with a fine library. He says I must go East to +a law school at least a year, and so start from a most favorable and +advanced position. + +"It took my breath away. It seems fairly wrong that I should permit +myself to take this man's money, for whom I have done nothing, and +to whom I can make no return, and whose money I might never repay. +He laughed, and said I was very simple and romantic. Wasn't the money +his? and couldn't he do what he pleased with it? and if he invested it +in me, nobody was harmed by it. I told him I might be; I am not +sure that I should be safe with the pressure and stimulus of poverty +removed from me. + +"Moreover he had purchased an elegant watch, to be given to Henry, on +his marriage with poor Miss Aikens, of whom I told you; and this he +insists on my taking and wearing, with a chain big and long enough to +hang me in. I told him if he wanted to give it away, that it should, +I thought, properly go to Miss A.--to whom, by the way, I gave that +beautiful pin. I cannot wear anything that was Henry's, and this would +be one objection to wearing this watch. Mr. Windsor said it certainly +was never intended for Ida; that it had never been Henry's, that it +was mine, and I had to bring it away. I feel guilty, and as if I had +swindled or stolen, or committed some mean act; and as I hold it to my +ear, its strong beat reproaches me like the throb of a guilty heart. + +"What can I do? Your feelings are right, and your judgment is good. +I can't afford to be killed with a weight of obligation, nor must I +remit or relax a single effort. This may stimulate me more. If I were +to relax and lie down now, and let another carry me, I should deserve +the scorn and contempt I have received. + +"Write me upon this, and don't mention it to the Colonel. + +"I have made the acquaintance of Miss Giddings, who is very kind to +me; and she and Ida furnish that essential element of ladies' society +which you desired I should have. I confess I don't care much for +men; but I have so little to give in return for the kindness of +these noble, refined and intellectual ladies, that here again I am +a receiver of alms. No matter; women never receive any proper return +from men, any way. + +"Ask Ed and George to write, and tell me all the little pleasant +details of the farm life and home. How tender and sweet and dear it +all is to me; and what a gulf seems to have opened between me and all +the past! + +"Ever with love, dear mother, + +BART." + +Mrs. Ridgeley received and read the letter in the store. While she was +absorbed in it. Mrs. Markham came in, and was struck by the expression +of her face. As she finished the perusal, she discovered Mrs. Markham, +and her look of recognition induced the latter to approach her. The +incidents of the last few weeks had silently ripened the liking of +the two women into a very warm and cordial feeling. As Mrs. Markham +approached, the other gave her her hand, and held out Bart's letter. +Mrs. Markham received it, and as her eye ran over it, Mrs. Ridgeley +could easily see the look of pleasure and warmth that lit up her face. + +"Oh, by all means," she said, "tell him not hesitate a moment. +Providence has sent him a friend, and means, and his pride should not +be in the way of this offer." + +"He is proud," said Mrs. Ridgeley, gravely; "but it is not wholly +pride that makes him hesitate." + +"Pardon me," said Mrs. Markham, "I don't mean to blame him; I +sympathize with even his pride, and admire him for the very qualities +that prevented his allowing us to aid him, and I hope those high +qualities will never lose a proper influence over him." + +The mother was a little more than appeased. + +"Am I to read the rest?" + +"Certainly." + +And she resumed. A little graver she looked at one or two lines, and +then the sweet smile and light came back to her face; and she handed +back the letter. + +"What a treasure to you this son must be," she said; and she again +urged her to write to Bart at once, and induce him to accept the kind +offer made to him. + +Mrs. Ridgeley explained who Miss Aikens was, and her relations to +Henry; that Miss Giddings was the daughter of the member of Congress, +&c. Mrs. Markham had noticed that Bart spoke of them as "ladies," and +not as young ladies, though what mental comment she made upon it was +never known. + +People in the country go by the almanac, instead of by events, as in +cities; and May quickened into June, June warmed into July, and ran on +to fervid August. Quiet ruled in the Ridgeley cottage, rarely broken, +save when Julia galloped up and made a pleasant little call, had a +game of romps with George, a few quick words with Edward; an enquiry, +or adroit circumlocution, would bring out Bart's name, which the young +lady would hear with the most innocent air in the world. She always +had some excuse; she was going, returning to, or from some sick +person, or on some kind errand. Once or twice later, young King, of +Ravenna, accompanied her; and still later, Mr. Thorndyke was riding +with her frequently. + +It was observed that while her beauty had perfected, if possible, the +character of her face had deepened, and a tenderer light was in her +eyes. As the time came for Bart's examination, she carelessly remarked +that he would be home soon, and was told that he had decided to take +a short course in the Albany law-school, and would go directly from +Jefferson; that when he left in the spring, he had determined not to +return to Newbury until the end of a year; but that his mother might +expect him certainly at that time. Julia was turning over a bound +volume of the _New York Mirror_, and came upon a Bristol board, on +which was a fine pen-and-ink outline head of Bart. She took it up and +asked Mrs. Ridgeley if she might have it. "Certainly," was the answer, +"if you wish it," and she carried it away. After leaving the house +she discovered on the other side, a better finished and more artistic +likeness of herself in crayon, with her hair falling about her neck +and shoulders; and surrounding it, two or three outlines of her +features in profile, which she recognized by the hair--one of poor +Bart's "ships" that had escaped the general burning. + + * * * * * + +Barton decided to avail himself of the kindness of Mr. Windsor, +and quietly made his arrangements accordingly. The summer was very +pleasant to him. He devoted himself with his usual ardor to his books, +but gave much of his leisure to Ida, who began to feel the approach of +a calamity that gradually extinguished the light in her eyes. She +was already suffering--although not anticipating a serious result--a +pressure in the forehead, and a gradual impairing of vision, without +pain. Under its shadow, that no medical art could dissipate, she found +a wonderful solace in the tender devotion of her newly found brother, +who read to her, walked with her, and occasionally rode with her, in +all tender, manly ways surrounding her with an atmosphere of kind +and loving observances, which she more than repaid, with the strong, +healthy and pure womanly influence, which she exercised over him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE INVITATION. + + +Late one wondrously beautiful August night, as Bart was returning from +a solitary stroll, he was suddenly joined by Sartliff, bare-headed +and bare-footed, who placed his hand within his arm, and turning him +about, walked him back towards the wood. Bart had not seen him for +weeks, and he thought his face was thinner and more haggard, and his +eyes more cavernous than he had ever seen them. + +"What progress are you making?" asked Bart, quietly. + +"I am getting increase of power. I don't know that I need light; +I think I want strength. I hear the voices oftener, and they are +wonderfully sweeter; I find that they consist of marvelous musical +sounds, and I can distinguish some notes; meanings are conveyed by +them. If I could only comprehend and interpret them. I shall in time +if I can hold out. I find as the flesh becomes more spirit-like, that +this power increases. If I only had some fine-fibred soul who +could take this up where I must leave it! Barton, you believe God +communicates with men through other than his ordinary works?" + +"I don't know; I see and hear God in the wondrous symbols of nature; +when they say that he speaks directly, I don't feel so certain. I am +so made up, that the very nature, the character and quality of the +evidence, is unequal to the facts to be proven, and so to produce +conviction. If a score of you were to say to me, that in the forest +to-day, you saw a fallen and decayed tree arise and strike down new +roots, and shoot out new branches, and unfold new foliage and flowers, +I would not believe it: Nor, though five hundred men should swear +that they saw a grave heave up, and its tenant come forth to life and +beauty, would I believe. The quality of the evidence is not equal to +sustain the burthen of the fact to be established, and it does not +help the matter, that alleged proofs come to me through uncertain +historical media. Yet I can't say that I disbelieve. Who can say that +there is not within us a religious spiritual faculty, or a set of +faculties, that take impressions, and receive communications, +not through the ordinary perceptions and convictions of the mere +mind--that sees and hears, retains and transmits, loves, hopes and +worships, in a spiritual or religious atmosphere of its own; whose +memories are superstitions, whose realizations are extatic visions, +and whose hopes are the future of blessedness; and that it is through +these faculties that religious sentiments are received, transmitted +and propagated, and to which God speaks and acts, spirit to spirit, as +matter to matter? Who can tell how many sets of faculties are possible +to us? We may have developed only a few of the lowest. I sometimes +fancy that I feel the rudiments of a higher and finer set within me. +Who shall say that I have them not?" + +"Go on, Barton; I like to hear you unfold yourself," said Sartliff. + +"I can't," said Bart, "I can only vaguely talk about what I so vaguely +feel." + +"Barton," said Sartliff, "go with me; let me impart to you what I +know; perhaps you have a finer and subtler sense than I had. At any +rate I can help you. You can be warned by my failures and blunders, +and possess yourself of my small gains. I know I have taken some +steps. I shall last long enough to place you well on the road. You are +silent. Do you think me crazy--mad?" + +"No, not that, nor do I think that we have occupied all the fields +of human knowledge. We are constantly acquiring a faculty to see new +things and to take new meanings from the common and old. Nature has +not yet delivered her full speech to man. She can communicate only as +he acquires the power to receive. This idea of finding new pathways, +and new regions and realms, with new powers, of finding an opening +from our day into the more effulgent, with new strange and glorious +creatures, with new voices and forms, with whom we may communicate, is +alluring, and may all lay within the realm of possibility. I don't say +that to dream of it, is to be mad." + +"It is possible," said Sartliff with fervor. "I have seen the forms +and heard the voices." + +"And to what purpose do you pursue these mystical studies and +researches." + +"Partly for the extacy and glory of the present, mainly for the +ultimate good to the races of men, when the new and powerful agencies +that come of the wisdom and strength which will be thus acquired, the +powers within and about us, are developed and employed for the common +good; and man is emancipated from his sordid slavery to the gross and +physical of his worst and lowest nature, and when woman through this +emancipation takes her real position, glorified, by the side of her +glorified companion; when she seeks to be wife and mother, with free +choice to be other--what a race will spring from them! Strong, brave, +beautiful men, great, radiant, beautiful women, like the first +mothers of the race, bringing forth their young, with the same joy and +gladness, as that with which they receive their young bridegrooms." + +"Go and help me find the way for our common race." + +He had turned, and stood with intent eyes burning into the soul of the +young man. "I have faith in you. Of all the young men I have met, you +have exhibited more capacity to comprehend me than any other, and I am +beginning to feel the need of help," said Sartliff, plaintively. + +"God alone can help you," said Bart, "I cannot. You believe in this; +to me it is a dream, with which my fancy, when idle, willingly toys. I +like to talk with you. I sympathise with you; I cannot go with you. I +will not enter upon your speculations. Don't think me unkind." + +"I don't," said Sartliff, "nor do I blame you. You are young and +gifted, and opportunities will come to you; and distinction and fame, +and some beautiful woman's love await you, and God bless you." And he +walked away. + +There was always something about Sartliff that stimulated, but at the +same time excited an apprehension in Bart, who regarded him as past +recall to healthy life, and he felt a sense of relief when he was +alone; but the old, melancholy chords continued to vibrate, and Bart +returned to the village under a depression that lingered about him for +days. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +ADMITTED. + + +At the September term of the Supreme Court, Mr. Ranney presented the +certificates and applications for the admission of Case, Ransom, +and Bart on the first day, and they were, as usual, referred to a +Committee of the whole bar, for examination and report. + +The Committee met that evening in the Court room, the Supreme Judges, +Wood and Lane, being present. + +Old Webb, of Warren, whom Case ought to have sketched in his rough +outlines as the senior of the bar, turned suddenly to Bart, the +youngest of the applicants, and asked him if a certain "estate could +exist in Ohio?" + +After a moment's reflection, Bart answered that it could not. + +"Why?" + +Bart explained the nature and conditions of the estate, and said that +one of them was rendered impossible by a statute; and explained how. +A good deal of surprise was expressed at this; the statute was called +for, and on its being placed in his hands, Bart turned to it, read the +law, and showed its application. + +Wood said, "Judge Lane, I think this young man has decided your +Hamilton Co. case for you." + +Some general conversation ensued, and when it subsided, old Webb +said, "Well! well! young man, we may as well go home, when we get such +things from a law student." And they did not ask him another question. + +The examination was over at last. Case had acquitted himself well, +and Ransom tolerably. Bart was mortified and disgusted. This was the +extent then of the ordeal; all his labor, hard study, and anxiety, +ended in this! + +The next morning, on the assembling of the Court, the three young men +were admitted, sworn in, and became attorneys and counsellors at law, +and solicitors in chancery, authorized to practise in all the courts +of Ohio. All this was made to appear by the clerk's certificate, under +the great seal of the Supreme Court of the State, tied with a blue +ribbon, and presented to each of them. + +It tended not much to relieve Bart, to know that the question he had +so summarily disposed of had much excited and disturbed the legal +world of Middle and Southern Ohio; that the best legal minds had been +divided on it; and that a case had just been reserved for the court in +bane, which turned on this very point. + +It was over; he had his diploma, but he felt that in some way it was a +swindle. + +What a longing came to him to go to Newbury; and he was half mad and +wholly sad to think that one face would come to him with the sweet, +submissive, reproachful, arch expression, it wore when he forbid its +owner to speak, one memorable morning, in the woods and snow; and he +found himself wondering if what Ida told him might by any possibility +be true; he knew it could not be, and so put it all away. + +He took Ida over to Mr. Windsor's for a long day's visit, made a few +calls, packed his trunk, bade Miss Giddings, who did not hesitate to +express her sorrow at his departure, a regretful good-bye, and the +next morning rode to Ashtabula, and there took a steamer down the +lake. + +I am glad to have him off my hands for six months; and when he falls +under them next time, seriously, I will dispose of him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +JULIA. + + +It will be remembered that Greer was a somewhat ambiguous character, +about whom and whose movements some suspicions were at times afloat; +but these did not much disturb him or interrupt his pleasant relations +with the pleasant part of the world. + +He was at Jefferson during the first term of the Court while Bart was +there, and it so happened that there was a prosecution pending against +a party for passing counterfeit money; who finally gave bail and +never returned to take his trial; but nobody connected Greer with +that matter. He was also there after Bart was admitted, and had an +interview with the young lawyer, professionally, which was followed by +some consequences to both, hereafter to be mentioned. + +Just before this last visit, a man by the name of Myers--Dr. Myers--a +young man of fine address and of fair position, was arrested in Geauga +for stealing a pair of valuable horses. The arrest created great +astonishment, which was increased when it was known that in default of +the heavy bail demanded he had been committed to the jail at Chardon. +This was followed by the rumor of his confession, in which it was said +that he implicated Jim Brown, of Akron, and various parties in other +places, and also Greer, and, as some said, Bart Ridgeley, all of whom +belonged to an association, many members of which had been arrested. +The rumors produced much excitement everywhere, and especially in the +south part of Geauga; and the impression was deepened and confirmed +by an article in the _Geauga Gazette_, issued soon after Myers was +committed. With staring head-lines and exclamation points, it stated +that Dr. Myers, since his imprisonment, had made a full confession, +which it gave in substance, as above. Bart was referred to as a young +law student at Jefferson, and a resident of the south part of the +county, who, as was said, had escaped, and it was supposed that he had +gone East, where the officers had gone in pursuit. Most of the others +had been arrested. + +Mrs. Ridgeley had caught something of the first rumor in her far off +quiet home; but nobody had told her of Barton's connection with it, +nor did her neighbors seem inclined to talk with her about the general +subject. As usual, one of the boys went to the Post Office on the +day of the arrival of the Chardon paper; and brought in not only that +journal, but the rumor in reference to Barton. His mother read and +took it all in, and was standing in blank amazement and indignation, +when Julia came flashing in, and found her still mutely staring at the +article. + +"Oh, Mrs. Ridgeley! Mrs. Ridgeley!" exclaimed the aroused girl, +seizing her hands; "it is all false--every word of it--about Barton! +Every single word is a lie!" + +"I know it is; but how can that be made to appear? Men will believe +it, if it is false!" + +"Never! No one will ever believe evil of him. He is now surrounded +by the best and truest of men; and when this wretched Myers is tried, +everything will be made clear. I knew you would see this paper, and +I came at once to tell you what I know of Barton's connection with +Greer. Please listen;" and she told her of the old rumor about them, +and of her journey to Ravenna, to see the latter, and showed her his +note, addressed to her father. + +The quick mind of the elder lady appreciated it as it was stated to +her; and another thing, new and sudden as a revelation, came to her; +and with tears in her eyes, and a softened and illuminated face, +she turned to Julia, a moment since so proud and defiant, and now so +humble and subdued, with averted eyes and crimsoned face: "Oh, Julia!" +and passed one arm around the slender girl. + +"Please! please!" cried her pleading voice, with her face still +away. "This is my secret--you will not tell--let him find it out for +himself--please!" + +"Certainly; I will leave to him the joy of hearing it from you," said +the elder, in her inmost soul sympathizing with the younger. + +What a deep and tranquil joy possessed the heart of the mother, and +with what wonder she contemplated the now conscious maiden! and how +she wondered at her own blindness! And so the threatening cloud broke +for her: broke into not only a serene peace, but a heartfelt joy and +gratitude; and she parted with Julia with the first kiss she had ever +bestowed upon her. + +At the ensuing fall term of the Geauga Common Pleas, Myers was +indicted for horse-stealing. The prosecuting officer refused to make +terms with him, and permit him to escape, on condition of furnishing +evidence against others, as he had hoped when he made his confession; +and when arraigned, he plead not guilty, and upon proper showing, his +case was continued to the next term, in January. + +A great crowd from all parts of the adjacent country, and many from a +distance, had assembled to witness the trial of Myers. The region of +Eastern Ohio had, like many new and exposed communities, suffered +for years from the occasional depredations of horse thieves. It was +supposed that an organization existed, extending into Pennsylvania. +The horses taken were traced to the mountain region in that State, +where they disappeared; and although Greer and Brown were never before +connected with this branch of industry, it was thought that the horses +in question, which had been intercepted, were in the regular channels +of the trade, which it was hoped, would now be broken up. One +noticeable thing at the court was the presence of Greer, who +apparently came and went at pleasure. He was cool and elegant as +usual, and seemingly unconcerned and a little more exclusive. His +being at large was much at variance with the understood programme, and +necessitated its reconstruction. Little was said about Bart, and it +was apparent that the public mind had returned to a more favorable +tone towards him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +FINDING THE WAY. + + +On an early December evening, in a bright, quiet room, at the Delavan +House, in Albany, sat Bart Ridgeley alone, thoughtfully and sadly +contemplating a manuscript, that lay before him, which ran as follows: + +"UNIONVILLE, Nov. 27, 1838. + +"_My Dear Bart_:--Poor Sartliff has, it seems, finally found the way. +It was that short, direct, everlasting old way, so crowded, which +everybody finds, and nobody loses or mistakes. You told me of your +last interview with him, as did he, not long after you left. It seemed +to have depressed him. He spoke of you as one who could have greatly +aided him, but did not blame you. + +"The next time I saw him, I found him much changed for the worse. +He was thin and haggard--more so than I had ever seen him. His old +hopefulness and buoyancy were gone, and he was given to very gloomy +and depressing views of things. He thought he had made great progress, +in fact had reached a new discovery, and it was not in the least +encouraging. + +"He finally concluded that the grand and wondrously beautiful spirits +that he seemed to get glimpses of, and whose voices he used to hear, +were really convict spirits, or angels, imprisoned on or banished +to this earth, for a period of years, or for eternity, for crimes +committed in the sun, or some less luminous abode; and I presume are +cutting up here, much after their old way. Though it must be conceded +that this world is a place of severe punishment. + +"He went on to a more depressing view of us mortals, and said he +had concluded that our souls were also the souls of beings who had +inhabited some more favored region of the universe, also sent here for +punishment; and that each was compelled to enter and inhabit a human +body, for the lifetime of that body; and to suffer by partaking of +all of its wretched, sensual, and degrading vicissitudes; and that +whenever the soul is sufficiently punished, the body dies and permits +it to escape. + +"I suggested that it made no difference where the soul came from, if +there was one, nor how many bodies it had inhabited; and that it made +against his idea, that the soul was older than the body; for if it +was, it would be conscious of that pre-existence. He said that every +soul did at times have a consciousness of existence in another and +older form, which was very dark from its transgressions. But he took +the part of the native body against this alien soul, and felt hurt and +grieved that our world was a mere penal colony--a penitentiary for +all the scabbed and leprous souls and spirits of the rest of God's +creation. It was bad economy; and he grieved over it as a deep and +irreparable personal injury. + +"This was a month ago; and I never saw him again. He wandered off down +into the neighborhood of Erie, where he had many acquaintances, took +less care of himself, went more scantily clad, was more abstemious in +diet, and more and more disregarded the conditions of human existence. +Finally, his mind became as wandering as his body. + +"He wanted nothing, asked for nothing, rejected food, and refused +shelter, and as often as taken in and cared for, he managed to escape, +and wander away, feebly and helplessly, from human association and +ministration. He complained to himself that his great mother, Nature, +had deserted him, a helpless child, to wander and perish in the +wilderness. He said he had gone after her, until weary, starving, +and worn, he must lie down and die. He had called after her until +his voice had sunk to a wail; and he finally died of a child's +heart-broken sense of abandonment and desertion. + +"He was found one day, nearly unconscious, with the tears frozen in +his eyes, and on being cared for, wailed his life out in broken sobs. + +"Let us not grieve that he has found rest. + +"I am too sad to write of other things, and you will be melancholy +over this for a month. + +"CASE." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +SOME THINGS PUT AT REST. + + +At the January term of the Court, the case of Ohio _vs._ Myers, came +up; and the defendant failing on his motion to continue, the case was +brought on for trial, and a jury was sworn. His principal counsel was +Bissell, of Painesville, a man of great native force and talent, and +who in a desperate stand-up fight, had no superior at that time in +Northern Ohio. He expected to exclude the confession, on the ground +that Myers had been induced to make it upon representations that it +would be for his advantage to do so; and if this could be got out of +the way, he was not without the hope of finding the other evidence of +the State too weak to work a conviction. + +The interest in the case had not abated, and a great throng of people +were in attendance. + +Hitchcock, with whom Henry Ridgeley was in company at the time of his +death, then an able lawyer, was the prosecuting officer, aided by the +younger Wilder, who had succeeded Henry as his partner. + +Wilder was a young lawyer of great promise, and was the active man in +the criminal cases. + +He stated the case to the court and jury, saying among other things, +that he would not only prove the larceny by ordinary evidence, but +by the confession of the prisoner himself. Bissell dropped his heavy +brows, and remarked in his seat, "that he would have a good time doing +that." + +Wilder called one of the officers who made the arrest, proved that +fact, and then asked him the plump question, in a way to avoid +a leading form, whether the prisoner made a confession? Bissell +objected, on the ground that before he could answer, the defendant +had a right to know whether he was induced to make it, by any +representations from the witness or others. + +Wilder answered, that it did not yet appear that a confession had been +made. If it should be shown that one had, it would be then time to +discuss its admissibility; and so the court ruled; and the witness +answered that Myers did make a full confession. Wilder directed him +to state it, Bissell again objected, and although Wilder urged that he +had a right to go through with his witness, and leave the other side +to call out the inducement, if any, on cross-examination, the court +ruled that the circumstances under which the confession was made was +a preliminary matter that the defendant had a right to show. When the +witness answered to Bissell, that he told Myers after his arrest that +they knew all about the larceny, but did not know who his accomplices +were, and that if he would tell all about them he would undoubtedly +be favored; and that then the defendant told his story. Upon this +statement, Wilder cross-examined the witness, and managed to extract +several items of the confession, when the court held that the +confession was inadmissible. + +Myers drew a breath of relief, but Bissell's brow did not clear. He +knew that the State had gained all it expected to; it had proved +that a confession was made, which was about as bad as the confession +itself. Under this cloud, Wilder called his other evidence, which of +itself, was very inconclusive, and which, with the added weight that a +confession had been made, left much uncertainty as to the result, and +Bissell was girding himself for the final struggle. Wilder then +called the name of John T. Greer--when the head of Myers dropped, and +midnight fell upon the brow of Bissell. + +Placidly and serenely, that gentleman answered the call, and took the +stand--seemingly the only unconcerned gentleman present. He said that +he knew Myers well--had known him for years; that on the morning +after the larceny, he saw him and another man, at McMillan's, near +Youngstown; that they brought with them a pair of horses, which he +described exactly as the stolen horses, and that Myers told him they +got them the night before, at Conant's barn in Troy; that he denounced +Myers to his face as a horse thief, and threatened to expose him. + +This evidence produced a prodigious sensation. Bissell put the witness +through a savage cross-examination. In answer to the questions, he +said that Myers and himself, and others, belonged to an association, +of which Jim Brown was the head, for manufacturing paper currency and +coin, and supplying it at various points; had never passed a dollar +himself; that he broke with Myers because he was a thief, and no +gentleman; that the association had never had any connection with +running off horses, &c. + +"To whom did you first disclose this act of Myers?" + +"To a young lawyer at Jefferson, in his private room." + +"Who was he?" + +"Barton Ridgeley." Great sensation, and men looked at one another. + +"Did he belong to your financial association?" + +"Never!" Sensation. + +"Why did you go to him?" + +"I had a little acquaintance with him, and had great confidence in +him. I wanted to consult somebody, and I went to him." He went on to +say that he consulted him as a lawyer and not as a friend; that when +he told Ridgeley of the association, which was drawn out of him by a +cross-examination, Ridgeley told him at once, that while he would +not use this against the witness, he certainly would against his +associates. That soon after Mr. Wade came in, and he found out that +Ridgeley had managed to send for him. That Ridgeley then insisted +that he should tell the whole story to Mr. Wade, and he did. That Wade +called in a United States Deputy Marshal, and induced the witness to +make an affidavit, when the Marshal went to Columbus, got warrants, +and arrested Brown and others. + +He was asked what fee he paid young Ridgeley, and he answered, +nothing. He offered him a liberal fee, and he refused it. He +understood Ridgeley had gone East, but did not know; nor who furnished +him with money. + +The prosecution rested. + +Wade was present, and Bissell called him; and in answer to Wilder, +said he proposed to contradict Greer. Wilder replied, that although +he was not entitled to such a privilege, yet he had no objection; and +Wade, in the most emphatic way, corroborated Greer throughout. He said +that Ridgeley was at that time at the Albany law-school, and would +soon be back to answer for himself; and when asked if he was not poor, +answered, that friends always came to such young men, with a glance at +the bench, where Markham sat with Humphrey. The perfect desperation of +his case alone warranted Bissell in calling Wade, with whose testimony +the trial closed; and on the verdict of guilty, Myers was sentenced +to the Penitentiary for ten years. And for the third or fourth time +Barton's acquaintances were disposed to regard him as a hero. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +PRINCE ARTHUR. + + +It was not in nature, particularly in young man-nature, that such a +creature as Julia should ripen into womanhood without lovers. In her +little circle of Newbury, boys and girls loved her much alike, and +with few shades of difference on account of sex. No youth of them +dreamed of becoming her suitor; not even Barton, whom I have sketched +in vain, if it is not apparent that it would not have been over +presumption in him, to dream of anything. + +Of the numerous, and more or less accomplished young men from +other places, who had met and admired her, two had somewhat singled +themselves out, as her admirers, both of whom, I fear, had a good way +passed the pleasant, though dangerous, line of admiration. + +Young King, of Ravenna, a frank, handsome, high-spirited youth, had +for a long time been at no pains to conceal his partiality; so far +from that, he had sought many occasions to evince in a modest, manly +way, his devotion. His observing sister, Julia's warm and admiring +friend, had in vain looked wise, lifted her finger, and shaken her +warning head at him. He would inevitably have committed himself, +had not the high-souled and generous Julia, by her frank, ingenuous +woman's way with him, made him see and feel in time the uselessness of +a more ardent pursuit; and so content himself with the real luxury of +her friendship. The peril to him was great, and if for a time he was +not unhappy, he had a grave and serious mood, that lasted many months. +She had a real woman's warm, unselfish friendship for him, which +has much of the sweetness and all the purity and unselfishness of a +sister's love; and all unconscious as she seemed, that he could wish +for more or other, she succeeded in placing him in the position of a +devoted and trusted friend. + +Thorndyke, the fourth or fifth of aristocratic generations, of a good +old colonial strain, elegant to a fault, and refined to uselessness, +of tastes and pursuits that took him out of the ordinary atmosphere; +languid more for the want of a spur, than from lack of nerve and +ability; and unambitious for want of an object, rather than from want +of power to climb, was really smothered by the softness and luxury of +his surroundings, rather than reduced by the poverty and feebleness of +his nature; had really the elements of manly strength and elevation, +and had misfortune or poverty fallen upon him, early, he would +undoubtedly have developed into a man of the higher type, like the +first generations of his family. + +Like every man he was struck as much as he could be, with Julia, and +when he saw her in the rudeness of pioneer surroundings, he began +by pitying her, and finally ended by pitying himself. When it first +occurred to him to carry her out of the woods, to the actual world, +and real human life, he was not a little surprised. She was not born +in Boston, nor did her father's family date back to the flood, but her +mother's did. Indeed, that came over with it. + +In revolving this grave matter, the only factors to be considered, +were Mr. Thorndyke's own judgment, taste and inclinations, and Julia +has matured in these pages, to a small purpose, or Mr. T. was much +less a man than I have supposed, if these parties should not finally +unite in consenting to the alliance. Of course, Miss Julia could be +had, both of herself and parents, for the asking. But his fastidious +notions could alone be satisfied with a gentlemanly course of +gradually warming and more devoted attentions, with all the forms and +observances, so far as the disadvantages of her surroundings would +permit. It was some time in the last summer, that he had made up a +definite judgment in the premises under which he commenced his lambent +action. During the autumn he often met King at her father's, and the +young men occasionally made up small parties with Julia and Nell or +some other young ladies for rides and excursions. Towards winter, King +was less at Newbury; and as winter approached, Mr. Thorndyke seemed +left to monopolize the time and society of Julia. So gracious, frank +and open was her invariable manner to him, that he could not for a +moment doubt that after a gentlemanly lapse of time, and a course of +rides, calls, walks and teas, he might in his own way dispose of the +matter. + +His splendid gray, "West Wind," was no mean companion for Prince, and +many a gallop they had together, and Thorndyke was a gentlemanly rider +and drove well, and during the winter he often drove Julia out in a +single sleigh. + +In a moment of weakness it occurred to him that West Wind and Prince +would go well in double harness, and he proposed to Julia to match +them for a drive. + +"What!" exclaimed that young lady, "put Prince in harness? make a +draught horse of him?" + +"With West Wind--certainly. Why not?" + +"Because I don't choose it. There is but one man in the world who +shall drive Prince, and I am sure he will not want to." + +"I presume Judge Markham don't care to drive him?" + +"I presume he don't;" laughing and blushing. + +That was the end of that, and not overly pleasing to the gentleman. It +was apparent, that she was disinclined to match the horses. + +And March was coming, and Julia was sweet and arch and gracious, and +at times as he came to know her better, he thought a little grave and +pensive. This was certainly a good sign; and somehow, he found himself +now often watching and calculating the signs, and somehow again they +did not seem to deepen or change, or indicate much. He could not on +the whole convince himself that he had made much progress, except that +he should ask her at some time and she would accept him, and he +was certainly approaching that time. The matter in hand had become +absorbing--very: and he knew he was very much interested in it; and +the laugh of the beautiful girl was as rich, musical and gay as ever, +though he some how fancied, that it was a little less frequent; and +once or twice something had been dropped about some day early in +April, at which there was a little flutter in Julia. What could it be? +did she think he was slow? He would speak, and put an end to it. But +he didn't, and somehow he could not. He might do it any day; but did +not. At any event, before that April, something should be asked and +answered--but how answered? + +The sleigh was left under cover, the roads hardened in the March sun +and wind, and several horseback excursions had been made. Toward the +close of the month, on their return one day, Thorndyke, who had been +unusually silent, suddenly asked Julia if she would be at leisure +that evening, at about eight; and might he call? She answered that she +would be at home, and as he knew, he was quite at liberty to call. He +said that he had something quite particular which he wished to say to +her, and that of course she must know what it was. + +"Indeed! If I must know what it is, you must, by the same rule, know +what I will say in reply. Let us consider the thing said and answered, +and then your business call can be one of pleasure." + +"I had hoped that it might possibly be one of pleasure." + +The girl, looked grave for a moment, and then turning in her best +manner to her escort-- + +"Mr. Thorndyke, I think I had better tell you the little story of my +horse. If we ride slow, I will have time before we reach the gate." +With a little increase of color, "It is not much of a story, but you +may see a little moral in it." + +"Certainly, I shall be glad to hear it. No doubt it will interest me." + +"You see his name is Prince." + +"I hear that is his name." + +"You will see presently that is not his whole name." + +"Silvertail?" + +"Silver-sticks! Please attend, sir. His name is Prince Arthur." + +"Named after a gentleman who lived a few years ago; who dined off 'a +table round,' and who was thought to be unfortunate in his lady." + +"No, sir. He was named for a man who may have been called after that +personage; and whose life shows that the old legend may have been +true, and this Arthur is not unfortunate in his lady," with a +softening voice, and deepening blush on her averted face. + +"Have you never heard the story of the lost girl? who less than a year +ago, bewildered and distracted, wandered away into the endless woods, +in the night, mid darkness and storm; and who, o'ercome with fright +and weariness and cold, lay down to die, and was covered over with +snow; and that a young man with strength and courage, was conducted by +God to her rescue, and carried her over an icy stream, and revived and +restored her to her father and mother. Did you ever hear of that?" Her +voice was low, deep, and earnest. He bowed. + +"My father gave him this horse, and he gave him to me, and I gave him +that young man's name. Prince is a prince among horses, and that youth +is a prince among men," proudly, and with increasing color. + +"I thought that young man's name was Bart Ridgeley," very much +disgusted. + +"Arthur Barton Ridgeley. Prince bears his first name, and he bears +me;" lowering her voice and turning away. + +"A very pleasant arrangement, no doubt," querulously. + +"Very pleasant to me," very sweetly. + +"It seems to me I have heard something else about this Arthur Barton +Ridgeley, Esq.; and not quite so much to his credit." Oh dear! But +then he was hardly responsible. + +"I presume you have. And you heard it with the same ears with which +you hear everything disconnected with your precious self. Were their +acuteness equal to their length, you would also have heard, that in +this, as in everything else, he was true and noble." The voice was +shaken a little by two or three emotions, and tears sprang to her eyes +and dried there. + +When Thorndyke recovered, they had reached Judge Markham's gate; and +springing unaided from her saddle, Julia turned to him with all her +grace and graciousness fully restored. + +"Many thanks for your escort, Mr. Thorndyke. I shall expect you at +eight." + +At about that hour, a boy from Parker's brought her the following +note: + +"THURSDAY EVENING. + +"_Miss Markham_:--Pardon, if you can, my rudeness of this afternoon. +Kindly remember the severity of my punishment. Believe me capable of +appreciating a heroic act; and the womanly devotion that can alone +reward it. From my heart, I congratulate you. + +"With the profoundest respect. + +"W. THORNDYKE." + +As she read, a softer light, almost a mist, came into the eyes of the +young girl. + +"I fear I have done this man a real injustice." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +THE TRIAL + + +The March term of the Court at Chardon was at the beginning of its +third and last week. The important case in ejectment of Fisk _vs_. +Cole, was reached at the commencement of the second, and laid over for +the absence of defendant's counsel. This directly involved the title +of Cole to his land; a title that had been loosely talked about, and +generally supposed to be bad. + +In the fall of 1837, a stranger by the name of Fisk appeared in the +country, placed a deed of the land in question on record; gave Cole +notice to quit, commenced his suit, and leisurely proceeded to take +his evidence in Conn, and Mass., and get ready for the trial. Bart's +trial of Coles's first case had rendered the latter an object of +interest; and it was generally felt that the new case was one of great +oppression and hardship; and popular opinion and sympathy were wholly +with Cole, and all the more so, as the impression was that he would +lose his land. + +The people of Newbury, however, really believed that if Bart would +return and take the case in hand, in some way, he would win it; but +the Court had commenced, the case was called, and he still lingered in +the East. In the spring before he left Newbury, he had spent much time +in examining the case, looking up the witnesses, and with such aid as +his brother, the Colonel, could give, their names had been obtained +and they were all subpoenaed to attend. Among them were two or three +old hunters and soldiers, on the Western frontier. + +Ford was in the case, and had made up the issue, and at the trial, +Bart had intended to secure the aid of Wade or Hitchcock. Except +himself, no one knew much of the case, and none had confidence that +Cole would prevail in the trial, and a general feeling of despondency +prevailed as to his prospect. On the afternoon of the third Monday, +Bart reached Chardon, from Albany, secured a room, assembled his +witnesses, talked up the matter with the old hunters, and by his +quiet, modest confidence, and quick, ready knowledge of all the +details, he at once put a new aspect upon the defence. Wade was also +in Chardon, and on that evening, Bart laid his programme before him +and Ford, who were not more than half convinced, and it was arranged +that Bart should go forward with the case, to be backed and sustained +by his seniors. + +On the next morning he made his first appearance in Court, and in +person, air and manner, he had become one to arrest attention, in a +crowd, such as thronged the court room; and when his name transpired, +he was at once identified as a prominent person in the detection and +arrest of Brown & Co., whose name had become widely known; and men +scanned him with unusual interest. Some noticed and commented upon the +brown moustache, that shaded the rather too soft and bland mouth; and +observed the elegant tone of his dress, which, when it was examined, +resolved itself rather into the way his clothes were worn. Ford +introduced him to the lawyers present, with whom his quiet, modest +manner deepened the impression made by his person. As he took his +seat, his eye fully met the eager gaze of Judge Markham, from the +bench. Bart felt the earnest, anxious look of the Judge, and the Judge +thought he saw a shadow of sadness in the frank eyes of Bart. + +A case on trial ran until late in the afternoon, when Fisk _vs_. Cole +was called, was ready, and a jury sworn. Mr. Kelly, of Cleveland, +appeared for the plaintiff, a very accomplished lawyer and a courteous +gentleman. He produced the record of the old Conn. Land Co., an +allotment and map of the lands showing that the tract in dispute was +originally the property of one John Williams. He then made proof of +the death of Williams, and that certain parties were his heirs-at-law; +and produced and proved a deed from these to the plaintiff. This made +what lawyers call a paper title, when the plaintiff rested his case. + +For the defendant, Barton said he would produce and prove a deed +from John Williams, junior, only child of Williams, mentioned by the +plaintiff, to the defendant, directly, dated January, 1816, under +which he took possession of the land in January, 1817; and that he +also found a man in possession of the premises, who had possessed and +claimed the land for years, and whose right he purchased. It would +thus appear, whatever might be said of his written title, that he had +complete right by possession, adverse to the plaintiff, for twenty +years. + +"You will do well if you sustain that claim," said Kelly, +incredulously. + +"I shall labor for your commendation," was Bart's pleasant reply. + +The deed was proven, as well as the relationship of John and John, +Jr. Bart also produced a book of the Probate records of Geauga County, +which he said contained a record of the administration of one Hiram +Fowler, which he might want to refer to, for a date, thereafter, and +if the Court would permit, he would refer to, if it became necessary. +He wished the record to be considered in evidence, for what it was +competent to prove. + +"Certainly," from the Court, who made a note of it. + +He then proved that Cole left Massachusetts early in the spring of +1817, but failed to show when he reached Ohio, whether in 1817, or +1818. One man remembered to have seen Hiram Fowler at work for him +on a tree fence, along the back line of it, during the summer of his +arrival on the land. He also made proof, that at a very early day, +tree fences were about at least three sides of the land, thus forming +a cattle range, and evidencing possession and occupancy. He then +called McConough, of Bainbridge, and men bent eagerly forward to +gaze at the old Indian hunter, who had been a sharp-shooter on the +ill-fated "Lawrence," in Perry's sea fight, off Put-in-Bay, and who +was also with Gen. Harrison at the Thames; a quiet, compact, athletic, +swarthy man, a little dull and taciturn. He said he was first on the +ground in 1810 or 1811, and found a man by the name of Basil Windsor, +who lived in a small cabin by the spring, near which he had then two +small apple trees. He was there again, with John Harrington, in 1816. +They drove a herd of elk through an opening, into and through Basil's +yard, at the south side, and back into the woods north, until they +came to a tree fence, when they turned east, and were headed off by +another hedge, and the elk were too tired to get over; and there +in the angle they killed two or three, when it came on dark. That +Harrington lit a fire, staid by the slaughtered elk through the night, +to keep the wolves from devouring them, and that he, McConough, went +and staid with Basil. That Basil was a sort of hermit, who lived in +the woods and kept two or three cows. That on their way to Court a few +days ago, he and Harrington went to the premises of Cole, and found +his house near the old Basil spring, and that one of the apple trees +was still standing there. The other had been recently cut down. + +Harrington, a still more celebrated hunter and pioneer, and who +furnished a good idea of old Leatherstocking, and who was with +Winchester at the battle of River Raisin, from which he escaped, +and was one of Harrison's scouts, had been often at Basil Windsor's. +Hunters often found shelter there. He was there both before and after +the war; and he fully corroborated McConough. + +Old Bullock was then called, a heavy-framed, sluggish giant, of that +strong, old-fashioned type of head and face, now nearly out of date. +He, too, had served in the army, and was a famous hunter and trapper. + +He knew Basil, a man who avoided others, and who had met with +misfortunes "down country." "He had hunted and trapped all through +the woods about him, and knew of his having had fences to confine his +cows. Knew Cole; he came in in 1817, 18 or 19, couldn't tell which. +Cole showed him his deed; went with him to find his land, and found +it was the same on which Basil was living. Went with him to see Basil, +who thought it was hard. He said that the land was his'n. He had a +hundred and sixty acres; showed no deed or writin's. Cole finally +bought him out--his right, and 'betterments;' and gave him a horse and +harness, and we went down to Square Punderson's, to git writin's made, +and he wa'n't to home, and none was made. Basil took the horse and +left, and Cole moved into the old cabin. I knew about the slash +fences, and ketched a spotted fawn once, hid in one on 'em. I used +to cross over by the big maples, by the spring run, where Coles's two +children were buried, to go to my traps." + +Bullock was put under a sharp cross-examination, but his story was not +shaken. He had a plenty of good-natured, lazy force, and took care +of himself. A witness brought in a short section of one of the apple +trees, which had twenty-nine rings showing its age, which made a +sensation. + +Several other witnesses swore that when they were boys, they used +to hunt for cattle, on the bottoms, to the north of Cole's land, and +often got on to the old tree fences, to listen for the cow-bells. And +Bart rested his case. + +One branch of this defence looked ugly. The defendant had not clearly +proven that he in person took possession of the land in time to +perfect his title by adverse possession. But he had shown another man +in possession, of some of the property, at least, and claiming it, and +he had purchased this right, whatever it was, had gone in under him, +and so succeeded to his possession, and right, if he had any. + +This took the plaintiff by surprise, and when the defendant rested, he +and his counsel were on the alert to meet it. A note came in from the +outside, and the plaintiff and his counsel retired under leave of the +Court, for consultation. Meanwhile Judge Markham and the President, +who had taken much interest in the case, engaged in an earnest +conversation. Then Judge Markham came down from the bench, and calling +Bart to him, shook him warmly by the hand, and introduced him to Judge +Humphrey, and his associates. All of which the jury observed. + +Upon resuming the case, the plaintiff produced his depositions, and +proved that the defendant's grantor, John Williams, Junior, was the +reputed natural son of Williams, of the Land Company, &c.; also called +witnesses to show that Cole came into the county in 1818. An attempt +was then made to impeach Bullock, which failed. Ward was then put on +the stand, and swore that he met Basil Hall, on a certain time, who +told him that he had no claim, right or title to the land whatever. He +also swore that he saw Hiram Fowler at work, mending the tree fence, +on the north, the summer that Cole came in. + +Bart, who had evinced rare skill in the examination of his own +witnesses--a more difficult thing, by the way, than to cross-examine +those of an adversary--put him through a sharp and stinging +cross-examination. Under pretence of testing his memory, and of +showing bias, he took him over the whole course, and it appeared that +if he ever had the conversation he claimed with Basil, it must +have been after his sale to Cole; and got from him such damaging +statements, that it could be fairly claimed to the jury that the whole +case was prosecuted in the interest of Ward. If so, this would exclude +his testimony wholly. This was in the dark legal days, when not only +were parties excluded from giving evidence, but a pecuniary interest +in the result of the suit to the value of one mill, would render a man +incompetent as a witness. + +Ward had not expected to appear as a witness at all, and though a +shrewd man, he came upon the stand not well knowing the legal ground +he was upon; and the questions came so thick upon each other, that +they fairly took his breath. If plaintiff objected to a question, +it was at once withdrawn, and another instantly put, so that he was +rather confused, than aided, by his counsel's interference. + +It was certainly a relief to both Kelly and Ward, when the latter, +tattered and battered, was permitted, with the ironical thanks of +Bart, to retire; and the plaintiff's rebutting evidence closed. Bart +called two or three to sustain Bullock, and rested also. This was near +the close of Wednesday. + +Mr. Kelly then arose, and delivered the opening of the final argument +to the jury, contenting himself with presenting his own case. He +only glanced at the case of defense, and said he would reserve full +argument on this, as he might, until he had heard from the other side. +As Bart arose to commence, the Court said: + +"Mr. Ridgeley, we will hear you in the morning. Mr. Sheriff, adjourn +the Court until to-morrow morning." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +THE ADVOCATE. + + +At the opening of the Court on Thursday, the court room was crowded. +The interest in the case was general, and the character of the +facts, and principal witnesses for the defense, was such as appealed +powerfully to the memories and early associations of the people, and +there was an earnest desire to hear the speech of the young advocate, +whose management of the case had so far, won for him the heartiest +admiration. + +When the jury had answered to their names, "Mr. Ridgeley, proceed with +your argument," said Judge Humphrey. The young man rose, bowed to the +Court and jury, and stood silent a moment, with his eyes cast down, +and it was at first thought on his rising for his speech, that he +was laboring under embarrassment. When he raised his eyes, however, +embarrassed as he certainly was, and commenced with a low sweet voice, +it was discovered that his faltering was due mainly to the emotions +of sensibility. Nature had been liberal in bestowing many of +the qualifications of a great advocate upon him. He had a strong +compelling will, when he chose to exercise it, which in the conflicts +of the bar often prevails, and courage of a chivalrous cast, which +throws a man impetuously and audaciously upon strong points, and +enables him to gain a footing by the boldness and force of his onset. +Barton was one to lead a forlorn hope, or defend a pass single handed, +against a host. Without something of this quality, a great advocate is +impossible. + +With a warm, poetic imagination, Nature had given him quick perceptive +powers, and the faculty of expressing his thoughts without apparent +effort, in simple, strong language, as well defined, and sharply +cut as a cameo. Beyond this, and better than all, was a tender, +sympathetic sensibility; which, if it sometimes overmastered him, made +him the master of others. The commonest things in his hands took +the motion and color of living things. It was not the mere sensuous +magnetism of powerful physical nature; but it excited the higher +intellectual sympathies, which in turn awoke and captivated the +reasoning and reflective organs, that found themselves delightfully +conducted along a natural and logical course, that led them +unconsciously to inevitable conclusions and convictions, ere the +danger was perceived, or an alarm was sounded. + +On the present occasion, he had not been on his feet five minutes ere +it was felt that a real power, of an unusual order, was manifesting +itself. + +The case was not one framed or arranged with any vulgar reference to +a forensic display. Cases never will get themselves up for any +such occasion; and if the lawyer waits for such a case, he will die +unknown. Cases spring out of dry, hard contentions, with nothing +but vulgar surroundings; and it is to these, that the real advocate +applies himself, breathes upon them the breath of genius and creative +power, and clothes them with life, and interest, and beauty, endows +them with his own soul and imagination, and lifts them from the +level of the common to the height of the remarkable, the unusual, and +sometimes of the wonderful; and endeavors to establish between them, +and a jury and himself, the bonds of intense sympathy, upon which +their emotions and sensibilities will come and go, as did the angels +on the dream-ladder of the patriarch. + +In the advocate's hour of strength and glory, the formulas of the +law burst their mouldy cerements and leap forth into life, tender +and beautiful to protect, or awful to warn or punish. Mysteries are +unfolded, secrets reveal themselves, hidden things are proclaimed, and +courts and juries, awed and abashed, yet elevated and inspired, accept +and act upon his conclusions as infallible. For one hour he touches +the pinnacle of human achievement. + +After all, the effectiveness of the advocate is not so much in what +he says, as in the way he says it. One man with real strength arises +outside, and batters and bangs with real power, deals forcible blows, +and yet does not carry his point; while another, with less intellect, +gets up within the charmed circle of the sympathies, by the warm, +human side of a jury, whom they don't think of resisting, and could +not if they tried. + +The speaker usually rises a little outside of the subject, on a sort +of neutral ground, and Bart made the transit of this, naturally and +simply. He graphically explained to the jury those legal phantoms, +John Doe and Richard Roe; how Richard was always maltreating and +dispossessing John, and how John was always going to law with Dick, +and was hence an immense favorite with lawyers; and how, when Dick is +sued, he always, having got up a muss, notifies the actual party in +possession, and who ought to have been sued; tells him he must look +out for himself, and hurries off to find where John has squat himself +into other property; and thereupon he thrusts him out again, and so +on. It was a fiction invented by the English lawyers to try the right +of two parties to the possession of real estate; because they could +do it in no other way, and the 4th of July had not freed us from this +relic of antiquity. The issue here was, whether Fisk had a better +right to the possession of this land, than had Cole; and whatever did +not in some way help to enlighten them on that issue, had no business +to be said at all. + +In a few happy strokes, he sketched the defendant buying this land, +packing up, bidding adieu to the dear down-country home, and his +toilsome journey into the woods, arrival, and purchase, and poor, +hard life of toil and deprivation: here was his all. He sketched the +plaintiff as a well or ill-to-do gentleman, of a speculative turn of +mind, whose eye coveted the rich bottom-lands of the defendant; and +finding him helpless and poor, searched out the weak place in his +title, hunted up obscure relatives, and procured for a song sung by +themselves, their signatures to a deed of property of which they had +never heard; he had proven that John Williams, Junior, son of John +Williams, Senior, was born out of wedlock, had gone grubbing back into +forgotten burying-places, and disinterred the dead, searched out the +weakness of their lives; had raked out a forgotten scandal, carefully +gathered it up in its rottenness, and had poured it out, before the +jury; and the frailty and infamy of an unhappy woman, and the crime of +one wretched man, were the sole virtue and strength of his case--sole +source of his title to the land in dispute. And the plaintiff demanded +that the law in its honor should now rob poor Cole of his homestead, +and of the graves of his children, that John Fisk--or rather, Sam +Ward--might possess that to which he had just the same moral right, +that Dr. Myers had to the horses he stole. And this learned Court, and +gentlemen of the jury, pioneers in these receding woods, are to be the +instruments of this transfer. + +The language was simple and plain, the imagery bold and striking, +and the closing sentences were pronounced with great fervor. The jury +shrank from the issue, which might have a possible conclusion, and +looked eagerly for any escape, as jurors will. + +The young advocate clearly opened out the nature of the defence of +adverse possession, and the philosophy upon which it rested; and +explained that the defendant, to meet the plaintiff's paper case, must +show that he and those under whom he claimed, had been in the open, +continued, and notorious possession of the property for twenty years, +before suit was brought, claiming to be the owners. This the defendant +was to show, at the peril of destruction; and in a few happy sentences +he brought the jury to feel an intense anxiety that he should succeed. + +Then he turned back the years, blotted out the highways, re-planted +the forests, till the court house dissolved, and a wondrous maple +wood crowned the hill on which it stood. And so back, till the Indians +returned, and elk and panthers roamed at will. Then he pointed out +a sorrow-stricken, moody, brooding man, seeking a "lodge in the vast +wilderness," hunting the spring, and building his shanty, making his +clearing, and planting a few apple seeds, brought from his old home; +and picking up the section of the tree trunk, he read off from its +end, "twenty-nine years ago!" + +He sketched in rapid, natural lines, the life of the recluse, the +necessities of his situation, his keeping cows, and the means of +restricting their range; dwelt upon the evidence of the tree fences, +and argued that the fact that two of them were used for that purpose, +was conclusive that the other sides were also fenced, for without them +no enclosure could exist. And he referred to the well known universal +custom of that early day. + +Lord! how those old and somewhat mythical tree fences grew, and came +out under his hands! The hunters had herded elk in their angles; +bears had been trapped in their jungles; the doe hid her fawn in their +recesses; wolves and foxes had found lairs in them; birds had built +nests in them; men in search of strayed cattle had climbed upon them +to listen for the tinkling bell; balm and thyme, wild sun-flowers and +celandine had made them fragrant with perfume, and bright with color. + +Basil Hall went to that spring, and built and occupied, because he +owned it. His very settlement and occupancy was a proclamation of +ownership--an assertion of right--the most satisfactory, and so the +Court would say. Here he read from the Ohio Reports, to show that a +parol claim, without any written color of title, was sufficient to +make the claim. He then referred to the evidence of Bullock, that Hall +did by word claim such right; that the claim was acknowledged by Cole, +who bought and paid for it. If Hall had been without claim of right, +Cole would have turned him out; but he acknowledged it, bought, +got it, and held it. The word of Ward could not be taken; he was +interested; if taken, it could not be believed; if believed, it proved +nothing, for the admission of Hall to him, that he had no right, +was made after Hall had sold out, and hence not evidence against the +purchaser, all of which he forcibly illustrated; and the proposition +was conceded to be law. He claimed that this defence under the +purchase from Hall, was perfect in itself. + +His defence of Bullock from the attack on him, was forcible and +beautiful. The old man was a hunter, had been a soldier, etc., and the +unforgotten Indian battles of the recent war flashed before the jury, +and all the sylvan romance of a hunter's life was reproduced as by +magic. + +In the second place he contended that Cole made an absolute defense +on his claim of title under his deed; no matter though John Williams, +Junior, was the bastard of a bastard; his deed was good to make a +claim of title under, by the common law of England, and that of every +State of the United States; and he read authorities to the Court. + +He then showed pretty conclusively that Cole left Connecticut in the +spring of 1817, and was not a year and two months on the road; that +he came in in 1817, and not in 1818; and this, he said he would +demonstrate. John Fowler, Hiram Fowler's son, had sworn positively +that his father worked for Cole, repairing the fence on the north. +Ward swore to the same; he had told this one bit of truth by some +unaccountable accident; so that the plaintiff had also proven that +Hiram Fowler had worked for Cole on this land, and hence Cole was in +possession of it in the lifetime of Fowler. When did Fowler die? + +"Now," said Bart, "I will read from this probate record, already put +in evidence, but not read," and he opened and read from the record +of the Court, begun and held in the court house at Chardon, for the +county of Geauga, commencing April 17, 1818, the appointment of an +administrator on the estate of "Hiram Fowler, late deceased, of the +township of Newbury, in said county," and closed the book with a clap. +"Thus this record of absolute verity declares that Hiram Fowler had +died before April, 1818, and the plaintiff and defendant both prove +that he was alive, after Cole came into this State. Beyond the +possibility of doubt then, Cole came to the possession of this land in +1817, and his title is perfect in law, equity and morality." + +When he closed this part of his case, a murmur almost of open applause +ran through the densely packed house. Here he rested the argument. + +In a rapid _resume_ of the case, he seemed to have stumbled upon the +two little grass-grown graves of Cole's children, up under the old +maples. He paused, hesitated, faltered, and stopped, tears came to his +eyes, and his lips quivered. No art could have produced this effect, +and a sob broke from many in the court room. Suddenly resuming, he +finished his grouping in a saddened voice, and paused for a moment, +sending his eager glance through the court room, till it finally +rested on the face of Sam Ward. Looking at him, in half a dozen +sentences, he pilloried him for the scorn and derision of the jury; +and then turning to them, in a voice of wonderful sweetness, half sad +and regretful, he committed the case to them, and sat down. + +A great hum like that of swarming bees, ran through the court house, +and men who had looked often into each other's eyes, looked again, +with a joyous sense of relief. + +During some parts of his speech, which occupied an hour and a half, +men at times leaned from all parts of the room towards him, open-eyed +and open-mouthed. At others they swayed gently to and fro, like tree +tops in a breeze; and when he sat down, the oldest at the bar--the +President on the bench--felt that it was among the best speeches they +had ever heard, if not the best. The youthfulness of the orator of +course enhanced its effect. It had some faults of redundancy, both of +words and imagery, but its tone and manner were admirable. At times +his delivery was very rapid and vehement, but his voice, always rich +and full, never broke, or seemed strained; while in the moments +of excitement, every nerve and fibre of his form quivered with the +intensity of his emotion. His form was lithe and elastic, and admitted +of easy, rapid and forcible action, which was never more than was +allowable to one of his passionate temperament. + +When he closed, almost everybody supposed the case was ended. Wade +arose with a radiant face, and said the defense rested the argument on +that which had just been delivered. + +Kelly was taken by surprise again, both by the quality and force of +Bart's speech, and the submission of the case. The first carried him +off his feet, and he hoped to recover during the delivery of another +on the same side. He was a good chancery and real estate lawyer, but +he was not the man to reply to Barton's argument. He followed him, +however--that is, he spoke after him, and on the other side, for a +half hour, and submitted the case. + +The Court gave the case to the jury on the law, as the defense claimed +it. Indeed there was no dispute about the law. He explained fully and +clearly the case, which arose on the defense; and saying, in a very +graceful and gracious way, that the merits of the case had been +presented with a force and beauty rarely equalled, and which might +tend to aid the jury in coming to their conclusion, he submitted it to +them, and took a recess for dinner. + +At the recess, the lawyers crowded about Bart to congratulate him for +his defense, among whom Kelly was the foremost. Judge Markham came +up, and with moisture in his eyes, took him by both hands and drew him +away to Judge Humphrey, who complimented him in the highest terms, and +insisted upon his dining with him, which invitation Bart accepted. The +Judge was as much taken with his modest, quiet, gentlemanly manners, +and quick, happy wit, as with his splendid speech in the court room. +The fact was, his exertions had fully awakened his intellectual +forces, and they were all in the field, armed and with blades drawn. +He could not eat, and never drank, save water or milk; and now between +the two Judges, and surrounded by lawyers, with a glass of milk and a +plate of honey, petted and lionized for the moment, he gave himself +up to sparkling and brilliant answers to the numerous questions and +remarks addressed to him, and showed that, whatever draft had been +made upon him, he had plenty of resources in reserve. + +Upon a return to the court house, at half past one, the jury, who had +made up and sealed their verdict, were called; it was opened and +read, and as anticipated, was for the defendant. This announcement was +received with scarcely suppressed applause. The verdict was recorded +by the clerk, and in due time followed by the judgment of the Court, +and so ended Fisk _vs_. Cole. Cole went out of the court room, with +one exception, the most observed man in the crowd. + +Very naturally Barton and his last performance was the common theme +of conversation in the region round about for many days. All over +Newbury, as witnesses and other spectators returned, the whole thing +was talked over, with such various eulogies as suited the exaggerated +estimate his various admirers put upon his merits. + +"What do you say now?" said Uncle Jonah to Uncle Josh, as the two had +just listened to an account of the trial, in Parker's bar room. + +"It does beat hell amazingly!" answered that accomplished rhetorician. + +"What did I tell you?" said Jo, at Jugville, to Uncle Cal, and that +set. + +"Oh, I was there," said Uncle Cal. "I always said, ever since the +trial here, that he had the stuff in him. But he went beyond anything +I ever hearn," and Uncle Cal relapsed into admiring silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +WAITING. + + +Julia sat alone that evening in an elegantly, and, for that day, +luxuriously furnished room, around which she had many times glanced, +and in which her own hands had several times arranged and re-arranged +the various articles. There was a bed in the room, which was large +and airy, a vase filled with wild and hot-house flowers; yet it was +evidently not a lady's room, and unoccupied save at this moment by the +fair Julia, who with an abundance of color in her cheeks and lips, and +a liquid light in her eyes, was nevertheless pensive and seemingly not +quite at ease. She held two letters in her hands, which she many times +re-read. They ran as follows: + +"CHARDON, Wednesday P.M. + +"_My Dear Wife_:--Barton reached here on Monday P.M. I did not think +it best to call upon him, and did not see him till yesterday morning +in the court room, when, without looking me in the face save for a +second, he bowed to me. He had so changed that I did not at first +recognize him, and did not acknowledge his bow as I would. Later, +when his case was called and he came to make a remark to the court, he +looked me in the eye, calmly and steadily, and I thought I could see +in his face regret, the shadow of suffering, and a very kindly, but +sad expression, which seemed almost like a revelation. + +"He is much changed and improved. The old boyish recklessness and dash +is gone. His face is thinner, has much character, and is disfigured, +as I think, with a moustache, which gives him the look of a foreigner. +He is, of course, well dressed, and has the quiet, high-bred air of a +thorough gentleman. + +"Judge Humphrey is immensely taken with him, and he has so far managed +his case admirably, and like an experienced lawyer. We cannot keep our +eyes from him, but watch every word and movement with great interest. +Though Wade and Ford are with him, he tries the case alone, thus far. + +"I shall see him--if he will see me--as of course he will, the moment +he is free from his case. + +"Of course you will show this to Julia. + +"Ever yours, EDWARD." + + +"CHARDON, Thursday P.M. + +"_My Dear Wife:_--I cannot in sober language express my astonishment +and admiration for Barton's masterly speech this forenoon. As much +as I expected from him, I was completely taken by surprise. Judge +Humphrey is unbounded in his praises of him; but I will tell you about +all this when I return. + +"At the recess, among others I went to congratulate him, which was +the second time I had been where I could give him my hand. He held out +both of his, and seemed unable to speak. As soon as he could extricate +himself from the ovation, he went with me to Judge Humphrey, who took +him to dine with us. His conversation at the dinner table was more +brilliant than his speech. He ate nothing but a little honey, and +drank a glass of milk. I confess I was a little alarmed at some of his +sallies. + +"On our way back to court, I observed he began to grow serious, and +I arranged to see him as soon as his case was at an end. The jury +returned a verdict for Cole, on the coming in after dinner, and that +case, thanks to Bart, is finally ended. + +"After this, I left the bench and was joined by Bart. It was difficult +for him to escape from the crowd who followed him out; when he did, +he joined me, and we walked off down the hill toward Newbury. Bart was +evidently depressed. The re-action had come; the great strain of the +last three days was removed, and the poor boy was sad and melancholy. + +"We went on in silence, I not knowing just how to commence. + +"' Judge Markham,' said he, turning frankly to me, 'you know I am a +born fool, and just now I feel like breaking entirely down, and crying +like a woman. For these last four years I have lived utterly alone, +confiding nothing to any one, and I am too weak to go so, always.' + +"Oh, how I wished you had been there, with your sweet woman's heart, +and voice, and tact. + +"'My dear boy,' said I, 'if there is anything in the wide world that I +can say and do_ only let me know what it is. I am more anxious to help +you, than you are to be helped, if I only may.' + +"'I don't know how I ought to meet you, Judge Markham. You wrote me a +manly letter, full of kindness, and I answered--God knows what--I was +so wretched.' + +"'I could not blame you,'I said, 'I am much in fault towards you, but +it was from my not knowing you. I regret it very much.' + +"'I don't know,' he answered, 'that you should say that to me. I feel +sorry and hurt that anybody should make apologies to me. Why should +you have known me"? I did not not know myself, and don't now. I know I +can not hate or even dislike anybody, and I always liked you, and I do +now.' + +"'Barton,' said I, 'God bless you! you never can have cause of +complaint against me or mine again: only give us your confidence, and +trust us.' + +"'I am sure you are very kind,' said he, 'and it is very pleasant +to hear it said. I want to see Mrs. Markham, and in some way say how +grateful I am for her kind expressions towards me, and she and--and +you all, have been very kind to my poor dear mother for the past +year.' + +"'You would not let us be kind to you,' said I. + +"'No. How could I?' he answered. + +"'I don't know,'said I. 'I only hope now that there may be no more +misunderstandings; that you will now let us--will give Julia an +opportunity, at least to express her gratitude to you, and that we may +all unite in so doing.' + +"He was silent a moment, and then went on as if thinking aloud: + +"'Julia! Good Heavens! how can I ever meet her!--Pardon me; I mean +Miss Markham. I shall certainly call upon the ladies at a very early +day,' he said, coldly. 'The fact is, Judge Markham,' continued he, 'I +have been under a little strain, and I am not used to it. I come back +here near home, and see so many old Newbury people, who make me forget +how they used to dislike me, and all the old, and all the more recent +things, come back upon me so strongly, and I find I am as weak and +boyish and foolish as ever.' + +"He did not say much more--he finally asked about you, and after much +hesitation, about Julia. It is so easy to see that his heart is full +of her, that I could not help feeling almost wretched for him. I then +asked him when he was going to Newbury. He thought of going to-morrow +in the stage, but said some parties wanted to see him Friday evening. +He has finally consented to wait and ride down with us on Saturday, +after the term closes. + +"Now, my dear wife, come and bring Julia, if you think it best. I +confess I wish that they might meet at an early day--but be governed +by your better judgment in this--and you will show her this letter of +course. + +"Ever, with love and kisses to you both, + +EDWARD." + + +"Mother," she said afterwards, "let me suggest that you send up a +carriage to-morrow evening, which Papa Judge may take as an invitation +to come early on Saturday morning. If Mr. Ridgeley sees me, had he not +better find me in my mother's and father's house?" + +"_If_ he sees you, Julia?" + +"Of course if he wishes to, he will." + +And she was not conversational, and wandered about, and if possible +would have been a little pettish. + +"Are you not glad, Julia, that he has acquitted himself so well? He +seems to have carried the Court and jury and all by storm." + +"Of course he did. Does that surprise you? But it is all so stupid, +staying there to try that pokey old case." + +"Julia, what under the sun is the matter?" looking at her in +surprise. + +The girl turned and knelt by her mother, and laid her face down in her +lap, and burst into violent sobbings. + +On the morrow Julia arose, sweet and composed, with the old light in +her eyes, and her wonted color coming and going with the mysterious +emotions within. She was almost gay and joyous at breakfast, and then +grew fitful and restless, and then became pensive again. + +The day was a marvel of the forward spring, and the sun filled the +whole heavens with its wondrous light. The blue bird called down in +his flight, with his trill of gladness, and the robins flooded the +leafless trees and the lawn with gushes of purest melody. Julia could +not remain in the house; she could not remain anywhere; and as the +morning deepened, she took a sudden resolution and ordered Prince to +be saddled at once. + +"Mother," said she, "I have the whole of this long, long day. I must +gallop off through the woods, around to Wilder's. I haven't been there +since last fall; and then I will come around by Mrs. Ridgeley's and +tell her, and so home. Don't gay a word, mother; I must go. I cannot +stay here. I'll be back in good time." + +So mounting Prince she bounded off. When she felt herself going with +the springy, elastic leap of her splendid steed, she thought she +had found what she most wanted--to go to that little blessed nook of +shelter and repose under the rocks by the running stream, in the +sun. Something seemed to call her, and the day, the rapid motion, the +exhilaration of the atmosphere, as she dashed through it, softened her +excitement, and a calm, elevated, half-religious extasy possessed her; +and the sky and air, and brown, desolate earth, just warming with the +April sun, all glowed with hope. How near to her seemed Heaven and +all holy, sweet influences; and the centre of it all was one radiant, +beautiful face, looking with sad, wistful eyes to her for love and +life which she so wanted to give. She felt and knew that to this +one in some way, she would be fully revealed, and misconception and +absence and doubt would vanish. She should meet him, but just how he +would look, or what he would say, or how she should or could answer +him, she could not shadow out, and would not try. All that, she was +sure, would take care of itself, and he would know and understand her +finally. + +Prince seemed fully to appreciate the day, and to be inspired with +its subtle and exhilarating elixir; but after a mile or two of +over-spirit, he sobered down into his long, easy, springy, untiring +gallop. They passed the fields and went along the hard and dry +highway, till she reached the diverging trail that struck off through +the woods toward the settlement on the other side, the nearest house +of which was Wilder's. + +On she went among the trees, past recently deserted sugar camps, away +from human habitations, into and through the heart of the forest, +joyous and glad in her beauty and young life and hope, and happy +thoughts; and finally she came to the creek; here she drew up her +still fresh horse, and rode slowly through its clear, rapid waters, +and turned down on its other bank. How glad it seemed, gurgling and +rippling, and swirling, with liquid music and motion! Slowly she rode +down and with a half timid feeling, as somehow doubting if she would +not return. But it was all silent and quiet; the sunshine and the +voice of the stream seemed to re-assure her, and the strange feeling +passed away, as she entered the little nook so dear to her memory. +How silent and empty it was, in the rich, bright light of the +mid-forenoon! She dismounted, and taking her skirt upon her arm, was +about to step under the rude shed, with the thought of the birds who +had reared their young there the year before, when Prince lifted his +head with a forward movement of his ears, and turning her eyes down +the stream, they fell upon Barton, who had just passed around the +lower angle of the rocks, and paused in speechless surprise, within a +few feet of her. + +With a little cry of joy, she threw out her hands and sprang towards +him. Her forgotten skirt tripped her, and she would have fallen, but +the quick arms of Barton were about her, and for an exquisite moment +she abandoned herself fully to him. + +"Oh, Arthur, you have come to me!" + +Their lips found each other, the great mass of dark brown hair almost +overflowed the light brown curls, and their glad tears mingled. + +"Julia! I am alive--awake! and you are in my arms! Your kiss has been +on my lips! You love me!" + +"With my whole heart and soul!" + +"Oh, how blessed to die at this moment!" murmured Bart. + +"Would it not be more blessed to live, love?" she whispered. + +"And you have always loved me?" + +"Always--there--there!" with a touch of her lips at each word. + +"I thought--" + +"I know you did. You shall never, never think again--there!" + +She withdrew from his arms, and adjusted her skirt, and stood by him +in her wondrous beauty, radiant with the great happiness that filled +her heart. + +Barton was still confused, and looked with eyes wide open with +amazement, partly at seeing her at all, partly at her marvellous +beauty, which to him was seraphic, and more and most of all, at the +revelation of her great love. + +"Oh Julia! How was this? how is this--this coming of Heaven to me; +this marvel of your love?" + +"Did you really think, Arthur, that I had no eyes; that I had no ears; +that I had no woman's heart? How could you think so meanly of me, and +so meanly of yourself?" + +"But you so scorned me." + +"Hush! that was your word: it was not true; you were even then in my +foolish girl's heart. Don't speak of that to me now; surely you must +have known that that was all a mistake." + +"And you always loved me? How wonderful that we should meet here and +to-day!" he said, unable to take his eyes from her. + +"You know the place and remember the day? Is it more marvellous, than +that we should have been here before? I never knew how you found me +then, and I am as much puzzled about your being here now. Father wrote +us that you would come down with him to-morrow." + +"Tell me how _you_ come to be here, to-day, of all the things in the +world?" said Bart. + +"Am I to tell first? Well, you see, I wanted to see Mrs. Wilder and +Rose; I have not been to their house since last fall, and so, having +nothing else to do, I rode over, and just thought we would come down +here--didn't we, Prince?" + +"And so you call him Prince?" said Bart, who had recognized the horse. + +"Yes, and I will sometime tell you why, if you will tell me how you +came here to-day." + +"I came on purpose, because I wanted to. Because you had hallowed the +place, I knew that I should find your haunting presence in it. Oh, +when that case was over, and I got out, all the old dreams, and +visions, and memories, and voices came to me. And your face never +absent, not with the old look of scorn that it seemed to wear, but +sweet, and half reproachful, haunted me, and made me half believe +what poor Henry's smitten love said to me of you, when I told her my +story." + +"Bless her," murmured Julia. + +"And I walked, and mused, and dreamed all the night; and this morning +I sent your kind, good father a note, and came off. I came as directly +here as I could, and now indeed I believe God sent me." + +His arm was about her, and he held both her hands. The frank +confession, so sweet to her, had its immediate reward from her lips. + +"Arthur," she said, "I, too, came to see this place, with its sweet +and sacred memories. I have been here three times before. You may know +every thought and feeling of my heart. I could not have got through +the day without coming: and how blessed I am for coming. Do you +remember, when you had done all you could for my rest and comfort, +how, on that awful yet precious night, you asked me if I had said a +prayer, and I asked you to pray? Do you know that my mother and I both +believe that that prayer was answered, and that she was impressed +with my safety in answer to it? Oh, how grateful to our Father for his +goodness to us we should be. Arthur, can you thank Him for us, now?" +And they knelt in the forest solitude, with God and his blessed sun +and blue sky, and their two young, pure, loving hearts joined in a +fervent outpouring of gratitude. + +"Our Father, for the precious and blessed revelation of our hearts, +each to the other, we thank Thee. Let this love be as pure, and +sacred, and holy, and eternal, as we now feel it to be. Grant, dear +Father, that it may be sanctified by holy marriage; and that through +Thy gracious providence, this union of hearts and souls may ever +be ours. Hear us, thy young, helpless, yet trusting, believing, and +loving children." + +And she: "Sweet and blessed Saviour; let Thy precious love and +presence be also about us, to keep us, help us, and bless us; and +Father, let the maiden's voice also join in the prayer that Thou wilt +bless us, as one." + +They arose, and turned to each other, with sweet, calm, restful, happy +faces; with souls full of trust and confidence, that was to know no +change or diminution. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. + + +Julia pointed out the bird's nest under the roof, and to a faded +garland of flowers, hung upon the rough bark of the old hemlock, +against which Barton had reclined, and another upon the rock just over +where she had rested. In some way these brought to Bart's mind the +flowers on Henry's grave; and in a moment he felt that her hand had +placed them there; the precious little hand that lay so willingly in +his own. Raising it to his lips, he said: "Julia, this same blessed +hand has strewn my poor dear brother's grave with flowers." + +"Are you glad, Arthur?" + +"Oh, so glad, and grateful! And the same hand wrote me the generous +warning against that wretched Greer?" + +"Yes, Arthur. Father came home from that first trial distressed about +you, and I wrote it. I thought you would not know the hand." + +"I did not--though when your letter came to me in Jefferson, the +address reminded me of it. But I did not think you wrote it. And when +rumors were abroad of my connection with these men, after I went +to Albany, who was it who sent somebody to Ravenna, to get a +contradiction from Greer, himself?" + +"No one sent anybody: some one went," in the lowest little voice. + +"Oh, Julia! did you go, yourself?" + +"Yes." + +"With the love of such a woman, what may not a man do?" cried Bart, +with enthusiasm. "Julia, I suspect more--that I owe all and everything +to you." + +"You saved my life, Arthur, and will you not take little things from +me?" + +"I owe you for all the love and happiness of all my future, Julia, and +for the stimulus that has made me work these three years. You love +me; and love takes from love, and gives all it can and has, and is +content." + +"Bless you, Arthur!" and affecting to notice the passage of the sun +towards the meridian--she turned to him a little anxiously--"What time +is it, Arthur?"--as if she cared! He told her, and she extended her +hand and took the watch, and toyed with it a moment; "it is a pretty +watch, open it, please," which he did. Looking at it intently, with +heightened color, she pointed with the rosy tip of a finger, to an +almost hidden inscription, which Bart had never seen before, and which +he saw were letters spelling "Julia." He started up amazed, and for +the moment trembled. + +"Oh, Julia! all that I have and am, the food I have eaten, the clothes +I wear, all came from you! Old Windsor is a fraud--an instrument--and +I have carried your blessed name these long months, not knowing it." + +"Arthur, 'you love me, and love takes from love. It gives all it has +and can, and is content.' It is a blessed gospel, Arthur. Think how +much I owe you--gladly owe you;--the obligation was not a burthen; but +you would not even let me express my gratitude. Think of your dreadful +letter. When you knelt and prayed for me, I would have put my lips to +yours, had you been near me. I let you see my very heart in every +line I wrote you, and you turned from me so coldly, and proudly, and +blindly, and I could see you were so unhappy. Oh, I would not have +been worthy to be carried a step in your arms, if I had not done the +last thing in my power. I went and saw Mr. Wade, and father promised +me the money, and Mr. Wade arranged it all for me; and dear, blessed +Mr. Windsor is not a fraud; he loves you himself, and loved your +brother." + +"Forgive me, forgive me, Julia," said Bart, who had sunk on the leaves +at her feet, and was resting his head against her bosom, with one arm +of hers about his neck; "and this watch?" + +"That I purchased and had engraved, and perhaps--what would you have +done had you seen my name?" + +"Come straight to you at once." + +"And you are content?" + +"Perfectly; you love me, and I accept the gospel of love," and he +looked up with his clear, open brow and honest, transparent eyes, and +gazing down into them and into the depths of his soul, seeming to see +great happiness, dimmed a little with regret, she bent her head and +put her lips to his, and tears fell from her eyes once again upon his +face. + +"Arthur," again lifting her head, "how glad I am that this is all told +you now, when you are tenderest to me, and I have no secret to carry +and fear, nothing to do now but to make you happy, and be so happy. +Sometime, soon, you will tell me all your precious heart history, +keeping nothing from me." + +"Everything, everything, Julia! and something I may say now--I don't +want to leave this sweet, sacred place, without a word about my +letter. It was written in utter hopelessness of your love. The +occurrences of that strange night had replaced me within the reach of +my own esteem." + +"How had you ever lost that, Arthur?" + +"By my own folly. I loved you when I came back--before I went +away--always. It was a dream, a sweet, delicious dream--that inspired +poetry, and kindled ambition, but was purely unselfish. I had not a +thought or a hope of a return. This passion came to possess me, to +occupy my mind, and absorb my whole being. I knew it could not in the +nature of things be returned." + +"Arthur!" + +"And I rushed into your presence, and declared it, and received what +I expected and needed--though it paralyzed me, but my pride came to my +rescue, and what strength I had; I went away humiliated, and aroused +myself and found places on which I could stand, and strength to work. +So far as you were concerned, Julia, I only hoped that in the far +future, if you ever recalled my mad words--" + +"That did not fall in the dust under my feet, and were not forgotten, +sir," interrupted Julia. + +"Thank you, dearest--but if they should come to you, you would feel +that they had not insulted you. I avoided you, of course, and had to +avoid your mother. I would not see you, but you were ever about me, +and became an inspiring power. I burned all the sketches I had made of +you, but one, and that I mislaid." + +"I found it. I am glad you lost it, you naughty child." + +"Did you? Well, I went through the winter and spring, and the awful +calamity of Henry's death, and the next fall and winter, and you wore +away, and although I might not see you, your absence made Newbury a +desert. And I felt it, when you came back. And when I got ready to go +I could not. I set the time, sent off my trunk, and lingered. I even +went one night past your father's house, only to see where you were, +and yet I lingered; I found flowers on my brother's grave, and thought +that some maiden loved him." + +"When she loved you." + +"That Wednesday night I would go, but couldn't." + +"Tell me all that happened to you that night; it is a mystery to us +all; you did not even tell your mother." + +"It is not much. I had abandoned my intention of going that night, and +was restless and uneasy, when George rushed in and told me you were +lost. He had learned all that was known, and told it very clearly. I +knew of the chopping, and where the path led up to it, and I thought +you would tarn back to the old road, and might enter the woods, on the +other side. Everything seemed wonderfully clear to me. My great love +kindled and aroused every faculty, and strung every nerve. I was +ready in a moment. George brought me two immense hickory torches, that +together would burn out a winter night; and with one of our sugar camp +tapers. I lighted one, as I went. I must have reached the point where +you left the old road, in ten minutes. I was never so strong, I seemed +to know that I would find you, and felt that it was for this I had +staid, and blamed myself for the selfish joy I felt, that I could +serve and perhaps save you. + +"I examined the old road, and in one wet place, I found your track +going north, and a little further was the old path, that led to the +slashing. At the entrance to it, the leaves had been disturbed, as if +by footsteps; I saw many of them, and thought you had become lost, and +would follow the path; so I went on. When I reached the slashing, I +knew you would not enter that, but supposed you would skirt around +on the east and south side, as the path led southwesterly to it. Of +course I looked and searched the ground, and could occasionally see +where a footfall had disturbed the leaves. + +"I concluded that sooner or later, you would realize that you were +lost; and then--for I knew you were strong and brave--would undertake +to strike off toward home, without reference to anything; and I knew, +of course, that you would then go exactly the wrong way, because +you were lost. After skirting about the slashing, I could find no +foot-marks in the leaves; and I struck out southerly, and in a little +thicket of young beeches and prickly ash, hanging to a thorn, I found +your hood. Oh, God! what joy and thankfulness were mine; and there in +the deep leaves, going westerly, was your trail." + +"I thought I saw that awful beast, just before I reached that place, +and fled, not knowing where," said Julia. + +"Did you call, Julia?" + +"I had called before that, many times." + +"You were too far to be heard by your father and friends; and I was +too late to hear you. I called several times, when I found the hood. +Of course no answer came, and following the trail where it could be +seen, I went on. I missed it often, and circled about until I found +it, or something like it, always bearing away deeper and deeper into +the wood. Then the wind blew awfully, and the snow began to sift down. +My first torch was well burned out, and I knew I had been out some +hours. I lighted the other and went on; soon I struck this creek, and +fancied that you, if you had reached it, would follow it down." + +"I did." + +"Soon after, at a soft place where a little branch came in, I found +your tracks again, several of them; and I knew I was right, and was +certain I should find you. In my great joy, I thanked God, with my +whole heart. It was storming fearfully; and trees were cracking, and +breaking, and falling, in the fury of the wind. I called, but I knew +nobody could hear me a dozen rods away. It had become intensely cold, +and I feared you would become exhausted and fall down, and perhaps +perish ere I could reach you. I hurried on, looked by every tree and +log, calling and searching. I don't know where I struck the creek, +though I knew every rood of the woods: I am, as you know, a born +woodsman, and know all wood craft. Although I was certain I would find +you, I began to grow fearfully anxious, and almost to doubt. As I went +I called your name, and listened. Finally a faint sound came back to +me, and I sprang forward--when you rose partly up before me. Oh, God! +oh, God!" and his voice was lost in emotion. "For one moment I was +overcome, and did, I know not what, save that I knelt by you and +kissed your hands. Their chilly touch recalled me. I felt that I had +saved you not only for your father and mother, but for your pure self, +and to be the bride of some unknown man; and I was resolved that no +memory of yours, and no thought of his, should ever occasion a blush +for what should occur between us." + +"How noble and heroic you were--" + +"You know all that happened after." + +"And in your anxiety to save me from myself, you would not even let me +thank you. And when I slept, you stole away." + +"What could I do. Julia? I had saved you, I had redeemed myself; and +found a calm, cold peace and joy in which I could go. In view of what +had happened between us before, how hard and embarrassing for you +to meet and thank me, and I feared to meet you. It was better that I +should go, and with one stolen look at your sweet, sleeping face, I +went." + +"Arthur, my poor best will I do to repay you for all your pain and +anguish." + +"Am I not more than repaid, proud and happy? It was for the best. I +needed to suffer and work; and yet how blessed to have carried the +knowledge of your love with me!" + +"Oh, I wanted to whisper it to you, to have you know; and I was +unhappy because I knew you were," she murmured. + +"My poor letter in answer to yours I fear was rude and proud and +unmanly. What could I say? The possibility that I could be more than a +friend to you never occurred to me, and when Ida tried to persuade me +that you did love me, her efforts were vain; I could hardly induce her +to abandon the idea of writing you." + +"There is a blessed Providence in it all, Arthur; and in nothing more +blessed than in bringing us together here, where we could meet and +speak, with only the sunshine and this bright stream for witnesses." + +"And what a sweet little story of love and hope and joy it carries +murmuring along!" said Bart, struck with the poetry of her figure. + +"But we must not always stay here," said the practical woman. "We must +go home, must not we, Prince?" addressing the horse, which had stood +quietly watching the lovers, and occasionally looking about him. + +"You have changed his name?" said Bart. + +"Yes. You see he is your horse, and I called him Prince Arthur the +very day I received him, which was the day your letter came. I call +him Prince. He is a prince--and so is his namesake," she added, +playfully pulling his moustache. "You don't like that?" said Bart; +"the moustache? I can cut it away in a moment." + +"I do like it, and you must not cut it away. Stand out there, and let +me have a good look at you; please turn your eyes away from me--there +so." + +"You find me changed," he said, "and I find you more lovely than +ever," rushing back to her. + +"You spoilt my view, sir." + +"You will see enough of me," he said, gaily. + +"You are changed," she went on, "but I like you better. Now, sir, here +is your horse. I deliver you, Prince, to your true lord and master; +and you must love him, and serve him truly." + +"And I have already dedicated you to your lady and mistress," said +Bart, "and you must forever serve her." + +"And the first thing you do, will be to carry Wilder down to my dear +mother, with a letter--how blessed and happy she will be!--asking her +to send up a carriage--unless you have one somewhere?" + +"Me? I haven't anything anywhere, but you. A carriage brought me into +this region, and I sent it back. Keep and ride the Prince, as you call +him; I can walk. I've done it before." + +"You shall never do it again; if you do I will walk with you. We will +go to Wilder's, and see Mrs. Wilder, who is a blessed woman, and who +knew your secret, and knows mine; and Rose, who took me into her bed; +and we will have some dinner, unromantic ham and eggs; and when the +carriage comes, I will drive you to your mother's, and then you shall +drive me home--do you understand?" + +"Perfectly; and shall implicitly obey. Do you know, I half suspect +this is all a dream, and that I shall wake up in Albany, or Jefferson, +or somewhere? I know I am not in Chardon, for I could not sleep long +enough to dream there." + +"Why?" + +"I was too near Newbury, and under the spell of old feelings and +memories; and I don't care to sleep again." + +As they were about to leave the dear little nook, "Arthur," said +Julia, "let us buy a bit of this land, and keep this little romantic +spot from destruction." So they went out through the trees in the warm +sun, Bart with Prince's bridle in his hand, and Julia with her skirt +over one arm and the other in that of her lover. + +"I hold tightly to your arm," said Bart, laughing, "so that if you +vanish, I may vanish with you." + +"And I will be careful and not go to sleep while we are at Wilder's, +for fear you will steal away from me, you bad boy. If you knew how I +felt when I woke and found you had gone--" + +"I should not have gone," interrupted Bart. + +Thus all the little sweet nothings that would look merely silly on +paper, and sound foolish to other ears, yet so precious to them, +passed from one to the other as they went. + +Wilder had eaten his dinner, and lounged out into the sun, with his +pipe, as they walked up. He knew Julia, of course, and Prince, and +looked hard at Bart, as they passed; when the comely wife came running +out. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, taking Julia's hand, "and this--this is Mr. +Ridgeley." + +"It is indeed," said Bart, brightly. + +"And you are not--not--Oh! your two hearts are happy I see it in both +your faces. I am so glad." + +Julia bent and kissed her. + +"Oh, I knew when he went off so heart-broken, that it wasn't your +fault, and I always wished I had kept him." + +Sweet, shy, blushing Rose came forward, and Bart took her hands and +hoped she would look upon him as an older brother long absent, and +just returned. And little lisping George, staring at him curiously, +"Are you Plinth Arthur?" + +"Prince Arthur?" cried Bart, catching him up, "do I look like a +prince?" + +"Yeth." + +"Take that," said Bart, laughing, giving him a gold coin. + +"He is a prince," said Julia, "and you see he gives like a prince." + +"Exactly," answered Bart; "princes always give other peoples' gold for +flattery." + +"And now, Mr. Wilder, I want you to put your saddle on Prince, and +gallop straight to my mother, and drive back a carriage. I found this +unhappy youth wandering about in these same woods, and I am going to +take him with me this time." + +When Wilder was ready, she gave him the following note: + +"_Dear Mother_:--I am so blessed and happy. Arthur and I met this +morning in the dear old nook under the rocks, and we are the happiest +two in the world. + +"JULIA. + +"P.S. I forgot. Send a carriage by Wilder. I don't want a driver. We +will go round by Arthur's mother's, and be with you this evening. J. + +"P.S. Send me a skirt." + +And whether the sun stood still or journeyed on, they did not note, +nor could they remember what Mrs. Wilder gave them for dinner, or +whether they tasted it. At last Wilder appeared with a light carriage +and pair. Julia's saddle was put on board, and the lovers, Julia +holding the reins, drove away. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +THE RETURN. + + +Spring came with its new life and promise, sweetly and serenely to the +home and heart of Barton's mother, who was looking and hoping for his +return, with a strong, intense, but silent yearning. For herself, +for his brothers, and more for Julia, whom she now understood, and +tenderly loved, and whose secret was sacred to her woman's heart; and +most of all for Barton's own sake; for she knew that when these two +met, the shadow that had surrounded them would disappear. Some pang +she felt that there should be to him a dearer one; but she knew that +Julia did not come between them, and that nothing would chill that +side of his heart--the child side--that was next her own. + +On Wednesday morning Julia had galloped up and given her Bart's letter +of Tuesday, so that she knew he was in Chardon, well and hopeful, and +would return to her as soon as he escaped from his trial. + +Thursday evening Dr. Lyman came all aglow from Chardon. He had seen +Bart and heard his argument, and all the enthusiasm of his nature was +fully excited. + +Now on this long, warm Friday--the anniversary of his departure--he +was to come; and naturally enough she looked to see him come the way +he went--from the east. Often, even before noon, she turned her eyes +wistfully down the road, and until it met the rise the other side of +the little valley, so on up past the red school house, and was lost +over the summit; but the road was empty and lonely. + +As the afternoon ran toward evening, she began to grow anxious. +Suddenly the sound of wheels caught her ear, and she turned as Judge +Markham's grays headed up to her gate. She recognized Julia, who, +without waiting to be helped, sprang lightly from the carriage, with +her face radiant, and bounding to her threw her arms about her neck. + +"Oh, mother--my mother now--he is here. I met him in those blessed +woods and brought him to you." + +Then she made room for him, and for a moment the mother's arms +encircled them both. How glad and happy she was, no man may know; as +no man understands, and no woman can reveal, the depth and strength of +mother love. + +The three in happy tears--tears, that soon vanish, went into the dear +old house, into whose every room Bart rushed in a moment, calling for +the boys, and asking a thousand unanswered questions, and coming back, +with a flood of words, half tears and half laughs. + +"So, Bart," said the proud and happy mother, "it is all right," with a +look towards Julia. "I knew it would be." + +"And, mother, you knew it, too?" + +"A woman sees where a man is blind, sometimes," she answered. "And +boys must find these things out for themselves. Poor boy, I wanted +somebody to whisper it to you." + +"Somebody has done so, mother, and I am now so glad that it was left +for that one to tell me." + +The boys came in, and were a little overwhelmed, even George, with the +warmth of their brother's reception. Julia went straight to George, +saying, "Now, sir, you belong to me; you are to be my dear +youngest brother! What a row of handsome brothers I shall +have--there!--there!"--with a kiss for each word. + +George at first did not quite comprehend: "Julia, are you going to be +Bart's wife?" + +"Yes," with a richer color. + +"When?" + +"Hush! That isn't a question for you to ask." And she bent over him +with another low sweet "hush," that he understood. + +Soon the Colonel and his sweet young wife came in, and they all came +to know that Julia was one of them; and she knew what warm, true +hearts had come so suddenly about her with their strong, steady +tenderness. + +Then, as the sun fell among the western tree tops, Julia said to Mrs. +Ridgeley, "Now Arthur must drive me home; his other mother has not +seen him; and to-morrow I will bring him to you. He is to remain with +us, and we will come and go between our two homes for, I don't know +how long; until he grows stout and strong, and has run through all the +woods, and visited all the dear old places, and grows weary of us, and +sighs for Blackstone, and all those horrid books." + +She took her happy place by his side in the carriage, after kissing +them all, including Ed, and they drove leisurely away. + +As they went, he told her gaily of the lonely walk, in darkness, +when he last went over this road. The sketch brought new tears to the +tender eyes at his side. + +"Oh, Arthur! if you could have only known! if you had come to me for +one moment." + +"Today could never have come," he interrupted. "I like it as it is. +How could I ever have had the beautiful revelation of your high and +heroic qualities, Julia? And we could not have met as we did +this morning. The very memory of that meeting equals the hope and +blessedness of Heaven." + +Down past the quiet houses they rode; through bits of woods that still +fringed parts of the road; down past the old saw mill; up over the +hill, where they paused to look over the beautiful pond, full to its +high banks; then to the State road, and south over the high hills, +overlooking the little cemetery, towards which Bart looked tenderly. + +"Not to-night, love," said Julia; "their beautiful spirits see and +love, and go with us." + +So in the twilight, and with a pensive and serene happiness, they +passed up through the straggling village, Julia and her lover, to her +own home. + +It had somehow been made known that Bart would that evening arrive. +His trunk had been received by the stage, at the stage house, and a +group of curious persons were on the look out in front of Parker's, as +they drove past. When Bart lifted his hat, they recognized and greeted +him with a hearty cheer; which was repeated when the carriage passed +the store. Bart was deeply touched. + +"You see," said the happy Julia, "that everybody loves you." + +"You see they greet us on your account," he answered. + +A little group was also at her father's gate, and as Bart sprang out, +Julia's mother took him by both hands. + +"So you have come at last, and will be one of us." + +Just how he answered, or how Julia alighted, he could never tell. +This was the final touch and test, and if the whole did not vanish, he +should certainly accept it all as real. + +"What a sweet and wonderful little romance it all is," said the happy +mother; "and to happen to us here, in this new, wild, humdrum region! +Who shall say that God does not order, and that heroism does not +exist; and that faithful love is not still rewarded." + +"Mrs. Markham"-- + +"Call me mother!" said that lady; "I have long loved you, and thought +of you as my son." + +"And your husband?" said Bart. + +"Is here to answer for himself," said the Judge, entering. He came +forward and greeted Bart warmly. + +"Judge Markham," said Bart, holding each parent by a hand; "Julia and +I met by accident this morning, at the place where we were sheltered a +year ago. We found that no explanation was needed, and we there asked +God to bless our love and marriage. Of course we may have taken too +much for granted." + +"No, no!" said the Judge, warmly, placing Julia's hand within his. "We +will now, and always, and ever, ask God to bless your love, and crown +it with a true and sacred marriage. Such as ours has been, my love, +won't we?" + +"Certainly," answered Mrs. Markham. "And we take him to our home and +hearts as our true son." + +Then all knelt, and the father's voice in reverent prayer and +thanksgiving, was for a moment lifted to the Great Father. + +Later, they were quiet and happy, around a tea, or rather a supper +table. But Bart toyed with his fork, and sparkled with happy, +brilliant sallies. Julia watched him with real concern. + +"Arthur," she said, "I am a woman; and a woman likes to see even +her lover eat. It is the mother part, isn't it, mamma?" blushing and +laughing, "that likes to see children feed. Now he has not eaten a +mouthful to-day; and I shall be anxious." + +"For that matter he dined on a gill of milk, and one ounce of honey +yesterday," said the Judge, "Don't you ever eat?" + +"And I shall shock him;" said Julia, "he will soon find that I am only +common vulgar flesh and blood, to be fed and nourished." + +"Don't fear," said Bart; "I like a strong, healthy, deep chested +woman, who can live and endure. I am not the least bit of a Byron. And +now let me get used to this new heaven, into which you have just taken +me; let my heart get steady, if it will, in its great happiness. Let +me have some good runs in the woods, some good rows on the ponds, some +hard gallops. Let me get tired, and I'll astonish you with a famine." + +"I shall be glad to see it," said Julia. + +There came pleasant talk of trifles, that only lay about on the +surface, and near the great joy of their new happiness; and little +pleasantries of the Judge. He asked Julia, "how she liked the +moustache, suggesting that it might be in the way. + +"I like it," said Julia, "and it isn't a bit in the way." + +Then he referred to a certain other grave matter, and wanted to know +when? + +"That isn't for you to ask, Papa Judge--is it, mamma?" + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +FINAL DREAM LAND. + + +Later still, when the elders had left the lovers to each other, Bart +found himself reclining on the sofa, with his head in Julia's lap. And +those little rosy tipped fingers toyed caressingly with that coveted +moustache, and were kissed for it, and went and did it again, and so +on; and then tenderly with the long light brown wavy curls. + +"Julia, these blessed moments of love and rest, though they run into +days or weeks, will end." + +"Arthur"--reproachfully. + +"Time will not stand and leave us to float, and come and go on a sweet +shaded river of delight; sometime I must go out to show that I am not +unworthy of you, to find, and to make. You shall have your own sweet +way, and will, and yet you will also--will you not?--tell me when this +happiness shall be lost in the greater, merely that I may do my man's +part." + +"Arthur, I take you at your word. My will is that for two blessed +months, of which this shall not be counted as one day, for it must +stand forever apart, you shall say nothing of books, or wanting them; +or of business, or cases, or location, but shall stay with us, our +mothers and father, with me, and run, and ride, and hunt, and fish, +and grow strong, and eat, and I will let you go, and alone, when you +wish; and at the end of two months, I will tell you when." + +"And Arthur," stooping low over him, "a young girl's heart and ways +are curious, and not worth a man's knowing, or thought, perhaps. Let +me know you, let me be acquainted with you, and I would like you to +know me also, though it may not repay you; and let me grow to be your +wife. We have such funny notions, such weak girl ways and thoughts. +I have not had my lover a full day yet. A young girl wishes to be +courted and sought, and made believe that she is supreme; and she +likes to have her lover come at a set time, and sit and wait and think +the clock has been turned back, and that he won't come, and yet he +must come, at the moment; and she will affect to have forgotten it. +She likes to be wooed with music, and flowers, and poetry, and to +remain coy and only yield when her full heart had gone long before; +and then to be engaged, and wear her ring, and be proud of her +affianced, and to be envied--oh, it is a thousand, thousand times more +to us than to you. It is our all, and we can enjoy it but once, and +think what is lost out of the life of the young girl who has not +enjoyed it at all. See, Arthur, what poor, petty, weak things we are, +not worth the understanding, and not worth the winning, as we would be +won." + +Arthur had started up, and glided to the floor, on his knees, had +clasped his hands about her slender waist, and was looking earnestly +and tenderly into her coy, half-averted face, as, half seriously and +half in badinage, she made her plaint. + +"Oh, Julia!" + +"Nay, Arthur, I like it as it is. It was in your nature to have known +me, and to have courted me in the old way; but it would have been poor +and tame, and made up of a few faded flowers and scraps of verses; and +think what I have had--a daring hero between me and a wild beast--a +brave, devoted and passionate lover, who, in spite of scorn and +rejection, hunted for me through night and tempest, to rescue me from +death, who takes me up in his strong arms, carries me over a flood, +and nourishes me back to life, and goes proudly away, asking nothing +but the great boon of serving me. Oh! I had a thousand times rather +have this! It is now a beautiful romance. But I am to have my ring, +and"-- + +"Be my sweet and blessed sovereign lady; to be served and worshipped, +and to hear music and poetry; whose word and wish is to be law in all +the realm of love." + +"From which you are not to depart for two full months of thirty-one +days each." + +Then she conducted him to the apartment in which we beheld her the +night before. + +"This," pushing open the door, into the room, warm and sweet with the +odor of flowers, "is your own special room, to be yours, always." + +"Always?" a little plaintively. + +"Always--until--until--I--we give you another." + +"Good night, Arthur." + +"Good night, Julia." + +She tripped down the hall, and turned her bright face to catch a kiss, +and throw it back. + +With a sweet unrest in her full heart, the young maiden on her couch, +set herself to count up the gathered treasures of the wonderful day. + +How was it? Did her riding skirt really get under her feet? Would +he have caught her in his arms if she had not fallen? She thought he +would. + +And so she mused; and at last in slumber dreamed sweet maiden's dreams +of love and heaven. + +And Bart found himself in a marvellous forest, wandering with Julia, +wondrous in her fresh and tender beauty, on through endless glades, +amid the gush of bird-songs, and the fragrance of flowers. + +And there in the dream land whence I called them, I leave them. Why +should I awake them again? For them can another day so bright and +happy ever dawn? I who love them, could have kept them for a bright +brief space longer. I could have heard the sparkling voice of Bart, +and the answering laugh of Julia--and then I should listen and not +hear--look anxiously around and not see! + +I part in real sorrow with these bright children of my fancy, sweet +awakeners of old time memories, placed amid far off scenes, to +win from others, tenderness and love if they may. And may they be +remembered as forever lingering in perennial youth and love, in the +land of dreams. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bart Ridgeley, by A. G. Riddle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BART RIDGELEY *** + +***** This file should be named 12249.txt or 12249.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/2/4/12249/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Leah Moser and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team from Images provided by Case Western Reserve +University's Preservation Department +(http://www.cwru.edu/UL/preserve/general.htm). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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